THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESENTED BY PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID Glimpses of Europe BY Hon. Wm. A. Braman ELYRIA, OHIO 1001 OF J. B. SATAQE Copyright 1901 by Wm. A. Braman To my faithful^ true, and loving wife, Sophia E. Braman 9 this book is inscribed. Her practical common sense and sound advice have for thirty-six years generously contributed in making smooth the rough places in the pathway of my life. CONTENTS The Ocean Voyage 9-17 The Trossacks and Highlands of Scotland 18-28 Durham and Its Churches 29- 34 Agricultural Phases and Country Scenes in Eng- land 35-42 The Vastness of London , . . . 43- 49 First Impressions of the Continent 50- 57 The Germans in the "Vaterland" 58-66 Irksome Railroading on the Continent 67-74 Scenes in the Alps 75- 81 Antiquated Venice 82- 87 Venetian Enterprise 88- 93 Florence the Home of Art 94-100 The Eternal City 101-107 Obsequies of the Dead King 108-116 Pisa and Its Ancient Landmarks 117-124 Fascinations of the Alps 125-131 Glittering Paris 132-138 French Heroes 139-145 Beautiful Versailles .146-152 Farewell to Paris 153-160 Windsor and Its Castle 161-167 From Warwick to Stratford 168-176 Busy Birmingham 177-183 The Irish Metropolis and Her Landmarks 184-191 Killarney, Its Scenery and Surroundings 192-200 Giant's Causeway 201-210 M309237 INTRODUCTION While writing "Glimpses of Europe" for news- paper publication, I had no thought of incorporating the letters in a bound volume. Repeated requests that this be done, received from a variety of sources, accounts for my making the venture. A life-long friend, whose judgment I prize highly, under recent date wrote me as follows : "I have read with the liveliest interest your serial letters in the press, covering your trip through Europe. To my mind they are the most readable articles of their character, because of their composi- tion and the information imparted, that I have ever read. In this, I believe, those in the community who have read them as they appeared, will concur. I believe you owe it to the people, both of this genera- tion and those unborn, to put them in book form, for they will ever be read with increasing interest. "I hope that you can see your way clear to do this." An extract from a letter received from a lady friend says : "I suppose the suggestion that your foreign letters should appear in book form is not a new one to you, but I would like to help emphasize the fact that they are much too interesting and too valuable to be lost sight of. They contain more that is fascinating and less that is tedious than any letters of their character I have ever read, and I sincerely hope I may some day be the happy possessor of a bound volume, which would, I am sure, be a source of perpetual delight to my family." These flattering references settled it that a book should be added to the long list which coming gen- erations will allow to be buried under the dusts of antiquity. Well, what do you think of Europe? Did you visit any country better than this? were questions often asked and briefly replied to. In this volume they, with many other questions, are answered in detail. As an educator along patriotic lines there is nothing to compare with foreign travel. If a cog has slipped in the loyalty of an American, if he fails to appreciate the superiority of the land of his birth or adoption, and is inclined to magnify the hard side of human experience, the winter of his discontent may be shortened and his atmosphere sweetened by a few months of such education as a foreign trip only can furnish. My hope is that the reader will add to the knowledge received from this volume by a trip to the old world, which shall prove as enjoyable as the one herein described. THE AUTHOR. Glimpses of Europe. THE OCEAN VOYAGE FIRST PEEP OF THE IRISH COAST DESCRIPTION OF GLASGOW. On the 30th of June, 1900, the writer with Dr. H. S. Sheffield and F, O. Williams, of Elyria, O., sailed out of New York harbor on the City of Rome for a trip through Great Britain and the continent. This great ocean liner, the pride of the Anchor line of passenger steamers, had been chartered by Mr. F. C. Clark, tourist, of New York. Mr. Clark had, for stipulated amounts, entered into contract with the passengers to furnish the ocean passage to and from Europe, to pay all railroad fares on the other side, also all hotel bills, and to furnish conductors and guides. His agreement that everything should be first-class was faithfully kept. The length of the trip usually had reference to the length of their respective vacations or the length of their purses. Fifteen hun- dred people were stowed away in the City of Rome for a brief period of eight days; four hundred and sixty belonged in the first cabin, nearly as many to the second cabin, while the steerage passengers and the crew made up the aggregation. It was a cosmo- politan crowd, representing many nationalities, nearly 10 GLIMPSES OF EUROPE. every state and territory in the union and all vocations of life. There were ministers in search of education that could not be obtained at home, sixty members of the medical profession seeking rest and recreation for themselves and their patients, members of the bar whose pleas were not for jury verdicts, teachers need- ing relaxation from the confines of the schoolroom, western farmers, often garrulous and loud, prepared to give pointers on raising corn and cattle, pigs and pumpkins. This miscellaneous crowd without excep- tion bade farewell to the land of their birth, welcoming the bright prospects with high expectations, knowing that in a few brief months the accumulations perhaps of years would be exchanged for the pleasure and profit of a European trip. For a student of human nature there is no place like an ocean steamer. Restraints are usually left behind, and adjustments to the new conditions on ship board do not fail to call out qualities not sugges- tive of amiability or unselfishness. Two days were sufficient for congenial spirits to assemble in little groups, and the sets were more numerous than the countries represented. Travelers on our great lakes, occupying spacious staterooms and wide, comfortable berths, have but a faint conception of the narrow, cramped, inhospitable box which must be accepted by the pilgrims on the Atlantic, even after twelve to fifteen dollars extra is paid for location and special privileges. The gorgeous display of table furniture, coupled with the attractive menu cards, all intended to stimulate the appetite, fail in their purpose when one sniff of the kitchen disinfectants is taken, and then THE OCEAN VOYAGE. 11 the unfortunates who are booked for the second table who have soiled crockery, spilled coffee representing maps of Asia on the table linen, are subjects of com- miseration. How to kill time on the ocean is the potent every day problem. Sports of every conceivable form are resorted to, betting on the distance covered by the ship during the current twenty-four hours being the most common. It is on this sort of speculation that the slick gentry, the sports who follow the seas for a livelihood, make their largest winnings; these gam- blers are easily spotted, their fine cloth and conspic- uous diamonds are a complete give away to their nefarious calling. Not unfrequently they stand in with the officers of the ship, with whom they divide the fleeces of the unwary lambs ; of course the mass of the gambling is on a small scale, similar to the parlor games practiced at home. Our trip across the ocean was a most fortunate one. We had gentle breezes and smooth seas. Each day was a repetition of the day previous. Sunshine and bright prospects fur- nished a bright side and a silver lining to every cloud. The great mass of passengers, as soon as out of sight of land, commence longing for the land beyond. In this case there was no serious break in the tran- quility and enjoyment, except the thoughts which force themselves upon every loyal American as he takes the last look or the last gray streak in the west fades from his sight and he bids adieu to all that is dear in this world and becomes impressed with the dangers and vague uncertainties of a safe return. This was an occasion for the shedding of many a silent 12 GLIMPSES OF EUROPE. tear. In mid-ocean, although sailing under a British flag, our glorious Fourth of July was celebrated, with as much ardor and with a patriotism as intense as was ever seen in our broad land. We had the declaration of independence portrayed in all its impressiveness, and the American heart on board the City of Rome was fired by oratory of no inferior sort. There was one day when the numerous whales which were to be seen were not permitted to do all the blowing. On the morning of the eighth day passengers were out early and were rewarded by a sight of the Irish coast. Any land of any color would have been welcome, but the beautiful emerald green interspersed with the golden grain of the emerald isle like the land of promise to look upon seemed a paradise. At Moville, Ireland, the first stop, the most of our steerage contingent left us. They were generally the sons and daughters of Irish parents, who remained in the old home, while the children in search of some- thing better had spent a few years in America accu- mulating the money now to be used for the comfort of their parents in their declining years, or in paying their expenses to a home beyond the sea. The joy depicted in these faces when members of the same family were united was touching. Landing at Greenock, Scotland, 14 miles from Glasgow, we were treated to the first farce of an examination of our baggage by a custom house offi- cer. Liquors and tobacco in their various forms were diligently sought after, as Great Britain depends largely upon these commodities for her revenue. The impositions practiced by the smugglers were daring THE OCEAN VOYAGE. 13 and too numerous to recount. Our trip by rail to Glasgow was typical of the travel for thousands of miles through Europe. English carriages, unlike the passenger coaches in America, are notorious for what they do not possess, namely the comforts and conveniences which make travel in America a pleasure instead of a hardship. You enter an English passenger coach by a side door. If your department is filled you become one of either eight or ten passengers. The seats on each side facing each other bring you into close proximity with your neighbor on the opposite side. If one of your own family, a friend, or even a new found acquaintance that proves agreeable, you are fortunate, but in case of a brain fired with liquor, or a mouth uttering foul oaths, you must grin and bear it, as there is no remedy. You are literally in a box without proper ventilation and without the utilities needed for the comfort and convenience of the traveler, which are never wanting in an American coach. During a ride covering more than 6,000 miles and during the great- est heat of summer, I failed to see in a single case a drop of water to quench the thirst of passengers. This wanton disregard, as you must know, occasions much suffering. While some of the countries show a dis- position to adopt American methods of transporta- tion, others are as deep as ever in the ruts. This may be fairly attributed in a measure to government own- ership of the railroads. On the continent nearly or all steam roads are owned and managed by the govern- ment and are non-progressive, there being no compe- tition. There is no incentive for improvement, and 14 GLIMPSES OF EUROPE. the traveler at the end of his European tour recalls the hours spent in being dragged through European countries at a poor dying rate as something akin to horror. True, the countries of Great Britain each have some fairly well equipped lines and make respect- able time, but after crossing the English channel you will hunt in vain for the well-equipped up-to-date tramways. Glasgow, the capital and leading city of "Bonnie" Scotland, contains about 1,000,000 inhabi- tants. It is built mainly of freestone, and lacks the beauty and fine architecture of most European cities of similar size. It is the center of a great deal of wealth, is essentially a manufacturing city and is liter- ally a hive of industry. The trail of its congested population is easily traced by its squalor and destitu- tion, in the poverty stricken portions the depths of human depravity are being conjured with. Degrada- tion as the result of drink is in evidence on all sides. Red nosed women, blear-eyed, besotted men, confront you not only in localities where sin is the thriftiest plant, where crime is hatched and low dives flourish, but in the busy marts, where the best people congre- gate, the evidence of drunkenness is forced upon you. I witnessed more inebriation, more cases in Glasgow requiring the attention of the police than in any other city of Europe. The evil of intemperance long ago became so potent in Glasgow that the authorities became alarmed at its inroads. Its effect not only upon the moral and social conditions created alarm, but the intellectual standards were menaced to a degree which called for interference. Laws most stringent for regulating the drinking places were passed and are being enforced. But appetite, the THE OCEAN VOYAGE. 15 grim monster, holds in his clutch its thousands of victims of both sexes, who either from their own indiscretions, or by inheritance, have become slaves through the drink habit. The free use of distilled liquors, in other words Scotch whisky, is largely responsible for this national calamity. A peculiar feature of this deplorable custom is in the fact that women in Glasgow are addicted to drink nearly as much as men, and that the police court on Monday morning finds nearly as many women as men arraigned for drunkenness. Glasgow boasts of the best organized, best directed and most efficient city government in the world. Its 72 lawmakers, or members of its city council, are selected from its army of successful business men. Lord Provost Chisholm, who has been connected with its city government for thirty years, informed me that he had never known a case of crookedness, not even a charge or suspicion of crookedness laid at the door of their city government. The city owns its public utilities and by good manage- ment the cost of water, gas, electric lights and car fares have been reduced to the patrons and consumers. Great Britain has less than three times the number of square miles in Ohio, while Scotland has about three- fourths the area contained in our state. The census of 1880 showed 14 persons to the square mile in the United States, while in Great Britain in the following year the figures showed 289 to the square mile, or 35 millions on 121,000 square miles. With such a con- gested population, wages of common laborers are kept down to a low level. I saw women in the field digging potatoes for ten cents a day. Common laborers at work on the streets for from 50 to 60 cents per day. 16 GLIMPSES OF EUROPE. Operators in the factories were receiving less than half the prices paid for the same kinds of labor in this country. Mechanics work for much less than here, and all classes of laborers have a discouraged look and appear to be living without hope. Glasgow has many traditions. Years ago it was the scene of internal strife, of domestic and foreign war, of victory and defeat, making up her full share of blood curdling history. Scotland had several heroes, which are being remembered with expensive and beautiful monu- ments. The Scots revel in the glorious record made on the field of battle by her Bruce and her Wallace, as well as the record in the literary world made by her favorite sons, Sir Walter Scott, Robert Burns, and Thomas Carlyle. Glasgow points with pride to one of the very finest city buildings in the world, to her extensive and elegant botanical gardens and to her exposition buildings. Transportation facilities of a public nature in Glasgow are limited to three miles of electric road and 40 miles of horse cars, that is, surface roads, but through many subterranean passages pas- sengers are rushed through utter darkness. The city has one immense cathedral, built in the fifth century, around which the interests of tourists center. She supports a great university, where her young men are fitted for the various professions. The health of Glasgow is precarious. The range of mortality being from 19 to 21 per 1,000. Being in the same latitude as Labrador, the nights in summer are exceedingly short, twilight lasting until near 11 o'clock, and daylight appearing about two in the morning. For much valuable information obtained relating to the moral, social t and industrial conditions THE OCEAN VOYAGE. 17 of this old city, I am indebted to our consul, Hon. Samuel M. Taylor, ex-member of 68th, 69th and 70th general assemblies, and for four years secretary of state of Ohio. Mr. Taylor is an appointee of President McKinley, and his high standing, socially and offi- cially, in his adopted home, shows that the president made no mistake. THE TROSSACKS AND HIGHLANDS OF SCOTLAND EDINBURG AND ITS BEAUTIES THE HOME OF SIR WALTER SCOTT THOMAS CARLYLE. From the Scotch metropolis to Edinburgh by way of the far-famed Trossacks was a day's ride by steamer, rail and stagecoach. The Trossacks, which include lakes Loch Lomond and Loch Katrine have long been the subject of poetry and song. The deep, clear, sparkling water of these lakes, the scenery which fringe the shores, the mountains tower- ing 3,000 feet above the level of the water abounding in heather in all its varieties, the cottages along the banks, erected for the summer homes of the million- aires of Glasgow, combined with the bright sunshine of July 10th to make the day's trip smack of enchant- ment. Ten miles ride in open coaches over the hills and through the valleys gave our party a hint of life in the highlands of Scotland. This life was emphasized by the bag-pipers, who, for the pennies tossed to them, gave us generous amounts of Scotch ballads. There was a flavor of originality or naturalness in this old, old country that was striking. The Scotch cattle with their broad horns, hollow backs and long woolly hair ; the black faced native sheep with wool touching the ground, getting their living on the mountains among the ever-present heather; the wild flowers in great variety and profusion, and the roads winding around i* HIGHLANDS OF SCOTLAND. 19 and over the mountains, gave a romantic tinge to the day's enjoyment. Beyond the lakes we visit Stirling Castle, eleven centuries old, never taken by force of arms; it was sometimes surrendered for want of food or water, but every attempt to capture it by force was resisted. This old fortress, erected on a high eminence, rises 1,000 feet above the common level. Its massive walls, covering several acres, are well preserved. Within we were shown the room where King James killed Doug- las, after which he forced his body through a little window, landing it on the rocks hundreds of feet below. From the top of the castle, in the distance, though in plain sight, lies the field of Bannockburn, familiar to the school boys of fifty years ago; even young Scotchmen today are pleased to remind the American traveler of the fact that her Bruce, with 30,000 men, upon this famous battleground won a victory in the 13th century over 100,000 Englishmen, thereby securing Scotch independence. Stirling Castle is one of the comparatively few castles now occupied and kept in order; within its walls are many relics of barbarism. There are great quantities of artillery stored, guns and other munitions of war long since out of date. The rude pulpit once occupied by John Knox, the great reformer, and also an immensely long list of interesting curiosities which have been stored there for cent'uries. The walls of the castle, varying in thickness from four to nine feet, the little, cheerless rooms, the narrow winding stair cases, the diminutive windows, heavily grated, were not calcu- lated to inspire the tourist with envy of the people 20 GLIMPSES OF EUROPE. who lived in the middle ages in that particular locality. Tales of blood were related by the guides in all their hideousness. Every room in the castle has a history, suggestive of barbarism. Outside the castle is an elegant monument erected to the memory of Wallace, and near by is a great block of granite upon which thousands of culprits were beheaded. The ride from the castle to Edinburgh was by the way of Firth of Forth bridge, one and one-half miles long, and the longest bridge in the world. It is a marvel, and a great triumph of skillful engineering. Edinburgh boasts of its beauty. It has a popula- tion of 400,000, and for architecture, fine finish and beautiful homes it has few equals and no superiors in Europe. Its Princess street is the pride of Scotland, while its miles and miles of four-story stone flats are suggestive of elegance and comfort. Edinburgh is scrupulously clean. Her pavements, her parks, and her public places are all free from neglect. There is a deliberation in the business methods of her shop-keepers that surprises the Americans. An American opening his store as late as eight o'clock a. m. would excite remarks calling out predictions of ultimate failure, while the Scotch merchant opens at his convenience, perhaps 8 o'clock, perhaps 9 or even 10:30. Edinburgh Castle, the most conspicuous structure in the city, has traditions, historical wonders without limit. The curios stored within its walls excite a keen interest in every beholder. In the middle of the street, not far from the castle, may be seen a marble slab which marks the grave of John Knox. HIGHLANDS OF SCOTLAND. 21 Hplyrood Palace, the home of Mary, Queen of Scots, in charge of the government, is kept in a fair state of preservation. It was here that Mary suffered the reverses which ended in her being beheaded by order of Queen Elizabeth, eleven years later. The exact spot where Riggio was assassinated at the instance of her husband was pointed out. Even the bed occupied by Queen Mary, the furniture which adorned her room, are kept in order for the sight- seers and the English shillings which in a steady stream are pouring into the cash box. Edinburgh emphasizes the tributes which Scotland pays to her honored dead. Judging from the costly monuments and elegant memorials, Sir Walter Scott stands first in the hearts of his countrymen. From 1798 to 1826, Sir Walter honored Edinburgh with his presence. I saw the house which he occupied, and where many of his choicest productions were written. Edinburgh has many old, old structures, giving that portion of the city first erected an ancient appearance. The church of John Knox still stands, but most of the old public buildings are occupied as cheap tene- ments where poverty and squalor are the leading features. From Edinburgh to Melrose Abbey, the quaint old ruin, is but a short ride. A portion of the walls of the Abbey still stand. It was first built in the eleventh century and was destroyed three times before abandonment. It is here that the heart of Bruce is buried, and the ancient records on the tombstones near at hand serve to remind the traveler that he is being confronted with 22 GLIMPSES OF EUROPE. the memories of the long-dead past. The ruins of Melrose Abbey were ever a favorite resort of Sir Walter Scott, and from its historic walls and the illus- trious dead that rest within the enclosure, the great poet received inspiration which has delighted the admirers of his poetic masterpieces. Speaking of the visitors to the Abbey, Scott says, "The pillared arches were over their heads, and beneath their feet were the bones of the dead." Abbotsford, the country home of Sir Walter Scott, scarcely four miles from Melrose Abbey, excites the profound interest of all visitors. Twelve hundred acres of fertile Scotch soil, through which runs the Tweed, was the spot selected by this man of letters for a country seat suggestive of a palace. It was here that he erected one of the most elegant and most extensive residences in all Europe. It was the climax of his pride and ambition the dream of his literary inspiration to leave in Abbotsford a monument which should endure, was fully realized. Neither money nor pains were spared to erect in the most sub- stantial manner, and to complete in all its appoint- ments, a structure which should be a lasting credit to his memory. This property is preserved intact, as it left the hands of Sir Walter, its architect and builder. It is owned by his great grand-daughter, who realizes a handsome income each year from the hands of the swarms of visitors that flock to Abbotsford. Every visitor is shown through the library, where 20,000 volumes of Scott's own selection are upon the shelves. There are paintings, statuary and other works of art. Through the room of curios, there is stored an incon- HIGHLANDS OF SCOTLAND. 23 ceivable variety of the world's curiosities, every implement of human torture that genius could invent, from the thumb-screw, the implement for crushing the human skull, and the rack for pulling human beings into shreds, is on exhibition. There are firearms and coats of arms, even the oaken chest in which was found the skeleton of the bride who playfully secreted herself as related in the Mistletoe Bough, pipes and snuff-boxes in profusion. In his writing room stands the desk, the pens, the inkstand and the chair occupied and used by the great novelist during his last days; even the last suit of clothes (fashioned uniquely) that he wore, seventy years ago, is kept on exhibition and contributes to filling one of the most delightful hours spent in Europe. The great novelist was a many-sided man. He was not only the leading writer of fiction in his time, but a poet of genius and signal ability. He enter- tained with a hospitality which made him one of the most popular society men of his time ; his high sense cf honor and pardonable pride were the means of shortening his days, in a Herculean effort to pay the last dollar of an indebtedness incurred through an unfortunate partnership. There is a charm and a fascination in being asso- ciated or in touch even for one brief hour with the handiwork of the writer of Rob Roy and Ivanhoe, and I shared with others the regret of leaving Abbotsford all too soon. The devotion of the great writer to his native land may be inferred from his familiar lines which follow: 24 GLIMPSES OF EUROPE. "Breathes there a man with soul so dead, Who never to himself hath said, This is my own, my native land! Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned. As home his footsteps he hath turned From wandering on a foreign strand; If such there be, go, mark him well; For him no minstrel raptures swell, High though his titles, proud his name, Boundless his wealth as wish can claim Despite those titles, powers and pelf, The wretch, concentered all in self, Living, shall forfeit all renown, And, doubly dying, shall go down To the vile dust from whence he sprung Unwept, unhonored and unsung." Robert Burns, or Bobbie Burns, as the Scots are wont to call him, was born in 1759 at a cottage about two miles from Ayr and twelve miles from Glasgow. His father, Wm. Burness, was a Scottish peasant "who wrought hard and practiced integrity." His little farm afforded but a scanty living, and the tides of adversity had to be reckoned with. Carlyle says that Robert was fortunate in his father, he being a man of thoughtful and intense character, valuing knowledge, possessing some, and open-minded for more. Robert, on account of his unceasing toil, speaks of himself at sixteen as a galley slave. He was the principal laborer on the farm, and thrashed the corn with his own hands. Poverty had sunk the family below the reach of a cheap school system. They were unable for years to indulge in butcher's meat. Robert was possessed of a fiery temper and a thirst HIGHLANDS OF SCOTLAND. 25 for knowledge that was insatiable. When a boy he procured a few little volumes, which he devoured with avidity. At meal times. he ate with a spoon in one hand and had a book in the other. He read while driving his cart, and repeated while following the plough. While at work in the fields, Robert says: "I invented new forms and was inspired with new ideas." Poets are born, not made, but this was a case of poetic genius reaching the highest pinnacle by one of the rockiest of roads. He says that in his boyhood he was constantly inspired with the wish : "That I, for poor auld Scotland's sake, Some useful plan or book could make, Or sing a song, at least." Cheered by a burning ambition, and borne up by a buoyant humor, his early productions found favor and encouragement. The success of his first volume turned the current of his life. All his plans were changed, and he removed to Edinburgh, became associated with and took a high position as a poet among men of letters. Sir Walter Scott, who knew him in Edinburgh, says: "I never saw such another eye in a human head ; the eye alone indicated the poetic character and temperament." He says further: "His person was robust, his manners rustic, not clownish." But, alas ! Burns was cursed with a social trend. He inherited the poverty of his father, but not his correct habits nor Christian character. Of a convivial nature, he took to dissipation to drown his reverses, which only brought wretchedness and woe to himself and family. He died at the age of thirty-seven, on the day of the 26 GLIMPSES OF EUROPE. birth of his last son. Like many another genius, his work was not fully appreciated until after he passed away. His poems afforded him but a scanty living, and he was haunted on his death-bed by fear of imprisonment for debt. Burns could hardly make money enough to afford a poor living, but he could make poetry that elevated him to the highest plane of poetical geniuses. The little cottage out on the farm, where a good share of his life was spent, was covered with vines, and roses were blooming under the front windows; the broad, old-fashioned fireplace and some pieces of carved furniture gave the modest little home an air of com- fort; the sixpences received from the tourists during the year for an inspection of the hallowed spot, aggre- gate a large sum. Burns is idolized by his native countrymen, and monuments to his memory are frequent. Inside of his costly monument at Edinburgh I saw much of his original manuscript, as well as a large collection of curios selected by himself. There was also his gun, knife and fork, snuff-box, pipes, etc. Thomas Carlyle, one of the brainiest of all literary characters, was born in Dumfreshire, Scotland, in 1795 and died in 1881. Carlyle studied for the min- istry, but his religious views precluded him from the pulpit of the Scottish church, and he embraced litera- ture as a profession. His "Sartor Resartus," his "History of the French Revolution/' and his contribu- tions to the leading magazines, gave him a world- wide notoriety as a man of letters, and a literary star of the first magnitude. As a writer of force and genius HIGHLANDS OF SCOTLAND. 27 Scotland never produced a greater, but unfortunately a bad stomach and a few bad disappointments made him a pessimist. He saw the world through smoked or clouded glasses, and his satire and sarcasm indi- cated that he was on bad terms with himself. For intellectual scope, however, profound judgment and force of expression, Carlyle was without a peer. His industry and intellectual application equipped him for literary warfare. His use of meat-axe rhetoric made him a terror to his enemies, which were multiplied by his skillful thrusts. Unlike Walter Scott, Carlyle lacked diplomacy. With the face and the tempera- ment of a dyspeptic, his talent was often a source of weakness. Clear-headed, honest and fearless, he attracted by his brilliancy, while his cold, morose for- bidding face repelled many of his would-be friends. Had the intellect of Carlyle found lodgment in a broad, generous nature, had he been, like Sir Walter, a good entertainer' instead of leading a secluded, retired kind of life, he would have been the idol of Scotland while living, instead of the admired (with a qualification) after death. Such keen gifts of percep- tion, such singularly forcible diction as his, rarely becomes the asset of any writer. Monuments to his memory are conspicuous in all the leading cities of Scotland. For three hundred years Scotland was under the domination of Rome ; a part of this period was during the reign of Julius Caesar. The Scots were originally Irish Celts. The peculiar dialects of the Highlanders was and is a sort of confused mixture of the Gallic, the Pict and English tongues. Properly analyzed, 28 GLIMPSES OF EUROPE. this language might be termed a neighborly com- promise. The middle ages witnessed in the highlands a condition of semi-barbarism, but after the fourteenth century there was improvement, and a higher plane of civilization was reached. A race of sturdy, resolute people has been cultivated and perpetuated. The Highlanders take great pride in their traditions and historical achievements. Loyal to their government and true to their instincts as a nation, the Scotch people, in point of honesty and integrity, stand high. The physical conditions of Scotland take a wide range. The lowlands are generally rich and produc- tive of grass, oats, potatoes and all root crops, while the highlands afford p'asture for sheep and goats. There are large tracts which produce little besides heather, and are practically, worthless, except for minerals, and for peat, which is used for fuel. The scenery in the different belts, of territory is in marked contrast, but as a rule is striking and beautiful. The population of Scotland is unevenly distributed, from twelve persons to the square mile as a minimum in the highlands to ten hundred and twenty-six as a maxi- mum in the manufacturing districts, covers the range. The manufacture of iron and iron products leads all others in Scotland. The rural economy observed is about the same as the other countries of Britain. The good health, out- side of cities, and low death rate is attributed to almost universal use of oatmeal and the small variety com- posing daily diet. There is little of undermining of health and vigor with luxurious living. An inheri- tance of poverty has guaranteed the Highlanders against such excesses as are apt to follow in the train of large wealth. DURHAM AND ITS CHURCHES QUAINT OLD YORK COMMERCIAL PETERBOROUGH WHAT ENG- LAND HAS STOOD FOR, FOR THE LAST 500 YEARS. Out of Scotland into old England the rich Scottish brogue is left behind, or exchanged for the numerous dialects which one hears in even a short trip through England, and then there is a noticeable difference in the gait of the inhabitants. The erect form and the elastic step of Edinburgh is almost lost sight of in Durham, where the swinging gait predominates, and the majority of men seem as old at forty as they ought to appear at fifty. Our train brought no coals to New Castle, but our clothes were saturated with coal smoke and more or less coated with coal dust, as we pulled out of the murky, sooty, begrimed city. Our next stop in England was at the old city of Durham, located in one of the most northern shires in England. The landscapes as seen from the railroad were not calculated to impress the stranger favorably who had pictured England as a paradise. In the valleys there were evidences of fertility, in the good crops of wheat and grass, but the most of the land was broken, ranging from high hills to mountains, with black, naked, barren regions, the elevations ranging from 1,000 to 2,200 feet above the sea. Some of these extensive tracts are rich in minerals, the limestone being the most extensive and productive in the king- dom. In the productive portions of the county 30 GLIMPSES OF EUROPE. Durham cattle were numerous; the cows are said to be the best milk-producers in the country. Mutton breeds of sheep are kept by the farmers/ The city of Durham, fourteen miles south of New Castle, in ancient days was a small Roman camp, but the city proper dates only from the tenth century. It is remarkable for its prodigal expenditures and the erection of its churches, and its great cathedral built by the Normans. t This cathedral, which from time to time has received important additions, is 507 feet in length by 200 in extreme breadth, with a central tower 214 feet in height and two smaller ones 138 feet high. It has nine altars, and contains a variety of curious and interesting printed books and MS. which have been preserved from the eleventh century. The churches and cathedrals of those old days were not only expensive affairs, but the records show that their maintenance was along the most extravagant lines, the salary of a bishop being an enormous sum, and even as late as the eighteenth century his income was fixed at $40,000 per annum, and the total cost of church maintenance per year as late as 1834 was $185,000. Beside the cathedral, Durham has seven parish churches, all Protestant. The city contains but two manufactories of importance, a carpet factory and a large mill for the preparation of mustard. The population of Durham is only about 15,000, but its expenditures for public worship would not be warranted in any American city having 100,000 inhabitants. There has been an evident decline in both wealth and population during the last two cen- turies. The high banks of the river, which we crossed DURHAM AND ITS CHURCHES. 31 to reach the heart of the city, including the cathedral, were richly wooded and picturesque. Along these banks were well-kept paths, an old castle, old houses of ancient architecture, and terraced gardens, giving that portion of the city a unique appearance and eliminating all impressions of anything modern or up-to-date. Both the cathedral and the castle were made targets of by the guns of Oliver Cromwell in the 16th century. York, a quaint old city encircled in high walls first erected by the Romans, is a wonder to all strangers. The delightful irregularity of its streets, the odd archi- tecture of its old, old buildings, the abstracted infor- mality of the business places as having been perpet- uated for many centuries, furnish an open door to mysteries worth studying. Right in the center of the city I rode through a street barely wide enough for a single carriage, overhead the grim old bricks forming the fronts of the blocks, almost touched each other. As these single tracked streets admitted of no teams moving in opposite directions, progress was neces- sarily slow. The entire caravan must wait while the close-fisted housewife bargained for a paper of pins, a bunch of lettuce, or a sheep's head ; besides the neigh- borhood gossip must not suffer absolute neglect. Generations have come and gone, and yet these ancient fortresses seem to go on forever. To my question on entering a little eating house, "How long has this been occupied for this purpose?" came the reply, "I don't know, sir; I do know that it has been a public 'ouse for two hundred years, though." We were shown the first Parliament house built in 1160, 32 GLIMPSES OF EUROPE. the birthplace of Constantine, and the spot where the notorious Dick Turpin knocked a man down and was arrested and executed for a murder committed in London but a few hours before. This unique old city has 100,000 inhabitants, a majority of whom derive their support from the railroads; of course it has a cathedral, with the usual attraction. Our cab driver let out a sigh for another Oliver Cromwell to reform some of the dogmas of the present day. Peterborough, a city of something more than 20,000 inhabitants, chiefly located in Northampton- shire on the river Nene, is seventy-six miles north of London, by the Great Northern Railway. This was our last stop before entering London. Built along the river on the north side, the streets are broad and straight, and contained many fine buildings. The first bridge over the Nene was erected in 1140, and the last in 1872. The cathedral of St. Peter is the third church that has occupied the present site, the first one being built in 1656 and destroyed by the barbarous Danes in 1670. The present cathedral was one hundred and twenty years in building, and is one of the three Norman cathedrals left standing in the kingdom. The peculiar features of the present build- ing gives it an architectural interest, though hardly entitled to a place among cathedrals of first rank. The extreme length of the building is 471 feet and breadth 156 feet. Cromwell's soldiers, in the 16th century, made a wreck of the property, by destroying the brass monument, burning the ancient records, leveling the altar and screen, defacing the windows and demolishing the cloisters. A portion of the cathe- DURHAM AND ITS CHURCHES. 33 dral .was taken down later to repair the damage done by the soldiers. The remains of Mary, Queen of Scots, were here interred in 1857, but twenty-five years later were removed to Westminster Abbey. Peterborough is a commercial city of some impor- tance. It sustains a large live stock market, where cattle, sheep and swine are purchased for London. Its educational establishments include a training col- lege for schoolmasters, a charity school established in 1721. It has also benevolent institutions including a dispensary infirmary, almshouses, and a union work- house. A large trade in corn, coal, and timber is carried on. Its principal manufacture is in imple- ments of various kinds. Like Durham, the investment per capita in its public buildings is largely in excess of similar outlays in this country. With an established church, and a thousand years for collecting tithes, a show of capital in church property was bound to result. During the three hundred years that England was under Roman domination she was treated by her rulers as islanders, belonging to another world. For a long period after being relieved from the Roman yoke her fortunes hung in the balance. War of con- quest or of defence was almost unceasing. She was overrun by the Danes, and her internal strifes were hardly less bloody. Teutonic blood upon her soil was victorious, and the progeny of the Teutons have in a marked degree given character to, and shaped the destinies of the English people. To write a history of England covering the last eleven hundred years would be to write a history of 34 GLIMPSES OF EUROPE. civilization and its marvelous march, with all that pertains to growth of intellectual power, of wisdom, of raising mankind to higher levels, of the advance- ment of religious freedom, of elimination of savagery and cruelty, and of humane treatment of the van- quished and the promotion of better home life and better systems of government. In all of these, and in many others of a similar character, England, for the past five hundred years, has been a leader, and the most conspicuous in this work of any government or people. Her enterprise and her wars of conquest have added to her possessions in a degree that has kept her in the front rank as regards wealth and power. AGRICULTURAL PHASES AND COUNTRY SCENES IN ENGLAND LONDON A WORLD BY ITSELF WESTMINSTER ABBEY LONDON TOWER. Before entering London, a few words regarding the agricultural phases and landscapes of Great Britain. Scotland and England proved a delightful surprise. The deep fertility of the most of its soil, es- pecially the low lands, the systematic methodical pro- cesses of the farmers, the bountiful crops of wheat, oats, barley, hay and the various root crops, were a revelation. Unlike America the British isles are com- paratively free from drought. Nature deals bounti- fully with her moisture during the entire year, and the living green of her fields is a joy forever. The most of the country through both Scotland and England has a finished appearance. The fields are usually small, the walls separating them are in fine repair, the roads are all narrow and perfect in their construction, and the live stock without exception is well bred and well fed. There is no haphazard farming in Great Britain ; crops do not come by chance, but by the pursuit and by virtue of well settled, well established principles. Opportunities for domestic enjoyment in the rural districts of Great Britain are almost unlimited as relates to the well-to-do classes. There are thousands of fine old estates which seem to offer every comfort that heart could wish. The residences are usually located on an eminence commanding complete view 36 GLIMPSES OF EUROPE. of the broad acres under cultivation. There are no rail fences to mar the beauty of the landscapes. Pastures without numerous shade trees are an exception, and a dense grove of forest, fruit and ornamental trees near the country seat is the rule. Instead of the large bank barns to be found in our best agricultural districts, groups of stacks, ranging from five to thirty in num- ber, all skillfully and carefully thatched, are in evi- dence as proof of the high prices of building material and low price of labor. A long letter could be written giving methods for converting the crops of hay and straw into fertilizer of approved quality, of its effect upon the meadows producing three to four tons of hay per acre for fifty successive years, but space forbids. Many a lesson could be taken in the British Isles with profit to American agriculturists. Our locomotive had a long pull through the suburbs of London, there were miles and miles and acres and acres of brick tenement houses as near alike as two peas in a pod. From the depot where we landed it was three miles to Westminster Palace (our hotel) and covering this distance gave us but a faint conception of the vastness of London with its five or six million inhabitants and the greatest city of the world. London, in fact, is a world of itself. It seems like an aggregation of large cities. You can ride for days and days, from center to center of population. You may keep going until you think you are acquainted with its highways and byways, only to find that you have just begun. London moves its population mainly with omnibuses and cabs, one bus company owning 8,000 horses with busses enough AGRICULTURAL PHASES IN ENGLAND. 37 carrying twenty-six persons, sixteen on top and ten inside, to employ them. The horses are the best that money will buy for this purpose, each driver has six teams allotted him, which work from two to two and a half hours a day, the bus fare being from two to four cents of American money for each passenger accord- ing to the distance traveled. All horses have free rein and wear as little harness as possible. Many of them are from Chicago, and gray is the predominating color. The subterranean roads of the city, both trolley and steam cars, do an immense business. London, unlike New York, has no sky-scrapers ; there is a striking uniformity in the height and architecture of her business properties. The thing perhaps which makes the deepest impression on a stranger in the great city is the living, moving swarms of humanity to be seen on the leading business streets. Who they are and where they are going is a constant wonder- ment. That there are numberless places to go is patent to every stranger. The cheapest thing in London is a ride in one of these "Tuppenny Busses." If, after ascending its corkscrew staircase in the rear of the huge affair, you are so fortunate as to find an empty seat near the driver, a flood of information always on tap can be obtained for a nimble sixpence. From the fearful experience of a London fog to the horrors of Whitechapel, the dangers of a night excursion through Drury Lane or John street or the gorgeous displays during Christmas week to be seen in Fleet street or the Strand, or any other lines of information, pump the driver to your heart's content. When limbered up he is a fund of information, an 38 GLIMPSES OF EUROPE. encyclopaedia eclipsing all guide books, not excepting Baedecker's. Human endurance is hardly a match for an investment of an English shilling in two penny rides. In Chicago or New York a "Bus" conductor collects fifty cents for a ride from the depot to your hotel. In London you could, for fifty cents, ride from morning till night. But the endless panorama as viewed from these elevated seats is a continuous feast. There is the contrast between disorder, squalor, con- fusion, chaos and misrule, and wealth, elegance, bril- liancy and all that equips and characterizes royalty. Poverty, misery, plenty and luxury are in close prox- imity. But a stone's throw from the highest to the lowest of human standards, from dense ignorance and brutal instincts to culture, refinement and all that exalts civilized life. It was our good fortune to be located across the way from Westminster Abbey, the spot around which clusters more interesting bio- graphy, more historical reminiscence and more senti- ment concerning humanity in general than can be found in any other spot on the globe of similar dimensions. Westminster Abbey has for centuries been the resting place of nobility, kings, queens, lords and dukes, generals, men of letters, including all the poet- laureates, and the great preachers of England. In the long list of noted men I recall, was Watts, the famous divine, John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, Lord Palmerston, Lord Mansfield, Warren Hastings, Richard Cobden, Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Lord Macaulay, W. M. Thackeray, Joseph Addison, Oliver Goldsmith, John Milton, Thomas Campbell, Charles Dickens, Bulwer Lytton, Livingston, Stanley, AGRICULTURAL PHASES IN ENGLAND. 39 Sir Robert Walpole, Jenny Lind, Chatham, Dryden, Ben Jonson, Cowper, Disraeli, Gladstone, the two last being among the most famous of the queen's premiers. America is honored by the busts of Longfellow, Lowell, Whittier and others. This list could be ex- tended to almost any length. To find room for the hundreds of honored dead has taxed the capacity of the Abbey, large and extensive as it is. The marble floors have been removed to find room, or to make place for the nation's illustrious sons and daughters. Since the construction of the Abbey in the thirteenth century, it has ever been regarded a mark of honor and special privilege to find a resting place within its walls. The beauty of the Abbey long since x vanished. Its architecture was never pleasing, and I doubt if the old structure was ever accused of being symmetrical or comely. Its grimy walls are in streaks assuming an inky blackness and the rapid deterioration of the marble is causing much solicitude. There is an awe- inspired gloom pervading the vast recesses of this great sepulchre that is anything but cheerful, but its solemnity tends to inspire reverence. Services are being carried on most of the time in some part of the Abbey, and to give an adequate account of the inter- ests centered there would require much more space than I can afford. London Tower (in charge of a corpulent squad of Englishmen dressed in scarlet and known as "beef eaters") consists of an irregular promiscuous class of buildings, covering thirteen acres, and attracts more attention than anything else in London. It is sur- rounded by a battlemented wall and wide deep ditch, 40 GLIMPSES OF EUROPE. which, previous to a half century ago, was kept filled with water from the Thames not far away. The tower or series of towers, consisting of at least a dozen distinct structures, has four entrances, namely, the Iron gate, the Water gate, the Traitor's gate and Lion's gate. The construction of this mighty fortress was begun in the tenth century, and, during the feudal days through which England passed, was used for a prison. It now answers the purpose of an armory and store- house where great quantities of government property is kept. In one room through which we were shown were the crown jewels enclosed in a large glass case. Our guide informed us that they represented the enormous value of $17,000,000, $5,000,000 of which were owned by Queen Victoria. There are coats-of- arms, busts and statues of leading statesmen, of gen- erals on horseback, of dukes and lords, too numerous for enumeration. The walls of the towers range from eight to eleven feet thick, the windows are small and heavily grated, the stairways and the halls are narrow, dusky and glum. Nearly every room has a sickening history, written in blood. It was here that in the middle ages were confined kings, queens, dukes and lords, many of them under indictment for treason, who paid the penalty with their lives. A charge of treason was usually followed by the suspected persons being beheaded; in many cases most inhuman torture was resorted to to extort confession, even skinning alive, the most cruel resort of the barbarian, became a part of the black record. In the bloody tower the two sons of Edward IV AGRICULTURAL PHASES IN ENGLAND. 