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A Is ov( 1. 16mo, Cloth, $1 26. A LITTLE SISTER TO THE WILDERNESS. A No vel. 16mo, Cloth, $1 25. THE LOVE AFFAIRS OF AN OLD MAID. 16nio, :ioth, $1 25. THE VI TDER SIDE OF THINGS. 16mo, Cloth, $126. FROM A GIRL'S POINT OF VIEW. 16mo. Cloth, n 25. NEW YORK /ND LONDON: aARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS. Copjrrighl; jqoo, by Lilian Bbll. jtii rights reserved. \ \ TO THAT MOST INTERESTING SPECK OF HUMANITY, ALL PERPETUAL MOTION AND KINDLING INTELLIGENCE AND SWEETNESS UNSPEAKABLE, MY LITTLE NEPaEW BILLY ABSENCE FROM WHOM RACKED MY SPIRIT WITH ITS MOST UNAPPEASABLE PANGS OF HOMESICKNESS, AND WHOSE CONSTANT PRESENCE IN MY STUDY SINCE MY RETURN HAS SPARICD THE PUBLIC NO SMALL AMOUNT OF PAIN r < i AUTHOR'S APOLOGY The frank conceit of the title to this book willj I hope, not prejudice my friends against it, and will serve not only to excuse my being my own Boswell, but will fasten the blame of all inaccuracies, if such there be, upon the offender — myself. This is not a continuous narrative of a continuous jour- ney, but covers two years of travel over some thirty thousand miles, and presents peoples and things, not as you saw them, perhaps, or as they really are, but only As Seen By Me. < ! AS SEEN BY ME FIRST LETTER ON THE WAY In this day and generation, when every- body goes to Europe, it is difficult to discover the only person who never has been there. But I am that one, and therefore the stir it occasioned in the bosom of my amiable family when I announced that I, too, was about to join the vast majority, is not easy to imagine. But if you think that I at once became a person of importance it only goes to show that you do not know the family. My mother, to be sure, hovered around me the way she does Avhen she thinks I am going into typhoid fever. I never have had ty- phoid fever, but she is always on the watch for it, and if it ever comes it will not catch her napping. She will meet it half-way. And lest it elude her watchfulness, she mi- A 1 AS SEEN BY ME nutely questions every pain which assails any one of ns, for fear it may be her dreaded foe. Yet when my sister's blessed lamb baby had it before he was a year old, and after he had got well and I was not afraid he would be struck dead for my wickedness, I said to her, *^ Well, mamma, you must have taken solid comfort out of the first real chance you ever had at your pet fever,'' she said I ought to be ashamed of myself. My father began to explain international banking to me as his share in my prepara- tions, but I utterly discouraged him by ask- ing the difference between a check and a note. He said I reminded him of the jury- man who asked the difference between plain- tiff and defendant. I soothed him by as- suring him that I knew I would always find somebody to go to the bank with me. " Most likely 'twill be Providence, then, as He watches over children and fools," said my cousin, with what George Eliot calls " the brutal candor of a near relation." My brother-in-law lent me ten Baedekers, and offered his hampers and French trunks to me with such reckless generosity that I had to get my sister to stop him so that I wouldn't hurt his feelings by refusing. My sister said, " I am perfectly sure, mamma, that if I don't go with her, she will go about with an ecstatic smile on her face, 2 AS SEEN BY ME '1 i and let herself get cheated and lost, and she would jurtt as soon as not tell everyhody that she had never been abroad before. She has no pride." " Then you had better come along and take care of me and see that 1 don't disgrace you," I urged. ^' Really, mamma, I do think I had better go," said my sister. So she actually con- sented to leave husband and baby in order to go and take care of me. I do assure you, however, that I have bought all the tickets, and curried the common purse, and got her through the custom-houses, and arranged prices thus far. But she does pack my trunks and make out the laundry lists — I will sav that for her. My brother's contribution to my comfort was in this wise : He said, '^ You must have a few more lessons on vour wheel before vou go, and I'll take you out for a lesson to-mor- row if you'll get up and go at six o'clock in the morning — that is, if you'll wear gloves. But you mortify me half to death riding without gloves." " Nobody sees me but milkmen," I said, humbly. '' Well, what will the milkmen think ? " said my brother. " Mercy on us, I never thought of that," I said. " My gloves are all pretty tight when 3 AS SEEN BY ME one has to grip one's handle-bars as fiercely as I do. But I'll get largo ones. What tint do you think milkmen care the most for ? " He sniffed. " Well, I'll go and I'll wear gloves," I said, " but if I fall off, remember it will be on account of the gloves." '' You always do fall off," he said, with pa- tient resignation. '' I've seen you fall off that wheel in more different directions than it has spokes." ^' I don't exactly fall," I explained, care- fully. '' I feel myself going and then I get off." I was ready at six the next morning, and I wore gloves. ^' Now, don't ride into the holes in the street " — one is obliged to give such instruc- tions in Chicago — '' and don't look at any- thing you see. Don't be afraid. You're all right. Now, then ! You're off ! " ^' Oh, Teddy, don't ride so close to me," I quavered. '' I'm forty feet away from you," he said. " Then double it," I said. ^' Y^ou're chok- ing me by your proximity." " Let's cross the railroad tracks just for practice," he said, when it was too late for me to expostulate. ^' Stand up on your ped- als and ride fast, and — " '' Hold on, please do," I shrieked. " I'm AS SEEN BY ME falling off. Get out of my way. I seem to be turning — " He scorched ahead, and I headed straight for the switchman's hut, rounded it neatly, and leaned myself and my wheel against the side of it, helpless with laughter. A red Irish face, with a short black pipe in its mouth, thrust itself out of the tiny win- dow just in front of me, and a voice with a rich bro2:ue oxclaimod : " As purty a bit of riding as iver Oi see ! " '' Wasn't it 'i " I cried. '' You couldn't do it." " Oi woaldn't thry! Oi'd rather tackle a railroad train going at full spheed thin wan av thim runaway critturs." " Get down from there," hissed my brother so close to my ear that it made me bite my tongue. I obediently scrambled down. Ted's face was very red. " You ought to be ashamed of yourself to enter into immediate conversation with a man like that. What do you suppose that man thought of you ? " " Oh, perhaps he saw my gloves and took me for a lady," I pleaded. Ted grinned and assisted me to mount. When I successfully turned the corner by making Ted fall back out of sight, we rode away along the boulevard in silence for a 5 AS SEEN BY ME while, for my conversation when I am on a wheel is generally limited to shrieks, ejacula- tion o, and snatches of prayer. I never talk to be amusing. " I say," said my brother, hesitatingly, " I wear a No. 8 glove and a No. 10 stocking." " I've always thought you had large hands and feet," I said, ignoring the hint. He giggled. " No, now, really. I wish you'd write that down somewhere. You can get those things so cheap in Paris." ^' You are supposing the case of my re- turn, or of Christmas intervening, or — a present of some kind, I suppose." " Well, no ; not exactly. Although you know I am always broke — " " Don't I, though ?" " And that I am still in debt — " " Because papt^ insists upon your putting some money in the bank every month — " " Yes, and the result is that I never get my head above water. I owe you twenty now." " Which I never expect to recover, be- cause you know I always get silly about Christmas and ^ forgive thee thy debts.' " " You're awful good — " he began. " But I'll be better if I bring you gloves and silk stockings." " I'll give you the money !" he said, hero- ically. 6 AS SEEN BY ME " Will you borrow it of me or of mam- ma ? '' I asked, with a chuckle at the family financiering which always goes on in this manner. " Now don't make fun of me ! You don't know what it is to be hard up.'* " Don't I, though ?" I said, indignantly. "Oh— oh! Catch me!" He seized m^ handle-bar and righted me before I fell off. " See what you did by saying I never was hard up," I said. " I'll tel'l you what, Ted- dy. You needn't give me the money. I'll bring you some gloves and stockings! " " Oh, I say, honest ? Oh, but you're the right kind of a sister ! I'll never forget that as long as I live. You do look so nice on your wheel. You sit so straight and — " I saw a milkman coming. We three were the only objects in sight, yet I headed for him. " Get out of my way," I shrieked at him. " I'm a beginner. Turn off ! " He lashed his horse and cut down a side 'street. " What a narrow escape," I sighed. " How glad I am I happened to think of that." I looked up pleasantly at Ted. He was biting his lips and he looked raging. " You are the most hopeless girl I ever 7 AS SEEN BY ME saw ! " he burst out. " I wish you didn't own a wheel." " I don't," I said. " The wheel owns me." " You haven't the manners of — " " Stockings," I said, looking straight ahead. ^' Sill: stockings with polka dots em- broidered on them, No. 10." Ted looked sheepish. " I ride so well," I proceeded. " I sit up so straight and look so nice." Ko answer. " Gloves," I went on, still without looking at him. " White and pearl ones for evening, and russet gloves for the street, 'No. 8." " Oh, quit, won't you ? I'm sorry I said that. But if you only knew how you mortify me." " Cheer up, Tedcastle. I am going away, you know. And when I come back you will either have got over caring so much or I will be more of a lady." " I'm sorry you are going," said my brother. " But as you are going, perhaps you will let me use your rooms while you are gone. Your bed is the best one I ever slept in, and your study would be bully for the boys when they come to see me." I was too stunned to reply. He went on, utterly oblivious of my consternation : " And I am going to use your wheel while you are gone, if you don't mind, to take the 8 I AS SEEN BY ME girls out on. I know some awfully nice girls who can ride, but their wheels are last year's make, and they won't ride them. I'd rather like to be able to offer them a new wheel." " I am not going to take all pry party dresses. Have you any use for them ?" I said. " Why, what's the matter ? Won't you let me have vour rooms ?" " Merciful heavens, child ! I should say not!" " Why, I haven't asked you for much," said my small, modest brother. '' You of- fered." " Well, just wait till I offer the rest. But I'll tell you what I will do, Ted. If you will promise not to go into my rooms and rummage once while I am gone, and not to touch my wheel, I'll buy you a tandem, and then you can take the girls on that." ^^ I'd rather have you bring me some things from Europe," said my shrinking brother. " All right. I'll do that, but let me off this thing. I am so tired I can't move. You'll have to walk it back and give me five cents to ride home on the car." I crawled in to breakfast more dead than alive. " What's the matter, dearie ? Did you ride too far ?" asked mamma. 9 AS SEEN BY ME " I don't know whether I rode too far or whether it was Ted's asking if he couldn't use my rooms while I was g ne, but some- thing has made me tired. , /hat's that ? Whom i ■ papa talking to over the tele- phone ?" Papa came in fuming and fretting. " Who was it this time ?" I questioned, with anticipation. Inquiries over the tele- phone were sure to be interesting to me just now. " Somebody who wanted to know what train you were going on, but would not give his name. He was inquiring for a friend, he said, and wouldn't give his friend's name either." " Didn't you tell him ?" I cried, in dis- tress. " Certainly not. I told him nobody but an idiot would withhold his name." Papa calls such a variety of men idiots. *^ Oh, but it was probably only flowers or candy. Why didn't you tell him ? Have you no sentiment ?" " I won't have you receiving anonymous communications," he retorted, with the lib- erty fathers have a little way of taking with their daughters. " But flowers," I pleaded. " It is no harm to send flowers without a card. Don't you see V' Oh, how hard it is to ex^^^Jain a 10 AS SEEN BY ME delicate point like that to one's father — in broad daylight! "I am supposed to know who sent iheni !" " But would you know ?'* asked my prac- tical ancestor. " Not — not exactly. But it would be al- most sure to be one of them." Ted shouted. But there was nothing funny in what I said. Boys are so silly. " Anyway, I am sorry you didn't tell him," 1 said. " Well, I'm not," declared papa. The rest of the day fairly flew. The last night came, and the baby was put to bed. I undressed him, which he regarded as such a joke that he worked himself into a fever of excitement. Tie loves to scrub like Josio, the cook. I had bought him a little red pail, and I gave it to him that night when he was partly undressed, and he was so enchanted with it that lie scampered around hugging it, and saying, " Pile! pile!" like a little Cock- ney. He gave such squeals of ecstasy that everybody came into the nursery to find him scrubbing his crib with a nail-brush and little red pail. " Who gave you the pretty pail, Billy ?" asked Aunt Lida, who w^as sitting by the crib. " Tattah," said Billy, in a whisper. He always whispers my name. ^' Then go and kiss dear auntie. She is 11 AS SEEN BY ME going away on the big boat to stay such a long time/' Billy's face sobered. Then he dropped his precious pail, and came and licked my face like a little dog, which is his way of kissing. I squeezed him until he yelled. " Don't let him forget me," I wailed. ^' Talk to him about me every day. And buy him a toy out of my money often, and tell him Tattah sent it to him. Oh, oh, he'll be grown up when I come home!" " Don't cry, dearie," said Aunt Lida, handing me her handkerchief. '^ I'll see that your grave is kept green." My sister appeared at the door. She was all ready to start. She even had her veil on. " What do you mean by exciting Billy so at this time of Viight ?" she said. " Go out, all of you. We'll lose the train. Hush, somebody's at the telephone. Papa's talk- ing to that same man again." I jumped up and ran out. " Let me answer it, papa dear ! Yes, yes, yes, certainly. To-night on the Pennsylvania. You're quite welcome. ^N^ot at all." I hung up the telephone. I could hear papa in the nursery : " She actually told him — after all I said this morning! I never heard of anything like it." 12 I AS SEEN BY ME Two or three voices were raised in my de- fence. Ted slipped out into the halh '' Bully for you," he whispered. " You'll get the flowers all right at the train. Who do you s'j)ose they're from ? Another hox just came for you. Say, couldn't you leave that smallest hox of violets in the silver box'^ I want to gi e them to a girl, and you've got such loads of others." '^ Don't ask her for those," answered my dear sister, '' they are the most precious of all!" '' I can't give you any of mme," I said, '' but I'll buy you a box for her — a small box," I added hastily. " The carriages have come, dears," qua- vered grandmamma, coming out of the nur- sery, followed by the family, one after the other. ^' Get her satchels, Teddy. Her hat is up- stairs. Her flowers are in the hall. She left her ulster on my bed, and her books are on the window-sill," said mamma. She wouldn't look at me. ^^ Remember, dearie, your medi- cines are all labelled, and I put needles in your work-box all threaded. Don't sit in draughts and don't read in a dim light. Have a good time and study hard and come back soon. Good - bye, m.y girlie. God bless you !" By this time no handkerchief would have 13 AS SEEN BY ME sufficed for my tears. I reached out blindly, and Ted handed me a towel. " I've got a bheet when you've sopped that," he said. Boys are such brutes. Aunt Lida said, " Good-bye, my dearest. You are my favorite niece. Yo\i know 1 love you the best." I giggled, for she tells my sister the same thing always. " Nobody seems to care much that I am going," said Bee, mournfully. " But you are coming back so soon, and she is going to stay so long," exclaimed grandmamma, patting Bee, " I'll bet she doesn't stay a year," cried Ted. " I'll expect her home by Christmas," said papa. " I'll bet she is here to eat Thanksgiving dinner," cried my brother-in-law. *' No, she is sure to stay as long as she has said she would," said mamma. Mothers are the brace of the universe. The family trailed down to the front door. Everybody was carrying something. There were two carriages, for the}* were all going to the station with us. " For all the world like a funeral, with loads of flowers and everybody crying,'^ said my brother, cheerfully. I never shall forget that drive to the sta- 14 AS SEEN BY ME tion; nor the last few inoinentfl, when Bee and I stood on the car-ste})s an md- dth ttle i square place with two cane-bottomed chairs. A man bounced out so suddenly that I nearly annihilated my sister, who was back of me. I could not imagine what this little cubby- hole was, but as there seemed to be nowhere else to go, I went in. The others followed, then the man who had bounced out. He closed the door and shut us in, where we stood in solemn silence. About a quarter of an hour afterwards I thought I saw some- thing through the glass moving slowly down- ward, and then an infinitesimal thrill in the soles of my feet led me to suspect the truth. " Is this thing an elevator V^ I whispered to my sister. " Xo, they call it a lift over here," she whispered back. '' I know that," I murmured, impatiently. ^' But is this thing it ? Are we moving? Are we going anywhere f '' Why, of course, my dear. They are slower than ours, that's all." I listened to her with some misgivings, for her information is not always to be wholly trusted, but this time it happened that she was rigut, for after a while we came to the fourth floor, where our rooms were. I wish you could have seen the size of them. I shall not attempt to describe them, for you would not believe me. I had en- gaged " two rooms and a bath." The two 19 AS SEEN BY ME rooms were there. " Where is the bath V^ I said. The housekeeper lovingly removed a gigantic crash towel from a hideous tin ob- ject, and proudly exposed to my vision that object which is next dearest to his silk hat to an Englishman's heart — a hip-bath tub. Her manner said, " Beat that if you can." My sister prodded me in the back ^vith her umbrella, which in our sign language means, " Don't make a scene." ^' Very well," I said, rather meekly. " Have our trunks sent up." " Very good, madam." She went away, and then we rang the bell and began to order what were to us the barest necessities of life. We were tired and lame and sleepy from a night spent at the pier landing the luggage, and we wanted things with which to make ourselves comfortable. There was a pocket edition of a fireplace, and they brought us a hatful of the vilest soft coal, which peppered everything in the rooms with soot. We climbed over our trunks to sit by this imitation of a fire, only to find that there was nothing to sit on but the most uncompromis- ing of straight-backed chairt We groaned as we took in the situation. To our poor, racked frames a coal-hod would not have suggested more discomfort. W^e dragged up our hampers, packed with 20 f » 1 AS SEEN BY ME IS is steamer-rugs and pillows, and my sister sat on hers while 1 took another tnrn at the belL While the maid is answering this bell I shall have plenty of time to tell yon what we afterwards discovered the process of bell- ringing in an English hotel to be. We rang our bell. Presently we heard the most horrible gong, such as we use on our patrol wagons and fire-engines at home. This clanged four times. Then a second bell down the hall answered it. Then feet fiew by our door. At this juncture my sister and I pre- pared to let ourselves down the fire-escape. But we soon discovered that those flying feet belonged to the poor maid, whom that gong had signalled that she was wanted on the fourth floor. She flew to a speaking-tube and asked who on the fourth floor wanted her. She was then given the nundier of our room, when she rang a bell to signify that our call was answered, bv which time she was at lib- erty, and knocked at our door, snying, in her soft English voice, ^' Did you ring, missf' We told her we wanted rocking-chairs. She said there was not one in the lioUvse. Then easv-chairs, we said, or anvthinij: cushioned or low or comfortable. She said the house- keeper had no easier chairs. We sat down on our hampers, and my sis- ter leaned against the corner of the wardrobe with a pillow at her back to keep from being 21 AS SEEN BY ME ' cut in two. I propped my back against the wash-stand, which did very well, except that the wash-stand occasionally slid away from me. " This,'' said my sister, impressively, '^ is England." We had been here only half an hour, but I had already got my point of view. '^ Let's go out and look up a hotel where they take Americans," I said. " I feel the need of ice-water." Our drinking-water at '' The Insular" was on the end of the wash-stand nearest the fire. So, feeling a little timid and nervous, but not in the least hoiiesick, we went down- stairs. One of our gorgeous retinue called a cab and we entered it. ^' Where shall we go ?" asked my sister. " I feel like saying to the first hotel we see," I said. «Tust then we raised our eyes and they rested simultaneously upon a sign, ^' The Empire Hotel for Cats and Dogs." This simple solution of our difiiculty put us in such high good humor that we said we wouldn't look up a hotel just yet — we would take a drive. Under these circumstances we took our first drive down Piccadilly, and Europe to me dates from that moment. The ship, the landing, the custom-house, the train, the 22 ^ AS SEEN BY ME IS Ml hotel — all these were mere preliminaries to the Europe, which began then. People told me in America how my heart would swell at this, and how I would thrill at that, but it was not so. My first real thrill came to me in Pic- cadilly. It went all over me in little shivers and came out at the ends of my fingers, and then began once more at the base of my brain and did it all over again. Bit what is the use of describing one's first view of London streets and trafhc to the initiated ? Can they, who became used to it as children, appreciate it ? Can they look back and recall how it struck them '^: No. When I try to tell Americans over here they look at me curiously and say, ^' Dear me, how odd!" The way they say it leaves me to draw anv one of three conclusions: either they are not impressionable, and are there- fore honest in denying the feeling; or they think it vulgar to admit it ; or I am the only grown person in America w^ho never has been to Europe before. But I am indifferent to their opinion. People are right in saying this great tre- mendous rush of feeling can come but once. It is like being in love for the first time. You like it and yet you don't like it. You wish it would go aw^ay, yet you fear that it will go all too soon. It gets into your head and makes vou dizzy, and vou want to shut your 23 ill I'll li! ill M AS SEEN BY ME eyes, but you are afraid if you do that you will miss something. You cannot eat and you cannot sleep, and you feel that you have two consciousnesses: one which belongs to the life you have lived hitherto, and which still is going on, somewhere in the world, un- mindful of you, and you unmindful of it; and the other is this new bliss which is beat- ing in your veins and sounding in your ears and shining before your eyes, which no one knows and no ore dreams of, but which keeps a smile on your lips — a smile which has in it nothing of humor, nothing from the great without, but which comes from the secret recesses of your own inner consciousness, where the heart of the matter lies. I remember nothing definite about that first drive. I, for my part, saw with unsee- ing eyes. My sister had seen it all before, so she had the power of speech. Occasionally she prodded me and cried, ^' Look, oh ! look quickly.'' But I never swerved. " I can't look. If I do I shall miss something. You attend to your own window and I'll attend to mine. Coming back I will see your side." When we got beyond the shops I said to the cabman: " Do you know exactly the way you have come ?" " Yes, miss," he said. " Then go back precisely the same way." 24 ^ I h AS SEEN BY ME " Have you lost something, miss ?" he in- quired. " Yes," I said, " I have lost an impres- sion, and I must look till I find it." " Very good, miss," he si *d. If I had said, '' I have carelessly let fall my cathedral,' or, "I have lost my orang- outang, l^ook for him!" an imperturba- ble British cabby would only touch his cap and say, '* Very good, miss !" So we followed our own trail back to " The Insular." '^ In this way," I said to my sister, " we both get a complete view. To-mcrrow we will do it all over again." But we found that we could not wait for the morrow. We did it all over again that afternoon, and that second time I was able in a measure to detach myself from the hum and buzz and tlie dizzying effect of foreign faces, and I began to locate impressions. My first distinct recollections are of the great numbers of high hats on the men, the ill- hanging skirts and big feet of the women, the unsteady ing effect of all those thousands of cabs, carriages, and carts all going to the left, which kept me constantly wishing to shriek out, " Go to the right or we'll all be killed," the absolutely perfect manner in which traffic was managed, and the majestic authority of the London police. I have seen the Houses of Parliament and 25 'ill i AS SEEN BY ME the Tower and Westminster Abbey, and ^he World's Fair, but the most impressive sight I ever beheld is the upraised hand of a Lon- don policeman. I never heard one of them speak except when spoken to. But let one little blue-coated man raise his forefinger and every vehicle on wheels stops, and stops instantly; stops in obedience to law and or- der ; stops without swearing or gesticulating or abuse ; stops with no underhanded trying to drive out of line and get by on the other side ; just stops, that is the end of it. And why ? Because the Queen of England is be- hind that raised finger. A London police- man has more power than our President. Even the Queen's coachmen obey that fore- finger. Not long ago she dismissed one who dared to drive even the royal carriage on in defiance of it. Understanding how to obey, that is what makes liberty. I am the most flamboyant of Americans, the most hopelessly addicted to my own country, but I must admit that I had my first real taste of liberty in England. I will tell you why. In America nobody obeys anybody. We make our laws, and then most industriously set about studying out a plan by which we may evade them. America is suffering, as all republics must of neces- sity suffer, from liberty in the hands of the multitude. The multitude are ignorant, and 26 I AS SEEN BY ME I ■if liberty in the hands of the ignorant is always license. In America, the land of the free, whom do we fear ? The President ? No, God bless him. There is not a trne American in the world who would not stand np as a man or a woman and go into his presence without fear. Are we afraid of our Senators, our chief rulers ? No. But we are afraid of our ser- vants, of our street-car conductors. We are afraid of sleeping-car porters, and the drivers of huge trucks. We are afraid they will drive over us in the streets, and if we dare to assert our rights and hold them in check we are afraid of what they will say to us, in the name of liberty, and of the way they will look at us, in the name of liberty. English servants, I have discovered, have no more respect for Americans than the old- time negro of the Southern aristocracy has for Northerners. I once asked an old black mammy in Georgia why the negroes had so little respect for the white ladies of the North. " Case dev don' know how to treat black folks, honey.'" " Why don't they ?" I persisted. " Are they not kind to you ?" " Umph," she responded (and no one who has never heard a fat old negress say ^'Umph" knows the eloquence of it). ^'Umph. Dat's it. Dey's too kin'. Dey don' know how to mek us min'." And that is just the 27 1 ill AS SEEN BY ME trouble with Americans here. An English servant takes orders, not requests. I had such a time to learn that. We could not understand why we were obeyed so well at first, and presently, without any outward disrespect, our wants were simply ignored until all the English people had been at- tended to. My sister had told me I was too polite, but one never believes one's sister, so I questioned our sweet English friends, and they, with much delicacy and many apologies, and the prettiest hesitation in the world — considering the situation — told us the reason. " But," I gasped, " if I should speak to our servants in that manner they would leave. They would not stay over night." Our English friends tried not to smile in a superior way, and they succeeded, only I knew the smile was there, and said, " Oh, no, our servants never leave us. They apologize for having done it wrong." On the way home I plucked up courage. " I am going to try it," I said, firmly. My sister laughed in derision. " ]N'ow I could do it," she said, complai- santly. And so she could. My sister never plumes herself on a quality she does not pos- sess. " Are you going to use the tone and every- thing ?" I said, somewhat timidly. 28 ■J i AS SEEN BY ME " You wait and see." She hesitated some time, I noticed, before she rang the bell, and she looked at herself in the glass and cleared her throat. I knew she was bracing herself. " I'll ring the bell if you like," I said, politely. She gave one look at nie and then rang the bell herself with a firm hand. '' And I'll get behind you with a poker iu one hand and a pitcher of hot water in the other. Speak when you need either." " You feel very funny when you don't have to do it yourself," she said, witheringly. " You'll never put it through. You'll back down and say ' please ' before you have fin- ished," I said, and just then the maid knocked at the door. I never heard anything like it. My sister was superb. I doubt if Bernhardt at her best ever inspired me with more awe. How that maid flew around. How humble she was. How she apologized. And how, every time my sister said, " Look sharp, now," the maid said, " Thank you." I thought I should die. I was so much interested in the dra- matic possibilities of my cherished sister that when the door closed behind the maid we simply looked at each other a moment, then simultaneously made a bound for the bed, where we choked with laughter among the 29 I ll I i AS SEEN BY ME pillows. Presently wo sat up with flushed faces and rumpled hair. I reachod over and shook hands with her. '^ How was that V^ she asked. "'Twas grand," I said. "The Queen couldnH have done it more to the manner born." My sister accepted my compliments com- plaisantly, as one who should say, " 'Tis no more than my deserts." " How Hrm you were," I said, admiringly. " Wasn't I, though ?" " How humble she was." " Wasn't she V " You were quite as disagreeable and de- termined as a real Englishwoman would have been." " So I was." A pause full of intenje admiration on my part. Then she said, " You couldn't have done it." " I know that." " Y^ou are so deadly civil." " Not to everybody, only to servants." I said this apologetically. " You never keep a steady hand. You either grovel at their feet or snap their heads off." " Quite true," I admitted, humbly. " But it was grand, wasn't it ?" she said. " Unspeakably grand." 30 I AS SEEN BY ME And for Americans it was. We were still at " The Tnsnlar,'* when one day I took up a handful of what had once been a tight bodice, and said to my sis- ter: '' See how thin TVe grown ! I believe I am starving to death." '' No wonder," she answered, gloomily, "with this awful English cooking! I'm nearly dcnid from your experiment of getting a: English point of view. I want something to eat — something that I iike. I want a beef- steak, with mushrooms, and some potatoes an graVui, like those we have in America. T hate the stuff we get here. I wish I could never see another chop as long as I live." '' ' The Insular ' is considered very good," I remarked, pensively. "Considered!" cried she. "Whose con- sideration counts, I should like to know, when you are always hungry for something you can't get ?" " I know it ; and we are paying such prices, too. Who, except ostriches, could eat their nasty preserves for breakfast when they are having grape-frnit at home ? And then their vile aspic jellies and potted meats for hmch- eon, which look like sausage congealed in cold gravy, and which taste like gum arable." " Let's move," said my sister. " Xot into another hotel — that wouldn't be much better. 31 ^% m ''■^ I 11 ! « (P i AS SEEN BY ME But let's take lodgings. IWe heard that they were lovely. Then we can order what we like. Besides, it will be very much cheaper." ^' I didn't come over here to economize," I said. " Well, I wouldn't say a word if we were getting anything for our money, but we are not. Besides, when you get to Paris you will wish you hadn't been so extravagant here." '' Are the Paris shops more fascinating than those in Kegent Street ?" I asked. " Much more." ^* More alluring than Bond Street ?" ^' More so than any in the world," she af- firmed, with the religious fervor which al- ways characterizes her tone when she speaks of Paris. The very leather of her purse fairly squeaks with ecstasy when she thinks of Paris. '' Heavens !" I murmured, with awe, for whenever she won't go to Du Maurier's grave with me, and when I won't do the crown jew- els in the Tower with her, we alwavs com- promise amiably on Bond Street, and come home beaming with joy. " We might go now just to look," I said. '' I have the addresses of some very good lodgings." " We'll take a cab by the hour," said she, putting her hat on before the mirror, and 32 :* i % -5 AS SEEN BY ME :t I turning her head on one side to view her completed handiwork. " Now take off that watch and that belt and that chatelaine if you don't want these harpies to think we are ^ rich Americans' (how I have come to hate that phrase over here!), because they will charge accord- ingly." She looked at me with genuine admira- tion. " Do you know, dear, you are really clever at times V^ I colored with pleasure. It is so seldom that she finds anything practical in me to praise. " Now mind, we are just going to look," she cautioned, as we rang a bell. '' We must not do anything in a hurry." We came out half an hour afterwards and got into the cab without looking at each other. ^^ It was very unbusinesslike," said she, se- verely. '^ You never do anything right." '' But it was so gloriously impudent of us," I urged. " First, we wanted lodgings. This was a boarding-house. Second, we wanted two bed-rooms and a drawing-room. They had only one drawing-room in the house ; could we have that ? Yes, we could. So we took their whole first floor, and made them promise to serve our break- c 33 f AS SEEN BY ME fast3 in bed, and our other meals in their best drawing-room, and turned a boarding- house into a lodging-house, all inside of half an hour. It was lovely !" ^' It was bad business," said she. " We could have got it for less, but you are always in such a hurry. If you like a thing, and anybody says you may have it for fifty, you always say, ^ I'll give you seventy-five.' You're so afraid to think a thing over." '' Second thoughts are never as much fun as first thoughts," I urged. '^ Second thv^ughts are always so sensible and reason- able and approved of." "" How do you know ?" asked my sister, wither ingly. " You '. ^ver waited for any." The next day we moved. Everybody said our rooms were charming, and that they were cheap, for I told how much we paid, much to my sister's disgust. She is such a lady. " We have cut down our expenses so much," I said, looking around on the drab walls and the dun-colored carpets, '' don't you think we might have a few flower o ^" " I believe you took this place for the bal- cony, so that you could put daisies around the edge "and in the window-boxes !" she cried. : '' No, I didn't. But the houses in Lon- don are so pretty with their flowers. Don't you think we might have a few ?" ^' Well, go and get them. I've got to 34 L ■* - ? » ' . ' . T' laa tEgw AS SEEN BY ME write the home letter to-day if it is to catch the Soiithaniptou boat." I came home with six hii^e ])ahus, two June roses, some pink heutlier, a jar of marguerites, and I had orih'red the balcony and window-boxes fiUeih My sister hel))ed me to place them, but whcui he/ back was turned I arranged them over again. 1 can't tie a veil on the way she can, but I can ar- range flowers to look — well, I won't boast. Our landladies were two middle-aaed, comfortable sisters. We called them " The Tabbies," meaning no disresj)ect to cats, either. I thought they took rather too vio- lent an interest in our affairs, but I said nothing until one day after we had been settled nearly a week. I was seated in my own })rivate room trying to write. My sis- ter came in, evidently disturbed by scrne- thing. '" Do you know," she said, '' that our land- lady just asked me how much you paid for those strawberries? And when \ lold her she said that that made them come to fourpence apiece, and that they were vei'y dear. Kow, how did she know that they wer(» strawber- ries, or how many were in each box, I'd like to know ?" " Probably she opened the ])ackage," I said. " Exactly what I ;;hink. Xow T won't 35 •^ AS SEEN BY ME i. stand that. And then she asked me not to set things on the mahogany tahles. It's just because we are Americans! She never would dare treat English people that way. She has not sufficient respect for us.'' " Then tell her to be more respectful ; tell her we are very highly thought o^ at home." ^^ She wouldn^t care for that.' " Then tell her we have a few rich rela- tions and quite a number of influential friends." " Pooh !" " And if that does not fetch her, there is nothing left to do but to be quite rude to her, and then she will know that v^e belong to the very highest society. But what do you care what a middle-class landlady thinks, just so she lets you alone ?" My sister meditated, and I added: " If you would just snub her once, in your most ladylike way, it would settle her. As for me, I am satisfied to think we are paying much less, and we are twice as com- fortable as we were at the hotel ; and we get such good things to eat that our skeletons are filling out, and once more our clothes fit." " That is so," said she, letting her thoughts wander to the number of hooks in her closet. " We do have more room, and I think our drawing-room with its palms and flowers will look lovely to-morrow." 