Datasets:

NicholasSynovic
/

Modified-VEAA

Dataset card Data Studio Files Files and versions Community

Split (2)

train · 42.9k rows

text stringlengths 1.96k 5.76k	author int64 1 50
nothing better than the de paris in so far as food i a at forty is concerned it is as good a place to go for dinner as the city it me now when i think of how the ability of had been working through all this as the had been arranged in his mind i was to take the elder of the two ladies as my partner and he had reserved the younger for himself as a matter of fact they were really equally pretty and charming and i was interested in both until after a few and when i had exchanged a few laughing signs with the younger he informed me that she was really closely tied up with some one else and was not available this i really did not believe but it did not make any particular difference i turned my attention to the elder who was quite as if not quite so as her younger sister i never knew what it meant before to sit in a company of this kind welcome as a friend looked to for gaiety as a companion and admirer and yet not able to say a word in the language of the occasion there were certain words which could be quickly acquired on an occasion of this kind such as beautiful charming very delightful and so on for which gave me the french equivalent and then i could make complimentary remarks which he would for all and the ladies would say things in reply which would come to me by the same medium it went gaily enough for the conversation not have been of a high order if i had been able to speak french objected to being used constantly as an and when he became stubborn and gaily without stopping to explain i was compelled to fall back on the resources of looks and smiles and gestures it interested me to see how quick these women were to themselves to the difficulties of the situation they were constantly laughing and between themselves looking at paris me and saying obviously flattering things and then laughing at my discomfiture in not being able to understand the elder explained what certain objects were by lifting them up and on the french name was constantly telling me of the compliments they made and how sad they thought it was that i could not speak french we departed finally for the where the sensation of paris was playing she proved to be a brilliant to look upon a gay slim yellow haired who seemed to the large audience by her boyish manners and her air there was a brilliant chorus in and and finally a beautiful maiden without any clothing at all who was by the of the stage before she had half crossed it the acts were about as good as they are anywhere i did not think that the performance was any better than one might see in one or two places in new york but of course the humor was much broader now and then one of their remarkable was translated for me by just to give me an of the character of the place back of the seats was a great or where a fragment of the of paris was beautiful creatures in many instances and as as you please i was particularly struck with the of their and the cheerful character of their faces the companion type in london and new york is somewhat colder looking their eyes snapped with intelligence and they walked as though the whole world held their point of view and no other from here at midnight we left for the and there i encountered the best that paris has to show in the way of that gaiety and color and beauty and for which it is famous one a at forty really ought to say a great deal about the because it is the last word the of midnight excitement and the russian and the the frenchman the american the englishman the german and the italian all meet here on common i saw much of life in paris while i was there but nothing better than this like the de paris it was small very small when compared to of similar in new york and london i fancy it was not more than sixty feet square only it was not square but almost circular the tables to begin with went the walls with seats which had the wall for a back and then as the guests poured in the interior space was filled up with tables which were brought in for the purpose and later in the morning when the guests began to leave these tables were taken out again and the space devoted to dancing and as in the de paris i noticed that it was not so much the quality of the as the spirit of the place which was important this latter was of various elements success perfection of service absolute distinction of cooking and lastly the and of sex which is and used in paris as it is nowhere else in the world i never actually realized until i stepped into this what it is that draws a certain element to paris the tomb of napoleon and the and the are not the significant attractions of that important city those things have their value they constitute an historical and artistic element that is appealing romantic and but over and above that there is something else and that is sex i did not learn what i am going to say now until later but it might as well be said here for it the point exactly a little experience and in paris in paris quickly taught me that the owners and of the more successful encourage and help to sustain a certain t of woman whose presence is desirable she must	43
be young beautiful or attractive and above all things possessed of temperament a woman can rise in the and world of paris quite as she can on the stage and she can easily from the and s to the stage though the path is on the other hand the stage freely to the atmosphere of s the and other of their kind a large number of the figures seen here and at the and other places of the same type are they are in the when they are not on the stage and they are on the stage when they are not in the they rise or fall by a world of strange devices and you can hear brilliant or ghastly stories either conclusion paris this aspect of it is a perfect of sex and it is sustained by the wealth and the curiosity of the stranger as well as the frenchman the on this occasion presented a brilliant scene the carpet as i recall it was a rich green velvet the walls a white from the ceiling six were suspended three glowing with a clear blow hue and three with a brilliant white outside a small railing near the door several negro singers a and a player several stage dancers and others were a perfect storm of people was pouring through the doors all with their tables previously arranged for out in the where a january wind was blowing you could hear a wild uproar of doors and the calls of and getting their in and out of the way a at forty the company generally as on all such occasions was on the qui to see who else were present and what the general spirit of the occasion was to be instantly i detected a number of americans three beautiful english women such as i never saw in england and their a few or south americans and after that a variety of individuals whom i took to be largely french although it was impossible to tell the english women interested me because during all my stay in europe i never saw three other women quite so beautiful and because during all my stay in england i scarcely saw a good looking english woman suggested that they were of that high realm of fashion which rarely remains in london during the winter season when i was there that if i came again in may or june and went to the races i would see plenty of them their lovely hair was and their cheeks and a faint pink and cream their arms and shoulders were delightfully bare and they carried themselves with amazing by one o clock when the majority of the guests had arrived this room fairly with white and white arms and shoulders roses in black hair and blue and ribbons fastened about of lighter complexion there were jewels in plenty and and and and there was a perfect of champagne every table was attended by its silver bucket of ice and the and in their crowded angle were i as we seated ourselves as to what drew all these people from all parts of the world to see this to be here together was eager to come here first and to have me see this without delay i do not know where you could go and for a hundred paris see more of really amazing feminine beauty i do not know where for the same money you could buy the same atmosphere of lightness and gaiety and enthusiasm this place was fairly with a wild desire to live i fancy the majority of those who were here for the first time particularly of the young would tell you that they would rather be here than in any other spot you could name the place had a peculiar glitter of beauty which was by the with great skill the were all of them swift good looking the dancers who stepped out on the floor after a few moments were of an like spanish type ruddy brown full black haired they had on dresses that were as close fitting as the scales of a fish and that glittered with the same radiance they waved and rattled and and and danced wildly and to and fro among the tables some of them sang or voices accompanied them from the raised platform devoted to music after a while red blue pink and green were introduced to the champagne bottles and allowed to float gaily in the air paper of small balls of all colors as light as feathers were distributed for the guests to throw at one another in ten minutes a wild battle was raging young girls were up on their feet their hands full of these colored weapons the male strangers of their selection you would see tall englishmen and americans exchanging a perfect of colored with girls of various laughing chattering calling screaming the in all her dazzling radiance was here exquisitely dressed her white arms perfectly willing to strike up an understanding with the admirer who was her a at forty after a time when the audience had worn itself through fever and frenzy to satisfaction or weariness or both a few of the tables were cleared away and the dancing began occasional guests joining there were charming dances in costume from russia from scotland from and from spain i had the wonder of seeing an american girl rise from her table and dance with more skill and grace than the employed talent a wine englishman took the floor a handsome youth of twenty six or eight and remained there gaily about from table to table dancing alone or with would welcome him what looked like a dangerous argument started at one time because some high considered that he had been insulted a of and the soon adjusted that it was between three and four	43
in the morning when we finally left and i was very tired it was decided that we should meet for dinner and since it was almost daylight i was glad when we had seen our ladies to their apartment and returned to the hotel chapter xxii a morning in paris never forget my first morning in paris the morning that i woke up after about two hours sleep or less prepared to put in a hard day at because had a which must be to and because he could only be with me until monday when he had to return it was a bright day fortunately a little and chill but agreeable i looked out of the window of my very comfortable room on the fifth floor which gave out on a balcony overhanging the st and watched the crowd of french people below coming to shop or to work it would be hard to say what makes the between a crowd of englishmen and a crowd of but there is a it struck me that these french men and women walked faster and that their every movement was more spirited than either that of the english or the americans they looked more like americans though than like the english and they were much more cheerful than either and talking as they came i was interested to see whether i could make the maid understand that i wanted and rolls without talking french but the wants of american are an old story to french maids and no sooner did i say and make the sign of drinking from a cup than she said oh oh f and disappeared presently the coffee was brought me and rolls and butter and hot milk and i ate my breakfast as i dressed about nine o clock arrived with his i was to walk in the which is close at hand a at forty he got a we were to go for a walk in the de as far as a certain s who was to make me a pair of shoes for the then we were to visit a s or two and after that go straight about the work of sight seeing visiting the old on the the churches of st du dame stopping at s for lunch and thereafter our conduct by the wishes of several guests who were to appear miss n and mr two artists and a certain de b who would not mind showing me around paris if i cared for her company we started off quite briskly and my first adventure in paris led me straight to the gardens of the lying west of the if any one wanted a proper introduction to paris i should recommend this above all others such a noble piece of as this is the best testimony france has to offer of its taste and sense of the magnificent i should say on mature thought that we shall never have anything like it in america we have not the same lightness of fancy and besides the represents a classic period i recall walking in here and being struck at once with the magnificent proportions of it all the breadth and stately of its walks the utter wonder and charm of its snow white marble standing out on the green grass and marking the circles squares and paths of its entire length no such charm and beauty could be attained in america because we would not permit the public use of the in this fashion only the fancy of a monarch could create a realm such as this and the and the place du and the place de la and the whole stretch of lovely tree lined walks and drives that lead to the arc de and give into the de speak a morning in paris loudly of a noble fancy by the of an public opinion i was astonished to find how much of the heart of paris is devoted to public usage in this manner it in theory at least to the space devoted to central park in new york but this is so much more beautiful or at least it is so much more in accord with the spirit of paris these splendid walks devoted solely to the and set with a hundred fancies in marble show the gay pleasure loving character of the life which created them the grand of france knew what beauty was and they had the courage and the taste to fulfil their desires i got just an of it all in the fifteen minutes that i walked here in the morning sun waiting for to get his from here we went to a paris s where madame pinned bright on our coats and thence to the s where madame again assisted her husband in the conduct of his business everywhere i went in paris i was struck by this charming unity in the conduct of business between husband and wife and son and daughter we talk much about the independence of women in america it seems to me that the french have solved it in the only way that it can be solved madame helps her husband in his business and they make a success of it together g took the for my shoes but madame entered them in a book and to me the shop was fifty times as charming for her presence she was dressed and the shop looked as though it had experienced the touches of a woman s hand it was clean and bright and smart and of good housekeeping and this was equally true of art stores coffee rooms and places of public sale generally wherever madame was and she looked nice a at forty there was a nice store and looked as fat and contented as could reasonably be expected under the circumstances from s we struck forth	43
to paris proper its most interesting features and i recall now with delight how fresh and and it all seemed paris has an air a presence from the poorest quarter of the district to the of the an j the region about the arc de it chanced that the day was bright and i saw the as bright as new buttons glimmering over the stones of its shallow banks and racing madly if not a majestic stream it is at least a gay and dashing one quick tempered rapid flowing walled crossed by a score of handsome bridges and ornamented in every possible way how much the french have made of so little in the way of a river it is not very wide about one half as wide as the thames at black bridge and not so wide as the river which makes an island i followed it from city wall to city wall one day from to and found every inch of it delightful i was never tired of looking at the wine near the little bathing and passenger boats in the vicinity of the the brick hay coal and heaven knows what else between the city s heart and points past it gave me the impression of being one of the brightest rivers in the world a river on a holiday i saw it once at at what is known in paris as the green hour which is five o clock when the sun was going down and a deep palpable fragrance from a vast of perfume filled the air men were boats of hay and in their great wide trousers blue shirts and french caps were and i felt as though the world had y a morning in paris nothing to offer paris which it did not already have even the joy of simple labor amid great beauty i could have settled in a small house in and worked as a in a perfume factory carrying my dinner with me every morning with a right good will or such was the mood of the moment this morning on our way to st du and the cathedral we examined the along the and tried to recall off hand the interesting comment that had been made on them by great authors and my poor wit brought back only the of but was with thoughts from to george they have a magnificent literary history but it is only because they are on the banks of the in the of this whirling of life that they are so delighted to enjoy them one has to be in an idle mood and love out of doors for they consist of a dusty row of four legged boxes with coming quite to your chest in height and reminding one of those high legged counting tables at which clerks sit on tall making in their these boxes are old and and weather beaten and at night the very dusty looking who from early morning until dark have had their shabby backed wares spread out where dust and sunlight and wind and rain can attack them pack them in the body of the box on which they are lying and close the lid you can always see an or two here perhaps many between the d and the we made our way through the and de into that region which the de and the in his enthusiastic way tried to indicate to me that i was in the most historic section of the left bank of the where were st du the the a at forty the the des arts and the latin quarter we came for a little way into the st and there i saw my first artists in velvet suits long hair and broad hats but i was told that they were the kind of artist who is so by profession not by accomplishment they were poetic looking youths the two that i saw swinging along together with pale faces and slim hands i was informed that the type had almost entirely disappeared and that the art student of to day prefers to be distinctly from what i saw of them later i can confirm this for the schools which i visited revealed a type of boy and girl who while being roman enough in all conscience were nevertheless dressed and very simple and off hand in their manner i visited this region later with artists who had made a name for themselves in the radical world and with students who were hoping to make a name for themselves sitting in their examining their and the atmosphere of their streets and public amusements there is an art atmosphere strong and clear of romance emotion desire love of beauty and determination of purpose which is thrilling to experience even paris is as young in its mood as any city in the world it is as wildly enthusiastic as a child i noticed here this morning the strange fact of old battered looking fellows singing to themselves which i never noticed anywhere else in this world age sits lightly on the i am sure and youth is a mad an exciting realm of romantic dreams the from the keeper of a market stall to the prince of the money world or of art wants to live gaily briskly and he will not let the necessity of earning his living deny him i felt it in the churches the x morning in paris the department stores the the the streets a wild keen desire for life with the blood and the body to back it up it must be in the soil and the air for paris sings it is like poison in the veins and i felt myself growing positively giddy with enthusiasm i believe that for the first six months paris would be	43
one must ring and be admitted this gives this person a complete over the affairs of all the tenants mail guests purchases messages anything and everything if you have a charming it is well and good if not not the thought of an so offensive as a irritated me greatly and i found myself running forward in my mind picking fights with some possible who might at some remote date possibly trouble me of such is the disposition the of mr in the a lovely garden a heavenly place set with trees and flowers and of an older day in the bits of broken stone work lying about and suggesting the architecture of a period his windows reaching from floor to ceiling and by exterior were by trees in both were scores of done in the style which interested me profoundly it is one thing to see hung upon the walls of a gallery in london or disputed over in a west a morning in paris end residence it is quite another to come upon it fresh from the in the of the artist or still in process of production defended by every thought and principle of which the artist is capable in miss n s were a series of intended for the walls of a great department store in america which were done in the raw and of the flowers which stood out with the coarse distinctness of and outlines which were as sharp as those of rough buildings and men and women whose details of dress and feature were by colors which by the eye would be pronounced unnatural for me they had an immense appeal if for nothing more than that they represented a development and an individual point of view it is so hard to break tradition it was the same in the of mr to which we after some three quarters of an hour of the two painters the man seemed to me the more miss n worked in a softer mood with more of what might be called an attitude towards life during all this was in the of his glory and cheerful we took a through singing streets lighted by a sun and came finally to the where it was necessary for him to secure a table and order dinner in advance and thence to the theatre des in the des where tickets for a farce had to be secured and thence to a bar near the avenue de where we were to meet the previously mentioned de b who out of the goodness of her heart was to help entertain me while i was in the city this remarkable woman who by her beauty simplicity utter frankness and moody would shock the average woman into a deadly fear of life and make a at forty a horror of what seems a gaudy pleasure world to some quite instantly took my fancy yet i think it was more a matter of de b s attitude than it was the things which she did which made it so terrible but that is a long story we came to her out of the whirl of the green hour when the paris in this vicinity were fairly with people the world i have ever seen we have enormous crowds in new york but they seem to be going somewhere very much more definitely than in paris with us there is an eager almost objectionable effort to get home or to the or to the which one can easily resent it is so and indifferent in london you do not feel that there are any crowds that are going to the or the and if they are they are not very cheerful about it they are enduring life they have none of the lightness of the world i think it is all explained by the fact that feel keenly that they are living now and that they wish to enjoy themselves as they go the american and the englishman the englishman much more than the american have decided that they are going to live in the future only the american is a little angry about his decision and the englishman a little meek or patient they both feel that life is intensely grim but the while he may feel or believe it to cast it off he lives by the way out of books and the spectacle of life generally the move briskly and they come out where they can see each other out into the great wide and the thousands upon thousands of and make themselves comfortable and and gay on the streets it is so obvious that everybody is having a good time not try a morning in paris ing to have it that they are enjoying the wine like air the and of the the net like movements of the the dancing lights of the and the of the shops it may be chill or in but you scarcely feel it rain can scarcely drive the people off the streets literally it does not there are crowds whether it rains or not and they are not this particular hour that brought us to g s bar was essentially thrilling and i was interested to see what de b was like chapter three guides it only by and by asking many questions that at times i could extract the significance of certain places from as quickly as i wished he was always or a little in his allusions in this instance i gathered rapidly however that this bar was a very extraordinary little presided over by a woman of a most pleasant and practical type she could not have been much over forty good looking self efficient she moved about the two rooms which constituted her in so far as the average was concerned with an air of considerable social importance her dresses as i	43
noticed on my several subsequent visits were always sober but in excellent taste about this time of day the two rooms were a little dark the electric lights being reserved for the more crowded hours yet there were always a few people here this evening when we entered i noticed a half dozen men and three or four young women lounging here in a preliminary way and i made out by degrees that the mistress of this place had a following of a kind in the scheme of things that certain men and women came here for reasons of and that she v take a certain type of struggling maiden if she were good looking and ambitious and smart imder her wing the girl would have to know how to dress well to be able to carry herself with an air and when money was being spent very freely by an admirer it might as well be spent at this three guides bar on occasion as anywhere else there was obviously an between madame g and all the young women who came in here they seemed so much at home that it was quite like a family party everybody appeared to be genial cheerful and to know everybody else to here was to fed as though you had lived in paris for years while we are sitting at a table a brandy and enter de b the brisk genial sympathetic french personage whose voice on the instant gave me a delightful impression of her it was the loveliest voice i have ever heard soft and musical a voice touched with both gaiety and sadness her eyes were light blue her hair brown and her manner and she seemed to have the spirit of a delightfully friendly dog or child and all the gaiety and that goes with either after i had been introduced she laughed and putting aside her and stole shook herself into a comfortable position in a comer and accepted a brandy and she was so interested for the moment exchanging and with that i had a chance to observe her keenly in a moment she turned to me and wanted to know whether i knew either of two american authors whom she knew men of considerable knowing them both very well it surprised me to think that she knew them she seemed from the way she spoke to have been on the terms with both of them and any one by looking at her could have why they should have taken such an interest in her now you know that n he is very nice i was very fond of him and r he is clever don t you think i admitted at once that they were both very able men a at forty and that i was glad that she knew them she informed me that she had known mr r and mr n in london and that she had there her english which was very good indeed explained in full who i was and how long i would be in paris and that he had written her from america because he wanted her to show me some attention during my stay in paris if de b had been of a somewhat more calculating type i fancy that with her intense charm of face and manner and her intellect and voice she would have been very successful i gained the impression that she had been on the stage in some small capacity but she had been too not really brazen enough for the grim world in which the french rises i soon found that de b was a charming of emotion desire and refinement which had strayed into the wrong field she would have done better in literature or music or art and she seemed fitted by her moods and her understanding to be a light in any one of them or all some are so missing by a what they would give all the world to have it is the little things that do it the the bits the capacity for taking pains in little things that make as so many have said the difference between success and failure and it is true i shall never forget how she looked at me quite in the spirit of a gay uncertain child and how quickly she made me feel that we would get along very well together why yes she said quite easily in her soft voice i will go about with you although i would not know what is best to see but i shall be here and if you want to come for me we can see things together suddenly she reached over and took my hand and squeezed it as though to seal the bargain we had more drinks to this rather three guides sion and then de b promising to join us at the went away it was high time then to dress for dinner and so we returned to the hotel we ate a meal watching the and his lady love or his wife arrive in and dine with that and enthusiasm which is so characteristic of the french when we came out of this at half after eleven de b was anxious to return to her apartment and was anxious to give me an extra taste of the varied life of paris in order that i might be able to contrast and compare if you know where they are and see whether you like them you can tell whether you want to see any more of them which i hope you won t said he wisely leading the way through a crowd that was for all the world like a rushing tide of the sea there are no traffic laws in paris so far as i could make out certainly have the right of way and they go like	43
mad i have read of the authorities having imported a london policeman to teach paris police the art of traffic but if so the instruction has been wasted this night was a of and people a paris guide one of the tribe that the morbid stranger through scenes that are evil and that i know from observation to be utterly vain approached us in the des with the suggestion that he be allowed to conduct us through a realm of filthy sights some of which he i could give a list of them if i thought any human organization would ever print them or that any individual would ever care to read them which i don t i have indicated before that is essentially clean minded he is really interested in the art of the and the spectacle which their a at forty and to a certain extent artistic lives present but no one in this world ever saw more clearly through the shallow make believe of this realm than he does he contents himself with admiring the art and the tragedy and the pathos of it this world of women interests him as a phase of the struggle for existence and for the artistic which it sometimes to him the vast majority of these women in paris were artistic whatever one might say for their morals their honesty their and the other qualities which they possess or lack and whatever they were life made them so conditions over which their and wills had little or no control he is an man one of the most i have ever known and kindly in his manner and intention nevertheless he has an innate horror of the purely physical when it to there is much of that in paris and these guides it but it is especially arranged for the stranger i fancy the average knows nothing about it and if he does he has a profound contempt for it so has the well stranger but there is always an audience for this sort of thing so when this guide approached us with the proposition to show us a selected line of vice took him in hand stop a moment now he said with his high hat on the back of his head his fur coat open and his eye fixing the intruder with an inquiring gaze tell me one thing have you a mother the small jew who was the industrious for this particular type of ware looked his astonishment they are used to all sorts of set backs these particular guides for they encounter all sorts of people if three guides severely moral and the reverse and i fancy on occasion they would be soundly if it were not for the police who stand in with them and receive a for their protection they certainly learn to understand something of the type of man who will listen to their proposition for i have never seen them more than ignored and i have frequently seen them talked to in an off hand way though i was pleased to note that their customers were few this particular little jew had a up expression on his face and did not care to answer the question at first but resumed his announcement of his various delights and the price it would all cost wait wait wait insisted answer my question have you a mother what has that got to do with it asked the guide of course i have a mother where is she demanded she s at home replied the guide with an air of mingled astonishment irritation and a desire not to lose a customer does she know that you are out here on the streets of paris doing what you are doing to night he continued with a very noble air the man swore imder his breath answer me persisted still fixing him solemnly through his does she why no of course she doesn t replied the jew would you want her to know this in tones no i don t think so have you a sister yes a at forty would you want her to know i don t know replied the guide she might know anyhow tell me truly if she did not know would you want her to know the poor looked as if he had got into some silly inexplicable mess from which he would be glad to free himself but he did not to have sense enough to walk briskly away and leave us perhaps he did not care to admit defeat so easily no i suppose not replied the vainly there you have it exclaimed triumphantly you have a mother you would not want her to know you have a sister you would not want her to know and yet you me here on the street to see things which i do not want to see or know think of your poor gray headed mother he exclaimed and with a mock air of shame and sorrow once no doubt you prayed at her knee an boy yourself the man looked at him in dull suspicion no doubt if she saw you here to night selling your manhood for a small sum of money to the lowest and most vicious elements in life she would weep bitter tears and your sister don t you think now you had better give up this evil life don t you think you had better accept any sort of position and earn an honest living rather than do what you are doing well i don t know said the man this living is as good as any other living i ve worked hard to get my knowledge good god do you call this knowledge inquired solemnly yes i do replied the man i ve worked hard to get it three guides my poor friend replied i pity you from	43
the bottom of my heart i pity you you are degrading your life and your soul come now to morrow is sunday the church bells will be ringing go to church reform your life make a new start do you will never regret it your old mother will be so glad and your sister oh say said the man walking off you don t want a guide you want a church and he did not even look back it is the only way i have of getting rid of them commented they always stop when i begin to talk to them about their mother they can t stand the thought of their mother very true i said cut it out now and come on you have preached enough let us see the worst that paris has to show and off we went arm in arm thereafter we visited after high low smart dull and i can say truly that the strange impression which this world made on me even now obviously when we arrived at s at twelve o clock the fun was just getting under way some of these places like this bar were no larger than a fair sized room in an apartment but crowded with a gay and throng americans south americans english and others one of the tricks in paris to make a successful is to keep it small so that it has an air of and activity here at s bar after allowing room for the red the piano and the there was scarcely space for the forty or fifty guests who were present champagne was twenty the bottle and champagne was all they served it was necessary here as at all the to contribute to the support of the and if a at forty a strange young woman should sit at your table for a moment and share either the wine or the fruit which would be quickly offered you would have to pay for that were three each and grapes five the bunch it was plain that all these things were offered in order that the house might and prosper it was so at each and all of them chapter xxiv the poison flower it was after this night that took his departure for london for two weeks where business affairs were calling him during which time i was to make myself as idle and gay as i might alone or with the individuals to whom he had introduced me or to whom i had direct there was so much that i wished to see and that he did not care to see over again with me having seen it all before the de for instance the the and so on the next afternoon after a more or less rambling day i saw him off for london and then i plunged into this treasure world alone one of the things that seriously impressed me was the never failing singing air of the city which was everywhere and another the peculiarly moody atmosphere of the of that wonderful world of celebrated dead who crowd each other like the of a narrow city and who make a veritable of names what a world one whole day i here over the of de and a long long list of my brain fairly with the of life and finally i came away immensely sad another day i visited and all its splendor with one of the most interesting and amusing americans i met abroad a by the name of h who me with his own experiences i fairly choked at times over his quaint amusing a at forty comments on things as when at in the chambers of he discovered a small secret stair only to remark there s where louis xvi took a often enough no doubt or on one of the towers of dame when to a third person who was present he commented there s your old think of the artistic of it concerning a group of buildings which related to the arts i believe he inquired what s the bunch of stuff to the right and so it went but the beauty of its stately how it all comes back after two weeks in which i enjoyed myself as much as i ever hope to studying out the charm and color of paris for myself returned fresh interested ready for the ready for more of paris ready indeed for anything i said to myself once more when i saw him and i was very glad to see him indeed the personality of supplies a quality of comfortable companionship he is so full of a youthful zest to live and so keen after the shows and customs of the world i have never pondered why he is so popular with women or that his friends in different walks of life constitute so great a company he seems to have known thousands of all sorts and to be at home under all conditions that persistent atmosphere of all is well with me to maintain which is as much a duty as a tradition with him makes his presence a constant delight we were soon joined by a small party of friends thereafter sir who was bound for an extended stay on the a who was abroad on an important scientific investigation and the representative of an american house who was coming to paris to mr late of the poison flower and secure his book this goodly company descended upon the hotel late one friday afternoon and it was planned that a party of the whole was to be organized the following night to dine at the de paris and then to make a round of the lesser known and more picturesque of before this grand pilgrimage to the temples of vice and excitement however and i spent a remarkable evening wandering from	43