41 were murdered by order of Richard III. We were shown the room where Lady Jane Gray, the beautiful queen, was imprisoned previous to her execution. We listened to the blood curdling story of the execution of her husband early in the morning; the account of the executioner parading in front of her window with the head of her husband erected on a stick, and later in the day of her being led out to the block and decap- itated. The ax and the block are still on exhibition, where the lives of thousands of so-called traitors went out. The fifteenth century witnessed the climax of treachery, malice and hate, of soulless cruelty and inhuman practices. During that century there were beheaded Thomas Moore, Queen Anne Boleyn, Thomas Cromwell, Queen Catherine Howard, Lord Admiral Seymour, Lord Guilford Dudley, Sir John Elliot, and hosts of others, conspicuous in the annals of history. Queen Elizabeth was confined as a prisoner in one of the rooms, and for exercise she was allowed to walk on the top of the walls, the spot being pointed out to our party. The room where Guy Fawkes, the chief conspirator of the plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament, was confined, revived the recollection of that sensational event which shocked the civilized world. Fawkes paid a dear penalty for the crime. To make his death as impressive as possible, he was re- quired to write his name before being tortured and again after the sufferings of torture. These two signa- tures were exhibited throughout Europe, and made a part of European history. The effect of becoming associated with the frightful horrors enacted a few 42 GLIMPSES OF EUROPE. centuries ago is not pleasant, but no man can listen to these tales of blood without being impressed with the fact that the world is growing better, that human life has in the last five hundred years become much more sacred, that human rights are better guarded, that humanity has broadened, deepened and become more intense. It was difficult for me to realize, while sur- rounded with these evidences of cruelty and arbitrary power, that the scenes referred to were enacted by the same government which is credited with doing more for the spread of the gospel, for enlightening the ignorant, for eliminating superstition and for raising the standards of humanity and Christianity than any other civilized government; truly the world is making progress, and London tower so long used for a prison, now a storehouse, evidences the fact. THE VASTNESS OF LONDON POOR PEOPLE'S MARKET LONDON BANK AND CRYSTAL PALACE ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL HOUSE OF PARLIAMENT. St. Paul's Cathedral, the resting place of Generals Nelson and Wellington, is exceeded in size only by St. Peter's, of Rome, and the eighth wonder of the world at Milan. It rises 364 feet out of the most populous and one of the most central business por- tions of London. St. Paul's is 500 feet long, more than 100 feet wide and a marvel of magnificence and beauty. This greatest temple to Protestantism was erected 200 years ago, and the established church of England may well take pride in its elegance. We attended service there on Sabbath morning, and for two hours listened to the music from its great organ, the chants, responsive readings, and the choruses of 200 voices composing the choir. At 12 o'clock (the hour when all Americans attending divine service think that there is no place like home) the sermon at St. Paul's commenced. In the congregation there was a commendable absence of everything hinting of caste. The rich and the poor worshipped side by side, each and all occupying seats which were lacking in display or comfort. The crystal palace at Sydenham, one of the suburbs of London, is worthy of at least half a day of every visitor's time. Erected in 1851 and composed entirely of glass and iron, it attracted the attention of the entire civilized world. It was built for exposition 48 44 GLIMPSES OF EUROPE. purposes. Within the walls may be found a generous supply of the products of nature and art. Portions of the building are divided into courts. There is the Grecian, Roman, Italian, Moorish, Oriental and others, each filled with the handiwork of their respec- tive countries. Its length is more than 1,600 feet, width an average of 200 feet, and height ranging from 110 to 282 feet. The grounds attached comprise about 200 acres, embracing beautiful landscapes, fountains, flower gardens, shrubbery, cascades and everything attractive that money could pay for. Inside is an opera house, theatre, concert halls, a great gallery, with an immense collection of statuary, choice paintings and busts of eminent men of all nations. There are stalls filled with all sorts of knick-- knacks, toys on sale, and the list of the world's curi- osities, prehistoric and otherwise, is inconceivably large. As a place for recreation Londoners are liberal patrons. The London bank, covering four acres of land, is an enduring monument to what has long been the financial center of the world. Its external walls are entirely destitute of windows, absolute security being the excuse. It is lighted from the inner courts. The bank was founded nearly two hundred years ago, and is the only bank in London having the authority to issue paper money. There is usually stored in its vaults not less than $100,000,000 in gold. The paper issued never leaves the bank but once. It is cancelled on receipt, and in due time destroyed. This bank acts as the agent of the government in all transactions connected with the national debt, now amounting to THE VASTNESS OF LONDON. 45 650,000,000 pounds sterling. The government of the bank is vested in a governor, a deputy governor, and twenty-four directors. More than 1,000 persons find employment within its walls. Its location is the chief point of convergence of the London omnibus traffic. An interesting half day was spent in the zoological garden at Regents Park. This park embraces nearly 500 acres of ground, and numbers an immense variety of wild animals, birds, fish, etc., collected from all parts of the globe. An African giraffe amused us by eating leaves from a tree 16 feet from the ground. There were hippopotamus with mouths that you never could forget, rhinoceroses with hides and horns mak- ing them a terror, lions and tigers exhibiting all the ferocity shown in their native forests in Africa. There were monkeys and monkeys. Even the connecting link was pointed out. Serpents, from the tiny harm- less garter snake to the great yellow and black python twenty-eight feet in length and two feet in circumfer- ence. On the whole an exhibition not calculated to produce peaceful, silent slumber. The Strand, Picca- dilly and Charing Cross, the museums, the parks and the numerous monuments can only receive a passing notice. Volumes could be written describing the sights in and around these centers of population. Old Bailey, the ancient prison of London, still stands, with its memorable record and historical reminiscence. London bridge, although rivaled with many other bridges across the Thames, retains its proud prestige, being the leading highway. By actual count 22,000 teams and 110,000 people compose the number cross- ing this old structure during twenty-four hours. A 46 GLIMPSES OF EUROPE. visit to the poor people's market, or a market supply- ing many of the poor of London, was not without its lessons. Here was an exhibition of what poverty does. Men, women and children clothed in tatters, dirty and half nourished, with their scanty purses were in attendance. Two or three hundred cast off, half worn or well worn garments piled on the sidewalk in a heap, and a little further on perhaps five bushels of old boots and shoes in another pile were being rum- maged through for fits for the body and fits for the meager purses. The meat stalls seemed to be stocked with the refuse from better markets, and with varieties which could be purchased cheap. The dialect of this poverty- stricken, uneducated people was to me amazing. I was unable to understand but little of the gibberish used by the salesmen crying off their wares, and the gossip of the old ladies, who made the market do a dual purpose, to me was unintelligible. These poor districts offer a phase of life in the market places on Saturday evening that no tourist can afford to miss. From 8 p. m. until midnight, a swarm of humanity of all ages congregate. It is a sort of half holiday for laboring people, and mixed with their purchases of family supplies are generous quantities of drink, adding to the hilarity of the occasion. Men, women and children, especially children, contribute to the babel of voices, and the vegetables, fish, fruits and crockery, cheap clothing, boots, shoes, etc., are bartered for in loud accents and rank confusion. Into the great stomach of London has passed and remains undigested many a hamlet that today THE VASTNESS OF LONDON. 47 retains a semblance of its original identity, or has failed to accept the London idea of modern architec- ture. The ancient style of village residences, of country business places, and the little church around the corner are still occupied by the plain people in the very heart of the great metropolis. The discipline of the police force of London is excellent. They have complete control of the crush of teams on the leading thoroughfares at all times, and crossing the street at midday in charge of or under the eye of a policeman is easily done, although it looks a hazardous business. A half dozen iron posts two feet high, set in a group three feet apart in the middle of the principal crossings, offer refuge to the swarms of pedestrians fleeing from the caravan of carriages and busses. It would require consummate skill to throw a stone near the heart of the great metropolis and avoid hitting a monument. Kings, queens and heroes have for centuries been finding conspicuous positions on the leading thoroughfares of London, that is, there have been erected to the memory of the illustrious dead monuments which will long endure. Queen Victoria erected to her beloved husband. Prince Albert, a structure costing $600,000 and the finest in Great Britain. Buckingham Palace, an immense gathering of brick and marble, and long the home of Queen Vic- toria, has never dazed Americans with its beauty nor impressed the average architect with its comeliness. It would be a poor rival for any one of a hundred residences which might be selected in New York. Were it protected by some ornamental trees and 48 GLIMPSES OF EUROPE. relieved by a grass plat, it would seem much more homelike. Maryborough House, not far away, and the London residence of King Edward, retains its original identity. London abounds in fine hotels. Their management differs, however, from American hostelries. The head porter of a London hotel is a sort of field marshal, giving direction to the servants, both in and out of the house, giving the guests a shake of the hand when they arrive, a shake when they leave, and at all times shaking as many tips out of their clothes as possible. The cost of living at the best houses reach high figures. In fact the style of living in London, similar to our own, whether first, second or third rate, is more expensive than in the cities of America. A table de hote dinner costing a dollar in New York costs one dollar and a half in London, while a lunch which would cost thirty cents in Elyria and twenty cents in San Francisco, would in London cost fifty to sixty cents. A suit of ready-made cloth- ing cannot be bought cheaper in Great Britain or on the continent than in Elyria, although tailor made garments cost much less. The tariff paid on goods in America, and extra cost of cutting and making, representing the difference. Stores filled with Amer- ican clothing, and American boots and shoes exclu- sively, were among the familiar sights in the busy marts of London. The Parliament houses, bathed in an atmosphere of royalty and statesmanship, had suffered a temporary surrender to myriads of doves, they call them pigeons. The roofs, the cornice, in fact every nook and corner of these immense piles of marble THE VASTNESS OF LONDON. 49 were in possession of the birds. Unfortunately Par- liament was not in session,, and the dignified land- marks who stood on guard swelled with their impor- tance, seemed to revel in our disappointment. To comprehend London requires an enlarged vision. From the London bank, centrally located, there is fifteen miles of solid city to the India docks. The population of the great metropolis is nearly fifty per cent more than the whole state of Ohio. London has survived fire and pestilence, and is said to be growing faster than ever. The city has a multitude of well-disposed vagrants, thousands of social rem- nants of society ignorant of where the next meal is coming from, while the relics of misspent lives of the Micawber sort assist in making up the miscellaneous contingent. FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF THE CONTINENT BRUSSELS THE BEAUTIFUL, CITY WATERLOO SERFDOM AND LOW WAGES OF THE BELGIANS. From London to Dover, a distance of seventy- eight miles, was through a densely populated coun- try. We were rarely out of sight of either a city, village or hamlet. The physical aspects of the country differ but little from the central portions of England, but, in addition to agricultural pursuits, manufacturing employs a ma- jority of the people. Chatham, the largest town on the route, old and finished, has an air of comfort, and its numerous church spires were in harmony with other cities throughout the kingdom. The English at home are a church-going people, not only are their churches well attended, but the audiences of their street preachers holding forth on the leading thor- oughfares of London were large. Evangelists and reformers are having a desperate struggle with de- pravity and immorality existing in the slums of the great cities. While the combat in some localities seems to be an unequal one, the sincerity and devo- tion of these advocates of Christianity and temper- ance are making a deep impression. Loyalty to the rulers and to the government throughout the kingdom is a leading characteristic of the people of England. The good order existing and the prompt punishment of criminals reflect this 50 FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF THE CONTINENT. 51 loyalty and assist in making what is known as a "strong government." As we approached Dover the immense chalk-beds, white as the driven snow, furnished a unique attrac- tion. With a babel of foreign tongues as we approached the English channel our party of tourists began to have troubles of their own. Peculiar English dialects were exchanged for German and French languages. To understand and to be understood required patience, perseverance and long-suffering. There is little to be said of Dover except its sub- stantial appearance as the most conspicuous port on the English channel. Our trip from Dover to Os- tend, a distance of 70 miles, was covered in three- and-a-half hours. We had sunshine, gentle breezes and smooth seas. Ostend, the leading port of Bel- gium, is not only a health resort but a beautiful city with magnificent hotels. It is paved and its streets are kept scrupulously clean. King Leopold spends a good share of his summers there, taking in the sea breezes. Visiting their public market at five p. m. we found both country and city people anxiously waiting for customers for their vegetables, fruit, butter, cheese, eggs, etc. The stalls were usually in charge of women, and where buyers were lacking these mar- ket women were filling up the time by sewing or knitting. Our ride to Brussels was robbed of all interest by being taken in the night. Upon arrival our party was packed into vehicles strongly resembling open street B2 GLIMPSES OF EUROPE. cars, which instead of being propelled upon steel rails went rattling "over the stony streets." There was no sound of revelry in this,, Belgium's capital. One pair of horses, with huge bodies and legs to correspond, finally landed us at the Hotel Empereaur, an exten- sive hostelry giving a fair service. Brussels has a population of about 300,000 in- habitants, is a beautiful city, said to be an imitation of Paris as near as possible. It abounds in white buildings of modern architecture, but unlike Paris all its streets are wholesomely clean and its public build- ings and business places all have a neat, tidy appear- ance. Brussels is the metropolis of the carpet and lace industries. Its carpets and fine laces leading in all the markets of the world. Its palace of justice costing $10,000,000, located on a high elevation, is said to be the largest building of its kind in existence. There is no lack of extrava- gance in its construction, and while not strikingly at- tractive in architecture, its finish is superb. The streets and boulevards of the city are broad, well paved and well kept. Its long boulevard extending to a magnificent park has six rows of forest trees (mostly sycamore) neatly trimmed. Between these rows of trees there are two broad walks, a wide track for horseback riders and two broad streets for vehi- cles. It is doubtful whether a finer boulevard can be found in either Europe or America. Its park system is very extensive, embracing thousands of acres of undulating forest, partially improved. Within the confines of the forest elegant buildings have been erected where sportsmen and seekers of pleasure FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF THE CONTINENT. 53 along various lines are entertained. There are con- cert halls, restaurants, etc. A leading characteristic of the Belgians is their tendency to pleasure-seeking. Our visit included memorial day for King Leopold, and all the better classes seemed to be out for a good time. There was music, fireworks, and hilarity every- where, which the ruddy-faced king seemed to enjoy. The drinking of beer and light wines in Brussels is beyond American conception. The saloons, restau- rants and hotels from four p. m. until midnight are not only crowded, but the broad walks in front of the drinking places were literally covered with tables and chairs filled with the best classes of people coming by families to indulge in the native drinks. On Sunday the business places were all open and apparently well patronized. The church that our party visited was but slimly attended. For the first time in my experi- ence the usher handed back one-half of my small con- tribution. Brussels boasts of one of the finest art galleries in the world. Some of Rubens' best efforts are upon its walls. Its Bourse, one of the leading financial in- stitutions of the world, is a stately affair, and unlike her houses of Parliament, is handsome, being con- structed of granite and highly ornamented with rich carving. It has a tower 370 feet in height. In one of the small squares of the city was pointed out the spot where 2,000 soldiers were buried, who were killed in the revolution of 1830. Waterloo, twelve miles away, is preserved as a revenue getter. Some of the land marks, which re- call the memorable battle of June 18, 1815, are to be 64 GLIMPSES OF EUROPE. seen. Whether the accommodating guide possessed a high order of integrity is another question, at any rate he made a pretense of all the knowledge needed and told a plausible story. Few Americans visit Brussels without making the trip to Waterloo and having the satisfaction of seeing the spot where the army of the great Napoleon was crushed by Wellington and where the fate of nations was at least temporarily settled by the sword. Belgium, one of the smallest kingdoms of Europe, of which Brussels is the capital, at the last federal census had about 485 people to the square mile. It is the most densely populated country in Europe. Brussels seems to have gathered in her full share of the Belgians, its streets during the day are congested and the evidences of overpopulation are numerous; wages are down to starvation prices, a good man put- ting in full time for work on the streets receives from 40 to 50 cents per day. A first-class servant girl 50 cents per week or $2.00 a month. The woman who from morning until night was down on her knees scrubbing the floors of our hotel, and the sidewalk in front of the house, received therefor an equivalent of ten cents of our money, the same wages being paid to the muscular young woman with short dress, wooden shoes, and a bare head, bearing a neck-yoke on her shoulders to which was attached two large cans of milk, which she peddled from door to door, and also to the woman in charge of a dog-cart, her duty being to give the faithful dog direction where to go with his unwieldy load and to assist him up the inclines and over the rough places. To the shame of FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF THE CONTINENT. 55 the beautiful city I have described the peasantry is subjected to burdens which should be borne by the beasts, and their small compensation is a disgrace to civilization. Brussels is abreast with the leading countries of Europe in respect to the arts and sciences. It has traditions in which it takes pride, but it seems to be woefully lacking in respect and sympathy for the poorer classes. A civilized country that in this en- lightened age places its burdens upon the women and the dogs needs to be regenerated. I was informed that women in Belgium have no rights which the lords of creation are bound to respect. The girls, which by hundreds are employed in the lace factories, receive from 20 to 30 cents a day for their skilled labor. In their bright faces there were traces of despond- ency. They seemed to be living without hope, while the product of their brains and their fingers adorns the wealthy classes wherever civilization has obtained a foothold. Common laborers are mere serfs eking out a scanty subsistence. There was wildness notice- able in the eyes of many, suggestive of anarchy. I left Brussels with a feeling that it was a many-sided city. Much to commend and much to criticise. Op- portunities for young men to rise in the world seemed to be limited to a few of the favored classes. The kitchens, workshops and farms of America could' give profitable employment to thousands of her ruddy-faced young men and women, who at home subsist along the ragged edges of charity. If some enterprising Yankee would import a few thousand of 66 GLIMPSES OF EUROPE. these women and girls to be employed in American families he would earn the gratitude of both coun- tries. Our three days stay in Brussels ended July 23rd, and our long ride to Cologne was as tedious as can be imagined. The methods for shipping cattle in America are better regulated, more systematic and more satisfac- tory to the shipper than the practices adhered to on the continent for handling tourists as regards time. It was our misfortune after crossing the English channel to be confined to transportation over rail- roads owned by the respective governments. The trains are all in charge of soldiers, and these brilliant vagabonds, puffed up by their regimentals, are uncivil, ungentlemanly and arbitrary. Government owner- ship destroys competition and gives a fatal stab to progress. Our conductor at Brussels made a strenu- ous request that we be landed at Cologne by a cer- tain hour. The manager replied, "We have but three American locomotives, if I can secure one of them we can make the time, if not it will be impossible." We failed to get the American machine, and the dead and alive train under the heat of a burning sun pro- ceeded at gravel-train speed occupying a full day, long-to-be-remembered. The country between these two cities is a marvel of productiveness to most Americans, its high order of agriculture, its crops of wheat, oats, barley, rye and all root crops were amazing; eighty bushels of wheat per acre, a crop never to be thought of in America, is said upon good authority to be common FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF THE CONTINENT. 57 in Germany and Belgium. Such maximums are only attained by the highest grade of fertility, the most diligent processes of cultivation, and the use of the most productive varieties of grain. A friend informed me that he had seen women and children in the wheat fields during the month of May stirring the ground between the rows of wheat with narrow hoes to pro- mote the growth of the plant. The best crops of grain to be seen along this route were lodged and twisted into all sorts of tangles which to an American farmer would suggest ruin to his crop, but in Germany, for some unexplained reason, interferes but little with the yield of grain. The face of this old, old country is in striking contrast with Britain. The farming lands are divided into small squares generally ranging from J4 acre to two acres in size. There are no fences dividing the fields, but the \ariety of crops under cultivation make an attractive landscape, reminding you of a checker board. These little patches of land are usually owned by as many people as there are pieces. An acre is supposed to produce enough to supply a family of ordinary size with bread and vegetables for a year. THE GERMANS IN THE "VATERLAND" PERFUMED WATER CATHEDRAL-CHURCH OF URSULA CHARMS OF THE RHINE HEIDELBERG. The German peasantry is thoroughly schooled in the precepts and practices of rural and social econ- omy. The bent of their lives is in the direction of the largest possible production of the necessities of life, and the most economical consumption of the same. No thought of luxury or extravagance enters into their calculations. Their habitations are neither luxurious, attractive, nor homelike. Generally rather long, one-story brick houses, located in groups, mak- ing a little hamlet, where a store or two obviates the necessity of a tramp to a large town for supplies. The brick in the houses are of motley and unsightly varie- ties, being a mixture of red and black. Usually the live stock owned by the proprietor is housed under the same roof with his family, it being the duty of the wife and children to care for the same. One of our party (a lady teacher from Youngs- town) managed, by paying a little fee, to gain admit- tance to one of these farm houses, where she took an account of stock. Here is her report : "Ground floor in six apartments; first room contained agricultural implements ; second, six cows ; third, six calves and one horse; fourth, stair case, and beyond this the kitchen; fifth, dining room, in which was one table without cloth, and around it sat six men and two 58 THE GERMANS IN THE "VATERLAND." 