IC-NRLF 
 
 275 Dbfi 
 
 
fil 
 
 
 1% 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER 
 
 (OF PEOPLE PLACES AND OPINIONS) 
 
 BY 
 
 ANNA E. DICKINSON 
 
 NEW YORK 
 HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS 
 
 F R A N K T, I N SQUARE 
 
 1 879 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1879, by 
 
 HARPER & BROTHERS, 
 In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 
 
a 
 
 TO 
 
 MY MOTHER 
 
 FOR WHOSE ENTERTAINMENT THE MANUSCRIPT OF THIS BOOK WAS 
 ORIGINALLY PENNED 
 
 3 JDebtcate % JJrinteir 
 
 ivi578448 
 
A BAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 i. 
 
 I WANT to go somewhere away from city walls 
 and sewer smells and "L" abominations. Of 
 that I am sure but where f 
 
 " Where ?" did I hear you, my invisible friend, 
 echo ? " Where ! Why there are fifty places- 
 Yes ; I know. Unluckily, it is the things you 
 dortt want that are always accessible. 
 
 Let me consider. Let me sit down and ponder 
 for a space over the ragged register of times and 
 places that in some sort has been kept by my 
 brain. A shabby -looking book, mutilated and 
 half effaced, still it may help me from stand-still 
 to action and who knows ? serve as a bit of 
 amusement to you by the way. 
 
 Shall we go a-fishing ? No. To the sea \ No. 
 To the springs ? No. Is it to the mountains we 
 will wend ? If so, by which path and to what 
 ending ? 
 
6 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 It shall not be the Adirondacks, since I am 
 sufficiently a sybarite to object to smoke and 
 gnats and to look with disfavor upon manifold 
 wettings with an insufficiency of drying sun 
 shine. 
 
 Nor yet the White Hills. If they were lying 
 under an autumn sun they would be tempting? 
 but now ? 
 
 Times a many have I made my pilgrimage to 
 this summer shrine in summer weather, only to 
 sneeze and shiver through dreary days and weeks, 
 and leave with a strong determination to do pen 
 ance nevermore ; and yet have been tempted by 
 renewed seasons to repeated efforts and exasper 
 ating disappointments. 
 
 Twenty-seven times had I gazed from the sum 
 mit of Mount Washington at tossing clouds and 
 sombre or ghostly mists, when the resplendent 
 beauty of a summer morning tempted me to a 
 tenth foot expedition and twenty -eighth ascent. 
 
 To be sure, if there is " luck in odd numbers" 
 and the converse is also true, I had but an ill 
 showing but what of that! " He either fears 
 his fate too much or his deserts are small " who 
 does not dare much and also dare often. 
 
 With humility I have decided that, in this case 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 7 
 
 at least, my deserts are small. Doubtless I had 
 too often scoffed at what this height could reveal 
 to receive from it even justice, and certainly to 
 be deemed unworthy of any display of generosity. 
 
 As I and my stick went our way to the moun 
 tain s base, the air was crystal clear. Crystal 
 clear it remained as I tramped over the miles that 
 wind through the trees dwarfed and tempest scar 
 red. Crystal clear was its mood when the woods 
 abandoned, the scrub pines left behind, the last 
 straggling spear of dreary vegetation vanished 
 the skirmish across the bleak ledges began. 
 
 Now or never ! thought I, as I tramped out on 
 the first of these. If the air stays clear I will ab 
 jure my heresies and subscribe to the faith of 
 those who believe that New England mountains 
 are to be reckoned in the same catalogue of saints 
 as those that lift their solemn majesties toward 
 the heavenly azure of the western skies. 
 
 I trudged along in a desperate faith, born per 
 haps of hope, certainly not of experience, and 
 directly plunged into the soft fuzz of a nebu 
 lous cloud, and plunged out of it into chastened 
 sunshine. 
 
 Up and down drifted mists and vapors lovely 
 enough in themselves, and objects to be admired, 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 had I not had a surfeit of them in past times ; but, 
 here and there, as I paused at this or that ledge, 
 some such royal views broke upon the vision as 
 to assure me of imperial splendor at the mountain- 
 top. 
 
 Alas for faith and hope together ! When within 
 two miles of the summit I fell into the close em 
 brace of wind and cloud and liked not the com 
 panionship. 
 
 Not a foot could I see from me, around, above, 
 below. No rain fell, but the clouds penetrated 
 garments and body together till both felt sodden. 
 The wind napped and veered, blowing not from 
 one quarter, nor yet as from a distance, but slap 
 ping and striking, now on face, now on feet, in 
 chest or back or side as with a solitary hand of 
 some huge creature who stood close to play his 
 painful pranks, and in an instant vanished to 
 assail from fresh vantage ground. 
 
 Long before the cone was reached, giant and 
 pranks had fled. The air was dense and dark to 
 a palpable gloom, and the wind seemed a tangible 
 wall that w r as not broken through by strenuous 
 effort, but that merely gave way before it, inch 
 by inch, and sullenly. I would thrust my pole 
 forward, brace, run the intervening steps to its 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 rest, halt, take breath, and so on with a new 
 struggle. 
 
 It was rough work, but the sense of solitude 
 and uncertainty, of fighting the wild elements 
 the wild elements themselves in their first rigor, 
 their fury newly wrought and unexpended was 
 more than ample pay. 
 
 Still, as I went my devious way up the final 
 climb, the road and its guidance ending with the 
 base of the cone, knowing not whether I was 
 nearing my destination, or was aimlessly con 
 tending with difficulties, I was not sorry to hear a 
 cheery voice call : 
 
 " What ho ! Comrade !" 
 
 " What ho !" called I in return, and with di 
 vers shouts and salutations heard with difficulty 
 through the noise of the storm, my friendly 
 seeker found me, and we trudged over the scanty 
 space remaining with ease and good cheer. 
 
 We had alike climbed in the Sierras, and the 
 Coast Ranges, and the Rocky Mountains, "but," 
 said he, "never found I aught more forbidding 
 and tiresome than the merciless harshness of this 
 ragged granite, and the frightful impenetrability 
 of this fog. I have been wandering for hours on 
 the Crawford side, before reaching the summit, 
 
10 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 and when I heard that yon intended coming np 
 to-day, and that a lady had been seen on the 
 lower ledges some time before the storm shut 
 down, I thought, she will find this harder work 
 than she has found higher climbs, and if she is 
 half as lonely and blue as / felt before getting 
 out of the beastly fog, she won t object to the 
 word and the sight of a friendly human being." 
 Sight and word were welcome. 
 
 II. 
 
 As I went, that afternoon, over to the Signal- 
 Service house, I wondered what one of the young 
 fellows there would have given for a touch of hu 
 man companionship through some dread days and 
 nights that, to him, were filled with worse than 
 solitude. 
 
 The cabin was small, yet too large to keep 
 warm or dry ; contracted, yet too extensive to 
 grasp and hold even a show of comfort. The 
 outer division filled with supplies, the centre de 
 voted to stove and cooking necessities, the little 
 room at the inner end crowded with the scientific 
 apparatus, writing-table, bed, stove, living and 
 working tools of two men. The carpet rotted to 
 shreds, the paper and canvas hanging in festoons 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 11 
 
 from the saturated walls, the windows abbreviat 
 ed and opaque ! a dreary and inhospitable place 
 in autumn mist and wind, a blot in a summer 
 sunshine, what then must have been this shelter 
 to two men, when, for seven months, it constituted 
 to them the whole habitable world ? 
 
 Alone on a mountain, and the mountain not 
 approached even at its base through the bleak 
 and furious winter ; snow and sleet, wind and 
 hail raging about them, the air dense, the storm 
 around them oftentimes moving at the rate of a 
 hundred and forty miles an hour ; their sole link 
 of communication with the living and thinking unL 
 verse, a tiny thread of steel, constantly menaced, 
 spite of its cable covering, by the savage blasts. 
 
 Even with the elasticity of youth and health, 
 doubtless some weights clogged their spirits ; 
 what, then, must the one and the other have en 
 dured, as, in the midst of the wildest storm 
 even this bleak solitude ever knew, with all pos 
 sibility of succor or help annihilated, the one 
 sank, step by step, through fever and delirium to 
 death s repose, and the other, powerless to stay or 
 to save, watched his comrade die, and then sat 
 through days and nights in this sorrowful com 
 panionship ! 
 
12 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 When, through superhuman exertions, at last 
 assistance came, to this lonely watcher it must 
 have seemed like the opening of the tomb. 
 
 Since then, three gallant young fellows wait and 
 serve science, sheltered by better and warmer 
 quarters, perched on this inhospitable peak. I 
 hope that nothing worse than health, content and 
 happiness may come into their heroic work and 
 lives. 
 
 " My view ?" 
 
 I had no view. 
 
 As I sneezed and growled through the after 
 noon I bethought me of a fearful and wonderful 
 woman arrayed in a purple velvet riding-habit, 
 whom I had beheld on the apex of Washington, 
 in the days of shoddy and 66, who hurried out 
 of the Tip Top House, and into her saddle, ex 
 claiming, with unconcealed and uncompromising 
 disgust, Well ! what in the world people do 
 climb all this way up this nasty mountain 
 to get dinner for, when they can feed a great 
 deal better down to one of the hotels, beats 
 me!" 
 
 It beat me. If I hadn t come up these twenty- 
 eight times for my dinner, and a precious bad one 
 at that, for what had I come up ? Certainly that 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 13 
 
 was the extent of my gaining and getting when I 
 was up. 
 
 But being down, after many asseverations of 
 "no never" finally modified to " well hardly 
 ever" again will I go I went ; but this time in 
 autumn, followed again and yet again by Septem 
 ber sights, and tramps, and climbs that were 
 present delights and memories for a life. 
 
 Moral ! Stay away from the White Hills in sum 
 mer, leave them then to the folks who know no 
 better; yet thou, friend! being wise and fol 
 lowing wise instruction, will be sure of happiness 
 if thy feet turn that way through golden time 
 and weather. 
 
 III. 
 
 No White Hills. What of the Catskills, then ? 
 
 For somebody else if somebody else will, but 
 for me no. 
 
 Beautiful 
 
 Very beautiful a trifie misty. 
 
 Good for artists ? 
 
 Yes ; unfortunately I am not an artist. 
 
 And then I never see them without a shiver, 
 and I like summer warmth with summer season. 
 
 Shiver of passing cold ? 
 
14 A RAGGED REGISTER 
 
 No. Of remembrance. 
 
 Once upon a time time January night I 
 went my way to R . The river was open, 
 though the ice threatened, and the boat uttered 
 lamentable wails as the great " chunks" jammed 
 it. 
 
 Will it grow warmer \ Colder ? Close \ Dis 
 perse 2 What will it do ? queried I, prodded 
 by anxious thought of the next night s work. 
 
 The next night was marked for New York, and 
 a New York audience is one that having once 
 faced with favor one is always eager to face again. 
 Tis better than a cordial warm, quick, respon 
 sive, helpful, the most thoroughly generous and 
 friendly one the continent has to show. 
 
 Also a New York fee is by no means one to 
 despise.- 
 
 Alas ! thought I, if this costs me that, duty 
 will not be its own reward. I shall cry with 
 vexation. 
 
 A night filled with wrathful voices of wind and 
 storm, a leaden morning, frightfully cold spite of 
 the struggling fire. Thirty below. is the cheer 
 ing response to my impatient and chattering in 
 quiry. 
 
 " Boat running 3" 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 15 
 
 "Oh, 710." 
 
 " Going to." 
 
 " Can t." 
 
 "Not even try V 
 
 "Not much! Couldn t cut through that ice 
 if she was made of hatchets." 
 
 " How is any one to reach the train f 
 
 "Can t reach it." 
 
 "But if they must." 
 
 " Must will have to take a rest." A pause. 
 
 " One might drive across." 
 
 " No one mightn t." 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 c Would go to the bottom Erectly. There 
 hain t no path been marked, and the ice will be 
 oncertain, in spots and places. A horse would 
 smash through in a jiffy where a man might 
 go." 
 
 " One could walk across." 
 
 " Meaning yourself, miss ?" 
 
 "Of course." 
 
 "Much," with a grin. "A fellow as big as 
 two of the biggest one there," indicating a group 
 of boatmen round the bar-room fire, " would be 
 blown over like a feather." 
 
 " Well, two of them, with a sled and me on it, 
 
16 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 and piles of buffalo robes, and plenty of money 
 in their pockets, wouldn t, then would they?" 
 say I. 
 
 A palaver follows, with a sequence of assent 
 to the request insinuated. 
 
 Three miles across. No sun. A few spitting 
 flakes frozen in the air. The wind through the 
 gorge made by the high river banks howling like 
 a wild beast eager to seize seizing its prey. We 
 were whirled round and round, upset, straight 
 ened, twisted over and over, righted went on our 
 way. 
 
 Three hours of mortal agony : that is enough 
 to say. Men were watching us, ran down to the 
 river bank, helped us up, stopped to expostulate 
 with some people who would get into a sleigh, 
 stopped to watch them off, and call a last warn 
 ing, stopped to see them get twenty yards from 
 shore, then one and all vanish, in an instant, 
 never to rise again. 
 
 I was trotted to and fro on the platform by 
 some friendly disposed boatmen, who mercifully 
 kept me from the fire, and, still half frozen, was 
 put aboard the train. 
 
 The train was late, and " kept on losing time" 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 17 
 
 all the way down. Two engines ; but the tre 
 mendous head wind almost stayed us. 
 
 Had telegraphed. Audience waited. Reached 
 depot at 8.30 P.M. Plunged into hack. Double 
 fare. Gained the dear old dingy " Institute" at 
 9. Teeth chattering. Stomach chattering (no 
 nourishment for thirteen hours). Fingers stiff. 
 Feet like wooden clogs. Winter cold through 
 and through me. Was there to talk about 
 a theme which theme was not myself 
 did not amplify on the day s miseries, but 
 plunged into the subject advertised in a word, 
 kept my engagement with the public to the best 
 of my ability and was kept reminded of the fact 
 through some weeks thereafter by means of divers 
 physical telegraph wires. 
 
 And then 2 
 
 Well, then, after the whole matter was accom 
 plished, , who has said a great many witty and 
 
 good things, and a many more of bitter and un 
 just things to and about women, in one of her 
 diatribes uses that night and the waiting audi 
 ence as illustration of the assertion that women 
 never know the value of time, and have no sense 
 of honor concerning business engagements. 
 
 " Why," says she, " could she not have spent 
 2 
 
18 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 less time on her dress, or have left her home in a 
 neighboring city on an earlier train ?" 
 
 Precisely. 
 
 Under the circumstances the question is both 
 just and pertinent. 
 
 I Jiave heard that somebody did once ask Mr. 
 Beecher whether a man would have gone through 
 that to have kept a lecture engagement, and that he 
 did answer, " No ; no man would have been such 
 a fool." And was justified in the saying, only he 
 should remember that the world, in reasonable 
 fashion, demands of a woman that she do twice 
 as much as a man to prove that she can equal him. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Not to the Catskills \ Nor Niagara ? Nor 
 Saratoga ? Nor the Lake country ? Nor the 
 Glens ? 
 
 To none of these. 
 
 Suppose one halts for a summer s rest in Penn 
 sylvania ? 
 
 Pretty 
 
 Pretty ! I should say so. There is a place 
 crowded w T ith beauties. Had the people of that 
 commonwealth one half the energy that is shown 
 by New York and New England to draw and hold 
 
A NAGGED REGfSTER. 10 
 
 tourists, the State through summer, and far more 
 through autumn glory, would be overrun. 
 
 If Mauch Chunk had some right-minded hotels 
 on its near heights, it would be a hot-weather par 
 adise. The Lehigh River winds past it, with in 
 numerable devious turns through open country 
 and mountain ridges that are as exceptional in 
 broad beauty as are the glens and nooks, caves 
 and waterfalls in miniature charm ; and there is 
 the Switchback where one can have the delight 
 of being pulled by stationary engines up one rise 
 of six hundred feet in a length of twenty-two 
 hundred, then another of five hundred feet in a 
 length of two thousand, and then, taking the 
 back track, can return by gravity over some 
 miles of travel, without engine and without ob 
 struction, that will suggest the flight of a bird 
 through the air. 
 
 The town itself seems as though it couldn t 
 breathe very well from having its ribs jammed in ; 
 as you enter it looks as though it has space for 
 about an hundred houses ; but, terrace beyond 
 terrace, the kitchen garden of one house tres 
 passing on the front-door of another, the town 
 holds five or six thousand souls. 
 
 And from this unique spot one can so easily slip 
 
20 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 away to Wilkesbarre and the Wyoming Valley, 
 which is the " happy valley" happy in loveli 
 ness, lying under the face of mountains that are 
 " delectable" beneath either a summer or a win 
 ter sky. 
 
 And there is the Cumberland Valley, framed in 
 the delicious swells of the Bine Ridge, a delight 
 to look upon, its beauty enhanced by the abound 
 ing prosperity every where made manifest in noble 
 old houses, places exquisitely kept, barns as pic 
 turesque as they are liberal, fields that show food 
 for a nation, and " cattle on a thousand hills." 
 
 Nobody looks poor nor suggests poverty. 
 
 The people, I should judge, are given generally 
 to few excitements, few changes, and great tenacity 
 of grip when they do seize upon an experience or 
 an idea. 
 
 " I surmise Mr. John B. Gough is somewhat 
 top-topical," commented a well-to-do native in 
 my hearing, "lifted up by his great successes. 
 I went to shake hands with him when he was here 
 last week, and he actually did not know me, 
 though I was introduced to and talked with him 
 for some time after one of his lectures at the 
 Academy of Music, in Philadelphia, five years 
 ago." 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 21 
 
 That man ought to have made the acquaintance 
 of another man who came to me at Altoona, with 
 the reasonable request that I would tell him all 
 the towns in the State. 
 
 " You are travelling all the time," said he, 
 "and I suppose have gone up and down, and 
 over and about every square inch of this State, 
 and must know all of its towns by heart. Now I 
 am a Pennsylvanian, and very proud of being 
 such (he evidently was not familiar with its rep 
 resentative, Col. Thomas Scott s private prop 
 erty, which private property the Pennsylvania 
 legislature is popularly reported to be), i and I 
 would like to become more familiar with my own 
 State, and, if you please, I would like to call on 
 you to-morrow, and secure some information in a 
 friendly talk with you, and will, at the same 
 time, jot down a list of the towns, together with 
 any facts concerning them that may lie handy 
 in your memory."" 
 
 Let us not pause here. No. Lest he still lie 
 in wait with his reasonable category, let us flee 
 away, away, and, in response to the invitation 
 given me long since by an enthusiastic soul, let 
 us " rush to the arms of the Great West and 
 swing out into Destiny." 
 
22 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 V. 
 
 Tis a wide swing. 
 
 Query : Where shall one fall off ? 
 
 In Minnesota ? Somewhere in the region of the 
 Upper Mississippi ? 
 
 Comfort forbids. 
 
 All through its basin the summers are as much 
 too hot as the winters are cold. Never went I 
 there without finding pleasure in many things 
 among them the fact that my lot in life was 
 not hedged by these boundaries. The air is 
 so thin and clear, and holds so little moisture 
 as to be an unobstructed medium for either 
 heat or cold, and, as I there heard defined, they 
 " boom" through it accordingly. 
 
 Suppose one drops down at Chicago 1 Agreed. 
 Long enough, at least, to discover that there are 
 fifty places of summer resort not half so delight 
 ful in June weather as this city. 
 
 So it seems to me. 
 
 But then Chicago is one of my weaknesses. 
 
 Still I think the open country will be better 
 than the contraction of these walls, so we will 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 23 
 
 To California ? By way of Omaha and the 
 U. P. I" 
 
 I don t know. 
 
 To California went I ten years ago, and I won 
 der whether the memory will not be better than a 
 fresh reality ? 
 
 From time to time, as one halts by the way, 
 one can see Omaha grow and improve and beau 
 tify ; but has it the early charm ? 
 
 Coming into it now is like coming into San 
 Francisco from the mountains or into New York 
 from the surrounding creation. There is the cos 
 mopolitan air, city and no mistake, that your born 
 cockney and old campaigner alike delight in. 
 
 What hotels it has, and what a hotel, and what 
 reasonable prices, and what capital restaurants 
 and attractive shops Paris ware and Indian ware 
 jostling each other and what wide, fine streets, 
 and handsome houses, and enterprising papers, 
 and what courteous editors, and, above all, what 
 frank, friendly, active, wideawake people ! 
 Omaha is a vital place. That is the long and the 
 short of the matter, and the people who abide 
 there are not content to simply exist. They are 
 alive, and they are alive all through. 
 
 Still, it has lost something of the delight it held 
 
24: A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 for the " Sixty -niners. " Its " free and easy air 
 is quite gone since it has grown respectable and 
 solidly prosperous. 
 
 That summer, people felt they had reached the 
 jumping-off place, and acted accordingly. Heavy 
 business men and staid matrons, grave doctors 
 and learned lawyers, fashionable fine ladies, Con 
 gressional committees and committees attendants, 
 ran and drove to and fro, and " viewed the land 
 scape o er," with a sense of freedom and emanci 
 pation from restraint such as never blessed them 
 before. 
 
 Now one goes through from Chicago to Council 
 Bluffs across the bridge to Omaha, and so onward 
 without incident ; but then, every one, when fair 
 ly over the ferry and out of the big omnibuses, 
 made for Cozzen s, and a bath, and a good 
 supper, and a long delicious sunset and twilight 
 time on the upper verandas, and a universal 
 handshaking as one, and another, and another 
 party drove up or came in ; for somehow all of us 
 who went over the first summer were acquainted, 
 and everybody laughed and was happy, and con 
 gratulated everybody else on being able to see 
 "all out-doors." 
 
 Also everybody put in a personal claim on the 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 25 
 
 giant enterprise that was to put us through. 
 What was the use of the People building a Pacific 
 Iload if the People could not ride on it as they saw 
 fit. The officers needed to be good-natured with 
 the rest of us and they were. 
 
 3.57 P.M. ; train time out, 4 P.M. 
 
 " Is Miss D aboard this car ?" calls the cheery 
 voice of the efficient, genial, obliging, assistant 
 superintendent of the " U. P.," Mr. Hoxie. 
 
 " Ay," is responded. 
 
 " Because," goes on the voice, "she has for 
 gotten something- 
 Anxious search for pocketbook and hand-bag. 
 All right. Inquiring look fastened on the pleas 
 ant face. 
 
 "And I ve brought it to her," holding up a 
 " pass," and laughing as he comes forward. 
 
 A deprecating hand put out, a deprecating 
 voice replies, " I never did travel on one of those 
 things, and I never will." 
 
 Not so fast, he says. Reconsider. You are 
 the first person who has been through here in the 
 month since the road has been open who hasn t 
 asked for a pass ; so we concluded you had demon 
 strated a right to it. There it is. It wouldn t 
 be the handsome thing to go back on us." 
 
26 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 So I take it, and shake his friendly hand, and 
 thank him and use my ticket just the same, and 
 keep the pass as a trophy. 
 
 VI. 
 
 Presently I found myself, as before and since, 
 both amused and disgusted by some English tour 
 ists wending their way westward the sort of 
 men who know very little at home and do not 
 travel abroad for the purpose of adding to their 
 stock of knowledge, landing at New York, look 
 ing neither to the right hand nor the left but 
 streaking across lots to the buffalo country for the 
 sole purpose of slaughter. 
 
 How many times have I heard the old settlers 
 and hunters anathematize these bloodthirsty fel 
 lows who are destroying the magnificent creatures 
 by thousands for nothing save as a gratification 
 to their own gory vanity, killing the grand brutes 
 out of season when their dead bodies cannot be 
 utilized, and in such numbers as certainly cannot 
 be eaten. I remember, at Georgetown, Colorado, 
 hearing one of these gawks boast that he had 
 killed seventy-eight buffalo the most of them 
 young and wondered why there was no law to 
 
A BAGGED REGISTER. 27 
 
 clap an iron claw on him for his cruelty and wan 
 ton destruction. 
 
 Tis a great shame that Congress does not inter 
 fere in behalf of these "wards of the nation." 
 They, like their more troublesome friends the red 
 men, will presently be all gone, and being gone, 
 at least in their case, we shall hear lamentations 
 and mourning, when neither mourning nor lam 
 entations can restore them to their hunting 
 grounds. 
 
 Concerning their chief tormentor the style of 
 Englishmen just noted with his cockneyisms and 
 insolence, his ignorance and rudeness, his sneers 
 at every thing he sees, and his failure to see any 
 thing, his eatings and drinkings he and his con 
 freres who cut across America doing and appre 
 ciating it, are about the best-hated people who 
 travel. 
 
 Luckily provided our English cousins care for 
 our verdict, good or ill they send us, as offset to 
 this species of animal, the most entirely delight 
 ful companions one can meet on or off the road. 
 Epitomes of thoroughness and genuineness. Per 
 fectly bred, read and wed. Hearty and heart- 
 some. With opinions of their own, and a readi 
 ness at all emergencies to " pull their pound." 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 Attributes not picked from every bush, let me 
 tell you. 
 
 As to the other style Justice all round ! Out 
 of the eastward bound train caine a little fellow, 
 by name no matter about his name and Amer 
 ican, who fell upon me with vivacity and vocifer- 
 ousness. Two years before I had met him and 
 his wife bound on a lengthy tour of the Pacific 
 slope, she lecturing, he managing, and an adopt 
 ed daughter singing, the whole made to "go" by 
 a gift enterprise. 
 
 They were getting home from their trip, of 
 which he proceeded to discourse to me. Had 
 been in Nevada, Arizona, California, Oregon, 
 Washington, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming. Trav 
 elled twelve thousand miles by their own convey 
 ance, ten thousand by stage, and I don t know 
 how far on horseback. A horrid little scrub who 
 had no more eye for the beauties of nature than 
 my shoestring. " A beastly country," he cried, 
 when I said something about that marvellous 
 Montana region, " a beastly country : WE didn t 
 
 tat* $500 *.-#/" 
 
 VII. 
 
 Out of Omaha what was seen ten years ago is 
 seen now, and will be seen, without essential 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 20 
 
 change, when centuries have gone their rounds, 
 until the elements themselves shall fuse, and mat 
 ter resolve itself into fire and air. 
 
 What have I to say about it ? 
 
 Very little. 
 
 How describe or do it justice ? 
 
 I cannot. With Tom Hood, I expressly de 
 cline to touch upon the scenery that hath been so 
 often painted, not to say daubed already." There 
 are some things of which it is better to be silent 
 than to say too little and this is of them. 
 
 If I were conscious that I could go west of the 
 Missouri River but once in a lifetime I would not go 
 at all, unless, indeed, the once could be for years. 
 
 And yet no. That would not be satisfactory. 
 One wants to go, and to come, and to go again. 
 Not to stay. 
 
 Be sure of this though, my friend, if thou hast 
 any love of freedom, and any longings after the 
 sublimities, and any delight in space, and any 
 passion for thy dear country, to grow constantly 
 by what thy eye feeds upon, be sure if thou hast 
 once gone thy way as far as the Rocky Moun 
 tains, each recurring season will find thy soul 
 stirred within thee to see more and yet more of 
 this amazing land that is thine. 
 
30 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 Be sure if tliou hast ever breathed the elixir of 
 this air, and felt nerve and blood thrill within 
 thee, thou wilt long for it, many and many a time 
 thereafter, through all thy days, as one who hav 
 ing known life, can never be altogether satisfied 
 with conditions of semi-death. 
 
 A word to thee, though, if thou dost go but 
 once. 
 
 Do not make the mistake, as do almost all trav 
 ellers, of confounding California and Nevada with 
 Montana, Utah, Idaho, Colorado. 
 
 A summer trip to California is about as pleas 
 ant and wise a performance as to select August 
 for the delights of New York. 
 
 Take California through the late winter, spring 
 and early summer - tis Paradise. Take it 
 through the middle and late summer, and early 
 autumn, tis ! 
 
 Go to Caliornia in February and keep the coun 
 try of the Wasatch, and Wind River, and Rocky 
 Mountains for the return in summer time and so 
 be happy. 
 
 I bestow this information and warning without 
 expectation of thanks, since it belongs to that 
 least valued of gifts advice unasked. 
 
 All the same, it is worth consideration. 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 31. 
 
 For me and my first experiment : I left Omaha 
 at the outset of summer weather, and saw it 
 again at the fag end of autumn, twenty pounds 
 lighter than when I turned my back on it, skin 
 like a chip, juices dried in me, nerves tense, and 
 brain on fire. 
 
 Any one who could go through the same 
 amount of sight-seeing, and the same time and 
 weather in California, without the same result, 
 must either drink lager unlimited, or be -blessed 
 by nature with a happy stupidity. 
 
 And now, as I think of the ride, I reconsider 
 my decision and advice, and say it is a good thing 
 to go from New York to San Francisco, if you turn 
 directly and go back from San Francisco to New 
 York. 
 
 " This," said I, on our first day out, " this roll 
 ing prairie land of Nebraska is, after all, just like 
 the rolling prairie land of Iowa," but by and by 
 it began to take hold of me, and soon all sign of 
 human growth and enterprise vanished its hold 
 became a good firm grip that made itself felt. 
 
 Toward sundown, we met a freight train, moil 
 ing its way toward Omaha, the tender and tops 
 of the car covered by an array of Pawnees, dirty, 
 disreputable-looking creatures, all tatters, drunk- 
 
32 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 enness and filth, who laughed and called, and 
 waved their hands and rags at us as they went 
 
 by. 
 
 It was an odd contrast ! The steam wonder, 
 cultured growth of brains and civilization, epitome 
 of thought and mechanism, and these semi- 
 human appearing beings carried about by it ; and 
 yet not stranger than to stand upon the rear plat 
 form, when night had shut down, and look 
 through the flashes of lightning across the limit 
 less spaces we were crossing, and recognize the 
 anachronism of cars but no houses, and tele 
 graph wires but no people. 
 
 I said I would not discourse of the scenery, and 
 I won t. Still, having got over the plains, into the 
 wild ragged country of the Black Hills, past the 
 opening view of the far-away first range of the 
 Rocky Mountains, through the gray, weird, ghost 
 ly Bitter Creek region which must be wonderful 
 ly like Arabia Petrea desert, yet mountainous 
 and sublime through the dreary sage-brush 
 flats that follow, through the stately avenue of 
 Weber Canon, with the strange figures and giant 
 sentries, and colossal faces looking down on you 
 from castle wall and solitary tower, having gone 
 through this, it is worth while telling how at 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 33 
 
 Uintah we took stage not steam as now for 
 the city of Salt Lake. 
 
 And worth adding for the satisfaction and self- 
 glorification of the " pioneers," and the discom 
 fort of the comfort-seekers, that the first view of 
 Salt Lake ought to be had from the back of a 
 horse, or the top of a coach, and not from a car 
 window. 
 
 It was at the close of a lovely day in June that I 
 first saw the " City of the Saints," and, could I sell 
 the memory, I should need to be steeped in poverty 
 to the very lips ere I would part with it. 
 
 A great stretch of level plain ; an inland sea of 
 sapphire reflecting a sapphire sky ; all about it 
 range after range of stately mountains their 
 angles crossing and intersecting glowing through 
 the marvellously clear air, masses of amber, violet, 
 and gold, whilst over all ranged diamond-bright 
 the eternal walls of snow. 
 
 In the course of my wanderings I have seen a 
 great many mountains, but for delicacy of outline, 
 exquisite fineness of shape, clear cuttings of 
 spires and peaks, I would back these ranges 
 against the world. There are a plenty grander, 
 more imposing, but these are so perfect in beauty, 
 
 " the sense aches at them." 
 3 
 
34 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 Mormonism \ 
 
 Tis all so old a story there is no need of epito 
 mizing, much less of amplifying it. 
 
 Die? 
 
 Of course it will die. It can t stand contact of 
 mines, and railroads, and the busy activity of 
 travel and trade the influx of the life out 
 side. 
 
 Drop it. When it is dead, and the disgusting 
 body buried quite out of sight, everybody will 
 breathe the freer, and will marvel why such decay 
 was ever permitted the semblance of life. 
 
 After a week s tarriance we got away from Salt 
 Lake at four o clock in the morning, and I could 
 scarcely keep the tears from my eye as one after 
 another the spires and peaks vanished, and the 
 exquisite beauty of the view rested no longer in 
 our vision, but in our memories alone. 
 , May it rest there forever ! and may I yet again, 
 with the eyes of the flesh, behold a fullJune moon 
 shining through the crystal clear air, revealing 
 yet softening, softening yet intensifying, the un 
 speakable loveliness of that scene. 
 
 I wonder, when spirits get out of the oody, and 
 have no trouble of locomotion, whether they 
 will be as much interested to see as they were while 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 35 
 
 caged. If they are so, they will have fine times 
 careering through the air ! 
 
 Certainly more comfortable ones than had we 
 through the last two days of alkaline poison in 
 the Humboldt Valley. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Glad was I to abandon it at two o clock on the 
 second night for the stage at Reno that would 
 take us to Virginia City. 
 
 It did take some of us, but it took not me. 
 
 As usual, I scrambled to my favorite perch on 
 the driver s box, but was ordered down in lan 
 guage more explicit than elegant, and, as I in 
 sisted on a parley, and demanded cogent reasons 
 for such descent, I found myself whirled through 
 the air, and on my feet, with the marks of 
 some brutal fingers on my arm, and a sensation 
 within me, that, to speak mildly, was any thing 
 but angelic. 
 
 Divers years ago a foolish driver of a Wells & 
 Fargo coach, absorbed in converse with the lady 
 who sat beside him, did allow his " leaders to go 
 their own way to the upsetting of the vehicle, and 
 Si finale of damaged heads and broken bones. 
 
36 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 A reprimand to that driver ? A warning to the 
 others ? 
 
 Not at all. 
 
 Wolf ! wolf ! you are always the wronged one. 
 
 Lamb, lamb, twas you that muddied the 
 water ! Lamb, lamb, you must be punished ! 
 
 An order issued for the whole Pacific coast that 
 no woman should be permitted to occupy the best 
 seats of the coach that is, the outside ones. All 
 the same, I did ; but not with that Jehu. 
 
 I took to my feet and marched along through 
 the cool air, and looked across a country wild 
 and beautiful, moonlight by which one could read 
 revealing at the right the first line of the Sierras, 
 white with snow. 
 
 Morning broke at half -past three, and I found 
 an endless charm in the shifting and changing 
 lights and colors the earth displayed as she re 
 ceived her king. 
 
 The grading was steep, but the road perfection, 
 and it was an easy matter to keep either at the 
 side or ahead of the chariot to the discomfiture 
 and final despair of its driver, as he discov 
 ered that I would get over the twenty-two miles 
 to Virginia City, and to a protest at the office, by 
 my own methods of locomotion. 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 37 
 
 His orders were to be obeyed \ 
 
 Of course ; but he had no orders to show him 
 self a brute if nature made him one, nor to in 
 dulge in assault and battery on inoffensive travel 
 lers, and I for one would not consent to such pro 
 ceedings. 
 
 If any one wishes to see a road winding at sharp 
 angles, and ever so many degrees round and 
 round, and up a mountain through narrow defiles 
 and across attenuated ledges, smooth and perfect 
 as that on the Jersey sands when the tide has 
 just gone out, let him drive from Reno to Vir 
 ginia City, or, better, "drop down" from Vir 
 ginia City to Reno. 
 
 No stint of money, or skill or labor here ; and 
 yet you feel on this road, as on some others round 
 about, and at various points on the Union Pacific 
 rails, that the Almighty was the great first en 
 gineer. These canons, insignificant passage-ways 
 between the vast piles of stone, are all that make 
 the track of civilization possible. 
 
 Surely it would take long to weary one of these 
 Nevada mountains. They are not ranges, but 
 one universal upheaval, swells growing out of 
 swells, mountains out of mountains not peaked 
 but rounded. 
 
38 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 Bearing no growth of greenery, and yet not hav 
 ing the effect of rocks, because so smooth. 
 
 And then the lights ! At sunsetting I have seen 
 mountains of every shade and hue ; a pink moun 
 tain, pink as a sea-shell, and as delicate in color 
 ing ; then a blue, and an amethyst, a purple, and 
 amber, and red rose, crimson, pale green, ochre 
 and brown, and even scarlet. Each mountain 
 standing out clear and distinct ; a mass of solid 
 color, pink by green, ochre by purple, amethyst 
 by blue, while afar a hundred miles away can 
 be seen long lines and ranges of purple and blue 
 so deep as to seem black, while over all is a sky 
 without a cloud and without a flaw. 
 
 Perfection. 
 
 IX. 
 
 After Nevada prowlings we reached Truckee, 
 on the " C. P.," at six in the morning, and fell in 
 with the Angel of the Pass, Mr. Hoxie, of the 
 U U. P.," aforementioned. 
 
 " Would you not like to cross the Sierras upon 
 the engine 3" inquired he thoughtfully. 
 
 "Rather," responded I, explicitly and inele 
 gantly. 
 
 Enough said. T 11 go for the conductor ; and 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 39 
 
 he " went for" and fetched him, and so mounted 
 us on the forward engine, and moved on his own 
 beneficent way eastward. 
 
 Forward^ for from Truckee over the next 
 twenty miles the trains need two machines. 
 Thus, then, mounted, the smoke, cinders, and 
 dust all behind us, away we went, through 
 scenery that tis but an aggravation to behold by 
 such flying glimpses. 
 
 The ride would be a dream of paradise could it 
 be taken by carriage and leisurely. Being what 
 it is, in a little while we did not see at all, by 
 reason of the prudent and protecting snow-sheds. 
 Thirty miles of travel, cheerful as a protracted 
 tunnel. Had the winter been upon us we might 
 have had toward these stout timbers a feeling of 
 gratitude ; as it was, we rejoiced over the loss of 
 their society when we found " views" at various 
 points through openings in roof and sides made 
 by fires. 
 
 Twenty miles up from Truckee, we reached the 
 summit, and from that point down, for seventy - 
 eight miles, ran without steam. The engineer 
 looked out of his little window, and held amicable 
 converse, scarcely touching his lever save to 
 stop and start the train ; the fireman went to 
 
40 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 sleep on his unused wood, the fire burned low. If 
 the brakes give way good-by to friends and home! 
 
 The grade is tremendous, often from 110 to 116 
 feet to the mile, and the wheels groan under the 
 strain. For manifest reasons the distance is run 
 slowly, safety is secured, but exhilaration is 
 dampened. 
 
 Once out of the snow- sheds, the ride is one to 
 take, and to enjoy, and to be still about, save 
 to tell others to go and do likewise forward, en 
 gine and all. 
 
 On the boat to Frisco I was too tired to look at 
 any thing, so sat still, lived over the ride, and 
 pitied the fate of a poor little dog whose acquaint 
 ance and death we had made. 
 
 While the engines were shuddering down grade 
 from the summit, I saw jump on to the track a 
 pretty little dog, watched him with no special 
 thought save that he would presently skip to one 
 side and there an end. 
 
 But no. He ran on, and by and by I spoke of 
 him to the others. We then all watched, grew in 
 terested, absorbed, excited, leaned from the side 
 of the engine, called, shouted, waved things in 
 the air, and flung wood at random to draw his 
 attention and induce him to jump aside, but the 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 41 
 
 poor little fellow was probably too much fright 
 ened to heed or to understand our intent. 
 
