by and by he heard a footstep a hurried and yet cautious footsep coming on towards the house


it stopped advanced again then seemed to go quite round it


having done that it came beneath the window and a head looked in


it was strongly relieved against the darkness outside by the glare of the guttering candles


a pale worn withered face the eyes but that was owing to its gaunt condition unnaturally large and bright the hair a grizzled black


it gave a search


ing glance all round the room and a deep voice said are you alone in this house


john made no sign though the question was repeated twice and ihe heard it distinctly


after a moments pause the man got in at the window


john was not at all surprised at this either


thers had been so much getting in and out of the window in the course of the last hour or so that he had quite forgotten the door and seemed to have lived among such exercises from infancy


the man wore a large faded cloak and a slouched hat


ihe walked up close to john and looked at him


john returned the compliment with interest


how long have you been sitting thus i said the man


john considered bnt nothing came of it


which way have the party gone some wandering speculations relative to the fashion of the strangers boots got into mr willets mind by some accident or other but they got out again in a hurry and left him in his former state


you would do well to speak said the man you may keep a whole skin thoughll you have nothing else left that can be hurt


which way have the party gone


that i said john finding his voice all at once and nodding with perfqct good faithhe couldnt point he was so tightly boundin exactly the opposite direction to the right one


you lie said the man angrily and with a threatening gesture


i came that way


you would betray me


it was son evident that johns imperturbability was not assumed but was the result of the late proceed


ings under his roof that the man stayed his hand in the very act of striking him and turned away


john looked after him without as much as a twitch in a single nerve of his face


he seized a glass and holding it under one of the little casks until a few drops were collected drank them greedily off then dashing it down upon the floor impatiently ihe took the vessel in iis hands and drained it into his throat


some scraps of bread and meat were scattered about and on those he fell next eating them with great voracity and pausing every now and then to listen for some fancied noise outside


when ihe had refreshed himself in this manner with violent haste t sand raised another barrel to his lips he pulled his hat upon his brow as though ihe were about to leave t the house and turned to john where are your servants mlr


willet indistinctly remembered to have heard the rioters calling to them to throw the key of the d room in which they were out of window for their v keeping


he therefore replied locked up


t vwell for them if they remain quiet and well i for you if you do thie like said the man


now t shew me tile way thie party wvent


a this time mr willet indicated it correctly


the d man was hiurrying to the door when suddenly there fi came towards them on tile wind the loud and rapid r tolling of an alarm bell and then a bright and vivid glare streamed up which lilumined not only the s whole chamnber but all tire country


rr


it was not the change from darkness to this a dreadful light it was not tile sound of distant shrieks tt and shouts of triumph it was not thisdread invasion t of tile serenity and peace of night that drove thie i arrn back asthllough nlhunderbolt had struck him


rt


it was tho bell


if the ghastliest shlrape the human as suind lias ever pictured in its wildest dreams had risen ki up before him hire could not ilave staggered back ht ward from its touch as hire did from the first sound of thiat loud iron voice


with eyesthatstarted from ti hiis hiead his limbs convulsed his face most tt horrible to see he raised one arm hiiglh up into the t air and holding aometlling visionary back arid down m with hiis other iland drove at it as though he hold a th knife and stabbed it to tle heart


hle clutched his es hair andi stopped his ears and travelled madly it round and round then gave a frightful cry and with it rushed away s still still the bell tolled on re and seemed to follow tlim louder and louder hotter th and hotter yet


lthe glare grew brighter tile roar of at voices deeper thie crash of heavy bodies falling m sihook tile air bright streams of sparks rose up ir into tile sky but louder thian them iall rising tt faster far to hleaven a million times more fierce tit and furious pouring forth dreadful secrets after its th long silence saaking the language of the dead tile ra bell the bell


i st what hunt of spectres could surpass that dread wi pursuit and flighit i had thtere been a legion of them sa on his track hre could have better borne it


they ti would have had a beginning and an end but here asl ds space woas full


ilte one pursuing voice was every


ar where it sounded in the earth the air i shook thie cv long grass and howled among the trembling trees


the echoes caught it up the owls hooted as it flew upon the breeze the nightingale was silent and hid ir herself among the thickest boughs it seemed to ts goad and urge the angry fire and lash it into mad ad ness every thing was steeped in one prevailing red le the glow was everywhere nature was drenched in or blood still the semorseless crying of that awful s voicethe bell the bell


i d it ceased but not in his ears


the knell was at ie his heart


no work of man had ever voice like that is which sounded there and warned him that it cried w unceasingly to heaven


who could hear that bell ly and not know what it said i there was murder in of its very note cruel relentless savage murder the toe murder of a confiding man by one who held his as every trust


its ringing summoned phantoms from id their graves


what face was that in which a re friendly smile changed to a look of half incredulous ig horror which stiffened for a moment into one of pain d then changed again to an imploring glance at hea h ven and so fell idly down with upturned eyes like s the dead stags he had often peeped at whlen a little y child shrinking and shudderingthere was a dreadful y thing totltink of now and clinging to an apron et as he looked


he sank upon the ground and re grovelling down as as if he would dig himself a or place to hide in covered his face and ears but no ea no noa hundred walls and roofs of brass would i not shut out that bell for in it spoke the wrathful voice of god and from that the whole wide universe ig could not afford a refuge


i id


while he rushed up and down not knowing wlere a to turn and while he lay crouching there the work e went briskly on indeed


when they left the may


y pole the rioters formed into a solid body and advanced at a quick pace to the warren


rumour of their approach having gone before they found d the garden doors fast closed the windows made it secure and the house profoundly dark not a light a being visible in any portion of the building


after e some fruitless ringing at the bells and beating at the iron gates they drew off a few paces to reconnoitre t and confer upon the course it would be best to take


t very little conference was needed when all were e bent upon one desperate purpose infuriated with a liquor and flushed with successful riot


the word being given to surround the house some climbed the a gates or dropped into the shallow trench and scaled l the garden wall while others pulled down the solid iron fence and while they made a breach to enter by d made deadly weapons of the bars


the house being completely encircled a small number of men were e despatched to break open a toolshed in the gardetr and during their absence on this errand the remain der contented themselves with knocking violently at the doors and calling to those within to come down a and open them on peril of their lives


no answer being returned to this repeated sum e mons and the detachment who had been sent away v coming back with an accession of pickaxes spades e and hoes they together with those who had such g arms already or carried as many did axes poles and crowbars struggled into the foremost rank a ready to beset the doors and windows


they had d not at this time more than a dozen lighted torches h among them but when these preparations were completed flaming links were distributed and passed e from hand to hand with such rapidity that in a minutes time at least twothirds of the whole roaring mass bore each man in his hand a blazing brand whirling these about their heads they raised a loud shout and fell to work upon the doors and windows


amidst the clattering of heeavy blows the rattling t of broken glass the cries and execrations of the mob and all the din and turmoil of the scene hugh and his friends kept together at the turret door where e mr haredalo had last admitted him and old john ywillet and spent their united force on that


it was a strong old oaken door guarded by good bolts and a heavy bar but it soon went crashing in upon t the narrow stairs behind and made as it were


da platform to facilitate their tearing up into the rooms abnve


almost at the same moment a dozen other points were forced and at every one the crowd poured in like water


a few armed servant men were posted in the hall i and when the rioters forced an entrance there they fired some half a dozen shots


but these taking no i effect and the concourse coming on like an army of devils they only thought of consulting their own safety and retreated echoing their assailants cries aid hoping in their confusion to be taken for rioters themselves in which stratagem they succeeded with the exception of one old man was was never heard of again and was said to have had his brains beaten out with an iron bar one of his fellows re ported that hie had seen the old man fall and to have been afterwards burnt in the flames


the besiegers being now in complete possession of the house spread themselves over it from garret to cellar and plied their demon labours fiercely


while some small parties kindled bonfires underneath the windows others broke up the furniture and cast the fragments down to feed the flames below where the apertures in the wall windows no longer were large enoogh they hurled out tables chests of drawers beds mirrors pictures and flung them whole into the fire while every fresh addition to the blazing masses was received with shouts and howls and yells which added new and dismal terrors to the conflagration


those who had axes and had spent their fury on thie moveables chopped and tore down the doors and window frames broke up the flooring hiewed away the rafters and buried men who lingered in the upper rooms in iheaps of ruins


i some searched the drawers the chests the boxes writing desks and closets for jewels plate and money whlile othlers less mindful of gain and more mad for destruction cast their whole contents into the court yard without examination and called to those below to heap them on the blaze


men who had been into thie cellars jadnd stdaved the casrs rushed to and fro stark mad setting fire to all they t saw often to thie dresses of their bwn friends and kindling the building in so many parts that some had no time for escape and were seen withl drooping n hiands and blackened faces hianging senseless on the winrdow sills to which they had crawled until e they were sucked and drawn into the burning gulf


the more thie fire cracokled and raged the wilder and i more cruel the men grew as though moving in thlat element they became fiends and changed their t earthly ntature for the qualities that give delight in hell


