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arrangement of the building does not do it justice and it has neither the gray of nor the delicate hue of the buildings of it is and gray by turns as i drove nearer i realized that it was very large large and that by some of perspective and arrangement this was not easily i was eager to see its interior however and all exterior consideration until later as we were first going up the steps of st peter s and across the immense stone platform that leads to the door a small italian wedding party arrived without any design of being married there however merely to visit the various and the gentleman was somewhat self conscious in a long black frock coat and high hat a little brown man whose patent leather shoes sparkled in the sun the lady was a rosy italian girl very much and with a practical air a little velvet clad page carried her train there were a number of friends the parents on both sides i took it and some immediate relatives who fell solemnly in behind two by two and together this little ant like band crossed the immense threshold mrs and i followed eagerly after or at least i did for i fancied they were to be married here and i w to see how it was to be done at st peter s i was disappointed however for they merely went from altar to altar and shrine to shrine and finally entered the sacred below which the bones of st peter are supposed to be buried it was a fine religious beginning to what i trust has proved a happy union first impressions of rome st peter s if i may be permitted to continue a little on that curious theme is certainly the most amazing church in the world it is not beautiful i am satisfied that no true artist would grant that but after you have been all over europe and have seen the various of importance it still sticks in your mind as perhaps the most of all while i was in rome i learned by consulting guide books attending lectures and visiting the place myself that it is nothing more than a of the and of a long line of able to me the catholic church has such a long and history of and that i for one cannot contemplate its central religious pretensions with any peace of mind i am not going into the history of the nor the and struggles of italy but what does not grasp the significance of what i mean ii a greek cross with a to replace the which itself had replaced the of st on this spot and that largely to make room for his famous tomb which was to be the finest thing in it viii melting down the copper roof of the in order to erect the i do not now recall what ancient temples were for marble nor what did the but that it was fully done i am satisfied and van will bear me out it was ii and x who resorted to the sale of which aided in bringing about the for the purpose of paying the enormous expenses connected with the building of this lavish structure think of how the plans of and and and were tossed about between the latin cross and the greek cross and between a of one form and a a at forty of another form wars struggles these are they of which st peter s is a memorial as i looked at the amazing length six hundred and fifteen feet and the height of the one hundred and fifty two feet and the height of the dome from the pavement in the interior to the roof four hundred and five feet and saw that the church actually contained forty six immense and read that it contained seven hundred and forty eight columns of marble stone or bronze three hundred and eighty six statues and two hundred and ninety windows i began to realize how the whole thing was it was really so large and so tangled and so complicated in the history of its development that it was useless for me to attempt to its significance in my mind i merely stared staggered by the great beauty and value of the immense windows the and i came back again and again but i got nothing save an unutterable impression of overwhelming grandeur it is far too rich in its composition for mortal conception no one i am satisfied truly completely how grand it is it answers to that word exactly s poem the bishop orders his tomb at st s gives a faint suggestion of w hat any least bit of it is like any single tomb of any single pope of which it seemed to me there were no end might have had this poem written about it each one appears to have desired a finer tomb than the other and i can understand the eager enthusiasm of v who kept eight hundred men w night and day on the dome in order to see how it was going to look and well he might tells the story of how on one occasion being in want of another for water the tossed the body of vi out of his put aside his bones in a corner and first impressions of rome gave the ring on his finger to the the pope s remains were out of their for fifteen years or more before they were finally restored the and art were equally astonishing i had always heard of its eleven hundred rooms and its but it was thrilling and delightful to see them face to face all the long line of greek and roman and or painted transported from ruins or dug	43
from the earth such wonders as the and taken from the silent rooms of s house where they had stood for centuries in all their perfection and the river god representative of the i was especially interested to see the vast number of portrait of roman known and unknown which gave me a face to face understanding of that people they came back now or arose vital before me the elder wife of whose was near caesar mark and a score of others it was amazing to me to see how like the modern english and americans they were and how practical and present day like they appeared it swept away the space of two thousand years as having no significance whatever and left you face to face with the far older problem of humanity i could not help thinking that the of these men are on our streets to day in new york and and london urgent calculating thinking figures and that they are doing to day much as these did two thousand years before i cannot see the slightest difference between an emperor like and a banker like and the head of a man like lord is to be found in a score of a at forty in various throughout the holy city i realized too that any one of hundreds of these splendid if separated from their surroundings and given to a separate city in artistic possessions would prove a great public attraction to him that hath shall be given however and to those that have not shall be taken away even the little that they have and so it is that rome fairly with its endless variety of artistic perfection one glory almost the other while the rest of the world for a crust of artistic beauty and has nothing it is like the way for jewels as contrasted with those vast spaces that give no evidence of life i wandered in this region of wonders attended by my friend until it was late in the afternoon and then we went for lunch being new to rome i was not satisfied with what i had seen but struck forth again coming next into the region of maria and up an old that had formed a part of a palace now only to find myself shortly thereafter and quite by accident in the vicinity of the i really had not known that i was coming to it for i was not looking for it i was following idly the lines of an old wall that lay in the vicinity of san in when suddenly it appeared lying in a hollow at the foot of a hill the i was rejoicing in having discovered an old well that i knew must be of very ancient date and a group of that showed over an ancient wall when i looked and there it was it was exactly as the pictures have represented it oval many arched a thoroughly ponderous ruin i really did not gain a suggestion of the astonishing size of it until i came down the hill past tin that were lying on the grass a sign first impressions of rome of the that possesses rome and entered through one of the many arches then it came on me the amazing thickness of the walls the imposing size and weight of the fragments the vast dignity of the flights of seats and the great space now properly cleared devoted to the all that i ever knew or heard of it came back as i sat on the cool stones and looked about me while other walked leisurely about their in their hands it was a splendid afternoon the sun was shining down in here and it was as warm as though it were may in small patches of grass and moss were everywhere growing soft and green between the stones the five thousand wild beasts in the at its which remained as a thought from my days were all with me i read up as much as i could watching several workmen lowering themselves by ropes from the top of the walls the while they picked out little of grass and weeds beginning to flourish in the its amazing from being a for greedy by whom most of its magnificent were removed to its narrow escape from becoming a mill by v were all over here it was impossible not to be impressed by the thought of the sitting on their especial balcony the thousands upon thousands of intent upon some feat the guards outside the endless doors the numbers of which can still be seen giving entrance to separate sections and of seats and the vast array of life which must have about i wondered whether there were who sold sweets or food and what their cries were in latin one could think of the endless procession that wound its way here on days time works melancholy changes a at forty i left as the sun was going down impressed with the wonder of a life that is utterly gone it was like finding the glistening shell of an extinct or the suggestion in rocks of a world as i returned to my hotel along the thoroughly modern streets with their five and six story and apartment buildings their street cars and customary their newspaper flower and cigar stands i tried to restore and keep in my mind a suggestion of the magnificence that makes so significant it was hard for be one s imagination what it will it is difficult to live outside of one s own day and hour the lights already beginning to flourish in the smart shops distracted my mood chapter mrs q and the family am going to introduce you to such a nice woman mrs told me the second morning i was in rome	43
in her very enthusiastic way she is charming i am sure you will like her she comes from america somewhere new york i think her husband is an author i believe i heard so she on in her genial talk making way i don t understand these american women they go about europe without their husbands in such a strange way now you know in england we would not think of doing anything of that kind mrs was decidedly in her views and english in manner and speech but she had the saving of being intensely interested in life and realized that all is not gold that she preferred to be among people who know and maintain good form who are interested in maintaining the social virtues as they stand accepted and who if they do not actually observe all of the laws and of society at least maintain a deceiving she had a little of friends in the hotel as i found and friends outside such as artists newspaper and officials connected with the italian court and the court i never knew a more industrious social in the shape of a woman though among men her son her she was apparently here there and everywhere about the hotel in the breakfast room in the dining room in the in the writing room greeting her friends planning games planning engagements planning a at forty she was pleasant too delightful for she knew what to do and when to do it and if she was not impelled by a large motive of any kind nevertheless she had a sincere and love of the beautiful which caused her to excuse much for the sake of art i found her well disposed kindly sympathetic and very anxious to make the best of this sometimes dull existence not only for herself but for every one else i liked her very much mrs q i found on introduction to be a beautiful woman of perhaps thirty three or four with two of the prettiest best behaved children i have ever seen i found her to be an intellectual and brilliant woman with an overwhelming interest in the of history and current human action i trust i see an american i observed as mrs brought her forward encouraged by her brisk smile you do you do she replied as yet nothing has happened to my except italy and that s only a second love she had a hoarse little laugh which was nevertheless agreeable i felt the of a strong vital temperament self willed self controlled intensely eager and ambitious i soon discovered she was interested in history which is one of my great and delights she liked vital biography such as that of s s and the personal reminiscences of various court in different lands she was interested in some plays but cared little for fiction which i take to be her great passion at the moment she told me was the tracing out in all its of the history and mental attitude of the family especially caesar and which i look upon as a re mrs q and the family passion for a woman it takes a strong healthy clear thinking temperament to enjoy the mental of the father son and daughter she had conceived a sincere admiration for the courage audacity passion and of action of caesar to say nothing of the and of and the strange philosophic and of their father alexander vi i wonder how much the average reader knows of the secret history of the it is as modern as desire as strange as the strangest of which the mind is capable i am going to give here the outline of the family history as mrs q related it to me on almost the first evening we met for i like so many americans while knowing something of these curious details in times past had but the recollection then to be told it in rome itself by a american who used the and who simply could not suppress her yankee sense of humor was as refreshing an experience as occurred in my whole trip let me say first that mrs q admired beyond words the italian craft artistic insight political and social wisdom governing ability and as much as anything their and money keeping the raw of this italian family thrilled her you will remember that a who afterwards assumed the name of because his maternal uncle of that name was fortunate enough to succeed to the as iii and could do him many good turns afterwards himself succeeded to the by and other under the title of alexander vi that was august before that however as nephew to iii he had been made bishop cardinal and vice of the church solely because he was a relative and favored by his uncle and all this before he was thirty five he had proceeded to rome established himself with many at a at forty his call in a magnificent palace and at the age of thirty seven his uncle iii having died was by ii the new pope for his and life by when he was forty nine he took to himself as his favorite the former wife of three different husbands by who was very charming he had four children all of whom he highly afterwards duke of born caesar or born or there were other children and pier whose on the mother s side is uncertain and still another child whom he acquired the daughter of the famous family of that name who was his mistress after he tired some years later of meanwhile his children had grown up or were fairly well grown when he became pope which opened the most astonishing chapter of the history of this strange family alexander was a curious compound of paternal affection love of gold love of women vanity and other things he certainly was fond of	43
his children or he would not have torn italy with in order to advantage them in their fortunes his career is the most and weird of any that i know he was no sooner pope about april i proposed to out for his family his favored children by his favorite mistress in the same year he was made pope he created caesar his sixteen year old son studying at a cardinal showing the state of the in those days he proposed to marry his daughter well and having the year before when she was only eleven her to one don de a he broke this arrangement and had married by to don de son of the count of a man of much more importance who he thought could better advance her fortune italy however was in a very divided and state there was a king of a duke of a duke of a separate state life at and elsewhere in order to build himself up and become very powerful and to give to each of his sons some of these states had to be conquered and controlled and so the old gentleman without conscience and without mercy except as suited his whim was for playing politics making war treachery persuading any mrs q and the family thing and everything to obtain his ends he must have been well thought of as a man of his word for when he had made a deal with charles viii of france to assist him in and conquering the king demanded and obtained caesar alexander s son aged twenty one as a for faithful performance of agreement he had not taken him very far however before the young devil escaped and returned to rome where subsequently his father finding it to turn against the king of france did so but to continue while his father was and in this way for the benefit of himself and his dear family young was beginning to develop a few thoughts and tendencies of his own alexander vi was planning to create or out of the states and out of the kingdom of and give them to his eldest son and his youngest caesar would have none of this he saw himself as a young cardinal being left out in the cold besides there was a cause of between him and his brother over the affections of their youngest brother s wife they were both sharing the latter s and so one day in order to clear matters up and teach his father whose favorite he was where to bestow his benefits and so that he might have all to himself he murdered his brother the latter s body after a sudden and strange absence was found in the knife marked and all was local uproar until the young cardinal was suspected when matters down and nothing more was thought of it there was also thought to be some between caesar and over the affections of their sister after this magnificent evidence of ability the way was clear for caesar he was at once july sent as to to crown of and it was while there that he met the daughter of the king and wanted to marry her she would have none of him what marry that priest that of a priest she is alleged to have said and that settled the matter this may have had something to do with caesar s desire to get out of holy orders and return to civil life for the next year he asked leave of the not to be a cardinal any longer and was granted this privilege for the good of his soul he then undertook the pleasant task as of carrying to louis xii of a at forty france the pope s bull the marriage of louis with of france in order that he might marry anne of on this journey he met d sister of the king of whom he married he was given the of for his gracious service to louis xii and loaded with honors returned to rome in order to further his personal fortunes with his father s aid in the meanwhile there were a number of small in a territory near which his father alexander vi was with a eye one of these was controlled by lord of whom alexander at a time when he wanted to pit the strength of against the subtle of the king of caused his daughter then only thirteen years of age to marry her union with the count of having by this time been severed alexander having won the friendship of the king of he decided to proceed against the of and their property caesar was off as general to accomplish this for himself being provided men and means young who had married found himself in a treacherous position his own brother in law with the assistance of his father in law against his life and fled with his wife the fair aged fifteen to there he was fought by caesar who however not having sufficient troops was checked for the time being and returned to rome a year or so later pope alexander being in a frame of mind it was christmas and he desired all his children about him invited them all home including and her husband then a series of magnificent and in honor of all this at rome and the family including the uncertain son in law husband of seemed to be fairly well united in bonds of peace unfortunately however a little later the pope s mood changed again he was now after some quarrels once more friendly with the king of and decided that was no longer a fit husband for then came the of this marriage and the of to of duke of a relative and favorite of the king of aged eighteen and handsome but alas i no sooner is	43
this fairly begun than new arise the pope thinks he sees an opportunity to mrs q and the family destroy the power of as a rival with the aid of the king of france louis xii he assistance to the latter who comes to and young now fearing for his life at the hands of his treacherous father in law deserts rome and and louis xii proceeds against falls and s wife as representative of the pope aged eighteen is sent to receive the homage of but the plot merely there comes a nice point in here on which comment is the basis it was one time assumed that alexander the father during all these various treated his daughter as his mistress her brother caesar also bore the same relation to her father and son were rivals then for the affections and of the daughter sister to the affections of the son the father has the daughter her husband back to rome from all accounts he was very much in love with his wife who was beautiful but dangerous because of her charms and the manner in which she was by others in when he was twenty and caesar twenty three he was back and the next year because of caesar s jealousy of his of his own wife caesar being perhaps denied his usual freedom was while going up the steps of the palace by caesar his brother in law and that in the presence of his father in law alexander vi the pope of rome according to one account on sight of caesar jumping out from behind a column sought refuge behind alexander the pope who spread out his purple robe to protect him through which caesar drove his knife into the bosom of his brother in law the dear old father and father in law was severely shocked he was quite depressed in fact he shook his head the wound was not fatal however was removed to the house of a cardinal near by where he was attended by his wife and his sister in law wife of both of whom he apparently feared a little for they were compelled first to partake of all food presented in order to prove that it was not poisoned in this house in this sick chamber doorway suddenly and unexpectedly one day there appears the figure of caesar the scene and present is not given is in his bed and this time dies is the crime a at forty not at all this is papa alexander s own dominion this is a family affair and father is very fond of caesar so the matter is hushed up witness the interesting final chapters caesar goes off october to fight the princes in once more among whom are and one of s ex husbands july alexander leaves the palace in rome to fight the one of the two powerful families of rome with the assistance of the other powerful family the in his absence his beloved is acting pope january first or is to son and heir to d whose famous villa near rome is still to be seen neither nor his father was anxious for this union but papa alexander pope of rome has set his heart on it by and threats he brings about a marriage not being present celebrated with great pomp at st peter s january arrives in the presence of her new husband who falls seriously in love with her her fate is now to settle down and no further befall on account of her except one a certain an italian noble appears on the scene and falls violently in love with her she is only twenty three or four even now d her new husband becomes violently jealous and result further peace until her death in in her thirty ninth year during which period she had four children by three boys and one girl as for brother caesar he was unfortunately leading a more career on december when he was only twenty six as a general fighting the allied minor princes in he caused to be in his at and da two who with others had against him some time before at awed by his growing power they had been so foolish as to endeavor to him by for him from their and presenting it to him and allowing themselves to be to his house by of friendship result august father pope alexander vi charming society figure polished gentleman lover of the chase patron of the arts for whom and had worked breathes his last he and caesar had fallen desperately mrs q and the family sick at the same time of a fever when caesar sufficiently to attend to his affairs things are already in a bad way the are to seat a pope to the as the spanish on whom he has relied do not prove friendly and he loses his control the funds which papa was wont to supply for his are no longer pope ii succeeding to the throne takes away from ca the assigned to him by his father for the honor of recovering what our have in may having gone to on a safe conduct for the spanish governor of that city he is arrested and sent to spain where he is thrown into prison at the end of two years he to escape and to the court of his brother in law the king of who him to aid in the castle of a subject here march while elsewhere is peacefully with her he is killed i have given but a feeble outline of this charming mixed in with it are constant or of wealthy and the of their estates whenever cash for the of caesar s wars or the protection of properties are needed the and child loving old pope was exceedingly about these little matters of human life when he died there	43
was a fight over his coffin between priests of different and belonging to caesar the coffin being too short his body was down in it his and finally upset think of so much ambition coming to such a shameful end he achieved his desire however he wrote his name large if not in fame at least in he lived in astonishing grandeur and splendor by his picturesque he really helped to bring about the he had a curious affection for his children and he died immensely rich and pope the fair stands out as a strange of disaster to love her was fear disappointment or death and it a at forty was she and her brother caesar who particularly interested mrs q although the aged alexander amused her during her vigorous recital i forgot the corner store and modem street cars of rome by the of the ancient city it was a delight to find that we had an intellectual in the study of the of this strange called human life in which to be dull is to be a bond slave and to be wise is to be a mad philosopher knowing neither right from wrong nor black from white together mrs q and i visited the and palaces the villa the villa the villa d and the way we paid a return visit to the and together in the gardens of the the paths of the the gardens of the and along the it was a pleasure to step into some old court of a palace where the walls were with fragments of monuments portions of and the like found on the place or in and set into the walls to preserve them and to listen to this clever wholesome woman comment on the way the spirit of life shells and casts them off she was not in the least morbid the horror and of lust and ambition held no terrors for her she liked life as a spectacle chapter the art of the first sunday i was in rome i began my local career with a visit to the church of maria that faces the not far from the continental hotel where i was stopping and afterwards san close beside it after and st peter s i confess churches needed to be of great distinction to interest me much but this church not so harmonious speaking left me breathless with its of and gold and silver there is a kind of beauty or charm or at least physical in contemplating sheer which i cannot withstand even when my sense of proportion and my reason are and this church had that many of the churches in rome have just this and nothing more at least what else they may have i am blind to it did not help me any to learn as i did from mrs that it was very old from a d and that the blessed virgin herself had indicated just where this in her honor was to be built by having a small private fall of snow which covered or the exact dimensions of which the church was to be i was interested to learn that they had here five boards of the original at in an urn of silver and crystal which is exposed in the on christmas eve and placed over the high altar on christmas day and that here were the and of v and paul v and viii of the family and too a chapel of the family never a at forty the of history wealth illusion and to say nothing of religious and social discovery which go to make up a church of this kind is a little wearisome not to say brain when contemplated en these churches i unless you are especially interested in a pope or a saint or a miracle or a picture or a monument or an artist they are nothing save intricate jewel boxes nothing more for the first five or six days thereafter i went about with a certain who was delivering lectures at the principal places of interest in rome this is a curious development of the modern city for so numerous are the and so great their interest in the history of rome that they gladly pay the three to twelve each which is charged by the various for their and near by there was a chicken and egg merchant who with his wife was staying at our hotel and who was making the matter of seeing rome quite as much of a business as that of chickens and eggs in he was a man of medium height dark pale neat and possessed of that innate courtesy reserve and lively appreciation within set convictions which is so characteristic of the native reasonably successful american we are such innocent pure minded most of us americans in the face of such vulgarity and as the life of paris or before such a spectacle of craft lust and as that presented by the a man such as my friend or any other american of his t of whom there are millions would find himself it would be so much beyond his ken or intention that i question whether he would see or under the art of stand it at all if it were taking place before his very eyes there is something so and pure about the attitude of many strong able americans that i marvel sometimes that they do as well as they do perhaps very innocence is their salvation i could not have told this chicken merchant and his wife for instance anything of the of the of paris and as i encountered them and if i had he would not have believed me he would have from it all as a burned child would from fire he was as simple and interesting and practical as a man could be and yet so thoroughly efficient that	43
at the age of forty five he had laid by a and was off on a three years tour of the world mrs chicken merchant was a large woman very stout very fair very cautious of her thoughts and her conduct thoroughly s and well meaning before leaving her native town she told me she had a small library the funds for which she had helped collect occasionally she was buying of famous historic buildings such as the and the temple of which would eventually grace the walls of the library she and her husband felt that they were themselves and that they would return better citizens more useful to their country for this of the ancient world they had been going each day morning and afternoon to some lecture or ancient ruin and after i came they would seek me out of an evening and tell me what they had seen i took great satisfaction in this because i really liked them for their point of view and their thoroughly kindly and whole hearted interest in life it flattered me to think that i was so acceptable to them and that we should get along so well together frequently they invited me to a at forty their table to dinner on these occasions my friend would open a bottle ot wine concerning which he had learned something since he had come abroad it was mr and mrs chicken merchant who gave me a full description of the different roman their respective merits their prices and what they had to show they had already been to the the the and the house of st peter s the castle of st the way the and the villa they were just going to the villa d and to the old at the mouth of the they were at great pains to get me to join the companies of who they were convinced was the best of them all he tells you something he makes you see it just as it was by george when we were in the you could just fairly see the lions marching out of those doors and that house of as he tells about it is one of the most wonderful things in the world i decided to join s classes at once and persuaded mrs and mrs q to accompany me at different times i must say that in spite of the of the idea my mornings and with and his company of proved as delightful as anything else that me in rome he was a most interesting person born and brought up as i learned at near the villa d where his father controlled a small inn and livery stable he was very very dark very ruddy and very active whenever we came to the appointed where his lecture was to begin he invariably arrived swinging his coat tails glancing around with his big black eyes rubbing and striking his hands in a friendly manner and giving every evidence of taking a keen interest in his work he was always polite and courteous with the art of out being and never for a moment either dull or ponderous he knew his subject thoroughly of course but what was much better he had an eye for the dramatic and the i shall never forget how in the of the he lifted the cap from the ancient that opens into the and allowed us to look in upon the walls of that great that remains as it was built before the dawn of roman history then he exclaimed the water that caesar and the took their in no doubt flowed through here just as the water of roman bath does to day on the when we were looking at the site of the palace of he told how that weird worthy had a certain well paved at the bottom with beautiful in order that he might leap down upon it and thus commit suicide but how he afterwards changed his mind which won a humorous smile from some of those present and from others a blank look of astonishment in the house of in one of those dark chambers which was once out in the clear sunlight but now because of the lapse of time and the crumbling of other reared above it is deep under ground he told how once according to an idle legend had invited some of his friends to dine and when they were well along in their feast and some what no doubt it began to rain rose leaves from the ceiling nothing but delighted cries of approval was heard for this artistic thought until the rose leaves became an inch thick on the floor and then two and three and four and five inches thick when the guests tried the doors they were locked and sealed then the shower continued until the rose leaves were a foot deep two feet deep three feet deep and the tables were covered later the guests had to climb on tables and a at forty chairs to save themselves from their rosy bath but when they had this high they could climb no higher for the walls were smooth and the room was thirty feet deep by the time the leaves were ten feet deep the guests were completely covered but the shower continued until the weight of them ended all life an ingenious but improbable story no one of s wide mouthed company seemed to question whether this was plausible or not and one american standing next to me exclaimed well i be my doubting mind set to work to figure out how i could have overcome this difficulty if i had been in the room and in my mind i had all the associated guests busy down rose leaves in order to make the quantity required as large as possible my idea was that i could tire out on this	43
rose leaf proposition the picture of these noble down the fall of rose leaves cheered me greatly after my first excursion with i decided to take his whole course and followed along behind him listening to his interesting and during many delightful mornings and in the on the in the on the way and in the at and i shall never forget how clearly and the crude early and characteristics of christianity came home to me as i walked in the and saw the wretched little graves hidden away in order that they might not be and the churches where might worship free from and persecution on the the fact that almost endless palaces were built one on top of the other the old palace by means of the and the and the new one the art of erected upon the smoothed over space is easily they find the remains of different ruins in different as they dig down coming eventually to the early of the kings and the tribes it is far more interesting to walk through these old ruins and chambers accompanied by some one who loves them and who is interested in them and who by to the state has smoothed the way so that the ancient forgotten chambers are properly lighted for you than it is to go alone and to have a friendly human voice on the probable arrangement of the ancient department and how it was all furnished is worth while i know that the wonder and interest of the series of immense dark rooms w hich were once the palace of and formerly were exposed to the light of day before the dust and of centuries had been heaped upon them but which now a hill covered by trees and grass came upon me with great force because of these human explanations and the room in which in loneliness and darkness for centuries stood the magnificent group of and the now in the until some students happened to put a foot through a hole thrilled me as though i had come upon them myself until one goes in this way day by day to the site of the the of the ruins of s villa the castle of st the the and the one can have no true conception of that ancient world when you realize by standing on the ground and contemplating these ancient ruins and their present fragments that the of them in their and youth is really true you undergo an ecstasy of wonder or if you are of a morbid turn you indulge in sad speculations as to the drift of life i cannot tell you how the a at forty from the palace of on the affected me or how strange i felt when the of the houses of and were made clear to walk through the narrow halls which they trod to know truly that they ruled in terror and with the force of murder that and and killed for his personal entertainment in these narrow which were then the only streets and where borne by hand furnished the only light is something a vision of the and audacity of s villa which now stretches apparently one would say for miles the vast majority of its rooms still and containing what treasures heaven only knows is one of the strangest of human experiences i at this vast series of rooms the power the and the genius which could command it truly it is one of those things which the imagination one can hardly conceive how even an emperor of rome would build so beautifully and so vastly rome is so vast in its suggestion that it is really useless to that vast empire that stretched from india to the was surely represented here and while we may rival the force and and genius and imagination of these men in our day we will not truly them mind was theirs vast ardent imagination and if they achieved it was because the world was still young and the implements and materials of life were less understood they were the great ones the we must still learn from them chapter an audience at the tie remainder of my days in rome were only three or four i had seen much of it that has been in no way indicated here true to my promise i had looked up at his hotel my acquaintance the able and distinguished mr h and had walked about some of the older sections of the city hearing him greek and latin of ancient date with the ease with which i put my ordinary thought into english together we visited the palace the prison the temple of maria in and other churches too numerous and too to mention it was interesting to me to note the facility of his learning and the depth of his philosophy in spite of the fact that life in the light of his truly immense knowledge of history and his examination of human motives seemed a of and of nevertheless he believed that through all the false witness and and of the ages through the and apparently guiding impulses of lust and appetite and vanity seemingly by mercy tenderness or any human consideration there still runs a art life developing tendency which is comforting and making for larger and happier days for each and all it did not matter to him that the spectacle as we read it is always one of the strong the weak of the strong with the strong of and lying even so the world was moving on to what a at forty he could not say we were coming into an understanding of things the mass was becoming more intelligent and better treated opportunity of all sorts was being more widely diffused even if so we would never again have a or a he thought not on this planet he	43