 It was a sight to see him fly over the ties. 
 Here and there his tiny forepaws would go 
 through a cattle-guard, and as he stumbled the 
 train would gain on him, but he wbuld be off 
 again ! Several times we were so near as to lose 
 sight of him, and then he would dart forward 
 when we thought he was crushed. 
 
 It seemed like an embodiment of inexorable 
 Fate that vast thing going on and on, never 
 halting, never hastening, and the poor little 
 wretch with his panting, quivering being, trying 
 a race for life with it. By and by he vanished. 
 We had gone over him, and there was not a dry 
 eye among us, even the engineer s held a tear 
 the little fellow was so plucky and had made such 
 a game run for it ! 
 
 Had we been on level ground the pace would 
 have been slackened for him, but the grade was 
 too heavy. Think of a bit of a dog beating an 
 engine on a four-miles heat ! 
 
 X. 
 
 What a good time everybody had in Frisco 
 through that first " railroad summer." It was 
 
42 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 Omaha repeated, only in the midst of comfort 
 and elegance not to be rivalled anywhere. The 
 hotel proprietors, the clerks, the waiters, keepers 
 of shops and attendants, men and women at mar 
 ket-stalls and fruit-stalls and flower-stands, even 
 the conductors of horse-cars, and cab-drivers 
 looked at and smiled at and talked at the eastern 
 folk as though they were long-lost brethren and 
 sisters, happily found ; and the eastern folk a 
 good many of them behaved as though they had 
 reached a fresh "jumping-off place" beyond 
 which was nothing, and they would act again 
 "accordingly," and the rest of them enjoyed 
 themselves regardless of cost and consequence. 
 
 For myself I never wearied of tramping about 
 the streets, gawking at the people and the shops 
 rich with the spoils of the world, and found cease 
 less pleasure in running out of the city to any 
 one of a score of lovely spots about it, coming 
 back toward evening almost broiled, and plung 
 ing into coats and wraps as the fresh sea-fog blew 
 inland, reaching a cosy room, calling for and sit 
 ting in front of an open fire that always gives 
 companionship, and even in a barren hotel sug 
 gests liome. 
 
 Or diving into the Chinese quarter, flattening 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 43 
 
 iny face against their dingy little window panes, 
 gazing into their dingy little shops at themselves, 
 where, small trade going on at night, they pored 
 over some book or paper, or in groups smoked 
 and talked, or bent over their endless gambling 
 with dominos, or peered into their opium-cellars, 
 and at them stretched on mats, some beginning to 
 smoke, some half stupefied, some quite still, hav 
 ing reached outward torpor and inward beati 
 tude. 
 
 While I was at Frisco these celestials bestowed 
 on me some hospitality that I like to remember. 
 
 They look like wooden images ; dull- eyed and 
 impassive-faced, with high monotonous voices, it 
 is not strange they are accused of apathy of 
 thought and feeling. 
 
 " There is nothing human about them," I 
 heard repeated, till T grew tired of the iteration. 
 
 To begin with, I didn t believe it, and amply 
 did they vindicate my faith in them. 
 
 In the course of the first public talk I made on 
 the coast, I had somewhat to say of the Chinese 
 problem, and said it. 
 
 This was a condemned theme. It was as " bad 
 form" to discourse of the stoning to death of a 
 Chinaman in California in 1869 as it could have 
 
44 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 been to protest anywhere in the States against 
 the whipping to death of a negro previous to 1861. 
 
 The day before the speech was made, a steamer 
 bringing a thousand of these " oppressed of the 
 earth" (who should either be absolutely debarred 
 our shores, or, reaching them, should for our own 
 sake, receive the treatment humanity owes to 
 humans) had entered the Golden Gate, and dis 
 charged its cargo to the tender mercies of Ameri 
 can freemen. 
 
 What a reception ! 
 
 I am an American with over-much national 
 pride. What need to humiliate it by a detailed 
 account of the entertainment ? 
 
 The reception being ended and crowner s quest 
 held on four bruised and battered bodies of weak- 
 souled creatures too feeble to breathe the strong 
 air of freedom, verdict was returned, " Died of 
 cause or causes unknown." 
 
 And the papers of the day, on the evening of 
 which I held forth, one and all published the ad 
 mirable decision of the twelve just men, without 
 comment. 
 
 Naturally, I had a word to speak about the 
 whole affair. To the great disgust of the people 
 who had come to listen, with the expectation of 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 45 
 
 being simply entertained, if not amused, the word 
 spoken was well, we will say vigorous. 
 
 And was simply the opinion of decent people 
 everywhere, concerning the infamous treatment 
 of the Chinese at the hands of ruffianly white 
 men, and the yet more infamous silence of men 
 of position and power, the professed superiors of 
 these same ruffians. 
 
 To the dispassionate onlooker it may seem a 
 trivial matter that a few of the myriads of " Chi 
 nese rats" shall die at an earlier day than the one 
 upon which unaided nature would put a period 
 to their wretched lives, yet even the dispassionate 
 onlooker may well tremble when he duly weighs 
 the effect of the sword-stroke upon the holder, 
 not upon the victim. 
 
 It may be a small thing for some Chinamen to 
 be wronged, and some other Chinamen to be slain, 
 but it is a tremendous and awful thing the un 
 bridled and uncondemned spirit of brutal hate 
 and murder in their American and Irish wrongers 
 and slayers. 
 
 So say I now and here ; so said I in San Fran 
 cisco to my first audience of friendly hearers. 
 
 Consternation was painted on every face, and 
 an ominous silence fell. 
 
46 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 Then what hissing ! 
 
 At last a hand was lifted for silence. Silence 
 ensued. 
 
 Said one human, within hearing, " She means 
 to apologize ;" said another, " She means to get 
 off the stage, she s going to run away ;" said a 
 third, " She don t dare to face this." 
 
 Said the speaker to one and all, " My friends : 
 You are not used to me. Never before had I the 
 pleasure of facing you, and you, apparently, 
 never before had the profit of listening to un 
 pleasant truth. I will then tell you, so as to 
 save time and trouble, that as I have endured a 
 great deal of hissing, some stick and stone throw 
 ing, divers odorous eggings, and finally one or two 
 revolver bullets, through Eastern political cam 
 paigns, I am not to be scared by a trifle of goose- 
 brea,th in the West. 
 
 " Hiss as long as you please. The time makes 
 no difference to me ; but, on the whole, I think 
 it would be more satisfactory for both of us, if 
 you did it up in a lump. I will yield the time 
 you want, providing that when you are through 
 you will allow me to finish my time unmolested." 
 
 What a good-humored roar followed, and then 
 what frank and hearty attention, as San Fran- 
 
A EAGGED REGISTER. 47 
 
 cisco, or some of the best of it, heard what the 
 whole thinking world had been speaking about 
 it, but from which it had hitherto been exempt. 
 
 XL 
 
 " Gratitude an unknown quantity among the 
 celestials." 
 
 Is it so 1 
 
 Listen : the next day in my wanderings about 
 shops I found myself among the choice of the 
 Chinese, and straightway fell to investing in trink 
 ets and curiosities, of which I found more than 
 enough to beggar me. 
 
 The friend who was with me, and who acted 
 as interpreter, Mr. Robert Swain, known and 
 honored of all men Mongolians included in the 
 city of San Francisco him I made purse-bearer, 
 and watched with interest the serious confabu 
 lations held between him and the owners of 
 such goods and chattels as I saw fit to carry 
 away. 
 
 I could make naught of their unmoved counte 
 nances, but his speaking face revealed some 
 thing I knew not what. 
 
 " They always overcharge unwary travellers," 
 had I been told many a time and oft. He thinks 
 he is helping me to the poorhouse, and is afflict- 
 
48 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 ing his soul in consequence," thought I to my 
 self, as I went on with my gainings and gettings, 
 leaving to him the task of accounts. 
 
 Behold, when I reached home, I found to my 
 chagrin that I had been making my "pick and 
 choose for nothing. 
 
 Not one cent of compensation had any of the 
 " thievish Chinamen" consented to receive. 
 
 Of all the thousands in the city there were not 
 a hundred English-reading ones, and of those I 
 had seen not two could have understood a word 
 of my uttering ; yet, one and all, they had heard 
 of and comprehended what I had said about them 
 within four-and-twenty hours of the speaking, 
 and, frugal as they are, repaid simple justice by 
 lavish generosity. 
 
 Not content with this, to my great delight they 
 decided me a dignitary and as such worthy a re 
 ception. 
 
 Think of it a woman ! and soulless ! They 
 are not tainted by that " vice of republics," when 
 gratitude could so overcome both prejudice and 
 religious belief. 
 
 Over Chi Lung s shop was a reception room (of 
 Chi Lung, his shop, and the reception-room can 
 not I speak in the present tense. They may still 
 exist, or they may have one and all been trans- 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 49 
 
 lated to another sphere), a reception room for 
 solemn high feasts and gatherings, and to this 
 was I bidden, with some friends. 
 
 As a school for good manners I should not ob 
 ject to such visitation every day. 
 
 The seat on the right-hand side of entrance 
 farthest from the door is the post of honor. To 
 this was I conducted, mounted in state on the 
 high-backed, curiously carved, and ungainly 
 chair, and left to my own devices to behave 
 well as I knew how and so fell into disgrace ! 
 
 The conversation flourished apace, since my en 
 tertainers all spoke some English, one of them 
 being absolute master of it, and I never yet hav 
 ing lacked for words. 
 
 But alas for feeding etiquette ! Presently came 
 to me a sedate-looking servant carrying a huge 
 box divided into compartments like a Christ 
 mas bonbonnier, crowded with nuts and sweet 
 meats. 
 
 What did I ? 
 
 Looked at it, and picked out a half-dozen good 
 ies from the half-dozen sections, of course, put 
 them on the broad, flat arm of the chair that 
 serves as a table, and watched the progress of the 
 man and his box to my far-away next neighbor, 
 
50 .4 RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 who, to iny amazement, took but one sugared 
 poison. 
 
 - always did love candy better than good 
 ness, thought I. What induces his abstinence ? 
 
 The box moved on to one, and another, and 
 another another, another, and one did but help 
 herself and himself to a solitary sweet, till I gazed 
 with horror at my pile, and whispered to my own 
 means of vision, " Gray eye, greedy -gut," and 
 thought I had need of being put back into 
 pinafores with my nursery rhymes and manners. 
 
 " They are all old Calif ornians," went on the 
 inward monologue. " They all look a little hor 
 rified, even hasn t the courage to sign to me. 
 
 Something s amiss ! What f and I, with lost ap 
 petite and hungry interest, watched the sedate 
 servant cross to the fe/2-hand side. 
 
 Did the first of my celestial hosts take one 
 sweetmeat and then stop, I was lost ! But no 
 
 In he plunged boldly 
 No matter how coldly" 
 
 the blood ran in his veins, gathered a handful to 
 surpass my own, and heaped it on the table be 
 side him. 
 
 I breathed again ! the more freely as I saw one 
 and all follow suit. 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 51 
 
 " I haven 1 1 made a faux pas, after all," 
 thought I. 
 
 Presently sedate servant, box, bonbons again 
 appeared. My conscience was at ease, but invol 
 untarily, as I stretched out my hand, I glanced 
 across the room. Eight pairs of bright eyes were 
 watching it, not anxiously ; no, but closely. 
 Eight breaths seemed suspended. Seemed? 
 " Let us determine, take but a single temptation," 
 said my internal monitor. I took but one. 
 
 Yes, it was so. They breathed again ! 
 
 Afterward I learned that had I entertained 
 them at my table, and had one of them seized 
 upon a chicken and torn it with his fingers limb 
 from limb, he would have done no greater violence 
 to our code of good breeding than had I to theirs. 
 
 Query : Would I have had the courageous 
 courtesy to fall foul of a companion chicken, and 
 rend it asunder to save the feelings of my guest, 
 and make him quite at home ? 
 
 We had brought us divers other delicacies in 
 slow and stately following. Manifestly dyspep 
 sia is not courted by these courteous Chinamen. 
 By and by came some light wine in tall fragile 
 glasses, that of themselves were enough to tempt 
 an ascetic to drink. 
 
52 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 For good and sufficient reasons being under a 
 temporary vow of abstinence, I admired the ex 
 quisite glass, and the wine, like imprisoned sun 
 shine, then pushed them to one side, went on with 
 some earnest confab and gave no farther heed to 
 the glass or its contents. 
 
 After a space came fresh glasses with fresh 
 wine they do not "fill" for you and the first 
 ones were carried away, and by and by, yet others. 
 
 At last I realized I had seen without seeing, 
 that the glasses of my friends had been carried 
 away empty ; my own, with those of my hosts 
 had been carried away full. 
 
 Not a word said. Only it was supposable that 
 I was of age to know what I wanted to eat, and 
 also to drink. Offers of hospitality were made 
 me. They no more thought of insisting on my 
 drinking wine than they thought of cramming 
 food down my throat. 
 
 Only what did not please their guest did not 
 please them. What did, was right in their eyes 
 and satisfactory to their palates, and we agreed 
 on the tea that soon came in. Tea that was tea ! 
 
 Had I been at a civilized table I would have 
 been driven to the rudeness of obstinate-seeming 
 denial by the rudeness of persistent request. 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 53 
 
 Will any one tell me why people who would 
 shrink from the ill-breeding of thrusting food on 
 one who neither needs nor wants it, account it 
 civility to force drink on one who says to it nay f 
 
 For me, I think the Chinese are gentlemen. 
 Let them so stand recorded. 
 
 XII. 
 
 Still I wish they could be induced to introduce 
 somewhat more of cleanliness into their places of 
 public resort. 
 
 One day, with some Chinese business men, gen 
 tlemen of elegance and culture, I went to the 
 principal Joss-house, of which there were four in 
 the city, and felt, when I came away, as though 
 I stood in need of a succession of Turkish baths. 
 Leaving the carriage we turned up a narrow dirty 
 passage-way into a dirty courtyard, where were 
 some dirty celestials chopping up a vile mess to 
 cook for their dinners. 
 
 Another dirty passage-way followed ; another 
 filthy courtyard, a door, a dirty entry, a dirty 
 narrow stairway, a dirty narrow entry, a door 
 through which door, and after such tribulations 
 of transit, you enter the Joss-house. 
 
 Room about thirty-three feet in length, nearly 
 
54: A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 square ; dirty floor, bare ; dirty windows at one 
 end, bare ; a table crossing the centre of the room, 
 bare ; upon it some tinsel ornaments, not bare, 
 but doubly grimed ; ranged on the walls, objects 
 that look like signboards covered with Chinese 
 characters, gilded but dirty and tarnished ; these 
 and the tinsel ornaments and some tall sticks 
 adorned with peacocks feathers, gifts to the idol. 
 An affair like a big umbrella, only rounder and 
 deeper, a sort of giant tumbler, fine but dirty, to 
 shelter the god when he takes his airings ; hang 
 ing from the ceiling some colored glass lanterns 
 to be used in his night promenades, a second table 
 parallel with the other table, bearing braziers for 
 burning incense, dishes holding lighted wicks 
 floating in oil, and a little wooden horse, a foot 
 high. 
 
 I asked, " What of the little horse ? Why is 
 he here?" 
 
 " He was a great warrior ; lived sixteen hun 
 dred years ago. This is his horse." 
 
 Beyond the table against the wall lie was 
 perched. A sort of altar with drapery about it 
 opened sufficiently to allow the appearance of a 
 life-sized head and hand. This face had in it 
 something noble and commanding high cheek 
 
A MAGGED REGISTER. 55 
 
 bones, large full eyes, red skin, darker than the 
 Chinese complexion, full beard, the hand upraised 
 with a gesture of authority, but no reverence 
 whatever paid him by any one who approached. 
 
 " How do you call him ?" I asked. " Who is 
 he?" 
 
 " He was a great general." 
 
 " But what was his name." 
 
 " We do not know." 
 
 " When did he live T 
 
 " We are not sure, but near sixteen hundred 
 years ago." 
 
 " Do you worship him f 
 
 "Oh, nor 
 
 " Why then is his image here ?" 
 
 " It represents to us his deeds." 
 
 " A symbol. You then worship his deeds." 
 
 " No, only as his deeds came out of his spirit." 
 
 " And his spirit T 
 
 Is that of God. He did much for his people. 
 
 " Then you worship God." 
 
 " Yes, yes," they answered, with a vague look 
 up and around, and an uncertain wave of the 
 hand. "Yes, God." 
 
 In the dark and i]l-smelling room was no priest 
 and no ceremonv. 
 
56 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 Their great feast is at New Year time, and they 
 come to the temple, if they so desire, on the first 
 day of the month, or on any day through their 
 holiday season of January, but there is no regular 
 service at any time, and the Chinese who were 
 with us, and some others who straggled in, showed 
 not the slightest sign of reverence for any thing. 
 
 On one of the tables stands a wooden vase filled 
 with " prayer- sticks," delicate strips of bamboo, 
 with pointed heads, on which are stamped some 
 characters and numbers. 
 
 A Chinaman prays, comes to the Joss-house, 
 shakes up the vase, draws out a stick, reads the 
 number, goes home and peruses the correspond 
 ing chapter in " the book," and his prayer is an 
 swered. He must interpret it as he best can. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 There are fifty places about San Francisco and 
 its bay to interest and charm, and when one has 
 driven, and tramped, and looked, and listened, 
 till one is quite worn out, I know of no pleasanter 
 twilight in which to sit and rest brain and body 
 together, than the little Church of the " Mission 
 Dolores," of which Bret Harte has sung in melodi 
 ous verse. 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 57 
 
 Long and narrow, with its whitewashed walls, 
 its statues of apostles, its pictured heads of 
 saints and martyrs, madonnas and Christs, over 
 all an air, not exactly of death, yet full of the 
 repose of the tomb. 
 
 Its ancient lettering telling us that " this place 
 is none other than the house of God, and the gate 
 of heaven;" its holy-water founts yellow with 
 age, the floor about them worn by the feet of 
 those who hoped by this limpid clearness to wash 
 away stains that soiled not the body but the soul ; 
 its old, old windows sunk in immense thicknesses 
 of adobe walls ; its antique doors, made wholly of 
 glass, swung wide from their deep doorways, and 
 through open door and window, revealings not of 
 the restless life of a great city, but of a soft green 
 ness that bends over a myriad of sleepers, lying 
 silently enough beneath quaint carving, beauties 
 of sorrowing art that age has not blemished, or 
 simple cross or memorial stone. 
 
 Many of these sleepers, who were awake in a 
 bygone time full of calm, were old when they 
 shut their eyes on life some dead full early. 
 Did they, as those who follow them, prove the 
 truth of the old Latin verdict : 
 
 " O vita, misero longa, felici brevis !" 
 
58 A BAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 and was it in sad or happy spirit they said, as we 
 say now, O life ! long to the unhappy ; to the 
 happy, brief. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 Surely never altogether unhappy to one who 
 has before him the Yosemite, or, better still, car 
 ries its remembrance a memory that can never 
 die. 
 
 From San Francisco by boat to Stockton, from 
 Stockton to Knight s Ferry, from Knight s Ferry 
 to Chinese Camp, from Chinese Camp to Garrote 
 (suggestive name in the mining regions), reaching 
 supper and beds at ten of the evening after 
 seventy-one miles of staging. 
 
 As to the dust absorbed during those seventy - 
 one miles justice cannot be done to it. It was 
 California dust. What more can be said ? Not 
 sand, not grit, nor any thing a traveller before 
 knew by that name ; but powder, in which the 
 horses feet fall noiselessly, and which fills hair, 
 eyes, nose, ears, throat, lungs, and skin, not only 
 sifting through, but dyeing every garment worn. 
 
 At first I strove to be godly I mean akin to 
 godly cleanly ; and so signally failed in the last 
 as to overthrow all hope of the first. I worried, 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 50 
 
 and shook, and brushed, and cleaned, and scour 
 ed till skin and temper were equally rasped and 
 life a burthen, and finally decided to be constitu 
 tionally dirty and comfortable. 
 
 We were monuments of dust that night, and 
 tired enough to sleep, even at Garrote, but quite 
 ready for an early start the next morning, and 
 impatient to reach Harden s Mills, twenty miles 
 away, where we took horse for the Valley. 
 
 No baggage save hand-bags. Three of the 
 party encased against wind and weather, unfash 
 ionable and picturesque ; the fourth member of 
 the organization arrayed in a soft felt hat, blue 
 costume consisting of loose coat, skirt to the 
 knee, Turkish trowsers, woollen stockings, and 
 stout shoes. So armed and equipped we bestrode 
 our beasts, and were away to the Yosemite, not, 
 however, till we were joined by another party 
 bound to the same destination, one of the ladies 
 surveying our lady with disdain, and audibly de 
 siring her companions to " look at that vulgar 
 creature. 
 
 And the vulgar creature, from her safe and 
 comfortable and natural seat, surveyed the 
 wretched " ladies horses," sore of back, lame of 
 leg, beheld the girthing and tightening and fuss- 
 
60 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 ing over the groaning and miserable creatures, 
 the lift into the saddles, the ungainly bags of 
 figures composed of half -long skirts and clumsy 
 "waterproofs," the twisted bodies and uncom 
 fortable attitudes took a mental look ahead at 
 the twelve hours ride over rough and dangerous 
 roads, smiled to herself, and thought, " look at 
 those idiots." 
 
 Sensible and foolish, we started and rode hour 
 after hour through solemn aisles of majestic trees 
 till, toward the close of the afternoon, we reach 
 ed open ground, where broke upon us the over 
 ture to the great harmony toward which we tend 
 ed a sight to take one s breath, yet merely the 
 vestibule of the King s Temple beyond. 
 
 " Here," said the guide, "we begin the de 
 scent to the valley." 
 
 And we descended. 
 
 Mesdames, the critics, indulged in a good deal 
 of screaming, slipped at divers points, sometimes 
 voluntarily, sometimes involuntarily, from their 
 horses, walked over the roughest places, sum 
 moned guides and masculine friends to lead their 
 animals, to render help of voice and hand, em 
 braced neck and mane of their four-legged serv 
 ants, till the poor beasties having this misery 
 
A BAGGED REGISTER. 61 
 
 added to their torturing girths must have almost 
 smothered, and held onto saddle and pommel till 
 hands, arms, and chests were strained to numb 
 ness. 
 
 And no wonder ! 
 
 Said Gushing, my tall, long-limbed, bright- 
 haired, wide-awake guide, who had bestrode every 
 thing from a circus horse to a bucking Indian 
 pony said Gushing, after jerking over and tight 
 ening down for the twentieth time one of the one 
 sided leather abominations, " There ain t dust 
 enough" (gold dust, innocent Eastern friends!) 
 " lying round loose to hire me to ride on one of 
 those things." 
 
 " Afraid of your neck f said I. 
 
 " You bet," said he. 
 
 Through countless tribulations even the social 
 martyrs reached the end of the seven - miles 
 plunge, and rode forward, with the Ishmaelsof the 
 party, into the Great Valley, the world s wonder, 
 a sight for men and angels to gaze at with awe ! 
 
 Before us, at the left as we entered, shutting in 
 the view, stood "El Capitan," a perpendicular 
 wall, no growth marring it, no jagged points 
 thrust out from it, no waste nor debris at its base, 
 rising clean and grand thirty-one hundred feet 
 
62 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 from a line already four thousand feet above the 
 sea. Broad and strong at foot and summit, it 
 gives, more than any other rock in the valley, a 
 sense of solidity, power, massiveness. 
 
 Round the base of this we rode, rock after rock 
 coming into sight, taking strange and airy and 
 wonderful and sublime shapes, changing and 
 changing again as we moved along and beheld 
 them from different points of vision. 
 
 Through the valley we advanced for the first 
 time through the solemn stillness of the night, the 
 moonlight half revealing, half concealing the 
 awful mountain majesties circling round and rest 
 ing with chastened splendor upon a fall of water 
 so white, so airy, so delicate as to seem the ghost 
 of a torrent, dropping its length twenty-six hun 
 dred feet ! 
 
 Tired as I was, aching from head to toe, I for 
 got I had a body as I gazed. Still, to confess to 
 human weakness, I shed no tears when, at nine 
 o clock, we found at Hutching s ranche a com 
 fortable supper, and beds that would certainly 
 lull no sybarite to slumber, but were better than 
 double action spring mattresses to our weary 
 brains and limbs. 
 
 I know of no more hopeless task than the effort 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 63 
 
 to convey to another any apprehension of this 
 marvel of nature s handiwork. The popular idea 
 is that of a sort of magnificent gulch two great 
 walls of rock broken at their summits. 
 
 The reality is a valley eight miles in length, 
 and from half a mile to a mile in width, a moun 
 tain stream rushing, white-crested, through its 
 centre, great pines adorning it, and the freshest 
 of grass covering the ground. 
 
 From this quiet greenness, level as a city ave 
 nue, with no gradual slope, these marvellous 
 shapes abruptly rise in air, white, shining, clean 
 of verdure, perfect in outlines, three, four, five 
 thousand feet high ; rocks like cathedral domes 
 and castle towers, rocks pointed so sharply as to 
 seem like needles, and rocks tapering off more 
 softly and slowly to their heads. 
 
 These fine and grand, these penetratingly beau 
 tiful shapes, have been painted and copied and 
 photographed till multitudes are familiar with 
 their outline, but neither picture nor description 
 can convey any hint of the height and depth, the 
 greatness, the majesty of it all, and description 
 added to picture, and picture studied, and then 
 the eye used on the living presentment, all fail to 
 enable you to grasp the marvellous whole. 
 
64 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 You gaze and count, wonder and calculate, 
 make your neck ache and your understanding- 
 crack, and you say " this is two thousand" or 
 " this is five thousand feet high," or " this fall 
 plunges down a thousand twenty-six hundred 
 feet," and you iterate and repeat till the words 
 and figures bear no sense to your mind, and are 
 but empty sounds. 
 
 There is nothing whereby to compare. The 
 trees in the valley elsewhere would be marvels. 
 There, standing at the base of one of these stu 
 pendous piles, they seem but common scanty 
 growth, and this pile, among its neighbors, is 
 simply a rock in the midst of rocks, and if you 
 try to compel an understanding of the thing be 
 fore you, you stretch and struggle till the brain 
 feels bursting, and at last confess your impotency. 
 You cannot grasp and take it in. 
 
 When we see from above, when the trammels 
 and bounds of earthly calculation and human 
 ability are thrown aside, we may comprehend 
 Yosemite, but not now. It is the spiritual eyes 
 alone that can behold with the possessing vision 
 this god-like scene. 
 
 But, to a mere human, what days of delight 
 does it afford and what memories to hold in trust ! 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 65 
 
 I bethink me of one evening when we tramped past 
 the lovely heads of the Three Graces, the stately 
 strength of the Sentinel, and the solemn majesty 
 of the Cathedral Pile to behold the sun-setting on 
 one of the strangest " Bridal Veils" in the world. 
 
 Assuredly the spirit for which it was made 
 must be "tall," and ought to be " young and 
 fair," since itself is in length nine hundred and 
 fifty feet. 
 
 Narrow at its top, and fanning out as it falls into 
 lace-like mist and filmy gossamer spray. Here 
 and there through its spider web the water gathers 
 into arrow-heads drawing after them long spread 
 ing tails, and looking, as they shoot downward, 
 like marvels from frost or fairy land. 
 
 It had rained through the afternoon, and as we 
 stood at the foot of the fall, there were in full 
 view four distinct bows spanning the valley from 
 the North to the Half Dome, with sections of other 
 bows flung about in lavish splendor. The fall 
 itself was a dazzling mass of prismatic hues, the 
 sky and air filled with rosy and amber light, till 
 at last the glorious colors crept slowly up their 
 shining ladder and left the fall to a gray pallor 
 that was wraith-like and sad. 
 
 And of one morning when we rode over to Mir- 
 
66 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 ror Lake, lying outside the valley, on the placid 
 surface of which the mountains around reappear 
 with marvellous fidelity, not only in shape and 
 coloring, but seemingly in the very texture of the 
 rocks, till, as you gaze downward, you clap hand 
 on head, and prospect for signs of feet, to decide 
 the relative positions of each, and so make sure 
 which is mountain and which shadow. 
 
 And of other and yet other days upon which 
 we clambered up the white granite face of this or 
 that giant, to look out at his comrades, and did 
 not go astray, because we could not, in finding 
 sights that would have repaid the expenditure of 
 any amount of time and toil. 
 
 And of one supreme day when we mounted 
 steed, rode away under the stately forest growth 
 through the pass by the Half Dome, close to the 
 side of the sparkling and plunging Merced River, 
 till the trail grew so steep and narrow our ani 
 mals could no further go, then, dismounting, took 
 to our own feet and the companionship of stout 
 walking-sticks up a most forbidding pathway 
 that led us to the Vernal Fall. 
 
 A leap of three hundred and fifty feet, white 
 as falling snow, glittering as gems, laughing and 
 dancing down its wall of glacier- like rock, not 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER 67 
 
 grand, nor solemnizing, nor overwhelming, but 
 just perfection that is the Vernal Fall. 
 
 We dived into waterproof cases and clambered 
 on. The mud ankle deep, the blinding spray beat 
 ing against us like a heavy fall of rain, so past its 
 base, then, dropping the unwieldy over-garments, 
 scrambled by its side, up, up a ladder placed 
 against the flat cheek of granite, then up, up, up 
 another ladder, and so were at the top. 
 
 A broad smooth table of stone, at its outer edge 
 a natural parapet, breast high, and shaped as 
 though made with hands, over which one can 
 lean and look for hours not content with this I 
 crawled to the point where the water plunged 
 over the lip of the fall, thrust out my head, and 
 tried to gaze my fill at the dazzling mass as it 
 swept down and away. Below it the shining 
 line of the river. The rocks of the valley in the 
 near distance. Afar a world of mountains. Over 
 head a few fleecy clouds showing against a sky 
 that was like polished turquoise. 
 
 After a space oh, woeful falling off we trav 
 elled onward to a charming spot, midway the 
 head of the Vernal and the foot of the Nevada 
 Falls, camped, ate our lunch low be it spoken 
 with the appetite of wolves, then, rested and 
 
G8 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 refurbished, went our way to the Cap of Lib 
 erty. 
 
 The mountain is exactly defined by its name. 
 It is as perfect a Liberty Cap as though it were the 
 great original, and the most beautiful object to be 
 seen even here. 
 
 Standing solitary from its base, not a rock 
 touching it nor even resting near, its face and 
 sides white as purity, bare as penury and up 
 right as truth, its back a slope dotted with tim 
 ber that makes it possible of ascent, forty-eight 
 hundred feet above the valley, and the valley 
 four thousand feet above the sea, 
 
 None but Indians and a, venturesome guide had 
 hitherto ascended it, and at starting we were 
 cheered by dismal forebodings and prognostica 
 tions of defeat. 
 
 Well, we went up it. What else should we do ? 
 A hard climb, a hot climb, a steep climb ; there 
 were spaces where we had to take off our shoes 
 and travel in stocking feet gingerly at that, and 
 there were places where my tall guide, having 
 first " skinned up " perpendicular walls of rock, 
 then flattened and bent down, did his best to dis 
 locate two pairs of arms as he "yanked" me 
 bodily to standing ground beside him, and there 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 00 
 
 were shining shelving reaches, glittering and slip 
 pery as ice that we crawled over on hands and 
 knees, and there were stretches of journey where 
 we were parched for want of water, and there 
 were rattlesnakes in abundance, two of which I 
 killed with stick and claw, and was vastly in 
 flated by the achievement, and finally there was 
 the summit ! 
 
 A fragmentary view of the valley on the one 
 side ; on the other the " Little Yosemite," at this 
 distance almost rivalling in beauty its great name 
 sake; two far oft* mountains, "Cloud s Rest" 
 and the " Cathedral Peak," dwarfing by their 
 majesty those near at hand ; ranges and spurs of 
 the Sierras with glittering heads, looming up 
 across emerald spaces, here and there a point so 
 blue as to show black, so steep and high as to be 
 blown bare of snow, and close beside and above 
 us, across the pallid brow of the " Half Dome," a 
 thunder-storm swirling and raging, deafening re 
 verberations sounding from peak to peak, light 
 ning ripping the air with the sound of tearing 
 cambric, electricity clawing at the gazer with 
 small fiend-like talons, and at last calm and an 
 effulgent light as the sun, dispersing all blots and 
 blemishes, moved slowly and majestically to the 
 west. 
 
?0 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 So absorbed were we as to lose thought of time. 
 When at last we made the descent, struck across 
 the intervening mile to the top of the Nevada 
 Fall, gazed at its 700 feet of splendor, dropped 
 down its side, and finally gained the parapet of 
 the Vernal Fall, the air was no longer dusky but 
 dense it was not twilight, but night. 
 
 Certainly the ladder transit was wild enough, 
 back foremost, hands and feet both in hard ser 
 vice, but that was Jwliday toil to the rest of the 
 tramp ! 
 
 The way was dark. The path was slippery, 
 stones, and foot-deep mud making each step a 
 danger ; a wall of rock on the one hand, the 
 wraith-like fall of hundreds of feet on the other, 
 an abyss beneath ; a thunderous roar filling the 
 air, the spray and mist fiying wild and white 
 through the night. Below us Egyptian darkness, 
 all about us sombre mountains, inaccessible 
 heights, their tops thousands of feet away, peaks 
 and points and towers and pinnacles and domes, 
 shapes of beauty and shapes of grace, and shapes 
 of majesty and power : these and these alone 
 touched by the rising glory of the moon, and fair 
 ly glittering in its light. 
 
 All experiences have an end. At last we gained 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 our horses, plunged down the gloomy treacherous 
 trail, and at midnight reached our temporary home. 
 
 Certainly we did very little climbing the next 
 morning, but the next evening I mounted my pony 
 and rode away alone for a farewell sunset. 
 
 Rain had been falling, a refreshing shower from 
 a sunlit sky, and the air was full of a splendor of 
 coloring that no pigment and canvas could repro 
 duce. On one side the valley the rocks stood 
 gray and drear ; on the other rich crimson gave 
 way to purple, purple to amethyst, amethyst to 
 blue, blue to imperceptible shadings of delicate 
 and exquisite hues, the effect being not that of 
 tinted granite, but of a haze that left the outlines 
 clearly defined, yet touched them with the soft 
 ness of velvet. At the west, where the mountains 
 close in, a scrap of sky looking like nothing so 
 much as an enormous emerald. 
 
 I sat still on my pony till all the splendid 
 phantasmagoria vanished, and the stone sentries 
 stood brown, gray, black, deep shadows lining 
 them, the gloom of night compassing them, 
 watched by the solemn stillness of the stars ; and 
 the next morning we rode away from both day 
 light and starlight in the wonderful valley. 
 
 An all- day ride along the Maripose trail, to a 
 
72 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 night s repose at " Clarke s ranche ;" a morning 
 with the Big Trees and their majestic neighbors 
 the firs and sugar-pines, each of these large 
 enough to be elsewhere a world s wonder, good 
 things to see, good things to remember one 
 must lift eye, and thought, and imagination to 
 them even in memory from these, fourteen miles 
 of " deep sea-diving," an undeviating descent that 
 puts knee-pans at a discount for some days there 
 after, a ride ending at "White & Hatch s," 
 where we were fed like kings and slept the sleep 
 of the just. 
 
 A night coach-ride the night void of moon 
 and sights suited not us who wanted to see every 
 thing, so our last stage was made in a hired she 
 bang which took us to Stockton. 
 
 Truly a fine-looking turn-out was presented to 
 view at four o clock of the pleasant summer morn 
 ing ! 
 
 At least clean, whole, and unencumbered when 
 we went into the valley, we turned away there 
 from and set our faces toward civilization n t sub 
 jects for its chastening hand. 
 
 Capital horses, a spring waggon burdened with 
 no luggage save paltry hand-bags, yet fur 
 nishing no superfluous room for its human freight 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 73 
 
 a big canvas bag of moss, another of cones, 
 manzanita sticks, and other sticks wrapped in 
 shreds of garments, and tied together in un 
 shapely bundles ; clumsy pieces of big-tree bark ; 
 thumping pieces of big-tree wood ; cones too pre 
 cious to be trusted to the bag, held by their stems 
 with questionable rags draped preservative!^ 
 about them ; long poles festooned with moss 
 thrust out behind ; presiding over all, four dirty, 
 ragged, unshorn, unkempt, entirely contented 
 tramps with their German driver, an epitome of 
 horse lore and good-nature a spectacle to pro 
 voke envy and horror. 
 
 Fortunately there were no critical eyes to gaze 
 at us, and be shocked at the sight. With 
 change of animals we rode that day eighty -five 
 miles, and met not a soul. Everywhere yellow 
 wheat fields dotted with oaks, but the country 
 generally so lonely, so bare and parched as to give 
 one a sense of desolation. 
 
 Yet surely never before was seeming desolation 
 such real richness. We passed one wheat -field, 
 unbroken by fence or stake, undivided save by 
 the beds of two rivers (needing no division, since 
 it was the partnership property of two men), fifty- 
 seven miles in length ! 
 
71 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 Halted at a ferry thirty miles out of Stockton, 
 and camped for the night under the light of the 
 " Lone Star." 
 
 I have travelled, and I am not squeamish, and 
 I ve stopped at Western hotels, and difficult ones 
 at that, but I confess to being appalled at this 
 hostel. 
 
 A house without upper regions. The lower 
 regions carpetless, furnitureless, save for a few 
 benches about a central board in the dining-room ; 
 beds as abandoned by their latest occupants, and 
 infested by " their legal inhabitants" (if length of 
 possession gives right) in the sleeping cells ; some 
 phenomenally dirty wash-basins without accom 
 paniment of water, soap or towels, in solitary pos 
 session of the toilet apartment, not another thing 
 in the place but bushels of meal-like dust lying 
 round or heaped up * promiscuous a species of 
 furniture and ornamentation combined. At least 
 it served to fill spaces that would else have been 
 given over to absolute vacancy. 
 
 A big gaunt woman, mistress and maid, cooked 
 us an atrociously bad supper, a big gaunt man, 
 her husband, served it, a half dozen villainous 
 looking drovers helped us eat it, after which, 
 having failed to beg, borrow, or steal any clean 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 75 
 
 linen for the beds, I made them up wrong side 
 out, retired to my own den and slept on the floor 
 and avenged myself the next night at Frisco, by 
 ringing my bell at intervals of twenty minutes, 
 and having the entire procession of bell boys at 
 the Cosmopolitan " roped in" to my service. 
 
 XV. 
 
 I would like to see the Geysers again yes, and 
 the " Big Red woods," and Santa Cruz, and 
 Moore s Beach, and the pebbly beach of Pesce- 
 dera, and Monterey, and I would like to know 
 if its human monument yet stands or has drooped 
 to its original clay. 
 
 I went to Monterey to look at its old missions, 
 and while there read in its little weekly paper of 
 something more ancient than they an Indian 
 woman providing for herself and supporting her 
 blind great-grandchild by working in the fields, 
 who, as the Jesuit records of baptism showed, was 
 one hundred and forty-two years old, and a little 
 while thereafter I beheld her sitting by the road 
 side and paused for some confab with this voice 
 of time. 
 
