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 MILTON STEWART. 
 
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 WICHITA, KANSAS : 
 EAGLE PRINTING HOUSE, 
 
 1888. 
 
fans librakyI 
 
 jof CONGRESS 
 [WASHINGTON 
 
 ENTERED ACCORDING TO ACT OP CONGRESS, 
 IN THE YEAR 1888, 
 
 BY MILTON STEWART, 
 
 IN THE OFFICE OF THE LIBRARIAN OF 
 CONGRESS AT WASHINGTON. 
 
 V s 
 
PREFATORY STATEMENT. 
 
 When the writer of these pages was en route for 
 Europe, he met the editor of the AVichita Daily Eagle 
 at the Union Depot in St. Louis. It was mutually 
 agreed that I should write some letters for the Eagle, 
 but neither he nor I dreamed that the correspondence 
 would assume such voluminous proportions as it event- 
 ually attained. 
 
 My passport was good for Europe, Asia, and Africa? 
 but that we should ever set foot in the two latter coun- 
 tries was extremely doubtful. 
 
 At one time it appeared suicidal on our part to make 
 the attempt to reach those countries, with cholera ram- 
 pant in Sicily and Naples, and a malignant type of 
 fever raging in Egypt. 
 
 Friends earnestly plead with us at least to delay the 
 trip until winter had set in, but we had "fully deter- 
 mined to return home before the season had advanced 
 far, with its rough and stormy seas. Hence, we ven- 
 tured forth to brave other dangers, at a time when few 
 Americans were reckless enough to expose themselves 
 to the risk of dying in a foreign land. 
 
 The penalty of our temerity will not be recorded in 
 the pages that follow, but this much will be divulged, 
 that all the expected pleasure to be derived on the re- 
 turn trip, from Alexandria to London, was rendered 
 
IV. 
 
 abortive by a fever that seized upon both my wife and 
 myself, and made life a burden throughout that weari- 
 some journey. 
 
 This book is made up largely of the letters contrib- 
 uted to the Eagle. They were written under many 
 disadvantages, almost invariably by the light of a 
 candle, at the close of a toilsome day's ramble. There 
 were nights in Egypt and Palestine when the mosqui- 
 toes were so numerous and troublesome that I was 
 compelled to seek the protection afforded by the net- 
 ting composing the canopy of my bed. 
 
 Often, when others of the Cook party, on the cir- 
 cular tour, were "having a good time," or at least en- 
 joying that repose of mind and muscle which nature 
 seems to demand, I was burning the midnight candle 
 in doing that which started as a labor of love, but 
 grew into a solemn, distasteful duty. 
 
 There is scarcely a person who undertakes a pleas- 
 ure tour abroad who does not start out with the inten- 
 tion of keeping a diary ; and, as a rule, it is kept with 
 that dogged perseverance that a confirmed smoker 
 adheres to, when he has " schword off." The diaries 
 kept by the mid-summer party were no exception to 
 the rule. I can recall one young lady who seemed 
 more persistent than the rest, and gave hopes that she, 
 at least, would not fall by the way side ; but Naples 
 wid Rome proved too overpowering; and as she, with 
 others, " could get copies of my published letters, why 
 make the effort? " 
 
 It was something of a consolation, on my return 
 home from abroad, to grasp the hands of my fellow- 
 men and be told that my efforts to be entertaining 
 
V. 
 
 were duly appreciated, and they " hoped I would pre- 
 sent my letters in a more attractive, as well as in a 
 more enduring, form." Hence, the provocation to 
 place before the public another book of foreign travel 
 in lands as familiar to the average reader as much of 
 our own wide spreading domain. 
 
 The Author. 
 
As an earnest token of my friendship and esteem, 
 this volume is respectfully dedicated to Col. M. M. 
 Murdock and Hon. B. W. Perkins, M. C. 
 
 The Author. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The Departure for Europe — Ocean Voyage — Arrival 
 
 at Queenstown 17 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The City of Cork— Fifty Years Behind the Times 
 — Shandon Bells — Blarney Castle — Kissing the 
 Blarney Stone "Over the Left," — Lord Carew 
 
 the Victim of "Soft Sawder" 23 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Bogs of Ireland — The Town of Killarney — 
 The Annual Exodus — Tore Cascade — The Devil's 
 Punchbowl — Muckross Abbey — " Sweet Peggy ".. 29 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Two Pats — Kate Kearney — Arbutus Wood and 
 Bog Oak Bric-a-Brac — Preparing to Mount — The 
 Colleen Bawn — The Last Snake Killed by St. 
 Patrick — The Gap of Dunloe — The Mountain 
 Nymphs — The Lamentable Wickedness of Tour- 
 ists, from a Prohibition Standpoint — The Black 
 Valley — Lord Brandon's Cottage — The Lakes of 
 Killarney— The Old Weir Bridge— Ross Castle... 36 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Dublin — Stephen's Green — Phoenix Park — Glas- 
 nevin — Bank of Ireland — Cathedral of St. Patrick 
 —The Tram-car 43 
 
VIII. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The Boyne — A Modern Chesterfield, " Quite Eng- 
 
 ' lishYou Know,"— Were They Ladies?— Belfast 
 — A Scotch City on Irish Soil — Spiritually Dis- 
 posed — A Linen Factory 49 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 From Ireland to Scotland — The Clyde — Glasgow — 
 St. Mungo Cathedral — The Land of Burns — Tarn 
 O'Shanter and Souter Johnny on Top — Edin- 
 burgh — The Castle — Mons. Megs — The Regalia of 
 
 Scotland — The Grave of John Knox 56 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 From Scotland to England — The Ride to London 
 Town — The Search for Quarters — The Pastry 
 Cooks, " One by One the Roses Fall," — Cheap 
 Cab Fare — The London 'Buss — The Underground 
 Railway — The Closing Wedge — London by Gas 
 
 Light — A Shrewd Manager 63 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 The American Exhibition — The Tail Wags the 
 Dog— Buffalo " William "—The Cowboys— The 
 Pony that Bucketh — The American Saloon — Pop 
 Corn and Taffy, Novelties amongst our British 
 Cousins — The Festive Peanut Keeps up with the 
 Procession — The Royal Tournament — Royalty on 
 
 Deck 69 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 The Queen's Jubilee 74 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 The Tower of London — The Ci*own Jewels — The 
 Horse Armory — St. Paul's Cathedral — Hand- 
 
IX. 
 
 some Statuaiy — The Tomb of Wellington — The 
 
 Last Resting Place of Admiral Nelson 80 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Folkestone — The Eton Suit {see illustration) — 
 Montague House School — A Chapter on Mental 
 and Physical Education — A Sail on the English 
 
 Channel 87 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 The British and Kensington Museums — National 
 Gallery of Paintings — Madam Tussaud's Wax 
 
 Works — The Chamber of Horrors 95 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Regent's Park — Zoological Gardens -*- " Sal ly " — 
 Hyde Park — Rotten Row — The Albert Memorial 
 — Kensington Gardens — Birthplace of the Queen 
 — Kew Gardens — Down the Thames — Greenwich 
 — Marine Museum — The Painted Ceiling — A 
 Painting by Benjamin West — St. James' Park — 
 Victoria Park — The Parks the Glory of Lon- 
 don 106 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 The Arrival in London of a Kansan M. C. — The 
 "Cook" Party — A Day at the Crystal Palace — 
 Pyrotechnics Unsurpassed — A Ride to Hampton 
 Court, and What is to be Seen in this Ancient 
 Abode of Royalty— An Evening's Ride on the 
 
 Thames 113 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Blaine of Maine — Minister Phelps — The British 
 Parliament — Royal Courts of Justice — The Tab- 
 ernacle — Rev. C. H. Spurgeon — Christ Church — 
 
X. 
 
 Rev. Newman Hall — Temple Church — The Grave 
 
 of Oliver Goldsmith 121 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 From England to Belgium — The Composition of the 
 Cook Party — The Harwich Route to Belgium — 
 Antwerp, the City of the Cut-off Hand — Visit to 
 the Cathedral — Rubens — Quentin Massys — Van 
 
 Dyck— Teniers 128 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Arrival in the Capital of Belgium — The City Hall 
 — A Marriage Ceremony — Palais de la Nation — 
 The Lower House in Session — An M. C. Views 
 its Sittings — Lace Making as a Fine Art — The 
 Wiertz Museum — Palace of Fine Arts 136 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 Waterloo 143 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 From Belgium to Germany — Brussels to Cologne — 
 " Tariff for Revenue Only "—The Church of St, 
 Ursula — The Sacred Relics — Up the Rhine — No 
 Exaggeration Here — " Fair Bingen on the Rhine " 
 — Wiesbaden — Frankfort-on-the-Main — Darm- 
 stadt 153 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 Heidelberg — Visit to the Grandest Ruins in Europe 
 — The University — The Stop Over at Wirzburg — 
 —The Night Ride to Munich— The Great Capital 
 City of Bavaria — The Old and New Pinakothek 
 — The King's Palace — Some Fine Paintings — A 
 Murillo (see illustration) — The Gate of Victory 
 — The Hall of Fame — Bronze Statue of Bavaria 
 — Hof-brauhaus — An Obelisk 160 
 
XI. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 From German}^ through Austria into Italy — Cross- 
 ing the Alps — The Tyrolese — Verona, the Home of 
 the Montagues and Capulets — Tomb of Romeo 
 and Juliet— The Balcony— Tomb of the Scaligers 
 — Trajan's Amphitheatre 172 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 Venice by Moonlight 178 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 How They Used to do It — A Regatta — The Square 
 of St. Mark — The Pigeons — The Patron Saint of 
 Venice — Church of St. Mark — Palace of the 
 Doges — Climbing the Golden Stair — The Prison 
 of Pozzi— The Bridge of Sighs 183 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 Through the Apeninnes to Florence — The Guelphs 
 and Ghibelines — The Mosaics of Florence — The 
 Drives — Giotto's Bell Tower— The Cathedral — 
 Church of St. Croce— Tombs of Michael Angelo, 
 Galileo, and Macchiavelli — The Medici Family — 
 The TJffizi Gallery and Pitti Palace— The Tables 
 of Fabulous Value 192 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 Through Rome to Naples— The Colosseum by Moon- 
 light — The Appian Way — Monte Cassino — Capua 
 — A Conscientious Young Lady — The Ascent of 
 Mount Vesuvius— A Grapple With Incipient 
 Cholera — "See Naples and Die! " — At the Crater 
 of Vesuvius — Herculaneum — Pompeii — St. Elmo 
 — The Museum of Naples — The Island of Ischia.197 
 
 \ 
 
XII. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 Return to the Eternal City — Ancient and Modern 
 Rome— Prof. S. R. Forbes— The Town Site of 
 Romulus — The Rape of the Sabines — History Re- 
 peating Itself, on a Reduced Scale — The Palace 
 of the Emperors — Basilica Explained — Bathing 
 Houses — The Old Roman Forum — The Assassi- 
 nation of Julius Csesar — His Temple Tomb 206 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 The Arches of Rome— "S. P. Q. R."— Egyptian 
 Obelisk— The Bridges of the Tiber— The Pan- 
 theon — Sabbath Breakers and the Worship of 
 Bacrchus — Church of St. Maria Maggiore — Snow 
 in August — St. Luke as a Painter 281 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 The Mother of Churches — The Bronze Doors of the 
 Old Senate — Scala Santa — The Catacombs — 
 Tomb of St. Cecilia — Circus of Maxentius — St. 
 Peter's at Last — Doubtful Stories of St. Peter and 
 St. Paul — The Sistine Chapel — Galleries and Mu- 
 seum of the Vatican — The Gorgeous Church of 
 St. Paul 227 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 From Rome, to Northern Italy — Elba and Corsica — 
 Pisa, its Leaning Tower, Cathedral and Baptistry 
 — The Campo Santo — The American " Bell Ring- 
 ers "—Pisa's Chief Industry—Turin, its Lovely 
 Climate— A Thunder Storm in Lombardy— Jour- 
 ney to Milan— At the Opera— The Divine Right 
 to Hiss duly Exercised— A Dry Orchestra— The 
 Grand Cathedral of Milan— Royal Palace— Church 
 
XIII. 
 
 of St. Ambrose with its Brazen Serpent — Da 
 Vinci's— The Last Supper---The Relic Hunters on 
 a Raid— Soldier's Barracks— Milan's Arch— Napo- 
 leon's Amphitheatre 237 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 From Italy into Switzerland— Lake Como— St. Goth- 
 ard Tunnel— Lucerne— Lake of the Four Cantons 
 — Up the Rigi— The Hard Lines of the Swiss 
 Peasant— The Land of Tell— Thorswalden's Lion. 249 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 By Steamer to Alpnock— A Carriage Ride to Brienz 
 —The Bernese Costume— The Falls of Giessbach— 
 An Illumination — Interlaken — The Jungfrau — An 
 Old Wichita Boy— The Glaciers— The Syrens of 
 the Ice Grotto— A Truant Pair— A Dream 258 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 From Interlaken to Berne— The City Whose Tute- 
 lary Goddess is a Bear— From Berne to Lausanne, 
 thence to Ouchy — On Lake Lehman — Vernayaz— 
 The Gorge-du-Trient— The Ride Over the Tete 
 Xoire Pass— A Savoyard Jehu — An Hour in Ely- 
 sium — A Mountain Vehicle 265 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 Arrival at Chamounix — Mont Blanc— The Unvailing 
 of de Saussure's Statue— Another Illumination — 
 The Ride to Geneva 271 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 Geneva— The Grave of Calvin— Farewell to Switz- 
 erland— En Route to Paris 277 
 
XIV. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 Americans in Paris — Starting Out to See the Sights 
 —The Grand Opera House— The Madeline— Place 
 de la Concorde— Hotel des Invalides— Tomb of 
 Napoleon— The Palace of the Elysee— The Arc de 
 Triomphe— Trocadero Palace— Champ de Mars- 
 Exhibition of 1889 282 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII. 
 