called my attention to that very interesting agreement between leading families of the league in lower greece in which it was that the ruling class should be honored like gods and that the subject class should be held in like beasts he wanted to know if even a suspicion of such an attitude to day would not cause turmoil i tried out his philosophy by denying it but he was firm life was better to him not merely different as some might take it to be i gave a dinner at my hotel one evening in order to pay my respects to those who had been so courteous to me and put it in charge of mrs who was desirous of nothing better she was fond of managing mrs q sat at my left and mrs h at my right and we made a gay hour out of history philosophy rome current character and travel the literary of was present mr and my greek and merchant mr an american and his wife then in rome had come and we were as gay as philosophers and and can be mr h drew a laugh by announcing that he never read a book under years of age any more and the literary of told a story of the latter to the effect that the more he contemplated his own achievements the more he came to admire himself and the less use he had for other people s writings one of the most delightful stories i have heard in years was told by h who stated that an italian thief being accused of stealing three rings from the hands of a statue of the an audience at the virgin that was constantly working miracles had declared that as he was kneeling before her in solemn prayer the virgin had suddenly removed the rings from her finger and handed them to him but the priests who were him of the church and the judge who was trying him all firm would not accept latest development of the miraculous tendencies of the image and he was sent to jail alas that true wit should be so poorly rewarded one of the last things i did in rome was to see the pope when i came there lent was approaching and i was told that at this time the matter was rather difficult none of my friends seemed to have the necessary influence and i had about decided to give it up when one day i met the english representative of several london who told me that sometimes under favorable conditions he introduced his friends but that recently he had his privilege and could not be sure on the friday before leaving however i had a message from his wife saying that she was taking her cousin and would i come i into my evening clothes though it was early morning and was off to her apartment in the from which we were to start to the pope is one of those dull ties made interesting by the enthusiasm of the faithful and the curiosity of the influential who are frequently non catholic but by the amazing history of the and the scope and influence of the church all the while that i was in rome i could not help feeling the power and scope of this organization much as i condemn its intellectual and personally i was raised x ir ut my father died a in it and i often smile when i think how impossible it a at forty would have been to force upon him the true history of the and the catholic his to influence was truly a case of the blind leading the blind to him the pope was truly there could be no wrong in any catholic priest and so on and so forth the lives of alexander vi and viii would have taught him nothing in a way blind to principles is for we have not as yet solved the riddle of the universe and one may well agree with st that the of the human agent does not the or power of a great principle an evil doctor cannot destroy the value of medicine a corrupt lawyer or judge cannot pure law pure religion and continues whether there are evil priests or no and the rise and fall of the roman catholic has nothing to do with what is true in the of christ it was interesting to me as i walked about rome to see the indications or suggestions of the wide spread influence of the catholic church priests from england ireland spain egypt and from the and africa i was standing in the fair in the where every morning a vegetable market is held and every wednesday a fair where and of various lands are for sale when an english priest seeing my difficulties in connection with a piece of offered to for me and a little later a french priest inquired in french whether i spoke his language in the i fell in with a german priest from who invited me to come and see a certain group of on a morning when he intended to say mass there which interested me but i was prevented by another engagement and at the continental there were an audience at the stopping two priests from and so it went the car lines which led down the to st peter s and the was always heavily by priests and and i never went anywhere that i did not encounter groups of student priests coming to and from their studies this that we drove to the palace at eleven was as usual bright and warm my english correspondent and his wife both extremely intelligent had been telling of the steady changes in rome its rapid the influence of the then mayor in its improvement and the influence of the in the matter of local affairs all rome	43
is probably catholic he said or nearly so but it isn t the kind of that cares for influence in political affairs why here not long ago in a public speech the mayor charged that the was the cause of rome s being delayed at least a hundred years in its progress and there was lots of applause the national parliament which meets here is full of but it is not interested in influence it s all the other way about they seem to be willing to let the pope have his say in spiritual matters but he can t leave the and priests can t mix in political affairs very much i thought what a change from the days of vii and even the of the century the rooms of the devoted to the pope at least those to which the public is admitted at times of audience seemed to me merely large and gaudy without being impressive one of the greatest follies of architecture it seems to me is the persistent thought that mere size without great beauty of form has any charm whatever the houses of parliament in england are large but they are also as much might be said a at forty for the royal in paris though not for the and almost not for the is another great of nothing mere size without a of charm as to detail all i remember of my visit was that arriving at the palace entrance we were permitted by guards to ascend immense flights of steps that we one large red room after another where great swung from the and occasional or over elaborate objects of art appeared on tables or there were crowds of people in each room all in evening dress the ladies with black lace over their heads the men in conventional evening clothes over guards stood about and of various degrees of influence moved to and fro we took our station in a room adjoining the pope s private chambers where we waited patiently while various personages of influence and importance were privately presented it was dreary business waiting loud talking was not to be thought of and the whispering on all sides as the company increased was oppressive there was a group of ladies from who were obviously friends of the holy father s family there were two brown and with long gray types who stationed themselves by one wall near the door there were three and a mother superior from somewhere who looked as if they were lost in prayer this was a great occasion to them next to me was a very official person in a uniform of some kind who constantly adjusted his neck band and smoothed his hands some american ladies quite severe and anti if i am not mistaken looked as if they were determined not to believe anything they saw and two italian women of charming manners had in tow an an audience at the small boy of say five or six years of age in lovely black velvet who was determined to be as bad and noisy as he could he beat his feet and asked questions in a loud whisper and decided that he wished to change his place of abode every three seconds all of which was accompanied by many sh sh es from his elders and in his ear severe from the american ladies and general indications of with here and there a smile of amusement every now and then a thrill of expectation would go over the company the pope was coming guards and would pass through the room with speedy movements and it looked as though we would shortly be in the presence of the of christ i was told that it was necessary to rest on one knee at least which i did waiting patiently the while i surveyed the curious company the two brown were solemn their heads bent the sisters were praying the italian ladies were soothing their charge i told my correspondent friend of the suicide of a certain whom he and his wife knew on the day that i left new york a very but adventurous man and he exclaimed my god don t tell that to my wife she feel it terribly we waited still longer and finally in sheer weariness began foolishly i said that it must be that the pope and merry the pope s secretary were inside playing with the jewels this drew a laugh from my newspaper friend i will call him w who began to choke behind his handkerchief mrs w whispered to me that if we did not behave we would be put out and i pictured myself and w being out by the guards which produced more laughter the official beside me who probably did not speak a at forty frowned solemnly this produced a lull and we waited a little while longer in silence finally the sixth or seventh thrill of expectation produced the holy father the guards and several making a sort of aisle of honor before the door all whispering ceased there was a rustle of garments as each one settled into a final attitude he came in a very tired looking old man in white wool and white skull cap a great of white beads about his neck and red shoes on his feet he was stout close knit with small shrewd eyes a low forehead a high crown a small chin he had soft slightly wrinkled hands the left one by the ring as he came in he uttered something in italian and then starting on the far side opposite the door he had entered came about to each one the hand which some merely kissed and some seized on and cried over as if it were the solution of a great woe or the of a too great happiness the mother superior did this and one of	43
the italian ladies from the brown laid their on it and the official next to me touched it as though it were an object of great value i was interested to see how the supreme the of all the monuments viewed all this he looked but rather wearily down on each one though occasionally he turned his head away or slightly interested said something to the woman whose tears fell on his hands he said nothing with one of the women from he exchanged a few words now and then he murmured something i could not tell whether he was interested but very tired or whether he was slightly bored beyond him lay room after room crowded with in which this performance had to be repeated acquainted with my newspaper correspondent he gave no sign at me he an audience at the scarcely looked at all no doubt my critical at the severe american woman he looked then he stood in the of the room and having uttered a long soft prayer which my friend w informed me was very beautiful departed the crowd arose we had to wait until all the other chambers were visited by him and until he returned guarded on all sides by his soldiers and disappeared there was much conversation approval and smiling satisfaction i saw him once more passing quickly between two long lines of inquisitive people his head up his glance straight ahead and then he was gone we made our way out and somehow i was very glad i had come i had thought all along that it really did i not make any difference whether i saw him or not and that i did not care but after seeing the attitude of the and his own peculiar mood i thought it worth while the of christ what a long way from the christians who had no pope at all who gathered together to sing a hymn to christ as to a god and who bound themselves by a oath to commit no nor nor nor break their word nor deny a deposit when called upon and who for nearly three hundred years had neither priest nor altar nor bishop nor pope but just the of christ chapter the city of st francis the italian hill cities are such a strange novelty to the american of the middle west used only to the flat reaches of the and the city or town gathered about the railway station one sees a whole series of them ranged along the eastern ridge of the as one travels northward from rome all the way up this valley i had been noting examples on either hand but when i got off the train at i saw what appeared to be a great fortress on a distant hill the sheer walls of the church and of st francis it all came back to me the fact that st i francis had been born here of a well to do father that he had led a gay life in his youth had had his vi sion his change of heart which caused him to embrace poverty the care of the poor and and to follow precisely that which says lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven for where your treasure is there will your heart be also i had found in one of the little books i had with me towns a copy of the prayer that he devised for his order which reads poverty was in the and like a faithful squire she kept herself armed in the great combat thou for our during thy passion she alone did not thee mary thy mother stopped at the foot of the cross but poverty mounted it with thee and clasped thee in her embrace unto the end and when thou dying of thirst as a watchful she prepared for thee the thou in the of her embraces nor did she leave thee when dead the city of st francis o lord for she allowed not thy body to rest elsewhere than in a borrowed grave o poorest the grace i beg of thee is to bestow on me the treasure of the highest poverty grant that the mark of our order may be never to possess anything as its own under the sun for the glory of thy name and to have no other than begging i wonder if there is any one who can read this a thrill of response this world sets such store by wealth and comfort we all on luxury so far as our means will permit many of us in it and the thought of a man who could write such a prayer as that and live it made my hair to the roots i can understand pope innocent saying that the rule offered by st francis and his to ordinary mortals was too severe but i can also conceive the poetic enthusiasm of a st francis i found myself on the instant in the deepest accord with him understanding how it was that he wanted his followers not to wear a habit and to work in the fields as day begging only when they could not earn their way the fact that he and his had lived in reed huts on the site of maria the great church which stands in the valley near the station far down from the town and had practised the utmost came upon me as a bit of imaginative poetry of the highest sort before the arrived which conveyed me and several others to the little hotel i was thrilling with enthusiasm for this religious fact and anything that concerned him interested me in some ways was a disappointment because i expected something more than bare it is very old and i fancy as modem italy goes very poor the walls	43
lively and almost in their attentions the oldest and most faded of all the guides and attendants throng about the churches and of so old and faded that they seemed almost of poverty my good priest was for praying before every shrine he would get down on his knees and cross himself praying four or five minutes while i stood in the background looking at him and wondering how long he would be he prayed before the tomb of st francis in the church before the body of st clothed in a black habit and shown behind a glass case in the church of st before the altar in the chapel of saint where st francis had first prayed and so on finally when we were all through and it was getting late evening he wanted to go down into the valley near the railroad station to the church of maria where the cell in which st francis died is he thought i might want to leave him now but i refused we started out inquiring our way of the at saint and found that we had to go back through the town one of the a fat man me to put on my hat which i was carrying because i wanted to enjoy the freshness of the evening wind it had cleared off now the sun had come out and we were enjoying one of those lovely italian spring evenings which bring a sense of childhood to the heart the good thought i was holding my hat out of reverence to his calling i put it on the city of st francis we went back through the town and then i realized how lovely the life of a small italian town is in spring has about five thousand population it was cool and pleasant many were now open showing evening fires within the shadows of the rooms some children were in the carts and were already up from the fields below and church bells the sweetest echoes from churches here and there in the valley and from those here in exchanged we walked fast because it was late and when we reached the station it was already dusk the moon had risen however and lighted up this great edifice standing among a of tiny homes a number of italian men and women were around a pump outside those same dark ear with whom we are now so familiar in america the church was locked but my went about to the gate which stood at one side of the main entrance and rang a bell a brown appeared and they exchanged a few words finally with many smiles we were admitted into a garden where trees and box and showed their lovely forms and through a long court that had an of as if beer were here and so finally by a route into the main body of the church and the chapel containing the cell of st francis it was so dark by now that only the heaviest objects appeared distinctly the moonlight falling faintly through several of the windows the voices of the sounded strange and even though they talked in low tones we walked about looking at the great the windows and the high ceiling we went into the chapel lined on either side by wooden benches occupied by kneeling and lighted by one low swinging lamp which hung before the cell in which st francis died there was much whispering of prayers here a at forty and the good was on his knees in a moment praying solemnly st francis certainly never contemplated that his cell would ever be surrounded by the rich and bronze work against which his life was a protest he never imagined i am sure that in spite of his prayer for poverty his order would become rich and influential and that this the site of his would be occupied by one of the most churches in italy it is curious how wise the spirit of invariably the ideal christ died on the cross for the privilege of god in spirit and in truth after he had preached the sermon on the mount and then you have the gold power seeking wealth loving with women and and wars of and among the principal and following francis the self of the you have another great order whose churches and in italy are among the richest and most beautiful and everywhere you find that lust for riches and show and and a love of seeming what they are not so that they may satisfy a faint scratching of the spirit which is so thickly over that it is almost extinguished or it may be that the ideal is always such an excellent device wherewith to trap the and the i feed them with a fine seeming and then put a i tax on their humble seems to be the logic of i in regard to the mass anything to obtain power and authority anything to rule and so you have an alexander vi of christ and seizing on estates that did not belong to him leading a life of almost insane luxury and a pope interested in worldly fine art and the development of a pagan ideal chapter we returned at between seven and eight that night after a bath i sat out on the large balcony or commanding the valley and enjoyed the moonlight the surface of the olive trees and brown fields already being with white oxen and wooden shares gave back a soft glow that was somehow like the on bronze there was a faint of flowers in the wind and here and there lights gleaming from some street in the town i heard singing and the sound of a i slept soundly at breakfast coffee honey rolls and butter my gave me his card he was going to he asked the hotel man to	43
say to me that he had had a charming time and would i not come to france and visit him when i learn to speak french i replied smiling at him he smiled and nodded we shook hands and parted after breakfast i called a little open carriage such as they use in paris and and was off for and he took an early and caught his train on this trip which had recommended as offering a splendid view of i was not disappointed about some villa there was an imposing arrangement of them and an old roman the ruins of it the prosperous roman life which had long since disappeared like and beyond it all these towns in this central valley in fact was set on top of a high ridge and on some peak of it at that as seen from the valley below it was s a at forty most impressive close at hand in its narrow winding streets it was simply strange almost and yet a lovely little place after its kind like it was very poor only more so a little shrine to some old greek divinity was preserved here and at the very top of all on the extreme upper round of the hill was a which i invaded without a by your leave and walked in its garden there and then i decided that if ever fortune should permit i would surely return to and write a book and that this garden and should be my home it was so here so sweet the atmosphere was so wine like i wandered about under green trees and beside well kept flower beds enjoying the spectacle until suddenly peering over a wall i beheld a small garden on a slightly lower terrace and a brown gathering vegetables he had a basket on his arm his hood back over his shoulders a busy and silent after a time as i gazed he looked and smiled apparently not startled by my presence and then went on with his work when i come again i said i shall surely live here and i get him to cook for me lovely thought i leaned over other walls and saw in the narrow winding streets below natives bringing home bundles of on the backs of long and women carrying water very soon i suppose a car line will be built and the italian will call and even the tomb of st francis of all the hill cities i saw in italy certainly was the most remarkable the most sparkling the most forward in all things commercial it stands high very high above the plain as you come in at the and a wide car carries you up to the principal square the stopping in front of the modern hotels which command the wide sea like views which the valley presents below never was a city so beautifully wonderful of mountains fade into amazing and as the evening falls or the dawn if i were trying to explain where some of the painters of the school particularly secured their wonderful sky touches their dawn and evening effects i should say that they had once lived at did it seemed to me as i wandered about it the two days that i was there that it was the most human and industrious little city i had ever walked into every living being seemed to have so much to do you could hear as you went up and down the streets streets that ascend and descend in long winding step by step for blocks playing ringing machinery humming and near the great where cattle were evidently all day long the piercing of pigs in their death there was a busy market place crowded from dawn until noon with the good citizens of buying everything from and dress goods to picture post cards and long rows of fat old ladies sitting with baskets of wares in front of them all as they awaited in the public square facing the great hotels nightly between seven and ten the whole spirited city seemed to be walking a whole world of gay enthusiastic life that would remind you of an american town on a saturday night only this happens every night in when i arrived there i went directly to my hotel which faces the it was excellent built beautifully with a wide view of the plain which is so wonderful in its array of distant mountains and so rich in a at forty and churches i think i never saw a place with so much variety of scenery such curious of streets and lanes such heights and depths of and on which houses the five and six story of the older order of life in italy are built the streets are all narrow in some places not more than ten or fifteen feet wide arched completely over for considerable distances and twisting and turning ascending or descending as they go but they give into such squares and open places such magnificent views at every turn i i do not know whether what i am going to say will have the force and significance that i wish to convey but a city like taken as a whole all its gates all its towers all its upward sweeping details is like a cathedral in itself a cathedral you would have to think of the ridge on which it stands as providing the and the and the and then the quaint little winding streets of the town itself with their climbing houses and towers would suggest the flying airy statues and crosses of a cathedral like i know of no other that quite suggests that is really so true to it no one save an historical could extract much pleasure from the complicated political and religious history of this city however once upon a time there was a of money	43
the hotel de on the i sat behind a fat driver while he cracked his whip above the back of a lazy horse passing the while the of maria striped with strange bands of white and gray or a pleasing effect for a church i could see at once that the of the middle ages was a much more affair than that which now out in various directions from the and the place of the cathedral the narrow streets were alive with people and the drivers of everywhere seemed to drive as if their lives depended on it suddenly we turned into a very modern and very different from that of maria and then we were at the hotel door it was a nice looking square as i thought not very large clean and gracious to my delight i found that my room opened directly upon a balcony which overlooked the and that from it sitting in a chair i could command all of that remarkable prospect of high piled houses hanging over the water s edge it was beautiful the bells were ringing there was a bright glow in the west where the sun was going down the water of the stream was blue and the walls of all the houses seemingly brown i stood the makers of and gazed thinking of the peculiarly efficient german manager i had encountered the german servants who were in charge of this hotel and the fact that had long since changed from what it was a german porter came and brought my bags a german maid brought hot water a german clerk took my full name and address for the register and possibly for the police and then i was at liberty to and dress for dinner instead i took a stroll out along the stream banks to study the world of shops which i saw there and the stands for flowers and the crowd i dare not imagine what the interest of would be to any one who did not know her strange and history but i should think outside of the surrounding beauty it would be little or nothing unless one had a fondness for mere and gloom and it would in a way be repulsive or at best dreary but lighted by the romance the tragedy the lust the the and the artistic that such figures as the and the whole world of art politics trade war it takes on a strange to me that of midnight waters lighted by the fitful of distant fires i never think of it without seeing in my mind s eye the as it must have looked on that day in when that famous in regard to the test by fire entered into between and the took place those long ridiculous of and bearing the aloft or that other day when charles viii of france at the instance of the street in black with mantle of gold his lance before him his gathered about him and then disappointed the a at forty people by getting off his horse and showing himself to be the insignificant little man that he was almost and with an expression of neither can i forget the day that was and burnt for his religious in this same nor all the rivals of the hung from the windows of the or in the think of the and grave citizens of this city under s fiery their heads with flowers mingling with the children called to help in the city dancing like david before the ark and shouting long live christ and the virgin our rulers of the days when and his boon companion and cousin rode about the city on a mule together the virtue of innocent girls in houses of ill and drinking and to their hearts content of preaching to excited crowds in the and of his vision of a black cross over rome a red one over of writing his the prince and of defending the city walls as an engineer can any other city match this artistic progress in so short a space of time or present the of artists the rank company of material masters such as the the the and to the accompaniment of and other cities have had their amazing hours all of them from rome to london but it has always seemed to me that the literary possibilities of in spite of the vast body of literature concerning it have scarcely been touched the art section alone is so vast and so brilliant that one of the art merchants told me while i was there that at least forty thousand of the city s one hundred and seventy the makers of thousand population is foreign principally english and american drawn to it by its art merits and that the tide of travel from april to october is amazing i can believe it you will hear german and english freely spoken in all the principal because of a gray day and dull following the warmth and color and light of and rome seemed especially dark and to me at first but i recovered its charm and beauty grew on me by degrees so that by the time i had done maria san the cathedral group and the i was really desperately in love with the art of it all and after i had the galleries the and the i was satisfied that i could find it in my heart to live here and work a feeling i had in many other places in europe truly however there is no other city in europe just like it has all the distinction of great individuality my mood changed about at times as i thought of the different periods of its history the splendor of its or the of its methods but when i was in the presence of some of its perfect works of art such as s spring in	43
the or s of the in san or s or s x in the or s the journey of the three kings to in the old palace then i was ready to believe that nothing could be finer than i realized now that of all the cities in europe that i saw was possessed of the most intense art atmosphere something that over your soul in a grim way and causes you to repeat over and over amazing men worked here amazing men it was so strange to find driven home to me even more here than in rome that gulf that a at forty of thought and illusion from reality men painted the illusions of christianity concerning the saints and the miracles at this time better than ever before or since and they believed something else a who could the with one hand and make a cardinal into a pope could murder a rival with the other and who was seeking to shine as a painter of religious art and the like could murder a in order to have no rival in what he considered to be a permanent secret of how to paint in the same that could commission to design and execute a magnificent for san it was never done of course could the of the people and a school on the lines of s academy in other words in as in the court of alexander vi at rome we find life stripped of all sham in action in so far as an individual and his conscience were concerned and filled with the utmost in so far as the individual and the public were concerned and de the the in fact the whole and of the individuals illustrious life that here were cut from the same piece of cloth they were one and all as we know outside of a few artistic figures shrewd calculating and after power and position lust murder were the order of the day religion it was to be laughed at weakness it was to be scorned poverty was to be innocence was to be seized upon and converted laughing at virtue and satisfying themselves always they went their way building their grim dark almost palaces preparing their and their for their enemies no wonder the makers of saw a black cross over rome they struck swiftly and surely and smiled and they had the notion of morality charity virtue and the like combined with a less indifference to them power was the thing they power and magnificence and these were the things they had but oh how you taught the of life itself its its false its its it has never been any wonder to me that the darkest most pathetic figure in all art should have appeared and loved and dreamed and labored and died at this time his melancholy was a fit on his age on life and on all art oh of figures i think i understand how it was with you bear with me while i lay a flower on this great grave i cannot think of another instance in art in which will and almost energy have been at once so and so successful i never think of the great tomb for which the moses in san in large grave thoughtful the man who could walk with god and the slaves in the were intended without being filled with a vast astonishment and grief to think that life should not have permitted this design to come to fulfilment to think that a pope so powerful as should have planned a tomb so magnificent with to scheme it out and actually to begin it and then never permit it to reach completion all the way northward through italy this idea of a with forty figures on it and covered with and other ornaments haunted me at in the i saw more of the figures casts designed for this tomb strange thoughts half out of the rock which suggest the source from which has drawn his inspiration v a at forty and my astonishment grew before i was out of italy this man and his genius the mere dreams of the things he hoped to do me so that to me he has become the one great art figure of the world colossal is the word for so vast that life was too short for him to suggest even a of what he felt but even the things that he did how truly they are i am sure i am not mistaken when i say that there is a profound sadness too running through all that he ever did his works are large and profoundly melancholy witness the moses that i have been talking of to say nothing of the statues on the of the in san at i saw them in there in plaster in the museum and once more i was filled with the same sense of profound meditative melancholy it is present in its most significant form here in in san the of which he once prepared to make magnificent but here he was again i saw the of these deep sad figures that impressed me as no other figures ever have done dawn and dusk day and night how they dwell with me constantly i was never able to look at any of his later work the chapel the figures of slaves in the the moses in san in or these figures here in without thinking how true it was that this great will had rarely had its way and how throughout all his days his energy was so unfortunately compelled to war with circumstance life plays this trick on the truly great if they are not and of material and art is a pale flower that only in sheltered places and to drag it forth and force it	43
to contend with the rough of the world is to destroy its the makers of it was so in this man s case who at times because of unlucky was compelled to fly for his life or to sue for the means which life should have been honored to bestow upon him or else to abandon great purposes out of such a mist of sorrow and only so however have come these figures that now dream here year after year in their gray chapel while come and go their cup of wonder rising ever and anon to the level of the beauty they contemplate i can see upon the spirit of these figures night with her heavy lost in great weariness and day with his clear eyes i can see gathering substance for his and at the suggestions which arise from these mighty figures there is none so great as this man who in his gloom and inherited the art of greece it chapter a night in whatever the atmosphere of may have and when i was there the exterior appearance of the central heart was obviously somewhat akin to its and century to day its prevailing spirit is thoroughly modern if you walk in the or the or the the principal you will encounter most of the ancient a goodly number of them but they will look out of place as in the case of the palaces with their ground floors built so for purposes of their corner windows and single great easily guarded to day these regions have if not the open of the modem city at least the commercial and matter of fact business display and energy which is characteristic of commerce everywhere i came to the the most famous square of the city quite by accident tlie first night following a dark heavily street from my hotel and at once recognized the with its thin tower the where in older times public performances were given in the open and the statue of i i long here examining the bronze which marks the site of the stake at which and two other were burned in the fountain designed by the two lions at the step of the and s statue of with the a night in head of a strange genius that this figure is brilliant and thrilling as it is ghastly it was a lovely night the moon came up after a time as it had at and and i wandered about these old streets feeling the rough brown walls looking in at the open shop windows most of them dark and lighted by street lamps and studying always the wide over hanging all really interesting cities are so delightfully different london was so low gray heavy and commonplace paris was so smart swift wide artistic and fashionable was so semi and semi or with sunlight and palms rome was so of various periods with a strange mingling of and antiquity and over all blazing sunlight and throughout all and now in i found the compact dark atmosphere suggestive of what paris once was centuries before with this feature that the wide is here an essential characteristic it is so wide it outward from the building line at least three or four feet and it may be much more six or seven one thing is certain as i found to my utter delight on a rainy afternoon you can take shelter under its wide reach and keep comparatively dry great art has been developed in making it truly ornamental and it gives the long narrow streets a most individual and in my judgment distinguished appearance it was quite by accident also on this same evening that i came upon the where the street cars are i did not know where i was going until suddenly turning a corner there i saw it the at last and a portion of the cathedral standing out soft and fair in the moonlight i shall always be glad that i saw it so for the strange and of a at forty its stone work of white or cream colored stone in lovely designs with of slate colored granite had an almost effect it might have been something borrowed from or or the far east the dome too as i drew nearer and the upwards in a magnificent way and although afterwards i was sorry that the has never had sense enough to tear out the of buildings surrounding it and leave these three monuments the cathedral the and the standing free and clear as at on a great stone platform or square nevertheless cramped as i think they are they are surely beautiful i was not so much impressed by the interior of the cathedral its beauty is largely on the outside i ascended the still another day and from its height viewed all the of the san but try as i might i could not think of it in modern terms it was too of the italy of the of the ii and all the glittering company who were their one thing that was strongly impressed upon me there was that every city should have a great cathedral not so much as a symbol or theory of religion as an object of art something which would indicate the perfection of the religious ideal taken from an artistic point of view here you can stand and admire the exquisite double windows with twisted columns the infinite variety of the marble work and the quaint architecture of the supported by columns it was after midnight and the moon was high in the heavens shining down with a rich effect before i finally returned from the square following the banks of the and admiring the shadows cast by the and so finally reached my hotel and my bed a night in the and of paintings are absolutely the most amazing i saw abroad	43