36 '4 n ! i AS SEEN BY ME ^^ Do yon think it was wise," she added, " to ask all those men to come at once ?" ^' Oh yes ; let them all come together, then we can weed them ont afterwards. You never can have too many men." ^^ I am glad you have asked in a few women." ^' Why ?" I demanded. " Are you in- sinuating that we are not equal to a handful of Englishmen ? Recall the Boston tea- party. We will give them the first straw- berries of the season, and plenty of tea. Feed thom; that's the main thing," I said, firmly, taking up my pen and looking steadily at her. " I'll go," she said, hastily. " Do you have to go to the bank to-day ? You know to-morrow we must pay our weekly bill." *^ It won't be much," I sai i, cheerfully ; " I am sure I have enough." The next day the bill came. Our land- lady sent it up on the breakf ast-tra}^ . I opened it, then shrieked for my sister. It covered four pages of note-paper. *' For heaven's sake ! what is the matter ?" she cried. " Has anything happened to Billy ?" " Billy ! This thing is not an American letter. It is the bill for our cheap lodgings. Look at it ! Look at the extras — gas, coals, washing bed - linen, washing table - linen, 37 1 ' 91 * I AS SEEN BY ME washing towels, kitchen fires, service, oil for three lamps, afternoon tea, and three shil- lings for sundries on the fourth page ! What can sundries include? She hasn't skipped anything hut pew-rent." My sister looked at the total, and huried her face in the pillows to smother a groan. "Ring the bell," I said; "I want the maid." " What are you going to do ?" " I'm going to find out what * sundries ' are." She gave the bell-cord such a pull that she broke the wire, and it fell down on her head. " That, too, will go in the bill. Wrap your handkerchief around your hand and give the wire a jerk. Give it a good one. I don't care if it brings the police." The maid came. " Martha, present my compliments to Mrs. Black, and ask her what ' sundries ' include." Martha came back smiling. " Please, miss, Mrs. Black's compliments, and ^ sundries ' means that you complained tJiat the coffee was muddy, and after that she cleared it with an egg. ' Sundries ' means the eggs." " Martha," I said, weakly, " give me those Crown salts. No, no, I forgot; those 38 AS SEEN BY ME are Mrs. Black's salts. Take them out and tell her I only snielled them once." *' Alartha," said my sister, dragging my purse out from under my pillow, '' here is sixpence not to tell Mrs. Black anything." Then when Martha disappeared she said, '' How often have I told you not to jest with servants V^ '' 1 forgot," I said, humbly. " But Mar- tha has a sense of humor, don't you think f " I never thought anything about it. But what are you going to do about that bill ?" *' Tm going to argue about it, and declare I won't ])ay it, and then pay it like a true AnKM'ican. Would you have me upset the tra- ditions i But I've got to go to the bank first." I did just as I said. I argued to no avail. Mrs. Black was quite haughty, and made me feel like a chimney-sweep. I paid her in fnll, and when I came up I said: ^' You are quite right. She has a poor opinion of us. When I asked her how long it would take to drive to a house in West End, she said, * Why do you want to know V I said T ^ wanted to see tha house.' " ^' IJidn't you tell her we were invited there?" asked my sister, scandalized. " No ; I said I had heard a good deal about the house, and she said it was open to the public on Fridays. So I said we'd go then." 39 ■f* :l 11 AS SEEN BY ME *^ I think you are horrid !'* cried Bee. " The insolence of that woman ! And you actually think it is funny! You think everything is funny." I soothed her by pointing . ut some of the things which I considered sad, notably Eng- lish people trying to enjoy themselves. Then the men began to drop in for tea, and that succeeded in making her forget her troubles. Reggie and the Duke arrived together. My sister at once took charge of the Duke, while Reggie said to me, " I say, what sort of creature is the old girl below ?" " Not a very goed sort, I am afraid. Why? What has she done now?" " Why, she stopped Abingdon and me and asked us to wipe our shoes." " She asked the Duke of Abingdon to wipe his shoes ?" I gasped, in a whisper. "Yes; and Freddie, who was just ahead of us, turned back and said, ^ My good woman, was the cab very dirty, do you think?'" " Oh, don't tell my sister ! She has al- most died of Mrs. Black already to-day; this would finish her completely." " Well, you must give your woman a talking to — a regular going over, d'ye know ? Tell her you'll be the mistress of the whole blooming house or you'll tear it to pieces. That's the way to talk to 'ern. I told my 40 •i 1 r AS SEEN BY ME '^jJ ■■>-^l 'I I .1 landlady in Edinburgh once that I'd chuck her out of the window if she spoke to me until she was spoken to. She came up and rapped on the door one Saturday night at ten o'clock, when I had some fellows there, and told me to send those men home and go to bed.'* ^' Then she isn't taking advantage of us because we are Americans, the way the cab- men do ?" ^^ Oh yes, I dare say she is ; but you must stand up to her. They're a set of thieves, the whole of 'em. I say, that's a pretty picture you've got pinned up there." " That's to hide a hole in the lace cur- tain," I explained, gratuitously. Ihen I remembered, and glanced apprehensively at my sister, but fortunately she had not heard me. " That is one of the pictures from Truth, an American magazine. I al- w^ays save the middle picture when it is pretty, and pin it up on the wall." '' That is one thing where the States are away ahead of us — in their illustrated mag- azines. Don't say 'the States!' I've told you before. I didn't know you ever admitted that anything was better in America." Keggie only smiled affably. He ignored my offer of battle, and said : '^ Abingdon is asking your sister to dine, 41 ' i AS SEEN BY ME I'm asked, and Freddie and his wife, and I think you will enjoy it." When they were all gone I marched down- stairs to Mrs. Black without saying a word to any one. When I came up I found my sister hanging over the banisters. ^' What is the matter ? What have you done? I knew you were angry by the way you looked." " It was lovely !" I said. " I sent for Mr^. Black, and said, ^ Mrs. Black, do you know the name of the gentleman whom you asked to wipe his shoes to-day V ^ No,' said she. ^ It was the Duke of Abingdon,' I said, sternly, well knowing the unspeakable reverence which the middle-class English have for a title. She turned purple. She fell back against the wall, muttering, ^ The Duke of Abingdon! The Duke of Abing- don !' I believe she is still leaning up against the wall muttering that holy name. A title to Mrs. Black!" The next day both the Tabbies were curt- sying in the hall when we started out. We were going on a coach to Richmond with Julia and her husband, and another Ameri- can girl, and then Julia's husband was going to row us up the Thames to Hampton Court for tea, and they were all going to dine with us at Scott's when we got home. It was a lovely day. The trees were a 42 13 AS SEEN BY ME mass of bloom, and everybody ought to have enjoyed himself. We were having a very good time of it among ourselves reading the absurd signs, until we notieed the three girls who sat opposite to us. They had serious faces, and long, consumptive teeth, which they never succeeded in completely hiding. I knew just how they would look when they were dead ; I knew that those two long front teeth would still — They listened to all we said without a flicker of the eyelashes. Oc- casionally they looked down at the size of the American girl's little feet and then involun- tarily drew their own back out of sight. Presently I espied a sign, '' Funerals, for this week only, at half price." I seized Julia's hand. " Stop, oh, stop the coach and let's get a funeral ! We may never have an opportunity to get a bargain in funerals again. And the sale lasts only one week. Everybody told me before I came away to get what I wanted at the moment I saw it ; not to wait, thinking I would come back. So unless we order one now we may have to pay the full price. And a funeral would be such a good invest- ment; it would keep forever. You'd never feel like using it before you actually needed it. Do let me get one now !" Of course, Julia, my sister, and Julia's husband were in gales of laughter ; but what 43 i! 1 t AS SEEN BY ME finished me off was to see three serious creat- ures opposite rise as if pulled hy one string, look in an anxious way at me and then at t' the sign, while the teeth began to say to each other: ''What did she say? What does she mean ? What does she want a funeral for?" We had a lovely day, but everybody we met on the river looked very unhappy, and nobody seemed to be at all glad that we were there or that we were rising to the occasion. When we got home I was too tired to notice things, but my sister, who sees everything, whispered : '' I verily believe theyVe put down a new stair-carpet to-day." The next morning such a sight met our astonished eyes. There was a new carpet on the hall. There were new curtains in our drawing-room. All the covers had been removed from their sacred furniture. Brass andirons replaced the old ones. The piano had a new cover. There Avas a rocking-chair for each (we had only one before), and while we were still speechless with amazement Mrs. Black came in with our bill. " I have been thinking this over since yes- terday, and I have decided that as long as you did not understand about the extras, it would be no more than right that I should take them off. So I owe you this," 44 « AS SEEN BY ME I took the money, and it dropped from my nerveless fingers. Mrs. Black picked it np and put it on the table — the mahogany table. " You see I propped yonr palms for yon in yonr abs(uic(^, and I repotted four of them. 1 thought they would grow better. Here are some ])eri<>(licals I sent to the library for, thinking you might like to look at them, and I ])ut my new calendar over your writ- ing-desk. Ndw, is there any little delicacy yuu would like for your luncheon f While Bee was getting rid of her I made a few rapid m ntal calculations. " Bee," I said, " we are going to stay over here two years. Let^s buy the Duke and take liim with us.'' * ■X- * * * * * The reaction has come. I knew it would. It always does. It is a mortification to be obliged to admit it in the face of London, and all that we have had done for us, b^i the fact is we are homesick — wretchedly, bitterly homesick. I remember how, when other people have been here and written that they were homesick, I have sniffed with contempt and have said to myself, " What poor taste! Just wait until my turn comes to go to Europe! I'll show them what it is to enjoy every moment of my stay !" 45 'I 1 1 J I i ' i H I I 11:^ AS SEEN BY ME But now — dear me, I can remember that I have made invidious remarks about Xew York, and have objected to the odors in Chicago, and have hated the Illinois Central turnstiles. But if I could be back in Ameri- ca I v^ould not mind being caught in a turn- stile all day. Dear America! Dear Lake Michigan! Dear Chicago! I have talked the matter over with my sis- ter, and we have decided that it must be the people, for certainly the novelty is not yet woiii off of this marvellous London. We like individually nearly every one whom we have met, but as a nation the English are to me an acquired taste — just like olives and German opera. To explain. My friendly, volatile Amer- ican feelings are constantly being shocked at the massed and consolidated indiiference of English men and women to each other. They care for nobody but them.selves. In a certain sense this indifference to other peo- ple's opinions is very satisfactory. It makes yoii feel that no matter how outra- geous you wanted to be you could not cause a ripple of excitement or interest — unless Royalty noticed your action. Then London would tread itself to death in its efforts to see and hear you. But if an Englishman en- tered a packed theatre on his hands with his feet in the air, and thus proceeded to make 46 li: AS SEEN BY ME the rounds of the house, the audience woukl only give one glance, just to make sure that it was nothing more abnormal than a man in evening dress, carrying his crush-hat between his feet and walking on his hands, and then they would return to their exciting conversation of where they were '' going to show after the play.'' Even the maids who usher would not smile, but would stoop and put his programme between his teeth for him, and tiirn to the next comer. The English mind their own business, and we Americans are so used to interfering with each other, and minding everybody's business as well as our own, it makes us very homesick indeed, to find that we can do pre- cisely as we please and be let entirely alone. The English who have been in America, or those who have a single blessed drop of Irish or Scotch blood in their veins, will quite understand what I mean. Fortunate- ly for us we have found a few of these dif- ferent sorts, and they have kept us from sui- cide. They warned us of the diiferences we would find. One man said to me: '' We English do not understand the mean- ing of the word hospitality compared to you Americans. Kow in the States — " " Stop right there, if you please," I beg- ged, " and say ^ America.' It offends me to be called ' the States ' quite as much as if 47 i ij I d 1;!; I V i I ' S i' AS SEEN BY ME you called me ' the Colonies ' or ^ the Prov- inces !' " ^' You speak as if you were America," he said. " I am,'' I replied. " Now that is just it. You Americans come over here nationally. We English travel individually." I was so startled at this acute analysis from a man whom I had always regarded as an Englishman that I forgot my manners and I said, " Good heavens, you are not all English, are you'^" " My father was Irish," he said. ^^ I knew it !" I cried with joy. " Please shake hands with me again. I knew you weren't entirely English after that speech !" He laughed. " I will shake hands with you, of course. But I am a typical Britisher. Please be- lieve that." " I shall not. You are not typical. That was really a clever distinction and quite true." He looked as if he were going to argue the point with me, so I hurried on. I al- ways get the worst of an argument, so I tried to take his mind off his injury. " Now please go on," I urged. " It sounded so in- teresting." *' Well, I was only going to say that in 48 AS SEEN BY ME America you are, as hosts, quite sincere in wishing us to enjoy ourselves and to like America. Here we will only do our duty by you if you bring letters to us, and we don't care a hang whether you like England or not. We like it, and that's enough." '' I see," I said, with cold chills of aver- sion for England as a nation creeping over my enthusiasm. '' Now in America," he proceeded, " your host sends his carriage for you, or calls for you, takes you with him, stays by you, in- troduces you to the people he thinks you would most care to meet, and tcdls them who and what you are ; sees that you have every- thing that's going, and that you see every- thing that's going, and then takes you back to your club." '' Then he asks you if you have had a good time, and if you like America !" I supple- mented. " Oh, Lord, yes ! He asks you that all the time, and so does everybody else," he said, with a groan. '' Now, you were unkind if yim didn't tell him all he wanted you to, for I do as- sure you it was pure American kindness of heart which made him take all that trouble for you. I know, too, without your telling me, that he introduced you to all the prettiest girls, and gave you a chance D 41) :i I AS SEEN BY ME to talk to each of them, and only hovered around waiting to take you on to the next one, as soon as he could catch you with ease." " He did just that. How did you know f " Because he was a typical American host, God bless him, and that is the way we do things over there." " Now here," he went on, " we consider our duty done if we take a man to dine, and then to some reception, where we turn him loose after one or two introductions." "What a hateful way of doing!" I said, politely. " It is. It must seem barbarous to you." " It does." '' Or if you are a woman we send our car- riages to let you drive where you like. Or we send you invitations to go to needlework exhibitions where you have to pay five shil- lings admission." I said nothing, and he laughed. " I know they have done that to you," he exclaimed. '' Haven't tbey V^ '' I have been delightfully entertained at luncheons and dinners and teas, and I have been introduced to as charming people in London as I ever hope to meet anywhere," I said, stolidly. " But you won't tell about the needle- work. Oh, I say, but that's jolly! Fancy 50 li f AS SEEN BY ME ?> in what you said when you began to get those beastly things!" And he laughed again. ^' I didn't say anything," I said. Then he roared. Yet he claimed to be a " typical Britisher." '' We mean kindly," he w^ent on. " You mustn't lay it up against us." '' Oh, we don't. We are having a lovely time." There are times when the truth would be brutal. Then this oasis of a man, this ^' typical Britisher," went away, and my sister and I dressed for the theatre. A friend had sent us her box, and assured us that it was per- fectly proper for us to go alone. So we went. Up to this time we had not hint- ed to each other that we were homesick. The play was most amusing, yet we couldn't help watching the audience. Such a bored- looking set, the women with frizzled hair held down by invisible nets, mingling with their eyebrows, and done hideously in the back. Low - necked gowns, exhibiting the most beautiful shoulders in the world. Gorgeous jewels in their hair and gleaming all over their bodices, but among half a doz- en emerald, turquoise, and diamond brace- lets there would appear a silver-w^atch brace- let wdiich cost not over ten dollars, and spoiled the effect of all the others. 51 :,i ■ ; I I i'' I! i 1 AS SEEN BY ME English women as a race are the worst- dressed women in the workl. I saw thou- sands of them in Piccadilly and Regent Street, and at Church Parade in the Park, with high, French-heeled slippers over color- ed stockings. And as to sizes, I should say nines were the average. There are some smaller, but the most are larger. The Prince of Wales was in the box oppo- site to ours, and when we were not looking at him we gazed at the impassive faces of the audience. They never smiled. They never laughed. The subtlest points in the play went unnoticed, yet it is one which has had a record run and bids fair to keep the boards for the rest of the season. Suddenly my sister, although we had not spoken of the homesickness that was weigh- ing us down, touched my arm and said, " Look quick ! There's one !'' " Where ? Where V " Down there just in front of the pit, talk- ing to that bald-headed idiot with the mono- cle.'^ " Do you think she is American ?" I said, dubiously. I couldn't see her feet. " She might be French. She talks all over." " No. She is an American girl. See how thin she is. The French are short and fat.'' Look at her face," I said, enviously. 52 a 1 .« AS SEEN BY ME " How aninintod it is. See how it seems to stand out among all the other faces." *' Yet she is only amusing herself. See how stolid that creature looks that she is wasting all her vitality on." ^' She has told him some joke and she is laughing at it. lie has put his monocle in his other eye in his effort to see the point. He will got it hy the next hoat. Wish she'd come and tell that joke to me. I'd laugh at it." Mv sister eyed me critically. " You don't look as if you could laugh," she said. '^I wonder what would happen if I should fall dead and drop over into the lap of that fat oleidiant in pink silk with the red neck," I said, musingly. ''She wouldn't even wink," said my sister, laughingly. " But if you struck her just right you would hounce clear up here again and I coidd catch you." " It is just four o'clock in Chicago," I said. ^Fy sister promptly turned her back on me. " And Billy has just wakened from his nap, and Katy is giving him his food," I went on. ( Billy is my sister's baby.) " And then mamma will come into the nursery presently and take him while Katy gets his carriage out, and she will show him my pict- 53 I I I, I '\\ n PI \ AS SEEN BY ME ure and ask him who it is (hecause she wroto me she always did it at this time), and then he will say, ^ Tattah,' which is the sweetest baby word for ' Auntie ' 1 ever heard from mortal lips, and then he will kiss it of his own accord. Mamma wrote that he had blis- tered it with his kisses, and it's one of the big ones, but I don't care; I'll order a dozen more if he will blister them all. And then she will say, ^ Where did mamma and Tat- tah go?' and he will wave his precious little square hand and say, ^ Big boat,' and she says he tries to say, ' Way off ' — and, oh, dear, we are ^ wav off ' — " " Stop talking, you fiend," said my sister, from the depths of her handkerchief. " You know I look like a fright when I cry." '^ Boo-hoo," was my only reply. And once started, I couldn't stop. That deadly English atmosphere of indifference — and, oh — and everything! Have you ever been homesick when you couldn't get home 1 Have you ever wanted to see your mother so that every bone in your body ached ? Have you ever been in the state where to see the baby for five minutes you would give everything on earth you had ? That was the way I felt about Billy that grewsome night at this amusing play in an English theatre. I had on my best clothes, but after my handkerchief ceased to avail 54 { ! AS SEEN BY ME i! 'H wrote then 'etest Ifrom If his blis- lo big [ozen thou Tat- itth she oh, the tears slopped down on my satin p^own, and the blisters will remain as a lasting tribute to the contagion of a company of English peo])le out enjoying themselves. My sister's stern sense of decorum caused her to contain herself until she got home, but I am frt'C to confess that after I once loosed mv hold over nivself and found what a relief it was, I realized the truth of what our old negro cook used to say when T was a child in the South, and asked her why she howled and cried in such an alarming man- ner when she ^' got religion." She used to say, " Lawd, chile, you don't know how soov- in' it is to jest bust out awn 'casions lake dose!" Happy negroes ! Happy children, who can " bust out " when their feelings get the better of them ! Civilization robs us of many of our acutest pleasures. That night on the way home from the theatre I learned something. Xobody had ever told me that it is the custom to give the cabby an extra sixpence when one takes a cab late at night, so, on alighting in front of our llower-trimmed lodgings, I reached up, deposited my shilling in his hand, and was turning away, when my footsteps were ar- rested by my cabby's voice. Turning, I saw him tossing the despised shilling in his curved palm and saying: 55 !l ;i. ;i! I > m It !i I r,'i AS SEEN BY ME "A shillinM Twelve o'clock at night! Two ladies in evenin' dress ! You ought to 'a' gone in a 'bus ! A cab's too expensive for you! I wish you'd 'a' walked and I wish it had rained!'* With that parting shot he gathered up the lines and drove off, while I leaned up against the door shaking with a laughter which my sister in no wise shared with me. Poor Bee! Things like that jar her so that she can't get any amusement out of them. To her it was terrifying impudence. To me it was a heart-to-heart talk with a London cabby ! Oh, the sweet viciousness of that '' / wish it had rained!'' I wonder if that man beats his wife, or if he just converses with her as he does with a recreant fare ! Anyway, I loved him. But if I have discovered nothing else in the brief time since I left mv natire land, it is worth while to realize the truth of all the poetry and song written on foreign shores about home. To one accustomed to travel only in Amer- ica, and to feel at home with all the different varieties of one's countrymen, such senti- ments are no more than vers de societe. But now I know what Heimweh is — the home- pain. I can understand that the Swiss really die of it sometimes. The home-pain ! !N'eu- 56 Hi ! I M L AS SEEN BY ME ralgia, you know, and most other acute pains, attack only one set of nerves. But Heimweh hurts all over. There is not a muscle of the body, nor the most remote fibre of t_he brain, nor a tissue of the heart that does not ache with it. You can't eat. You can't sleep. You can't read or write or talk. It begins with the protoplasm of your soul — and reaches forward to the end of time, and aches every step of the way along. Y^ou want to hide your face in a pillow away from, every- body and do nothing but weep, but even that does not cure. It seems to be too private to help materially. The only thing I can rec- ommend is to " bust out." Homesickness is an inexplicable thing. I have heard brides relate how it attacked them unmercifully and without cause in the midst of their honevmoon. Girl students, whose sole aim in life has been to come abroad to study, and who, in finally coming, have fondly dreamed that the gates of Para- dise had swung open before their delighted eyes, have been among its earliest and most acutely afflicted victims. No success, no realized ambitions ward it off. Like death, it comes to high and low alike. One woman, whose name became famous with her first concert, told me that she spent the first year over here in tears. Nothing that friends can do, no amount of kindness or hospitality 57 '4 i] ! •] AS SEEN BY ME i avails as a proventive. You can take bro- mides and cure insomnia. You can take chloroform, and enough of it will prevent seasickness, but nothing avails for Hrimweh. And like pride, " let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." I have been in the midst of an animated recital of how homesick I had been the day before, ridiculing myself and my malady with unc- tuous freedom, when suddenly Billy's little face would seem to rise out of the flowers on the dinner-table, or the patter of his little flying feet as they used to sound in my ear as he fluttered down the long hall to my study, or the darling way he used to run towards me when I held out mv arms and said, " Come, Billy, let Tattah show you the doves," with such an expectant face, and that little scarlet mouth opened to kiss me — oh, it is nothing to anybody else, but it is home to me, and I was only recalled to London and my dinner party when a fresh attack was made on America, and I was called once more to battle for my country. I have " fought, bled, and died " for home and countrv more times than I can count since I have been here. I ought to come home with honorable scars and the rank of lield-marshal, at least. I never knew how many objectionable features America pre- sented to Englishmen until I became their 58 AS SEEN BY ME pnost and broke bread at tbeir tables. I can- not eat very much at their dinner parties — T am too busy thinking how to parry their at- tacks on my America, and especially my riii- cago, and my West generally. The P^nglish adore Americans, but they loathe America, and I, for one, will not accept a divided alle- giance. ^' Love me, love my dog," is my motto. I go home from their dinners as hungry as a wolf, but covered with Victoria crosses. I am puzzled to know if they really hate Chicago more than any other spot on earth, or if they simply love to hear me fight for it, or if their manners need improving. I myself may complain of the horrors of our filthy streets, or of the way we tear up whole blocks at once (here in London they only mend a teaspoonful of pavement at a time), or of our beastly winds which tear your soul from your body, but I hope never to sink so low as to permit a lot of foreigners to do it. For even as a Parisian loves his Paris, and as a T^ew Yorker loves his Lon- don, so do I love my Chicago. u it ti t: li > i I I III PARIS : I; It was a fortanate thing, after all, that I went to London first, and had my first great astonishment there. It broke Paris to me gently. For a month I have been in this city of limited republicanism ; this extraordinary example of outward beauty and inward un- cleanness ; this bewildering cosmopolis of cheap luxuries and expensive necessities; this curious city of contradictions, where you might eat your breakfast from the streets — they r.re so clean — but where you must close your eyes to the spectacles of the curbstones ; this beautiful, whited sepulchre, where exists the unwritten law, " Commit any offence you will, provided you submerge it in poetry and flowers " ; this exponent of outward observances, where a gentleman will deliberately push ,^^ou into the street if he wishes to pass you in a crowd, but where his action is condoned by his inexpressible manner of raising his hat to you, and the 60 AS SEEN BY ME heartfelt sincerity of his apology ; where one man will run a mile to restore a lost franc, but if you ask him to change a gold piece he will steal five ; where your eyes are ravished with the beauty, and the greenness, and the smoothness and apparent ease of living of all its inhabitajits ; where your mind is filled with the pictures, the nnisic, the art, the gen- eral atmosphere of culture and wit; where the cooking is so good but so elusive, and where the shops are so bewitching that you have spent your last dollai* without thinking, and you are obliged to cable for a new letter of credit from home before you know it — this is Paris. Paris is very educational. I can imagine its influence broadening some people so much that their own country could never be ample enough to cover them again. I can imagine it narrowing others so that they would return to America more of Puritans than ever. It is amusing, it is fascinating, it is exciting, it is corrupting. The French must be the most curious people on earth. How could even heavenly ingenuity create a more uncommon or bewildering contradic- tion and combination ? Make up your m.ind that they are as simple as children wlien you see their innocent picnicking along the boulevards and in the parks with their whole families, yet you dare not trust yourself to 61 5 \\ I) il H I' \?: m AS SEji:N BY ME hear what they are saying. Believe that they are cynical, and fin de siecle, and skep- tical of all women when you hear two men talk, and the next dav you hear that one of them has shot himself on the grave of his sweetheart. Believe that politeness is the ruling characteristic of the country because a man kisses your hand when he takes leave of you. But marry him, and no insult as re- gards other women is too low for him to heap upon you. Believe that the French men are sympathetic because they laugh and cry openly at the theatre. But appeal to their chivalry, and they will rescue you from one discomfort only to offer you a worse. The French have sentimentality, but not sentiment. They have gallantry, but not chivalry. They have vanity, but not pride. They have religion, but not mo- rality. They are a combination of the wild- est extravagance and the strictest parsi- mony. They cultivate the ground so close to the railroad tracks that the trains almost run over their roses, and yet they leave a Place de la Concorde in the heart of the city. You can buy the wing of a chicken at a butcher's and take it home to cook it. But your bill at a restaurant will appall you. Water is the most precious and exclusive drink you can order in Paris. Imagine 62 AS SEEN BY ME that — you who let the water run to cool it! In Paris they actually pay for water in their houses by the quart. Artichokes, and truffles, and mushrooms, and silk stockings, and kid gloves are so cheap here that it makes you blink your eyes. But eggs, and cream, and milk are luxuries. Silks and velvets are bewilderingly inexpen- sive. But cotton stuffs are from America, and are extravagances. They make them up into ^' costumes," and trim them with velvet ribbon. Xever by any chance could you be supposed to send cotton frocks to be washed every week. The lu,xury of fresh, starched muslin dresses and plenty of shirt- waists is unknown. I never shall overcome the ecstasies of laughter which assail me when 1 see varie- ties of coal exhibited in tiny shop windows, set forth in high glass dishes, as we exploit chocolates at home. But well they mav re- spect it, for it is really very nuK^h cheaper to freeze to death than to buy coal in Paris. The reason of all this is the city tax on every chicken, every carrot, every egg^ brought into Paris. Every mouthful of food is taxed. This produces an enormous revenue, and this is why the streets are so clean ; it is why the asphalt is as smooth as a ballroom floor; it is why the whole of Paris is as beautiful as a dream. 03 111 Hi !' AS SEEN BY ME S I In fact, the city has ideas of cleanliness which its middle-class inhabitants do not share. On a rainy day in Paris the absurd- ly hoisted dresses will expose to your view all varieties of trimmed, ruffled, and lace petticoats, which would undeniably be bene- fited by a bath. All the lingerie has ribbons in it, and sometimes I think they are never intended to be taken out. When I was at the chateau of a friend not long ago she overheard her maid apologizing to two sisters of charity, for the presence of a bath-tub in her mistress's dressing- room : ^' You must not blame madame la marquise for bathing every day. She is not more untidy than I, and I, God knows, wash myself but twice a year. It is just a habit of hers which she caught from the English." My friend called to her sharply, and told her she need not apologize for her bathing, to which the maid replied, in a tone of meek justification, '' But if madame la marquise only knew how she was regarded by the people for this habit of hers !" I like the way the French take their amusements. At the theatre they laugh and applaud the wit of the hero and hiss the vil- lain. The}^ shout their approval of a duel and weep aloud over the death of the aged mother. When they drive in the Bois they 04 AS SEEN BY ME smile and have an air of enjoyment quite at variance with the bored expression of Eng- lish and Americans who have enonHi nioiiev to o^vn carriages. We drove in ITvde Park in London the day before we came to Paris, and nearly wept \>'ith sym]nitliy for the un- spoken grief in tlie faces of the unfortunate rich who were at such pains to enjoy them- selves. The second day from that we had a de- lightful drive in the Eois in Paris. '' ITow glad everybody seems to be we have come!" I said to my sister. ''See how pleased they all look." I was enchanted at their gay faces. I felt like bowing right and left to tliL^m, the way queens and circus girls do. I never saw such handsome men as I saw in London. I never saw such beautiful women as I see in Paris. The Bois has never been so smart as it was the past season, for the horrible fire of the Bazar de la Charite put an end to the Paris season, and left those who were not personally bereaved no solace but the Bois. Consequently, the costumes one saw between five and seven on that one beautiful boule- vard were enou£>;h to set one wild. I alwavs wished that my neck turned on c;: pivot and that I had eyes set like a coronet all around my head. My sister and I were in a cou- E 65 P n a "1^" 1.?' 