 A Convenient Method of Sight Seeing— A Collision — 
 A Reminiscence of Rome — The Bastile — Pere la 
 Chaise— The Churches of Paris— Lost in St. Sul- 
 pice— Another Reminiscence of the Eternal City.. 289 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
 
 Paris, Continued — ,The Column Vendome — The 
 Louvre and Luxembourg — Versailles — A Sevres 
 Pottery — Gobelin Tapestries— The Disintegration 
 of the Cook Party— The Perils of the English 
 Channel— We Have Swung Round the Circle 302 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 
 Stratford-on-Avon — Stoke Pogis — Eton College — 
 Windsor Castle— Westminister Abbey 311 
 
 CHAPTER XL. 
 
 Departure for the Orient— Stop Over in Folkestone — 
 Paris and Turin— A Xocturnal Episode— Arrival 
 in Genoa— The Various Churches in the City of 
 Palaces 322 
 
 CHAPTER X*LI. 
 We Pay Our Respects to Some of the Palaces of 
 Genoa— Something of Christopher Columbus 328 
 
XV. 
 
 CHAPTER XLII. 
 
 Genoa's Campo Santo— On the Mediterranean Out- 
 ward Bound— The Two Storms at Sea— Arrival 
 at Alexandria 335 
 
 CHAPTER XLIII. 
 
 The City of Cleopatra— The Egyptians at Home— 
 Pompey's Pillar — The Buffalo Cow — A Walk 
 Through the Bazaars— Tobacco, a Genius of Both 
 
 Good and Evil— A Page of Ancient History 344 
 
 CHAPTER XLIV. 
 From Alexandria by Steamer to Port Said and 
 thence to Jaffa— The House of Simon the Tanner 
 — The Rock of Andromeda— The American Col- 
 ony— Lydda— St. George and the Dragon— Ramleh 
 
 —The High Way to Jerusalem 356 
 
 CHAPTER XLV. 
 
 Impressions of Jerusalem 371 
 
 CHAPTER XL VI. 
 The Holy Sepulchre— The Greek Festival of the 
 
 Holy Fire 381 
 
 CHAPTER XL VII. 
 The Ccenaculum— Garden of Gethsemane — The So- 
 called Mosque of Omar 390 
 
 CHAPTER XLVIII. 
 The Tombs of the Prophets — Tophet — Rachel's 
 
 Tomb— Solomon's Pools— Bethlehem 403 
 
 CHAPTER XLIX. 
 Departure for Jericho — The Dead Sea and River 
 Jordan— The Brook Cherith— Jordan is a Hard 
 Road to Travel— A Xovel Recipe for a Salad 416 
 
XVI. 
 
 CHAPTER L. 
 
 The Three Jerichos— Elisha's Fountain— The Mount 
 of Temptation — Salt Moonshiners — " On Jordan's 
 Stormy Banks I Stand" 427 
 
 CHAPTER LI. 
 
 Farewell to the Holy City— The Back Track to Jaffa 
 — Arrivalat Port Said 436 
 
 CHAPTER LII. 
 The Suez Canal— Ismalia— By Rail to Cairo— Egypt- 
 ian Customs 448 
 
 CHAPTER LIII. 
 
 Grand Cairo 455 
 
 CHAPTER LIY. 
 
 Museum of Bulak— The Two Mies— Poem by Col. 
 M. M. Mur dock— The Pharaoh of the Oppression. 466 
 
 CHAPTER LY. 
 
 The kilometer— Mohammedan Mosques— Citadel- 
 Coptic Church— The Howling Dervishes— The Re- 
 turn from the Caaba 474 
 
 CHAPTER LVI. 
 
 Heliopolis— The Story of Joseph— Visit to the Pyra 
 mids of Gizeh— The Sphinx 485 
 
 CHAPTER LVII. 
 
 Statue of Rameses (see illustration) — The Site of 
 Ancient Memphis— Sakkarah— The Tomb of Apis 
 —The Last Dinner— Finis. 493 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE, 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 THE DEPARTURE FOR EUROPE OCEAN VOYAGE ARRIVAL 
 
 AT QUEENSTOWN. 
 
 For many years the one unvarying dream of my 
 life was a voyage to foreign lands. It was my ambi- 
 tion to stand in the presence of the surviving works 
 of the old masters in the schools of art; to walk 
 amidst the ruins of hoary antiquity ; to travel over the 
 same rough highways trod by the sandaled feet of the 
 Savior of mankind ; to climb the giddy steps that lead 
 to the apex of Cheops, and from this coigne of vantage 
 trace the serpentine course of Egypt's Nile, upon 
 whose fertile banks nourished a high order of civiliza- 
 tion at the time Noah was getting out the timbers for 
 the building of the ark. 
 
 Thus you will readily see that I was not seized by 
 any sudden whim to sail " 'neath alien skies." My air- 
 castles were simply materializing into veritable castles 
 
 2 
 
18 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 on the Rhine ; and in April, 1887, their full realization 
 went into effect when I bade adieu to the Peerless 
 Princess of America's Nile, and set out upon a journey 
 faithfully detailed in the pages that follow. The trip 
 across the continent to New York and thence to En- 
 gland was to be a family affair, the party consisting of 
 myself, my wife, and the sole surviving fruit of our 
 union, Master Charlie, over whose closely cropped poll 
 eight brief and, I trust, cloudless summers had passed. 
 
 We spent a few delightful days, en route, in south- 
 western Pennsylvania, amidst the scenes of my boy- 
 hood; and after waiting the usual length of time in 
 New York, recommended in order to get a " good 
 ready," with some sinking of the heart went aboard 
 the good Cunard steamer that was to be responsible for 
 our safe delivery to that lovely shore where the sham- 
 rock is discovered with a field-glass, and shillalahs are 
 grown as souvenirs for American tourists at the rate of 
 one thousand dollars per cord. 
 
 The crowd that stood on the wharf at New York to 
 say good-by to departing friends numbered over two 
 thousand people. It was a grand sight to look down 
 into their tearful faces from the deck of our steamer; 
 and even when we were far out in the bay some sad 
 heart still lingered on the shore, and doubtless re- 
 mained there until the Umbria was but a speck upon 
 the horizon. 
 
 We had, on the whole, a comfortable passage. For 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 19 
 
 about three days we sailed on summer seas, then the 
 wind shifted, bringing fog for a brief spell, followed by 
 a sea that ran high and rocked our immense craft till 
 it was veritably a cradle of the deep. Fortunately for 
 us, we had fully got our sea legs before the rough 
 weather set in, and, I am proud to say, escaped the 
 discomforts of sea-sickness. The Umbria, as a safe, 
 speedy, and comfortable boat stands in high favor with 
 sea-going people. She is five hundred and twenty feet 
 long, of proportionate breadth and depth, of eight 
 thousand tons' burden, and sailing capacity of twenty 
 miles an hour. Her officers and crew number about 
 two hundred and seventy-five men. About everything 
 that human ingenuity can devise for the comfort and 
 convenience of travelers seems to have been provided 
 in the equipment of this vessel. The upholstering and 
 general finish of the inside will compare favorably with 
 the Pullman sleeping, palace and dining car. Each 
 state-room has an electric bell and incandescent elec- 
 tric light. You can have meals and liquid refresh- 
 ments served in your rooms without extra charge, and 
 books from the library to while away pleasantly, lying 
 in bed, such hours as confinement would otherwise 
 render tedious and unprofitable. 
 
 The steamer chair was a revelation to me. Each 
 passenger purchases one before embarking. At the 
 end of the voyage it is stored with the company until 
 the return trip. These chairs are used exclusively on 
 
20 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 the upper deck; and in fine weather, when the sea is 
 smooth as glass and the temperature up in the seven- 
 ties, I know of no greater luxury on land, or on water, 
 for the matter of that, than to recline on one of these 
 chairs and, rocked by the gentle motion of the boat, 
 lulled into half-forgetfulness by the swish, swish, of 
 the waves through which it cleaves a passage, feel that 
 the waters of Lethe are no longer to be coveted. The 
 great discomforts of sea-sickness can be reduced to a 
 minimum by reclining at ease in your state-room when 
 a rough sea is on and the boat is inclined to touch only 
 in high places, or soar sideways like a swallow in mid- 
 air. 
 
 With a comparatively smooth sea, every hour of 
 daylight should be spent on deck ; and the promenade, 
 if vigorously prosecuted, will develope a tendency to 
 sharpen the appetite, without which one will stand a 
 poor show of getting the worth of his money on this 
 trip. We reached the end of our ocean voyage on the 
 seventh day out, and at two o'clock in the morning 
 descended from the palatial Cunarder, at anchor off 
 Queenstown, to a nameless tug that bore us slowly, in 
 the teeth of a cold, driving rain, to the custom house. 
 
 There were some sixty of us who left the Umbria 
 and stood in the pelting storm underneath our um- 
 brellas, cabinless and fireless, in the gray dawn, 
 through the intervening distance of four miles from 
 the anchorage of the Umbria to the landing at Queens- 
 
FROM XILE TO NILE. 21 
 
 town; nearly, if not quite, all were Americans. I 
 infer this from the fact that if they had been English 
 tourists landing in America their curses would have 
 been loud and deep at such lack of accommodation. 
 As they were Americans, they stood and took it with- 
 out a perceptible murmur. Now, you may believe that 
 or not, just as you choose. 
 
 The passenger list of the TTmbria contained over 
 seven hundred names. After we left her she weighed 
 anchor, and with the great bulk of her passengers 
 stowed away in their berths asleep, steamed rapidly on 
 her way to Liverpool, and was soon lost to sight. 
 
 Well, we landed at Queenstown, a city of, say, ten 
 thousand inhabitants, built on the side of a high range 
 of. hills that slope down into Queenstown harbor. Of 
 course, we pushed our way, like a lot of cattle, over the 
 gang-plank, into the custom house, and went through 
 the form of having our baggage examined. I chanced 
 to have a French dictionary in my valise, and the 
 officer viewed it side wise, lengthwise, and upside down 
 until I was tempted to make him a present of it. 
 Then he tackled the intricacies of a Saratoga trunk of 
 the latest combination, warranted to be proof against 
 the most scientific efforts of the baggage smasher. 
 Having discovered amongst our effects nothing of a 
 contraband nature, our " luggage," as it is here called, 
 received the white cross, and being hoisted on the 
 
22 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 shoulders of human beasts of burden, instead of trucks, 
 followed us as we passed out and stood for the first 
 time on foreign soil. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 CORK BLARXEY CASTLE. 
 
 After getting a clearance from the custom honse at 
 Queenstown, we purchased railway tickets for Cork, 
 distant some twelve or fifteen miles, and before the 
 sun had had time to dispel the thin ocean mist we 
 were steaming away through a landscape of surpassing 
 loveliness, until the train ran into the tunnel at Cork, 
 and then backed into the quaint old depot of that- 
 quaint old city. I suppose by the time I have finished 
 this tour, much of the freshness belonging to an inex- 
 perienced traveler will have worn off. I question if 
 ever I shall so thoroughly enjoy one day's sight seeing 
 with the same amount of zest and appreciativeness as 
 I did this, my first day in Ireland. With my eyes 
 shut it was hard to realize that the broad Atlantic lay 
 between me and my native land, but with eyes and 
 ears open, the evidence that I was in the land where 
 the shamrock and shillalah flourish was so convincing 
 as to need no assurance of its reality. 
 
 I can remember the time when there were no electric 
 lights or electric bells in our first-class hotels ; when 
 
24 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 there were no street cars in onr large cities. I can go 
 that one better : I can even remember the days when 
 the " tallow dip" gave light to the world, long ante- 
 dating the general use of kerosene. I confess, then, I 
 was struck with amazement when I found my chamber 
 dimly illuminated by two common candles ; not so 
 dimly, however, but that I could read a notice on the 
 wall, cautioning guests against the " nefarious and 
 dangerous habit of reading in bed," which was as grim 
 a piece of sarcasm as though it had read: " Do not blow 
 the light out, use the snuffers." Of course, Mrs. S. could 
 not endure the candles, and in searching for the elec- 
 tric button to summon the bell boy she came in contact 
 with a cord thick enough and strong enough to hold a 
 three year old colt. When I had demonstrated to her 
 the utter futility of continuing her search for the but- 
 ton, and the wisdom of jerking the cord, a smart 
 Bridget appeared in answer to the tinkle of a bell at 
 the other end of the rope, who made it perfectly plain, 
 in the course of time, that a kerosene lamp was a 
 curiosity in Cork. After kerosene has been admitted 
 and prepared the way, possibly gas may follow, to 
 be superseded, in its turn, by electric lights. 
 
 It did seem odd that in a city of ninety-seven 
 thousand inhabitants, there should be, toward the 
 close of the nineteenth century, no street cars. The 
 nearest substitute (only in cheapness and convenience) 
 is the Irish jaunting car, a one-horse, two- wheeled 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 25 
 
 vehicle, without cover, the seats on the side capable 
 of holding four persons besides the driver. The latter 
 sits on an elevated seat fronting the horse ; the passen- 
 gers, with their backs to each other. Over smooth 
 roads, such as you find in Ireland, and for a short 
 distance, they are at least endurable. The two- 
 wheeled cab is also at your service, but the jaunting 
 car is distinctly Irish, one of the institutions of the 
 country to be found nowhere else, and should not 
 be slighted. 
 
 In the older portions of the city the streets are 
 narrow and crooked, mere alleys, you might say; 
 and here you find, in old and dilapidated dwellings, 
 squalor and want, to all appearance no better 
 than the Chinese quarters in San Francisco, and 
 so far as poverty in all its abjectness is concerned, a 
 few degrees worse than had ever come under my 
 observation. Americans, from their well known liber- 
 ality, are subject, more than any other visitors, to the 
 importunities of professional beggars. They seem to 
 lie in wait for you; and, whether walking or riding, 
 street gamins, big, barefooted girls, with unkempt hair 
 and garments in tatters, decrepit old men and women, 
 the lame, blind and halt are ever with you. 
 