 Her brown skin, shrunken face, fiery black eyes, 
 snow-white hair, cut square across the forehead 
 
76 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 and falling in a shower on her shoulders, with 
 scarlet drapery flying in the wind, gave her an 
 uncanny look that was a delightful change from 
 the commonplace sameness of ordinary mortals. 
 
 When the Jesuit mission of 1779 was built she 
 could scarcely have been called a young woman, 
 yet she was one of its builders carried stones and 
 clay and timber with other Indian converts. 
 These younger companions were dead and forgot 
 ten, and the Jesuits gone, the church a ruin, and 
 the vast power of the priests a memory of the 
 past, but the old woman lived, strong and vigor 
 ous. Does she live still ? 
 
 And I would like to see Shasta and the North 
 ern Range, and run down to Taho and Donner 
 lakes, and while there I would like to be able to 
 christen the latter afresh, if in wiping out its old 
 name one could also erase the memory of its story. 
 You know it ? how, years ago, one of the early 
 emigrant trains was here belated. A delayed 
 start, or too long tarriance by the way brought 
 them to this spot, where they were overtaken by 
 the first snows of the Sierras. 
 
 Part pushed on and reached Sacramento in 
 safety, the others quarrelled and divided, moved 
 forward only to turn back, the cattle strayed 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 77 
 
 away, the counsels were diverse. They camped 
 and waited waited in vain for the succor that 
 strove to reach, but could not iind them through 
 the intervening barriers of snow. 
 
 They ate all their supply of summer provisions, 
 and as the dreary days dragged on could find 
 nothing else to gnaw save themselves, and 
 amongst themselves they cast lots for death. 
 
 A ghastly tale ! 
 
 Forty-six of these wretches here perished in 
 supremest agony and were at last found, some 
 but bones, some partly devoured, some heroically 
 dead of elected starvation. 
 
 Donner was the name of the leader of this 
 party, and his name darkens the lake pity that 
 it has not one less fraught with awful associations, 
 more in keeping with its own divine clearness and 
 surpassing charm. 
 
 And I would like, turning from all this and 
 more, to slip back along the rails to Cheyenne, 
 clamber to the driver 1 s box at six of the afternoon, 
 and away for a twenty-two hours drive to Denver 
 and the mountains. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 But there is no coach now no, and I am not at 
 the Avestern but the eastern end of the route. 
 
78 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 Shall I go in fact, or only in memory over the 
 last trip to the great Main Range, and the Arkan 
 sas Divide, and beyond ? 
 
 Did I start from Philadelphia ? 
 
 Yes, I did start from Philadelphia. 
 
 Alone ? 
 
 No, with some very agreeable companions. 
 
 Will I tell any thing about Pennsylvania by the 
 way ? 
 
 No, that is too old a story ; I did not look out 
 for sights and sounds in that region. 
 
 All the same, one came to me, I remember, 
 when the train stopped for supper at some little 
 town near Wheeling. 
 
 Enter a specimen ! 
 
 The oddest looking young fellow, who mean 
 dered about the new and handsome sleeping -coach, 
 staring at it with wonder and awe, finally bringing 
 up opposite my observing eyes, and untouched 
 lunch, bobbing his head and pronouncing eve 
 ning." 
 
 " Good-evening, sir," I answered my friend, who 
 reveled in red hair and a verdant countenance, big 
 check trowsers and a " flopping" linen sack. 
 
 "I m of a speculative turn," he continued, 
 " I am. I like to see what I can. No offence. 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. ^ 
 
 I m all right. See for yourself," and he fished a 
 "pass" from the depths of a capacious pocket, 
 and informed me he was a " school teacher and a 
 local preacher yes, and respected, I might ven 
 ture to say very much respected too." 
 
 What could I do but bow and await further de 
 velopments \ 
 
 " Sleeping-car, eh f 
 
 " Yes. P. P. Pullman Palace Sleeping Car," 
 grinning to myself, as I invariably do each time I 
 am called upon to repeat the snobbishly fine 
 name. 
 
 Heathenish !" protested he. Couldn t they 
 find some nice Christian name of a girl to call it 
 for, without going back to that goddess or what 
 ever she was f 
 
 I gazed inquisitively. 
 
 " Oh I know, Pallas. I ve read about her in 
 the old Greek chaps. Tain t fair. She s had 
 her day. She ought to get out for Mary, or Sue, 
 or Jeannie, or something of that figure, hey ? 
 
 " Right," I answered, " if you were right ; but 
 you aren t. It isn t P-a-1-l-a-s, Pallas, but p-a-1- 
 a-c-e, palace car." 
 
 " Oh ! that ! Palace is it ?" contemplating anew 
 the superb upholstery, gorgeous carpet, and sealed 
 
80 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 windows. " Palace ?" sniffing the air ; " well it 
 smells bad/ 
 
 " So it does, I assented, but that is the badge 
 of all its kind. Tis a family peculiarity. Eail- 
 way coaches, as a rule, always smell bad. From 
 much companionship the passengers grow so fond 
 of their own air they can t bear to change it." 
 
 For the land 1 s sake ! That so ? My ! What 
 queer people ;" and then with a gesture that 
 might mean "enough of human affairs," un 
 friend s interest in art revived. Gingerly feeling 
 the rods and knobs he demanded 
 
 " Silver?" 
 
 " So they say." 
 
 "Solid silver?" 
 
 " Oh, no," I answer, " only washed." 
 
 "Cheat!" he- cried with manifest disgust. 
 " Come from far ?" 
 
 "Philadelphia." 
 
 " My ! That so ! Going far ? 
 
 "To Colorado." 
 
 " My-y ! by yourself \ Better take a compan^ 
 ion." 
 
 " Have some," I say, pointing " at supper." 
 
 "Supper? sho ! and left you here alone? 
 Mebbe they re not sociable ?" 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 81 
 
 I explained that / was not hungry. 
 
 He looked meditative, suddenly started, " Those 
 grapes didn t grow round these parts I reckon ? 
 gazing at a little open basket of black Hamburg s 
 and Malagas. 
 
 "No." 
 
 " Well, now, just for a curiosity, would you 
 sell me a bunch of them ?" again fishing in the 
 capacious receptacle, and bringing out a pocket- 
 book. " I ve got a real nice girl I go to see every 
 Sunday night, and I d like well to carry her such 
 a thing as that. I always carry her something. 
 Will you sell me a bunch now ?" 
 
 " No, I won t sell you one, but I will be happy 
 to give you two," which I proceeded to do, and 
 he was enchanted. 
 
 Just then up came the sleeping-car porter with 
 a message concerning a cup of tea, had his answer 
 and vanished. My friend remained with open lips. 
 
 " I say, what did that colored individual call 
 you?" 
 
 " Miss Dickinson." 
 
 " What s your whole name now ?" 
 
 II Anna Dickinson." 
 
 " My ! That so ! Why, you ve got the same 
 name as the big orator. Any relation ?" 
 
82 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 "None?" 
 
 "None!" the disappointment in the queer 
 good-natured face was too much for me " since I 
 am she at least I am the only one of that name, 
 big or little, who makes speeches." 
 
 "My! No! Why! Just let me sit down !" 
 
 Which he did heavily. 
 
 Rumination follows. Contemplation of grapes. 
 Speech seemingly made to some inward ear 
 
 " If I could keep them forever, I would, but 
 grapes won t keep for ever ?" looking inquiringly 
 at me. 
 
 " No," I responded. 
 
 Face fell, brightened ; hand fished again out 
 came a big clasp knife ; face brilliant. 
 
 4 i Now, I tell you what ! this is a big thing for 
 me. Orators don t run round loose over my gar 
 den patch every day. Like enough it won t hap 
 pen more n once or twice in a life time. Nobody 
 at home 11 believe where I got those grapes unless 
 I have something to show for it just let me slice 
 off a little scrap of your hair." 
 
 A palaver ensued, and at last I pacified him with 
 a card and an autograph, and the whole basket of 
 grapes, and I hope he and his "girl" made a 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 83 
 
 feast of them, and had half as ridiculously good 
 a time over them as I had over Jiim. 
 
 XVII. 
 
 The " companions" having come in, gazed 
 after him curiously ; then proceed to propound 
 a question. 
 
 To which I " Queer people \ Met queer people 
 in travelling ? Of course. What other people 
 should I meet ? It is one of my firm convictions 
 that the only people who travel are queer people, 
 or worse. 
 
 " Of course with exceptions. 
 
 " Tell you about them ? No, I won t tell you 
 about them. I never talk in the cars." 
 
 "What! never?" 
 
 " Well " no, I did not say it. 
 
 Don t I get tired of solitude \ Sometimes, 
 but solitude is better than prostration. There is 
 no labor more fatiguing than that of yelling 
 against the noise of the train and of straining 
 every nerve of the head to hear unless indeed it 
 be to talk, under any condition, with the people 
 who then and there assail you. If one has to use 
 voice and brains and vital force in the evening, 
 one can t bawl for the delectation or reverse of 
 
84 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 every one who seizes you with a " stand and de 
 liver. " 
 
 The reason why " professionals" prefer hotels 
 to private hospitality ? Precisely. No amount 
 even of limitless fees can enable them to afford 
 the latter. 
 
 Some hosts make a feast and bring together 
 their friends and neighbors to see the animal feed, 
 and that spoils the animal s appetite ; and some 
 collect a company to hear the lion roar the 
 fatigued lion preferring to stay in the corner and 
 lick its paws, and getting abused accordingly ; 
 and some make great show of hospitality and ex 
 pect the speaker who of course is a clock wound 
 up and always ready to go to take out his board 
 and lodging in talk, and that is an extravagant 
 expenditure of strength and voice, soon ending in 
 bankruptcy ; and some are so considerate and 
 kind and friendly as to suggest home-sickness, and 
 afflict one with regret at parting. 
 
 No. The halting place for a traveller should 
 be at a " traveller s home" fine irony ! Where 
 one can eat and sleep and read and rest, and order 
 and growl ad libitum, with none to molest nor 
 make afraid. 
 
 I do bethink me though, that now and again I 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 85 
 
 have broken the rule of car silence to my content, 
 or profit, or amusement, as the case may be. 
 
 I remember leaving - -- one morning very 
 early the early start of itself being a misery 
 for the day ; and so sat huddled up in a corner 
 of the seat, looking with a malevolent eye at 
 whoso approached me with manifest intent of 
 converse, when bag and wrap were lifted by 
 a strong, white, shapely hand, and a clear voice 
 just tinged with foreign richness said, " I will 
 sit by Miss Anna Dickinson and talk with her for 
 a while at her good pleasure." 
 
 i Sit and talk by all means, my friend, said I ; 
 and so a Sister of Charity took the seat beside me. 
 
 I confess myself astounded, for usually the Sis 
 ters are as reticent as the dead and seemingly 
 with as little interest as they in the everyday life 
 of the world ; but this one had been through the 
 hospitals of Great Britain had wrought service 
 in the wars of the Crimea, Italy, France, Ger 
 many, and had seen and heard with eye and ear, 
 and with the understanding also. 
 
 She was an enthusiast, yet practical ; a devotee, 
 yet full of interest in the things of time ; an ardent 
 Catholic, yet a sympathizer with the movement 
 for the social and intellectual advance of women. 
 
86 A RAGGED REGISTER, 
 
 Irish by nationality, forty in years, probably 
 of gentle blood, for she had the air of one born 
 to command, of dignified and noble counte 
 nance. 
 
 She asked me a thousand- questions about my 
 self and my work, and wondered I had not found 
 the pathway to the mother church, " where all 
 earnest souls belong. Ah, my sister, what a 
 career, what work for you there." 
 
 "Where," she asked, and justly, "has the 
 Protestant Church found or tried to make work, 
 and place, and opportunity for the multitudes of 
 women who have no vocation for marriage what 
 has been done for these has been done, largely at 
 least, by those wliom the church condemns." 
 
 Assuredly in this matter, the Church of Rome 
 has shown the wisdom for which she has been 
 famous, bestowing an inestimable blessing upon 
 these myriads of women, and through these upon 
 the world. 
 
 I never meet a Sister of Charity without want 
 ing to stand in the gutter, if need be, for her to go 
 by dry shod. 
 
 Knowing neither fear nor prejudice where pov 
 erty, contagion, disaster, death demand tending. 
 Going with quick feet, and trained hands, and 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 87 
 
 thoughtful brain, and tender heart, and pure soul 
 to succor and help all who have need. 
 
 The nuns ? No. 
 
 They represent self-destruction. 
 
 The Sisters? Yes. 
 
 They represent self-renunciation. 
 
 Two very different conditions. 
 
 The one buries all of her life that might think, 
 feel, work for Tier kind, and expects through this 
 grave to grasp heaven. The other buries all that 
 would think, feel, work for self alone, strives to 
 bring a breath of heaven to others, and finds it 
 even -here for herself. 
 
 May she keep it ! May the sun shine on her 
 pathway, the hand of God rest tenderly on her, 
 and lead her all her days ! 
 
 So I mused when this one left me, and went 
 her way to the accomplishment of some deed of 
 help and mercy. 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 Hers had been a gentle influence and certainly 
 I needed a quieting one for what was to come. 
 
 At L I had to hear me the assembled wisdom 
 of the State, and thought it made a very poor 
 show. What wonder ! Three dollars a day ! 
 
88 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 The only men who will accept such compensation 
 must be patriots of ye ancient style which style 
 is out of fashion at date lewd fellows of the 
 baser sort who take a little honestly for the sake 
 of the chance at a dishonest much, or unclassified 
 beings who make herculean efforts for the oppor 
 tunity of strutting and fretting their little hour, 
 and thereby gain a brief notoriety that to them 
 seems immortality. 
 
 Why not ? when, one and all, we so constantly 
 confound noise with fame. 
 
 One of these State Solons, a Senator cadaverous, 
 and yet cabbagey of expression, did, on the fol 
 lowing morning honor me by a call and his con 
 fidence. 
 
 Sinking into a corner of the sofa from whence 
 he had arisen to bow stiffly, he besought at the 
 outset the privilege of seeing me alone. 
 
 " Not here oh, not here, where so many rude 
 and careless eyes will gaze upon us, but alone, 
 quite, quite alone." 
 
 As the hotel parlor sheltered, save ourselves, 
 but two harmless looking women, I thought he 
 might content himself with its extensive privacy, 
 and endeavored to convert him to that opinion, 
 but finally took compassion on his weakness and 
 
A BAGGED REGISTER. 89 
 
 led the way to the wide deserted hall, where he, 
 having first struck an attitude, proceeded to be 
 seech me to promise eternal secrecy on the subject 
 matter he was about to reveal, entreated me to be 
 generous and just in my judgment, but, above all 
 to be generous. " No, not so, to be just. Nay, 
 rather, his human frailty would overcome him, 
 to be generous. Do, do not, I implore, be severe. 
 Read them ! Read them ! They are my best ! 
 Give me then your candid (? !) opinion." With 
 which he clapped into my paralyzed hand a port 
 folio and key and straightway vanished. 
 
 With awe I inserted the key, opened and laid 
 bare the secrets of this treasure house. Two 
 manuscripts lay revealed. First, " The Else, 
 Sway, Decay, Fall of the Nations of Antiquity, 
 with Thoughts, Moral and ^Esthetic, thereon." 
 Second, "The Republic of the New World. 
 America the Hope of the Universe. Danger ! 
 What will save it ! To arms ! An Appeal to the 
 Brains and the Hearts of the Sons of Columbia." 
 Over one hundred pages given to each of these 
 effusions. 
 
 With humility I confess I was not equal to the 
 emergency. I fled for the first train, and, decamp 
 ing, wrote him that his manuscripts required such 
 
90 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 serious consideration as to render it impossible 
 for me to do them justice in the scant space of 
 time that the exigencies of travel allowed. If he 
 so desired I would give my valuable (?) opinion 
 when I next came to L , mentally writing a res 
 ervation that if L saw me again while the 
 legislature was in session I would deserve my 
 fate. 
 
 That man was the worthy colleague of another 
 member, who said to me, " I can t understand it ! 
 I have been making anti-capital-punishment 
 speeches in a great many towns in some of our 
 sister States, and of course in my own State, that 
 have as much meat in them, /think, as any thing 
 Beecher gets off, and are quite as thrilling as 
 John B. Gough s temperance spouts, but they 
 dorit draw audiences !" 
 
 " Probably it is on account of the theme," I 
 suggested. 
 
 " Well, yes," he assented, " that is about the 
 conclusion /have come to. That and the fact 
 that I haven t the luck to be a woman. They 
 draw well, whatever they talk about out of curi 
 osity." 
 
 " No doubt," I meekly responded. " Perhaps 
 if you would have a brass band or something of 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 91 
 
 tliat sort to liven up things you would draw 
 better. People, y3u know, like to be amused." 
 
 " I ll take your proposition under advisement," 
 he gravely answered, " though Fm not clear that 
 people s light-mindedness ought to be countenan 
 ced and catered to even for worthy ends, by such 
 teachers and leaders of public opinion as I. Still 
 the matter is worthy consideration," and Tie bowed 
 himself off, and I, as by a flash, bethought me of 
 somebody I had seen in this same State some 
 years before of whom this man was a legitimate 
 successor. 
 
 A huge lumbering old fellow who tormented me 
 through a long day s ride, having first introduced 
 himself by the announcement that he " felt quite 
 as if he were a relation, as he came from Penn 
 sylvania, and his first wife s name I ve got my 
 fourth now was Nickerson." 
 
 Which self -presentation being accomplished he 
 mumbled and maundered on, at intervals, through 
 the next half dozen hours, some of his talk being 
 distinguishable and some not, till at last I heard, 
 " I was in the Pennsylvania legislature more than 
 thirty years ago with Thaddeus Stevens " 
 
 " Ah !" I said, " Thaddeus Stevens has been in 
 public life a long time a great many years. 
 
92 A RA&GED REGISTER. 
 
 " Yes," answered lie, " a long time. True 
 enough. I and Thaddeus Stevens have been in 
 public life a long time." 
 
 After which silence was manifestly in order. 
 
 Only, as after all these years I tell the foolish 
 story, there comes before me a picture of the old, 
 sad, furrowed, hollow-eyed, granite face of the 
 " leader of the House," as it used to show forth 
 through stormy scenes in desperate days that 
 tried men s souls, and I hope, with all my heart, 
 that when the dark waters close round us again 
 there may be found such another head and hand 
 at the helm. 
 
 The effect upon me of the oak that had served 
 as support for the " Nickerson" vine, had been to 
 put me so askew as to make me more than grate 
 ful to a curiosity who came into my way just as I 
 reached my destination, for the opportunity he 
 gave me to laugh. 
 
 A great hulking fellow, cased in a fur overcoat 
 and fur gloves, blue overalls and a coon-skin cap, 
 the tail dangling down his back, marched up to 
 me in the waiting-room. 
 
 " Hey ! I say ! By the name of Dickinson ?" 
 putting out his mighty paw. 
 
 I confess it. 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 93 
 
 " Give us a shake. Proud to make your ac 
 quaintance. Heard on ye for a powerful long 
 while. Came a long way to see you. Give us 
 another shake." 
 
 Shake No. 2 gone through with. 
 
 What s your name, my friend f 
 
 " My name ? Oh my name ain t no account. 
 You wouldn t know it anyway. Where s the 
 use? Ye don t know me nohow. Nothing to 
 speak of. Teacher by trade." 
 
 At which I stood open-mouthed and watched 
 him, coon-skin cap, and all, vanish away, over 
 whelmed by such professional modesty. 
 
 And consoled myself divers times the next day 
 in the midst of a deal of discomfort by a fresh 
 laugh at the thought of him. 
 
 And needed it. 
 
 The day was one of the "easy" seasons, of 
 which a busy L.L. s life is full. 
 
 " Such a delightful time to be sure you must 
 have, running about the country with nothing 
 to do buo travel and be amused, and talk when 
 evening comes." 
 
 Just so ! 
 
 Left before daylight, breakfastless, since 
 
94 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 I have not the stomach of an ostrich. At noon 
 changed cars at where was dinner. 
 
 Found a room with lavender colored walls pick 
 ed out in deep maroon lines, green shades at the 
 windows and bright blue ones over the doors, 
 checked red and gray table-cloth (low be it spok 
 en, filthy), napkins none. The dishes plenty of 
 them pitched on to the table, and looking as 
 though they had engaged in a free fight after they 
 got there. Not a whole piece of crockery to be 
 discerned. The food, hot bread, cold bread, steak, 
 ham, mutton chops, potatoes, eggs, milk, toast, 
 stewed tomatoes, stewed peaches, pickles, cake, 
 pie, recklessly massed together. All of them that 
 could be fried in fat pork fried in fat pork, and 
 one and all cold and disgusting together. 
 
 Luckily I did not see the kitchen till after I 
 had eaten my bit of bread and drank my cup of 
 coifee. Coffee I " Waiter, if this be coffee bring 
 me tea, and if it s tea let me have coifee !" Other 
 wise I should certainly have fasted. New food 
 and old, clean things and dirty things, dogs, cats, 
 greasy hands, combs, cooking utensils, dish tow 
 els and soiled clothes mingled in wild confusion 
 and disorder dire. 
 
 If the half were told of divers R. R. Eating 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 05 
 
 Houses, the chronicler would do well to absent 
 himself therefrom for the future, lest, having 
 escaped the perils of the table, a more violent 
 though less suffering death should befall him. 
 
 From this feast to the poisonous cars. Rum 
 ble, jumble, jolt, jolt, jolt. Something the mat 
 ter with the engine. Limp, limp to the Junction 
 of other road. Three hours late. Train gone. 
 Hunted up the superintendent of other road. Had 
 a small palaver, handed over $100 and got my 
 " special," but had to wait for it. 
 
 Waited for it in a queer place at the depot in 
 which the railroad employees eat and lodge, a 
 huge long room with a ceiling of rafters so low 
 that I could stretch my hand to it, a dingy floor, 
 dingy walls, opaque windows, men sooty and 
 grimy crowding the tables, but the whole thing- 
 made picturesque and even home-like by an enor 
 mous open fire of soft coa] sending long flickering 
 waves of light through the gathering shadows of 
 evening. 
 
 I was almost starved, but had to let imagination 
 feed me. There was great abundance of food, 
 but the " fry," and the " pork," and the rest of 
 it, were too much for me. 
 
 The room and its occupants, though, made a pic 
 
96 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 ture to remember, as I turned from it, clambered 
 on to my " special," and went away. 
 
 I sat in solemn state on the engineer s green 
 leather cushion, feet dangling, furnace fire scorch 
 ing one cheek, fresh evening air chilling the other, 
 and took in the splendors of a lurid sunset while 
 meditating upon the weakness and folly of poor 
 human nature that will so constantly need control. 
 
 Be thy own master. 
 
 Easily said. 
 
 Again and yet again have I lived through the 
 same experience as that of this ride. An en 
 gineer without arbitrary orders or train time to 
 obey, a good start followed by a run at such furi 
 ous speed as to shake the miserable traveller to a 
 jelly. A * hot box, a long delay, a limping ter 
 mination. 
 
 All s well that end s well. We ran into at 
 
 eight o clock, and the engineer, per agreement, 
 blew blasts that would have roused the seven 
 sleepers to let the audience know ye speaker had 
 arrived. 
 
 The audience was worth talking to a com 
 pensation for the ills of the day. As to the asso 
 ciation 
 
 After having spent fifteen hours of travel and 
 one hundred and fifteen dollars to keep my en- 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 97 
 
 gagement, and spoken to a crowded house, the 
 members of the aforesaid modestly suggested that 
 I take half my fee. 
 
 "For why r 
 
 " Oh, we thought there was no doubt you 
 would be delighted to contribute to the excellent 
 cause for which this course is given a new organ 
 for the First Presbyterian Church." 
 
 Seeing that I had no personal interest in that 
 special denomination, and never had nor never 
 will enjoy or suffer by means of the desired organ 
 in that particular church, I respectfully declined 
 impoverish! ag myself in its service, and have 
 sans doubt left behind me the name of a greedy 
 and avaricious woman. 
 
 XIX. 
 
 Some time I would like to free my mind upon 
 this matter. 
 
 There is not a reasonably successful speaker in 
 the country who is not put through a highway 
 process till he or she would be justified in grow 
 ing suspicious at the very sight of a " treasurer." 
 
 * Two hundred dollars a night. Three hundred 
 and sixty -five nights in the year. No expense of 
 
 travel. Feed on the air. Not a solitary soul in 
 
 7 
 
98 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 the whole world with any claims. What a source 
 to draw from !" 
 
 That, I fancy, is the method of calculation. 
 
 If it were true, what then ? 
 
 The " course" is given for the benefit of a free 
 reading room, a library, a hospital ; to refurnish 
 the minister s study, to carpet the church aisles, 
 to get new cushions for the pews, to put a spire 
 on this church, or a steeple on that., to raise funds 
 for a public-school piano ; for a local charity, for 
 any one of fifty different " causes" that ought to 
 be supported at home. And a man who will not 
 give ten cents to what is to benefit himself or his, 
 directly or indirectly, will demand of an absolute 
 stranger ten, twenty, fifty, an hundred dollars 
 with an air of virtuous command that would seem 
 to indicate a clear conscience and sense of duty 
 well done. 
 
 Curious how many of Hood s hat-bearers you 
 find. " Charity s a private concern " (say they), 
 " and what I give is nothing to nobody." 
 
 For myself, I confess to a preference for being 
 my own almoner. 
 
 Which reminds me of how quick people are to 
 bring the charge of stinginess against " profes 
 sionals" when they are known to have said "no." 
 
A E AGO ED REGISTER. 99 
 
 A word in behalf of all. My experience has 
 doubtless been the counterpart of others, and had 
 I the revenue of a million with heart to distribute 
 it all, instead of being a hard-working drudge, I 
 would be beggared each year ere the year is half 
 done. 
 
 Here is a letter one of hundreds asking me to 
 take the mortgage on a farm, and here one to lift 
 the like on another. Here one from an author to 
 publish his book, since " the trade fights shy of 
 it," and here one to free a milliner s stock covered 
 by debt ; here one to pay old college bills, and 
 here one to furnish the wherewithal to keep free 
 of new ones, and here is one from a young woman, 
 wife of an invalid husband, who has gone from 
 friends and home in the east to find " easy pick 
 ings" at the west. 
 
 (Will people never learn that if they can t live 
 in the East, they will die a thousand deaths in the 
 West. The West is for neither the lame nor the 
 lazy. It takes twice the stuff in man or woman 
 to get through there that it does to make a very 
 decent sort of success over smoother and quieter 
 lines " at home.") 
 
 This one doesn t know any thing about stock- 
 raising or nurseries, but supposes that animals 
 
100 A MAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 and trees grow as God ordains, and always to 
 perfection. She thinks if I " would buy her two 
 thousand trees to set out, and three thousand 
 sheep," she could "manage them very well, and 
 is sure she could make a good income from them 
 in time. Husband is sure of it too." Though 
 as they are twenty miles from a post town, and a 
 hundred miles from the railroad, and are they 
 two and no more, to me the outlook for future 
 gain looks dubious. 
 
 I tell her so, and try to suggest a plan that 
 seems to hold some real help, and madame, in her 
 next letter, " forgives" me. 
 
 Truly in these masses of letters there is food 
 for thought, texts for many sermons, matter for 
 scalding tears. For God s sake, why don t fathers 
 and mothers see to it that their sons and daugh 
 ters are alike trained to methods of self-support ! 
 
 XX. 
 
 I think my ponderings on the whole matter, as 
 sociation, letters, and all, were rendered some 
 what more severe by reason of being made the next 
 day, while undergoing the process of churning on 
 the Illinois Central Road, which road always 
 raises within me the question as to why it has any 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 101 
 
 rolling stock left to be destroyed, and any hu 
 mans to be ended. Fortunately it was carrying 
 me to a Chicago audience, with Sunday to spare 
 for Robert Collyer. Compensation in that ! 
 
 What a wholesome, friendly, inspiring audi 
 ence it is. One that understands, what so few 
 people ever dream of, that the audience has 
 almost as much to do with the entertainment as 
 has the entertainer. 
 
 It is as though you looked at one person, and 
 that person looked back stonily, indifferently, 
 sleepily, repellingly, not at all, or with asking 
 eye, eager color, answering face. When the audi 
 ence responds not necessarily by hand or voice, 
 as well as listens everybody has a good time. 
 
 For me, I have faced a crowd ready to talk, full 
 of enthusiasm, well* and strong, and in ten min 
 utes have grown so tired I could scarce stand ; and 
 I have crawled off the cars after a twenty -hours 
 ride, shaken to a jelly, banged black and blue, 
 asphyxiated with coal gas and the perfume of 
 burnt iron and dirty humanity, and been spirited 
 to the hall without rest, food, or a clean face, so 
 tired that I wanted to prop against some con 
 venient table or wall, and have felt, long before I 
 finished, as though I could never be sick nor 
 
102 A MAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 weary, nor disgusted, and having ended wanted 
 to begin and do it all over again, 
 
 Some audiences are stone. You strike against 
 them and rebound angered by their hardness. 
 Some are sponge absorb, and absorb, and ab 
 sorb, and give notJiing back, till you feel as 
 though you had enjoyed six hours of the Turkish 
 bath and then been put under an exhausted re 
 ceiver ; and some are like champagne, or vigorous 
 tea, or clear cognac, or aggressive coffee, or what 
 ever it may be that the most quickly and enchant- 
 ingly stimulates your brain and nerves. 
 
 That is Chicago. 
 
 And yet I wonder if even a Chicago or New 
 York audience could fill that bill if it were put 
 into a gloomy room. Darkness deadens. Light 
 is life. 
 
 One reason why so many preachers prose to 
 dull congregations, and why so many actors and 
 singers and speakers do their best endeavor and 
 fail is because, in so many cases, they are entombed 
 in dingy caverns, filled with the air of a tomb. 
 
 I bethink me of a certain delightful audience, 
 well bred and well read, that I used to see gasp 
 and agonize gasping and agonizing with them, 
 in whose behalf I finally ventured a protest. 
 
A MAGGED REGISTER. 103 
 
 A low ceiling, a raging furnace, and flaring gas 
 jets devouring what little oxygen filtered in 
 through crevice or opened door no " means of 
 ventilation" save the windows opening at the back 
 of the unfortunate crowd in the gallery. 
 
 Beseeching a mouthful of fresh air, these were 
 opened, the rain and night wind driving in on the 
 heads and shoulders of a hundred or so of un 
 happy victims, who shivered, drew closer wraps 
 and cloaks, sneezed now and then, and coughed 
 at intervals. 
 
 By and by divers hands were stretched forth, 
 and the windows, with pauses, and inch by inch, 
 reached the closing line. 
 
 More sizzling, followed by a fresh protest, end 
 ing in a duplicate experience ; a delicious bit of 
 coolness, speedily vanishing before fear of its 
 consequences. Delicious to the platform and the 
 floor direful to the gallery. Protests manifold. 
 The sequence of the speech being sadly marred 
 by an occasional cry of " hands off," or language 
 to that effect from the simmering speaker, who 
 finally lost her temper and proclaimed " this is a 
 horrible hall . 
 
 "Horrible Hall!" cried an indignant voice, 
 while a red- faced and perspiring man rose to view. 
 
104 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 " Horrible Hall! This is my hall, and I should 
 like to know what you mean by calling it such a 
 name." 
 
 " Because the name defines it," answered the 
 irate speaker, nowise terrified, since she was 
 planted " on the vantage ground of truth." " It 
 is a death-trap. Fresh air is as essential to life 
 as a pair of lungs. This is a grave without ven 
 tilators." 
 
 " No ventilators ! What do you call those f 
 pointing his cane at what looked like an unbroken 
 expanse of smooth ceiling, and wildly waving it 
 toward the four corners. " What do you call 
 those r 
 
 " Those ?" queried the speaker. " I call that a 
 ceiling. 
 
 " In the ceiling," shouted he. 
 
 " I see nothing in the ceiling," answered she. 
 
 " There, and there," he repeated. " Can t you 
 see?" 
 
 " Where, and where ?" asked she, making a tel 
 escope of her left hand. " No, I can t see. Per 
 mit me," stooping to one of the smiling ladies 
 upon the front bench, and taking her opera-glass. 
 
 " There," came in a gasp from the fiery mouth 
 of the now purple countenance, " and there, and 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 105 
 
 there, and there!" the cane once more cutting 
 lively angles toward the four corners, in which 
 four corners could be dimly descried infinitesimal 
 openings. 
 
 " Oh," said the enlightened speaker, peering 
 through the borrowed glass, i I beg your pardon. 
 Did you mean those gimlet holes." 
 
 " Ga-ga-gim-let holes !" stammered the angry 
 tongue it isn t soothing to rasped sensibilities to 
 be laughed at by a thousand voices " ga-ga-gim- 
 let holes ? They are ventilators /" 
 
 " Into what do they open ?" blandly asked. 
 
 " Why why, into a loft," 
 
 And what may be above the loft by chance V 
 
 " A double action, patent waterproof, air-tight 
 roof," bawled a smart boy from the gallery, where 
 at the audience roared, the defender of his prop 
 erty collapsed, or was dragged down by some ju 
 dicious friend, and the evening went on to its 
 melting close. 
 
 " The Lord save her husband, if she ever has 
 one," she heard remark the irate and as yet un 
 bleached proprietor, as she was edging her way 
 on the " secretary s" arm slowly down the stair 
 way. 
 
 " Amen," answered she, anxious to respond to 
 
106 A E AGO ED REGISTER. 
 
 friendly wishes, " and may lie be mercifully dis 
 posed toward your wife. 
 
 But the next year I found the roof with a hole 
 punched in it, and divers ventilating tubes in 
 serted in ceiling and walls " to the great comfort 
 of everybody," said the proprietor, who, at the 
 close of the evening, came to shake hands and to 
 present his comely wife. 
 
 " I dare presume," he added, " that you ain t 
 given much to soft-sawder, but I like your sense." 
 
 Plenty of air to send clear blood to the brain, 
 plenty of light to stimulate more of both, good 
 friends, in houses, public and private, would be 
 a blessing the delights of which and the gain of 
 which are past computing. 
 
 XXI. 
 
 More than once the struggle for it nas given me 
 a deal of fun. Speeding over the Michigan Cen 
 tral one of the beings who must express himself 
 or die, having watched me fume over my window 
 till I had at last conquered the catch and secured 
 a mouthful of fresh air, abandoned his seat on 
 the other side the car, crossed and planted him 
 self in front of me and the partially opened sash. 
 
 Presently he stirred, shrugged his shoulders. 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 107 
 
 turned up his coat-collar, and remarked, "It s 
 chilly." 
 
 As the announcement was apparently made to 
 creation generally, I felt no call to respond. 
 
 Dissatisfied at the silence he faced round and 
 inquired, 
 
 " Would you like to have me shut that win 
 dow?" 
 
 "No," said I, "I wouldn t." 
 
 For a space, silence. 
 
 Did you want that window open ? 
 
 " I did," responded I, " and I do." 
 
 " Tain t so warm over here as it is by the 
 stove." 
 
 A pause. 
 
 "I said twan t so warm here as over to the 
 stove where I was a sitting. You d just better 
 let me shove that down," persuasively, and 
 stretching out a brawny hand. 
 
 "No." 
 
 " But I tell you the cold comes in lively, * sur 
 veying the crack, half filled by the magazine 
 stuffed into it, leaving open a mere mousehole. 
 "I m not as comfortable here as I was over by 
 the stove." 
 
 " Why don t you go back then ?" I charitably 
 
108 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 suggested. "It wasn t necessary for you to 
 come here, to begin with." 
 
 Another pause. A fresh charge. 
 
 I say, am t you cold ? 
 
 "No." 
 
 " Ain t you afraid of taking cold ?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 " You haven t got any thing the matter with 
 your lungs, have you ? 
 
 "No." 
 
 " Throat all right 3" 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 A cessation of hostilities. Truce soon broken. 
 
 " I say hadn t you better let me put down that 
 window 3" 
 
 " No." 
 
 A breathing space, a vigorous hitch to the fur 
 coat-collar, a longing look toward the fiery 
 dragon of iron and coal. 
 
 " And you ain t afraid ?" 
 
 "No!" 
 
 " H-h-h m you call yourself strong-minded, 
 now don t you ?" 
 
 I would be sorry to call myself weak-minded. 
 
 "Speak. Don t you ?" 
 
 " Yes." 
 
A BAGGED REGISTER. 109 
 
 "Make lectures?" 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Get paid pretty well ?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " Ever talk any ?" 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " You don t say ! D ye mind telling a fellow 
 whether you ever speak mor n one word at a 
 time ?" 
 
 "That depends on circumstances," judicially 
 pronounced. " At present I prefer not to talk at 
 all." 
 
 At which he stared, pondered, looked at me, at 
 the air-hole, rubbed his side-whisker, pondered 
 again for enlightenment got it. 
 
 " Meaning me ? Oh, you needn t apologize. I 
 can take a hint as well as another fellow. I never 
 put in where I ain t wanted, not if I know it. 
 No. . . . Where might you hang out your 
 shingle ? 
 
 " I said where might your home be 3" 
 
 "Philadelphia." 
 
 " Philadelphia ? You don t see much of it, I 
 reckon?" 
 "No." 
 " Old folks living ? 
 
110 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 Silence. 
 
 " I said I hoped your pa was lively yet ?" insin 
 uatingly. 
 
 "No." 
 
 You don t mean to say lie s dead f 
 
 A nod in despair. 
 
 " Sho ! Well ! It s natural. People do die. 
 Ma to home?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " Ever travel round with you ?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 "Never? And she ain t afraid to have you 
 travel round alone ? No ? I reckon, then, you re 
 a chip of the old block. Got snap to her, has 
 she?" 
 
 I am too busy about the much discussed window 
 to make reply. 
 
 I asTced whether your ma was like you f Has 
 she got go to her ? 
 
 I am not yet done with the window and my 
 dumbness. 
 
 " Well, we ll let the old lady drop. You don t 
 like my talking about her, I reckon from the 
 color of your face. Got a temper, haven t you ?" 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " I thought so. Get it from your pa or ma ?" 
 
A MAGGED REGISTER. HI 
 
 " Got it from being compelled to see and hear 
 such people as you," I defined. 
 
 More rumination, side whisker again rubbed, 
 situation faced boldly. 
 
 " Brothers and sisters like you? Maybe you 
 haven t any. How many brothers and sisters 
 might you have 3" 
 
 < I might have fifty, growl I, but I haven t. 
 
 "No? Lost some?" 
 
 A relapse again into a silence fast verging on 
 imbecility. 
 
 " Don t like to talk about your family mebbe. 
 Some people don t. 1 don t mind. Leave talk 
 about my folks as not. Got any objection to my 
 asking how old you are ? 
 
 " None in the world." 
 
 A new and prolonged pause. 
 
 " You haven t told me." 
 
 "What?" 
 
 " How old you are ?" 
 
 " You haven t asked me." 
 
 More meditation. This time resulting in no en 
 lightenment. 
 
 " I did, but I don t mind asking you over again. 
 How old are you ?" 
 
 4 * Old enough to mind my own business, and to 
 
112 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 tell other people to mind theirs. You really will 
 do me a favor, my friend, by asking me no more 
 questions." 
 