the burning pile revealing rooms and passages g red lhot througls gaps made in the crumbling walls n the tributary fires that licked the outer bricks and stones with tlheir long forked tongues and ran up to t meet thie glowing mass witlhin the shining of the flames upon the villains who looked on and fed them the roaring of thie angry bloaze so bright and high that it seemed in its rapacity to have swallowed up the very smoke the living flakes the wind borei t rapidly away and hurried on with like a storm of ir fiery snow the noiseless breaking of great beams of ci wood which fell like feathlers on the heap of ashies i and crumbled in the very act to sparks and powder oe tire lurid tinge that overspread the sky and the el darkness very deep by contrast which prevailed m around thie exposure to thie coarse comnron gaze of every little nootek which usages of home hid made a sv sacred place and the destruction by rude hands of every little household favorite which old associations made a precious thing all this taking placenot among pitying looks and friendly murmurs of com passion but brutal shouts and exultations which seemed to make the very rats who stood by the old house too long creatures with some claim upon the pity and regard of those its roof had sheltered combined to form a scene never to be forgotten by those who saw it and were not actors in the work so long as life endured


and who were they


the alarm bell rangand it was pulled by no faint or hesitatingr andsfor a long time but not a soul was seen


some of the insurgents said that when it ceased they heard the shrieks of women and saw some garments fluttering in the air as a party of men bore away no unresist ing burddtas


no one could say that this was true or false in such an uproar but where was hugh p who among them had seen him since the forcing of the doors


the cry spread through the body


where was hugh


o here i he hoarsely cridd appearing from the darkness out of breath and blackened with the smoke


we have done all we can the fire is burning itself out and even the corners where it hasnt spread are nothing but heaps of ruins


dis perse my lads while the coasts clear get back by different ways and meet as usual i with that ihe disappeared againcontrary to isis wont for he was always first to advance and last to go away leaving them to follow homewards as they would


it was not an easy task to draw off such a throng


if bedlam gates had been flung open wide there would not haveissued forth such maniacs as the frenzy of that night had made


there were men there who danced and trampled on the beds of flowers as though they trod down human enemies and wrenched them from the stalks like savages who twisted human necks


there were men who cast their lighted torches in the air and suffered them to fall upon their heads and faces blistering the skird with deep and un seemly burns


there were men who rushed up to the fire and paddled in it with their hands as if in water and others who were restrained by force from plunging in to gratify their deadly longing


on the skull of one drunken lad not twenty by his looks who lay upon the ground with a bottle to his mouth the lead from the roof came streaming down in a salower of liquid fire white hot melting his head like was


when the scattered parties were col lected men living yet but singed as with hot irons were plucked out of the cellars and carried off upon the shoulders of others who strove to wake them as tley went along with ribald jokes and left them dead in the passages of the hospitals


but of all the howling throng not one learnt mercy from or sickened at these sights nor was the fierce be


sotted senseless rage of one man glutted


slowly and in small clusters with hoarse hurrahs and repetitions of their usual cry the assembly dropped away


the last few redeyed stragglers reeled after those who had gone before the distant noise of men calling to each other and whistling for others whom they missed grew fainter and fainter at length even these sounds died away and silence reigned alone


silence indeed i tile glare of the flames had sunk into a fitful flashing light and the gentle stars invisible till now looked down upon the blackening heap


a dull smoke hung upon the ruin as though to hide it from those eyes of lleaven and the wind forbore to move it


bare walls roof open to the sky chambers where the beloved dead had many and many a fair day risen to now life and energy where so many dear ones had been sad and merry which were connected with so many thoughts and hopes regrets and changes all gone


nothing left but a dull and dreary blanka smouldering heap of dust and ashes silence and solitude of utter deso lation


to be continued


my second tour


by tub authob op out of harness


okattbr it


i on the road to ncuilly a short distance from paris is the spot where the accident occurred which deprived the present duchess of orleans of a husband and i changed perhaps tho dynastic destinies of prance


in a moment passed from life to death in the bloom of manly health strength and beauty the heir of one of europes proudestthrones not unbeloved hythe people who afterwards expelled his siro and rejected his race a prince too whom many a fair one


wept one indeed never to smile again


the crown purchased and pulled down the humble dwelling into which the duke was taken when thrown from his carriage and on its site erected a small but graceful chapel in which in addition to a marble cenotaph is a picture repre senting the circumstances of his dying moments hung up over the very spot on which he breathed his last


he is represented as lying on the floor just as he was carried in from tho road in a state of insensibility his head supported by one of the medical attendants and another holding to his mouth and nose powerful restoratives in the vain hope of awakening him to con sciousness this however he never recovered but died without recognising any of his family or friends who hurried to his assistance on hearing of the aocident


at his feet kneels his agonised father around him stand his brothers and sisters and just come in in time to see him die guizot and other ministers of louis philippe


a brief notice of this sad event is thus iven in galignanis guide to paris the duke eft paris in the forenoon in a light open carriage with a postillion intending to take leave of the royal family at neuilly and then to proceed to the camp at st omore


as he approached the porte maillot the horses took fright the postillion seeming to lose command over thurn the duke called out are you master of your horses


sir i guide them was the reply


after a few minutes the duke again said i am afraid you cannot hold them the an swer was i cannot sir


the duke then endea voured to get out of the carriage but his feet becom ing entangled in his cloak he was precipitated to the gound on his head which was dreadfully fractured e was conveyed to the house of m landur a grocer where at ten minutes past four oclock of the same afternoon he breathed his last unconscious of the grief that surrounded him and apparently without pain


the reader perhaps need hardly be told that after the flight of louis philippe his palace at neuilly was wantonly destroyed by the mob


wovisited the ruins of which great part was still btaniling bearing inscriptions of a very multifarious character chalked up on the spur of the moment such for instance as mort aux voleursshowing how a propensity to arson may coexist with a hatred of larceny or in other words ithat patriots as well as puritans will occasionally compound for sins they aro incllnd to by g those they havo no mind to


may left paris at halfpast five pm by rail way and arrived at chalonssurmarne at eleven blept there and next day reached strasburg at ten at night


few duller cities are i should think to be found than strasburg though as we only passed one day there it may perhaps possess attractions which we did not discover


of course we visited the cathe dral the celebrated clock therein being the promi nent object of our curiosity


we got rather tired of the inspection as we had come principally to hear the cock crow a performance not


perpetrable before twelve oclock of which it wanted full twenty minutes after we had seen all the other notahilia


at length the wished for moment arrived when with his accustomed punc tulity the mechanised chanticleer crowed forth a most unquestionable cockadoodledoo


with a full ness of tone not in the least diminished by his previous expenditure of breath to the same tune for the last hundred and fifty years


by the way i may as well mention here a nuisance to which i found myself ex poaed in almost all continental towns whenever i stirred a foot in the direction of any of the celebrities of the place


whether riding or walking there was no escaping the lynxeyed supervision of those obse quious bipeds who ever on the lookout for sight seers under the selfconferred title of com missionaires were sure to pop out upon ono with a tender of their services whether wanted or not


the offlciousness of these gentry is something extra ordinary and is only to be put down by a system of tactics equal in ingenuity to their own


if you drive np to the front of a cathedral their first manoeuvre is to open the door of tho carriage and assist you to alight


common politeness requires some notice of this and you accordingly bow or utter an acknow ledgment


before entering the cathedral you probably take an ocular survey of the exterior when you notice the strangers hand extended in the same direction as your eye and in several other directions where your eye has no inclinationto follow


in the blandest of voices after having pointed out what you did not care to see he begs you to observe what you are already observing and then saying par ici this way as if it were not obvious that you were going this and could go no other way he precedes you till you arrive at the entrance when he stops and pushing asido the door bows as you enter


in the interior you join the dozen or so visitors that are listening to the de scriptions of the verger or some such functionary and for a time give up your ears unmolested by any other sounds to his monotonous recital but the parasol of your wife dropping you are suddenly made aware of the presence of the stranger by his picking it up and of his unfaltering politeness by the air with which ho gays allow me madame to carry it when ma dame puts out her hand to receive it


a beautiful specimen of tho art of the middle agesthat painted window is his next exclamation accom panied by a halt opposite the aforesaid win dow of somewhat longer duration than the official of the cathedral appears to approve of for he shuffles off with a sort of look at us which seems to say if you want to see the cathedral youd better move on


accordingly you do move on evidently to the cha grin of the stranger the nature of whose attentions you now begin to get a little insight into


at last they become no longer doubtful when the official turning sharply round in the midst of some fresh re velation by the stranger exclaims fiercely that he is showing the cathedral and if we dont want to see it pointing to the stranger wed better listen to that gentleman ce monsieur la


the benignity of the stranger however disappeareth not nor diminisheth in any way until after having witnessed our bestowal on the orthodox functionary of his accustomed fee he takes courage to suggest quelque chose for himself


there is a humility in the tone of his appeal for i am recount ing what occurred to myself which makes it impossi ble to do anything but smile at its impudence still i cannot help mildly responding pour quoi mon ami


he seems to be meditating what he shall re ply when i exclaim here is a franc for carrying madames parasol as for the rest pointing to the guidebook i hold in my hand i have it all here


there are one or two things for which strasburg is famous which it is not necessary to go there to learn all about


i shall not therefore mention them here and


yet will my abstinence on this head be appre ciated


or is it in fact excusable


there is a say ing that to think a man honest will sometimes make him so but the assumption that a man knows what he does not know will not supply the know ledge itself and as i am writing this in victoria where books though comeatable are not always como at i will upon consideration enumerate in a very summary way the memorabilia of strasburg