 The principal modern streets are wide and well 
 paved. St. Patrick's and the Grand Parade were full 
 of life and bustle as I threaded my way through them 
 on Saturday evening. There were more people on the 
 
26 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 sidewalk than one would see on Broadway, New York. 
 The British soldier formed a large and striking ele- 
 ment amongst the pedestrians. The handsome, neat- 
 fitting scarlet coats of the infantry, the dark blue, 
 trimmed with yellow, of the cavalry, and the white 
 waists, green plaid kilts, bare knees and white leggings 
 of the Highlanders, lent all the coloring and variety 
 to the picture that the artist's eye could desire. There 
 are no less than three regiments of troops stationed 
 here, and the Irish have no love for them, you may be 
 assured. There are a number of fine buildings in 
 various parts of the city, principally churches, and 
 one cathedral. Father Matthew, of whom there is a 
 fine statue in St. Patrick Street, founded Shandon 
 Church, which stands with its curious tower on quite 
 an elevation overlooking much of the city. Its chime 
 of bells, " Shandon Bells," is known all over the 
 world. 
 
 ' ' With deep affection 
 And recollection 
 I often think on 
 
 Those Shandon bells, 
 Whose sounds so wild would, 
 In the days of my childhood, 
 Fling 'round my cradle 
 
 Their magic spells." 
 
 It is said that William Penn became a convert in 
 
 Cork to the doctrine and faith of the Society of Friends, 
 
 or Quakers. He and eighteen others were imprisoned 
 
 here at one time. Five miles out from the city, over 
 
 one of the most picturesque drives in the world, is 
 
FROM NTLE TO XILE. 27 
 
 " Blarney Castle." As I stood on the top of this an- 
 cient ruin, and touched with my hand the " blarney 
 stone," upheld by an iron clamp below the parapet, one 
 hundred and ten feet from the ground ; as I examined 
 its massive walls, fifteen feet in thickness, and looked 
 out from its many embrasures and port-holes ; as I de- 
 scended the winding stairway whose steps were first 
 worn smooth by native Irish freemen more than four 
 hundred years ago ; as I entered its caves and dun- 
 geons and stood on the stone floor of its prison house ; 
 as I gazed in wonderment and measured with the eye 
 the superb cut stone mantel of its huge dining hall, I 
 was not slow in agreeing with an assertion from my 
 better half, that to see this was well worth a trip across 
 the Atlantic. 
 
 Kissing the " blarney stone " without the aid of one 
 or two strong assistants is a feat that requires the 
 nerve of a bold buccaneer. I went there with the 
 courage of a lion. When I looked at the green grass 
 beneath me, full one hundred and ten feet, I shuddered 
 to think what my fate would be if I grew dizzy and 
 lost my balance in reaching over the open space inter- 
 vening between my reclining body and the kissing spot. 
 My leonine courage, like that of Bob Acres, began to 
 ooze out at my finger ends. 
 
 ' ' There is a stone there 
 That whoever kisses 
 Oh ! he never misses 
 To grow eloquent. 
 
28 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 'Tis he may clamber 
 To a lady's chamber, 
 Or become a member 
 Of parliament. 
 
 A clever spouter 
 He'll turn out, or 
 An out and outer 
 To be let alone. 
 
 Don't hope to hinder him, 
 Or to bewilder him ; 
 Sure he's a pilgrim 
 
 From the ' blarney stone. ' ' ' 
 
 It is related that Blarney Castle was besieged in 
 medieval times by the English under Lord Carew. 
 The Lord of Blarney, Cormac McCarthy, agreed to 
 capitulate, but through numberless excuses, fair prom- 
 ises, and flattering words managed to circumvent 
 completely the commander of the English, who be- 
 came the laughing-stock thereby at the court of Queen 
 Bess for being so easily duped; and thus " blarney " 
 came into use as a term synonymous with flattery. 
 How and when the custom of kissing this stone orig- 
 inated is a question the answer to which I have sought 
 in vain. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 KILLARNEY. 
 
 We traveled direct by rail from Cork to Killarney. 
 
 Betwen Mallow, where we left the main line, and 
 
 Killarney, the " bogs of Ireland " were encountered 
 
 for the first time. The natives were at work here 
 
 preparing their yearly supply of fuel. The turf, which 
 
 is cut with a spade adapted to the purpose, to a depth 
 
 of from two to three feet, is spread out over the 
 
 ground to dry. It varies in color from a deep black 
 
 to a tan, burns like our "buffalo chips," and emits a 
 
 similar odor. Peat bogs, which are not confined 
 
 exclusively to Ireland but are found in various parts 
 
 of Europe, as well as in America, are thus described 
 
 in a recent work on Europe : * 
 
 "Between Gal way and Sligo ba} r s, on the west coast 
 of Ireland, is a large shoulder of land extending into 
 the Atlantic. Lines drawn from the northern and 
 southern extremities of this projection across to the 
 east, would measure off a belt of country known as 
 the bog region of Ireland. Nearly all of this strip 
 is marsh} T ground, covered with a growth of mosses, 
 lichens, heaths and grasses. Underneath these living 
 
 *E. T. Benedict. 
 
30 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 carpets lie the decaying roots and leaves of former 
 growths, imbedded in mnd, and kept continually wet 
 by the moist climate. 
 
 "In some places this rank growth has choked up 
 shallow lakes and ponds, in others it has spread over 
 good ground, converting it into bogs. It is not un- 
 common to see a large patch of bog itself moving along 
 as if on rollers. Water has collected under it until it 
 comes to a level meadow where it stops and begins to 
 grow. 
 
 " A few years ago the people in the neighborhood 
 of the great Slogan bog were alarmed, one day, by 
 several loud reports, like discharges of artillery or 
 claps of thunder, coming from the bog. Then, to their 
 astonishment, they saw an immense field of turf mov- 
 ing slowly toward the road. In a few minutes it had 
 covered the road for a distance of fifty rods, and con- 
 tinued on toward the river Main, nearly choking up 
 its channel. 
 
 " When these rank masses have obtained a footing 
 they begin to increase in depth. New leaves come out 
 on top of the old ones each year, and, supplied with 
 abundant moisture, gather quantities of mud, and 
 thus the mud goes on thickening and deepening. As 
 the depth increases, the decaying fibres disappear and 
 the moss becomes black, until, near the bottom, peat 
 is formed. This substance, when dried, resembles soft 
 coal and makes very good fuel." 
 
 The furze bushes that grew along the sod fences and 
 
 in unsightly places were in full bloom, their bright 
 
 yellow flowers harmonizing aesthetically with the 
 
 green lanceolated leaves, combining the two sunflower 
 
 colors so popular with the admirers of Oscar Wilde, 
 
 and recalling to mind the English proverb that 
 
 4 ' Love is out of season 
 
 When the furze is not in bloom. 7 ' 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 31 
 
 The white and red thorns were likewise clad in gala 
 costume. The lay of the land was beautiful until we 
 approached Killarney, the mountains here almost en- 
 circling this delightful pleasure resort. We found here 
 a town of about six thousand people. The hotels, four 
 or five in number, are good of their kind, depending 
 almost wholly for their support upon the patronage of 
 tourists. Strolling through the town, I could not help 
 noticing the evidences of poverty. Aside from the 
 shopmen, the people seemed to have nothing to do, 
 and they swarmed in the principal street as though it 
 had been a holiday. Sitting at breakfast the next 
 morning, I noticed a motley throng making their way 
 to the depot ; bareheaded and barefooted women and 
 children by the score, old men and young, donkey 
 carts with boxes and bedding, one-horse carts and 
 jaunting cars, women carrying boxes, scurrying past 
 as though fleeing from the plague. Pretty soon I 
 ascertained that about one hundred of them were 
 emigrating to America, where all Irishmen hope to go. 
 So I joined the promiscuous gathering at the depot, 
 just before train time, and I witnessed a sight, perhaps 
 very common in Ireland, but strange indeed to me. 
 Nearly half of the populace of the town had gathered 
 here to say good-by to the lucky one hundred, and 
 unite their voices in loud lamentation at their bereave- 
 ment, for the aged people all regard such a parting in 
 the same light as a separation by death, and to them 
 
32 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 it is absolutely so. The picture is of too sacred a 
 nature to make sport of, and yet, as I mixed in that 
 Hibernian crowd, heard the parting words, looked into 
 the sad, tear-stained, swollen faces, saw the men em- 
 brace each other, and even bid good-by to the fellows 
 composing their own party, these and other things too nu- 
 merous to mention, made it all appear like a huge 
 farce in a play. Poor souls ! there was tragedy enough 
 in it for them. 
 
 This district of Killarney has been described as the 
 Mecca of every pilgrim in search of the sublime and 
 picturesque in nature. It is celebrated in song and 
 story, and its legends are of that grotesque order char- 
 acteristic of Hibernia. At Cork we fell in with the 
 ex-colonel of a Missouri regiment and his amiable wife, 
 and joined forces, designing to make the tour together. 
 After transcribing our names on the register of the 
 railway hotel, the Colonel set out in search of a car 
 driver who had been recommended to him as a gradu- 
 ate in his line of business. His name was Pat Healy, 
 and no namesake of his in America need have any 
 scruples in claiming relationship. What Pat does not 
 know about this country there is no use in ransacking 
 the guide books to find out. He was not hard to un- 
 earth, and in the least possible time had us all aboard 
 his jaunting car and clattering down the smooth turn- 
 pike road, hemmed in by high stone walls covered 
 with ivy, and over-shadowed by ancient yew and beech 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 33 
 
 trees. Women, with articles of hand-made lace, and 
 trinkets carved from bog oak, sprang into the road and 
 urged us to buy their wares. Some asked openly for 
 alms, but we were getting hardened and sped onward, 
 stopping at length at the entrance to Tore Cascade, 
 where an old hag, in the goats' milk business, gave me 
 such a blessing for interfering in a deal Avith the small 
 boy, that if there had been any potenc}^ in her vile bil- 
 lingsgate the earth would have opened and swallowed 
 me up. Here we dismounted and walked a quarter of 
 a mile through a beautiful glen to where the waters 
 from Tore Mountain come down as they do at Lodore. 
 Retracing our footsteps we are off again, this time 
 through a gate into the domain of an extensive land 
 owner, paying our shilling a head to the gate keeper 
 for admittance. We are, apparently, hemmed in by 
 mountains, whose tops are hidden from us by mist. 
 Pat says it is the steam from the " Devil's Punch Bowl." 
 As we emerge from the timber our eyes are greeted by 
 a sight they have longed to see for many a year, the 
 lakes of Killarney. 
 
 They are three in number, the nearest one to us be- 
 ing the middle, or Muckross lake. Skirting the shore 
 for some distance, we come to Muckross Abbey, 
 founded by the McCarthys in 1440. The abbey, now 
 in ruins, was built by them on the foundations of a 
 much older structure, destroyed by fire in 1192. The 
 ruin consists of a church and convent, and within its 
 
34 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 walls are a number of graves, said to be mostly the 
 graves of the McCarthys, who were once princes of this 
 land. For a ruin, the abbey is in a good state of pres- 
 ervation, and the guide will point you out the choir, 
 nave, transept, tower, and cloister. The cloisters are 
 nearly perfect. In the center of the square stands a 
 venerable yew tree, perfectly sound and as symmet- 
 rical as if carefully pruned. It is said to be as old as 
 the abbey itself. Peering into one of the sepulchers, 
 where a stone had given away, we discovered two cof- 
 fins, one on top of the other, both falling into decay. 
 The upper one had borne down heavily on the one be- 
 neath, crushing out the corner, from which a grinning 
 skull had rolled. The Colonel says he saw that skull 
 in his dreams all night long, and my wife says it paid 
 her several nocturnal visits. From here we drove past 
 the fine modern mansion of Mr. Herbert, the landed 
 proprietor, who is now sojourning in Kansas. As we 
 emerge from this domain into the turn-pike we encoun- 
 ter an Irish maid driving a diminutive donkey in a 
 cart. Pat, giving us a knowing wink, goes into a 
 rhapsody, so expressive of the scene that I must re- 
 produce it. I heard it sung when I was a boy, but will 
 not vouch for this as a correct version : 
 
 When I first met sweet Peggy 
 'Twas on a market day ; 
 
 On a low-back car she sat, 
 All on a truss of hay, 
 As she sat on a low-back car. 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 35 
 
 And the man of the turn-pike bar 
 Clutched the chicken 
 That Peggy was pickin' 
 
 As she sat on the low-back car." 
 
CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 GAP OF DTJXLOE LAKES OF KILLARXEY. 
 