one to another in an effort to a certain mile a girl who he had informed me when we first came to paris had been one of the most interesting figures of the stage four or five years before she had held at the much the same position now recently attained by who was just then paris in other words she was the sensation of that stormy world of art and romance of which these are a part she was more than that she had a wonderful voice of great color and richness and a spirit for dancing that was greek in its quality was most anxious that i should get at least a glimpse of this exceptional type the real spirit of this fast world your true artistic poison flower your lovely before she should be too old or too wretched to be interesting we started out to visit g s bar the bar the rat s bar the the in fact the whole list of and show places where on occasion she might be expected to be seen on the way bits of her interesting history her marriages vices habits a strange of tendencies that sometimes affect the most vigorous and eager of human at one on this expedition quite by accident apparently we encountered miss x whom i had not seen a at forty since we left and who was here in paris doing her best to the women of the gay in the matter of her dresses her hats and her beauty i must say she presented a spectacle quite as wonderful as any of the other women who were to be seen here but she lacked as i was to note the natural vivacity of the french we americans in spite of our high spirits and our healthy enthusiasm for life are nevertheless a of the english the german and some of the nations of the north and we are inclined to a physical and mental which is not common to the this miss x vivid creature that she was did not have the spiritual which the french women so far as spirit was concerned she seemed superior to most of the foreign types present but the french women are naturally their eyes brighter their motions lighter she gave us at once an of her adventures since i had seen her where she had been living what places she had visited and what a good time she was having i could not help at the disposition which set above everything else in the world the privilege of moving in this peculiar realm which fascinated her so much from a conventional point of view much of what she did was to say the least of it unusual but she did not trouble about this as she told me on the all she hoped for was to become a woman of and to have some money if she had money and attained to real social wisdom conventional society could go to the devil for the according to her was welcome everywhere that is anywhere she would care to go she did not expect to retain her beauty entirely but she did expect to have some money and meanwhile to live brilliantly as she deemed he was now doing her the poison flower love of amusement was quite as marked as ever and her comments on the various women of her class as hard and accurate as they were brilliant i remember her saying of one woman with an easy sweep of her hand like a willow don t you think and of another she like a it was true fine character at s an hour later she decided to go home so we took her to her hotel and then resumed our pursuit of mile after much wandering we finally came upon her about four in the morning in one of those pleasure that i have so frequently described ah yes there she is exclaimed i looked to a distant table to see the figure he indicated that of a young girl seemingly not more than twenty four or twenty five a white silk tied about her brown hair her body clothed in a rather costume for a world so as this most of the women wore evening clothes had on a skirt of light brown wool a white open in the front and the collar turned down showing her pretty neck her skirt was short and i noticed that she had pleasing ankles and pretty feet and her sleeves were short showing a solid before she noticed we saw her take a slender girl in black for a partner and dance with others in the open space between the tables which the walls i studied her with interest because of s description because of the fact that she had been married twice and because the physical and spiritual ruin of a dozen girls was or not laid at her door her face did not suggest the which her career would indicate although it was by no means ruddy but she seemed to scorn her eyes eyes are always significant in a personage a at forty were large and vague and brown set beneath a wide full forehead very wonderful eyes she appeared in her idle security and profound like a figure out of the revolution or the she would have been magnificent in a riot marching up a street her white band about her brown hair carrying a knife a gun or a flag she would have had the courage too for it was so plain that life had lost much of its charm and she nearly all of her caring she came over when her dance was done having seen and extended an indifferent hand he told me after their light conversation in french that he had her to the	43
effect that her career was her once lovely voice i shall find it again at the next comer she said and walked away some one should write a novel about a woman like that he explained she ought to be painted it is amazing the of soul that goes with that type there aren t many like her she could be the sensation again of paris if she wanted to would try but she won t see what she said of her voice just now he shook his head i smiled for obviously the appearance of the woman her full rich eyes bore him out she was a figure of distinction in this world for many knew her and kept track of her i watched her from time to time talking with the guests of one table and another and the content which made her exceptional was as obvious as though she were a bottle and bore a to this day she stands out in my mind in her simple dress and indifferent manner as perhaps the one significant figure that i saw in all the of paris or elsewhere i should like to add here before i part forever with this curious and feverish world the figure he indicated the poison flower that my conclusion had been after much and careful observation that it was too utterly feverish artificial and not to be dangerous and grimly destructive if not merely touched upon at long intervals this world of champagne was apparently interested in but two things the and glow of the which were always brightly lighted and packed with people and women in the last analysis women the young women of easy virtue were the glittering attraction and truly one might say they were glittering fine feathers make fine birds and nowhere more so than in paris but there were many birds who would have been fine in much less feathers in many instances they and secured a simplicity which was even more destructive than the of the it was strange to see american innocence the of and cheek by with the most daring and the most vicious women which the great metropolis could produce i did not know until some time later how hard some of these women were how in vice how weary of everything save this atmosphere of and the privilege of wearing beautiful clothes most people come here for a night or two or a month or two or once in a year or so and then return to the comparatively dull world from which they which is fortunate if they were here a little while this world of delight would lose all its but a very few days and you see through the dreary by which it is produced the brow beating of shabby by greedy the charges and tricks by which money is from the pockets of the the wretched and from which some of these to a at forty wing here in seeming delight and then disappear it was a world and it displayed vice as an upper and a between which youth and beauty is or pressed quickly to a worthless mass i would defy anybody to live in this atmosphere so long as five years and not exhibit strongly the tell tale marks of decay when the natural glow of youth has gone comes the powder and paint box for the face for the eyes for the lips palms and the nails and and ornament and the of good clothing but underneath it all one reads the weariness of the eye the sickening for hour by hour and day by day the cold of what was once natural instinctive you feel constantly that so many of these would sell their souls for one last hour of delight and then gladly take poison as so many of them do to end it all consumption and maintain their persistent toll this is a furnace of desire this district and it furiously with a hard white hot flame until there is nothing left save black and white ashes those who can endure its heat are welcome to its wonders until emotion and feeling and beauty are no more chapter all my life before going abroad i had been filled with a curiosity as to the character of the and i had never quite understood that nice san in italy and were all in the same vicinity a stone s throw apart as it were and that this world is as distinct from the spirit of the north of france as the south of england is from the north of england as explained it we went due south from paris to and then east along the coast of the until we came to the first stopping place he had selected where we would spend a few days in peace and quiet far from the hurry and of the life we had just left and then journey on the hour or two more which it takes to reach he made this arrangement in order that we might have the journey through france by day and proceed from of a morning which would give us if we had luck and such luck usually on the a sunlight view of the breaking in rich blue waves against a coast that is yellow and brown and gold and green by turns coming south from paris i had the same sensation of wonder that i had from to paris a wonder as to where the forty odd millions of the population of france kept itself it was not visible from the windows of the flying train all the way we through an almost country past little white and and i never real s a at forty before although i must have known that these same were composed of separate vines set in rows like corn	43
and standing up for all the world like a t every now and then a simple silvery stream would appear making its way through a perfectly level lane and set on either bank with tall single lines of the french landscape painters have used these over and over and they illustrate exactly the still lonely character of the country to me outside of paris france has an atmosphere of silence and loneliness although considering the character of the french people i do not understand how that can be on the way south there was much between and sir who accompanied us as to the character of this adventure a certain young friend of s daughter was then resident at and it was s expressed hope that his daughter s friend would bring him a basket of cold chicken cake fruit and wine it seems that he had urged to write her friend that he was passing through and i was amused at s biting reference to s parental which he hoped would come to nothing it was as he hoped for at the young lady and her parents appeared but no basket there were some minutes of animated conversation on the platform and then we were off again at high speed through the same flat land until we reached a lovely mountain range in the south of france a region of huts and heavy ox it reminded me somewhat of the mountain regions of northern at there was a long wait in the dark a large number of passengers left the train here and then we rode on for an hour or two more arriving by moonlight at or at least the nearest railway station to it the character of the world in which was was delicious after the raw and cold of our last few days in paris this satin atmosphere of moonlight and perfume was wonderful we stepped out of a train at the little beach station of this summer coast to find the trees in full leaf and great palms extending their wide into the warm air there was much chatter in french while the struggled to get all our numerous bags into one vehicle but when it was all accomplished and the top lowered so that we could see the night we set forth along a long white road between houses which had an but a french aspect being a development of things spanish and and past bright walls of stone over which wide palms leaned it was wonderful to see the moonlight on the water the black waves breaking in white on sandy shores and to feel the wind of the south i could not believe that a ten hour ride from paris would make so great a change but so it was we up finally to the grand hotel d and although it possessed so fine a name it was nothing much more than a country inn comparatively new and built with a charming vine covered balcony overlooking the sea and a garden of palms in which one might walk however the food assured us would be it was only three stories high and quite primitive in its we were lighted to our rooms with candles but the rooms were large and cool and the windows i discovered by throw ing mine open commanded a magnificent view of the bay i stood by my window by the beauty of the night not in france outside this coast nor in england can you see anything like this in summer the air was like a caress under the white moon you could see the main outlines of the coast and s a at forty the white strip of sand at the bottom below us an near the garden were some boats and to the right white houses sheltered in trees and commanding the wonders of the water i went to bed breathing a sigh of relief and feeling as if i should sleep soundly which i did the next morning revealed a world if an more wonderful now all the whiteness and the and the of the coast line were picked out by a brilliant sun the bay glittered in the light a rich blue and a putting forth to sea hoisted a golden sail i was astonished to find now that the houses instead of being the and white of northern france were as like to be blue or yellow or green and always there was a touch of color somewhere blue window a white house brown chimneys with a blue one the charm of the arch and the suggesting itself at different points and always palms i dressed and went below and out upon the balcony and through the garden to the water s edge sitting in the warm sun and tossing pebbles into the water flowers were in bloom here blue and yellow blossoms and when came down we took a delightful morning walk up a green valley which led inland between hills no northern day in june could have in perfection the wonder of this day and we talked of the make believe of night life as contrasted with this and the wonder of spring generally i should think the whole world would want to live here in winter i said the fact is replied what are called the best people do not come here so much nowadays where do they go i asked oh is now the thing in winter the and all that relates to them the new rich have this and it is becoming a little they cannot alter the wonder of the climate i replied we had a table put on the balcony at eleven and ate our morning fish and rolls and there i can see sir cheerfully trifling with the cat we found there the morning sun and scenery having put him in a gay mood	43
calling chat chat chat and asking how do you talk to a cat in french there was an open carriage which came for us at one into which we threw our fur coats and blankets and then climbed by degrees mile after mile up an exquisite slope by the side of a valley that gradually became a and at the bottom of which and a mountain stream this road led to more great trees at the top of a range overlooking what i thought at first was a great valley where a fog prevailed but which a few steps further was revealed as the wondrous sea white sails a distant like a marble toy into the blue water and here and there a far below we made our way to a delightful inn some half way down and back where under soaring black pine trees we had tea at a little green table jam new bread and cakes i shall never forget the bitter assault i provoked by dipping my spoon into the jar all the of social wrath were poured upon my troubled head it serves him right insisted i saw him do that once before these people from the middle west what can you expect that night a grand row developed at dinner between and as to how long we were to remain in and whether we were to stop in or out of s plan was for remaining at least three o a at forty days here and then going to a hotel not directly in but half way between and the hotel i knew that had come here at the present time largely to entertain me and since i would rather have had his presence than the atmosphere of the best hotel in it really did not matter so much to me where we went so long as it was comfortable was greatly or pretended to be to think i should be brought here to witness the wonders of this world and then be in some side spot where half the delicious life would escape me he kept we come all the way to the south of france to stop at candles to light us to bed and french for servants and then we ll go to and stop at some third rate hotel well you can go to the if you choose i am going to the palace hotel where i can see something and have a decent bed i am not going to be packed off any ten miles out of and be compelled to use a street car that stops at twelve o clock and spend thirty getting home in a carriage this kept up until with offering solemn explanations of why he had come here why it would be advisable for us to refresh ourselves at the fountain of simple scenery after the of london and the of paris he had a fine argument for the as a dwelling site it was just half way between and it commanded all the bay on which stood cap martin with the hotel of that name here threw its sharp rocky point far out into the sea a car line passed the door in a either way we could be in either or who wants to be in demanded sir i would rather be an hour away from it instead of half an hour if i came to see i would not be about i for one will not go it was not long before i learned that did much protesting but equally much following the patient silence of coupled with direct action at the decisive moment usually won s arguments did result in one thing the next morning instead of in the sun and taking a carriage ride over the adjacent range we gathered all our and deposited them at the near by station while and i climbed to the top of an adjacent hill where was an old water pool to have a last look at the lovely high colored bay of then the long train with drawing room cars from all parts of europe rolled in and we were off again called my attention as we went along to the first of the umbrella trees of which i was to see so many later in italy coming into view in the occasional sheltered valleys which we were passing and later those of southern france and all italy the hill cities towering like great high in the air i shall never forget the impression the first sight of one of these made on me in america we have nothing save the illusion of clouds over distant to compare with it i was astonished transported the reality was so much more wonderful than the drawings of which i had seen so many outside the car windows the sweeping of the palms seemed almost to brush the train hanging over white of stone green shutters and green red roofs and bright blue the half frenchman with his face and burning eyes presently the train stopped at i struck out to walk in the pretty garden which i saw was connected with the bar a at forty to send a to show how and he could be here were long trains that had come from st and and others from and with and those from paris bore the imposing legend des et des express there was a long black train in from the south with cars marked and you had a sense from merely looking at the stations that the idleness and the luxury of all the world was pouring in here at will in ten minutes we were off again solemnly on the fact that in england a homely girl was left to her own devices with no one to make anything of her she being plain and that being the end of it while here in france	43
something was done with the poorest specimens now those two young ladies he said waving his hand in the direction of two departing they are not much but look at them see how they are gotten up somebody will marry them they have been encouraged to buck up to believe that there is always hope and he adjusted his cheerfully our train was pulling into the station at i had the usual vague idea of a much talked of but place i can hear the boys calling exclaimed to when we were still a little way out he was as keen for the adventure as a child much more so than i was i could see how he set store by the pleasure providing details of the life here and for all his lofty superiority was equally keen they indicated to me the great masses of baggage which occupied the all bright and new and mostly of good leather i was interested to see the crowds of people for there was a train departing in another direction and to hear the cries of as predicted the lifting to the terrace in front of the where the tracks enter along a shelf of a considerably above the level of the sea it is a tight little place all that i had expected in point of gay houses white and cream with red roofs climbing up the sides of the bare brown hill which rises to la above we did not stop but went on to where we were to lunch it was charming to see striped pink and white and blue and green gay of various colors and ladies in fresh and and men in white and an atmosphere of generally i think a sort of summer madness on people under such circumstances and dull care is thrown to the winds and you plan gay adventures and dream dreams and take yourself to be a singularly important person and to think that this atmosphere should always be here and that it can always be reached out of the of russia and the bitter storms of new york and the dreary gray of london and the biting winds of and paris we at the one of those where the of france was to be found in its perfection where of flowers commanded the d chapter xxvi the of before i go a step further in this narrative i must really to the subject of and the of france generally for in this matter was as keen as the greatest are in the matter of pictures he loved and remembered the quality of dishes and the method of their preparation and the character of the men who prepared them and the atmosphere in which they were prepared and in fact everything which relates to the and arts and the history of the generally in paris and london was constantly talking of the of importance and the borrowed french atmosphere of the best english with the glories of the parent in france he literally me in the distinction which was to be drawn between the s and s and those smart after supper of the district where the of france had been degraded by the addition of dancers and music nevertheless he was willing to admit that their was not bad as i remember it now i was advised to breakfast at henry s to dine at the and to sup at s but if i chose to substitute the de paris for the at dinner i was not going far wrong he knew that m the younger was now in charge of s and that paul was the d hotel and that during the s had once served d le f the of gold i and le chat de rats he thought it must have been quite excellent because m the elder it all and because the served with it were from twenty to forty years of age when it came to the he was well aware of all that region had to promise from to and he could nicely the advantages of the de paris the grand dining room of the hotel de paris which was across the street the which he insisted had quite the most beautiful dining room in the princess which one of the great stars of the opera had very regularly some years before the of the grand hotel which he considered very exceptional indeed and the at the of the la mountain railway which he emphatically approved and which commanded a magnificent view of the coast and the sea i was to understand that if i had d v at the hotel de paris i was having a very excellent fish of the country served in the very best manner which is truly worth knowing if we went to the princess the d hotel whom he knew from an older day would serve us in some manner which would be something for me to remember at the de paris we were to have which had a so he insisted of and was very excellent the were but delicate little ones not the kind that would be thrust upon one in rome i was lost among regarding the value of the at nice the art of m now the manager of the hotel de paris and what a certain head master could do for one in the way of providing a little local color as termed it in the food to all of this not being a i paid as strict attention as i could though i fear a at forty me much that a large proportion of the exquisite significance of it all was lost on me i can only say however that in spite of s which was constant the only time we had a really wonderful was when ordered it	43
the first luncheon at the was an excellent case in point being on the and being host to several was in the most of artistic moods he made up a of the most delicious of d which he insisted should never have been allowed to take the place of soup but which alas the custom of the time and the of which in this case was gray a point which he wished me particularly to note sole roast lamb and in order to give our meal the flavor of the land we had coffee on the balcony afterwards and i heard much concerning the wonders of this region and of the time when the winter palace was the place to lunch a grand duke was a part of the day s and two famous english authors before whom we with dignity after lunch we made our way to the hotel which in spite of s complaints had finally selected it stood on a splendid rise between and and here after some slight we were assigned to three rooms en with bath i was given the comer room with two and a flood of sunshine and such a view as i have never seen from any window before or since straight before me lay the length of cap martin a grove of thousands of olive trees reflecting from its leaves the rays of the sun and crowding it completely and beyond it the delicious sweep of the to the right lay the bay of the heights of la and all the glittering world which the of gold i is proper to the left lay and the green and snow mountains of and san faintly visible in the distance never an hour but the waters of the sea were a lighter or a darker shade of blue and never an hour but a lonely sail was crossing in the high above the inn at la faintly visible in the distance rose a ruined column of a broken memory of the time when imperial rome was dominant here and when the roman passed this way to spain at different hours i could hear the of some frontier garrison sounding guard mount and the sun set call oh those wonderful mornings when i was by the clear note of a horn flying up the valleys of the mountains and sounding over the sea immediately after our arrival it was settled that once we had made a swift toilet we would start for were ready to bring back tremendous and eager to see this world the like of which insisted was not to be found elsewhere oh yes he said i have been to and to and les but they are not like this we really should live at the palace where we could walk on the terrace in the morning and watch the he told a si story of how once having a he came out of the card rooms of the into the grand and attempted to pour a little out of a thin with which to ease the pain i stepped behind a column he explained so that i might not be seen but just as i the four guards seized me and hurried me out of the place they thought i was taking poison i had to make plain my identity to the management before they would let me back we arrived at the edge of the which is a at forty and walked in surveying the character of the place it was as gaudy and as one might well expect this world to be it reminded me in part of that world which one finds about the arc de rich and comfortable only there are no carriages in to speak of the distances are too slight and the too steep when we reached the square of the it did not strike me as having any especial charm it was small and sloping and laid off in square beds of flowers with about and gravel paths going down either side at the foot lay the and cream white with a glass and iron over the door and a swarm of people moving to and fro not an throng but rather having an air of considerable industry about it quite as one might expect to find in a business world people were bustling along as we were to get to the or to go away from it on some errand and get back we hurried down the short length of the checking our coats after waiting a time for our turn in line and then entering the chambers where are examined and cards of admission sold there was quite some formality about this letters being examined our personal signature and home address taken and then we were ready to enter while presented our sir and i strolled about in the observing the and throng he showed me the exact pillar where he had attempted to ease his tooth this was an interesting world of people the german the italian the american the englishman and the russian were easily sir was convinced that the faces of the and the could be distinguished but i am afraid i was not enough of a to do this if there were any who had just lost the of gold i their last dollar i did not detect them on the contrary it seemed to me that the majority were cheerful and were having the best time in the world a large bar at the end of the room opposite the general entrance to the card rooms had a peculiarly american appearance the one thing that was evident was that all here were healthy and vigorous with a love of life in their veins eager to be entertained and having the means in a large majority of cases to accomplish this end it struck me here as it has in so	43
many other places where great pleasure loving that the difference between the person who has something and the person who has nothing is one of intense desire and what for a better phrase i will call a capacity to live the inner chambers of the were divided into two groups the outer being somewhat less decorated and those who for reasons of economy prefer to be less exclusive and the inner more elaborate in and having of an evening it was said a more dressed throng just why one should choose less expensive rooms when gambling unless low in funds i could not guess those in both sets of rooms seemed to have enough money to i could not see after some experience that there was very much difference the players seemed to wander rather through both sets of rooms certainly we did an extra charge of five louis was made for the season s privilege of entering the inner group or as it was called i shall never forget my first sight of the famous tables in the outer rooms for we were not venturing into the inner at present aside from the of the crowd which was as impressive as an opera first night and the quality of the room a at forty which was rich and brilliant i was most vividly impressed by the vast quantities of money scattered so freely over the tables small piles of gold louis of eight ten fifteen and even twenty five pieces of pale crisp bank notes whose value was anywhere from one hundred to one thousand it was like looking through the s window of an immense bank the and of the wheel i did not understand at first nor the exact duties of the many seated at each table their cry of ne a i and the subsequent together of the shining coin with the little or the throwing back of silver gold and notes to the lucky my attention like a great god i i thought supposing i was to win a thousand pounds with my fifteen i should stay in europe an entire year like all i watched the process with large eyes and then seeing get back five gold louis for one placed on a certain number i ventured one of my own result three louis i tried again on another number and won two more i saw myself in fancy the happy possessor of a thousand pounds my next adventure cost me two louis whereupon i began to wonder whether i was such a fortunate player after all come with me said coming around to where i stood my small sums with indescribable excitement and taking my arm i want to send some money to my mother for luck i ve just won fifteen pounds talk about superstition i replied coming away from the table i did n t believe it of you i m discovered he smiled besides i want to send some sweets to the children we strolled out into the bright afternoon sun finding the terrace comparatively empty for the draws the of gold i most of the crowd during the middle and late afternoon it was strange to leave these shaded lighted rooms with their of well dressed men and women sitting about or bending over tables all on the one thrilling thing the drop of the little white ball in a certain pocket and come out into the glittering white world with its blazing sun its visible blue sea its cream colored buildings and its waving palms we went to several shops one for sweets and one for flowers in their atmosphere and duly our purchases then we went to the post office with instructions in various languages and saw that the money was sent to s mother then we returned to the and went his way while i wandered from board to board studying the crowd an occasional louis and finally managing to lose three pounds more than i had won in despair i went to see what was doing he had three or four of gold coin in front of him at a certain table all of five hundred dollars he was these in small of ten and fifteen louis and made no sign when he won or lost on several occasions i thought he was certain to win a great sum so were gold louis thrown him by the but on others i felt equally sure he was to be disposed of so freely were his gold pieces scraped away from him how are you making out i asked i think i ve lost eight hundred if i should win this though i risk a bee a what s a bee a a thousand note my poor little three louis seemed suddenly insignificant a lady sitting next to him a woman of perhaps fifty with a cool calculating face had perhaps as much a at forty as two thousand dollars in gold and notes piled up before her all around the table were these piles of gold silver and notes it was a fascinating scene there that ends me observed all at once his stock of gold on certain numbers disappearing with the of the now i m done we might walk out in the and watch the crowd all his good gold so quietly in by the was lingering painfully in my memory i was beginning to see plainly that i would not make a good such a loss distressed me how much did you lose i inquired oh a thousand he replied we strolled up and down on one type and another and yet with a genial which was amusing i remember a charming looking a radiant type of with finely features slim delicate fingers a dainty little foot who clad in a costume of black and white silk which fitted her with all the airy grace of	43
a bon bon ribbon about its box stood looking about as if she expected to meet some one look at her commented with that biting little ha ha of his which involved the greatest depths of critical sarcasm imaginable there she is she s lost her last louis and she s looking for some one to pay for her dinner i had to smile to myself at the man s indifference to the lady s beauty her obvious charms had not the slightest interest for him of another lovely creature who went by with her head held high and her lips parted in a way he observed she that in front of her mirror and finding nothing else to attack finally the of gold turned to me i say it s a wonder you don t take a there s your american bar it s the wrong time i replied you don t understand the art of drinking i should hope not he returned finally after much more criticism of the same sort arrived having lost ten louis and we for tea as usual an interesting argument arose now not only as to where we were to dine but how we were to live our very lives in now i should think said it would be nice if we were to dine at the princess you can get sole and d la there and their are excellent besides we can t drive to the every evening just as i thought commented bitterly just as i thought now that we are staying at a half hour or so away we will dine in i knew it we will do no such thing we will go back to the change our clothes dine simply and this from the man who had just lost a thousand come back here buy our tickets for the and inside first we go to and spend a time among a lot of and now we hang around the outer rooms of the we can t live at the hotel de paris or enter the but we can dine at the princess well we will do no such thing besides a little will not do you any harm you need not waste all your money on your stomach the man had a gay which delighted me merely contemplated the ceiling of the where we were gathered while sir rattled on in this fashion i expected to get tickets for the he a at forty soothed and added it will cost at least twenty to drive over to the exactly replied as i predicted we can t live in but we can pay twenty to get over to cap martin thank heaven there are still street cars i do not need to spend all my money on shabby carriages riding out in the cold it was a heavenly night i think we d better dine at the princess and go home early pleaded we re all tired to morrow i suggest that we go up to la for lunch that will prove a nice diversion and after that we ll come down and get our tickets for the come now do be reasonable ought to see something of the life of as usual won we did go to the princess we did have sole we did have d la we did have some excellent wine and was in his glory chapter we go to the charms of are many our first morning there to the sound of a horn blowing in the distance i was up enjoying the wonderful spectacles from my balcony the sun was just peeping up over the surface of an sea shooting sharp golden glances in every direction up on the mountains which rise sharp and clear like great back of the villages of this coast it was picking out shepherd s hut and fallen of the glory that was rome a or two was already making its way out to sea and below me on that long point of land which is cap martin stretching like a thin green spear into the sea was the splendid olive orchard which i noted the day before its gleaming leaves showing a different shade of green from what it had then i did not know it until the subject came up that olive trees live to be a thousand years old and that they do as well here on this little strip of coast protected by the high mountains at their back as they do anywhere in italy in fact as i think of it this lovely of land no wider than to permit of a few small villages and cities crowding between the sea and the mountains is a true of italy itself its palms olive trees umbrella trees and its and architecture i understand that a french half french half italian is spoken here and that only here are the hill cities truly the same as they are in italy while i was gazing at the morning sun and the blue a at forty sea and how quickly the comfortable express had whirled us out of the cold winds of paris into this sun kissed land must have been up and for presently he appeared pink and clean in his brown dressing gown to sit out on my lovely balcony with me you know he said after he had commented on the wonder of the morning and the delicious soothing quality of the cool air is certainly an old there he lies in there now ready to on us of course he isn t very strong physically and that makes him irritable he does so love to be contrary i think he is a good running mate for you i observed if he to in the matter of food you certainly run to the other extreme is a mild expression for your character you don t mean it i certainly do in	43