in the first place the spiro of its cathedral is higher than any other edifice in the world in the next one of the earliest attempts at printing was made there thirdly it is the strongest fortified town in europe fourthly it was the scene of louis napoleons first attempt at insurrection in and last but not least in the estimation of all epicures it is the grand emporium of those recherche concoctions celebrated all over europe under the title of pates de foies gras


perhaps it will tend to qualify the gas tronomic emotions of the curious in these matters when they are informed that this luxurious dish of which the poet moore was so en amoured that he grudged no expense to procure it is made i quote from murray of the livers of geese which re enlarged to au unnatural sizesometimes attaining the weight of two or oven three pounds by the process of shutting the birds up singly in coops too narrow to allow them to turn and stuffing them twice a day with maize


in the evening we took a drive in the vioinity of the town and were astonished to see the extent and beauty of the walks and gardens set apart for public recreation in the suburbs were abundance of tea gardens with dancing and music going on


we stopped at one for a few minutes and were supplied without alighting with some vcrydelicious ice creams


at i nave a weakness it is for ices as to the pates de th grai left trabur without even enquiring for june took a voiture to join the railway at kehl whence we travelled as far as durlach and then got into a diligence to convey us to wildbad


our route lay through a very beautiful and romantic tract of country to our journeys end but as wo drew near its close we began to feel some little apprehension re specting the pretensions and actualities of wildbad meit


i experienced a sort of relief to find one or two tillages through which we passed were not wildbad though we knew it could not be far off and must ia a few minutes become a perceptible reality


yesthere was no mistake about itthere was wildbad there was no getting out of it on the contrary we had to get out of tho diligence and into it


as we drove through its single street and looked about in vain for any appearance of either holiday or business bustle we took in at a glance all that could be taken in if wo stayed there for a twelve month


a sense of desolation and disgust carno upon us which was but faintly hidden under the hectic laugh with which we endeavoured to conceal our impres sions


i could not help exclaiming however as the fact of our approach became undoubted


well if this is wildbad nothing short of instantaneous recovery can make the place tolerable


i we stayed there twentytwo days and such a period of ennui i think i never before underwent


besides the one little dirty contemptible street the village consists of one miserable church and three goodlooking spacious hotels to one of which is attached the bath house


there are also a large concert room subscription library and readingroom and a band of eight performers who play at six in the morning and at the same hour in tho evening throughout the season which is at its height about july and lasts from may to september


in winter the place is deserted and occasionally inundated


almost all the supplies even in summer are procured from stutgard or other towns wliich makes the hotels much dearer than most of the other german spas


the peasantry and inhabitants are nearly all woodcutters and pass their time from morning to night in the exercise of their vocation in the black forest of which wildbad is about the centre through the town runs or rather rushes the river enz down which those im mense rafts are floated of which so many huge speci mens may be seen occasionally upon the rhine


it is very interesting to watch these rafts threading the rapid currents and torrents along which they glide the skill and rapidity with which the raftsmen steer them through all sinuosities and over every obstacle are really marvellous


accidents seldom occur to the men engaged in this apparently perilous service but when they do they are general fatal


on either side of the enz near wildbad the ground is laid out in walks gardens grottoes fountains c and everything has been done to give to the place what charm mero locality is susceptible of


bridges cross the stream here and there and paths wind picturesquely and gradually to several hundred feet in heighth whence may be obtained in every direction which tho boundaries of the closely circling moun tains and dense forests will allow pleasing and romantic prospects


from enjoying these no invalid need be excluded who can sit up in any of the numerous chairs which are constructed and kept for his convenience at each of the hotels


they are moved with great facility being much lighter than the bath chairs and the cost of both man and chair ia almost nominal


as i had como to wildbad for the purpose of trying the baths the first thing i did on my arrival was to consult as to the best mode of using thom one of the medical practitioners who rcsi


there during the season


the advice given is in most cases the same being to wait a day or two before trying the baths in order to recover from the fatigue of travelling thon to bathe de die in diem increasing tho time of duration in the bath from a quarter of an hour by daily accessions of five minutes until it reaches threequarters of an hour


these proceedings were calculated to occupy in my own case three weeks provided no interruption took place from the too potent effects of the bath


after bathing my instructions were to undress and go to bed for half an hour but not to sleep during that time


the bathing hour was at the option of the patient either early in the morning before breakfast or at eleven or at three i took fourteen baths successively with decided effectaccording to the opinion of the doctor but with none other acoording to my own than that of increased sensibility to cold and a relaxation rather than a strengthening of the nervous system


the bath itself was a pleasant affair enough for the water keeps the whola time at a natural temperature of about ninetyfive and one lies in a state of undisturbed recumbency with out the care or trouble of maintaining the heat to its requisite degree


and going to bed if one might go also to sleep would be agreeable enough but the injunction to remain awake renders that a trial which would otherwise bo a luxury


the result with mo was n sort of dreamy drowsiness from which i roso tired and unrefreshed and so sensitive to cold that if there were any thing like a breeze stirring i was afraid to go out


tha weather indeed was so rainy and bleak nearly every day of our stay that wo seldom got an hours continuous sunshine and altogether we were fairly put to our wits end to while away the time


fortunately the library of the place contained a number of english novels into the pages of which i plunged withindiscriminate voracity and devoured dish after dish with a gusto that surprised even myself


two deserve never to be forgotten the caxtons and my novel so far let me be grateful to wild bad but for my sojourn there these exquisite works might have remained sealed books to me


i never stayed at any other of the german baths but if the frequenters thereof be of the same descrip tion as the majority of those i met at wilbad i have no desire to make any acquaintance with them it was indeed a veritable collection of the lame the halt and the blind


oh what a dilapidated set of human beins wero hobbling about from morning to night that is evening for they were all ordered in at dusk


it was painful to behold a collection of such infirmi ties though i could not sometimes help smiling at the patient gullibility with which they went through the orthodox routine of valetudinarian discipline prescribed by the medical lex loci


the visitors were of all grades and nations polish counts russian princes and german barons forming a large ingredient


one general object of attraction was general ohangarnier who like victor hugo will not be reconciled to louis napoleon


as tho period of my departure drew near i began to form an acquaintance with two or three english visi tors whose society would have greatly tended to re lieve the tedium of a longer stay


two of them had relatives in australia and indeed wherever i went during both my first and second continental tour i in variably came in contact with some one who either was from australia or had relatives or connections settled there


thus within the walls of the colosseum at rome i found myself suddenly confronted by that highly respectable upholsterer l of castlereaghstreet sydney and was afterwards standing with him beneath the arch of titus on the very spot trodden by that em peror in his triumphal march commemorative of the taking of jerusalem


i cant say that i wa disappointed in not deriving any benefit from the wildbad springs for i had pre viously come to the conclusion that all watering places both english and continental are a hoax a pleasant and profitable one perhaps in the main j but still a huge and unquestionable hoax


people may go there to be cured or expecting to bo cured of what is incurable or curable without moving from home but they are not sent there with any such expecta tion by ninetenths of the medical men whose opinion is worth taking


out of deference to whims fancies hopes and credulities which it can do no harm to indulge they may and frequently do consent to and even seem to recommend to their patients a visit to such places but if pressed to be candia on the subject they will tell you that the experiment is yery uncertainthot


the most to be said of it is that it may make you better and cant make vou worse


the consequence is that shoals of invalids real and imaginary flock in the season to these holiday hos pitals which are becoming every year more abundant


you cannot travel for fifty miles in any direction in the southeastern part of europe without popping upon some locality where baths are established for the cure of almost every disease under the sun


the amount of competition in this way has de tracted yery much from the repute of some of the older establishments both in england and abroad so much so that cheltenham and aixla chapelle have become as wateringplaces pretty nearly snuffed out


the fact is to a londoner tunbridge wells and that sort of thing seem rather a humdrum affair even for the sake of a speedy and cheap remedy when he may be whisked off ia a few hours to some such mag nificently sounding locality in the alps as gastein wildbad at an elevation of four thousand feet above the level of the sea


that if you like is a change not only of air but of scene a trip worth talking about and memorable for some time to comewith cure or without


it must bo admitted however that many wonderful cure are to be found recorded in


a com plete account of tho therms of wildbad by william edrugulin esq with some very interesting particulars relating to wildbad itself


among other things we learn from it that poor little wildbad has been six times burnt that it has been twice nearly destroyed by inundation and that the celebrity of its waters dates as far back as the year ad when according to the old chronicler herold its baths were founded by the emperor marcus aurelius antonius


the old chronicler must be a little out in his chronology here at the period he assigns for the foundation of the baths the roman emperor was marcus aurelius cara calla the former worthy had been poisoned by his mistress in ad and could hardly therefore have presided at the inauguration of any of the hot springs of this earth in ad


there is no doubt how ever that the aforesaid springs were in high repute so long ago a the year when they were visited by one eberhard count of wurtemburg of whose resort thither the bimbian poet uhland thus sings in balmy days of summer by gentle breezes fanned when verdant are the forests and blooming is tho land thero passed tho gates of stutgard a knight beloved and feared count eberhard tho wrangler surnamed tho bustling board