1 1 t i. I gl \ -li! AS SEEN BY ME slant state of ecstasy and of clutching each other's gowns, trying to see every one wiio passed. But it was of no use. Although they drove slowly on purpose to be seen, if you tried to focus your glance on each one it seemed as if they drove like liglitning, and you got only astigmatism for your pains. I always came home from the Bois with a headache and a stiff nock. I never dreamed of such clothes even in my dreams of heaven. But the French are an extravagant race. There was hardly a gown worn last season which was not of the most delicate texture, garnished with chiffon and illusion and tulle — the most crushable, airy, inflammable, unserviceable material one can think of. Now, I am a utilitarian. When I see a white gov/n I always wonder if it will wash. If I see lace on tlie foot ruffle of a dress I think how it will sound when the wearer steps on it going up-stairs. But anything would be serviceable to wear driving in a victoria in the Bois between five and seven, and as that is where I have seen the most beautiful costumes I have no right to complain, or to thrust at them my Ameri- can ideas of usefulness. This rage of theirs for beauty is what makes a perpetual honey- moon for the eyes of every inch of France. The w^ay they study color and put greens together in their landscape gardening makea 66 AS SEEN BY ME one think with horror of our prairies and sa^ohr'. Hh. The (\ye is ravished with beauty ail over Paris. The eh'an streets, the walks between rows of tr(H!s for j)edestrians, the hmes for bieyelists, the paths through tiny forests, right in Paris, for equestrians, and on eaeh side thii h)veliest trees — trees everywhere exeept whcri^ there are fountains — but what is the use of trying to describe a beauty which has staggered braver pens than mine, and which, after all, you must see to appre- ciate 'i The (\ith<)lic observances one sees everv- where in l*aris are most interesting. When a funeral procession passes, every man takes off his hat and stands watching it with the greatest rc^spect. In May the streets are full of sweet- faced little girls on their way to their first communion. They were all in white, bare- headed, except for their white veils, white shoes, white gloves, and the dearest look of importance on their earnest little faces. It was most touching. In all months, however, one sees the com- ical sight of a French bride and bridegroom, in all the glory of their bridal array — white satin, veil, and orange blossoms — driving through the streets in open cabs, and hug- ging and kissing each other with an unctu- 07 :i i '1' H ■ I' i '» lit I) I '•I i| 1 r AS SEEN BY ME ous freedom which is apt to throw a conser- vative American into a spasm of laughter. Indeed, the frank and candid way that love- making goes on in public among the lower classes is so amazing that at first you think you never in this world will become accus- tomed to it, but you get accustomed to a great many strange sights in Paris. If a kiss explodes with unusual violence in a cab near mine it sometimes scares the horse, but it no longer disturbs me in the least. My nervousness over that sort of thing has en- tirely worn off. I have had but one adventure, and that was of a simple and primitive character, which seemed to excite no one but myself. They say that there is no drunkenness in France. If that is so then this cabman of mine had a fit of some kind. Perhaps, though, he was only a beast. Most of the cabmen here are beasts. They beat their poor horses so unmercifully that I spend quite a good portion of my time standing up in the cab and arguing with them. But the only efficacious argument I have dis- covered is to tell them that they will get no pourhoire if they beat the horse. That seems to infuse more humanity into them than an}; number of Scripture texts. On this occasion my cabman, for no rea- son whatever, suddenly began to beat his 68 AS SEEN BY ME horse in the hatefulest way, leaning down with his whip and striking the horse under- neath, as we were going downhill on the Rue de Frevcinet. I screamed at him, hut he pretended not to hear. The cah rocked from side to side, the horse was galloping, and this brute beating him like a madman. It made me wild. I was being bounced around like corn in a popper and in imminent danger of being thrown to the pavement. People saw my danger, but nobody did anything — just looked, that was all. I saw that I must save myself if there was any sav- ing going to be done. So with one last trial of my lungs I shrieked at the cabman, but the cobblestones were his excuse, and he kept on. So I just stood up and knocked his hat off with my parasol ! — his big, white, glazed hat. It was glorious ! He turned around in a fury and pulled up his horse, with a torrent of French abuse and impuden^^^ which scared me nearly to death. I thought he might strike me. So I pulled my twitching lips into a dis- tortion which passed muster with a Paris cabmman for a smile, and begged his par- don so profusely that he relented and didn't kill me. I often blush for the cheap Americans with loud voices and provincial speech, and general commonness, whom one meets over 69 I Hi I 11 '1 '"I 1:- I' 'fft! r ■ f 1, i \i' mi ■J I ' IH. I AS SEEN BY ME here; but with all their faults thoy cannot approach the vulgarities at table which I have seen in Paris. In all America wo have no such vulgar institution as their rince- honrhr — an atfair resembling a two-part fin- ger-bowl, with the water in a cup in the mid- dle. At fashionahle tahh^s, men and women in gorgeous clotlu^s, who s|)(>Mk f(mr or five languages, actually rinse their months and gargle at the table, and then slop the water thus used back into th(^s(^ bowls. The first time I saw this I do assure you 1 would not have been more astonished if the next course had been stonuich pumps. And as for the toothpick habit! Let no one ever tell me that that atrocity is Amer- ican ! Here it goes Avith every cours^^., and without the pretended decency of holding one's serviette before one's mouth, which, in my opinion, is a mere affectation, and aggra- vates the offence. But the most shameless thing in all Eu- rope is the marriage question. To talk with intelligent, clever, thinking men and w^omen, who know the secret history of all the fa- mous international marriages, as well as the high contracting parties, w^ho wall relate the price paid for the husband, and who the in- termediary was, and how much commission he or she received, is to make you turn faint and sick at the mere thought, especially if 70 AS SEEN BY ME jou happen to romo from a coinitry where they once fought to abolish the bnyinj^ and selling of human heing.s. F^ut our hlaek slaves were above buying and scllintr them- selves or their children. It remains for civ- ilized Murope of our time to do this, and the highest and proudest r»f her ])(m)J)1(» at that. It is not so shocking to n'nd about it in glittering generalities. I knew of it in a vague way, just as I knew ^he history of the massacre of Saint Bartholomew. \ thought it was too bad that so many people were killed, and I also thought it a pity that Frenchmen never married without a dot. Rut when it comes to meeting the peo|)le who had thus bargained, and the moment their gorgeous lace and satin backs were turned to hear some one say, ^' You are always so interested in that sort of thing, have you heard what a scandal was caused by the mar- riage of those two ?" — then it ceases to be history ; then it becomes almost a family affair. " TTow could a marriage between two un- attached young people cause a scandal ?" I asked, with my stupid, primitive American ideas. " Oh, the bride's mother refused to pay the commission to the intermediary," was the airy reply. " It came near getting into the papers." n i ;i 'f ^1 ill I I AS SEEN BY ME At the »Iiil)iloo p^ardon party at Lady Mon- son's I saw the most beautiful French girl I have seen in Paria. She was superb. In America she would have been a radiant, a triumphant beauty, and probably would have acquired the insolent manners of some of our spoiled beauties. Instead of that, however, she was modest, even timid-look- ing, except for her queenly carriage. Her gown was a dream, and a dream of a dress at a Paris garden party means something. " What a tearing beauty !'' I said to my companion. '^ Who is slie ?" '^ Yes, poor girl!" he said. "She is the daughter of the Comtesse N — . One of the prettiest girls in Paris. Xot a sou, however ; consequently she will never marry. She will probably go into a convent." " But why ? Why won't she marry ? Why aren't all the men crazy about her? Why don't you marry her ?" "Marry a girl without a dot? Thank you, mademoiselle. I am an expense to myself. My wife must not be an additional encumbrance." " But surely," I said, " somebody will want to marry her, if no nobleman will." " Ah, yes, but she is of noble blood, and she must not marry beneath her. No one in her own class will marry her, so " — a shrug — " the convent ! See, her chances are 72 AS SEEN BY ME qiiite gone. She has been out five years now." 1 could have cried. Kvery word of it w^as quite true. I thought of the dozens of sus- ceptible and rich American men I knew who would have ^one through fire* and water for her, and who, although they have no title to give her, would liave made her adoring and adorable husbands, and 1 seriously thought of offering a few of them to her for con- sideration! But alas, there are so many ifs and ands, and — well, I didn't. I only sighed and said, " Well, I suppose such things are common in P^rance, but I do assure you such things are impossible in America." '' Such things as what, mademoiselle V^ " This cold-blooded bartering," I said. " American men are above it." " Are American girls above selling them- selves, mademoiselle ? Do you see that poor, pitifully plain little creature there, in that dress which cost a fortune ? Do you see how ill she carries it? Do you see her im- formed, imcertain manner? IFer husband is the one I just had the honor of presenting to you, who is now talking to the beauty you so much admire." '^ He shows good taste in spite of his mar- riage," I said. '^ Certainly. But his wife is your coun- 73 ■ 11 ' M mil I I'! Ill AS SEEN BY ME trywoman. That is the last {amous inter- national marriage, and the most vulgar of the whole lot. Listen, mademoiselle, and I will tell you the exact truth of the whole affair. " She came over here with letters to Paris friends, and when it became known that one of the richest heiresses in America was here, naturally all the mammas with marriageable sons were anxious to see her. She was in- vited everywhere, but as she could not speak French, and as she was as you see her, her success could not be said to be great. No, but that made no difference. The Duchesse de Z — was determined that her son should marry the rich heiress. As she expected to remain here a year or more, and the young Due de Z — made a wry face, she did not press the matter. Then the heii'ess went into a convent to learn French, and the Duchesse went to see her very often and took her to drive, and did her son's part as well as she could. ^' Suddenly, to the amazement of every- body, the heiress sailed for America without a word of warning. The Duchesse was fu- rious. ^ You must follow her,' she s?id to her son. ' We cannot let so much money escape.' The son said he would be hanged if he went to America, or if he would marrv such a monkey, and as for her money, she 74 ill II AS SEEN BY ME I le could go anywhere she pleased with it, or words to that effect. So that ended the affair of the Due de Z — . When the other im- pecunious young nobles heard that the Duchesse no longer had any claims upon the American's money they got together and said, ^ Somebody must marry her and divide with the rest. We can't all marry her, but we can all have a share from whoever does. J^ow we will draw lots to see wlio must go to America and marrv her.' The lot foil to the Baron de X — , but he had no money for the journey. So all the others raised what money they could and loaned it to him, and took his notes for it, with enormous interest, payable after his marriage. He sailed away, and within eight months he had married her, but he has not paid those notes because his wife won't give him the money ! And these gentlemen are furious! Good joke, I call "What a shameful thing!" I said. "T wonder if that girl knew how she was being married !" "Of course she knew! At least, she might have known. She was rich and she was plain. How could she hope to gain one of the proudest titles in France without buy- ing it ?" " I wonder if she could have known !" I said, again. 75 m i !'( t' M AS SEEN BY ME I ^^ It would not have prevented the mar- riage, would it, mademoiselle, if she had ?" " Indeed it would !" I said (but I don't know whether it would or not). He shrugged his shoulders. " America is very different from Europe, then, mademoiselle. Here it would have made no difference. When a great amount of money is to be placed^ one must not have too many scruples." ^^ If she did know," I said, with a fervor which was lost upon him, " believe this, whether you can understand it or not: she was not a typical American girl." I had, as usual, many more words which he deserved to have had said to him, but edu- cation along this line takes too much time. I ought to have begun this great work with his great-grandparents. •X- ***** * What any one can see about Dinard to like is a mystery to me ! Is it possible that one who has spent a month there could evei* be lured back again ? There is a beautiful journey from Paris across France southwest- erly to the coast, through odd little French villages, vineyards, poppy-fields, and rose- gardens, across shining rivulets and through an undulating landscape, all so lovely that it is no wonder that one expects all this beauty to lead up to a climax. But Avhat a 76 AS SEEN BY ME 't e disappointment Dinard is to one's enthusi- astic anticipations! Tliis famous watering- place has to my mind not one solitary re- deeming feature. It has no excuse for he- ing famous. It has not even oni* happy ac- cident about it as a i)eg to hang its fame upon, like some writers' first novels. Di- nard simply goes on being famous, nobody knows why. And to go there, after reading pages about it in the papers and hearing people speak of Dinard as Mohammedans whisper sacredly of ^lecca, is like meeting celebrities. You wonder what under the sun — what in the world — how in the name of Heaven such ugly, stupid, uninteresting, heavy, dull, and insufferably ordinary j)er- sons are allowed to become famous by an overruling and beneficent Providence! I have met many celebrities, and I have been to Dinard. I have had mv share of disappointments. To begin with, Dinard is not sufficiently picturesque. There are but one or two pret- ty vistas and three or four })oints of view. Then it is not typically Frenclh It is in- habited partly by English families who cross the Channel yearly from Southampton and Portsmouth, and who take with them their nine iminteresting daughter's, with long front teeth and ill-hanging duck skirts, and partly by Americans who go to Dinard as 77 '1; 4; ! h ^, ll AS SEEN BY ME they go to the Eiffel Tower; not that either is particularly interesting, but they had heard of these places before they came over. The only really interesting thing within five miles of Linard is that, off St. Malo, on the island of Grand Be, Chateaubriand is buried. But as this really belongs more to the attractions of St. Malo than to Dinard, and nobody who spends summers at Dinard ever mentioned Chateaubriand in my pres- ence, or honored his tomb by a visit, it is pure charity on my part to ascribe this soli- tary point of real interest to Dinard. For, after all, Chateaubriand does not belong to it. Which logic reminds me forcibly of the plea entered by the defence in a suit for borrowing a kettle : '^ In the first place, I never borrowed his kettle; in the second place, it was whole when I returned it ; and, in the third place, it was cracked when I got it." So with Chateaubriand and Dinard. Then Dinard has none of the dash and go of other watering-places. There is nothing to do except to bathe mornings and watch the people vdn or lose two francs at pet Us clie- vaux in the evenings. Not wildly exciting, that. Consequently, you soon begin to stag- nate with the rest. You grow more and more stupid as the weeks pass, and at the end of a month you 78 AS SEEN BY ME cease to think. From that time on you do not have such a bad time — that is to sav, you do not suffer so acutely, because you have now got down to the level of the people who go back to Dinard the next year. We came away. The hotels are amoi.g the worst on earth — musty, old-fashioned, and villainously expensive — and one of the happiest moments in my life was the day when I left Dinard for ^lont St. Michel. Mont St. Michel is one of the most out-of- the-way, un-get-at-able places 1 found in all Europe; but, oh, hov/ it rewards one who arrives ! Mont St. Michel is too well known to need a description. But to go from Dinard re- quires, first of all, that one must go by boat over to St. Malo, thence by train; change cars, and alight linally at a lonely little sta- tion, behind which stands a sort of vehicle — a cross between a London omnibus and a hay-wagon. You scramble to the top of this as best you may. Nobody helps you. The Frenchman behind you crowds forward and climbs up ahead of you and holds you back with his umbrella while he hauls his fat wife up beside him. Then you clamber up by the hub of the wheel and by sundry awk- ward means which remind you of climbing a stone wall when you were a child. You take any seat left, which the Frenchmen do 79 m »«>.%^. IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-S) // #// ^% ^^ 1.0 I.I 1.25 «45 IIIM Bio 1.4 li|M |Z2 2.0 1.6 V] <« % c'l c» ■>* ■^^ f^ ' /a 0%. '\^ iP/l Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 &< c^. w^ r AS SEEN BY ME « American horses. They were new horses and young, and the Marquise said that Charles found them quite unmanageable. Jimmie watched him drive them around a moment or two before they could be made to str.nd, then he broke out laughing. The Marquise was so disgusted at the way they see-sawed that she said she waj going to sell them. " Sell them !" cried Jimmie. " Whv, all in the world that's the matter with those poor brutes is that they don't speak French ! Let me drive them!" So the Marquise saved Charles's vanity by saying that monsieur wished to try the new horses. Jimmie climbed upon the box, and gathered up the reins, saying, " So, old boy, you don't like the dratted language any bet- ter than I do. Steady now, boy ! GiddapF' Whereat the pretty creatures pricked up their ears, pranced a little, then sprang into their collars, and we were off along the lovely river road at a spanking pace and with as smooth and even a gait as the most experi- enced roadsters. We could hear Charles's polite compli- ments to Jimmie on his driving, and Jim- mie's awful French, as he assured Charles that the horses were all rie^ht, " tres gentils " and " tres jolis/' '' Ne dites jamais ' douce- ment * aux chevaux americains, Dites AS SEEN BY ME *" whoa/ et Us arreteront, et quand vous dites * Giddap/ Us marcheront bien. Savez?** At which Charles obediently practised "Whoa !" and "Giddap!'^ while we felt ourselves pulled up and started off, as the object-lesson demanded, but amid shrieks of laughter which quite upset Charles's dignity. Finally, we whirled in across the moat and under the great gate to the chateau, and found ourselves in the billiard-room of Velor, with a big open fire, in front of which lay a pile of dogs and around which we all gathered shiveringly, for the day was chilly. That charming billiard-room at Velor! It is not so grand as the rest of the chateau, but everybody loves it best of all. It is on the ground floor, and it has a writing-desk and two or three little work-tables and sev- eral sofas and heaps of easy-chairs, and here everybod came to read or write or sew or play billiards. And as to afternoon tea! ^ot one of us could have been hired to drink it in the salons up-stairs. In fact, so many of us insisted upon being in the billiard-room that there never was room for a free play of one's cue, for somebody was always in the way, and it was rather discouraging to hear a woman doing embroidery say, " Don't hit this ball. Take some other stroke, can't you ? Your cue will strike me in the eye." Dunham, the eighteen-year-old son of the 87 ki ^l r-n U 1 H . f;. AS SEEN BY ME ' Marquise, waj teaching me billiards, but his manners were so beautiful that he always pretended that to stick to one's own ball was a mere arbitrary rule of the game, so he per- mitted me to play with either ball, which made it easiest for me, or which caused least discomfort to those sitting uncomfortably near the table. A dear boy, that Dunham ! He had but one fault, and that was that he would wear cerise and scarlet cravats, and his hair was red — so uncompromisingly red, of such an obstinate and determined red, that his mother often said, ^^ Come here, Dunham, dear, and light up this corner of the room with your sunny locks. It is too dark to see how to thread my needle!" Such was his amiability that I am sure he enjoyed it, for he always went promptly, and called her '' Mon amour/* and slyly kissed her when he thought we were not looking. All our remarks upon his red ties fell upon unheeding ears, until one day I bribed his man to bring me every one of them. These I distributed among the women guests, and when, the next morning, Dunham came in complaining that he couldn't find any of his red ties, lo! every woman in the room was Avearing one; and to our credit be it spoken that he failed to get any of them back, and never, to my knowledge at least, wore a scar- let tie again. 88 AS SEEN BY ME Velor is historic. After it passed out of the hands of Charles VII. — I have slept in his room, hut I must say that he was un- pleasantly short if that bed fitted him ! — it was bought by the old miser Nivelau, whos'^ daughter, Eugenie Belmaison, was the girl Balzac wished to marry. In a rage at being rejected by her father he wrote Eugenie Grandet, and several of the articles, such as her work-box, of which Balzac makes men- tion, are in the possession of the Marquise. Every available room in the Velor was filled ,vith our party. Each day we drove in the brake to visit some ancient chateau, such as Azay-le-Ilideau, Islette,(.'hinon, or the Ab- bey of Fontevreault, finding the roads and scenery in Touraine the most delightful one can imagine. Fontevreault was originally an abbey, and a most powerful one, being presided over by daughters of kings or women of none but the highest rank, and these noble women held the power of life and death over all the country which was fief to Fontevreault. Velor was once fief to Fontevreault, but the abbey is now turned into a prison. They took away our cameras before they allowed us to enter, but we saw some of the prisoners, of whom there were one thousand. The real object of our visit, however, was to see the tombs of Henry II. and of my be- 89 % \ 'S f. ■*■!■■ n- AS SEEN BY ME loved Eichard the Lion-hearted, who are both buried at Fontevreault. To go to Fon- tevreault, we were obliged to cross the river Vienne on the most curious little old ferry, which was only a raft with the edges turned up. Charles drove the brake on to this raft, but wo preferred, after one look into the eyes of the American horses, to climb down and trust to our own two feet. We ^ ave and attended breakfasts with the owners of neighboring chateaux, drove into Saumur to the theatre or to dine with the officers of the regiment Stationed there, and had altogether a perfect visit. I have made mar- visits and have been the guest of many hostesses, most of "^liem charming ones, hence it is no discourtesy to them and but a higher compliment to the Marquise when I assert that she is one of the most perfect hostesses I ever met. A thorough woman of the world, having been presented at three courts and speaking five languages, yet her heart is as untouched by the taint of worldliness, her nature as un- embittered by her sorrows, as if she were a child just opening her eyes to society. One of the cleverest of women, she is both humor- ous and witty, with a gift of mimicry which would have made her a fortune on the stage. Her servants idolize her, manage the cha- teau to suit themselves, which fortunately 90 1^ AS SEEN BY ME means to perfection, and look upon her as a beloved child who must be protected from all the minor trials of life. She has rescued the most of them from some sort of discomfort, and their gratitude is boundless. Like the majority of the nobility, the peasants of France are royalists. The middle class, the bourgeoisie, are the backbone of the re- public. The servants are stanch Catholics and long for a monarchy again. The Marquise apologized to them for our being heretics, and told them that while we were not Chris- tians (Catholics), yet we tried to be good, and in the main turned out a fair article, but she entreated their clemency and their prayers for her guests. So we had the satis- faction of being ardently prayed for all the time we were there, and of being compli- mented occasionally by her maid, Marie, an old Normandie peasant seventy years old, for an act on our part now and then which savored of real Christianity. And once when we had private theatricals, and I dressed as a nun, Marie never found out for half the evening that I was not one of the Sisters who frequently came to the chateau, but kept crossing herself whenever she saw me ; and when she discovered me she told me, with tears in her eyes, it really was a thou- sand pities that I would not renounce the 91 ' I 11 I: ' ' r- \ : i i! ,\,\ ►■r' 1 1 •i AS SEEN BY ME world and become a Christian, because I looked so much like a " relip^ieuse.'' We went in of tones t to Chinon — always on market day; some of us on horseback, some on wheels, while the rest drove. Chi- non is the fortress chateau where Jeanne d^Arc came to see Charles VIT. to try to in- terest him in her plans. Its ruins stand high up on a bluff overlooking the town, and be- neath it in an open square is the very finest and most spirited equestrian statue I ever saw. It is of Jeanne d' Arc, and I only regret that the photograph I took of it is too small to show its fire and spirit and the mad rush of the horse, and the glorions, generous pose of the noble martyr's outstretched arms, as she seems to be in the act of sacrificing her life to her country. There is the divinest patriotism in every line of it. We saw it on a beautiful crisp day in ]^o- vember. It was our Thanksgiving day at home. We drove along the lovely river-road from Chinon to Velor, and upon our arrival we discovered that the Marquise had ar- ranged an American Thanksgiving dinner fo^ us, sending even to America for certain delicacies appropriate to the season. It was a most gorgeous Thanksgiving dinner, for, aside from the turkey, lo! there appeared a peacock in all its magnificent plumage, sit- ting there looking so dressy with all his 92 AS SEEN BY ME Iff feathers on that we quite blushed for the state of the turkey. A month of Paris, and then T long for fresh fields and pastures new. Of course there is nowliere like Paris for clothes or to eat. But when one has got all the clot lies one can afford and is no longer hungry, hav- ing acquired a chronic indigestion from too intimate a knowledge of Marguery's and Ledoyen's, what is there to do but to leave ? Paris is essentially a holiday town, but I get horribly "ired of too long a holiday, and after the newness is worn off one dis- covers that it is the superficiality of it all that palls. The people are superficial ; their amusements are feathery — even the beauty of it all is *' only skin deep." Therefore, after one glimpse of Poland, the pagan in my nature called me to the East, and six months of Paris have only in- tensified my longing to get away — to get to something solid ; to find myself once more with the serious thinkers of the world. In the mean time Bee has deserted me for the more interesting society of Billy, and now she writes me long letters so filled with his sayings and doings that I miist move on or I shall die of homesickness. I have de- cided on Russia and the Nile, taking inter- mediate countries by the way. This is en- tirely Billy's fault. 93 I 't i :¥ t ri' 't k ■ .i AS SEEN BY ME When I first decided to go to "Russia, I supposed, of course, that I could induce the Jimmies to go with me, but, to my consterna- tion, they revolted, and gendy but firmly expressed their determination to go to Egypt by way of Italy. So I have taken a com- panion, and if all goes well we shall meet the Jimmies on the terrace of Shepheard's in February. I packed three trunks in my very best style, only to have Mrs. Jimmie regard my work with a face so full of disapproval that it reminded me of Bee's. She then pro- ceeded to put ^^ everything any mortal could possibly want " into one trunk, with what seemed to me supernatural skill and com- mon-sense, calmly sending the other two to be stored at Munroe's. I don't like to dis- parage Mrs. Jimmie's idea of what I need, but it does seem to me that nearly everything I have wanted here in Berlin is " stored at Munroe's." My companion and I, with faultless arith- metic, calculated our expenses and drew out what we considered " plenty of French mon- ey to get us to the German frontier." Then Jimmie took my companion and Mrs. Jim- mie took me to the train. Their cab got to the station first, and when we came up Jimmie was grinning, and my companion looked rather sheepish. 94 1 AS SEEN BY ME " I (lidnH have enough money to pay the extra luggage," she wliispered. ** I had to horrow of Mr. Jininiic." '* That's just like you/* I said, severely. '^ Now / drew more than you did." Just then Jinimie came up with my little account. ^^ Forty-nine francs extra luggage," he announced. '' What T I gasped, '' on that one trunk ?" How grateful T was at that moment for the two stored at Munroe's ! " Oh, Jimmie," I cried, ^' I haven't got near enough ! You'll have to lend me twenty francs !" My companion smiled in sweet revenge, and has been almost impossible to travel with since then, but we are one in our rage against paying extra luggage. Just think of buying your clothes once and then paying for them over and over again in every for- eign country you travel through ! Our clothes will be priceless heirlooms by the time we get home. We can never throw them away. They will be too valuable. The Jimmies have beerrso kind to us that we nearly choked over leaving them, but we consoled ourselves after the train left, and proceeded to draw the most invidious comparisons between French sleeping-cars and the rolling palaces we are accustomed to 95 i' 1 I I I h i > I }: AS SEEN BY ME at home. I am ashamed to think that T have miidii iinph^asaiit rcinarkfl 111)011 the discom- forts of travel in America. Oh, how un- grateful I have been for past mercies! My companion is very patient, as a rule, but 1 heard her restlessly tossing around in her berth, and I said, '' What's the matter T' '' Oh, nothing much. But don't you think they have arranged th(^ knobs in these mattresses in \cry curious places '1^'" Well, it was a little like sleeping on a wood-pile during a continuous earthquake. But that was nothing compared to the news broken to us about eleven o'clock that our luggage would be examined at the German frontier at five o'clock in the morning. That meant being wakened at half past four. But it was quite unnecessary, for we were not asleep. It was cold and raining. I got up and dressed for the day. But my companion put her seal-skin on over her dressing-gown, and perched her hat on top of that hair of hers, and looked ready to cope with Diana herself. " They'll ruin fhy things if they unpack them," I said. " You just keep still and let me manage things," she answered. So I did. I made myself as small as possible and watched her. She selected her victim and smiled on him 96 AS SEEN BY ME most cliarinin^ly. TTe was tearinfif open tho trunk of a fat American ^ot up in gray flan- nel and curl-papcra. He dropped her tray and hurried up to my companion. " Have you anything to declare, madam?'* he asked. " Tell him ahsolntely nothing," she whis- pered to me. I oheyed, hut he never took his eyes from her. She was tugging at t^ itrap of her trunk in apparcMitly wild eagerness to get it open. Slie frowned and panted a little to show h(>w hard it was, and he hounded forward to help her. Then she smiled at him, and he blinked his eyes and tucked the stra]) in and chalked her trunk, with a slirug. He hadn't opened it. She kept her eye on him and ]K)inted to my tnuik, and he chalked that. Then seven pieces of hand luggage, and he chalked them all. Then she smiled on him again, and I thanked him, but he didn't seem to hear me, and she nodded her thanks and pulled me down a long stone cor- ridor to the dining-room where we could get some coffee. At the door I looked back. The customs officer was still looking after my companion, but she never even saw it. The dining-room was full of smoke, but the coffee and mv first taste of zwieback were delicious. Then -we went out through a nar- row doorway to the train, where we were Q 97 5ji I' I n 'n 4 •n:1' m [I AS SEEN BY ME jostled by Fronrliinon with their habitual "Pardon!'* (wliich partially reconciles you to being walked on), and knocked into by monstrous Germans, who sent us spinning without so much as a look of apology, and both of whom puffed their tobacco smoke di- rectly in our faces. It was still dark and the rain was whimpering down on the car-roof, and, take it all in all, the situation was far from pleasant, but we are hard to depress, and our spirits remain undaunted. It was so stuffy in our compartment that I stood in the doorway for a few moments near an open window. My companion was lying down in my berth. We still had nine- teen hours of trayel before us with no pros- pect of sleep, for sleep in those berths and oyer such a rough road was absolutely out of the question. ISTear me (and spitting in the saddest man- ner out of the open window) stood the meek little American husband of the gray flannel and curl-papers, whose fury at my com- panion for her quick work svith the customs officer knew no bounds. The gray flannel had gone to bed again in the compartment next to ours. The precision of this gentleman's aim as he expectorated through the open window, and the maryellous rapidity with which he managed his diyersion, led me to watch him. 98 AS SEEN BY ME He looked tired and cold and ill. It was still dark outside, and the jolting of tlie train was almost unbearable. lie had not once looked at me, but with his gaze still on the darkness he said, slowly, '' They can have the whole blamed coun- try for all of me! / don't want it." It was so exactly the wav I felt that even though ho said something worse than ^^ blamed,'* I gave a shriek of delight, and my companion pounded the pillow in her co- operation of the sentiment. *' You are an American and you are Southern," I said. '' Yes'm. How did you know ?" " By your accent." ^^ Y'es'm, I was born in Virginia. I was in the Southern army four years, and I love my country. I hate these blamed foreigners and their blamed churches and their infernal foreign languages. I am over here for my health, my wife says. But I have walked more miles in picture-galleries than I ever marched in the army. I've seen more pict- iires by Kaphael than he could have painted if he'd 'a' had ten arms and painted a thou- sand years witnout stopping to eat or sleep. I've seen more ^ old masters,' as they call 'em, but / call 'em daubs, all varnished till they are so slick that a fly would sli)) on 'em and break his neck. And the stone floors are r I .1 i'v I 1 ,1 I AS SEEN BY ME so cold that I get cold clean up to my knees, and I don't get warm for a week. Yet I am over here for my health ! Then the way they rob you — these blamed French! Lord, if I ever get back to America, v^here one price in- cludes everything and your hotel bill isn't sent in on a ladder, and where I can keep warm, won't 1 just be too thankful." eTust then the gray-flannel door banged open and a hand reached out and jerked the poor little old man inside, and we heard him say, ^' But I was only blaming the French. I ain't happy over here." And a sharp voice sai(^, ^' Well, you've said enough. Don't talk any more at all." Then she let him out again, but he did not find me in the corridor. He found his open window, and he leaned against our closed door find again aimed at the flying landscape, as he pondered over the disadvantages of Europe. The sun was just rising over the cathedral as we reached Cologne. " Let's get out here and have our break- fast comfortably, see the cathedral, and take the next train to Berlin," I said to my com- panion. She is the courier and I am the banker. She hastily consulted her indicateur and as- sented. We only had about two seconds in which to decide. Let's throw these bags out of the win- 100 a AS SEEN BY ME dow," she said. " I've seen other people do it, and the porters catch them.'' " Don't throw them," I urged. " You will break mv toilet bottles. Poke them out gently." She did so, and we hopped off the train just at daybreak, perfectly delighted at doing something we had not planned. A more lovely sight than the Cologne cathedral, with the rising sun gilding its numerous pinnacles and spires, would be difficult to imagine. The narrow streets were still comparatively dark, and when we arrived we heard the majestic notes of the organ in a Bach fugue, and found ourselves at early mass, with rows of humble wor- shippers kneeling before the high altar, and the twinkle of many candles in the soft gloom. As we stood and watched and lis- tened, the smell of incense floated down to us, and gradually the first rays of the sun crept downward through the superb colored- glass windows and stained the marble statues in their niches into gorgeous hues of purple and scarlet and amber. And as the priests intoned and the fresh young voices of an invisible choir floated out and the magnificent rumble of the organ shook the verv foundation of the cathedral, we forgot that we were there to visit a sight of Cologne, we forgot our night of discom- 101 K,[ '-i :^ ) : fort, we forgot (everything but the spirit of worship, and wo came away without speak- ing. * * •X- * * * * - f- !S From Cologne to Dresden is stupid. We went thi'ough a country punctuated with myriads of tall chimneys of factories, which reminded us why so many things in England and America are stamped '^ Made in Ger- many." We arrived at Dresden at five o'clock, and decided to stop there and go to the opera that night. The opera begins in Dresden at seven o'clock and closes at ten. The best seats are absurdly cheap, and whole fami- lies, whole schools, whole communities, I should say, were there together. I never sa^: so many children at an opera in my life. Coming straight from Paris, from the the- atrical, vivacious, enthusiastic French audi- ences, with their abominable claqueurs, this first German audience seemed serious, thoughtful, appreciative, but unenthusiastic. They use more judgment about applause than the French. They never interrupt a scene or even a musical phrase with mis- placed applause because the soprano has ex- ecuted a flamboyant cadenza or the tenor has reached a higher note than usual. Their appreciation is slow but hearty and always worthily disposed. The French are given 102 AS SEEN BY ME to exaggerating an emotion and to applaud- ing an eccentricity. Even their subtlety is overdone. The German drama is much cleaner than the French, the family tie is made more of, sentiment is encouraged instead of being ridiculed, as it too often is in America ; but the German point of view of Americans is quite as much distorted as the French. That statement is severe, but true. For in- stance, it would be utterly impossible for the American girl to be more exquisitely misunderstood than by French and German men. Berlin is so full of electric cars that it seemed much more familiar at first sight than Paris. It is a lovely city, although we ought to have seen it before Paris in order fully to appreciate it. Its Brandenburg Gate is most impressive, and I wanted to make some demonstration every time we drove under it and realized that the statue above it has been returned. Their statue of Victory in the Thiergarten is so hideous, however, that I was reminded of General Sherman's remark when he saw the Pension Office in Washington, ^' And they tell me the thing is fireproof !" The streets are filled with beautiful things, mostly German officers. The only trouble is that they themselves seem to know 103 I 'ft k iftlk. "( 1 •'h' I 'i^ m. 1 'ft Ww 'I .11 W' I;! ■ilk AS SEEN BY ME it only too well, and as they will not give us any of the sidewalk, we are obliged to admire them from the gutters. The only way you can keep Germans from nocking you into the middle of the street m to walk sideways and pretend you are examining the shop windows. In the eyes of men, women are of little account in England compared to the way we are treated in America ; of less in France ; and of still less in Germany. We have not got to Russia yet. Paris seems a city of leisure, Berlin a city of war. The streets of Paris are quite as full of soldiers as Berlin, but French soldiers look to me like mechanical tovs. I have sent Billy a box of them for Christmas — of mechanical soldiers, I mean. The chief difference I noticed was that Billy's were smaller than the live ones, although French soldiers are small enough. That portion of the French army which I have seen — at Longchamps, Chalons-sur-Marne, Saumur, and at various other places — are, as a rule, undersized, badly dressed, and badly groomed. They do not look neat, nor even clean, if you Avant the truth. The uniform is very ugly, and was evidently designed for men thirteen feet high ; so that ou those com- ical little toy Frenchmen it is grotesque in the extreme. 104 AS SEEN BY ME Their trousers are always nmch too lonf:^, and so ample in width that they seem to need only a belt at the ankle to turn then\ into perfect Russian blouses. But English and German soldiers not only appear, but are, in perfect condition, as thouf»h they could go to war at a moment's notice, and v.ould be glad of the chance. I am keeping my eyes open to see how America bears comparison with other na- tions in all particulars. In point of appear- ance the English army stands first, the German second, tlie American third, and the French fourth. I put the American third only because our uniforms are less impres- sive. In everything else, except in numbers, they might easily stand first. But uniforms and gold lace, and bright scarlet and waving plumes, make a vast difference in appearance, and every country in the world recognizes this, except America. I wish that everybody in the United States who boasts of democ- racy and Jeffersonian simplicity could share my dissatisfaction in seeing our ambassadors at Court balls and diplomatic receptions in deacons' suits of modest black, without even a medal or decoration of any kind, except perhaps that gorgeous and overpowering in- signia known as the Loyal Legion button, while every little twopenny kingdom oi a mile square sends a representative in a uni- 105 11 iff- v: .' (. •\)r w " i ■•Pi- -1 ■t- W" ft ill' f AS SEEN BY ME form as brilliant as a peony and stiff with gold embroidery. No matter how magnificent a man, person- ally, our ambassador may be, no matter how valuable his public services, no matter how unimpeachable his private character, I wish you could see how small and miserable and mean is the appearance he presents at Court functions, where every man there, except the representative of seventy millions of people, is in some sort of uniform. Tf it really were Thomas Jefferson whose administration in- augurated the disgusting simplicity which goes by his name, I wish the words had stuck in his throat and strangled him. " Jeffer- sonian simplicity!" ITow I despise it! Thomas Jefferson, I believe, was the first Populist. We had had gentlemen for Presi- dents bef ord him, but he was the first one who rooted for votes with the common herd by catering to the gutter instead of to the sky- line, and the tail end of his policy is to be seen in the mortifying appearance of our highest officials and representatives. Hinc illae lachrymae! I looked at the servant who announced our names in Paris at General Porter's first official reception, and even he was much more gorgeous in dress than the master of the house, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary representing 106 AS SEEN BY ME f 1 I' seventy millions of people! Xot even in his uniform of a general ! The only man in the room in plain black. The United States ought to treat her representatives bettor. When Mr. White at Berlin was received bv the Emperor, he, too, was the only man in plain black. No wonder we arc taken no account of socially when we don't even give our ambas- sador a house, as all the other countries do, and when his salary is so inadequate. Every other ambassador except the American has a furnished house given him, and a salary sufficient to entertain as becomes the repre- sentative of a great country. All except ours! Yet none of them is obliged to enter- tain as continuously as our ambassador, be- cause only Americans travel unremittingly, and only Americans expect their ambassa- dor to be their host. V II 'i O wad some power the gif tie gie us To see oursels as ithers see us!" Of course I notice such things immensely more in Berlin than in Paris, because the glory of a Court is much more than the twinkle of a republic. I have worked myself into such a tower- ing rage over this subject that there is no getting down to earth gracefully or gradu- 107 11 ' t'm t ,^^bt In / V' t AS SEEN BY ME ally. I have not polis-hed off the matter by any manner of means. I have only just started in, but a row of stars will cool me off. * * * •X- * * Before I came to Berlin I heard so much about Unter den Linden, that magnificent street of the city, that I could scarcely wall to get to it. I pictured it lined on both sides with magnificent linden-trees, gigantic, im- posing, impressive. I had had no intimate acquaintance with linden - trees — and I wouldn't know one now if I should see it — but I had an idea from the name — linden, linden — that it was grand and wav- ing ; not so grand as an oak nor so waving as a willow, but a cross between the two. I knew that I should see these great mon- archs making a giant arch over this broad avenue and mingling their tossing branches overhead. What I found when I arrived was a broad, handsome street. But 'those lindens ! They are consumptive, stunted little saplings Avith- out sufficient energy to grow into real trees. They are set so far apart that you have time to forget one before you come to another, and as to their appearance — we have some just like them in Chicago where there is a leak in the gas-pipes near their roots. On the day before Christmas we felt very 108 AS SKEN BY ME low in our iiiinds. Wo luid tlio doleful pros- pect ahead of us of eatiniu^ (Miristmas dinner alone in a strange eountrv, and in a liot(d at that, ao we started out shoj)pin^,^ Xot that we needed a thin*;, but it is our ruh', " W lim you have the blues, ^o shoppin*^." It always eures vou to s|)end nionev. Berlin shop-win(l(»\vs are niueh more fas- cinating ( veil than those of Pai'is, because in Berlin there are so nninv niof" thint's that vou can afford to buv that Paris seems ex- ])ensive in c(»mparison. We became so much interested in the (Miristmas dis]>lay that we did not notice the ili<»ht of time. When we had boui^ht several heavy thiuiis to \vei,i»h our trunks down a little more and to ])ay extra luirga^e on, I happened to alance at the sun, and it was just above the horizon. It looked to be about four o'clock in the afternoon, and we had had nothin<»: to eat siiu'e nine o'clock, and even then only a cu]) of coffee. I felt myself suddenly grow faint and weak. *' Heavens!" T said, '' see what time it is! We have shopped all day and we have for- gotten to get our luncheon." My companion glanced at her watch. *' it's onlv half past eleven o'clock bv mv watch. I couldn't have wound it last night. T^o, it is going." " Perhaps ^he hands stick. They do on mine. Whene/er I wind it, I have to hit it 109 i'' I 'I i fi ■ I! AS SEEN BY ME •f I u \\'i\]\ tlu' hair-Lrusli to start it; and evon then it loses tinic every da v." *' Let's take tlieui both to a jeweller," she said. '' We can't travel with watches v.'hich act this way." So we left them to be repaired, and as we came out, I said, " It will take us half an hour to get hack to the hotel. Don't you think we ought to go in somewhere and get just a little something to sustain us?" " Of course we ought," she said, in a weak voice. So we went in and got a light luncheon. Then we went back to the hotel, intending to lie down and rest after such an arduous day. " We must not do this again," T said, firm- ly. '' Mamma told me particularly not to overdo." My companion did not answer. She was looking at the clock. It was just noon. " Why, that clock has stopped too," she said. But as we looked into the reading-room that clock struck twelve. Then it dawned on me, and I dropped into a chair and nearly had hysterics. "It's because we are so far north!" T cried. " Our watches were all right and the sun's all right. That is as high as it can get!" She was too much astonished to laugh. 