what way have i shown myself i charged him with various crimes my lecture was interrupted by the arrival of rolls and coffee and we decided to take breakfast in the company of we knocked at his door there he was propped up in bed his face crowned by his black hair and set with those burning dark eyes a figure of almost classic significance ah he exclaimed grimly here he comes the s guide to europe now do be cheerful this morning do be remember it is a lovely morning you are on the we are going to have a charming time we go to you are anyway commented i am the most of men i assure you commented i would do anything to make you happy we will go up to la to day if you say and order a charming lunch after that we will go to if you say and on to nice for dinner if you think fit we will go into the there for a little while and then return isn t that a simple and satisfactory and i will walk up to la you can join us at one for lunch you think he ought to see don t you yes if there is n t some de paris hidden away up there somewhere where you can again if we can just manage to get you past the so it was agreed and i would walk sir was to follow by train as the day was and perfect all those special articles of purchased in london for this trip were extracted from our luggage and duly put on light weight suits straw hats and ties of delicate tints and then we set forth the road lay in easy swinging s s up and up past and garden patches and old stone cottages and with their patient little heavily i noticed even at this height came grumbling up or tearing down and always the tree with its whispering black green needles and the graceful umbrella tree made artistic frames for the of the sea here and now i should like to pay my tribute to the tree i saw it later in all its perfection at rome and elsewhere in italy but here at or rather outside of it i saw it first i never saw it connected with anything or commonplace and wherever it grows there is dignity and beauty it is not to be seen anywhere in a at forty contact with this feverish world of it is as proud as beauty itself as haughty as achievement by old ruins in sacred burial grounds by worn gates and forgotten palaces it and sighs it is as mournful as death as in its mien as great age and experience a tree of the elders where rome grew it grew and to greek and roman temples in their prime and pride it added its sacred company plant a tree near my grave when i am dead to think of its tall body towering like a stately monument over me would be all that i could ask if some of this substance which seems to be that which is i physically here on this earth should mingle with its fretted roots and be into the noble shaft of its body i should be glad it would be a graceful and artistic way to disappear into the unknown our climb to la was in every respect delightful we stopped often to comment on the character of the peaks to as to the age of the stone huts about half way up we came to a little inn called the which really hangs on the of this great range commanding the wide blue sweep of the below and here imder the shade of umbrella trees and and with the in full bloom and with some blossom which called blowing everywhere we took seats at a little green table to have a pot of tea it is an american inn this with an american flag fluttering high on a white pole and an american atmosphere not unlike that of a country in there were some chickens scratching about the door and at least three in separate bright brass hung in the branches of the surrounding trees they sang we go to with tremendous energy with the passing of a whose spotted cotton shirt and earth colored trousers and dusty skin the lean narrow life of the peasant we discussed wealth and poverty lavish expenditure and the like quality of the women of fashion and of pleasure who eat and eat and and themselves of the things of life without aim or even thought the peasant on this with perhaps no more than ten cents a day to set his beggar board while below the idle company in the shining like a white temple from where we sat were wasting thousands upon thousands of dollars agreed most solemnly with it all he was quite sympathetic the tables there he said even while we looked were with gold and the prince of was building with his useless marine which no one visited i was constantly forgetting in our about the neighborhood how small the of is i am sure it would fit nicely into ten city blocks a large portion of on french territory only the the terrace the heights of belong to the one half of a well known there i believe is in and the other half in france la on the heights here the long road we had come almost everything in fact was in france we went into the french to mail cards and then on to the french commanding the heights this particular commands a magnificent view a circle about which the turned in front of its door was supported by a stone wall resting on the sharp slope of the mountain below all the windows of	43
its principal looked out over the sea and of the wonderful view i was never weary the room had an oriental touch o a at forty and the white tables and black accorded ill with this still it offered that of service which only the french possess was for waiting for who had not arrived i was for eating as i was hungry finally we sat down to luncheon and we were the sweet when in he came his black eyes burned with their usual critical fire if sir had been born with a religious spirit instead of a for art he would have been a st francis of as it was without anything to base it on except s he had already established moral over our actions ah here you are eating as usual he observed with that touch of lofty sarcasm which at once amused and irritated me no excursion without a meal as its object sit down el i commented and note the beautiful view this should delight your soul it might delight mine but i am not so sure about yours would certainly see nothing in it if there were not a here ha i found a waiter here who used to serve me in the royal in london observed cheerfully now we can die content sighed we have been recognized by a french waiter on the ha never happy he added turning to me unless he is being recognized by somewhere his one claim to glory we went out to see the ruined monument to crumbling on this high mountain and commanding the great blue sweep of the below there were a number of things in connection with this monument which were exceedingly interesting it illustrated so well the roman method of construction a vast we go to core of and brick faced with marble informed me that only recently the french government had issued an order preventing the removal of any more of the marble much of which had already been stolen away or cut up here into other forms immense marble drums of pure white stone were still lying about fallen from their places and in the huts of the peasant of la could be seen parts of once noble pillars set into the fabric of their shabby or used as comer stones to support their pathetic little i recall seeing several of these immense drums of stone set at queer angles under the paper walls of the huts the native having built on them as a base quite as a spider might attach its net to a substantial bush or stone i reflected at length on the fate of greatness and how little the treasures of one age may be to another time and chance and ignorance lie in wait for them all the village of la although in france gave me my first real taste of the italian village high up on this mountain above in touch really with the of expenditure clothes jewels architecture food here it stood quite as it must have been standing for the last three or four hundred years its narrow streets up and down between houses of gray stone or brick covered with gray i thought of how he always turned the comers of the dark narrow streets of rome in as wide a circle as possible in order to save himself from any lurking that he might draw his own knife quickly dirt and age and and romance it was in these terms that la spoke to us although anxious to proceed to not so very far away which they both assured me was so much more a at forty and characteristic yet we lingered looking lovingly up and down narrow passages where stairs gracefully where arches curved over streets and where plants bravely in spotted crumbling windows age age and with it men women and children of the usual poverty stricken italian type not french but women with blue or purple skirts white or colored black hair wrinkled yellow or brown faces glittering dark eyes and like hands not far from the of this scene flourishing like a great at the foot of his magnificent column was a public fountain of what date i do not know the of the community were hard at their washing the wet clothes in masses on the stone rim of the basin they were and chattering their skirts up at their their heads wound about with of various colors it brought back to my mind by way of contrast the gloomy wash and bath house in green which i have previously commented on despite poverty and ignorance the scene here was so much more inviting even inspiring under a blue sky in the rays of a bright afternoon sun beside a but none the less lovely fountain they seemed a very different kind of mortal far more fortunate than those i had seen in green and what can do toward supplying blue skies broken fountains and stirring and delightful atmosphere would provide these things with many backward glances we departed conveyed hence in an inadequate little vehicle drawn by one of the horses it has ever been my lot to ride behind the cheerful driver was as fat as his horse was lean and as dusty as the road itself we were tightly we go to in the single green cloth seat on one side i on the other in the middle as usual on the charm of life and enduring cheerfully all the cares and difficulties of his exalted and self constituted office of guide and friend deep green valleys dizzy along which the narrow road skirted nervously tall tops of hills that rose about you or so runs the road to and we followed it sir so dizzy contemplating the depths that we had to hold him in was gay and i never knew	43
sir we would take tea at s we would not take tea at s we would dine at the we would not dine at the we would pay i forget how many louis and enter the chambers of the we would not do anything of the sort it was desired by that i should see the wonders of the sea walk with the waves the protecting wall it was desired by that i should look in all the shop windows with him and hear him instruct in the s art how these matters were finally adjusted is lost in the haze of succeeding impressions we did have tea at s however a very commonplace but bright affair and then we in front of shop windows where sir pointed out really jewels offered to the public for we go to sums one great diamond he knew to have been in the possession of the of turkey and you may well trust his word and his understanding a certain here displayed had once been in his possession and was now offered at exactly ten times what he had originally sold it for a certain cut steel very large and very handsome was designed by himself and was first given as a remembrance to a friend result endless imitation by the best shops he over and suggesting charming uses for them and then finally we came to the the with its chambers its great dining rooms its public lounging room with such a world of green chairs and tables as i have never seen the great at atlantic city are not so large being the height of the season it was of course filled to overflowing by a brilliant throng and drawn here from all parts of europe and of all sir as usual in his gentle but decided way raised an argument concerning what we should have for dinner the mere suggestion that it should be d la and champagne threw him into a chill i will not pay for it you can spend your money showing off if you choose but i will eat a simple meal else oh no protested we are here for a pleasant evening i think it important that should see this it need not be a la we can have sole and a light so sole it was and a light and a bottle of water for sir chapter nice not having as yet been in the at i was perhaps impressed by the splendor of the rooms devoted to gambling in this large there were eight hundred or a thousand people all in evening clothes who had paid a heavy price for the mere privilege of entering and were now gathered about handsome mahogany tables under glittering and playing a variety of carefully devised gambling games with a that at times makes in other causes to a humble minded american person like myself unused to the high world of fashion this spectacle was to say the least an interesting one here were a dozen represented by men and women whose hands were to perfection whose were all that a high social occasion might require their faces showing in every instance a keen un of their world and how it works here in nice if you walk away from these of social perfection where health and beauty and and money abound the vast run of citizens are as poverty stricken as any but this collection of nobility and gentry of intellectual and savage beauties is from all over the world i hold that is something to see the tables were fairly with a fascinating throng all very much alike in their attitude and their love of the game but still individual and interesting i venture to say that any one of the people i saw nice in this room if you saw him in a crowd on the street would take your attention a native force and went with each one i wondered constantly where they all came from it takes money to come to the it takes money to buy your way into any gambling room it takes money to and what is more it takes a certain amount of self assurance and individual selection to come here at all by your mere presence you are putting yourself in contact and contrast with a notable standard of social achievement your your ability to take care of yourself your breeding and your are at once not but unconsciously do you really belong here the eyes of the attendants ask you as you pass and the glitter and color and life and beauty of the room is a constant challenge it did not surprise me in the least that all these men and women in their health and carried themselves with c almost they might well do so as the world judges these material things for they are certainly far removed from the rank and file of the streets and to see them from their and their pockets of gold of crisp notes that represented a thousand each and with an almost indifferent air laying them on their favorite numbers or was to my eye a experience yet i was not interested in gambling only in the people who played i know that to the of this world who are fascinated by chance and find their amusement in such playing this atmosphere is commonplace it was not so to me i watched the women particularly the beautiful women who strolled about the chambers with their solely to show off their fine clothes you a at forty see a certain type of youth here who seems to be experienced in this gay world that from one resort to another for you hear such phrases as oh yes i saw her at les or she was at last summer is that the same	43
fellow she was with last year i thought she was living with this of a second individual my heaven how well she keeps up or this must be her first season here i have never seen her before two or three of these young would follow a woman all around the rooms watching her admiring her beauty quite as a might examine the fine points of a horse and all the while you could see that she was keenly aware of the critical fire of these eyes at the tables was another t of woman whom i had first casually noticed at a not too good looking rather practical and perhaps type of woman usually inclined to as is so often the case with women of indolent habits and no temperament although now that i think of it i have the feeling that neither illusion nor have ever played much part in the lives of such as these they looked to me like women who from their youth up had taken life with a grain of salt and who had never been carried away by anything much neither love nor fashion nor children nor ambition perhaps their keenest interest had always been money the having and holding of it and here they sat not not apparently interested in chance and very likely winning and losing by turns their principal purpose being i fancy to avoid the and monotony of an existence which they are not anxious to endure i heard one or two comments on women of this type while i was abroad but i cannot say that they did more than ap nice peal to my s supposing to look at it from another point of view you were a woman of forty five or fifty you have no family nothing to hold you perhaps but a collection of dreary relatives or the of a conventional neighborhood with prejudices that are wearisome to your sense of liberty and freedom if by any chance you have money here on the is your resource you can live in a wonderful climate of sun and blue water you can see nature clad in her the year you can see fashion and types and exchange the gossip of all the world you can go to really excellent the best that europe and for leisure from ten o clock in the morning until four or five o clock the next morning you can if you choose silently indifferently without as long as your means endure if you are of a or calculating turn of mind you can amuse yourself infinitely by attempting to solve the strange puzzle of chance how numbers fall and why it leads off at last i know into the of and the of the are not more subtle than the strange of that are here indulged in certain people are supposed to have a and physical attraction for numbers or cards dreams are of great importance it is bad to sit by a losing person good to sit by a winning one every conceivable of thought in relation to personality is here indulged in and when all is said and done in spite of the wonders of their calculations it comes to about the same old thing they win and lose win and lose win and lose now and then some interesting personality stranger youth or other wins heavily or loses heavily a at forty in which case if he fiercely on his table will be surrounded by a curious throng their heads over each other s shoulders while he piles his gold on his such a man or woman for the time being becomes an intensely dramatic figure he is aware of the audacity of the thing he is doing and he moves with conscious gestures the manner of a grand i saw one such later in the at a red bearded man of fifty tall intense graceful it was that he was a prince out of russia almost any one can be a prince out of russia at he had of gold and he distributed it with a lavish hand he piled it in little golden towers over a score of numbers and when his numbers fell wrong his towers fell with them and the great masses of metal into his basket there was not the slightest indication on his pale face that the loss or the gain was of the slightest interest to him he handed crisp bills to the clerk in charge of the bank and received more gold to play his numbers when he wearied after a dozen failures a breathing throng watching him with moist lips and damp eager eyes he rose and strolled forth to another chamber rolling a as he went he had lost thousands and thousands the next morning it was lovely and again sitting out on my balcony high over the surrounding land commanding as it did all of the bay of and cap martin i made many solemn resolutions this gay life here was and artificial i decided gambling was a vice in spite of sir s lofty for it it drew to and around it the allied of the world vain glory i resolved here in the cool morning that i would reform i would see nice something of the surrounding country and then leave for italy where i would forget all this i started out with about ten to see the museum and to lunch at the princess but the day did not work out exactly as we planned we visited the museum but i found it dull the sort of a thing a prince making his money out of gambling would it may have vast scientific but i doubt it a collection of insects and dried specimens quickly gave me a headache the only	43
promptly gave him a for his trouble my pocket was with italian silver and paper five and ten pieces which i had secured the day before finally my train rolled in and i took one last look at the sea in the fading light and entered sir gave me parting instructions as to simple that i would find at different places in italy not the and expensive beloved of he wanted me to save money on food and have my portrait painted by which i could have done he assured me with a letter from him he looked wisely around the platform to see that there was no suspicious lady anywhere in the and said he suspected one might be going with me oh i said how could you besides i am very poor now the ruling passion strong in poverty he commented and waved me a farewell i walked forward through the train looking for my and encountered she was eager to explain by signs that the cook s man had told her to get off at m thomas cook il il je d pas she understood well enough that if she wanted to get back to early in the she would have to make this train as the next was not before ten o clock i led the way to a table in the dining car still vacant and we talked as only people can talk who have no common language by the most astonishing efforts made it known that she would not stay at a at forty very long now and that if i wanted her to come to when i got there she would also she kept talking about and horseback riding in april she a smart rider holding the reins with one hand and to the horse with her lips she folded her hands to show how heavenly it would be then she put her right hand over her eyes and waved her left hand to indicate that there were lovely which we could contemplate finally she extracted all her bills from the hotel de paris and they were astonishing to show me how expensive her life was at but i refused to be impressed it did not make the least difference however in her attitude or her mood she was just as cheerful as ever and repeated as the train stopped and she stepped off she reached up and gave me an affectionate farewell kiss the last i saw of her she was standing her arms her head thrown back looking after the train it was due to a railroad wreck about twenty miles beyond that i awe my acquaintance with one of the most interesting men i have met in years a man who was very charming to me afterwards in rome but before that i should like to relate how i first really entered italy one afternoon several days before and i paid a flying visit to some twenty miles over the border a hill city and the agreed customs entry city between france and italy no train leaving france in this region so i learned stopped before it reached and none leaving stopped before it entered france and once there customs seized upon one and examined one s baggage if you have no baggage you are almost an object of suspicion in italy a first glimpse of italy on the first visit we came to scale the walls of this old city which was much like and commanded the sea from a great eminence but after it was not that interested me so much as the fact that italy was so different from france in landing at i had felt the astonishing difference between england and the united states in landing at the atmosphere of england had fallen from me like a cloak and france its high color and enthusiasm had succeeded to it here this day stepping off the train at only a few miles from i was once more astonished at the sharp change that had come over the spirit of man here were not french dark vivid interesting little men who it seemed to me were so much more inclined to and stare than the french that they appeared to be vain they were keen like the french but strange to say not so gay so light hearted so devil may care italy it seemed to me at once was much poorer than france and was very quick to point it out a different people he commented not like the french much darker and more mysterious see the cars how poor they are you will note that everywhere and the buildings the trains the rolling stock is not so good look at the houses the life here is more poverty stricken italy is poor very i like it and i don t some things are splendid my mother rome i the french temperament it is so much more light hearted so he on it was all true accurate and keenly observed i could not feel that i was anywhere save in a land that was seeking to itself but that had a long way to go the men the officials and of whom there were a clad in remarkable and even astonishing appealed to my eye but the souls of them to a at forty begin with did not take my fancy i felt them to be suspicious and greedy here for the first time i saw the uniform of the italian smart looking in long round hats of shiny leather with glossy green feathers and carrying short swords this night as i crossed the border after leaving i thought of all i had seen the day i came with when we reached it was pitch dark and being alone and speaking no italian whatsoever i was confused by the thought of approaching	43
difficulties presently a customs descended on me a large bearded individual who by signs made me understand that i had to go to the baggage car and open my trunk i went supplied the only light i felt as though i were in a s cave yet i came through well enough nothing was found i went back and sat down plunging into a for italian wisdom and wishing gloomily that i had read more history than i had somewhere beyond the train came to a dead stop in the dark and the next ng we were still in the same place i had risen early under the impression that i was to get out quickly but was waved back by the porter who repeated over and over de i understood that much but i did not understand what caused it or that i would not arrive in until two in the afternoon i went into the dining car and there encountered one of the most english women that i have ever met she was obviously of the highly intellectual class but so haughty in her manner and so loud spoken in her opinions that she was really offensive she was having her morning fruit and rolls and some and was explaining to a lady who was with her much of the character of italy as she knew it she was of the type that never a first glimpse of italy an opinion from any one but invariably gives her own or any that may be volunteered at one time i think she must have been attractive for she was tall and graceful but her face had become and sallow and a little thin i will not say hard although it was anything but my one wish was that she would stop talking and leave the dining car she talked so loud but she stayed on until her friend and her husband arrived i took him to be her husband by the way she contradicted him he was a very pleasing intellectual person the type of man i thought who would complacently endure such a woman he was certainly not above the medium in height quite well filled out and decidedly i should have said from my first glance that he never took any exercise of any kind and his face had that interesting which comes from much brooding over the midnight oil he had large soft gray eyes and a of gray hair which hung low over a very high white forehead i must repeat here that i am the poorest judge of people whom i am going to like of any human being now and then i take to a person instantly and my feeling for years on the other hand i have taken the most based on nothing at all to people of whom subsequently i have become very fond perhaps my opposition in this case was due to the fact that the gentleman was plainly and by his wife anyhow i gave him a single glance and dismissed him from my thoughts i was far more interested in a stem official looking englishman with white hair who ordered his bottle of in a low rusty voice and cut his orange up into small bits with a knife presently i heard a german explaining to his wife a at forty about a wreck ahead we were just starting now perhaps twenty five or thirty miles from and were dashing in and out of rocky and bursting into wonderful views of walled and sweeps of sea the hill town the striped with its square many arched was coming into view i was delighted to see open plains bordered in the distance by snow mountains and dotted with little huts of stone and brick how old heaven only knows here once the strayed as said italy was much poorer than france the cars and stations seemed the dress of the inhabitants much poorer i saw natives staring idly at the cars as we flashed past or taking freight away from the in rude carts drawn by oxen many of the appeared to be rattle trap dusty and some miles this side of our first stop we ran into a region where it had been and the ground was covered with a wet after with its and orange trees and its lovely palms this was a sad and i could scarcely realize that we were not so much as a hundred miles away and going southward toward rome at that i often saw however distant hills crowned with a or a in high and which made up for the otherwise poor often we dashed through a cave protected by high surrounding walls of rock where the palm came into view again and where one could see how plainly these high walls of stone made for a atmosphere i heard the loud english woman saying it is such a delight to see the high colors again england is so dreary i never feel it so much as when we come down through here we were passing through a small italian town rich in a first glimpse of italy and a world of clothes lines showing between rows of buildings and the crowds pure italian in type to and fro along the streets it was nice to see windows open here and the sunshine pouring down and making dark shadows i saw one italian woman in a pink dotted dress partly covered by a bright yellow apron looking out of a window and then it was that i first got the of italy the thing that i felt afterwards in rome and and and that wonderful love of color that is not but just giving the eye something to feed on when it least expects it that is italy i when nearly all the had left the car the english lady left also and	43
her husband remained to smoke he was not so very far removed from me but he came a little nearer and said the must have their striped churches and their wash lines or they wouldn t be happy it was some time before he volunteered another suggestion which was that the along this part of the coast had a poor region to farm i got up and left presently because i did not want to have anything to do with his wife i was afraid that i might have to talk to her which seemed to me a ghastly prospect i sat in my berth and read the history of art as it related to and interrupting my with glances at every interesting scene the value of the prospect changed first from one side of the train to the other and i went out into the corridor to open a window and look out we passed through a valley where it looked as though grapes were flourishing splendidly and my englishman came out and told me the name of the place saying that it was good wine that was made there he was determined to talk to me a at forty whether i would or no and so i decided to make the best of it it just occurred to me that he might be the least bit lonely and seeing that i was very curious about the country through which we were passing that he might know something about italy the moment it dawned upon me that he might be to me in this respect i began to ask him questions and i found his knowledge to be delightfully wide he knew italy thoroughly as we proceeded he described how the country was divided into three valleys separated by two mountain and what the lines of its early almost development had been he knew where it was that had come to spend his and spots that had been preferred by and other famous englishmen he talked of the cities that lie in a row down the of italy and of the fact that italy had no system whatsoever and that the priests were bitterly opposed to it he was sorry that i was not going to stop at because at the climate was very mild and the gulf very beautiful he was delighted to think that i was going to stop at and see the cathedral and the he commented on the charms of as it had been these later years sa ring that there was a very beautiful and that some of the palaces of the and still remaining were well worth seeing when we passed the of he told me of their age and of how endless the quantity of marble still was he was going to rome with his wife and he wanted to know if i would not look him up giving me the name of a hotel where he lived by the season i caught a note of remarkable for we fell to discussing religion and and the significance of government generally a first glimpse of italy and he astonished me by the breadth of his knowledge we passed to the subject of from which all spring and then i saw how truly philosophic and he was his mind knew no country his knowledge no school he led off by easy stages into vague speculations as to the character of race impulses and i knew i had chanced upon a profound scholar as well as a very genial person i was very sorry now that i had been so rude to him by the time we reached we were fast friends and he told me that he had a distinguished friend now a resident of and that he would give me a letter to him which would bring me charming intellectual companionship for a day or two i promised to seek him out at his hotel and as we passed the leaning tower and the not so very distant from the railroad track as we entered he gave me his card i recognized the name as connected with some intellectual labors of a most distinguished character and i said so he accepted the recognition gracefully and asked me to be sure and come he would show me around rome i gathered my bags and stepped out upon the platform at eager to see what i could in the few hours that i wished to remain chapter xxx a stop at says that has a population of twenty seven thousand two hundred people and that it is a quiet town it is i caught the spell of a score of places like this as i walked out into the open square facing the the most amazing of a monument i ever saw in my life i saw here a puffing swelling representation of i legs apart whiskers an amazing all the details of a gaudy uniform a breast like a outrageous i it was about twelve or thirteen times as large as an ordinary man and not more than twelve or fifteen feet from the ground i he looked like a a monster to eat babies ready to leap upon you with loud cries i thought in heaven s name i is this what italy is coming to i how can it brook such an with the spirit of adventure strong within me i decided to find the and the cathedral for myself i had seen it up the railroad track and appealing guides with urgent melancholy eyes i struck up walled streets of brown and gray and green with solid tight closed wooden shutters and noiseless empty they were not exactly narrow which astonished me a little for i had not learned that only the older portions of growing italian cities have narrow streets all the sections which surround such modem things as are wide and up to	43
the and the outer walls are solid and decorated on the inside with those light colored of the pupils of the inner wall is full of arched pierced windows with many delicate columns through which you look to the green grass and the trees and the perfectly smooth ornamented dome at one end i have paid my tribute to the trees so i will only say that here as always wherever i saw them one or many i thrilled with delight they are as fine as any of the monuments or bronze doors or carved or perfect they belong where the great artistic impulse of italy has always put side by side with perfect things for me they added the one final necessary touch to this realm of romantic memory i see them now and i hear them sigh i walked back to my train through highly colored winding quaint streets crowded with houses the of which we in america to day attempt to imitate on our fifth avenues and a at forty avenues and squares the knew so well what to do with the door and the window and the and the wall space the size of their window is what they choose to make it and the door is instinctively put where it will give the last touch of elegance how often have i mentally applauded that artistic and reserve which will use one of colored stone or one or one lamp or one window and no more there is space lots of it unbroken until you have had just enough and then it will be relieved just enough by a marble framed in the walls a coat of arms a window s i would like to run on in my enthusiasm and describe that of a palace that is now the at but i will refrain only these streets in were rich with angles and and wonderful and solid plain fronts which were at once substantial and elegant trust the italian of an older day to do well whatever he did at all and i for one do not think that this instinct is lost it will burst into flame again in the future or save greatly what it already possesses chapter first impressions of rome as we approached rome in the darkness i was on the qui for my first glimpse of it and impatient with wonder as to what the morning would reveal i was bound for the hotel continental the abode for the winter at least of s mother the widow of an oxford don i expected to encounter a severe and lady of great who would eye the of paris and with severity my mother said is a very person she is greatly concerned about me when you see her try to cheer her up and give her a good report of me i don t doubt you will find her very interesting and it is just possible that she will take a fancy to you she is subject to violent likes and i fancied mrs as a rather large woman with a smooth placid countenance a severe intellectual eye that would see through all my and make believes on the instant it was midnight before the train arrived it was and as i pressed my nose to the window pane the beginning lamps i saw streets and houses come into view apartment houses if you please and street cars and electric arc lights and paved streets and a general atmosphere of we might have been entering for any particular it presented but just when i was to myself on the strangeness of entering ancient rome in a modem car and of seeing box cars and engines i a at forty coal cars and flat cars loaded with heavy material gathered on a score of parallel tracks a touch of the ancient rome came into view for an instant and was gone again in the dark and rain it was an immense desolate tomb its arches flung in great curves its rounded dome rent and jagged by time nothing but ancient rome could have produced so imposing a ruin arid it came over me in an instant fresh and clear like an electric shock like a dash of cold water that this was truly all that was left of the might and glory of an older day i recall now with delight the richness of that sensation rome that could build the walls and the in far and london rome that could occupy the st louis in paris as an that could erect the immense column to on the heights above rome that could reach to the uppermost waters of the and the banks of the and and rule was around me here it vas the city to which st paul had been brought where st peter had sat as the first father of the church where the first had set up their shrine to and and the she wolf that had nourished them yes this was rome truly enough in spite of the apartment houses and the street cars and the electric lights i came into the great station at five minutes after twelve amid a of italian and a crowd of passengers i made my way to the baggage room looking for a cook s guide to inquire my way to the continental when i was seized upon by one are you mr he said i replied that i was mrs told me to say that she was waiting for you and that you should come right over and inquire for her i hurried away followed by a laboring porter and first impressions of rome found her waiting for me in the hotel not the large severe person i had imagined but a small enthusiastic gracious little lady she told me that my room was all ready and that the bath that i	43
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 wanted 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 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 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 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 what 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 working 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 comer 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 from the earth such wonders as the and taken	43
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 mark and a score of others it was amazing to me to see how like the modem 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 in her very enthusiastic way she is charming i am sure	43
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 i when he was forty nine he took to himself as his favorite the former wife of three different husbands i by who was very charming he had four children all of i whom he highly afterwards duke of bom 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 his children or he would not have torn	43
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 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 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 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 jumping out from behind a column sought refuge behind alexander the pope who spread out his purple robe to protect him through which 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 in this sick chamber doorway suddenly and unexpectedly one day there appears the figure of 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 this is a family affair and father is very fond of caesar so the matter is hushed up witness the interesting final chapters 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 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 caesar 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 was a fight over his coffin between priests of different and belonging to caesar the coffin being too short his body was down in	43