not with a proud rctmuo he is taking to tho field nor is it his intention tho heavy sword to wield to wildbad goes his errand and to tho healing spring that health to tho diseased nnd strength to age doth bring


not only strength to ago but age to strength if mr dnignlin be correct in informing us that the count was made a duke at worms in


now as ho took the baths in and could not then have been exactly a chicken to have acquired the surname of the rustling beard tho honour of dukedom would seem to have been conferred on the old wrangler at somewhere about the age of one hundred and fifty a description of senior wrangler which if old parr wero out of the way would be without par altogether


mr drugulin however german though he be can write very beautiful english and charm us with his de scription of nature if ho be not over correct in his his torical reminiscences


here is a truly poetical yet withal truthful pieture of the descent into the rlune of the river enz fifteen miles south of wildbad on a wild moun tain height moro than two thousand feet above the sea level a small rivulet rises to the light of day from amidst dark mossgrown rocks like an enchanted princess struggling to get free from tho grasp of her giant keepers joyously the hardy daughter of the forest bounds away from the place of her long thraldom


they are trying to stop her by a lake they havo thrown into her way but boldly she plunges in and quickly rises again on the opposite banks


thence she sallies forth to the bright world below of which the mummele of the lake has told her many a wondrous tale


down she rushes merrily with the exuberant spirit of youth and though at times she plays with the pebbles in her bed or mischievously drags along some stem that lazily dozes on her border yet she never stops but on she goes bounding her way through opposite rocks or leaping precipices with the agility of a young fawn


sometimes indeed she wants to ask the way from the tall pines at the roadside but those solemn wiseacres are shaking their gray mossy beards and wont tell unless she leave off her heathenish courses and assume a proper christan name


what are names to her


still like a good child she listens to counsel and henceforth goes under the surname of enz then she encounters man thot ugly creature and he reminds herthat she a ger man woman and must work so he puts heavy loads on her back and makes her carry them and whenever she is weary he stops her and makes her collect her forces


at first she frowns but then ie oeg jt cheerfully and as you see her passing y whlbad you bear her noisy prattle and sog how playfully she puts her shoulder to the heavy millwheels turning them round and round incessantly


at oalmbach she is joined by her younger sister the small enz further on tho turbulent egach too and the strong nagold unite with her to play and work


thus as she loaves the tall pine trees and taller rocks of the black forest she gets over her teens and from euzbourg usually moves between soft meadows and green vine yards she knows what she is about and never romps now for she is aware that hor bridegroom youthful neckar is ready to clasp her to his bosom whenever she may be inclined to join him


well at last she overcomes her maiden coyness at beligheim their union takes place and from thence they pursue their career peacefully like a good married couple spread ing blessings on every side as they move along m the stream of life until they dissolve in the mighty rhine and with his green waves are borne to the vast sea of eternity


i am afraid after this the following lines will feel but tame but as i am about now to quit wildbad and they commemorate the last reflections that occurred to me in taking leave of it i take leave to record them here premising only that the aforesaid enz to which they relate is often even on a fine day very pas sionate and boisterous anything but crystaline in its features and more like a tiger than a fawn in the swiftness of its descent how changed tho stream but


yesterday bright calm and clear it ran with murmurs pleasing to the car and depths that all might scan now dark and turbid in its flow and furious as strong as thwarted of some flying prey it roars and leaps along


tho sunlight flings a gentle ray upon its mad unrest but vainly strives to clear its brow or trannuiliso its breast


o river foul


how off like thee doth man his course pursue with soul whioh earths defiling stains keep heaven from binning through


with which halfdozen distichsmoral i trust if not poeticalsay with me gentle reader goodby to wildbad


to be continued


american notes for general circulation


by charles dickens


chapter viii


washington the legislature and the presidents house


we left philadelphia by steamboat at six oclock one very cold morning and turned our faces towards washington


in the course of this days journey as on subsequent occasions we encountered some englishmen small farmers perhaps or country publicans at home who were settled in america and were travelling on their own affairs


of all grades and kinds of men that jostle one in the public con veyance of the states these are often the most intolerable and the most insufferable companions


united to every disagree able characteristic that the worst kind of american travellers possess these country men of ours display an amount of insolent conoeit and cool assumption of superiority quite monstrous to behold


in the coarse familiarity of their approach and the effrontery of their inquisitiveness which they are in great haste to assert as if they panted to revenge themselves upon the old restraints of home they surpass any decent native specimens that came within my range of observation and i often grew so patriotic when i saw and heard them that i would cheerfully have submitted to a reasonable fine if i could have given any other country in the whole world the honour of claiming them for its children


as washington may be called the head quarters of tobaccotinctured saliva the time is come when i must confess without any disguise that the prevalence of those two odious practices of chewing and expec torating began about this time to be any thing but agreeable and soon became most offensive and sickening


in all the public places of america this filthy cus tom is recognised


in the courts of law the judge has his spittoon the crier his the witness his and the prisoner his while the jurymen and spectators are pro vided for as so many men who in the course of nature must desire to spit in cessantly


in the hospitals the students of medicine are requested by notices upon the walls to eject their tobacco juice into the boxes provided for that purpose and not to discolour the stairs


in public buildings visitors are implored through the same agency to squirt the essence of their quids or plugs as i have heard them called by gentlemen learned in this kind of sweetmeat into the national spit toons and not about the bases of the mar ble columns


but in some parts this cus tom is inseparably mixed up with every meal and morning call and with all the transactions of social life


the stranger who follows in the track i took myself will find it in its full bloom and glory luxuriant in all its alarming recklessness at washington and let him not persuade himself as i once did to my shame that previous tourists have exaggerated its ex tent


the thing itself is an exaggeration of nastiness which cannot be outdone


on board this steamboat there were two young gentlemen with shirt collars reversed as usual and armed with very big walkingslicks who planted two seats in the middle of the deck at a distance of some four paces apart took out their tobaccoboxes and sat down opposite each other to chew


in less than a quarter of an hours time these hopeful youths had shed about them on the clean boards a copious shower of yellow rain clearing by that means a kind of magic circle within whose limits no intruders dared to come and which they never failed to re fresh and rerefresh before a spot was dry


this being before breakfast rather dis poses me i confess to nausea but look ing attentively at one of the expectorators i plainly saw that he was young in chew ing and felt inwardly uneasy himself


a glow of delight came over me at this dis covery and as i marked his face turn paler and paler and saw the ball of to bacco in his left cheek quiver with his suppressed agony while yet he spat and chewed and spat again in emulation of his older friend i could have fallen on his neck and implored him to go on for hours


we all sat down to a comfortable break fast in the cabin below where there was n more hurry or confusion than at such a meal in england and where there was certainly greater politeness exhibited than at most of our stagecoach banquets


at about nine oclock we arrived at the rail road station and went on by the cars


at noon we turned out again to cross a wide river in another steamboat landed at a continuation of the railroad on the opposite shore and went on by other cars in which in the course of the next hour or so we crossed by wooden bridges each a mile in length two creeks called respectively great and little gunpowder


the water in both was blackened with flights of canvasbacked ducks which are most delicious eating and abound here abouts at that season of the year


these bridges are of wood have no parapet and are only just wide enough for the passage of the trains which in the event of the smallest accident would inevitably be plunged into the river


they are startling contrivances and are most agreeable when passed


we stopped to dine at baltimore and being now in maryland were waited on for the first time by slaves


the sensa tion of exacting any service from human creatures who are bought and sold and being for the time a party as it were to their condition is not an enviable one


the institution exists perhaps in its least repulsive and most mitigated form in such a town as this but it is slavery and though i was with respect to it an inno cent man its presence filled me with a sense of shame and selfreproach


after dinner we went down to the rail road again and took our seats in the cars for washington


being rather early those men and boys who happened to have no thing particular to do and were curious in foreigners came according to custom round the carriage in which i sat let down all the windows thrust in their heads and shoulders hooked themselves on conveniently by their elbows and fell to comparing notes on the subject of my personal appearance with as much in difference as if i were a stuffed figure


i never gained so much uncomprising infor mation with reference to my own nose and eyes the various impressions wrought by my mouth and chin on different minds and how my head looked when it is viewed from behind as on these occasions


some gentlemen were only satisfied by exer cising weir sense of touch and the boys who are surprisingly precocious in ame rica were seldom satisfied even by that but would return to the charge over and over again


many a budding president has walked into my room with his cap on his head and his hands in his pockets and stared at me for two whole hours occasionally refreshing himself with a tweak at his nose or a draught from the watering or by walking to the windows and inviting other boys in the street be low to come up and do likewise crying here is


come on


bring all your brothers


with other hospitable entreaties of that nature


we reached washington at about half past six that evening and had upon the way a beautiful view of the capitol which is a fine building of the corinthian order placed upon a noble and commanding emi nence


arrived at the hotel i saw no more of the place that night being very tired and glad to get to bed


breakfast over next morning i walk about the streets for an hour or two and coming home throw up the window in the front and back and look out


here is washington fresh in my mind and under my eye


take the worst part of the city road and pentonville preserving all their oddi ties but especially the small shops and dwellings occupied there but not in wash ington by furniturebrokers keepers of poor eatinghouses and fanciers of birds