 The next day after our visit to Muckross Abbey, the 
 services of our new Hibernian friend, Pat Healy, and 
 his jaunting car were again brought into requisition, 
 and as the drive before us was a long one, and over a 
 road somewhat hilly, it was deemed expedient to hire 
 more transportation. As Pat belouged, by right of 
 discovery, to the Colonel, I was forced to dispense 
 with his valuable services ; not, however, until he had 
 secured for me another Pat, descended from that long 
 line of Irish lords and princes, the McCarthys. As a 
 genuine specimen of the south country Irishman, so 
 far as native wit and efficiency as a guide are con- 
 cerned, he was not a whit behind the other Pat. He 
 pointed out all objects of interest on the route as we 
 bowled along, relating legend after legend, and anec- 
 dotes, sometimes in poetry, sometimes in prose, until 
 we reached the hut where Kate Kearney was born, 
 and the mountain side where she attended her goats. 
 " She was the purtiest girl in all Ireland," he said, 
 " when she stood on the mountain top, forninst the 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 37 
 
 house, her hair reached to the fut of it, near two thou- 
 sand fate." Another Kate Kearney, a grand daughter 
 of her whom Moore lias immortalized, and herself a 
 grandmother, now lives here and dispenses " mountain 
 dew " to her customers. Pat's definition of mountain 
 dew was, " whisky and goat's milk." She is a comely 
 looking old lady, and when I purchased a photograph 
 of her humble abode, with herself in the doorway, she 
 gave me a genuine blessing. Before arriving at the 
 Kearney Cottage, however, we were confronted, at an 
 ancient stone bridge, by a rough looking crowd of men 
 and boys on horseback (that reminded me of a squad 
 of bushwhackers) from which the guides were to be 
 selected to conduct us on horseback through the Gap 
 of Dunloe. This meant that our party of five (two 
 men, two women, and a boy) was to leave the jaunting 
 cars at a certain point, and mount these miserable 
 ponies for a ride of four miles through the mountain 
 pass. The guides would walk, and return after con- 
 ducting us through the pass to the upper lake. The 
 two Pats would also return the way we came, and 
 meet us in the evening at Ross Castle on Lough Leane, 
 or the lower of the three Lakes of Killarney. We 
 were to dismount at Lord Brandon's cottage, and there 
 enter a two-oared skiff for a ride of fifteen miles 
 through the lakes. 
 
 From the time we left Kate Kearney's cottage 
 we were beset by beggars, the most persistent in their 
 
38 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 demands, I think, I have ever met. At the entrance 
 to the Gap of Dunloe was a small hamlet. Here we 
 dismounted from the jaunting cars, and were invited 
 by a lady, neatly dressed, to enter one of the houses 
 and examine some bric-a-brac manufactured on the 
 spot from arbutus wood and bog oak. She showed us 
 some of the most exquisite specimens of hand carved 
 and inlaid work I have ever seen. There was one 
 cabinet in particular that struck my fancy, and I 
 thought I would buy it and express it home as a sou- 
 venir. After opening all the doors and drawers and 
 secret places, and admiring the harps and shamrocks, 
 and myrtle and ivy designs so deftly inlaid, I felt cer- 
 tain I would buy it, and was already fingering the 
 shillings in my pocket, and making a mental calcula- 
 tion of how many of them would make ten dollars, 
 when I modestly asked her the price. Before answer- 
 ing my question, however, she went on to say that 
 Lord So-and-So had ordered one, and that an ex-mayor 
 of New York and the governor of Louisiana each 
 had one, and I began to get weary. Finally she came 
 to the point, and intimated that as she would like to 
 introduce this work into our part of the country, I 
 " might have the cabinet for forty pounds, and the 
 duty on it would be only three pounds more." I gave 
 her to understand that she certainly mistook me for 
 another gentleman ; that the initials of my name were 
 not A. T. 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 39 
 
 Without making any purchase we prepared to mount, 
 and after being firmly seated in the saddle discovered 
 that the animals we rode, whilst they were sure-footed, 
 were weak and " trembly," having tasted nothing but 
 grass since they were weaned ; however, they were in 
 keeping with everything else in this part of the world, 
 except the scenery, which was perfectly grand. A hut 
 was pointed out to us as the home, once on a time, of 
 "the Colleen Bawn," and the place in the lake where 
 she was drowned. This may be a myth, but there is 
 little doubt that Dion Bouccicault got the ground work 
 of that superb Irish comedy from this locality. 
 
 We reached a point where one of the numerous 
 retinue that follows us on foot went down under a 
 cliff and hallooed, and the echo came back to us strong 
 and clear as a bugle sound. Two small cannon were 
 discharged and the echo was almost deafening. Further 
 along another cannon was fired with a like result. So 
 our cavalcade wound in and out and upward through 
 the pass, the guides often telling us to halt and look 
 backward, and whenever we did a vision of loveliness 
 greeted us. On either side of us the mountains rose 
 black and precipitous. Here was a dismal looking 
 lake that contained no living thing. The guide said 
 St. Patrick had killed the last snake at this spot, shut 
 it in a tight iron box and sunk it in the lake. 
 
 On reaching the summit of the pass, with the clouds 
 floating on the mountain's brow, not so very far above 
 
40 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 our heads, we halted a moment and drank in the 
 beauty of the whole scene. 
 
 As we started on the down grade, our attention was 
 attracted by a number of fancifully dressed mountain 
 nymphs, skipping over the sharp stones towards us, in 
 their bare feet, evidently bent on victimizing us in 
 some manner. We were not long in finding out their 
 mission. Each one carried a quart bottle of " moun- 
 tain dew " under her arm, to which she referred in af- 
 fectionate terms, from time to time, on the two mile 
 stretch along which they followed us or kept pace 
 with our horses. It filled our hearts with mournful 
 reflections on the lamentable wickedness of the 
 tourists that had preceded us; for without more en- 
 couragement than they got from our party they would 
 soon have abandoned their business. 
 
 Debouching from this pass we straightway entered 
 the famous Black Valley, famous in times past as the 
 abode of witches and hobgoblins. Small farmers, who 
 eke out a scanty subsistence, inhabit this dismal vale, 
 keeping a few sheep and cattle of that excellent breed 
 of milkers known as the Kerry. 
 
 At the entrance to the grounds surrounding Lord 
 Brandon's Cottage we dismounted, and, on payment of 
 a fee, were admitted to pass through them to the land- 
 ing on the Upper Lake, where we found a boat in read- 
 iness, and something more — a lunch whose sauce was 
 a good, sharp appetite. 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 41 
 
 We were rowed through the lakes at the rate of five 
 miles an hour, and through the river that connects the 
 upper and middle lake. The scenery, of course, is fine, 
 and the ride can be appreciated after sitting so long in 
 the saddle. There is a lovely place just before you 
 enter the middle lake, called u The Meeting of the 
 Waters." Before you strike it you pass down a rapid 
 chute under an old stone bridge, called the old weir 
 bridge, said to have been built in the year 900. One 
 of the boatmen conveyed the pleasing information to 
 our ladies, that no one who ever passed under that 
 bridge would be subject to the toothache. As we 
 passed out of the chute into that calm haven where 
 the three waters meet, we looked back through the old 
 bridge, and there was a photographer with his instru- 
 ment in position in the act of taking us. I trust he 
 made a success of it, for it was the second time I 
 had caught him that day in the same act. 
 
 The evening was drawing near when our tired boat- 
 men landed us at Ross Castle. This was erected by 
 one of the O'Donohu Ross family in the fourteenth 
 century, and in earty days was considered impregna- 
 ble. However, General Ludlow, commanding a por- 
 tion of Cromwell's army, surprised Lord Muskerry by 
 attacking it from the water side, when five thousand 
 Munster men laid down their arms. There are three 
 large cannon still in position. It was getting too late 
 to tarry long, and we were not sorry to mount again 
 
42 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 the jaunting cars of our friends, the Pats, and go bowl- 
 ing along over the road toward our stopping place, 
 where the gong for table d'hote was sounding in the cor- 
 ridors as we mounted to the third story. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 DUBLIN. 
 
 Our next stopping place was the city of Dublin, the 
 metropolis of Ireland, containing a population of some- 
 thing like 250,000. It is a delightful old place in which 
 to reside, I imagine, and certainly no less delightful 
 for the stranger who takes up his temporary abode at 
 the Shelbourne, which claims the proud distinction of 
 being the only hotel in Ireland that possesses an ele- 
 vator, or, as the} r call it here with a good deal of unc- 
 tion, a " lift." We look out from our window upon a 
 beautiful park containing, perhaps, forty acres, right 
 in the heart of the city. It is laid off artistically, 
 abounding in walks and drives and sequestered nooks. 
 There are miniature lakes and waterfalls, rocky eleva- 
 tions and smooth shaven lawns, where the children 
 gambol and frolic, and even big, uncouth men stretch 
 themselves out and lazily smoke their pipes. The 
 trees are, of course, numerous, and of every variety 
 adapted to the soil and climate of the Emerald Isle. 
 Many are in full bloom, and together with the posies 
 that deck the landscape, exhale an odor that is 
 
44 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 decidedly pleasant. I have seen many larger parks, 
 but none that combined all the beauties of nature 
 with the artistic and useful to such an extent 
 as the St. Stephen's Green, laid out in a square and 
 drained and planted in 1670. Near Dublin is the 
 celebrated Phoenix Park, containing seventeen hund- 
 red and sixty acres, with a circumference of seven 
 miles. It belonged in ancient times to the Knights 
 Templar. In the fourteenth century the possession 
 passed into the hands of the Knights of St. John, of 
 Jerusalem, but it was confiscated by Henry VIII. when 
 the mania seized him to suppress all the monasteries 
 in the land. But what has, perhaps, given more noto- 
 riety to this park than anything else in connection 
 with it, was the assassination of Lord Frederick Cav- 
 endish and Mr. Burke within view of their own gates 
 in May, 1882. We were shown the exact spot where 
 the crime was committed. It was of additional inter- 
 est to us, perhaps, from the excitement aroused all over 
 the land by the recent publication in the London Times 
 of an alleged fac-simile letter from Mr. Parnell, ap- 
 proving the crime. 
 
 Fancy such an accusation brought against a man 
 honored by his countrymen like Senator Ingalls, and it 
 will give you an idea of the esteem in which Mr. Par- 
 nell is held here by one political party, and the vigor 
 with which the forgery was denounced will not be 
 wondered at. The park, as might be supposed, is a 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 45 
 
 fine body of land where tame deer graze in large herds, 
 like cattle on a western ranch. It appears to me to be 
 of too great an area to be of much utility. Central 
 Park, in New York, certainly excels it in picturesque- 
 ness, and in extent is large enough for all practical 
 purposes. We spent an hour at its zoological gardens, 
 being highly entertained with the sight of seven lusty 
 lion whelps, seven months old, the offspring of a single 
 pair. Of course, there was the usual display of ani- 
 mated nature on exhibition — the fish, flesh, and fowl 
 of all climates and all lands, which the small boy of 
 our party, metaphorically speaking, devoured carniv- 
 orously. Having our fill of this, we drove to the bo- 
 tanical gardens, and I want to say right here that the 
 tourists who fail to take in these gardens miss the rar- 
 est treat to be found in Dublin or vicinity. The gar- 
 den consists of forty- three acres once owned by the 
 poet Tickell, a great friend of Addison. The latter re- 
 sided here at one time, as well as Swift, and other poets 
 of lesser note. The founding of the garden dates back 
 to 1790, has the Irish parliament for its paternity, 
 which voted the means to enable the Royal Dublin 
 Society to purchase the ground and maintain it, and 
 they do maintain it right royally. We used to think 
 Shaw's Garden, at St. Louis, something wonderful ; 
 but after having basked in the sunshine of Glasnevin, 
 and sauntered through its multitudinous conservator- 
 ies, where the plants, shrubs, and flowers of every 
 
46 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 sunny clime are represented, Shaw's Garden must be 
 relegated to a secondary place in my memory. 
 
 Now, do not think from what I have written that 
 Dublin is all park or garden, on the contrary, quite 
 the reverse. Why, there are enough objects of inter- 
 est in the capital city of Ireland to fill a small book, 
 but I am going to glance at only a few of them. First 
 and foremost is the Bank of Ireland. Now a bank 
 building, as a rule, is anything but interesting, particu- 
 larly to the individual who has a note lying past due 
 within its precincts. But if you were to convert the capi- 
 tol building at Topeka into a bank (and worse things 
 have happened), a hundred years hence the, tourist 
 from the new republic, Ireland, might think it worth 
 his while to be conducted by a lackey through some 
 of the corridors, and be shown, for instance, the hall 
 where one General Pomefrey met a signal defeat at 
 the hands of the Duke of York, etc. The Bank of 
 Ireland occupies the former house of parliament in 
 College Green, the original site of Carey's hospital, 
 erected in the sixteenth century. We were shown the 
 house of lords, in which the chairs are still in their 
 places, the long table in the center, and the fine old 
 tapestries, in a good state of preservation, still adorn- 
 ing the walls. The site of the throne is occupied by a 
 statue of King George III. Other rooms, once used 
 for committee purposes, are now occupied by various 
 offices of the bank. Trinity College is opposite the 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 47 
 
 bank. It is a huge structure, occupying an entire 
 block. At the entrance are statues of Goldsmith and 
 Burke, and in College Green, close by, is an admirable 
 statue of Grattan. By devious ways, past the Castle 
 of Dublin, built in 1220, we find ourselves at the 
 Cathedral of St. Patrick, built on the site where St. 
 Patrick baptized his converts, presumably in the year 
 450. One of the kings of Scotland worshipped in it in 
 the year 890, and it underwent many changes as the 
 centuries rolled away. Cromwell used it as a law 
 court, and James II. as a stable. In various parts of 
 this immense building are tablets and inscriptions, 
 both ancient and modern. 
 
 There is one of Dean Swift and Mrs. Hester Johnson, 
 the " Stella " of his poetry ; likewise a monument of 
 the Dean with an inscription in Latin written by him- 
 self. Not a great way from this cathedral is pointed 
 out the birth place of Tom Moore. 
 
 'Another visit we made was to Christ Church. The 
 vaults of this church were built by the Danes before 
 St. Patrick visited Ireland. There is a monumental 
 tomb here of Strongbow, the invader of Ireland ; by 
 the side of it is one much smaller, said to be that of 
 his son, killed by the hand of his own father for show- 
 ing cowardice in battle. The building, which is one 
 of considerable historic notoriety, was long in a state 
 of dilapidation. It has been recently restored by 
 Henry Roe, a distiller, at a cost of half a million dol- 
 
48 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 lars. The principal street of the city is Sackville, 
 which, as regards width, will compare favorably with 
 some of the many prominent ones in the " city of mag- 
 nificent distances." It contains the postoffice, in front 
 of which stands Nelson's monnment, nearly one hun- 
 dred and forty feet high. 
 