59 women; in center of table, one large flask of wine, one large loaf of barley bread and one butcher knife- each individual cut his own bread and drank from the flask at his pleasure sixth, bedroom; two beds, husk mattresses upon them, and feather ticks, and also feather cover. Floors of stone in brick form, or of heavy plank and very clean. Second story contained bedrooms, and hay above stalls." Cows are the principal beasts of burden in the farming communities of Germany. In the morning after being milked she is hitched to the cart, the plow, or the harrow, and generally under the guiding hand of the mistress of the household performs an honest day's labor submissively. She is usually well fed, well groomed and slick. It was not rare to see her calf follow in the furrow behind the plow. I saw more women than men at work in the fields in Germany. In the harvest fields the women handle the sickle and scythes with as much skill and dexterity as the men. Their bare heads, brown faces, short dresses, wooden shoes, evidence their industry and familiarity with the hard side of life. The above de- scription refers only to the German peasantry or the poorer classes. There is another class of farmers who live like Nabobs. They have fine houses, elegant sur- roundings and fare sumptuously every day. The German empire requires for its standing army more than 1,000,000 men, leaving a surplus of its female population at home. The rents to be paid for their land ranges from $7.00 to $15.00 an acre, according to quality and location. This is a potent levy upon the vitality and 60 GLIMPSES OF EUROPE. endurance of the German peasantry. These people are intelligent, and the compulsory system of educa- tion in Germany fits large numbers for a better sta- tion than they are able to obtain in the "Vaterland." Students of sociology studying the habits and cus- toms of the Germans readily account for the fact that German immigrants to America become a leading factor in the thrift and prosperity of this country. It is said, that in spite of her scanty resources and unfortunate environments in their native land, that the most of them manage to accumulate enough to meet the demands of old age. This thrift was demonstrated during the Franco-Prussian war when German bonds were largely taken by its peasantry. As is well known Germany is one of the leading manufacturing countries of Europe. Little villages with numberless smoke stacks are to be found in all parts of the empire, and these villages furnish a home market and fair prices for the products of the farm. America of late years has so often trampled upon German toes by forcing her manufactured products upon the German markets that a feeling of resent- ment against American competition exists through- out that country. Their prejudice against Americans was noticeable, especially among the higher classes of the kingdom. Cologne, a city of 300,000 inhabitants, located on the Rhine, is the capital of Rhineish Prussia. It is con- nected with the town of Dutz on the opposite bank of the Rhine by a bridge of boats and an elegant iron bridge 1,362 feet in length. The streets of Cologne are narrow, crooked and well paved. Public build- THE GERMANS IN THE "VATERLAND." 61 ings are many, including charitable and educational institutions. The city was organized in the third cen- tury, and during its early history it was the scene of carnage, bloodshed, barbarism and cruelty. The church of St. Ursula gets its distinction by being the place where are preserved the bones of 11,000 virgins, companions of St. Ursula, who were slaughtered by the "Huns" because they refused to violate their vows of chastity. Thousands of these bones are on exhibi- tion, covering the walls of some of the rooms in this ancient sepulchre or church. The principal object of interest in Cologne, as well as one of the greatest ornaments of Europe, is its Cathedral, a rare specimen of Gothic architecture. The eighth century witnessed the partial erection of the Cathedral which was burned in 1248. More than 600 years was required for the rebuilding of the new Cathedral, which was begun immediately after the destruction of the old one. The final completion of the towers took place in 1880. The highest pinnacle, 512 feet from the ground, beats all records, reaching farther toward heaven than any other church spire in the world. The body of the church measures 500 feet in length, 230 feet in breadth, and the cost of the structure is estimated at $10,000,000. The Cathedral is symmetrical, well balanced and elegant. The city is overwhelmingly Roman Catholic. Cologne, like many European cities, has smells of its own. Nearly 200 years ago, if legendry is to be credited, one John Maria Farina invent- ed a perfumed water to counteract the bad odors of the city. His cologne acquired a commer- 62 GLIMPSES OF EUROPE. eial importance even to the ends of the earth, and al- though "John" long since passed to the great beyond, his invention continues to fill the cash boxes of at least forty of the manufacturers and wholesale dealers in the genuine article. Near the banks of the Rhine is a square composed of several acres devoted to mar- ket purposes, a place where country produce is of- fered for sale. There were many things comical or unique and interesting to Americans connected with this layout. The fruits and garden truck, spreading over acres of ground, were usually in charge of women, portly and well developed. Hundreds of dog carts heavily loaded arrived upon the scene from the nearby farhis before daylight in the morning, and the dogs by their continuous barking made an interesting- case for the would-be morning sleepers in the im- mediate neighborhood. Dog-muscle in Germany is appreciated as highly as horse-muscle in America. No regard seems to be had for blood, as brindle dogs and yellow dogs are as common and as useful as any other ; they are suit- ably harnessed and hitched to their load immediately under the front end of the cart, and their strength or power to handle a large load is an amazement. They are not only beasts of burden in the discharge of an important duty, but are watch dogs on guard ready at all times to protect the property they handle. Our ride of 115 miles on the Rhine from Cologne to Mayence upon a well ordered steamer of light draught, was thoroughly enjoyable. The bright sun- shine, the blue sparkling water, the scenery along the banks contributed to a charm never to be forgotten. THE GERMANS IN THE "VATERLAND." 63 The Rhine, fed by the eternal snows on the mountain- peaks in the far distance, has a greater volume of water in mid-summer than at any other season of the year, as it is then the blazing sun makes its deepest impresion upon the glaciers and eternal snows of the Alps. Thousands of tributaries combine to make the magnificent flow of the Rhine in its northward course. The banks reaching up hundreds of feet on either side made a ceaseless and ever-changing panorama to be studied and admired. Castles in ruins and otherwise, that! during- the feudal days protected the robber barons, were constantly in sight; from these strong- holds during the middle-ages land pirates would swoop down upon the navigators of the Rhine, rob without mercy and retreat to the castles with their plunder, where, owing to the absence of latter-day munitions of war, their walls were impregnable. Cas- tles are not the only ancient landmarks ; villages and small cities erected entirely of stone could be seen upon the highest peaks facing the Rhine in partial or utter ruin ; many of them seem to be without an inhabitant, tumbling down and going to decay ; other cities, many of them extending down to the waters' edge, of more recent origin, had an air of thrift and importance. Bonn, the birthplace of Beethoven, the illustrious musician ; Bingen, the home of the soldier- boy of whose death the poet Norton gives such a touching account, are cities of commercial prosper- ity. But the principal attraction of the Rhine is in its terraces along the banks, sometimes numbering as many as fifteen, one above another. It is here that the German peasant demonstrates the value of land 64 GLIMPSES OF EUROPE. for fruit and agricultural purposes. To get a foot- hold, first the shrubbery and forest, often of large growth, must be cleared away from a bank too steep to admit of ready ascent or descent. Solid rock and boulders intermixed with the soil must be reckoned with in the construction of the terraces. When com- pleted these little platforms of earth must be fertilized, and the fertilizer is usually borne upon the backs of the laborers. Grapes for wine purposes is the princi- pal crop raised, and the quantity or extent of these vineyards is bewildering. A hint is here offered w r hich accounts for the low price of German wines. Up hundreds of feet above the water an occasional plateau could be seen devoted to agriculture; little patches of wheat, oats, barley, and potatoes, of perhaps a quarter of an acre, each being harvested under the most adverse conditions; the land elevated at an angle of probably 40 degrees made hand cultivation neces- sary, and the crop when harvested must be borne on the backs of the peasants down long winding paths to the foot of the hill where it could be made available. On each side of the Rhine, scarcely above high water mark, there is a railroad apparently doing a thriving business. Arriving at Mayence in the even- ing we found but little worthy of note ; there was the customary brass music, a distinctive feature of all Ger- man cities, both great and small ; thousands of sol- diers are disciplined in Mayence at the extensive bar- racks owned by the government. Gillmore's printing press, said to be the first press ever used, is stored at Mayence. We had an attractive ride to Heidelberg through fields of hops, beets, potatoes, corn and ap- THE GERMANS IN THE "VATERLAND." 65 pies, interspersed with numerous smoke stacks until the black forest was reached. The gloomy old woods fairly frowned upon us. It was not unlike some of the forests of America, but government laws, unlike our own, protect their for- ests by providing a penalty and punishment for every person who cuts a tree and fails to replace it by an- other. Heidelberg, the seat of much learning, is scattered about without regard to form or regularity. The most of this intellectual town lies at the foot of the Geisberg mountains and along the left bank of the river Neckar. On a single street centers nearly all there is worth mentioning, except the long winding road up the mountain to the famous Heidelberg cas- tle. This ancient fortress was erected on the summit of a high perpendicular wall of solid rock. Its archi- tect and builders, who projected and constructed its twenty-foot walls, evidently believed in its resistance. If traditions are to be believed it survived many a siege, but at last the French managed to get some powder under it and blow up a portion of its heavy masonry. In the cellar under this castle is still pre- served intact the famous Heidelberg Tun, an over- grown barrel, 36 feet long, 24 feet high, having a capacity of 800 hogsheads; this Tun was an out- growth of a freaky brain, which undertook to provide against a famine or a failure in the grape crop. His- tory says that the big barrel was never filled. How the poor workmen ever managed to elevate to such a height material enough to build such a castle is an unsolved mystery. 66 GLIMPSES OF EUROPE. The university of Heidelberg is its principal reve- nue producer ; here are gathered young men in great numbers, generally to finish their education; culti- vation of the muscles as well as of the mind enters largely into this education ; these students are fight- ers, duelling is a not unfrequent practice, stabbing, slashing and fist cuffs are common practices ; scarred faces, bloody noses and black eyes are too common at the university to attract special notice. Why this is tolerated or allowed by the faculty was not ex- plained. IRKSOME RAILROADING ON THE CONTINENT LUCERNE AND ITS ATTRACTIONS THE ALPS THE WONDERS OF THE ST. GOTHARD ROUTE THE LAND OF WILLIAM TELL. An irksome ride in a German sweat-box unworthy the name of a passenger coach, landed us in Baden- Baden, a city of about 16,000 inhabitants, entertain- ing nearly, or quite, 40,000 guests. The city consists largely of palatial hotels and public bath houses, with the et-ceteras needed to sus- tain its reputation as a fashionable watering place. Baden-Baden is of ancient date and of attractive ap- pearance. Formerly it was the Monte Carlo of Eu- rope, being the resort of the sporting fraternity, more especially the gamblers of France, Germany and Switzerland, but a law passed in 1872 put a quietus on gambling, as it is being strictly enforced. Public utility since, of its mineral waters, has filled up the hotels with a better class of guests than formerly. The low price of the baths tends to the promotion of both health and cleanliness, and the authorities and residents of the city seem to be imbued with an anti-dirt propensity. Baden is scrupulously clean, and taken all in all is one of the most fascinating spots seen in our travels through nine countries of Europe. Of course Baden has a castle. It took a long hour's ride up a winding road through a dense forest to find it, being located on the highest peak of a 67 68 GLIMPSES OF EUROPE. mountain adjacent to the city. The old citadel was of more than ordinary interest as citadels ^o. The dizzy height of its location, the perpendicular walls of rock that support it, the query of whence came the material for its construction, of who built it, and who wrecked it, to us were questions that no one seemed prepared to answer. From the pinnacle we got a magnificent view of the city and surrounding coun- try, its hills, its valleys, its streams, its forests, its farm houses, which were both captivating and en- chanting. We were fortunate in being present at two of Sousa's band concerts. His patriotic airs given under the folds of the stars and stripes touched the hearts of every American present. Acres of the elite and well- to-do people gathered in their gorgeously decorated gardens, located in the center of the city, to listen to Sousa's exquisite music, and to pay tribute to this illustrious musician. Both Sousa and his band were literally buried with boquets of flowers of the choicest varieties. In Baden as in Brussells there is a wide, deep, yawning chasm between the elite and the peas- antry. At these concerts there were on dress parade representatives of fashion, the high class of Germans, Switzers, and French in "gorgeous array." Looking out from the gardens, the female peasantry could be seen either lugging great milk cans from door to door, or leading a cow to the residences of the most fastidi- ous, to be milked in sight of the proprietress to insure a pure and clean article of the lacteal fluid, or in com- mand of a dog cart. The evil of tipping, which has fastened itself upon RAILROADING ON THE CONTINENT. 69 Europe as we go east grows more perplexing. At our hotel the waiter supplied us with a wash bowl and pitcher of water, but no soap nor towels; when these were ordered, a fee was demanded not in language audible, but in persuasive smiles and an acute sanctity which spoke louder than words. When the hour came for letter writing, there was the pen and the paper and the empty ink-stand. A supply of ink meant another fee. As these sordid beggars rely on the "tips" for a livelihood, one does not really object to the money paid as much as the wiles of the propri- etor, who resorts to this method of wholesale plunder of his guests. The frisky waiters at the tables are blind to your wants and deaf to your entreaties, un- less you come down with a moderate amount of cold cash. The head porter of one of the leading Berlin hotels is said to have not only contributed his services for one year to the proprietor of the hostelry, but to have paid $1,500 for the privilege of practicing the customary piracy upon the guests of the house. No well ordered, well regulated mind expects something for nothing, but the great mass of people detest the schemes of the degenerate frauds who are plotting with their servants to make them pay twice for what they receive. Submission to this evil is the only high way in Europe for tourists to travel. It is wisdom for the American traveler to suppress his indignation, yield to the intrigue of the sagacious gangs and make the best of it. May America ever be spared the whole- sale piratical tipping system of Europe. Five hours were needed to cover the distance between Baden-Baden and SchafFhausen or Rhine 70 GLIMPSES OF EUROPE. Falls. This was across a country marvelously produc- tive and with scenery romantic. Methods of cultivation of the soil were along prim- itive lines. Ten cows could be seen at work in the fields to one horse, and women as tillers of the soil were in a large majority. The houses, in fact all buildings, are thatched with straw, the roofs usually coming within one story of the grounds, suggesting to the sight-seer an immense hood rather than a roof. Rhine Falls, a thrifty village with limited hotel accommodations, but first-class if charges are a fair criterion, arrests the brief attention of the tourist by reason of the Falls of the Rhine being in the center of the town. These blue waters rushing on over the rapids and finally over a perpendicular fall, make a bewitching spectacle, especially as seen in the even- ing when illuminated by electric lights, having a variety of colors. Leaving Rhine Falls for Lucerne, we entered Switzerland, the most mountainous country of Eu- rope. Although composed of but 16,000 square miles, a majority of which consists of mountains, Switzer- land sustains a population of more than 3,000,000 inhabitants. Every foot of land susceptible of culti- vation seemed to be producing a crop of some sort. The Switzers are industrious, prudent and economical, and evidences of their thrift could be seen everywhere. Lacking in farm machinery and modern processes of production, the primitive systems observed do not fail of results ; what they lack in the adoption of latter day inventions is partially supplied by unremitting toil and honest sweat. RAILROADING ON THE CONTINENT. 71 Arriving at the foot of the Rigi, our party took seats in two open cars and were by a plucky little loco- motive pushed up a cog-road to the summit of the mountain 6,000 feet high. It was a wild, picturesque trip, trying to the nerves and at times wonderfully inspiring. From the summit of the Rigi may be seen hundreds of snow-clad peaks, some near at hand, others in the far distance. Forty-two square miles of Switzerland lies buried deep under the eternal snows and glaciers, and although the mercury in the valleys during our visit ranged in the nineties, but a feeble impression is made upon the snow-banks and glaciers. Time has had the effect of making these snow-banks as solid as the earth upon which they rest. In con- trast to the enervating heat at the foot of the moun- tains, at the summit we found a temperature border- ing upon 60 degrees and the most wholesome atmosphere imaginable. There were several drinking places offering their refreshments, but drinking by our tourists was limited to great draughts of pure atmosphere. With the snow-clad Alps on the one side and the deep fertile valleys on the other, the scene was enchanting. Lucerne down in the distance appeared to be a little one-story hamlet, and as we were to remain there two days there was much solicitude in our party regarding the probable scanty accommodations. From this mountain peak a circuit of 300 miles is obtainable, human eyes are put to a severe test in taking in this vast expanse of territory. While our ascent at times seemed perilous, our descent to Lake Lucerne on the opposite side of the mountain was 72 GLIMPSES OF EUROPE. doubly so. The cog-road was much more steep, and our progress less satisfactory ; we crawled down to the water's edge at a snail pace and took a long sigh of relief when transferred to a lake steamer. Everybody has seen or read of Lake Lucerne ; its dazzling beauty and its attractive fringes cannot be exaggerated. A trip of a few miles landed us at Lucerne, a city of 20,000 residents and three times 20,000 tourists. It is claimed that a million guests are entertained every year at Lucerne; their magnificent hotels have a ca- pacity for entertaining all visitors, and few Americans who take a trip through Europe skip Lucerne, and not one can afford to. It is said to be the most allur- ing and inviting spot in Europe. Fishing, riding on the lake and trips to the summit of Mount Pilatus are the principal occupations of the travelers. Lucerne has an old tower, an arsenal containing many weapons which have seen service, a theater, a library, collections of natural history, and factories where silks, cottons and gloves are turned out. It has a lion 28 feet long carved in the face of solid rock and located in the center of the city. This piece of art was dedicated as a monument to 786 sol- diers who, in 1792, were butchered by a Paris mob; the lion appears to be dying from the effects of a spear which entered his shoulder and was broken off a few inches from the surface. The old fellow's ex- pression of agony offers a most striking feature of genuine art. Vines hang down the cliff and a clear stream trickles from above and empties into a pond at the RAILROADING ON THE CONTINENT. 73 base, and in the surface of the pond this king of beasts is reflected among the water lilies. The place is a sheltered, woodland nook, removed from noise and confusion ; the pond is the home of some black swans, which contribute to the impressiveness of the sur- roundings. From Lucerne to Milan through the Alps is one of the most graphic trips imaginable. Leaving Lu- cerne by the picturesque route of St. Gothards and passing Lake Como said to be the handsomest body of water in the world the scenes grow constantly wilder and more menacing. Valleys narrow to gorges, precipices become more giddy and the double tracks leading into the yawning tunnels tell us that from our view will soon be practically shut out the bewilder- ment of unique bridges, glacial torrents, battlements rockribbed and products of nature's convulsions. On every hand the grandeur of the panorama, where day- light is admitted, baffles description. This is the land of William Tell, the hero and the ideal of our boyhood. The romances, the myths, and traditions of the thirteenth century, having the patriotism of the great Swiss leader for a basis, are kept fresh in the minds of his native countrymen. His slaying of Gessler, the tyrant, who compelled him to shoot an apple from his boy's head, still receives the highest commendation, although some historians have expressed doubt about the feat having been per- formed. Nothing in the world's handiwork of wonders compares with the famous tunnels of the Alps. Un- like most engineering exploits for surmounting high 74 GLIMPSES OF EUROPE. elevations by methods visible on the surface, this great feat was performed way down within the depths of solid rock. From the base to the summit of the Alps our train made circle after circle, through tunnel after tunnel, from five to ten miles in length. These tunnels remind one of the work of an im- mense auger three-fourths of the time, while doing its work, incased in the wood with an occasional break through to the surface letting in daylight. Through these breaks, our passengers caught glimpses of scenery made famous in poetry and song. The long- est tunnel, nearly ten miles in length, required the labor of 10,000 men for ten years, and these tunnels are said to have cost the Swiss government sixty million dollars. SCENES IN THE ALPS SUNNY ITALY ANTIQUE MILAN THE EIGHTH WONDER OF THE WORLD. Our trip through the longest tunnel, notwith- standing its heavy up grade, was made in 23 minutes. Any American failing to be moved or to get inspira- tion from the sights between tunnels along this route must be a hopeless stoic. Description of the rich emerald green, and the golden tints of grain in the deep valleys, through which coursed streams of blue snow water, not unlike a long stretch of blue ribbon making its way toward the Rhine, pens and pencils utterly fail to fittingly describe. These valleys, as seen from the mountain tops, are captivating. The land- scapes, as viewed in the glimpses upward along the mountain slopes, are hardly less interesting. The terrace above terrace consisting of stone walls and small plateaus, the handiwork of the Switzer peasant; the Swiss cottages, usually made of logs, neat and home-like; the crops produced by primitive methods of cultivation ; the general air of thrift ; the ruddy faces of the men and the maidens, breathing this mountain air, combined to make a lasting im- pression on the minds of our party. The Switzer requires but little, and contentment, the greatest of all earthly blessings, is his. To my question, how do these people with all their industry manage to live in a country not unlike the Rockies of America, where grizzlys, antelopes and 76 76 GLIMPSES OF EUROPE. mountain sheep are almost the sole occupants, the reply was, "Oh, this is a dairy country." "But where are the cows?" The cows are away on the summit of the mountain and over on the other slope, where fac- tories are located for producing the highest grades of Swiss cheese, which supplies the aristocracy of all civilized countries. My informant said further : "The Swiss daughters take the cows, the calves and the goats, in the spring as soon as the grass and herbage begins to show itself, drive to these cheese factories, where they remain caring for the stock until the snows of October drive them homeward. In the meantime, the fathers, mothers and sons have been busy in culti- vating and harvesting the crops needed for wintering the