110 tlioii alio liicli an voii get AS SEEN BY ME " And you had to go in and get luncheon becaurte you felt so faint," she said, in a tone oi gentle sarcasm. '* VV^ell, you confessed to a fearful sense of goneness yourself." " Don't tell anvlK)(lv," she said. *^ I should think not!" I retorted, with dignity. '^ 1 hope I have some pride." *' Have you presented your letter to the ambassador f she asked. ^* Yes, but it's so near Christmas that I suppose he won't bother about two waifs like us until after it's over." " ^ly ! but you are blue," she said. '' I never heard you refer to yourself as a waif before." " I am a worm of the dust. I wish there wasn't such a thing as (Miristmas! I wonder what Billy will say when he sees his tree." ^' You might cable and find out," she said. " It only costs about three marks a word. * What did Billy say when he saw his tree V — nine words — it would cosi, you about eight dollars, without counting the address." Dead silence. I didn't think she was at all funny. " Don't you think we ought to have cham- pagne to-morrow ?" she asked. '^ What for ? I hate the stuff. It makes me ill. Do you want it?" '* No, only I thought that, being Christ- Ill n ' >1 t i. 't I II AS SEEN BY ME mas, and very expensive, perhaps it would do you good to spend — " A knock on the door made us both jump. " His Excellency the Ambassador of the United States to see the American ladies!" It was, indeed, Mr. White and Mrs. White, and Lieutenant Allen, the Military Attache! " Oh, those blessed angels !" I cried, buck- ling my belt and dashing for the wash-stand, thereby knocking the comb and hand-glass from the grasp of my companion. They had come within an hour of tlie presentation of my letter, and they brought with them an invitation from Mrs. Allen for us to join them at Christmas dinner the next day, as Mrs. White said they could not bear to think of our dining alone. I had many beautiful things done for me during my thirty thousand miles travel in Europe, but nothing stands out in my mind with niori^ distinctness than the affectionate welcome I received into the homes of our representatives in Berlin. And, in passing, let me say this, I am distinctly proud of them, one and all. I say this because one hears many humiliating anecdotes of the mistakes made by the men and women sent to foreign Courts, appointed because they had earned some recognition for political services. Those of us who have strong na- tional pride and a sense of the eternal fit- 112 ■1 Wl tlie AS SEEN BY ME ness of things, are obliged to hear such things in shamed silence, and offer no re- tort, for there can be no possible excuse for mortifying lapses of etiquette. And these things will continue until our government establishes a school of diplomacy and makes a diplomatic career possible to a man. As long as it is possible for an ex-coroner or sheriiF to be appointed to a secretaryship of a foreign legation — a man who does not speak the language and wjiose wife under- stands better how to cope with croup and measles than with wives of foreign diplo- mats who have been properly trained for this vocation, just so long shall we be obliged to bear the ridicule heaped upon us over here, which our government never hears, and wouldn't care if it did! Imagine the relief with which I met our Berlin representatives! At the end of four years there will be no sly anecdotes whis- pered behind fans at their expense, for they have all held the same office before and are well equipped by training, education, and native tact to bear themselves with a prourl front at one of the most difficult Courts of Europe. I look back upon that little group of Americans with feelings of unmixed pride. Mr. White invited us to go with him that afternoon to see the tombs of the kings at H 113 t m 7 W li im 1U I ■I ft i AS SEEN BY ME Charlottenburg ; and when his gorgeous- liveried footman came to announce his pres- ence, the hotel proprietor and about forty of his menials nearly crawled on their hands and knees before us, so preat is their defer- ence to pomp and power. I wish to associate Berlin with this beau- tiful mausoleum. It is circular i:. shape, and the light falls from above through lovely colored-glass windows upon those re- cumbent marble statues. The dignity, the still, solemn beauty of those pale figures lying there in their eternal repose, fill the soul with a sense of the great majesty of death. When we got back to the hotel we found that the same good fortune which had at- tended us so far had ordained that the Amer- ican mail should arrive that day, and be- hold! there were all our Christmas letters timed as accurately as if they had only gone from Chicago to New York. Christmas letters! How they go to the heart when one is five thousand miles away ! How we tore up to our rooms, and oh ! how long it seemed to get the doors unlocked and the electric light tuiued up, and to plant ourselves in the middle of the bed to read and laugh and cry and interrupt each other, and to read out paragraphs of Billy's funny baby-talk ! 114 AS SEEN BY ME 1 >: Tl While we were still discussing them, the proprietor came up to announce to us that there was to be a Christmas Eve entertain- ment in the main dining-room that evening, and would the American ladies do him tiie honor to come down ? The American ladies would. When we went down we found that the enormous dining-room was packed witli peo- ple, all standing around a table which ran around two sides of the room. A row of Christmas trees, covered with cotton to rep- resent snow, occupied the middle of the room, and at one end was a space reserved for the lady guests, and in each chair was a handsome bouquet of violets and lilies-of-the- valley. This entertainment was for the servants of the hotel, of whom there were three hun- dred and fifty. First they sang a Lutheran hymn, very slowly, as if it were a dirge. Then there was a short sermon. Then another hymn. Then the manager made a little speech and called for three cheers for the proprietor, and they gave them with a fervor that nearly split the ears of the groimdlings. Then a signal was given, and in less than one minute three hundred and fifty paper bags were produced, and three hundred and fifty plates full of oranges, apples, buns, 115 } U ' \ i 4 m r AS SEEN BY ME and sweetened breads Tvere emptied into them. The table looked as if a plague of grasshoppers had swept over it. Then each servant presented a number and received a present from the tree, and that ended the festivity. But so typical of the fatherland, so paternal, so like one great family ! Participating in this simple festival brought a little of the Christmas feeling home to us and made us almost happy. We knew that our American parcels would not be delivered until the next day, so we had but just time to reread our precious letters when the clock struck twelve, and with much solemnity my companion and I presented each other with our modest Christmas pres- ent — which each had announced that she wanted and had helped to select! But, then, who would not rather select one's own Christmas presents, and so be sure of get- ting things that one wants ? On Christmas morning registered pack- ages began to arrive for both of us. The first ten presents to arrive for my com- panion were pocket - handkerchiefs. My first ten were all books. Evidently the dear family had thought that American books would be most acceptable over here, and I could see, with a feeling that warmed my heart, how carefully they had consulted my 116 AS SEEN BY ME i s own taste, and had tried to remember to send those I wanted. But I am of a frugal mind, and thoughts of the extra higgage to he paid on bound books would intrude themselves. However, I made no renuirk over the first ten, but before the day was over I had re- ceived twenty-two books and one pen-wiper, and my vocabulary was exhausted. My companion continued to receive handker- chiefs until the room was full of them. Take it all together, there was a good deal of sameness about our presents, but they have been useful as dinner anecdotes ever since. Now that I have sent all mine to be stored at Munroe's, together with all my other ne- cessities, I feel lighter and more buoyant both in mind and trunk. A Christmas dinner in a foreign land, in the midst of the diplomatic corps, is the most undiplomatic thing in the world, for that is the one time when you can ceavse to be diplo- matic and dare to criticise the government and make personal remarks to your heart's content. It was a beautiful dinner, and after it was over we were all invited to the chil- dren's entertainment at Mrs. Squiers's. She had gathered about fifty of the American colony for Christmas carols and a tree. Tmmediately af'"er the ambassador arrived » the children marched in and recited in 117 lit ■ r. , i i ■ 1 ten AS SEEN BY ME chorus the verses about the birth of Christ, beginning, '^ Xow in the days of Herod the King." Then they sang their carols, and then " Stille Nacht," and they sang them beautifully, in their sweet, childish voices. After these exercises the doors were thrown open, and the most beautiful Christ- mas-tree I ever beheld burst upon the view of those children, who nearly went wild with delight. After everybody had gone home except " the diplomatic family," which for the time being included us, we picnicked on the re- mains of the Christmas turkey for supper, and there was as little ceremony about it as if it had been at an army post on the fron- tier. We had a beautiful time, and every- body seemed to like everybody very much and to be excellent friends. Then Mr. and Mrs. White escorted us back to our hotel, wdiich wasn't at all nec- essary, but which illustrates the way in which they treated us all the time we were there. This ended a truly beautiful Christmas, for, aside from being unexpected and in striking contrast to the forlornness we had anticipated, we had been taken into the fami- lies of beautiful people, w^hose home life was an honor and an inspiration to share. On ^ew Year's day we started earlv and 118 1 , 'hrist, k1 the and them ices. were 'hrist- view with 4 AS SEEN BY ME ^went to Potsdam to visit the palace of Sang Sonci. A most curious and interesting little old man who had been a guide there for thirty years showed us through the grounds, where the King's greyhounds are buried, and where he pleaded to be buried with them. The guide had no idea that he possessed a certain dramatic genius for pathos, for, parrot-like, he was repeating the story he had told per- haps a thousand times before. But when he showed us the graves of the greyhounds which ate the poisoned food which had been prepared for the King, he said : ^' And they lie here. Xot there with the other dogs, the favorites of the King, but here, alone, disgraced, without eveii a head- stone. Without even their names, although they saved the great King from death and gave their lives for his. Yet they lie here, and the others lie there. It is the way of the world, ladies." Then he took us to the top of the terrace facing the palace, and, pointing to the en- trance, he said : " In the left wing were the chambers of the King's guests. In the right wing were his own. Therefore, he placed a comma between those two words ^ Sans ' and ^ Souci,' to indi- cate that those at the left were * without,' while with himself was — ' Care.' " 119 ," s H k ^ m it " n-i 1 i n 1 I (s i I' i ' i I i AS SEEN BY ME While we were there the Emperor drov^ by and spoke to our cabman, saying, *^ How is business ?" Seeing how much pleasure it gave the poor fellow to repeat it, we kept asking him to tell us what the Kaiser said to him. First my companion would say: ^' When was it and what happened ?" And when he had quite finished, I would say : '' It wasn't the Emperor himself, was it ? It must have been the coachman who spoke to vou." '^ No, not so, ladies. It was the great Kaiser himself. He said to me — " And then we would get the whole thing over again. It was charming to see his pleas- ure. When we returned home we entered the hotel between rows of palms, and we dropped monev into each of them. It seemed to me that fifty servants were between me and the elevators. However, it was New Year's, and we tried not to be bored by it. People talk so much of the expense of foreign travel, but to my mind the greatest expenditures are in paying for extra luggage and in fees. Otherwise, I fancy that travel is much the same if one travels luxu- riously, and that in the long run things would be about equal. The great difference 120 AS SEEN BY ME ifl that in America all travel luxuries are given to you for the price of your ticket, and here you pay for each separate necessity, to say nothing of luxury, and your ticket only permits you to breathe. Rut the annoyance of this continuous habit of feeing makes life a burden. One pays for everything. It is the custom of the country, and no matter if you arrange to have *^ service included," it is in the air, in the eyes of the servants, in the whole mental atmosphere, and you fee, you fee, you fee until you are nearly dead from the bother of it. In Germany they raise their hats and rise to their feet every time you pass, even if you pass every seven min- utes, and when the time comes for you to go, you have to pay for the wear and tear of these hats. In Paris, at the theatre, you fee the wom- an who shows vou to your seat, you fee the woman who opens the door ai^d the woman who takes your wraps. One night in mid- summer we stepped across from the Grand Hotel to the opera without even a scarf for a wrap, and the woman was so disappointed that we were handed from one attendant to another some half dozen times as '' three ladies without wraps.'' And the next one would look us over from head to foot and re- peat the words, ^' Three ladies without wraps," until we laughed in their faces. 121 ll. i ;• I r Y> AS SEEN BY ME French servants are the cleverest in the world if yoii want versatility, hut they are absolutely shameless in their greed, and look at the size of your coin before they thank you. In fact, the words in which they thank you indicate »vhether your fee was not enough, only modest, or handsome. "It is not too much, madam," or " thanks, madam," or " I thank you a thousand times" show your status in their estima- tion. If you are an American they reserve the right to rob you by the impudence of their demands, until rather than have a scene, you give them all they ask. I have fol- lowed in the footsteps of a French woman and given exactly what she did, and had my money flimg in derision upon the pave- ment. German servants seem to have more self- respect, for while they expect it quiLe as much, they smile and thank you and never look at the coin before your eyes. Perhaps they know from the feeling of it, but even if you place it upon the table behind them they thank you and never look at it or take it until you turn away. However, you fee unmercifully here too. You fee the man at the bank who cashes your checks, you fee the street-car conductor who takes your fare, you fee every uni- 122 4. AS SEEN BY ME formed hireling of the goveriinieiit, whether he has done anything for you or not. The only persons whom I have neglected to fee so far arc the ambassadors. But then, they do not wear unifonns! I I Ih { , li'; IV ON BOARD THE YACHT '^ HELA" I AM just able to ait up, and I couldn't thini: of a thing I wanted to eat if I thought a week. I canio on this yachting trip he- cause my friends begged me to. They said it would be an experience for me. It has been. The Hela started out with a party of ten on board, who were on pleasure bent. We have come up the English (^hannel from Di- nard to Ostend, but before we had been out an hour we struck a gale, to which veterans on seasickness will refer for many a long day as " that fearful time on the Channel." On the whole, I don't know but that I mj^self might be considered a veteran on sea- sickness. I have averaged crossing the Chan- nel once a month ever since I've been over here. I have got into the habit of crossing the Channel, and I can't seem to stop. It always appears that I am in the wrong place for whatever is going on, for just as sure as I go to London somebody sends for me to 124 AS SEEN BY ME come to Paris, and F nisli for the Channel, and I have no sooner unpacked my trunks in Paris, and harpiined that service and electric lights shall he included, than sonie- hody discovers that I am imperatively need- ed in England, and I make for the (^hannel again. The Channel is like Jordan. It always rolls hetween. But even in crossing the Channel there is everything in knowing how. I have discard- ed the private state-room. It is too expen- sive, and I am not a hit less uncomfortahle than when occupying six feet of the settee in the ladies' cabin, with mv feet in the flowers of another woman's hat. In fact, I prefer the latter. The other woman is always too ill to protest or to move. I have now, by long and patient practice, ])roved to my own satisfaction what serves me best in case of seasickness. I will not stay on deck. 1 will not eat or drink anything to cure it. I will not take anything to prevent it. I will not sit up, and I will not keep my hat on. When I go on board of a Channel steamer my first act is to shake hands with my friends and to go below. There I present the stewardess with a modest testimonial of my regard. I also give her my ticket. Then I select the most desirable portion of the set- tee, near a port-hole, from which I can get fresh air. I take off mv hat and lie down. IB ( f 1 -I AS SEEN BY ME I' ■' W The steamer may not start for an hour, l^o matter. There I am, and there I stay. The Channel may be as smooth as glass, but I travel better flat. Like manuscript, I am not to be rolled. Sometimes I am not ill at ail, but I freely confess that those times are infrequent and disappointing. Xow, of course, this is always to be ex- pected in crossing the Channel, but my friends said in going up the Channel we would not get those choppy waves, and that I would find that the Ilela swam like a duck. In analyzing that statement since, with a view to classifying it as truth or otherwise, I have studied my recollections of ducks, and I have come to the conclusion that in a rough sea a duck has every rignt to be sea- sick, for she wobbles like everything else that floats. For real comfort, give me some- thing that's anchored. Nevertheless, I was persuaded to join the party. Everybody came dow^n at Dinard to see us off, and quite a number even went over to St. Malo with us in the electric launch, for the Hela drew too much water to enter the harbor at Dinard at low tide. We were a merry party for the first hour on board the Hela — until we struck the gale. It has seemed to me since that our evil genius was hovering over us from the 126 \ ;l AS SEEN BY ME stay. , but r am ill at s are ex- my I we and like first, and simply waited until it would be out of the question to turn back before emptying the vials of her wrath on our devoted heads. It did not rain. The sun kept a malevolent eye upon us all the time. It simply bhnv just one straight, unrelenting, unswerving gale. And it came so suddenly. We were all sitting on deck as happy as angels, when, without a word of warning, the Ilela simply turned over on her side and threw us all out of our chairs. I caught at a mast as I went by and clung like a limpet. There was tar on the mast. It isn't there any more. It is on the front of my new white serge yacht- ing dress. Jimmie coasted across the deck, and landed on his hands and knees against the gunwale. If he had persisted in stand- ing up he would have gone overboard. The women all shrieked and remained in a tan- gled heap of chairs, and rugs, and petticoats, waiting for the yacht to right herself, and for the men to come and pick them up. But the yacht showed no intention of righting herself. She continued to careen in the position of a cab going round Piccadilly CUrcus on one wheel. The sailors were all running around like ants on an ant-hill, and the captain was shouting orders, and even lending a hand with the ropes himself. I don't know the nautical terms, but they were taking down the middle sail — the mainsail, 127 n^ :^ }■•:'. h II- 'A I AS SEEN BY ME that's it. It did not look dangerous, because the sun kept shining, and I never thought of being frightened. I just clung to the mast, watching the other people right themselves, and laughing, when suddenly everything ceased to be funny. The decks of the Hela took on a wavy motion, and I blinked my eyes in order to see better, for everything was getting very indistinct, and there were green spots on the sun. Suddenly I realized that I was a long way from home, and that I was even a long way from my state-room. I only had just about sense enough left to remember that the mast w^as my very best friend and that I must cling there. After that, ± remembei* that somebody came up behind me and pried my hands loose from the mast. The doctor's voice said, '' Can you walk ?" I smiled feebly and said, " I used to know how.'' But evidently my efforts were not highly successful, for he picked me up, white serge, tar, green spots on the sun, and all, and carried me below, a limp and hu- miliated bit of humanity. Mrs. Jimmie and Commodore Strossi followed with more anxiety than the occasion warranted. Then Mrs. Jimmie sent the men awav, and I felt pillows under my head, and cam- phor under my nose, and hot- water bags 128 AS SEEN BY ME about me; and T must have gone to sleep or died, or something, for I don't remember anything more until the next day. They were very nice to me. for I was such a cheerful invalid. It seemed to surprise them that I could even pretend to be happy. T knew that it must be an uncommon gah» from the way Commodore Strossi studied the charts, and because even his w^ife, for w-:oni the yacht was named, was ill, and she had spent half her life on the sea. The poor little French cabin-boy was ill, too, and went around, with a Xile-green countenance, waiting on people, before he was obliged to retire from active service. The pitching of the yacht was something so terrible that it got to be hysterically fun- ny. It couldn't seem dangerous with the sun streaming down the companion-way and past my state-room windows. About five o'clock on the second day they began to tack, and then I heard shrieks of laughter and the crash of china, and groans from the saloon settee, where young Bashforth \vas lying ghastly ill. At the first lurch my trunk tipped over, and all the bottles on the wash-stand bound- ed across to the bed, and most of them struck me on the head. It frightened me so that I shrieked, and Jimmie came running down to see if I was killed I 129 AS SEEN BY ME As T raised my head T saw his horrified "aze fairly riveted to iiiv faee, and I felt soinethin*;' softly trieklin^' down. 1 touched it, and tlieii looked at my hand and discov- ered that it was wet and red. " Good heavens, vour face is all cut open," gas})ed Jinimie, i'l a voice that re- vealed his tiM'ror. ^Irs. .limmie was just hehind him, and \ saw her turn pale. In a Hash I saw myself disfigured for life, and prohahly having to be sewed up. The })ain in my face became excruciating, and I bi'gan to think yachting rather serious business. '' Ri-u for the doctor, Jimmie," said his wdfe. Jimmie obediently ran. '' Does it hurt very much, dear V she said, sitting on the edge of the bed. " x\wfullv," I murmured. The doctor came, followed by Francois^ with a basin of hot water and sponges, and a nasty-looking little case of instruments. Mrs. Jinmiie held my hand. Tliey turned on the electric lights and opened the windows. Jimmie had my salts. The doctor careful- ly wet a sponge and tenderly bathed my cheek, and I held my breath ready to shriek if he hurt me. Commodore Strossi stood at the door with an anxious face. Sudden- ly the doctor reached for a broken bottle half hidden under my pillow. 130 ii u AS SEEN BY ME ^' Oil, what is it, doctor V asked Mrs. Jiniinic?. '' Wliat makes yon hiok so qiu'cr C " This is iodine on her fac'e. Her bottle has emptied itself. That is all." Wo gazed at each other for a moment or two, then I nearly w^ent into hystericus. Jim- mie's face was a study. t You said it was hlood, flimmie," T said. Well, you said it hurt," he retorted. '' Well, it did. When vou said 1 was covered with hlood it hurt awfully." The doctor went out much chagrined that he had not been called U])on to sew up a wound. I had a relapse, brought on by young l^ashforth's jeering remarks as he frantically clung to the handles of the locker which formed the back of the settee where he lay prostrate. I was too utterly done \\\) to reply, for two days' violent seasickness rather takes the mental ginger out of one's make-u]). But Fate avenged me in this wise. The door of my state-room opened into the dining- room, and my bed faced the door. Opposite to me was the settee on which Bashforth was coiled, and back of him w^as the locker for the tinned mushrooms, sardines, lobster, shrimp, caviar, deviled ham, and all the things which well people can eat. This locker had brass handles let into the mahogany, and to these 131 Pfl 1' jv:^ I. i i t- ) • ; I' I , I.'?' ' lir AS SEEN BY ME handles the poor fellow clung when the yacht lurched. His cruel words of derision had hardly left his pale lips before they tacked again. He was not holding on, but he hastily snatched at the handles. He was too late, however, for he was tossed from the settee to the legs of the dining-room table (which, fortunately, were anchored) without touch- ing the floor at all. He described a perfect ])arabola. It was just the way I should have tossed him had I been Destiny. He gripped the table-legs like a vise, coiling himself around them like a poor navy-blue python with a o-reen face. He thous:ht the Avorst was over, but in his last clutch at the locker he had accidentally opened it, and at the next lurch of the yacht all the cans bounded out and battered his unprotected back like a shower of grape-shot. The yacht lurched again and the cans rolled back. She pitched forward, and again the mushrooms and dev- iled ham aimed for him. The noise brought everybody, and at first nobody tried to help him. They just couldn't see because of the tears in their eyes from laughing. As for me, I managed to crawl to the foot of the bed and cling to a post, so weak I couldn't wipe the tears away, but laying up an amount of enjoyment which will enrich my old age. 132 • -I i I AS SEEN BY ME Finally, Jimmie ^ot sorrv for him, and went and tried to pick him up. J^ut he was laughing so, he dropped him. " Oh, Jimmie," I pleaded. " Don't drop anybody who is seasick. Droj) well people if vou must. But put him on the settee care- fully." ^' I'll piit him there," said Jimmie, wiping his eyes on his coat-sleeve. '' But I don't say I'll do it the first time I try. I'll get him there by dinner-time: — I hope." It was dangerous to ridicule anybody in that gale, for the doctor in the com])an ion- way was leaning in at my window and laugh- ing in his big English voice, when the Ilcla lurched and pitched him half-way into my state-room. There he balanced with his hands on mv trunk. He was rather a tight fit, which interested ffimmie more than young Bashforth, so he left the boy and came around and pried the doctor back into the companion-way. The Hela was a fickle jade, for no sooner would she shake us up in such an alarming manner than she w^oiild seem to regret her violence, and w^ould skim like a bird for an hour or so, with no perceptible motion. She would not even flap her big white wings, but she cut through the water with a whir and a rush wdiich exhilarated me as flying must stir the heart of a sea-gull. 133 ft:: i>:' ' v:' \%^ AS SEEN BY ME ' i( i'< !» ll : , I. " » She behaved so well after five o'clock that they decided to try to eat dinner from the dinner-table — a thing they had not done since we started. There were only four of them able to appear — Mx. and Mrs. eJimmie, the doctor, and the Cominodore. They put the racks up and took every pre- caution. The only mistake they made was in using the yacht's lovely china, which bore the Strossi crest under the IlrJa's private flag. Jimmie and his wife sat opposite each other. I put three pillows under my head, the better to watch them, when suddenly the yacht tilted Mrs. Jimmie and her chair ov^er backward. Jimmie saw her ffoinc: and reached to save her. But he forgot to set down his soup-plate. The result was that she got Jimmie's soup in her face, and that he slid clear across the table on his hands and knees, taking china and table-cloth with him, and they all landed on top of poor Mrs. Jim- mie (who, even as I write, is in her state- room having her hair washed). Iler chief wail, when she could speak, was not that her head ached from the blow, or that she was half strangled with tepid soup, but that Jimmie had broken all the china. She could not be comforted until the Com- modore proved that some of the china had been broken previously, by showing her the fragments wrecked on the first day out. 134 |k that in the done )ur of tnniie, y pre- ^as in 'e the AS SEEN BY ME That last catastrophe has apparently settled things. Everybody has turned in to repair damages, and, perhaps, afterwards to sleep. The Commodore is studying the oliarts on the dining-room table, and the captain, an American, has just put his head in at the door and said: " She's sailinpj twelve knots an hour under just the fores'l, sir, and she's running like a scairt dog." * * * •X- -X- * -X- Americans are so accustomed to out- rageous distances that a journey of fifty hours is mere play. But I sincerely believe that no other trait of ours causes ihe Euro- pean to regard our nation with such sus- picion as our utter unconcern of long jour- neys. Nothing short of accession to a title or to escape being caught by the police would induce the Continental to travel over a few hours. So when I decided to go to Poland in order to be a member of a gorgeous house-party, I might as well have robbed a bank and given my friends some- thing to be sus])icious of. They never be- lieved that I would do such a fatiguing and unheard-of tiling until I reallv loft. But Poland has always beckoned me like a * friend — a friend which combined all the 135 ^^^ i t h i ii ti\ ' r'^f' i ♦. I It i:' I I I m\ ( i ii M V. » 4'; AS SEEN BY ME poetry, romance, fascination, nobility, and honor of a first love. If the Pole is ])roiul, he has something to be proud of. His honor has dignity. His country's sorrows touch the heart. Polish literature has sentiment, her music has fire, her men of genius stand out like heroes, her women are adorable. Balzac describes not only one but a not in- frequent type when he dedicates Modeste Mignon " To a Polish Lady '' in the most ex- quisite apostrophe which ever graced the entrance-hall to one of the noblest novels of this inimitable master. " Daughter of an enslaved land, angel through love, witch through fancy, child by faith, aged by experience, man in brain, woman in heart, giant by hope, mother through sorrow, poet in thy dreams, to Thee belongs this book, in which thy love, thy fancy, thy experience, thy sorrow, thy hope, thy dreams, are the warp through Avhich is shot a woof less brilliant than the poesy of thy soul, whose expression when it shines upon thy countenance is, to those who love thee, what the characters of a lost language are to scholars." Such a tribute as this would of itself be suflficient to turn the heart expectantly tow- ards Poland, to say nothing of the interest her history has for the brain. The history of Poland is one long struggle for home and 136 AS SEEN BY M E country. The Pole is a patriot l)y inhori- tanco. His patriotism goes deeper than hi.s love. His country conies first in his soul, and for that reason the Poles have in me an en- thusiastic ally, an ardent admirer, and a sym- pathetic friend. In speaking of the story of Poland with a cold-hlooded reader of history I expressed my appreciation of the nohle proportions of their struggles and my sympathy for their present unfortunate plight, to which she re- plied: '^ Yes, hut it is so entirely their own fault. They are so fiery, so precipitate, so romantic. They got themselves into it! 'J'heir poesy and romance and folly nuike them charming as individuals, hut ridiculous as a nation. 1 like the Poles, hut I have no patience with Poland." IIow exactly the world^s verdict on the artistic temperament ! There is a round hole, and, lo and heliold! all squares must be forced into it ! Suppose that everything resolved itself into the commonplace; where would be your imagination, your fancy, your rich experi- ence of the heart and soul ? Poland fur- nishes just this element in history. Her struggles are so romantic, her follies so charmingly natural to a high-strung nation, her despair so profound, her frequent revolu- tions so buoyant in hope, that she reminds 137 ^^i rn %' %. S; Mi ,t.JI AS SEEN BY ME me of a brilliant woman strivin^^ to make dull women undorstand \\vv, and failing as persistently and t'om])lf'tcIy as the artistic temperament always fails. A frog spat at a glowworm. " Why do you spit at me ^" said the glowworm. " Why do you shine sof' said the frog. Poland's singers have voices so j)iercingly sweet; her novelists have pens touched with such divine fire; her actors portray so much of the soul ; her patriots have always shown such reckless and inspiring hravery ; and now, in her desolation and subjection, there is still so much pride, such noble dignity under her losses, that of all the countries in the world Poland holds both the heart and mind by a fascination of which she herself is unconscious, marking a noble simplicity of soul which is in itself an added indication of her queenly inheritance. Julia Marlowe in her Countess Va- JesJia is a Pole to hor finger-tips. Her acting is superb. Cleopatra herself never felt nor inspired a diviner passion than Va- leska ; but when it came to a question of her love or her country she rose above self with an almost superhuman effort and saved her country at the expense of her love. ]N^o American who has not the same awful passion of patriotism ; no one w^ho is not a lover of his country above home or friends or 138 AS SEEN BY ME wife or childroii ; who docs not love his America second only to his God ; whose blood does not prickle in his veins at the sound of '^ The Star-Spangled Banner," and whose eyes do not till with tears at the si^ht of '' Old (flory " floating anywhere, can under- stand of what patriotism the Pole is capable. Xor can one who has not the foolish, ro- mantic, nervous, hi^h-strun^, artistic tem- perament understand from within Poland's national history. For that reason one is apt to find x'amous places in Kurope which have only an historical sifjnificance somewhat dis- appointing];. One fails to find in a battle fought fr" the sake of concjuest by an over- weening]; ambition such soul-stirring ])athos as in the leading of a forlorn \\n\)v from the spirit of patriotism, or of a woman's plead- ings where a man's arguments have failed. For that reason Austerlitz touches one not so nearly as the struggle around Mcmel. As we drew near ^lemel things began to look lonely and foreign and queer, and its pict- uresque features were enhanced by recollec- tion of Xapoleon and Queen r.ouise. Memel is near Tilsit, and the river Xie- men, or Memel, empties into the Baltic just below here. The conference on the raft ap- peals to me as one of the most thrilling and yet pitiably human events in all history. Its sickening anticlimax to poor Queen 139 « ■f n\ u ir ;( \ ft I Il 'I 0.