 In Dublin we took our first ride on this side of the 
 water in street cars, here called tram cars. The cars 
 are double-decked, and in fair weather the bulk of the 
 traffic seems to prefer the second story. It was from 
 this elevated position we were enabled to get our finest 
 disolving views of Dublin. I confess we left here with 
 some feelings of regret. Our stay had been of three 
 day's duration, and extremely pleasant. Many places 
 of resort not enumerated, we were forced to leave 
 un visited. I shall always have pleasant recollections 
 of the gay Irish capital. 
 
CHAPTEK VI. 
 
 BELFAST. 
 
 Leaving Dublin for the north, my attention was 
 directed to the Boyne. which we were in the act of 
 crossing on a magnificent viaduct of nineteen arches. 
 Now, to the average American, who can trace his 
 ancestry back no further than to an alleged great- 
 grandfather, the river Boyne is of no more significance 
 than the local stream known as the Cow Skin, a beau- 
 tiful stream in southern Kansas, but handicapped for 
 all time to come in the realms of romance in its christ- 
 ening. Nevertheless there are a few thousand people 
 residing in America who, on the second da}' of July, 
 would shed their linen and fight at the drop of a hat 
 if you uttered sentiments not in keeping with their 
 peculiar views respecting a fracas that took place on 
 this identical stream, in which their alleged ancestors 
 either ran like quarter horses with King James II. 
 — always a neck ahead — or marched to victory under 
 the brave Prince of Orange, who restored order to a 
 distracted country, and shed a light so refulgent and 
 beneficent on Anglo-Saxon history that the average 
 
50 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 Englishman is bound to reverence for once a man 
 whose birth place was not on British soil. It was a 
 heavy blow to the adherents of King James, and it is 
 not a rare occurence now on the anniversary of the 
 battle of the Boyne, which the Orangemen celebrate, 
 to create disturbances, especially in the large cities of 
 the Dominion. The battle is commemorated by an 
 obelisk one hundred and fifty feet high. 
 
 We arrived at Belfast on Saturday evening, having 
 had our afternoon ride much enlivened by a little epi- 
 sode not laid down in the guide book. It is evident 
 that railway travel in the United States, where one 
 coach, with reversible seats, accommodates fifty pas- 
 sengers comfortably, possesses advantages not found in 
 the European railway system, where the coach is di- 
 vided into small compartments, holding from six to ten 
 passengers each, according as they are classified, and 
 who are compelled to sit vis-a-vis. This, of course, ne- 
 cessitates riding backwards, which few people care to 
 do under compulsion. 
 
 On this occasion we selected, as we thought; a vacant 
 compartment, in which my wife seated herself by the 
 window, while I withdrew to look after the baggage — 
 a matter that requires close attention in European 
 travel, unless registered. The familiar cry of " all 
 aboard " is not heard here, but the slamming of doors 
 by the guard (conductor) or porters, warns the initiated 
 that the train is about to move. This is followed up 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 51 
 
 by the station agent, who rings a hand-bell; the loco- 
 motive whistle then sounds the final signal of depart- 
 ure, and the train is off. 
 
 As the bell sounded. I re-entered the coach, which 
 was immediately locked behind me. I discovered that 
 a stranger occupied the seat by the window where I 
 
 had left Mrs. S . In wonderment I asked her why 
 
 she had exchanged her seat for one not so desirable. 
 Directing my attention, by a gesture, to an individual 
 who sat by the window, absorbed, apparently, in the 
 columns of the Times, she gave me to understand that 
 he claimed the seat as his, and had deliberately ordered 
 her out of it. Of course I indignantly demanded of 
 him his reason for committing an act so discourteous, 
 and was placidly informed that he held a prior claim 
 to the seat, according to the usual custom of this coun- 
 try, which reserves a seat to the one who first deposits 
 a parcel in the rack overhead. Not in the least molli- 
 fied by his answer, I replied that no gentleman in my 
 country, under any circumstances, would demand a seat 
 already occupied by a lady. He sneeringly remarked 
 that American customs were in a very crude state, dif- 
 fering materially from the usages of enlightened Eu- 
 rope. 
 
 In marked contrast to the swinish proclivities of this 
 modern Chesterfield was the conduct of a personal 
 friend of mine, in an occurrence which came under my 
 notice during a ride from San Jose to Oakland, Califor- 
 
52 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 nia. This boon companion, wearied by a long tramp, 
 sought rest on the train ; and, having ensconced him- 
 self in a vacant seat, was about to surrender himself 
 to the embrace of the drowsy god when suddenly the 
 train was invaded by a large party of excursionists, 
 not all of whom were able to find seats. Amongst 
 them were some ladies who had not learned to pose 
 gracefully in a perpendicular attitude, who leveled 
 their eyes at him as much as to say, " You stand awhile 
 and watch how gracefully "1 can do the sitting act." 
 He hesitated for a moment, and you know he who hes- 
 itates is lost. So with as much grace as he could sum- 
 mon, he yielded up his seat to the lady standing near- 
 est him, who instantly flopped into it without ever so 
 much as acknowledging this act of courtesy by a sim- 
 ple " thank you." Then he pushed his way forward 
 to the platform and sat down to rest his weary bones 
 on the steps. 
 
 The train was running at a high rate of speed, the 
 car rocked as though tempest tossed, the flying cinders 
 pelted him like hail, the smoke was sulphurous and 
 choked him and got in his eyes ; but being an old sol- 
 dier he did not mind trifles, but sat there seemingly 
 contented, until the train stopped at a way station to 
 take on water. Here a lady emerged from an adjoin- 
 ing car with wrath in her eye, because no man had 
 offered her a seat. My friend, all begrimed with 
 smoke and dust, arose at once to his feet and bowing 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 53 
 
 low said, "Madame, you can have my seat, if you de- 
 sire it." " Well ! it's better than none," she exclaimed ; 
 and without further ado she flopped. Then, as the 
 train pulled out and began to fly, this friend of mine 
 became naughty. He took up a position where he 
 could see her without being observed himself. 
 
 She was compelled to hold to the railing with both 
 hands. The wind disarranged her hair, the smoke 
 filled her eyes, and the cinders her ears, and how he 
 gloated ! I think he would have been willing to stand 
 up on a trip across the continent, rather than forego 
 the supreme moment of satisfaction. She was forced 
 to abandon the seat in question and seek safety and 
 comparative comfort in her former position. Yes : 
 American customs are crude. 
 
 Belfast presents but few features attractive to the 
 tourist. We took a gaslight promenade through 
 crowded thoroughfares, but for all the novelty pre- 
 sented, or strange sights that met our eyes, we might 
 as well have been in St. Louis. It was something of a 
 revelation, however, to see all places of business closed 
 on Sunday morning, and the streets crowded with 
 well dressed people, psalm book in hand, churchward 
 bound. Even the military, in their nobbiest suits of 
 scarlet, filed along the streets in measured tread to 
 an appointed place of worship. It was a novel sight 
 that greeted the eye in the large Presbyterian church 
 we attended, with its galleries, seat rising above seat, 
 
54 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 radiant with red coats. How rare are the navy blue 
 and brass buttons of our own United States army in 
 the churches of our own land. It looks here as if the 
 observance of Sunday, not only as a day of rest, but 
 of outward religious devotion, were compulsory. 
 
 This city, since 1612, has been controlled by the 
 Scotch and their descendants. The Presbyterian being 
 the established church of Scotland extends its sway in 
 practice wherever the Scotch race has colonized. Here 
 it is dominant, and the thrift of the people is in marked 
 contrast to that of other portions of the island, where 
 a different order of civilization, so to speak, prevails, 
 and serves to keep in poverty and ignorance the warm 
 hearted natives of southern Ireland. 
 
 On Monday morning the Colonel started out to inter- 
 view some leading Presbyterians, whom I believe he 
 had previously met. He found them dispensing spir- 
 itual comfort by the pint, quart, and gallon ; but then, 
 you know, customs in the two countries differ. In my 
 father's day there was no incongruity in a man being 
 a pillar of the church and at the same time a high- 
 toned dispenser of liquid hell-fire. This only goes to 
 show the progressive spirit of the American people ; 
 who, however, are sadly handicapped in all efforts 
 looking towards total abstinence for the race, by the 
 opposition of an element that enters into the pot-pourri 
 of our civilization who hate prohibition as the devil is 
 said to hate holy water. 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 55 
 
 As every one knows, Belfast, with its 275,000 people 
 and its multitude of tall smoke-stacks, occupies the 
 front rank in the marts of the world for the produc- 
 tion and sale of linen fabrics. 
 
 It is claimed that nowhere except on the bleaching 
 grounds of Belfast can the linen, after it comes from 
 the loom, acquire that perfect degree of whiteness de- 
 manded by connoisseurs. In this particular alone, I 
 believe, do the genuine products of the Belfast looms 
 prove superior to those of Germany and Belgium. 
 
 The manager of one large establishment, with four 
 thousand employes the year round, courteously con- 
 ducted us throughout the works, commencing in the 
 warehouse, where tons of flax were stored, awaiting 
 the process that should spin them into hanks of thread, 
 and weave these threads into dainty handkerchiefs, or 
 the sheets, table-cloths, and towels of commerce. 
 
 We were shown the duplicate of a table-cloth woven 
 for the Queen, at a cost of nearly fifteen dollars per 
 yard, and samples of napkins, towels, tidies, and lap 
 robes, of such unique design and exquisite finish, and, 
 withal, so marvelously cheap, that my tariff backbone 
 has needed stiffening ever since. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 GLASGOW THE LAND OF BURNS EDINBURGH. 
 
 Having wound up our brief ten days' tour of Ire- 
 land, we boarded a steamer lying in Belfast Harbor, 
 and after taking on numerous hampers of live fowls, 
 and several head of sheep and cattle, the steamer got 
 under headway about dark, behaved well all through 
 the night, and by daylight the next morning was 
 churning up the waters of the Clyde, passing by ex- 
 tensive ship yards, where hammer and tongs play an 
 important part in the vast industry that has grown up 
 here since iron and steel have superseded live oak in 
 the construction of ocean ships. 
 
 Glasgow being the great commercial and manufac- 
 turing city of Scotland, of modern growth, however, 
 presents too much the appearance of one of our^ wide 
 awake American cities to occupy much of our time. 
 
 The principal object of interest pointed out to stran- 
 gers is St. Mungo Cathedral, whose foundations were 
 laid in the sixth century. It has been repeatedly re- 
 stored since that time, but the old basement or crypt 
 is held in great veneration by the Scotch people. It 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 57 
 
 was the hiding place, according to Sir Walter Scott, of 
 Rob Roy, and its walls have echoed the footsteps of 
 the doughty Cromwell, who; after his signal victory 
 over the Presbyterians at Dunbar, attended divine ser- 
 vice in this old basement, and in astonishment listened 
 to a tirade hurled at himself and the Independents by 
 the Presbyterian clergyman, Zachary Boyd. Fancy 
 General Grant, accompanied by his Assistant Adjutant- 
 General, going to a rebel church to have his spiritual 
 strength renewed, and being treated to a prayer for 
 Jeff Davis and a fiery denunciation of himself and 
 the cause he represented. And yet this is just what 
 occurred to the chief of the Ironsides. As Boyd con- 
 tinued to hurl his invectives, without any visible signs 
 of letting up, Adjutant-General Thurlow whispered to 
 Cromwell: "Shall I pistol the scoundrel?" " No ! no !" 
 said the General, " we will manage him in another 
 way ;" and having asked the minister to sup with him, 
 he concluded the entertainment with a prayer of some 
 hours' duration, which is said by contemporary chron- 
 iclers to have lasted until three o'clock in the morning. 
 Some forty miles from Glasgow is the city of Ayr, 
 near which is the birth place of Robert Burns. We 
 spent an entire day in a visit to this place, considering 
 the time well employed. The house where Bobby first 
 saw the light of day, certainly an unpretentious hovel, 
 such as the commonest piece of clay would not covet, 
 remains as in the days when Scotland's best loved poet 
 
58 *FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 quaffed the brew with Tarn O'Shanter and Souter 
 
 Johnny. That portion of the building shown as Burns' 
 
 cottage was a clay bigging (whatever that is) with two 
 
 apartments. In the kitchen is shown a recess where 
 
 the birth took place. Some relics are here exhibited, 
 
 said to be the original property of the poet ; also the 
 
 chairs in which sat the two rustics which the genius 
 
 of Burns has immortalized. 
 
 " Fast by an ingle bleezing finely 
 Wi 7 'reaming swats that drank divinely; 
 And at his elbow, Souter Johnny, 
 His ancient, trusty, drouthy crony." 
 
 Further along is " Alloway's auld haunted kirk," 
 with rootless walls, and in its churchyard repose the 
 bones of the poet's father. We were admitted into a 
 beautiful garden a little further along on the opposite 
 side, which contains the Burns monument, erected in 
 1820. In an apartment on the ground floor more relics 
 were shown us, notably the Bible given by Burns to 
 his Highland Mary. There is a separate structure in 
 this garden, a grotto, containing life-size statues, in a 
 sitting posture, glasses in hand, of Tarn O'Shanter and 
 Souter Johnny, which are as creditable to the sculptor 
 as to the dead poet who discovered the subjects. The 
 conviction somehow forced itself upon my mind that 
 these two worthies were getting a little more than 
 their share of attention. Leaving the garden we wan- 
 dered down to the " banks and braes o' Bonny Doon," 
 a rippling, gurgling stream, perhaps a hundred feet 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 59 
 
 wide, and stood on the "auld brig" which figures so 
 conspicuously in the tale of Tarn O'Shanter. The 
 driver points to a hill not far distant, where, a year 
 ago, a Burns celebration was held ; there was a chorus 
 of two thousand voices, and only the songs of Robert 
 Burns were sung. 
 