there are other wonderful the being absolutely for size but here the art is so uniformly relative to italy so identified with the so suggestive of the influence and the patronage which gave it birth the influence of religion the wealth of the catholic church the power of individual families such as the and the of are all clearly indicated s adoration of the in the showing the proud children the head of and the company of men of letters and of the time all worked in as figures about the christ child tell the whole story art was flattering to the nobility of the day it was dependent for its place and position upon religion upon the patronage of the church and so you have endless flights into egypt from the cross and the like the painted for her form and the beauty of suggestion you will encounter over and over again all the saints in the the proud and of a dozen families the several members of the family they are all there now and then you will encounter a a van a or a from the but they are rare rome and are best represented by their own painters and and it is the local men largely in whom you rejoice the bits from other lands are few and far between rome for jewel box churches ancient ruins but for paintings and the best of artistic in the the and the i a at forty among the vast of paintings my understanding of the growth of italian art i never knew until i reached how easy it is to trace the rise of christian art to see how one painter influenced another how one school borrowed from another it is all very plain if by the least effort you fix the representatives of the different italian schools in mind you can judge for yourself i returned three times to look at s spring in the that picture which i think in many respects is the loveliest picture in the world so delicate so composed so utterly suggestive of the art and refinement of the painter and of life at its best the three graces so lightly clad in transparent are so much the soul of joy and freshness the utter significance of spring the figures to the left do so the cold and blue of march the warmer april and the flower clad may i could never tire of the which could have march blowing on april s mouth from which flowers fall into the lap of may nor could i weary of the spirit that could select green things for the hem of april s garment or above spring s head place a winged and baby shooting a fiery arrow at the three graces to me is the nearest return to the greek spirit of beauty grace and lightness of soul combined with later delicacy and romance that the modern world has known it is so beautiful that for me it is sad full of the sadness that only perfect beauty can inspire i think now of all the places i saw in italy perhaps really preserves in spite of its changes most of the atmosphere of the past but that is surely not for long either for it is growing and the are arriving they were in complete charge of my hotel here and of other places as i shortly saw and i fancy that a night in the future of northern italy is to be in the hands of the as i walked about this city lingering in its brooding over its pictures for myself the life of the middle ages i could not help thinking how soon it must all go no doubt the churches palaces and will be retained in their present form for hundreds of years and they should be but soon will come wider streets and houses even in the older section the heart of the city and then farewell to the atmosphere in all the wide now such a noticeable feature of the city will be abandoned and then there will be scarcely anything to indicate the of the past already the street cars were their way through certain sections the here is so different from the at rome and yet so much like it for it has in the main the same look running as it does through the city between solid walls of stone but lacking the spectacles of the castle of st saint peter s the hills and the gardens of the and the there are no ancient ruins on the only the suggestive architecture of the middle ages the wonderful and the houses adjacent to it indeed the river here is nothing more than a stream shallow before it reaches the city shallow after it leaves it but held in check here by great stone which give it a peculiarly still mass and depth the spirit of the people was not the same as that of those in rome or other cities the spirit of the crowd was different a darker richer more i thought the people were slow leisurely short and comfortable i myself on the house fronts or backs below the and on the little shops of which there a at forty seemed to be an endless variety and then feeling that i had had a taste of the city i returned to larger things the the palaces of the the palace and that world which concerned the council of and the dignified to and fro of old and his descendants were the things that i wished to see and realize for myself if i could i think we make a mistake when we assume that the manners customs details conversation interests and of people anywhere were ever very much different from what they are now in three or four hundred years from now people in quite similar situations	43
to our own will be wondering how we took our daily lives quite the same as our ancestors i should say and no differently from our descendants life works about the same in all times only exterior aspects change in the particular period in which and all italy for that matter was so remarkable italy was alive with ambitious men strong remarkable capable characters they made the wonder of the life it was not the architecture that did it and not the routine movements of the people has much the same architecture to day better in fact but not the men great men make great times and only struggling ambitious men make the existence of the artist possible however much he may despise them they are the only ones who in their and power can readily call upon him to do great things and supply the means witness and in italy in holland and in spain chapter of to day it was while i was in that a light was thrown on an industry of which i had previously known little and which impressed me much brooding over the almost endless treasures of the city i into the palace one afternoon that perfect example of architecture then occupied by an of objects of art and to be the work of an association of italian artists after i had seen most of the treasures in the i encountered a thing which i had long heard of but never seen an organization for the the of all the wonders of art and too the place was full of of the loveliest character of famous statues in the the the and elsewhere and in many instances also copies of the great pictures there was beautiful furniture even as to age from many of the italian palaces the and others and as for garden fountains f benches metal and the like they were all present they were from some of the with the of age upon them and i thought at first that they were original i was soon for i had not been there long strolling about when an attendant brought and introduced to me a certain a small dark man with clear black eyes who made clear the whole situation a at forty the of the world according to mr a jew were being with cheap of every truly worthy object of art from italian stone benches to by or portraits by as and it had been resolved by this association of italian artists that this was unfair not only to the and the art loving public generally but also to the honest who could make an excellent living frankly copies of ancient works of merit at a price if only they were permitted to copy them most in fact all of them could make interesting but in many cases they would lack that trait of personality which makes all the difference between success and failure whereas they could perfectly the of others and that too for prices with which no foreigner could so they had themselves together determined to do better work and sell more than the fly by night who were and degrading all good art and to say frankly to each and all here is a perfect of a very lovely thing do you want it at a very low cost or we will make for you an exact copy of anything that you see and admire and wish to have and we will make it so that you cannot afford to with doubtful who sell you as and charge you outrageous prices i have knocked about sufficiently in my time in the chambers of american and elsewhere to know that there is entirely too much in what was told me the wonder of grew a little under the professor s quiet commercial analysis for after this matter of so we proceeded to a discussion of the present conditions of the city of to day it s very different from anything in america or the north of europe he said or even the north of italy for as yet we have scarcely anything in the way of commerce here we still build in the fashion they used five hundred years ago narrow streets and big in order to keep up the atmosphere of the city for we are not strong enough yet to go it alone and besides i don t think the will ever be different they are an easy going race they don t need the american two dollars a day to live on fifty will do for one thousand dollars five thousand you can rent a palace here for a year and i can show you whole floors overlooking gardens that you can rent for seventeen dollars a month we have a garden farther out that we use as a here in in the heart of the city which we rent for four hundred dollars a year what about the italian s idea of progress isn t he naturally i asked mr rarely the italian not at this date we have many jews and here who are doing well and foreign capital is building street i think the will have to be with another nation to experience a new birth the are mixing with them if they ever get as far south as italy will be made over the themselves will be made over i notice that the and get along well together i thought of the age long wars between the and the from the fifth to the twelfth century but those days are over they can apparently mingle in peace now as i saw here and farther north it was also while i was in that i first became definitely and in an irritated way conscious of a certain aspect of travel which no doubt thousands of other a at forty have noted for themselves but of which	43
nevertheless i feel called upon to speak i could never come in to the breakfast table either there or at rome or in or without a large company of that peculiarly american brand of not rich of no great dignity but comfortable and above all with themselves i could never look at any of this tribe comfortably clothed very and without thinking what a far cry it is from the temperament which makes for art or great originality to the temperament which makes for the great sane mass god spare me i ii admit that for general purposes tlie value of breeding trading of children in comfort producing the living atmosphere of life in which we find ourselves and from which art by the grace of great public occasions may rise people of this type are essential but seen from great background masses they are but let me not go wild viewed from the artistic angle the stress of great occasions great emotion great necessities they fall into such weaknesses almost ridiculous here abroad they come so regularly pa and ma pa and a little vague looking from and limited vision af soul ma not a little superior vain envious dull and hard i never see such a woman as that but my rises a little the one idea of a pair like this particularly of the mother is the getting her children if there be any properly married the girls particularly and in this phase of family politics pa has obviously little to say their appearance abroad accompanied by henry and george junior and mary and is for i scarcely know what it is so plain on the face of it that no single one of them has of to day the least of what he is seeing i sat in a carriage with two of them in rome the ruins of the and when we reached the tomb of i heard oh yes there it is what was she anyhow he was a roman general i think and she was his wife his house was next door and he built this tomb here so she would be near him isn t it wonderful such a nice idea so far as i could make out from watching this throng the principal idea was to be able to say that they had been abroad poor old its beauty and its social significance passed art so far as i could judge from the really unmoved spectators present was for crazy people the artist was some weird unfortunate fool a little perhaps i but tolerable for a strange he seemed to have ere great men made and used him he was after his fashion a servant the objectionable feature of a picture like s spring would be the of the figures from a or a we lead self conscious mary away in silence if we encounter perchance quite unexpectedly a by or a too assumption by we turn away in disgust art must be limited to conventional theories and when so limited is not worth much anyhow it was amazing to see them in and out their good clothes rustling an in waiting puffing the while they gather impressions wherewith to their neighbors george and henry and mary and protesting half the time or in open rebellion are duly led to see the things which have been the most recommended be they palaces or a at forty i often wondered what it was the best which these people got out of their trip abroad the heavy i saw i always suspected of having solid understanding and appreciation of everything the english were uniformly polite reserved intelligent apparently but these americans if you told them the true story of whose head i saw them occasionally admiring or forced upon them the true details of the the the or even the historical development of art they would fly in horror they have no room in their little for anything save their own notions the standards of the church at i think sometimes per it is because we are all growing to a different standard trying to make life something different from what it has always been or appeared to be that all the trouble comes about time will remedy that life its interminable processes will break any theory l conceive of life as a mind goddess pouring from separate one of which she holds in each hand simultaneously the streams of good and evil which mingling make this troubled existence flowing ever onward to the sea it was also while i was at that i finally decided to change my plan and visit it is a city without a disappointment a friend of mine had one time assured me with the greatest confidence and so here at on this first morning i altered my plans i changed my ticket at thomas cook s and crowded in between and i gave myself a stay of four days deciding to it if i chose i really think that every of to day owes a debt of gratitude to thomas cook sons i never knew until i went abroad what an accommodation the of to day offices of this concern are your mail is always courteously received and cared for your and tickets are changed and altered at your slightest whim your local bank is their cash desk and the only you have if you are alone and without the native tongue at your convenience are their clerks and agents at the train it does not make any difference to me that that is their business and that they make a profit in a foreign city where you are quite alone you would grant them twice the profit for this courtesy and it was my experience in the slight use i made of their service that their orders and letters of advice were carefully respected and that when	43
you came conducted by thomas cook whether you took the best or the worst you were politely and looked after one of the most amusing letters that i received while abroad was from this same friend who wanted me to go to not so long before i left rome he had arrived with his wife daughter and a young girl friend of his daughter whose first trip abroad they were at a luncheon they had given me the matter of seeing the pope had come up and i mentioned that i had been so fortunate as to find some one who could introduce me and that it was just possible if they wished it that my friend would extend his courtesy to them the young girls in particular were eager but i was not sure i left rome immediately afterward writing to my british correspondent his interest in their behalf and at the same time to my that i was doing so as an analysis of keen and clever read his letter my dear the young woman who thinks she wants to see the pope goes under the name of margaret but i wouldn t try very hard to bring it about because if margaret went my daughter a at forty would want to go and if margaret and my daughter went my wife would feel out in the cold the old man can stand it margaret s motives are simply childish curiosity possibly combined with a slight desire to give pleasure to the holy father but don t try to get that interview for margaret unless you can get it for all the ladies you will introduce a serpent into my paradise no serpent was introduced because i could n t get the interview and the and of san shall i ever forget them i went there on a spring morning spring in italy when the gleaming light outside filled the with a cool brightness and studied the of and between the columns of the arches in the proper meditating upon the beauty of the things here gathered really italy is too beautiful one should be a poet in soul as to art and he should linger here forever each poorest cell here has a small by and the the chapter house and the are filled with large all rich in that s which is only wonderful because of the art feeling of the master i lingered in the the small chambers once occupied by and meditated on the great s in a way his dream of the destruction of the came true even as he preached the was at hand only he did not know it martin was coming the black cross was over rome and also true was his thought that the end of the old order in italy had come it surely had never afterwards was it quite the same and never would it be so again and equally true was his vision of the red cross over for never was the simple of so firmly based in the minds of men as it is today though all and religious theories wear of to day to their ruin was destroyed but not his visions or his they are as fresh and powerful to day as and as are any that have been made in history it was the same with the the of the san and the and at that last with the wind singing in the a faint mist blowing down the valley of the all lying below and the lights of evening beginning to appear stands fixed and clear in my mind i saw it for the last time the evening before i left i sat on a stone bench overlooking a wonderful prospect rejoicing in the artistic spirit of italy which has kept fresh and clean these wonders of art when i was approached by a brown his feet and head bare his body stout and comfortable he asked for i gave him a for the sake of who belonged to his order and because of the spirit of italy that in the midst of a changing world still ministers to these of beauty and keeps them and altogether lovely one last word and i am done i strolled out from one evening a little confused by the charm of all i had seen and wondering how i could best bestow my time for the remaining hours of light i tried first to find the house of which i fancied was somewhere in the vicinity but not finding it came finally to the which i followed the evening was very pleasant quite a sense of spring in the air and of new made gardens and i overcame my disappointment at having failed to accomplish my original plan i passed new streets wider than the old ones in the of the city with street lamps arc lights modern and a car running in the distance presently i came to a portion of the than a at forty any i had yet seen of course the walls through which it flows in the city had disappeared and in their place came grass covered banks with those tall thin i had so much admired in france the waters were a green at this hour and the houses collected in small groups were brown yellow or white with red or brown roofs and brown or green shutters the old idea of arches with columns and large projecting roofs still persisted in these houses and made me wonder whether might not after all always keep this characteristic as i went farther out the houses grew less frequent and lovely black hills appeared there was a smoke in the distance just to show that was not dead to the idea of and beyond in a somewhat different direction the dome of the cathedral that really impressive dome some men were fishing in the stream from	43
the bank apparently catching nothing i noticed the lovely of the south in the distance the large on the hills and here and there of those tall slender trees of france not conspicuous elsewhere on my journey in one place i noticed the largest display of washing i have ever seen quite the largest a whole field of linen no less hung out to dry and in another place some slow moving men cutting wood it was very warm very pleasant slightly suggestive of rain with the smoke going up straight and after a while when the evening church bells were beginning to ring calling to each other from and hill my sense of and pleasant rural and sweetness was complete laughter carried i noticed in some peculiar echoing way the music of the bells was essentially of to day i had no sense of old or new but just spring hope new birth and as i turned back after a time i knew i had acquired a different and very precious memory of something that would last me years and years i should always think of the as it looked this evening how safe and gracious and still i should always hear the voices in laughter and the bells i should always see the children playing on the green banks quite as i used to play on the and the and their voices in italian were no less sweet than our childish voices i had a feeling that somehow the spirit of italy was like that of america and that somehow there is close between us and italy and that it was not for nothing that an italian discovered america or that americans of all people have apparently loved italy most and it most closely in their periods of greatest achievement chapter xl maria in studying out my at i came upon the homely advice in that in care should be taken in and especially when the tide is low exposing the lower steps that as much as anything i had ever read this wonder city to me these italian cities not being large end so quickly that before you can say jack robinson you are out of them and away far into the country it was early evening as we pulled out of and for a while the country was much the same as it had been in the south hill towns bridges and the prevailing solid and of the architecture the white oxen pigs and shabby carts but gradually as we things seemed to take on a very modern air of wide streets thoroughly modem and the like it grew dark shortly after that and the country was only favored by the rich radiance of the moon which made it more picturesque and romantic but less definite and in the with me were two women one a comfortable looking matron from to the other a young girl of twenty or of the large type and decidedly good looking she was very plainly dressed and evidently belonged to the middle class the married italian lady was small and good looking and considerably before dinner time and as we were she opened a small basket maria which she carried and took from it a an apple and a bit of cheese which she ate placidly for some reason she occasionally smiled at me good but not speaking italian i was without the means of making a single observation at i assisted her with her and received a smiling backward glance and then i settled myself in my seat wondering what the remainder of the evening would bring forth i was not so very long in discovering once the married lady of had disappeared my young companion took on new life she rose smoothed down her dress and comfortably in her seat her cheek laid close against the velvet covered arm and looked at me occasionally out of half closed eyes she finally tried to make herself more comfortable by lying down and i offered her my fur overcoat as a pillow she accepted it with a half smile about this time the dining car steward came through to take a of those who wished to reserve places for dinner he looked at the young lady but she shook her head i made a sudden decision reserve two places i said the bowed politely and went away i scarcely knew why i had said this for i was under the impression my young lady companion spoke only italian but i was trusting much to my at the moment a little later when it was drawing near the meal time i said do you speak english non she replied shaking her head bin she replied with an easy half german half italian smile dock i suggested oh out she replied and put her head down comfortably on my coat a at forty i inquired she nodded she half smiled again i had a real thrill of satisfaction out of all this for although i speak abominable german just sufficient to make myself understood by a really clever person yet i knew by the exercise of a little tact i should have a companion to dinner you will take dinner with me won t you i stammered in my best german i do not understand german very well but perhaps we can make ourselves understood i have two places she hesitated and said bin but for company s sake i replied she replied indifferently i then asked her whether she was going to any particular hotel in i was bound for the royal and she replied that her home was in maria was a most interesting type she was a for size pallid with a full rounded body her hair was almost and her hands large but not she seemed to be strangely world weary and yet strangely passionate the kind of	43
mind and body that does and does not care a kind of dull fire burning within her and yet she seemed indifferent into the bargain she asked me an occasional question about new york as we dined and though wine was proffered she drank little and true to her statement that she was not hungry ate little she confided to me in soft difficult german that she was trying not to get too stout that her mother was german and her father italian and that she had been visiting an uncle in who was in the business i wondered how she came to be first class the time passed dinner was over and in several hours more we would be in we returned to maria our and because the moon was shining we stood in the corridor and watched its radiance on clustered villa crowned hills great stretches of flat or marsh land all barren of trees and occasionally on little towns all white and brown glistening in the clear light it will be a fine night to see for the first time i suggested oh out she replied in her queer mixture of french and german i her command of sounding german words she told me the names of stations at which we stopped and finally she exclaimed quite gaily now we are here the i looked out and we were over a wide body of water it was beautifully silvery and in the distance i could see the faint outlines of a city very shortly we were in a car yard as at rome and and then under a large train shed and then conveyed by an enthusiastic italian porter we came out on the wide stone platform that faces the grand canal before me were the white walls of marble buildings and intervening in long waving lines a great street of water the black a great company of them each other on its rippling bosom green stained stone steps sharply illuminated by electric lights leading down to them a great crowd of and passengers i startled maria by her by the arm exclaiming in german wonderful wonderful est ist it is splendid she replied we stepped into a our bags being loaded in afterwards it was a singularly romantic situation when you come to think of it entering by moonlight and gliding off in a in company with an unknown and charming italian girl who smiled and a at forty sighed by turns and fairly glowed with delight and pride at my evident to the beauty of it all she was directing the where to leave her when i exclaimed don t leave me please let s do together she was not offended she shook her head a bit i like to think and smiled most has gone to your head to morrow you forget me and there my adventure ended it is a year as i write since i last saw the maria and i find she remains quite as firmly fixed in my memory as itself which is perhaps as it should be but the five or six days i spent in how they linger how shall one ever paint water and light and air in words i had wild thoughts as i went about of a splendid on a poem no less but finally gave it up myself with humble notes made on the spot which at some time i hoped to into something better here they are a portion of them the task unfinished what a city i to think that man driven by the hand of circumstance the dread of destruction should have sought out these sea islands and eventually reared as splendid a thing as this the driven by the reads my sought the islands of the sea even so then came hard toil fishing trading the wonders of the wealth of the east then came the the cathedral these splendid semi palaces then came the painters religion romance history to day here it stands a splendid shell of its former glory oh the grand canal under a glittering moon the maria ing twelve a of black lovely cries the rest is silence moon picking out the in silver and black think of these old stone steps white marble stained green by the waters of the sea these hundreds of years a long narrow street of water a silent boat passing and this is a city of a hundred and sixty thousand wonderful painted arch and windows and an old iron gate with some statues behind it a balcony with flowers the bridge of sighs nothing could be so perfect as a city of water the at midnight under a full moon now i think i know what is at its best distant lights distant voices some one singing there are in this sea isle city playing at midnight just now a man under a dark arch our takes us into the very of the royal water water the music of all earthly elements the lap of water the sigh of water the flow of water in you have it everywhere it sings at the base of your it softly under your window it suggests the eternal and the eternal flow at every angle time is running away life is running away and here in at every angle under your window is its symbol i know of no city which at once suggests the lapse of time and yet the heart because of it for all its movement or because of it it is gay light hearted without being enthusiastic the peace that passes all understanding is here soft artistic is as gay as a song as lovely as a jewel an or an as rich as marble and as g as verse there can only be one in all the world a no horses no no	43
of cars just the of human feet you listen here and the very is musical the voices are soft why should they be loud they have nothing to contend with i am wild about this place there is a sweetness in the hush of things which and yet it is not the hush of silence all is life here all movement a sweet musical gaiety i wonder if murder and robbery can a at forty flourish in any of these sweet streets the life here is like that of children playing i swear in all my life i have never had such sensations of exquisite art joy of pure delicious enthusiasm for the physical exterior aspect of a city it is as mild and sweet as moonlight itself this hotel royal is a delicious old palace on one side by a canal my room commands the whole of the george sand and alfred de occupied a room here somewhere perhaps i have it is so different from there all is heavy serious here all is light airy graceful delicate there could be no greater italy is such a wonderful country it has rome and to say nothing of and the which should really belong to it no here in they are all left behind in what shall i say of st mark s and the palace of history utterly exquisite the least fragment of st mark s i consider of the utmost value the palace should be guarded as one of the great treasures of the world it is perfect fortunately i saw st mark s in the morning in clear refreshing sunlight neither nor have the hard glitter of the south only a rich brightness the are almost gold in effect the nine of the gold red and blue the walls cream and gray before it is the which your getting far to one side to see the church a perfect and individual jewel all the great churches are that i notice overhead a sky of blue before you a great smooth pavement crowded with people the just soaring in perfect lines what a square what a treasure for a city to have this space is swept over by great clouds of the new of the old with a radiance all its own above all the gilded crosses of the church to the right the lovely of the library to the right of the church facing the maria square the fretted beauty of the s palace a portion of it as i was admiring it a in the harbor fired a great gun twelve o clock up went all my thousands it seemed sweeping in great restless circles while church bells began to and to blow where are the of at first you do not realize it but suddenly it occurs to you a city of one hundred and sixty thousand without a wagon or horse without a long wide street anywhere without funeral street cars all the shops doing a brisk business citizens at work everywhere material pouring in and out but no only small and no noise save the welcome clatter of human feet no sights save those which have a strange artistic you can hear people talking their voices echoed by the strange cool walls you can hear birds singing high up in pretty windows where flowers trail downward you can hear the soft lap of waters on old steps at times the sweetest music of all i find boxes papers straw vegetable waste all cast indifferently into the water and all borne swiftly out to sea people open windows and cast out as if this were the only way i walked into the di this afternoon facing the grand canal it was only a few moments after the regular closing hour i came upon it from some narrow lane some dry street it was quite open the ground floor there was a fine dark hall opening out upon the water where were the clerks i wondered there were none where that ultimate hurry and sense of life that the average bank at this hour nowhere it was lovely open dark as silent as a ruin when did the bank do business i asked myself no answer i the waters from its steps and then went away one of the little tricks of the here is to place a dainty little balcony above a door perhaps the only one on the and that hung with vines o a at forty is mad about it has a dozen i think some of them leaning like the tower at i must not forget the old rose of the clouds in the west a selling vegetables and crying his wares is pure music at my feet white steps by blue water tall cool damp walls ten feet apart cool wet red brick the sun shining above makes one realize lovely and cool it is here and birds singing everywhere doing everything carrying coal lumber lime stone flour bricks and supplies generally and others carrying vegetables fruit and flowers only now i saw a boat slipping by crowded with red a lovely pointed windows and doors houses with and exquisite to match making every house that strictly to them a jewel it is crossed with and fancy some of them take on the black and white of london smoke though why i have no idea others being colored richly at first are by time into lovely half colors or tones these little are heavenly they wind like scattered ribbons flung and the wind touches them only in spots making the faintest mostly they are as still as death they have exquisite bridges crossing in delightful arches and wonderful doors and steps open into them steps gray or	43
yellow or black with age steps that have green and brown moss on them and that are alternately revealed or hidden by a high or low tide here comes a now the music of his voice is everywhere and it so obviously belongs here in the churches the houses the public buildings loves it it is oriental and truly beautiful i find myself at a branch station of the water street car service there are here too a score for hire this man me his brown hands and face and small old maria soft roll hat a picture in the sun i feel as if i were dreaming or as if this were some exquisite holiday of my childhood one could talk for years of these passages in which amidst the shadow and sunlight of cool gray walls a gleam of color has shown itself you look down narrow courts to lovely windows or doors or bridges or with a virgin or a saint in them now it is a or a fat man that turns a corner now a girl in a white skirt and pale green shawl or a red skirt and a black shawl unexpected dark and deep with pleasant going on inside with a wealth of new warm bread with red meat and brass scales small where and meat are displayed unexpected bridges unexpected squares unexpected streams of people moving in the sun unexpected unexpected boats unexpected voices unexpected songs that is to day i took a boat on the grand canal to the which is at the eastern extreme of the city it was evening i found a lovely island just adjoining the gardens a d rich green grass and a line of small trees along three sides silvery water a second leaning tower and more islands in the distance cool and pleasant with that lovely sense of evening in the air which comes only in spring they said it would be cold in but it isn t birds the waters of the bay the red white and brown colors of the city showing in rich patches i think if there is a heaven on earth it is in spring just now the sun came out and i witnessed a effect first this lovely bay was with a silvery gold light its very surface then the clouds in the west broke into ragged masses the sails the islands the low buildings in the distance began to stand out brilliantly even the san and the salute took on an added glory i was witnessing a great sky and water song a poem a picture something to identify with my life three ducks went by high in the air as they went a long black of thin coal passed in the the engines of a passing steamer beat and i breathed deep and to think i had witnessed all o a at forty bells over the water the lap of waves the smell of how soft and elevated and ethereal voices sound at this time an italian sailor sitting on the grass looking out over it all has his arms about his girl it would be easy to give an order for ten thousand lovely views of and get them chapter aside from the cathedral of st mark s the s palace and the academy or gallery of old masters i could find little of artistic significance in little aside from the wonderful spectacle of the city as a whole as a spectacle viewed across the open space of water known as the the churches of san and maria salute with their and strangely by light and air are beautiful close at hand for me they lost much romance which distance gave them though the mere space of their was impressive the art according to my judgment was bad and in the main i noticed that my guide books agreed with me religious representations which after the chapel in rome and such pictures as those of s holy family and s adoration of the in the at were without import i preferred to on the fear of the plague which had produced the salute and the discovery of the body of st the martyr which had given rise to san for it was interesting to think with these facts before me how art and spectacle in life so often take their rise from silly almost causes and a plain lie is more often the foundation of a great institution than a truth maria did n t save the citizens of from the plague in and in mo the did not bring back the true body of st from although he may have io a at forty thought he did at least there are other true bodies but the old silly progress of illusion vanity politics and the like has produced these and other institutions throughout the world and will continue to do so no doubt until time shall be no more it was interesting to me to see the once large and really beautiful surrounding san turned into and offices for government officials i do not see why these churches should not be turned into or galleries their religious import is quite gone in it was i think that i got a little sick of churches and second and third rate art the city itself is so beautiful speaking that only the greatest art could be here yet aside from the academy which is crowded with by and others of the school and the palace largely decorated by and there is nothing save of course st mark s outside of that and the churches of the salute and san both bad i think there are thirty three or thirty four other churches all with bits of something which gets them into the a a a or a until the	43