chicken merchant was a large woman very stout very fair very cautious of her thoughts and her conduct thoroughly sympathetic 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 of 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 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 somewhat 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 climbed 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 i 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 rose leaf proposition the picture of these noble down the fall of rose leaves cheered me greatly after my first excursion with i decided	43
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 which 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 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 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 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 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	43
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 and the judge who was tr him all firm would not accept this 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 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 in the catholic church but it at an early age 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 morning 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 is probably catholic he said or nearly so but it isn t the kind of that cares for influence in political	43
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 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 francis had been born here of a well to do father that he had led a gay life in his youth had had his vision 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 without 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 ill s 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 of the houses are for the most part built of dull gray stone the streets climbed up hill and down	43
hard winding narrow stony affairs lined right to the a at forty by these bare looking houses no yards no gardens at least none visible from the streets but between walls and down street and between odd angles of buildings the loveliest of the valley below where were spread great of olive trees occasional small groups of houses distant churches and the mountains on the other side of the valley quite suited to the self spirit of st francis i thought and i wondered if the town had changed greatly since his day as i came up in the looking after my very un st francis like luggage and my precious fur overcoat i encountered a pale looking french priest l general pas de france he wrote out his address for me who looking at me over his french every now and then finally asked in his own tongue do you speak french i shook my head and smiled again i had to shake my head c est he said and went on reading he was clad in a black that reached to his feet the buttons nicely down his chest and carried only a small and an umbrella we reached the hotel and i found that he was stopping there once on the way up he waved his hand out of the window and said something i think he was indicating that we could see further up the valley in the dining room where i found him after being assigned to my room he offered me his bill of fare and indicated that a certain italian dish was the best this hotel to which we had come was a bare little affair it was new enough one of cook s to which all the under the direction of that agency are sent the walls were quite white and clean the of the rooms were high over high the city of st francis windows and doors my room i found gave upon a balcony which commanded the wonderful sweep of plain below the dining room contained six or seven other bound either southward towards rome or northward towards and it was a rather day not cold and not warm but cheerless i can still hear the of the knives and forks as the few guests ate in silence or conversed in low tones in this world seem almost of each other particularly when they are few in number and meet in some such the way place as this my catholic was longing to be with me i could feel it but this lack of a common tongue prevented him or seemed to as i was leaving i asked the proprietor to say to him that i was sorry that i did not speak french that if i did i would be glad to accompany him and he immediately reported that the said would i not come along anyhow he ask said the proprietor a small stout dark man you not come certainly i replied and so the and i apparently not understanding a word of each other s language started out together i had almost said arm in arm i soon learned that while my french priest did not speak english he read it after a fashion and if he took plenty of time he could form an occasional sentence it took time however he began in no vivid or enthusiastic fashion to be sure to indicate what the different things were as we went along now the sights of are not many if you are in a hurry and do not fall in love with the quaint and picturesque character of it and its wonderful views you can do them all in a day an afternoon if you there is the church of st francis with its associated a at forty what an a seems in connection with st francis who thought only of huts of branches or holes in the rocks with its of the saint in the lower church and the scenes from st francis s life by in the upper the church of st with its tomb and the body of that enthusiastic of st francis the or cathedral begun in a rather poor specimen of a cathedral after some others and the church of st which was given the chapel of it to st francis by the of soon after he had begun his work of preaching the life there is also the of the where in small holes in the rocks the early led a life and the new church raised on the site of the house belonging to the father of st francis who was in the cloth business i cannot say that i followed with any too much enthusiasm the involved historical artistic and religious details of these churches and st francis wonderful of god that he was was not interested in churches and so much as he was in the self life of christ he did not want his followers to have in the first place carry neither gold nor silver nor money in your nor bag nor two coats nor nor staff for the workman is worthy of his hire i liked the church of st francis however for in spite of the fact that it is gray and bare as a edifice it is a double church one below the other and seemingly running at right angles and they are both large churches each complete with choir and the like the is lovely in the best italian manner and through the of the walls wonderful views of the valley below may be secured the lower church the city of st francis gray and varied in its interior is rich in by and others dealing with the sacred vows of the the upper the decorated with by the life of st francis the latter	43
interested me immensely because i knew by now that these were almost the beginning of italian and religious art and because from the evidences his work affords must have been such a and pleasant old soul i fairly laughed aloud as i stalked about this great of the upper church the was still below at some of the good old italian s attempts at and composition it is no easy thing if you are the founder of a whole line of great artists called upon to teach them something entirely new in the way of life expression to get all the wonderful things you see and feel into a certain picture or series of pictures but tried it and he succeeded very well too the are not great but they are quaint and lovely even if you have to admit at times that an of to day could draw and compose better he could n t intend better however nor convey more human tenderness and feeling in gay light and therein lies the whole secret there are some twenty eight of these ranged along the lower walls on either side st francis stepping on the cloak of the poor man who him as a saint spread it down before him st francis giving his cloak to the poor nobleman st francis seeing the vision of the palace which was to be reared for him and his followers st francis in the car of fire st francis driving the devils away from st francis before the st francis preaching to the birds and so on it was very charming i could not help thinking what a severe blow has been given to religious legend since those days however nowadays except in the minds of the ig o a at forty saints and devils and angels and and holy visions have all but disappeared the grand of religious notions as they relate to the life of christ have all but vanished for the time being anyhow even in the brains of the masses and we are having an invasion of or something it even at the bottom the which has the men at the top in all ages is down to the bottom the newspaper and the magazine even in italy in something of politics and is creeping in the seems very as yet a mere but it has begun even in i saw newspapers and a weekly in a local shop the natives the aged ones very thin shabby and pale run into the churches at all hours of the day to prostrate themselves before helpless saints but nevertheless the newspapers are in the shops old s that are not managed by is slowly down we have scores of men in the world to day as old and as we will have hundreds and thousands after a while only they will be much more in their and they will work hard for the state perhaps there won t be so much useless praying before useless images when that time comes the thought of divinity in the individual needs to be more fully developed while i was wandering thus and i was interested at the same time in the faithful enthusiasm my was in the details of the art of this great church he followed me about for a time in my idle wanderings as i studied the details of this one of the earliest of churches and then he went away by himself returning every so often to find in my guide book certain passages which he wanted me to the city of st francis read pointing to certain and exclaiming i da finally he said in plain english but very slowly did you ever read a life of st francis i must confess that my knowledge pf the of italian art aside from the lines of its general development is slim alas in italian art and in art in general is like trifling with some soothing the more you know the more you want to know we continued our way and finally we found a who both english and french a peculiar looking man tall and who appeared to be very widely experienced in the world indeed he explained more of the the history of the church the present state of the here and so on the other places as i have said did not interest me so much though i accompanied my friend the wherever he was impelled to go he inquired about new york looking up and waving his hand upward as indicating great height great buildings and i knew he was thinking of our american bar he said to himself a bird american steam heat american i had to smile side by side we proceeded through the church of st the the new church raised on the site of the house that belonged to the father of the saint and finally to the church of san where after st francis had seen the vision of the new life he went to pray after it was given him by the he set about the work of it and when once it was in charge of the poor after the command of his order he returned thither to rest and compose the of the law i never knew until i came to what a business this thing of a at forty religion is in italy how valuable the and churches of an earlier day are to its thousands of must pass this way each year they support the only good hotels from all nations come english french german american russian and the attendants at the reap a small from the tips of visitors and they are always there lively and almost in their attentions the oldest and most faded of all the guides and attendants throng about the churches and of so	43
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 flat 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 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 tiiat 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 rs such an excellent device wherewith to trap the and the feed them with a fine seeming and then put a tax on their humble seems to be the logic of in regard to the mass anything to obtain power and authority i anything to rule i 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 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	43
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 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 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 and which built a hall called the hall of the which is very charming and at another time	43
or nearly the same time there was a dominant party which in with some wealthy known as the built what is now known as the or in what is now known as the which i think is perfect it is not a fortress like the or the at but it is a perfect thing the charm of which remains with me fresh and keen it is a beautiful structure one that serves the uses to which it is put that of a public for officials and a picture gallery it was in one of these rooms devoted to a collection of art that i found a collection of the work of the one really important painter who ever lived or worked in and the little city now makes much of him if i felt like the long art of comparatively trivial things the charm and variety of the town and its present day life was in no wise lost upon me the things the things which the do not talk about are sometimes so charming i found it to descend of a morning by lovely cool stone passages from the of to the of the army and watch the soldiers principally cavalry their ground was a space about five acres in extent as flat as a table set high above the plain with deep descending on either hand and the quaint houses and public institutions of looking down from above to the left as you looked out over the plain across the intervening was another spur of the town built also on a flat ridge with the graceful church of st peter and its beautiful italian tower and the whole road that swept along the edge of the cliff making a delightful way for carriages and i took delight in seeing how wonderfully the deep green separate one section of the town from another and in watching the soldiers italy then being at war with you could stand your arms resting upon some old green wall and look out over intervening fields a at forty to distant of mountains or tower like and the variety of the of the plain below was never this italian valley was so beautiful that i should like to say one more word about the skies and the wonderful landscape effects north of here in and they do not occur so persistently and with such glorious warmth at this season of the year at this height the nights were not cold but cool and the mornings burst with such a blaze of color as to defy the art of all save the greatest painters they were not so much lurid as richly being shot through with a strange electric radiance this did not mean as it would so often in america that a cloudy day was to follow rather the radiance slowly gave place to a glittering field of light that brought out every slope and olive orchard and distant and pine with amazing clearness the bells of the churches in and in the valley below were like calling to each other from their praying towers as the day closed the features of the landscape seemed to be set in crystal and the and and to have at times a quality outside the walls in the distance were churches and always with a or two sometimes with many which stood out with great distinctness and from distant you would hear singing in the bright sun well might they sing for i know of no place where life would present to them a fairer aspect chapter the makers of all the treasures of my historic reading in mind from the lives of the and to that of and the school of artists i was keen to see what would be like mrs q had described it as the most individual of all the italian cities that she had seen she had over its narrow dark shaded streets its fortress like palaces its highly individual churches and the way the drivers of the little open plied their until she said it sounded like a fourth of july in i was keen to see how large the dome of the cathedral would look and whether it would really tower over the remaining buildings of the city and whether the would look as picturesque as it did in all the photographs the air was so soft and the sun so bright although sinking low in the west as the train entered the city that i was pleased to accept instead of the ancient atmosphere which i had anticipated the wide streets and rows of f six family apartment houses which all the sections they have the rich and of the earlier portion of but they are very different in their suggestion of the distant hills as i could see from the car windows were dotted with houses and occupying delightful positions above the town suddenly i saw the and although i knew it only from photographs i recognized it in an instant it spoke for itself in a large dignified way over the it like a great a at forty and some flying in the air gave it the last touch of beauty we wound around the city in a circle i could tell this by the shifting position of the sun through great yards of railway tracks with scores of engines and lines of small box cars and then i saw a small stream and a bridge nothing like the of course a canal and the next thing we were rolling into a long crowded railway station the guards calling i got up gathered my overcoat and bags into my arms a and gave them to him and then i sought a vehicle that would convey me to the hotel for which i was bound the hotel de on the i sat behind a fat driver while he cracked his	43
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 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 modem 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 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 countenance 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 the or s of the in san or s or s x in the or s the	43
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 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 the 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 apparently they had the notion of morality charity virtue and the like with a 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 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 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 mi 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 to contend with the rough of the world is to destroy its the makers of it was so in this	43
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 an 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 to our own will be wondering how we took our daily lives quite the same as our ancestors i should say and no differently	43
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 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 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 nevertheless i feel called upon to speak i could never in to the breakfast table either there or at rome or in or without a large	43
company of that peculiarly american brand of not rich of no great dignity but comfortable and above all pleased 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 admit that for general purposes the 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 of 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 re ached 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 but tolerable for a strange he seemed to have created 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 i 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 perhaps 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 heavy interminable processes will break any theory i conceive of life as a blind 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 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 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	43
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 tliey 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 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 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 n y 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 heart of the city with street lamps arc lights modem 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 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	43
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 she replied in her queer mixture of french and german i liked 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 i 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 i 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 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 i i 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 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 great as verse there can only be one in all the world no horses no no of cars just the of human feet you listen here and the very language is musical the voices are soft why should they be loud they have nothing	43
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 g eat 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 i what a treasure for a city to have i 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 there can only be o 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 watched 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 how 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 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	43
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 germany 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 great 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 uttle 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 modem 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 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	43
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 corners 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 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	43
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 see were extremely saving reserved they re minded me mare 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 modem 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 ah 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 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	43
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 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 ne 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 ist 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 it anywhere and it ran swiftly i had to smile as occasionally on a platform the train swiftly a straight german officer or official his uniform looking like new his boots polished his gold and shining as brightly as gold can shine his whiskers red cap glistening glasses or bright and above all his sharp clear eyes	43
give me a ticket to i ll 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 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 always 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 effort 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 modem g 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 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 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 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	43
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 t 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 at once another disappointment was not at but fifteen or eighteen miles a 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 i he replied i live here very good then where is i have never heard of it he replied my 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 i 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 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 ti 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 swung 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 shoulder they were all big men stolid and broad as they filed over the bridge four abreast they looked at that distance like a fine scarlet ribbon with a streak of gold in it they eventually disappeared between the green hills on the other side in another part of the city i came upon a company of perhaps fifty marching	43
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 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 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	43
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 my 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 i 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 bom 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 the 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 i 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 coffee 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 so 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 baby carriage 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 effort 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 i thought this is the end if he failed for fifty thousand marks in germany he is in disgrace to think a should ever have had fifty thousand marks would that i had known him in his days there was a john here my host said to me who failed	43
for fifty thousand marks he is gone though now i think i don t know where he is my father s it was not an beginning and under the circumstances i thought it as well not to identify myself with this too closely i finished my meal and went out wondering how if at all i was to secure any additional information the rain had ceased and the sky was already clearing it promised to be fine on the morrow after more idle rambling through a world that was quite as old as i came back finally to my hotel my host was up and waiting for me all but one guest had gone so you are from america he observed i would like very much to talk with you some more let me ask you something i replied do you know any one here in by the name of it seems to me there was some one here he failed for a lot of money you could find out at the mr ought to know i decided that i would appeal to mr and his paper in the morning and pretending to be very tired in order to escape my host who by now was a little i went to the room assigned me carrying a candle that night i slept soundly under an immense feather bed the next morning at dawn i arose and was rewarded with the only truly satisfying prospect i have ever seen in my life it was strange remote the and of an older world might well have been their life under my very eyes below me in a valley was its quaint towers and spread out in the faint morning light it was beautiful under my window tumbled the little stream that had served as a moat in earlier days a good and natural opposite me was the massive further on was a heavy circular a at forty sweep of wall and a handsome watch tower over the wall rising up a slope could be seen the peak houses of solid brick and stone with slate and tile roofs never before in my life had i looked on a city of the order nothing that i had seen in either france england or the peculiar quality of this remote spot i escaped the of my host by a putting the two marks charged for the room in an envelope and leaving it on the i went out and followed the stream in the pleasant morning light i post cards at the local post office to all and sundry of my relatives stating the local condition of the as so far learned and then sought out the office of the where i encountered one but he could tell me nothing of any save of that unfortunate one who had failed in the furniture business he advised me to seek the of the local museum a man who had the history of at his finger tips he was a cabinet maker by trade i could not find him at home and finally after looking in the small local published by mr and finding no i decided to give up and go back to but not without one last look at the private yard attached to the priest s house and the cherry tree which had been the cause of the and lastly the local museum it is curious how the most innocent and idle of sentiments will lead a person on in this way in the little museum before leaving i studied with the greatest interest because it was my father s town the ancient roman and it was here that i saw for the first time the much talked of wheat discovered in a funeral urn which although thousands of years have elapsed since it my father s was is still thanks to so the local assured me fertile and if planted would grow talk of suspended animation below the town i lingered in the little valley of the now laid out as a park and the gate through which my father had been wont to ride i think i a little over the long distance that had separated my father from his old home and how he must have longed to see it at times and then finally after walking about the church and school where he had been forced to go i left may en with a sorrowful backward glance for in spite of the fact that there was now no one there to whom i could count myself related still it was from here that my ancestors had come i had found at least the church that my father had attended the priest s house and garden where possibly the identical cherry tree was still standing there were several i had seen the gate through which my father had ridden as a boy with the soldiers and from which he had walked finally never to return any more that was enough i shall always be glad i went to chapter the artistic temperament before leaving i hurried to cook s office to look after my mail i found awaiting me a special delivery letter from a friend of s a certain famous madame a whom i had met in london she had told me then that she was giving a recital at and and that she was coming to about this very time she was to play on wednesday and this was monday she was anxious to see me there was a long account of the town outside where she resided her house its management by 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	43
one and evidently by i whether to accept this charming invitation as i strolled about at one comer 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 i 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 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 i 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 o o oh i 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 me in and here 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 how splendid he was that in c major perfect but you know i did not care so much for his rendering of the pastoral a at forty very weak in the ma non very he should not attempt that it is not in his	43
vein not the thing he does best fingers lifted very and in the air some artist and his wife did not agree very surprising the was the weaker instrument in this case oh it was madame a talking now that is too oo ridiculous she must go places and he must go along as manager wrote me from that he would not have him around she has told him that he her playing still he goes it is too oo much they will not live together long where is this being incident number three is n t he leading to night but they promised me no i will not play then it is always the way i know him well i know why he does it it is to annoy me he does n t like me and he me great business of soothing the principal of the evening the manager explaining friends offering soothing comment more talk about other artists their wives failures in the midst of this by some they were to have been delivered over the after the end of madame a s first number in came my flowers they looked like a fair sized bush being introduced oh exclaimed madame a when the card was examined and they were offered to her how heavenly good heavens it is a whole tree oh wonderful wonderful and these be words o oh more glances and tender sighs i could have choked with amusement it was all such delicious by play quite the thing that artists expect and must have she threw away the of she wore the artistic temperament and drawing out a few of the wore those instead now i can play she exclaimed deep sighs expressions her turn came and as i expected after hearing her in london i heard delicious music she had her following they applauded her to the echo her two female sat with me and little miss of as i will call her fairly groaned with happiness at times truly madame a was good to look upon quite very assured at the end of it all a fifteen or twenty minute it was beautiful truly while we were in the green room talking between sections of the and i said to her you are coming with me to supper of course of course what else did you expect are there any other besides those of the i think not how will you get rid of your friends after the performance oh i shall send them away you take a table anywhere you like and i will come make it twelve o clock we were back to the hotel flowers maid and i went to see about the supper in fifteen minutes it was ready and in twenty minutes more madame a came quite rosy all awake inquisitive eager we are all greedy animals at best the finer the the whole world is looking to see what life will give it to eat from ideas emotions down to grass and potatoes we are organized magnificent dramatic pathetic at times but just the same the greater the appetite the more magnificent the o a at forty is deadly the human stomach is the grand central organ life in all its amazing subtle heavenly pathetic has been built up around that the most pathetic thing in life is a hungry man the most disturbing thing a triumphant greedy one madame a sat down to our cold chicken champagne and coffee with beaming eyes oh it is so good to see you again i she declared but her eyes were on the chicken i was so afraid when i wrote you from that you would not get my letter i can t tell you how you appeal to me we have only met twice yet you see we are quite old friends already just as her none too subtle flattery was beginning to work she remarked casually do you know mr well oh fairly well yes i know a little something about him you like him don t you i am very fond of him i answered my vanity rapidly he is so fond of you she assured me oh he you so much what you think must have considerable weight with him eh where did you first meet him she asked in new york now between us he is one of the few men in the world i deeply care for but i don t think he cares for me t good lord i i said to myself wearily why is it that all the charming ladies i meet either are or have been in love with it s getting monotonous i but i had to smile you will visit me in she was saying i the artistic temperament will be back by the twenty sixth can t you wait that long is so interesting when i come we shall have such nice talks i yes about i thought to myself aloud i said vaguely it is charming of you i will stop over to see you if i possibly can then i said good night and left u chapter when i reached it first manifested itself in a driving rain if i laugh at it forever and ever as a blunder headed self city i shall always love it too paris has had its day and will no doubt have others london is content with an endless day s is still to come and come brilliantly the blood is there and the hope and the moody temperament but first before i reached it i suffered a strange mental revolt 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	43
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 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 you say to yourself quite wisely ah will be still they are making a very different germany from what the old germany was modem germany from but it is not an entirely 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 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 dance hall r 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 the palaces entirely wanting it is a very wide business street lined with hotels shops newspaper offices and filled with a a at forty throng in pleasant weather at one end it gives into an area known as the crowded with palaces art	43
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 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 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 isn 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 isn 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 top 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 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	43
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 we 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 haven 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 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 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 i 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 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 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	43
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 comers 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 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 was fairly boiling with excitement husbands drove their wives back wives pulled their husbands away or tried to and men immediately took sides 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	43
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 mother 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 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 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 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	43
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 i 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 tc 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 the 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 german self was no longer about me the men who were 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 that not only the people but the landscape and the architecture had changed the architecture was obviously so different low modest one story cottages standing out on a smooth green level land so smooth and so green and so level that anything projected against the it mattered not how modest thereby became significant and i saw my first holland	43