animals, as the numerous little stacks of hay, fodder and corn bore evidence. The money received from the cheese factories, together with the vege- tables and grain, constitute the basis for independence and comfortable livelihood. The persistent industry of these peasants in overcoming the hard lines of nature to be contended with along these rocky heights, is worthy of the highest admiration. Added to the scenes described were the numerous cascades of snow-white water, which for thousands of feet came tumbling from the snow-banks of the moun- tain peaks. Some in little silver threads, others of greater volume, suggesting a high waterfall. Then the views of the rugged rocks, the shrub- bery of evergreen, the wild flowers in profusion near the base of the mountain, the gleaming of a lake with its sparkling waters, and the thriving little villages here and there never without church spires added SCENES IN THE ALPS. 77 to the charms of the landscapes. At the stations along the route little girls with eidelweiss for sale, supplied our party with this rare flower, which blooms and fades under the very breath of the snow-banks, reaching maturity at a higher altitude than any other flower in the world. From all parts of the earth gather here, during the summer months, people of various nationalities to fill the hotels and boarding houses for a brief season, to receive the benefits from the pure mountain air and to enjoy this fascinating scenery. Many of these hostelries are located on the pinnacles of the highest peaks below the snow-capped mountains. Here invalids are invigorated and life and health receives a thrilling impetus. Out of Switzerland into sunny Italy, popularly known as the land of fruits and flowers. Examina- tion of our baggage by a gang of boodlers, who for a small price paid by our conductor after a short parley, secured the necessary chalk-marks on our leather trunks, when we were liberated from their farcical clearing house. These so-called government officials, in ''knocking down" public money are as bold as a gang of Spanish bandits. Northern Italy is a beautiful country, abounding in vast orchards and crops of grain, including great fields of Indian corn. In our long ride to Milan we were scarcely out of sight of mulberry trees, from which silk worms are kept busy in supplying the raw material for one of the leading industries of Italy. These trees, fifteen to twenty feet in height, set in long rows, are usually 78 GLIMPSES OF EUROPE. made to support the everywhere present grapevines of that country. Some of the crops of grain and vege- tables grown in Italy are duplicated each year, and of some varieties three crops are grown on the same land during twelve months. Farm houses are usually old, small and out of date, lacking in the elements of attractiveness and comfort. The ordinary farm laborer of that sunny clime is a pinched, inferior specimen of humanity, apparently leading a slavish life, lacking in education a:id dwarfed in intellect. Compensation for his labor is small, and if he has been so fortunate as to accumulate and be- come a property holder, the tax gatherer is to him a nightmare. The government of Italy, in the support of its royalty and its immense standing army, taxes its sub- jects well-nigh out of existence. There is a tax upon everything pleasant to see, hear, feel, smell or taste. That anarchism should be one of the leading crops of Italy is a natural sequence. The assassination of King Humbert, cold-blooded and heartless as it was, produced but little sensation in this kingdom. The masses seemed to take it in a matter-of-fact way and the chatter and smiles of the laborers were full of significance. Humbert was a good king as Italian kings go, but hordes of Dagos "ag'in the government" had long been plotting for his life. Humbert was a good financier, both for him- self and for his country. During his reign the govern- ment had been relieved of many of its burdens and from a commercial standpoint had been lifted out of some of the sloughs of despond, all of which counted SCENES IN THE ALPS. 79 as nothing with thousands of anarchists responsible for the bloody deed. Our first stop in Italy was at Milan, second in size of Italian cities, having a population of something more than 300,000 inhabitants. Milan has great com- mercial advantages, and from a commercial stand- point has long been prominent. Its first organization was near the birth of the Christian era. Twice de- stroyed by fire and sword, it rose from the ashes, and now, barring its ancient tinge, is one of the finest cities on the continent. The city is almost circular, and is encompassed on three sides by ramparts and low walls. The modern portion of Milan has wide, regular and well-paved streets. Many of the resi- dences are imposing. Its principal church the famous gothic cathedral Duomo, the eighth wonder of the world represents a Latin cross 500 feet long, 250 feet wide, with the nave 150 feet high and a spire 354 feet high, surmounted by a well-developed figure of the Madonna. Six hundred years have been con- sumed in the construction of this edifice. From fifteen to twenty generations of skilled architects have spent their precious lives upon this dream in marble. Gen- eration after generation of laborers, who gathered in swarms to assist in its construction, have come and gone and still the marvelous pile remains unfinished. The work leading toward completion is, however, being prosecuted with vigor. The cathedral has 4,500 statues on its hundreds of pinnacles, towers, columns, turrets, and in its niches and alcoves. A climb of 494 steps to the top of the tower secures a fine view of the city and the adjacent plains of Lombardy, the great 80 GLIMPSES OF EUROPE. canals, the extensive silk manufactories, and the numerous railroads which center at Milan. History records scenes of conflict in which the city has been besieged eight times and surrendered to its enemies twenty-eight times. Trees and ornamental shrubbery have long since concealed the bristling cannon and other weapons of defense once used for the protection of the city. The famous fresco of 'The Last Supper," by Leo- nardo de Vinci, is an attraction second to none other in Europe in the way of art. Located in an old con- vent now used for a soldiers' barracks, the picture has been sadly defaced and much of its original beauty destroyed. Milan boasts of the finest arcade in the world, known as the Victor Emmanuel galleries, ex- tending across the block in both directions, orna- mented with fine statues and sheltered by a roof of semi-circular glass, in the center of which is an im- mense glass dome. It is here that the ladies of the elite and well-to-do people gather to do shopping and indulge in Italian gossip. The picture gallery of Milan described in detail would exhaust the reader. The old masters, including Raphael and Michael An- gelo, are in evidence. The interior of the great cathedral offers most potent reasons for criticism of Italian extravagance. Millions of dollars are there tied up in ornaments of the most expensive varieties. Gold and precious stones almost without limit enter into the grand display. Down in the basement we were shown the sarcophagus containing the remains of an archbishop, who for 300 years had been resting under jewels valued at $1 ? 000 ? 000, This dead SCENES IN THE ALPS. 81 gation of wealth is preserved intact in spite of the poverty of the swarms of beggars whose appeals for a mere pittance, just enough to prolong their miser- able lives, rings in the ears of every visitor at Milan. These pitiful geniuses, many of them old and decrepit, followed us across the threshold of the cathedral dis- turbing the sanctity of the confessionals with their imperious demands for something that would satisfy either their wolfish hunger of their mercenary greed for money. ANTIQUATED VENICE DEPARTED GLORY BLUSTERING GONDOLIERS MECCA FOR THE SMALL BOY. The peninsula of Italy extending from the Alps southward and including Sicily and Sardinia, makes a stretch of more than seven hundred miles. There is a marked diversity in both the conditions of the inhabitants and the quality of the country as deterioration is the rule as the southern limit is approached. In the northern portion the country is more fertile, the people are better nourished and better developed physically and intellectually than in the southern portion. The Italians, who come to America to build our railroads and sell bananas, live in tents, work for low wages and subsist upon hard bread and weak coffee, hail from the southern portion of the kingdom, which has long been over-crowded and where civilization has a flimsy and uncertain footing. Our entry into Venice was awaited by a large fleet of gondolas. There was the usual hackman's rivalry for patronage, to see whose boat should be filled first and who could secure the largest slice of our party, which had no choice of routes or methods of trans- portation. A wide stretch of blue water between the depot and our point of destination gave the gondoliers a monopoly; but these noisy, exuberant and enthus- iastic Venetians gave abundant evidence that they had not been attacked by the trust epidemic and that ANTIQUATED VENICE. 83 competition in their lines of work was keen. The gondoliers of Venice, numbered by thousands, are extremely loquacious and pugnacious. They fight freely with their tongues, but rarely strike; their riots are free from bloodshed ; they are tall, muscular and robust. Their exhibitions of strength and skill in pro- pelling their boats is often astonishing. They have voices that would make the forest tremble, if there was a forest; they are nearly all singers and are all lovers of music. To the reader of history Venice at sight proves a disappointment. Its splendor, beauty and original magnificence has long since departed. Time, the ex- acting mistress, has quietly and silently erased its gilt and annihilated its once fascinating and captivating splendor. The Venice of story and song has departed ; the magnificent, invincible Venice, which for more than a dozen centuries kept prestige of leadership of commercial prosperity of all the cities of the world, has collapsed. The city has been robbed of her glory by centralization of commerce in other localities. Her fleets known in the remotest oceans, which a thousand years ago gathered and distributed the products of every clime, have long since gone to decay ; her piers are deserted; her warehouses are empty, and all that remains of a once commercial center is a memory. That memory, however, answers her present inhabi- tants a good purpose. The crop of tourists, which in a steady stream contribute to the filling of her coffers, are paying tribute to the Venice of palmy days; her present poverty, her humiliation and her reverses have not proved potent enough to turn the tide of foreign 84 GLIMPSES OF EUROPE. curiosity away from this venerable autocrat of com- merce and relic of former grandeur. Venice was built originally upon about one hun- dren islands, seventy-five of which are left, spaces being filled in between the others. Between these islands the waterways or canals extend in every direc- tion ; these waterways are supplied by the sea and are affected by the rising and falling of the tides. About three hundred bridges large and small connect these islands. As no horses are used in the city and no heavy loads cross the bridges, they are usually narrow and cheaply built structures. Everybody has seen a pic- tureof the bridge of the Rialto, which crosses the grand canal, having a span of 91 feet. It was a structure of rare beauty a few centuries ago, and of great disappoint- ment to our visitors because of its ancient and dilapi- dated appearance. Around the Rialto history and fiction have located much with which the world has become familiar. Here was located Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice, the house of the money changers and the home of Shylock. The rooms occupied by the money changers in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice now form a part of an extensive fish market, while at the other end of the bridge the home of Shy- lock is being occupied as a government postoffice where I went through winding and narrow streets to receive my mail. Like most other buildings in the city, their value for business or residence purposes has greatly depreciated. Their antiquated, old-fash- ioned architecture, although dignified with historical reminiscences, suffers for want of ordinary care and ANTIQUATED VENICE. 85 preservation. Venice, like all Italian cities, is heavily loaded with a coat of dirt and its venerable presence is to be regretted, especially when its resting place happens to be upon the beautiful mosaics, upon the highly polished marble of rare qualities, upon the tables, vases, tapestry, paintings, sculpture and scores of other exquisite specimens of art that centuries ago were the pride of the city and the delight of the ad- mirers of well-kept and well-preserved handiwork of the great masters. Venice is noted for its pretty women and dirty faced, neglected children; with its copious supply of water the inhabitants should be the cleanest in the world and a war upon the dirt of the city would surely terminate in a victory of the assilants. Venice is a Mecca for the small boy. Such a thing as hoeing in the garden, milking the cow or driving her to pasture never enters into his calculations or disturbs the sweetness of his morning nap. Taking a swim, instead of meaning a tramp away to a muddy pond, he strips off in his own home, jumps from his own threshold and gets all the benefits of a bath in the ocean. It is not uncommon to see mothers assist- ing their little ones in the art of swimming. In one case I noticed three little "tots" at the other end of some ropes ten or fifteen feet in length, fastened around their bodies, while the mother was holding on to the frisky little cherubs and watching their gambols in the sea fronting her modest residence. As a quiet retreat for invalids Venice must be an ideal spot, as save the clarion voices of the gondolier the city is favored with a graveyard stillness. There 86 GLIMPSES OF EUROPE. are no steam whistles, electric cars, omnibuses, milk or ice wagons rattling over stony streets to disturb morning sleepers or rack the nerves and patience of invalids. The pavements are all constructed of wood resting on piles numbered by hundreds of thousands. The Venetian laborer seems a quiet, indifferent person,, and as it takes but little to keep soul and body together, is usually found resting on the benches or getting the benefit of summer heat on the sunny side of a public building. If he was not born tired, his appearance is deceiving. The main reliance for food of the middle and lower classes is fish and macaroni. The Italians are skilled in the art of making macaroni palatable, cheap and wholesome. The operations of fishermen and the conduct of the fish markets are regulated by statute. The sale of dead fish is prohibited by a law strictly enforced. They are caught in great quantities in the waters adjacent to the city and brought in in baskets, towed through the water behind the boats. The pur- chaser usually receives his fish direct from the basket when lifted from the water, and the price put upon some of the varieties is very low. There are few enter- prises in the city employing labor, the manufacture of lace taking the lead. I saw hundreds of girls crowded into dingy, ill-ventilated rooms, wearing out their nimble fingers in the production of fine laces; their compensation ranged from sixteen to twenty-four cents a day. The prices asked for the goods seemed to warrant more pay, but the poor operatives are not protected by labor unions or co-operation and are compelled to accept whatever the employers are gen- ANTIQUATED VENICE. 87 erous enough to offer. The lady contingent of our party fairly raved over some of the elegant patterns and fine quality of the goods. Many an American dollar drops into the slot in payment for these coveted articles. How to extract the largest amount of cash from the pockets of the tourists is the leading propo- sition with all Venetians. It's the study of their lives from the cradle to the grave. The art of begging is an early lesson, the little juveniles become experts in the business. These leeches are hard to shake off; when everything else fails, they will fall down in front of you and try to block the way until their de- mands are complied with. The quantity and variety of bric-a-brac, knick- knacks and souvenirs for sale in Venice is astonishing. The stores dealing in the same are numbered by hundreds and the prices are usually much lower than the same goods can be bought for in America. Amer- icans are the best customers and the Venetian harvest from this source lasts all the year. VENETIAN ENTERPRISE AND ANCIENT ARISTOCRACY RULE OF THE DOGES INHUMAN TREATMENT OF CRIMINALS- GILDED AGE SUPERSEDED BY POVERTY AND DIRT. No authentic history of Venice dates back of the fifth century, when the marshy islands served as tem- porary retreats from barbarian invasions, and the first permanent settlement dates from the beginning of the ninth century. The physical condition of the islands to be contended with were unpropitious and unsuited for the growth and progress of a large and prosperous city. There was lack of serviceable timber, drinkable water was almost out of the question, and the neces- sity of building upon piles was universal. The spirit of enterprise which possessed the Vene- tians would not down. All obstacles were overcome by their genius and push in building and manning fleets sufficient to control the commerce of the world. For seven or eight hundred years the prestige attained by their push was held in spite of all rivalry. Their form of government, that of an aristocratic republic, was adopted at an early period ; later, or in the beginning of the seventh century, there was a change, giving popular representation to a doge or a duke, a sort of chief magistrate clothed with supreme power. The selection and dominant ruling of the doges lasted for many centuries and during their reign the city became a center of wealth, fashion, extravagance and cruelty. The value of human life was uncertain and of low ss VENETIAN ENTERPRISE. 89 estimate. The doges generally ruled with an iron rod, and although their words were law, the tables not unfrequently were turned upon them and they suf- fered the cruelties and the tortures that they had been guilty of imposing upon others. In one case history accounts for the skinning alive of a doge; others were condemned and suffered tortuous deaths; and still others were punished by having their eyes put out. Inhuman treatment of criminals at the present day hardly has a parallel to Venice in any other city of the world. I crossed the "Bridge of Sighs" and walked around the prison where 300 life convicts were eking out an unfortunate existence. A good share of these miserable prisoners are located below the water line in small, dark, damp cells. Many of them are only two feet by six feet, and known as "coffin cells," where no streak of daylight is allowed to enter. The thick walls which separate them forbid all intercourse. They see no living being except a guard, who twice each day delivers to them a scanty ration. We were informed that their cells were alive with vermin and destitute of everything which contributes to human comfort. The average period of life spent in this prison is only about one year, insanity being the means of terminat- ing the existence of the largest number. There are tales told of the guards taking these poor lunatics out at dead of night, sailing away in a gondola two or three miles, attaching weights to their limbs and dropping them into the sea; this, although a crime, is a merciful one, if half the stories told of their tor- tures are true. In literature and art Venice in the middle ages 90 GLIMPSES OF EUROPE. rose to the standard of Greece. Inventive genius gave the city distinction. There were costly tissues made, they manufactured gunpowder and glass, their paint- ings and architecture, their sculpture and their decorations still in existence were of the highest order. The Doges palace is a marvel of beauty, elegance and costly ornamentation. The wealth piled up in its construction and finish would be difficult to estimate. The ceilings of some of the large rooms are still cover- ed with a sheet of gold. From our guide I tried to get an estimate of its value but failed. These rooms were a reminder of the description of Solomon's temple. St. Mark's square, located centrally, is the chief attraction of Venice. It comprises perhaps two or three acres of pavement and is entirely surrounded with ancient blocks, palaces and stores. A cathedral and the Doges' palace filling one side of the square. Here at a glance you get a view of enough of historic Venice to keep an ordinary mortal busy studying for a month. The Doges' palace, the cathedral, the mint, and library, the royal palace, with many other public buildings, are filled with choice relics of the long, long ago. In the cathedral there are two alabaster col- umns, two feet in diameter, taken from Solomon's temple. A lighted match held behind one of these columns settled its transparency, and its power to illumine with amber glory. There is on exhibition what purports to be the robe of Jesus, a portion of earth from Mount Calvary wet once from his blood, a fragment of the true cross upon which he suffered, with many other relics of like interest, but should the truth of their genuiness be questioned, or disputed, VENETIAN ENTERPRISE. 91 there would be danger of disappointment to the over- credulous. The vast collection of paintings will not permit of enumeration. Several hundred, for instance, are credited to each one of the old masters, and hun- dreds to artists unknown to fame outside of Italy. The painting of the Glory of Paradise, by Tintoretto, located in the Doges' palace, 78 by 32 feet, is modestly claimed to be the largest oil painting in the world. It attracts the largest crowd of any picture that it was my fortune to see and if I were to venture an opinion it would be that as a specimen of art it is worthy of all the admiration it receives. The winged Lion of St. Mark with an open Bible under his paw, as an attrac- tive emblem has few rivals in the old city. The clock tower, the four gilt bronze horses (the only horses in the city), the church of the Jesuits fin- ished with marbles of a variety of colors from the Orient and decorated with porphyry and alabaster are attractions which deeply impress the tourist. Under this old Jesuit church, which took fifty-six years to erect, many of the piles have rotted and given way, allowing the floor to settle in spots from one to two feet. With the glory and valor of Venice has departed the beauty of all its exposed decorations. Its marble palaces resemble sand-stone from a distance, but barring the dirt, the golden stair-cases, the broad, marble stairways, the gilded stuccos and frescos, retain their richness and are in a good state of preservation. St. Mark's square and its surrounding is the pre- empted home of thousands of doves, being supported by a legacy provided in the will of an old lady some 92 GLIMPSES OF EUROPE. time a resident of Venice. These doves are fed about two p. m. when they gather in clouds to receive their rations. The birds have become so domesticated that they light upon not only their benefactors, but upon the spectators by dozens. The population of Venice is about 150,000, one- fourth of which are said to be paupers. Indolence and laziness seems to be stamped upon the laboring classes, but there is little in the ancient city to excite ambition. Enterprise is smothered by the universal desire to get something for nothing, or to pluck the tourist for the means of an indifferent livelihood. The oriental magnificence and extravagance, the millions of gold used by the ancients in building and ornamen- tation is all dead wealth, preserved and existing in the center of misery, degradation and pauperism. We spent an afternoon visiting the Adriatic four miles away, and bathing in its green waters. Our party filled fifteen gondolas, which were lashed to- gether and propelled by the most skillful and stalwart specimens of the gondoliers art. A band of vocal and instrumental music filled one of the boats, and their patriotic airs were full of sweetness though to us lack- ing sentimentality as they were all Italian, or Greek to us. In nearly every song the gondoliers joined in on the chorus and their exhilaration was not wanting in giving emphasis to the harmony and pathos, which charmed the Americans. The bath houses along the shore of the Adriatic are very extensive, making a popular resort for all tourists visiting Venice in the summer months. We returned to Venice in the evening and its VENETIAN ENTERPRISE. 