soul and you say to yourself well i ve had about enough of this what is the use there is no use unless you are tracing the rise of religious art or trying to visit the of semi celebrated persons or following out the work of some one man or group of men to the last fragment you might as well there is nothing in it i sought church after church entering dark pleasant but not often imposing only to find a single religious representation of one kind or another hardly worth the trouble in the i found s famous of the family and a and in maria s st and four other saints which appealed to me very much but in the main i was disappointed and made dreary after st peter s the st paul s without the walls in rome the at and elsewhere and the great galleries of seemed to me dull i preferred always to get out into the streets again to see the small shops to encounter the winding to cross the little bridges and to feel that here was something new and different far different and more artistic than anything which any church or museum could show one of the strangest things about to me was the curious manner in which you could always track a great public square or market place of some kind by following some thin of people you would find making their way in a given direction suddenly in some quite silent residence section with all its lovely about you you would encounter a small thin stream of people going somewhere perhaps five or six in a row over bridges up narrow over more bridges through squares or past churches or small stores and constantly swelling in volume until you found yourself in the midst of a small throng turning now right now left when suddenly you came out on the great open market place or to which they were all tending they always struck me as a sheep like company these very mild very soft here and there with vague almost sad eyes here in i saw no newspapers displayed at all nor ever heard any called nor saw any read there was none of that morning vigor which an american city it was always more like a quiet village scene to me than any aspect of a fair sized city yet because i was a at forty comfortable in and because all the while i was there it was so beautiful i left it with real sorrow to me it was perfect the one remaining city of italy that i was yet to see because already i had seen so much of italy and because i was eager to get into and was of small interest to me it was a long tedious ride to and i spent my one day there rambling about without enthusiasm outside of a half dozen early christian which i avoided i employed a guide there was only the cathedral the now palace and fortress of the as a museum and the local art gallery an imposing affair crowded with that same religious art work of the which one might almost say in the language of the had made italy famous i was however about fed up on art as a cathedral that of seemed as imposing as any and wonderful i was properly impressed with its immense stained glass windows said to be the largest in the world its fifty two columns supporting its great roof its ninety eight and two thousand statues of a splendid edifice such as this there is really nothing to say it is like and simply it would be useless to attempt to describe the emotions it provoked as useless as to indicate the feelings some of the pictures in the local gallery aroused in me it would be all over again or some of the pictures in the it seemed to me the of all the i saw absolutely preserved in all its details and as recently erected as yesterday yet it was begun in the wonder of this and of every other cathedral like it that i saw to me was never their religious but their artistic significance some one with a splendid imagination must always have been behind each one and i can never understand the character or the temper of an age or a people that will let anything happen to them but if i found httle of thrilling artistic significance after rome and the south i was strangely impressed with the of europe to me is not so old in its texture anywhere as one would suppose most european cities of large size are of recent growth just as american cities are so many of the great buildings that we think of as time worn such as the palace at and elsewhere are in an excellent state of preservation quite new looking has many new buildings in the old style rome is largely composed of modern and apartment houses there are in and when you reach you find it than st louis or if there is any spirit anywhere remaining in i could not find it the shops are bright and attractive there are large department stores and the of the is quite as common here as anywhere it has only five hundred thousand population but even so it evidences great commercial force if you ride out in the as i did you see new houses new new streets new everything unlike the inhabitants of southern italy the people are large physically and i did not understand this until i learned that they are freely mingled with the the are here in force in control of the silk mills the leather the the hotels the book stores and it is a wonder to me that they are not in control of the opera house and	43
the musical and i have no doubt that they influence it greatly the of la ought to be a german if he is not i got a first suggestion of paris in the a at forty tables set before the in the of and had my first taste of germany in the purely german beer halls with their of men or women where for a few cents expended for beer you can sit by the hour and listen to the music in the hotel where i stopped the german precision of was as marked as anywhere in germany it caused me to wonder whether the would eventually sweep down and possess italy and if they did what they would make of it or what italy would make of them chapter entered at a little way from lake in italy and left it at near the german frontier and all i saw was mountains mountains some with snow and some without tall sharp peaks and rough sharp with here and there a patch of grass here and there a deep valley here and there a lonely wide built house with those immense projecting first made familiar to me by the shabby which constitute our l stations in new york the landscape a little way out of high slopes and deep lakes appear at the first stop in i handed the guard a half dozen letters i had written in and stamped with italian i did not know until i did this that we were out of italy had already changed guards and that a new crew was in charge of the train he said tapping the stamp significantly en i do not understand french but i did comprehend that and i perceived also that i was talking to a all the people on the platform were as the call them fair stolid looking souls without a touch of that fire or darkness so generally present a few miles south why should a distance of ten miles five miles make such an astonishing change it is one of the strangest experiences of travel to cross an imaginary boundary line and find everything different i a at forty people dress architecture landscape often soil and foliage it proves that countries are not merely soil and conditions but that there is something more a race stock which is not absolutely a product of the soil and which refuses to yield entirely to climate races like animals have an origin above soil and do hold their own in spite of changed or changing conditions cross any boundary you like from one country into another and judge for yourself now that i was started really out of italy i was ready for any change the more marked the better and here was one is about as much like italy as a rock is like a of flowers a sharp edged rock and a rich and yet in spite of all its chill bare its high and small shut in valleys it has beauty cold but real as the train sped on toward i kept my face to the window pane on one side or the other standing most of the time in the corridor and was rewarded constantly by a magnificent such bleak sharp as stood always above us such cold white fields of snow sometimes the latter stretched down toward us in long deep or until they disappeared as thin white streaks at the bottom i saw no birds of any kind flying no gardens nor patches of flowers anywhere only brown or gray or white with heavy overhanging and an occasional pale citizen in a short jacket knee trousers small round hat and waistcoat i wondered whether i was really seeing the national costume i was i saw more of it at that most of cities and in the mountains and valleys of the territory beyond it toward somebody once said of god that he might love all the creatures he had made but he certainly could n t admire them i will reverse that for land i might always admire its wonders but t could never love them and yet after hours and hours of just this twisting and turning up slope and down valley when i reached i thought it was utterly beautiful long before we reached there the lake appeared and we followed its shores whirling in and out of and along splendid slopes arrived at i came out into the which before the station to the very edge of the lake i was instantly glad that i had included in my it was evening and the lamps in the village it is not a large city were already sparkling and the water of the lake not only reflected the low of the lamps along its shores but the pale and over the tops of the peaks in the west there was snow on the upper stretches of the mountains but down here in this narrow valley filled with quaint houses hotels churches and modern apartments all was and pleasant not at all cold my were into the attendant and i was rattled off to one of the best hotels i saw abroad the national of the system very quiet very and with all those and comforts which the american has learned to expect a european standard of service and politeness of which we can as yet know nothing in america i am afraid i have an appetite for natural beauty i am entertained by character thrilled by art but of all the spiritual influences the natural is to me the most important this night after my first day of rambling about i sat out on my hotel balcony overlooking the lake and studied the dim outlines of the peaks crowding about it the star shine reflected in the water the still distances and the moon sinking over the peaks	43
to the west of the i a at forty quaint city art has no method of including or suggesting even these vast spaces the wonder of the night and moonlight is scarcely for the painter s brush it belongs in verse the drama great literary such as those of and but not in pictures the human eye can see so much and the human heart so swiftly that it is only by suggestion that anything is achieved in art art cannot give you the night in all its save as by suggestion it brings back the wonder of the reality which you have already felt and seen i think perhaps of the two impressions that i retained most distinctly of that of the evening and of the morning the morning was best i came out on my balcony at dawn the first morning after i arrived when the lake was lying below me in olive black stillness up the bank to my left were trees granite slopes a small built out over the water its standing in the still lake in a soothing way to my right at the foot of the lake lay its quaint outlines but vaguely apparent in the shadow across the lake only a little space were small boats a dock a church and beyond them in a circle gray black peaks at their extreme along a rough were the suggestions of an electric dawn a pale gray brightening from dark into light it was not cold at though it was as yet only early march the air was as soft and as at as i sat there the mountain brightened first to a faint pink the snow on the took on a and hue as at evening the green of the lower slopes became softly visible and the water began to reflect the light of the sky the shadow of the banks the little boats and even some wild ducks flying over its surface ducks coming from what bleak spaces i could only guess presently i saw a man come out from a hotel enter a small and away in the direction of the upper lake no other living thing appeared until the sky had changed from pink to blue the water to a rich silvery gray the green to a green and the rays of the sun came finally over the peaks then the rough and of the mountains gray where blown clear of snow or white where filled with it took on a sharp brilliant you could see the cold peaks clearly in the water and the little of the churches my wild ducks were still briskly about i noticed that a particular pair found great difficulty in finding the exact spot to suit them with a restless they would rise and fly a space only to light with a soft and cheerfully when they saw the lone returning they followed him coming up close to the hotel dock and in his vicinity i watched him fasten his boat and contemplate the ducks after he had gone away i wondered if they were of his then the day having clearly come i went inside by ten o clock all seemed to have come out to along the smooth walks that border the shore pretty church bells in severe towers began to ring and students in small dark hats tight trousers and carrying little about the size of began to walk up and down there were a few present here no doubt english and americans presenting their usual severe intellectual inquiring and self dispositions they stood out in sharp contrast to the native a fair stolid people the town itself by day i found to be as clean and orderly as a private pine forest i never saw a more a at forty and span place not even in ge washed and ge brushed germany this being sunday and wonderfully fair i decided to take the trip up the lake on one of the two small that i saw at apparently rival they may have served boats on different arms of the lake on this trip i fell in with a certain major y m d surgeon imperial army as his card read who i soon learned was doing europe much as i was only entirely alone i first saw him as he bought his ticket on board the steamer at a small quiet man very keen and observant who addressed the in english first and later in german he came on the top deck into the first class section a fair sized over his shoulder a sticking out of the pocket and finding a seat very carefully his small feet with the extreme comers of his military overcoat and rubbed his thin horse hairy with a small like hand he looked about in a quiet way and began after the boat started to take pictures and make copious notes he had small piercing bird like eyes and a strangely unconscious seeming manner which was in reality anything but unconscious we fell to talking of germany and italy where he had been and by degrees i learned the route of his trip or what he chose to tell me of it and his opinions concerning europe and the far east as much as he chose to communicate it appeared that before coming to europe this time he had made but one other trip out of namely to where he had spent a year he had left in october sailed direct for london and reached it in november had already been through holland and france germany italy and was bound for and and not strange to relate russia he was coming to america new york particularly and was eager to know of a good hotel i mentioned twenty he spoke english french italian and german although he had never before been anywhere except to i knew he	43
spoke german for i talked to him in that language and after finding that he could speak it better than i could i took his word for the rest we together i mentioned the little i knew of the in new york he brightened considerably we compared travel notes italy france england i do not like the he observed in one place i think they are they do not tell the truth they probably held up your baggage at the station they did more than that to me i could never depend on them how do you like the i asked him a very wonderful people very civil i thought the is beautiful i had to smile when i learned that he had done the night of paris had contrasted english and french farce as represented by the empire and the and knew all about the post and the or the latter he did not understand it is possible he said in his strange sing way that they represent some motives of mind with which we are not any of us familiar yet came to man in some such way as that i do not know i do not pretend to understand it at the extreme upper end of where the boat stopped we decided to get out and take the train back he was curious to see the shrine or tomb of william tell which was as being near here but when he learned that it was two or three miles and that we would miss a fast train he was willing to give it up a at forty with a strange old world wisdom he commented on the political organization of saying that it struck him as strange that these should ever have achieved an identity of their own they have always been separate until quite recently he said and i think that perhaps only telegraph and have made their complete union satisfactory now i at the wisdom of this oriental as i do at so many of them they are so intensely matter of fact and practical their industry is this man talked to me of as contrasted with that of some of the mountain regions of and then we talked of grant washington li hung and richard he suggested quite simply that it was probable that germany s only artistic outlet was music i was glad to have the company of major for dinner that same evening for nothing could have been than the very charming louis dining room filled with utterly conventional american and english visitors small erect he made quite an impression as he entered with me the major had been in two battles of the russian war and had witnessed an attack somewhere one night after midnight in a here at table as he proceeded to explain in his quiet way by means of knives and forks the arrangement of the lines and means of caring for the wounded i saw the various studying him he was a very looking person very he told me of the manner in which the and and control of the army had been completely since the date of the russian war and that now all the present was new the great things in our army to day he ob served very quietly at one point are and a fine combination he left me at midnight after several hours in various chapter entering germany if a preliminary glance at suggested to me a high individuality but national and all i saw afterwards in germany and holland with which i contrasted it confirmed my first impression i believe that the for all that they speak the german language and have an architecture that certainly has much in common with that of germany are yet of character they struck me in the main as colder more more and less than the the rank and file in so far as i could sec were extremely saving reserved they reminded me more of such and as i have known than of they were thinner in their actions not so nor yet so the new architecture which i saw between and the german frontier reminded me of much of that which one sees in northern and and southern there are still traces of the over elaborate type of structure and so interesting as being representative of life but not much the new towns were very clean and with modern factory buildings of the latest almost all glass type and churches and public buildings obviously an improvement or an attempt at improvement on older and were everywhere apparent itself is divided into an old section honored and preserved for its historic and commercial value as being attractive to a new entering germany section crowded with stores and apartments of the latest german and american type and a hotel section filled with large and small lounging squares and the like i never to look at s famous lion one look at a photograph years ago me forever i had an interesting final talk on the morning of my departure from with the resident manager of the hotel who was only one of many of a company that controlled so he told me hotels in paris rome and london he had formerly been resident manager of a hotel in the one to which i was going and said that he might be transferred any time to some other one he was the man as i learned whom i had seen on the lake the first morning i sat out on my balcony the one whom the wild ducks followed i saw you i said as i paid my bill out on the lake the other morning i should say that was pleasant exercise i always do it he said very cheerfully he was a tall pale meditative man with a smooth countenance and very dark hair he was the last word as to toilet	43
and courtesy i am glad to have the chance i love nature are those wild ducks i see on the lake flying about oh yes we have lots of them they are not allowed to be shot that s why they come here we have too there is a whole flock of that comes here every winter i feed them right out here at the dock every day why where can they come from i asked this is a long way from the sea i know it he replied it is strange they come it a at forty over the from the i suppose you will see them on the too if you go there i don t know they come though sometimes they leave for four or five days or a week but they always come back the captain of the steamer tells me he thinks they go to some other lake they know me though when they come back in the fall and i go out to feed them they make a great fuss they are the same then the very same i had to smile those two ducks are great friends of mine too he went on referring to the two i had seen following him they always come up to the dock when i come out and when i come back from my row they come again oh they make a great clatter he looked at me and smiled in a pleased way the train which i at was a through express from to with special cars for paris and it was crowded with of a ruddy solid variety health warmth assurance defiance i never saw a more marked contrast than existed between these on the train and the local outside the latter seemed much paler and less by contrast though not less intellectual and certainly more refined one stout german lady with something like eighteen had made a veritable express room of her second class the average entitled to a seat beside her would take one look at her and pass on she was beyond any hope of successful attack i watched to see how the character of the people soil and climate would change as we crossed entering germany the frontier into germany every other country i had entered had presented a great contrast to the last after passing fifteen or twenty towns and small cities perhaps more we finally reached and there the crew was changed i did not know it being busy thinking of other things until an immense conductor appeared at the door and wanted to know if i was bound for i looked out it was just as i expected another world and another atmosphere had been for that of already the cars and were different heavier i thought more heavy german were in evidence the cars the vast majority of them here bore the of imperial germany the wide winged black eagle with the crown above it painted against a white background with the inscription post a station master erect as a soldier very large with parted whiskers arrayed in a blue uniform and cap regulated the departure of trains the and of italy here became and and the of every italian station was here the endless german and es st also came into evidence we rolled out into a wide open flat plain with only the thin of france in evidence and no of any kind and then i knew that was truly no more if you want to see how the lesser countries vary from this greater one the dominant german empire pass this way from into germany or from germany into holland at as i have said we left the mountains for once and for all i saw but few frozen peaks after as we approached they seemed to grow less and less a at forty and beyond that we entered a flat plain as flat as and as as the valley which stretched unbroken from to and from to judging from what i saw the major part of germany is a vast as flat as a and as thickly strewn with orderly new bright towns as england is with quaint ones however now that i was here i observed that it was just these qualities which make germany powerful and the others weak such such force such universal truly it is amazing once you are across the border if you are at all sensitive to national or individual you can feel it vital glowing entirely superior and more ominous than that of or italy and often less pleasant it is very much like the heat and glow of a furnace germany is a great or it with the industry of a busy nation it has all the daring and assurance of a successful man it commands itself at every turn you would not want to witness greater variety of character than you could by passing from through france into germany after the and civility of the english and the lightness and spirit of france the blazing force and defiance of the comes upon you as almost the most amazing of all in spite of the fact that my father was german and that i have known more or less of all my life i cannot say that i admired the of the german empire the little that i saw of it half so much as i admired some of the things they had apparently achieved all the stations that i saw in germany were in order new bright well ordered big blue signs indicated just the things you wanted to know entering germany the station were exceedingly well built of red tile and white stone the tracks looked as though they were laid on solid ties the train ran as smoothly as if there were no in t anywhere and it ran swiftly i had to smile as occasionally on a platform the	43
train swiftly a straight german officer or official his uniform looking like new his boots polished his gold s and shining as brightly as gold can shine his whiskers red cap glistening glasses or bright and above all his sharp clear eyes looking directly at you making an almost amazing combination of energy vitality and superiority came into view and disappeared again it gave you a startling impression of the whole of germany are they all like that i asked myself is the army really so dashing and as i first to then to and and ag in from to and and thence out of the country holland the wonder grew i should say now that if germany has any number of defects of temperament and it truly has from almost any american point of view it has virtues and so admirable and advantageous that the whole world may well sit up and take notice the one thing that came home to me with great force was that germany is in no way loose or idle but on the contrary strong red blooded imaginative germany is a terrific nation hopeful courageous enthusiastic orderly self at present anyhow and if it can keep its pace without engaging in some vast self destroying conflict it can become so powerful that it will almost stand irresistible i should say that any nation that to day a at forty chose to pick a quarrel with germany on her home ground would be foolish in the extreme it is the beau ideal of the orderly spirit and if it were properly and the gods were kind it would be everywhere invincible when i entered germany it was with just two definite things in mind one was to seek out my father s a little hamlet as i understood it called somewhere between the and the at the region where the come from the other was to visit and see what germany s foremost city was really like and to get a look at the if possible in both of these i was quickly successful though after i reached some other things which were not on the was a disappointment to me at first it was a city of over four hundred thousand population clean vigorous effective but i saw it in a rain to begin with and i did not like it it was too in appearance too in its lines it seemed to have no point such as one finds in all cities what has come over the spirit of city directing and individual enterprise is there no one who wants really to do the very exceptional thing no german city i saw had a central heart worthy of the name no such as rome has no such as has no san such as has not even a cathedral lovely thing that it is such as has paris with its gardens of the its de its des and its arc de and place de i opera does so much better in this matter than any german city has dreamed of doing even london has its splendid point about the entering germany houses of parliament st paul s and the which are worth something but german cities yet they are worthy cities every one of them and far more vital than those of italy i should like to relate first however the story of the vanishing ever since i was three or four years old and on my father s knee in our i had heard more or less of and the region on the from which my father came as we all know the are a sentimental loving race and my father honest german catholic that he was was no exception he used to tell me what a lovely place was how the hills rose about it how growing was its principal industry how there were castles there and and rich and how there was a wall about the city which in his day constituted it an armed fortress and how often as a little child he had been taken out through some one of its great gates seated on the saddle of some kindly minded and galloped about the he seems to have become by the early death of his mother and second marriage of his father a rather unwelcome and early to escape being for the army which had seized this town which only a few years before had belonged to france though german enough in character he had secretly to the border with three others and so made his way to paris later he came to america made his way by degrees to established a mill on the banks of the at and there after marrying in raised his large family his first love was his home town however and which he admired and to his dying day he never ceased talking about it on more than one occasion he told me he would like to go back just to a at forty see how things were but the concerning or those who avoided service were so and the of his being recognized so great that he was afraid of being seized and at least thrown into prison if not shot so he never ventured it i fancy this danger of arrest and his feeling that he could not return cast an additional over the place and the region which he could never anyhow i was anxious to see and to discover if the family name still persisted there when i consulted with the cook s agent at rome he had promptly announced there is n t any such place as you re thinking of near on the no i said i m not i m thinking of m a y e n now you look and see there is n t any such place i tell you he replied courteously it s not	43
very far from let me see i argued looking at his map it s near the of the and the is the place see here it is here s the and here s i looked and sure enough they seemed reasonably close together all right i said give me a ticket to i book you to that s only thirty minutes away there s nothing of interest at not even a good hotel arrived at i decided not to send my trunks to the hotel as yet but to take one light bag leaving the remainder im and see what i could at i might want to stay all night wandering about my father s old haunts and i might want to go down the a little way i was not sure entering germany the to which i was going was not the that i wanted but i did not know that you have heard of people weeping over the wrong this was a case in point fortunately i was going in the direction of the real though i did not know that either i ran through a country which reminded me very much of the region in which is and i said to myself quite wisely now i can see why my father and so many other from this region settled in southern it is like their old home the wide flat fields are the same when we reached and i had deposited my bag for the time being i strolled out into the principal streets wondering whether i should get the least impression of the city or town as it was when my father was here as a boy it is curious and amusing how we can ourselves at times i really knew if i had stopped to consider could not be the where my father was born the former was the city of that bishop of who in need of a large sum of money to pay rome for the privilege of assuming the when he already held two other sees made an arrangement with pope x the pope who was then trying to raise money to or st peter s to the sale of in germany taking half the proceeds in reward for his services and thus by the ire of helped to bring about the in germany this was the city also of that amiable prior john who once appealing for ready for his wares declared do you not hear your dead parents crying out have mercy on us we are in sore pain and you can set us free for a mere we have borne you we have trained and educated you we have left you all our a at forty and you are so hard hearted and cruel that you leave us to roast in the flames when you could so easily release us i shall remember by that ingenious advertisement my father had described to me a small walled town with frowning castles set down in a valley among hills he had said over and over that it was at the of the and the i recalled afterward that he told me that the city of was very near by but in my brisk to find this place quickly i had forgotten that here i was in a region which contained not a glimpse of any hills from within the city the was all of a hundred miles away and no walls of any were visible anywhere and yet i was reasonably satisfied that this was the place dear me i thought how has grown my father would n t know it gave its population at one hundred and ten thousand how germany has grown in the sixty five years since he was here it used to be a town of three or four thousand now it is a large city i read about it in and looked at the rather streets of the business heart trying to it as it should have been in until midnight i was wandering about in the dark and bright streets of satisfying myself with the thought that i was really seeing the city in which my father was bom for a city of so much historic import was very dull it was built after the theories of the and sixteenth centuries with however many modern improvements the cathedral was a ornamented with elaborate statues of and the houses were done in many places in that heavy fashion common to germany entering germany the streets were narrow and winding i saw an awful imitation of our modern island in the shape of a moving which was on one of the public places a dull heavy place all told coming into the breakfast room of my hotel the next morning i encountered a man who looked to me like a german he had brought his grip down to the desk and was his morning coffee and rolls with great the while he read his paper i said to him do you know of any place in this part of germany that is called not i wanted to make sure of my he replied why yes i think there is such a place near it is n t very large i that s it i replied recalling now what my father had told me of to be sure how far is that oh that is all of three hours from here it is at the juncture of the do you know how the trains run i asked getting up a feeling of disgusted disappointment spreading over me i think there is one around half past nine or ten damn i said what a i had been i had just forty five minutes in which to pay my bill and make the train three hours more i could have gone on the night before i hurried out secured my bag paid my bill	43
and was off on the way i had myself driven to the old said to be full of picturesque houses for a look i reached the in time to have a argument with my driver as to whether he was entitled to two marks or one one being a fair reward and then hurried into my train in a half hour we a at forty were at on the and in three quarters of an hour those lovely hills and which make the so picturesque had begun and they continued all the way to and below that to chapter a town after italy and the scenery of the seemed very mild and to me yet it was very beautiful the from to new york is far more imposing a score of american rivers such as the the new in west virginia the james above the and others would make the seem simple by comparison yet it has an individuality so distinct that it is i always marvel over this thing personality nothing under the sun explains it so often you can say this is finer that is more imposing by comparison this is nothing but when you have said all this the thing with personality rises up and triumphs so it is with the like millions before me and millions yet to come i watched its slopes its castles its islands its pretty little german towns passing in review before the windows of this excellent train and decided that in its way nothing could be finer it had personality a snatch of old wall with trees in blossom a long thin side wheel steamer one fore and another aft william a castle tower with a flock of flying about it and hills laid out in ordered squares of vines gave it all the charm it needed when was reached i out ready to inspect may en at once another disappointment was not at but fifteen or eighteen miles a at forty away on a small branch road the trains of which ran just four times a day but i did not learn this until as usual i had done considerable according to my map appeared to be exactly at the of the and the which was here but when i asked a small boy dancing along a street where the was he informed me if you walk fast you will get there in half an hour when i reached the actual juncture of the and the however i found i was mistaken i was entertained at first by a fine view of the two rivers darkly walled by hills and a very massive and in a way impressive statue of emperor william i armed in the most and military manner and looking sternly down on the fast and waters of the two rivers about the base of this monument to catch was a young picture post card with a box of views of the and other cities for sale he was a very humble looking youth a bit who kept following me about until i bought some post cards where is i asked as i began to select a few pictures of things i had and had not seen for future reference he asked doubtfully oh that is a great way from here is up the river near no no i replied this matter was getting to be a sore point with me i have just come from i am looking for isn t it over there somewhere i pointed to the fields over the river he shook his head he said i don t think there is such a place good heavens i exclaimed what are you talking a town about here it is on the map what is that do you live here in he replied i live here very good then where is i have never heard of it he replied my god i i exclaimed to myself perhaps it was destroyed in the war maybe there is n t any you have lived here all your life i said turning to my and you have never heard of no yes it is up the river near don t tell me that again i said and walked off the of my father s was getting on my nerves finally i found a car line which ended at the river and a landing wharf and hailed the conductor and who were together for a moment where is i asked they said looking at me curiously no no m a y e n not it s a small town around here somewhere i they repeated and then frowned oh god i i sighed i got out my map see i said oh yes one of them replied brightly putting up a finger that is so there is a place called i it is out that way you must take the train how many miles i asked about fifteen it will take you about an hour and a half i went back to the station and found i must wait another two hours before my train left i had reached the point where i did n t care a whether i ever t it tt t a at forty got to my father s town or not only a dogged determination not to be beaten kept me at it it was at while waiting for my train that i had my first real taste of the german army around a comer a full regiment suddenly came into view they past me and crossed a bridge over the their brass glittering their trousers were gray and their red and they marched with a slap slap slap of their feet that was positively ominous every man s body was as erect as a every man s gun was carried with almost loving grace over his x der they were all big men stolid and broad	43
new rival of it and from west i had to walk to proper or what might now be called east a distance of over a mile i first shook my head in disgust and then laughed for there in the valley below me after i had walked a little way i could actually see the town my father had described a small walled city of now perhaps seven or eight thousand population with an old church in the containing a twisted spire a true castle or of ancient date on the high ground to the right a gate or two of that aspect so beloved of the painters of romance and a cluster or of quaint many sharp and sharp pointed houses which speak invariably of days and nations and emotions and tastes now almost entirely west was being built in modem style a at forty some coal mines had been discovered there and were coming in at all was quite as my father left it i am sure some seventy years before those who think this world would be best if we could have peace and quiet should visit here is a town that has existed in a more or less peaceful state for all of six hundred years the single catholic church the largest structure outside of the adjacent castle was begun in the twelfth century princes and lords have by turns occupied its site but has remained quite peacefully a small german walled city doing in part at least many of the things its ancestors did nowhere in europe not even in italy did i feel more keenly the seeming out of of the modern implements of progress when after a pause at the local in search of i wandered down into the town proper crossed over the ancient stone bridge that gives into an easily defended gate and saw the presence of such things as the singer sewing machine company a thoroughly up to date an evening newspaper office and a moving picture show i shook my head in real despair nothing is really old i sighed nothing like all the places that were highly individual and different made a deep impression on me it was like entering the shell of some great that had long since died to enter this walled town and find it occupied by another type of life from that which originally existed there because it was now and soon to grow dark i sauntered into the first shelter i saw a four story rather brick inn outside the gate known as the and took a room here for the night it was a dull a town affair run by as absurd a creature as i have ever encountered he was a little man sandy haired inquisitive idle in a silly way drunken who was so astonished by the of a total stranger in this unexpected manner that he scarcely knew how to conduct himself i want a room for the night i suggested a room he in an astonished way as if this were the most unheard of thing imaginable certainly i said a room you rent rooms don t you oh certainly certainly to be sure a room certainly wait i will call my wife he went into a back chamber leaving me to face several curious natives who went over me from head to toe with their eyes ah i heard my landlord calling quite loudly in the rear portion of the house there is one here who wants a room have we a room ready i heard no reply presently he came back however and said in a deliberate way be seated are you from yes and no i come from america o oh america what part of america new york o oh new york that is a great place i have a brother in america since six years now he is out there i forget the place he put his hand to his foolish head and looked at the floor his wife now appeared a stout dull woman one of the hard working specimens of the race a whispered conference between them followed after which they announced my room would soon be ready let me leave my bag here i said anxious to escape a at forty and then i will come back later i want to look around for awhile he accepted this excuse and i departed glad to get out into the rain and the strange town anxious to find a better looking place to eat and to see what i could see my search for dead or living which i have purposely in order to introduce the town led me first as i have said to the local the old it was lowering to a rain as i entered and the clouds hung in rich black masses over the valley below it was half after four by my watch i made up my mind that i would examine the inscription of every as quickly as possible in order to all the dead and then get down into the town before the night and the rain fell and the live ones if any with that idea in view i began at an upper row near the church to work down time was when the mere wandering in a after this fashion would have produced the melancholy in me it was so in paris it made me weary and sad i saw too many great names solemnly in stone and i hurried out finally quite and lonely here in it was a feeling that was gradually coming over me an amused sentimental interest in the simple lives that had had too often their beginning and their end in this little village it was a lovely afternoon for such a search spring was already here in south germany that faint suggestion of life all the wind	43