burn the whole down build it up again in wood and plaster widen it a little throw in part of st johns wood put green blinds outside all the private houses with a red curtain and a white one in every window plough up all the roads plant a great deal of coarse turf in every place where it ought not to be erect three handsome buildings in stone and marble anywhere but the more entirely out of everybodys way the better call one the post office one the patent office and one the treasury make it scorching hot in the morning and freezing cold in the afternoon with an occasional tornado of wind and dust leave a brickfield without the bricks in all central places where a street may naturally be expected and thats washington


the hotel in which we live is a long row of small houses fronting on the street and opening at the back upon a common yard in which hangs a great triangle


whenever a servant is wanted somebody beats on this triangle from one stroke up to seven according to the number of the house in which his presence is required and as all the servants are always being wanted and none of them ever come this enlivening engine is in full performance the whole day through


clothes are dry ing in this same yard female slaves with cotton handkerchiefs twisted round their heads are running to and fro on the hotel business black waiters cross and recross with dishes in their hands two great dogs are playing upon a mound of loose bricks in the centre of the little square a pig is turning up his stomach to the sun and grunting thats comfortable


and neither the men nor the women nor the dogs nor the pig nor any created crea ture takes the smallest notice of the tri angle which is tingling madly all the time


i walk to the front window and look across the road upon a long straggling row of houses one story high terminating nearly opposite but a little to the left in a melancholy piece of waste ground with frowzy grass which looks like a small piece of country that has taken to drink ing and has quite lost itself


standing any how and all wrong upon this open space like something meteoric that has fallen down from the moon is an odd lopsided oneeyed kind of wooden build ing that looks like a church with a flag staff as long as itself sticking out of a steeple something larger than a teachest


under the window is a small stand of coaches whose slavedrives are sunning themselves on the steps of our door and talking idly together


the three most obstrusive houses near at hand are the three meanest


on onea shop which never has anything in the window and never has the door openis painted in large characters the city lunch


at another which looks like the back way to somewhere else but is an independent building in itself oysters are procurable in every style


at the third which is a very very little tailors shop pants are fixed to order or in other words pantaloons are made to measure


and that is our street in washington


it is sometimes called the city of mag nificent distances but it might with greater propriety be termed the city of magnificent intentions for it is only on tailing a birdseye view of it from the top of the capitol that one can at all compre hend the vast designs of its projector on aspiring frenchman


spacious avenues that begin in nothing and lead nowhere streets milelong that only want houses roads and inhabitants public buildings that need but a public to be complete and ornaments of great thoroughfares which only lack great thoroughfares to ornamentare its lending features


one might fancy the season over and most of the houses gone out of town for ever with their masters


to the admirers of cities it is a barmecide feast a pleasant field for the imagination to rove in a monu ment raised to a diseased project with not even a legible inscription to record its departed greatness


such as it is it is likely to remain


it was originally chosen for the seat of go vernment as a means of averting the con flicting jealousies and interests of the different states and very probably too as being remote from mobs a consideration not to be slighted even in america


it has no trade or commerce of its own having little or no population beyond the president and his establishment the members of the legislative who reside there during the session the government clerks and officers employed in the various departments the keepers of the hotels and boardinghouses and the tradesmen who supply their tables


it is very un healthy


few people would live in wash ington i take it who were not obliged to reside there and the tides of emigration and speculation those rapid and regardless currents are little likely to flow at any time towards such dull and sluggish water


the principal features of the capitol are of course the two houses of assembly


but there is besides in the centre of the building a fine rotunda ninetysix feet in diameter and ninetysix high whose cir cular wall is divided into compartments ornamented by historical pictures


four of these have for their subjects prominent events in the revolutionary struggle


they were painted by colonel trumbull him self s member of washingtons staff at the time of their occurrence from which cir cumstance they derive a peculiar interest of their own


in this same hall mr greenoughs large statue of washington has been lately placed


it has great merits of course but it struck me as being rather strained and violent for its subject


i could wish how ever to have seen it in a better light than it can ever be viewed in where it stands


there is a very pleasant and commodious library in the capitol and from a balcony in front the birds eye view of which i have just spoken may be had together with a beautiful prospect of the adjacent country


in one of the ornamented por tions of the building there is a figure of justice whereunto the guide book says the artist at first contemplated giving more of nudity but he was warned that the public sentiment in this country would not admit of it and in his caution he has gone perhaps into the opposite extreme


poor justice


she has been made to wear much stranger garments in america than those she pines in in the capitol


let us hope that she has changed her dressmaker since they were fashioned and that the public sentiment of the country did not cut out the clothes she hides her lovely figure in just now


the house of representatives is a beautiful and spacious hall of semicir cular shape supported by handsome pillars


one part of the gallery is ap propriated to the ladies and there they sit in front rows and come in and go out as at a play or concert


the chair is canopied and raised considerably above the floor of the house and every mem ber has an easy chair and a writing desk to himself which is denounced by some people out of doors as a most unfortunate and injudicious arrangement tending to long sittings and prosaic speeches


it is an elegant chamber to look at but a singularly bad one for all purposes of hearing


the senate which is smaller is free from this objection and is exceed ingly well adapted to the uses for which it is designed


the sittings i need hardly add take place in the day and the parliamentary forms are modelled on those of the old country


i was sometimes asked in my progress through other places whether i had not been very much impressed by the heads of the lawmakers at washington mean ing not their chiefs and leaders but lite rally their individual and personal heads whereon their hair grew and whereby the phrenological character of each legislator was expressed and i almost as often struck ray questioner dumb with indignant consternation by answering no that i didnt remember being at all overcome


as i must at whatever hazard repeat the avowal here i will follow it up by relating my impressions on this subject in as few words as possible


in the first place it may be from some imperfect development of my organ of veneration


i do not remember having ever fainted away or having even been moved to tears of joyful pride at sight of any legislative body


i have borne the house of commons like a man and have yielded to no weakness but slumber in the house of lords i have seen elec tions for borough and county and have never been impelled no matter which party won to damage my hat by throwing it up into the air in triumph or to crack my voice by shouting forth any reference to our glorious constitution to the noble purity of our independent voters or the unimpeachable integrity of our indepen dent members


having withstood such strong attacks upon my fortitude it is possible that i may be of a cold and in sensible temperament amounting to icy ness in such matters and therefore my impressions of the live pillars of the capitol at washington must be received with such grains of allowance as this free confession may seem to demand


did i see in this public body an assem blage of men bound together in the sacred names of liberty and freedom and so as serting the chaste dignity of those twin goddesses in all their discussions as to exalt at once the eternal principles to which their names are given and their own character and the character of their coun trymen in the admiring eyes of the whole world


it was but a week since an aged grey haired man a lasting honour to the land that gave him birth who has done good service to his country as his forefathers did and who will be remembered scores upon scores of years after the worms bred in its corruptions are


but so many grains of dustit was but a week since this old man stood for days upon his trial before this very body charged with having dated to assert the infamy of that traffic which has for its accursed merchandise men and women and their unborn children


yes


and publicly exhibited in the same city all the while gilded framed and glazed hung up for general admiration shown to strangers rot with shame but pride its face not turned towards the wall itself not taken down and burned is the unani mous declaration of the thirteen united states of america which solemnly declares that all men are created equal and are endowed by their creator with the in alienable rights of life liberty and the pursuit of happiness


it was not a month since the same body had sat calmly by and heard a man one of themselves with oaths which beggars in their drink reject threaten to cut anothers throat from ear to ear


there he sat among them not crushed by the general feeling of the assembly but as good a man as any


there was but a week to come and another of that body for doing his duty to those who sent him there for claiming in a republic the liberty and freedom of expressing their sentiments and making known their prayer would be tried found guilty and have strong censure passed upon him by the rest


his was a grave offence indeed for years before he had risen up and said a gang of male and female slaves for sale warranted to breed like cattle linked to each other by iron fetters are passing now along the open street beneath the windows of your tem ple of equality


look


but there are many kinds of hunters engaged in the pursuit of happiness and they go variously armed


it is the inalienable right of some among them to take the field after their happiness equipped with cat and cart whip stocks and iron collar and to shout their view holla


always in praise of liberty to the music of clanking chains and bloody stripes


where sat the many legislators of coarse threats of words and blows such as coalheavers deal upon each other when they forget their breeding


on every side


every session had its anecdotes of that kind and the actors were all there


did i recognise in this assembly a body of men who applying themselves in a new world to correct some of the falsehoods and vices of the old purified the avenues to public life paved the dirty ways to place and power debated and made laws for the common good and had no party but their country


i saw in them the wheels that move the meanest perversion of virtuous political machinery that the worst tools ever wrought


despicable trickery at elections underhanded tamperings with public offi cers cowardly attacks upon opponents with scurrilous newspapers for shields and hired pens for daggers shameful truck lings to mercenary knaves whose claim to be considered is that every day and week they sow new crops of ruin with their venal types which are the dragons teeth of yore in everything but sharpness sidings and abettings of every bad inclination in the popular mind and artful suppressions of all its good influences such things as these and in a word dishonest faction in its most depraved and most unblushing form stared out from every corner of the crowded hall


did i see among them the intelligence and refinement the true honest pa triotic heart of america