<^ \ IX. AS SEEN BY ME Louise was so exactly in keeping with the smaller disappointments which assail her more humble sister women in every walk of life that it takes on the air of a heart tragedy. I tried to imagine the feelings of the Qucon when she journeyed to Memel to hold her famous interview with Kapoleon. How her pride must have suffered at the thought of lowering herself to plead for her husband and her country at Napoleon's hands ! How she hated him before she saw him ! How she more than hated him after she left him! How she must have scorned the beauty upon which Napoleon commented so idly when a nation's honor was at stake! A typical act of the emperor of the French nation ! Na- poleon proved by that one episode that he was more French than Corsican. In the Queen's illness at Memel she was so poorly housed that long lines of snow sifted in through the roof and fell across her bed. But that w^as as nothing to her mental dis- quiet while the fate of her beloved Prussia hung in the balance. There is a bridge across the Memel at the exact spot where the famous raft conference is said to have taken place. As we crossed this bridge it seemed so far removed from those stormy days of strife that it was diffi- cult to imagine the magnificent spectacle of the immense armies of Napoleon and Alex- 140 AS SEEN BY ME ander drawn up on either bank, while these two powerful monarchs were rowed out to the raft to decide the fate of Frederick William and his lovely queen. And although to them Prussia was the issue of the hour, how like the history of in- dividual lives was this conference! For Prus- sia's fate was almost ignored, while the con- versation originally intended to consume but a few moments lengthened into hours, and Xapoleon and xMexander, having sworn eter- nal friendship, proceeded to divide up Furope between them, and parted with mutual ex- pressions of esteem and admiration, having (|uite forgotten a trifle like the King and Qneen of Prussia and their rage of anxiety. But all these memories of Xapoleon and Prussia gave way before the vital fact that we were to visit a lovely Polish princess and see some of her charming home life. I had been duly informed by my friends of the various ceremonies which I would encoun- ter, and which, I must confess, rendered me rather timid. I only hoped my wits would not desert me at the crucial moment. For instance, if the archbishop were there I must give him my hand and then lean for- ward and kiss his sleeve just below the shoul- der. I only liope^' my chattering teeth would not meet in his robe. So when I saw the state carriage of the princess at the station 141 V I: : u^ AS SEEN BY ME 1^ 'i\ m n of Memel, drawn by four horses, and with numbers of servants in such queer liv^eri^s to attend to my luggage, I simply breathed a prayer that I would get through it all suc- cessfully ; and if not, that they would lay any lapses at the door of my own eccentricities, and not to the ignorance of Americans in general, for I never wish to disgrace my native land. The servants wore an odd flat cap, like a tam-o'-shanter with a visor. Their coats were of bright blue, with the coat-of-arms of the princess on the brass buttons. This coat reached nearly to their feet, and in the back it was gathered full and stiffened with can- vas, for all the world like a woman's pannier. I thought I should die the first time I got a side view of those men. It was late Friday afternoon v>dien we left the train, and we drove at a tremendous pace through lonely forests which we were only too happy to leave behind us. Suddenly we came upon the little village of Kretynga, whose streets were paved with cobblestones the size of a man's two fists. : To drive slowly over cobblestones is not a joy, but to drive four Eussian horses at a gallop over such cobblestones as those was something to make you bite your tongue and to break your teeth and to shake your very soul from its socket. . 142 M M AS SEEN BY ME The town is inhabited by Polish Jews, and a filthy, greasy, nauseating set they are, both men and women. The men wear two or three long, oily, tight curls in front of their ears. Their noses are hooked like a parrot's. Their countenances are sinister, and I be- lieve they have not washed since the Flood. The women, when they marry, shave their heads. Then they either wear huge wigs, which they use to wipe their hands on with- out the ceremony of washing them first, or else they wear a black or white or gray satin hood-piece Avith a line to imitate the parting of the hair embroidered on it. Xothing is clean about them. I no longer wonder that Jews are expelled from Russia. It makes one rather respect Russia as a clean country. As it was Friday night, one win- dow-sill in each house was filled with a row ^f lighted candles representing each mem- ber of the family who was either absent or dead. Being so far away from home myself, this appealed to me as such a touching custom that it made my eyes smart. Presently a clearing in the forest revealed the famous monastery of Kretynga — a mon- astery famous for being peopled with priests and monks whom the Tzar has exiled because they took too much interest in politics for his nerves. Then soon after passing this monas- 14y 1V: W 1 :^? wT Pi I wwrrr- AS SEEN BY ME \':\ ll ir Hi ;. 1 1 tery we entered the grounds of the castle. Still the longest part of the drive lay hefore lis, for this one of the manv estates of the Princess lies between the Memel and the Baltic Sea, and covers a large territory. But finally, after driving through an avenue of trees which are worth a dictionary of words all to themselves, we came to the castle, a huge structure, which seemed to spread out before us interminably, for it was too dark to see anything but its majestic out- lines. The Princess in her own home was even lovelier than she had been in Paris, and charitablv allowed us to have one night's rest before meeting the familv. About three o'clock in the morning I was awakened by a mournful chant, all in minor, which began beneath my windows and receded, growing fainter and fainter, until at last it died away. It was tlie hymn which the peasants always sing as they go forth to their work in the fields ; but its mournful cadence liaunted me. The next morning the largeness of the situation dawned Tipon me. The size of the rooms and their majestic furnishings were almost barbaric in their splendor. The tray upon which my breakfast was served was of mas- sive silver. The coffee-pot, sugar-bowl, and plates were of repousse silver, exquisitely 144 t .>. ^ - AS SEEN BY ME wrought, but so large that one could hardly lift them. In a great openwork basket of silver were any number of sweetened breads and small cakes and buns, all made by the baker in the castle, who all day long does nothing but bake bread and pastry. They do not serve hot milk with coffee, for which I blessed them from the bottom of my soul, but they have little brown ])orcelain jugs which they fill with cream so thick that you have to take it out with a spoon — it won't pour.^ — and these they heat in ovens, and so serve you hot cream for your coffee. I call the gods from Olympus to testify to the quality of the nectar this coiubination produces. Some of those little porcelain jugs are going on their travels soon. Meeting the various members of the Prin- cess's charming family and remembering their titles was not an ordeal at all — at least it was not after it was over. They were quite like other people, except that their manners were unusually good. There was to be a hunt that morning — an amusing, luxurious sort of hunt quite in my line ; one where I could go in a carriage and see the animals caught, but where I need not see them killed. They were to hunt a mischievous little burrowing animal something like our bad- K 145 ii ii?; U,j , I 1 11*1 l-^f^ >* I : f AS SEEN BY ME ger, which is as great a pest to Poland as the rabbits are to Australia. They destroy the crops by eating their roots, so every little while a hunt is or ^t|^! ,^i i i ! i, AS SEEN BY ME i I \: isn't a man from the President to a chimnev- sweep, from a major-general to the blackest nigger in the cotton fields, who wouldn't do ten times that much for any woman ! I shall never get over it. With the courage of despair I accosted every man and woman on the platform with the words, ^' Do you speak English C But not one of them did. Nor French either. So with heavy hearts we got on the train, feed the porter four marks for getting us into this dilemma (and incidentally carry- ing our hand-luggage), and when he had the impertinence to demand more I turned on him and assured him that if he dared to speak another word to us we would report him to His Excellency the American Am- bassador, who was on intimate terms with the Kaiser ; and that I would use my influ- ence to have him put in prison for life. He fled in dismay, although I know he did not understand one word. My manner, how- ever, was not affable. Then I cast myself into my berth in a despairing heap, and broke two of the wings in my hat. My companion was almost in tears. '^ Nevci mind," she said. " It was all my fault. But Ave may get our trunks, anyway. And if not, perhaps we can get along with- out them." ^' Impossible !" I said. " How can we 154 *M f AS SEEN BY ME spend a week as quests in a house without a change of clothes ?" In order not to let her know how worried I was, I told her that if we couldn't get our trunks off the train at Vilna we would give up our visit and telegra])h our excUvSes and regrets to our expectant hostess, or else come hack from St. Petershurg after we had got our precious trunks once more within our clutches. All the next dav we tried to find some one who spoke English or French, hut to no avail. We spent, therefore, a dreary day. By letting my companion manage the cus- toms officers in patomime we got through the frontier without having to unlock any- thing, although it is considered the most difficult one in Euro|ie. The trains in Russia fairlv crawl. In- stead of coal they use wood in their engines, which sends back thousands of sparks like the tail of a comet. It grew dark about two o'clock in the afternoon, and we found our- selves promenading through the bleakest of winter landscapes. Tiny cottages, emit- ting a bright red glow from infinitesimal windows, crouched in the snow, and silent fir-trees silhouetted themselves against the moorlit sky. It only needed the howl of wolves to make it the loneliest picture the mind could conceive. 155 I [ f ii li ;; y.i|! ,| :l AS SEEN BY ME When we were within an hour of Vilna I heard in the distance my companion's fa- miliar words, " Pardon me, sir, but do you speak English ?" And a deep voice, which I knew without seeing him came from a big man, replied in French, " For the fir time in my life I regret that I do not." At the sound of French I hurried to the door of our compartment, and there stood a tall Russian officer in his gray uniform and a huge fur-lined pelisse which came to his feet. When my companion wishes to be amusing she says that as soon as I found that the man spoke French I whirled her around by the arm and sent her spinning into the corner among the valises. But I don't remember even touching her. I only remembered that here was some one to whom I could talk, and in two minutes this handsome Russian had untangled my incoherent explanations, had taken our luggage receipt, and had as- sured us that he himself would not pause until he had seen our trunks taken from the train at Vilna. If I should live a thousand years I never shall forget nor cease to be grateful to that superb Russian. He was so very much like an American gentleman. We were met at the station by our Polish friends, our precious trunks were put into sledges, we were stowed into the most com- 156 IVilna I )n's fa- do you which T ^ a I)i^ time to tlic 'stood a nil and to his musing he man by the corner fiember ed that d talk, lussian ations, lad as- pause >m the >usand to be vas so n. ^olish ^ into com- I AS SEEN BY ME fortable of equipages, and in an hour we were installed in one of the most delightful homes it was ever my good fortune to enter. I never realized before what people can suffer at the hands of a conquering govern- ment, and were it not that the young Tzar of Russia has done away, either by public ukase or private advice, with the worst of the wrongs his father permitted to be put upon the Poles, I could not bear to listen to their recitals. Politics, as a rule, make little impression upon me. Guide-books are a bore, and his- tories are unattractive, they are so dry and accurate. My father's grief at my lack of essential knowledge is perennial and deep- seated. But, somehow, facts are the most elusive things I have to contend with. I can only seem to get a firm grasp on the imagi- nary. Of course, I know the historical facts in this case, but it does not sound personally pathetic to read that Russia, Prussia, and Austria divided Poland between them. But to be here in Russia, in what was once Poland, visiting the families of the Polish nobility; to see their beautiful home-life, their marvellous family affection, the respect they pay to their women ; to feel all the charm of their broad culture and noble sym- pathy for all that makes for the general good, and then to hear the storv of their op- 157 ■' H III I 1 ' 1 j 1 ( ^ i t ; 1 1 t mi§f<'^ ^^ AS SEEN BY ME ''* M 1^1;, pression, is to feel a personal ache in the heart for their national burdens. It does not sound as if a grievous hardship were being put upon a conquered people to read in histories or guide-books that Prussia is colonizing her part of Poland with Ger- mans — selling them land for almost nothing in order to infuse German blood, German language, German customs into a conquered land. It does not touch one's sympathies very much to know that Austria is the only one of the three to give Poland the most of her rights, and in a measure to restore her self-respect by allowing her representation in the Reichstag and by permitting Poles to hold office. But when you come to Russian Poland and know that in the province of Lithuania — which w^as a separate and distinct province until a prince of Litlniania fell in love with and married a queen of Poland, and the two countries Avere joined — Poles are not al- lowed to buy one foot of land in the countrv where they were born and bred, are not per- mitted to hold office even when elected, are prohibited from speaking their own language in public, are forbidden to sing their Polish hvmns, or to take children in from the streets and teach them in anything but Russian, and that every one is taught the Greek relig- ion, then this colonization becomes a burn- 158 AS SEEN BY ME ing question. Then you know liow to appre- ciate America, where we have full, free, and unqualified liberty. The vounti' Tzar has greatly endeared him- self to his Polish subjects bv several humane and generous acts. One was to remove the tax on all estates (over and above the ordi- nary taxes), which Poles were obliged to pay annually to the Russian government. Another was to release school-children froMi the necessity of attending the Greek church on all Russian feast-davs. These two were by public ukase, and as the Poles are passion- ately grateful for any act of kindness, one hears nothing but good words for the Tzar, and there is the utmost feeling of loyalty to him among them. I hear it constantly said that if he continue in this generous policy Russia need never apprehend another Polish revolution. And while by a revolution they could never hope to accomplish anything, there being now but fourteen million Poles to contend against these three powerful na- tions, still, as long as they have one about every thirty-five years, perhaps it is a wise precaution on the part of the young Tzar to begin with his kindness promptly, as it is about time for another one ! Another recent thing which the Poles at- tribute to the Tzar was the removal from the street corners, the shops, the railroad stations, 159 Ik ^i*f k'" AS SEEN BY ME and the clubs^ of the j)laearcls forbidding the Polish language to be spoken in public. Thus the Poles hope much from the young Tzar in the future, and believe that he would do more were he not held back by Russian public opinion. For example, the other day two Russians were overheard in the train to SLJ : " For thirty years we have tried to force our religion on the Poles, our language on the Poles, and our customs on the Poles, but now here comes ^ The Little Colonel ' (the young I'zar), and in a moment he sweeps away all the progress we had nuide." To call him " The Little Colonel " is a term of great endearment, and the name arose from the fact that by some strange oversight he was never made a General bv his fathei', but remained at the death of the late Tzar only a Colonel. When urged by his council- lors to make himself General, as became a Tzar of all the Russias, he said : " No. The power which should have made me a General is no more. Now that I am at the head of the government I surely could not be so con- ceited as to promote myself." The misery among the poor in Poland is almost beyond belief, yet all charities for them must be conducted secretly, for the gov- ernment stills forbids the establishment of kindergartens or free schools where Polish children would be taught in the Polish lan- 160 I i AS SEEN BY ME <2:uage. I have been (|\iestioned very closely about our charities in America, especially in Chicago, and I have given them all the work- ing plans of the college settlements, the kin- dergartens, and the sewing-schools. The Poles are a wonderfully sympathetic and warm-hearted people, and are anxious to ameliorate the bitter poverty which exists here to an enormous extent. They sigh in vain for the freedom with which we may pro- ceed, and regard Americans as seated in the very lap of a luxurious government because we are at liberty to give our money to any cause without being interfered with. One of the noblest young women T have ever met is a Polish countess, w^ealthy, beau- tiful, and fascinating, who has turned her back upon society and upon the brilliant mar- riage her family had hoped for her, and has taken a friend who was at the head of a Lon- don training-school for nurses to liv^e with her upon her estates, and these two have conse- crated their lives to the service of the poor. They will educate Polish nurses to use in private charity. With no garb, no creed, no blare of trumpet, they have made themselves into '' Little Sisters of the Poor." I could not fail to notice the difference in the young girls as soon as I crossed the Rus- sian frontier and came into the land of the Slav. Here at once I found individualitv. L 161 1 s,-j:s^»i«* AS SEEN BY ME \ 1] f\ i 'i' :l1 U'., Polish girls are more like American girls. If you ask a young English girl what she thinks of Victor Hugo she tells you that her mamma does not allow her to read French novels. If you ask a French girl how she likes to live in Paris she tells you that she never went down town alone in her life. But the Polish girls are different. They are individual. They all have a person- ality. When you have met one you never feel as if you had met all. In this respect they resemhle American girls, but only in this respect, for whereas there is a typc^ of Polish young girl — and a charming type she is — I never in my life sa\v what I considered a really typical American girl. You cannot typify the psychic charm of the young Ameri- can girl. It is altogether beyond you. These Polish girls who have titles are as simple and unaffected as possible. I had no difficulty in calling their mothers Countess and Princess, etc., but I tripped once or twice with the young girls, whereat they begged me in the sweetest way to call them by their first names without any prefix. They were charming. They taught us the Polish ma- zurka — a dance which has more go to it than any dance I ever saw. It requires the Au- ditorium ball-room to dance it in, and enough bi-eath to play the trombone in an orchestra. Tiie officers dance with their spurs on, which 162 E > AS SEEN BY ME jingle and click in an exciting manner, and to my surprise never seem to catch in the woj.n- en's gowns. The home life of the Poles is verv l)ea\i- tiful; and, in particular, the deference paid to the father and mother strikes mv Ameri- can sensibilities forcibly. I never tire of watching the entrance into the salon of thv' married sons of the (^ountess when each comes to pay his daily visit to his mother. They are all four tall, impressive, and al- most majestic, with a curious hawk-like qual- ity in their glance, which may be an inheri- tance from their warrior forefathers. Count Antoine comes in just before going home to dine, while we are all assembled and dressed for dinner. He flings the door open, and makes his military bow to the room, then making straight for his mother's chair, he kneels at her feet, kisses her hand and then her broAV, and sometimes again her hand. Then he passes the others, and kisses his sis- ter on the cheek, and after thus saluting all the members of his family, he turns to us, the guests, and speaks to us. The Poles are the most individual and in- teresting people I have yet encountered. The men in particular are fascinating, and a man who is truly fascinating in the highest sense of the word ; one w^hose character is worth study, and whose friendship would re- 163 I , r U AS SEEN BY ME 1 ( •> i pay cultivating as sincerely as many of the Poles T know, is a boon to thank God for. Before I came to Poland it always sur- prised me to realize that so many men and women of world-wide genius came from so small a nation. Hut now that T have had the opportunity of knowing them intimately and of studying their characteristics, both nationally and iiidividually, I see why. Poland is the home of genius by right. Her people, even if they never write or sing or act or play, have all the elements in their character which go to make up that complex commodity known as genius, whether it ever becomes articiilate or not. You feel that they could all do things if they tried. They are a sympathetic, inter- esting, interested, and, above all, a magnetic people. This forms the top soil for a na- tion which has put forth so much of wonder and sweetness to enrich the world, but the reason which lies deep down at the root of the matter for the soul wdiich thrills through all this melody of song and story is in the sorrowful and tragic history of this nation. The Poles are a race of burning patriots. To-day they are as keen over national suffer- ings and national wrongs as on that unfort- unate day when they went into a fiercely unwilling and resentful captivity. Their pride, their courage, their bitterness of 164 f tho sur- uiid III so had lately botii AS SEr:N BY ME spirit, thoir lon^in^ for rovon^o now no longer find an outlet on the battlefield. Yet it smoulders continually in their innermost being. You must crush the heart, you must subdue a peoj)le, you must be no stranger to anguish and loss if you would discover the singer and the song. And so Poland's fierce and unrelenting patriotism has placed the divine spark of a genius which tlirills a world in souls whose sweetest song is a cry wrung from a patriot's heart. m ;!! I 1 i 1 1 1 : . I h ii T i A % i lu.. VI ST. pf:tersburg J 'ol It behoovos ono to bo ^ood in Russia, for no matter how excellent your reputation at home, no matter how lonp; you have been a member in good and regular standing of the most orthodox church, no matter how in- nocent your heart may be of anarchy, nihil- ism, or murder, you travel, you rest, you eat, sleep, wake, or dream, tracked by the Rus- sian police. They snatch your passport the moment you arrive at a hotel, and register you, and if you change your hotel every day, every day your passport is taken, and you are re- quested to fill out a blank with your name, age, religion, nationality, and the name and hotel of the town where you were last. When w^e entered our Russian hotel — when we had entirely entered, I mean, for we passed through six or eight swinging doors with moujiks to open and shut each one, and bow and scrape at our feet — we found ourselves in a stiflingly hot corridor, 106 ! :iJ AS SEEN BY ME whero the odor was a com hi nation of smoke and people whoao furs noodod airing. It would be an (excellent idea if Americans who live in cold climates dressed as sensibly as Russians do. The.y keep their houses about as warm as we keep ours, but they wear thin clothing indoors and put on their enor- mous furs for the street. On entering any house, church, shop, or theatre, the chui)}i and overshoes are removed, and although they spend half their lives putting them on and taking them off, yet the other half is comfortable. The women seem to have no pride about the appearance of their feet, for now the doctors are ordering them to wear the com- mon gray felt boot of the peasants, with the top of it reaching to the knee. It is without doubt the most hideous and unshapely ob- ject the mind can conceive, being all made of one piece and without any regard to the shape of the foot. St. Petersburg can hardly be called a typ- ical Russian citv. It is too near otlier countries, but to us, before w^e had seen Mos- cow and Kiev, it was Russia itself. We ar- rived one bitterly cold day, and went first to the hotel to which we had been recommend- ed by our friends. I shall never forget the wave of longing for home and country which settled down 1(37 i i; . T»' t' H AS SEEN BY ME i"» H r^ t:0 'Mil 'M 1 I y n I i i H upon me as we saw our rooms in this hotel. It must have been built in Peter the Great's time. Xo electric lights ; not even lamps. Candles! Now, if there is one thing more than another which makes me frantic with homesickness, it is the use of candles. I would rather be in London on Sunday than to dress by the light of candles. Even an excellent luncheon did not raise my spirits. Our ^ooms were as dark and gloomy and silent as a mausoleum. Indeed, many a mausoleum I have seen has been much more cheerful. It was at the time of vear also when we had but three liours of daylight — from eleven until two. Our salon was furnished in a dreary drab, with a gigantic green stove in the corner which reached to the ceiling. Then we entered what looked like a long, narrow corridor, down which we blindly felt our w^ay, and at the extreme end of which were hung dark red plush curtains, as if before a shrine. We pulled aside these trappings of gloom, and ther^ were two iron cots, not over a foot and a half wide, about the shape and feeling of an ironing-board, covered with what ap- peared to be gray army blankets. I looked to see " IT. S." stamped on them. I have seen them in museums at home. I gazed at my companion in perfect dis- may. 168 AS SEEN BY ME a I shall not present a single letter of in- troduction," I wailed. " I'm going to Mos- cow to-morrow." Instead of going to Moscow in the morn- ing, we went out and decided to present just the one letter to our ambassador. He was at the Hotel d'Europe, and we went there. Behold! electric lights everywhere. Heaps of Americans. And the entire Legation there. My companion a?id 1 simply looked at each other, and our whole future grew brighter. We would not go to Moscow, but we would move at once. We would in- troduce electricity into our sond>re lives, and look forward with hope into the great unknown. We rushed around and presented all the rest of our letters, and went back to spend a wretched evening with eight candles and a smoky lamp. The next dav we called for our bill and prepared to move. To my disgust, I found an item of two ndiles for the use of that lamp. I had serious thouglits of opening up communication with the Standard Oil Com- pany by cable. But we were so delighted with our new accommodations in prospect that we left the hotel in a state of exhilara- tion that nothing could dampen. To our groat disappointment we found a number of Americans leaving St. Petersburg for Moscow because the Hermitage was 109 ■M ! : I AS SEEN BY ME li n u i :• \ r closed. Now, the Hermitage and the cere- mony of the Blessing of the Waters of the 'NevpL were what I most wished to see, but Ave were informed at the Legation thp.t we could have neither wish gratified. How- ever, my spirit was undaunted. Jt was only the American officials who had pronounced it impossible. My lucky star had gone with me so far, and had opened so many unaccus- tomed doors, that I did not despair. I said I would see what our letters of introduction brought forth. We did not have to wait long. N'o scouer had we presented our letters than people came to see us, and placed themselves at our disposal for days and even weeks at a time. Their kindness and hospitality were too charming for mere words to express. Although the Winter Palace was closed to visitors, preparatory to the arrival on the next day of the Tzar and Tzarina, it was opened for us through the influence of the daughter of the Commodore of the late Tzar's private yacht, ]\lademoiselle de Fa Ik, who took us through it. It was simply su- perb, and was, of course, in perfect readi- ness for the arrival of the imperial family, with all the gorgeous crimson velvet carpets spread, and the plants and flowers arranged in the Winter Garden. Then, through this same influential friend, 170 iH ' C AS SEEN BY ME the Hermitage — the second finest and the very richest museum in all Europe — was opened for us, and — well, I kept my head going through the show palaces in London, and Paris, and Berlin, and Dresden, and Potsdam, but I lost it completely in the Hermitage. Then and then^ I absolutely went crazy. A whole guide-book devoted simply to the Hermitage could give no sort of idea of the barbaric splendor of its belong- ings. Its riches are beyond belief. Even the presents given by the Emir of Bokhara to the Tzar are splendid enough to dazzle one like a realization of the Arabian Nights. But to see the most valuable of all, which are kept in the Emperor's private vaults, is to be reduced to a state of bewilderment bor- dering on idiocy. It is astonishing enough, to one who has bought even one Russian belt set with tur- quoise enamel, to think of all the trappings of a horse — bit, bridle, saddlo-girth, saddle- cloth, and all, made of cloth of gold and set in solid turquoise enamel ; witli the sword hilt, scabbard, belts, pistol handle and holster made of the same. Well, these are there by the dozen. Then you come to the private jewels, and you see all these same accoutrements made of precious stones — one of solid diamonds; another of diamonds, emeralds, topazes, and rubies. And the size 171 Iff I 1, » ■! |t> :I ? *"!' 'i 11 i'l C < '1 I f i i. S-ftSta-i A?yi!8!(.6^litWr-^-,' iir y W ' ■ 1 I m^ t if'' n ^i{ . 1? sk . 1 Jw ll m // ll ffi i"K ■»';. ! AS SEEN BY ME of these stones! AVhy, you never would believe me if I should tell you how large they are. Many of them are uncut and badly set, from an English stand-point. But in quan- tity and size — well, I was glad to get back to my three-ruble -a-day room and to look at my one trunk', and to realize that my own humble life would go on ju«t the same, and my letter of credit would not last any longer for all the splendors which exist for the Tzar of iill the Kussias. The churches in St. Petersburg are so magnificent that they, too, go to your head. We did nothing but go to mass on Christmas Eve and (^hristmas Day, for although we spent our Christmas in Berlin, we arrived in St. Petersburg in time for the Russian Christmas, which comes twelve days later than ours. St. Isaac's, the Kazan, and Sts. Peter and Paul dazed me. The icons or images of the Virgin are set with diamonds and emeralds worth a king's ransom. They are only under glass, which is kept murky from the kisses which the people press upon the hands and feet. The interiors of the cathedrals, with their hundreds of silver couronnes, and battle- flags, and trophies of conquests, look like great bazaars. Every column is covered clear to the dome. The tombs of the Tzars are always surrounded by people, and 172 I ■', ,■ would ge they dly set, qiian- Pt hack look at y own ie, and lonsfer or tJio are so ' head, istmas ah we rrived iissian later d Sts. >ns or nonds They nirkv upon their attle- like -^ered Czars and AS SEEN BY ME candles burn the year round. Upon the tomb of Alexander II., under glass, is the exipiisite laurel wreath placed there bv President Faure. It is of gold, and was made hy Falize, one of the most famous carvers of gold in Europe. The famous mass held on (^hristmas Kve in the cathedral of St. Isaac was one of the most beautiful services I ever attended. In the first place, St. Isaac's is the richest church in all Russia. It has, too, the most wonderful choir, for the Tzar loves music, and wherever in all his Empire a beautiful voice is found, the boy is brought to St. Petersburg and educated by the State to enter the Em|)eror's choir. When we entered the church the service had been in progres«> for five hours. That immense church was packed to sufiocation. In the Greek church every one stands, no matter how long the service. In fact, you cannot sit down unless you sit on the floor, for there are no seats. By degrees we worked our way towards the space reserved for the Diplomatic Corps, where we Avere invited to enter. Our wraps were taken and chairs were given to us. We found ourselves on the platform with the priest, just back of the choir. What heaven- ly voices ! What wonderful voices ! The bass holds on to the last note, and the rumble and echo of it rolls through those 173 » ( if I f Bi ii ft- M;*^u»fc/,£5p:wc!i- lBfc'i« i 1 » f i AS SEEN B^ ME vaulted doinos ]iko the tones of an ore^an. The long-haired j)riest, too, had a wonderful resonant voice for intoning. ]I(^ passed di- rectly hy ns in his gorgeous cloth of gohl vestments, as he went out. The instant he had finished, the litth' choir boys began to pinch each other and thrust their tapers in each other's faces, and behaved quite like ordinary boys. The great crowd scattered and huge hulders were brought in to put out the hundreds of candles in the enormous chandeliers. Religion was over, and the world began again. Th(^ other art which is maintained at the. government expense is the ballet. We went several times, and it was very gorgeous. It is all pantomime — not a word is spoken — but so well done that one does not tire of it. Every one sympathized so with us be- cause we could not see the ceremony of the Blessing of the Waters of the Neva, and our ambassador apologized for not being able to arrange it, and we said, '' Not at all," and " Pray, do not mention it," at the same time secretly hoping that our Russian friends, who were putting forth strenuous efforts on our belialf, would be able to manage it. On the morning of the 18th of Janu- ary a note came from a Russian officer who was on dutv at the Winter Palace, sav- ing that Baron Eisner, the Secretary of the 174 T (Icrfiil V(l (11- f gold AS SEEN BY ME Prefect of Police, would cjill for us with his carriage at teu o'clock, and we would he conducted to the ])rivate space reserved just ill front of the Winter Palace, where the hest view of everything could he ohtained. iVIy companion and I fell into each other's arms in wild delight, for it had heen most ditiicult to manage, and we had not heen sure until that very moment. Xow, the person of the Tzar is so sacred that it is forhidden hy law even to represent liini on the stage, and as to ])hotogra piling him — a Russian faints at the mere thought. Nevertheless, we wished very much to photo- graph this pageant, so we determined, if possihle, to take our camera. Everytiiing else Jthat we wanted had heen done for us ever since we started, and our faith was strong that we would get this. At first the stout heart of l>aron Klsner cpiailed at our suggestion. Then he said to take the camera with us, which we did with joy. His card parted the crowd right and left, and our carriage drove tlirougli long lines of soldiers, and hetween throngs of people held in check hy mounted police, and hy rows of infantry, who locked arms and made of themselves a living wall, against which the crowd surged. To our delight we found our places were not twenty feet from the entrance to the Winter Palace. We noticed Baron Eisner 175 w ■ i'iSiiiilliMk'<.'iy- cvi AS SEEN BY ME r speaking to several officials, and wo hoard the word '' American ski," which had so often opened hearts and doors to us, for Kussia honestly likes America, and presently the Baron said, in a low tone, " When the Em- peror passes out you may step down here; these soldiers will surround vou, and vou may photograph him." I could scarcely helieve niv ears. I was so excited that I nearly dropped the camera. The procession moves only about one hun- dred feet — a crimson carpet being laid from the entrance of the Winter Palace, across the street, and up into a pavilion which is built out over the Xeva. First came the metropolitans and the priests ; then the Emperor's celebrated choir of about fifty voices; then a detachment of picked officers bearing the most important battle-flags from the time of Peter the Great, which showed the marks of sharp conflict; then the Emperor's suite, and then — the Emperor himself. They all marched with bared heads, even the soldiers. My companion had the opera-glasses, I had the camera. " Tell me when," 1 gasped. They passed before me in a sort of haze. I heard the band in the Winter Palace and tlie singing of the choir. I heard the splash of the cross which the Archbishop plunged into the opening that had been cut in the ice, I 176 AS SEEN BY ME heard the priests intone, and the booming of the guns firing the iin])erial sahite. 1 saw tliat the wind was blowing the candh's out. Then came a breathless pause, and then she said, " N^ow !" A little click. It was done ; I had photographed Nicholas II., the Tzar of all the Russias ! \ •! VII RUSSIA ^ i^ 'l Yesterday wo liad unv first Russian ex- perience in the sliaj)e of a troika ride. Rus- sians, as a rule, do not troika except at night. In fact, from my experience, they reverse the estahlished order of things and turn night into day. A troika is a superb affair. It makes the tiny sledges which take tlie place of cabs, and are used for all ordinary purposes, look even more like toys than usual. But the sledges are great Am, and so cheap that it is an ex- travagance to walk. A course costs only twenty kopecks — ten cents. The sledges are set so low that you can reach out and touch the snow with your hand, and tliev are so small that tlie horse is in your lap and the coachman in your pocket. He simply turns in his seat to hook the fur robe to the back of your seat — only it has no back. If you fall, you fall clear to the ground. The horse is far, far above you in your humble position, and there is so little room 178 f AS SEEN BY ME that two people can with (litfieiilty stow them- selves ill the narrow seat, if a luother and sister or a hnshand and wife drive toi^ether, the man, in sheer self-defence, is (jl)liged to put his arm around the woman, no matter how distasteful it nniy he. Xot that she would ever be conscious of whether he did it or not, for the amount of clothes one is obliged to wear in Russia destroys any sense of touch. The idvosjik, or coachman, is so bulky from this same reason that you cannot see over him. You are obliged to crane your neck to one side. His head is covered with a Tartar cap. He wears his hair down to his collar, and then chopped otf in a straight line. His pelisse is of a bluish gray, tits tightly to the waist, and comes to the feet. But the skirt of it is gathered on back and front, giving him an irresistibly comical pan- nier effect, like a Dolly A'arden polonaise. The Russian idvosjik guides his horse curi- ously. He coaxes it forward by calling it all sorts of pet names — " doushka," darling, etc. Then he beats it with a toy whip, which must feel like a fly on its woolly coat, for all the little fat pony does is to kick up ils heels and fly along like the wind, missing the other sledges by a hair's-breadth. It is ghostly to see the way they glide along without a sound, for the sledges wear no bells. 179 ; ■?\ I ) ; , : ; ,,> ■ t. ,-.^ r^% V>^^.'k IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-S) 1.0 I.I 1.25 ^ ilM •» IIIIM IlM |Z2 1.8 U IIIIII.6 V] <% A .^. 