blown leaves of the preceding fall were on the ground but in between them new grass was springing and one might readily suspect and the first faint green points of lilies and the of it was beginning to the faint a town est suggestion of a light rain and in the west over the roofs and towers of a gleam of sunlight broke through the mass of heavy clouds and touched the valley with one last lingering ray in here rests in god or here softly rests was too often the beginning i had made way through the sixth or seventh row from the top pushing away grass at times from in front of faded rubbing other letters clean with a stick and standing interested before recent all smart with a very recently developed local idea of setting a black piece of glass into the gray of the marble and on that the names of the departed in gold it was to me a very thick truly idea dull and heavy in its but certainly it was no worse than the italian idea of putting the photograph of the late beloved in the head of the behind glass in a stone cut frame and of further the graves with ghastly lamps with of yellow pink and green glass that was the worst of all as i was meditating how little villages themselves from generation to generation a few coming and a few going but the majority leading a narrow simple round of existence i came suddenly so it seemed to me upon one grave which gave me a real shock it was a comparatively recent of gray granite with the modern plate of black glass set in it and a cross it all at the top on the glass plate was here rests born died r i p a at forty i think as clear a notion as i ever had of how my grave will look after i am gone and how utterly unimportant both life and death are anyhow came to me then something about this old the suggestion of the new life of spring a robin its customary evening song on a near by the smoke curling upward from the chimneys in the old houses below the spire of the church and the walls of the castle standing out in the softening light one or all of them served to give me a sense of the long past that is back of every individual in race of life and the long future that the race has before it regardless of the individual religion offers no consolation to me and however meditated upon are in vain there is in my judgment no death the universe is composed of life but nevertheless i cannot see any continuous life for any individual and it would be so unimportant if true imagine an eternity of life for a leaf a fish worm an the best that can be said is that ideas of types survive somewhere in the consciousness that is all the rest is silence besides this there were the graves of my father s brother john and some other but none of them dated earlier than chapter my father s it was quite dark when i finally came across a sort of tap room whose quaint atmosphere charmed me the usual plates and adorned the dull red and brown walls a line of leather covered seats followed the walls in front of which were ranged long tables my arrival here with a quiet request for food put a sort of panic into the breast of my small but stout host who when i came in was playing with another middle aged but who when i asked for food gave over his pleasure for the time being and out to find his wife he looked not a little like a fat why yes yes he remarked briskly what will you have what can j have on the instant he put his little fat hand to his and rubbed it a perhaps some some i will have a if you don t mind and a cup of black he out and when he came back i threw a new into camp may i wash my hands certainly certainly he replied in a minute and he bounded upstairs i i heard him call have make the ready he wishes to wash his hands where are the where is the soap there was much of feet overhead i heard a door being opened and things being moved presently a at forty i heard him call in god s name where is the soap more of feet and finally he came down red and puffing now you can go up i went concealing a secret grin and found that i had a store room once a bath perhaps that a had been removed from a table and on it bowl and soap had been placed a small piece of soap and cold water finally after seeing me served properly he sat down at his table again and sighed the neighbor returned several more citizens dropped in to read and chat the two youngest boys in the family came downstairs with their books to study it was quite a typical german family scene it was here that i made my first to learn something about the family do you know any one by the name of i asked cautiously afraid to talk too much for fear of myself he said is he in the furniture business i don t know that is what i should like to find out do you know of any one by that name is n t that the man henry he turned to one of his guests who failed here last year for fifty thousand marks the same said this other solemnly i fancied rather goodness gracious i thought this is	43
a capable housekeeper etc would i go there i could have her room if i did would i wait until she could come back at the latter end of the month it was a most hospitable letter and coming from such a busy woman a most flattering one and evidently by i whether to accept this charming invitation as i strolled about at one corner of the district i came upon a music store in the window of which were displayed a number of photographs of musical a little to my surprise i noticed that the central place was occupied by a large photograph of madame a in her most attractive pose a near by bill board contained full announcement of her coming i meditated somewhat more after this and finally returned to cook s to leave a i would wait i said here at until wednesday in due time madame a arrived and her recital as the artistic temperament such things go was a brilliant success so far as i could judge she had an enthusiastic following in quite as significant for instance as a woman like would have in america an institution known as the containing a large was crowded and there were flowers in plenty for madame a who opened and closed the the latter arrangement resulted in an to her men and women crowding about her feet below the platform and suggesting one composition and another that she might play obviously that they had heard her render before she looked really brilliant and tender in a silk gown and wearing a spray of an enormous of that i had sent her this business of dancing attendance upon a national musical favorite was a bit strange for me although once before in my life it fell to my lot and business it was too the artistic temperament my hair rises madame a i knew after i saw her was expecting me to do the unexpected to give edge as it were to her presence in and so strolling out before dinner i sought a s and a whole full of i said to the woman how much for all those you mean all she asked all i said thirty marks she replied isn t that rather high i said assuming that it was wise to bargain a little anywhere but this is very early spring she said these are the very first we ve had very good i said but if i should take them all would you put a nice ribbon on them o oh i she hesitated almost ribbon is a at forty very dear my good sir still if you wish it will make a wonderful here is my card i said put that in it and then i gave her the address and the hour i wrote some little nonsense on the card about tender and spring time and then i went back to the hotel to attend madame a more bustling little artist you would not want to find when i called at eight thirty the recital was at nine i found several musical dancing attendance upon her there was one beautiful little girl from i noticed of the type who followed madame a with positively glances there was another woman of thirty who was also caught in the toils of this woman s personality and swept along by her quite as one planet the of another and makes it into a she had come all the way from oh madame a she confided to me upon introduction oh wonderful wonderful such playing it is the most wonderful thing in the world to me this woman had an attractive face sallow and hollow with burning black eyes and rich black hair her body was long and thin and graceful she followed madame a too with those strange questioning eyes life is surely pathetic it was interesting though to be in this atmosphere of intense artistic enthusiasm when the last touch had been added to madame s a of blossom of some kind inserted in her a flowing opera cloak thrown about the shoulders she was finally ready so busy was she suggesting this and that to one and another of her attendants that she scarcely saw me oh there you are she beamed finally now i am quite ready is the machine here the artistic temperament oh very good and i o oh this last to a well known who had arrived it turned out that there were two machines one for the and who was also to play this evening and one for madame a her maid and myself we finally from the hall and and where german officers were strolling to and fro into the machines and were away madame a was lost in a haze of artistic contemplation with thoughts no doubt as to her and her success now maybe you will like my better she suggested after a while in london it was not so i to feel my audience how do you say vith me in and and and they like me in england they do not know me she sighed and looked out of the window are you happy to be with me she asked quite i replied when we reached the we were ushered by winding passages into a very large green room a as it were where the various artists awaited their call to appear it was already occupied by a persons or more the friends of madame a the local manager his hair brushed aloft like a several the the and one or two others they all greeted madame a there was some conversation in french here and there and now and then in english the room was fairly with temperament it is always amusing to hear a group of artists talk they are so innocently treacherous jealous flattering oh yes	43
at being in germany at all why i can scarcely say perhaps i was beginning to be depressed with what in my prejudice i called the of germany a little while later i recognized that while there is an extreme conflict of temperament between the average german and myself i could yet admire them without wishing to be anything like them of all the i saw i should place the first for industry a hearty of sham a desire and a to make the best of a very difficult earthly condition in many respects they are not being gross physically heartily passionate vain and but those things after all are unimportant they have in spite of all their defects great intellectual and physical and these things are important i think it is that in the main they take life far too seriously the belief in a hell for instance took a tremendous grip on the mind and the interpretation of as it finally worked out was as dreary as any thing could be almost as dreary as in scotland that is the sad german temperament a great business success public distinction is probably tending to make over or at least the cast of thought which is gray but in parts of germany for instance at you see the older spirit almost in full force in the next place i was out of italy and that land had taken such a strange hold on me what a far cry from italy to germany i thought gone once and for all the wonderful of atmosphere that almost the whole of italy from the to rome and i presume gone the obvious far the lovely cities set on hills the castles the the strange stone bridges the hot white roads winding like snowy ribbons in the distance no olive trees no no umbrella trees or no white yellow blue brown and sea green houses no wooden white oxen and bare footed in its place the and between this low rich land its it like steel bands its citizens standing up as though at command its houses in the smaller towns almost uniformly red its architecture a twentieth century of an older order of many roofs the order of with its fanciful roofs and and quaint windows and doors that suggest the bird boxes of our childhood germany appears in a way to have attempted to abandon the ideal that still may be seen in the heart of and other places and to its mood to the modern theory of how buildings ought to be constructed but it has not quite done so the german loving mind of the middle ages is still the german loving mind of to day look and you will see it a at forty out everywhere not in those wonderful details of like which makes the older sections of so many old german cities so wonderful but in a slight suggestion of them here and there a of roof an over of a too or sex ornamented until you say to yourself quite wisely ah will be still they are making a very different germany from what the old germany was modern germany from but it is not an entirely different germany its citizens are still red blooded physically excited and morbid enthusiastic women loving and life loving and no doubt will be so praise god until german soil loses its inherent and german climate makes for some other variations not yet indicated in the race but to return to i saw it first down den from the station to cook s agency seated comfortably in a closed cab behind as fat a horse and driver as one would wish to see and from there still farther along den and through the to and the i saw more of it oh the rich value of the german and and and they make up a considerable portion of your city atmosphere for you in you just have to get used to them just as you have to accept the and the and the and all the other until you sigh for the french and italian and the english american however among the first things that impressed me were these all streets seemingly were wide with buildings rarely more than five stories high every thing literally everything was american new and german new and the were the largest most broad backed most thick through and looking creatures i have ever beheld oh the marvel of those glazed german hats with the little hard rubber on the side nowhere else in europe is there anything like these they do not stand they sit heavily and alone the faithful has little to say for art it is almost all in the museum in the vicinity of the and as for public institutions spots of great historic interest they are a dreary and list but nevertheless and notwithstanding appealed to me instantly as one of the most interesting and of all the cities and that solely because it is new crude human growing and growing in a distinct and individual way they have achieved and are something totally distinct and worth while a new place to go and after a while i haven t the slightest doubt thousands and even hundreds of thousands of will go there but for many and many a day the sensitive and inclined will not admire it my visit to cook s brought me a mass of delayed mail which cheered me greatly it was now but my driver who looked somehow like a of a wall managed to bestow my trunk and bags in such a fashion that they were kept dry off we went for the hotel i had a notion that den was a magnificent avenue lined with trees and crowded with palaces nothing could have been more the trees are few and insignificant	43
paris was here the trains offered a choice of first second and third class with the vast majority using the second and third i saw little difference in the crowds occupying either class the second class were in a brown the third class seats were of plain wood and clean i tried all three classes and finally fixed on the third as good enough for me i wish all americans who at present suffer the of the american street railway and steam railway service could go to and see what that city has to teach them in this respect is much larger than it is certain soon to be a city of five or six millions of people very soon the plans for handling this mass of people comfortably and courteously are already in operation the german public service is obviously not left to kindly a at forty minded business gentlemen christian gentlemen as mr of the reading once chose to put it in with god the may be to an imperial subject to and eternal inspection but at least the money making christian gentlemen with their hearts and souls on their private and working as mr once said of himself for their own pockets all the time are not allowed to take it out of the rank and file no doubt the german street and steam are making a reasonable sum of money and are eager to make more i have n t the least doubt but that heavy self german of great wealth gather around mahogany tables in chambers devoted to meetings of and listen to ways and means of cutting down expenses and improving the service beyond the shadow of a doubt there are hard hired eager to win the confidence and support of their and ready to feather their own nests at the expense of the masses who would gladly cut down the service pack em in introduce the cutting out system of car service and see that the car ahead idea was worked to the last extreme but in germany for some strange amazing reason they don t get a chance what is the matter with germany anyhow i should like to know really i would why is n t the christian gentleman theory of business introduced there the population of germany acre for acre and mile for mile is much larger than that of america they have sixty five million people crowded into an area as big as why don t they pack em in why don t they introduce the american service you don t find it anywhere in germany for some strange reason why they have a service in it serves vast masses of people just as the does in new york its are crowded with people but you can get a seat just the same there is no step lively there is n t a joke over there as it is here something to be endured with a feeble smile until you are to a door mat there must be christian gentlemen of wealth and refinement in germany and why don t they get on the job the thought strange uncertain feelings in me take for instance the simple matter of starting and stopping street railway cars in the business heart in so far as i could see that area mornings and evenings was as crowded as any similar area in paris london or new york street cars have to be run through it started stopped passengers let on and off a vast tide carried in and out of the city now the way this matter is worked in new york is quite ingenious we operate what might be described as a daily contest intended to develop the wits muscles lungs and of the people the scheme in so far as the street railway companies are concerned is after running the roads as as possible to see how thoroughly the people can be in their efforts to discover when and where a car will stop in however they have for some reason an entirely different idea there the idea is not to fool the people at all but to get them in and out of the city as quickly as possible so as in paris london rome and elsewhere a plan of fixed stopping places has been arranged signs actually indicate where the cars stop and there marvel of they all stop even in the so called rush hours no traffic policeman apparently can order them to go ahead without stopping they must stop and so the a at forty people do not run for the cars the has no joy in anybody perhaps that is why the are neither so quick or subtle as the americans and then take in addition if you will bear with me another moment this matter of the service as illustrated by the lines to and elsewhere it is true the officers and even the emperor of germany living at and serving the imperial german government there may occasionally use this line but thousands upon thousands of and use it also you can always get a seat please notice this word always there are three classes and you can always get a seat in any class not the first or second classes only but the third class and particularly the third class there are rush hours in just as there are in new york dear reader people swarm into the railway stations and at street railway comers and crowd on cars just as they do here the lines fairly with cars on the tracks ranged in the for instance during the rush hours you will see trains consisting of eleven twelve and thirteen cars mostly third class accommodation waiting to receive you and when one is gone another and an equally large train is there on the adjoining track and it is going to leave	43
in another minute or two also and when that is gone there will be another and so it goes there is not the slightest desire evident anywhere to pack anybody in there is n t any evidence that anybody wants to make anything for instance out of there are no these poor ruled people would really object to and standing in the they would compel a decent service and there would be no loud cries on the part of christian gentlemen large and profitable systems as to the rights of property the need of the constitution the privilege of appealing to judges and the right of having every legal to the letter or if there were they would get scant attention germany just does n t see public service in that light it has n t fought and died perhaps for liberty it has n t had george washington and thomas and and all it has had is the great and emperor william i and and von strange isn t it queer how apparently teaches people to be civil while does the reverse we ought to get a little into our government i should say we ought to make american law and american government supreme but over it there ought to be a people who really know what their rights are who respect liberties and for themselves and others and who demand and see that their government and their law and their servants public and private are and responsible to them rather than to the christian gentlemen who want to pack em in if you don t believe it go to and then see if you come home again cheerfully believing that this is still the land of the free and the home of the rather i think you will begin to feel that we are getting to be the land of the and the home of the door mat nothing more and nothing less chapter the night life of during the first ten days i saw considerable of german night life in company with a a who went out of his way to be nice to me i cannot say that after paris and i was greatly impressed although all that i saw in had this advantage that it bore sharply the of german the were not especially i do not know what i can say about any of them which will indicate their individuality was a great evening drinking place near the which was all glass gold marble glittering with lights and packed with the en and young men and their girls la was different in a way it was an amazing place to the prosperous middle class it seated i should say easily fifteen hundred people if not more on the ground floor and every table in the evening at least was full at either end of the great aisle it was stationed a and when one ceased the other immediately began so that there was music without interruption father and mother and young the little and the two oldest girls or boys were all here during the evening up one aisle and down another there walked a constant procession of boys and girls and young men and young women making shy eyes at one another in every one drinks beer or the lighter the children being present and no harm seems to come the night life of from it i presume is not on the increase in germany and in paris they sit at tables in front of men and women and their it is a very pleasant way to enjoy your leisure outside of trade or the desire to be president vice president or secretary of something we in america have so often no real in no sense could either of these be said to be smart but outside of one or two selected spots does not run to the and the were once more of a different character there was one woman at the who struck me as having real artistic talent of a strongly variety was her name a hard shock headed of a girl who sang in a harsh voice of soldiers merchants and a really brilliant of local german characteristics it is curious how these little touches of character drawn from life invariably win of applause how the world loves the homely the simple the odd the silly the essentially true unlike the others at this place there was not a suggestive thing about anything which this woman said or did yet this noisy audience could not get enough of her she was truly an artist one night we went to the de s greatest night life achievement for several days a had been saying now to morrow we must go to the de then you will see something but every evening when we started out something else had i was a little of his enthusiastic praise of this institution as being better than anything else of its kind in europe you had to take a s vigorous estimate of ber a at forty with a grain of salt though i did think that a city that had put itself together in this wonderful way in not much more than a half century had certainly considerable reason to boast but what about the de paris at i suggested remembering vividly the beauty and glitter of the place no no no he exclaimed with great emphasis he had a habit of unconsciously making a fist when he was emphatic not in not in paris not anywhere very good i replied this must be very fine lead on so we went i think a was pleased to note how much of my melted after passing the exterior of this place i want to tell you something said a as we climbed out of our a good solid reasonably if you come with your	43
wife your daughter or your sister you buy a ticket for yourself four marks and walk in nothing is charged for your female companions and no notice is taken of them if you come here with a you pay four marks for yourself and four for her and you cannot get in without they know they have men at the door who are in this matter they want you to bring such women but you have to pay if such a woman comes alone she goes in free how s that once inside w e surveyed a brilliant spectacle far more than the or the though by no means so paris is paris and is and the cannot do as do the french they have n t the air the temperament everywhere in germany you feel that that strange the night life of of soul which cannot be gay as the french are gay nevertheless the scene inside was brilliant brilliant was the word i would not have believed until i saw it that the german temperament or the german sense of would have permitted it and yet after seeing the german officer why not the main chamber very large consisted of a small central highly polished dancing floor far above by a circular dome of colored glass glittering white or pink by turns and surrounded on all sides by an elevated platform or floor two or three feet above it crowded with tables ranged in circles on ascending steps so that all might see beyond the tables again was a wide level semi circular by walls and and set with palms and intricate gilt cases the general effect was one of intense light pale of and hues white and gold walls white tables a perfect glitter of glass and picturesque beyond the dancing floor was a giant gold tinted organ and within a recess in this under the tinted pipes a the place was crowded with women of the half world for the most part unusually slender in the majority of cases delicately as the best of these women are and beautifully dressed i say beautifully it any way you want to put it any way you choose no respectable woman might come so many of these women were attractive carried themselves with a grand air fowl wise and lent an atmosphere of color and life of a very kind the place was also crowded i need not add with young men in evening clothes only champagne was served to drink champagne at twenty marks the bottle champagne at a at forty twenty marks the bottle in is high you can get a fine suit of clothes for seventy or eighty marks the principal here were dining dancing drinking as at and in paris you saw here that peculiarly suggestive dancing of the and the more skilled performances of those especially hired for the occasion the spanish and russian dancers as in paris the and specimens gathered from heaven knows where were here there were a number of handsome young officers present who occasionally danced with the women they were when the dancing began the lights in the dome turned pink when it ceased the lights in the dome were a glittering white the place is i fancy a rather quick development for we drank champagne waved away and finally left at two or three o clock when the law apparently compelled the closing of this great central chamber though after that hour all the who desired might to an inner quite as large not so but full of brilliant strolling dining drinking life where i was informed one could stay till eight in the morning if one chose there was some here but not much and an air of heavy gaiety i left thinking to myself once is enough for a place like this i went one day to and saw the imperial palace and grounds and the royal parade the emperor had just left for as a seat of it did not interest me at all it was a mere imitation of the grounds and palace at but as a river valley it was excellent very dull indeed were the state apartments i tried to be interested in the glass picture galleries royal and the like but alas the by the way were just as anxious for tips as any american did the night life of not impress me from there i went to and strolled in the wonderful forest for an enchanted three hours that was worth while the rivers of every city have their individuality and to me the and its seem eminently suited to the water effects and they are always important and charming are plentiful the most pleasing portions of to me were those which related to the branches of the its and the lakes about it always there were wild ducks flying over the over offices and ducks passing from one bit of water to another their long necks before them their colors gleaming in the sun you see quaint things in such as you will not see elsewhere the nurses for instance in the with their short scarlet skirt by a white apron their white linen head dress very conspicuous it was actually suggested to me one day as something interesting to do to go to the gardens and see the animals fed i chanced to come there when they were feeding the giving each one a mouse live or dead i could not quite make out that was enough for me i despise birds anyhow they are quite the most horrible of all specimens this particular collection of every known type and variety and all sat in their themselves on raw meat or the to my disgust fixed me with their eyes the while they tore at the of their victims	43
as a of course i ought to accept all these delicate of the iron constitution of the universe as interesting but i can t now and then very frequently in fact life o a at forty becomes too much for my hardy stomach i withdraw chilled and by the way strength and weakness goes under and to think that as yet we have no method of discovering why the horrible appears and no reason for saying that it should not yet one can actually become with beauty and art and take refuge in the and the one of the most characteristics is their attitude to the few the women to whom i was introduced i could scarcely talk as a matter of fact i was not expected to they would talk to me argument was in its way obviously an insult anything that i might have to say or suggest was of small importance anything they had to say was of the utmost importance any way you chose and they so many of their remarks with a deep voice a hard force a frown or a rap on the table with their fists that i was constantly take this series of incidents as typical of the spirit one day as i walked along den i saw a minor officer standing in front of a who was not far from his black and white striped box his body as erect as a his gun presented stiff before him not an moving not a breath stirring this endured for possibly fifty seconds or longer you would not get the importance of this if you did not realize how strict the german military are at the sound of an officer s horn or the observed approach of a superior officer there is a noticeable of the muscles of the various in sight in this instance the minor officer imagined that he had not been saluted properly i presume and suspected that the soldier was heavy with too much beer hence the rigid the night life of test that followed after the officer was gone the soldier looked for all the world like a self conscious house dog that has just escaped a good beating glancing out of the corners of his eyes and wondering no doubt if by any chance the officer was coming back if he had moved so much as an said a citizen to me emphatically and he would have been sent to the guard house and rightly swine he should tend to his duties i coming from to and again from to and again from to i sat in the various dining cars next to who were obviously in trade and successful oh the compact of them now when you are in italy said one to another you see signs french spoken or english spoken not german spoken fools they really do not know where their business comes from on the train from to i overheard another sanguine and vigorous pair said one where i was in spain near things were wretched poor houses poor poor clothes poor stores and they carry english and american goods these proud and slow you can scarcely tell them anything we will change all that in ten years replied the other we are going after that trade they need up to date german methods in a in near the i sat with three others one was from in the fur business the others were merchants of i was not of their party merely an accidental in russia the conditions are terrible they do not know what life is such villages a at forty do the english buy there much a great deal we shall have to settle this trade business with war yet it will come we shall have to fight in eight days said one of the we could put an army of one hundred and fifty thousand men in england with all supplies sufficient for eight weeks then what would they do do these things suggest the german sense of and ability they are the commonest of the during the short time that i was in i was a frequent witness of quite human but purely bursts of temper that rapid fiery mounting of which apparently on a physical explosion the bursting of a blood vessel i was going home one night late with a from the when we were the witnesses of an absolutely magnificent and fight between two so and as to be decidedly worth while it occurred between a german a lady and carrying a grip at the same time and another german somewhat more slender and somewhat taller wearing a high hat and carrying a walking stick this was on one of the most exclusive lines out of it appears that the gentleman with the high hat and cane in running to catch his train along with many others severely the gentleman with the lady and the on the instant an absolutely terrific explosion to my astonishment and for the moment i can say my horror i saw these two very fiercely attack each other the one striking wildly with his large the other replying with blows of his stick a club like affair which fell with hard on his rival s head hats were knocked off the night life of shirt fronts marked and torn blood began to flow where heads and faces were cut severely and almost broke loose in the surrounding crowd fighting always produces an atmosphere of intensity in any but this german company seemed fairly to with anguish wrath rage excitement the crowd to and fro as the moved here and there a large german officer his brass a welcome shield in such an affair was brought from somewhere such noble german as swine hound dog s bone sheep s head sheep face and even more words filled the air the station platform	43
was fairly boiling with excitement husbands drove their wives back wives pulled their husbands away or tried to and men immediately took si des as men will finally the magnificent representative of law and order large and as interposed his great bulk between the two comparative order was restored each was led away in an opposite direction some names and addresses were taken by the policeman in so far as i could see no were made and finally both cut and bleeding as they were were allowed to enter separate cars and go their way that was to the life the air of the city of germany almost was ever with elements and emotions i should like to relate one more incident and concerning quite another angle of this relates to german sentiment which is as close to the german surface as german rage and vanity it occurred in the outskirts of one of those interesting regions where solid blocks of gold and silver apartment houses march up to the edge of light a at forty less green fields and stop beyond lie endless of gardens or open common yet to be developed lie miles on miles of electric lighted dumb and served apartments and of course street cars i had been a large section of land devoted to free or practically free gardens for the poor one of those experiments of germany which as is always the way benefit the capable and leave the incapable just where they were before as i emerged from a large area of such land divided into very small garden plots i came across a little adjoining a small neat white church where a german burial service was in progress the burial ground was not significant or a poor man s that was plain the little church was too small and too in its mood standing out in the wind and rain of an open common to be of any social significance i fancied as i came up a little group of pall very black and very solemn were carrying a white satin covered coffin down a bare gravel path leading from the church door the minister following and after him the usual company of in solemn high hats or thick black the foremost a mother and a remaining daughter i took them to be sobbing bitterly just then six in black frock coats and high hats standing to one side of the gravel path like six ranged on a fence began to sing a german parting song to the melody of home sweet home the little white coffin containing the body of a young girl was put down by the grave while the song was completed and the minister made a few remarks i have never been able quite to out for myself the magic of what followed its stirring effect the night life of into the hole of very yellow earth cut through dead brown grass the white coffin was lowered and then the minister stood by and held out first to the father and then to the and then to each of the others as they passed a small white ribbon basket containing broken bits of the yellow earth with masses of pink and red rose leaves as each sobbing person came forward he or she took a handful of earth and rose leaves and let them through his fingers to the coffin below a lump rose in my throat and i hurried away chapter on the way to holland came near finding myself in serious on leaving for owing to an and the fact that i was lost in pleasant entertainment up to quite the parting hour on examining my cash in hand i found i had only fifteen marks all told this was saturday night and my train was leaving in just thirty minutes my fare would be two marks i had my ticket but excess baggage i saw that up largely it could mean anything in europe ten twenty thirty marks good heavens i thought who is there to cash a letter of credit for me on saturday night i thought of train hands at if i get there at all i sighed i get there without a cent for a minute i thought seriously of my departure and seeking the aid of a however i hurried on to the where i first had my trunk weighed and found that i should have to pay ten marks excess baggage that was not so bad my demanded two my took one more my parcel room clerk one mark in leaving me exactly one mark and my letter of credit good heavens i i sighed i can see the expectant customs officers at the border without money i shall have to open every one of my bags i can see the conductor expecting four or five marks and getting nothing i can see oh lord still i did not propose to turn back i did not have time the clerk at the hotel would have to loan me money on my letter of credit so i on the way to holland into the train it was a long dusty affair coming from st and bound for holland paris and the boats for england it was crowded with passengers but thank heaven all of them safely bestowed in separate or drawing rooms after the european fashion i drew my blinds swiftly and got into bed let all rage i thought be damned frontier could go to i am going to sleep my one mark in my coat pocket i was just off when the conductor called to ask if i did not want to surrender the keys to my baggage in order to avoid being in the morning at the frontier this service a tip which of course i was in no position to give let me explain to you i said this	43