here and there were drops of its blood and life but they scarely coloured the stream of desperate adventures which sets that way for profit and for pay


it is the game of these men and of their profligate organs to make the strife of politics so fierce and brutal and so destructive of all selfrespect in worthy men that sensitive and delicateminded persons shall be kept aloof and they and such as they be left to battle out their selfish views unchecked


and thus this lowest of all scrambling fights goes on and they who in other countries would from their intelligence and station most aspire to make the laws do here recoil the furthest from that degradation


that there are among the representa tries of the people in both houses and among all parties some men of high cha racter and great abilities i need not say


the foremost among those politicians who are known in europe have been already described and i see no reason to depart from the rule i have laid down for my guidance of abstaining from all mention of individuals


it will be sufficient to add that to the most favourable accounts that have been written of them i more than fully and most heartily subscribe and that personal intercourse and free communica tion have bred within me not the result predicted in the very doubtful proverb but increased admiration and respect


they are striking men to look it hard to deceive promp to act lions in energy crichtons in varied accomplishments indians in fire of eye and gesture


americans in strong and generous impulse and they as well repre sent the honour and wisdom of then coun try at home as the distinguished gentle man who is now its minister at the british court sustains its highest character abroad


i visited both houses nearly every day during my stay in washington


on my initiatory visit to the house of repre sentatives they divided against a decision of the chair but the chair won


the second time i went the member who was speaking being interrupted by a laugh mimicked it as one child would in quar relling with another and added that he would make honourable gentlemen oppo site sing out a little more on the other side of their mouths presently


but in terruptions are rare the speaker being usually heard in silence


there are more quarrels than with us and more threatenings than gentlemen are accus tomed to exchange in any civilised society of which we have record but farmyard imitations have not as yet been imported from the parliament of the united king dom


the feature in oratory which ap pears to be most practised and most relished is the constant repetition of the same idea or shadow of an idea in fresh words and the inquiry out of doors is not what did he say


but how long did he speak


these however are but enlargements of a principle which prevails elsewhere


the senate is a dignified and decorous body and its proceedings are conducted with much gravity and order


both houses are handsomely carpeted but the state to which these carpets are reduced by the universal disregard of the spittoon with which every honourable member is accommodated and the extraordinary im provements on the pattern which are squirted and dabbled upon it in every di rection do not admit of being described i will merely observe that i strongly re commend all strangers not to look at the floor and if they happen to drop any thing though it be their purse not to pick it up with an ungloved hand on any account


it is somewhat remarkable too at first to say the least to see so many honourable members with swelled faces and it is scarcely less remarkable to discover that this appearance is caused by the quantity of tobacco they contrive to stow within the hollow of the check


it is strange enough too to see an honouiable gentle man leaning back in his tilted chair with his legs on the desk before him shaping a convenient plug with his penknife and when it is quite ready for use shooting the old one from his mouth as from a pop gun and clapping the new one in its place


i was surprised to observe that even steady old chewers of great experience are not always good marksmen which has rather inclined me to doubt that general proficiency with the rifle of which we have heard so much in england


several gen tlemen called upon me who in the course of conversation frequently missed the spittoon at five paces and one but he was certainly shortsighted mistook the closed sash for the open window at three


on another occasion when i dined out and was sitting with two ladies and some gen tlemen round a fire before dinner one of the company fell short of the fireplace six distinct times


i am disposed to think however that this was occasioned by his not aiming it that object as there was a white marble hearth before the fender which was more convenient and may have suited his purpose better


the patent office at washington fur nishes in extraordinary example of ame rican enterprise and ingenuity for the immense number of models it contains are the accumulated inventions of only five years the whole of the previous collec tion having been destroyed by fire


the elegant structure in which they are ar ranged is one of design rather than exe cution for there is but one side erected out of four though the works are stopped


the post office is a very compact and very beautiful building


in one of the departments among a collection of rare and curious articles are deposited the presents which have been made from time to time to the american ambassadors at foreign courts by the various potentates to whom they were the accredited agents of the republic gifts which by the law they are not permitted to retain


i confess that i looked upon this as a very painful exhibition and one by no means flattering to the national standard of honesty and honour


that can scarcely be a high state of moral feeling which imagines a gentleman of repute and station likely to be corrupted in the discharge of his duty by the present of a snuffbox or a richlymounted sword or a eastern shawl and surely the nation who reposes confidence in her appointed servants is likely to be better served than she who makes them the subject of such very mean and paltry suspicions


at george town in the suburbs there is a jesuit college delightfully situated and so far as i had an opportunity of seeing well managed


many persons who are not members of the romish church avail themselves i believe of these institutions and of the advantageous opportunities they afford for the education of their children


the heights in this neighbourhood above the patomac river are very picturesque and are free i should conceive from some of the insalu brities of washington


the air at that elevation was quite cool and refreshing when in the city it was burning hot


the presidents mansion is more like an english club house both within and without than any other kind of establish ment with which i can compare it


the ornamental ground about it has been laid out in garden walks they are pretty and agreeable to the eye though they have that uncomfortable air of having been made yesterday which is far from favour able to the display of such beauties


my first visit to this house was on the morning after my arrival when i was carried thither by an official gentleman who was so kind as to charge himself with my presentation to the president


we entered a large hall and having twice or thrice rung a bell which nobody answered walked without further cere mony through the rooms on the ground floor as divers other gentlemen mostly with their hats on and their hands in their pockets were doing very leisurely


some of these had ladies with them to whom they were showing the premises others were lounging on the chairs and sofas others in a perfect state of exhaustion from listlessness were yawning drearily


the greater portion of this assemblage were rather asserting their supremacy than doing anything else as they had no particular business there that anybody knew of


a few were closely eyeing the moveables as if to make quite sure that the president who was far from popular had not made away with any of the furniture or sold the fixtures for his private benefit


after glancing at these loungers who were scattered over a pretty drawing room opening upon a terrace which com manded a beautiful prospect of the river and adjacent country and who were saun tering too about a larger stateroom called the eastern drawingroom we went up stairs into another chamber where were certain visitors waiting for audiences


at sight of my conductor a black in plain clothes and yellow slippers who was gliding noiselessly about and whispering messages in the ears of the more impatient made a sign of recognition and glided off to an nounce him


we had previously looked into another chamber fitted all round with a great bare wooden desk of counter whereon lay files of newspapers to which sundry gentlemen were referring


but there were no such means of beguiling the time in this apart ment which was as unpromising and tire


some as any waiting room in one of our public establishments or any physicians diningroom during his hours of consulta tion at home


there were some fifteen or twenty persons in the room


one a tall wiry muscular old man from the west sunburnt and swarthy with a brown white hat on his knees and a giant umbrella resting between his legs who sat bolt upright in his chair frowning steadily at the carpet and twitch ing the hard lines about his mouth as if he had made up his mind to fix the presi dent on what he had to say and would not bait him a grain


another a kentucky farmer six feet six in height with his hat on and his hands under his coat tails who leaned against the wall and kicked the floor with his heel as though he had times head under his shoe and were literally killing him


a third an oval faced biliouslooking man with sleek black hair cropped close and whiskers and beard shaved down to blue dots who sucked the head of a thick stick and from time to time took it out of his mouth to see how it was getting on


a fourth did nothing but whistle a fifth did nothing but spit and indeed all these gentlemen were so very perse vering and energetic in this latter parti cular and bestowed their favours so abun dantly upon the carpet that i take it for granted that presidential housemaids have high wages or to speak more genteelly an ample amount of compensation which is the american word for salary in the case of all public servants


we had not waited in this room many minutes before the black messenger re turned and conducted us into another of smaller dimensions where at a business like table coveted with papers sat the president himself


he looked somewhat worn and anxious and well he might being at war with everybodybut the expression of his face was mild and plea sant and his manner was remarkably unaffected gentlemanly and agreeable


i thought that in his whole carriage and demeanour he became his station singu larly well


being advised that the sensible etiquette of the republican court admitted of a traveller like myself declining without any impropriety an invitation to dinner which did not reach me until i had concluded my arrangements for leaving washington some day before that to which it referred i only returned to this house once


it was on the occasion of one of those general assemblies which are held on certain nights between the hours of nine and twelve oclock and arc called lather oddly levees


i went with my wife at about ten


there was a pretty dense crowd of car riages and people in the court yard and so far as i could make out there were no very clear regulations for the taking up or setting down of company


there were certainly no policemen to soothe startled horses either by sawing at then bridles or flourishing truncheons in their eyes and i am ready to make oath that no inoffen sive persons were knocked violently on the head or poked acutely in their backs or stomachs or brought to a standstill by any such gentle means and then taken into custody for not moving on


but there was no confusion or disorder


our carriage reached the porch in its turn without any blustering swearing shouting backing or other disturbance and we dis mounted with as much ease and comfort as though we had been escorted by the whole metropolitan force from a to z in clusive


the suite of rooms on the groundfloor were lighted up and a military band was playing in the hall


in the smaller draw ingroom the centre of a circular of com pany were the president and his daughter inlaw who acted as the lady of the mansion and a very interesting graceful and accomplished lady too


one gentle man who stood among this group ap peared to take upon himself the functions of a master of the ceremonies


i saw no other officers and attendants and none were needed


the great drawing room which i have already mentioned and the other chambers on the ground floor were crowded to excess