93 approach upon the water under its profusion of elec- tric lights and music, both vocal and instrumental, combined to create the charm of a life time. In Venice there is but one step from the sublime to the horrible. I will not weary the reader further by an attempt at description of royal scenes, as they existed in the middle ages, the elaborate tables, furniture, vases, marbles and tapestry of every kind and descrip- tion, nor of the ax and block where criminals by thousands were publicly executed. Crime in those days consisting of too much patriotism or too little, too much religion or too little (either of which was punishable by public decapitation), and if not guilty of either of these charges, an enemy, if a man of in- fluence, asked that a life be taken his wish was granted. Poor dilapidated dingy, dirty, dull old Venice. To be weak is miserable, to depend upon charity for sup- port, or to prey upon your fellowmen for something to sustain life, and to get something for nothing, is neither ennobling nor patriotic, but the evidence of fallen greatness, the memories of a gilded age cannot help warming every sympathetic nature which con- nects the sorrowful present with the prosperous dead past. In spite of the poverty, the dirt, the blood- thirsty mosquitos, the fleas, and the human parasites, the memory of the three days spent in Venice will linger with a large degree of satisfaction while life lasts. FLORENCE THE HOME OF ART ANCIENT ARCHITECTURE DONKEYS AND DIRT THE RESTING PLACE OF ARTISTS AND POETS OF DISTINCTION. Our route from Venice to Florence through the Apennines, and through forty-five tunnels, sharply contrasted with the railroad experiences for a few days previous. These tunnels, without light, or ventilation, are the foulest things imaginable. The gas generated by the locomotive is suffocating, and the odor is any- thing but agreeable. The Apennines are rugged and rocky, in many places they reach well up toward the clouds, creating a necessity for the railroads to go through rather than over the mountains. Some of the scenery is fine. Hemp is one of the leading crops on the low lands, which largely consists of clay, and hard clay at that. Florence is a city of about 200,000 inhabitants. No visitor would for a moment question its antiquity. It is not as old as the Apennines, but its origin ante- 'dates the Christian era. It has a cathedral, which Julius Caesar gets the credit for erecting. Florence is the home of art. This prestige has been its leading asset for centuries. It has a multitude of artists, who are constantly fashioning its rough marble into statuary of every kind and description. From its little marble statues, six inches in height, to great monuments thirty feet in height, excelling in artistic conception and exquisite finish. Florence is pre-eminent. 94 , ., , FLORENCE THE HOME OF ART. 95 The aptitude and dexterity shown by some of these workmen is marvelous. Out of a rough block of marble they can make you a small sized statue while you wait. These Italians are born artists and seem to be fitted for little else. In the Uffizi art gallery we saw miles and miles of paintings and statuary. Someone has said that that portion of the gallery known as the Tribune was the richest room in the world. "A heart that draws all hearts to it." Here was the Venus de Medici, the painting of Venus by Titian, also some of Raphael's finest masterpieces, a Madonna and a St. John, Titian's Magdaline and St. Catherine are in this grand collection. In this great gallery was what is claimed to be the oldest picture in the world. It would hardly win a prize as a specimen of fine art. To us the most interesting spot in the city was the church of Santa Croce, as it contains the tomb of Dante, by far the greatest of all Italian poets. Al- though Dante passed away nearly six hundred years ago, having spent his life in Florence, his memory is venerated with a tenderness that is unusual. In this church or cathedral are also the tombs of Michael Angelo, Machiavelli, Rossini, Petrarch, Leo- nardo di Vinci, Cellini and Andrea del Sarto, all of whom were either born or spent the most of their lives in this city. Each of these men of genius have a sarcophagus worthy of their illustrious names. Santa Croce is the Westminister Abbey of Florence. Florence is not a paradise of beauty, as many writers would have us believe. The city is represented with every variety of architecture. Some of its build- 96 GLIMPSES OF EUROPE. ings, evidently imposing and interesting in the middle ages, have long since passed into the sere and yellow leaf, and the dirt which afflicted Venice is too palp- able to warrant a close inspection. Donkeys, beggars and dirt, are first and foremost in the physical makeup of Florence. Aside from artistic work there are few enterprises employing labor, and a visit to the suburbs and the streets where the laboring classes are in multi- tude indicated that there was little to earn and many to keep. The poor little abused donkey is a prolific subject of commiseration. He does the work assigned to the horses and dogs in Brussells and Cologne. We saw the little scrawny, half-starved brutes drawing at least four times the weight of the animal, and on the top of the loads were sitting great, lubberly, lazy drivers. When a sharp incline was reached and the scratching of the little donkey brought him to his knees and he could go no further the driver would climb down and assist him up the grade by a long pull and a strong pull at the little fellow's head. Here was an excellent field for a humane society. Supt. Chapman would have his hands full reforming these soulless vagrants. Everybody has heard of the Arno, the "broad river" which courses through the center of Florence. It is historical, but not ideal. Instead of a great channel of clear sparkling water, we found it a good sized creek, with possibly three feet of water in the deepest places and such water, why, it was a reminder of our own Black river (though the water was not as thick) after a series of showers have washed the cornlands of Carlisle. Mark Twain FLORENCE THE HOME OF ART. 97 said that the Arno would be' a very plausible river if they would pump some water into it, but we were there during a drought and possibly the rainy sea- son would have the effect to enlarge our vision. As water and soap find little use with the middle and lower classes of the city, what to our party seemed a scarcity may not be apparent to the Italians. Al- though the list of fine things in Florence is a long one, there has been an unpardonable exaggeration of its loveliness as a city. Were its works of art elimin- ated there would be little left to admire. True it has some well-ordered public gardens on a high eminence east of the city. There are some mountains in the distance, there are some fragments of old city walls and towers and other ancient relics, which might be raked out of the dust of antiquity and made interest- ing. The botanical gardens, affording a grand oppor- tunity for students in botany, are well kept and have varieties of shrubbery and flowers which are unknown to Americans. A monument to King David by Michael Angelo, more than 20 feet high, is the central figure on the heights adjoining the city, and by good judges is pronounced an excellent product of artistic genius. The grave of Elizabeth Barrett Browning in their well-kept cemetery attracted the notice of our party. Although laid to rest forty years ago the fame of this distinguished English poetess is not in the least dimmed. After her marriage to Robert Browning, the poet, they resided chiefly in Italy. Mrs. Brown- 98 GLIMPSES OF EUROPE. ing, although lacking vigor and always in delicate health, as a champion of Italy and her welfare had few if any equals as a writer of her time. Depth of feeling, genuine pathos and noble sentiment charac- terized her productions. If Florence has a fad it is in the equipment of her police department, which is made up of ornamental specimens, if not useful ; the whole force seemed to belong to the "Captain Jinks" order; their embroid- ered swallow tailed coats and cocked hats entitles them to the sobriquet of dudes. The cripples, consisting of the club-footed, the withered hand and other physical deformities, are shockingly numerous in this old city. In traveling the streets you are rarely free from their appeals for charity ; the piteous tones of the beggars, the women clothed in rags lugging their little ones to and fro, created impressions that one would gladly shake off. From its earliest history Florence has been noted for its high standards of literature, and through all the centuries down to the present time that standard is said to have been maintained. Its highest grades of society, or the upper classes, are readily recognized by their refined manners, their evident culture and their suavity. We have never come in contact with a more courteous, gentle, affable people, showing all the evidences of good breeding, than the high class of Italians, while the lower strata ignore rules of civili- zation which raise mankind to a level above the brute creation. Their every day customs, which will not admit of any elaboration in these columns, fill tourists with disgust. FLORENCE THE HOME OF ART. 99 I shall omit the bloody portion of Florentine his- tory; the throat cutting, assassinations, the cruelties, the sieges, which made its city walls necessary, and its various experiences not unlike the other cities of Italy, and will try and eliminate from memory the un- pleasant scenes, giving her credit for her three li- braries containing 300,000 volumes, her great uni- versity, her skill as evidenced in her jewelry marts, in her mosaics, the choicest in the world, and in the maintenance of the largest percentage of artists of any city of modern times. I must not omit the old church containing the tomb of Amerigo Vespucci, the publisher of the first map of the new world and the man who christened our country with the name of America, nor the fa- mous Baptistry with bronze doors which Michael Angelo said "were worthy to be the Gates of Para- dise." On account of the intense heat we left Florence on our long ride to Rome at any early hour in the morning. The trip was a repetition of previous ex- periences, country scenes, furnished little that was striking. Lands which had been under cultivation for 2,000 years or more still produce wheat and other cereals. Methods of cultivation are not abreast with progressive countries. But few horses were to be seen, the beasts of burden were white oxen with high horns extending up nearly parallel with each other from two to three feet. All the cattle in that section of the country are white, cows are occasionally seen in the yoke and the calves dependent upon their mothers for support are keeping the drivers company. The 100 GLIMPSES OF EUROPE. leading stock growers are breeding fine wool sheep and goats. Wheat was being harvested with sickles and cradles, thrashed in the fields by machines and the grain scattered about on the ground in heaps. The straw, which was needed to enrich the land, was be- ing burned. If there was any system, science or good sense in their kind of farming it didn't show itself. It was a sort of hap-hazard, hit-or-miss cultivation, desti- tute of all signs of progressiveness or prosperity. The mills for grinding their grain were of the most primitive descriptions and ancient patterns. The mass of these tillers of the soil pay little or no regard to the Sabbath, working in the fields seven days in the week. As we approached Rome there was a decrease in the fertility of the soil and the blight upon the country became more noticeable. For the last fifty miles olive raising is the leading vocation, and the numerous olive orchards were to us full of interest. On nearly every promontory, or high ele- vation within sight of our train for a long distance out of Rome, there was a village or city deserted and in ruins. The castles, the public buildings, and the residences all built of stone, all dilapidated, tumbling down and going to decay were solemn reminders of the history of the mighty fallen. THE ETERNAL CITY THREE HOMES ANCIENT RUINS THE CORSO STREET SCENES THE TIBER. Arriving at Rome at high noon imagine our sur- prise at finding a city apparently in all respects mod- ern. Fine hotels, elegant residences, and homelike cottages with well kept gardens, and a profusion of flowers, dispelled the dreams of the ancient, dilapi- dated, gray old Rome, the history of which made boyhood impressions never to be effaced. This mod- ernized appearance was short lived. Our ride to the center of the city, which landed us at the Hotel de Rome, located on the Corso, restored, or brought out the Rome that we were seeking, and that we had traveled many thousand miles to see. The eternal city is composed of three Romes, the modernized portion, which has come into existence during the last century, the Rome of the middle ages, embracing the capitol, every phase of architecture known to the world, and public buildings of all descriptions, nearly all in a fair state of preserva- tion, and the Rome of the Caesars generally in ruins with here and there relics of ancient days. A few buildings still occupied that were erected be- fore the Christian era and fragments of palaces and the most expensive and extravagant residences ex- hibit here and there relics. It is in Caesar's Rome that interest of the tourist deepens. It is there that territory extending as far as the eye can reach pre- 101 102 GLIMPSES OF EUROPE. sents scenes of desolation and annihilation. Miles and miles of debris is all that is left of a once mighty, powerful and prosperous city. All the world has read of the Corso a mile long, and the principal thoroughfare. Our dream of the street, comparing in width with the leading streets of Philadelphia or the thoroughfares of Salt Lake City 150 feet in width lacked reality when we found by actual measurement that the renowned old Corso was less than thirty-five feet wide, including the sidewalks, barely two feet each in width. As nearly all the buildings are from five to six stories, having bal- conies, as a rule the direct rays of Old Sol for a good part of the day are not to be reckoned with. Speak- ing of the sunshine and its effects, the popular idea is that the heated season of July and August is produc- tive of fevers, and that going to Rome during those months is a dangerous proposition ; this is a mistaken notion, residents of the city remain indoors during the middle of the day, and tourists following their ex- ample, or protecting themselves with umbrellas, and taking only moderate exercise have little to fear in the way of fevers or epidemics. The heat of the day in Rome is not without a wholesome atmosphere coming in from the Mediterranean a few miles away, while the nights are invariably cool. From 9 a. m. to 4 p. m. the Corso is practically deserted, scarcely a team in sight. Both morning and evening this thorough- fare is the liveliest spot imaginable. Progress is necessarily slow as the loaded teams and carriages must keep in line, going down one side of the street and up the other. THE ETERNAL CITY. 103 The present population of Rome is claimed to be 500,000, which seems nearer the truth than figures usually handed out by the Romans, as 436,000 rep- resented the last census. No other surviving city has a history showing such extremes of prosperity and adversity. In her palmy and powerful days the eter- nal city was by different historians credited with from 2,000,000 to 3,500,000 inhabitants; this included the patricians, plebians and the slaves which were num- bered by hundreds of thousands. When the mini- mum was reached after her collapse she numbered but 17,000 souls. It required many centuries to carry the great city down to the borders of annihilation. The causes leading to this depopulation were numer- ous and potent. Roman history is too familiar to American readers to make it necessary to enumerate and elaborate these causes. While the Roman em- pire was all powerful and easily ruled the world and the arts, sciences and literature reached the highest planes of perfection ever attained before or since, the wickedness, the heartlessness, the cruelty and the blood-thirstiness of its people is without precedent among civilized nations. Christians were slaughtered by thousands in the early centuries, ostensibly to ap- pease the wrath of the infernal gods. These people not only worshipped the imaginary gods, but they worshipped their emperors and men highest in au- thority. The followers of the Nazarine were com- pelled to flee to the catacombs for safety, and when captured were subjected to death by inhuman tor- ture. As an object lesson to be studied by other na- tions past, present and future, Roman history has no parallel. 104 GLIMPSES OF EUROPE. From Romulus to the fall of the Roman empire, or for nearly two thousand years, among the leading attributes of the Romans was a burning ambition to rule ; a despotic use of power, a low appraisement of human life, a merciless, and inhuman warfare waged ceaselessly upon nations that were weaker, conquest and plunder being the main object. For several centuries their increase of wealth by conquest was marvelous; from the Orient came gold almost without limit, also building materials of the most precious varieties, including porphyry and ala- baster. This raw material, which was fashioned by skilled workmen, much of which is still to be seen in the city, conveys to the sightseer by its luster and glitter a broad hint of the brilliancy and splendor of the city in the early centuries. We took a long ride out the Appian way, the great public thoroughfare leading from the city, over which the spoils and prisoners of war entered the metropolis. This historical street is well paved with stone nearly, or quite, as hard as flint, has high walls on each side that showed all the evidences of an- tiquity and importance as a thoroughfare in its time. Great trees have grown on the top of its walls, the street is no longer reinforced with palaces and richly ornamented homes, but instead are to be seen by thousands the mounds of debris already referred to. Public improvements by this progressive people were not confined to public buildings, the necessities and luxuries of the populace seem to have been amply provided for, parks with a capacity sufficient for ac- commodating at once the entire population of the THE ETERNAL CITY. 105 city were tastefully laid out and scrupulously cared for. Bathing facilities which would accommodate 6,000 people at once, and water from the Sabine hills forty miles away, of fine quality and an amount suffi- cient to supply every need of man and beast; por- tions of the old aqueduct used to convey this water are still to be seen supported on pillars thirty feet high. Some of the highly ornamented water reser- voirs still have a place in the middle of many of the leading streets and are supplying the thirst of the horses and donkeys. The Tiber dividing the city, so conspicuous in the early annals and for a long period playing an im- portant part in the chronicles and traditions of an- cient Rome, is encased in retaining walls perhaps thirty feet high, and has a width approximating 200 feet, possibly more. The water has a yellowish tinge, and like the water of the Arno seemed to have been in contact with some ploughed land. Several fine bridges over the Tiber now connect the ancient and modern cities. Our guide pointed out the spot where the heroic Horatius so valiantly in the brave days of old with two others, each with broad-swords, kept back the forces of Lars Porsena, while the Romans hewed down the only bridge that spanned the Tiber, cutting off the opportunity for this formidable army to enter the ancient city. Macaulay's account of this great feat, of the chivalry of Horatius, his escape through her river when at flood tide and the reward bestowed upon him by the Romans, was vividly recalled. Ho- ratius not only hewed down the bridge, but in its 106 GLIMPSES OF EUROPE. defense there were scores of Etruria's noblest sons, under the well-aimed blows sank to rise no more ; as a reward Macauley says : "They gave him of the corn-land, That was of public right As much as two strong oxen Could plough from morn till night, And they made a molten image, And set it up on high, And there it stands unto this day To witness if I lie." Some of the street scenes of Rome are peculiar if not unique. The white oxen with high horns drawing huge old carts (which Hannibal or Caesar would have hardly considered up-to-date) along the principal thoroughfares guided by barefooted drivers; the little starved donkeys overloaded beyond endurance. Women with faces brown as Indians sitting on the walks under the sun's direct rays, knitting or sewing and patiently waiting for customers for their little stock of pears or tomatoes; with beggars by multi- tudes from the ancient Santa Claus type down to the supple youth. These flexible boys by a series oi somersaults keeping pace with your carriage, man- age to attract attention and extract their full share of pennies from the pockets of tourists. Their feats are made while wearing but a single garment, and their endurance is astonishing. The terror of the street is the irrepressible peddler pushing his cartload of fruit and vegetables and giv- ing Italian emphasis and impressiveness to a medley of screeches sufficient to make the welkin ring; his THE ETERNAL CITY. 107 voice does not seem to be regulated by ordinance, his mouth opens with the wings of the morning, and at break of day it may be heard echoing through the streets and alleys. The business places are unlike anything found in this country. They are usually low, dark and gloomy, the sidewalk is often included with the store by a canvas stretched from the outer edge of the walk. Like all Latin cities Rome carries an immense stock of goods intended for her visitors. Making offers usually means a purchase. The obsequious cab-drivers are never caught without a full stock of cheek or gall. They remind one of the "cabbies" of Niagara Falls ; their vehicles are usually old, out-of-date affairs, while their horses are the poorest to be found in Europe. The plebians of Rome have comparatively few chances to earn money, and their primitive customs and styles of liv- ing are forcible evidences of their poverty. OBSEQUIES OF THE DEAD KING THE PANTHEON THE COLISEUM THE FORUM ST. PAUL'S AND ST. PETER'S CATHEDRALS ROME, THE TOURIST'S CLIMAX. The pomp and ceremony observed at the obse- quies of the late King Humbert for splendor and size was on a scale rarely if ever eclipsed. It required two hours and twenty-five minutes for the procession to pass our window. The pageant consisted of the officers of the army, the law making power and heads of all the departments of Italy and the leading secret orders, cardinals, bishops, monks and priests by scores. This grand procession consisted mainly of men above medium height, of fine form and equipped with appropriate insignia. Such an exhibition is rare- ly witnessed by an American. The hundreds of cav- alry horses, ten abreast, gaily equipped, and a long line of carriages loaded with flowers of the choicest va- rieties made a display never to be forgotten. The remains of the king were followed, first by his saddle horse, a bright bay, second by his son, Victor Em- manuel, the present king, on foot and unattended, third, by Queen Margarita, and the present queen in carriages. The multitudes of people that were prevented by policemen's clubs from completely blocking the streets had a generous sprinkling of anarchists, and there were several attempts made to create riot by cries of "Down with the King," which was only pre- vented by the presence of the soldiers. People were 108 OBSEQUIES OF THE DEAD KING. 109 knocked down and trampled upon, and those injured and sent to hospitals numbered forty-six. The law which compelled the king to walk unattended is sup- posed to test his courage, and his refusal to take the risk would have branded him as a coward. There was a notable absence of sorrow in the faces of the Italians composing this grand spectacle. If vain glory and ostentation were aimed at results were not left in doubt. The evidences of mourning every- where present in the processions which followed the remains of our lamented Lincoln and Garfield did not materialize. King Humbert's remains found a resting place in the Pantheon, one of the oldest structures in Rome. It was erected twenty-seven years B. C, is circular in form, 143 feet across, and fairly well preserved. The Pantheon was built by Agrippa as a temple for the worship of the heathen gods. It came into possession of the Roman Catholics in the sixth century, since which it has been used as a sepulcher for members of the royal family and a few others. It is but a short distance from the Pantheon to the Coliseum, the most famous landmark of Roman deso- lation. It is the king of ruins. More than 1,000 years ago its destruction begun. From its walls have been built basilicas, blocks and residences, but enough re- mains of the mournful structure to confirm the devil- ish records of its bloodiest monuments. The Coli- seum covers five acres of ground, and when com- pleted had a seating capacity of 87,000 people, and on state occasions when an unusual number of Chris- tians were to be slaughtered 100,000 found room with- 110 GLIMPSES OF EUROPE. in its walls. It was built in the first century, and the brick, cement, stone and marble used had all the en- durance and resistance of the best materials the world has ever known. From the outer to the inner walls there are five arches. It was 157 feet high, and the brick used in its construction show few signs of decay or deterioration, where in the least protected from the weather. The marble and iron clamps long ago disappeared, and inch by inch the most exposed por- tions have succumbed to the great leveler time. Its walls, arches and arena are overgrown with grass, weeds and shrubs, and an occasional tree. Birds, but- terflies, tree-toads and crickets were in possession of the gigantic ruin. During the last century some of the walls have been renewed and the wholesale de- struction of the ruin has been arrested. The spot where the Christian martyrs suffered is marked by a tall cross, and the preservation of the Coliseum is a tribute to the memory of the Christians who were sacrificed within its walls. The arena in the center of the amphitheatre, where 11,000 lives went out in a single year, the subterranean passages which admitted to the arena wild beasts from Palatine hill are well preserved. Enough of the ruin remains to give em- phasis and impressiveness to the annals and chronicles which mark the Coliseum as the center of unmitigated persecution, flagrant cruelty and heartless, cold- blooded sacrifice of innocent life. The blood of Chris- tians drenched the earth within this enclosure, and their slaughter was the occasion for holidays of the blood-thirsty Romans. It was under Titus christened by the slaughter of 5,000 wild beasts. Conceived in OBSEQUIES OF THE DEAD KING. Ill sin and brought forth in iniquity this ancient struc- ture will long remain a monument to the folly of the Romans. The Coliseum occupies a portion of the low ground previously used by Nero in the construc- tion of his golden house or palace, the wonders of which for magnificence had never been equaled in Europe. It was built soon after the great fire of A. D. 64, which devastated three-fourths of the city. Nero was charged with causing the conflagration to clear the ground which stretched