turning its arms in the distance it was like coming out of a russian steam bath into the cool marble on the way to holland of the plunge to be thus projected from germany into holland if you will believe me i was glad that i had no money in order that i might be driven out to see all this i had no trouble with trunks and bags other than opening them and being compelled to look as though i thought it a crime to tip anybody i strolled about the station in the early light of a clear soft day and on this matter of national what a pity i thought if holland were ever by germany or france or any country and made to its individuality before i was done with it i was inclined to believe that its individuality would never be modified come any authority that might the balance of the trip to was nothing a matter of two hours but it all i had fancied concerning holland such a mild little land it is so level so smooth so green i began to puzzle out the signs along the way they seemed such a of german and english badly mixed that i had to laugh the train passed up the of a street in one village where cool brick cool brick houses and stores and on one shop window appeared the legend would not that as a statement of make any german american laugh boot land te for sale and the like brought a mild grin of amusement when we reached i had scarcely time to get a sense of it before i was away in an electric to the hotel and i was eager to get there too in order to my purse which was now without a single penny the last mark had gone to the porter at the to carry my bags to this i was a at forty being deceived as to the character of the city by this ride from the central station to the hotel for curiously its course gave not a glimpse of the that are the most charming and pleasing features of more so than in any other city in holland and now what struggles for a little ready money my bags and fur coat had been duly carried into the hotel and i had signified to the porter in a way that he should pay the but seeing that i had letters which might result in local invitations this very day a little ready cash was necessary i tell you what i should like you to do i observed to the clerk after i had properly entered my name and accepted a room yesterday in until it was too late i forgot to draw any money on my letter of credit let me have forty and i will settle with you in the morning but my dear sir he said very doubtfully indeed and in very polite english i do not see how we can do that we do not know you it is surely not so unusual i suggested you must have done it before you see my bags and trunk are here here is my letter of credit let me speak to the manager the looked at my fur coat and bags quite looked at my letter of credit as if he felt sure it was a and then retired into an inner office presently a polished creature appeared dark and after me solemnly shook his head it can t be done he said he turned to go but here here i called this won t do you must be sensible what sort of a hotel do you keep here anyhow i must have forty thirty anyhow my letter of credit is good examine it good heavens i on the way to holland you have at least eight hundred worth of luggage there he had turned and was surveying me again it can t be done he said impossible i cried i must have it why i haven t a cent you must trust me until to morrow give him twenty he said to the clerk wearily and turned away good heavens i said to the clerk give me the twenty before i die of rage and so he counted them out to me and i went in to breakfast i was charmed to find that the room overlooked one of the lovely with a distant view of others all of them alive with canal boats along slowly by solid placid the spring sunlight giving them a warm mildly adventurous aspect the sense of light on water was so delightful from the a great airy place that it gave an added flavor to my sunday morning breakfast of eggs and bacon i was so pleased with my general surroundings here that i even a time while i ate chapter l i should certainly include among my cities of light and charm a place to live in not that it has in my judgment any of that capital significance of paris or rome or though greater by a hundred thousand in population than it has not even the commercial texture of that place the spirit of the city seemed so much more so much slower and easier going before i sent forth a single letter of introduction i spent an entire day about its so often streets following the which thread their like made pools rejoicing in the cool brick walks which line the sides looking at the reflection 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 me again it	43
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 some 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 i 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 way 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 me 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 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	43
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 i 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 tree they constitute the very atmosphere of holland 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 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 born until when he married at twenty eight he was gay enough 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	43
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 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 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 i exclaimed as i was getting into my well you can go to the devil 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 r o 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 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 i the italian did n t you even if they did rob you i trust the german empire didn t sit too heavily on you holland and paris again must have been charming as passing pictures where did you stop in at the quite right an excellent hotel i trust madame a was nice to you she was as considerate as she could be right and	43
fitting she should have been i saw that you stopped at the national in that is one of the best hotels in europe i was glad to see that your taste in hotels was not falling off we began with some soup and a light wine i gave a rough summary of some things i had seen and then we came to the matter of my sailing date and a proposed walking trip in england now i tell you what i think we should do and then you can use your own judgment suggested by the time we get to london next wednesday or tuesday england will be in prime condition the country about will be perfect i suggest that we take a week s walk anyway you come to level it is beautiful there now and stay a week or ten days i should like you to see how charming it is about my place in the spring then we will go to then you can come back to level why not stay in england and write this summer i put up a hand in serious opposition you know i can t do that why if i had so much time we might as well stay over here and settle down in well besides money is a matter of prime consideration with me i ve got to down to work at once at anything that will make me ready money i think in all seriousness i had best drop the writing end of the literary profession for a while anyway and return to the desk the and romance that lightened s eye a at forty as he thought of the exquisite beauty of england in the spring faded and his face became severe really he said with a grand air you me at times truly i am inclined to quit you are a man in so far as i can see with absolutely no faith in yourself a man without a profession or an appropriate feeling for his craft you are inclined on the slightest provocation to give up you neither save anything over from yesterday in the shape of satisfactory reflection nor look into the future with any do i beg of you have a little faith in the future assume that a day is a day wherever it is and that so long as it is not in the past it has possibilities here you are a man of forty the portion of your life is behind you your work is all indicated and before you public faith such as my own should have some weight with you and yet after a tour of europe such as you would not have reasonably contemplated a year ago you sink down and talk of truly it is too much you make me feel very desperate one cannot go on in this fashion you must cultivate some intellectual around which your emotions can and settle to anchor fairest i replied how you preach i you have real ability at times there is much in what you say i should have a profession but we are looking at life from slightly different points of view you have in your way a stable base speaking at least i assume so i have not my outlook outside of the talent you are inclined to praise is not very encouraging it is not at all sure that the public will manifest the slightest interest in me from now on if i had a large of vanity and the dull of the i might assume anything and go gaily on until i was attacked somewhere for a board bill unfortunately i have not the necessary thickness of hide paris again si i and i suffer periods of disturbance such as do not appear to you if you want to my artistic attitude so nicely contemplate my financial state first and see if that does not appeal to you as having some elements capable of disturbing my not undue proportion of we then went into actual figures from which to his satisfaction he that with ordinary faith in myself i had no real grounds for distress and i from mine figured that my immediate future was quite as as i had fancied it did not appear that i was to have any money when i left england rather i was to draw against my future and trust that my innate would see me through it was definitely settled at this conference that i was not to take the long planned walking tour in the south of england lovely as it would be but instead after three or four days in paris and three or four days in london i was to take a boat sailing from about the middle of april or a little later which would put me in new york before may this agreed we returned to our pleasures and spent three or four very delightful days together it is written of and that they always looked upon paris as the capital of the world i am afraid i shall have to confess to a similar feeling concerning new york i know it all so well its splendid water spaces its magnificent avenues its varying sections the rugged splendor of its the force of its tides of energy and life europe from the point of the seven countries i had seen i was prepared to admit that in so many ways we are and speaking the of raw material no one could be 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	43
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 paris 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 see 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 with their burdens of champagne fruit the air full of colored balls colored floating aloft endless reflecting a sh 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 oflf 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 si a at forty regions i went once more to look at the grim sad east end 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	43
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 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 n 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 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 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 only see 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 quiet way he never ceased on the wretchedness of the catastrophe nor did he fail daily to consult the of miles made and course he predicted that we would turn south before we the grand banks because he did not believe the captain would take a chance i am sure he told his wife and that she told every	43
the kiss of fair old haunts and old dreams bill and his brood in the belt the mystery of coincidence the folks at an village a sentimental and a of the spirit of after thirty seven years a egyptian land another old home hail fishing in the and a county fair the at a brother the of french a college town day and a memory the end of the journey illustrations the home facing page the old and canal a coal near studies an sign bids us farewell the great bridge at and the at no beyond dreams over a river beyond the o bath egypt at pleasure before business the bridge that is to make famous where i learn that i am not to live eighty years point lake with the old at city central in the best of the standard bridge of fifty years ago s impression of my illustrations from west of the my father s mill the at the at a beautiful tree on a vile road a cathedral of trees french a holiday chapter i the rose window it was at a modest evening reception i happened to be giving to a new poet of renown that the idea of the holiday was first conceived i had not seen subsequent companion of this pilgrimage in all of eight or nine months his work calling him in one direction mine in another he is an of a master of pen and ink what you would call a really successful artist he has a in new york another in his home town a car a and so on i first met ten years before when he was fresh from and working on the sunday of a now new york paper i was doing the same i was drawn to him then because he had such an air of and genial simplicity while looking so much the artist i liked his long strong nose and his hair of a fine black and silver though he was then only twenty seven or eight it is now white a soft artistic shock of it glistening white is a christian or dreamy a fact which may not commend him in the eyes of many though one would do better to await a full interpretation of his belief it would do almost as well to call him a or a of the he has no hard and fast christian in mind in fact he is not a christian at all in the accepted sense but a genial liberal i know of no better way to describe him sin as something wherewith to reproach one does not exist for him he has few complaints to make concerning people s weak a holiday or errors nearly everything is well he lives happily along and trees and drawing many fine and there is about him a soothing repose which is not religious but human which i felt during all the two thousand miles we subsequently together is also a very liberal liver one who does not believe in himself of the good things of the world as he goes a very excellent conclusion i take it at the beginning of this particular evening nothing was farther from my mind than the idea of going back to years before at the age of sixteen i had left the last place in the state where i had resided i had not been in the town of my birth since i was seven i had not returned since i was twelve to or on the river each of which towns had been my home for two years the state university of at in the south central portion of the state which had known me for one year when i was eighteen had been free of my presence for years and in that time what illusions had i not built up in connection with my native state who does not allow fancy to color his experiences in the world a small city in which during my first seven years we lived in four houses where we had lived from my seventh to my tenth year in one house a picturesque white frame on the edge of the town in at east street in a small brick we had lived one year and in in the northern part of the state in a comparatively large brick house set in a grove of pines we had spent four years my mother s relatives were all of this northern section there had been three months between the time we left and the time we settled in county which we spent in my mother and nearly all of the children also six weeks between the time we left and the the rose window time we settled in which we spent in visiting a kindly friend we were very poor in those days my father had only comparatively recently suffered severe from which he really never recovered my mother a dreamy poetic soul was serving to the best of her ability as the captain of the family ship most of the ten children had achieved comparative maturity and had departed or were preparing to depart to shift for themselves before us us little ones were all our lives at home in a kind of intimacy which did not seem to concern the others because we were the youngest were my brother ed two years younger than myself my sister or two years older and occasionally my brother two years older than or my sister four years older as it were in the family home life at other times they were out in the world working sometimes there appeared on the scene usually one at a time my elder brothers mark and paul and my elder sisters and mary each named in the order of their ascending ages as i have said there were ten all told	43
blooming are the my heart remembers how i look and in a fence corner is a spider web with dew a great yellow spider somewhere on its surface is a strand at a window commanding the field a window in the kitchen is my mother my brother ed has not risen yet nor my sister the boy looks at the sky he loves the feel of the dawn he knows nothing of whence he is coming or where he is going only all is gay and beautiful youth is his the and response of a new body the bloom and fragrance of the in the air the sense of the mystery of flying he sits and sings some tune of such is the kingdom of heaven or it is a great tree say a hundred yards from the house in its thick leaves and branches the wind is stirring under its shade ed and and i are playing house what am i oh a son a husband or indeed anything that the occasion requires we play at duties getting breakfast or going to work or coming home why but a dove is calling somewhere in the depths of a and that gives me pause bob white cries and i think of strange and things to come a is poised in the high blue above and i wish i might on wings as wide or is it a day with a pet dog now they are running the rose window side by side over a field now the dog has wandered away and the boy is calling now the boy is sitting in a rocking chair by a window and holding the dog in his lap studying a tree in the distance where sits a hawk all day meditating no doubt on his midnight crimes now the dog is gone forever shot somewhere for chasing sheep and the boy is standing under a tree calling calling calling until the sadness of his own voice and the of his cries moves him nearly to tears these and many scenes like these make my rose window of the west chapter ii the route it was a flash of all this that came to me when in th midst of the and de of a gay evening suddenly approached me and said quite of nothing how would you like to go out to indian in my car i ll tell you what i answered all m life i ve been thinking of making a return trip to indians and writing a book about it i was born in down in the there below you and i was b rough up in and in the southern part o the state and in up north agree to take to all those places after we get there and i ll go what more you can illustrate the book if you will i ll do that he said is only about hours north of our place is miles away is a hundred and fifty we l make a trip to the northern part and a three day trip to the southern i but one thing i we ruin many we split the cost to this i agreed s home was really central for all places i was at fifteen miles north of plan once the trip was over was to camp there in country and paint during the autumn mine was to return direct to new york we were to go up the to and various perfect state roads to there we to follow other smooth roads along the shore of to and and possibly there we were to cut to so to it had not occurred to either of us yet tc the route go direct to from or and thence south to that was to come as an but this state road route irritated me from the very first in an seemed inclined to travel that way i had a vision of thousands of cars which we would have to trail their dust or meet and pass coming toward us by now the river was a chestnut having by the and the central over and over to the west all this mid new york and southern territory was wearisome to think of give me the poor which the dull and where because of this very fact you have some peace and quiet i all the way the next day to voice my preference in regard to this matter i d like to make a book out of this i explained if the material is interesting enough and there isn t a thing that you can say about the river or the central part of new york state that hasn t been said a thousand times before all ghastly towns why don t we cut due west and see how we make out this is the time of the year let s go west to the water gap and straight from there through to some point in then on to a vision of quaint wild unexpected regions in came to me very good he replied he was playing with a cheerful pop eyed french bull perhaps that would be better the other would have the best roads but we re not going for roads exactly do you know the country out through there no i replied but we can find out i suppose the club of america ought to help us i might go round there and see what i can discover do that he applauded and i was making to depart i j i a holiday when s brother and his entered the latter he introduced as speed speed he said this is mr who is going with us he wants to ride directly west across to and so on to do you think you can take us through that way a youth with an look and smile across the room and took	43
my hand he seemed half half street car conductor half guide and friend sure he replied with a kind of childish smile that won a little girl smile really if there are any roads i can we can go anywhere the car ll go i liked him thoroughly all the time i was trying to think where i had seen speed before suddenly it came to me there had been a car conductor in a recent comedy this was the stage character to life besides he of the real if you have ever seen one you ll know what i mean very good i said fine are you as swift as your name speed i m pretty swift he said with the same glance that a will give you at times a gay innocent light of the a little while later was saying to me that he had no real complaint against speed except this if you drive up to the st and go in for half an hour when you come out the is all covered with tools and the engine that is if the police have not interfered just the same put in he is one of the who led the procession of cars from new york over the and to the coast laying out he highway afterwards i saw and plates which proved this he can take a car anywhere she ll go then i proceeded to the great club for information the route are you a member asked the attendant a polite airy character no only the temporary possessor of a car for a tour then we can do nothing for you only members are provided with information on the table by which i was standing lay an monthly in its pages which i had been idly as i waited were a dozen maps of those things gotten up by associated and hotels in their own interest one was the route and showed a broad black line extending from new york the water gap and a place called to and falls this interested me these places are in the heart of the and of the coal region visions of green hills deep valleys winding rivers and the like leaped before my mind the route i ventured here s a map that seems to cover what i want what number is this take it take it replied the lofty attendant as if to me out of the place you are welcome may i pay you no no you re welcome to it i bowed myself humbly away well club or no club here is something a real route i said to myself anyhow it will do to get us as far as or after that we ll just cut west if we have to on the way home i over such names as and roaring branch what sort of places were they oh to be along in this fine warm august weather to be looking at the odd places seeing mountains going back to and and and chapter iii across the meadows to the i assume that even to the extent of a two thousand mile trip such as this proved to be is an old story to most people anybody can do it apparently the difference is to the man who is making the trip and for me this one had the added of including that pilgrimage which i was certain of making some time there was an delay owing to the sudden illness of speed and then the next morning when i was uncertain as to whether the trip had been abandoned or no the car appeared at my door in tenth street and off we sped there were some amusing i was introduced to miss h a lady who was to accompany us on the first day of our journey a photograph was taken the bags had to be arranged and on the outside and speed had to examine his engine most carefully finally we were off up eighth avenue and across street to the west street while we talked of non chains and and the of the machines in general this one in particular it proved to be a handsome sixty only recently purchased very and shiny as we crossed the west street i stood out on the front deck till we landed looking at the refreshing scene the river presented the day was fine nearly mid august with a sky as blue as weak flocks of that frequent the north river were dipping and a cool fresh wind was blowing as we stood out in front miss h to tell me something of her life she is one of those self across the meadows to the conscious carefully dressed seemingly prosperous maidens of some beauty who frequent the stage and the at present she was s chief model recently she had been in some dancing a little wearied perhaps for all her looks she told me her stage and art experiences she had to do something she could sing dance act a little and draw she said artists seemed to her as a model so she lifted a thin silk veil and her nose with a mere of a handkerchief looking at her so fresh and in the morning sunlight i could not help feeling that was to be congratulated in the selection of his models but in a few minutes we were off again speed obviously holding in the machine out of respect for officers who appeared at intervals even in to wave us on or back i could not help feeling as i looked at them how rapidly the passion for street traffic had grown in the last few years everywhere we seemed to be them the new york police cap borrowed from the german army their eyes their air of majesty the memories of rome and scarcely a wagon to	43
at at but i anticipate as we hunted for a road across the meadows we got lost in a of shabby streets where dirty children were playing in the dust and as we picked our way over rough i began to fear that much of this would make a disagreeable trip but we would soon be out of it in all miles and miles away from the hot dusty city i can think of nothing more suited to my temperament than it supplies just that mixture of change in which me leaves me mentally poised in inquiry which is always delightful now for instance we were coming out on a wide smooth road which led without a break as informed us into and then into it was the first opportunity that speed had had to show what the ma a holiday could do and instantly though various signs read speed limit miles an hour i saw the climb to and then forty and then it was a smooth running machine which at its best or worst gave vent to a tr r r r r r r r r r which became after a while somewhat like a though it was a blazing hot day as any momentary pause proved the leather cushions becoming like an oven on this smooth road and at this speed it was almost too cool i had myself out in a brown linen shirt and low cap now i felt as though i might require my overcoat there was no dust to speak of and under the low branches of trees and passing delightful all the flowers of august were blooming in abundance now we were following the and the in spots seeing long low brick sheds in the former set down in wind marsh grass and on the latter towering and also simple clubs where were to be seen white red and green and a kind of august summer life prevailing for those who could not go further i was becoming of our american country life once more to most new and for that matter to most americans may be an old story to me it is one of the most interesting pools of life i know there is nothing in most people will tell you save silk mills and five and ten cent stores it is true yet to me it is a beautiful city in the sense a place in which to stage a great novel these mills have you ever seen them they line the river and various smooth that branch out from it it was no doubt the and of this river that originally drew to supplied the first mills with water and gave the city its start then along came steam and all the wonders of modern driven the day we were there they were just a power plant or city water supply system the ground around the falls had been and standing across the meadows to the on a new bridge one could look down into a great round grey black pit or cup into which tumbled the water of the sturdy little river above by the drop of eighty or a hundred feet it was into a white spray which bounded back almost to the bridge where we stood in this gay sunlight a rainbow was ever present a fine thing which and then strengthened as the spray or below over a great of rocks that stretched outward toward the city the expended current was away spinning past the mills and the bridges from the mills themselves as one drew near came the crash of and the of where thousands of workers were weaving the silk which probably they might never wear i could not help thinking as i stood looking at them of the great strike that had occurred two years before in which all sorts of nameless had occurred practised by judges and the police no less than by the eager workers themselves in spite of all the evidence i have that human nature is much the same at the bottom as at the top and that the restless of today may be the oppressive or of tomorrow i cannot help with the working rank and file why should the man at the top i ask myself want more than a reasonable authority why endless houses and lands and stocks and bonds to a prosperity that he does not need and cannot feel i am convinced that man in the race itself is nothing more nor less as yet than an in the of something which we cannot see we are to be protected as a race and born into something some state which we cannot as yet understand or even feel we as individual may never know any more than the or individual which constructed us ever knew but we race are being driven to do something something a race man or woman let us say and like the in the we are struggling and and carrying i a holiday did not always believe in some one divine event for the race i do not accept the divine even now but i do believe that these are not toiling for exactly nothing or at least that the is not quite as as it was there is something back of man an a devil anything you will is trying to do something and man is his medium his brush his paint his idea against the space of things he is attempting to set forth his vision is the vision good who knows i it may be as bad as that of the lowest it before a audience but good or bad here it is struggling to make itself manifest and we are of it i what if it is all a mad farce my masters shan t we it all together and	43
make the best of it ha ha ho ho i we are all crazy and he is crazy i ha ha ho ho or do i hear crying chapter iv the piety and eggs of but in addition to mills and the falls offered another subject of conversation only recently there had been completed there an revival by one sunday who had addressed from eight to twenty thousand people at each meeting in a specially constructed and caused from one to five hundred or a thousand a day to hit the trail as he it or in other words to declare that they were converted to christ and hence saved america strikes me as an exceedingly intelligent land at times with its far flung states its fine mechanical its good homes and liberal rather non interfering form of government but when one such a spectacle as this what is one to say i suppose one had really better go deeper than america and contemplate nature itself but then what is one to say of nature we discussed this while passing various mills and brown wooden streets so poor that they were it is curious but it is just such places as that seem to be afflicted with emotions of this kind observed wearily gather together of working people who have little or no skill above machines and then comes the and waves of religion look at and philadelphia see how well sunday did there he converted thousands he smiled heavily sunday comes from out near your town volunteered speed he lives at lake that s a part of now a holiday yes and he a summer revival right there occasionally i believe added a little i thought save me i i pleaded anyhow i wasn t born there i only lived there for a little while this revival came directly on the heels of a great strike during which thousands were compelled to obtain their food at soup houses or to report weekly to the local officers of the union for some slight the good god was giving them and cynical police who was it then that revived and hit the trail the same who were starved and and lived in and were to jail or were they the families of the and who had suppressed the strike and were thankful for past for they eventually won i believe or was it some element that had nothing to do with or workers the day we went through some sunday school parade was preparing there were of and and gaily with flags and and sunday school hundreds i might almost guess thousands of children in white dresses and gay ribbons carrying and by various serious looking mothers and elders were in these all the glory and goodness of god a spectacle like this i am free to say invariably causes me to i cannot help smiling at a world that cannot devise some really poetical or reason for or or what you will but must indulge in and and temples to false or impossible ideas or they have made a god of christ who was at best a poet but not on the basis on which he offered himself never they had to bind him up with the of the and make him now a god of mercy and now a god of horror they had to dig themselves a hell and they still cling to it they had to secure a church organ the piety and eggs of and of christ to him and all that he believed this wretched who came here and converted thousands think of him with his about hell his bar room and race track his base ball and thousands of poor worms who could not possibly offer one reasonable or intelligible thought concerning their faith or history or life or indeed anything fall on their knees and accept christ and then they pass the collection plate and build more temples and conduct more what does the god of our universe want anyway slaves or beings who attempt to think is the fable of true after all is the true interpretation of all things or is this an accidental phase infinitely brief in the long flow of things and eventually to be done away with i for one hope so beyond we found a rather good road leading to a place called little falls and other smaller towns and still the banks of the river in we had purchased four eggs two four of ham and some of bread and four bottles of beer and it being somewhere near noon we decided to have lunch the task of finding an ideal spot was difficult for we were in a holiday mood and content with nothing less than perfection although we were constantly passing scenes a canal crossing over a stream none would do exactly in most places there was no means of bringing the car near enough to watch it one spot proved of considerable interest however for although we did not stay in about we found an old red granite block three feet square and at least eight feet long on which was carved a statement to the effect that this canal had been completed in and that the following gentlemen as officers and had been responsible then followed a long list of names this and that good and true business men all whose carved were now stuffed with mud and dust this same canal was very familiar to a holiday me i having walked every inch of it from new york to the river during various summer holidays but somehow i had never before come upon this memorial stone here some twenty men of a period so late as caused their names to be on a great stone which should their part in the construction of a great canal a canal reaching from new york bay	43
to the river and here lies the record under dust and vines i the canal itself is now entirely although the state of new some little money to keep it clean it is rarely if ever used by boats it was designed originally to bring hard coal from that same region around and toward which we were a powerful railroad crept in it and destroyed it this same eager to make its work complete and thinking that the mere existence of the canal might some day cause it to be revived and wanting no water competition in the carrying of coal had a bill introduced into the state of new ordering or at least that it should be filled in in places some citizens objected several newspapers cried out and so the bill was dropped but you may walk along a canal originally fifty million dollars and still ornamented at regular intervals with locks and and never encounter anything larger than a pretty farm houses face it now door yards come down to the very water ducks and float on its surface and cattle i have spent as much as two long along its banks it is beautiful but it is useless we did eventually come to a place that suited us exactly for our the river we were following at this point and skirted so near the road that it was no trouble to have our machine near at hand and still sit under the trees by the cottages and tents were sprinkled cheerily along the farther shore and the river was dotted with and of various colors under a group of trees we stepped out and spread our the piety and eggs of feast it was all so lovely that it seemed a bit out of or a sketch by being a christian it was his duty as i explained to him to think any flies or away to realize for us all that they could not be and so leave us to enjoy our meal in peace miss h was to be the background of perfection the color spot the proof of holiday like all the ladies in and the machine and speed his cap adjusted to a angle were to prove that we were gentlemen of leisure on leaving new york i saw that he had a moustache capable of that upward twist so admired of the german emperor and so now i began to urge him to make the ends stand up so that he would be the of the nothing he complied that same smile in his eyes that i so much enjoy it was who had purchased the eggs he had gone across the street in his dust coat swinging most and entering a little quick lunch room had purchased these same eggs afterward he admitted that as he was leaving he noticed the black face of a cook and the head of a peering after him from a sort of cook s window with what seemed to him a of a smile but suspecting nothing he went his way now however i one of these eggs and touching it with salt bit into it then i slowly turned my head extracted as much as i could silently with a paper and deposited it with an air of great peace upon the ground i did not propose to be the butt of any remarks presently i saw preparing his he crushed the shell and after the glistening surface dipped it in salt i wondered would it be good then he bit into it and paused took up a with a very graceful and philosophic air and wiped his mouth i was not quite sure what had happened was your egg good he said finally examining me with an odd expression it was not i replied the most bad a holiday egg i have had in years and here it goes straight to the fishes i threw it well they can have mine observed miss h what do you know about that exclaimed speed who was sitting some distance from the rest of us and his share i think the man that sold you those ought to be taken out and gently and he threw his away say i and four of them all at once too i d just like to get a and photograph him he s a bird he is there was something comic to me in the very sound of speed s voice i cannot indicate just what but his attempt at scorn was so inadequate so well anyhow the fishes won t mind i said they like nice fresh eggs is their best friend aren t you you love fishes don t you sat there his faith in the of everything permitting him to smile a gentle smile you know i wondered why those two fellows seemed to smile at me he finally commented they must have done this on purpose oh no i replied not to a full christian never i these eggs must be perfect the error is with us we have thought bad eggs that s all we got up and tossed the empty beer bottles into the stream trying to sink them with stones i think i added one hundred stones to the bed of the river without sinking a single bottle speed threw in a rock pretending it was a bottle and i even threw at that before discovering my mistake finally we climbed into our car and sped onward new joys always glimmering in the distance just to think i said to myself there are to be two whole weeks of this in this glorious august weather what lovely things we shall see chapter v across the the afternoon run was even more delightful than that of the morning yet one does not really get free of new york its bustle and thickness of traffic until one gets	43