the company was not in our sense of the term select for it compre hended persons of very many grades and classes nor was there any great display of costly attire indeed some of the cos tumes may have been for aught i know grotesque enough


but the decorum and propriety of behaviour which prevailed were unbroken by any rude or disagreeable incident and every man even among the miscellaneous crowd in the hall who were admitted without any orders or tickets to look on appealed to feel that he was a part of the institution and was responsible for its preserving a becoming character and appearing to the best advantage


that these visitors too whatever their station were not without some refinement of taste and appreciation of intellectual gifts and gratitude to those men who by the peaceful exercises of great abilities shed new charms and associations upon the homes of their countrymen and elevate their character in other lands was most earnestly testified by their reception of washington living my dear friend who had recently been appointed minister at the court of spain and who was among them that night in his new character for the first and last time before going abroad


i sincerely believe that in all the madness of american politics few public men would have been so earnestly devotedly and affectionately caressed as this most charming writer and i have seldom res pected a public assembly more than i did this eager throng when i saw them turn ing with one mind from noisy orators and officers of state and flocking with a gene rous and honest impulse round the man of quiet pursuits proud in his promotion as reflecting back upon their country and grateful to him with their whole hearts for the store of graceful fancies he had poured out among them


long may he dispense such treasures with unsparing hand and long may they remember him as worthily


the term we had assigned for the dura tion of our stay in washington was now at an end and we were to begin to travel for the railroad distances we had traversed yet in journeying among these older towns are on that great continent looked upon as nothing


i had at first intended going southto charleston


but when i came to con sider the length of time which this journey would occupy and the premature heat of the season which even at washington had been often very trying and weighed more over in my own mind the pain of living in the constant contemplation of slavery against the more than doubtful chances of my ever seeing it in the time i had to spare stripped of the disguises in which it would certainly be dressed and so adding any item to the host of facts al


ready heaped together on the subject i began to listen to old whisperings which had often been present to me at home in england when i little thought of ever being here and to dream again of cities growing up like palaces in fairy tales among the wilds and forests of the west


the advice i received in most quarters when i began to yield to my desire of travelling towards that point of the compass was according to custom sufficiently cheerless my companion being threatened with more perils dangers and discomforts than i can remember r would catalogue if i could but of which it will be sufficient to remark that blowingsup in steamboats and breakings down in coaches were among the least


but having a western route sketched out for me by the best and kindest authority to which i could have resorted and putting no great faith in these discouragements i soon determined on my plan of action


this was to travel south only to rich mond in virginia and then to turn and shape our course for the far west whither i beseech the readers company in a new volume


the english prisoners in russia


a personal narrative of the first lieutenant of hms tiger together with an account of his journey in russia and his interview with the emperor nicholas and the principal persons in the empire


by alfred boyes lieut rn


the quarantine establtihmcnillusflan allowance to prisoners lncreased


signor annibale cambiaggio the interprets


quarantine guard


two shipmates buried general often bacca


hie religious turn of mind madame often sacuon


ilur kindness and sympathy


general annciiolfoencral kruiensternbaron llollfibcrg


having halted for half an hour we proceeded to the quarantine ground which is built with much more regard to the comfort of its imprisoned occupants than many such places in europe


it is situated on the top of a cliff upwards of a hundred feet in height facing the sea within the ruined citadel of which traces still exist it is within a quarter of a mile of the town of odessa which lies on the same level to the northward


one of the wings faces the east and the other the south so that both have a beautiful view of the sea from the top of the cliff


a zigzag road leads down the cliff to some magazines near the beach in connection with the mole and customhouse the latter is between the quarantine establishment and the harbour from which seven english merchantmen escaped and went out to join the fleet during the bombardment


the rooms are good and what is more remarkable well furnished the chairs being of damask covered with chintz there were sofas beast ads and card tables and in short we were provided with every convenience


the captain had one of the wards consisting of four rooms which he shared with the medical officers and eleven other rooms were allotted to the remaining officers twentytwo in number with eight servants


the men were stowed in the wing facing the south and in a vacant powdermagazine which had belonged to the uncompleted citadel


there were rows of acacia trees and lilacs that enlivened the grass plot and rendered the place very agree able at that time of the year with spring in all its freshness


of an evening we usually left our rooms to enjoy the cool air upon the grass plot drinking and smoking at leisure and counting the days of our probation which were restricted to twentyone


so large a number of occupants had no doubt put the quarantine authorities out of their usual routine and it was not one of their least difficulties to provide so many mouths with sufficient and suitable supplies


the government had in the first instance to find a person who would contract to furnish the necessary rations to the men but as the government allowance for prisoners was calculated on a scale adapted only to satisfy a turk it was insufficient for the artificial wants of more civilized beings


on the first evening the men had only wine and bread both of which however were served out in sufficient abundance and of excellent quality


the table of the officers was more liberally supplied with meat and vegetables


in the meanwhile the government decided on increasing the amount of allowance to each man where by the contractor was soon enabled to establish a regular and liberal provision of meat soup and bread with which the men were perfectly content although no wine or grog was allowed


fifteen kopeks sixpence a head was what the law allowed for the food per day of each prisoner of all grades


but the council decided on raising this sum to fifty keepers is d for each officer and half that amount for each seaman


in a country where provisions are comparatively cheap this was sufficient for every requirement


we are happy to have this opportunity of express ing our obligations to signor annibale cambiaggio who was appointed interpreter by the government and whose kind and gentlemanly attentions relieved us of many difficulties in which we might have been placed without his opportune and willing assistance


he is an italian and well acquainted with several languages in which english and french are included


acting up to the orders he had received from his superiors he deemed that he would be best fulfilling their wishes by a genial consideration for all our little wants


a perfect gentleman and highly educated he considered no trouble too great that would conduce to our comfort


the estimation which he enjoyed with the generals tended greatly to face litate any arrangements that he might deem requisite in furtherance of his benignant object and he secured by his assiduity the gratitude and esteem of all the persons under his charge


it may be conceived that after all the fatigues we had undergone that day sleep was not long in closing our eyelids on the straw bedding provided for us and we awoke the next day to the consciousness of our situation and to the sad duty of interring the two shipmates who had died the day previously fighting in vain alas for


their liberty


of line quarantine guard were composed of old pensioners or invalided soldiers many bearing medals for service done in the days when they were in the zenith of their faculties and for deeds of bravery against the circassians


some of them were selected for guardians in the different words others mounted duty as sentries porters messengers c by day and were relieved at night by younger troops of the line who were better adapted to support fatigue and exposure to cold


to this conclusion we were led by the vigorous lungs we heard exerted during the night in communicating to each other that all was well for sounds so continuous and clear the sexagenarians could never have emitted


the guard was changed after dark so that we had no opportunity of seeing the men to whose care our persons were entrusted during the night and the next day we could only see our old men lounging about as if they had been on watch all night


about a dozen of these men accompanied the procession to the burialground which is a grass field surrounded by high brick walls to the south of and adjoining the quarantine ground


as the only protestant clergyman at odessa was a lutheran and could not speak english we decided upon adopting the usages on board ship and the burial ceremony was performed by the first lieutenant


it may afford some consolation to our friends to know that in the confusion of disembark ing there were many who brought away with them their prayerbooks and bibles in preference to other property which remained on board


on our return to the etablishment we were visited by generals and officers who came to look after us


general osten sacken paid daily visits to the captain and officers and to the hospital


he was much gratified at seeing william tanner who had been wounded and who recovered occupied whenever he visited him iii reading his bible


and he expressed great approbation of his conduct being himself of a religious turn of mind


indeed such were his kindly feelings and his religious tendency of thought that he never us dated the establishment without going to the graves of his enemies where absorbed in meditation he might be seen crossing himself and offering up prayer to the lord of hosts


madame osten sacken his amiable consort vied with the general in attentions and considerate press towards the prisoners and the wounded whom she supplied with jellies and delicacies from her own house and when it pleased god to take the powder boy thomas hood to himself she caused an iron railing to be placed round his grave and planted trees to overshadow it


such was her consideration and the vivid feelings which she had lately experienced at the loss of a son of the age of thomas hood that she appeared to feel the more deeply for the parents of the lad and of the young midshipman giffard to whose mother she sent a gold locket containing some of his hair a sod consolation in her bereavement


general annenkcff the governorgeneral of odessa and general krusenstcrn the sort of the celebrated navigator of that name and military governor of the piece luron polishers governor of the fir tress and many other officers where renders it was impossible to retain but of whom we uavwlie most vivid and a grateful recollection were unremitting in their considerate and solicitous attention and if any difficulties were experienced these arose more from the many orders given by them and from their over anxiety to use the powers allowed them by their position to promote our comfort than from any kind of forgetfulness or neglect


the mysteries of sydney


not by the author of the mysteries af paris or the mysteries of london but by one of ourselves chapter xviii


the inquest


the news of the unhappy vernons death was soon conveyed to the policeoffice and from thence in due course it reached the coroners


the constable flew like a hawk to his quarry and having seen the body carefully removed to a publichouse in the neighbourhood called the square and compasses a place considerably favored by providence and situation for crown ers quests he hastened away to make the ne cessary arrangements for carrying out things in their true proper and legal spirit