 The Irrepressible seemingly settled into a pro 
 found reverie, and I thought my purgatory was 
 ended. Yain thought. He came up to the next 
 round, smiling. 
 
 " Lecturing s your trade, ain t it ? You make 
 your bread and butter by it, don t you ?" 
 
 My tired head nodded what served for an assent. 
 
 " Well now, all s grist that comes to your mill 
 then? One fellow s stamps are s good as 
 another s, hey?" 
 
 I am forced to admit it. 
 
 "Well now," growing emphatic and dragging 
 out some greasy looking bills and currency, " look 
 here. You 11 never lecture in our town. It ? s too 
 derned small. But Pd like to hear what you 
 can do when your steam s up. I thought I d get 
 a free blow out, but I reckon you weren t born 
 yesterday got your eye-teeth cut. There s a 
 dollar, 11 that pay you for a good square talk and 
 allthefixens?" 
 
 I make it manifest to him that it won t, and 
 hold my peace once more. 
 
 "What! not for a dollar? Well. then, it s 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 113 
 
 pretty steep, but I don t mind just for once going 
 two dollars." 
 
 Not even for two dollars can I be wound up 
 and made to go, and his forbearance is exhausted. 
 
 " You don t mind my telling you that I think 
 you re pretty considerably much on the make ? I 
 never did see your beat. You won t be sociable, 
 and you won t make a square trade ! You re not 
 the woman for my stamps," putting back his un 
 washed currency. " I wouldn t talk to you if 
 well, I d as lief talk to a stone wall. Perhaps 
 you d like your own company ?" 
 
 And as I did not contradict him, he gathered 
 himself up, overcoat and all, and replanted him 
 self for a slow roast by the fiery dragon of a stove. 
 
 But, evidently, bore me no malice, for, getting 
 out at a lumber town, in the woods, he paused 
 and said, " If you ever SHOULD speak anywhere 
 round, I ll come to hear you." 
 
 XXII. 
 
 He being gone, before I could relapse into my 
 usual condition of stony silence, enter another 
 specimen. 
 
 This one came in from the smoking car, and 
 peering about with a pair of small sharp eyes set 
 
114 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 too close together to commend their owner, pres 
 ently spied me, and posting to the seat vacated by 
 my lumber friend, proceeded, not to draw from 
 but to bestow upon me. 
 
 " I heard you last night, Annie," he remarked, 
 
 by way of an easy and friendly opening, " at . 
 
 I don t live there. I happened in. Yes," he re 
 peated, " I happened into the lecture," as though 
 he were fearful I would be too inflated at his vol 
 untarily seeking the show, and must tell me how 
 it fell by chance. 
 
 I appreciated his consideration and awaited fur 
 ther developments. 
 
 " Yes," he reiterated, to make sure I fully un 
 derstood him, " I went to hear you, and I must 
 say, on the whole, I was agreeably disappointed. 
 I didn t believe a woman could speak so well." 
 
 After a pause to give due weight to the an 
 nouncement : 
 
 " I m a doctor." 
 
 In spite of the weighty information, I was still 
 able to maintain an upright position and gaze at 
 him unfalteringly. 
 
 A half-dozen men who had changed their seats 
 so as to be at close quarters, were sitting about 
 very still, with a weather eye fixed on us, and 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 115 
 
 one ear set at an alert angle to catch whatever 
 might be said, as is the fashion of your true West 
 ern American when any thing is going on, ready 
 to listen or to strike in, if occasion offers, on 
 either side, impartially. 
 
 " No," he went on, raising his voice and look 
 ing toward the conference meeting, "I liked to 
 hear you well enough. You re smart. There s 
 no denying that, but I don t like your sentiments. 
 I think too highly of the sex I m a lady s man 
 myself -to have them turned out to shoe horses, 
 and build roads, and be blacksmiths and teamsters, 
 the way you want em to be. I suppose you d 
 like em to wear trowsers, and chew," rolling his 
 quid, and spitting an emphasis, " and drink, and 
 swear, and go the whole figure generally, 
 wouldn t you 3" 
 
 " Oh no, my friend," answered I, being thus ap 
 pealed to. " I d like you," surveying his little 
 head and his big body, " and such men as you, to 
 turn out and shoe the horses, and mend the roads, 
 and be blacksmiths and teamsters, and leave vacant 
 the places you are not filling, as doctors, or minis 
 ters, or lawyers, for the same number of intelligent, 
 needy, wideawake young women, and you could 
 cling, unmolested, to your congenial pastimes of 
 
116 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 chewing, and drinking, and swearing, to the end 
 of your respective chapters." 
 
 He didn t like the suggestion. In fact, I have 
 often noticed that opinions in regard to the utility 
 of the rod depend upon the end that falls to one s 
 share. As Washington Irving says, " I never 
 could be brought to my father s mind upon that 
 matter." 
 
 The conference meeting smiled audibly, which 
 didn t please my professional friend, who em 
 phatically remarked, 
 
 I like, well enough, to hear a strong-minded wo 
 man talk, but I d be mighty sorry to marry one." 
 
 " Set your mind at ease upon that matter, sir. 
 You have no need for anxiety. Be sure that none 
 but a weak-minded woman will ever say yes to 
 you" 
 
 " Hit him again," mumbled a member of the 
 conference meeting, whose sympathies had been 
 plainly manifested at the outset, on the " other 
 side." It is one of the sure characteristics of 
 your true Western American that above all things 
 he enjoys watching a fight, and seeing somebody 
 "cracked." 
 
 "Oh," growled M. D., "you d like to have 
 your wife support you, would you ?" 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 117 
 
 " Certin," answered the long-legged fellow as 
 sailed, firing Ms salute of tobaco jnice. " Cer 
 tin, he answered, meditatively, i if I was such a 
 derned mean cuss as not to be able to take care of 
 myself." 
 
 At which the conference meeting smiled again, 
 and my professional friend retired to his silence 
 and left me to mine. 
 
 " Never you mind," said long legs, consolingly 
 and admiringly, and firing a fresh salute in honor 
 of the sentiment, " you ll get as many husbands 
 as you want, that s dead sure ;" and so retired to 
 Ms silence, leaving me to a wondering meditation 
 on human nature till I reached Ann Arbor and 
 content. 
 
 Every professional who has faced the Ann 
 Arbor boys must wish them well. College stu 
 dents are not always desirable acquisitions to 
 community, nor agreeable companions, nor hear 
 ers, but there is something in the presence of 
 these youngsters as good as a cordial. 
 
 They are jolly, but they are gentlemen, full of 
 pranks, but also full of good sense and kindli 
 ness. 
 
 The university boasts divers feminine students 
 and the young fellows exhaust politeness on 
 
118 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 them. " Hats off, - they bawl, when the girls 
 appear, and l hats off " it is in every sense. 
 
 Also the men of the medical department are 
 covering themselves with honor by the way they 
 have received the women who have knocked at 
 their doors a marked contrast to the M. D. s 
 elsewhere, full fledged and hatching. 
 
 One of these from a neighboring town vouch 
 safed me some enlightenment which I transfer, 
 for the benefit of whom it may concern. 
 
 "It is simply shocking, he remarked, to 
 thrust a woman, or to have her force herself into 
 the gloom, the danger, and the responsibility of 
 a sick room. 
 
 As a nurse she now endures far more of the 
 gloom, is exposed to greater and more protracted 
 danger, certainly shares the responsibility, and 
 often more than halves the help, while she gains 
 next to none of the profit, and none at all of the 
 honor of the doctor," objected I. 
 
 i That is a different matter, responded he, sen- 
 tentiously. " Beside, the nurse is not exposed to 
 the necessity of delicate consultations with coarse 
 and vulgar men." 
 
 " But the woman lying ill and helpless is sub 
 jected to the investigation of a man whom you 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 119 
 
 assert may, however skilful, be both, coarse and 
 vulgar, and assuredly the nurse has to receive her 
 instructions, often the most minute, from these 
 same questionable lips. Where is the difference V 
 queried I. 
 
 " There is a difference," conclusively. " And 
 however well fitted a woman may be to practice 
 medicine, I think the sober sense of community 
 will always decide it to be inexpedient for her to 
 do so." 
 
 "Inexpedient?" echoed I; "but quite right 
 and proper for her to go on in the obscurity and 
 hard work of a nurse s career. I have noticed, 
 curiously enough, that some men are only struck 
 by the inexpediency of work for women, when it 
 may lead to profit and honor, and of the unsuit- 
 ability of such and such work for themselves, 
 when there is nothing much worth having to 
 be got by it." 
 
 " Madame," cried my incensed friend, " take 
 care what you say. Do you mean to accuse me 
 of selfishness and narrow-mindedness ?" 
 
 "Well," said I, "as Joe Gargery puts it, I 
 wouldn t go so far as to say that, for that s a deal 
 to say but it looks like it." 
 
120 A MAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 Fortunately at this ticklish moment, that bit of 
 condensed sunshine, Professor Moses Coit Tyler, 
 came into the ante-room, and shed such a light 
 from his bright face and eyes as to clear all shad 
 ows of controversy. 
 
 To liim I confided the opinion that the very best 
 thing for some thousands of women, who are in 
 need of work, discontented with the prospect the 
 old paths present them, and eager to enter the 
 overcrowded avenue of medicine, would be to train 
 themselves thoroughly to fill a great open space 
 that is nearly empty, and ought to be full the 
 space allotted to nurses. 
 
 A plenty of people die, or survive a long or 
 acute illness but half alive, for want of efficient 
 nursing. 
 
 Nursing doesn t come by nature, though there 
 is a popular superstition to the effect that " all 
 women are born nurses." Tis a gift and a fine 
 art combined. 
 
 Death No. 2 often follows Death No. 1 because 
 the overtasked hands of affection can find doctors 
 a plenty, cooks a plenty, friendly offers a plenty, 
 but cannot find real, restful help in the sick room. 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 121 
 
 Nursing ought to be lifted to the dignity of a 
 regular profession, with its schools and its stu 
 dents and its degrees. And the schools need 
 crowding. 
 
 Preeminently in this land of bad cooking and 
 dyspepsia. 
 
 Or, better, let us have schools for cookery over 
 against the schools for medicine and perhaps the 
 former would increase on the decrease of the 
 latter. 
 
 Certainly whoso will establish culinary colleges 
 in this land of market wealth and kitchen pov 
 erty, will deserve the benedictions of his kind. 
 
 If some of the women who at death bestow of 
 their store on theological seminaries and schools 
 that are for the exclusive benefit of men (that 
 woman, for instance, who left $300,000 for the 
 establishment of a chair of science in an institu 
 tion already richly endowed, the doors of which 
 are slammed in the face of any petticoated ap 
 plicant) if some such women would establish 
 schools wherein should be taught every house 
 hold and domestic art, they would deserve canon 
 ization at the hands of a long- suffering and pro 
 fessedly civilized though really unenlightened 
 world. 
 
122 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 Here is the suggestion of a theme for some of 
 the " conservative" sisters who persist in the in 
 consistent proceeding of speech-making. 
 
 Once upon a time I did listen to such an one, 
 and, the speaker being done, felt like passing 
 upon her the old lady s verdict upon her new 
 pastors sermon that "it was neither edify in 
 nor divert in ." 
 
 I confess to a lack of patience with that sort of 
 woman. 
 
 A woman who really believes that her place is 
 at home and stays there is to be respected. 
 But a woman who makes speeches to prove that 
 a woman has no right to speak, who rushes on 
 to platforms to denounce the appearance of 
 women on the platform, who harangues audiences 
 to demonstrate that the only proper sphere for 
 woman is the fireside, and the only suitable work 
 domestic cares, is beneath both argument and con 
 tempt. 
 
 There is neither consistency, nor reason, nor 
 conscience in such a course. 
 
 " Well, I must say," ejaculated a well-dressed 
 man in front of me, to a well-dressed woman at 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 123 
 
 his side, " that I like what she has to say. I m 
 sick of the talk of these strong-minded thinkers 
 about working girls, and new avenues of 
 labor, and better pay. For my part I quite 
 agree with her that women are best off at home. 
 I am sure that is more sensible than earning 
 their own living." 
 
 And so am I, responded she of the velvet 
 and point. 
 
 " Starve !" cried the Princess Royal, while the 
 hungry mob of Paris was howling at the palace 
 gates. " Starve ! Why I would eat bread first." 
 
 Exactly. 
 
 But then the bread, good friends, and how to 
 make it ? 
 
 " That s a fine thing Mrs. H. is doing with her 
 husband s business," I heard one man say to 
 another as I was tramping up and down a depot 
 platform waiting for a delayed train. " She s 
 making matters about as comfortable round her 
 as she had em while H. was living. Queer, too, 
 for of course she didn t know any thing about 
 trade ; but women, some of em at least, do have 
 a sort of knack at emergencies." 
 
 "That s so," responded masculine No. 2. 
 " I ve often noticed it. They do things, and for 
 
124 A RAGGED REGISTER 
 
 the life of them they can t tell you how. It s 
 what people call intuition, I suppose." 
 
 And that matter was settled. 
 
 As the world in general settles the question of 
 how women can be by nature wholly unfit for in 
 dependence and responsibility, and yet here and 
 there, through nature alone, shoulder them 
 strongly and successfully. 
 
 " I have an hour to spare before this belated 
 train appears," said I to myself, " and I will im 
 prove it by hunting up this Mrs. H. and hearing 
 her version of labor and triumph." 
 
 I found her, and she told me of her struggles 
 and her achievements. Of how she had been for 
 years her husband s " silent partner," and knew 
 as much of the business and the books as did the 
 active head of the firm, and of what crowded days 
 and taxed head and hands were the basis of the 
 " handsome living" of herself and her children, 
 and, in parenthesis, of what happiness and 
 content sat down in her life because of its ful 
 ness. 
 
 " Inspiration ;" "Intuition;" " She did it, 
 she didn t know how" soothing balm for the 
 hurt vanity of some men and women, delusion 
 and snare to many a young girl who wishes to 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 125 
 
 accomplish great results, without the fatigue or 
 pain of protracted effort. 
 
 Investigate the lives of these successful women, 
 scrutinize their histories, and you will find that 
 chart and compass were thoroughly studied be 
 fore they ventured against wind and tide to navi 
 gate great waters. That often through prodigies 
 of effort they secured the same discipline and 
 training freely accorded men ; the same rooting 
 and grounding in A B C ere they attempted to 
 read in a hurly-burly of noise, where not alone 
 loudness, but clearness is needed to command 
 attention. They learned their work before they 
 did it. 
 
 It is a pleasing theory cherished by silliness 
 and selfishness, vanity and ignorance, folly and 
 prejudice, that these women came up, as they 
 have decided all women are to come up like 
 daisies. 
 
 But human beings are not daisies, do not grow 
 like them, nor are they like them when grown. 
 A woman does not stretch from the dirt and dark 
 of ignorance into the full bloom and splendor of 
 knowledge and power, simply by letting her 
 alone, with a bit of sunshine and air, often with 
 out even these. 
 
126 A MAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 XXV. 
 
 And first of all she herself must know, not only 
 that she wishes to grow, but after what fashion 
 of growth. 
 
 So many girls come to me with the same query, 
 What can they do ? Dissatisfied, insufficiently 
 employed at home, with no need of such employ 
 ment, and with hearty dislike of it, but with no 
 clear conception of what they can do, or even 
 have the desire to do. With no comprehension of 
 what it is to sit down with themselves alone, and 
 make the acquaintance of their own capacities as 
 well as their own needs. 
 
 An overwhelming desire to do and a distinct 
 tendency toward doing, are nearly always "a 
 leading," and an opening as well. 
 
 " I want to do something, I don t know what." 
 
 Nothing will come of it. 
 
 " I know what I want to do, and have a will to 
 do it." 
 
 Something worth while comes of it. 
 
 " Fortune is the measure of intelligence," 
 Rachel was fond of saying. Had she added earn 
 estness and will, the definition would have been 
 complete. 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 127 
 
 " Meanwhile," did I hear you say mean 
 while what of homes ? You want to stir in the 
 minds of all our girls discontent with domestic 
 ity." 
 
 So? 
 
 As Mr. Lincoln would say, that reminds me of 
 a little story. 
 
 One evening I was, naturally enough, pleased by 
 the absorbed intensity of gaze with which through 
 the evening I was watched by a pair of lovely 
 brown eyes set in the fair young face of a girl di 
 rectly in front of me. 
 
 I always have had, and always will have, a 
 weakness for young girls. They are charming. 
 I delight in them as I would in a lovely picture 
 full of delicious tints, or a rose or amber-hued 
 cloud in a summer sky. This one looked like a 
 pansy, and as I watched her I hoped she was as 
 happy and sheltered as one. 
 
 " Might I speak to you, dear Miss Dickinson, 
 just a moment?" said a soft little voice, at the 
 ante-room door, the evening s work being done. 
 
 " Surely, my child," answered I, stroking her 
 pretty brown hair. 
 
 " I would like some advice, if you please, and 
 it isn t too much trouble." 
 
128 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 " Speak yonr whole mind, my infant," I replied. 
 
 " Well, then," smiling and blushing and stam 
 mering all together, " I am engaged to be mar 
 ried oh ! I am not so young," in answer to a 
 look " almost nineteen, and I love Mm dear 
 ly ; and we were to be married soon in the spring 
 -but" 
 
 "But what, my dear?" 
 
 " You see I don t know There ! if I stumble 
 so you will think me a fool. I have been reading 
 the Woman s Journal, and I went to hear Mrs. 
 Livermore, when she was here last month sucJi a 
 good lecture ! and I have been wondering whether 
 I ought not to give up the idea of marrying, and 
 do something for women, and I m not sure I could 
 do any thing but talk, and I m afraid I wouldn t 
 make a very good lecturer," with a little laugh ; 
 " and yet I sJiould like to help the poor women 
 who are not so well off as I and I ve grown 
 troubled and snarled up over it, and, as I watchd 
 you to-night, I thought I would come and ask 
 you. What would you advise ?" 
 
 In the whole world, my girl, what would you 
 rather do?" 
 
 " Oh, I d rather get married ! there, that does 
 sound so selfish but you see 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 129 
 
 " Yes," I assented, " I see. And you want my 
 advice ? Yes ? Then, get married, by all means. 
 
 " And not try to lecture ? 7 
 
 " Well, no, I think not. 1 
 
 " But I would like to do something for 
 women," she whispered, with tears in her tender 
 brown eyes. 
 
 " So you can, my dear little heart," answered 
 I, "by growing to the largest, noblest woman 
 hood of which you are capable. That will help 
 all women and all men who come near you, and 
 help the cause you want to serve by showing 
 what a woman can be in the world. If you want 
 a " mission," I find there are plenty of house 
 keepers, but very few home-makers. There is 
 something to do and an example to set." 
 
 " Oh, I see, I see," cried the sweet voice, "I 
 can be happy and helpful too. Oh! I m so 
 glad !" 
 
 "So am I, and thank you, Miss Dickinson," 
 said a hearty voice, and a brown hand was thrust 
 into the doorway, followed by a fine manly young 
 fellow, blessed by the clearest of blue eyes, light 
 ing a frank sun-burned face. "You re a brick. 
 Please to shake hands. I ll give my vote for you 
 when you run for President, and no mistake." 
 9 
 
130 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 At which, we all laughed, the sober dominie 
 who had " introduced me," and who had just re 
 appeared on the field of action, included, and 
 everybody went away satisfied, and I hope my ad 
 vice was the i correct thing, and will be account 
 ed unto me for righteousness. 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 Certainly, thought I, as I took my mail from 
 the hands of the good dominie in whose care it 
 had been sent, whatever other afflictions may be 
 fall her, at least she has escaped this. 
 
 She will not have her good nature tried by the 
 reading of such an effusion as : 
 
 " MADAME : 
 
 u Last night I read your biography, and, 
 though a perfect stranger, it compels me to write 
 to you. 
 
 " I cannot give you a plausible reason for thus 
 intruding on you, yet I cannot rest satisfied with 
 out addressing you. I do not wish to be compli 
 mentary or become a critic, but I should like to 
 know if you are conscious of deserving the lauda 
 tion which has followed you. Men and women 
 have been great before the world that were hum 
 ble in private. This, I fear, you are not. 
 
 " Those speeches of yours seem to me mercenary 
 and unbecoming a woman. Glory, glory is beau- 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 131 
 
 tiiul, but happiness and contentment are gifts 
 from heaven. 
 
 " I shall not apologize for writing you thus. 
 In your position you need discipline. Take this 
 from one who hopes it will serve that good pur 
 pose. 
 
 " I am, 
 
 " Dear madam e, 
 
 " Yours most respectfully, 
 
 And if her good nature bears the strain of such 
 i i discipline as this, she will not be subjected to 
 the pistol-to-head process after this wise : 
 
 " BEAR Miss DICKINSON : 
 
 " No doubt you will be surprised at receiving 
 this letter from an entire stranger. I do not know 
 you, and yet I write without any hesitation, since 
 you profess always to be such a friend to woman 
 I am sure you will be glad to help me. 
 
 " I set up a millinery at - , but didn t do well 
 and sold out and came here. I was told it was a 
 good business town, but somehow / haven t pros 
 pered here. I am in debt and I need new stock, 
 and I think if I could move into a larger store it 
 would be better for my business, and if I could 
 go to New York myself to buy stock and look 
 around at the theatres, etc. , for a week or two, I 
 should like it, and it would do me good. 
 
 I need $2000, but I suppose you have a great 
 many people asking you to help them, and I can 
 get along and pay my debts and take a holiday 
 
132 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 and get a start again with $1800, and I should 
 like to have it, on account of the spring trade, not 
 later than next week. I am sure you will be glad 
 to know what to do with some of your money so 
 as to be sure it wall be doing good. 
 " Truly yours, 
 
 it 55 
 
 P.S. I do not like checks. Please to be sure 
 to send a draft on New York. 
 
 2d P.S. Of course you understand I want you 
 to give this, and no to lend it. 
 
 Though to be sure if she said " yes" to many 
 such requests as the following, she could say 
 no to the drafts with a clear conscience 
 and an empty pocket : 
 
 " MRS. ANNA DICKINSON : 
 
 " Dear Miss : Wishing to inquiere of you I 
 write, to tell you my Story, that we have built 
 an A. M. E. church in Z , and are some in debt 
 yet, and I wish to get your concent to come to 
 speek for us one or too evenings as a Donation, 
 except your expenses. 
 
 " Please give us a call. Write soon. 
 " Yours truly, 
 
 Though, to be sure, even these would not terrify 
 her, if she w r ere possessed of the same spirit as 
 the sister upon whose epistle I fell last of all, for 
 tunately, for a night s sleep was a good thing to 
 take after Us perusal. 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 133 
 
 Tims it ran : 
 
 "Miss 
 
 " Dear friend I wish A little advise of you I 
 have got a common education but I am A good 
 reader in 1840 I married A farmer and have four 
 children boys I thought if I could Lecture and 
 could make any thing I would like it better than 
 this I get so tired of cooking and waiting on boys 
 all the time they are so noisy that I do not enjoy 
 myself with them I never have lectured but have 
 been invited too ever since I was a child I would 
 like to try but I thought it would be better to go 
 away to commence and I thought it would be bet 
 ter to go with somebody, and I think it looks bet 
 ter for women to go together and as I never got 
 up before. A crowd it would be better to have 
 some lectures written if you could write some for 
 me and send them I could learn them and then I 
 could go with you awhile and if I could do well I 
 would like to go West for I have A great many 
 relations there T believe we could get large crowds 
 and I believe it would pay handsomely please an 
 swer this and let me know how much it will cost 
 me to get started in and what you will charge me 
 for to give me a start. 
 
 " Yours truly, 
 
 That mail was mild to one that befell me at 
 
 , where my mind, morals, person, and estate, 
 
 came under the inspection and condemnation I 
 should think of the whole town. If not, then at 
 
134 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 least that town can boast of divers persons of 
 varying tastes who are nevertheless possessed of 
 one taste in common : that of speech, explicit and 
 corrective. For the morning after my lecture, 
 these notes straggled into my room : 
 
 " Miss DICKINSON : While listening to your lec 
 ture in this place last evening I conceived the 
 idea of dropping you a note requesting corres 
 pondence. I am aware that I am violating the 
 laws of custom and perhaps transcending the 
 rules of propriety, but trust you will pardon when 
 you know my motive, 
 
 66 It would be little to say I was well pleased 
 with the manner of your lecture, so well pleased 
 as to greatly regret the insufficiency of the mat 
 ter. You are evidently in earnest, but do not 
 know enough of the subject about which you are 
 speaking. 
 
 " I should like to enter upon a correspondence 
 with you for the sake of enlightening you, broad 
 ening your views, and helping you to conclusions 
 that a woman s mind unaided would never be able 
 to attain. 
 
 " I will not apologize for this intrusion, feeling 
 sure that you are sufficiently interested in the 
 theme you present to be willing to accept instruc 
 tion from better informed sources, and I am, dear 
 madame, etc., etc., 
 
 So much for the matter. At least I was per- 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 135 
 
 mitted by my modest censor to felicitate myself 
 on the manner of my discourse, a short-lived 
 felicity that died with the opening of the next 
 epistle : 
 
 " Miss ANNA DICKINSON : 
 
 " Dear madame : As you are a volunteer in 
 the correction of abuses and faults, I feel justefied 
 in constituting myself your adviser in regard to 
 your way of speaking. I heard you last evening 
 and I liked all you had to say, and indorse it 
 fully. Go on. You are right. Only I wish you 
 would change your way of speaking ^ and would 
 wear something more cheerful looking than a 
 black silk dress. You stand so independently, 
 and talk in such a loud voice (tho to be sure I 
 don t see how you could very well be heard if you 
 spoke in a low one), that it doesn t seem to me 
 what I would call womanly, and your appearance 
 is too strong-minded. You are young ^yet and 
 you ought to make yourself more attractive look 
 ing by wearing bright colors and ribbons and such 
 things. 
 
 6 A man who is your well-wisher, 
 
 
 
 " For all, even small favors, good Lord, make 
 us thankful," I mumbled; " he indorses me 
 and desires me to go on even if I persist in ad 
 vancing in a sad-colored, strong-minded gown. I 
 am fortified for the next document !" 
 
 But I wasn t, for it read : 
 
136 A MAGGED REGISTER 
 
 " Miss ANNA Please do not wear the long 
 traleing dress when you Lecture. It is unbecome- 
 ing in you as a Reformer and a Professedly Sens- 
 able woman. 
 
 6 * Read the Tract inclosed. A word to the wise 
 is sufficient. 
 
 " Yours, 
 
 But how if I be not wise ? 
 
 And wise I am not, nor acceptable to the judg 
 ment of my next mentor, whose communication, 
 if not the epitome of wisdom, at least carries brev 
 ity the soul of wit. 
 
 Thus it ran to its speedy climax : 
 
 " Miss ANNA DICKINSON : You are a snob. 
 
 " A WORKING MAN. 
 
 "P.S. Of course (as you will say) I am a 
 Trades Unionist." 
 
 Alas, thought I, as I eyed the last screed that 
 lay unopened on the table, is that too a masculine 
 outpouring ? More reforming and correcting and 
 criticizing? If it be, I shall go down, swamped 
 helplessly and hopelessly under the deluge. Why 
 did I try to help these beings so more than able to 
 take care of themselves, while they assist and 
 enlighten me ? 
 
 Is it from a man ? 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 13? 
 
 Let us see - 
 
 Yes. 
 
 Who knows ? perhaps it will be so pleasant, or 
 friendly, or frank, or kindly, as to quite put the 
 others out of sight, and make forgetfulness of 
 them ensue \ 
 
 It did. 
 
 Said my friend : 
 
 " God has blessed you with a vigorous and 
 thinking mind and ability to talk it out, and now 
 are you not under very strong obligations to de 
 vote your talents to his service ? 
 
 " What shall it profit you, my dear madame, if 
 you gain the whole world and lose your own soul ? 
 Soon all you will need of earth will be a shroud 
 and a coffin. 
 
 " You must be amassing property rapidly, but 
 it is not safe from moth and rust. Permit me to 
 ask, Have you treasure hid where rust doth not 
 corrupt ? As I looked at you last night I feared 
 not. You seemed too much interested in pressing 
 home truths that are only to benefit the material 
 prosperity of men. 
 
 66 i Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven. 
 
 " I am the pastor of a small church now in its 
 infancy in the neighboring town of - . In the 
 work of building, my people have become involved 
 in debt a debt that is now due and must be paid. 
 In addition to which they are in arrears for my 
 salary to the amount of two hundred dollars. 
 
138 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 " The laborer is worthy of his hire. 
 
 " You receive a liberal patronage from an admir 
 ing and delighted public. Don t forget the poor. 
 
 " Out of the season you can certainly afford us 
 one evening. Other places must furnish you 
 cash. We will give you what is better our 
 prayers. 
 
 " If you are not willing to come you can do as 
 good service perhaps by sending on as a donation 
 to the cause of Christ the amount two hundred 
 dollars now due me by my people. 
 
 " He who giveth to the poor lendeth to the 
 Lord. 
 
 " I have understood that you are a Quaker, or 
 Friend as they call themselves, which body, 
 I believe, are a sort of infidels, but of whatever 
 faith or unfaith, the Lord loveth a cheerful 
 giver. 
 
 " Give us a call soon. 
 
 " Your well-wisher, 
 
 I could bear no more. No ? I must. For 
 there on the floor where it had slipped from the 
 companionship of bigger and clumsier envelopes 
 lay a small messenger with face marked by fem 
 inine lines. 
 
 Comfort at last ! 
 
 Was it so \ 
 
 " ANNA DICKINSON : I hope you will pardon 
 the liberty I take in addressing you. And yet it 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 139 
 
 is no real liberty, and I am but doing right, and 
 so I ask no pardon. Although my sphere is an 
 humble one as compared with yours, yet before 
 last evening I had thought we both had the same 
 end in view, and were endeavoring to accomplish 
 good, you in your corner and I in mine. 
 
 " The way to help the world is to help women. 
 The way to elevate men is to elevate the female 
 portion of community, and how you can waste 
 your time on strikes, and trades unions, 
 and apprentices, and matters that only affect 
 the welfare of boys and men, and yet pretend to 
 be the champion of your sex is a mystery to such 
 a woman as me. 
 
 " I went last night to hear something that 
 would be of benefit to me, and felt as though I 
 had been cheated out of my seventy-five cents 
 when you said nothing from the beginning to the 
 end of the evening about the cause of woman. 
 You didn t do your own sex any good by any 
 thing you said, and none of the men will thank 
 you, and if they do, that will be no profit to me. 
 I want to see you and talk to you about this, and 
 if you are going to stay in our town over the day 
 I will call this afternoon at the hotel to see you. 
 
 " Perhaps you noticed me last evening, for I 
 moved about some while you were speaking. I 
 am a middle-aged woman, sat well forward in the 
 middle aisle, the fifth bench I think, and was 
 dressed in black with a brown hat. 
 
 " Your friend." 
 
140 A RAGGED REGISTER 
 
 XXVII. 
 
 I didn t stay till afternoon. I locked my trunk, 
 put my hat sadly on my diminished head, and left 
 the town. Even the request of the lecture com 
 mittee that I would return to the place the next 
 season failed to put me into a cheerful and self- 
 satisfied frame of mind. I was flattened for the 
 day. 
 
 But laughed in spite of my depressed feelings 
 over a queer-looking bridal pair who boarded the 
 train at - . The groom, gorgeous in lavender 
 trowsers, gray coat, flowered waistcoat, scarlet 
 necktie and stove-pipe hat. The bride arrayed 
 in a pea-green suit, and blue and white bonnet. 
 
 " So you re caught at last, are you, Jack," 
 shouted a sympathizing friend, coming up the car 
 to shake hands with the happy man. I congrat 
 ulate you." 
 
 " Thankee, yes," assented Jack. 
 
 " Cubit s shot me 
 And Hy Ionian s got me 
 
 Fast enough ! Ha ! ha ! Huzzah ! There, you 
 didn t know you had a poet for a husband, Maria, 
 
 did you 3" 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER, 141 
 
 And Maria blushed, and bridled, and looked 
 about her as though she were aware she had made 
 a great catch, and was sure she was the envy of all 
 feminine beholders, and her Jack abundantly 
 able to " take the shine" off of any other he, be 
 he who he might, but would generously refrain 
 from speech to that effect, or any noisy outward 
 demonstrations. 
 
 And the next day I came to a little experience 
 that more than off set all the " mashing" I had en 
 dured the day before, and set me up again. 
 
 I was trotting along to the train, when a fine, 
 wholesome-looking matron stopped me with 
 
 " You don t know me, but I know you and 
 love you. God bless you. Shake hands." 
 
 Gladly I thrust out my member for the desired 
 ceremony. 
 
 " You are very busy, I hope v\ 
 
 " Yes," said I. 
 
 " Good," she responded. " Keep at it." 
 
 " Tired?" 
 
 " Sometimes," said I. 
 
 " That sright," said she. "Stick to it. It s 
 good to get tired doing such work as you re 
 doing. The Lord 11 rest you by and by bless 
 you. Happy 3" 
 
142 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 " Yes," said I. 
 
 " Bless you for that," said she ; and then after 
 a bit of confab, and good-by, she called after me, 
 " I hope you are well and hearty. 
 
 " Yes," bawled I. 
 
 * { Bless you for that, cried she, and so we went 
 on our respective ways. What befell her I know 
 not. I hope nothing but good. For me, I plunged 
 into a hornet s nest. 
 
 XXVIII. 
 
 One of the " prof essional agitators" spied me in 
 the cars, and planting himself in the forward seat, 
 said abruptly 
 
 " I don t like you nor your theories." 
 
 " Ah !" I responded ; " fortunately I have the 
 strength, or the* brassiness of mind, to bear the 
 weight of your displeasure." 
 
 " No," he continued. " I used to like to hear 
 you till you took to talking of a matter you have 
 no knowledge of, and have no business and no 
 right to touch, and now I d rather hiss you than 
 listen to you any night. You ve got no right to 
 be talking about this workingmen s question." 
 
 " No r I asked. " Why not ?" 
 
A SAGGED REGISTER. 143 
 
 " To begin with, you know yon re a rich 
 woman," said he. 
 
 " Don t I wish I knew it ?" interpolated I. 
 
 " And yon don t know any thing about work, 
 practically" he went on. 
 
 " Well," said I, "as I have taken care of my 
 self since I was fifteen years old, I onght to know 
 something about it very practically too." 
 
 And yonr sympathies are altogether with the 
 employers. That s plain to be seen," he pur 
 sued. 
 
 c i Have you seen it ? When and where did you 
 hear me ?" inquired I. 
 
 " No, I haven t, and I wouldn t go to hear you 
 either," answered my can did friend ; " when I go 
 to hear any one I like to hear somebody who 
 knows what he s talking about, and isn t all on 
 one side of a question, and that the wrong one." 
 
 " You are quite sure your favorite orator would 
 not be a looking-glass ?" I asked, " or an echo f 
 
 You mean I like to hear my own views, I sup 
 pose. Yes, I do, of course, because I know 
 they re right, and I like to advocate them too. 
 Now I m a trades-unionist, and I can t see how 
 you can dare to go about the country fighting the 
 trades unions, and saying your say so freely on a 
 
144 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 matter that s taxed the political economists for 
 centuries, when it s safe to say you don t know 
 and can t know any thing about it. 
 
 "No?" queried I, "I am learning something 
 now. So the political economists have been tax 
 ing their brains for centuries over the outrages of 
 the trades unions, and the " Molly Maguires," 
 have they ? I thought that special class of 
 troubles had been confined to the last fifty years, 
 but I stand corrected. And I don t fight the 
 trades unions, but their tyranny and abuses. I 
 approve of them. And I talk about the matter 
 because I am interested in it, and have as good 
 an opportunity to know about it as you. What 
 are you ?" 
 
 " F ve just told you I was a working man. 
 
 "What kind? Professional? minister? 
 lawyer? professor? doctor? teacher?" 
 
 "No," he replied, with disdain, "I don t be 
 long to the drones of society." 
 
 "No? Perhaps then," I farther interrogated, 
 you are a baker ? or a butcher ? or a chandler ? 
 No ? Nor a farmer ? nor a market gardener ? nor 
 a cattle-raiser ? nor a dairyman ? none of these ? 
 Maybe a mason ? a carpenter ? a machinist ? You 
 can t be a factory operative ? nor a day laborer ? 
 
A BAGGED REGISTER. 145 
 
 Pardon me if I ask what is your trade, and where 
 did you serve your apprenticeship ?" 
 
 The man had no trade. I knew it, but I wanted 
 him to confess it, and he did. 
 
 He served as a good background to throw into 
 relief some real workingmen I saw that evening : 
 a body of fine-looking fellows, who had been 
 listening with peculiar intentness to the speech. 
 They got round me, twenty of them perhaps, and 
 their spokesman inquired, " You disapprove of 
 strikes always f 
 
 " In this country, yes," I answered, " for there 
 is sufficient intelligence and goodwill on both 
 sides to come to a right understanding without 
 resorting to the stupid and brutal methods of 
 war." 
 
 4 That sounds fair," he said, "but I notice 
 your solution of difficulties for such men as me 
 and my mates is co-operation, but co-operation 
 needs money. Now here are these men, I looked 
 at and approved of them, not a dull nor sulky 
 face among them. " We are machinists." I ap 
 proved of them yet more. I always did have a 
 special admiration for the combined sense and 
 manliness that are almost invariable ingredients 
 
 of this class of workers. " We want to get on in 
 
 10 
 
146 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 the world, we would like to be our own employ 
 ers, but we haven t money." 
 
 " You look as though you had the equivalent 
 of money brains," said I. 
 
 They smiled and made no objection to that. 
 
 " You know, in this town, of men who have 
 money to invest f 
 
 " Yes," they assented. 
 
 " And who could know of you what you are 
 as men and workmen f 
 
 " I think so. Yes," said the spokesman. 
 
 "Well, of course I don t ~know" I went on, 
 " but I do think if you would make a plan of 
 what you can do how work, what per cent allow 
 your captain and carry it to some such man, who 
 because he has brains and money will be able to 
 understand and help the scheme, you could get 
 what you want." 
 
 " What do you mean by our captain ?" asked 
 one of them. 
 
 "Your business head," I answered. "There 
 isn t a money-making scheme in this country- 
 factory, railroad, telegraph, bank that is not a 
 joint-stock affair a co-operative effort whereby 
 a few rich men band together and hire another 
 man even keener and abler than they, to conduct 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 147 
 
 their affairs to profit : and what five rich men can 
 do, five hundred pool men can do, I believe 
 equally well." 
 
 " I like to hear you say it," spoke one of the 
 hearty voices. " It puts faith into a man. You 
 say it as if you were sure of it. 
 
 " It s worth trying," assented another, "and 
 we ll try" chorused the score. 
 
 If they did try I know their enterprise flour 
 ished, for they are the stuff out of which successes 
 are made. 
 
 XXIX. 
 
 It is the creatures too indolent to work, vain, 
 shallow, eager for a little brief authority, and hun 
 gry for notoriety, who are making eight -tenths of 
 the trouble among the real working men ; and the 
 workingmen, in regard to trade government, are 
 like the great body of the people in regard to the 
 general government, l i too busy to look after the 
 character and doings of those who are all too 
 ready to be the i keepers and defenders of their 
 interests." 
 