 The distance from Glasgow to Edinburgh is about 
 fifty miles. Through this portion of Scotland the 
 scenery is tame, but in the dissolving view we obtained 
 from the car window, the land, judging from the grow- 
 ing crops, was highly productive. Edinburgh, as the 
 ancient capital of Scotland, possesses many attractions 
 for the tourist. One of the first objects that strikes 
 the eye on entering the city is that superb monument 
 erected to the memory of Sir Walter Scott in 1844, at 
 a cost of seventy-five thousand dollars. A stairway, 
 two hundred feet high, leads to its summit, and be- 
 neath its canopy is placed a marble statue of the great 
 novelist and poet. In the same vicinity are statues 
 of Livingston, Adam Black, and Christopher North. 
 One finds no lack of monuments here to commemorate 
 the deeds of Scotia's noble sons. Burns, Ramsey, 
 Hume, Dugald Stewart, and others are held in grateful 
 remembrance, while one that towers above all others, 
 fully three hundred and fifty feet high, is that of Ad- 
 miral Lord Nelson. But everything else in Edinburgh, 
 to the eye of the tourist, pales before the grim castle, 
 
60 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 into the very mouth of whose guns we could look from 
 our chamber window at the Windsor. 
 
 Edinburgh Castle is built on a precipitous rock three 
 hundred and eighty feet above sea-level. It is ap- 
 proached by a circuitous drive, the entrance being by 
 a draw-bridge. It was undergoing repairs at the time 
 of our visit ; or, to use a term much in vogue with 
 Europeans, was being restored. On entering you are 
 expected to apply for the services of a guide, and 
 reward him liberally for saying his little piece. 
 
 One object of curiosity is an old cannon, twenty 
 inches in the bore and twelve to fifteen feet in length. 
 It was made in Belgium over four hundred years ago, 
 when stone cannon balls were considered the most 
 effective and deadly missiles of warfare. This unique 
 piece of artillery, called Mons. Megs, is constructed of 
 bars of iron bound together with iron bands. It evi- 
 dently was fired once too often, as a rent in the breech 
 large enough for the small boy to crawl through 
 evinces, and I should not wonder if in its day it was 
 something of a boomerang — dangerous alike to friend 
 and foe. 
 
 Near by this relic of medieval times, the spot is 
 pointed out where the Earl of Moray, one dark night, 
 with only thirty men, surprised the constable of the 
 castle, who was slain, with many of his supporters. 
 These Scotch lairds were great fighters, and their feats 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 61 
 
 of prowess have lost nothing in telling by such roman- 
 cists as Miss Porter and Sir Walter Scott. 
 
 We were shown the ancient regalia of Scotland, 
 consisting of a crown, scepter, sword of state, and lord 
 treasurer's rod of office, besides some exquisite jewels. 
 
 Then we were conducted to Queen Mary's room, 
 in which she gave birth to King James VI., in whom 
 the crowns of England and Scotland were united. 
 From this bed room of very ordinary dimensions, one 
 looks down a perpendicular descent of solid rock, full 
 two hundred feet. It is said that the infant king, 
 when but a week old, was let down in a basket to the 
 foot of this precipice, and carried away to Stirling, 
 distant some twenty miles, to be baptized into the 
 Catholic faith. 
 
 Leaving the castle, we passed down through the old 
 portion of the city, nearly every rod of the way being 
 historic ground. In the middle of the street, once 
 part of an ancient burial place, marked by a flat stone 
 inserted in the pavement, lie the remains of John 
 Knox. Farther on, we find the house in which the 
 great reformer preached from 1560 to the time of his 
 death in 1572. 
 
 Holy rood palace, perhaps rating next in interest to 
 the old castle, on account of its association with the 
 name of the unfortunate Mary Queen of Scots, was 
 temporarily closed, undergoing repairs, which brought 
 our sight seeing in Edinburgh to a sudden termination. 
 
62 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 From here we decided to go directly south to London, 
 deferring our visit to Loch Kathrine, the Trossachs, 
 Stirling and Abbotsford until another season. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 LONDON. 
 
 It is a long ride from Edinburgh to London, but one 
 which we thoroughly enjoyed. At Melrose, we could 
 see the old Abbey from the car window, and the Chev- 
 iot hills, over which our way lay, though lacking in 
 picturesqueness, formed an excellent background for 
 the beautiful landscape that opened to our vision as we 
 tore down the descent into what appeared a vast plain, 
 diversified with hedges, woodland, red- tiled cottages; 
 and, as we flew along at the rate of fifty miles an hour, 
 great cities, with a pall of blackness hanging over 
 them from forge and foundry, on through old towns, 
 and past lordly manors, until the descending rain and 
 curtains of night, together, shut out all but the occa- 
 sional flash of a gas jet as we rushed on through tunnel 
 after tunnel, until, finally, the train slacks up — stops, 
 and by the smoke and the roar of traffic, like the 
 sound of Niagara's falling waters, we realize we are 
 in London. 
 
 It was now about the first of June, and already 
 London was filling up with strangers, who, from all 
 
64 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 parts of the world, were coming hither to witness one 
 of the great events of modern times, the celebration 
 of Queen Victoria's Jubilee. 
 
 We were domiciled, after our arrival, at the Midland 
 Grand Hotel in St. Pancras, nearly three miles from 
 the city proper. It should be remembered that what 
 is here understood by the City is a small area contain- 
 ing a population of about 50,000 people. The metrop- 
 olis is a collection of towns and villages comprised in 
 an area of about eight by twelve or fifteen miles, lying 
 in four different counties, the whole built up com- 
 pactly, except breathing holes, represented by numer- 
 ous parks and gardens which would seem to be a 
 necessity, if one will stop to consider, that in the space 
 indicated above, is a population equal to that of Mis- 
 souri, Kansas, Nebraska, and Colorado combined. You 
 might take out people equal in population to some of our 
 western cities, that have recently put on metropolitan 
 airs, and "they never would be missed." Its immen- 
 sity is beyond the comprehension of any man — except 
 a cab driver. It was not our intention when we ar- 
 rived in London to remain at an expensive hotel, but 
 rather seek lodgings in some quiet, respectable neigh- 
 borhood, where we could be served with a slice from a 
 cold joint, or something hot, if we desired it, from the 
 pastry cook's, and dine occasionally in the city. We 
 had read of this in English novels and thought it about 
 the proper caper. So we procured, from the American 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 65 
 
 Exchange, the addresses of a number of people — mostly 
 widows — who had lodgings to let; and, hiring a cab by 
 the hour, we sallied forth like Japhet in search of his 
 father, but on a mission that, long before we had com- 
 pleted the grand rounds, proved to be fruitless. The 
 vacant rooms were up three or four nights of stairs, 
 not furnished to our taste, and exorbitantly high. 
 Mention of the pastry cook's always elicited a super- 
 cilious smile. And no wonder! Finding that another 
 cherished dream had gone glimmering, we resigned 
 ourselves to fate, and abandoned the search. 
 
 It is all of four months before we dare set out for the 
 Orient. In the meantime, we shall endeavor to make 
 ourselves acquainted with London, and, when oppor- 
 tunity offers, join a " Cook party" for a tour of the 
 continent. 
 
 There are so many places of public resort, and of 
 historical interest lying in and around London, that 
 the question how to reach them with the least possible 
 outlay of money assumes greater importance than ap- 
 pears at first sight ; hence cab fare becomes quite an 
 item of expense, notwithstanding its cheapness, for it 
 unquestionabty is cheap. 
 
 In New York we were bled to the tune of two dol- 
 lars and a half for cab fare from the Pennsylvania 
 Central railway depot to the Gilsey House, on Broad- 
 way. With a conveyance equally as good, and for 
 about the same distance, sixty cents is the customary 
 
66 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 charge in London. But there are other and cheaper 
 means of locomotion than the two or four-wheeled cab, 
 and so we began to make ourselves familiar with the 
 routes of the various omnibus lines, which form a net- 
 work somewhat perplexing to the novice. The 'busses 
 of each line are distinguished by the color, and ply back 
 and forth over a prescribed route, never varying from 
 it. Their capacity is usually twelve inside and four- 
 teen outside passengers, and the fare from circuit to 
 circuit, as the halting places are called, is four cents. 
 One can get a far better idea of out-door life in the 
 great city in this way than by any other means of loco- 
 motion. 
 
 The street car lines, which are not numerous, are all 
 tramways, with double-decked cars, in imitation of the 
 'bus, upon whose preserves they are slowly, but surely 
 encroaching. 
 
 The underground railway is a system of rapid tran- 
 sit peculiar to London. The trains are similar in all 
 respects to those used in the ordinary passenger traffic. 
 The stations are not more than a mile apart, and are 
 approached from the street by a descending stairway. 
 In my judgment the system is preferable to the ele- 
 vated railway of New York, or the cable roads of our 
 western cities — the preference over the latter however, 
 being only with regard to the safety of life. One can 
 scarcely conceive the great benefit the underground 
 passage is to the people of London. Human life 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 67 
 
 swarms so in the streets of this modern Babel that, 
 
 without such a channel to relieve the pressure, loco- 
 motion, at times, would be wholly suspended and traf- 
 fic be completely blockaded. 
 
 How do all these people live? Well, they do not 
 live; they just simpl}- exist. I have never seen so 
 much apparent poverty without absolute mendicancy 
 any where else. The lower classes, both men and 
 women, show the effects of intemperance by their sod- 
 den countenances and general run-down-at-the-heel 
 appearance. Grogshops occupy nearly all the conspic- 
 uous corners, away from the main arteries of trade and 
 fashion. What a fine opening for the Woman's Christ- 
 ian Temperance Union, whose missionary labor, I fear, 
 is conducted on the principle that " charity begins at 
 home. , ' I have witnessed many sad sights in my life, 
 but none that caused the heart ache more than to see 
 husband and w T ife both guzzling at the same bar, the 
 wife with an infant in her arms, drawing its sustenance 
 from a fountain fed by a gin-mill. And this is a sight 
 so 'common that Londoners look upon it as one of the 
 customs of the country, and, therefore not to be dis- 
 turbed. One has the best conception of this accursed 
 traffic after twelve o'clock on Sunday. The temper- 
 ance element succeeded in getting in an opening, or, 
 rather, a closing wedge by compelling the bars to close 
 at twelve o'clock at night and on Sundays remain 
 closed until noon. The tipplers who can afford to buy 
 
68 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 liquor by the gallon can, of course, bridge over the 
 intervening hours ; but the poor hand-to-mouth 
 wretches, deprived of their morning's e}<e-opener, 
 stand around the doors as early as half-past eleven, 
 and even form in line and take their turns to be served, 
 as I have seen with my own eyes. But Sunday eve- 
 ning is the time when the bar-rooms reap their richest 
 harvest and sow the largest crop of dragon's teeth. 
 Then it is that all the gas jets are turned on, and the 
 handsome bar maids study to please and ruin, and this 
 is — London. A Belfast manufacturer, whose pay roll 
 runs up into the thousands, told me that he never paid 
 his hands on Saturday, and said he : "I have the 
 thriftiest lot of hands in Ireland. My employes are 
 paid every Thursday afternoon. By Saturday night 
 their earnings are all invested and their surplus depos- 
 ited in the savings bank. On Monday there are but 
 few broken heads." 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 AMERICAN EXHIBITION BUFFALO BILL ROYAL TOURNA- 
 MENT. 
 
 Our little party was invited to visit the American 
 Exhibition. We took the underground railway for 
 Brompton, leaving the train at Earls Court, and arriv- 
 ing just in time for the afternoon performance. At 
 great expense buildings covering several acres of 
 ground had been constructed to accommodate, not 
 only the display of American manufactures, but Buf- 
 falo Bill's mammoth Wild West Show, an institution 
 greater than the exhibition itself, of which it is an 
 appendage. From the opening day of this wonderful 
 show, vast crowds had been attracted hither. On one 
 day. with the best seats selling at five dollars each, no 
 less than sixtj^-four thousand people witnessed the 
 performance held twice a day, rain or shine. Buffalo 
 Bill (Hon. W. F. Cody, of Nebraska) has taken the 
 English people by storm. I think I am perfectly safe 
 in saying that no American has met with the same 
 favor in the eyes of Londoners as he. The entertain- 
 
70 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 ment that he gives dwarfs anything in the show line 
 I have ever witnessed. 
 
 My acquaintance with Colonel Cody extended back 
 nearly twenty years, to the days when Wild Bill wore 
 the belt as the champion shootist of western Kansas. 
 On renewing the acquaintance after a lapse of so many 
 years, he prevailed on us to occupy his private box, 
 which was no small favor to us, considering the large 
 number of prominent Americans now in London. 
 Scarcely had we been seated when the Duchess of Teck 
 and the Crown Prince of Portugal, each with a retinue, 
 filed into the first two boxes on our left, and through- 
 out the unique performance manifested the most 
 intense delight. 
 