when he reached the office there was standing at the door a lowbuilt old fashioned looking vehicle drawn by one horse


its dingy panels torn lining and general dilapidated appearance spoke most forcibly of death it was in fact a species of mahomets coffin hanging between the doctors shop and the gravea compound of drugs and mould and yet it was not a hearse for of that sombre vehicle it invariably took prece dence


immediately the constable clapped his


eyes upon it he involuntarily exclaimed dash my wig


why im blowd if the doctor arnt before me


scarcely had he uttered the words when the doctor came out rubbing his hands and smiling benevolently on all around


ah tollison said he on perceiving the constable anything new fresh occurring in our line of business


yes sir if you please


a good deal on hand today


two adjourneds and three freshuns


ah indeed


i am sorryvery sorry to hear it


the doctors countenance the index of the heart certainly assumed a gloomy cast but tollison life is short as we all know and if post mortems i mean deaths tollison will happen it is a duty we owe to the survivors and to the departed themselves to see that no foul play has taken place


what are the new cases tollison


vun infant vats been a lingering under dr land and dr butters hands for six months vich suddenly expired last night through veak ness


ah sadly sudden indeed


sadly sudden


this must be looked into carefully


no doubt such swift and mysterious deaths were the origin of the coroners inquestsperhaps one of the wisest acts that a humane legislature ever passed


yes


here the doctor spoke in rather a lower tone as if engaged in selfcon verse yes


one of the wisest that is if carried out properly as we carry them out


what are the others tollison


vun swell thats shot himself and no mis take


ha shot himself


sad case tollison i wish youd speak more feelinglyshot himself poor fellow gun or pistol tollison


not knowing cant say


thats more your business than mine doctor queerny responded tollison rather hurt by the last reproof and precious well paid you get for attending to it thought the constable


and the other case tollison oh a voman vots been starved to death or kicked to death i dont know vich


all i heerd vere that she vas werry poor and that nobody vouldnt take her in and so she naturally gave em the slip


quite right tollison very natural as you observe


i heard something of it and more inhumanino


i dont mean that tollison but ill ride immediately to the spot where the dead gentleman lies


his case is most impor tant it is a most pressing affair really his relatives must be naturally anxious to hear about it


the doctor jumped into his crazy vehicle and sought the square and compasses where he commenced prosecuting such scientific opera tions upon the corpse as would enable him to give medical evidence as to the cause of death in proper time


meanwhile tollison communi cated with the coroners clerk and that gentle man with the coroner who appointed the time for attendance and issued orders to tollison to summon a jury


the constable proceeded on his mission armed with all due authority and having collected six highlyintelligent jurymen on his way con sisting of two green grocers an oysterman and three gentlemen who principally gained a liveli hood by occupying premises under the power conferred by distressforrent warrants he stood upon the steps in front of the square and com passes keeping a watchful lookout in order to provide the grand aggregate of twelve


tolli son was peculiarly unlucky on that day he hailed several cabmen in succession who passed by but they had all jobs in embryo and declin ed the offered honor


they had been tried be fore and as their living depended upon time they could not afford to expend any portion of that valuable commodity uselessly


those who have studied cabmen must be aware that they are more obstnate than many of the animals they drive their reasoning faculties are very obtuse a valuable consideration will dissipate the fogginess of their intellects nothing else can produce that enlightenment


cabmen be long to a class most difficult to be mesmerized


watchmen in ancient days and policemen in modern are frequently asleep cabmen seldom or never


vell said tollison this is a precious go vun quarter of an hour is all thats left ill run round to the rookery for the rest


he followed up this plan and after having scoured a few of the little lanes and byeways in the vicinity of the square and compasses he managed to secure enough jurymen of the ne cessary intellect and capacity to understand the scientific evidence about to be given upon the causes of death


oh farce of farces


oh


mockery of mock eries


there sit the twelve endeavouring to look sagacious but blinking like owls in sun shine as doglatinized terms and ollapodrida grcisms are poured forth from the glib tongue of the professional examinate


they open their eyes and ears widely as cerebrum and cerebellum are spoken of but to them the words convey no meaningthey might be brain or backbone or foot for all they know how wise they become as the variety of trismus is descanted on the opisthotonos the emposthrotonos and picur osthotonos hard and astounding terms


and how illuminated they are as tarsals and meta tarsals clavicles and the whole osseous system is spread out before them


glorious plan of humbug where juries are expected to come to a right conclusion in the dark or perhaps worse


where the lightning flashes of science gleaming through the night for a moment leave what little sense they possess utterly bewildered by the sudden and transient glare


now then gentlemen of the jury said the coroner as they were secured in the one pair front room of the square and compases as you have all been duly sworn i must trouble you to retire in charge of the officer and view the body and while doing so i need scarcely re mind so intellectual a convention that inasmuch as you are summoned here to deliver your ver dict as to the causes from which death ensued it will be highly necessary for you to ascertain in the first place beyond the possibility of a doubt that the deceased has departed this life and that no galvanic operation or application of the professional loadstone can attract him back to existence


this gentlemen is of primary importance and i consider it my bounden duty to impress it most forcibly on your minds be cause if after the view you should come to the conclusion that the deceased is not dead then our enquiry will terminate before it has begun but if on the other hand you should find that the deceased is not alive then gentlemen our enquiry will commence before it has termi natedahem


the jury having bowed deferentially to this learned address proceeded on their errand


immediately the door was closed the coroner enquired of his clerk whether the depositions were drawn out in proper form


an affirmative had scarcely followed his interrogatory when the illustrious twelve returned from their journey and the lord burleigh like shaking of their heads afforded satisfactory evidence that they had arrived at the proper basis for building up the inquestorial superstructure


such being the case said the coroner slowly to his clerk call over the names


certainly responded the clerk


james squigloy samuel smith william brown tho mas jones richard robinson obadiah wiggins coriolanus snooks robert prim harry dash john growl barnaby scully and michael smug


the here here here of the twelve having been duly heard the coroner explained to them in most elaborate verbiage the why and where fore


they were summoned from their legitimate occupations


he descanted most glowingly upon the sacrifices which they were bound to make individually in order that the whole framework of society might be preserved uninjured


beg pardon said mr growl rising but how about expenses expenses expenses sir replied the coro ner i am positively wonderstruck to hear a patriotic juryman ask about expenses


sit down sir it is for me to charge the jury not for them to charge the country


very good


sir remarked growl sitting down i only axed because squigley our foreman hadnt pluck enough to do it


he said you and everybody else was paid and he didnt see any reason why we shouldnt have our whack


the coronor lent a deaf ear to mr growls inuendo and directed the clerk to call in the first witness


this was the policeman who merely stated that he heard the report of a pistol and bursting into the room he found the unfortunate man lying on the floor with the weapon grasped in his hand


was it loaded enquired the coroner


not exactly considering the ball had just gone through his head replied the policeman


thats not a portion of your evidence that has to be surgically proved it is impossible you can swear to the fact it requires a professional mind and long practice to be enabled to do it


oh very good sir


then i spose if a common man saw a musketball go through a halfinch deal board he couldnt swear to the hole unless hed had a regular master carpen ters collidge of surgins cirtificate


sign your name and dont presume to argue here cried the coronor angrily


call in the next witness


dr queerny then made his ap pearance


he explained in the most learned manner that he was calied upon to make a post mortem examination of the deceased


he had done so and found liver healthy lungs ditto but that on examining the occipital regions he discovered the pericranium had been perforated by some hard substance which had taken a transverse direction and after disarranging the whole cellular system of the brain and severing the optic nerve had gone out of sight


do you think enquired the coroner that the substance whatever it might be was pro pelled with sufficient force to cause death


thats a question replied queerny which requires considerable thought before answering it but my friend dr tussle is of opinion that it was and if it were not that we never agree upon any subject i should say that it was too


very good


replied the coroner


now gentlemen of the jury after the lucid testimony which has been adduced before you i think that you will not experience the slightest difficulty in making up your minds upon the verdict


at this late period of the day five oclock pm it is it can scarcely be expected that any more of your valuable time than is positively necessary should be taken up


nor do i think it incumbent on me to hint that my dinner will be on the table at six i would not upon any account hurry your discussions but if you cannot agree in two minutes i will of course to suit your conve nience adjourn the inquest till tomorrow and bind you over to appear


are you agreed in your verdict gentlemen or shall i postpone the case


certainly not replied the foreman hastily


what is your opinion gentlemen


that the deceased came to his death from some cause or other but whether it was a pistol bullet or a musket bullet or any bullet or no bullet or grape shot which caused it has not come to our knowledge


but we are quite satis fied he is dead


a very satisfactory conclusion to arrive at


and now gentlemen it only remains for me to thank you for the admirable way in which you have fulfilled the onerous trust reposed in you and to discharge you


gentlemen of the jury thats your verdict so say one so say all as you sign so you are discharged


good day


the coroner and the doctor hurried off toge ther the clerk obtained the several signatures and marks and departed with the jurymen and nothing broke the silence of the room but the faint sound produced by the undertaker screwing down the coffin lid in the adjoining apartment


the mysteries of sydney


not by the author of the mysteries of paris or the mysteries of london but by one of ourselves


part iichapter xiv


the bursting of the thunder cloud