 " Workingmen !" Half of the fom enters of 
 discords, leaders in strikes, union officers, spout- 
 ers enthusiastic for war and its accompanying pri- 
 
148 A MAGGED REGISTER 
 
 vations and miseries, are like the witness, who, 
 being asked some questions by the Sheffield Par 
 liamentary Commission touching his trade and its 
 compensation, averred that he had been on the 
 box for four years continuously, drawing, regu 
 larly, seventeen shillings and sixpence a week, and 
 doing nothing but what the box-keepers told 
 him : stirring up strikes. 
 
 " And it warn t bad wage neither," he added, 
 cheerfully. 
 
 For their labors they are no more productive 
 than those of another witness, who, being asked 
 by this same commission as to what were the pre 
 cise duties of a committee man, " didn t exactly 
 know," though he had been serving in that ca 
 pacity for sixteen weeks. 
 
 " What did you do, yourself ?" was inquired. 
 
 " I sat still and sooped ale." 
 
 " And what did the others do ?" 
 
 " Many of them sooped ale too. 
 
 i i Had then, demanded one of the investiga 
 tors, " committee men no duties besides that of 
 supping ale ? 
 
 Deponent could not say : during his sixteen 
 weeks of office he had discovered no other. 
 
 When practical workingmen have done witli 
 
A It AGO ED REGISTER. . 149 
 
 quacks and leeches, and exercise as much thought 
 and sense on their own affairs as they now demand 
 justice and generosity of their employers, there 
 will be less need of the demand, and speedier and 
 better methods of ensuring it when needed, than 
 are seen in these days of wasteful warfare and 
 angry recrimination. 
 
 XXX. 
 
 I had a great curiosity before reaching Boston 
 to know what manner of treatment its audience 
 would accord this particular theme. 
 
 A Boston " reformatory" audience is the kind 
 est of all audiences to any one it can patronize ; 
 and the most attentive to any one who is very 
 great, and who moves with the tide. 
 
 There is a popular superstition that it is liberal 
 given to candid and courageous hearing of all 
 sides of a question willing to listen, if not to 
 commend. 
 
 If any person should state that the people com 
 posing it are the most intolerant liberals, and the 
 most conservative reformers to be found by long- 
 search, the legitimate descendants of the Puritans 
 who were ready to die for their own freedom of 
 conscience, and more than ready to put any one 
 
350 A BAGGED REGISTE1L 
 
 to death who ventured to demand freedom of con 
 science as an inalienable right of all mankind, 
 such person would run the risk of a critical ston 
 ing, or an intellectual whipping at the cart s tail, 
 but would have the moral support to be found in 
 his own internal consciousness of having spoken 
 the truth. 
 
 I smiled the sort of smile that tends to depress 
 the corners of the mouth as I watched the recep 
 tion, not hearing, accorded the speech by the 
 magnificent gathering in the great ungainly hall. 
 
 Among those three thousand men and women, 
 certainly there was scarce one with brains in 
 sufficient to detect sophistry or sift testimony, or 
 reject false argument, so that, having paid their 
 money to hear, they could well afford to sit still 
 and listen. 
 
 To drown speech is proof of conscious weakness 
 to defend a right cause, and consequent unwilling 
 ness to face the strength of its opponents ; or it is 
 a confession that the cause itself is a poor and 
 wrong one. 
 
 Always hear the opposition, say I. If one is 
 wrong, one has so a chance of being righted. If 
 one is right, one has opportunity to be strength 
 ened. And in either case one has a better show to 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 151 
 
 hit Ms enemy if one goes out and views Ms posi 
 tion and knows where to find him. 
 
 And in any case, long live free speech ! and let 
 everybody have a fair field, favor or no favor, in 
 which to utter it. 
 
 Not so thought ye Boston lecture audience of 
 that night, its faith at the time being one to be 
 formulated somewhat after this wise : 
 
 At present, the greatest crime a man can commit 
 is to wear clean linen and claim a liberal bank ac 
 count of his own accumulation. Such an one be 
 ing guilty of brains, of industry, of skill, of hard 
 work, of exhaustless energy, and of having used 
 these to lift himself from poverty to affluence, is 
 in the minority, and as such has no rights that 
 any lover of his kind, and the majority, is bound 
 to respect. 
 
 Another crime of almost equal magnitude is for 
 a man to prefer working the number of hours a 
 day himself may choose, and not those that shall 
 be marked for him by a body of fellow- workmen ; 
 and to get all the pay for his labor to which his 
 skill shall entitle him, instead of taking the price 
 that the least skilled or idlest amongst his fellows 
 is capable of commanding. 
 
 Yet another is that a man satisfied with his 
 
152 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 work and his pay, with a family to support, and 
 no quarrel to make with his employer" shall pre 
 fer uninterrupted industry and profit to pauper 
 idleness that shall be commanded by a body of 
 other laborers who are dissatisfied with their work 
 and their pay, or with the presence of an obnox 
 ious man or boy in their midst. 
 
 Another and worse crime is to be a poor boy in 
 search of a trade. Woe to him ! Better for him 
 had he never been born than that he should de 
 pend for the opportunity to gain skill on the con 
 sent of men who know to the full the value of 
 what they withhold. 
 
 And a crime as great as any of these is to pro 
 test against tyranny of all kinds, whether it be of 
 class over class, of masters over men, or of men 
 over masters, or of men over men, or last and 
 worst and meanest of all, of skilled men over un 
 skilled and helpless boys. 
 
 At present, " labor reform" is the faith and the 
 fashion of a great many people, among whom 
 should be numbered my audience. It is easier to 
 talk about " bloated aristocrats" than to make 
 manifest the truth that, in ninety-nine cases out 
 of a hundred the capitalists of this land are the 
 industrious, capable, hard - working laborers. 
 
A E AGO ED REGISTER. 153 
 
 Easier to pay a man coarse compliments by calling 
 him part of the " real bone and sinew of the na 
 tion," " one of the props of the Bepiiblic," and 
 so secure his vote, than to show him that this sort 
 of thing is said for the express purpose of secur 
 ing his vote for some monstrous scheme of pillage, 
 or the enriching of the sole class who, in this land, 
 are affluent without toil. Easier to natter a man 
 than to tell him the truth. Easier to sympathize 
 with the " victim of capital" than to show him 
 how he can be his own master by skill and co 
 operative effort ; and far easier to snivel over the 
 oppression of the employer than to denounce the 
 cruelty of the employed over one another, or over 
 those who would fain be of their number, but 
 who are by them relegated to the streets and so 
 apprenticed to ignorance, vice, crime, the prison, 
 and even there are denied by their workingmen 
 tyrants a knowledge of the skilled labor that might 
 serve as a teacher of reformation, and would cer 
 tainly remove the burthen of their support from 
 the struggling and tax-paying men and women 
 outside. 
 
 Well, Boston turns round with the rest of the 
 world, her " reform" audiences included. By 
 and by they will "right face" on this matter. 
 
154 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 But on the evening of which I tell yon, as I said 
 my say to this question, I had abundant oppor 
 tunity to realize that I was in the city that had 
 stood men in pillories, and hung women on the 
 Common, for speaking and spending themselves, 
 not in self-seeking, but in conscientious if dis 
 agreeable efforts for the good of their kind. 
 
 If they had hissed when I closed I would have 
 had no objection, but to hiss before I had begun, 
 and to hiss so persistently as to " joomble the un- 
 derstonding and confoond the sense," is, I re 
 spectfully submit, neither a fair nor brave way of 
 meeting an antagonist or an argument. 
 
 XXXI. 
 
 Certainly, as a rule, it is well to let people work 
 out their own salvation. Like the mediators in a 
 domestic brawl, the well-intentioned folks who try 
 to help along the good effort are apt to get no 
 thanks, and to carry away two boxed ears, and a 
 face swollen on both sides by way of compensa 
 tion. For example : At a town not in the moon 
 I found a crowd packed so long and so closely 
 into a thrice- heated and air-tight hall as to more 
 nearly resemble freshly scalded lobsters than 
 human beings, and I, having compassion on them, 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 155 
 
 entered a petition in their behalf for some oxygen, 
 repeating the petition at intervals during the eve 
 ning, for I liked them so well as to desire confab 
 with them through the whole hour and a quarter, 
 and not have them either stifle or stew during the 
 operation. 
 
 Lo ! the next morning s paper gave liberal 
 space to divers and sundry " communications," to 
 the effect that " Miss D. ought to have been 
 sufficiently complimented by the presence of an 
 immense and uncomfortable crowd of people, 
 many of whom had been in waiting two hours be 
 fore the time of the lecture, to have shown better 
 taste and temper than she displayed by wasting 
 their time in complaints of the air and insulting 
 comments on the ventilation of the beautiful new 
 hall she had the distinguished honor of opening." 
 
 Liv^e and learn, is an old motto. 
 
 My rasped sensibilities were soothed by a hearty 
 laugh, as, paper in hand, I was rushing to the 
 cars. 
 
 A stout party, very red as to the face, very 
 pudgy, and coarse-looking as to jewelled hands, 
 peacock hued as to raiment, thrust her head out 
 of an elegant coupe, and, hailing me, demanded 
 
 " How many miles to Bosting ?" 
 
156 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 " Seven," said I. 
 
 " Seving ?" she cried, thrusting out each one of 
 her stubby digits, panoplied in gold and dia 
 monds, and waving a manacled arm. " Seving 
 miles to Bosting ? Gracious heavings ! I 
 thought it was eleving." 
 
 It was so long since the close of the war and the 
 reign of shoddy, that I stared as though I had 
 beheld a resurrection. I did not come sufficiently 
 near to determine the doubt, but am next to sure 
 that I might have sniffed an odor of petroleum. 
 
 XXXII. 
 
 There is one comfort in connection with a 
 thought of such people. Solomon put it suc 
 cinctly, " A fool and his money are soon parted." 
 They serve as a good circulating medium. They 
 keep money afloat. 
 
 And then there is the consolation to people who 
 have not much money, as they contemplate these 
 beings, that, there is something better than money. 
 
 One realizes that fact in migrating through a 
 legion of small towns scattered over New Eng 
 land. 
 
 Nobody is rich, but nobody is poor ; there is 
 no. grandee s palace, and there is no hovel ; no- 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 157 
 
 body rests in silken ease, but nobody is bound to 
 the grindstone ; men are busy, women are busy, 
 part of the time children are busy, but health 
 fully, not as they are in the great wearing factory 
 towns. 
 
 There are a plenty of little houses with a gable 
 roof or a dormer window, or a piazza, or a rustic 
 stoop something to suggest artistic sense as well 
 as utility. 
 
 Inside there are painted walls, with pictures on 
 them, prints, or lithographs, or "chromos," and 
 painted floors, with the indescribably homely-look 
 that comes from hand-made bright rag-rugs and 
 patchwork cushions on the old-fashioned rocking- 
 chairs and settees. There is that abomination, an 
 air-tight wood stove., but then, to offset it, there is 
 always a red moreen curtain, or some bright bind 
 ings among the books, or a scarlet or golden flower 
 burning against the ivy growing about the win 
 dow. 
 
 There are churches, and schoolhouses, and the 
 town hall, and generally a lyceum hall, and a 
 lyceum, and library or reading-room, and there 
 are people to look after all these, who are honest 
 and earnest to the core, and faithful " to their 
 lights," and diligent searchers after truth. 
 
158 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 Some enthusiastic but untrained youth, who 
 has been reading about Sam Adams, writes me 
 from western wilds, " Is there any other beings 
 that does any more toward keeping this wicked 
 world as good as it is, and is there any other 
 class of people that is any honester than the Yan 
 kees ?" 
 
 On the whole, I am free to confess that I think 
 there " isn t." 
 
 Not abounding in ludicrous experiences to en 
 liven the road of a tired traveller, yet even in the 
 midst of its staidness, now and again I stumbled 
 upon some " richness." 
 
 XXXIII. 
 
 Appropriately enough, at Salem I found my 
 ghost. 
 
 Salem is an antique and pleasingly suggestive 
 town, full of present beauty and past memories. 
 
 Perhaps it was by reason of a glance given that 
 afternoon at " Witches Hill," and a remembrance 
 of the ugly tree that once cast dismal shadows 
 there, that I did not laugh quite honestly, when, 
 in the evening, my hostess remarked, " I presume 
 you know that this house has the reputation of 
 being haunted." 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 159 
 
 " Is it so ?" I inquired. " By witch, or Quaker ? 
 Angry or friendly ghost 1 And does the spirit 
 show itself to earthly vision, or is it content to 
 demonstrate by noise alone ?" 
 
 "By noise alone," said my hostess, " and 
 enough of it. There are all manner of mysterious 
 sounds to be heard in this house o nights. Some 
 times by daylight too." 
 
 " Rats," said my host, sententiously, adding, 
 " They come from the old warehouse next door." 
 
 My hostess smiled. 
 
 " Men always do think they know so much," 
 she remarked, blandly, " T ve heard noises that 
 no rat made." 
 
 " Wind," suggested the off ending skeptic. 
 
 " Very like," assented his wife, " if spirits are 
 made of wind. 
 
 I thought I detected some light-minded words 
 in connection with "spirits," but remembering 
 mine host was a staunch advocate of prohibition 
 concluded my ears had deceived me. 
 
 i You are not superstitious, I hope, said he. 
 
 " I hope you are not timid," said she. 
 
 "Neither the one nor the other," stoutly as 
 severated I. 
 
 " Good," said he. 
 
160 A RAGG ED REGISTER. 
 
 t You will be apt to hear something, said she. 
 
 "Very well," said I. " What is written is 
 written. If sights and sounds of ghosts be 
 stamped in the book of my fate, I must submit to 
 what is in store for me," and I went away to my 
 room. 
 
 The room was a delightful old-fashioned apart 
 ment, big enough for three modern sleeping con 
 cerns, the open fire, and huge chintz-covered easy 
 chair inviting I said I wouldn t yet even while 
 I said so, sat down to read. 
 
 I read and the hours wore on. 
 
 The book was not cheerful, far from it, but it 
 was fascinating Bulwer s " Strange Story" and 
 as the night waned there was something more 
 than the sinking fire to account for the chill that 
 insidiously crept over me. 
 
 I could hear the striking of the bell at the town 
 hall. Two o clock. It did sound preternaturally 
 clear and loud. I paused in my reading to listen. 
 Could the unhappy souls that so many years ago 
 were untimely sped into Eternity yet wander- 
 about these old haunts of earth to disturb the de 
 scendants of their merciless executioners \ I pon 
 dered the thought, and, still pondering, put down 
 the book with its weird characters and uncanny 
 
A .RAGGED REGISTER. 161 
 
 apparitions, and found my way, sMveringly and 
 in haste, to bed. 
 
 Had I really been asleep \ I do not know, j 
 know a longer or shorter interregnum of dark and 
 silence had followed the extinguishing of my 
 light, and that I had lost consciousness when 
 something wakened me. 
 
 Up I sprang with the familiar exclamation, 
 u Who s there >" 
 
 K"o reply, but a swisMng sound, soft and con 
 tinuous, smote my ear in such wise as to make it 
 tingle with any thing but pleasing sensations. 
 
 " Who s there f again demanded I, this time 
 defiantly. 
 
 Again no answer, but stillness fell for a 
 space. 
 
 Softly I got out of bed, and, as well as I could, 
 steered for the gas-burner and the match safe with 
 intent to cast some light upon the matter, but 
 alas, was foiled on reaching them by the discovery 
 of one headless stick and two burned ones. 
 
 The silence continued. 
 
 " Sheer imagination," said I to myself jeer- 
 ingly, and retraced my steps through the room. 
 
 Swish, swisli, went the noise, and I sat up 
 
 again swish, swisJi, swish. 
 11 
 
162 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 Rats ? ~No ; it was not like rats. No gnawing, 
 no scamper, no patter. 
 
 Wind ? Perhaps so. There is no accounting 
 for some of its demonstrations. I shook np 
 the pillow and composed myself to sleep once 
 more. 
 
 It was no use swasJi went something. 
 
 I scrambled out this time in dire earnest. A 
 light I must have. A light I would have. There 
 were no matches. I stumbled my way to the hall 
 door, and cautiously opened it. No light. No 
 stir. No possibility of illumination from that 
 quarter, and as for rousing any one by my prowl- 
 ings in search of match or candle my dignity 
 would not allow of such a suggestion no, not for 
 a moment. Had I not emphatically repelled the 
 insinuation of either timidity or superstition ? I 
 shut the door and turned back into the room. 
 
 Seemingly the fire had died, but I found my 
 way to the grate and poked at it gingerly, till 
 through the ashes I saw the glimmering hint of an 
 ember, and blew at it till my throat was dry, in a 
 vain effort to light a scrap of paper, dragged from 
 the recesses of my coat pocket, but the letter- 
 paper was harsh and unamenable to fire or reason, 
 and did but smoke and smoke till, through heat- 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 163 
 
 ing and charring, it was gone without consenting 
 to the dawn of a blaze. 
 
 The noise had stopped meanwhile, but began 
 again. A soft breathing and a movement like 
 trailing garments. I had no more paper to help 
 me. I must prosecute my investigations in the 
 dark. 
 
 For the second time I stumbled to the door. 
 No one there. To the windows. There were four 
 of these, lofty, with blinds within and without. 
 No, no tree branch grew sufficiently near to strike 
 against them. No loose hinge nor ill -hung sash 
 permitted them to waver, no rain fell from the 
 darkened sky to beat against them, but the dark 
 ened sky and dreary night allowed no friendly 
 glimmer to penetrate the gloomy recesses of my 
 room, up and down which I navigated, hands and 
 feet both in requisition, with many a halt and 
 more than one threatened shipwreck in a hopeless 
 voyage of discovery. 
 
 Nothing but darkness, stillness, and bruises 
 rewarded me. " I am a fool," then said I, with 
 chattering teeth; u my death I shall catch, but 
 a ghost ? no. Let us have done !" 
 
 JSwasTi went the something once more. 
 
 " Ah ha !" whispered I, with malicious tri- 
 
164 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 umph, as I shuffled across the room ; " you are 
 there, are you ? in the water pitcher 1 trying to 
 drown yourself? Now I have you!" and I 
 plunged my hand into the pitcher, into the basin, 
 back into the pitcher to its bottom. Nothing 
 there but water, cold and plenteous nothing 
 found save a wet arm and an addition to discom 
 fort by a wet sleeve. 
 
 I went back to the grate, and sat down on the 
 floor in front of it, thinking its memories might 
 warm me, and resolved myself into a committee 
 of one for farther thought and the consideration 
 of fresh tactics for a new campaign. 
 
 " There is nothing amiss here," finally an 
 nounced the committee, embracing itself and blow 
 ing vigorously on its frozen fingers. 
 
 A sound, not noisy, but unmistakable, replied. 
 
 The committee applied its ear to the floor till it 
 was satisfied and its back ached. The visitant did 
 not occupy there. The committee decided on a 
 pilgrimage, and glued its ear to each of the four 
 walls successively till it tingled with the cold and 
 strain. The unknown guest was not quartered 
 there. 
 
 Guest indeed ! Who was to say it was not the 
 lawful inhabitant of this domain justly incensed 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 165 
 
 by an impudent interloper s calling of committees 
 and sitting in judgment upon its peaceful if noc 
 turnal ablutions and exercise? The committee, 
 rebuked, hung its head in shame, and resolved 
 itself into the humility of a private citizen. 
 
 The private citizen, unsupported by official 
 authority, retreated to the shelter of pillows and 
 blankets, and determined to give repose to its 
 heavy head and burning eyeballs, though a whole 
 legion of ghosts saw lit to revel in what had once 
 been the abode of some one of their number, or 
 the habitation of a contemporary persecutor or 
 friend. 
 
 Determination has its rewards. Strained eye 
 balls and tense head gradually relaxed, frozen 
 body thawed, sleep, with its downy mantle, was 
 covering all fret and fatigue with its blessed ob 
 livion, when Well, I sat up once more, de 
 scended, ran nimbly, for I had learned every step 
 of the way to the grate, and that forlorn hope of 
 an ember. Did it still live ? Barely, and fast 
 growing cold. 
 
 There were no more scraps of paper, no more 
 letters. Even the match-sticks had been tried in 
 desperation and tried in vain ; but there was my 
 pocket-book, and some scrip, or, this failing, a bill 
 
166 A RAGGED REGISTER 
 
 of inferior denomination. So the blowing, and 
 the ashes, and the slow dull smoking, slower, and 
 duller than before, were repeated, and that was all 
 save that I was the poorer by some scrip and a 
 greenback or so. 
 
 " Miserable ghost !" cried I, the necessity of 
 speech subdued by reason of the living beings 
 sleeping in near rooms, making speech doubly 
 intense not to say savage to the being, living or 
 dead, but wide-awake and aggressive in my own 
 room " miserable ghost, speak or be silent, 
 prance or be still. I will sacrifice to you no more 
 time, no more rest, no more comfort, no more let 
 ters, no more greenbacks. I defy you only, for 
 my own enlightenment will you, in return for the 
 annoyance you have caused me, in ghostly lan 
 guage tell me whether you go through this perfor 
 mance every night, and whether you purpose con 
 tinuing it till morning \ Three raps for affirm 
 ative. One for denial. Come ! Begin !" 
 
 It began, but not as I desired. It was not a 
 ghost to be defied, nor a spirit to indulge in tri- 
 fiing conversation, and it punished my effrontery 
 by going on with its dreary programme as though 
 it entirely ignored me and my queries. No light- 
 minded rapping responded, but, in its stead, a 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 167 
 
 curious gurgling sound that to my intent ear 
 seemed like the breath of a person dying by slow 
 suffocation. 
 
 Yes, it is true ; my hair certainly did uncurl, 
 and each particular thread did stand on end with 
 horror. Small, cold claws paced down iny back, 
 and marked off each spinal vertebra with painful 
 and peculiar distinctness. My chest was a drum, 
 and my heart a drum-stick that beat a double 
 tattoo with as much ease as though it had been 
 two. 
 
 I ceased alike entreaties and defiance. There 
 were no more observations to be made. I would 
 not speak to the inhabitants of my own world, 
 though the vertebra parted, and each hair turned 
 white where it stood. I got into my bed with a 
 desperate determination to remain there, and I 
 remained till morning. 
 
 Morning came. There was nothing at the win 
 dows, nothing at the door, on the furniture, be 
 hind the furniture, under the bed nothing in the 
 pitcher, the basin nothing anywhere ! 
 
 I struck against the porcelain foot-bath, un- 
 stumbled against and unremembered the night 
 before, and screamed in a voice that brought the 
 household to my threshold over a half -grown, 
 
168 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 half -drowned rat, that was swish, swishing with 
 its wretched little claws up the concave side of 
 the slippery ware and sliding back into its un- 
 wished-for bath of ten inches of cold and mus- 
 tardy- water. 
 
 I screamed, but it was morning. My reputa 
 tion for courage was lost, but no one of that 
 household has known of cause to accuse me of 
 superstition unto this day. 
 
 XXXIV. 
 
 Surviving the infliction and affliction of my 
 ghostly visitant, not many nights later I thought 
 mine hour had come, by reason of the tenacity of 
 one human, or ^e-human man. 
 
 The place in which he found me is one of the 
 delightfully quaint towns that are strewn all 
 along the coast line of New England, full of old- 
 fashioned streets and houses and furniture and 
 people. Nobody is in haste. Nobody is guilty 
 of the indecorum of noise. The carving and gild 
 ing of picture and mirror frames, the spindle legs 
 of tables and chairs are ceaseless proofs of the an 
 tique propriety and quietude of the people ; a 
 good strong whiff of the material air that blows 
 in towns near at hand, the emphatic movements 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 169 
 
 of the modern man and woman, would send carv 
 ing and gilding, backs and legs, tables and chairs, 
 into an indistinguishable heap together. 
 
 To the shelter of one of these enchanting old 
 houses went I. Mahogany door, half a foot 
 thick, rivalling in shine its grinning dragonhead 
 of a brass knocker. Wide hall hung with prints 
 yellowed by years in ebony and walnut frames odd 
 and old, and bits of furniture of such long-past 
 fashion as to appear new, but with a flavor of 
 age about them that no imitation, however 
 admirable, could emulate. Opening on either 
 side from the ample expanse of the hallway, a 
 half dozen rooms, each more charming than the 
 other, with its china and pictures and nondescript 
 articles that are as much for ornament as use, and 
 for use as ornament. The curtains and carpets 
 of rooms and hall and stairway delicious in the 
 soft richness of their faded hues. 
 
 My hostesses, three snowy-haired delicate-fea 
 tured, soft-speaking, noiseless-motioned, slight, 
 silk-clad, dainty, old ladies, served by two an 
 cient and faithful maidens and one faithful and 
 ancient coachman, and "chore" man who abode 
 in some other region. 
 
 Into this sedate and pleasing domicile had 
 
170 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 entered and taken possession an element strange 
 and foreign, a big-bodied, red-headed, strident- 
 voiced, rampant son of Anak, the President of 
 
 the Lecture Association at , where I was due 
 
 in a few evenings. 
 
 This society and the society with which my 
 engagement stood for the following evening, with 
 out consulting me, had quietly exchanged dates, 
 and were so good as to inform me at the last mo 
 ment of their little arrangement. 
 
 To keep the appointments in their original 
 order would be to rest through an undisturbed 
 night, leave at a reasonable season the next day, 
 and travel for a half dozen of hours. 
 
 To meet the new requirements necessitated a 
 call at three o clock in the morning, a ride of 
 forty miles on a cattle train, exposed to filth and 
 bitter storm, a run across Boston, breakfastless, 
 to another train, a broken ten hours part jour 
 ney, part wait thereafter. 
 
 Had I been guilty of the folly of making such 
 an engagement, I should have kept it though its 
 fulfilment had involved a ride of all night in 
 stead of but the portion of one, an association 
 with cattle as well as the occupancy of a cattle 
 box, and a dinnerless afternoon added to a break- 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 1?1 
 
 fastless morning ; but as I had nothing to do with 
 the planning of the reasonable programme, I nat 
 urally declined having any thing to do with its 
 execution. 
 
 In noisy and affable wise my strident-voiced 
 friend set forth his plans and purposes, and hav 
 ing done so, rose to leave with the thoughtful an 
 nouncement, " Give yourself no uneasiness about 
 getting off in time. Til be sure to call you. 
 Loud enough too! Ha! ha! never fear ! Rout 
 out the old ladies at the same time. Do em 
 good to give em such an early start. Got any 
 orders ?" 
 
 "None," I said, "save that you are not to 
 come at all." 
 
 "Oh, but I will. Trust me for that. You 
 mightn t be dead sure to get awake, you know." 
 
 " I don t intend to go, nor to get awake either," 
 said I. 
 
 " Of course you don t," went on the trumpet, 
 "of course you don t. Women never do know 
 their own minds, but you ll be all ready when the 
 times, / know. Now just listen," and he pro 
 ceeded to re- narrate the whole cheerful and com 
 fortable plan. "Do you understand?" blared 
 he at its close. 
 
172 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 " Yes," I answered. " I am not an idiot. I 
 understand so well that there can be no doubt as 
 to my absolute refusal to have any thing to do 
 with it. 
 
 " My dear," said a sweet old treble, " won t 
 you come and take your cup of coffee now ? It 
 is getting late. This gentleman, the shadow of 
 a shade of stress on the word, will doubtless 
 excuse you." 
 
 " Certin, ma am, certin," blew the trumpet. 
 "I m a plain man. Don t stand on any cere 
 mony with me. Miss Anna can drink her coffee 
 though coffee isn t wholesome whenever she 
 wants to, and I ll just step out with her and set 
 tle this little matter while she s drinking it." 
 
 Out went he and recited again his attractive 
 lesson. 
 
 66 There is no use, sir," objected I, "in wasting 
 time and effort to induce me to carry out a fool 
 ish plan in which I have had and will have no 
 part. You have broken our contract, insulted 
 me, wronged your audience, and now reasonably 
 expect me to destroy my comfort and jeopardize 
 my throat and voice, and through them a dozen 
 following engagements, to make good your folly, 
 I will have nothing to do with the matter." 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 173 
 
 u JSTow look here, Miss Anna," broke in the 
 thunderous voice, " there ain t no use in your los 
 ing your temper. Tain t becoming in a young 
 woman, nor to a young woman, and you might 
 just as well hold your horses. I ll come round 
 here by half -past two o clock, and rout you out, 
 and you ll have time to think better of it by 
 that. Here, Maria that s what the old lady 
 called you, ain t it ? just hand me a cup of 
 coffee." 
 
 The ancient and faithful serving maiden looked 
 at him ! If looks could kill ! Unfortunately 
 at times unfortunately they can t. 
 
 " Maria," said the sweet old treble, with a lit 
 tle tremble and the slightest suggestion of staccato 
 appearing in it together " Maria, if Miss Dickin 
 son is through with the coffee, carry it to the 
 kitchen, and then show her to her room." 
 
 "Well! that s cool! ha! ha!" roared the 
 irrepressible. " Ain t inclined to hospitality? 
 All right. I ve had my supper. I only thought 
 it would be more sociable to take a cup with 
 Miss Anna here. Now come, Miss Anna, just 
 you listen to reason ;" and he fell to demon 
 strating it or its reverse once more. 
 
 " My dear," said another of the gentle old 
 
174 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 ladies, " I will go to your room with Maria, and 
 leave tliis person to Ms own devices." 
 
 " All right, ma am," consented our sensitive 
 friend. " He s able to take care of himself. 
 Don t mind me" and the last seen of him, as we 
 retreated, was of a face and figure apparently in 
 tent on a notebook and some memoranda. 
 
 He got out of the house. How he got out of 
 the house I cannot testify, but that he went was 
 manifest both from his absence when I returned 
 to the scene of our fray, and from his presence, 
 big, burly, and red, on the front seat of the town 
 hall when I reached it. 
 
 He was not a helpful element in the audience. 
 He cheered too much, and chuckled too much, 
 and was too exasperatingly and conspicuously 
 patronizing. There are limitations to all tempers, 
 even a lyceum lecturer s. 
 
 I being done, like a Jack in the box up sprang 
 fiery head and began it all over, as though what 
 he had to say contained a large ingredient not 
 alone of good sense but of absolute novelty. 
 
 " I will not go," had been my first speech. 
 My last was, " I will say nothing more to you." 
 
 " Just as well," consented my tormentor. 
 "There ain t any more needs, saying as I see. 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 175 
 
 I ll be round for you at half -past two, sharp, so 
 you can sleep sound as you please until then. 
 Good-night, Miss Anna. Good-night, ma am ; 
 it s a pity you! II have to be wakened too, but I 
 guess it won t hurt you," and the full-grown imp 
 put a fresh straw into his mouth, stuck his hands 
 into his outside pockets, and marched away. 
 
 "He will not dare," cried the three gentle 
 voices, as we sat about the friendly, round sup 
 per-table with its lavender-scented damask, and 
 exquisite china, and bountiful old-fashioned deli 
 cacies. 
 
 " I should like to see him !" remarked Maria, 
 in a tone that indicated it would be ill with the 
 object contemplated if her eyes were forced to 
 such inspection. 
 
 The dear delight that followed ! The dear de 
 light of sitting in a room filled with an atmos 
 phere of sweet content and quiet goodness and 
 refinement, permeating and pure as the smell of 
 treasured rose-leaves ; of looking into the glow 
 ing heart of that friendly companion an open 
 fire ; of hearing tales of the old, old time from 
 lips that added a grace almost pathetic to the 
 cheerful and weird stories told ; of telling in turn 
 to ears that gave hospitable welcome, incident 
 
176 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 and experience of a life as foreign to this life as a 
 crowded and dusty race-course would be to the 
 inhabitants of a peaceful convent, while a Novem 
 ber gale blew without, and the far-off sound of 
 the sea boomed in at intervals, solemn and grand. 
 
 Midnight s mystic hour went by unheeded, and 
 one o clock sounded from the old clock on the 
 stairs before the clear trebles chorused a " good 
 night, my child," and Maria, for the second 
 time, carefully marshalled me to my room, and 
 having poked the fire, and peered into the pitch 
 ers, and given a shake to the curtains, and in 
 effectually striven to gaze out into the storm, re 
 marked, " I hope you ll sleep well," and added, 
 with her hand on the door knob and with an om 
 inous shake of a brass candlestick, " I d like to 
 see him !" 
 
 I laughed, forgot the annoyance of the early 
 evening, dreamed over the delight that followed, 
 listened to the winds and the waves and the tre 
 mendous voices of the night, till I fell into slum 
 ber, peaceful and profound. 
 
 Was the house on fire ? Had the sea broken its 
 bounds? Were all the floods out ? Thud! thud! 
 thud ! The windows rattled ! The room trem 
 bled ! Had the end of time come ? 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 177 
 
 No, only the old man of the sea had risen and 
 clambered to Sinbad s back once more. 
 
 He battered, and banged, and thumped, and 
 roared, flung stones at the glass, shook the 
 knobs, thundered with the knocker, beat his 
 weight against the door, shouted, apostrophized, 
 yelled, danced a war-dance in the street, and 
 raised a war-whoop through the air. 
 
 Neighbors there were none near, police were 
 afar, or the disturber of night s repose might 
 have met a fate he richly merited. As the case 
 stood, he demonstrated till he was weary, paused 
 for breath and energy, and speedily, all too 
 speedily recuperated, returned afresh to his des 
 perate deeds. 
 
 "It is infamous," cried I at last. " I will no 
 longer by silence consent to this outrage upon 
 these poor little women and their peaceful abode, 
 and flew off my couch to devise methods of 
 vengeance, when a fine, small voice said, 
 
 " Are you awake, my dear f 
 
 Was I awake ! 
 
 " Rather," answered I, sententiously and in 
 elegantly. " Very much awake." 
 
 " I hope you are not frightened, my child," 
 
 chimed in another sweet old flute. 
 12 
 
178 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 "Don t pay any attention to him," cried a, 
 companion third. "Don t light your lamp. 
 Don t make any sign. Don t give the horrible 
 creature the satisfaction of knowing he has dis 
 turbed any of us." 
 
 It was too much. I burst out laughing. " He 
 knows we are not stone deaf," I objected. 
 
 " Hush sh sh," breathed a chorus. 4 <He 
 might hear you" There was noise enough of 
 tempest with his own uproar to have drowned the 
 voice of a cannon. "Don t let him hear you. It 
 might please him. Be as patient as you can, 
 dear child. We will go back again," and the 
 beneficent white-robed visitants vanished. 
 
 The " band began to play" and the " animals 
 to perform" anew with added fervor and fury, 
 and continued unweariedly. 2.45 was called ; 3, 
 3.10, 3.15, 3.20, 3.25, 3.30. A cessation. 
 
 Let us hope he is dead, or has fainted, humanly 
 and tenderly growled I. 
 
 Dead? No. Fainted? No. Even resting? 
 No. He had gone foraging, had captured a log 
 of pine wood, had converted it into a battering 
 ram, and was again storming the castle, with fair 
 prospect, if not of success, at least of the destruc 
 tion of the outer walls of varnish and the disfig- 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 170 
 
 urement of the inner wall of beautiful but deter 
 mined wood. 
 
 " This is too much !" springing to the floor 
 with emphasis. " I will do something." 
 
 " Hush sh," came from the slowly . opened 
 door, through which edged a tall, spare figure, 
 dimly descried in the firelight, turban on, a 
 weighty bucket in hand. " I d a come before, 
 but I couldn t. Sorry to come through your 
 room, but this gable winder of yourn looks right 
 over the steps," and, unhurried and relentless as 
 fate, Maria moved across the floor to the " gable 
 winder." 
 
 Reaching it, she put down the cumbersome 
 bucket, opened the sash slowly and noiselessly, 
 carefully reconnoitred, drew back with a nod of 
 satisfaction, and stooped for her weapon. 
 
 It was of no use to struggle. I laughed again, 
 but in a smothered sort of way, and gasped, 
 " Good gracious, Maria, why do you waste that 
 water ? He s drenched to the skin already. Not 
 a dry thread can he have on him he has been 
 capering round in this deluge for anjiour." 
 
 Maria was not to be diverted from her purpose 
 by any frivolous talk. The bucket rose the 
 bucket rested on the window ledge the turbaned 
 
180 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 head reconnoitred once again the bucket tilted 
 tilted more emptied with a swash. 
 
 I sat up to listen. 
 
 A howl. An objurgation. Another howl. 
 Some stamping. A few words of vigorous Saxon. 
 A disorderly retreat. 
 
 The sash was closed, the curtains re-drawn. " I 
 thought that kitchen fire never would burn," 
 Maria was saying, as she marched back with the 
 air of a victor, " and that that there tea-kittle 
 never would bile but it did!" She softly 
 opened the door. " I hope, Miss Dickinson, 
 you ll sleep sound now till morning," and as she 
 was shutting it, added, in a stage aside, " I said 
 I d like to see him !" and was gone. 
 
 It is safe to say the entire of that household 
 " slept sound " till morning, and sitting down to 
 contemplate our nocturnal visitor through the 
 dispassionate light of memory, and in the illu 
 minating power of broad day, we came to the 
 unanimous decision that his like we never had 
 seen, and hoped never to see more. 
 
 XXXV. 
 
 There is no such thing as unmitigated disaster. 
 The man was responsible for a deal of righteous 
 and some unrighteous wrath, a hideous night, a 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 181 
 
 damaged door, a ruptured engagement with con 
 sequent loss of fee ; but he compelled a holiday of 
 a regular working day, and so out of its very sur 
 prise gave me a pleasure, and through that pleas 
 ure I fell heir unto two of the most unalloyed de 
 lights of all my life the sight of the sea under a 
 cloudless sky, after a long November storm, and 
 my first feast of Christine Mlsson in opera ! 
 
 If you have listened to a many of fine singers be 
 fore Mlsson speaks to your soul, so much the 
 better for you ; some gauge has been furnished 
 whereby to measure her, and the measuring is 
 soon done. 
 
 " You meaner beauties of the night, 
 
 That poorly satisfy our eyes 
 More by your number than your light, 
 
 You common people of the skies, 
 What are you when the moon shall rise ?" 
 
 " Ye violets that first appear, 
 
 By your pure purple mantle known 
 
 Like the proud virgins of the year, 
 As if the spring were all your own, 
 
 What are you when the rose is blown ?" 
 
 " Ye curious chanters of the wood 
 
 That warble forth Dame Nature s lays, 
 
 Thinking your passions understood 
 By your weak accents, what s your praise, 
 
 When Philomel her voice doth raise ?" 
 
182 A RAGGED EEGISTER. 
 
 Greater than her singing, which pierces to the 
 heart greater than her acting, which surpasses 
 Ristori s is herself. The woman s supreme 
 power lies in what permeates voice and action. 
 As she conies down to her audience, moving like 
 a beautiful, untamed thing of the desert, before 
 she sings a note or stirs a gesture, she conquers. 
 She has within the divine fire, and you feel its 
 warmth before you hear its flames or see its glow. 
 
 XXXVI. 
 