is the way it is i got on this train with just one mark i tried to make it clear how it all happened in my halting german he was a fine tall military solid fellow he looked at me with grave inquisitive eyes i will come in a little later he instead he shook me rudely at five thirty a m at some small place in holland and told me that i would have to go out and open my trunk short for the man who cannot or will not tip still i was not so downcast for one thing we were in holland actually and truly quaint little holland with its five million population crowded into cities so close together that you could get from one to another in a or a little over to me it was first and foremost the land of and van and that whole noble company of dutch painters all my life i had been more or less fascinated by those smooth the spirited atmosphere those radiant of the dutch the village wind a at forty mills canal scenes old cattle and nature scenes which are the basis and substance of dutch art i will admit for argument s sake that the dutch costume with its snowy neck and head piece and the dutch with its huge wind sails the dutch landscape so flat and grassy and the dutch temperament broad faced and have had much to do with my art attraction but over and beyond those there has always been so much more than this an something which for want of a better phrase i can only call the wonder of the dutch soul the most perfect expression of commonplace beauty that the world has yet seen so easily life runs off into the the the the the passionate and the suggestive that for those delicate of perfection in which life is revealed undisturbed innocently gay beautiful how can we be grateful enough for those lovely minds that were content to paint the receipt of a letter an evening school dancing a gust of wind wild ducks milk time a market playing at draughts the a woman stockings a woman the drunken a cow stall cat and the s shop the s shop the blacksmith s shop feeding time and the like my heart has only reverence and it is not again this choice of subject alone nor the favorable atmosphere of holland in which these were found so much as it is that delicate refinement of soul of perception of feeling the miracle of temperament through which these things were seen life seen through a temperament that is the miracle of art yet the worst illusion that can be entertained concerning art is that it is apt to appear at any time in any country through a given personality or a group of individuals on the way to holland without any deep relation to much deeper and things some little suggestion of tlie of life may present itself now and then through a personality but art in the truest sense is the substance of an age the significance of a country a even more than that it is a time spirit the of the that appears of occasion to a land to make great a nation you would think that somewhere in the substance of things the back of the material evidence of life there was a lovely of superior principle at times strange and lovely things come to the fore the restoration in england the in italy s golden period holland s classic art all done in a century and the spirit of god moved upon the face of the waters and there was that which we know as art i think it was years before those two towering figures and and of the two is to me the greater appeared in my consciousness and the distinction of holland for me showing me that the loveliness of dutch art the of the poetic of the ultimate of de and all that sweet company of simple painters of simple things had finally come to mean to me all that can really hope for in art those last final reflections of days which are the best that life has to show sometimes when i think of the homely of dutch art which in its delicate has nothing to do with the more universal significance of both and i get a little wild those smooth pure and of blue light which are those genial household and candle light which are those of light and water which are a at forty van those doorway poultry small trade affections and which are and van truly words fail me i do not know how to suggest the poetry the the mood the artistic that go with these things they suggest a time a country an age a mood which is at once a philosophy a system a spirit of life what more can art be what more can it suggest how in that fortune of chance which it with color sense temperament craft can it be exceeded and all of this is what dutch art those seemingly minor phases after and means to me but i was in holland now and not concerned so much for the moment with dutch art as with my trunks still i felt here at the frontier that already i was in an entirely different world gone was that fever of the blood which is germany gone the heavy enduring architecture the self was no longer about me the men who were trunks and bags here a softer less military type this mystery of national was i never to get done with it as i looked about me against a pleasant rising sunday sun i could see and feel	43
of houses and buildings in the ever present water holland is obviously a land of and but much more than that it is a land of atmosphere i have often as to just what it is that the sea does to its children that marks them so definitely for its own and here in the thought came to mc again it is this your whether he the wide stretches of the ocean or remains at home near the sea has a seeming or of soul that no rush of ordinary life can disturb i have noted it of every port of the sea that the eager intensity of men so often away at the water s edge boats are not loaded with the hard that marks the of trains a sense of the idle devil may care indifference of water seems to play about the affairs of these people of those who have to do with them the indifference of the sea perhaps the suggestion of the heartless deep that is in every channel and dock basin is the element that is at the base of their motions your sailor and man will not hurry his eyes are wide with a strange suspicion of the deep he knows by contact what the and the fury of the waters are the word of the sea is to be indifferent never you mind as it was in the beginning so it ever shall be i think the peace and sweetness of bear relationship to this wonderful spirit of the endless deep as i walked along these and and through these seemingly worlds in which water and trees and red brick houses swam in a soft light exactly the light and atmosphere you find in dutch art i felt as though i had come out of a hard modem existence such as one finds in germany and back into something kindly rural intellectual philosophic was i believe holland s contribution to philosophy and a worthy dutch philosopher he was and its great scholar both and have indicated in their lives the spirit of their country i think if you could look into the spirits and homes of thousands of simple you would find that same kindly which you admire in their paintings it is so placid it was so here in one gathered it from the very air i had a feeling of peaceful meditative delight in life and the of living all the time i was in holland which i take to be significant all the while i was there i was wishing that i might remain throughout the spring and summer and dream in germany i was haunted by the necessity of effort it was while i was in this first morning a at forty that the that my travels were fast drawing to a close dawned upon me i had been having such a good time that fresh interested feeling of something new to look forward to with each morning was still enduring but now i saw that my splendid world of adventure was all but ended has proved as i recalled now with some satisfaction that life can be lived with great intellectual and spiritual distinction in a and in small compass but oh the wonder of the world s the going to and fro amid the things of eminence and memory seeing how thus far this house of ours has been furnished by man and by nature all those wonderful lands and objects that i had looked forward to with such keen interest a few months before were now in their way things of the past england france italy germany london paris rome st peter s i could not look on those any more with fresh and wondering eyes how brief life is i thought how in its mood it gives us a brief some of us once and then takes the cup away it seemed to me as i sat here looking out on the fresh and sweet of holland that i could idle thus forever down foolish impressions exclaiming over fleeting phases of beauty wiping my eyes at the and that are so precious and so sad holland was before me and and one more of paris and a few days in england perhaps and then i should go back to new york to write i could see it new york with its high buildings its cars its rough oh why might i not idle abroad the second morning of my arrival i received a message from a sister of madame a madame j the wife of an eminent dutch who had some thing to do with the peace court would i come to lunch this day her husband would be a little late but i would not mind her sister had written her she would be so glad to see me i promptly accepted the house was near the museum with a charming view of water from the windows i can see it now this very pleasant holland interior the rooms into which i was introduced were gray in tone the contents spare and in good taste flowers in abundance much brass and old copper madame j was herself a study in steel blue and silver gray a reserved yet woman a better than madame a she spoke english perfectly she had read my book the latest one and had liked it she told me then she folded her hands in her lap leaned forward and looked at i have been so curious to see what you looked like well i replied take a long look i am not as wild as early would indicate i hope you must n t start with prejudices she smiled it is n t that there are so many things in your book which make me curious it is such a strange book self revealing i imagine i would	43
n t be too sure she merely continued to look at me and smile in a placid way but her inspection was so sympathetic and in a way that it was rather flattering than otherwise i in turn studied her here was a woman that i had been told had made an ideal marriage and she obviously displayed the quiet content that few achieve like shakespeare i would be the last one to admit an to the marriage of true minds unquestionably in this world in spite of endless sex innumerable the right people do occasionally find each other there are a at forty true physical which remain so until death and dissolution undo their mysterious spell yet n the other hand i should say this is the of events and if i should try to the mystery of the trouble of this earth i should devote considerable to a passion not willed or able to be controlled by the individual b dull thick which sees nothing in the mood of another and knows no guiding impulse save self interest and c of that character which is based on of soul and emotions the pains from such a state are d mental of life due to the hastened or mental growth of one or the other of the high parties e mistaken wrong from the beginning based on mistaken affections cases where youth early desire lead to a union based on sex and end of course in mental f a to seek for a high spiritual and intellectual ideal which almost no individual can realize for another and which yet may be realized in a lightning flash out of a clear sky as it were in which case the last two will naturally all others and only the one to the other such is sex s affection mental and spiritual but in marriage as in no other trade profession or contract once a bargain is struck a mistake made society suggests that there is no solution save in death you cannot back out it is almost the only place where you cannot correct a mistake and start all over until death do us think of that being written and accepted of a mistaken marriage my answer is that death would better hurry up if the history of human marriage anything it is that the conditions which make for the union of two individuals male and female are purely that marriages are not made in heaven but in life s social and that the marriage relation as we understand it is quite as much subject to and as anything else radical as it may seem i a complete of the home standards as we know them i would not be in the least surprised if the home as we know it were to disappear entirely new conditions are daily themselves aside from easy divorce which is a mere safety and cannot safely and probably will not be with there are other things which are steadily the old home system as it has been practised for instance endless which tend to influence inspire and direct the individual or child entirely apart from the control and suggestion of parents are now at work in the of the average child the influence of the average parent is steadily growing less intellectual social spiritual freedom are constantly being suggested to the individual but not by the home people are beginning to see that they have a right to seek and seek until they find that which is best suited to their intellectual physical spiritual development home or no home no mistake however great or disturbing in its consequences it is beginning to be seen should be the greater the mistake really the easier it should be to right it society must and is opening the prison doors of human misery and old sorrows are walking out into the sunlight where they are being and forgotten as sure as there are such things as mental processes spiritual significant and as sure as these things are increasing in force volume numbers so sure also is it that the marriage state and the sex relation with which these things are so curiously and involved will be a at forty modified given greater scope greater ease of greater simplicity of greater freedom as to duration greater as to termination and the state will the right privileges and of the children to the entire satisfaction of the state the parents and the children it cannot be otherwise j joined us presently he was rather spare very very intellectual very apparently and yet very rigid in his feeling for established principle the type is quite common among much reading had not made him mad but a little he was interested in peace though he did not believe that it could readily be established much more apparently he was interested in the necessity of building up a code or body of laws which would be and binding on all nations i could see him at his heavy he had thin delicate rather handsome hands a thin body he was older than madame j say fifty five or sixty he had nice well short gray whiskers a short effective loose well trained rather hair some such intellectual intended to give chapter li town at three o clock i left these pleasant people to visit the museum and the next morning ran over to a half hour away to look at the in the was the city i remember with pleasure that once suffered the amazing that swept over holland in the sixteenth century the city in which single rare like single rare to day commanded enormous sums of money rare species because of the value of the subsequent sale sold for hundreds of	43
thousands of i had heard of the long line of colored beds that lay between here and and the and i was prepared to judge for myself whether they were beautiful as beautiful as the picture post cards sold everywhere indicated i found this so but even more than the beds i found the country round about from to the and delightful i by foot and by train passing by some thirty miles of colored flower beds in blocks of red white blue purple pink and yellow that lie between the several cities i stood in the old of st in the of st james in the both as bare of ornament as an s cell i wandered among the art treasures of the museum in and the and the museum in the i walked in the forests of moss tinted trees at and again at the my impression was that compact little holland had all a at forty the charm of a great private estate beautifully kept and intimately delightful but the of holland what an airy impression of romance of pure poetry they left on my mind there are certain visions or memories to which the heart of every individual instinctively the of holland are one such to me i can see them now in the early morning when the sun was just touching them with the faintest pearls their level as smooth as glass their banks rising no whit above the level of the water but lying even with it like a black or frame their long straight lines broken at one point or another by a low brown or red or cottage or i can see them again at evening the twilight hour when in that mood of nature which then they lie liquid masses of silver a of tinted cloud reflected in their surface the level green grass turning black about them a bird a mass of trees in the distance or humble cottage its windows faintly gold from within those last touches of which make the perfection of nature as in london and the sails of their boats were colored a soft brown and now and again one appeared in the fading light a healthy smoking his pipe at the a cool wind his brow the world may hold more charming pictures but i have not encountered them and across the level spaces of grass that seemingly stretch unbroken for miles bordered on this side or that with a little patch of trees and by straight silvery threads of water ornamented in the by a cow or two perhaps or a his power canal boat ended by the seeming outlines of a distant city as delicately as a line by stand the i town have seen ten twelve fifteen marching serenely across the fields in a row of an afternoon like great heavy fat their sails going in slow patient motions their great sides out like solid dutch ribs delicious things there were times when their outlines took on classic significance combined with the utterly level land the and the trees they constitute the very atmosphere of holland a when i reached it pleased me almost as much as though it had no to speak of by comparison it was so clean and fresh and altogether lovely it reminded me of town the city of fame and i was quite ready to encounter the mayor the butcher the doctor and other of that respectable city coming over from i saw a little dutch girl in wooden shoes come down to a low gate which opened directly upon a canal and dip up a of water that was enough to key up my mood to the most romantic pitch i ventured forth right gaily in a warm spring sun and spent the better portion of an utterly delightful day about its streets and to me aside from the was where lived and where in when he was thirty years of age he married and where six years later he was brought before the for ill treating his wife and ordered to from poor the day i was there a line of cars stood outside the waiting while their owners contemplated the wonders of the ten pictures inside which are the pride of when i left london sir was holding his recently discovered portrait by at forty thousand pounds or more i fancy to day any of the numerous portraits by in his best a at forty manner would bring two hundred thousand dollars and very likely much more yet at seventy two s goods and three one chair one table three and five pictures were sold to satisfy a baker s bill and from then on until he died fourteen years later at eighty six his rent and firing were paid for by the fate probably saved a very great artist from endless misery by letting his first wife die as it was he appears to have had his share of wretchedness the business of being really great is one of the most pathetic things in the world when i was in london a close friend of told me the story of his last days and how save for herself there was scarcely any one to cheer him in his loneliness it was not that he lacked living means he had that but living as he did aloft in the eternal of speculation there was no one to share his thoughts no one it was the fate of that gigantic mind to be lonely what a pity the pleasures of the bottle or a might not eventually have him old knew the proper for these miseries and van there was another it is probably true that from when he was bom until when he married at twenty eight he was gay enough	43
he had the delicious pleasure of discovering that he was an artist then he married van the fair whom he painted sitting so gaily on his knee and for eight years he was probably happy had forty thousand to contribute to this s skill and fame were just their most significant proportions when she died then being an artist his affairs went from bad to worse and you have the spectacle of this other holland s color genius life town descending to an with a rather dull housekeeper losing his money having all his possessions sold to pay his debts and living out his last days in absolute loneliness at the inn in quite neglected for the local taste for art had changed and the public was a little sick of and as i sat in the in opposite the watching some fly about the looking at de key s meat market the of dutch and meditating on the pictures of these great masters that i had just seen in the the of the individual as compared with the business of life came to me with overwhelming force we are such minute dusty insects at best great or small the old age of most people is so trivial and insignificant we become mere shells two shoes lean and the spirit of life works in masses not individuals it prefers a school or species to a single specimen a great man or woman is an accident a great work of art of almost any kind is almost always like this meat market over the way life for instance i sitting here cared no more for or or de key than i cared for the meanest butcher or baker of their day if they chanced to find a means of well and good if not well and good also vanity vanity the preacher all is vanity even so from i went on to the about fifty minutes away from the late that evening to from to and so into where i was amused to see everything change again the people language signs all appeared to be french with only the faintest suggestion of o a at forty holland about it but it was different enough from france also to be interesting on its own account after a quick trip across with short but delightful stops at that exquisite shell of a once great city at and at the little paris i arrived once more at the french capital chapter paris again once i was in paris again it was delightful for now it was spring or nearly so and the weather was pleasant people were pouring into the city in from all over the world it was nearly midnight when i arrived my trunk which i had sent on ahead was somewhere in the of advance trunks and i had a hard time getting it and attendants know exactly when to lose all understanding of english and all knowledge of the sign language it is when the search for anything becomes the least bit irksome the tip they expect to get from you spurs them on a little way but not very far let them see that the task promises to be somewhat wearisome and they disappear entirely i lost two in this way when they discovered that the trunk was not ready to their hand and so i had to turn in and search among endless trunks myself when i found it a was quickly secured to it out to a and not at all wonderful to relate the first man i had employed now showed up to obtain his oh here you are i exclaimed as i was getting into my well you can go to the devil i he pulled a long face that much english he knew when i reached the hotel in paris i found there but not yet returned to his room but several letters of complaint were awaiting me why had n t i the exact hour of my arrival why hadn t i written fully it wasn t pleasant to wait in uncertainty if i had only been exact several things so a at forty could have been arranged for this day or evening while i was meditating on my sins of and commission a bearing a note arrived would i dress and come to g s bar he would meet me at twelve this was saturday night and it would be good to look over paris again i knew what that meant we would leave the last in broad daylight or at least the paris dawn coming down on the train from i had fallen into a blue a kind of mental one of the miseries never indulged in they almost destroy me never in so far as i could see to the in the first place my letter of credit was all but used up my funds were growing low and it did not make me any more cheerful to realize that my journey was now practically at an end a few more days and i would be sailing for home when somewhat after twelve i arrived at g s bar i was still a little was there he had just come in that indescribable that sense of life at the level of nervous strength and energy was filling this little place the same the same efficient attentive and courteous madame g placid philosophic and yet was going to and fro arrayed looking no doubt after the interests woes and aspirations of her company of very very bad but beautiful girls the walls were lined with life loving of from twenty five to fifty years of age with their female companions was at his best he was once more in paris his beloved paris he beamed on me in a cheerful way so there you are	43
more crude more than the average american contrasted with the the life understanding the a at forty philosophic acceptance of definite conditions in nature the are superior they are harder better trained more settled in the routine of things the of romance the of politics and religion the false standards of social and commercial are not so readily accepted there as here ill founded is not so there as here every jack does not consider himself regardless of appointed by god to tell his neighbor how he shall do and live but all this america and particularly new york has to me the most atmosphere of any the is like my library table it is so much of an intimate is the one show place neither the strand nor the des can replace it fifth avenue is all that it should be the one really perfect show street of the world all in all the atlantic metropolis is the first city in the world to me first in force in individuality richer and in its spirit than london or paris though so often more more more inexperienced as i sat in madame g s bar the pull of the city was on me and that in the spring i wanted to go home we talked of the women we had got to know in of and madame de b and other figures lurking in the background of this brilliant city but would expect a trip to and madame de b was likely to be distressed this cheerful sort of companionship would be expensive did i care to submit to the expense i did not i felt that i could not so for once we decided to be modest and go out and see what we could see alone our individual companionship was for the time being sufficient and i truly kept step with paris these early paris again spring days this first night together we all our favorite and s bar the rat c s bar the s the american s and the like and this i soon realized without a keen sex interest the companionship of these high ladies of paris i can imagine nothing it becomes a brilliant but hollow spectacle the next day was sunday it was warm and sunny as a day could be the air was charged with a kind of gay expectation had discovered a of merit one and had agreed to have his portrait done by him this sunday morning was the first day for a series of three so i left him and spent a delicious morning in the paris in spring the several days from saturday to wednesday were like a dream a gay world full of the of social ambition of desire fashion and all the keenest aspects of life it was interesting at the and the to sit out under trees and the open sky and see an stream of and pouring up smart looking people all glancing keenly about nodding to friends now cordially now in a careful social way one evening after i returned from a late alone i found on my table a note from for god s sake if you get this in time come at once to the i am waiting for you with a mrs l who wants to meet you so i had to change to evening clothes at one thirty in the morning and it was the same old thing when i reached there tumbling over one another with their burdens of champagne fruit the air full of colored balls colored floating aloft endless reflecting a a at forty giddy white arms white necks animated faces snowy shirt the old story spanish dancers in glittering scales american in evening clothes singing songs excited life lovers male and female dancing in each other s arms can it be i asked myself that this thing goes on night after night and year after year yet it was obvious that it did the lady in question was rather remote as an english woman can be i m sure she said to this is a very dull author but i couldn t help it she my social sense into icy of yes and no we took her home presently and continued our rounds till the hours chapter the voyage home the following wednesday and i returned to london and we had been between to the races at at au the pre and elsewhere i had finally looked up but the explained that she was out of town in spite of the utter fascination of paris i was not at all sorry to leave for i felt that to be happy here one would want a more definite social life and a more fixed habitation than this hotel and the small circle of people that we had met could provide i took a last almost a yearning look at the avenue de and the du and then we were off england was softly radiant in her spring dress the leaves of the trees between and london were just that which green lace the endless red chimneys and green roofs and of english cottages peeping out from this of spring were as romantic and poetic as an old english ballad no doubt at all that england the south of it anyhow is in a sixty years behind the times but what a must all be new and polished and shiny as the towers and of sped past to the right gray and crumbling in a air something rose in my throat i thought of that old english song that begins when pipe on and then london once more and all the mystery of endless streets and simple hidden i a at forty regions i went once more to look at the grim sad east end	43
in spring it was even more pathetic for being touched by the caressing hand of nature i went to look at park and and seven kings i thought to visit sir to once more before the inquiring severity of his eye but i did not have time as things turned out was that i should spend a day or two at level owing to a great coal strike the boat i had planned to take was put out of commission and i was compelled to advance my sailing date two days on the boat of another line and now i was to see level once more in the spring after italy and holland perhaps side by side with holland or before it england the southern portion of it is the most individual country in europe for the sake of the walk the evening was so fine we decided to leave the train at and walk the remaining distance some five or six miles it was ideal the sun was going down and breaking through clouds in the west which it tinted and gilded the english hedges and were delicately tinted with new life english were on the grass sheep cows over one english hamlet and another smoke was curling and english or were gaily cheered at the thought of an english spring as gay as children and i the yellow english road now and then we passed through a and cut across a field where a path was laid for the foot of man every so often we met an english his trousers just below the knee by the customary english green and red green and red such were the houses and fields with new spring apple trees in blossom and peeping over sloping thrown in for good measure i felt t the voyage home what shall i say i felt not the grandeur of italy but something so delicate and tender so and faintly so of other days and other that my heart was touched as by music near level we encountered going home from his work a bundle of twigs under his arm a hook at his belt his trousers after the fashion of his class well i i exclaimed w y ow do you do sir mr hi m glad to see you again hi am touching his cap hi as ow you ve had a pleasant trip very very i replied who cannot be in the presence of the fixed conditions of old england i asked after his work and his health and then gave him some instructions for the morrow we went on in a fading an english twilight and when we reached the country house it was already in anticipation of this visit hearth fires were laid the dining room reception hall and were alight appeared at the door quite as charming and rosy in her white apron and cap as the day i left but she gave no more sign that i was strange or had been absent than as if i had not been away now we must make up our minds what particular we want for dinner i have an excellent champagne of course but how about a light or a wine i have an excellent i vote for the light i said done i will speak to now and while he went to instruct i went to look after all my in order to bring them finally together for my permanent departure after a delicious dinner and one of those comfortable talks that seem naturally to follow the end of the day i went early to bed i a at forty when the day came to sail i was really glad to be going home although on the way i had so much with my native land for the things which it and which europe apparently has ur boasted has resulted in little more than privilege every living breathing american has of being rude and brutal to every other but it is not beyond possibility that sometime as a nation we will sober down into something human civility our early revolt against sham civility has in so far as i can see resulted in nothing save the of all civility which is sickening life i am sure will shame us out of it eventually we will find we do not get anywhere by it and i blame it all on the of the men at the top they have set the example hich has been most freely copied still i was glad to be going home when the time came the run from london to and was pleasant with its fleeting glimpses of the old castle at and the of the cathedral at the english the slopes dotted with sheep the chimneys and the occasional quaint roofs of moss tinted the conductor who had secured me a to myself appeared just after we left to tell me not to bother about my baggage saying that i would surely find it all on the dock when i arrived to take the boat it was exactly as he said though having come this way i found two necessary trust the english to be faithful it is the one country in which you may travel at i meditated on how thoroughly my european days were over and when if ever i should come again life offers so much to see and the human span is so short that it is a question whether it is advisable ever to go twice to the same place a serious the voyage home tion hi had my choice i decided as i stood and looked at the blue bay of i would if i could spend six months each year in the united states and then choose paris as my other and from there fare forth as i pleased after an hour s wait at the	43
big dropped anchor in the and presently the london passengers were put on board and we were under way the harbor was lovely in a fading light chalk blue waters tall cliffs endless and a calling from the fort in the city our ship s captain was a christian believing in the of matter the of spirit or a divine idea yet he was as events proved greatly distressed because of the perverse presence and of mortal thought he had concerning possible fires the usual terrors of the deep and one of the ship s company our deck steward told me that whenever there was a fog he was always on the bridge refusing to leave it and that he was nervous and as cross as hell so you can see how his religious belief with his concerning the facts of life a nice healthy brisk individual he was and very anxious to have the pretty women sit by him at dinner the third day we were out news came by that the had sunk after collision with an in mid ocean the news had been given in confidence to a passenger and this passenger had in confidence told others it was a terrible piece of news grim in its suggestion and when it finally out it sent a chill over all on board i heard it first at nine o clock at night a party of us were seated in the smoking room a at forty a most comfortable retreat from the terrors of the night and the sea a damp wind had arisen bringing with it the dreaded fog sometimes i think the card room is sought because it suggests the sea less than any place else on the ship the great fog horn began like some vast sea cow wandering on endless w pastures the passengers were gathered here now in groups where played upon by scores of lights served with drinks and upon one by the moods of the others a took place which served to their gloom yet it was not possible entirely to keep one s mind off the down of the ship the grim of the horn and the sound of long outside speaking of the of the sea its darkness depth and terrors every now and then i noticed some one would rise and go outside to contemplate no doubt the of it all there is nothing more to this little lamp the body than the dark waters of a midnight sea one of the passengers a german came up to our table with a troubled mysterious air i got to tell you gentlemen he said in a stage whisper bending over us you better come outside where the ladies can t hear there were several in the room i just been to the man upstairs we arose and followed him out on deck the german faced us pale and trembling gentlemen he said the captain s given orders to keep it a secret until we reach new york but i got it straight from the man the went down last night with nearly all on board only eight hundred saved and two thousand drowned she struck an off you gentlemen must promise me not to tell the ladies otherwise i t have told you the voyage home i promised the man up stairs it might get him in trouble we promised faithfully and with one accord we went to the rail and looked out into the blackness ahead the of the sea could be heard and the of the fog horn and this is only tuesday suggested one his face showed a true concern we ve got a week yet on the sea the way they will run now and we have to go through that region maybe over the very spot he took off his cap and scratched his hair in a foolish thoughtful way i think we all began to talk at once but no one listened the terror of the sea had come swiftly and directly home to all i am satisfied that there was not a man of all the company who heard without feeling a strange sensation to think of a ship as immense as the new and bright sinking in endless of water and the two thousand passengers like rats from their only to float helplessly in miles of water praying and crying i i went to my berth thinking of the pains and terrors of those doomed two thousand a great rage in my heart against the of life the or of man that prevents him from with it for an hour or more i listened to the of the ship that trembled at times like a spent animal as a great wave struck at it with force it was a trying night i found by careful observation of those with me that i was not the only one subject to thoughts mr w a beef man pleased me most for he was so frank in admitting his inmost emotions he was a vigorous young buck frank and straightforward he came down to breakfast the next morning looking a little dull the sun was out and it was a fine day a at forty you know he confided i dreamed of them poor devils all night say out in the cold there and then those big waves kept the ship and waking me up did you hear that in the night i thought we had struck something i got up once and looked out but that did n t cheer me any i could the top of a now and then going by another evening sitting in the deepest recesses of the card room he explained that he believed in good and bad spirits and the good spirits could help you if they wanted to g a doing business in new york was nervous in a subdued	43
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 chin her narrow eyes drew me quite like a i liked a certain snap and vigor which shot from her eyes and which 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 rose americans are wonderful to me american 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 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 ct 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 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 that 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	43