 Colonel Cody, in his effort to familiarize the people 
 of the old world with wild western life, portrays accu- 
 rately and vividly, as I have seen it on the frontier 
 myself, almost every phase of frontier life. He gives 
 the "Ked Man of the Forest" the best chance he has 
 ever had to exhibit his characteristics in a playful 
 manner to thousands of people who know him only 
 through Cooper and Longfellow. Here they could 
 view him in all the hideous aspects of a semi-nude, 
 whooping, painted demon, riding to the charge on 
 ponies as swift as ever swooped down on a defenceless 
 settlement, or raced after the United States mail coach 
 before the advent of the railway — two of the most 
 exciting scenes on the programme. He has with him 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 71 
 
 over one hundred Indians of different tribes, a number 
 of cow-boys and Mexicans, besides some daring female 
 riders who are likewise so skillful in handling the gun 
 as to make the Carvers and Bogarduses look to their 
 laurels. His horses, ponies, and mules were all brought 
 from the United States and are first-class. There is 
 not a commonplace act performed in the whole enter- 
 tainment. I have seen expert riding in my day, but 
 nothing that could compare with the equestrian feats 
 of these cow-boys and Mexicans. Cody himself is a 
 capital rider, and his feat of breaking two glass balls 
 in the air with his rifle, mounted and in a full gallop, 
 has never yet been surpassed. He gave a special per- 
 formance one day for the royal family, and the Queen 
 was so delighted that she came down from her box to 
 greet him. Of course that settled it for Cody in the 
 estimation of the English people. His fortune is now 
 made. The amphitheater of this portion *of the exhi- 
 bition is under cover, but the arena is all open, afford- 
 ing a circular race course of about one-third of a mile. 
 Outside of the amphitheater is the camp composed 
 of Sibley tents, where Colonel Cody has his headquar- 
 ters. Here are located other special American features 
 — the log cabin with a dirt roof, where mixed Ameri- 
 can drinks are dispensed to drouthy Englishmen. 
 Under a canvas cover pop-corn balls are made and 
 sold as fast as moulded, " taffy " is prepared and pea- 
 nuts roasted, and the crowd guffaws loudly at the 
 
72 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 witticisms of the fakir — the ugliest negro that Buffalo 
 Bill could find from Main to Texas. You can scarcely 
 edge your way through this portion of the grounds. 
 It beats big Thursday at a county fair, and it is this 
 way every day in the week. 
 
 We also attended another novel exhibition, held at 
 the Agricultural Hall of the Smithfield Stock Show. 
 It was no less an occurrence that claimed three hours 
 of our time, than the Eoyal Military Tournament, at 
 which were present the Prince and Princess of Wales, 
 and minor princes and princesses ; also Queen Kappio- 
 lani, of the Hawaiian Islands, the Grand Duke 
 Michael, of Russia, and others of the blood royal with 
 whom I am not personally acquainted. There were 
 probably eight to ten thousand persons present, and 
 the price of seats ranged all the way from sixty-two 
 and a half cents to five dollars and twenty-five cents. 
 
 The exercises were of a semi-military character, all 
 the participants being officers and soldiers of Her 
 Majesty's army. There was "lemon cutting" by 
 officers mounted and at full speed with drawn sabre, 
 and " taking the ring " with long handled spears, 
 " pulling the stake " with the same weapon, leaping 
 hurdles and passing barriers with artillery, vidette 
 practising, firing from mounted concealment, and the 
 best exhibition of cavalry drill by the Queen's Life 
 Guard I have ever seen. The horses were black and 
 as well drilled as their riders. They seemed to keep 
 
FROM NILE TO XILE. 73 
 
 step to the music of the band as I have seen a trained 
 horse in a circus perform. Of course the men were all 
 picked, and the uniform they wore was simply su- 
 perb. These exercises continue a whole week, and 
 valuable prizes are awarded the lucky contestants. 
 They are held annually, in the height of the London 
 season, and form a pleasant recreation for that portion 
 of the Queen's army which is not sent abroad. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE JUBILEE. 
 
 The day of Jubilee, like all other eventful days, has 
 come, and is now one of the past — that is, in the 
 " eternal past.'" To the English people this was un- 
 questionably the proudest day in the history of their 
 country. Other great events have been celebrated 
 with perhaps greater pomp and ceremony. The people 
 have assembled in these same streets by thousands 
 with hopeful hearts to cheer a king or queen upon a 
 coronation day, but there was always mistrust present 
 in some degree. 
 
 The millions that turned out for the Jubilee were 
 actuated by a common impulse made up largely of a 
 feeling of thankfulness to Her Majesty, who, for fifty 
 years has held the scepter beneficently over them. 
 There was no rod that smites, to kiss. There were 
 nowhere any demonstrations but those of love and 
 reverence for the old Queen. When she assumed the 
 responsibilities of government, the authority vested in 
 her extended, outside of these islands, over one million 
 one hundred thousand square miles. In the present 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 75 
 
 year it is eight times as great. In 1837, when she was 
 crowned, her subjects beyond the sea numbered a 
 little over ninety millions, nine hundred thousand. 
 They now exceed two hundred and seventy-five mil- 
 lions. England's foreign trade, in round numbers, 
 was five hundred million dollars. It is now more 
 than three billions. 
 
 As you might suppose, the whole city has been on 
 the qui vive for the last week. Every jackleg carpenter, 
 or, to use the wild western nomenclature, " wood 
 butcher," that could be induced to tamper with hatchet 
 and saw had been set to work improvising seats along 
 the route of the procession. These were all put up, 
 if clumsily, at least of great strength, and duly 
 inspected by the authorities ; hence no accidents hap- 
 pened from this fruitful source of disasters. I rode 
 along the route to take in the decorations. In this 
 particular, measured with the effort of San Francisco 
 last year on the occasion of the Grand Army Encamp- 
 ment, it was so far inferior as not to be mentioned in 
 the same breath. There were no arches worthy of the 
 name, and the display of bunting was not nearly so 
 profuse, nor were the decorations so artistically de- 
 signed. 
 
 I was greatly surprised at the frequent occurrence of 
 the stars and stripes. Scarcely a large building that 
 did not exhibit one or more of our colors. Quite a 
 number of buildings made no pretence of displaying 
 
76 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 any other colors, and the American Exhibition was 
 completely draped in them. As late as fonr years ago, 
 I am told, they would not have been tolerated. How 
 she spreads ! We had been having " Queen's weather " 
 for the last two weeks, and that of the day was no 
 exception. It was simply delightful. Many people in 
 the city did not retire at all, in order that they might 
 be on the ground in time to secure a favorable position 
 for viewing the procession. Fearing a blockade that 
 would render it troublesome to reach the location of 
 our reserved seats, we made an early start, and had 
 the felicity of holding our thirty- dollar chairs down 
 for six hours. I have never seen such masses of people 
 in my life before, and do not ever expect to behold 
 such again. The route over which the procession was 
 to move, as before stated, was from Buckingham Palace 
 to Westminster Abbey, a distance of three miles. The 
 entire roadway was kept clear by a cordon of soldiers 
 on each side, those at street intersections being cavalry. 
 There was a regiment of infantry doing duty, called 
 the Scotch Grays, uniformed in the Highland costume, 
 whose martial bearing, individual size, and apparent 
 effectiveness, naturally captivated my eye. They were 
 headed by a brass band that, I am sorry to acknowl- 
 edge, " knocked the socks," (army and navy-cally 
 speaking) off of any brass band within my knowledge 
 or experience. There was no military turnout in the 
 procession, except the Queen's Eegiment of Life 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 77 
 
 Guards, and another squadron of cavalry, both acting 
 as escort. Nor was there any music the entire distance, 
 except a fanfare of trumpets when the Queen entered 
 the Abbey. The procession was in three sections, 
 with an interval of fifteen minutes between the first two 
 sections, and thirty minutes between the second and 
 third. The Queen rode in an open carriage in the 
 rear of the last section, going to the Abbey, and re- 
 turning, the order of march, as to sections, was re- 
 versed. I do not suppose it will be of any particular 
 interest to name all the personages that rode in this 
 great pageant. Many of them rode in close carriages, 
 the only conspicuous object that greeted the eye being 
 the gorgeously apparelled coachmen, footmen and 
 outriders. 
 
 A great rnany carriages were occupied by the retinue 
 indispensable to royalty, such as lady in waiting to 
 Her Eoyal Highness So-and-So, lady of the bed-cham- 
 ber, mistress of the robes, groom of the robes, lord in 
 waiting, gold-stick master of the household, master of 
 the buck hounds, and, by permission of Poo-bah, groom 
 of the back stairs. The Queen of Hawaii rode in an 
 open carriage in the first section, but as it was not her 
 show, so concealed her features that, from where I sat, 
 I could only see a womanly form surmounted by a huge 
 white parasol. Following her were several Indian 
 princes with a large retinue. The second section was 
 principally made up of carriages containing princes 
 
78 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 and princesses. In the third section, which was gor- 
 geously got up. rode the King of Denmark, King 
 of the Belgians, King of Saxony, King of Hellenes, 
 the Crown Princes of Austria, Portugal, and Greece, 
 and the Queen of the Belgians. Immediately preced- 
 ing Queen Victoria's landau rode on horseback the 
 Duke of Connaught, Prince of Wales, Prince Christian, 
 Crown Prince of Germany and Grand Duke of Hesse. 
 In the landau with the Queen rode the Crown Princess 
 of Germany and Princess of Wales, who, in the 
 natural course of events, will also be queens. The 
 Duke of Cambridge rode on horseback by the Queen's 
 side. The landau was drawn by six cream colored 
 horses richly caparisoned, the "near" horses being 
 ridden by postillions and likewise led. The Queen 
 was plainly attired in light colored garments and bore 
 in her hand a white parasol covered with black lace, 
 but not in a manner to conceal her features. She was 
 there to be seen, and this was emphatically her show. 
 Being in her sixty-ninth year, she gives evidence of 
 being a well-preserved old lady, equal to almost any 
 emergency, and likely to sway the scepter until the 
 Prince of Wales has grown as gray as herself. 
 
 Of course, in so large an assemblage and in places 
 where people stood six mortal hours, crowded and 
 jostled as they were, it was not strange that some acci- 
 dents should occur. None, however, came under my 
 personal notice, but every few moments the ambulance 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 79 
 
 brigade would carry some one past in a stretcher, usu- 
 ally a lady who had fainted from fatigue and excite- 
 ment. 
 
 As the closing scene of a spectacular drama goes 
 out in the flash of red light, so the closing scene of 
 this greatest spectacle of the age was ushered out 
 amidst the glare of myriads of gas jets, whizzing rock- 
 ets, and showers of stars that dropped in mid-air from 
 the expiring Roman candles, amidst shouts of " long 
 live the Queen." 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 TOWER OF LONDON ST. PAUI/S. 
 
 Associated with my earliest recollections of English 
 history, is the Tower of London. Some eight centu- 
 ries ago William the Conqueror began to rear the walls 
 of this gloomy pile to serve him both as a fortress and 
 a palace. In the ages that have elapsed since it be- 
 came a citadel, no foreign foe has attempted its cap- 
 ture. Civil war has raged around it and within its 
 walls, as fiercely as the rude passions of the race could 
 be aroused, in the troblous days that beset old En- 
 gland in the lust of men for power. I suppose there 
 has not been an hour in all that time that the sentry's 
 tread has not echoed along its paved court yards. Its 
 postern gate has opened at the behest of a king to 
 usher in a blushing bride, and from the turrets of its 
 towers has been witnessed the execution of that fair 
 bride three years after, at the instigation of her own 
 liege lord. Its festive halls have rung with laughter 
 from the midnight carousal of courtiers, and the 
 gloomy prison walls resounded to the deep groans of 
 innocent men and women condemned to death. Within 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 81 
 
 its chapel repose the dust of the martyred Lady Jane 
 Grey, of the blood royal, and the ill-starred Anne 
 Boleyn and Catherine Howard, both wives of King- 
 Henry VIII. j beheaded on trumped-up charges of un- 
 faithfulness to that erratic monarch, are buried in close 
 proximity. In the great hall of the palace, King John, 
 of France, a prisoner of war. performed the lordly act 
 of entertaining his captor, the English king, and all 
 his courtiers, at his own expense. From here Queen 
 Elizabeth rode to Westminster Abbey to be crowned, 
 in as great state as Queen Victoria proceeded from 
 Buckingham Palace to the self-same spot. 
 
 Here is a gloomy archway called the " traitor's gate," 
 through which has passed many a suspected state pris- 
 oner. Well might have been written on its key stone 
 the words of Dante : " All hope abandon, ye who en- 
 ter here."' Close by is the Bloody Tower where, tradi- 
 tion says. Richard III. caused to be smothered the 
 youthful sons of Edward IV. 
 
 Ascending a stairway, we were ushered into a strong- 
 room in the Wakefield Tower where are stored the re- 
 galia and crown jewels, exhibited in a huge glass dome- 
 shaped case. Here is the crown of Queen Victoria, 
 described as follows : " A cap of purple velvet is en- 
 closed in hoops of silver, surmounted by a ball and 
 cross, all resplendent with diamonds. In the center of 
 the cross is the inestimable sapphire, and in front of 
 the crown is the heart-shaped ruby, said to have been 
 
 6 
 
82 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 worn by the Black Prince." Here also is St. Edward's 
 crown, made of gold, and glittering with precious 
 stones ; the Prince of Wales' crown of pure gold, but 
 no jewels, and lastly the Queen's diadem, richly 
 adorned with large diamonds and pearls. This was 
 made for the wife of James II. This case also con- 
 tains, amongst other articles of priceless value, a bap- 
 tismal font used at the christening of the royal child- 
 ren, and anointing vessel, etc., used at the coronation ; 
 besides, there are numerous scepters adorned with 
 precious stones. In other cases are exhibited the re- 
 galia and badges of different orders, such as the Order 
 of the Thistle — a collar, badge, and star — the Victoria 
 Cross, Order of the Garter, and so on. 
 