west of which is miles west and not even then new york is so all embracing it is supposed to be chiefly represented by island but the feel of it really extends to the water gap one hundred miles west as it does to the eastern end of long island one hundred miles east and to philadelphia one hundred miles south or one hundred miles north it is all new york but west of and the of traffic was beginning to and we were beginning to taste the real country not so many and were encountered here though proper were even more numerous if anything this was a wealthy residence section we were with large handsome machines as common as elsewhere and the occupants looked their material prosperity the roads too as far as our next large town thirty miles on were beautiful smooth grey and white lined mostly with handsome hedges charming dwellings and now and then yellow fields of wheat or or with acres of tall ripe corn i never saw better fields of grain and remembered reading in the papers that this was a banner season for crops the sky too was wholly a clear blue with great clouds sailing along in the distance like immense hills or ships we passed various small hotels and summer cottages among these low hills where summer were sitting on read a holiday ing books or swinging in or american fashion in rocking chairs all my dread of the conventional american family arose as i surveyed them for somehow as as all this might appear on the surface it the least bit of the youths and maidens playing and mother and much more rarely father seated near reading and watching the three regular meals the regular nine o clock hour for retiring well i was glad we were making forty miles an hour as we passed through it was three o clock as we passed after pausing to sketch a bridge over the canal it was four there were pauses constantly which interrupted our speed now it was a flock of birds flying over a pool all their fluttering wings reflected in the water and had to get out and make a pencil note of it now a lovely view over some distant hills a small town in a valley a factory by some water side say do these people here ever expect to get to remarked speed in an aside to miss h we had to stop in a city of thirty thousand at the principal store for a glass of ice cream we had to stop at and get a time table in order to learn whether miss h could get a train in from the water gap later in the evening we had to stop and admire a garden of and old fashioned august flowers beyond we began to realize that we would no more than make the water gap this day the hills and valleys were becoming more marked the roads more difficult to ascend as we passed a small town beyond we got on the wrong road and had to return a common subsequent experience beyond we one family group a mother and three children for some water and were refused a half mile further on seeing a small iron pump on a lawn we stopped again a lean dreamy woman came out and we asked her yes surely she replied and re entered across the the house returning with a blue chained to a tree a which looked for all the world like a fox jumped and for joy are you going to asked our hostess simply we re going through to confided in a fashion a look of wonder at die far off came into the woman s voice and eyes to she replied that s a long way isn t it oh about nine hundred miles volunteered speed briskly as we sped away vain of our i fancy she stood there in hand looking after us i wished heartily she might ride all the long distances her moods might only i thought would it be a fair exchange for all her wonder this side of we along a ridge under beautiful trees surveying s splendid country estate with a great house a lake and hills of sheep on the other side of we had a blow out and had to stop and change a tire a russian to america and farming in this region interested me a in a splendid field of grain informed me that we were abroad at harvest time we would see much then while the wheel was being repaired i picked up a scrap of newspaper lying on the road it was of recent issue and contained an advertisement of a great farm for sale which read winter is no time to look at a farm for then everything is out of commission and you cannot tell what a farm is worth spring is a dangerous time for then everything is at its best and you are apt to be deceived by fields and houses which later you would not think of buying mid august is the ideal time everything is bearing by then if a field or a yard or a house or cattle look good at that time you may be sure that they will look as good or better at others examine in mid august examine now ah i said now i shall see this eastern half of the a holiday united states at the best time if it looks good now i shall know pretty well how good eastern america is and so we sped on passing a little farther on a forlorn gloomy hamlet about which i wanted to write a poem or an essay might have lived here and written the the house of might have been a dwelling in one of these streets they	43
were so dim and gloomy and sad still farther on as we the we came into a mountain country which seemed almost en devoted to cattle and the business it was not an prosperous land what mountain country is you can find it on the map if you choose lying between and the river something perhaps the approach of evening perhaps the gloom of great hills which make valleys wherein early shadows and cool damp airs perhaps the of and the of herds perhaps the presence of where and farmers newly returned from work were washing their hands in outside of kitchen doors or the smoke curl of evening fires from chimneys or the of evening lamps through doors and windows was very touching about all this anyhow as we sped along i was greatly moved life itself at times so perfectly it sings like a of humble joys and happy homes and simple tasks it like a great bow in hand or fingers upon invisible keys a supreme illusion the heart hurts one s eyes fill with tears we skirted great hills so close that at times as one looked up it seemed as though they might come crashing down on us we passed thick forests where in this mid august weather one could look into deep shadows feeling the ancient childish terror of the woods and of the dark i looked up a cliff side very high and saw a railroad station i looked into a and saw pigs over corn and and a few chickens trying to flutter up into a low tree the night was nigh the old across the presently in this sweet gloom we reached a which crosses the river somewhere near the water gap and which we were induced to approach because we knew of no bridge on the opposite side to a wire which crossed the river was a low flat which looked for all the world like a shallow we called and back came the answer ah right i presently the came over and in a silvery twilight speed the car the craft a tall greeted us goin to the water gap yes how far is it seven miles what time is it seven o clock that gave us an hour in which to make miss h s train that s over there isn t it that s there ain t nothing in new cows and mountains he grinned as though he had made a great joke speed as usual was examining the engine and i were gazing at the stately hills which this stream in the distance was the water gap a great in the hills where in days the river is believed to have cut its way through one could see the vast of some bridge which had been constructed farther up the stream we up the bank on the farther side the car making a great noise in this sweet twilight with and of and as speed called them we tore the remainder of the distance the eyes of the car glowing like great flames along this river road we encountered endless groups of strolling summer girls with their arms about each other women and older maids in the evening damp a land of summer hotels this and summer boarding houses i said a holiday those are all old maids or school teachers insisted speed with assurance or i ll eat my hat in the midst of our flight speed would tell stories tossing them back in the wind and miss h was singing there was an old soldier in no time at all though not before it was dark we were entering a region compact of smoke and half concealed hotel windows and which seemed to up cliffs and disappear into the skies below us under a cliff ran a railroad its freight and passenger trains seeming to thunder near we were as i could see high on some or shelf cut in the hill presently we turned into a square or open space which opened out at the foot of the hill and there appeared a huge the with a fountain and basin in the which the colored waters of the were there to take our only since miss h had to make her train we had to go a mile farther on to the station under the hill to give and miss h time speed the car somewhere near the station and i went to look for colored picture cards i wandered off into a region of lesser hotels and stores the usual of american mountain resort it brought back to me and corners in the springs and the hot springs of virginia and the american summer mountain life is so so so early nothing could be safer more commonplace apparently and yet with such a running through it than this scene here were windows of or ball rooms or hotel all opened to the cool mountain air and all gaily lighted an was to be heard here and there the one street was full of summer hotel guests the natives many electric lamps cast hard shadows provided by the trees it was all so delightfully cool and fragrant all these maidens were so bent on making catches apparently so earnest to attract attention they were across the out in all the and of the american summer resort scene i never saw more more frail all the brows of all the maidens seemed to be be all the shoulders were flung about with light noses were powdered lips faintly perhaps the air was with a kind of note or search well well i exclaimed and bought me all the truly i could find chapter vi an american summer resort i have no quarrel with american summer as such they are as good as any but i must confess that	43
scenes like this do not move me as they once did i can well recall the time and that not so many years when this one would have set me left me yearning with a indescribable pain life does such queer things to one it takes one s utmost passions of five years ago and puts them out like a spent fire standing in this almost street i did my best to contrast my feelings with those of twenty fifteen and even ten years before what had come over the spirit of my dreams well twenty years before i knew nothing about love actually ten years before i was not satisfied was that it not exactly i could not say that it was but now at least these maidens and this somewhat stage setting were not to be accepted by me at least at the value which and youth place on them the scene was gay and lovely and innocent really one could feel the wonder of it but the was a little too obvious fifteen years before or even ten these maidens along would have seemed most fascinating now the brow bands and and pink and blue and green slippers were almost like stage properties fifteen or twenty years before i would have been ready to exclaim with any of the hundred youths i saw bustling about here yearning with their eyes oh my goddess oh my oh my perfect divinity but to cast one encouraging glance upon me your devoted slave and i will at your feet here is my heart and hand and my most sacred vow and my an american summer resort pocket book i will work for you slave for you die for you every night for the next two thousand nights of my life all my life in fact i will come home regularly from my small job and place all my and hopes and fears in your hands i will build a house and i will run a store i will do anything to make you happy we will have three seven nine children i will a garden each spring bring home a and cut the grass i will prove thoroughly and never look at another woman that in my was the way i used to feel and as i looked about me i could see much the same emotions at work here these young how they were how truly like young with still blinded eyes the air was of this illusion that was why the windows and were hung with that was why the were playing to me now it rather at moments like a poor show i couldn t help seeing that the maidens weren t at all that most of them were the most selfish most shallow and one could expect to find poor little actors and but even so i said to myself this is the best the master of the show has to offer he is at most a strolling player of limited perhaps elsewhere in some other part of the universe there may be a who can do better who has a bigger better company but these i returned to the hotel and waited for we were assigned a comfortable room on the second or third floor i forget which down a mile of corridor supper in the cost us five dollars the next morning breakfast in the breakfast room cost us three more but that evening we had the privilege of sitting on a balcony and watching a herd of deer come down to a wire fence and eat grass in the glare of an adjacent arc light we had the joy of observing the colored fountains at twelve and seeing the parties a holiday come tearing up or go flying past wild with a nameless in the the music rooms the miles of were hosts of rich and daughters the former nearly all fat the latter all promising to be and a little gross for the life of me i could not help but think of soap furniture stove companies and the like where did all these people come from where did they all get the money to stay here weeks and weeks at six eight and even fifteen and twenty a day a person our poor little six dollar rooms good heavens some of them had with three think of all the the purpose of which aside from supplying the world with wax etc was to supply these elderly and youthful females with and fine while we were in the eating our rather late dinner the imperial egyptian dining room was closed several families strolled in pa in one case a frail pale meditative little man who seemed about as much at home in his coat as a sheep would in a lion s skin he was so very small and but had without doubt built up a or an iron or something of that sort and ma was so short and with such a firm chin and such steady eyes ma had supplied pa with much of his fighting courage you could see that as i looked at pa i wondered how many thousand things he had been driven to do to escape her wrath even to coming up here in august and wearing a coat and a stiff white shirt and hard and he did look as though he would prefer some quiet small town and his daily newspaper and then there was or or i am sure she had some such name sitting between her parents and obviously as to her fate back at s corner there may have been some youth at some time or other who thought her divine and im an american summer resort her to look with favor on his suit but behold pa was getting rich and she was not for such as him you let him be n i	43
could hear her mother don t you have anything to do with him we re getting on and next summer we re going up to the you re sure to meet somebody there and so here they were dressed in the best that or or even new york could afford such silk trunks full of them no doubt her plump arms were quite bare shoulders partly so her hair done in a novel way white satin shoes were on her feet oh dear oh dear she looked dull and uninteresting and but think of son of the celebrated trunk of who will shortly arrive and wed her it will be a love match from the first the papers of and will be full of it there will be a grand church wedding the happy couple will summer in the or the blue ridge if the trunk factory and the iron continue successful some day they may even venture new york s corner well i guess not there was another family the large and heavy with big hands big feet a bursting pink complexion and a grey suit pa leads his procession ma is very simple and daughter is comparatively interesting and rather sweet u pa is going to show by living at the what it means to work hard and save your money and fight the labor and push the little fellow to the wall pa thinks actually that if he gets very rich richer and richer somehow he is going to be happy money is going to do it money can do anything good old american dollars money can build a fine house money can buy a fine money can give one a splendid office desk money can hire money can make pleasant and agreeable here i sit says pa right in the room of the outside are a holiday colored fountains my shoes are new my clothes are of the best i have an what do i lack not a thing pa i wanted to answer save certain of perception which you will never miss soul take thine ease eat drink and be merry the next morning we were up bright and early for a long drive owing to my in having set aside the regular route of the trip i could see that was now somewhat depending on me to complete my career as a manager and decide when and where to go my sole idea was to cut direct through but when i consulted a large map which hung on the wall of the baggage room of the i was not so sure it was about six feet long and two feet high and showed nothing but mountains mountains mountains and no towns let alone cities of any size we began to concerning as a state but meanwhile i consulted our route map this led us but a little way into before it cut due north to and the good roads of new york state that did not please me at all at any rate after consulting with a most porter who seemed to be sure that there were no good roads in i consoled myself with the thought that and were west of us and that the route led through these places we might go to or and then consult with the local association who could give us further information quite i persuaded to do that the difficulty with this plan was that it left us worrying over roads for after all the best machine as anyone knows who has much by is a delicate given good roads it can seemingly roll on forever at top speed enter on a poor one and all the ills that flesh or machinery is heir to seem at once to manifest themselves a little mud and water and you are in danger of into kingdom come a few and you feel as though you were going to be an american summer resort thrown into high heaven a bad patch of rocks and holes and you soon discover where all the weak places in your bones and muscles are from nowhere arrive one after another with sickening the best of engines and growl on sharp going down a steep hill a three thousand pound car makes you think always my god what if something should break then a spring may snap a screw work loose somewhere but before we left the water gap what joys of observation were not mine this was such an idle tour and such idle atmosphere there was really no great need for hurry as we realized once we got started and i was desirous of taking our time as was though having no wish to stay long anywhere we leisurely while speed somewhere was up our then we strolled out into this summer village seeing the water get abroad thus early the town looked as by day as it did by night our fat visitors of heavy were still in bed in the great hotels instead you saw the small town american busy about his an ancient dame for instance in black bonnet and shawl driving a lean horse and the latter containing three milk all sunset farm co a or general store keeper sweeping off his and off his various citizens in and shirt sleeves crossing the heavily roads at various angles and exchanging the customary american morning greetings hi si been down t the barn yet did ed get that he was for think so well look at old along will this last of some with a willow basket i heaved a kind of sigh of relief i was out of new a holiday york and back home as it were even here at the river so near does the west come to the east sitting in willow chairs in front of a where speed was looking for a	43
special kind of oil which evidently the more hotel could not or would not supply and i discussed the things we had heard and seen i think i drew a parallel between this hotel here and similar hotels at and nice where the prices would be no higher if so high it so happened that in the morning when i had been dressing there had been a knocking at the door of the next room and listening i had heard a man s voice calling ma mai have you got an in there for me i looked out to see a tall man of sixty or more very intelligent and very looking a real american business chief yes came the answer after a moment wait a minute i think there s one in s is harry up yet yes he s gone out this was at six a m here stood the american in the hall his down meekly his wife through the closed door imagine this at nice or or and then the store keeper where i bought my need any cap was his genial inquiry why the cap an american civility the equivalent of sir anything you please i had of late been reading much magazine of the kind that is the menace of etc i was saying to that i had been fast coming to believe that america east west north and south was being by foreigners who were completely changing the american character the american appearance the american everything do you recall the christian story of the child who saw the king naked i was inclined to be that child i could not see an american summer resort from the first hundred miles or so we had that was any truth in the of these magazine and i agreed that we could see no change in american character here or anywhere though it might be well to look sharply into this matter as we went along in the cities there were thousands of foreigners but they were not the cities and i was not prepared to believe that they are doing any worse by the small towns certainly there was no evidence of it here at the water gap all was almost american as an englishman would say the caps and were as common here as in for instance so seemed to think and he lives in a goodly part of the year in the water gap and and various towns where because of the various summer hotels and cottages one might expect a of the foreign element at least in the capacity of in the streets and stores yet they were not even dotted with them if all that was american is being wiped out the tide had not yet reached northern new or eastern i began to take heart chapter vii the and then there was this matter of and its poor roads to consider and the and non of its population considering the of its territory all of which consumed at least an hour of words once we were started this matter interested us greatly for now that we had come to think of it we could not recall anyone in american political history or art or science who had come from william a foreigner occurred to me and a certain civil war governor of the name of and there i stuck certain financial as was quick to point out had made money there a an american an american an and others although as we both agreed america could not be vastly proud of these the taint of or seemed to hang heavy in their wake but where are the poets writers painters asked i paused not a name occurred to me what ever did anything i asked here is a state one hundred and sixty miles wide and more than three hundred miles long from east to west and with five or six fair sized cities in it and not a name i we tried to explain it on the ground that countries are never of but neither of us seemed to know very much about countries and so we finally dropped the subject but what about anyhow why hasn t it produced anything in particular how many millions of men must live and die before a real figure arises or do we need figures are just men better the the run from the water gap to was accomplished under varying conditions the day promised to be fine a atmosphere which was still warm and bright like an we were all in the best of spirits speed whistling gaily to himself as we along our way led first through a string of small towns set in great hills or mountains we were trying to make up our minds as we rode whether we would cut since according to our map it appeared to be considerably south of a due west course or whether because of its as a coal we would go there something a sense of mountains and picturesque valleys me on i was for going to if it took us as much as fifty miles out of our course but meanwhile our enjoyment in seeing was such that we did not need to worry very much over its lack of human distinction everything appeared to be beautiful to such casual as we climbed and climbed out of the water gap we felt a distinct change between the life of new and that of this almost land great slopes rose on either hand we came upon long stretches of and barren rocky fields the country houses from here to which we finally reached were by no means so prosperous seemed a town composed principally of summer hotels facing the principal street hotels and boarding houses and both much smaller were much the same the air was much lighter here almost compared to that of	43
the farther east but the and houses and stock were so poor at another small town or we came to a wood so dense so deep so black and even purple in its shades that we exclaimed in surprise the sun was still shining in its way but in here was a wonder of rare and which seemed like the depths of some cathedral at nightfall and there was a river or stream somewhere for stopping the a holiday car we could hear it tumbling over rough stones wc dismounted quite and without any shall we s and wandered into this bit of forest which was such a splendid natural wonder under these heavy and tangled vines all was still save for the river and at the foot of trees in a of rich earth were growing whole colonies of indian pipes those rare fragile neither nor speed had ever seen any and i my knowledge with great speed was quite taken by the fact that they really looked like pipes with a small fire in their we sat down it was too wonderful to leave instantly i felt that i must come back here some time and camp it was about here that our second occurred back in passing through the principal street i had a lying in the road a new shoe and jumped out to get it as a sign of good luck for this i was rewarded by an indulgent glance from and considerable show of sympathetic interest from speed the latter obviously shared my belief in as of good fortune he promptly hung it over the but alas within the next three quarters of an hour this first occurred speed was just saying that now he was sure he would get through safely and i was smiling comfortably to think that my life was thus guarded when wheel have you heard a whistle it sounds like a spent bullet instead of a revolver shot out we climbed to contemplate a large jagged rent in the rim of the tire and the loss of fifteen minutes this rather my for my omen luck signs and are rather difficult things at best for one can really never connect the result with the fact i have the most disturbing difficulties with my luck signs a cross eyed man or boy should mean immediate good luck but alas i have seen scores and scores of cross eyed boys at one time and another and yet my life seemed to go on no better than usual women should spell immediate disaster but to my intense satisfaction i am able to report that this does j h the not seem to be invariably true then and i sat back in the cushions and began to discuss in general and the mystic power of mind to control such matters the or knowledge that there is no such thing as evil and that really cannot occur this brings me again to christian science which somehow hung over this whole tour not so much as a religious as a pleasant it wasn t religious or at all as i have said is inclined to believe that there is no evil though he is perfectly willing to admit that the material appearances seem all against that assumption at times it s a curious thing he said to me and speed but that makes the fifth to occur in that particular wheel all the trouble we have had this spring and summer has been in that particular corner of the wagon i don t understand it quite it isn t because we have been using poor on that wheel or any other as a matter of fact i put a set of new cord on the wheels last may it s just that particular wheel he gazed at the serene hills around us and i volunteered that it might be just accident i could see by s face that he considered it a in the understanding of truth it may be he said still you ll admit it s a little curious a little later on we ran on to a wonderful high up in the mountains where were a lake a course a perfect road and interesting and quite like an ideal section of a great city as we a four corners or railway station i there one of those peculiarly constructed intended originally to haul hay to convey parties around the country in mountain a diversion which seems never to lose its charm for the young this one or rather three for there turned out to be three in a row was surrounded by a great group of young girls as i thought all of them in short skirts and a holiday with a sort of costume which seemed to indicate that they were going out to indulge in exercises as we drew nearer we discovered however to our astonishment that a fair proportion were women over forty or fifty it seemed more like a school with many than a mountain contemplating this very modern show of arms and legs i felt that we had come a very long way from the views of the region in which i had been raised if an inland summer resort permitted this freedom of appearance in my day the idea of any woman young or old save those under fourteen permitting anything more than their shoe tip and ankles to be seen was not to be thought of and here were mothers and of forty and fifty as freely as any at a summer resort speed and and myself were fascinated by the spectacle there was a general store near at hand and went to buy some speed sat upright at his wheel and curled his i leaned back and endeavored to pick out the most beautiful of the younger ones it was a difficult task there were many	43
beauties by this spectacle we were led to discuss for a few moments whether sex the tendency to greater freedom of relationship between men and was taking america or the world in an unsatisfactory direction there had been so much talk on the subject of late in the newspapers and elsewhere that i could not resist sounding as to his views are we getting better or worse i inquired oh better he replied with the air of one who has given the matter a great deal of thought i cannot feel that there is any value in or certainly very little life as it appeals to me is a out not a if it is it is becoming richer fuller i can see no harm in those girls showing their legs or in bodies coming into greater and greater r the evidence it seems to me it will make for a kind of natural innocence after a while the mystery will be taken out of sex and only the natural left i never see boys bathing naked in the water but what i wish we could all go naked if the climate would only permit and then he told me about a group of boys in whom he had once seen on a rainy day racing naked upon the backs of some horses about a field near their swimming hole their white rain washed bodies under lowering clouds making them look like and personally i follow life or like to with a hearty enthusiasm wherever it leads as we were talking it began to rain and we decided to drive on more speedily a few miles back after some at a we had decided to take the road to i shall never feel grateful enough for our decision though for a time it looked as though we had made a serious mistake after a time the fine road ended and we took to a poorer and finally a dirt road the became and more difficult to ascend and descend in a valley near a bounding stream the place was we had another or something which caused a flat tire in the same right rear wheel and this time in a driving rain we had to get out and help spread tools in the wet road and hunt in the rubber rim when this was repaired and the chains put on the wheels we proceeded up hill and down past miles of apparently woods and rocky fields on and on in search of we had concluded from our maps and some signs that it must be about miles farther as it turned out it was nearly seventy the roads had a tendency to curve downwards on each side into treacherous hollows and as i had recently read of an on one of these and killing three people i was not very giddy about the prospect even with the chains the machine was and our able driver kept his eye fixed on the road i never saw a man pay more minute a holiday attention to his wheel nor work harder to keep his machine balanced a good is a jewel and speed was one but this ride had other phases than a mere bad road the clouds were so and the rain so heavy that for a part of the way we had to have the storm curtains on we could see that it was a wonderful country that we were picturesque but a rain makes one s spirits sat in his corner and i in mine with scarcely a word speed complained at times that we were not making more than four miles an hour i began to calculate how long it would take to get to at that rate began to wonder if we were not making a mistake trying to cut straight across the poorly equipped state of perhaps it would have been better after all if we had gone up the i felt like a criminal trying to wreck a three thousand dollar car but beyond a place called bear creek things seemed to get better this was a town in a deep with a railroad and a thundering stream plunging over a the houses were charming it seemed as if many do people must live here for the summer anyhow but when we asked for food no one seemed to have any better go to advised the local inn keeper it s only fifteen miles at four miles an hour we would be there in four hours out we started the rain ceased for a time though the clouds hung low and we took up the storm curtains it was now nearly two o clock and by three it was plain we were the roads were better various running in great cuts came into view we met with bright tin their faces as black as coal their caps ornamented with their small lamps there were troops of foreign women and poorly clad children carrying to or from the mines turning a corner of the road we came suddenly upon one of die most things in the way of a view that i have the ever seen there are city that seem some to mourn and some to sing this was one that sang it reminded me of the pen and ink work of or or the paintings of and low hanging clouds or black or silvery like a fish mingled with a splendid of smoke and chimneys and odd sky lines beds of ornamented and relieved a group of low red houses or sheds in the immediate which obviously sheltered the heavy of foreign and their wives the lines of red white blue and grey wash the flocks of white the flocks of overhead the black fences protecting orderly gardens as well as the numerous babies playing about all this as we stood there a group of heavy women and	43
girls the peasant type of the plains crossed the with their immense of coal and with glimpses of distant the suggestion of an individual and working world anyhow we paused and applauded while got his board and i sauntered to find more if any attractive angles in the middle distance a tall white stood up a or a to a great black cloud behind it a rich smoky atmosphere seemed to hang over everything isn t wonderful i said to aren t you glad now you ve come i am coming down here to paint soon he said this is the most wonderful thing i have seen in a long while and so we stood on this overlooking for a considerable period while and finally when he had finished and i had wandered a mile down the road to see more we entered beautiful this it cannot help it a new land was in the of construction a strange race of men with for their weapon were fighting as desperately as ever men fought with sword or cannon individual liberty among the masses was being proved the thin dream it has always been i have found in my book of and for my own comfort the great coal appeal a statement written by john then president of the united mine workers of america presenting the side of the case in this great strike of which was fought out here in and and all the country we were now it was written at the time when the coal as they were called were riding around in their private cars with curtains drawn to keep out the vulgar gaze and were being and dined by and while one hundred and fifty thousand men and boys all out on strike nearly one hundred and sixty days a half a year waited patiently the of their difficulties the total duration of the strike was one hundred and days it was a bitter and finally victorious protest against an enlarged and ton company houses company stores powder at a which anywhere else could be bought for ninety cents or the quotation from reads in closing this statement i desire to say that we have entered and are conducting this struggle without malice and without bitterness we believe that our are acting upon rather than in bad faith we regard them not as enemies but as and we strike in patience until they shall to our demands or submit to impartial the difference between us we are striking not to show our strength but the justice of our cause and we desire only the privilege of presenting our case to a fair we ask not for but for justice and we appeal our case to the solemn judgment of the american people here followed a detailed statement of some of the ills a holiday they were compelled to hear and which i have in part above and then involved in this fight are questions than any question of dollars and cents the present has had his day he has been oppressed and ground down but there is another generation coming up a generation of little children doomed to the whirl of the mill and the noise and blackness of the it is for these children that we are fighting we have not the strength of our we have not our own power of resistance accustomed always to live upon a little a little less is no hardship it was with a of hearts that we called for a strike it was with a of hearts that we asked for our last pay but in the bruised hand of the was the little white hand of the child a child like the children of the rich and in the heart of the was the soul rooted determination to starve to the last crust of bread and fight out the long dreary battle to the end in order to win a life for the child and secure for it a place in the world in keeping with advancing civilization i know the strong must rule the weak the big brain the little one but why not some small towards just a slightly less heavily loaded table for and a few more for i beg you a few more you will appear so much more pleasing because of your generosity proved a city of charm a city so instinct with a certain that merely to enter it was to feel after our long dreary drive in the rain the sun was now shining through clouds and it was pleasant to see the of and shops smoky and black which seemed to sing of prosperity the long smooth red brick pavement of the street by which we entered so very and the gay public square one of the most pleasing small i have ever seen crowded with long distance cars and the former bearing the names of towns as much as a hundred and a hundred and fifty miles away the stores were bright the interesting and cheerful we actually and exclaimed for joy beautiful i most people seem to have concluded that america is a most uninteresting land to travel in not nearly so interesting as europe or asia or africa and from the point of view of ancient memories and the presence of great and desolate monuments they are right but there is another phase of life which is equally interesting to me and that is the youth of a great country america for all its hundreds and some odd years of life is a mere child as yet or an uncouth at best gaunt it has so much to do before it can call itself a well organized or historic land and yet and even contrasted with europe i am not so sure that it has far to go contrasted with our mechanical europe is a child show me	43