from the Palatine to the Esquiline Hills, embracing in all 1,200 acres. Accounts of the splendor of this house are almost in- credible. Its walls are said to have blazed with gold and precious stones. Italy and the provinces were ransacked for funds, and Asia was levied upon for a liberal contribution to satisfy the rapacity of Nero. The grounds, meadows, lakes and shady woods were marvelous for their beauty and lavish expenditure. Nero belonged to the line of the Caesars, and with his suicide in 68 ended his fourteen years reign and a new phase of Roman imperialism was entered upon. If Roman literature is to be credited Nero was a "Monster of wickedness." During his first five years as emperor he won the enthusiasm of the multitude, and was applauded for his modesty and correction of many abuses. Later the "Wild beast" in his nature developed and without restraint or conscience he en- tered upon a life of recklessness and debauchery never equalled. His series of crimes included the murder of his own mother, the kicking to death of his own wife and the wholesale murder of wealthy Greeks for their money. He reveled in the blood of both friends and 112 GLIMPSES OF EUROPE. enemies when in the heat of unbridled passions. Through fear of assassination at the age of 31 years he took himself off. Fortunately his career of fan- tastic revelry, frightful disasters and "incarnation of splendid iniquity" had an early termination. The most fascinating spot in the eternal city is the Forum, embracing thirty-five acres of devastation and ruin. Rome for many centuries sat on her seven hills and ruled the world. The strength of the great Roman empire centered at the Forum. It was there that the law makers legislated, that the heads of gov- ernment congregated, that the wisdom of statesmen was proclaimed, that the eloquence of orators and the charm of words swayed the multitudes ; it was there that the most radical measures were enacted, and profligate uses of power were indulged in; it was there that caprice, intrigue and conspiracy originated ; it was there that envy was nourished and suspicion, rivalry and jealousy ripened into assassination. Not- withstanding its present desolation this ancient spot has a fascination that is irresistible; our guide pointed out the location of the great law making power of the Roman senate where the most classical and learned of Roman scholars and statesmen discussed the perti- nent issues of two thousand years ago. Here were located temples and basilicas, a few columns of which still stand ; the temple of Vesta, where the vestal fires were kept burning for many centuries, was located by a few fragments of architectural beauty. Some rem- nants of the gorgeous house of Pompey still remain ; the spot where Caesar was assassinated and where the political trimmer Mark Antony delivered the ora- OBSEQUIES OF THE DEAD KING. 113 tion over his dead body were pointed out; also the place where Caesar's body was cremated by the furi- ous conspirators and where Cicero thrilled great audi- ences with his eloquence. These hallowed places are deeply buried under an accumulation of debris on the surface of which I picked some roses and some, to me, nameless wild flowers. A force of laborers were employed in excavating the great heaps of debris, and the week we were there they were re- warded by unearthing a spring which, through its round, well-preserved marble curb, supplied the vestal virgins with pure water. A more prolific field for human imagination can- not be conceived. To stand where Caesar stood, by far the greatest of all the great men of his time, and to trace the growth of his power and influence, which became supreme, and the wicked conspiracy ending in his murder because he was ambitious, and to con- nect all this with one's surroundings is a rare exhi- laration. It was in that historic locality that the climax of interest was reached by our party. There are more than three hundred churches in Rome, including the cathedrals; they are nearly all Roman Catholic, and the splendor displayed in a few cannot be conveyed to the reader by cheap words. St. Paul's something more than a mile out of the city, erected on the ground where St. Paul is said to have been buried, is an easy rival of the most elegant cathedrals of the world ; it has lavish interior decora- tions ; it was founded in the third century, burned in the eighteenth century and re-opened in 1854. It is over four hundred feet in length, has eighty tall, well- 114 GLIMPSES OF EUROPE. polished granite columns each cut from a single block, and on its walls has two hundred and fifty-two me- dallion mosaic portraits of the popes, and we doubt whether such an aggregation of fine faces can be found in any other of the world's collections. St. Peter's is known as the largest and most costly edifice in the world. It was 350 years in building, at a cost of $50,000,000, is 651 feet in length, 429 in breadth at transept, has 748 columns, 46 altars and 100 statues. The tomb of St. Peter is underneath its dome, and within its walls may be located by their sepulchre and elegant monuments many of the popes that long since passed away. Polished marbles, gilded stuccos and grand mosaics lead in its ornamentation; to fully comprehend its capacity or immensity requires time. It affords standing room for more than ten thousand people, and 1,200 lights are kept constantly burning. From the floor to the top of the dome inside is 435 feet. St. Peter's was designed by Michael Angelo, but after his death his plans were changed, and in spite of all its glitter its architecture is conceded to be a dismal failure. The Vatican is one of the principal attractions of Rome; it consists of the palace or residence of the pope, contains the great library, the museums, art collection, ancient and modern, and is claimed to consist of 11,000 rooms. This number is, however, a bare-faced exaggeration. If the plain truth were told it would stand without a rival as to number of rooms and as the most immense collection known of paintings, statuary, bronzes, medals, vases and all other varieties of art. Many of the rooms are dec- OBSEQUIES OF THE DEAD KING. 115 orated with frescoes from the pencil of Michael An- gelo. The library is magnificent. In the art depart- ment may be found many of the masterpieces of Michael Angelo, Raphael and other masters of their time. Any attempt to give a list even of the most notable pieces of sculpture, or the most renowned paintings, would be tiresome to both the writer and the reader. We were dazed with the splendor of the Vatican and confused with the marvelous number of its rooms and their interesting contents. The palace of the Pope has nothing striking in its outward appearance. It being the week of the obse- quies of King Humbert no strangers were admitted to the presence of Pope Leo. The bodyguard of the Pope all Switzers would by their presence grace the highest court in the world. It is said that the Pope does not dare to trust his life in the hands of the Italian soldiery, and Switz- erland has the honor of furnishing the choicest of her young blood. A short tramp in the catacombs satisfied the writer that these subterranean channels were never intended for residence purposes. They are said to be 600 miles in extent, and we took their word for it. The faint light of our candle failed to reveal anything startling. There were many niches in the rocks where the bodies of dead Christians had been laid to rest, but they have all been removed to the surface and given a Christian burial. It is difficult to account for the extent of the catacombs, and the theory that the rock taken out when ground made a superior quality of cement, 116 GLIMPSES OF EUROPE. which was used for building purposes in ancient Rome, seems the most plausible. Recollections of Rome will return in later years a connecting link in the chain which binds together twenty-eight centuries. Its treasures, its cathedrals, its basilicas, its antique churches, its mosaics, its por- phyry, frescoes and remnants of spectral beauty, and above all its ruins, many of which are saturated with crude condemnations, to the pilgrims who make them a study are a fruitful field ; although their destruction saddens, what is left grows upon the sight-seer and the student. Hearts are softened by the absence as well as the presence of the creations and handiwork of a race of geniuses. PISA AND ITS ANCIENT LANDMARKS LEANING TOWER GALILEO'S PENDULUM ALLURING GENOA ITS CASTLES AND PALACES. A long, monotonous ride from Rome to Pisa reaching into the night made one of the unpleasant features of our trip. Italian heat of mid-summer and a train of Italian carriages making gravel train pro- gress over one of the roughest roads on the conti- nent, produced anything but amiability. We were late for dinner and some of our party, unable to find a restaurant, went to bed hungry. Pisa, a city of about 25,000 inhabitants is very, very old, shrunken from a population of 400,000 in the zenith of her glory. No reliable account is given of its origin. For a long period during the height of Rome's prosperity Pisa was considered the second city in Italy as regards size and power. She belongs in the sphere of mythology. Recent discoveries in the excavation of old ruins, place Pisa in the list of prehistoric cities, upsetting previous calculations. Pisa has shared in the ups and downs of prosper- ity and misery. At one time she quarreled with her sister city, Genoa, and went to war. Four hundred ships were fitted out, manned and entered the fray. Pisa got thrashed and never recovered from the shock; both before and after this defeat, she was at war with the semi-barbarious Huns, her forces were slaughtered and her property destroyed. 117 118 GLIMPSES OF EUROPE. The history of Pisa is a repetition of the old Ital- ian story, saturated with barbarity and cruelty. The city is located in the midst of a rich, fertile country, generally low, with a tendency to being swampy. The soil is well cultivated and planted with lupines and olives. Its surroundings as far as the eye could reach, from the top of its leaning tower, re- sembles a well-kept garden, corn, and grapes for wine purposes are grown in abundance. The peasants are better clothed and apparently better nourished than in most parts of Italy. The city has the form of a square and is situated about thirty feet above sea level, lying along both banks of the Arno, which empties into the Mediter- ranean about six miles below. The two halves of the town are connected by four bridges. The old town is surrounded by a high wall surmount- ed with battlements and gateways, which can be entered by several different routes. The Arno is digni- fied by high retaining walls on each side, extending up perhaps four feet above the street. This masonry is heavy, substantial and ornamental. Fishing with hook and line from the top of these walls seemed to be the leading vocation of the loungers. They fished without results but kept up appearances nevertheless. I was reminded of the lines of Homer as I watched these ancient fishermen, where, in speaking of Jove and his fishing outfit, he said : "His pole was of the sturdy oak, His line a cable ship's ne'er broke, His bait was of the dragon's tail, And Jove sat there and bobbed for whale." PISA AND ITS ANCIENT LANDMARKS. 119 From the sluggish movement of these people something less than whale for breakfast would seem adequate to their needs. It is said that the average citizen of Pisa is a drowsy, listless, stupid inhabitant, owing to atmos- pheric conditions, that the uniform temperature of the year also contributes to the heavy, cloggy inertia, which affects its people. Pisa has one great historical attraction, it lean- ing tower, about one hundred and eighty feet high, which is familiar to the civilized world. Why it leans is one of the unsolved mysteries, that it leans can be seen from afar off. Its walls are fourteen feet out of plumb, so that a line suspended from the top on one side strikes the earth fourteen feet from the base of the tower. This marvelous structure was begun in the eleventh century and was completed about two hundred years afterward. It is cylindrical in form, has a diameter of fifty feet, and a stairway of three hundred and thirty steps leads to the summit. The walls are thirteen feet thick at the base and about one-half as thick at the top, and are constructed throughout of marble. It is divided into eight stories, each story having an outside gallery seven feet in width. The basement is surrounded by a range of semi-circular arches supported by fifteen columns, and above this are six arcades of thirty columns each. The eighth story belfry is much smaller in diameter. The tower derives its name from its leaning propen- sity and appears to the observer to be on the point of falling. There is no trouble in convincing yourself to a 120 GLIMPSES OF EUROPE. mathematical certainty that ascending the tower to the top is a safe proposition, but in spite of this you have a spooky, creepy feeling as you crawl over on the leaning side and peer down the one hundred and eighty-three feet, you can hardly resist the conviction that it is not only going to fall, but that it is actually falling. The best authorities of late attribute the leaning of the tower to a defect in its foundation. They say it was built upon wooden piles driven into the boggy ground, and after being carried up about thirty-five feet, it began to settle to one side and the levels were altered so as to keep the center of gravity within the base. In our generation asylums are built where lunatics are confined Avho would make such a reckless expenditure of great sums of money. The seven bells in the eighth story, constructed of the very best metal, assist in holding the balance of power by a majority of them being located on the strong side, or opposite the over-hanging wall. The heaviest of these bells weighs six tons. Near the leaning tower is the cathedral and the baptistry. The cathedral is the oldest and the bap- tistry is made famous by the fact that Galileo made a discovery within its walls in the fifteenth century which was the beginning of a new era in science. Happening to observe the oscillation of a lamp casu- ally set in motion in the cathedral, Galileo was struck with the apparent measured regularity of its vibration, and having compared these vibrations with the beat of his own pulse, he concluded that by means of this regularity of oscillation a simple pendulum might be PISA AND ITS ANCIENT LANDMARKS. 121 made valuable for the exact measurement of time. He applied his discovery to the construction of a clock for astronomical purposes. Galileo was but eighteen years of age when mak- ing this discovery and was tortured on account of it. He lived to be seventy-eight, but probably passed away without a full comprehension of the value of his invention. The multitude of dollar clocks and brass watches twenty-three carats fine came too late to haunt the dreams of this great public benefactor. Pisa is not without architecture. Her old public edifices reflect the genius of the ancients, and as a home of art the city is abreast of other ancient land- marks of like population. There is a long list of jaw-breaking Italian names connected with the best samples of her paintings and sculpture; some of them are familiar, but the list of new ones is confusing. Even Michael Angelo is rep- resented or credited with some of the masterpieces. Michael Angelo was a great artist, a great man, and lived to a good old age. That he could get through with all the work credited to him in an ordinary life- time seems out of the question. Had Methuselah been an artist and were he honored with all the paint- ings, sculpture and architecture standing to the credit of Michael Angelo he would not have earned the rep- utation of being an idler, and would seem to have been a very busy man. Pisa boasts of one of the best universities in Italy. The Campo Santo, the principal cemetery, lying north of the cathedral, was long ago made sacred in the 122 GLIMPSES OF EUROPE. estimate of the Pisans by the importation of fifty-three ship loads of earth from Mount Calvary in which the tombs are set. The leaning tower, the cathedral, the baptistry and a few other points occupied the forenoon, when we resumed our winding way along the shore of the Mediterranean to Genoa. The Mediterranean sparkling in the sunlight reaching from Gibraltar to Jerusalem (2,100 miles), and across to the northern shore of Africa, was a sub- ject for reflection. Could its waters speak, the tales of conquest, of piracy, of naval combats,, ignominious defeats and brilliant achievements covering twenty- five centuries, an interesting history would be re- vealed. Between Pisa and Genoa there are tunnels and tunnels, dark, damp and dirty. Genoa, a city by the sea, which in an early day earned the title of "Superb" has about 150,000 inhabitants, mostly engaged in commercial and maritime pursuits. The city does a thriving business in the line of exports and imports. Genoa is unique in its construction, the city is upon edge, has a very moderate amount of land that may be termed level. The narrow belt along the coast is densely popu- lated and for quite a distance up the side of the moun- tain is thickly settled, but above, along the mountain side, in the far distance are to be seen palaces, churches, elegant residences occupied by the elite, many of which are limited to a niche in the hill side, while others occupy an artificial terrace. The streets leading to or through that portion of PISA AND ITS ANCIENT LANDMARKS. 123 the city are hardly worthy of the name, many of them are simply paths, too steep for a vehicle of any sort. Some of the wealthy residents are carried in chairs to and from their homes, while others depend upon the back of a donkey for transportation. This picture along the native walls of the Apennines, representing the highest plane of architecture, was an enchanting one. Olive and orange orchards, and pomegranate trees, ornamental shrubbery and rare flowers added to the picture. Genoa has her smart set, her women are stylish and many of them beautiful. In her social functions Genoa excels all other Italian cities. She has eighty churches, a hundred palaces and much that is ancient and interesting. As everybody knows Genoa claims to be the birth place of Colum- bus. She has two autograph letters on exhibition from the hand of the great discoverer. The monu- ment to Columbus is a stupendous affair of elegant design. An Italian city without a wall would be a curios- ity, and the walls of Genoa having eight gates consti- tuted a part of the defenses in the brave days of old. In addition to these walls there were numerous forts and batteries. But in spite of these she was soundly whipped and pillaged by the Saracens nine hundred years ago. The Genoese were born fighters and ancient his- tory records struggles with their neighbors in war, which we Americans call "civil." The Genoese have a well established hobby, the evidence of which is found in the famous cemeteries. Probably no other people in the world take as much pride in their city 124 GLIMPSES OF EUROPE. of the dead; her palatial tombs and vast marble cor- ridors and exquisite monuments abound in grace and beauty. There is a rivalry which expenditure of cold cash hardly seems to limit. While New Orleans leads in this respect in America, Genoa is said to have a long lead in Europe. It was with a sigh of regret that we took the last panoramic view of that portion of the Apenines occupied by this peculiar city. FASCINATIONS OF THE ALPS VENERABLE BALE NATIVE LAND OF THE FRENCHMAN HIS PARADISE DELIGHTFUL LANDSCAPE. From Genoa to Milan, five hours, (miles never in Europe) was much of it picturesque. The exten- sive marble quarries in the outskirts of Genoa, which contribute so largely to supplying the wants of civil- ization in every quarter of the globe, was the first and only interest of the kind seen in our travels. During the past century Vermont granite has made extensive inroads into the demand for Italian marble, in other words the American demand for marble has been largely superseded by granite of superior quality. We encountered the never failing tunnels, we rode along on the edge of precipices and were treated to a panorama of fruitful fields, vast orchards and rocky hillsides. At Milan we were at home for a night in the Grand Hotel, our hostelry pre-empted on our way to Rome. An early morning review of some of the sights pre- viously enjoyed in the interesting city of Milan, and we were off for Bale or Basel, nine hours away. Usually repeating a railroad ride or taking a back track is monotonous, not so in this case. Our trip south through and over the Alps by St. Gothard's Pass was made during a rainy day, when the clouds hung low and the mists enveloped some of the highest peaks. Our return was quite the contrary. It was one of those bright, crisp days which put men and 126 126 GLIMPSES OF EUROPE. - mountains at their best, and the views of the snow clad peaks, the villas, the rude cottages and the quaint little villages, were all enjoyed beyond measure. The scenes from those mountain tops are awfully grand. Word-painting can never do them justice. To be ap- preciated they must be seen. Lake Como and Lake Lucerne had lost none of their splendor, while the little city of Lucerne retained all its former attractive- ness. Between Lucerne and Bale is a rich agricultural country, at that time abounding in great crops of grain, hay and vegetables. It is also a fruit country and the apple orchards were loaded with fruit of de- sirable quality. Barring Zurich, Bale is the largest city in Switzerland, its population being 90,000. It is the wealthiest of all her cities and its history is an- tique. Lying on both sides of the Rhine it is connec- ted by a bridge 800 feet in length. Its climate is mild and not subjected to the radical changes of many other parts of Europe. The population of Bale is much less than during the middle ages. The city has had troubles of her own, thirty years of war at one stretch devastated a large portion of the town. The great reform movement of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries which occurred in and around Bale, makes the city conspicuous in the annals of his- tory. Luther's writings were first printed in Bale and the reformer's conflict with the Roman govern- ment occurred in this city, which has since been Pro- testant. The fine old gothic cathedral erected in 1010 still stands, also the church of "The Barefooted Friars," no longer used as a church but as a store FASCINATIONS OF THE ALPS. 127 house. A university, a library containing 120,000 vol- umes, and other educational and religious landmarks, connecting the present with the past, giving this old Switzer city a flavor of richness and adoration. The industrial phases of Bale are typical of the thrift noticeable in other Switzerland cities. Two million dollars worth of ribbons are annually manu- factured. There are also factories for the manufac- ture of woolens, linen, cotton, leather and salt ; enough in this line to keep the people busy and the wolf from their doors. It was a pleasure to return to an atmos- phere of prosperity, to be relieved from the appeals of the puny, sickly, saffron-skinned beggars, and the sights of destitution and poverty. The Switzers of Bale all seem to be well fed, well clothed and happy. There were no half-starved donkeys, or broken down, abused horses in sight, in fact there were no horses in use that would be worth less than $125 to $150 in Elyria. The writer took a long walk through the residence portion of Bale. The residences are neither elegant nor strikingly attractive, but all seemed to be substan- tially built, and both the residences and the grounds in most cases were protected with high walls on the top of which were rods of steel or iron with sharp points, suggesting protection against invasion of ene- mies from without or within the city. Our stay at the Hotel Switzerhof was rewarded with the usual German hospitality. Although it was August and the heat was oppressive we were expected to sleep between two feather beds, and dumping the 128 GLIMPSES OF EUROPE. upper one in the corner of the room brought no im- munity from the sweltering propensities of the other. The menu at the Switzerhof offered no variations from the regular European standard. For breakfast we had coffee, and rolls having a shell hard enough to defy mastication by ordinary processes, honey, either fish or beef without vegetables. At noon we lunched or shirked for ourselves taking what was offered in the restaurants and for a 7 o'clock dinner there was a grand spread of nine to eleven courses requiring from one and a half to two hours to com- plete the program. These dinners are never prepared without a draft upon the poultry yard. It is safe to say that no table d'hote dinner is ever spread in Eu- rope without chicken. It is not the kind of chicken prepared by our wives and mothers in America, but usually the chicken which seemed to have lived in vain, whose life seemed to have been a dismal failure owing to a want of skill needed in the kitchen. I offer no criticism upon the beef, the mutton and the fish from which we were allowed to choose, but draw a line upon the cooked European chicken. France with 204,000 square miles, or five times the area of Ohio, has something more than 40,000,000 people, and her colonies in Africa with the islands of the sea, contain 32,000 square miles and 1,500,000 inhabitants. France is favored with one of the finest climates in Europe, although there are variations. It is an agricultural country, the best portions of which are not surpassed for fertility. The French farmers supply their commonwealth FASCINATIONS OF THE ALPS. 129 with wheat and as a rule have a surplus for export. It is not uncommon for France to produce 300,000,- 000 bushels, or one-half as much as the whole United States. Grape and wine production lead all other countries, but her wines and brandies are mostly con- sumed within her own borders ; enough is exported to America to enable our importers to practice brazen deception by the use of foreign labels. The eastern portion of France as seen from the railroad was disappointing; much of the