 From New England to the District is a good 
 transfer in dismal weather ; though, to tell 
 truth, summer or winter, I always like to come 
 into Washington. Its steady growth in beauty is 
 a delight to the eye, and is a fair promise of bet 
 ter things to come. When, rolling over the finest 
 pavements in America, I remember the dust 
 heaps or sloughs of mud that, but a few years 
 ago, served for streets, and mark the stately 
 buildings everywhere taking the place of scare 
 crow shanties, I grow a faith even in that latter- 
 day miracle, the completion of the Capitol. 
 
 Indeed, since it has at last emancipated itself 
 from the tyranny of its ancient hotels, and has 
 had the audacity to set over against Willard s 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 183 
 
 that delight of an inn the Arlington, I hold to 
 unlimited belief in its capacity to do any thing. 
 
 My last experience, a good many years ago, of 
 the palatial mansion at Fourteenth Street and 
 Pennsylvania Avenue, consisted of a climb ele 
 vators being regarded as impudent interlopers 
 up five flights of stairs, the possession of a room 
 adorned by three broken window panes, a disa 
 bled bell, a ragged carpet, one chair with a bro 
 ken back, one chair with a rheumatic leg, a wash- 
 stand not to be depended upon without due 
 watchfulness and propping, and a bed that must 
 have been an accurate copy of some one of the 
 beds inquisitorial. 
 
 For which luxuries I was permitted to pay the 
 same sum as though I held possession of " a par 
 lor chamber, second floor, front. 
 
 To make amends for the isolation to which I was 
 consigned by the speechless bell, and to add cheer 
 to my already attractive apartment, some frisky 
 visitors who have a proverbial penchant for rags 
 and dilapidation, proceeded to disport themselves 
 in my domain. 
 
 Out of sleep did they summon me. The fire in 
 the contracted grate having asphyxiated, and the 
 night being cold, a change of blankets was a mat- 
 
184 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 ter to be felt. I felt it. Put out a hand to re 
 arrange the covering. Re-arranged it. Was fall 
 ing asleep once more, was wakened by a vigorous 
 tug that opened my eyes very wide indeed, and 
 that stirred nerves and wrath together, the first 
 being soothed, and the last receiving augmenta 
 tion as, in place of a burglar, a squeal and a 
 squeak, and the wabbling of feet revealed the 
 quality of my uninvited callers. 
 
 Complaints, and the Arlington, and Time that 
 sure ender, in some shape, of all abuses have at 
 last amended even this huge nuisance. 
 
 A nuisance, in spite of its enormities, dear to 
 the memories of all those who knew it, and its 
 crowds, its sights and sounds, through the tre 
 mendous days of the war. 
 
 XXXVII. 
 
 I wish Washington would speak out in a good 
 vigorous way, what I have heard said quietly 
 whenever I have been there a protest against the 
 annual howl of the outside papers and people 
 about the i female clerks, their sins of omission 
 and commission, and the total depravity of which 
 their appointments stand as indices. 
 
 There seems to be a wide-spread impression that 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER, 185 
 
 these clerks are all young, handsome, and indo 
 lent, that the places filled by them are silken 
 sinecures, and that the pay received is one to 
 allow gilded splendor of abode and dress to its 
 fortunate receiver. 
 
 As far as my observation has extended, and it 
 has not been limited, there must be some crack 
 ing of ingenuity, or attenuation of comfort by 
 these gay and ease-loving damsels, to "make 
 both ends meet." 
 
 Sensible, self-respecting, and industrious girls ; 
 tired and sorrowful-looking women, some wid 
 ows, many of them with children clinging about 
 their knees. 
 
 Out of fifty-five women picked at random into 
 whose estate I questioned, I found but eight who 
 were not only their own providers, but the soli 
 tary stay of one or more helpless lives. 
 
 Many of these are the widows and orphans of 
 men dead in battle. 
 
 c c That is no reason, say some of these papers 
 and people, " why the government departments 
 should be converted into dispensaries for their 
 needs. No ; but it is an added reason why wo - 
 men who are not paupers, who honestly earn 
 every penny they receive, should be freed from 
 
186 A RAGGED REGISTER 
 
 indecent slander by the lips of persons who know 
 nothing about them, save that they have been 
 left stripped and desolate for the public weal. 
 
 Also it would be well for sapient reasoners, 
 who demonstrate that a woman ought not to be 
 engaged by the government, simply because she 
 is a woman and in want of work, at the same time 
 to make clear that being engaged she ought not 
 to be paid as a woman but as a worker. Her 
 capacity and not her sex should be the criterion 
 of her compensation. 
 
 I know in these departments of girls and 
 women who are doing the like work as that done 
 by men, equally well, in some cases better, they 
 being paid from six hundred to nine hundred dol 
 lars a year the men receiving from twelve hun 
 dred to three thousand dollars. 
 
 I can put my finger on one woman who is at 
 the head of a department in which are collected 
 papers and books in manuscript by thousands, 
 upon any one of which, at a moment s notice, she 
 can place her hand. From all parts of the build 
 ing men come to her for information. She has 
 the supervision of two rooms and of sixty girls. 
 She earns three thousand dollars ; she is paid 
 nine hundred dollars a year. 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 187 
 
 For her tact, skill, executive ability, business 
 knowledge and training, this woman gains no 
 more than the girl who sorts and cuts currency in 
 the next room. 
 
 A young girl of whom I know, a skilled lin 
 guist, who has state papers to translate, often in 
 such numbers as to compel her to write over- 
 hours and at home, not long since was called to 
 the desk of a young man to straighten out the 
 work he had hopelessly tangled, and did the diffi 
 cult task to perfection. Incompetency, idleness, 
 favoritism, and man secured two thousand dollars 
 a year ; brains, culture, hard work and woman 
 were paid with nine hundred. 
 
 Such women as these carry sufficient weight 
 without the addition of the monstrous accusation 
 that their presence is the proof of immorality in 
 the public departments. 
 
 People make light estimate of the purity they 
 profess to hold an essential attribute of woman, 
 or they confess for her an awful state of destitu 
 tion when they so readily concede, without in 
 vestigation, that she will sell herself, body and 
 soul, for six hundred dollars a year. 
 
 For the others, if there be any others, I do not 
 see how the cause of morality is to be damaged 
 
188 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 by their earning of some honest wage for honest 
 work, nor how that of virtue is to be served by 
 dismissal and consignment to the results of idle 
 ness and want. 
 
 And if any one says, as many are addicted to 
 saying, that by their contact other women are in 
 sulted and contaminated, I answer that I cannot 
 see how these others can be hurt by sight and 
 sound of questionable women, more than by the 
 presence and association of the ^/^questionable im n 
 who are responsible for their appointments men 
 who are not expected to resign their authority 
 nor to renounce their honors and emoluments, 
 and about whom, in this connection at least, peo 
 ple do not feel called upon to express an opinion. 
 
 There is a homely but wholesome proverb con 
 cerning the sex of geese and " sauce" for the 
 same, that I would commend to the consideration 
 of some inconsistent and over-nice censors of pub 
 lic and private morals. 
 
 XXXVIII. 
 
 Also, it will apply, equally well, to work, its 
 honors and compensations. 
 
 I remember looking at a certain statue, 
 mounted at the Capital and remarking, " As it 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 180 
 
 stands it is a monument to the incompetency of 
 one woman and the folly of some men." 
 
 One of the men who had voted for the appro 
 priation that put it there answered, " You are 
 doing what you accuse men of doing abusing 
 your sex. 
 
 " How so V said I. " Is it the foolish men, or 
 the incompetent woman, or the awkward statue 
 that is the sex abused ? I have been expressing 
 my opinion of all of these. " 
 
 " I mean the young lady who made it. How 
 can you, who profess to be a friend to your sex, 
 be so harsh to it and its work ?" he answered. 
 
 " As far as I know," said I, " my sex did not 
 make that statue ; I am sure that even of Ameri 
 cans Miss Hosmer did not, nor Miss Whitney, nor 
 Miss Gibson, nor yet the sum total of the millions 
 of other women known and unknown to fame. 
 
 i Concerning its being the work of a woman I 
 no more condemn my sex by saying it is a fail- 
 are, than I condemn your sex by saying that tJiat 
 statue," pointing to a monstrosity, " or that that 
 picture," indicating a daub, each bits of mascu 
 line handicraft, "is as hideous as it ought to be 
 beautiful to be allowed space in this Rotunda." 
 
 " Oh," cried another of the chivalric and hon- 
 
19 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 orable gentlemen, " I am too gallant to measure 
 a woman s work in that way. I must like and 
 praise the work because it is done by a lady." 
 
 " Gallant ? That is what you call it 2 To 
 my mind the praise of a woman s work, because 
 it is a woman s, is an insult." 
 
 An hour later I was listening to a speech that 
 Knott of Kentucky was making on the floor of 
 the House a vulgar, ribald speech , almost every 
 member was out of his seat, crowded about him. 
 The Speaker leaned back in his chair, with idle 
 gavel, while these dignified Representatives 
 shouted and roared, and poked one another in 
 the ribs, and then roared and shouted again over 
 the disgusting display, the two gallant gentle 
 men of the past controversy being specially con 
 spicuous for their almost frantic delight, espe 
 cially when Knott, in discoursing of some law- 
 abiding citizens, who desired to be represented by 
 ballot as well as by taxes, told of these " dam- 
 sells who wish the right to smoke, chew, swear, 
 drink cocktails, and ride astraddle." 
 
 " Gentlemen," thought I, as I watched, " a lit 
 tle less adulation of the sex, if you please, and 
 a little more respect for woman." 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 191 
 
 XXXIX. 
 
 Since I desired to think well of my brethren, I 
 was glad to find myself in the evening at the 
 house of that noblest of men and finest of gentle 
 men, Charles Sumner, who, among other right 
 speakings, always had the courage to tell the 
 truth in behalf of art without consideration of 
 favoritism in men, or sex in women. If Congress 
 had delegated to him the task of ornamenting the 
 Capitol, it could boast a display of fine arts in 
 deed. 
 
 His house was too small for the treasures he 
 had collected. The hall, on the one hand open 
 ing into the drawing-room, on the other to the 
 library and dining-room, and the stairway of 
 black walnut were papered by rare engravings. 
 
 Below, the rooms, connected by folding doors, 
 had the expansive effect of one noble apartment. 
 At the right, the drawing-room, showing a lovely 
 Wilton carpet, its chief color an exquisite blue, 
 the curtains and hangings a delicious amber. The 
 pictures, masterpieces, all save one a freak of his 
 the chromo of Whittier s " Barefoot Boy." The 
 china, carrying an aroma of palaces, of great value 
 and .wonderful beauty. 
 
192 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 On one side, the library-doors crowded with en 
 gravings of horses and horses heads. " I never 
 owned a horse," said he, " but here is my stable. 
 Who can equal it C The other side was covered 
 with likenesses of the most famous gateways and 
 doorways, ancient and modern. 
 
 The walls and mantle packed with curious and 
 beautiful bronzes and paintings, even the floor 
 about the walls, supporting pictures that else 
 could find no resting-place. Indeed the room was 
 so overcrowded with beauty as to lose beauty, but 
 the dining-room was perfection, the colors so rich 
 as to be fruity, a Turkish table-cover, wonderful 
 glass and china, and carved things and superb 
 paintings all in absolute harmony. 
 
 His study, his " den" as he called it, always 
 interested me, as it must have interested any one 
 who had the happiness to enter it, more than any 
 other room in the house. At the head of the 
 stairway, on the second floor, adjoining his sleep 
 ing-room, heaped and jammed with books and 
 papers, on tables, shelves, chairs, the floor itself 
 with scarce space for one to turn. Here he really 
 lived, and you, who looked at it, realized what a 
 hard worker was its master. 
 
 Here he had gathered the rarest collection of 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 193 
 
 framed engravings in America, the careful accu 
 mulation of a lifetime. In this country no one 
 else owned such portraits and such proofs, many 
 of them carrying the autographs of both painter 
 and engraver. 
 
 To two of these he called my close attention. 
 One, a delicate high-bred face, that of a German 
 noble and patriot who long ago was in prison, 
 condemned to die ; the other, that of the wife 
 who, with great skill and through much suffering, 
 rescued him a strong, homely, heroic face was 
 hers. He went up to it, and looking at it in an 
 indescribable way, said, " I like to have her here. 
 I like to look at her, to remember how brave and 
 strong and unselfish she was, of what she was to 
 him. What a friend ! what a friend ! Ah, how 
 much more than beauty, or even genius, is char 
 acter" 
 
 It was said as though he were thinking aloud, 
 rather than speaking to any one, and with an in 
 drawn, unconscious sigh that pierced like a knife. 
 
 When I went away I felt as I always felt, since 
 first, an overgrown school-girl, I beheld him, and 
 shall always feel when I think of him, as though 
 I had been breathing the air of the mountain top, 
 
 and had heard a voice from the skies. 
 13 
 
194 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 Well I know, if it was rest he needed, he has 
 gained it. If nobler work, that he has found it, 
 with quickened and immortal powers. 
 
 XL. 
 
 I often hear people surmise that a Washington 
 audience must be one specially difficult to please. 
 On the contrary, it hears so much bad speaking 
 as to have grown tolerant of bad speaking, and 
 knows how to appreciate and make much of the 
 good. 
 
 A little country town that listens to about three 
 " demonstrations" a year, even Demosthenes 
 would fail to satisfy. 
 
 " I liked him very well," said to me one of 
 these village magnates, speaking of Mr. Beecher, 
 who had shone upon his community the week 
 previous ; " yes, I liked him very well, but he 
 wasn t so energetic as I expected to find him." 
 
 He was own cousin, I suspect, to a man against 
 whom I stumbled a few days later, who was com 
 plaining that " Mark Twain had been a great dis 
 appointment to him." 
 
 " Incredible," objected I. 
 
 "Oh yes; he was," asseverated the man. 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 195 
 
 " He was neither so solid nor so serious -minded 
 as I had supposed." 
 
 And Tie must have been twin-brother to a wo 
 man whose orbit I one day touched in travelling 
 to Cleveland. 
 
 " I couldn t help laughing out loud," I was 
 saying to the friend beside me to whom I was 
 narrating some absurdity, when this woman 
 turned, skewered me with her sepulchral eye, 
 and demanded, "Laugh? Did I hear you say 
 you laughed? Why, I thought you never 
 smiled. How can you pretend to be in earn 
 est, in this world of sin and sorrow, and yet 
 laugh r" 
 
 " I beg your pardon, madam," said I. " I do 
 not at all doubt if I could live for a reasonable 
 length of time under your wholesome influence, I 
 would be cured of such frivolity." 
 
 She ought to be transferred to the congenial 
 soil of . You can guess the town. 
 
 It I reached at six P.M., found the inn 
 burned, and was carried, protesting, to the house 
 of one of the college dons, "where," I was as 
 sured, I should have all the freedom as well as 
 all the comforts of a hotel." 
 
 Supper was on the table. Supper I wanted 
 
196 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 none, but was desired to sit at the board, and so 
 heard what I had never before heard, a grace be 
 fore meat, of seven minutes in length. The meat 
 being eaten, I listened to what I had never be 
 fore listened abbreviated or lengthy thanks re 
 turned after meat. 
 
 Having talked for a while, vanished to my 
 room, and returned in battle array for the even 
 ing, I halted in the dining-room for a cup of 
 coffee and raw egg, small private flask in hand. 
 
 A suspicious glance. An ominous silence. 
 Then the query, 
 
 " Does that flask hold alcoholic stimulant 
 brandy perhaps, or wine f 
 
 Inwardly chattering, but outwardly bold, since 
 I knew I couldrft swallow the raw egg without 
 the sherry, I strove to placate my formidable host 
 with a feeble joke. 
 
 " If you please, sir, it is not very wicked 
 nothing worse than essence of grape." 
 
 "Ah," said the great man, relaxing, "essence 
 of grape ? Very well, very well. I feared it was 
 wine or some kindred abomination," and that 
 settled I was allowed to swallow my coffee 
 and egg and essence of grape, but not until mine 
 host had spared me the trouble of silent or pri- 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 197 
 
 vate thankfulness by the kindly intervention of a 
 lengthy grace spoken in my behalf. 
 
 Went to the hall in a subdued frame of mind, 
 meditating whether it would not be advisa 
 ble to omit the mild provocatives to laughter 
 that here and there cropped out on the surface of 
 an otherwise serious discourse, and was sure of 
 the right path when not the President of the Stu 
 dent s Lecture Association, but the " Presiding 
 Officer of the Meeting," in place of an introduc 
 tion, offered a prayer of twenty-seven minutes as 
 marked by the clock ticking in full view, in the 
 course of which he besought that c this young 
 woman might be brought to see that no temporal 
 prosperity, nor even the accomplishment of seem 
 ing good, justified her in an open defiance of the 
 ordinances of God, and the divinely appointed 
 sphere of her sex," whatever that may mean. 
 
 The iniquitous show of the evening ended, 
 its pernicious effects were removed from every 
 body s memory by another petition, and the sing 
 ing of Old Hundred dismally out of time and 
 tune. 
 
 When I reached home I was in no mood for 
 religious exercises, a fact probably patent to my 
 host, for I had grace said, in my behalf, over my 
 
198 A RAOOED REGISTER. 
 
 supper and thanks returned when I had com 
 pleted the demolition of the viands set before me, 
 after which I was summoned, willy nilly, to fam 
 ily prayers, and gained my room in a frame of 
 mind that boded ill to my furniture. 
 
 Improved the next day, when, tired and but 
 half rested, I was summoned from refreshing 
 slumber to appear by candle-light at morning 
 prayers, a summons which I neglected, and 
 turned my burning head for a little more 
 sleep/ but was speedily cured of the delusion 
 that I should enjoy any by the piping of a small 
 voice at my door to the effect that " Pa wishes to 
 know if you are not ready ? 
 
 " No, my dear," called I in return, "not near 
 ready. Ask him not to wait for me." 
 
 Patter, patter of small feet down the stairs. 
 Tramp, tramp of large feet up the stairs, through 
 the hall. Halt at the door. Summons. Procla 
 mation : " You will greatly oblige us if you will 
 come down soon as possible. It is a rule from 
 which I never deviate, to have every member of 
 my household, unless prostrated by sickness, at 
 family prayers." 
 
 " Mercifully, I am not a member of your house 
 hold," mumbled I, but was too wrathy to again 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 199 
 
 find oblivion, and when in course of time I ap 
 peared below stairs, lo, the assembled family por 
 tentously frowning and the Christian (?) services 
 were awaiting me. After which we had grace, 
 breakfast and thanks, and I went my way to the 
 cars with the distinct impression that I had seen 
 a deal of desecration of sacred things. 
 
 Likewise it struck me that it would be well if 
 some people would allow other people the privi 
 lege of obeying the scriptural injunction of work 
 ing out one s own salvation. 
 
 XLI. 
 
 My consolation was found in posting into Chi 
 cago, as I always do, if I am within a Saturday 
 night s ride of it, to hear Robert Colly er. 
 
 To sit and listen to him, to sit and look at him 
 while you listen to the great heart beating 
 through his words, is to sit in a June sunshine 
 and enjoy the peace of God. 
 
 He is like the sea, inspiring to great thought, 
 great feeling, great resolve, yet widening to still 
 ness and calm. 
 
 The fret and fever of toil, the impatience for 
 results, the eagerness to gather before the seed is 
 
200 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 fairly planted, the demand for the end from the 
 beginning one by one die out in you, and you are 
 content to do whatsoever your hand finds to do 
 with your migJit, and leave results to God. 
 
 It is well for those who believe that perfection 
 consists in absolute ignorance of life and its expe 
 riences to heed him : "I pray not that thou 
 shouldst take them out of the world, but that 
 thou shouldst keep them from the evil." We are 
 here, says this clear voice, to struggle with winds 
 and tides, and ofttimes bear some bufferings and 
 suffer their results, since we are here to be edu 
 cated, and education results from struggle. 
 
 It is a good thing for selfish or idle people to 
 hear his trumpet-call to the field where all brave 
 souls and true have battle to wage, in one sort or 
 another, for the right. And it is even better 
 for those who think not that " God is a good 
 worker, but loves to be helped," but that they 
 must do all his work for Him, or perdition will 
 ensue, to take a sense of the broad, steady, even, 
 unfretted, and unfretting power this man brings 
 to his labor. 
 
 As I listened to him that day there came to me 
 the fragment of a verse, seen somewhere, and 
 almost forgotten : 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 201 
 
 " But while the helping hand, the guiding brain 
 
 Are fully wrought, 
 And while the tears that fall for others pain 
 
 Are seeds of thought- 
 Leave to a deeper love the tears of care 
 
 Thou canst not dry ; 
 Be tranquil. To tranquillity add prayer, 
 
 But no vain sigh. 
 Strength always grappling with all human woes 
 
 Soon loses breath ; 
 But strength requickened by divine repose 
 
 Endures till death. 
 
 From church, to dinner in that dear home of his 
 which has the mellow richness of ripe October, 
 with the blessed " mother" and the grand good 
 children, and a hospitality reaching both body and 
 soul a hospitality that rests and refreshes, 
 reposes and warms. 
 
 After dinner came in that jewel of a girl Kate 
 Field. She was taking lessons in western dis 
 tances and experiences, and we compared notes 
 upon these and kindred affairs, and at parting I 
 wished her God speed with my heart, if my lips 
 failed to gush over her. She is so full of energy 
 and will, so determined to succeed spite of slight 
 frame and protesting nerves and muscles, so am 
 bitious of noble work and place in defiance of 
 fatigue and obstacles, and it is all so plainly 
 marked on her ! 
 
202 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 Witty, pungent, concise of speech, abrupt of 
 manner, hating shams with a royal hatred. 
 
 With beautiful brown eyes that penetrate deep 
 while they reveal depths, and firm mouth that 
 dominates the delicate face and seems to say to 
 it, and to any wearying and weakness that lie be 
 hind it : Advance ! you have your work to do, 
 your plan set to accomplish ; do and accomplish 
 them. 
 
 In the afternoon along happened Frederick 
 Douglass, delighting our eyes by the sight of his 
 leonine head and majestic presence, and our ears 
 by his rich and eloquent talk. 
 
 He has a "gift" that way ! There be those 
 who are rare talkers and yet no speech-mak 
 ers, and there be orators who are any thing but 
 successful conversationalists, but fortune has here 
 duplicated her gifts. 
 
 When you listen to his fiery denunciations and 
 impassioned appeals from the platform, you 
 gather no conception of the wit, the observation, 
 the satire, the pathos, the quaintness that fill his 
 familiar discourse. What store of anecdote, what 
 fund of humor has he not gathered from the 
 knowledge and discipline of life ! 
 
 And what a life ! 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 203 
 
 The afternoon slipped away, all too quickly, 
 and, like all things, good and bad, found an 
 end, but, unlike most good things, an end satis 
 factory, for when evening came, and supper, 
 wasn t there " a pretty dish to set before a king !" 
 Somebody with more melody in him than all the 
 throats of all the birds could sing : Bret Harte, 
 who was halting at Chicago in his flitting from 
 the Pacific to the Atlantic Sea. 
 
 He is satisfying that is the word for him. 
 One thinks all sorts of thoughts about men and 
 women who have accomplished wonders of some 
 kind, and are disappointed at sight. Not so 
 here. You say this is the man to have written 
 those stories and sketches full of pathos and 
 power. 
 
 In manner he is very quiet. As you watch him 
 you see he knows, as genius always knows, in a 
 steady unpretentious fashion, its own worth. He 
 says rare things in a clear rich voice, and he 
 laughs a mellow sort of laugh that is yet not gay. 
 The man has looked at life and knows it, and has 
 carried some of its burthens. That is plain to be 
 seen. 
 
 Watching him, there came to my remembrance 
 a critique published in a wise Eastern magazine : 
 
204 A LAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 "We suppose that women would not generally 
 find his stories amusing or touching. . . . He 
 does not touch any of the phases of vice or virtue 
 which seem to touch women. We think it 
 probable that none but a man would care for the 
 portrait of such a gambler as Mr. John Oakhurst, 
 or would discover the cunning touches with which 
 it is done in its blended shades of good and evil, 
 and a man only could relish the rude pathos of 
 Tennessee s partner, and of those poor, bewildered 
 sinful souls, the Duchess and Mother Ship- 
 ton." 
 Remembering, I laughed to myself softly as I 
 
 thought of how cried over the Luck, and of 
 
 how long sat still by that tombstone that was 
 
 the "deuce of clubs," and found an elo 
 quence surpassing the music of Amphion s lyre 
 in the speech of " Tennessee s Pardner," and 
 night after night took the whole motly company 
 to bed with her, thrusting them under her pillow, 
 that she might again and again feast with them 
 before she drank her morning coffee. And if 
 these were so drawn by their "unlikes," what 
 shall be said of the throng of nameless women 
 who, I know, have read these pages with eager 
 eyes and blistered them with tears. 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 205 
 
 With reason. For here is a great pitiful heart 
 that is not alone generous to his own sex, but is 
 just to both men and women. 
 
 He has the courage to preach a gospel of equal 
 ity. "Kentuck," dirty and disreputable, drifts 
 away to the unknown sea holding the innocent 
 baby in his arms, and the " Duchess" dies in the 
 embrace and pillowed upon the breast of a girl as 
 ignorant of harm as the blessed little one. 
 
 And see what those outcasts were capable of 
 doing Higgles for Jim, the Duchess and Mother 
 Shipton for Piney, Sandy s cast-off mistress for 
 her son. 
 
 And what a lesson in the Idyl ! This pure girl 
 taking to her breast the sin- stricken one, adopting 
 her boy, abandoning the man who rightly belongs 
 to another. 
 
 Not much of orthodox society plan here ! 
 
 She should have cried to the woman, " I am 
 holier than thou," refused to work good for the 
 child through his mother s sin-bought gold, left 
 him to be branded with her shame till he lost it 
 in his own in prison or on the gallows. 
 
 And have married Sandy to regenerate him. 
 
 Mr. Harte ! Mr. Harte ! you are an iconoclast. 
 Where did you find such ideas ? Are you in 
 
200 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 polite society ? and who is .your pastor ? I am 
 afraid you have had no better teaching than the 
 Sermon on the Mount, and no better teacher than 
 our blessed Lord. 
 
 Well, I am glad to remember that day and its 
 companions, and that they and it belong at Chi 
 cago Chicago always seeming to me to have the 
 actual personality of a human being of whom one 
 can be fond. 
 
 XLII. 
 
 Did I know it before the fire ? Yes, and fell in 
 love with it, and have had a tenderer feeling for 
 it ever since it underwent that fiery baptism. 
 
 Did I see it burn \ No. But had my sorrow 
 ful gaze at it presently thereafter. Let me see- 
 somewhere there is a letter I wrote on the spot. 
 Yes, here it is. You can read it, while I look at 
 these Illinois prairies. No matter about the first 
 of it tis a home letter and holds personal affairs 
 there that is the place to begin : 
 
 I drove over to the east side, where I was to 
 speak, in an open carriage, and so contemplated a 
 part of the burnt district, and could not realize 
 that I was in this country, and belonged to this 
 age. 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 207 
 
 The moon, a crescent moon, liad risen and gave 
 its insufficient light to the scene. 
 
 Up and down and across, far as the eye could 
 reach, nothing but gray ruins. Not a sidewalk, 
 not a street light, not a living soul in sight for 
 blocks together, not a single pedestrian. 
 
 No smoke, no smell of smoke or soot, no debris 
 nor waste matter clogging the streets, no gaping 
 windows and doorways, no toppling walls, none 
 of the ordinary marks of fire. 
 
 A bit of wall standing here, a chimney base 
 there, and few of these. Queer, grotesque, 
 pathetic-looking shapes, precisely like the views 
 we have of Rome or of some other old-time city 
 fallen not by speedy flames, but wearing decay. 
 It is as though this place had lived and died and 
 left these scant memorials thousands of years 
 ago. 
 
 When I came into the church I felt like a ghost 
 that had been wandering through tombs, and in 
 deed the people, though they were certainly liv 
 ing beings, and modern looking of dress and face, 
 did not remove the sense of gloom. 
 
 The church is a vast one, and it was very full, 
 and the people that friendly, helpful Chicago 
 audience seemed glad to see me ; but there was 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 an indescribable something in the house that one 
 feels in a dwelling place where some one is lying 
 dead, and though I stuck close to the subject mat 
 ter of my speech, and they tenaciously followed 
 it, the effort was like that of a sorrowing friend to 
 help those sorely bereaved, in their effort to talk 
 bravely about ordinary and foreign themes, 
 while there is in the hearts of all the woeful 
 consciousness of that open grave. 
 
 At last I broke down and spoke of what my 
 heart was full Chicago and Chicago s loss, 
 and Chicago s heroism and generosity spe 
 cially of this last, and its sublime display, 
 when, burned, stripped, homeless, the past 
 wiped out, the future a blank, the present an 
 agony, it took of the first help that reached 
 it from the eager outside world, and sent it 
 to the people of Wisconsin and Michigan in 
 even sorer straits and desolation, and tried to 
 say in some shape what Tom Hood has said in 
 perfect, shape, that, the charity that plenty 
 spares to poverty is human and earthly, but it 
 becomes divine and heavenly when suffering gives 
 to want," and to tell them what men and women 
 elsewhere thought of the act and of them. I 
 thought that my time too had come to die, and 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 209 
 
 that we would all be drowned and swept away 
 together. Such crying I never did see in any 
 audience, and yet crying that must have done 
 good to those hot dry eyes and overstrained 
 nerves and brains. 
 
 After it was over, still half blind and strangled, 
 I drove back through this city of the silent, and 
 saw not a sign of life save two flitting foot-pas 
 sengers, and the red light of a solitary street-car 
 creeping along. It startled me, this twenty-year 
 old invention in the midst of seeming antique 
 waste. 
 
 The next day I drove over to the north side, 
 where was done the widest work of the fire. It 
 is useless to try to convey to another what you 
 experience in journeying through this region. 
 You can easily tell what your eyes see, but you 
 cannot make another feel what is in your heart. 
 
 There is just simply nothing to describe. 
 Miles on miles of dreary open space. That is all. 
 There are whole blocks as clean as a threshing- 
 floor, not even a nail left, nor a little heap of 
 ashes of what were once beautiful or pleasant 
 homes. This was the " wooden" part of the 
 town, not poor, the poorest and ugliest part of 
 
 the city still stands. 
 14 
 
210 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 There is scarcely a thing that can be called a 
 ruin save the churches, and many of these are 
 literally annihilated. Never before was such 
 awful cleanness seen after fire. It is like the 
 open prairie, save that you, standing in its midst, 
 feel instead of the bounding life of the prairie, as 
 though the ground under foot was filled with sad 
 der things than death. 
 
 Some idea of the frightful fury of the flames 
 can be had from the heavy pillars of church or 
 public buildings, here and there standing. The 
 outer surface of the solid stone has boiled in the 
 furnace heat, run down in streams and hardened 
 on the new face exposed, like petrified jelly. 
 
 Here there was nobody a few sight-seers, 
 strangers nothing else visible that had life. 
 
 Across the river, in the great business section, 
 swarms of men are already at work carting away 
 what rubbish remains, and preparing to build 
 anew, but here things are yet as the fire left 
 them. 
 
 We drove till I said to myself, " Now we must 
 be at the end, for I can bear no more," and when 
 I reached that point we had but fairly begun. 
 
 We paced along over miles and miles till I lost 
 all power of speech, and was dumb when I came 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 211 
 
 back to the home of my dear courageous friends, 
 who tried to laugh at me and broke down cry 
 ing. To bed I went at last, only to lie awake 
 through the night. I was not restless, but I felt 
 as though I could never go to sleep again. 
 
 There is a terrible activity in the mental air of 
 the place. It is penetrated with awful memories, 
 crowded with loss and anguish, and the super 
 human struggle of the people for courage and 
 cheerfulness. Every one tries to outvie his or 
 her neighbor in the heroic eifort. 
 
 One laughs and apologizes for her very fine 
 clothes because they " are all she has," and 
 another is "constantly busy looking after her 
 husband and children by reason of their being 
 scattered in this or that house of friends ;" and 
 another, who has a retinue of servants, " finds it 
 jolly living in two rooms, so much less care ;" 
 and another who has taken her silken ease in a 
 palace is amused at living in a frame shanty, 
 "it reminds me of 49 and 50 ;" and this man 
 says, "Oh, my loss has been nothing," half a 
 million perhaps, but the man with whom he 
 talks has lost a million, and he says, " Well, 
 mine isn t worth mentioning ; I m more lucky 
 than the most : my books are saved ;" and 
 
A RAGGED EEGISTER. 
 
 another, who went abroad a prince, comes home 
 penniless and congratulates himself that he has 
 had Europe, " tliat is a safe investment nothing 
 can take from me ;" and another who had 
 thought his work done begins afresh at fifty, and 
 is sure that he is fortunate in that he " has his 
 credit and energy enough to start anew." 
 
 Still the reaction must come. 
 
 What I have seen makes me think of the 
 splendid drama played by the old French 
 noblesse in the days of the Revolution. It is a 
 sort of intoxication of courage. But when the 
 fine clothes are shabby and there is no money to 
 buy any kind, and the break comes after a man 
 has moved mountains to hold his thread of busi 
 ness unbroken, and the bald gaunt face of poverty 
 sits down at many a table, the result will be ter 
 rible ; even now you hear of invalids and some in 
 sane. Think of nearly five hundred little lives 
 breathing an untimely breath, as they passed 
 their whole of earthly experience in some open 
 park or street on that awful Monday night. 
 
 The noise of the flames, not the crackling and 
 crashing of stone and timber, but the Voice of the 
 Fire, wa-s, they tell me, like the roar of an angry 
 sea. It deafened people, and the light was like 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 213 
 
 that of a consuming world. I do not wonder that 
 it seemed to many a sonl like "the Judgment 
 Day." 
 
 Indeed it was a sort of judgment day, in which 
 the internal Me, the souls of men and women, 
 were laid bare without mask or covering, and the 
 66 bed rock" of nature was revealed to the human 
 eye, as it would never else have been seen save by 
 God alone. 
 
 And the revelation makes one glad that one 
 lives and belongs to the human kind, and I must 
 say it to the American human kind. Robert 
 Collyer testifies, " I did not see a man moaning or 
 a woman crying of your stock ; I did not see a 
 single man or woman who was not trying to do 
 something for somebody else more helpless than 
 they were themselves. Still my American brain 
 does not fail to appreciate the fact that it is a man 
 who did more than the most and better than the 
 best who bears this generous testimony with his 
 hearty English tongue. 
 
 XLIII. 
 
 Life at Chicago was so sad and heroic that 
 even the half week spent there cut me off from 
 the ordinary feeling and action of the world. I 
 
214 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 was glad to find myself at in an atrocious 
 
 hotel, and so be able to growl over the common 
 place disagreeables of time. 
 
 And to have a laugh too. It was the first time 
 
 I had been at , and the landlord, wishing to 
 
 do me honor, was on the steps of his hotel to 
 welcome me with great distinction. Divers high 
 mightinesses had been in order before me, and 
 his tongue had grown so accustomed to titles of 
 rank and dignity as to be unable to compass it 
 self to the small bounds of " miss," and expanded 
 at once into the familiar, " Ah, how de do, 
 colonel ? how de do ? proud to welcome you to 
 our town ;" and then, probably hearing internally 
 an echo of his words, blushed and stopped. 
 
 After all I was not greatly flattered. If it had 
 been general, I might have plumed m yself , but 
 "colonel!" colonels are too plenty. If every 
 colonel of whom I hear or meet was a soldier, the 
 standing army in the country would be a menace 
 to our liberties. Specially throughout the West 
 are they as great in number as they were in San 
 Francisco at the time of John Phoenix s visit, to 
 which number he bears veracious testimony. The 
 steamboat," he tells us, " was leaving the wharf, 
 and everybody was taking leave of friends all 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 215 
 
 but Phoenix, who had no friend to bid him fare 
 well. Ashamed of his loneliness as the boat 
 sheered off, he called out in a loud voice, Good 
 by, colonel ! and, to his great delight, every man 
 on the wharf took off his hat and shouted, 
 < Colonel, good-by ! " 
 
 And that reminds me of a good story told at 
 
 about the President of the Association and 
 
 Mr. Phillips. They had tried in vain to secure 
 his services for their last course, and could give 
 no sufficient reason to their people why he should 
 come to places near and about them, and not to 
 them. 
 
 Being near them, the President, with a party, 
 went to hear him, and at the close of the lecture 
 fell to cross-questioning him as to his inability or 
 unwillingness to meet their wishes. 
 
 " I would not have a good audience," at last 
 said he of the silver tongue, 
 
 " How can you say so," queried the President, 
 " when you had such splendid houses before V 
 
 " Not so full last time," objected Mr. Phillips. 
 
 " But it rained," expostulated the determined 
 officer. " The night would have hurt anybody s 
 house. Our people are more anxious than ever 
 to hear you." 
 
216 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 " Can t credit it," objected the great speaker, 
 who probably had his own sufficient reasons for 
 non-compliance with the request. " I have had 
 thrust upon me, from visit to visit, the unmistak 
 able signs of failing popularity." 
 
 "But you can t have," protested the Presi 
 dent, " because there ain t any failure of that 
 kind. You never began to be so popular." 
 
 "Don t tell me," said Mr. Phillips, with a 
 glimmer of smile that might have enlightened 
 the befogged ambassador, "when I first stopped 
 at - the landlord came clear out to the curb 
 stone to meet me, hat to the ground, General, I 
 am proud and happy of the honor of welcoming 
 you at last to our town. You will have a worthy 
 reception to-night ; and I was sure of an audi 
 ence for tliat evening. 
 
 When I came round almost a year later, the 
 landlord stood in the door, hat not visible, 
 " Colonel, I m glad to see you again ; we ll all be 
 glad to hear you once more ;" and I thought, I 
 will have &full house if not a crowd to-night. 
 
 "Last year, stopping for the third time, there 
 was no landlord on the pavement, none in the 
 doorway, and when I came to the office to regis 
 ter my name, there he stood, hat on the back of 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 217 
 
 his head, too precariously planted to allow of 
 more than a feeble nod as he called, ( Ah, how de 
 do, captain ? Here, Jim, take the captain s bag 
 up to No. 39. I knew then I d have a poor 
 house that night, and I did. You say it was the 
 rain, but the landlord was a popular barometer, 
 and I ll take his warning. If I go this time it 
 will be to find that I am only a high private, with 
 consequent effect on the drawing power/ and 
 I ll stay away accordingly." 
 
 And spite of entreaties that was all the satis 
 faction that could be gained from him. 
 
 To show that he had no possible vacant evening 
 would have been without avail. A plain demon 
 stration of six nights a week for the next six 
 months is no obstacle to an association that has 
 fixed its desires on some particular speaker. " I 
 don t doubt Gough could come well enough if he 
 would," complained a Y. M. C. A. secretary to 
 me one day. " He don t want to come." 
 
 " To my certain knowledge," answered I, " Mr. 
 Gough has at least three times more invitations 
 every season, at his own price, than he is able to 
 fill." 
 
 " Oh, he could come to us if he tried hard 
 enough," growled the disappointed secretary, be- 
 
218 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 fore whose vision rose the crammed hall Gough 
 always draws. " We re only one place more, and 
 we ve been trying to get him for the last three 
 years." 
 