a country abroad in which you can ride by the distance that new york is from or a state as large as or let alone both together by comfortable lines in such a way that you can travel anywhere at almost any time of the night or day where but in america can you at random step into a comfortable and to any city even one so far as three thousand miles away or board a train in almost any direction at any time which will take you a thousand miles or more without change or travel as we did two hundred miles through a fruitful prosperous land with wonderful farms and farming machinery and a general air of sound prosperity even richness for this country in so far as we had traversed it seemed wonderfully prosperous to me full of airy comfortable homes of spirited genial and even witty people a really happy people i take that to be worth something and a sight to see in europe the country life did not always strike me as prosperous or the people as intelligent or really free in their souls in england for instance the were heavy sad dull but gave evidences of a real charm all the streets about this central heart were of trade the buildings were new substantial a holiday and with a number of these inevitable evidences of america s local quite like the of the twelfth and centuries loved to build as the and european high of the middle ages generally went in for castles palaces and hotels de so americans of money today go in for high buildings we love them we seem to think they are typical of our strength and power as the and looked on their leaning towers and so we on these when america is old and its present vigor and life hunger has gone and an alien or race tramp where once we lived and so vigorously perhaps some visitors from a foreign country will walk here among these ruins and sigh ah yes the americans were a great people their cities were so wonderful these crumbling and fallen and post offices and city halls and state in it was easy to find a very of the and type so familiar and so dear apparently to the american heart a partly affair with the usual heavy a colored of knights and goose girls and an immense yellow bill of fare and here from our waiter who turned out to be one of those dreadful creatures one sees tearing along country roads in army boots and a we learned there were not good roads west of he had to all places within a hundred or so miles east of here philadelphia the water gap but he knew of no good roads west they were all dirt or and full of later advice from a man who owned a and store where we laid in a stock of picture was to the same effect there were no large towns and no good roads west he owned a ford we should take the road to our original route and from there on by various i beautiful to we would save time going the long way round it seemed the only thing to do our waiter had said as much by now it was nearly five o clock i was so of this town with its brisk world of and and its of black faced that i would have been perfectly willing to make a night of it here but the evening was turning out to be so fine that i could think of nothing better than on and on that feel of a cool breeze blowing against one of seeing towns and hills and open fields and humble farm yards go by of hearing the tr r r r r r of this sound machine the sun was coming out or at least great patches of blue were appearing in the heavy clouds and we had nineteen miles of splendid road we understood straight along the banks of the into and thence beyond if we wished as much as i had come to fancy i promised myself that i would certainly return some day i was perfectly willing to go right here began the most delightful portion of this trip indeed one of the most delightful rides i have ever had anywhere hitherto the had never been anything much more than a name to me i now learned that it takes its rise from lake in county new york flows west to and and thence and to the bay at de grace going west over the i had occasionally seen a small portion of it with rocky islands and tumbling along bright it seemed to me over a wide area of stones and here at bordered for a part of the way by a public park alongside of which our road lay it was quite smooth and grey perhaps it was due to the recent heavy rains that it was so at any rate by great hills it seemed to come with gentle hither and yon direct from the north and the valley through which it moved how a holiday beautiful it really was here and there on every hand between and were to be seen immense with their attendant hills of coal or marking the mouths of mines as we rode out tonight finding it easy to make five to thirty miles an hour even through the various towns we encountered on the way we were constantly passing groups of some on foot some in some in that new invention the which seemed to be employed even on these stretches of road where one would have imagined the street car service was ample how many long lines of cottages and frame we passed i wonder why it is	43
that a certain form of such poverty and work seems to be identified with yellow or so many of these cheap wooden were thus and then darkened or by grey many of the in these were to be seen upon their we ran through one long dreary street all these towns followed the shores of the river and had the interest of seeing a horse drawing a small load of fence posts dashing toward us and finally and crashing into a tree again a group of boys seeing the new york license on our car hailed us with a eh look at the new york still farther on finding some difficulty with the lamps speed drew up by the roadside to attend to them while made a rough sketch of a heavenly scene that was just below us great hills a wide valley some immense in the a few clouds tinted pink by the last rays of the day this was such a sky and such a scene as might a voice from heaven chapter ix in and out of darkness had fallen when we reached we approached from the south along a ridge road which skirted the city and could see it lying below to the east and with arc lights there is something so appealing about a city in a valley at dark although we had no reason for going in our road lay really straight on i wanted to go down because of my old weakness curiosity nothing is more interesting to me than the general spectacle of life itself in these towns of our new land though they are devoid of anything historic or in the main artistic no memories even of any great import i cannot help as to what their future will be what writers what what arts what wars may not take their rise in some such place as this and there are the and yet sweet ways of just life we in big cities are inclined to overlook or forget entirely the half or quarter cities in which thousands upon thousands spend all their lives for my part i am never tired of looking at just mills and and those long lines of simple streets where just common people without a touch perhaps of anything that we think of as great or beautiful or dramatic dwell i was not particularly pleased with after i saw it a world of perhaps a hundred and fifty or two hundred thousand people without the or snap of a half hundred places half its size but still here were all these people it was a warm night and as we descended into commonplace streets we could look through the open windows of homes or apartments or and see the usual type of furniture and the inevitable lace curtains the centre a holiday tables the huge lamps the upright or whenever i see long streets like these in the hot breathless summer time i feel a wave of sweep over me and yet i am drawn to them by something which makes me want to live among these people oh to escape endless to feel that a new centre table or a new lamp or a new pair of shoes in the autumn might add something to my happiness to believe that mere eating and drinking the cooking of meals the prospect of promotion in some small job might take away the misery of life and so to escape and and the horror of ultimate brutal law u in the streets of ur says an old chronicle the women were weeping for that was dead was their christ and they were weeping as some people weep on good friday to this day such women one might find here in no doubt in old tales of old things after five or six thousand years there is still weeping in simple streets over as vain once down in the heart of i did not care for it at all it was so customary an american city like or or or and american cities of the hundred thousand class are so much alike they all have the long principal street possibly a mile long they all have the one or two and the principal dry goods store and the hotel and the new post office building and die new library and sometimes the new court house if it s a county seat or the new city hall sometimes these are very charming in themselves done and all that but most american cities of this class have no more imagination than an owl they never think of doing an original thing do you think they would allow the natural of their land or any river front or lake or water of any kind to do anything for them not at all it s the exception when as at for in in and out of a city will take the slightest advantage of any natural of land or water what put a park or or a wall along a handsome river bank in the heart of the town impossible put it far out in the residence section where it truly belongs and let the river go hang isn t the centre of a city for business what right has a park there or perhaps it is a great lake front as at or which could or should be made into something splendid the centre for instance or the site of a great park no instead the city will bend all its energies to growing away from it and leave it to shabby and and tumble down houses while it immense in some region where a park could never possibly have as much charm as on the water front take the city of st louis as a case in point here is a metropolis which has a naturally fascinating	43
water front along the here is a stream that is quite wonderful to look at broad and deep years ago when st louis was small and river traffic was important all the stores were facing this river later came and the town built west today blocks and blocks of the most interesting property in the city is devoted to dead alive stores and it would be an easy matter and a profitable one for the city to condemn sufficient property to make a splendid drive along this river and give the city a real air it would it instantly into a kind of wonder world which thousands would travel a long way to see it would provide for splendid hotels and and give the city a suitable front door or but do you think this would ever be seriously contemplated it would cost money one had better build a park away from the river where there are no old houses the mere thought of trading the old houses for a wonderful scene which would add beauty and life to the city is too much of a stretch of the imagination for st to accomplish it can t be done a holiday can cities are not given to imagination outside the walks of trade was no worse than many another american city of the same size and class that i have or indeed than many of the european cities it was well paved well lighted and dull there were the usual traffic like new york b but with no traffic to guide the one hotel designed to impress the square surrounded by rows of thickly placed standards it was and because speed wanted to get oil and and we wanted to see what the town was like we ran the machine into a and wandered forth looking into shoe and windows and studying the people here again i could see no evidence of that of the american by the foreigner into something different from what he has ever been the peril which has been so much discussed by our college going on the contrary america seemed to me to be making over the foreigner into its own image and likeness i learned here that there were thousands of poles etc working here in the coal mines and at but the young men on the streets and in the stores were americans here were the american electric signs in great profusion the american and crowded with all that adventure fiction of which our lady critics are so fond five hundred magazines and weekly blazed the faces of alleged pretty girls the the u kitchen the boston or lunch and all the smart so beloved of the ambitious american youth were in full bloom i saw at least a half dozen theatres in as many blocks and business and correspondence schools in ample array what becomes of all the young poles etc who are going to destroy us fu tell you they gather on the street corners when their parents will permit them arrayed in yellow or red ties in and out of yellow shoes or straw hats and style clothes and talk about when i was out to the other night or make some such observation as say you should have seen the that cut across here just now oh mamma some baby that s all the menace there is to the foreign invasion whatever their original intentions may be they can t resist the american yellow shoe the american moving picture clothes the popular song the the they are completely undone by our instead of throwing or lowering our social level all of the they would rather stand on our street corners go to the nearest moving pictures smoke wear high white and yellow and over die girls who know exactly how to handle them or work to some day own an and break the speed laws they are really not so bad as we seem to want them to be they are simple de the limit in other words they are fast becoming americans i think it was during this evening at that it first dawned on me what an agency for the of information and a certain kind of railway station gossip the modern has become in the old days when were new or the post road was still in force the or the inn was always the centre for a kind of gay atmosphere or way station exchange for gossip where strangers alighted refreshed themselves and did a little talking to pass the time today die has become a third and even more notable agency for this sort of exchange being for the most part a genial company and constantly reaching out for information anyone who knows anything about the roads of his native town and country is always in demand for he can fall into long conversation with or in general who will occasionally close the conversation with an offer of a a holiday drink or a cigar or if he is going in their direction take him for a part of the way at least as a guide having found so dull that we could not make up our minds to remain we returned to the we were and found it crowded to the doors with cars of all descriptions and constantly being invaded by some others in search of something here were a group of those typical american or or city or chair one scarcely knows what to call them who like the roman of the or the greek at the place of customs gather to pass the time by watching the activity and the enthusiasm of others personally my heart rather over that peculiar temperament common enough to all the of men which for lack of spirit or strength or opportunity in itself to get up and do is still so moved	43
by the spectacle of life that it to be where others are doing here they were seven or eight of them leaning against handsome machines talking and information to all and sundry who would have it owing to the assertion of die proprietor s who was eager naturally enough to have the car here for the night as he would get a dollar for it that the roads were bad between here and a distance of miles we were a little uncertain whether to go on or no but this charge of a dollar was an irritation for in most as speed informed us the night charge was only fifty cents besides the same youth was foolish enough to confess after speed questioned him that the regular charge to local was only fifty cents something in the youth s description of the difficulties of the road between here and caused me to feel that he was certainly laying it on a little thick according to him there had been terrible rains in the last few weeks the road in spots was all but there were great hills impossible and deadly railroad i am not so much of an for night riding as to want to go in the face t studies an sign in and out of of difficulties indeed i would much rather ride by day when the beauties of the landscape can be seen still this attempt to frighten us irritated me and then the on joined in obviously they were friends of the owner and like a greek chorus were brought on at critical moments to the tragedy or the terror or the joy as the case might be instantly we were assailed with new there were dreadful railway a number of had been committed recently one bridge somewhere was weak this finished me they are just talking to get that dollar i whispered to sure he replied it s as plain as anything i think we might as well go on by all means i urged we ve climbed higher hills and traversed worse or as bad roads today as we will anywhere else i don t like very well anyhow my opposition was complete speed looked a little tired and i think would have preferred to stay but my feeling was that at least we could run on to some small inn or country town hotel where the air would be and the noises less offensive after a long year spent in the heart of new york i was sick of the city any city so we climbed in and were off again it was not so long after dark the road lay north through crowded streets for a time and then out under the stars a cool wind was blowing one old working man whom we had met and of whom we had asked the way had given us something to jest over which way to we called this was the next town on our road over the he replied with a wave of his arm and thereafter all became for us we sank into the deep leather cushions and no bad roads went comfortably on the a holiday trees in places hung low and seemed to make arched green through which we were so powerful were our lamps at one place we came upon a brilliantly lighted amusement resort and there we could not resist stopping there was music and dancing and all the young clerks and for miles around were here with their girls i was so that i wanted to stay on hoping that some young girl might talk to me but not one gave me even so much as a smile then we came to a country inn an looking thing among great trees but we were awake now enjoying the ride and speed was smoking a why quit now so on and on up hills and down and now and then we seemed to be the at other times we seemed to be off in side hills where there were no towns of any size a railroad train came into view and disappeared a track joined us and disappeared a toll road made us pay fifteen cents and disappeared at last as it unto midnight i began to get sleepy and then i argued that whatever town came next we should pause there for the night all right said and then more and more streams and more stores and then in the distance some came into view brightly lighted windows reflected in some water u here we are i sighed but we weren t not quite this was a somewhere a dividing of the ways but the signs to say which way were not visible we got out and struck matches to make the words more intelligible they had been by i saw a light in a house and went there a tall spare man of fifty came out on the porch and directed us this was or near it he said another mile on we would find an inn we were something like miles from if you stop and look at electric and watch the dancers you can t expect to make very good time in as dark and silent as a small sleeping town may be in and out of we found one light or did and behind it the village reading a novel in the shadow of his doorway entered into a long and intimate discussion with him about heaven only knows what i had already noted of that he could take up more time securing seeming information than any human being i had ever known it was how he could stand and gossip coming back finally with such a simple statement as he says turn to the right or we go north but why a week to discover this i	43
in these small towns and how as a boy i used to wish and wish for so many things the long trains going through the people who went to or or or i a place like a mere shabby coal town of three or four thousand population seemed something wonderful all the world was outside and i sitting on our porch front or back or on the grass or under a tree all alone used to wonder and wonder when would i go out into the world where would i go what would i do what see and then sometimes the thought of my father and mother not being near any more my mother being dead perhaps and my sisters and brothers scattered far and wide and i confess a little sadly even now a lump would swell in my throat and i would be ready to cry a indeed i in a little while we were called to breakfast in a lovely homely such as country hotels sometimes boast a of an indescribable and it was so so together of old yellow factory made furniture five jar china and heaven only knows what else that it was delightful it was clean yes and sweet withal very just like so many of our honest frank kindly singing and are the father and mother were a holiday eating their breakfast here at one table the little fair haired hired girl with no more as a than a was waiting on table the men one or two of them at every breakfast no doubt were eating their ham and eggs or their and their potatoes and drinking coffee or tea dear crude americans how i love and the great fields from the atlantic to the pacific holding them all and their dreams how they rise how they hurry how they run under the sun here they are building a there a great road yonder fields or grain their faces lit with eternal futile hope of happiness you can see them tending store running a country hotel the grass driving shrewd or thinking that much praying will carry them to heaven the dear things and then among them are the bad men the the people who tobacco and swear and go to the cities saturday nights and cut up and don t save their money dear dear darling yankee land my country tis when i think of you and all your ills and all your dreams and all your courage and your faith i could cry over you wringing my hands but you you great men of brains you of treason of taxes which are not honest of burdens too heavy to be borne beware i these be simple souls my countrymen singing simple songs in childish ignorance and peace dreaming sweet dreams of life and love and hope don t awake them let them not once suspect let them not faintly glimpse the great tricks and by which they are led and and cheated let them not know that their faith is nothing their hope nothing their love nothing or you may see the of wrath alight in the evening and damp the of the hungry the lifting aloft of the fatal red for blood and white for spirit a little american town and blue for dreams of man the white drawn faces of earnest seeking souls carrying the of their desire the guns and and shells of their dreams i remember valley remember remember the wilderness remember mountain these will not be disappointed their faith is too their hope too high they will burn and but the fires of their dreams will bring other dreams to make this old illusion seem true it can hardly be said that america has developed a art because so many phases of our cooking are not as yet common to all parts of the country in the south you have chicken and corn and virginia ham southern style in the south you have chicken con and all the acquired from a to in new england one the baked the cold pie for breakfast and cakes in the great hotels and best of the large cities especially in the east the french in the smaller cities of the east and west where no french would to waste his days german italian and greek to say nothing of and purely american the kitchen for example now contest with each other for patronage we have never developed a single system of our own the american or its companion in the american boast a mixture of everything and are not really anything in all cities large and small may be found these horrible which in their superficial treatment are supposed to be or or old german combined with the worse of the mission school of furniture here german and come cheek by with american english french rolls chicken a la and ham and eggs it s serviceable and yet it s offensive a holiday the atmosphere is deadly the idea by comparison with a french inn or a german family such as one finds in or or even an english it is bad yet it seems to suit the present day spirit of america all forms are being tried out french greek italian english spanish german to say nothing of of all lands in the long run possibly some one school will become dominant or a compromise among them all by that time american cooking will have become a complex of all the others i sincerely trust that in the struggle chicken fresh hot pie and do not wholly disappear i am fond of french cooking and have a profound respect for the german art but there supposing that never anywhere any more was there to	43
be any or pie chapter xi the magic of the road and some tales our particular breakfast consisted of a choice of several breakfast a hard chop an egg or two some german potatoes and all done as an american small town used to dealing with farmers and and hands would imagine they ought to be done where did the average american first get the idea that meals of nearly all kinds need to be hard or that tea has to be made so strong that it looks black and tastes like weeds or that german potatoes ought to be and that all people prefer german potatoes if you should ask for french potatoes or potatoes au or potatoes o in a small country town hotel you would be greeted with a look of uncertainty if not of resentment french potatoes pray or meat medium or impossible and as for weak clear tea shades of bill and whoever heard of weak clear tea the man has gone mad he is some city fellow bent on showing off it is up to us to teach him not to get smart we must frown and delay and show that we do not approve of him at all while we were eating i was thinking where our car would take us this day and the anticipation of new fields and strange scenes was enough to make a mere poor breakfast a very trivial matter indeed clouds and high hills and spinning along the bank of some winding stream were an ample exchange for any temporary inconvenience after breakfast and while and i once more up our speed brought about the machine and in the presence of a few a holiday a young girl of fifteen for one who looked at us with wide eyes we on the bags and took our seats i could not help feeling as i looked at some of them who observed us that they were wishing they were in our places the car was good to look at it was quite obvious from the various bags and that we were en route somewhere was always asking us where we were from and where we were going questions which the magic name of new york particularly this distance away seemed to make all the more significant the night before in the at a youth hearing us say that we were from there had observed with an air how is old new york anyway and then with a flourish i ll have to be going over there pretty soon now i haven t been over in some time leaving we ran through country so beautiful that before long i regretted sincerely that we had done any after dark the night before we were making our way up a wide valley as i could see the same green valley between high hills and through a region given over entirely to farming the hills looked as though they were knee deep in rich grass groups of black and white cattle were everywhere to be seen some of the hills were laid out in fashion by fields of grain or hay or or great thick groves of trees before many a farm was a platform on which stood a milk can or two or three now and then a neighborhood would come into view where the local milk was and butter prepared and the towns for the most part were rarely factory towns looking more as if they summer or were but now starting on a career girls or women were reading or sewing on the region of the mines was far behind and what a day i the how wonderful it was i tr r r r r r and we were descending the magic of the road a steep hill at the bottom of which lay a railroad track one of those against which we had been warned no doubt and in the distance more great hills this wide valley the road showing like a white thread miles and miles away tr r r r r r and now we were passing a prosperous with flowers one woman sewing at a window others talking with a neighbor at the door tr r r r r r here we were swinging around a sharp curve over an iron bridge noisy and and beneath which ran a turbulent stream and in the immediate was an old mill or a alive with cattle and poultry i had just time to think what if we should crash through this bridge into the stream below when t r r r r r r and now came a small factory or section with tall and beyond it a town clean healthy industrious no tradition you see anywhere no monuments or or great hotels or any historic scene anywhere to look forward to but tr r r r r r and here we are at the farther outskirts of this same small town with more green fields in the distance the and of gone and only the blue sky and endless green fields and some birds flying and a farmer cutting his grain with a great tr r r r r r how the miles do fly past to be sure i and t r r r r r r these are surely things here is a lake now just showing through the tall straight trunks of trees a silvery flash with a grey in the distance and then tr r r r r r a thick green wall of woods so rich and dark from which pour the sweetest richest most and into the depth of which the glance sinks only to find cooler and darker shadows and even ultimate shadow or a green blackness and then tr r r r r a line of small white cottages facing a stream and a boy his toes in the	43
warm golden oh happy and then tr r r r r but why go on it was all beautiful it was all so refreshing it was all like a song only tr r r r r a holiday and here comes another great wide spreading view which wishes to sketch he has a large of some peculiarly white paper on which he works and from which he tears the sketches when they are done and them in a convenient by now speed has become resigned to not getting to as fast as he would like i heard him say once as he was up his engine if we didn t have to stop this way every few minutes we d soon get into give me half way decent roads and this little old will eat up the miles as good as anyone but when you have two aboard who are forever calling and jumping up or out or both and exclaiming well now what do you think of that isn t it beautiful what are you going to do no real can get anywhere that way you know that here we were now the machine in the shade of a barn while fixed himself on the edge of a grey covered wall and i strolled off down a steep hill to get a better view of a railroad which here ran through a granite perhaps worked as many as thirty or forty minutes perhaps i even longer there was a field on this slope with a fine spring on it i had to on what a fine pool could be made here in the distance some horizon clouds made a procession like ships i had to look at those the spear pines here at the edge of this field were very beautiful and reminded me of the of italy i had to as to the difference then tr r r r r r and we were on again at about miles an hour while we were riding across this country in the bright morning sunshine speed fell into a or mood countrymen born have this trait at times and speed was country bred he began as i had already found was his way without any particular announcement or a ever hear of the old fellow etc and then he would be off on a series of the exact flavor and charm of which i cannot hope to the magic of the road but some of which i nevertheless feel i must as best i may thus one of his stories concerned a wedding somewhere in the country all the neighbors had been invited and the preacher and the justice of the peace the women were all in the house picking wool for a the men were all out at the edge of the woods around a log heap they had built telling stories the bride to be was all washed and and her hair done up for once and she was picking wool too when the fatal moment came the preacher and the husband came in followed by all the men and the two stood in the proper position for a wedding before the fireplace but the girl never moved she just called go on it ll be all right so the preacher read or spoke the ceremony and when it came to the place where he asked her do you take this man to be your lawful wedded husband etc she stopped took a of tobacco out of her mouth threw it in the fire in the same direction and said i reckon then she went on working again another of these concerned the of the county line between brown and in which a little while before had been moved west about two hundred and fifty yards that put the house of an old brown county farmer about ten yards over the county line a part of county in this region was and famous for and fever or infamous when the old farmer came home that night his wife met him at the gate and said now we just got move that s all there is to it i m not goin to live over there in with all these here we ll all die with and know it fishing was great sport in some county in i forget which they organized fishing parties sometimes thirty or forty in a drove and went fishing out for two or three days at a time only they weren t so a holiday strong for hooks and lines except for the mere sport of it to be sure of having enough fish to go round they always took a few sticks of and toward evening or noon would light a and attach it to a stick of and just as it was getting near the danger line throw it in the water well once upon a time there was just such a fishing party and they had a stick of or two or three there was also an old fat hotel man who had come along and he had a very fine big dog with him a that he thought a great deal of whenever anyone would shoot a duck or throw a stick into the water the dog would go and get it on this occasion toward evening threw a stick of in the water with the lit only instead of falling in the water it fell on some brush floating there and the fool dog seeing it jumped in and began to swim out toward it they all commenced to at the dog to come back but in vain he swam to the stick got it in his mouth and started for shore the burning all the while then they all ran for their lives all but the old fat hotel	43
man who couldn t run very well though he did his best and it was his dog he lit out though through the green and brush go home i go home i at every jump but old was just a bounding on along behind him and a his tail and a shaking the water off him what saved the old man was that at one place the dog stopped to shake the water off and that gave him a fair start but he only missed him by about forty feet at that the dog was just that near when bang and say there wasn t a thing left but just about a half inch of his tail which somebody found and which the old man used to wear as a watch charm and for good luck he always said it was mighty good luck for him that the dog didn t get any nearer and once more upon a time there was a very old man who owned a field opposite the railway station the magic of the road of a small town a shed was there which made a rather good and and medicine men occasionally posted bills on it not without getting the permission of the owner however who invariably extracted tickets or something medicine even one day however the station agent who was in front of his office saw a man he fancied the owner s permission had not been obtained but he wasn t sure it must be remembered that he was in no way related to walking over to the man he inquired does know you re putting up them bills here why no i didn t think there d be any trouble they re only small bills as you see the agent pulled a long face i know he replied u but i don t think d like this the handed him a ticket for the one ticket well i don t know about this said the station agent heavily if you didn t ask i don t know whether you d better do this or not the handed him another ticket won t that fix it he asked well replied the agent seemingly somewhat s awful particular but i guess i can fix it i ll try anyhow and he walked solemnly back to the station old didn t chance to see the bills until a day or two before the he was very angry but at this time there were no men around to complain to when the show came to town he looked up the and found he had been done then he hurried to the agent where s them tickets he demanded what tickets replied the agent that you got from that well i m em he gave em to me a holiday what fer like to know it s my ain t it well it was my idea wasn t it there speed stopped well did he get the tickets i asked course not nobody liked him so he couldn t do nothing i liked the ending philosophy of this the best of all and once upon a time in some county in there was an election for president there weren t but in the district and they kept straggling in from six a m when the opened to six p m when they closed then they all hung around to see how the vote stood and guess how it stood well it was this a way w j thomas moses john the daniel william what about george washington speed well i guess they him and once more now not every family in or elsewhere is strong for education and especially in the country so once upon a time there was a family father and mother that is that got into a row over this very thing an old couple had married after each had been married before and each had had children only now each of em only had one son apiece left that is home with em the old man believed in education and wanted his boy educated whereas the woman didn t no she said i don t want any of my children to ever any of that book none o the others had any and i low as can along just as well as they did but the old man he didn t feel quite right about it and somehow his boy liked books so since he was really the stronger of the two he sent the two boys off and the magic of the road made em go the old woman grieved and grieved she felt as though her boy was being spoiled and she said so i said the old man he ll along all right what s the matter with you anyhow if my boy don t go to school he ll feel bad and if i send him to school and keep yours at home to work the neighbors will talk now i just can t manage it that s all so the two boys kept on going for awhile longer only the old woman kept worse and worse about it all at once one day she got to so terrible bad that she just gathered up her boy s clothes and took him over to his grandfather s to live and the old grandfather was sore about it say send that boy to school he says never i why he ain t the same boy any more at all already i ll be hanged if he ain t even how to and he wouldn t even let the boy s come near him not a bit of it no a a and once upon a time in the extreme southern part of where the ice doesn t get very thick not over three inches	43
country hotel as i the door and was passing the mine host appeared and with a grace and tact which i have nowhere seen surpassed and in a voice which instantly all possibility of a dis j agreeable retort he presented me a coat which he had t taken from a hook and holding it ready said would you mind slipping into this pardon me i said i have a coat in the car i will get that don t trouble he said gently you can wear this if you like it will do i had to smile but in an entirely friendly way something about the man s manner made me ashamed of myself not that it would have been such a dreadful thing to have gone into the looking as i was for i was entirely but that i had not taken greater thought to respect his more he was a gentleman running a country hotel a real gentleman i was the smart from the city seeking to have my own way in the country because the city looks down on the country it hurt me a little and yet i felt repaid by having encountered a man who could fence so with the little and yet irritable and no doubt difficult problems of his daily life i wanted to make friends with him for i could see so plainly that he was really above the thing he was doing and yet content in some philosophical way to make the best of it how this man came to be running a country hotel with a bar attached i should like to know after luncheon i fell into a conversation with him brief but interesting he had lived here many years a holiday the place over the way with the beautiful trees belonged to a former i could see the forgotten making the best of his former in this out of the way place new a very old place had been hurt by the growth of other towns but now the was beginning to do something for it last sunday six hundred machines had passed through here only last week the town had to the principal street in order to attract further travel one could see by mine host s manner that his hotel business was picking up i venture to say he offered to contribute liberally to the expense so far as his ability would permit i could not help thinking of this man as we rode away and i have been thinking of him from time to time ever since he was so simple so sincere so dull or conventional i wish that i could believe there are thousands of such men in the world his hotel was so are the vast majority of other hotels and homes too in america the dining room was from one point of view and so from another one could feel the desire to set a good table and give a decent meal the general were good as far as they went but alas the average american does not make a good servant for the public the girl who waited on us was a poor slip well enough i am sure but without the first idea of what to do i could see her being selected by mine host because she was a good girl or because her mother was poor and needed the money never because she had been trained to do the things she was expected to do americans live in a world of sentiment in spite of all their business and somehow expect god to reward good intentions with perfect results i the spirit but i grieve for its no doubt this girl was dreaming all the time she was waiting on us of some four corners merry go round where her beau would be waiting dear america when will it be differ a country hotel ent from a dreaming child and if ever that time arrives shall we ever like it as much again and then came and for we were getting on i never saw a finer day nor ever enjoyed one more imagine smooth roads a blue sky white and black cattle on the hills lovely farms the rich green woods and yellow of a august life was going by in a mood and houses seemed to be a compound of blowing curtains cool deep shadows women in dresses reading and then an of bright flowers sage sweet and at we passed an hotel facing the river which seemed to me the ideal of what a summer hotel should be gay with yellow and white and airy and painted with flowers before it was this blue river a lovely thing with and trees and a sense of summer life beyond on a smooth white road we met a man who was selling some kind of soap a soap especially good for he came to us out of driving an old vehicle and hailed us as we were pausing to examine something he was a tall lean shabby american clothed in an ancient frock coat and soft felt hat and looked like some small town carpenter or or maker of walks by his side sat a man who looked nothing and said nothing taking no part in what followed he had a dreamy and yet harassed look made all the more emphatic by a long pointed nose and narrow pointed chin i ve got something here like to show you gentlemen he called drawing rein and looking at and speed well we re always willing to look at something once replied cheerfully and in a tone u very well gentlemen said the stranger you re just a h holiday the people i m looking for and you ll be glad you ve met me even as he spoke he had been reaching under	43