0>^ Photographic Sciences Corporation >\ «^ ^9) V 4^ \ ^< ii I til AS SEEN BY ME marks to tell you whether to make a letter hard or soft. Even proper names take on cirious oddi- ties of spelling, and a husbttnd and wife or two brothers will spell their name differently when using the Latir letters. If you com- plain about it, and ask which is correct, they make that famous Kussian reply Avhich Bis- marck once had engraved in his ring, and which he believed brought him such good luck, " Neechy voe," " It is nothing," or " Never mind." You can spell with your eyes shut in Russian, and you simply cannot make a mistake, for the Russians spell with all the abandonment of French dancing. This zakouska is so delicious and so varied and so tempting that one not accustomed to it eats too much without realizing. At a din- ner an American looked at my loaded plate and said, with delicious impertinence, ^' Con- ' fidentially, I don't mind telling you that din- ner is coming/' As we came back, the full delight of troika- riding came over us, for driving in the coun- try we could not tell how fast wg w^ere going. But in town, w^hizzing past other carriages, hearing the shouts of the idvosjik, ^' Troika !" and seeing the people scatter and the sledges turn out (for a troika has the right of way), we realized at what a pace we were going. We dashed across the frozen Neva, with its 182 letter ddi- e or ntly om- they Bis- and ?ood ' or rour mot ^vith AS SEEN BY ME tramway built right on the ice ; past the Win- ter Palace, along the qnai, where all the em- bassies are, into the Grand Morskaia, and from there into the Nevski, with the snow flying and our bells ringing, and the middle horse trotting and the outer horses galloping^ sending clouds of steam from their heaving flanks and palpitating nostrils, and the bitin air making our blood tingle, and the reiter ated shout of the idvosjik, " Troika! troika!'^ taking our breath away. We had one more excitement before we reached he Tie, w^hich was seeing a Russian fire-engine. We passed it in a run. The en- gine was on one sledge, and following it were ^ve other sledges carrying hogsheads of Avater. I am glad we came to Russia in winter, for by so doing we have met the Russian people, the most fascinating that any coun- try can boast, with the charm of the French, the courage of the English, the sentiment of the Germans, the sincerity and hospitality of the Americans. Their courtesy to each other is a never-ending pleasure to me. Poles and Russians treat their women more nearly the way our American men treat us than any nation we have encountered so far. They are the most marvellous linguists in the world. We have met no one in Russia who speaks fewer than three languages, and 183 i Ml !. I, ^^ \Vi \f 9 i il AS SEEN BY ME we have met several who speak twelve. They are not arrogant even concerning their mili- tary strength. They are quite modest about their learning and their not inconsiderable literary and artistic achievements, and they hold themselves, both nationally and indi- vidually, in the plastic state where they are willing to learn from any nation or any master who can teach what they wish to know. There is a marvellous future for Russia, f o • their riches and resources are as vast and nestimable as their possessions. They then selves do not realize how mighty they are. Here is France grovelling at their feet, spending millions of francs to entertain the Tzar — France, a nation which must see a prospect of double her money returned be- fore she parts with a sou ; with the cathedrals filled with couronnes sent by the French press ; with no compliment to Russia too fulsome for French gallantry to invent find- ing space in the foremost French news- papers ; hoping, praying, beseeching the help of Russia, when Germany makes up her mind to gobble France, yet dealing Russian- achievement a backhanded slap by hinting what a compliment it is for a cultivated, accomplished, over-cultured race like the French to beg the assistance of a barbarous country like Russia. 184 'hey Imili- [bout 'able [they mdi- are any to for AS SEEN BY ME I believe that Russia is the onlv country in the world which feels nationally friendly and individually interested in America. I used to think France was, and I held La- fayette firmly and proudly in my memory to prove it. But I was promptly undeceived as to their individual interest, and when I still clung to Lafayette as a proof of the former I was laughed to scorn and told that France as a nation had nothing to do with that; that Lafayette went to America as a soldier of fortune. He would just as soon have gone to Madagascar or Timbuctoo, but America was accommodating enough to have a war on just in time to serve his ambition. If that is true, I wish they had not told me. I would like to come home with a few ideals left — if they will permit me. When I was in Berlin I asked our am- bassador, Mr. White, what Germany thought of America. He replied, " Just what Thack- eray thought of Tupper. When some one asked Thackeray what he thought of Tupper, he replied, ^ I don't think of him at all.' " But in Russia I have a sore throat all the time from answering questions about Amer- ica. T think I am not exaggerating when I say I have answered a million in a single evening. My companion at first was dis- gusted with my wearing myself out in such a manner, but I said, " I am so grateful to 185 f -i 1 li :i V, I' I i < Ui ■f'f » ■ ■ -. y- (li i 1 M II AS SEEN BY ME * m them for caring, after the indifference of all these other self-sufficient countries, that I am willing to sacrifice myself at it if neces- sary." We never realized how little we knew about America until we discovered the Rus- sian capacity for asking unexpected ques- tions. I bought an American history in Russia, and sat up nights trying to remem- ber what my father had tried to instil into my sieve-like brain. After a week of wit- nessing my feverish enthusiasm, even my companion's dormant national pride was roused. She, too, was ashamed to say, " I don't know," when they asked us these ter- rible questions. When we get into the clutches of a party of women we trust to luck that they cannot remember our statis- tics long enough to tell their husbands rnd brothers (I have a horror of men's accuracy in figures), and we calmly guess at the an- swers when our exact knowledge gives out. One night they attacked my companion on the school question. Xow, she does not know one solitary thing about the public-school system, but, to my utter amazement, I heard her giving the number of children between the ages of eight and ten who were in the public schools in the State of Illinois, and then running them off by counties. I was afraid she would soon begin to call the roll 186 AS SEEN BY ME of all Ihat I neces- of their names from memory, so I rescued her and took her home. I suppose we must have an air of intelligence which success- fully masks our colossal ignorance of occult facts and defunct dates, hecause they rely on us to inform them oflF-hand concerning every- thing social, political, historical, sacred and profane, spirituous and spiritual, from the protoplasm of the cliff-dwellers to the de- tails of the Dingley bill, not skipping accu- rate information on the process of whiskey- making in Kentiicky, a crocodile-hunt in Florida, suffrage in Wyoming, a lynching- bee in Texas, polygamy in Utah, prune-dry- ing in California, divorces in Dakota, gold- mining in Colorado, cotton-spinning in Georgia, tobacco-raising in Alabama, marble- quarrying in Tennessee, the number of Quakers in Philadelphia, one's sensations while being scalped by Sioux, how marriages are arranged, what a man says when he pro- poses, the details of a camp-meeting, a de- scription of a negro baptism, and the main arguments on the silver question. They get some curious ideas in their heads concerning us, but they are so amazingly well informed about America that their specific misinformation never irritated me. The small use they have for their English sometimes accounts for the queer things they say. 187 ^* 1 . n \ I ;i I Hi Ml* ^ i% iff i! I f ' ^')lai ': ;J . AS SEEN BY ME The official costumo for men who have no particular uniform is regulation evening dress, which they are obliged to wear all day. They become so tired of it that this is the reason, they tell me, why so many men, even in smart society, go to the opera or even dinners in frock-coats. One one occasion a most intelligent man said to me, " I am told that in America the ladies always wear de- collete costumes at dinners, and the men arc always in night-dress.'' For one hysterical moment my mind's eye pictured a dinner-table on Prairie Avenue with alternately a low-necked gown and a pair of pajamas, and I choked. Then I happened to think that he meant " evening dress," and I recovered sufficiently to ex- plain. The Tzarina has made English the Court language, and since her coronation no state balls take place on Sunday. Russian hospitality is delightful. We could remain a vear in Russia and not ex- haust our invitations to visit at their coun- try-houses. Russia must be beautiful in summer, but if you wish to go into society, to know the best of the people, to see their sweet home life, and to understand how they live and enjoy themselves, you must go in the winter. I cannot think what any one would find of national life in summer in Russia, 188 lave no venin^ ar all this is y men, )r even sion a 11 told ar de- en arc I's eye A'enue and a len I enin^ ex- Court state We )t ex- coiin- il in uety, their thej 1 the ould ssia. AS SEEN BY ME for everybody has a country-house and every- body goes to it and leaves the city to tourists. Russia, in spite of her vast riches, has not arrived at supercivilization, where there is corruption in the very atmosphere. She is an undeveloped and a young country, and while the Tzar is wise and kind and bene- ficent, and an excellent Tzar as Tzars go, still Russians, even the best and most enlightened of them, are slaves. I have met a number of the gentlest and cleverest men who had been exiled to Siberia, and pardoned. Their pict- ure-galleries bear witness to this underlying sadness of knowing that in spite of every- thing they are wot free. iSW their actions are watched, their every word listened to, spies are everywhere, the police are omnipresent, and over all their gayety and vivacity and mirth and spontaneity there is the constant fear of the awful hand in whose complete power they are. His clemency, his father- hood to his people, his tremendous responsi- bility for their welfare are all appreciated, but the thought is in every mind, '' When will this kindness fail ? Upon whose head will the lightning descend next ?'' Title and gentle birth and the long and faithful service of one's ancestors to the Tzars are of small avail if the evidence should go against one in Russia. I have heard princes say less than I have said here, 189 II li i AS SEEN BY ME but say it in whispers and with furtive looks at the nearest man or woman. T have seen their starts of surprise at the frank impu- dence of our daring to criticise our admin- istration in their midst, and I felt as if T were in danger of being bombarded from the back. In Russia you may spell as you please, but you must have a care how you criticise the government. T.i America you may criticise the government as you will, but you must have a care how you spell. n VIII MOSCOW I THOUGHT St. Petersburg interesting, but it is modern compared to Moscow. Everything is so strange and curious here. The churches, the chimes, the palace, the coronation chapel, and the street scenes are enough to drive one mad with interest. Moscow is said to have sixteen hundred churches, and I really think we did not skip one. They are almost as magnificent as those in St. Petersburg, and they impressed — over- powered us, in fact, with the same unspeak- able riches of the Greek Church. The name of our hotel was so curious that I cannot forbear repeating it, " The Slavan- sky Bazaar," and they call their smartest res- taurant " The Hermitage." i fplt as if I could be sold at auction in " The Bazaar," and as if I ought to fast and pray in " The Hermitage." " The Slavansky Bazaar" was one of the dirtiest hotels it ever was mv lot to see. The Kussians of the middle class — to sav noth- 191 IV I > i V |1 I y> ' t. : I i\ f '^ ^*1 AS SEEN BY ME m\ ing of the peasants, who are simply unspeak- able — are not a clean set, so one cannot blame a hotel for not living above the demands of its clientele. There were some antique speci- mens of cobwebs in our rooms, which made restful corner ornaments v/ith digni^ed fes- toons, which swung slowly to and fro with such fascinating solemnity that I could not leave off looking at them. The hotel is built up hill and down dale, and each corridor smells more musty than the other. It has a curious arrangement for supplying water in the rooms which I never can recall with anv degree of pleasure. One evening after I had dressed I went to the wash-stand and discov- ered that there was no water. I was madly ringing for the chambermaid when my com- panion called from her room, and said, ^' Put your foot on that brass thing. There is plenty of Avater.'' I looked down, and near the floor was a brass pedal, like that of a piano. Sure enough, there was a reservoir above and a faucet with the head of a dragon on it peer- ing up into my face, wliich I never had no- ticed before. Now, the pedal of my piano w^orks hard, so I bent all my strength to this one, and lo! from that impudent dragon's mouth I got a mighty stream •f water straight in my unconscious face, and enough to put out a fire. I fell back with a shriek 192 *!' AS SEEN BY ME of astonishment and indignation, and my companion langhed — nay, she roared. She langhs until she cries even now every time she thinks of it, although I had to change my gown. How was I going to know that I was leaning over a waterspout, I should like to know ! In this same hotel when I askecl for a blot- ter they brought me a box of sand. I tried to use it, but my hand was not very steady, and none of it went on the letter. Some got in my shoe, however. But our environments were more than com- pensated for b\ the exceeding kindness tliat we received from the most delightful people that it ever was my good fortune to meet, and their attentions to us were so charming that vv'e shall remember them as long as we live. Americans, even though we are as hospi- table as any nation on earth, might well take a lesson from the Russians in regard to tho respect they pay to a letter of introduction. The English send word when you can be re- ceived, and you pay each other frosty formal calls, and then are asked to live-o^clock tea or some other wildly exciting function of simi- lar importance. The French are great sticklers for etiquette, but they are more spontaneous, and you are asked to dine at once. After that it is your own fault if you are not asked again. But in Russia it N 193 '\ ■ U " -i; ■ :■ t t : m \ AS SEEN BY ME i\ yr,u is different. I think that the men must have accompanied my messenger home, and the .vomen to whom I presented letters early in the afternoon were actually waiting for me when I returned from presenting the last ones. In Moscow they came and waited hours for my return. I was mortified that there were not four of me to respond to all the beauties of their friendship, for hospi- tality in Russia includes even that. They placed themselves, their carriages, their servants, at our disposal for whatever we had to do — sight-seeing, shopping, or idling. Mademoiselle Yermoloff, lady-in- waiting to the two empresses, simply, took us upon her hands to show us Russian society life. She came with her sledge in the morn- ing, and kept us with her all day long, tak- ing us to see the most interesting people and places in Moscow. She showed us the coro- nation-robes, the embroideries upon which were from, her own beautiful designs. The Empress presented her with an emerald and diamond brooch in recognition of this im- portant service, for undoubtedly the corona- tion-robe of the present Tzarina is much handsomer and in better taste than any of the others. The designs are so artistically sketched that they all have a special sig- nificance. Here we visited the charming Princess 194 I ^'J^^ AS SEEN BY ME Golitzine, a most beautiful and accomplished woman. Her house, we were told, l)e Les- seps, the father of the Suez I)e Lesse])s, used as his headipiarterb during the French occu- pation of Moscow. Mademoiselle Yermolcif's sledge was a very beautiful one, but it was quite as low- set as all the others, and her footman stood behind. As there was no back to the seat of her sledge, and her horses were rather fiery and vmnuinageable, every time they halted without warning this solemn flunky pitched forward into our backs, a performance which would have upset the dignity of an English footman, but which did not seem to disturb him in the least. Mademoiselle Yermoloff took us to see Madame C^iabelskoi, whose contributions to the WorhFs Fafr were of so much value. I never saw a private collection of anything so rich, so varied, and of such historical value as her collection of all the provincial costumes of the peasants of Finland and Big and Little Riissia. In addition to these she has the fete-dav toilets as well. The Kokosh- niks are all embroidered in seed-pearls and gold ornaments, and if she were not a fabu- lously rich woman she could never have got all these, for each one is authentic and has actually been worn. They are not copies. But Moscow seems to take a peculiar 195 / ft.'; ! ' ■'.4 I ■ r. . I i ! : i> i I !! \: ■A '•V'\ I AS SEEN BY ME ; 1 1 liri national pride in preserving the historical monnnients of her conntry. Thore is a niu- seuni there, with a complete set of all these costumes on wax figures, and they range all the way from the grotesque lO the lovely. Madame (^habelskoi is now doing a very pretty as well as a valuable and historical work. She has two accomplished daughters, and these young girls spend all their time in selecting peasant women with typical feat- ures, dressing them in these costumes, pho- tographing them, and then coloring these photographs in water-colors. They are mak- ing ten copies of each, to make ten magnif- icent albums, which are to be presented to the ten greatest museums in the world. The Hermitage in St. Petersburg is to have one, the British Museum another, and so on. Only one was to go to America, and to my metropolitan dismay I found that it was not to go to Chicago. I shall not say where it was intended to go; I shall only say that with characteristic modesty I asked, in my most timid voice, why she did not present it to a museum in the citv which she had al- ready benefited so royally with her generos- ity, and which alreadv held her name in af- fectionate veneration. It seemed to strike her for the first time that Chicago was the proper city in which to place that album, so she promised it to us! I thanked her 196 M AS SEEN BY ME u with sincere gratitude, and retired from the field with a modest flush of victory on my hrow. I cannot for))ear a wicked chuckle, however, when I think of that other museum ! We dined many times at '^ The Hermit- age," which is one of the smartest restau- rants in Europe. The costumes of th'j wait- ers were too extraordinary not to deserve a passing mention. They consisted of a white cotton garment helted at the waist, with no collar, and a pair of flapping white trousers. They are always scrupulously clean — which is a wonder for Russian peasants — for they are made to change their clothes twice a day. They have a magnificent orchestrion instead of an orchestra here, and I could scarcelv eat those beautiful dinners for listening to the music. We became so well acquainted with the repertoire that our friends, knowing our taste, ordered the music to match the courses. So instead of sherry with the soup, they or- dered the intermezzo from ^' Cavalleria Ilusticana." With the fish we had the over- ture to ^' William Tell." With the entrecote we had a pot-pourri from '^ Faust." With the fovvl we had " Demon and Tamar," the Riissian opera. With the rest we began on Wagner and worked up to that thrilling '^ Tannhauser " overture, until I was ready to go home a nervous wreck from German music, rs I always am. 197 " u, s I; Mr AS SEEN BY ME h i'!!5 V. A very interesting incident occurred while we were in Moscow. The Tzar decorated a non-commissioned officer for an act of bra- very which well deserved it. He was in charge of the powder-magazines just outside of Moscow, and from the view I had of them I should say that the gunpowder is stored in pits in the ground. Something caught fire right on top of one of these pits, and this young officer saw it. He had no time to send for water, and if he delayed, at any moment the whole magazine might explode; one pit would communicate with another, and perhaps the whole city would be endangered; so without a second's hesitation he and his men sprang into the fire and literally trod it out with their feet, run- ning the risk of an explosion by concussion, as well as by a spark of fire. It was a superb act of courage, and the Tzar decorated this young sergeant with the order of Vladimir — one of the rarest decorations in all Russia. I am told that not over six living men pos- sess it to - day. It was a beautiful thing for the Tzar thus to recognize this heroic deed. When we left Moscow we were having our first real taste of Russian winter, for, strange to say, although so much farther south, the climate is much more severe than that of St. Petersburg. 198 AS SEEN BY ME My companion complained bitterly that we were not seeing anything of Russia be- cause we came down from St. Petersburg at night, so we abandoned the courier train, and took the slow day-train for Kiev, the old capital of Russia, that she might see more of the country. But now I com'3 to my reward and her chagrin. Between Moscow and Kiev we were snowed in for sixteen hours. It was between stations, the food gave out — I mean it gave out because we did not have any to start with — the train became bitterly cold, and we came near freezing and starving to death. That made our Russian experiences quite complete. We had foolishly started without even fruit, and there was nothing to be had on board the train except the tea which the conductors make in a samovar and serve to you at the slightest provocation. But even the tea was exhausted at last, and then the fire gave out, because all the wood had been used up. There we were, penned up, wrapped in our seal-skins and steamer-rugs and with nubias over our heads, so cold that our teeth chattered, and so hungry we could have eaten anything. The conductor came and spoke to us several times, but whether he was in- viting us to lunch or quoting Scripture we could never tell. There was no one on the 199 a- •si,! li ^) I .1, i ■[ ;i W. I AS SEEN BY ME train who spoke English or French, and no- body else in our car to speak anything at all — owing to our having come on this par- ticular train, in order for my companion to " see Russia." I am delighted to record the fact that not only the outside but the inside windows were frosted so thicklv that they had to light the sickly tallow candle in a tin box over the door of the compart- ment, so she never got a peep at Ilussia or anything else the whole way. We consoled each other and kept up our spirits as best we could all day, but we ar- rived at Kiev so exhausted with cold and hunger that although we were received at the train by one of the most charming men I ever met, we both cried with relief at the sight of a friendly face and some one to v/hom we could speak and tell our woes. I have since wondered what he thought to be met by two forlorn women in tears! What- ever he thought, like all the Russians, he was courtesy itself, and we were soon whisked away i6 the inexpressible comfort of being thawed and fed. Such a beautiful city as this is! White- law Reid has declared Kiev to be one of the four picturesque cities in Europe; certainly it lies in a heavenly place, all up and down hills, with such vistas down the streets to where a mosque raises its gilded dome, or 200 aiHlIe ripart- ia or the AS SEEN BY ME where an historic broiizo statue stands out against the horizon. If Kiev had been planned by the French, it couhl not be more utterly beautiful. The domes of the cathe- drals are blue, studded with gold stars; or else pale green or all gold, and the most ex- quisite churches in all Russia are in Kiev. A terrible monastery, where you take candles and go down into the bowels of the earth to see where monks martyred themselves, is here; and poor simple-minded pilgrims walk many hundred miles to kiss these tond)s. Their devotion is pathetic. We had to walk in a procession of them, and I know that each of them had his own particular disease and his own special brand of dirt. The beggars surrounding the gate of this monas- tery are too awful to mention, yet it is re- puted to be the richest monastery in all Rus- sia. In Kiev we heard '^ Hamlet " in Russian, and the man who played Hamlet was won- derfully good, surprisingly good. You don't know how strange it sounded to hear " To be or not to be " in Russian ! The acting Avas so familiar, the words so strange. The audience went crazy over him, as Russian audiences always do. We watched him come out and bow thirty-nine times, and when we came away the noise was still deafening. They make a sort of candv in Kiev 201 (» I ^M ■ ).! >'/ hi ': r*i .§ . I I AS SEEN BY ME which goes far and away above any sweets I ever have seen. It is a sort of candied rose. The whole rose is there. It is a solid soft pink mass, and it tastes just as a tea-rose smells. It is simply celestial. We dearly love Kiev, it is so hauntingly beautiful. You can't forget it. Your mind keeps returning to it, but it is the sort of beauty that you can't describe satisfactorily. It is like your mother's face. You can sec the beauty for yourself, but no one else can see it as you do, for the love which is behind it. In Odessa we began to leave Russia be- hind us. Odessa is all sorts of a place. It is commercial, and not beautiful, but, as usual, our Russian friends made us forget the town and its sights, and remember only their sweet hospitality find friendliness. We wished to catch the Russian steamer for Constantinople, but we were told that the police would not permit us to leave on such short notice. We feH that this was hard, for we had tried so consistently to be good in Russia that I was determined to go if possible. So I took an interpreter and drove to the police headquarters myself. To my amazement and delight my man told me that it could all be arranged by the payment of a few rubles. But that " few rubles " mounted up into many before I 202 1 iveets I d rose. d soft ea-rose itinglj mind ort of orily. an see se can behind iia e. be- lt ut, as forget P only 3. 3amer that ^e on I was to be to go and ^self. told ; the 'few re I AS SEEN BY ME got my passports duly vised. I discovered that our American police are not so very different from Russian police after all, even if they are Irish ! We caught the steamer — the dear, clean, lovely Nickolai 11. , with the stewardess a Greek named Aspasia, and I persisted in calling the steward Pericles, just to have things match. Then we crunched our wav out of the har- bor through the ice into the Black Sea, and sailed away for Constantinople. m .1 It: l ■■ ■ f s.H 'r H IX CONSTANTINOPLE 'i Constantinople had throe difforont ef- fects upon me. The first was to make ino utterly despise it for its sickening dirt; the second was when I forgot all ahout the mud and garbage, and went crazy over its pictu- resque streets with their steep slopes, odd turns, and bewitching vistas, and the last was to make me dread Cairo for fear it would seem tame in comparison, for Con- stantinople is enchanting. If I were a painter I would never leave off painting its delights and spreading its fascinations broadcast; and then I would take all the money I got for my pictures and spend it in the bazaars, and if I regretted my purchases I would barter them for others, because Con- stantinople is the beginning of the Orient, and if you remain long you become thorough- ly metamorphosed, and you bargain, trade, exchange, and haggle until you forget that you ever were a Christian. The hour of our arrival in Constantinople was an accident. 204 AS SEEN BY ME The steamer Nickolal II. was late, and as no one may land there after sunset, we were forced to lie in the Bosphorus all night. li was dark when we sighted the city, but it was one of those clear darks where with- out any apparent light you can sec every- thing. Surely no other city in the world has so beautiful an approach ! Our great black steamer threaded her way between men- of-war, sail-boats, and all sorts of shipping, and if there were a thousand lights twink- ling in the water there were a million from the city. It lies on. a series of hills curved out like a monster amphitheatre, and it stretches all the way around. I looked up into the heavens, and it seemed to me that I never had seen so many stars in my life. Our sky at home has not so many ! Yet there were no more than the yellow points of flame which flickered in every part of that sleeping city. Three tall minarets pierced above the horizon, and each of these wore circles of light which looked like necklaces and girdles of fire. Patches of black now and then showed where there were trees or marked a graveyard. Occasionally we heard a shrill cry or the barking of dogs, but these sounds came faintly, and seemed a part of the fairy-picture. It looked so much like a scene from an opera that I half expected to see the curtain go down and the lights flare 205 Ii> ^ li ■-■( i '<■: ^i f\ t; 'f I. ■ '\ ti M * t 1- AS SEEN BY ME '.W 1 ^ ''' \:hh' II W: Hi ?4H ' ■ i up, and I feared the applause which always spoils the dream. But nothing spoiled this dream. All night we lay in the beautiful Bosphorus, and all night at intervals I looked out of my port- hole at that lovely sleeping princess. It never grew any less lovely. Its beauty and charm increased. But in the morning everything was changed. A band of howling, screaming, roaring, fighting pirates came alongside in dirtv row-boats, and to our utter consterna- tion we found these bloodthirsty brigands were to row us to land. Not one word could we understand in all that fearful uproar. We were watching them in a terror too abject to describe, when, to our joy, an English voice said, ^' I am the guide for the two ' American ladies, and here is the kavass which the American minister sent down to meet you. The consul at Odessa cabled your arrival.'^ Oh, how glad we were! We loaded them with thanks Pud hand-luggage, and scram- bled down the stairway at the side of the steamer. A dozen dirty hands were stretch- ed out to receive us. We clutched at their sleeves instead, and pitched into the boat, and our trunks came tumbling afte^ us, and away we went over the roughest ot seas, which splashed us and made us feel a little 206 *•:: AS SEEN BY ME queer; and then we landed at the dirtiest, smelliest quay, and picked our way through a filthy custom-house, where, in spite of bribery and corruption, they opened my trunk and examined all the photographs of the family, which happened to be on top, and made remarks about them in Turkish which made the other men laugh. The mud came up over our overshoes as we stood there, so that altogether we were quite heated in tem- per when we found ourselves in an alley out- side, filled with garbage which had been there forever, and learned that this alley was a strecu, and a very good one for Constanti- nople, too. The porters in Turkey are marvels of strength. They wear a sort of cushioned saddle on their backs, and to my amazement two men tossed my enormous trunk on this saddle. I saw it leave their hands be- fore it reached his poor bent back; he stag- gered a little, gave it a hitch to make it more secure, then started up the hill on a trot. I never saw so much mud, such unspeak- ably filthy streets, and so many dogs as Con- stantinople can boast. You drive at a gal- lop up streets slanting at an angle of forty- five degrees, and you nearly fall out of the back of the carriage. Tlien presently you come to the top of that hill and start down the other side, still at a gallop, and you brace 207 '1''^ 1 f •I ■ i. ii i iM • ■ 1 -■ If/' f t ■ l.-v \ ^ 1 1 ::•'■ AS SEEN BY ME your feet to keep from pitching over the driv- er's liead. You would notice the dogs first were it not for the smells. But as it is, you cannot even see until you get your salts to vour nose. The odors are so thick that thev darken the air. You are disappointed in the dogs, however. There are quite as many of them as you expected. You have not been misled as to the number of them, but nowhere have I seen them described in a satisfactorv way — so that you knew what to expect, 1 mean. In the first place, they hardly look like dogs. They have w^oolly tails like sheep. Their eyes are dull, sleepy, and utterly de- void of expression. Constantinople dogs have neither masters nor brains. !No brains bo- cause no masters. Perhaps no masters be- cause no brains. !N^obody wants to adopt an idiot. They are, of course, mongrels of the most hopeless type. They are yellowish, with thick, short, woolly coats, and much fat- ter than you expect to find them. They walk like a funeral procession. Xever have I seen one frisk or even wag his tail. Every- body turns out for them. They sleep — from twelve to twenty of them — on a single pile of garbage, and never notice either men or each other unless a dog which lives in the next street trespasses. Then they eat him up, for they are jackals as well as dogs, and they are no more epicures than ostriches. 208 ^ti AS SEEN BY ME They never show interest in anything, riiey are blase. J saw some mother dogs asleep, with tiny pnppies swarming over them like little fat rats, but the mothers paid no attention to them. Children seem to hore them quite as successfully as if they were women of fashion. We went sailing up the Golden Horn to the Skutari cemetery, one of the loveliest spots of this thrice-fascinating (Vnistanti- nople. As we were descending that steep hill upon which it is situated we met a dar- ling little baby Turk in a fez riding on a pony which his father was leading. This child of a different race, and six thousand miles awav, looked so much like our Billv f ' t that I wanted to eat him up — dirt and all. I contented inyself with giving him back- sheesh, while my companion photographed him. Such an afternoon as that was on that lovely golden river, with the sun just set- ting, and our picturesque boatmen sending the boat through thousands upon thousands of sea-gulls just to make them fly, until the air grew dark with their wings, and the sun- light on their white breasts looked like a great glistening snow-storm ! One night we went to a masked ball given for the benefit of a new hospital which is situated upon the Golden Horn. It was given by Mr. Levy, one of the Turkish Com- o ' 20U ( ml If. ■ i Li i ^ ■f I I AS SEEN BY ME I !'» u M Nh ;i! i n t'l <«i t1 missioners at the World's Fair, and the dec- orations were something marvellous. The walls were hung with embroideries which drove us the next day to the bazaars and nearly bankrupted us. Every street of Con- stantinople looks like a masked ball, so this one merelv continued the illusion. We could distinguish the Mohammedan women from the otli3rs because they all went home before midnight without unmasking. This ball is interesting because it is called ^' The Engagement Ball." We were told that only at a sub^"^cription ball given for a charity in which their parents are interested and feel under moral obligation to support by their presence are the young people of Constantinople allowed to meet each other. The fathers and mothers occupy the boxes, and thus, under their very eyes, and masked, can love affairs be brought to a conclusion. During the week which followed no fewer than ten important engagements were duly heralded in the columns of the newspapers. The most exciting things in Constan- tinople are the earthquakes. We were afraid thev would not have anv while we were there, but they accommodated us with a very satisfactory one ! It upset my ink-bottle and broke the lamp and rattled everything in the room until I was delighted. When my companion came in she was indignant to 210 AS SEEN BY ME think that I had enjovod the earthquake all to mvself, for she was in the rooms of the American Bible Society, and being thus pro- tected, did not feel it. B\it I told her that that was her punishment for trying to prove that a missionary had cheated her, for she was not in that place for a godly purpose. At another time, however, we met with better success in obtaining a sensation of a different, sort. We visited, in company with our Turkish friend, a small but wonderfully beautiful mosque not often seen by ordinary tourists, and afterwards went up on Galata tower to get the fine viev/ of (Constantinople which may be had there. It was just be- fore sunset again, and I am (piite unable to make vou see the utter loveliness of it. We crawled out on the narrow ledge which surrounds the top, and I had just got a capi- tal picture of my comi)anion as she clutched the Turk to prevent being blown off, for the wind was something terrible, when sudden- ly the keepers rushed to the windows and jabbered excitedly in Turkish and ran up a flag, and behold, there was a fire ! Galata tower is the fire obsei'vatory. By the flags they hoist you can tell where the fire is. I never was at a fire in my life. Even when our stables burned down I was away from home. So here was my opportunity. The way we drove down those narrow streets was £11 ,li ^' i ■rii - :, M ! •' ' ) 1' 'Hi AS SEEN BY ME enough to make one think that we were the fire department itself. But when we arrived we found to our grief that it was our dear little mosque whicli was burning. Undoubt- edly we were the last visitors to enter it. We went back to the hotel for dinner, and about nine o'clock, hearing that the fire was spreading, we drove down again with our Turk, who regarded it as no unusual thing to take American women to two fires in the same day. We found the tenement-houses burning. Our carriage gave us no vantage- ground, so our friend, who speaks twelve languages, obtained permission to enter a house and go up on the roof. We never stopped to think that we might catch all sorts of diseases ; we were so pleased at the courtesy of the poor souls. They had all their ]ioor belongings packed ready to re- move if the fire crept any nearer, but they ran ahead and lighted us up the dark stair- way with candles, and told us in Turkish what an honor we were doing their house, all of which touched me deeply. I wondered how many people I would have assisted up to our roof if my clothes were tied up in sheets in the hall, with the fire not a square away! Fortunately, it came no nearer, and from that high, flat roof we watched the seething mass of yellow flames grow less and less and 212 AS SEEN BY ME '1 then go completely under control. It was Providence which did it, however, and not the Constantinople fire department, with its little streams of water the size of slate- pencils ! The dogs were one of the sights we were anxious to see; the Sultan was the other. We found the bazaars more fascinating than either. But we wanted to photograph the Sultan — chiefly, I think, because it was for- bidden. I have an ever-present unruly de- sire to do everything which these foreign countries absolutely forbid. But everybody said we could not. So we very meekly went to see him go to prayers, and left our cameras with the kavass. We had, with our custom- ary good fortune, a window directly in front of the Sultan's gate, not twenty feet from the door of the mos«niue. " If I had that camera here I could get him, and nobody would know!" I declared. '^ But there are so many spies," our Turk- ish friend said. ^' It would be too danger- ous. We waited, and waited, and waited. Xever have the hours seemed so mortally long as they seemed to us as we watched the hands of the clock crawl past luncheon-time, hours and hours later than the Sultan was announced to pray, and still no Sultan. His little six- and seven-year old sons, in the uni- 213 1^ :i .V f^^ - L " 1 :iill J 1 -*■ r, t|.' ! ? AS SEEN BY ME form of colonels, were mounted on superb Arabian horses. These horses had tails so long that servants held them up going through the mud, as if they were ladies' trains. The children were dear things, with clear olive complexions and soft, dark eyes — Italian eyes. Then they grew tired of vvaiting, and dismounted, and came up to where we were, and shook hands in the sweet- est manner. My companion was for coaxing the little one into her lap, but she looked somewhat staggered when I reminded her that she would be trotting the colonel of the regiment on her knee. Then more cavalrv came, and more bands, playing a little the worst of any that I ever heard, and we impatiently thrust our heads out of the window, thinking, of course, the Sultan was coming, but he was not. Then some infantry with white leggings and st^'ff knee-joints, with coils of green gas-pipe on their heads, like our student-lamps, marched by with a gait like a battalion of horses with the string-halt, and we shrieked with laugh- ter. Our friend said they called that the German step. Germany would declare war with Turkey if she ever heard that. By this time we were so tired and hungry and disgusted that we were about to go home and give up the Sultan when we saw no fewer than fifty men come toiling up the hill with 214 m ^iMHHffi superb tails so ladies' ^s, with fk eyes red of up to sweet- oaxin^ looked ed her of the bands, I ever heads se, the Then d stiflF ipe on irched 3 with taugh- it the 3 war mgry home Fewer with AS SEEN BY ME • carpet-bags, as if they liad brought tlioir clothes, and intended to see the Sultan if it took a week. I do not know who or what they were, and I do not want to know. They served their purpose with us in that they put US into instantaneous good humor, and just then there was a commotion, aud every- body straightened up and craned their necks; and then, ])receded by his body-guard, the Sultan drove slowly down, looked directly up at our window (and we groancnl), and then turned in at the gate. Opposite to him sat Osman Pasha, the hero of Plevna. The ladies of the harem were driven into the court-yard surrounded by eunuchs, the horses were taken from their carriages, and there the ladies sat, guarded like prisoners, until the Sultan came out again, lie then mount- ed into a superb gold chariot drawn by two beautiful white horses, and he himself drove out. Everybody salaamed, and he raised his hand in return as if it was all the greatest possible bore. While he was driving into the court-yard the priest came out on the minaret and called men to prayer, and an English girl who sat at the next window informed her mother that he was announcing the names of the im- portant persons in the procession ! Her mother trained her glasses on him: — a mere speck against the skv — and said, ^^ Fancy !'' 