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 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 human 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 bom 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 god 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 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 between 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	43
before they begin how much it will take to do the things that they want to do and they start 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 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 three 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 sex relations english conventional women were and fools they had never learned how to live they had never 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 i a at forty and rob or him in any way and by any trick they are ready to do it this girl e had been by perhaps a hundred experienced of the street as to how this was done i know this is so for afterwards she told me of how other women did it but to continue he laid a sovereign on the table and i went for him she said i smiled not so much in derision as amusement the story did not fit her obviously it was not so oh no you did n t i replied you are telling me one of the oldest stories of the trade now the truth is you are a silly little liar and you think you are going to frighten me by telling me this into giving you two or three pounds you can save yourself the trouble i don t intend to do it i had every intention of giving her two or three if it suited my mood later but she was not to know this now my little girl was all at sea at once her powerless but really sweet eyes showed it something hurt the pathos of her courage and endurance in the face of my contemptuous attitude i had made fun of her obvious little lies and at her transparent tricks i m a new experience in men i suggested men i don t want to know anything more about them she returned with sudden fury i m sick of them the whole lot of them if i could get out of this i would i wish i need never see another man i did not doubt the sincerity of this outburst but i affected not to believe her it s true she insisted sullenly you say that but that s talk if you wanted to get out you would why don t you get a job at something you can work a girl of the streets i don t know any trade now and i m too old to learn what nonsense you re not more than nineteen and you could do anything you pleased you won t though you are like all the others this is the easy way come i said more gently put on your things and let s get out of this and without a word she put on her coat and her hat and we turned to the door look here i said i have n t meant to be unkind and heaven knows i ve no right to throw stones at you we are all in a bad mess in this world you and i and the rest you don t know what i m talking about and it does n t matter and now let s find a good quiet where we can dine slowly and comfortably like two friends who have a lot to talk over in a moment she was all animation the suggestion that i was going to act toward her as though she were a lady was according to her standards wildly well you re funny she replied laughing you really are funny and i could see that for once in a long time perhaps the faintest touch of romance had entered this sordid world	43
for her as we came out seeing that my attitude had changed so she asked would you get me a box of i have n t any change surely i said and we stepped into a s shop from there we took a to a certain which she seemed to regard as sufficiently luxurious and from there but i ll tell this in detail tell me i said after she had given the order picking something for herself and me you say you come from wales tell me the name of a typical a at forty town which is nearer london than some of the others some place which is really poor and hard worked well where i come from was pretty bad she ventured giving me some name the people have n t got much to live on there i wish you might have heard the peculiar of her accent and how far is that she gave me the hours from london and the railroad fare in shillings i think it was about three hours at most and s pretty bad she added there s lots of mines there very deep ones too the people are poor there have you ever been in a mine yes sir i smiled at her civility for in entering and leaving the room of the house of she had helped me on and off with my overcoat quite as a servant might i learned a little about wales through her its life and then we came back to london how much did the average street girl really make i wanted to know she could n t tell me and she was quite honest about it some make more than others she said i m not very good at it she confessed can t make much i don t know how to get money out of men i know you don t i replied with real sympathy you re not brazen enough those eyes of yours are too soft you should n t lie though you re better than that you ought to be in some other work worse luck she didn t answer choosing to my petty philosophic concern over something of which i knew so little a girl of the streets we talked of girls the different kinds some were really very pretty some were not some had really nice figures she said you could see it others were made up terribly and depended on their courage or their audacity to trick money out of men dissatisfied men there were regular places they haunted being the best the only profitable place for her kind and there were no houses of ill the police did not allow them yes but that can t be i said and the vice of london is n t concentrated in just this single spot the we were in a large but cheap affair was quite a she said there must be other places all the women who do this sort of thing don t come here where do they go there s another place along it appeared that there were certain places where the girls in this district or where they could go and wait for men to speak to them they could wait twenty minutes at a time and then if no one spoke to them they had to get up and leave but after twenty minutes or so they could come back again and try their luck which meant that they would have to buy another drink meantime there were other places and they were always full of girls you shall take me to that place i suggested i will buy you more and a box of afterwards i will pay you for your time she thought about her companion whom she had agreed to meet at eleven and finally promised the companion was to be left to her fate while we dined we talked of men and the t t es they admired englishmen she thought were usually attracted toward french girls and americans liked english girls but the great trick was to get yourself up like a at forty he s good to me i won t i d 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 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	43
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 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 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 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	43
the characters in it hardy s lovely country people have warmed the of my heart george 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 n t like the looks of the cars i can prove in a moment by any that our trains are infinitely more luxurious i can see where there is n t heat enough and where one for men and women on any train let alone a first class one is an and so on and so forth but still and notwithstanding i say the english railway service is better why because it s more human it s more considerate you are n t driven and urged to step lively and called at in loud harsh voices and made to feel that you are being aboard something that was never made for you at all but for the of the company in england the trains are run for the people not the people for the trains and now that i have that one distinct difference between england and america properly i feel much better chapter v the ride to london at last the train was started and we were off the track was not so wide if i am not mistaken as ours and the little freight or goods cars were positively ridiculous mere by comparison with the american type as for the passenger cars when i came to examine them they reminded me of some of our fine street cars that run from say to or from to they were the first class cars too the english the train started out briskly and you could feel that it did not have the powerful weight to it which the american train has an american audibly just as a great ship does when it begins to move an american engine begins to pull slowly because it has something to pull like a team with a heavy load i did n t feel that i was in a train half so much as i did that i was in a string of baby carriages miss x and her lover miss e and her maid and i comfortably filled one little and now we were actually moving and i began to look out at once to see what english scenery was really like it was not at all strange to me for in books and pictures i had seen it all my life but here were the actual hills and valleys the actual cottages and the actual castles or or lovely country and i was seeing them as i think of it now i can never be quite sufficiently grateful to for a certain affectionate thoughtful sympathetic regard for my every possible mood on this occasion this was my first trip to this england of which a at forty of course he was intensely proud he was so anxious that i should not miss any of its charms or if need be defects he wanted me to be able to judge it fairly and and to see the result through my temperament the soul of attention the soul of courtesy patient long suffering humane gentle how i have tried the patience of that man at times an iron mood he has on occasion a one always gentle even smiling living a rule and a standard every thought of him produces a grateful smile yet he has his defects plenty of them here he was at my elbow all the way to london suggesting that i should not miss the point whatever the point might be at the moment he was really interested and above all and at all times warmly human we had been just two hours getting from the boat to the train it was three thirty when the train began to move and from the lovely misty sunshine of the morning the sky had become with low gray almost black rain clouds i looked at the hills and valleys they told me we were in wales and curiously as we sped along first came into my mind and then thomas hardy i thought of first because these smooth hills wet with the rain and with deep gray shadows suggested him england owes so much to william i think so far as i can see he in his verses this sweet simple that at the heart strings like some old call that one has heard before my father was a german my mother of dutch and yet there is a pull here in this world which is precisely like the call of a tender mother to a child i can t resist it i love it and i am not english but american the ride to london i understand that hardy is not so well thought of in england as he might be that somehow some large class thinks that his books are or destructive i should say the english would better make much of thomas hardy while he is alive he is one of their great traditions his works are beautiful the spirit of all the things he has done or attempted is lovely he is a master simple noble dignified serene he is as fine as any of the english st paul s or has no more significance to me than thomas hat i saw st i wish i could see the spirit oi thomas hardy indicated in some such definite way ai d yet i do not monuments do not indicate great men but the fields and valleys of a country suggest at twenty or miles from we came to some open water an arm	43
of the sea i understood the bay of where boats were and tall hills that looked like tumbled down castles then came more open country i suppose with some sheep once a flock of black ones and then the lovely hues of this rain washed world the water under these dark clouds took on a peculiar it looked at times like steel at times like muddy lead i felt my heart 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 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 pick 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 instinct and yet here i am sitting in a comfortable english home as i write the poor working man i nature here and now as i always do and always shall do as being unfair unjust i see in the whole thing no scheme but an accidental 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	43
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 river and and i know what i m talking about life runs at a gaunt level in those places it s a rough world of fact i suppose it is not any different in england i looked at the towns as we flashed by in the night and got the same feeling of sad the ride to london and the homes looked poor and they had a deadly the streets were narrow and poorly lighted i was eager to walk over one of these towns foot by foot i have the feeling that the poor and the ignorant and the savage are somehow great i have always had it saw it when he painted the man with the these towns are grimly wonderful to me they sing a great of misery i feel hunger and misery there i feel lust and murder and life sick of itself in its own i feel v omen struck in the face by brutal men and lives too low and weak to be roused by any storm of woe i fancy there are hungry babies and dying mothers and indifferent and noble somewhere not caring not knowing not being able to do an about it perhaps if they did i could weep just at the sight of a large hungry town i feel sorry for ignorant humanity i wish i knew how to raise the low to put the clear light of intellect into sad eyes i wish there were n t any blows any hunger any tears i wish people did n t have to long bitterly for just the little thin bare necessities of this world but i know also that life would n t be as vastly dramatic and without them perhaps i m wrong i ve seen some real longing in my time though i ve longed myself and i ve seen others die longing between and and some other places where this hungry world seemed to stick its face into the window i listened to much conversation about the joyous side of living in paris and elsewhere i remember once i turned from the contemplation of a dark sad shabby world by in the night and rain to hear miss e telling of some music hall favorite i u call her a at forty another music hall favorite by the name of let us at of course it is understood that they were women of loose virtue of course it is understood that they had fine white fascinating bodies and lovely faces and that they were physically ideal of course it is understood that they were and that money was flowing freely from some source or other perhaps from factory worlds like these to let them work their idle sweet wills anyhow they were gambling racing themselves at and all at once they decided to rival each other in dress or perhaps it was that they didn t decide to but just began to which is much more natural and human as i caught it with my nose pressed to the carriage window and the sight of rain and mist in my eyes would down one night in splendid white silk perhaps her bare arms and perfect neck and hair flashing jewels and then the fair would arrive a little later with her body equally beautifully arrayed in some gorgeous material her white arms and neck and hair equally then the next night the gowns would be of still more material and and more jewels every night gowns and more costly jewels until one of these women took all her jewels to the extent of millions of i presume and her maid put all the jewels on her and sent her into the or the or the dining room wherever it was and she herself followed in let us hope plain black silk with her lovely flesh showing against it and the other lady was there oh much to her and despair now of course with all her own splendid jewels to the extent of an the ride to london large number of millions of and so the was ended it was a very pretty story of pride and vanity and i liked it but just at this interesting moment one of those great blast which i have been telling you about and which seemed to stretch for miles beside the track flashed past in the night its open red furnace doors looking like and the windows of its lighted shops looking like and the fluttering street lamps and glittering arc lights looking like pearls and diamonds and i said behold these are the only jewels of the poor and from these come the others and to a certain extent in the last analysis and that gift of brain which some have without asking and others have not at all so they do it was seven or eight when we reached for one moment when i stepped out of the car the thought came to me with a of vanity i have come by land and sea three thousand miles to london then it was gone again it was strange this scene i recognized at once the various london types in punch and pick me up and the sketch and elsewhere i saw a world of and of gentlemen and citizens generally i saw characters strange ones that brought back and du and w w the words office and the typical london policeman took my eye	43
i strolled about watching the crowd till it was time for us to board our train for the country and eagerly i about trying to sense london from this vague noisy touch of it i can t indicate how the peculiar looking trains made me feel humanity is so very different in so many little things so utterly the same in all the large ones i a 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 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 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 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 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	43
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 meaning finally after hearing a crow and thinking of hamlet s father his ghost and the chill that the 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 c 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 affected 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 i 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	43
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 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 he was so simple minded so innocent apparently every one called him not mr as his 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 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 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	43
in the world because perhaps the most intellectual ho w 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 were in the sky the trees little red houses in the valleys with combination done in quaint individual chimney pots send upward soft of blue smoke their earth colored trousers just below the knees by a small leather appeared ver and anon s a at forty and span with black dresses white white in their hair becoming of linen made into large bows at their backs appeared at some door or some window of almost every home the sun into such orderly well dressed windows the fields such you can encounter hills of sheep creaking open common land of and wild my little master clad by on a pony my young mistress looks gay and superior on a or a a four year old has a long white donkey to ride that is england how shall it be said how described it is so delicate so remote so refined so smooth a pleasant land of great verse and great thought chapter vii a glimpse of london a few days i went to london for the first time i do not count the night of my arrival for i saw nothing but the railway and i confess i was not impressed as much as i might have been i could not help thinking on this first morning as we passed from park marble arch park lane brook street square square and other streets to street and the neighborhood of the hotel that it was beautiful spacious dignified and well ordered but not imposing fortunately it was a bright and comfortable morning and the air was soft there was a faint haze over the city which i took to be smoke and certainly it as though it were smoky i had a sense of great life but not of crowded life if i manage to make myself clear by that it seemed to me at first blush as if the city might be so vast that no part was important at every turn who was my ever present was explaining now this that we are coming to or this that we are passing or this is so and so and so we sped by interesting things the city me in a vague way but meaning very little at the moment we must have passed through a long stretch of for pointed out a line of clubs them the st james s the club the club and then st james s palace i was duly impressed i was seeing things which s a at forty after all i thought did not depend so much upon their exterior beauty or vast presence as upon the import of their and connections they were beautiful in a low dark way and certainly they were tinged with an atmosphere of age and respectability after all since life is a of the brain built up notions of things arc really far more impressive in many cases than the things themselves london is a of great names it is a clatter of vast it is a of memories and celebrated beauties and orders and distinctions it is almost impossible any more to the real from the or better spiritual there is something here which is not of brick and stone at all but which is purely a matter of thought it is poetry noble ideas delicious memories of great things and these after all are better than brick and stone the city is low universally not more than five stories high often not more than two but it is beautiful and it great spaces with narrow in such a way as to give a splendid variety you can have at once a sense of being very crowded and of being very free i can understand now s desire to include poor old with italy in the of romance the thing that struck me most in so brief a survey we were surely not more than twenty minutes in reaching our destination was that the buildings were largely a golden yellow in color quite as if they had been white and time had stained them many other buildings looked as though they had been black originally and had been white in spots the truth is that it was quite the other way about they had been snow white and had been by the smoke until they were now nearly coal black and only here and there had the wind and rain whipped bare white a glimpse of london places which looked like or the of lime at first i thought how wretched later i thought this effect is charming we are so used to the new and shiny and tall in america particularly in our larger cities that it is very hard at first to estimate a city of equal or greater rank which is old and low and to a certain extent smoky in places there was more beauty more more dignity more space than most of our cities have to offer the police had an air of dignity and intelligence such as i have never seen anywhere in america the streets were beautifully swept and clean and i saw soldiers here and there in fine standing outside palaces and walking in the public ways that alone was sufficient to london from any american city we rarely see our soldiers they are too few i think what i felt most of all was that i could not feel anything very definite about so great a city and that there was no use trying we were soon at the bank	43
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 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 an 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 a s for the crowd well stated that it might be rt and it might not certain rich merchants a few actors and some americans would 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 hasn 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 coffee 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	43
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 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 the 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 such depth such sympathy of treatment i oh i 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	43
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 i morbid i 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 mrs w and miss h i was so glad to hear you say you did n t like it miss h applauded her eyes sparkling her lip moving with a delicate little smile you know i those things they are like the rest of france and england we are going backward instead of forward i am quite sure we have not the force we once had a at forty it is all a race after pleasure and living and an interest in subjects of that kind i am quite sure it is n t healthy normal art i am sure life is better and brighter than that i am inclined to think so at times myself i replied we talked further and i learned to my surprise that she suspected england to be as a whole falling behind in brain and spirit and that she thought america was much better do you know she observed i really think it would be a very good thing for us if we were conquered by germany i had found here i fancied some one who was really thinking for herself and a very charming young lady in the bargain she was quick apprehensive all for a point of view i am not sure now that she was not merely being nice to me and that anyhow she is not all wrong and that the point of view is the courage which can front life which sees the divinity of fact and of beauty in the utmost seeming tragedy s grim of decay and degradation is beginning to teach me something the perfection of the spirit is concerned with neither perfection nor decay but life it haunts me the charming luncheon was quickly over and i think i gathered a very clear impression of the of my host and hostess from their surroundings mr w was evidently liberal in his understanding of what a satisfactory home it was not exceptional in that it differed greatly from the prevailing standard of luxury but assuredly it was all in sharp contrast to s grim representation of life and s opposition to conventional standards another man now made his appearance an artist a london drawing room i shall not forget him soon for you do not often meet people who have the courage to appear at sunday in a shabby business suit shoes a green in of collar and tie and sleeves i admired the quality the of the silver set which held his green linen together but i was a little puzzled as to whether he was very poor and his presence insisted upon or comfortably and indifferent to conventional dress his face and body were quite thin his hands delicate he had an apprehensive eye that rarely met one s direct gaze do you think art really needs that miss h asked me she was alluding to the green linen handkerchief i admire the courage it is at least individual it is after george it has been done before replied miss h then it requires almost more courage i replied here mrs w moved the sad from the to the of the room that he of the green might gaze at it i like it he pronounced the note is but it is excellent work then he took his departure with interesting soon the lady r was extending her hand in an almost pathetic farewell her voice was lofty sad sustained i wish i could describe it there was just a suggestion of lady in the sleep walking scene as she made her slow graceful exit i wanted to loudly mrs w turned to me as the nearest source of interest and i realized with horror that she was going to fling her at my head again and with as much haste as was decent i too took my leave chapter ix calls it was one evening shortly after i had with mrs w that and i dined with miss e the young who had come over on the steamer with us it was interesting to find her in her own rather smart london quarters surrounded by maid and cook and with male figures of the usual ornamental sort in the immediate background one of them was a ruddy handsome slightly french count of manners the pink of perfection he looked for all the world like the french counts introduced into american musical comedy just the right type of collar about his neck the perfect shoe the close fitting well suit the and hair to the last touch he was charming too in his easy gracious saying only the few things that would be of momentary interest and pressing nothing miss e had prepared an luncheon she had managed to collect a group of interesting people a mr t for instance whose was and who stood prepared by collected newspaper and court proceedings gathered over a period of years to prove that all were he had as he insisted amazing showing that the most of all english were usually sons of and that the higher you rose in the scale of authority the worse were the men in charge the delightful part of it all was the man s profound seriousness of manner a thin candle type of person of about sixty five who had the force and enthusiasm of a boy calls ah yes you would hear him exclaim often during lunch i know him well a greater scoundrel never lived his father is bishop of or for his	43
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 ears i remember writing this somewhere about the 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 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 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 my city one always feels in new york for some reason 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 i 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 i and the various of streets i and the endless directions in which one could go i lord i 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	43
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 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 ion 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 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	43
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 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 ii 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 oflf 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	43
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 i sounded once more through the halls and he ran to take his place with his fellow on some question of 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 under 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 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 ll 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 i 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 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	43
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 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	43
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 building wonderful ships and machines for destroying the enemy it was useless to plead with me as they did that england had a great army and we none we can get one i insisted oh a much army than you could and then can ee insisted wisely while you would be building your navy or your army we should be attacking you through can ee but canada does n t like you i replied and besides it only has six million people he insisted that canada was a great source and hope and i finally said now tell you what i do you want england to whip the united states don t you yes echoed both and charles heartily very well then for peace and quiet s sake i agree that it can england can whip the united states both on sea and land now is that satisfactory yes they echoed very well then i laughed it is agreed that the united states is badly beaten everywhere and always by england is n t lovely and fixed my interested gaze on the approaching village in the first glimpse of some of the most joyous memories of my childhood came back i don t know whether you as a boy or a girl loved to look in your first a at forty reader at pictures of quaint little towns with birds flying above and roofs standing free in some clear golden air but i did and here across this green field lay a little town the sweetness of which was most appealing the most prominent things were an arched bridge and a church with a square gray set in a green tree grown church yard i could see the smooth surface of the thames running beside it and as i live a flock of birds in the sky are those i asked of hoping for poetry s sake that they were or he replied i don t know which are there in no there are no ah that s something i walked briskly because i wanted to reach this pretty scene while the sun was still high and in five minutes or so we were crossing the bridge i was intensely interested in the low gray stone houses with here and there a walk in front with a gate and a very pretty churchyard lying by the water and the loveliness of the thames itself on the bridge i stopped and looked at the water it was as smooth as glass and tinged with the mellow light which the sun casts when it is low in the west there were some small boats at a gate which gave into some steps leading up to an inn the on the other side back of the church was another inn the lion and or like that and below the bridge more towards the west an old man in a fishing there was a very old man such as i have often seen pictured in punch and the sketch sitting near the support of the bridge a short black pipe between his very wrinkled lips he was clad in thick brown clothes and heavy shoes and a low flat hat some may have discarded his eyes which he turned up at me as i passed were small and shrewd set in a withered wrinkled skin and his hands were a collection of dried lines like wrinkled leather there i thought is a type quite expressive of all england in its rural form pictures of england have been teaching me that all my life i went into the church which was on the site of one built in the century and on the wall near the door was a list of the resident and their beginning with some long since forgotten soul the and the of the pre period were indicated and the wars of the also i think that bridge which i had crossed had been destroyed by and only sixty or seventy years before but my memory is not good and i will not these facts from the church we went out into the street and found an old stock inside an iron fence from some older day where they punished people after that fashion we came to a store which was by a low small v let into a solid gray wall where were and and foreign goods with i had never seen before it is a strange sensation to go away from home and leave all your own familiar patent and and newspapers and and journey to some place where they never saw or heard of them here was and lovely as it was i kept saying to myself yes yes it is delicious but how terrible it would be to live here i couldn t it s a dead world we have passed so far beyond this i walked through the pretty streets as smooth and clean as though they had been brushed and between rows of low gray winding houses which curved in pretty lines loo a at forty but for the life of me i could not help swinging between the joy of art for that which is alive and the sorrow for something that is gone and will never be any more everything everything spoke to me of an older day these houses all of them were lower than they need be than they need be thicker older i could not think of gas or being used here although they were or of bright broad windows open modern street cars a stock of modem up goods which i am sure they contained i was impressed	43
by a grave silence which is to me as nothing else a profound peace i must get out of this i said to myself and yet i was almost myself for joy at the same time i remember going into one where an inn might once have been and finding in there a furniture 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 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 myself 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 wa saying to my young companions that they must 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	43
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 a boys school low ancient in its exterior and silent as i passed it was out but there was no running no the boys were going along rather quietly in groups i do not understand this the american temper is more i went into one bar mrs s and found a low dark room with a very small grate fire burning and a dark little bar where were some some pink colored glasses and a small brass lamp with a mrs must have served me herself an old slightly lady in a black dress and gray apron can this place do enough business to support her i asked myself there was no one in the shop while i was there the charm of to me was its extreme from the life i had been witnessing in london and elsewhere it was so simple i had seen a comfortable i a at forty inn somewhere near the market place and this i was idly seeking entertaining myself with reflections the while i passed at one place a gas plant which looked modern enough in so far as its was concerned but not otherwise and then up one dark street under branches of large trees and between high brick walls in a low doorway behind which a light was shining saw a talking to an old woman in a shawl all the rest was dark at another corner i saw a thin old man really quite looking with a intelligent face fine in its lines like or or john and long thin white hair who was pulling a vehicle a sort of baby carriage on which was of all things a with a high flower like tin horn he stopped at one corner where some children were playing in the dark and putting on a record ground out a melody which i did not consider very gay or the children danced but not however with the lightness of our american children the people here seemed either like this old man sad and old and with a fine apparent or thick and dull and red and when i reached the market i saw a scene which something some book or pictures had suggested to me before solid women in and flat of hats and tall men in queer long coats and high boots they looked like going to and fro children were playing about and were going home talking a dialect which i could not understand except in part five men came into the square and stood there under the central gas lamp with its two arms each with a light one of them left the others and began to sing in front of various doors he sang and sang sally in our alley in a los queer voice going in and coming out again i fancy finally he came to me would you help us on our way he asked where are you going i inquired we are way workmen he replied simply and i gave him some those large english that annoyed me so much he went back to the others and they stood huddled in the square together like sheep but finally they went together in the dark at the inn adjacent i expected to find an exceptional english scene of some kind but i was more or less disappointed it was but not so different from old new england life the room was large with an open fire and a general table set with white linen and plates for a dozen guests or more a boy in clothes much too big for him came and took my order turning up the one light and stirring the fire i called for a paper and read it and then i sat wondering whether the food would be good or bad while i was waiting a second arrived a small sandy haired person with shrewd fresh inquisitive eyes a self confident and yet man good evening he said and i gave him the time of day he to a little writing table and sat down to write calling for a pen paper his slippers i was rather puzzled by that demand and various other things on sight this gentleman i suppose the english would abuse me for that word looked anything but satisfactory i suspected he was scotch and that he was cheap minded and narrow later something about his manner and the healthy brisk way in which when his slippers came he took off his shoes and put them on quite cheerful and soothed me io a at forty he isn t so bad i thought he s probably a the english type i d better be genial i may learn something soon the waiter returned arrayed by this time remarkable to relate in a dress suit the size of which was a piece of pure comedy in itself and brought the stranger toast and and tea the latter drew up to the other end of the table from me with quite an air of appetite and satisfaction they don t usually put us fellows in with you he observed stating something the meaning of which i did not grasp for the moment us men usually have a separate dining and writing room our place seems to be shut up here to night for some reason i would n t have called for my slippers here if they had the other room open oh that s quite all right i replied gathering some odd class distinction i prefer company to silence you say you travel yes i m connected with a house	43
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 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 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 comer 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 ti 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 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	43
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 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 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 understood 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 or a much larger sum even was expected the result was of	43