soil is poor and the peasantry were apparently in hard lines ; the residences are often in groups and the stacks of grain and hay mixed with low sheds made a unique combi- nation. These houses are mostly roof, composed of red tile, the eaves often within six or seven feet of the ground. Methods of farming in that section are primitive, the maid milks the cow with the crumpled horn in the morning, hitches her to the plow or the cart, with perhaps a steer or a mule for a companion, and performs a day's labor. The French are noted for their frugality, industry and thrift. They thrive and accumulate where many of our Americans would fail to make a living. As a nation they have shown great recuperative power. Their war with the Germans in the early sev- enties was an expensive affair. Besides the loss of more than 5,000 square miles of valuable territory in Alsace and Lorraine, they were compelled to part with a large amount of money. Predictions that they would be bankrupted were freely made, but it re- quired but a few years for a full recovery of the money. They parted with the land, however, grudgingly, and 130 GLIMPSES OF EUROPE. their sighs of regret have not ceased. Their invid- ious jealousy of the Germans will be a long time dying out. As every one knows the French are notorious as being the most impulsive, passionate and erratic of all civilized nations. Self-government of the French is an anomaly, an experiment, which will hardly maintain permanency. France has tried all sorts of government. She has had tyranny and revo- lution, been ruled by kings and emperors. Her soil has been repeatedly saturated with blood, but at present, as a republic, she is running along smoothly. As we approached Paris the landscapes were more attractive, the soil more fertile ; there was not a fence nor a stone wall to mar the beauty, not a barn in France of any size and the thatched stacks were really ornamental. There was no neglect in road-making, no rubbish in sight. Everything orderly, the closely trimmed hedges and the cosy cottages enveloped in flowers and shrubbery, made an attractive picture. Here and there we were reminded of the feudal days of the middle ages, by the presence of an old castle in ruins. Few Frenchmen leave their native land for good, and as seen within one hundred miles of Paris in August, 1900, this fact is readily accounted for. The tedious, tiresome ride of nine hours locked in a French carriage facing an uncongenial stranger, had to be endured ; even the luxury of a drink of cold water was denied us and the heat and dust was oppres- sive. From start to finish we were in charge of uni- formed, shoulder-strapped, suave officers or flunkies, FASCINATIONS OF THE ALPS. 131 whose smiling and simpering partially offset the hard- ships referred to. Accidents on French railroads are rare, first they have no grade crossings and second they have no coroners, nor tender hearted juries to render verdicts of "unavoidable." Negligence of official duty in France means punishment. Everything there is subordinated to system, it requires a long string of red tape to load a train of passenger carriages, to start the train requires more red tape, and the discipline ob- served in the conduct of the train across the country is voluminous enough for the movement of a standing army. Some portion of the vast army in France is always in sight and always making a show of being on duty. Unless bribed they rummage your baggage for things dutiable, but our conductors informed us that the mercenary geniuses were low-priced and easily handled. Fearing that prejudice against the French army on account of the treatment of Dreyfus may lead to unjust criticism, I will make no further comments on the French army. GLITTERING PARIS MECCA FOR THE SPORTING ELEMENT THE HOME OF FASHION AND THINGS BEAUTIFUL HABITS OF THE PARISIANS. Paris, at last, the metropolis of Bonnie France, the center of the universe if splendor, glitter and ex- travagance are criterions from which to judge. Ex- penditures in this city of fashion for ostentation, gayety and things that shine and glisten, are simply prodigal. Paris is the mother of fashion, the home of decorations that are gaudy and the hot-bed of ex- cesses; the city where wickedness thrives and sin is nourished, where all phases of society are living for the present, or for what there is in life for them today. The atmosphere of Paris is contaminated with the sporting element, and poisoned by the presence of bawdy houses brazenly plying their vocations with the sanction of the city authorities. The standards or foundations of society are smirched with immoralities which are suppressed even in New York. The churches of Paris are slimly attended. Patri- otism with the French people comes before religion, which accounts for the scarcity of churches and the absence of worshippers. Paris has 2,660,000 inhabitants and a large portion of the city is a fairy land. In its construction and its decorations everything has been subordinated to the one idea of beautiful. The parks, boulevards, public gardens, salons, and 132 GLITTERING PARIS. 133 cafes are supplied with every ornament necessary to make them attractive. The trimming of the trees and the shrubbery, the cultivation of the wilderness of flowers, the arrangements of the shady nooks, the landscapes and the quiet retreats have a fascination seldom if ever found in any other country. The monuments throughout the city in great num- bers and great variety, are a study of themselves. Everything in Paris is Frenchy, from the waxed moustached, kidded porter, or the faultlessly dressed table waiter looking longingly and smilingly for a franc as a reward for some fancied favor, to the irre- pressible cabman lying low for an opportunity to col- lect from you twice the amount he is entitled to by a city ordinance. In all the long string of servants anxious to ac- cept your favors, you look in vain for one to whom you can give direction, almost without exception they are as dumb as horse blocks. To break through the shell of a Frenchman and impress him with your English or to understand his incomprehensible jargon exhausts both patience and vitality. In Germany by repeating, by running the risk of being called verbose, by multiplied gestures and loud tones, you make an impression upon the poor fellow, get what you go after and walk away in triumph, leaving him with the false notion that he really understands English. In Italy you have about the same run of luck with the Italians, but in France your methods are a dead fail- ure. You are up against a stone wall. The French- man is utterly deaf to all sounds or semblance of Eng- lish. If you wish to give your cabman directions 134 GLIMPSES OF EUROPE. you proceed to have him spell after you the name of the street and number but to save his bacon he can- not pronounce either and at last throws up his hands in despair; you may call him the champion blockhead of Paris, or the prince of idiots, and he takes it all in good part nodding assent to every declaration you make. While you are wondering whether he has ever been vaccinated for stupidity or whether the dis- ease is afflicting him in the natural way, your curiosity is aroused to know what is his probable opinion of you. While he can neither understand nor be under- stood by the average American tourist, he no doubt thinks, or at least he thinks he thinks, and has opin- ions all his own. The residents of Paris are generally pleased to live out of doors seven or eight months of the year. You see them swarming in the public gardens, in the parks, in the shade of their verandas, along the boule- vards, or sipping wine or chocolate in front of the drinking places. From 4 p. m. until midnight in the popular portions of the city, they are swarming. A life free from care and responsibility is the aim of the average Parisian and yet there is a larger per- centage of suicides and homicides than in any other city on the globe. From perpendicular, rocky heights, affording a fall of nearly two hundred feet, in the northern suburbs of the city we were informed that an average of five persons a week, the year around, made a leap from the pinnacle to the jagged rocks below. Paris shares in the blessings and miseries of antiquity. Julius Caesar, before the Christian era, GLITTERING PARIS. 135 found in the identical spot now occupied by the great metropolis a little hamlet of mud huts or hovels, oc- cupied by the Gallic tribes. Some of the customs of the Parisians are repre- hensible. They are under indictment by the world at large for a phase of brutality exhibited toward their dumb animals that has no parallel. The treatment of their horses is unmerciful and often sickening. Of the thousands and thousands of horses exported from America to Paris to be used for exposition purposes, probably not one in ten was worth wintering when the exposition closed. They were neither well-fed nor well-cared for, they were loaded without stint and whipped in the most inhuman and brutal manner. Whether their consumption of horse beef con- tributes to this sort of savagery is a question. The horses slaughtered for beef or for their meat annually in Paris are estimated as high as 50,000, one firm kill- ing 10,000 a year. This beef is mostly consumed by the lower classes, laboring people who haven't the price of a steak from the loin of a steer. This horse beef is said to be juiceless and lacking flavor. Amer- icans object to horse steaks on account of prejudice. The horse is the cleanest of all domestic animals and if the meat had the relish of pork it ought to, with the prejudice eliminated, stand an even chance with the American pig, which we consume in great numbers, as everybody knows pigs are the scavengers of all cre- ation. They eat the refuse of the table, the kitchen and the barn yard, and we eat the pigs. We took a carriage drive through the city that lasted throughout the day. The number of fine bus- 136 GLIMPSES OF EUROPE. iness places and the immense quantity of goods on sale were an amazement. How so many merchants manage to live even in the second largest city in the world is a mystery. We visited the heights of a northern suburb, where the guns were located during the siege of Paris in 1871. Four months of steady fire by the Germans brought the Parisians to terms. The complete blockade of the city starved them out. The keen demands of appetite proved too much and their stomachs surrendered. To enumerate the elegant palaces and fine old piles of marble scattered about the city would be a severe task. The Louvre and Tuilleries, now practically one, covering sixty acres of ground in the heart of the city, is a wonder to all strangers. The lower story of the Louvre is a vast retail store covering acres and acres, with miles and miles of counters, and clerks by the thousand. Wanamaker's of New York, and Marshall Field's or Siegel-Cooper's of Chicago, are infants compared to this huge conglomeration. The exhaustless variety of merchandise on sale, embrac- ing the products of every clime, is suggestive of chaos and confusion. The system employed in the arrange- ment of this gigantic category is not perfect in its or- der or regularity. The Bon Marche on the other side of the city, the leading rival of the Louvre, is in better form, more attractive and managed with better method. At the Bon Marche it is only necessary to ask for what you don't see and it is produced imme- diately. In these great establishments there is a full supply of clerks, speaking fairly good English, which seems necessary, when account is taken of 50,000 GLITTERING PARIS. 137 Americans having become residents of Paris, and the multitudes of American tourists, and their wants are considered. The statue of Lafayette erected in the Garden of the Tuilleries and paid for by the pennies contributed by American school children, is a fitting credit to this country as well as a mark of respect to our faithful friend at the time of this country's greatest need. The palace Vendome, famous since 1658, when the Grande Monarch built it ; the Arch of Triumph mod- eled after the one in Rome, with its bronze horses on the top and the central place of all, the Place de la Concorde were all visited and admired. The obelisk of Luxor with fountains and wonderful statuary on every side is a feast for the student. Then there is the Champs de Elysees, more than a mile in length in the handsomest part of the city, offering lovely prome- nades, nooks and shelters, where you may take lux- urious ease. The architecture of Paris embraces all the most captivating designs (the building material a composi- tion called staff leads in the construction). Staff is as white as chalk. Our hotel, the Palais de Orsay, just completed, a hostelry with six hundred rooms, erec- ted without much reference to cost and ornamented with gilt, was an elegant sample of Parisian skill and good taste, but apparently lacking in durability. The mass of the people in Paris are a social set, while caste is not lacking, the tendency to huddle together and to move in flocks is everywhere noticeable. This incli- nation or drift is noticeable in and about the drinking places which are everywhere present. Drinks in 138 GLIMPSES OF EUROPE. Paris are mainly of a light order, light native wines, beer with a small percentage of alcohol and chocolate. These drinks are sipped and usually taken with delib- eration, whole families joining in the social glass. The American custom of gulping down alcoholic drinks and getting full on the shortest possible notice, does not prevail in Paris. Drunkenness of a besotted nature is not common. The faces and forms of the drinking Frenchman do not betray that swollen, apoplectic condition especially evident among the beer drinkers of this country. In comparing the drink habits of the Parisians with the habits and customs prevailing in this country but one conclusion is reached, namely, that the American who must drink, or thinks he must, could with propriety and profit take lessons from the Frenchman on his native heath, or what would be still better, to con- clude, that owing to his peculiar temperament and to the American trend, the wisest, best and safest thing to do is to let all alcoholic drinks severely alone. FRENCH HEROES NAPOLEON AND VICTOR HUGO FALL OP THE BASTILE CITY PRISONS THE SEINE EIFFEL TOWER AND THE TROCADERO. Among the admirable traits of the Parisians is de- votion to their heroes. Two great characters tower above all others, Napoleon Bonaparte and Victor Hugo. A carriage drive to the Hotel Des Invalides, the home for worn-out soldiers of the nation and the burial place of the great Napoleon, made deep and lasting impressions. The erection of the immense home begun in 1670 and completed long afterward; it is 612 feet long and four stories high. It has a capacity for accommodating 6,000 soldiers, but a majority of the rooms were empty. It surrounds an immense court paved with a rough, flinty rock not altogether attractive. It being the last resting place of Napoleon, calls the multitudes who visit Paris to pay their respects and to satisfy their curio- sity. When the remains of the general were brought from St. Helena they reposed first in the church in close proximity to the present tomb. The dome, under which the remains of the Corsican now lie, stilled forever, is 320 feet high, that is to the top of the cross, which surmounts it. To reach the sarcophagus you descend a winding stairway, you finally look down into a sort of an arena or crypt ; the sarcophagus consists of a single mass of porphyry, weighing over sixty tons, being twelve feet long and 189 140 GLIMPSES OF EUROPE. six feet broad, shaped not unlike an ordinary burial case. The dying request of Napoleon is engraved over the entrance to the crypt in these words: "I desire that my ashes may repose on the banks of the Seine in the midst of the French people whom I have ever loved." An elegant statue of a caged eagle stands near. More than $2,000,000 were spent in building this monument and in beautifying its sur- roundings. Around the outer edge of the crypt are dozens of battle flags, tattered and old, which saw service in the ranks of Napoleon's armies. Grizzled and gray old veterans, heroes of many struggles, are sitting around, living over again the glories of their fair land and awaiting the approach of the grim reaper. All France revels and delights in the feats and achievements of the greatest general since Hannibal and Alexander. For the present, France has had enough of war, but the tribute they pay Napoleon Bonaparte smacks of idolatry. They tell us that at St. Helena, Napoleon saw clearly how he might have conquered at Waterloo, but there must have been little satisfaction to him in the alas! "too late," "too late." We visited Napoleon's gate in a distant part of the city, a massive structure 172 feet high, through which none but royalty or rulers are allowed to pass. It is a magnificent arch, highly ornamented and decorated with costly materials. We were informed that the re- mains of the late Victor Hugo were for eight days kept in state under this arch, where the multitudes were permitted to take a last look at their dead friend. FRENCH HEROES. 141 Victor Hugo is remembered not only as an author, a poet, a sculptor, and a genius, but as a man. He was one of the greatest writers of his day, and the door to the innermost recesses of his heart and soul was always ajar. He endured persecutions, he ac- cepted banishment but lived to command the popular applause of his countrymen and passed away in the full enjoyment of an esteem amounting to hero worship. In a single day in February, 1881, 700,000 people moved by a spontaneous impulse defiled in a dense crowd before the great poet's house and greeted him with their acclamations. The natures, the missions and the practices of these two great leaders, Napoleon and Victor Hugo, were as unlike as it is possible to imagine, but the memory of each is cherished with a tenderness that is touching. The poems, the fiction, the genius and the wisdom of Victor Hugo, which raised his fellow-men into higher levels, will live and remain fresh long after the brilliant achievements of Napoleon have lost their luster. Admirers of these characters may honestly differ as to the most fitting application of the Latin phrase, Sic transit gloria- mundi. The broad, deep, dark, still waters of the Seine, which for eight miles courses through the city, offer a cheap and agreeable method of transportation. There are scores of passenger boats with accommo- dations for one or two hundred people, noiselessly ply- ing between different stations, numbered by dozens. In a ride to Vincennes, four miles up stream, we passed under twenty-four bridges, all arched and nearly all elaborated by fine finish. 142 GLIMPSES OF EUROPE, The location of the bastile was pointed out to our party, while we listened to the blood-curdling story of the fall of this famous French prison. It was orig- inally the castle of Paris and was built by order of Charles V, in the thirteenth century. It was intended as a defense against the English ; when converted into a prison in the sixteenth century it was provided with vast bulwarks and ditches. It had four towers of five stories each, over which there was a gallery armed with cannon. Under these towers and partly in the cellars, below the level of the earth, prisoners were confined. The unfortunate inmates of these prisons were so effectually removed from the world without, as to be often forgotten, and there were cases where it was impossible to find the cause or the origin of their incarceration. The inmates were usually guilty of political despotism, court intrigue, or ecclesiastical tyranny. They consisted of noblemen, authors, priests and publishers. On July 14, 1789, an armed mob worked up to a state of fury by the reactionary policy of the court, surrounded the bastile, besieged it, killed and wounded 150 people, and captured the famous prison, the fall of which changed the current of events in France. This important event is still commemorated by a celebration each and every year. The city prison with its dark, grim old walls was shown us, and its records of scenes of blood which were detailed in all their horrid particulars.. We saw the broad-ax or guillotine and the block where decap- itation had been practiced for ages. There was the groove in the pavement, fashioned to carry away or conduct the life-blood of the unfortunate culprit. FRENCH HEROES. 143 Five prisoners were inside the walls awaiting execu- tion from which there was no alternative. The Madeline, the most famous cathedral in Paris, with its stately columns, was designed by Napoleon I, as a sort of pantheon where statues of the greatest heroes of France might be placed, but Napoleon was in exile before its completion and it was dedicated to public worship. There is little in the look outside suggesting a church but it makes up for this on the in- side as it contains a world of costly ornaments. The Trocadero, built for the uses of the Paris Ex- position in 1878, is a museum of museums. If you wish to study ethnology by the month the Trocadero offers an opportunity. The Eiffel Tower, 985 feet high, just oposite, com- mands a full view, not only of the city, but a vast ter- ritory beyond. From the top of the tower men and women on the streets below appear about as large as brownies, and the topmost floor was too far removed from the common level to get an intelligent or satis- factory view. The construction of the tower is a marvel, built entirely of iron and steel, its four feet are thirty rods apart at the base. Many hundreds can be accommo- dated at once upon its three floors, where refresh- ments are served, where there are opportunities to in- vest your money in souvenirs, or to write to your friends at home. Going back to the Trocadero and its tower or ob- servatory from which you look down at the city lying at your feet, including the exposition grounds, the view is simply grand; and then the rooms filled with 144 GLIMPSES OF EUROPE. sculpture and paintings, works of art, gems, the most wonderful aquarium, where the inhabitants of the ocean could be studied; the natives of nearly every country on the globe in wax figures, families dressed in native costumes, in groups surrounded with agri- cultural and industrial implements; the family homes and all they contain as seen in all the grand divisions of the globe and in many of the islands of the sea. To give a detailed account of the Paris Exposi- tion at this late date would hardly be expected or ap- preciated. As an aggregation of the world's handi- work it was never equalled. Comparing it with the Chicago exposition, it fell far short in many partic- ulars and excelled in many others. Extending along both banks of the Seine its buildings were at a great disadvantage by being wedged in between densely populated portions of Paris. In other words the ex- position buildings which were many of them elegant, equal to the best seen in Chicago, showed to a great disadvantage by reason of a lack of room. Representations of the world's industries were on a scale never before approached. At Philadelphia in 1876 the great Corliss engine was the center of attraction and the admiration of the populace, at Paris within thirty minutes I counted sixteen engines in operation that would average nearly or quite as large as the famous Corliss. The Paris Exposition as a show was a grand success ; as an enterprise a financial failure. Hundreds of people who bought privileges on the grounds were bank- rupted owing to lack of attendance, although the tick- FRENCH HEROES. 145 ets of admission during the last two months were sold at five and six cents apiece. England gave Paris the go-by on account of some old scores. A Liverpool gentleman informed me that the treatment received by Queen Victoria in the Paris newspapers in March, 1900, kept 5,000,000 of English people away from the exposition. He said "I am a large manufacturer and belonged there with my goods, I fully intended to go until the insults were heaped upon the Queen, whom we all love, after which I felt it my duty to resent the injury and stayed away." This was an unusual demonstration of self-denial but served to illustrate the fidelity of the English peo- ple to their rulers. France paid dear for the slanders of an unscrupulous press, the raillery of which was entirely uncalled for. Such freaks of the Paris news- papers are not uncommon but the enterprise of the French people in the production of this vast exhibi- tion is worthy of praise. Its collection of paintings and statuary was on a scale never before attempted and is not likely to be excelled in the world's history. BEAUTIFUL VERSAILLES FOUNTAINS AND PARKS LAVISH EXPENDITURE AN ABYSS OF EXCESSES ARTISTIC COLLECTIONS IN ITS MONSTER PALACE SOCIAL ROTTENNESS AND UNCHASTE INDECENCIES. Versailles is a suburb of Paris, a city of 60,000 in- habitants, lying eleven miles down the Seine. It is an old city, historically and in fact. It has a record for many things peculiar and unique. It has long been the leading play ground of the Parisians. To reach Versailles by public thoroughfare you go up a steady incline, until an elevation of nearly 500 feet above sea level is reached. There are few if any industries at Versailles. Most of the people live off the tourists, and the stock in trade of the city is its record, its palace 1,400 feet long, its Trianons and a few other public resorts making the city interesting. Versailles has probably the finest fountains in the world ; the park consisting of hundreds of acres in the center of which is located a vast fountain, adorned with the most expensive ornaments that money would purchase. All about the miniature lake there are bronze effigies, colossal statues, curving jets of spark- ling water, grass carpeted avenues, and little silvan lakes upon which are sailing miniature ships. The playing of the fountains cost for each time from two to three thousand dollars and under electrical effects are fascinating. The three Louis and Napoleon Bonaparte are 146 BEAUTIFUL VERSAILLES 147 credited with the gorgeous beauty, magnificence and extravagance at Versailles. It is said that these four men expended in that little city 200,000,000 of dol- lars; this included the cost of