the seat and produced a small can of something which he now held aloft it s the finest thing in the way of a hand or machine soap that has ever been invented no he did not seem to know there were two is in the word good for man or woman won t soil the most delicate fabric or injure the hands i know now for i ve been working on this for the last three years it s my personal private invention the basis of it is and healing soothing you rub it on your hands before you put them in water and it takes off all these spots and that come from machine oil and that ordinary won t take out it them right up have you got any oil he continued seizing one of speed s genial hands very good this will take it right out you haven t any water in there have you or a pan never mind i m sure this lady up here in this house will let me have some and off he with the air of a i was interested so much enthusiasm for so humble a thing as a soap aroused me besides he was curious to look at a long lean he was so zealous so earnest so amusing if you please or hopeless here really i said is the basis of all of all hopeless invention of struggle and dreams never to be fulfilled he looked exactly like the average who is destined to invent and invent and invent and never succeed in anything well there is character there anyhow said that long nose that thin dusty coat that watery blue eye all and and street corner have something of this man in them and yet he came back here you are now i he exclaimed as he put down a small full of water now you just take this and rub it in good don t be afraid it won t hurt the a country hotel finest fabric or skin i know what all the arc i worked on it three years before i discovered it everybody in knows me if it don t work just write me at any time and you can get your money back in his eager routine of his material he seemed to forget that we were present here and now and could demand our money back before he left in a fitting spirit of speed rubbed the soap on his hands and spots which had for several days defied ordinary soap processes immediately disappeared who had acquired a few his hands he washed them in the pan of water standing on the engine box and declared the soap a success from my lofty perch in the car i now said to mr the name on the of the bottle well now you ve made fifteen cents not quite he corrected with the eye of a holy there are eight in that besides the and the bottle alone costs me four and one half cents is that so i continued unable to take him seriously and yet with him he seemed so futile and so prodigal of his energy then i really suppose you don t make much of anything oh yes i do he replied seemingly unconscious of my mood and trying to be exact in the interpretation of his profit i make a little of course i m only introducing it now and it takes about all i make to get it around i ve got it in all the stores of i ve been in the business for years now i got up some here a few years ago but some fellows in the business did me out of them i see i said trying to him and so bring forth any latent which he might be concealing against fate or life he looked to me to be a man who had been kicked about from pillar to post well when you get this well started and it looks as though it would be i io a holiday a real success some big soap or will come along and take it away from you you won t make anything out of it won t i he rejoined taking me with entire seriousness and developing a flash of opposition in his eyes no he won t either i ve had that done to me before but it won t happen this time i know die tricks of them i ve got all this the last time i only had my application in that s why i m out here on this road today this myself i lost the other company i was interested in but i m going to take better care of this one i want to see that it gets a good start he seemed a little like an animated in his mood oh i know i continued but purely in a way but they ll get you anyhow they ll swallow you whole you re only a you re all right now so long as your business is small but just wait until it looks good enough to fight for and they ll come and take it away from you they ll steal or imitate it and if you say anything they ll look up your past and have you arrested for something you did twenty or thirty years ago in or then they ll have your first wife show up and charge you with or they ll prove that you stole a horse or something sure they ll get it away from you i concluded no they won t either he insisted a faint suspicion that i was joking with him beginning to dawn on him i ain t never had but one wife and i never stole any horses i ve got this now and i ll make some	43
money out of it i think it s the best soap and here as he thought of his invention once more his brow cleared and his enthusiasm rose the most all round useful article that has ever been put on the market you gentlemen ought really to take a thirty cent bottle he went back and produced a large one it will last you a lifetime i it not to soil mar or injure the finest fabric or skin is the chief a country hotel and eight other no i wish you d take a few of my cards he produced a handful of these and if you find anyone along the road who stands in need of a thing of this kind i wish you d just be good enough to give em one so s they ll know where to write i m right here in i ve been here now for twenty years or more every knows me he looked at us with an unconsciously eye as though he were wondering what service we would be to him took the cards and gave him fifteen cents speed was still washing his hands some new spots having been discovered i watched the man as he proceeded to his vehicle well gentlemen i ll be saying good day to you will you be so kind as to return that pan to that lady up there when you re through with it she was very about it certainly certainly replied we ll attend to it once he had gone there ensued a long discussion of and their here was this one fifty years of age if he was a day and out on the public road a small soap which could not possibly bring him the reward he desired soon you see he s going the wrong way about it said he s putting the emphasis on what he can do personally when he ought to be seeing about what others can do for him he should be directing as a manager instead of working as a and another thing he places too much emphasis upon local standards ever to become successful he said over and over that all the and supply houses in handle his soap that s nothing to us we are as it were citizens and the judgments of do not convince us of anything any more than the judgments of other towns and along our route every little community has its standards and its successful ones the thing a holiday that will determine actual success is a man s ability or inability to see outside and put upon himself the test of a standard peculiar to no one community but common to all this man was not only apparently somewhat when we asked him what scheme he had to reach the broader market with his soap he appeared never to have approached in his own mind that possibility at all so he could never become more than partially successful or rich very true i assented but a really capable man wouldn t work for him he d consider him too futile and try to take his treasure away from him and then the poor creature would be just where he was before compelled to invent something else any man who would work for him wouldn t actually be worth having it would be a case of the blind leading the blind there was much more of this a long discussion we agreed that any man who does anything must have so much more than the mere idea must have vision the ability to control and to men a for those who are successful in short that mysterious something which we call personality this man did not have it he was a poor blown hither and yon by all the winds of circumstance dreaming of some far off which he never could enjoy or understand once he had it chapter xiv the city of swamp root as called it in trying to ask the way of now dawned swiftly upon us i wouldn t devote a line to those commercial towns and cities of america which are so numerous if the very commercial life of the average american weren t so interesting to me if anyone should ask me what s in i should confess to a sense of confusion as if he were expecting me to refer to something artistic or connected in any way with the world of high thought but then what s in or or or in or or nothing save people and people are always interesting when you get enough of them when we arrived in there was a parade and a holiday atmosphere seemed everywhere prevailing flags were out were strung across the in every street were large and of various descriptions loaded with girls and boys in white principally girls and frequently johnson city what in the world is johnson city do you suppose i asked of are they going to change the name of to johnson city speed was interested in the crowds this is a swell town for girls he commented but after we had alighted and walked about among them for a time they did not seem so attractive to me but the place had a real if somewhat air of where is johnson city i asked of a clerk of whom we were buying a a holiday oh it s a town out here a that used to be called they re it after a man out there r g johnson why oh well he s made a big success of a shoe business out there that two thousand people and he s given money for different things so they re the town after him yes he s a pretty good fellow i guess they say he is not knowing anything of	43
mr johnson good bad or indifferent i agreed with myself to judgment a man who can build up a shoe business that will employ two thousand people and get the of a fair sized city or town tc it after him is doing pretty well i think he couldn t be a dick or a james not openly at least people don t towns after dick but soon interested me from another point of view for stepping out of this store i saw a great red eight or nine story structure the building and then i realized i was looking at the home of swamp root one of those amazing cure all which arise shine make a fortune for some clever and and then after a period disappear think of hood s s oil e s vegetable compound american inventions each and all purchased by millions why don t the tell us of the cure of greece and rome and egypt and there must have been some looking at dr s swamp root building reminded me of a winter spent in a mountain town in west virginia it had a large and prosperous store where one night i happened to be for a little while to take shelter from the snow that was falling heavily presently there entered an old negro woman who up to the counter and c the city of swamp root under her black shawl produced a dollar bill i want a bottle of swamp root she said til tell you how it is said the clerk a country beau with a most and manner if you want to take six bottles it s only five dollars six bottles make a complete cure if you take the whole six now you ve got em then you ve got the complete cure the old woman hesitated she was evidently as near the grave with any remedy as without one all right she said after a moment s pause so the clerk wrapped six bottles into a large heavy parcel took the extra bills which she produced and rang them up in his cash register and meanwhile she gathered her cure under her shawl and forth smiling serenely it depressed me at the time but it was none of my business now as i looked at this large building i wondered how many other had contributed to its bricks and plate glass and why there was another large building occupied by a concern called the company which seemed to arouse the interest in he had at some previous time been greatly interested in and happened to know that a very large company situated somewhere in america had once stolen from this company some secret process relating to the manufacture of a and had proceeded to make so many millions that the of the stolen process eventually became one of the richest men in america one of our captains of great but the owners of the company were dissatisfied like the citizens in the ancient tale who are robbed and cry stop thief they and and in the courts first they in a circuit court then in a state court of appeals then in a court and then before the united states supreme court there were countless lawyers and bags and bags of evidence new trials stays and errors in judgment until finally by i no a holiday some curious turn of events the united states supreme court decided that the process invented by the company really did belong to said company and that all other of the process were and would have to repay to said company all they had ever stolen and more a on every single they had ever sold so the company like the virtuous but persecuted youth or girl in the fairy tale was able to collect the millions of which it had been and live happily ever afterwards leaving we went out along the beautiful which here in the heart of the city had been for a little way and saw all the fine houses of all the very wealthy people of then we drove along a street crowded with more and more beautiful homes all fresh and airy with flowers and and and at last we came to johnson city or as it once was here were the remains of a most tremendous american flags and and signs and a merry go round in front of a new and very handsome catholic church which was just building hung a large banner reading the noblest roman of them all r g johnson a of enthusiasm which i take it must have had some very solid substance behind it down in a hollow was a very very very large red factory with its countless windows and great towering and a holiday atmosphere about it and all around it were houses and houses and houses all new and all very much alike you could see that mr johnson and his factory and his had grown exceedingly fast and in the streets still were with on them and people in them and we could see that there had just been a procession with soldiers and boy and girls but alas we had missed it well i said to now you see how it is here is the reward of virtue a man a great business and treats his fairly and everybody loves him isn t that so i p j p and the at the city of swamp root in merely looked at me he has a way of just contemplating you at times it was soon after leaving that we encountered the first of a series of at intervals all through the states of new york and and which we later came to conclude were the invention of the devil himself apparently traffic on the roads of the states has increased so much of late that it has	43
the of former made roads and the of old of clay into or brick here in western new york for we left at for awhile they were all and in many places the state roads roads paid for by the money of the state and not of the county were invariably supposed to be the best all strolling villagers and would tell you so as a matter of fact as we soon found for ourselves they were nearly always the worst for they with a dusty traffic which soon succeeded in wearing holes in them of a size anywhere from that of a dollar to that of a or at a rate of much more than ten miles an hour over these hollows and was almost sometimes local and farmers in a spirit of despair had cut out a new road in the common clay while a few feet higher up lay the model state road entirely unused at any rate wherever was the best and shortest road there were most likely to be taking place and this meant a wide circle of anywhere from two or three to nine miles a wretched series of turns and calculated to try your spirit and temper to the breaking point i i suddenly exclaimed at one place in western i wish to heaven we could find some part of this state which wasn t full of and speed would remark another damn well what do you think of that i d like to have a picture of this one i would this however being the first we encountered did not ii a holiday left alone i contemplated a saloon which stood next door and on the window of which was in gold glass letters b b for a glass of beer i entered and inside i found the customary small town saloon atmosphere only this room was very large and clean and rather vacant there was a smell of in the a good smell and a number of citizens drinking beer a solemn looking who was bald was waiting on them some bits of cheese showed under a screen i ordered a beer and gazed about i was really not here but back in in and in here was mr b b himself a small rusty red faced man who though only intelligent was to the verge of bursting as a small man who has made a moderate success in life yet mr b b as i was soon to discover had his private fox at his there was a worm in the bud only recently there had been a great anti liquor agitation and a fair proportion of the all over the state had been closed three months before in this very town at the spring election no license had been all the here to the number of four would have to be closed including mr s in the heart of the town that meant that mr would have to get another business of some kind or quit i saw him looking at me curiously almost mournfully the state he asked we re riding out to i explained i come from there oh i see that s a nice little trip isn t it well i see lots of machines going through here these days many more than i ever expected to see it s made a difference in my business only and here followed a long account of his troubles he owned houses and lands a farm of three hundred acres not far out on which he lived and other properties but this saloon obviously was his pet i m thinking of making the city of swamp root an eating place of it next fall he added no license may not last forever his eye had a shrewd calculating expression that s true i said it keeps me worried though he added doubtfully i don t like to leave now besides i m getting along i m nearly sixty he straightened himself up as though he meant to prove that he was only forty and i like my farm it really wouldn t kill me if i never could open this place any more but i could see that he was talking just to hear himself talk he was desperately fond of his saloon and all that it represented not ashamed by any means but there s and new york i said i should think you d like to go down there i might he agreed perhaps i will it s a long way for me though won t you have another drink you and your friends by now and speed were returning and mr waved a hand as if to extend all the of the establishment the was most alert a cautious apprehensive person i could see that mr was inclined to be something of a for some reason he had conceived of us as personages richer than himself no doubt and was anxious to live up to our ideas of things and what he thought we might expect well now he said as we were leaving if you ever come through here again you might stop and see if i m still here as speed threw on the spark and the machine began to and shake mr proceeded up the handsome small town street with quite a stride i could see that he felt himself very much of a personage one of the leading figures of chapter xv a ride by night v it was a glorious quite wonderful there are v certain summer evenings when nature produces a poetic mood life seems to talk to you in soft whispers of wonderful things it is doing i and pools if you encounter any a mystic breath you can look into the of trees and define strange like countenances all the and of a thousand years what images	43
of horror have i not seen in the of trees every cottage seems to contain a lamp of wonder and to sing every garden suggests a of lovers a river if you follow one and the stars glow and sing they bend down like eyes all nature a harmony a splendid one of her indeed and tonight as we sped out of and i rested in the deep cushions of the car it seemed as if some such perfect was being interpreted somewhere out of the great mystery of the was coming this rare and lovely something what is god i asked that he should build such scenes as this his forces of his powers of we complain and complain but scenes like these for many things they and sing but what are they here now are what do they know of life or do their small bodies contain a world of wonder all dark to my five dull senses and these sweet shadows rich and fragrant now now i looked over my right shoulder quite by accident and there was a new moon hanging low in the west a mere feather its reflected in the n a ride by night bosom of a still stream we were along a cliff overhanging this river and as we did so along came a brightly lighted train following the stream bed and rushing somewhere probably to new york i thought of all the people on it and what they were doing what dreaming where going what what plots what hopes i looked into a cottage door and there a group of people were singing and their voices followed us down the wind in music and laughter somewhere along this road at some we had to stop for oil and gas as speed referred to always one of oil i noticed and about seven of the price being anywhere from to according to where we chanced to be i was and dreaming thinking how wonderful it all was and how pleasant our route would surely be when a man came up on a a strained and looking individual who said he had just come through western new york and northern one of those fierce souls who cover a thousand miles a day on a they me with an honest interest in the of his car was for gathering information as to roads there was no mystery about our immediate course for we were in a region of towns which on our map were marked as easy of access the roads were supposed to be ideal the great proposition before us however was whether once having reached we would go due north to and thereby striking as told us a wonderful state road to the or whether we would do as i had been wishing and suggesting cut due west following the northern border and thereby save perhaps as much as a hundred and fifty miles in useless riding north and south was for the region that offered the best roads i was for adventure regardless of machines or roads we had half on the thought that it might n a holiday be well to visit new york which lay about half way between the two opposing with which we were opposing each other and this solely because the name of one of my home towns in was and this as my showed was about the same size it was a sort of argument all around and this man who had just come through from had no particular good word to say for the roads it was a country he said you climb one hill to get into and five others to get out and they re terrors i could sec a look of uncertainty pass over s face farewell to i thought but another was not so sure all the roads from here on leading toward were very good many machines came through my spirits rose we decided to further discussion until we reached and could consult with an club perhaps we knew we would not get farther than tonight for we had away another hour and it was already dusk we never experienced a more delightful evening on the whole trip it was all so moving the warm air the new silvery moon the trees on the hills forming dark shadows the hills themselves gradually growing dim and fading into black the twinkling lights here and there the river this always high high above the stream there were but no at least none when we were in motion and our friend speed guiding the car with a splendid was still able between and turns and high and low to toss back tale after tale of a daring and yet character which kept me laughing all the while speed was so he had such innocently gross and yet comfortable human things to relate of horses cows dogs farm girls farm boys the farm business with which he was once connected and so on put on a slip and come down he called to her so she slipped on the stairs and came down j a ride by night do you remember that one they were all like that once out of we were soon in a town say of ten or fifteen thousand population which we at first for its streets were so wide and clean its houses so large and comfortable we saw on entering i called s attention to the typical american atmosphere of this town the america of a slightly older day there was a time not long ago when americans felt that the beginning and end of all things was the home not anything great in construction or magnificent but just a comfortable home in which to grow and everything had to be sacrificed to it it came to have a character all the art the joy	43
the hope which a youthful and people were feeling and believing expressed or attempted to express themselves in the home it was a place of great trees numerous a spacious lawn french windows a square all the romance of a youthful spirit crept into these things and still you can feel as you look at them how virtuous the owners felt themselves to be and how perfect their children what of men and women these latter were to become pure and above reproach alas for a dusty world that would not permit it that will never permit any perfect thing to be these houses a little faded now a little with damp a little heavier for paint a little grey or brown or black suggest by their atmosphere that they have yielded up crops of children we have seen several generations go by since they were built have they been any better than their if as good it seems to me as if i myself have witnessed a great revolt against all the binding perfection which these lovely homes represented in my youthful day it was taken for granted that we were to be good and beautiful and true and god was to reward us in heaven we were to die and go straight before the throne of grace each of us was to take one wife or one husband to our heart and hearth we were never a holiday to or steal or lie or do anything wrong whatsoever america was to make the sermon on the mount come true and look at us have we done it i call attention to and new york to go no further to the of trust building stock gambling stock watering get rich quick ing to the of politics and to the endless and and all the license of the stage and the hungry streets of and kept women have we made the ten work do not these small towns with their faded ideal homes stand almost as and in their frail way pointing the vanity of religious and moral in this world we have for some things but not the of the sermon on the mount our girls have not been virtuous beyond those of any other our boys more honest than those of any other land we have simply been human and a little more human for being told that we were not or ought not to be so in despite the fact that we had determined to reach before stopping for dinner we became suddenly hungry and while as speed put it down the principal street about three quarters of a mile long with various stores and in full swing we discovered an irresistible lunch car crowded in between two buildings inside was the usual at his pots and he was a youth this with a for doing his work gallantly like an he had nothing to offer save pork and beans ham and eggs various and one kind of pie all the remainder of his stock had been disposed of i ordered ham and eggs somehow in small towns i always feel safest in so doing it was amusing to watch him an egg with a turn of the wrist and at the same time hold converse with a headed youth whose face was pressed to a small giving out the every now and then as we were eating some familiar of the town would tap on the window to give evidence of his cf a ride by night passing and soon the place was invaded by five evening smart boys of the town who made all sorts of and as to the limited bill of fare how about a whole egg have you got one do you ever keep any salt and here somebody said you d have a new pie tomorrow is that right what s the matter with the old one inquired why a bit into it by mistake they re goin to sell it to the gallery for a why don t you get up a new line o the host at one place my ain t in it with what you re this drew a laugh and more chatter as i sat on a stool looking out and my ham and i could not help thinking of the high spirits of all these towns we were passing in europe in places of four or five times the size of this the even i might say i found no such nor any such zest for just living what is it about americans that gives all their small towns such an air somebody had already introduced the five light lamp standard here in one or two places the stores were all lighted and you could see boys and girls going up and down in the hope of those chance with adventure which youths and maidens of all so noting all this i said to myself that in europe somehow in towns of this size and much larger things always seemed here in america there are always these boys and girls of no particular social caste i take it whose homes are not very attractive whose minds and bodies are craving a touch of vitality gay contact with of the other sex and who find their social life in this way on the streets no doubt at this point will rise to say that they need more i am not so sure as life expresses itself so it should be i fancy all my sympathies go out to such young a holiday pie for i recall with what earnestness as a boy i used to do this same thing how i wished and longed and how my body at the thoughts of love and the promise of life to come once on the road again i and meditated until suddenly i found myself dreaming i wasn t	43
on the high road between and at all but in some happy land that hadn t anything to do with a land of youth and affection suddenly i sat up wondering whether i had over toward and he had discovered that i had been asleep we don t have to spend the night in do we i ventured cautiously oh no said since it s so late the next hotel we come to we d better tie up don t you think i m getting sleepy ah right for me agreed i couldn t tell whether he was sleepy or not presently a great square old house came into view with trees and flowers and a light burning before it it was so still now we seemed to have the night all to ourselves no were in sight we whether we would stay here oh let s risk it said it s only for one night anyhow we were greeted by a tall country boy with the air of one who is half asleep and a habit of running his hand through his hair he had been serving three men in the rear with drinks he led us up warm halls lighted by oil lamps into a small chamber with a large yellow bed this and another similar apartment for speed were all he could offer us it was hot a few were still the prospect of a deep black sky and stars through the open window was soothing i made a few comments which received in silence and then we slept chapter xvi next morning i was aroused at dawn it seemed to me by a on a door get up you drunken hound i called a voice which was that of the young man who had us the room that s right after you stay up all night he added and he beat the door vehemently again i wanted to get up and protest against his of the slumber of others and would have i think only i was interested to discover who the drunken hound might be and why this youth should be so abrupt with him after all i reflected we were in a very poor hotel the boy doing the knocking was a mere farm hand translated to the country hotel business and anyhow we should soon be out of here it was all life and color and if i didn t like it i needn t have stayed here the night before would have gone on but who was the drunken hound the sound had ceased almost as abruptly as it had begun the boy had gone downstairs after awhile the light grew stronger and seemed to stir i rose and pulled the shutters to but could not sleep any more the world outside looked so inviting there were trees and great fields of grass and a few white houses scattered here and there and a heavy dew i at once thought how delightful it would be to get up and ride on again this is a typical middle west country hotel even if it is in new york said sitting up and running his hand through his hair that fellow he s calling a drunken hound must be his father i heard him tell speed last night that his father slept in there a holiday presently we threw open the shutters and made what use we could of the bowl and and the two small provided how did you ever come to be an artist i inquired idly as i watched him stare out at the surrounding fields while he sat putting on his shoes you told me once that you were a farm hand until you were nearly nearly he corrected oh i always wanted to draw and did a little only i didn t know anything about it finally i took a course in a correspondence school get out i replied yes i did he went on they sent me instructions how to lay in with pen and ink various sorts of line on sheets of paper that were ruled off in squares long lines short lines and that sort of thing they made some other suggestions that had some value what kind of ink and pens and paper to buy i used to try to draw with ordinary writing ink and pens but a correspondence school i protested i know he said it seems ridiculous it s true just the same i didn t know where else to go and besides i didn t have the money there was a school in but they wanted too much i tried it awhile but the knew very little the correspondence school wanted only six dollars for fifteen lessons and they took it in part he smiled well how did you come to get started finally oh i worked most of my method out for myself art is a matter of feeling anyhow the drawing in squares gave me an idea which made me abandon the squares i used to write poetry too of sorts or tried to and one day i wrote a poem and decided to illustrate it and take it down to one of the newspapers because i had seen others in there somewhat like it i mean illustrated in pen and ink it was a poem about october or something my father thought i was wasting my time he wanted me to tend the farm but i took the poem down and they bought it right away gave me six dollars for it and then what i asked deeply interested well that rather astonished my father as much if not more than it did me he never imagined there was any money in that sort of thing and unless you were going to make money he waved his hand i know i agreed and then what well they bought	43
another and my father began to think there was something in it in art you know if you want to call it that in at that time he paused still i can t tell you how much feeling i put in those things either the trees the birds flying the shocked corn i used to stop when i was or and stand and look at the sky and the trees and the clouds and wish i could paint them or do something the big cities seemed so far off but it s that seems wonderful to me now and to me i said like a mother because we were brought up there i suppose sitting on the edge of this wretched hotel bed smiled vaguely his fine hand moving through his glistening white hair and then well one day the editor in said i ought to send some of my drawing down to new york or go down that i would get along he thought i ought to study art yes well i saved enough drawing for the news and writing poetry and hay and wheat to go that autumn to i spent three months in the art being in those days a good sunday school boy a of religious literature bought some work of me and at christmas time i sold a half page to the old record the a holiday fall i went to new york i found a little room and sold sketches and then i got on a paper the news you remember certainly was that your first place the very first and i thought you had been in new york years and years i can see even yet standing before his in the newspaper office making horrible sunday he was so gentle good looking and altogether attractive yes and then what well after my year s contract which started with the news had expired i tried this didn t go very well so i determined not to spend all my visiting art i a boat one day and went to europe four months later i returned to new york and a after i had paid my first month s rent i was broke at the magazines i would say that i had just returned from abroad so that i got plenty of work but i owned neither nor chair after a few days the if you please came to me and said that he and his wife had been talking about me and thought perhaps i needed some money and that they had eighty dollars upstairs which i could have right away if i wanted to use it it sounds wild but it s true they said i could take it and pay it back whenever i got ready in six months or a year or two years my estimate of poor old human nature was rapidly rising did you take it yes a part of it i had to in a way but i paid it back in a little while i often think of those people we stopped talking about his career then and went down to look in the and after our car the place was so unsatisfactory and it was still so early we decided not to remain for breakfast as i was sitting on the porch having gone off to out speed an approached contain ing a man and three women and bearing a seem to be a habit with cars coming from the west these halted and i was morally certain that they did so because of my presence here they thought others were with much fluttering of their the women stepped out and shook themselves while their escort departed to make inquiries presently lie returned and with him our young host who in the clear morning light seemed much more a farmer than ever a hand something about his crude strength and energy appealed to me i thought of his drunken father and how he might be trying to make the best of this place against lack of experience and with a ne er do well parent on his hands now he fixed me with a steady eye you people goin to have breakfast he asked no i replied pleasantly you ain t no well he went on turning to the then you people can have breakfast so i thought these people will have to eat the very poor breakfast that is being prepared for us it will serve them right the vulgar creatures as we were departing however explained that there was an extra charge which he had not troubled to dispute for something which we had apparently not had i explained that it was for the meal we had not eaten once more then we drove off along more of those delightful country roads which in the early morning sun with the fields glistening with dew and making their way to work and morning birds on the wing were too lovely the air after our room was so refreshing began to sing little white houses distant green their windows shining like gold green branches hung over and almost brushed our faces the sky the shade the dew was heavenly i thought of and his father and of a holiday him in his father s fields at dawn looking at the those fog wrapped trees of dawn and wishing he was an artist meanwhile my mind was busy with the sharp contrast this whole progress was presenting to my tour of europe even the poorest and most deserted regions i visited in england france germany italy holland there was so much to so much that was memorable or quaint or strange or artistic but here well here there were just towns like this one and and and places the best for which you could say was that they were brisk and vivid and building something which in the	43

Subsets and Splits

No community queries yet

The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.