 " So a thousand other places can say," I con 
 tended. 
 
 " Oh, well, he could squeeze us in if we could 
 only make him think so. Can t you speak a 
 word for us when you see him ?" 
 
 " Yes," said I, " I will ; and at the same time 
 suggest to him that he have the calendar amended 
 and eight evenings counted to a week." 
 
 XLIV. 
 
 And the next day, sat ruminating in the cars 
 upon the feasibility of this project, when my pon- 
 derings were rudely jostled by reason of the en 
 gine plunging into the rear car of a freight train 
 and jerking us all from the track. 
 
 " Nobody hurt." 
 
 But as the cars bumped over the ties and 
 swayed to a threatened overthrow, I took a fresh 
 sense of the stupidity or recklessness that con 
 tinues to expose thousands of lives to the horror of 
 slow auto-da-fe s by the crude and senseless meth 
 ods of heating the cars. 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 211) 
 
 Old traveller as I am, much exposed and little 
 given to fear, I never sit down in that champion 
 tinder-box a car in the midst of its upholstery, 
 its dry highly seasoned woods steeped in oil and 
 varnish, and look at its stove without a momen 
 tary shudder. 
 
 It does not need an awful disaster to produce a 
 doubly horrible one. A mishap that would of it 
 self result in nothing worse than a scare and some 
 bruises, is converted through these abominations 
 filled with blazing wood or burning coals into a 
 ghastly tragedy, that is alike awful in itself and 
 a shame to our civilization and its boasted enter 
 prise. 
 
 The company that can use hot-air pipes, yet 
 persists in the atrocity of stoves fire-brands in 
 the midst of kindling-wood in the face of the 
 well-known fact that almost every great calamity 
 on the rails has been doubled and quadrupled in 
 its results of anguish and death " by the cars 
 taking fire," ought to be held to a punishable 
 accountability at the bar of both law and public 
 opinion. 
 
 The public, however, from which the " opinion" 
 is to be manufactured, prefer to greedily devour 
 all the ghastly records of the " accident " (? !), in- 
 
220 A MAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 dulge in fine irony of private comment to the 
 effect, " Oh, of course, nobody s to blame ; the 
 road will look out for tJiat /" and then sit down 
 and wait for a fresh meal of horrors, all the time 
 knowing perfectly well that if each and every 
 one spoke but a single word apiece, but spoke 
 it out loud as to w7to was to blame, " the road " 
 would see to it that no further cause of offence 
 was given in that direction. 
 
 XLV. 
 
 The next day I had a lively ride of another 
 kind. The regular train was hours late, but I 
 was consoled by the assurance of a " comfortable 
 car" on the afternoon freight. Which comfort 
 able car proved to be a baggage-car, incredibly 
 filthy, crowded with road employees, emigrants, 
 and vermin, seatless save for boxes, unventilated 
 save by doors, given over to pipes and tobacco- 
 juice. Fortunately, it was a lovely day, spite of 
 the season, and I sat in the doorway dangling my 
 feet outside, and contemplating at intervals, when 
 my nose would allow it, the display of humanity 
 within. 
 
 Why will people be so dirty ? I often wonder 
 whether it is the habit or affection of long asso- 
 
A BAGGED REGISTER. 221 
 
 elation that makes them cling so tenaciously to 
 that from -which some soap and water would sep 
 arate them ? and would a cold-water mission, not 
 for drink but for ablutions, prove any more suc 
 cessful than the manifold temperance crusades. 
 
 XLVL 
 
 At the end of that journey I had one of my 
 " experiences" with a lecture association. 
 
 There are associations and associations. 
 
 This was one of the " and s. 
 
 Train crept up to the station at 6.55. Nobody 
 there to meet me. Had not been in the place be- 
 lore, the names and grades of the different hotels 
 Avere consequently unrevealed mysteries. 
 
 " Which is the best house *" I inquired of the 
 conductor of an out-going train. 
 
 He was not at liberty to designate. 
 
 " I can t tell you. We never give any pref 
 erence. It d make bad feeling. They are all 
 pretty fair." 
 
 Of course I knew that in a town of tJtat size 
 there was one that might be i pretty fair, and 
 certainly the best and no more. 
 
 So I appealed to the ticket-agent, and the tele 
 graph agent, and the baggage-master with, as 
 
222 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 usual, the like result. Finally fished out my 
 baggage, plunged into an omnibus and went to 
 a hotel of course the wrong one. Saw that be 
 fore I was fairly within the door. Had a row with 
 the driver before he could be induced to carry 
 me to the right one. Reached it. Waited to see 
 the clerk. Went in pursuit of him. Was grinned 
 at by a group of boors who stood about the bar 
 filling the air with tobacco-smoke and carpeting 
 the fioor with tobacco-juice. Ignored them in re 
 turn. Found the clerk. Found a room. Found 
 no fire. 
 
 " Had any of the committee been in ?" 
 
 " Yes, Mr. Smith had been in in the morning, 
 and I told him he d better have a room engaged 
 and a fire ; but he said you might want to stay 
 at a private house, and then the committee would 
 be out a dollar. : 
 
 Not only no fire, but no water in the pitcher, 
 no towels, no coffee, no time to make any : re 
 sult, eight o clock before I can wash the grime 
 from my face, comb my ragged hair, and, shabby 
 and hungry, find my way to the hall. 
 
 The next season when I halted at I was 
 
 " in time," was settled, was arrayed, was specu 
 lating on the audience, and, lamenting the coughs 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 223 
 
 and colds that would be taken by it out of the 
 slush of the streets and the sleet in the air, won 
 dered why none of the committee appeared. 
 
 Two did appear. 
 
 Was I ready ? 
 
 Yes, I was ready. 
 
 Had I rubbers on ? 
 
 Yes, I had sandals ; they were sufficient to 
 cross to the carriage. 
 
 Door opened. Black night. Ankle deep slop. 
 Driving storm. No carriage. 
 
 Where was the carriage ? 
 
 They had no carriage. Did I want one ? 
 
 Yes, I certainly did want one, I always wanted 
 one, and the committee always "brought one. 
 
 Couldn t I do without it \ 
 
 K"o, I certainly couldn t do without it. I pre 
 ferred it on any night, and I needed it on this 
 night. 
 
 Private conference in the corner. 
 
 Exit. 
 
 Delay. 
 
 Transit to hall. 
 
 Speech made. 
 
 Desire to return to hotel and supper. 
 
 Fresh delay. 
 
224 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 "Mr. T. and his wife Mr. T. is one of our 
 members took the carriage to go home, thought 
 they d get there and have it sent back before you 
 got through hand-shaking and were ready." 
 
 Carriage arrives. Five young men follow the 
 unhappy speaker into its depths, 
 
 The President. 
 
 The Vice-President. 
 
 The Secretary. 
 
 The Treasurer. 
 
 Private member. 
 
 The Vice-President is put down at liis door. 
 The distinguished member is put down at his 
 door. The carriage veers out of the route to the 
 hotel to put the Secretary down at Ids door. 
 The President and Treasurer come with the 
 speaker to her destination, hand her a roll of 
 bills, remount the vehicle, and disappear through 
 the night, supposably to their doors. 
 
 She I the speaker counts her roll of bills 
 and finds her fee short ten dollars. In the morn 
 ing sees the Treasurer ; regrets but presumes a 
 " probable oversight." 
 
 "]X T ot at all. No oversight at all. It s all 
 right." 
 
 How all right T 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 225 
 
 (i Certainly ; we paid ten dollars for the car 
 riage." 
 
 After which, there is manifestly no farther call 
 for words, and " I am thankful I have got my 
 hat back from this congregation." 
 
 XLVIL 
 
 Also, that I am to have the pleasure of travel 
 ling onward to a St. Louis hotel, and a St. Louis 
 
 audience, and of laughing over my stop at 
 
 by the way. 
 
 is but thirty miles from St. Louis, yet the 
 
 houses and lands and people are sigJtts. Nobody 
 but Dickens could do justice to them ; so why 
 attempt it ? 
 
 He once did so ; is a place marked in the 
 
 " Notes." He came to it on a big hunt, and they 
 still show the bit of an inn at which he stopped, 
 and are full of stories of him. My driver was 
 the son of the old hotel- keeper keeper of the 
 hotel now himself, a yellow- haired, long-legged 
 gawk, who narrated with pride how he blacked 
 Dickens boots, and how he Dickens " went 
 on a glorious old bust. He airn t noways related 
 to you, be he?" 
 
 " No," say I, somewhat wondering, the mys- 
 15 
 
226 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 tery being presently elucidated by the query, " I 
 say, Missus Dickens, whar shell I have your trunk 
 checked onto ?" 
 
 The hotel had been built on to the old one the 
 old one now degraded to a hen-house the most 
 comical place, with deep window-seats, and a 
 ridiculous three-cornered cupboard, and a door 
 set into the room opposite the cupboard also 
 three-cornered (a la Dick Deadeye), and furniture 
 that had apparently descended from the ark. 
 Every thing though was scrupulously clean, an 
 unheard-of luxury through the last half week, 
 and I thought to have a night s sleep, but was 
 disappointed. 
 
 No one who has not heard and felt these prairie 
 winds can imagine them. Blowing without break 
 over thousands of miles, their sweep is terrific. 
 The day had been sultry as August, and when 
 night fell I thought time had nearly ended. It 
 thundered and lightened and poured as though 
 the sea had broken from the sky, while the wind, 
 as my landlord remarked in the morning, " war 
 enough to blow the dead out of their graves." 
 
 " I hope it won t blow you off the rails and in 
 ter one," he remarked cheerfully as I Avent my 
 way to a little later. 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 227 
 
 Not a bad wish for that day and time. 
 
 Never saw I such a tempest as broke over the 
 place that afternoon. It was the same that de 
 stroyed East St. Louis, but somewhat spent before 
 reaching . 
 
 At three of the afternoon a darkness fell that 
 was horrible. Not a twilight nor night, but a livid 
 blackness that was awful. The gas burned as in 
 a vault, casting out a circle of rays, but leaving 
 the space about it in profound gloom. The rain 
 fell not in drops, but in sheets, the thunder was 
 like a park of artillery, yet the noise of the wind 
 drowned it, and the lightning was so incessant 
 and brilliant as to furnish light whereby to read, 
 had not its glare blinded one. 
 
 It would have been terrible at midsummer, such 
 a storm. In the midst of winter (it snowed that 
 night) there was about it something weird and 
 uncanny that made one shudder as though the 
 elements had quite broken from all order and 
 control. 
 
 XLVIII. 
 
 Considering the profound gloom without, per 
 haps it was not strange the President of the As 
 sociation was anxious for something lively in the 
 evening. 
 
228 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 He was afraid the audience might not like the 
 lecture on " Jo-ann," because -"we don t read 
 much in this town, and haven t no library, nor 
 yet many books, and there ain t many of us as 
 has more than heard of her." 
 
 I suggested that they should take some other 
 lecture that might be a bit spicy, and so suit 
 them better. 
 
 " No. You re making that everywhere, ain t 
 you ? Up to Chicago, and down at St. Louis, and 
 all round?" 
 
 " Even so," I confessed. 
 
 "Well, we are going to have first chop what 
 ever it is, and Jo-ann seems to fill the bill. 
 
 In spite of his asseveration, however, my friend 
 was not satisfied with the " bill," for he shook his 
 head sadly and slow, and at last ventured, 
 " Nothing brisk in it, eh ?" 
 
 6 i Rather the reverse, I was afraid. 
 
 " And she lived a considerable while ago. I 
 reckon about 1816, wan t it ?" 
 
 i Nearer five hundred than fifty years, I ex 
 plained to him. 
 
 " Well now ! So long ago as that ! Really ! 
 Well ! You see I told you we re not much for 
 reading here. Do you mind telling whether Jo- 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 229 
 
 arm was English or French ? And where is Ark 
 any way ? 
 
 More surprise at the answer that " Arc" was a 
 myth, " if nowhere 1 the myth evidently 
 being as great a mystery as the " Ark." 
 
 A long pause, during which my literary friend 
 ruminated while stroking his whiskers, and I 
 studied a page of human nature. 
 
 "I say." 
 
 " It s just a historic piece ?" 
 
 " No more." 
 
 " Well now," brightening hopefully, "don t 
 you think you could liven it up by throwing in a 
 few jolly stories and some jokes, and and that 
 sort of thing ? 
 
 " Have an intermission about the middle of it ? 
 Sing a song? or perhaps dance a jig?" I feel 
 ingly inquired. 
 
 At which with ecstasy the response, " Oh ! if 
 you only would, Miss Dickinson !" 
 
 Well I didn t, and was never bidden back to 
 tliat town. 
 
 I did not suppose he could be matched, but I 
 found his mate a fortnight or so later at - . 
 
 Said the very pleasant presiding officer to me 
 
230 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 as we wended our way to the hall, " We have 
 engaged Mr. H to introduce you this evening. 
 Mr. H is the leading banker here, and very 
 rich, and he wants to go to Congress, and is 
 always more than glad to make a little speech, 
 and as he does a great deal for our associa 
 tion " 
 
 He smiled and I smiled, and waited for a sen 
 sation. 
 
 And was not disappointed. 
 
 Elijah Pogram in the flesh ! Just so big and 
 noisy and pretentious, with a vast expanse of 
 shirt-front, white vest, and limp white necktie. 
 Just such a blue swallow-tail with shining but 
 tons. Hair brushed up in just such an " intel 
 lectual " manner. Tobacco quid as huge. Hands 
 stuck as determinedly into his breeches pockets. 
 
 JS"o sooner did I see him than I knew I was in 
 for it, and I was. After certain little formalities 
 of attitude and quid had been gone through with, 
 thus ran his story : 
 
 " Fellow-citizens. 
 
 c Ladies and gentlem en . 
 
 It is my pleasure, my honor and my pleas 
 ure to be where I am to-night. 
 
 "Hem! hem! 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER 231 
 
 " Any one might rejoice in such a pleasure and 
 a honor hem ! 
 
 " Ladies and gentlemen, and citizens of Elea- 
 noize, and fellow-members of this community, 
 the young woman who is to address you to-night 
 has considerable reputation hem hem ! 
 
 " In fact wherever the English language is 
 spoken, wherever the American stars and stripes 
 waves, her name is like household words. Listen 
 to her then, and I know, yes, fellow-citizens, I 
 know you will listen to her since she always ad 
 dresses herself to the.poor, the maimed, the halt, 
 and the blind ! You will listen to her since she 
 always addresses herself to the ignorant, the down 
 trodden and the oppressed of every color, clime, 
 and tongue ! 
 
 " Fellow-citizens of E leanoize <md ladies and 
 gentlemen, you will now listen to the oration of 
 Miss Anna E. Dickinson." 
 
 And he was through, mercifully before I had 
 expired of slow strangulation. Being under his 
 very nose in full view of the audience an audi 
 ence that did not stir a muscle I did not dare to 
 laugh and so as nearly choked as was wholesome. 
 
 It was worth going to to see and to hear. 
 
 Indeed, there are people and their doings worth 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 crossing a state, not to say a continent, to behold ; 
 curiosities not to be observed every day. 
 
 I should think there were a good many such in 
 the Missouri legislature at the same time I was 
 
 at . One of the honorable members desired 
 
 that the hall of the House might be voted to 
 " Miss Dickinson to give her speech on Jonah s 
 Ark there was so much talk about." He sup 
 posed "it must be a lecture about whales, and 
 might be interesting as well as instructive," and 
 another said lie would rather hear her on " female 
 agitation" (the two speeches under consideration 
 being " Joan of Arc" and " Woman s Work and 
 Wages"), but as they proposed there should be no 
 tickets, leaving the speaker to pay her own ex 
 penses, she concluded that her interest in their 
 mental growth and spiritual welfare did not de 
 mand the outlay. She preferred going to that 
 charming town of Independence and a right-mind 
 ed society instead. 
 
 XLTX. 
 
 Some parts of Missouri are altogether lovely. 
 About this place, for instance, the farms are im 
 mense, perfectly cultivated, trimly hedged in 
 stead of fenced, well watered and timbered. The 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 233 
 
 forests alone would make it beautiful. When 
 you have for long journeyed over a prairie coun 
 try you find even a commonplace surface of land 
 absolutely delightful to the eye by reason of trees. 
 Independence, formerly the starting-point for em 
 igrant trains, stands back from the road, one of 
 the richest and oldest towns in the State, and I 
 looked with pathetic interest at the spot from 
 whence so many thousands and tens of thousands 
 camped and rested and said good-by to all that 
 was behind of home and civilization, and started 
 upon the long journey across the plains, some in 
 hope, some in indifference akin to despair, many 
 and many a one to sooner find a halting-place 
 than that toward which their weary feet tended. 
 
 There is as much to sorrow as to rejoice over in 
 this wonderful far Western growth in more ways 
 than one. 
 
 In too many cases the men are reckless fellows 
 who destroy themselves with excesses and drink. 
 
 The women live in their cabins (solitary in 
 the midst of great spaces), toil and moil early 
 and late, their own housekeepers, cooks, maids, 
 nurses, drudges. Bearing half a dozen or a dozen 
 children, burying part of them, by and by lying- 
 down by their side, leaving space among the liv- 
 
-34 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 ing for No. 2 to step into a handsome home and 
 a good time ! 
 
 Having wearied myself with melancholy reflec 
 tion, I nearly fell into convulsions over the ex 
 traordinary turnout that met my vision as I 
 turned away from the sight of the old emigrant 
 road. 
 
 A waggon of wood, the very tires on the wheels 
 of wood in place of iron, the design of the estab 
 lishment, to speak mildly, unique, the household 
 belongings unique. Perched on these, two tired- 
 looking saffron-hued women, each with a baby in 
 her arms, and eight or ten small tow-heads bob 
 bing about among the afore-mentioned household 
 goods and chattels, as part and parcel of which 
 they seemed to be stored. Two anatomies of 
 oxen leading; two anatomies of men, sallow, 
 long-haired, "jeans" covered men walking along 
 side. 
 
 Somebody asked one of the pioneers whence 
 they came and whither they were bound. To 
 which answer was vouchsafed, " What s that your 
 dad ratted bisniss 2 We re from North Calini 
 and are going to Kansas if we can ever git out of 
 these yer blamed hoiises. " 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 235 
 
 L. 
 
 1 found here as elsewhere in the Western part 
 of the State a plenty of audiences that were * con 
 servative," but delightful people to whom to tell 
 the story of Jeanne d Arc. 
 
 Cultivated and well read, though you would 
 not think it from their external appearance ; odd- 
 looking companies, the women with their coats 
 of many colors and many fashions, and the men 
 with their tobacco and their manners savoring so 
 much of well ! I do not know what unless it be 
 an equal mixture of courtier and Indian. 
 
 I could readily understand why the story was 
 so well liked by them, with its heroic and pathetic 
 central figure, and its tale of a weak and almost 
 crushed people making triumphant headway 
 against a powerful foe. 
 
 Not that I heard lament for things past, nor 
 refusal to accept the inevitable present nor things 
 to come. The great body of people here, as the 
 great body of people everywhere, have been led. 
 These have been led astray, but they are getting 
 into the right road, and are struggling nobly to 
 ward an end that shall be peace and good will. 
 
 I was amused at a bit of argumentation to 
 
236 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 which I listened on my way from C to Kansas 
 City. 
 
 A fossil and evident " stay-at-home" was dilat 
 ing to another of like ilk on the divine right of 
 slavery, and the wrongs and sufferings of the 
 slaveholders. 
 
 He must have been a foolish man to have spent 
 his living moments in talking about a thing 
 utterly dead. 
 
 Opposite him sat a bright-faced one-armed Mis- 
 sourian, who looked as though he had given the 
 boys in blue some hot work, watching and listen 
 ing with an amused smile as the mummy iterated 
 and reiterated, God Almighty never meant the 
 damned niggers to be free ! ]N T o. He never did. 
 He never meant it !" arid at last breaking out 
 with 
 
 * Well if that s so, he must be a mighty mean 
 sort of God, for the damned niggers got the best 
 of him." 
 
 Whereat everybody in the car, native and 
 foreign, broke into a roar. 
 
 LI. 
 
 The country from Kansas City down to Fort 
 Scott is the "Debatable Land," and from point 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 237 
 
 to point I heard names that made me start as they 
 were called, thinking that if " old John Brown s 
 soul was marching on," it might be hereabouts to 
 look after the fate of his former camping grounds. 
 And thought of it the more by reason of the 
 companionship of a fellow-passenger String- 
 fellow of " Border Ruffian" fame. 
 
 A man of medium height, very strongly and 
 muscularly built, small hands and feet, large 
 head, fiery red skin, hair and whiskers white 
 now, once sandy, the whiskers cut short about 
 mouth and chin, giving a hard bristling look to a 
 jaw square to ugliness and a mouth already firm 
 to cruelty. Large perceptive, small reasoning 
 faculties. The nose of a fox. Eyes of a lead 
 blue, the coldest and most sinister I ever met. 
 A look of great power and endurance to the 
 whole man. 
 
 I wondered did any ghosts gaze in at him, or 
 touch him as he went by. 
 
 He would not have known it. 
 
 And yet I doirt know Legree was terrified 
 past control by the " voices" that came down the 
 garret stairs in that house of horrors he called 
 his home. 
 
 At I concluded I was certainly on the 
 
238 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 " Border," as my landlord enlivened the pro 
 ceedings of the day by firing at and almost killing 
 his clerk, over which little unpleasantness nobody 
 appeared at all disturbed. A cheerful country ! 
 
 It will take at least one generation to forget the 
 lessons of barbarism, and another to learn those 
 of civilization, and these people in common with 
 the rest of Kansas are doing the best that can be 
 done for present and future by their royal sup 
 port of the best school system in the land. 
 
 Of my own experiences what chiefly impressed 
 me at - - was the littleness of the room in which 
 I held forth, and the bigness of the man who had, 
 as expressed by himself, " the honor to preside 
 on this memorable and delightful occasion," a 
 Missouri colonel (every man here is a colonel, a 
 general, or a j udge), who stood seven feet in his 
 stockings." 
 
 I was apprehensive for the roof as his head rose 
 upward, and somewhat scared for myself as he 
 planted his feet feet that were foundations for 
 this height, objects that he regarded with mani 
 fest pride as he turned them about for inspection, 
 and informed me there wasn t a pair of ready- 
 made shoes in the State he could " get on." 
 
 Also, he wore a shirt of unbleached cotton, 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 239 
 
 without collar, fresh, yet already creased and 
 tobacco-stained, into the limp front of which was 
 thrust a magnificent diamond of purest water and 
 superb size ; and lit was as kind, and genial, and 
 intelligent as his diamond was bright an out 
 and out gentleman. 
 
 If you wish to see human nature in all manner 
 of curious developments, " go west." 
 
 LII. 
 
 As to the hotel conditions under which you will 
 study it, at a woeful many of places, ask no 
 report. 
 
 For instance, how many and grievous wounds 
 have I carried away from countless inglorious 
 contests at - - ! How many times journeying 
 from it to various other points in the State have 
 I enjoyed unmolested possession of an entire seat 
 in a crowded car, and been shunned by erst-while 
 eager committee men, who sheered off silently, 
 or tremulously asked, " Is it safe for you to be 
 abroad, so soon, after so violent an attack of 
 small-pox f 
 
 There is a great deal to be said in extenuation of 
 some of these hotels ; such as the heat, and the 
 sand, and the vermin-ridden wood of which the 
 
240 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 houses are frequently constructed, and I would 
 defy even a Pennsylvania Quaker housekeeper to 
 make any headway against the fleas fleas not so 
 big and fierce-looking as those of California, but 
 abounding like the locusts of old. 
 
 Still there are limits. 
 
 Apropos to this agreeable theme, the other day 
 I heard a story, at the expense of this my most 
 merciless persecutor of a house, that I enjoyed. 
 (No, I will not tell you the house nor the town. 
 The town is a Kansas city, and if you travel you 
 will have to go to the city and being there go to 
 the house, since tis the best the place affords. 
 Why torment you untimely by knowledge of 
 what is to come People of delicate sensibilities 
 who stay at home, and have not a fellow-feeling 
 born of suffering, need not read. 
 
 " Yes," this western man was saying to 
 another rough-looking customer, " you may be 
 lieve it or not, thar he was a walking down the 
 page of the register when I wrote my name. 
 6 We-ell ! said I to the clerk, this beats me ! 
 I ve had gray -backs a swarmin on me when I 
 was at Libby prison, and I ve been eaten of mus- 
 keets down to Orleans, and I ve had my tussle 
 with fleas and buggers in this country, but dern 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 241 
 
 my skin if this isn t the first time I ever did see a 
 bedbug walk down the register to find the num 
 ber of a man s room afore he d taken possession 
 of it. "" 
 
 If one cannot fall into ecstasies over the hotels, 
 one can wax enthusiastic over other matters. The 
 most of these Kansas towns are delightful. The 
 houses tasty, many of them built of the soft light 
 stone that here abounds, giving a substantial and 
 old look to infantile settlements. Clean side 
 walks, abundant shade, vines and flowers bloom 
 ing in early season, every thing tidy and busy, 
 cheerful and progressive. Kansas is like Iowa in 
 its population : New England elements, of thrift 
 and energy and cleanliness, and devotion to edu 
 cation predominating. 
 
 The country has a steady lift toward the 
 mountains, and some of the marvellous clearness 
 of the high lands beyond inheres in its atmos 
 phere. The sun goes down a golden or crimson 
 glory, with few or no clouds, and the night soon 
 falls. I should think the New England people 
 would miss the dear delight of twilight time and 
 its musings. 
 
 I slipped off the train at Leavenworth, aban 
 doned talk and companions for a while, in the 
 16 
 
242 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 midst of this last journey to Colorado to renew 
 acquaintance with the face of some spots, that, 
 after all, I did but find in memory. 
 
 When I was first in this place I had hurried 
 past a deal of modern growth to look at the house 
 where the Phillips brothers were, in the early 
 days, shot at their own door, and at various points 
 in the open streets where brave men fought and 
 died to save the land from slavery, and going on 
 from the ground where they had fallen early 
 martyrs to a cause that ripened five years later 
 I climbed the rugged side of Pilot Knob to see 
 where they were laid to their final rest. It is the 
 highest land between the Rocky and the Eastern 
 Mountains, a great ridge looming up in these 
 flats, the landmark for many a belated hunter or 
 emigrant train. 
 
 Time 1 s obliterating fingers and the i i march of 
 improvement," had left no trace of the spots 
 where they had fought and slept, and I pondered 
 through the night, as the train sped away, the 
 pathetic question of poor old " Rip," " Are we 
 then so soon forgotten when we are gone V and 
 concluded it was well to live one s life from day 
 to day, since there is not only none in the grave, 
 but precious little memory of it, though it be 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 243 
 
 filled by what has eternally forgotten comfort and 
 happiness and personal gain and present pleasure 
 for the welfare of others, or for the honor or love 
 of those who are too busy with their present to 
 remember what has been done or endured or 
 gained by another in a past that dates back but 
 yesterday. 
 
 LIIL 
 
 I wonder what the people out in the country 
 across which I gazed the next morning think of 
 " fame and future." In all the broad expanse no 
 human habitation met the eye, and yet there were 
 a plenty of human beings. Through this inhos 
 pitable land, where stone does not abound, and 
 wood is more than scarce, and storms are awful, 
 the people who are here, from election or necessity 
 - road- workers and the like have made for 
 themselves " dug outs," which being interpreted 
 signifies they have burrowed holes in the ground, 
 banked these over with the thrown-out earth, 
 turfed the foot-high roof, and so found them 
 selves " at home." 
 
 As I looked at these, there came before me 
 another scene : the James River in the summer of 
 65 and the counterparts of these same hutches 
 
244 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 kennels where our men had taken food and 
 shelter while working on the fortifications, shield 
 ing themselves not from cold but -fiery rain, and I 
 thought that for a little while, at least, I would 
 like to change the view, and see that lovely river 
 and its beautiful banks now that long years of 
 winter storms and summer suns have smoothed 
 away all the scars of Avar. 
 
 But in that case I would have lost the next 
 morning s ride, when, a few hours out of Denver, 
 we clambered through the. dusky light to the pilot 
 of the engine for a scud never to be forgotten. 
 
 You know what the " pilot " is ? No ? Well, 
 it is the flat edge, a foot wide, to which the " cow 
 catcher" is attached, and the crack point for ob 
 servation of the train. A gorgeous seat ! specially 
 when you are so lucky as to be in the good graces 
 of the engineer to the extent of the bestowal of his 
 leather cushion, which is the last and only touch 
 needed to make perfect your iron perch. 
 
 There is a wonderful sense of exhilaration in 
 riding after such fashion through still scenes and 
 quiet landscapes. Nothing is before you, nor at 
 your side. The sky for covering, the surface oi ! 
 things " all ow-doors" about you, the great mon 
 sterchoo ! choo ! chooing ! behind you, toiling and 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. %Z 
 
 moiling like a brawny giant. You, flying 
 through the air without sense of motion save that 
 of delight and ease. 
 
 But through this country ! 
 
 The broad swells, dark and cold, like an angry 
 sea spread round us, clearing as we gazed, the air 
 crystalline, the freshness of morning blowing in 
 our faces ; the sky ! a slow retreat of darkness 
 on the one hand, a steady advance of soft yet 
 glowing light on the other. Before us the majes 
 tic mountain line, taking shade after shade of 
 purple and amethyst as the rising sun struck 
 against and up its seams and canons. 
 
 The clouds, drifted up and down, were blown 
 aside, massed themselves together, sometimes 
 seeming on the ground from which the stately 
 peaks lifted as from a base of fairy land ; some 
 times, where the sun burnished them, so high and 
 white and shining as to counterfeit snow -clad 
 summits, and leave the watcher in doubt as to 
 which indeed was mountain and which its cloud 
 semblance. ; 
 
 Colors of all sorts revealed themselves on the 
 face of the range a rock superb in its native hue 
 without the help of air or cloud effect, a deep rich 
 red, Tyrian purple rather, and gradually, beyond 
 
246 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 the stretch of plain, beyond the first range dense 
 and grand, rose in the air, peak after peak of far 
 ther ranges gleaming with the sunrise on unmelt- 
 ing heads of snow. 
 
 So we rode for hours, seeing neither fence, nor 
 farm, nor house, nor human being, and at the 
 Junction, a mile outside the city, scrambled back 
 to our " Pallas" car, assumed sublime uncon 
 sciousness of rampant hair and grimy hands, and 
 general "towsle," and rame into the civilization 
 of a town in civilized shape. 
 
 LIY. 
 
 About what were the good people of Denver 
 thinking when they planned their delightful city 
 at right angles! Nowhere can you stand at 
 doorway or window and get an unbroken view of 
 the magnificent sweep of mountains. Somewhere 
 a hindrance of chimney or spire, or even cottage 
 roof, cuts off the whole marvellous view. 
 
 And what a view ! and what ether through 
 which to gaze at it. 
 
 ~No one who has not seen and felt it can have 
 any idea of this atmosphere clear, crisp, mag 
 netic. The sky deep in hue as sapphires, often 
 like a dome of lapis-lazuli, the clouds masses of 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 247 
 
 dazzling glory, the air without dimmings of mist 
 or vapor, a transparent medium of light, so white 
 and resplendent as to be actually painful to an eye 
 that is at all tired or weak. (Remedy, goggles, 
 brown and big. Never travel through such a 
 country without them if you would be absurdly 
 hideous and luxuriously comfortable.) There is 
 no use in trying to describe these sun and air 
 effects, one might as well endeavor to grasp them 
 in one s hand and so hold and transmit them, as 
 strive to send them to another s vision from the 
 point of a pen. 
 
 One afternoon we went out to see the sun set, 
 driving away toward the ridge on the eastern 
 plains, and so moving fell into the line of the 
 sorrowful procession of the grave. 
 
 It was all out of place ! There are spots a plenty 
 on the face of the earth with which death seems 
 in keeping, and looking at which you say, this 
 ground was made for graves but not here. 
 
 And what life had gone before this ending ! 
 
 The old, old story. 
 
 A young girl, beautiful, accomplished, help 
 lessthe daughter of rich and well-bred people in 
 St. Louis. Trusting, betrayed, abandoned, her 
 love accounted unto her for crime, outcast striv 
 ing in vain to reconquer lost ground, thrust from 
 
248 A BAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 depth to depth, till in a few years, in sight 
 of these mountains, and on such a bosom of na 
 ture, she lies down to her last sleep. 
 
 As I looked at sky and mountain and plain a 
 heavenly glory and then at the gloomy and 
 contracted confines of her grave, I thought : surely 
 this last must be likeness of her life past ; this 
 first, prototype of her life to be. 
 
 God knows all : doubtless she has tested and 
 proven his justice to be more infinitely tender 
 than the mercies of man. So thought I, turning 
 from the sad companionship and going back to 
 the delightful town. 
 
 LIY. 
 
 Denver is so charming as to serve as a trap to 
 hold the uninitiated traveller from the wonders 
 beyond. He needs energy to pack his bag and 
 scramble for the " narrow gauge" road running 
 south. 
 
 A curiosity in itself is this little road, completed 
 now from Denver to Alamosa, with the intention 
 of pushing it through to the city of Mexico when 
 permission is granted by Mexican authority to lay 
 the rails across Mexican soil and the money for 
 stock is subscribed. 
 
 Let it be recorded as a miracle that this road 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER 249 
 
 has neither asked nor received government aid. 
 It issues no passes, demands in return no unjust 
 favors, and tries to hold its own honestly. The 
 capital so far invested in it is mainly English, and 
 the most agreeable of English people are spread 
 ing themselves throughout this region. 
 
 An ordinary " compromise " gauge road could 
 never have been accomplished. Its cost would 
 have been too formidable. The width of such an 
 one would be 4 feet 10J inches, weight of iron 75 
 Ibs. to the yard, length of cars from 50 to 70 
 feet. Imagine this baby road : 3 feet wide ; 
 weight of iron to the yard of rail, 30 Ibs. ; length 
 of cars, 40 feet. 
 
 The right sort of thing where money is scarce, 
 and uninhabited land scanty of travel, and freight 
 age plenty. 
 
 The right sort of thing, too, for steep grading 
 and narrow canons and mountain passes, since 
 these cars can be switched with ease round curves 
 that would swing off any ordinary train to de 
 struction. 
 
 The right sort of thing, also for capitalists to 
 study in the way of enterprise and economy, now 
 that people are growing restive under the weight 
 and width of the great corporations. 
 
250 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 Or, better still, that first-class mechanics would 
 do well to ponder and work from, instead of serv 
 ing as tools in the hands of " bloated aristo 
 crats." Such a road can be built, as part of this 
 Denver and Rio Grande has been constructed, as 
 a co-operative enterprise, anywhere. 
 
 People slip down this D. and R. G. road to reach 
 Colorado Springs and the weird-looking places 
 about it. 
 
 The town itself is admirably located for a water 
 ing-place, within easy drive of some of the greatest 
 wonders of this strange region, " The Garden of 
 the Gods," " Glen Eyre," " Monument Park," 
 "Cheyenne Canon," " Manitou Springs." Over 
 against it is a spur thrust out from the second 
 of the great ranges, with Pike s Peak keeping- 
 watch over all. 
 
 LY. 
 
 We went up to look at the face of the Peak 
 and its revealings. Scrambled a]ong a narrow 
 trail for a dozen miles to the Alta Laguna, halted, 
 kindled an enormous fire of fallen trees, supped, 
 stretched ourselves out to sleep, or to lie watching 
 the tall white trees standing in serried ranks 
 along the sides of the mountain, the dark lines of 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 251 
 
 far-off ridges rising against the quiet sky, the 
 sky seemingly nearer, the stars brighter than 
 those looked at in other lands. 
 
 Up at 2. 30, away, away through timber grow 
 ing thin, till at five o clock, eleven thousand feet 
 above the sea, we saw the sun rise, and reached 
 timber line and the end of the trail. Plunged off 
 into space and to work over solid masses of broken 
 boulders and granite till at last at eight in the 
 morning we gained the summit. 
 
 Can I tell any thing about it ? 
 
 Not much. 
 
 One goes to the top of a mountain for emotions, 
 not descriptions. 
 
 Can I make you see it ? 
 
 Not at all. 
 
 At the east the vast stretch of plains, purple 
 like a great sea. To the south-east and south, 
 two long stretches of mountains finished by the 
 stately domes of the Spanish Peaks one hun 
 dred and ten miles away. To the south-west and 
 west, fully a half-dozen stupendous ranges, their 
 imperial heads blazing with snow, valleys lying 
 between, silvery lines of rivers flowing across, and 
 off at the north-west and north, still the moun 
 tains, headed by the majestic height of Long s 
 
252 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 Peak, one hundred and fifty miles away. The 
 four great points of Long s Peak, Grey s Peak, 
 Pike s Peak, and the Spanish Peaks, making a 
 line from the north-west to the south-east, we 
 standing on one of them, and feeling as though 
 God were very near, and his world, poor and 
 small as we are accustomed to call it, a thing to 
 awe and yet elevate the looker-on to more than a 
 level with the angels. 
 
 We prowled to and fro, we gazed and gazed 
 again, we sat here and there on the edge of things, 
 and looked across creation, or straight down sheer 
 precipices of two thousand feet ; we tore ourselves 
 away at the end of three hours, and plunged, 
 plunged, plunged our way back to camping 
 grooind and food after thirteen hours of work and 
 fasting, scrambled into saddle, and found our 
 selves at Manitou at midnight. 
 
 LVL 
 
 Mem. Never climb without a lemon. It costs 
 little. It weighs lightly. It burthens no one 
 even in this thin air. Cut in two and devoured 
 at the right time, it is the most absolute refresh 
 ment and the most stinging and staying stimulant 
 a tired climber can ever know. 
 
A MAGGED REGISTER. 253 
 
 LVIL 
 
 You are weary ? You really want as well as 
 need rest and refreshment I You are sure you 
 won t hanker after the fleshpots of hotels and 
 Saratoga trunks and fal-lals \ Well, then, do as 
 we did. 
 
 What did we 3 
 
 Got a pair of good beasties and comfortable 
 vehicle, clambered into it cased in light woollen 
 garments so that neither sunnings nor wettings 
 could trouble us, with substantial hand-bags, a 
 bucket to water the horses ; some lunch ; some 
 field-glasses, and divers odds and ends by way of 
 baggage and made for the Twin Lakes and 
 " Berry s." 
 
 Rode thirty-three miles the first day. From 
 Colorado Springs to Manitou, up the wild Ute 
 Pass to the beautiful open country beyond ; 
 through Hay den s Pass, where on either side the 
 road nature has piled a vast mass of boulders to 
 the height of four hundred feet, as regularly and 
 symmetrically as though done by a mason s 
 hand ; across land that was rich and prolific, 
 though we had started at an elevation of six 
 thousand and were unconsciously moving along 
 
254 A MAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 co an elevation of nine thousand feet, and toward 
 sun-setting turned a mile or so from the line of our 
 travel to see some petrified stumps of trees. 
 
 And shall never forget the spot where they 
 stood. 
 