215 -!' Ay ' : i-'i i! H AS SEEN BY ME II ' ul Tho Sultan is not a boaiity. If lio woro in America his sign would be that of the three golden balls. We went to see the mosques, and the offi- cials and priests pnd boatmen were so cross and surly on account of the fast of Ramazan that they would not let us take photographs without a fight. During Ramazan they nei- ther eat nor drink between sunrise and sun- set. On the fifteenth day of Ramazan the Sul- tan goes to the mosque of Eyoob to buckle on the sword of Mohammed in order to remind himself that the power of that sword has de- scended to himself. He does not announce his route, therefore the whole city is in a commotion, and they spread miles of streets with sand for fear he might take it into his head to go by some unusual way. It passes my comprehension why they should ever put any more dirt in the streets even for a Sultan. But sand is a mark of respect in Russia and Turkey, and it really cleans the streets a lit- tle. At least it absorbs the mud. Just as we were about to start for a balcony beneath which he was almost sure to pass, our Turk- ish friend whispered to us that if we wore capes we might take our cameras. Imagine our delight, for it was so dangerous. But the capes ! Ours were not half long enough to conceal the camera properly. It was grow- 216 AS SEEN PY ME ing late. So in a perfect frenzy I eyes Again he looked up directly at us, and I snapped the shutter promptly. It was done. 217 f t; ■'ir m? VT- AS SEEN BY ME T had snccoeded in photographing the Sul- tan ! To be sure, It was an offense against the state, punishable by fine and imprison- ment, but nobody had caught mc. The little boy next to me, who hiul walked on my dress and ground his elbows into me, craned his neck and stared at the Sultan with round eyes. lie h.ad been in my way ever since we arrived, but in an exuberance of tenderness I patted his head. But ^^ hen we had those negatives developed I discovered to my disgust that instead* of the Sultan T had taken an excellent photograph of that wretched little boy's ear. mi i Is CAIRO I NEED not have been afraid that the charn^s of Constantinople would spoil Cairo for me, although at first I was disappoint- ed. Most places have to be lived up to, espe- cially one like Cairo, Avhose attractions are vaunted by every tourist, every woman of fashion, every scholar, every idle club-man, everybody, either with brains or without. I wondered how it could be all things to all men. I simply thought it was the fashion to rave about it, and I was sick of the very sound of its name before I came. It ^vas too perfect. It aroused the spirit of antago- nism in me. First of all, when you arrive in Cairo you find that it is very, very fashionable. You can get everything here, and yet it is prac- tically the end of the world. Nearly every- body who comes here turns iround and goes back. Few go on. Even when you go up the Nile you must come back to Cairo. There is really nowhere else to go. 219 f 1^^ 'i t :- r;i t iif ' i < AS SEEN BY ME You drive through smart English streets, and when you find yourself at Shepheard's you are at the most famous hotel in the world ; yet, strange to say, in spite of its size, in spite of the thousands of learned, famous, titled, and distinguished people who have been here, in spite of its smartness and fash- ion, it is the most homelike hotel I ever was in. Everybody seems to knov/ about you and to take an interest in what you are doing, and all the servants know your name and the number of your room, and when you go out into the great corridor, or when you sit on the terrace, there is not a trace of the super- cilious scrutiny which takes a mental inven- tory of your clothes and your looks and your letter of credit, which so often spoils the sun- set for vou at similar hotels. Ghezireli Palace is even more fashionable than Sheplieard's. Here we lia^e baronets and counts and a few earls. But there they have dukes and kings and emperors, yet there is a gold-and-alabaster mantelpiece which takes your mind even from royalty, it is so beautiful. Ghezireh is situated on the Nile, half an hour's drive away, so that in spite of its royal atmosphere it never will take the place of Shepheard's. Here you see all the interesting people you have heard of in your life. You trip over the easels of famous artists in an angle of the narrow street, and 220 AS SEEN BY ME m many famous authors, scientists, archaeolo- gists, and scholars are here working or rest- ing. Yesterday I was told that four Americans who stood talking together on the terrace rep- resented two hundred millions of dollars. At dinner the red coats of the officers make brill- iant spots of color among all the black of the other men, and at first sight it does seem too odd to see evening dress consist of black trou- sers and a bright-red coat which stops off short at the waist. But if you think that looks odd, what will you say to the officers of the Highland regiments? Their full dress is almost as immodest in a different way as that of some women, and one of the most exquisite paradoxes of British cust(mi is that a Highland undress uniform consists of the addition of long* trousers — more clothes than they wear in dress uniform. Cairo is cosmopolitan. You may ride a smart cob, a camel, or a donkey, and nobody will even look twice at you. You will see harem carriages with closed blinds; coupes with the syces running before them (and there is nothing in Cairo more beautiful than some of these men and the way they run) ; you will see the Khedive driving with his body-guard of cavalry; you will see fat Egyptian nurses out in basket phaeton with little English children ; you will see tiny 221 . I 'iii l;t h Si 'A; ■ ■ !T : • i ' ^■! t Ai I i ! f ; ft* !U:i |!,:'' AS SEEN BY ME boys, no bigger than our Billy, in a fever of delight over riding on a live donkey, and attended by a syce ; you will see emancipated Egyptian women trying to imitate European dress and manners, and making a mess of it; you will see gamblers, adventurers, and savants all mixed together, with all the hues of the rainbow in their costumes; you will see water-carriers carrying drinking-water in nasty-looking dried skins, which still retain the outlines of the animals, only swollen out of shape, and unspeakably revolting ; you will see native women carrying their babies astride their shoulders, with the little things resting their tiny brown hands on their mothers' heads, and often laying their little black heads down, too, and going fast to sleep, while these women walk majestically through the streets with only their eyes show- ing ; you will see all sorts of hideous cripples, and more blind and cross-eyed people than you ever saw in all your life before ; you will see venders of fly-brushes, turquoises, am- ber, ostrich-feathers, bead necklaces from Nubia, scarabsei and antiquities which bear the hall-marks of the manufacturers as clear- ly as if stamped " Made in Germany" ; you will see sore-eyed children sitting in groups in doorways, with numberless flies on each eye, making no effort to dislodge them; and you will visit mosques a7id bazaars which you 222 AS SEEN BY ME feel sure call for insect-powder; you will see Arabian men knitting stockings in the street, and thinking it no shame ; you will see count- less eunuchs with their coal-black, beardless faces, their long, soft, nerveless hands, long legs, and the general make-up of a mush- room-boy who has outgrown liis strength ; you will hear the cawing of countless rooks and crows, and if you leave your window open these rascals will fly in and eat your fruit and sweets ; you will see and liear the picturesque lemonade-vendor selling his vile- tasting acid from a long, beautiful brass ves- sel of irregular shape, and you never can get away from the horrible jangling noise he makes from two brass bowls to call attention to his wares; you will see tiny boys in tights doing acrobatic feats on the sidewalk, walk- ing on their hands in front of you for a whole square as you take your afternoon stroll, and then pleading with you for backsheesh ; you will see hideous monkeys of a sort you never saw before, trained to do the same thing, so that you cannot walk out in Cairo without being attended Avith some sort of a body- guard, either monkey, acrobat, cripple, or the beggar-girls with their sweet, plaintive voices, their pretty smiles, and their eternal hunger, to coax the piasters from your open purse. But you accept these sights and sounds as a part of this wonderful old citv, 223 V I' !1 ;i. '■ I i^i. ;■ I*? ^'U AS SEEN BY ME ^J ' Hi and each day the fascination will grow on you until you will be obliged to go to a series of afternoon teas in order to cool your en- thusiasm. In passing, the flies of Egypt deserve a tribute to their peculiar qualities. A plague of American flies would be a luxury com- pared to the visit of one £y from Egypt. For untold centuries they have been in the habit of crawling over thick-skinned faces and bodies, and not being dislodged. They can stay all day if they like. (Consequently, if they see an American eye, and they light on it, not content with that, they try to crawl in. You f^ttempt to brush them off, but they onlv move around to the other side, until vou nearly go mad with nervousness from their sticky feet. If they find out your ear they crawl in and walk around. You cannot dis- courage them. They craze you with their infuriating persistence. If / had been the Egyptians, the Israelites would have been escorted out of the country in state at the arrival of the first fly. England h is done a marvellous good to Egypt by her training. She has taken a lot of worthless rascals and educated them to work at something, no matter if it does take five of them to call a cab. She has trained them to make good soldiers, well drilled be- cause drilled by English officers, and making 224 i ! ' AS SEEN BY ME a creditable showing. She lias made fairly dependable policemen of them, but their legs are the most wabbly and crooked of any that ever were seen. These policemen are armed. One carries a pistol and the other the car- tridges. If they happened to be together they could be very dangerous to criminals. She has develo])ed all the resources of the country, and made it fat and })roductive, but she never can give the connnon people brains. It poured rain this morning, and there is no drainage ; consequently, rivers of water were rushing down the gutters, making crossings impassable and traffic impossible. They called out the fire-engines to pump the water up in the main thoroughfare, but on a side street I stopped the carriage for half an hour and watched four Arabs working at the problem. One walked in with a b^'oom and swept the water down the gutter to another man who had a dust-pan. With this dust- pan he scooped up as much as a pint of water at a time, and poured it into a tin pail, which gave occupation to the third Arab, who stood in a bent position and urged him on. The fourth Arab then took this pail of water, ran out, and emptied it into the middle of the street, and the water beat him running back to the gutter. I said to them, " Why don't you use a sieve ? It would take longer." And they said, ^' No speak English." p 225 •m^ i 1. li ■ I \ K] ii AS SEEN BY ME I watched them until I grew tired, and then I went to the ostrich-farm as a sort of distraction, and I reallv think that an ostrich has more brains than an Arab. This farm is very large, and the ostrich- pens are built of mud. I never had seen ostriches before, and I had no idea how hideous, how big, and how enchanting they are. They have the most curious agate-color- ed eyes — colorless, cold, yet intelligent eyes. But they are the eyes of a bird without a conscience. They have no soul, as camels have. An ostrich looks as if he would really enjoy villainy, as if he could commit crime after crime from pure love of it, and never know remorse ; yet there is a fascination about the old birds, and they have their good points. The father is domestic in spite of looking as if he belonged to all the clubs, and, much to my delight, I saw one sitting on the eggs while the mother walked out and took the air. Ostriches and Arabs do wom- en's work with an admirable disregard of Mrs. Grundy. Ostriches have an irresistible way of waving their lovely plumy wings, and one old fellow twenty-five years old actually imitates the dervishes. The keeper says to him, " Dance," and although he is about ten feet tall, he sits down with his scaly legs spread out on each side of him, and, shutting his eves, he throws his long, ugly red neck 226 AS SEEN BY ME from side to side, making a curious grunting noise, and waving his wings in billowy line like a skirt-dancer. It was too wonderful to see him, and it was almost as revolting as a real dervish. We saw these dervishes once ; nothing could persuade us to go twice — they were too nasty. The night the Khedive goes to the Citadel, to the mosque of ^[ohammed Ali, to pray for his heart's desire (for on that night all pray- ers of the faithful are sure to be answered), the dervishes in great numbers are perform- ing their rites. They are called the howl- ing dervishes, but they do not howl ; they only make a horrible grunting noise. They have long, dirty, greasy hair, and as they throw their bodies backward and forward this hair flies, and sometimes strikes the care- less observer in the face. Thev work them- * selves up to a perfect passion of religious ecstasy to the monotonous sound of Arab music, and never have I heard or seen any- thing more revolting. The negroes in the South w^hen they " get the poAver'' are not nearly so repulsive. It is England's wise policy in all her colo- nies to have her army take part in the na- tional religious ceremonies, so when the Sa- cred Carpet started from the Citadel on its journey to Mecca there was a magnificent military display. 227 ti ii n ,1 if i' I* \ s ' * J 4 ■|i'|!li'| ■ 1 if III 1 mm ' m 1 1 mn ll Hi;i'|Jn/'| ■'( f"l|lr' ■ iiji| 1 K h :iff|| 1 If Wi' 1 i li'l llf ii 1 1 W^W'^ 1 B 1 ' i F|[ I'l ^W f ' i i mlU' i 1 i B I'L jp ' Ii ItI' ' ^ 1 |:||| r 1 1 ffi ' if ' ■ m M'W ^ ^ ^ ^^pw i f i 1 ' ' ' HH>|h!| ^ ■ IHi''*rif' ' i ffli'llr'- 1 >^^^^n i 't'^ - 1 ' |i; ^^■pH'.i 1' mlliii ii 111 ! 9 , ' '' « • ;§ |i I i i K| [p. jrai l{' Dfil |iil|l^ If l||^J^H|^ AS SEEN BY ME It is an odd thing to call it a carpet, for it not 07ily is not a carpet in itself, bnt it is not the shape of a carpet, it is not nsed for a carpet, and does not look like a carpet. We were among the fortunate ones who were invited to the i)rivate view of it the night before, when the faithfnl were dedicat- ing it. Thev sat on tlie iioor, these Moham- medans, rocking themselves back and forth, and chanting the Koran. I believe the reason nearly all Arabs have crooked legs is becanse they sqnat so much. One cannot have straight legs when one uses one's legs to sit down on for hours at a time. They always sit in the sun, too, and that must bake them into their crookedness. The ^' carpet" is a black velvet embroider- ed solidly in silver and gold. It is shaped like an old-fashioned Methodist church, onlv there are minarets at the four corners. It looks like a pall. Every year they send a new one to Mecca, and then the old one is cut into tiny bits and distributed among the faithful, wdio w^ear it next their hearts. This carpet was about six feet long, and was railed in so that no one could touch it. A man stood by and sprayed attar of roses on you as you passed, but I do not know what he did it for, unless it was to turn sensitive women faint with the heaviness of the per- fume. 228 AS SEEN BY ME But the next morning the procession form- ed, and amid Uie wildest eithusiasm, the bow- ing and sahiaming of the men, and the shout- ing and running of the children, and the sing- ing of the Arabs who bore the carpet, it was placed upon the most magniticent camel I ever saw, which was covered from head to foot with cloth of gold, and whose very gait seemed more majestic because of his sacred burden, and thus, led by scores of enthusi- astic Arabs, he moved slowly down the street, following the covering for the tomb, and in turn being followed by one scarcely less mag- nificent destined to cover the sacred carpet in its camel journey to Mecca. That was absolutely all there \vas to it, yet the K he Jive was there with a fine military escort, ai.d all Cairo turned out at the unearthly hour of eight o'clock in the morning to see it. As we drove back we saw the streets for blocks around a certain house hung with colored-glass lanterns, and thousands upon thousands of small Turkey-red banners with white Arabic letters on them strung on wires on each side of the street. These we knew were the decorations for the famous wedding which was to occur that night, and to which we had fortunately been bidden. It w^as in very smart society. The son of a pasha was to marry the daughter of a pasha, and the presents were said to be superb. 229 ..i r iM ;'!|k4,, kit i\ ^1 Ui I ■HI liii 1 1 iliji -1' ^B )M ' iJMh ^^v 'B W jHIti/ i B. ' >K il i^ii [ i ■ IrtfH ii ^^^^■^ mtB |1 jjl tf^Hl C| B i ' ! M 1 1 1 iM' 1 ■ !' '^^v^ f ■ 1' -;f 1 ■ i 'wiii ^^^ ' » 1 f ' ^ 1*1 ' ' ■ifl ; 1 1'^nr j' ^n 1 '* )' ' ' i'l ' 1' K E 1 ' < i (i 1 Hif I J' ' 11 i' ■ ' 1 ill 1 ^■i!'' t Bv 'i Mk ■T ' ■\ ^|a f ||X ;^ Ml ■] If 1 n « ll' • i' 11 I ^ i' 1' ll"^ 1 K i H ;' 1^ 1, i II i|;i| ll ^^v'^H^^^a ^ '"-Mf H ' ii . ■HI hi i ' 'i- ^niPI '1 EH '^ ii ^H| 1 1 li^ 1 |Mi I |i j V Bwii 1 J f 1 1 hHI Mi' , 1 ^HiImI 1'' ■ ■ 1' i ffllj'Jlfl ill WmwIm t^ Mm , BW 1' IflMji ^Ij^l ■')' ' i^i- iJI 1 |il ^E^fi '^f ' "S ■■ ;' ' f w|| ' ,M t) ■ J ' II ^ 'ij 1 1 1 ill ll ll ^ 1 ' 9 Si lij sIhH ' ll ll MgQlwm'] ' 1' ^HK||H|^r HJHki i AS SEEN BY ME We wore our best elothos. We had or- dered our bouquets beforehand, for one al- ways presents the bride with a bouquet, and they were really very beautiful. It was a warm night, with no wind, and the heavens were twinkling with millions of stars. Such big stars as they have in Egypt ! When we arrived we were taken in charge by a eunuch so black that I had to feel my way up-stairs. There were, perhaps, fifty other eunuchs standing guard in the ante- chamber, and our dragoman took the men wlio brought us around to another door, where all the men had to wait while we women visited the bride. A motley throng of women were in the outer room — fat black women with waists two yards around, canary-colored women laced into low-cut European evening dresses, brown women in native dress ; a babel of voices, chattering in curious French, Ara- bic, Turkish, and Greek. All the women were terribly out of shape from every point of view, and not a pretty one among them. One attendant snatched my bouquet without even a " Thank you'^ (I had been Avondering to whom I should give it, but I need not have worried), and patted me on the back as she pushed me into the room where the bride sat on a throne amid piles upon piles of bou- quets. She had a heavy, pale face covered 230 AS SEEN BY ME with powdor, eyes and oyobrows blaokonod, nails stained with henna, and a figure much too fat. She wore a garment made of some- thing which looked like mosquito-netting heavily embroidered in gold, which hung like a rag. Iler jewels were magnificent, but the efi'ect of all this gorgeousness was rather spoiled to the artistic eye by her gro- tesque surroundings. After we had visited the bride we were ap- proached by a little yellow woman in blue satin, who asked me in French if l \vould nf>r like to see the chanihi'c a couclier, and I said I would. We were then conducted to a room all hung in blue satin embroidered in red. Lambrequins, chair-covers, bed-covers, pil- lows, bed-hangings — all the careful work of the bride. Then we were invited to inspect the presents in another room, which were all in glass cabinets. Dozens of amber and jewelled cigarette-holders and ornaments of every description, most magnificent, but of no earthly use — as wedding presents sometimes are. Then we came down-stairs, and had all sorts of things at a banquet, and heard Arab music, and sat around in the room, where our men met us, and feeling rather bored, we de- cided to go home. There we were wise, for we met quite by accident the procession of the bridegroom. He was escorted through the 231 'fl I i t: J t .5 1, ) 'I '1 AS SEEN BY ME streets by a band, and two rows of young men carrying candelabra nndor glass sbades. We turned and drove along beside liim and watched bini, but he was so nervous we felt that it was rather a mean thing to do. He was a handsome fellow, but never have I seen a man who looked so unhappy and ill at ease. When he entered the house he pro- ceeded to the door of the bride's room, where he threw down silver and gold as backsheesh until her women were satisfied; then he was permitted to enter. As we drove away for the second time I remembered that they were having '^ torch- light tattoo " at the barracks, and we decided to stop for a moment. " It won't seem bad t^ see some soldiers who can march, for the English soldiers are magnificently trained," I said, as we stopped to buy our tickets. A young officer whom I had met heard my remark, and smiled and saluted. " The English soldiers are the best in the world, arent they ?" he said, teasingly. " Undoubtedly," I replied, tranquilly. He looked a little staggered. He had en- countered my belligerent spirit before, and he did not expect me to agree with him. "You — you, an American, admit thatT' he s^id. " Surely," I replied. 232 ;<.'■ AS SEEN BY ME ^' But why ?" he persisted, most unwisely, for it gave me my chance. " Because the Americans are the only ones who ever whipped them! American Boldiers can beat even the hest!" It is now six weeks since I said that, but as yet he has made no reply. -,r ';i v« I !i^' If ' XI THE NILE !'! \ In travelling abroad there are some things which you wish to do more than others. There are certain treasures you particularly desire to see, certain scenes your mind has pictured, until the dream has almost become a reality. The ascent of the N^ile was one of my Meccas, and now that it is over the reality has almost become a dream. In Egypt the weather is so nearly perfect during the season that it was no surprise to find the day of our departure a cloudless one. I seldom worry myself to arrange beforehand for the creature comforts of a journey, trust- ing to the beneficent star which seems to hover over the unworthy to shine upon my pathway. But this time I had so dreamed of and broodc;d over and longed for the Xile that I went so far as to investigate the diifer- ent lines of boats, and we chose the moonlight time of the month, and we hurried through Russia and Turkey and Greece with but one 234 lie things ii's. There 'ly desire pictured, a reality. Y Meccas, as almost 'y perfect irprise to iless one. forehand ey, trust- seems to upon my earned of the Nile ^e differ- loonlight through but one AS SEEN BY ME aim in view, and that was to have our feet on the deck of the Mayflower on the 19th of Feb- ruary. And we succeeded. Ah, it was a dream well worth realizing! Twenty - one days of rest. Three glorious weeks of smooth sailing over calm waters. Three weeks of warmth and sunshine by day, and of poetry and starlight by night. Three weeks of drifting in the romance which sur- rounds the name of that great sorceress, that wonderful siren, that consummate coquette, that most fascinating woman the world has ever known. Three weeks of steeping one's soul in the oldest, most complete and satis- factorv ruins on the face of the earth. Here, in delving into the i:)ast, we would have no use for the comparative word ^' hundreds." We could boldly use the superlative word "thousands." What memories ! what dreams ! what fragments of half -forgotten history and romance came floating through the brain ! I hav^e, generally, little use for guide-books ex- cept, afterwards, to verify what I have seen. But I admit that I had an especial longing to reach the temple of Denderah, which was said to contain the most famous relief of Cleopatra extant. I was anxious to see if her beauty or her charm or anything which accounted for her sorceries w^ere reproduced. " If Cleopatra's nose had been shorter, the whole historv of the world would have been 235 1 1 '} AS SEEN BY ME i^ ' h n changed." How far away she seemed ! How near she would become ! On the terrace at Shepheard's the morning of our departure you could see by people's faces how they were going to make this jour- ney. Some had Stanley helmets on, and were laden with cushions and steamer-chairs and fruits as if for an ocean voyage. Others were clutching their Baedeker, and their Amelia Edwards, and their " Kismet," and their note-books, and wore a do-or-die expres- sion of countenance. One or two others floated around aimlessly, with dreamy eyes, as if they were already lost in the past which noAv pressed so closely at hand. Then the coach from the Gehzireh Palace rolled by in a cloud of dust, and people hurried down the steps of Shepheard's and took their places in 0U7' coach, and the dragomans in their gor- geous costumes followed with wraps, and the porters bustled about stowing away hand-lug- gage, and Arabs crowded near, thrusting their violets and roses and amber necklaces and beaded fly-brushes into your very face, and the old man who sells turquoises made his last effort to sell you a set for shirt-studs, and the Egyptians and East-Indians from the bazaars opposite came to the door and looked on with the perennial interest and friendli- ness of the Orient, and a swarm of beggars pleaded, with the excitement of a last chance, 236 n AS SEEN BY ME for backsheesh, and there was a babel of tongues — French, English, Italian, German, and Arabic, all hurtling about your ears like so many verbal bullets in a battle, when sud- denly the door slammed, the driver cracked his whip, the coach lurched forward, the chil- dren scattered — and we were off. Everybody knows when a boat starts up the Nile, and everybody is interested and nods and waves to evervbodv else. There was a short drive to the river amid polite calls of " good-bye " and '' ban royage,'^ and there lay the Mayflower, like a great white bird with comfortably folded wings. Nobody seemed to hurry much, for a Nile boat does not start until her passengers are all on board. An hour or so makes no difference. You go down the bank of the Nile to go on board a boat upon steps cut in the earth, and if your hands are full and vou cannot hold up your dress, you sweep some three inches of fine yellow dust after you. But you don't care. The man ahead scuffed his dust in your face, and the woman behind you is sneezing in yours, and everything and every- body are a little yellowish from it, but no- body stops to brush it off. It is too exciting to hurry up on deck and place your steamer- chair and fling your things into your state- room and rush out agaiji for fear that you will miss something. 237 V J [l. i f ill I ! ;^i 1 ii } J I -/T*., AS SEEN BY ME K I : f M , 1 ti) fM? There were Italians, French, English, Poles, Swedes, and Americans on board. Some of them had titles. Some had only bad manners, with nothing to excuse them. But, after all, everybody was nice. I got through the whole three weeks without hating any- body and with only wanting to drown one passenger. What better record of amiability could you ask ? But one thing marred the start. This Anglo - American line of boats is the only line in Egypt which flies the American flag. That was the final inducement they offered which decided my choice of the Mayflower. But while we knew that she was obliged to fly the British flag also, we Avere indignant be- 3^ond words to see a huge Union Jack floating at the top of the forward flagstaff and be- neath it a toy American flag about the size of a cigar-box. Beneath the English flag ! I nearly wept with rage. The owner of the line was at hand, and I did not wait to draw up a petition or to consult my fellow- Ameri- cans. I just said : ^' Have the goodness to haul down that infant American flag, will you ? I have no objection to sailing under both, but I do object to such an insulting dis- parity in size. Besides that, you seem to have forgotten that the American flag never flies heloiv any other flag on God^s green earth !'' 238 AS SEEN BY ME He made some apologies, and gave the or- der at once. The baby was hauled down amid the smiles of the English passengers. But at Assiout we were avenged when an enormous American flag arrived by rail and was hoisted to the main flagstaff, twenty feet higher than the British. When I came out on deck that Sunday morning, and saw that blessed flag waving above me, everything blurred before my eyes, and I do assure you that it was the most beautiful sight I saw in all of that European continent. You may talk about your temples and your ruins and your old masters ! Have you ever seen " Old Glory" flying straight out from a flagstaff in a foreign country seven thousand miles awav from home ? * The W\\e is much broader than I expected to find it, and, like the Missouri and the Golden Horn, it is always muddy. The Mayfioicer carries only fifty ])assongers, which is of the greatest advantage for don- key-rides and for seeing the ruins, a larger party being unwieldy. She draws but two feet of water, having been built expressly for Nile service, so we had the proud satis- faction of seeing one of the big Rameses boats stuck on a sand-bank for eighteen hours, while we touted past her blowing whistles of defiance and derision. Whenever we felt ourselves going aground on a sand- 239 I ' rs? AS SEEN BY ME 'I i; 1!, i' i ul {,M bank we just reversed the engines and backed off again, or else put on extra steam and ground our way through it. In the whole three weeks we were not aground five min- utes, although we passed one wreck settling in the water, with the bedding and stores piled up on the bank, and the passengers sail- ing away in the swallow-winged feluccas, which had swooped down to their rescue like so many compassionate birds. Afternoon tea on the Nile is an unforget- able function. Everybody comes on deck and sits under the awning and watches the sun go down. Each day the sunsets grow more beautiful. Each day they differ from all the rest. Such yellows and purples! Such violet shadows on the golden water! Such a marvellously sudden sinking of the sun in a crimson flame behind the flat brown hills ! And then the stillness of the Nile in the opal aftermath ! Those sunsets are some- thing to carry in the memory forever and a day. At night the sailors lo\'"er the side awn- ings, crawling along the railings with their naked prehensile feet. The captain, a Nu- bian, on a salary of eighty-five cents a day, selects a suitable spot on the bank where the boat may remain all night. Then the bow of the boat heads for the shore and digs her nose in the soft mud. The sailors pitch the 240 backed iin and whole 'e min- 5ettling stores Jrs sail- fjluccas, me like iforget- n deck lies the grow r from urples ! water ! of the brown N^ile in 3 some- and a 3 awn- 1 their a ]^u- a day, Te the e bow gs her 3h the AS SEEN BY ME stakes and mallets out on to the bank and spring ashore. Then with Arab songs which they always sing when rowing, hanling ropes, scrubbing the decks, or doing any sort of work, the stern is gradually hauled alongside the bank, and there we stay until morning in a stillness so absolute that even the crv of the jackals seems in harmony with the loneliness of it. 1 dreaded the first excursion. It was to Memphis and Sakhara, eighteen miles in all, and I never had been on a donkey in my life. I am not afraid of horses, but donkeys are so much like mules. My friends encouraged me all they could. They said that I would have a donkey-boy all to myself, that the donkey never went out of a walk, and wound up by the cheerful assurance that if he did pitch me over his head I would not have far to fall. The donkev-bovs of the ^i\e deserve a book all to themselves. Such craft ! Such flattery! Such knowledge of human nature! Whh unerring sagacity they discover your nationalitv and ffive vour donkev names famous in vour own countrv. Xever will an Englishman find himself astride ''Yankee Doodle '' or " Uncle Sam," or an American upon " John Bull.'' 'riiey pick you up in their arms to put you on or take you from vour donkev as if you were a babv. Thev Q 241 I ■ |l : I 'i ' i-1 ■1* i m AS SEEN BY ME run beside you holding your umbrella with one band, and with the other arm holding you on if you are timid. Staid, dignified women who teach Sunday-school classes at home, who would not permit a white man- servant to touch them, lean on their donkey- boys as if they were human balustrades. My first donkey-boy was an enchanting rascal. He looked like a handsome bronze statue. My donkey was a pale, drab little beast, woolly and dejected. He looked as though if you hurled contemptuous epithets at him for a week they would all fit his case. My companion's was more jaunty. He had been clipped in patterns. His legs were all done in hieroglyphics, and he held his ears up while mine trailed his in the sand. Nevertheless, I was so deadly afraid of him that I saw my forty-nine fellow-passen- gers leave me, one after the other, while I still hesitated and eyed him suspiciously. Perhaps I never would have mounted had not Imam, the dragoman, with the frank un- ceremoniousness of the East, caught me up in his arms and landed me on my donkey be- fore I could protest. And in the face of his childish smile of confidence I could only gasp. We moved off with the majesty of a funeral procession. " What's the name of my donkey ?" asked my companion. 242 i H 11 isses at AS SEEN BY ME " Cleveland," came the answer like a flash. We were enchanted. " And what's the name of mine ?" I asked. "McKinley!" Then we shouted. You have no idea how funny it somv^ed to hear those two familiar names in ou^h strange surroundings. We nearly tumbled off in our delight, and so quick are those clever little donkey-boys to watch your face and divine your mood that in a second they gave that weird, long-drawn donkey call, '' Oh-h-ah-h !" and my com- panion's donkey swung into a gentle trot, with her donkey-boy running behind, beating him with a stick and pinching him in the legs. At that McKinley, not to be outdone by any Democratic donkey, pricked up his ears. I heard a terrific commotion behind me. The string of bells around ^IcKinley's neck deafened me, and I remember then and there losing all confidence in the administration, for McKinley was a Derby winner. He was a circus donkey. He broke into a crazy gallop) then into a mad run. I shrieked, but my donkey-boy thought it was a sound of joy, and only prodded him the more. In less than two minutes I had shot past every one of the party, and for the whole day McKinley and I headed the procession. I 243 ii 4i i i ti w ^i ■ ;.i ! -Ill 1 .j AS SEEN BY ME only saw my companion at a distance tlirongli a cloud of dust, and she does not trust me anv more. Thus have I to bear the sins of Mohammed Ali, my perfidious don- key-boy, who forced me to lead the van on that dreadful first day at Sakhara. Everywhere you go you hear the insist- ent, importunate cry for backsheesh. Old men, women, children, dragomans, guides, merchants, and street-venders — all sorts and conditions of men beg for it. They teach even babies to take hold of your dress and cry for it. And to toss backsheesh over to the crowd on the bank as the steamer moves aw? 7 is to see every one of them roll over in the dirt and fight and scratch like cats over half a piaster. There is no such thing as self- respect among the natives. They are govern- ed by blows and curses, and even the eyes of sheiks and native police glisten at the word " backsheesh." At Assiout one night we heard some one calling from the bank in English : " Lady, lady, give me some English l)ooks. I am a Christian. I can read English. Give me a Bible. 1 go to the American college. I want to be a preacher.'' I leaned over the railing and discerned a very black boy, whose name, he said, was Solomon. I was so surprised to hear ''Bible'' instead of '' backsheesh " that 1 investigated. He said his mother and father 21-1- AS SEEN BY ME were dead; that he had only been to collecje a year ; that he wanted to be a preacher, and that he would pray God for me if I would give him a Bible. 