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 old trick your timid man hearing this and being possibly a new or adventurer in this world becomes fearful of a scene many men are timid about with a woman beforehand it too much of the brutal and evil and after all there is a certain element of romance involved in these for the average man even if there is none as there is none for the woman it is an old sad sickening grim story to most of them and men are fools dogs with rarely anything fine or interesting in their eyes when they see the l st chance to betray one of th i a at forty and rob or him in any way and by any trick they are ready to do it this girl e had been by perhaps a hundred experienced of the street as to how this was done i know this is so for afterwards she told me of how other women did it but to continue he laid a sovereign on the table and i went for him she said i smiled not so much in derision as amusement the story did not fit her obviously it was not so oh no you did n t i replied you are telling me one of the oldest stories of the trade now the truth is you are a silly little liar and you think you are going to frighten me by telling me this into giving you two or three pounds you can save yourself the trouble i don t intend to do it i had every intention of giving her two or three if it suited my mood later but she was not to know this now my little girl was all at sea at once her powerless but really sweet eyes showed it something hurt the pathos of her courage and endurance in the face of my contemptuous attitude i had made fun of her obvious little lies and at her transparent tricks i m a new experience in men i suggested men i don t want to know anything more about them she returned with sudden fury i m sick of them the whole lot of them if i could get out of this i would i wish i need never see another man i did not doubt the sincerity of this outburst but i affected not to believe her it s true she insisted sullenly you say that but that s talk if you wanted to get out you would why don t you get a job at something you can work it a girl of the streets i don t know any trade now and i m too old to learn what nonsense you re not more than nineteen and you could do anything you pleased you won t though you are like all the others this is the easy way come i said more gently put on your things and let s get out of this and without a word she put on her coat and her hat and we turned to the door look here i said i have n t meant to be unkind and heaven knows i ve no right to throw stones at you we are all in a bad mess in this world you and i and the rest you don t know what i m talking about and it does n t matter and now let s find a good quiet where we can dine slowly and comfortably like two friends who have a lot to talk over in a moment she was all animation the suggestion that i was going to act toward her as though she were a lady was according to her standards wildly well you re funny she replied laughing you really are funny and i could see that for once in a long time perhaps the faintest touch of romance had entered this sordid world for her as we came out seeing that my attitude had changed so she asked would you get me a box of i have n t any change surely i said and we stepped into a s shop from there we took a to a certain which she seemed to regard as sufficiently luxurious and from there but i ll tell this in detail tell me i said after she had given the order picking something for herself and me you say you come from wales tell me the name of a typical a at forty town which is nearer london than some of the others some place which is really poor and hard worked well where i come from was pretty bad she ventured giving me some name the people have n t got much to live on there i wish you might have heard the peculiar of her accent and how far is that she gave me the hours from london and the railroad fare in shillings i think it was about three hours at most and s pretty bad she added there s lots of mines there very deep ones too the people are poor there have you ever been in a mine yes sir i smiled at her civility for in entering and leaving the room of the house of she had helped me on and off with my overcoat quite as a servant might i learned a little about wales through her its life and then we came back to london how much did the average street girl really make i wanted to know she could n t tell me and she was quite honest about it some make more than others she said i m not very good at it she confessed i can t make	43
much i don t know how to get money out of men i know you don t i replied with real sympathy you re not brazen enough those eyes of yours are too soft you should n t lie though you re better than that you ought to be in some other work worse luck she didn t answer choosing to my petty philosophic concern over something of which i knew so little a girl of the streets we talked of girls the different kinds some were really very pretty some were not some had really nice figures she said you could see it others were made up terribly and depended on their courage or their audacity to trick money out of men dissatisfied men there were regular places they haunted being the best the only profitable place for her kind and there were no houses of ill the police did not allow them yes but that can t be i said and the vice of london is n t concentrated in just this single spot the we were in a large but cheap affair was quite a she said there must be other places all the women who do this sort of thing don t come here where do they go there s another place along it appeared that there were certain places where the girls in this district or where they could go and wait for men to speak to them they could wait twenty minutes at a time and then if no one spoke to them they had to get up and leave but after twenty minutes or so they could come back again and try their luck which meant that they would have to buy another drink meantime there were other places and they were always full of girls you shall take me to that place i suggested i will buy you more and a box of afterwards i will pay you for your time she thought about her companion whom she had agreed to meet at eleven and finally promised the companion was to be left to her fate while we dined we talked of men and the types they admired englishmen she thought were usually attracted toward french girls and americans liked english girls but the great trick was to get yourself up like tt a at forty an american girl and speak her imitate her because she was the most popular of all americans and english gentlemen she herself made that odd distinction like the american girl i m sometimes taken for one she informed me and this hat is like the american hats it was i smiled at the compliment sordid as it may appear why do they like them i asked oh the american girl is she walks quicker she carries herself better that s what the men tell me and you are able to deceive them yes that s interesting let me hear you talk like an american how do you do it she her lips for action well i guess i have to go now she began it was not a very good imitation all americans say i guess she informed me and what else i said oh let me see she seemed lost for more you teach me some she said i knew some other words but i forget for half an hour i her in american she sat there intensely interested while i her simple memory and her lips in these odd american phrases and i confess i took a real delight in teaching her she seemed to think it would raise her market value and so in a way i was and vice poor little e she will end soon enough at eleven we departed for the places where she said these women and then i saw what the london of this kind was like i was told afterwards that it was fairly representative a girl of the streets this little girl took me to a place on a corner very close to a we were leaving i should say two blocks it was on the second floor and was reached by a wide which gave into a room like a circle surrounding the head of the stairs as a to the left as we came up was a bar attended by four or five pretty and the room quite small was crowded with men and women the women or girls rather for i should say all ranged somewhere between seventeen and twenty six were good looking in an ordinary way but they lacked the go of their american sisters the tables at which they were seated were ranged around the walls and they were drinking solely to pay the house for allowing them to sit there men were coming in and going out as were the other girls sometimes they came in or went out alone at other times they came in or went out in pairs strolled to and fro and the etiquette of the situation seemed to demand that the women should buy port wine why i don t know it was vile stuff as though it were prepared of and i refused to touch it i was shown local girls who worked in pairs and those lowest of all creatures the men who traffic in women i learned now that london all its hotel bars and institutions of this kind promptly at twelve thirty and then these women are turned out on the streets you should see around one o clock in the morning my guide had said to me a little while before and now i understood they were all forced out into from everywhere it was rather a dismal thing sitting here i must confess the room was lively enough but this type of life is so vacant of soul it is precisely as though one	43
stirred in straw and expecting it to be vigorous with the a at forty feel of growing life and freshness such as one finds in a stalk or tree it is a world of dead i 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 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 be here i don t move often poor little i thought how long how long will she be here before she down before the grim shapes that in her dreary path disease despair death chapter xiv london the east end as interesting as any days that i spent in london 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 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	43
a half hearted way and i for one experienced no sense of a at forty of any kind only a low despair the people looked too meek too law 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 end the poorest there are weu most of these people have little enough to live on he observed looking straight before him with that charming air the london police men 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 shops 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 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	43
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 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 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 aw 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 i 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 the 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 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 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	43
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 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 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 anything 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 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 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	43
a beast of muddy brain it did not could not quite understand what was being done above it were intellectual classes each smaller and 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 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 going 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 commercial 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 quite a 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 a re 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 he replied there is but you can t pay any attention to that if you want to get	43
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 were the same tree protected borders of fields some of them most stately where the trees were tall and dark and sad in the rain i think an open landscape such as this with green wet grass or brown and low sad heavy gray clouds for sky and background is as delicious as any landscape that ever was and it was surely not more than one hour and a half after we a at forty left before we began to rush through the narrow winding streets where houses always brick and stone and red walls with tall gates and vines above them lined either side of the way it was old you could see that even much that could be considered new in england was old according to the american standard the plan of the city was odd to me because unlike the american cities praise be there was no plan not an east and west street anywhere not a north and south one not a or five story building anywhere apparently and no wood just wet gray stone and brown brick and vines when i saw high street and the of queens college i leaped for joy i can think of nothing in either marble or bronze than this building line it is so gentle so of beautiful thought such an invitation to reflection and tender romance it is so obvious that men have worked lovingly over this it is so plain there has been great care and pains and that life has dealt tenderly with all it has not been destroyed or and but just allowed to grow old softly and gracefully owing to our plans for luncheon i had several in my hand laid in an open white paper which had brought and passed around the idea being that we would not have time for lunch if we wished to complete our visit and get back by dark sir had several meat in another piece of paper equally i was eating vigorously for the ride had made me hungry the while my eyes searched out the jewel wonders of the delicious prospect before me this will never do observed sir folding up his paper thoughtfully these sacred in this manner they think we re a lot of american come to the place enter sir such being the case i replied we ii disgrace for life he has relations here nothing would give me greater pleasure come give me those it was of course i gave over my feast reluctantly then we went up the street shoulder to shoulder as it were walking with first one and another i had thought to bring my little book on oxford and to my delight i could see that it was even much better than the book indicated how shall one do justice to so exquisite a thing as oxford twenty two and halls churches and the like with all their lovely towers ancient walls ancient doors gardens courts angles and which turn and wind and each other and break into broad views and delicious narrow with a grace and an uncertainty which delights and surprises the imagination at every turn i can think of nothing more exquisite than these wonderful walls so old that whatever color they were originally they now are a fine black and gray with uncertain patches of smoky hue and places where the stone has to a dead white time has done so much tradition has done so much and memory the art of the the perfect labor of the beauty of the stone itself and then nature leaves and trees and the sky this day of rain and clouds though sir insisted it could stand no comparison with sunshine and spring and the pathos of a delicious twilight was yet wonderful to me and and dreary alterations of storm clouds have a remarkable value when joined with so delicate and gracious a thing as perfectly arranged stone we wandered through and courts and across the of university college college college college up high street a at forty through park street into the chapel of queens college into the banquet of and again to the library and thence by strange turns and lovely to an inn for tea it was all the while and i listened to by sir on the effect of the and the theories of both jones and not only on these buildings but on the little in the street everywhere sir that he is found something a line of windows done in pure a clock tower after the best fashion of jones a which was pure and simple he delightfully as the artist always will with the of this restoration or that failure to combine something after the best manner but the worst errors which showed quite plainly enough in such things as the oxford art gallery and a modem church or two it was all perfect time and tradition have softened made lovely even the i learned from where walter and lived where s essay on was burned and where afterwards a monument was erected to him where some english were burned for refusing to their religious and where the and princes of the realm were in their college days sir on the pity of the fact that some who would have loved a world such as this in their youth could never afford to come here while others who were as ignorant as and as dull as swine were for reasons of wealth and family allowed to in a world of art which they could not possibly appreciate here as elsewhere i learned that professors were often and greedy jealous narrow here as elsewhere was the great of brain and the silly riot of the average	43
college enter sir was as common as in the meanest school life is the same be art great or little and the fame of even oxford 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 de lighted me quite as much as an 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 themselves in my mind clearly oxford i said to myself was a jewel another thousand 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 feeling behind them whatever joy he might get out of such things much or little i am convinced that he was much 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	43
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 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 life 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 english 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 close fitting blue her form perfectly a little a christmas call r 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 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 i this is something 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 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	43
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 village you re very to know be it known by all men that i feed amply for all services performed hence his interest never mind for the present i replied i may want to know if so i ask you i knew he would inquire anyhow that night at dinner the family being all present in his chair at the head of the table the wine at his right i said mildly i saw the most beautiful woman to day i have yet seen in england was just in the act of a glass of champagne to his lips but he paused to fix me with an inquiring eye where he questioned solemnly were you in the city not at all i rarely if ever see them in the city it was very near here a most beautiful woman very french trim figure small feet a gay air she had a lovely three year old child with her riding a white donkey a white donkey trim very french you say this is most interesting i don t recall any one about here who keeps a white donkey he turned to his young daughter do you recall any one who keeps a white donkey a of the future merely smiled wisely i do not papa this is very curious very curious indeed continued returning to me for the life of me i cannot think of any one who keeps a white donkey who can she be walking very near here you say i shall have a look into this she may be the holiday guest of some family but the donkey and child and maid young you say you don t remember whether a christmas call any one owns a white donkey any one with a maid and a three year old child smiled no i don t he said shook his head in mock it s very strange he said i don t like the thought of there being any really striking women of whom i know nothing he drank his wine there was no more of this then but i knew that in all probability the subject would come up again inquired and inquired and as was natural the lady was she turned out to be the wife of a and expert or champion a man who held records for fast and the like and who was settled in the matter of means mrs was her name as i recall it also turned out most unfortunately that did not know her and could not place any one who did this is all very trying he said when he discovered this much here you are a celebrated american author admiring a very attractive woman whom you meet on the public highway and here am i a resident of the neighborhood in which she is living and i do not even know her if i did it would all be very simple i could take you over she would be immensely flattered at the nice things you have said about her she would be grateful to me for bringing you we should be fast friends exactly i replied you and she would be fast friends after i am gone in a few days all will be lovely i shall not be here to protect my interests it is always the way i am the cat s the bait the trap i won t stand for it i saw her first and she is mine my dear fellow he exclaimed how you go on i don t understand you at all this is is a at forty land the lady is married a little friendship yes yes i replied i know all about the friendship you get me an introduction to the lady and i shall speak for myself as for that matter he added thoughtfully it would not be under the circumstances for me to introduce myself in your behalf she would be pleased i m sure you are a writer you admire her why should n t she be pleased curses i exclaimed always in the way always stepping in just when i fancy i have found something for myself but nothing was done until arrived a day or two before christmas that worthy had all over england with various theatrical companies being the son of an eminent literary man he had been received in all circles and knew comfortable and interesting people in every walk of life apparently everywhere who at times i think resented his social was nevertheless prone to call on him on occasion for advice on this occasion since knew this neighborhood almost as well as his cousin he consulted him as to our lady of the donkey mrs mrs i can still see his interested look why it seems to me that i do know some one of that name if i am not mistaken i know her husband s brother up in liverpool he s connected with a bank up there we ve all over england together pretty nearly i ll stop in christmas morning and see if it isn t the same family the description you give suits the lady i know almost exactly i was all the picture she had presented was so smart was interested though perhaps dis ei it a christmas call appointed too that knew her when he didn t this is most fortunate he said to me solemnly now if it should turn out that he does know her we can call there christmas day after dinner or perhaps he will take you this came a little i think for accounted himself an equal master with his cousin in the matter of the ladies and was not to be easily set aside so christmas	43
eve it was decided that should on the morrow the country house early and report progress while we went to church fancy and me marching to church 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 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 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	43
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 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 and mound 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 which only the gifted the imaginative see without and fears so often have i noticed this to be true that those who stand up brave and strong in their youth turn a nervous and eye upon this troubled seeming in later years they have no longer any heart for a battle that is only rhyme and no reason and whether they can conceive why or not they must have a god i for one would be the last person in the world to deny that a at forty where i find boundless evidence of an intelligence or far superior to my own i for one am to 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 possibly ordered 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 fight over and to the fearful and timid give a religion a mighty fortress is our god sang he may be 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 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	43
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 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 j 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 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 call 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 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 an 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 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	43
of a goodly company of it s something to be an attractive i never saw children more handsomely or 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 for 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 man 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 ford 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	43
the larger cities of present day europe are of modem construction most of them have grown to their present great population in the last fifty years hence they have been built not in that time a part of 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 ter 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 commonplace 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 students attending the thing that impressed me most was the presence of the wooden or shoe in there was a silence hanging over everything the pathetic of the when 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 believing no doubt that god intended it to be so working from youth to age without ever an of the fascinating 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	43
have described they have all the dignity of vast temples of labor i was told by the 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 a far cry it was from these humble cottages some few of which in odd comers 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 the 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 m mills whatever charges may be brought against their owners in regard to hours of pa 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	43
i o smoky england i i not in years and years i m very sick though now i m 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 wild 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 he luncheon hour and i was beginning to grow hungry l 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 l 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 plain that were meant no recommendation was given to either the fish or the peas i 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 a 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 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 of husband wife and child is rare i am sure and 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 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 isn 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 the as the policeman who recommended the place pronounced it here i enjoyed such 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	43
for them instead i contented myself with noting how in so 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 imder 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 towering over the business he rt 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 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 i thought and then what if a mob with guns and swords came so i 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 bum 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	43
known as s creek runs through the city in two branches and you find it in odd places walled in closely by the buildings hung over by little and the like of which i did not see again until i reached there were in the sky as i noticed when i came out of the railway station i was charmed with winding streets and a general air of peace and quiet but i could not the cathedral anywhere i made my way up high street which is english for main and finally found my recommended inn small and dark but in the hands of and consequently well furnished in the matter of food i came out after a time and followed this street to its end passing the famous gate where the used to sink on their knees and in that position pray their way to the cathedral as usual my gave me a world of information but i could not stomach it and preferred to look at the old stones of which the gate was composed wondering that it had endured so long the little that i knew of st and king and and thomas a and came back to me i could not have a at forty called it sacred ground but it was colored at least the romance of history and i have great respect for what people once believed whether it was sensible or not is a city of twenty eight thousand with gas works and and an electric power plant and moving pictures and a but though it has all these and much more of the same kind it nevertheless that something which is pure poetry and makes england exquisite as i look at it now having seen much more of other parts of europe the quality which produces this beauty in england is not so much embodied in the individual as in the race if you look at in other countries you have the feeling at times as if certain individuals had greatly influenced the appearance of a city or a country this is true of paris and and some one seems to have worked out a scheme at some time or other in england i could never detect an individual or public scheme of any kind it all seemed to have grown up like an bed of flowers again i am satisfied that it is the english temperament which at its best the which exists in all these places i noticed it in the towns about where in spite of rain and smoke the same poetic prevailed here in where the architecture dates in its through all of eight centuries you feel the of the english temperament which has produced it to day in the sections of london and seven kings west and north you still feel it at work accidentally or instinctively this atmosphere which is common to oxford and it is of a sense of responsibility and cleanliness and religious feeling and strong national and family ties you really feel in england the distinction of the fireside and the family and the fact that a person must always keep a nice face on things however bad they may be the same spirit bird boxes on poles in the yard and lays charming white stone and plants vines to over walls and windows it is a sweet and poetic spirit however dull it may seem by comparison with the brilliant of other here along this little river the came down to the water in some instances the bridges over it were built with the greatest care and although houses lined it on either side for several miles of its it was nevertheless a clean stream i noticed in different places where the walls were quite free of any other marks a giving the picture and the history of a murderer who was wanted by the police in and it came to me in looking at it that he would have a hard time anywhere in england concealing his identity the native horror of disorder and scandal would cause him to be yielded up on the moment in my wanderings which were purely casual and i finally came upon the cathedral which up suddenly through a street under a leaden sky it was like a lovely song rendered with great pathos over a gate of exquisite and endless labor it two black stone towers rising and into the gray air i looked up to some which gave into what might have been the and saw birds perched just as they should have been the walls originally gray had been turned by time and weather into a soft black which somehow fitted in exquisitely with the haze of the landscape i had a curious sensation of darker and lighter shades of gray lurking pools of darkness here and there and brightness in spots that became almost silver the a at forty grounds were enclosed in vine covered walls that were nevertheless worked out in harmonious detail of stone an ancient walk of some kind with broken arches that had fallen into decay led away into a green court which by a process of other courts and covered arches gave into the proper i saw an old or of the church walking here in stately meditation and a typical english his trousers fastened about the knee by the useless but came by a few bricks in a there were endless courts it seemed to me surrounded by two story buildings all quaint in design and heaven knows what of the life they seemed very simple to me children played here on the walks and grass worked at vines and fences and occasional workmen appeared men who i supposed were connected with the which were being made to the as i stood in the of the s house which was in front and to the left of the	43
the wonder of the change and to contrast it with what had been and still was in such places as st s oxford and others i could see what the old life must have been like when the stage coach ruled and made the principal lively with traffic here in and elsewhere there were sacred to the characters of and you could see how charming that world must have appeared to a man who felt that it was passing he saw it in its and he recorded it as it could not have been recorded before and can never be again he saw also the charm of simple english life the native love of pots and and ordered en route to paris and that fortunately has not changed i cannot think of any one doing england as did it until there is something new to be done the old spirit manifested in a new way from shakespeare to the cry is long from to his it may be longer stiu i was a bit on leaving to realize that on the morrow at this same time i should catch my first glimpse of paris the clerk at the station who kept my bags for me noted that i came from new york and told me he had a brother in and that he liked it very much out there i said i suppose you will be coming to america yourself one of these days oh yes he said the big chances are out there i either go to canada or well there are plenty of states to choose from i said a lot of people have gone from this place he replied it rained hard on the way to but when i reached there it had ceased and i even went so far as to leave my umbrella in the train when i early discovered my loss i reported it at once to the porter who was carrying my don t let that worry you he replied in the and most assuring of english tones they always look through the trains you find it in the parcel room sure enough when i returned there it was behind the clerk s desk and it was handed to me promptly if i had not had ever which i had lost one stick promptly returned to me since i had been in england i should not have thought so much of this but it confirmed my impression that i was among a people who are honest my guide led me to the lord hotel where i a at forty arranged myself comfortably in a good room for the night it pleased me on throwing open my windows to see that this hotel a bay or arm of the sea and that i was in the realm of great ships and sea traffic instead of the noisy heart of a city because of a slight haze not strong enough to shut out the lights entirely fog horns and fog bells were going and i could hear the of waves on the shore i decided that after dinner i would there was a review of in the harbor at the time and the principal streets were crowded with in red and white and the comic little caps cocked over one such a swarm of i never saw in my life they were walking up and down in pairs and talking briskly and with the girls i fancy that representatives of the of women who prey on this type of youth were here in force much to my astonishment in this street i found a of of the fish and institution of the district i concluded from this that it must be an all english institution and wherever there was much there would be these in such a port as where sailors freely it would be apt to be common and so it proved farther up high street in its reaches in fact i saw a sign which read thomas and tooth surgeon whatever that may be its only rival was another i had seen in which ran bar and stores the next morning i was up early and sought the famous castle on the hill but could not gain admission and could not see it for the fog i returned to the beach when the fog had lifted and i could see not only en route to paris the castle on the hill but the wonderful harbor besides it was refreshing to see the towering cliff of chalk the pearl blue water the foaming surf along the interesting sea walk and the lines of summer or perhaps they are winter facing the sea on this one best street outside of this one street was not to me handsome but here all was placid comfortable interesting i wondered what type of englishman it was that came to summer or winter at so conveniently between london and paris at ten thirty this morning the last train from london making the boat for was to arrive and with it and all his bound for paris it seems to me that i have sung the praises of as a directing manager quite sufficiently for one book but i shall have to begin anew he arrived as usual very brisk a porter carrying four or five pieces of luggage his fur coat over his arm his gleaming as though it had been polished a cane and an umbrella in hand and inquiring whether i had secured the particular position on deck which he had requested me to secure and hold if it were according to a slip of paper on which he had written instructions days before i left london i was to enter the cabin of the vessel which crossed the channel a section of seat along the side wall by putting all my luggage there and bribe a porter to	43
place two chairs 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 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 different 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 t did not speak the language as though i had returned to america it is curious how one feels about france or at a at forty how i feel about it for all of six weeks i had been re 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 good 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 f who would then come and get 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	43
arrival of this 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 bias and others in order to indicate the difference 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 a 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 ro n in which every one can see every 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	43
country from what it is to day was all of this it would have seemed hard and cold and bare and dry except for these little 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 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 or what a grip this form of art must have taken on the 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 is a thing for sighs and tears both and i walked around it in silence and i knew that he was rejoicing to know that i was feeling what i ought to feel we went inside after a time because it was threatening 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 off 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 power of his the richness and extent of his imagination 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 pointed at either end it was black and had somewhat the effect of a a frenchman in and soft wool cap pulled over one ear was it along it contained hay piled in a rude mass it was warm here io 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 sec 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 da i don t know where outside of america you will find the snap and intensity of emotion ambition 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	43
of these cars started from st and others from and holland they had 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 ix 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 own 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 bom of the attitude or mood which you take with yoa toward gambling show romance a delicious scene carries a 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 f 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 enthusiasm he told me that we must be at the hotel by eight	43
fifteen or twenty and that by nine o clock we must be ready 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 l 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 tiie 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 as to how much time this would take and that would take and whether my trunk had arrived safely t d 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 find a dozen chairs somewhere if not i a at forty fifty or a hundred out on the 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 coffee 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 i opera on the corner 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 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 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	43

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