 A place-like an enormous basin, the sides gently 
 sloping up to the level brim all around. Short, 
 soft gray grass covering the ground. Timber on 
 the uplifted surrounding edge miles away, each 
 twig and leaf of which stood out soft yet distinct 
 as an i^ory painting in one s hand. A sky and air 
 for which I could find no likeness save the 
 " pearly clearness of the Celestial City," the color 
 ing shot through it reflected from the clouds and 
 the sunken sun making a " light that never was 
 on sea or land." The pallid massive stumps, 
 ghostly and cold, of what had been wood ages 
 before the deluge. Not a sound. Not a chirp of 
 cricket, nor stir of twig or leaf, or blade of grass, 
 nor whisper of bird. Not a sight or vestige of 
 existence, human or brute. It was awful, yet 
 filled with enchantment. 
 
 We carried its exalted spell till we reached 
 Costello s jolly hospitable ranche, with its queer 
 little rooms lined with canvas and adorned with 
 innumerable copies of illustrated newspapers, its 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 255 
 
 huge open fireplace made of petrified wood, its 
 gorgeous fire, its royal supper, and yet more royal 
 beds of sweet-smelling straw. 
 
 Don t you wish you knew Judge and Madame 
 Costello, and that they would let you come to 
 their ranche, and feed you and talk to you, and 
 make you happy, and at departing allow you 
 to capture from the muse am on their open ver 
 anda some antelope-horns or deer-horns, or horns 
 of Rocky Mountain sheep, mineral specimens or 
 petrified wood ? 
 
 If you don t, it is because you are a poor be 
 nighted mortal, with no knowledge of what you 
 are rejecting. 
 
 We meandered away from it with reluctance, 
 though we had before us some long heavenly 
 days of driving across the South Park, and over 
 the Arkansas Divide. 
 
 LYITI. 
 
 The Arkansas Divide. 
 
 Ah! 
 
 Early one morning, after an ascent of five miles 
 of steep mountain road, wild, tangled and beau 
 tiful, at an elevation of 9475 feet, what a sight 
 burst upon us the greatest our eyes ever be- 
 
256 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 held ; the finest, probably, they ever will behold 
 in life. 
 
 Behind us, noble mountains dwarfed by what 
 was opposite. A descent to the broad lovely val 
 ley of the Arkansas, the river fringed with 
 greenery, gleaming in its midst. Over against 
 us the vast lift of the backbone of the continent 
 the great main range of the Rocky Mountains, 
 its white rock turned to pale pink and warm light 
 amethyst in the sun, its dazzling heads thirteen, 
 fourteen, fifteen thousand feet high, majestic 
 and overwhelming in their proportions rather than 
 beautiful, though with one great peak balanced 
 on either side by lower ones a single mountain, 
 the most tremendous and at the same time grace 
 ful and symmetrical object that ever filled my 
 vision. 
 
 LIX. 
 
 We drove in face of these for some miles, down 
 the slope of the Divide to the Valley, then 
 straight north, the mountains on one hand, the 
 river on the other, into wild and savage canons, 
 out of them across wider spaces, finally quitting 
 the river and following up Trout Creek to Berry s 
 ranche and the Twin Lakes lakes that lie at the 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 257 
 
 base of ranges themselves 9130 feet above the level 
 of the sea, between two and three miles in length, 
 of the same depth seventy -five feet almost alike 
 in shape and size, and connected by a narrow yet 
 deep channel. 
 
 " Berry s" is a place at which to stop, with its 
 hewn logs without and great whole logs for raft 
 ers within, its walls and ceilings papered with 
 Harper s Magazine, its floors and doors of 
 dressed pine that looks like the most exquisite 
 satin, floors bare save for some bear- skins, its 
 quaint home-made tables and rocking-chairs, its 
 beds of straw on boxes, its big open fireplace and 
 great fire, and its roof a roof made of fruit- 
 cans baked, opened, flattened, lapped one over 
 the other that no storm can penetrate ; yes, and 
 its trout and green peas, and its mistress shrewd 
 as she is kind. 
 
 Back of the Twin Lakes among the giants stands 
 Mt. Elbert, whose shoulders we desired to climb 
 but wished to spare our own means of locomotion. 
 
 How to do it for there were no horses at 
 Berry s and Berry s filled the bill. 
 
 No ; fortunately for us two miles away was 
 the camp of the Marshall scientific party, the 
 learned men absent, and the camp in possession 
 17 
 
258 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 of the unlearned and obliging ; otherwise, some 
 of the guides and attendants. 
 
 To it we tramped, held a pow-wow with the one 
 left in authority, resulting in 7iis appearance 
 early the next morning in company with a scout 
 and six strong, tall, long - legged, intelligent, 
 friendly mules, branded IT. S. 
 
 Our guide, Standefer by name, was a specimen 
 of frontier growth in full bloom a man who had 
 lived his life, since as a boy he quitted Texas, 
 among the mountains, hunting or guiding when 
 not engaged in the, to him, far more satisfactory 
 labor of killing Indians. He had fought over the 
 whole face of this great country, had served the 
 Government as scout and spy, was in the first of 
 the Modoc war, and at date was looking after the 
 welfare of science as embodied in the Marshall 
 party. 
 
 He was dark as an Indian, with dead-black hair 
 and eyes to match. He knew all that nature 
 would reveal to close scrutiny. Straight as an 
 arrow, hard as iron, tough as leather. Rode at a 
 dead run without touching bridle. Would fire at 
 a bird on the wing and pick up his game as his 
 animal flew by. 
 
 Luckily, he could scent the way where trail was 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 259 
 
 none. Up the first of our ride was a species of one 
 that no eye untrained to such life could find, so 
 dim it was and so little used. Steep so steep in 
 places as to give you the sensation of being sus 
 pended in mid-air ; by and by running into a 
 forest of aspen trees so low and close as to compel 
 you to duck your head until you found it con 
 venient to lie along the neck of your beastie all 
 the time, unless you wished to be made a torso. 
 Under foot, stretched at length, the enormous 
 trunks of fallen trees a path to exhaust an ath 
 lete in an hour, but over which our sure-footed 
 mules skipped like grasshoppers. 
 
 This timber growth is something amazing, 
 standing green and strong and beautiful at an 
 altitude at which in other lands all life is done, 
 and even when it ceases lovely flowers and thick 
 green grass bloom where elsewhere naught is to 
 be seen save deathly glaciers. 
 
 We climbed on and on, the mules panting a 
 little, but not seeming to suffer, over one moun 
 tain, along the rugged brow of another, to the 
 final ascent, stony and steep, a mass of boulders 
 and broken rocks, and so at last to the top. 
 
 Behind us the scene was one to be paralleled by 
 other mountain experiences but before 3 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 Looking to the west and north-west it was as 
 though the world were a sea. From this height 
 no plains nor valleys nor open spaces could be 
 seen, just billows stretching beyond billows of 
 these august swells. Heads that stood thirteen 
 thousand feet, below us. Everlasting snows, be 
 low us. More than fifty above fourteen thousand 
 feet, thrust up grandly about us ; over against us 
 a shining splendor called "Snow Mass," that 
 fairly blinded us as we gazed. 
 
 Above all this, heavy clouds began to grow and 
 slowly settled down, making a sombre veil out of 
 which huge uncertain forms loomed awfully 
 grand, and finally closing them from our sight. 
 
 On which we fell to the commonplace duty of 
 devouring our lunch with avidity, and the not 
 commonplace delight of rolling off huge boulders 
 and watching them as they fell, finally turning 
 our feet downward. Nobody was eager to mount 
 a mule and ride off the cone. So we went our 
 ways, and the animals went theirs peacefully 
 enough before us. 
 
 Let a mule go and he goes. 
 
 Try to drag him ! 
 
 In the evening, on our return, going into the 
 kitchen for some hot water, I found a gracious- 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 201 
 
 mannered, Latin speaking youth who had asked 
 to join our party that morning, " peart as a 
 cricket" after his day s tamp, and diligently 
 cooking our suppers. 
 
 He was one of a small army of young men to be 
 found in that country civil engineers out of 
 work, miners, hunters, intended settlers, nearly 
 always bright and well informed, short of money, 
 not wanting to turn back, in love with this wild 
 life, thinking they have all time before them, 
 and so well content to spend a little of it without 
 care and in glorious health, "squatting" with 
 some family, cooking and making themselves 
 " generally useful " ready for what may be be 
 yond. 
 
 LX. 
 
 If there had been no Mt. Lincoln to see, I know 
 not how long we would have staid at Berry s, but 
 to Mt. Lincoln we at last went : back across the 
 Divide and the northern part of the park to Fair- 
 play, Dudley, donkeys, mountain road, moun 
 tain top. Lincoln is one mass of silver ore, and 
 we wanted to see a mine " in the sky." 
 
 Think of delving fourteen thousand feet above 
 the sea ! More than twice the altitude of Wash- 
 
262 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 ington, with nnmelting snows below it, and clouds 
 brushing in and out of it, each storm that 
 touched it causing electricity to pull at the work 
 er s or observer s hair like a human hand. Think 
 of men living and toiling and enjoying themselves 
 at a height where in Europe all life would be sus 
 pended ! 
 
 We watched the miners drilling and blasting, 
 and saw that the men splendid specimens of 
 physical vigor who wielded the heavy sledges 
 had to stop and rest for a breath at every two 
 dozen or so of blows, though they seemed to suf 
 fer in no other way. 
 
 When you stand still or move slowly in this 
 atmosphere, you experience no difficulty of breath 
 ing, and do not realize how high and thin it is, 
 till you run or make some exertion ; then your 
 heart tries to fly out of your mouth and your 
 lungs work like bellows. 
 
 I found tliat on Grey s Peak, where there was 
 plenty of "footing it" to be done and oh! 
 wouldn t I like to do it over, dinner at George 
 town with dear old " Commodore Decatur," 
 known and loved of venturesome travellers 
 Charley Utter and all ! 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 263 
 
 LXI. 
 
 Charley Utter is a hunter and guide, and may 
 be you are not to be accounted one of the lucky 
 ones if you get Mm to lead the way ! 
 
 I had been up Grey s Peak and many another 
 peak in the daylight, but wished to journey up 
 it in the night, and watch the sun rise from its aw 
 ful height, and to Charley Utter s we went to find 
 a companion and guide. 
 
 How little Eastern people know of these hunt 
 ers and mountaineers ! They imagine a yelling, 
 drinking, fighting, half -Indian crew. Charley 
 will serve as a specimen of the reality. 
 
 Short and slight, with long blonde curling 
 hair, blue eyes that look at you fearlessly and 
 through you searchingly, a wide-brimmed slouch 
 hat, moccasins and Indian leggins, a red flannel 
 shirt with embroidered collar and cuffs, a short 
 loose coat, a broad belt with bowie knife, pistols, 
 a tomahawk stuck into it. 
 
 There he is. 
 
 Chary of speech, soft-voiced, abstemious of 
 habit, gentle-mannered, thoughtful of every one, 
 tender-hearted, his eyes filled with nature, his 
 soul feeling it, and showing itself through quaint 
 
2^4 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 broken sentences, delighting in talk that touches 
 the heart of things, or that concerns the lives of 
 the great ones of the earth, over which he has 
 pored and dreamed by his camp fires. 
 
 There he is too. 
 
 We found him not in his pretty cottage home 
 and thereby hangs a tale worth the telling. 
 
 There came to Georgetown a professional man 
 with his wife, poor, broken in health, houses 
 scarce and rent high. Out of his cottage turned 
 Charley, making it over to his neighbor from 
 afar, rent free, and himself pre-empting an old 
 cabin consisting of one big room proceeded to 
 camp for the summer.. 
 
 What a picture we found the room, with the 
 sloping roof, Jog walls and shining white floor, 
 one corner serving as kitchen, one as dining-room, 
 and a very pretty dining-room too ; the third given 
 over to a picturesque bed and shelves built into the 
 walls, from which shone glimpses of lace and In 
 dian embroidery adorning bright-hued garments ; 
 a charming bit of drawing-room revealed in 
 the fourth, with its square of velvet carpet, its 
 table loaded with books, its cosy chairs and pretty 
 ornaments, the walls hung with pistols, rifles, 
 tomahawks, bows and arrows, interspersed with 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 2G5 
 
 pictures. Presiding over all, Mrs. Utter, a beau 
 tiful dark girl, with brilliant yet soft color, large 
 lovely brown eyes, a mass of rich black hair fall 
 ing over her shoulders, a velvet jacket and pur 
 ple skirt covering her : twenty-two, and married 
 for seven years ! 
 
 LXII. 
 
 Well, Charley took us in hand, marshalled us 
 out of Georgetown and up to timber line and 
 supper, with a few hours sleep following, and 
 had us in our saddles at two of the morning. 
 
 What a ride ! The clouds had broken away, 
 and the moon, full and splendid, was shining 
 overhead, the gauziest of vapors making about it 
 an enormous circle of delicate rainbow tints. The 
 ground was white with snow, fresh as though 
 newly fallen on the rough broken granite, the 
 unevennesses beneath making its frozen surface 
 far more glitteringly beautiful than it could have 
 been on level ground. The night was still as 
 great heights, and bitter cold, and absolute soli 
 tude could make it. 
 
 We circled the dome of one and another moun 
 tain, and journeyed past the harsh wall of a third, 
 its lines and gorges brought into bold relief by 
 
206 A RAGGED REG IS TEE. 
 
 their fleecy covering ; these all past, their huge 
 bulks turning to insignificant cones below us, we 
 were fairly out on the bleak, white, frozen height 
 toward whose top our mules were slowly climbing, 
 slipping and stopping for breath, yet sure of 
 foot as Fate itself, in the end. 
 
 No Christmas morning below was ever half so 
 cold as we found that top, and the wind would 
 have blown our skins off had we not flattened 
 ourselves on the inhospitable peak that would 
 yield us no suggestion of shelter. Here, numb 
 yet eager, we gazed at the sky overhead, the 
 moon, the ghostly outlines of near mountains, and 
 with infinite anxiety at the shadowy space of the 
 eastern sky. 
 
 Slowly the crimson ball lifted itself above the 
 long black line of the horizon. 
 
 Under it to the east the plains stretched 
 away a deep misty blue, cut by the glittering 
 golden line of the Platte. Northward the ragged 
 lines of the Boulder Hills, their purple edges, 
 jagged like enormous saws, revealed against an 
 amber sky. Off at the south and west, first one 
 then another and another, and yet another, vast, 
 solemn, majestic, range after range of the mount 
 ains of eternal snow. 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 207 
 
 A superhuman revealing. 
 
 First darkness. Then shadows that shift are 
 there and not there. Presently out of these, 
 here and there a peak defined, followed in a 
 breath by the long line, white with a sort of pre 
 ternatural glory, lying up against the sky like a 
 splendor of clouds, but showing the clear space 
 behind them, their enormous bulks gradually com 
 ing out through the vanishing darkness below. 
 
 Away behind us stood the vast pile of Pike s 
 Peak, a mass of glowing yet delicate violet, bal 
 anced by the gigantic line of mountains at the 
 west, among them the Mount of the Holy Cross, 
 on whose black face a chasm of fifteen hundred 
 feet held snow white and clear, in the shape of 
 the divine ignominy. Still beyond this, in what 
 seemed else all open space, the spirit-like outline 
 of a mountain that looked so stupendous and 
 dark as to make one shiver as one gazed. I 
 watched and watched for long before discovering 
 it to be the shadow of Grey s Peak on which we 
 stood. 
 
 Conceive a shadow two hundred miles long, 
 cast over against the sky, in seeming like a solid 
 mountain, behind others so tremendous as to be 
 overwhelming ! 
 
268 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 It was like the dawn of creation to watch. It 
 was as though the Almighty were calling the 
 muster-roll of form, and peak after peak answer 
 ing in turn and taking its place, as though it had 
 never been taken before but were to be held now 
 forever. 
 
 If it had " staid just so," we would probably 
 have staid till we were petrified or blown away. 
 Fortunately for overwrought emotions and frozen 
 bodies it didn t, so that at last we were satisfied to 
 take to our feet and plunge downward a half doz 
 en miles to the Kelso cabin and a breakfast that 
 disappeared as though fallen upon by wolves, 
 after which we deigned to mount our mules and 
 pace away in a respectable and comfortably com 
 monplace state of mind. 
 
 LXIIL 
 
 That would have been our last climb for the 
 summer had we not been taken in hand by the 
 Hay den party, thereby gaining the experience and 
 memory of Long s Peak, and the companionship 
 through a few days of men who ought to be im 
 mortal if superhuman perseverance and courage 
 are guarantees of immortality. 
 
 What a pair of heads had that party ! Hay- 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 269 
 
 den, tall, slender, with soft brown hair and blue 
 eyes certainly not travelling on his muscle ; 
 all nervous intensity and feeling, a perfect enthu 
 siast in his work, eager of face and voice, full 
 of magnetism. Gardner, shorter, stouter, with 
 amber eyes and hair like gold, less quick and 
 tense, yet made of the stuff that takes and 
 holds on. 
 
 I remember that after supper when we were 
 camping at timber line, Gardner took one of 
 his instruments and trotted up the side of the 
 mountain to make some observations. He ex 
 pected to be gone half an hour, and was gone, 
 by reason of the clouds, nearer three hours, but, 
 as he quietly said when he came back, speaking 
 of the clouds, " I conquered them at last." 
 
 I looked at him, and at all the little party, with 
 ardent curiosity and admiration, braving rain, 
 snow, sleet, hail, hunger, thirst, exposure, bitter 
 nights, snowy climbs, dangers of death some 
 times a score on a single mountain for the sake 
 not of a so-called great cause, nor in hot blood, 
 but with still patience and unwearied energy for 
 an abstract science no more, since the majority 
 cannot work even for fame. 
 
 We sat around the great fire that was kept 
 
270 A RAGGED EEGISTER. 
 
 heaped with the whole trunks of dead trees, and 
 watched the splendors of sun-setting till they were 
 all gone, and, these vanished, still sat on by the 
 blazing fire circled by the solemn stately majes 
 ties, talking of many things strange stories of 
 adventure in mountain and gorge, climbs through 
 which a score of times life had been suspended 
 simply on strength of fingers, or nice poise on a 
 hand-ledge thrust out into eternity, wild tales 
 of frontier struggles intricacies of science, dis 
 cussions of human life and experience in crowded 
 cities, devotion and enthusiasm as shown in any 
 cause all things, in fact, that touch the brain and 
 soul, the heart and life, of mortals who really 
 live, and do not merely exist. 
 
 A talk worth climbing that height to have and 
 to hold. 
 
 One that was renewed two days later when, 
 the mountain being " done," we found ourselves 
 in Este s Park at " Evans s," in front of a crack 
 ling wood fire, with time a plenty for confabula 
 tion, a confabulation that was made more " pe- 
 cooliar" by the presence of " Rocky Mountain 
 Jim," who, having peregrinated up to see us, sat 
 contentedly and looked at us with his one brigh* 
 eye, finally in quaint language and with concise 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 271 
 
 vividness narrating many a tale of bear and other 
 desperate fights, one of which had two years be 
 fore nearly ended his days had broken his right 
 arm, stove in three ribs, torn out his left eye, 
 and " chawed" him up generally, and yet left 
 spirit and grit enough to tell a good story well 
 and to get through a close shave bravely. 
 
 LXIV. 
 
 Did 1 tell them of queer people and strange ex 
 periences ? 
 
 Yes, indeed, did I. 
 
 Can I recall them now ? 
 
 No yes. One I remember, because it was the 
 very most inexplicable affair that ever befell no, 
 did not befall but that ever came to me second 
 hand; almost as good as new. 
 
 Found myself one day at a certain town, with 
 no connection till five of the afternoon a train 
 that might make sixteen miles an hour with 
 ninety -six miles to get over. Due on the plat 
 form at 7.30. That wouldn t do. So of course I 
 had to have a " special." 
 
 Place and time Central Iowa, some years ago. 
 Country, just flat plain, not the rolling prairie 
 land lying farther west ; no towns, few villages* 
 
272 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 fenceless, treeless ; a speck of any thing easily seen 
 afar had any speck existed. 
 
 Even the ties were without incident. One after 
 another, one after another, all alike same length, 
 striking family resemblance, lying on the even 
 ground without so much as a ditch at the side to 
 break the monotony. 
 
 Nothing of interest without, so I turned my 
 eyes to inspect what might be found within. 
 They are generally wide open when they are to 
 look at machines or machinists. 
 
 I have travelled behind engines and on them 
 by thousands, and have walked about and ques 
 tioned and gazed and examined them pretty thor 
 oughly, but always with fresh wonder and admi 
 ration. Strong as Titans, obedient as slaves- 
 simple, complicated helpful, merciless beauti 
 ful, yet terrible. 
 
 And I never look at them without w r ondering 
 what manner of world this will be when some one 
 learns how to utilize not one hundred, nor fifty, 
 but even fifteen per cent of steam. 
 
 As to their manipulators : fools don t abound 
 among them. A man needs brains and logic to 
 be a good machinist. I like to watch a first-class 
 one listen to an argument on a subject with which 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 273 
 
 he may be ever so unfamiliar. He sees the flaws, 
 and knows where the screws are loose, and the 
 sequence is broken, and the point overlooked or 
 bunglingiy made, better half the time than 
 the combatants, though they be no mean ones. 
 
 If a man knows a machine he knows how to 
 argue from cause to effect step by step of the way, 
 and he isn t easily "bamboozled," and there s 
 precious little " nonsense" about him. 
 
 My engineer was one of the right sort. A 
 clear-eyed, intelligent, wide-awake young fellow 
 from New England the last man in the world 
 you would suspect of either drink or supersti 
 tious flim-flams. 
 
 He was explaining to me some of the mechan 
 ism, when, with his right hand on the lever, he 
 suddenly paused, threw himself half out of the 
 little window, gazed a moment up the track, then, 
 turning away his head with his left hand thrust 
 before it as though shutting out some nwful vis 
 ion, drove on. 
 
 There was no mistaking the attitude and its 
 meaning. 
 
 u You have run over some one here," said I. 
 
 " Yes no I don t know," he answered. 
 
 His fireman seemed to notice neither action nor 
 18 
 
274 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 answer. I gazed at both with amazement akin 
 to horror. " Am I rushing through space forty 
 miles an hour in the keeping of two madmen ?" 
 thought I. " Let us see. 
 
 " You don t know ?" 
 
 "I don t wonder you look," said he, "and 
 ask too. Will you just kindly oblige me by telling 
 if you saw any thing off at the right 2" 
 
 " Nothing," said I, " but open plain." 
 
 "Nor ahead of us 2" 
 
 " Nothing but level track." 
 
 " Nor behind us ? Did you look back ? 
 
 " Yes, I looked back. There was nothing but 
 track and plain." 
 
 " I knew it," said he, "knew it just as well 
 before I asked as afterward, but couldn t help 
 asking. Do you think that s queer ?" 
 
 " I think you are troubled. That is more to the 
 purpose. Do you mind my asking what has 
 troubled you ?" 
 
 " Do I mind ? Don t I just want to tell you 
 and see what you can make of it ;" and he drew 
 his hand over his forehead and across his clear 
 eyes as though "it" were a nightmare that 
 threatened to ?mmake him. " It beats me." 
 
 "I wouldn t let it," smiling to cheer his dis- 
 
A BAGGED REGISTER. 275 
 
 tressed face. " You are too broad-shouldered to 
 stand that sort of treatment from any thing," at 
 which he laughed a little, and the fireman en 
 couragingly remarked, "You just pitch in, 
 Xed ;" and Ned pitched in." 
 
 " As for a story it isn t much of a story you ll 
 say but well ! You see as I was coming down 
 the road the other day a good two weeks 
 ago now a road I ve been over hundreds of 
 times and know every foot of it, I saw, off there 
 at the right, instead of that pancake region, reg 
 ular hilly country, wild and green- looking, plenty 
 of trees, and among them, on top of a sort of 
 ridge, there was a shambling tavern painted red. 
 
 " It was growing dusky, and I could see lights 
 in the tavern, and hear loud voices laughing and 
 rowing. Directly a fellow came plunging out of 
 the door with his hat off, a flannel shirt unbut 
 toned at the throat, and one sleeve loose and 
 hanging, holding a whiskey -bottle. He reeled 
 down the hill, stumbled and stumbled, struck his 
 foot against a log near the bottom, and pitched 
 forward into the ditch and half across the track. 
 
 " I saw what was coming, and had whistled 
 down brakes and reversed the engine. The man 
 could have got on to his feet easy enough if it 
 
276 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 hadn t been for his cursed whiskey -bottle ; but he 
 grabbed it, and held it up so as to save it, and 
 couldn t get his balance of course without both 
 hands, and so pitched forward again, this time 
 flat across the rails and we went over him. 
 
 " It was all done in a minute, you see, and the 
 train stopped, and I, staring at Jim here, and he 
 at me. 
 
 " What did you do that for ? said Jim, < jerk 
 ing her up like that for nothing. 
 
 " My God ! man, run over a human creature, 
 and mash the breath out of him, and then ask 
 what I stop the train for ? 
 
 " i Run over a man ! cried Jim. Are you 
 crazy or drunk ? but I didn t wait to answer. I 
 streaked up the track to where the conductor was 
 out, and the brakesmen, and the passengers all 
 had their heads out of the windows, and Jim 
 after me, and everybody wanting to know what 
 was the matter, and there well ! you know just 
 as well as I, there was the open country and the 
 track all flat as my hand, and nothing else near 
 or far to be seen. 
 
 "Drunk? No, I wasn t drunk. I don t 
 drink ever. And it happened just so ?" turning 
 to Jim. 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 27? 
 
 c< Just exactlyso," assented the sooty fire 
 man. 
 
 " Yes, just, exactly so," echoed the engineer, 
 " and just exactly so I ve seen it every day and 
 done it, regular, since then. And I can t stand 
 it much longer. I ve got to quit. Look at that" 
 holding up his strong hand that was shaking 
 in a way that didn t belong to its muscles, nor to 
 the clear blue eyes that had no drink nor craze in 
 them. Maybe I can make a change with a friend 
 of mine who wants to come west. Any way, I m 
 going to get out of here, lively," 
 
 I sat and pondered. 
 
 " Do you believe me V said he. 
 
 " Believe you \ Of course I do. I m not a 
 fool. I know when a man has truth in his face, 
 and you ve got truth in yours voice, too, for 
 that matter." 
 
 He smiled and thrust out his grimy fist. " I d 
 like to shake hands with you for that if you 
 don t care." 
 
 " But I do care," said I, smiling in turn. So 
 we shook hands. 
 
 " Can you explain it f 
 
 " jS"o no more than I can tell you how a flower 
 grows." 
 
278 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 We reached our destination and each went his 
 and her way, and so far as I knew there was an 
 end of mystery and explanation. 
 
 Five years afterward I was at New Brunswick 
 aiming for the ten o clock train to Philadelphia. 
 
 " Drawing-room car?" called I, as I ran down 
 the long dark platform. 
 
 " Drawing-room car this way!" was shouted 
 from the rear blackness. 
 
 "Ah, is it you, Miss Dickinson? Plenty of 
 room to-night," and I scrambled in. 
 
 About every official and employee on the road 
 knows me. So I turned to see with which con 
 ductor I was going over, but did not recognize 
 him. 
 
 " You don 1 1 know me?" 
 
 1 No, said I, yet found something familiar in 
 face or voice. c You are a new man ? 
 
 ( Yes, he answered. 
 
 "Let me see! Let me see!" thought I. I 
 don t like to be thwarted. I always remember 
 people s faces and always forget their names I 
 could forget my own " WJio is he? When, 
 where did I ever travel with him ?" 
 
 " You were not a conductor when I saw you 
 before. I am sure of that, " I ventured. 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 279 
 
 He laughed at my puzzled face and answered, 
 " You re right there. 5 
 
 All at once I placed him. 
 
 " Ah !" cried I, " how s the ghost 2" 
 
 The man had a fine ruddy color, but he turned 
 pale at that pale as this paper. 
 
 " Why, you don t mean that any thing did 
 really ever come of it ?" 
 
 " Yes, but I do." 
 
 "What?" 
 
 "Well! I ll tell you all in a breath that s 
 the best way, and I don t like talking about it. 
 You know I wanted to get away ? Yes. Well, 
 I got my transfer, came to the Philadelphia and 
 Erie road, and my friend went west. 
 
 " Maybe I didn t draw a long breath as I got 
 under way that first day, and thought I d left my 
 bugaboo so far behind me. Every thing about me 
 was so different from what I had quitted, it made 
 me feel like a new man. You know the country 
 the Philadelphia and Erie runs through ?" 
 
 " I know it. Beautiful, fresh and hilly, and 
 full of streams, with a rough -looking road and 
 curving truck." 
 
 " Just so," he assented, " and I went along it 
 cheerful as a cricket, looking at every thing and 
 
280 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 full of interest till toward nightfall and then- 
 well ! I shut my eyes and drove ahead. What 
 else could I do ? but my fireman was dragging at 
 the rope like mad, and cursing me, and the train 
 was jarring and jolting, and presently stopped." 
 
 " What did you do that for ?" said I. 
 
 " My God, man, cried he, run over a human 
 creature, and mash the breath out of him, and 
 then ask what I stop the train for are you drunk 
 or crazy ? and he plunged off and I after him. 
 
 " I didn t expect to see any thing, but, as I came 
 up the road off at the left at the right, you see. 
 as the train ran there was a bit of hill, and a 
 shambling old red tavern, with some lights shin 
 ing, on top of it, and a ditch at the bottom, and a 
 lot of people with the conductor and passengers 
 gathered about something on the road, and as I 
 came up there was the man with his hat off, and 
 his open shirt, and the whiskey bottle in his 
 hand, across the track dead." 
 
 LXV. 
 
 Well, we told our stories, and talked our talk 
 far into the night, and having slept the sleep of 
 the just, on beds of deliciously sweet hay, went 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 281 
 
 our way thereafter to " fresh, fields and pastures 
 new," each holding its own pleasure or delight. 
 Even the mining towns had their own special in 
 terest, though mining towns are not absolutely 
 lovely. 
 
 Perched on the side of a mountain, with cabins 
 built near the mouth of a " claim," or tunnel, or 
 prospect hole, these exhausted or abandoned, 
 the cabins abandoned with them, and others built 
 at fresh centres of labor, making, of themselves 
 alone, a scene of desolation. 
 
 Diggings here, there, and everywhere, rocks 
 blasted, the whole surface of the earth thrown 
 up, water sluiced over this point and that to wash 
 away the precious specks, leaving the face of na 
 ture bare to the bone ugly stones and boulders 
 and loose gravel baking in the sun. 
 
 Machinery in use and machinery idle and rust 
 ing, quartz mills actively running, and quartz 
 mills weather-beaten and in ruins. The streets 
 long narrow alleys, steep as the mountains them 
 selves, one above another, like birds trails hot, 
 dusty, dirty. Endless store of " saloons" gaping 
 on all sides. Nothing special to admire save a 
 deal of generous and whole-souled if rough 
 human nature. 
 
282 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 And the mines those silver mines had their 
 charm too. 
 
 Let me see what was the one at Central City ? 
 the "Bob Tail" that we travelled into 
 through two thousand feet of main tunnel and 
 branch ? The passage-way just about high 
 enough for us to stand upright, wet at the sides, 
 wet underfoot, a little tramway for the toy cars 
 and their donkeys serving to keep our feet from 
 the worst of the puddles. A sunshine " hot as 
 an oven, blazing without ; within, an air cold and 
 forbidding as the grave, a blackness so dense that 
 for a long time our candles made no perceptible 
 mark on the gloom, looking like glimmering 
 sparks set in ebony. Advancing, it was to find 
 added warmth, in the heart of the rock uncomfort 
 able heat, and, as our eyes accustomed them 
 selves to the gloom and the candlelight, to a 
 tramp that was not absolutely guided by faith 
 alone. 
 
 The day " shift " was going off, and the night 
 il shift " coming on, and we met the miners jour 
 neying outward to fresh air and home. If it were 
 but a single man the noise of approaching foot 
 steps sounded like the reverberation of cannon. 
 Til at we would hear, by and by a glimmer would 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 283 
 
 begin to shine, and as it drew near a spectre 
 would be revealed a really ghostly sight. The 
 men work in linen over-alls and rubber boots. 
 These and their faces completely coated with the 
 mixture made by the wet rock-dust, the blackness 
 of " giant powder," and the silvery whiteness of 
 the ore giving them in the dim light the effect of 
 creatures from another world, and terrifying ones 
 at that. 
 
 . I believe I have recalled and recorded this 
 special mine because of a small experience that 
 seems commonplace enough in the telling, but 
 that made upon me a profound impression in the 
 acting. 
 
 Climbing up a long ladder to look at the stalac 
 tite wonders of one of the chambers worked out 
 from the main " lead," we were for a moment in 
 absolute darkness, the candles blown out, and 
 our guide delayed in striking a light. Standing 
 perfectly still, with suspended breath, I heard, 
 through the Stygian gloom, something like the 
 pulse of an enormous heart, and presently, with 
 an appalling clearness and loudness, six strokes 
 sounded. Nothing but the ticking and striking 
 of a clock, but it seemed like the voice of eternity. 
 
284 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 LXVI. 
 
 Alas, that " sweet things are so fleet !" Alas, 
 that a summer in Colorado ever has to end ! 
 Alas, that promises are so often made, even to 
 oneself, only to be broken ! When I was leaving 
 that enchanted land, I pledged myself to return 
 to its dear delight with another June, so alone 
 finding courage to tear myself from its ineffable 
 embrace, going from it with so heavy a heart and 
 such dim eyes as prevented a smile at any 
 atrocity or absurdity by the way until I was 
 almost at my journey s end, and then I had to 
 laugh. 
 
 LXYII. 
 
 The conductor who was running us into New 
 York had evidently riot travelled enough to ac 
 quire good manners. In his case an acquisition 
 greatly needed to cloak ingrained deficiencies, 
 since nature had endowed him with a very bad 
 temper and an exceedingly gruff voice. 
 
 A " lone lorn" woman, looking anxious and 
 uncomfortable, and starting up with each call 
 of the brakeman a call that, as usual, might as 
 well have been made in Choctaw for any informa- 
 
A RAGGED REGISTER. 285 
 
 lion it conveyed, one name sounding like any 
 other name, and all of the names sounding like 
 confusion at last mustered courage to inquire 
 of the conductor what was the place we had just 
 passed, and when we would reach so and so. 
 
 " Why didn t you listen !" answered he of the 
 gruff voice. " The town s just been called. 
 Haven t you any ears \ I don t know when we 
 get to so and so d ye take me for a time-table f 
 
 The timid woman manifestly had both a tem 
 per and a "gift of speech" under provocation, 
 for she responded quickly, " Yes, I ve got ears- 
 better than your tongue, too. And J take you 
 for a beast." 
 
 It was something to remember the face of that 
 conductor as he walked away. Judging by its 
 expression I suspect he answered all queries of 
 whatever import that by chance were addressed 
 to him through the next four-and-twenty hours. 
 
 And the man himself deserved to be marked, 
 for in all my journeyings over tens no, hundreds 
 of thousands of miles, with railway officials to 
 be numbered by regiments, it was one of the ex 
 ceedingly few rude returns I ever heard made, to 
 questions some of which might test the patience of 
 Job himself. 
 
286 A RAGGED REGISTER. 
 
 Out of the entire army I have not seen a score of 
 train-conductors who were not ready and willing 
 to give or to secure all the information, and be 
 stow all the help that ignorance or helplessness 
 or need might require, and, as a rule, with a 
 patience and good temper that neither heat nor 
 dust nor cold nor sleeplessness nor fatigue could 
 obliterate. Let it stand to their credit as the testi 
 mony of " one who knows." 
 
 I am writing it here in New York, at the end 
 of my ragged register of people and places, 
 while the summer grows apace and I still have 
 not decided where to go. 
 
 Who can tell me I 
 
BOOKS FOR THE SUMMER. 
 
 STARBOARD AND PORT: 
 
 The Nettie Along Shore. A Summer s Yacht Cruise along the 
 Coasts of Maine and Labrador. By the Rev. GEORGE H. HEPWORTH, 
 D.D. Illustrated. 12mo, Cloth, $1 75. 
 
 THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS AS RESORTS FOR HEALTH 
 AND PLEASURE. 
 
 By S G. W, BENJAMIN. Illustrated. 8vo, Cloth, $3 00. 
 
 LOTUS-EATING. 
 
 A Summer Book. By GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS. Illustrated from 
 Designs by Kensett. 12mo, Cloth, $1 50. 
 
 HOW TO GET STRONG, AND HOW TO STAY SO. 
 
 By WILLIAM BLAIKIE. Illustrated. 16mo, Cloth, $1 00. 
 
 VILLAGES AND VILLAGE LIFE, 
 
 With Hints for their Improvement. By NATHANIEL HILLYER 
 EGLESTON. Post 8vo, Cloth, $1 75. 
 
 TWELVE MILES FROM A LEMON: 
 
 Social and Domestic Sketches. By GAIL HAMILTON. 12mo, 
 Cloth, $1 50. 
 
 WOMAN S WORTH AND WORTHLESSNESS : 
 
 The Complement to "A New Atmosphere." By GAIL HAMILTON 
 12mo, Cloth, $1 50. 
 
Books for the Summer. 
 
 FISHING IN AMERICAN WATERS. 
 
 By GKNIO C. SCOTT. A New Edition, containing Parts Six and 
 Seven, on Southern and Miscellaneous Fishes. Illustrated. 8vo, 
 
 Cloth, $3 50 
 
 THE FISHING TOURIST: 
 
 Angler s Guide and Reference Book. By CHARLES HALLOCK. Il 
 lustrated. Crown 8vo, Cloth, $2 00. 
 
 I GO A-FISHING. 
 
 By WILLIAM C PRIME. Crown 8vo, Cloth, $2 50. 
 
 UNDER THE TREES. 
 
 By Rev. SAMUEL IRENJECS PRIME, D.D. Crown 8vo, Cloth, $2 CO. 
 
 FIVE ACRES TOO MUCH. 
 
 A Truthful Elucidation of the Attractions of the Country, and a 
 careful Consideration of the Question of Profit and Loss as in 
 volved in Amateur Farming, with much Valuable Advice and 
 Instruction to those about Purchasing Large or Small Places in 
 the Rural Districts. By ROBERT B. ROOSEVELT. Illustrated. 
 12mo, Cloth, $1 50. 
 
 HARPER S HALF-HOUR SERIES. 
 
 Over One Hundred Volumes of Choice and Entertaining Reading. 
 
 HARPER S FRANKLIN SQUARE LIBRARY. 
 
 A Cheap and Carefully Selected Series of Books for the People. 
 
 Published by HAEPEK & BKOTHEKS, New York, 
 
 Any of the above work* will be sent by mail, postage prepaid, to any part 
 of the U> ited States, on receipt of the price. 
 
14 DAY USE 
 
 RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED 
 
 LCX 
 
 This book 1st 
 
 Renewed 
 
 30 .W.R fiQEB 
 
 NOV 1 
 
 APR ^4 is 
 
 OCT 81986 - 
 
 "i I. tnt? 
 
 P n?C 1 j! 
 
 ffimt.Nov 
 
 PC TCI i 
 
 LD 21A-50rn-4, 59 
 (A1724slO)476B 
 
 General Library 
 
 University of California 
 
 Berkeley 
 
GENERAL LIBRARY - U.C. BERKELEY