1 was touchod. II< spoiled America, and I gave him back.shcosli. lie told mo the ])0])\dation of the Unitod States, and I gave him more backsheesh. He sang " Upidee " with an accent which threw me into such ecstasies that it brought the whole boat to hear him, and we all gave him back- sheesh. But his piety was what captivated us. I heard afterwards that no fewer than ton of us privately resolved to give him Bibles. He bogged us to visit the '^•oUogo; so the next day eight of us gave up the tombs and wont to the American college, which was floating the Stars and Stripes bocaniso it was Wash- ington's birthday. We spoke to Dr. Alex- ander, the president, of our friend Solomon. He told us that he was an absolute fraud, but one of the cleverest boys in the college. He was not an orphan. His father took a new wife every year, and his mother also had an assorted collection of husbands. He had been to school five vears instead of one. He had no end of Bibles. People gave them to him and he sold them. He had been in jail for stealing, and on the whole his showing Avas not such as to encourage us to help him to preach. Such was Solomon, a typical Egyptian, an equally accurate type of the 245 l!:: ii mi i \n 3 ''i> h; AS SEEN BY ME Arab. They are the cleverest and most con- summate liars in the world. I wonder that the noble men and women who are giving their lives to teaching in that wonderful mis- sion college have the courage to go on with it, the material is so unpromising. Yet Arabic acuteness makes it interesting, after all. A pretty little water-carrier named Fatima, who wore a blue bead in the hole bored in her nose, and only one other gar- ment besides, ran beside me at Denderah, calling me ^' beautiful princess," and kissing my hand until she made my glove sticky. None of us were too old or too hideous in our Nile costumes to be called beautiful and good. My donkey-boy at Karnak assured me that I was his father and his mother. He touched his forehead to my hand, then show- ed me how his dress was " broken," and begged his new father-and-mothcr to give him a new one. They are creatures of a different race. You treat them as you would treat affection- ate dogs. You beat them if they pick your pockets, as they do every chance they get, and then they offer to shovv^ you the boy who did it. I never got to the point of personally beating mine, but Imam beat a few of them every day. On one occasion my donkey- boy, Hassan, was angry with me because I would not let him buy feed for the donkey, 246 AS SEEN BY ME Ammon Ha, and rofnsod to brinp; him tip when I wanted to mount. I called to the dragoman, and said: '' Imam, Hassan won't bring up mv don- key." Imam looked at him a itioment in silence, then with a lightning slaj) on the cheek he laid him flat in the sand. I was horrified. But to my amazement Hassan hopped up and began to kiss my sleeve and to a])ologize, saying, ^^ Very good lady, hud donkey-boy. Hassan sorry. Very good lady." We have had three (^hristmases this year. The first was in Berlin, the second in Rus- sia, and the third on the Nile — the day after the fast of Ramazan is ended. Ramazan lasts only thirty days instead of forty, like our Lent. The thirty-first is a holiday. They present each other with gifts, do no work, and picnic in the graveyards. Between Esneh and Luxor we passed a steamer with some English officers on board, and their steamer was towing two flat-boats containing their regiments, all going to Kitchener in the Soudan. I used the field- glass on them, while my companion photo- graphed them. We waved to them, and they waved to us and swung their hats and sa- luted. At Edfou they caught up with us, and passed so close to our boat that the gen- tlemen talked to them and asked what their 247 ' 1*^ 11 1 , .. I AS SEEN BY ME ih'i regiments were. They said the Twenty-first Lancers and the Seaforth and Cameron Highlanders. Then their boat was gone. How could we know that those gallant offi- cers of the Twenty-first Lancers wonld so soon lead that daring cavalry charge at Om- diirman, and possibly one of those who sa- luted so gayly was the one killed on the aw- ful day ? It touched us very much, however, to think that they might be going to their death, and wo were glad they did not belong to us, little dreaming that the blowing-up of the Maine, of which we had just heard, would so soon plunge our own dear country into war, and that our own fathers and brothers and friends would be marching and sailing away to defend that same '^ Old Glory '' whose stars and stripes were floating over our heads, and whose gallant colors would succor the oppressed and avenge in- sult v/ith equal promptness and equal dig- nity. The temple of Denderah is not, to my mind, more beautiful than those of Luxor and Karnak ; in fact, both of those are more majestic, but the mural decorations of Den- derah are in a staie of marvellous preserva- tion. I own, after seeing that in some places even the original colors remained, that I quite held my breath as we approached the famous Hgure of Cleopatra. The sorceress 248 AS SEEN BY ME of the Nile ! The favorite of the goddess Hathor herself ! The siren who could tempt an emperor to forsake his empire or a gen- eral to renounce fame and honor more easily than a modern woman could persuade a man to break an engagement to dine with her rival ! Queen of the Lotus ! Empress of the Pyramids ! What grace, what charm T anticipated ! I wondered if she would bo portrayed floating down to meet Antony, with her purple and pei fumed sails, her cloth of gold garments, her peacocks, her ibex, her lotus-blooms, and if all her myste- rious fascinations would be spread before the delighted gaze of her humble worshipper. What I found is shown in the frontis- piece to this volume. Beauty unadorned with a vengeance ! From this time on I shall qiiestion the taste of Antony. I only wish he could have lived to see some American girls I know. We saw Karnak and Phihr by moonlight, and we lunched in the tombs of the kings, with hieroglyphics thousands of years old looking down upon our pickled onions and cold fowl, and we ploughed through the sands at Assouan and saw the naked Nu- bians, with a silver ear-ring in the top of their left ear, shoot the rapids of the first cataract. We stood, too, in the temple of Luxor, before the altar of Hathor, with the 249 H 1 • i mi -i f »' I 'i i Vl%X fi ' BB m iiillffi 1 111 Bin' fill i 11 In ii9 |ffl if M' ! AS SEEN BY ME sunset on one side and the moonrise on the other, and heard what her votaries say to the Goddess of Beauty. It was so mystical that we almost joined in the worship of the Egyp- tian Venus Aphrodite. It was so still, o majestic, so aloof from everything modern and new. The Nile is essentially a river of silence and mystery. The ibis is always to be seen, standing alone, seemingly absorbed in meditation. The camels turn their beauti- ful soft eyes upon you as if you were intrud- ing upon their silence and reserve. Never were the eyes in a human head so beautiful as a camel's. There is a limpid softness, an appealing plaintiveness in their expression which drags at your sympathies like the look in the eyes of a hunchback. It means that, with your opportunities, you might have done more with your life. Your mother looks at you that way sometimes in church, when the sermon touches a particularly raw nerve in your spiritual make-up. I always feel like apologizing when a camel looks at me. One moonlight night was so bright that our boat started about three o'clock instead of waiting for daylight, and the start swung my state-room door open. It was so warm that I let it remain, and lay there hearing the gen- tle swdsh of the water curling against the side 250 AS SEEN BY ME of the steamer, and seeing the soft moonlight form a silver pathway from the yellow bank across the river to my cabin door. The ma- chinery made no noise. There was no more vibration than on a sail-boat. And there was the whole panorama of the Nile spread before my eyes, with all its romance and all its mys- tery bathed in an enchanting radiance. Oc- casionally a raven croaked. Sometimes a jackal howled. An obelisk made an excla- mation-point against the sky, or the ruins of a temple fretted the horizon. It was the land of Ptolemy, of Rameses, of Hathor, of Horus, of Isis and Osiris, of Herodotus and Cleo- patra, of Pharaoh's daughter and Moses. It was the silence of the ages which fell upon me, and then and there, in that hour of abso- lute stillness and solitude and beauty un- speakable, all my dreams of the Nile came true. h I i I' !( f- t 'I ] \ \'\ iK I \m'% I > \ . si rl! I ; XII GREECE After our ship left Smyrna, where the camels are the finest in the world, and where the rugs set jou crazy, we came across to the Pirirus, and arrived so late that verv few of the passengers dared to land for fear the ship w^ould sail without them. It was blowing a perfect gale, the sea was rough, and the cap- tain too cross to tell us how long we would have on shore. I looked at my companion and she looked at me. In that one glance we decided that we would see the Acropolis or die in the attempt. A Cook's guide was watching our indecision with hungry eyes. We have since named him Barabbas, for rea- sons known to every unfortunate who ever fell into his hands. But he was clever. He said that we might cut his head off if he did not get us back to the boat in time. We as- sured him that we would gladly avail our- selves of his permission if that ship sailed without us. Then we scuttled down the heav- 252 AS SEEN BY ME ing stairway at the ship's side, and away we went over (or mostly through) the waves to the Pirieus. There we took a carriage, and at the maddest gallop it ever was my lot to travel we raced up that lovely smooth avenue, hetween rows of wi^d pepper-trees which met overhead, to Athens; through Athens at a run, and reached the Acropolis, hlown al- most to pieces ourselves, and with the horses in a white foam. Up to that time the x\cropolis had been but a name to me. I landed because it was a sight to see, and I thought an hour or so would be better than to miss it altogether. But when I climbed that hill and set my foot within that majestic ruin, something awful clutched at my heart. I could not get my breath. The tears came into mv eves, and all at once I was helpless in the grasp of the most powerful emotion which ever has come over me in all Europe. I could not under- stand it, for I came in an idle mood, no more interested in it than in scores of other won- ders I was thirsting to see ; Luxor, Karnak, Pliilie, Denderah — all of those invited me quite as much as the Acropolis, but here I was speechless witli surprise at my own emo- tion. I can imagine that such violence of feeling might turn a child into ?. woman, a boy into a man. All at once I saw the whole of Greek art in its proper setting. The 253 I < 1 •?' At ■S i, .f i i . is ! -5) AS SEEN BY ME ?'!' Venus of Milo was no longer in the Louvre against its red background, where French taste has placed it, the better to set it oif. Its cold, proud beauty was here again in Greece; the Hermes at Olympia; the Wing- less Victory from the temple of Nike Aptc- ros, made wingless that victory might never depart from Athens; the lovelier Winged Victory from the Louvre, with her electric poise, the most exhilarating, the most inspir- ing, the most intoxicating Victory the world has ever known, was loosed from her marble prison, and was again breathing the pure air of her native hills. Their white figures came crowding into my mind. The learning of the philosophers of Greece ; the '' plain living and high think- ing " they taught ; the unspeakable purity of her art; the ineffable manner in which her masters reproduced the idea of the stern, cold pride of aloofness in these sublime types of perfect men, wrung my heart with a sense of personal loss. I can imagine that Pygmalion felt about Galatea as I felt that first hour in the Acropolis. I can imagine that a woman wdio had loved with the passion of her life a man of matchless integrity, of superb pride, of lofty ideals, and who had lost that love irretrievablv through a fault of her own, wdiose gravity she first saw through his eyes when it was too late, might have felt as 25-1 \Tl' Louvre Frciich it it ofi'. Lgain in e Wing- ve Aptc- lit never Winged electric t inspir- le world r marble pure air res came diers of ;li tliink- 3urity of liicli her ern, cold types of sense of ^gmalion ; hour in I woman her life • superb lost that , of her ougli his e felt as AS SEEN BY ME I felt in that hour. All the agony of a hope- less love for an art which never can return ; all the sense of personal loss for the purity which I was completely realizing for the first time when it was too late ; all the intense longing to have the dead past live again, that I might prove myself more worthy of it, as- sailed me with as mighty a force as ever the human heart could experience and still con- tiniie to beat. The piteous fragments of this lost art which remained — a few columns, the renmants of an immortal frieze, the long lines of drapery from which the head and figure were gone, the cold brow of the Hermes, the purity of his profile, the proud curve of his lips, the ineffable wanness of his smile — I could have cast myself at the foot of the Par- thenon and wept over the personal disaster which befell me in that hour of realization. I never again wish to go through such an agony of emotion. The Acropolis made the whole of Europe seem tawdry. I felt ashamed of the gorgeous sights i had seen, of the rich dinners I had eaten, of the luxuries I had en- joyed. I felt as if I would like to have the whole of my past life fall away from me as a cast-off garment, and that if I could only beffin over I could do so much better with mv life. I could have knelt and beat my hands together in a wild, impotent prayer for the past to be given into mv keeping for just one 255 •1 ! I 11 hi ;"K I i n ',',r AS SEEN BY ME more trial, one more opportunity to live up to the beauty and holiness and purity i had missed. When I looked up and saw the naked columns of the Parthenon silhouetted against the sky, bereft of their capitals, ragged, scarred, battered with the war of wind and weather and countless ages, all about me the ruins seemed to say, " Your appreciation is in vain; it is too late, too late!" I have an indistinct recollection of stum- bling into the carriage, of driving down a steep road, of having the Pentelikon pointed out to me, of knowing that near that moun- tain lay Marathon, of seeing the statue of ^' Greece crowning Byron," but I heard with unhearing ears, I saw with imseeing eyes. I had left my heart and all my senses in the Acropolis. I believe that one who had left her loved one in the churchyard, on the way home for the first time to her empty house, has felt that dazed, unrealizing yet dumb heartache that I felt for days after leaving the Parthenon. It grew worse the farther I went away from it, and for two months I have longed for Athens, Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis. I wanted to stand and feast my soul upon the glories which were such living memories. All through Egypt and up the Nile my one wish was to live long enough and for the weeks to fly fast enough for me to get back 256 w AS SEEN BY ME to Athens. Now 1 am liero for the second time, and for as long as I wish to remain. We came sailing' into the harhor just at snnset. Such a sunset ! Such blue in the Mediterranean ! Such a soft haze on the purple hills ! How the gods must have loved Athens to place her in the garden spot of all the earth ; to pour into her lap such treasures of art, and to endow her masters with power to create such an art ! The approach is so beautiful. Our big black Russian ship cut her way in utter silence through the bluest of blue seas, with scarcely a rii)ple on the sun- lit waters, between amethyst islands studded with emerald fields, making straight for that which Avas at one time the bravest, noblest, most courageous, most beautiful country on earth. "The isles of Greece, the isles of Greece! Where burning Saj)pho loved and sung, Where grew the arts of war and peace, Where Delos rose and Phoebus sprung! Eternal summer gilds them yet, But all except their sun is set." Byron^s statue stands in the square, sur- rounded by evergreens ; his picture is in the Ecole Polytechnique, and his memory and his songs are revered throughout all Greece. How her beauty tore at his soul ! How her love for freedom met with an echo in his own heart ! No wonder he sang, with such a E 257 ,', \ 11 1' i I: J, ^ in It 'I; i AS SEEN BY ME tliome! It was enough to give a stone song iuu\ the very rocks utterance. It was Sunday, and as we drove tlirou^h the clean, white streets, feeling ahsolutely hushed with the beauty which assailed us on every side, suddenly we heard the sound of music, mournful as a dirge — a martial dirge. And presently we saw approaching us the saddest, most touching yet awful pro- cession I ever beheld. It was a military funeral. First came the band ; then came two men bearing aloft the cover to the cas- ket, wreathed in flowers and streaming with crape. Then, borne in an open coffin by four young officers of his staff, with bands of crape on their arms and knots of crape on their swords, was the dead office^, an old, gray-haired general, dressed in the full uni- form of the Greek army, Avith his browned, wrinkled, deep-lined hands crossed over his sword. The casket was shallow, and thus he was exposed to the view of the gaping multitude, without even a glass lid to cover his bronzed face, and with the glaring sun beating down upon his closed eyes and noble gray head. Just behind him they led his rid- erless black horse, with his master's boots re- versed in the stirrups and the empty saddle knotted with crape. It was at once majestic, heartrending, and terrible. It unnerved me, and yet it was not surprising to have such a 258 II ii AS SEEN BY ME moving spectacle greet lue on my return to Greece. We drove over the same road from the Piru'us to Athens, but in the two months of our absence thev had mended a worn phice in this road and had unearth i if ' 3 AS SEEN BY ME this marvel from \\w liaiid of Phidias; yet the work of destruction goes on, as only last year the head of th(^ rider fell and broke into a thousand ])ie('es, so that only the horse, the iigure, and the electric sj)lendor ef his wind-blown garments floating out behind him remain. There is so little of this frieze left that it requires the full scope of the imagina- tion, as one stands and looks at it, to [)icture this triumphal procession of Pan-Athenians which every four years formed at the Acrop- olis and wound majestically down through the Sacred Way to the Temple of Mysteries to sacrifice to the goddess in honor of Mara- thon and Salamis. But we followed this road ourselves. We, too, took the Sacred Way. On the loveliest day imaginable we drove along this smooth white road ; we saw the Bay of Salamis ; we wound around the sweetheart curve of her shore; the purple hills forming the cup which holds her translucent waters are the background to this famous battle-ground ; and beyond, set on the brow of one of these hills like a diadem, is all that remains of the Temple of Mysteries. Broken columns are there, pedestals, fragments of proud arches, now shattered and trodden under foot. Its majesty is that of a sleeping goddess, so still, so tranquil, proud even, in its ruins; yet in such utter silence it lies. In the cracks of 260 AS SEEN BY ME 1/1 the marblo floors, in tlio crtninir- of the walls, springing from luMicath the broken statue, voiceless yet persistent, grow searlet poppies — the sleep iU»wers of the world, yielding to this yellowing Temple of Mys- teries the quieting intluence of their pres- ence. The next day, almost in the spirit of wor- ship, we went to Mai'atlion. If Snlamis was my Holy Grail, then Marathon was my Meeea. We started out (piite early in the morning, with relays of horses to meet us on the way. It tried to rain onee or twice, but it seemed not to have the heart to spoil my crusade, for })resently the sun struggled through the ragged clouds and shed a hazy half light through their edges, which com- pletely destroyed the terrible, blinding glare and made the day simply ])erfect. The road to Marathon led through or- chards of cherry-trees white with blossom^i, through green vineyards, past groves of olive- trees which look old enough to have seen the Persian hosts, through groups of cypress- trees, such noble sentinels of deathless ever- green ; through fields of wild-cabbage blooms, making the air as sweet as the alfalfa-fields of the West; across the Valanaris bv a lit- tie bridge, and suddenly an isolated farm- house with a wine-press, and then — Mara- thon! 261 li ( AS SEEN BY ME "The mountains look on Mnratlum, And Marathon look:^ on tho sea, And musing there an hour alone, I dreamed tha< (Jreeee might still be free; For standing by tlie Persian's grave, I eould not deem myself a slave!" ^ p' ? lii f t=tfv-^' !fl. I , ^[aratlioii is only a vast plain, bnt what a plain ! It has only a small mound in tlio centre to break its smootlu.oss, but what courage, what patriotism, what nobility that mound covers ! It was there, many authori- ties say, that all the Athenians were buried who fell at iMarathon, although Byron claims that it covers the Persian dead. TIow Greece has always loved freedom! In the Ecole Polytechnique are three Turk- ish battle-flags and some shells and cannon- balls from a war so recent that the flags have scarce I v had time to dry or the shells to cool. What a pity, what an unspeakable pity, that all the glory of Greece lies in the past, and that the time of her power has gone forever! Nothing but her brave, undaunted spirit re- mains, and never can she live again the glories of her Salamis, her ^Marathon, her Thernio])vlie. We have seen Athens in all her g'lises, the Acropolis in all her moods, at sunrise, in a thunder-storm, in the glare of mid-day, at sunset, and yet w^c saved the best for the climax. On the last night we w^ere in Ath- 262 n,. Iree hat the hat that w AS SEEN BY ME ons we saw the Acropolis by moonlight. Wo nearly upset tlu^ whole Greek government to aecomplisli this, for the King has issned an edict that only one night in tin; month may visitors he; admitted, and that is the night of the full moon. But I had returned to Ath- ens with this one idea in my mind, and if I had been obliged to go to the King myself T wouhl have done so, and 1 know that I wonld have come av^ay victorious. Jle never could have had the heart to refnse me. It is impossible. I utterly abandon the idea of making even my nearest and dearest see what I saw and hear what I heard and think what 1 thought on that matchless night. There was just a breath of wind. The moun- tains and hills rose all around us, Lvkabet- tos, Kolonos — the home of Sophocles — Ily- me:tos, and Pentelikon with its marble quar- ries, made an undulating line of giay against the horizon, while away at the left was the Hill of Mars. How still it was ! How wonderful ! The rows of lights from the city converged towards the foot of the Acropolis like the topaz rays in a queen's diadem. The blue waters of the harbor glit- tered in the pale light. A chime of bells rang out the hour, coming faintly up to us like an echo. And above us, bathed, shrouded, swimming in silver light, was the Parthenon. The only flowers that grow 263* 111 m ■i ■ \ \h '■ It I J . ":' ,1 n t '■* .1 R.i i i AS SEEN BY ME at the foot of the Parthenon are the mar- guerites, the white-petaled, gclden-hearted daisies, and even in the moonlight these star- ry flowers bend their tender gaze upon their god. I leaned against one of the caryatides of the Erechtheion and looked bevond the Par- thenon to the Hill of Mars, where Paul preached to the Athenians, and I believe that he must have seen the Acropolis by moonlight when he wrote, " Wherefore, when we could no longer forbear, we thought it good to be left in Athens aldne!" What a week we have had in Athens ! If I were obliged to go home to-morrow, if Greece ended Europe for me, I could go home satisfied, filled too full of bliss to com- plain or even to tell what I felt. I have lived out the fullest enjoyment of my soul ; I have reached the limit of my heart's desire. Ath- ens is the goddess of my idolatry. I have turned pagan and worshipped. In all my travels I have divided individ- ual trips into two classes — those which would make ideal wedding journeys and those which would not. But the greatest difficulty I have encountered is how to get my happy wedded pair over here in order to begin. I have not the heart to ask them to risk their happiness by crossing the ocean, for the Atlantic, even by the best of ships, 264 mar- irted star- I their by get [ps, AS SEEN BY ME is ground for divorce (if you go dec'p enough) in itself. I have not yet tried the Pacific, but I am told that, like most people who are named Theodosia and Constance and Winifred, the Pacific does not live up to its name. However, if I could transport my people, chloroformed and by rapid tran- sit, to Greece, I would beg of them to journey from Athens to Patras by rail; and if that exquisite experience did not smooth away all trifling difficulties and make each wish to be the one to apologize first, then I would mark them as doomed from the beginning, by their own insensate and unappreciative natures, as destined to finish their honeymoon by separate maintenance and alimony. How I hate descriptions of scenery ! How murderous I feel when the conventional novelist interrupts the most impassioned love-scene to tell how the moonlight filtered through the ragged clouds, or how the wind sighed through the naked branches of the trees, just as if anybody cared what nature was doing when human nature held the stage ! And yet so marvellous is the fas- cination of Greece, so captivatir g the scenes which meet the eve from the uninvitinfir win- dow of a plain little foreign railroad train, that I cannot forbear to risk similar maledic- tions by saying that it is too heavenly for common words to express. 265 ,1 k. 1',? «i- ; : AS SEEN BY ME Now, I abominate railroads and I loathe ships. The only things I really enjoy are a rocking-chair and a book. But much as I detest the smell of car-smoke, and to find mv face spotted with soot, and ill as it makes me to ride backward, I would willingly travel every month of the year over the road from Athens to Patras. The mountains are not so high as to startle, the gulf not so vast as to shock. But with gentleness you arc drawn more and more into the net of its fas- cination until the tears well to your eyes and there is a positive physical ache in your heart. Greece is considerate. I have seen land- scapes so continuously and overpoweringly beautiful that they bored me. I know how to sympatize with Alfred Vargrave when he says to the Due de Luvois : " Nature is here too pretentious ; her mien Is too haughty. One likes to be coaxed, not com- pelled, To the notice such beauty resents if withheld. She seems to be saying too plainly, 'Admire me;' And I answer, 'Yes, madam, I do; but you tiro me.' " Not SO with Greece, for when you become almost intoxicated with her wonderful blues and greens and purples, and you move your head restlessly and beg a breathing-space, she compassionately recognizes your mood ? ; rr '1 Iloathe are a as I bd my :es nic ItravL'I from •e not ist as aro ;s fas- s and your land- ingly how n he ; com- me;' 1 tiifi !ome lues ►^011 r ace, Lood AS SEEN BY ME and lowers a silver veil over her brilliant beaiity, so that you see her through a gauzy mist, which presently tantalizes you into blinking your tired eyes and wondering what she is so deftly concealing. It is like the feeling which assails you when you see a veiled statue. You long for the scuIi)tor to chisel away the marble gauze and reveal tlu^ features. And when the craving becomes intolerable, lo ! Greece, the past mistress of the art of beauty, grants your desire, and with the regal gift of a goddess brings your soul into its fruition. Cleopatra would have tantalized and left your heart to eat itself oui in hopeless longing. But Cleo- patra was only a queen; Venus was a god- dess. Names which were but names to you be- fore become livmg realities now. We are crossing the Attic plain, and from that we find ourselves in the Thracian plain. What jrirl has not heard her brother spout concern- ing these names, famous in Greek history ? Then we are in Megara, on the lovely blue Bay of Salamis. From Megara the Bay of Salamis becomes Saronic Gulf, and after an hour or two of its unspeakable beauty we cross over to Corinth and find, if possible, that the blues of the Gulf of (Corinth are even more sapphire, that its purples are even more amethyst, that its greens are more 267 '\l '> i ^; :4 r I II I rif ! AS SEEN BY ME emerald than the blues and purples and greens of Salamis. From Corinth the road skirts the sea, and all these white plains are dcv'oted to the dry- injx of currants. At Sikvon, called " cu- cumber town," but originally, with the mys- tic beauty of the ancient Greeks, called " poppy town," the American school at Athens has made some wonderful excava- tions. It has discovered the supports of the stage of the famous theatre there. Then, still with the sea before us, we are at Aegi- um, a name full of memories of ancient Greece. It has olive, currant, grape, and mulberry plantations, and lies shrouded an /A Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 &< & AS SEEN BY ME and dim expectations I had no hopes at all. I was prepared to be gently and tranquilly pleased; not wildly excited, but satisfied: not happy, but contented with its beauty. But I have found more. The bay is more lovely than I anticipated, and I have discov- ered that Italian hair is not coal-black ; it be- gins, to be black at the roots, and evidently had every intention of being black when it start- ed out, but it grew weary of so much energy, and ended in sundry shades of russet brown and sunburned tans. It generally has these two colors, black and tan, like the silky coat of a fine terrier, and it \vaves in lovely little tendrils, and is much prettier than hair either all black or all brown. But I am ahead of my narrative. I am trying to decide whether Naples is more beautifully situated than Constantinople. Constantinople, being Oriental, fascinates me more. Western Europe begins to seem a lit- tle tame and conventional to me, because the pagan in my nature is so highly developed. I detest civilization except for my own selfish bodily comfort. When I eat and sleep I want the creature comforts. Otherwise I love those thieving Arab servants in Cairo (who would steal the very shoes off your feet if you dropped off for your forty v/inks) be- cause of their uncivilization and unconven- tionality. Civilization has not vet spoiled 274 m i i m AS SEEN BY ME them. I bought rugs in Cairo, and often when I went unexpectedly into my room I found mv Arab man - servant on his knees studying their patterns and feeling their silkiness. I had everything locked up, or perhaps he would have made worse use of his time; but somehow the childishness of the East appeals to me. Constantinople is so delightfully dirty and old. Mrs. Jimmie sniffs at me because I can stop the peasants who lead their cows through the streets of Xaples, and because I can drink a glass of warm milk ; Mrs. Jimmie wants hers strained. But if I can eat '' Turkish Delight '' in Constantinople, buying it in the bazaars, seeing it cut off the huge sticky mass with rusty lamp-scissors, perhaps dropped on the dirt-floor, and in a moment of abstraction polished off on the Turk's trousers and rolled in soft sugar to wrap the real in the ideal — if I can cope with that problem, surely a trifle like drinking unstrained milk, with the con- soling satisfaction of stopping the carriage in an adorable spot, with the blue waters of the bay curling up on its shore down below on the right, and a sheer cliff covered with moss and clinging vines and surmounted by a su- perb villa on the left, is nothing. For to eat or to drink amid such romantic surroundings, even if it were unstrained milk, was an expe- rience not to be despised. 275 »i. I AS SEEN BY ME t I Yet here are two cities situated like amphi- theatres upon the convex curve of two ideally beautiful harbors, Ho^v do you compare them ? Each according to your own temper and humor. You have seen hundreds of col- ored photographs both of Naples and Con- stantinople. But of the two you will find only Naples exactly like the pictures. Ev- erybody agrees about Naples. People dis- agree delightfully about Constantinople. Some can never get beyond the dirt and smells and thievery. Some never get used to the delicious thrills of surprise which ev- ery turn and every corner and every vista and ever}^ night and every morning hold for the beauty-lover. Nothing could be more heterodox, more bizarre^ more unconven- tional than Constantinople scenes. Noth- ing could be more orthodox than the views of Naples. To be sure, poets have written reams of poetry about it, travellers have sent home pages of rhapsodies about it, tourists have conscientiously '^ done " the town, with their heads cocked on one side and their fore- fingers on a paragraph in Baedeker; but just because of this, because evervbodv on earth who ever has been to Naples — man or wom- an, Jew or Gentile, black or white, bond or free — has wept and gurgled and had hys- teria over its mild and placid beauty, is one reason why I find it somewhat tame. Italian 276 AS SEEN BY ME 1^; ', scenery seems to me laid out by a landscape- gardener. Its beauty is absolutely conven- tional. Xobody will blame you if you ad- mire it. To rave over it is like going to church — it is the proper thing to do. People will raise their eyebrows if you don't, and watch what you eat, and speculate on your ancestry, and wonder about your politics. The beauty of Italy is so proper and Church of England that you are looked upon as a dissenter if you do not rhapsodize about it. But it disappoints me to feel obliged to follow the multitude like a flock of sheep and to take the dust of those feeble-minded tour- ists who have preceded me and set the pace. There is nothing in the scenery of all Italy to shock your love of beauty from the staid to the original. There is nothing to give your sensitive soul little shivers of surprise. There is nothing to make you hesitate for fear you ought not to admire; you hnow you ought. You feel obliged to do so because ev- erybody has done it before you, and you will be thought queer if you don't. There is a gentle, pretty - pretty haze of romance over Italian scenery which is like reading fairy- tales after having devoured Carlyle. It is like hearing Verdi after Wagner. The East has my real love. I find that I cannot rave over a pink and white china shepherdess when I have worshipped the Venus of Milo. 277 (^ i if V. XIII NAPLES The point of view is always the pivot of recollection. How ought one to remember a place ? There are a dozen ways of enjoy- ir g Naples, and twenty ways of being miser- aole in i^merica. Or turn it the other way, it makes no difference. It depends upon one's self and the state of the spleen. Be- fore I came to Europe I remember often to have been disgusted with persons who re- called Germany by its beer and Spain by its fleas, or those who said : '^ Cologne ! Oh yes ; I remember we got such a good breakfast there.'* Ah, ha ! It is so easy to sniff when one is mooning in imagination over cathedrals, but I have since taken back all those sniffs. I did not realize then the misery of standing on one foot all the morning in tombs, and on the other all the afternoon in museums, and then of going home to sleep on an iron- ing-board. Now I, too, think gratefully of the Bay of Naples as being near that good 278 AS SEEN BY ME bed, and of the Pyramids as being near the excellent table of Shepheard's. Why not ? Can one rave over Vt%snvius on an empty stomach, or get all the beauty out of Sor- rento with a backache ? One must be well and have good spirits when one travels. It is not so essential merely to be comfortable, al- though that helps wonderfully. But even to get soaking wet could not utterly spoil the road to Posilipo. What a heavenly drive! Although I think with more fondness of scal- ing the heights of Capri in a tremblin*^ little Italian cab, not because both views were not divinely beautiful, but because when in Capri my clothes were not damply sticking to me, and I had no puddle of water in each shoe. As I look back I believe I could write specific directions from personal experience on ^' How to be Happy when Miserable." Jimmie always bewails the fact that the American girl lives on her nerves. '' Goes on her uppers " is his choice phrase. Xever- theless,it pulled us through many a mental bog while travelling so continuously. Therefore, from ci dozen different recol- lections of Naples, eleven of which you may read in vour red-covered Baedeker, or Recol- lections of Italy, or Leaves from yiiy Note- Booh, or Memories of Blissful Hours, and similar productions, I have most poignantly to remember our shopping experiences in 279 |; '^ I I H AS SEEN BY ME IN'aples. But before launching my battle- ship I owe an apology to the worshippers of Italy. I can appreciate their rapturous memories. I share in a measure their en- thusiasm. To a certain temper Italy would be adorable for a honeymoon or to return to a second or a fifth time. But it is not in human nature, after having come from Rus- sia, Egypt, and Greece, to have one's pristine enthusiasm to pour out in torrents over the ladylike beauty of Italy, because these other countries are so much more unfrequented, more pagan, and more fascinating. But in daring to say that, I again pull my forelock to Italy's worshippers. To begin with, we were robbed all through Italy; not robbed in a common way, but, to the honor of the Italians let me say, robbed in a highly interesting and somewhat ex- citing manner. Somebody has said, " What a beautiful country Italy would be if it were not for the Italians !" We are used to having our things stolen, and to being overcharged for every- thing just because we are Americans, but we are not used to the utter brigandage of Italy. On the Russian ship coming from Odessa to Constantinople some of the second-cabin pas- sengers got into our state-rooms during din- ner and went through our hand-baggage, which we had left unlocked, and stole my 280 AS SEEN BY ME iilstor. And, of course, in Constantinople thoy warned us not to trust the Greeks, for it is their form of comparison to say, *^ He lies like a Greek," while in Greece the worst thing they can say is that " lie steals like a Turk." In Cairo it was not necessary to warn us, for everybody knows what liars and thieves Arabs are. is^ot a dav went bv on those donkey excursions on the Xile that the men did not have their pockets picked. The passengers on the Mayfloiucr lost enough silk hanakerchiefs to start a haberdasher's shop, and every woman lost money. In Cairo, whether you go to the bazaars or to a mosque to see the faithful at their prayers, your dragoman tells you not to have anything of value in your pockets, and not to carry your purse in your hand. But we had not even got througli the cus- tom-house at Brindisi, when Gaze's man recommended us to have our trunks corded and sealed, for they are Sv>metimes broken open on the train. We thought this rather a useless precaution, but Jimmie has travel- led so much that he made us do it. It seems that the King has admitted that he is power- less to stop these outrages, and so he begs foreign travellers to protect themselves, inas- much as he is unable to protect them. We stayed at the smartest hotel in Naples, but we had not been there two davs before 281 { AS SEEN BY ME JimmioV valises wore brokon opon, and all his studs and forty pounds in nionoy woro stolon. That frifjjhtonod us almost to death, but something worse ha|»|>ened. One day at three o\doek in the aft(M'noon my companion was sitting in her room writing a letter, and she happened to look up just in time to see the handle* of the door tnrn slowly and softlv. Then the door opened a eraek, still with- out a sound, and a man with a black beafd put in his head. As he met her eyes fixed squarely upon him he closed the door as silently as a shadow. She hurried after him and looked out, and ran up the corridor peer- ing into every possible corner, but no man could she see. He had disappeared as com- pletely as if he had been a ghost. She re- ported it to the ])roprietor, but he shrugged his shoulders, and said, '' Madam must have imagined it!" By this time v/e were all feeling rather creepy. However, as Jimmie says when w^e are all tired out and hungry and cross, '^ Cheer up. The worst is yet to come." One day my companion and Mrs. Jimmie and I went to one of the best shops in all Italy, to buy a ring. ^Irs. Jimmie was get- ting it for her husband's birthday. Now, Mrs. Jimmie's own rings are ex- tremely beautiful, and her very handsomest consists of a band of blue-white matched dia- 282 AS SEEN B Y M E monds which exactly fills tho .space hetween her two fingers, and is so heavy and so fine that only Tiffany conld duplicate; it. The hand of the ring is merely a fine wire, 'i'o try on Jiininie's ring, Mrs. dinnnie took off all hers and laid them on the connler. Now, mind von, this was a fjunons jeweller's where this happened. Hut when she had decide