 Being surfeited by the sight of so much wealth and 
 magnificence, we leave this and wend our way to the 
 White Tower. At the front of the stairs leading to 
 the great tower is the reputed burial place of the mur- 
 dered princes; and ascending several flights of stairs 
 we enter what is termed " The Horse Armory,'' which 
 appears to be a museum containing all manner of an- 
 cient armor for man or horse, artistically arranged in 
 complete suits on dummies, giving one a correct idea 
 of the manner in which they were worn when in use 
 in ancient times. I have observed one thing in Lon- 
 don, which is this : Anything which is got up for show 
 is on a grand scale ; and the fact is, there seems to be 
 too much of everything. 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 83 
 
 The eye wearies of it and the feet grow tired even 
 before the curiosity is fully satisfied. One might sup- 
 pose that half a dozen samples of plaited and woven 
 armor would be sufficient to tell the tale ; but no ; 
 there is a large room full of it. and another room full 
 of w T eapons, swords, spears, guns of every conceivable 
 style and manufacture. There are many ancient relics 
 here of a warlike character, which would take many 
 pages to describe. Here is the identical cloak on 
 which General Wolf expired in the moment of victory 
 at Quebec : a uniform worn by the Duke of Wellington 
 when constable of the Tower ; a beheading block with 
 just three cuts in it, suggestive of the three great lords 
 who laid their necks upon it in 1745, also the execu- 
 tioner's mask, and the broad axe that forever closed 
 their earthly career. But I have written enough 
 about the Tower of London, and will pass on to 
 another structure where onhy white-winged peace hath 
 an abode; and yet. eA^en here in St. Paul's Cathedral, 
 which we now T visit, the warlike spirit of a nation 
 that craves the whole world is manifested by an array 
 of marble sculpture that is simply wonderful. It 
 seems as if all the heroes that have added lustre to 
 the English name in the past century and a quarter 
 are remembered by a grateful country in a manner 
 that will be as lasting as the race itself. In an im- 
 mense structure like this, that covers over two acres 
 of ground, and cost three millions and three quarters 
 
84 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 of dollars, there is an abundance of room to afford a 
 niche for the exquisitely carved statues of all the great 
 men whose names their country desires to perpetuate. 
 To name them all in this connection is a task I shall 
 not undertake. There is one of General Ross, com- 
 memorating his capture of the city of Washington. It 
 is silent about his record of having laid the city in 
 ashes. There is another in honor of Generals Paken- 
 ham and Gibbs, who perished in front of " Old Hick- 
 ory " at New Orleans. But the grandest of all is 
 erected to Lord Wellington, who, judging by the 
 many evidences of England's prodigality in statues 
 and monuments to the conqueror of Napoleon the 
 Great, is esteemed more highly than any warrior of 
 his race. There is one entire room devoted to his 
 statue, on the walls of which are some exquisite carv- 
 ings of scriptural representations. 
 
 On payment of a shilling we gained admittance to 
 the crypt where repose the remains of many whose 
 effigies in marble we have just left. Notably, of Sir 
 Joshua Reynolds, Sir Edward Landseer, and Benjamin 
 West — royal artists of imperishable fame — Admiral 
 Nelson in a sarcophagus of black marble, originally 
 designed for Cardinal Wolsey. Here, too, lie the 
 remains of Lord Wellington in an elegant sarcophagus 
 of porphyry, weighing seventeen tons. A little dis- 
 tance off stands his funeral car, a massive piece of 
 workmanship made from captured cannon, which con- 
 
FKOM NILE TO NILE. 85 
 
 veyed the remains of the once Sir Arthur to their final 
 resting place. In this crypt is buried Sir Christopher 
 Wren, the architect and builder of St. Paul's, as well 
 as of other great edifices in London. Sir Christopher 
 was thirty-five years engaged in the erection of this 
 building. He lived to complete it and he needs no 
 other monument. Coming up from the dim portals of 
 the tomb we heed the invitation, on payment of a six- 
 pence, to " come up higher," not we, but I. The 
 prospect of ascending five hundred and sixty steps to 
 the top of the monster dome, in which is located the 
 whispering gallery, looks too appalling to the balance 
 of the party and, solitary and alone, I undertake my 
 spiral journey heavenward. Having accomplished 
 two hundred and sixty steps I arrived at the whisper- 
 ing gallery and took my position one hundred and 
 forty feet distant from the guide. In a moment I 
 heard the voice of some one at my elbow. I turned 
 to see who the intruder was, but bless you ! there was 
 no one there, only the guide standing one hundred and 
 forty feet across the open space of this vast dome. I 
 answered him in whispers, and in whispered accents, 
 more distinct than words conveyed by the telephone, 
 his answers came back to me. He slammed the door 
 for my benefit, and the effect was simply deafening. It 
 is yet three hundred steps to the upper gallery, and 
 fifty-six more on top of that to the ball. When I con- 
 template the significance of these additional steps, and 
 
86 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 the full six hundred and sixteen down, I begin to 
 weigh in my own mind whether or not the game is 
 worth the candle. The fact is, I have gone up and 
 down so many stairs on this tour, I am threatened 
 with what horse fanciers technically call " knee 
 spring/' A due regard for my personal appearance is 
 allowed the mastery, and I go up no higher — not to- 
 day, perhaps some other day- 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 FOLKESTONE. 
 
 Iu our search for a boys' school that should combine 
 the comforts of a home with the discipline requisite to 
 the proper training of a youth, tempered with that de- 
 gree of kindness and sympathy one should feel who 
 has the welfare of children in his hands, w T e were rec- 
 ommended to visit the boarding schools for boys in the 
 delightful old town of Folkestone, where, in the south 
 of England, some seventy or eighty miles from Lon- 
 don, the salt sea breezes in the hottest mid-summer 
 day are more bracing than those that kiss the melting 
 snows of an Alpine summit. 
 
 Boarding the morning train at Charing Cross Sta- 
 tion, we were soon " thundering over bridges, rattling 
 under arches," disappearing in dark subterranean holes 
 and again emerging into the dazzling light of the sun, 
 flying through rural scenes of surpassing loveliness, 
 acre after acre devoted to the culture of hops ; drying 
 houses of red brick, w T ith that peculiarly shaped vent 
 always awry, like an untidy woman's bonnet, lent 
 something of a charm " quite English you know " to a 
 
88 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 landscape in which nature has been prodigal of her 
 favors. 
 
 Folkestone is a city of some twenty thousand inhab- 
 itants — a portion of it quite ancient, the remainder of 
 recent growth. The ancient or principal business por- 
 tion is quaint enough, even for medieval times, with 
 narrow crooked streets — some of them capable only of 
 giving passage way to pedestrians. The shops are 
 numerous and well stocked, but, as a rule, so small as 
 to make five customers before the counter a crowd. 
 The modern portion of the city is superbly built, with 
 wide streets and boulevards. The houses are mostly 
 four story, handsomely designed, roofed with slate, 
 and, as is the prevailing custom throughout the United 
 Kingdom, built of stone or brick, the chimneys all 
 topped with red or white pots. 
 
 The church edifices are nearly all of modern design, 
 the exception being the parish church, which is said 
 to have been one of the first religious buildings in En- 
 gland. It contains an ancient clock with a peal of 
 eight bells. 
 
 Folkestone is noted as having been the birth place 
 of Dr. William Harvey, the discoverer of the circula- 
 tion of the blood. He was born in 1578, and posterity 
 has honored his memory by the erection of a handsome 
 bronze statue on a marble pedestal overlooking the sea. 
 
 Travelers going direct from London to Paris take 
 passage here by steamer for Boulogne. On a moder- 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 89 
 
 ately clear day the coast of France is plainly visible 
 from the promenade on the lees. The distance from 
 here to Dover, where the channel narrows, is only eight 
 miles, and from here to Boulogne about twenty-eight 
 miles. 
 
 Aside from the salubrity of the climate there is lit- 
 tle to tempt the tourist to linger here. In the sur- 
 rounding country there are few objects of interest. At 
 Hythe. five miles distant, is located a school of mus- 
 ketry and the ancient church of St. Leonard, in the 
 crypt of which is a large collection of skulls. 
 
 At the back of this city is quite an elevation, with 
 remains of military intrenchments, supposed to have 
 been the camp of Julius Caesar. Shorncliff Camp, dis- 
 tant some two miles, was used for military training as 
 far back as 1794, and is still utilized for the same pur- 
 pose, and accommodates at the present time about 
 three regiments. The summer season is just opening 
 up, and I am told that more than twenty thousand 
 visitors, votaries of fashion, flock hither and remain 
 during the heated term. 
 
 Well, after lunch we proceeded to follow up the busi- 
 ness that had brought us hither, and directed our steps 
 to the Montague House School, and were admitted by 
 the usher to the reception room, to await the appear- 
 ance of the Master, as the proprietor is here called. 
 As I beheld, from the window, troops of boys marching 
 past in double file, marshalled by a subordinate teacher. 
 
90 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 " Dotheboys Hall " came vividly before my imagina- 
 tion, and I wondered if in this school, conducted, evi- 
 dently, on the Yorkshire plan, there was a Squeers in 
 disguise to wield the rod, or a Smike to cringe and 
 writhe beneath its sting. But the pleasant, open coun- 
 tenance of the proprietor, Mr. Wagner, the motherly 
 aspect of his better half, and an hour's conversation, 
 including an inspection of the premises, dispelled any 
 forebodings that this might be one of that class of in- 
 stitutions that Dickens labored so hard to overthrow. 
 Certainly, so far as appearances went, here was just 
 the home we wanted for our boy, while we followed 
 the plan laid down in the first chapter of this book. 
 
 Many parents are deterred from going to Europe on 
 account of the separation from their children — with 
 the Atlantic rolling between them and their loved 
 ones, which in case of severe illness would prove an 
 insurmountable barrier to a speedy reunion. For this 
 reason we brought our only child with us, not for the 
 sake of any superior benefit he might derive from the 
 schools here, but that we might be, in point of time, 
 ten days nearer to him than if we had left him at 
 home. Then, a mother gets ungovernably hungry for 
 the kisses of her child when the separation lengthens 
 into weeks, and weeks into months, and the months 
 begin to pile up dangerously near the end where they 
 are checked off into years. The wisdom of this course 
 became manifest when we left the boy at this school 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 91 
 
 and then began to count the days until we should see 
 him again. The pleasure of meeting was not marred 
 by sad anticipations of parting. Nor did we ever re- 
 gret placing him at the Montague House School. The 
 fact is that our chief reluctance on returning to Amer- 
 ica was the necessity involved of withdrawing our boy 
 from an institution that so admirably combines the 
 best influences and comforts of a home with all the 
 advantages of a day school and gymnasium, to say 
 nothing of a locality whose healthfulness is so con- 
 ducive to the building up of a robust constitution. 
 
 Montague House is in the new resident portion of the 
 town, four stories in height, connected with a row of 
 similar design, situated one block from the sea, whose 
 hoarse murmurings can be heard as the tide rolls in 
 and dashes its spray against the rocks that line the 
 coast full eighty feet beneath the lees, as the handsome 
 promenade is called, lying between the city and the 
 beach. The prospectus of the school states that it 
 " receives and prepares the sons of gentlemen for the 
 public schools, the civil and military competitive ex- 
 aminations, and the universities. Particular attention 
 is given to delicate and backward boys, and special 
 arrangements are made for the reception of pupils 
 from abroad.'* The house arrangements, aside from 
 the class rooms, are a "library and reading room, a 
 large refectory, a play room for wet weather; thirty 
 well appointed bed rooms, three bath rooms.*' etc. The 
 
92 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 domestic arrangements, under the personal supervision 
 of the ladies, are as follows: " Breakfast at 8 a. m., 
 consisting of ham, eggs, etc., with tea and cocoa. 
 Lunch at 11 a. m., tartine. Dinner at 1:15 p. m., 
 joints, puddings, etc., with a dessert on Sunday. Tea 
 at 5:30 p. m. Supper at 8 p. m., tartine again."' 
 
 The special features of the school are these, aside 
 from the curriculum: " No corporal punishment ; an 
 enclosed cricket- and foot-ball' field; a lawn tennis 
 ground ; a sea- water swimming bath ; attendance at 
 the military gymnasium ; a workshop ; a properly 
 constructed place for boys' pets ; bicycle and tricycle 
 sheds ; horses and ponies for riding ; a printing office, 
 and a museum." 
 
 It is required that each pupil be provided with " one 
 Eton suit (this consists of a silk 'stovepipe' hat, 
 black jacket, vest and long trousers, broad, white, turn 
 down collar, and black necktie), two suits of clothes 
 and an overcoat, three pair of boots and shoes, one 
 pair of slippers, one hat, one cap, one white flannel 
 cricketing suit and cap, flannel dressing gown, hair 
 brush and comb, towels, silver spoon and fork, um- 
 brella, sponge bag, and sufficient linen to admit of 
 three changes weekly." You will doubtless be im- 
 pressed with the prominence given to those features 
 that will contribute to the cultivation of brawn and 
 muscle, as well as the improvement of the mind ; their 
 theory being that it requires a strong, healthy bodj^ to 
 
The Eton Suit 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 93 
 
 support a vigorous brain, hence every encouragement 
 is given to field and aquatic sports. Less than a year 
 ago I listened to a prominent member of the board of 
 regents of one of our state institutions, in an address 
 to the pupils, condemn in unmeasured terms the folly 
 of wasting precious moments in the national game of 
 base ball. From an American standpoint he may 
 have been right, but if he had stood on British soil 
 and inveighed, as an officer of its educational inter- 
 ests, against the game of cricket as a recreation, his 
 position afterward would have been far from an envi- 
 able one. It is a well known fact that the universities 
 of this country, as well as a few of the most prominent 
 of our own favored land, have carried the education 
 of the physical man far beyond its just requisites as an 
 aid to the intellect. 
 
 One of England's greatest reformers, distinguished, 
 however, only as a writer of fiction, in that absorbing- 
 novel, "Man and Wife." though aimed principally at 
 the looseness of the marriage laws of Ireland and 
 Scotland, has dealt the most telling blows of any 
 writer of the age at the craze for muscle rather than 
 mind, and the undue prominence given by the British 
 educators of the day to athletic sports. A wholesome 
 combination of the two seems to me imperative. In 
 many of our own colleges physical culture is wholly 
 ignored, and the result is, as you must know, that at 
 every commencement graduates are turned out with a 
 
94 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 mind calculated to grapple successfully with the prob- 
 lems of theology and metaphysics, but with a consti- 
 tution so impaired by excessive brain work as to render 
 them incapable of reaping any advantages gained by 
 burning the midnight oil. 
 
 The pathway from the alma mater to the great Be- 
 yond is strewn with the wrecks of brilliant intellects 
 whose light has gone out in darkness by reason of a 
 lack of attention to physical culture. The English 
 schools, colleges, and universities are older than our 
 own ; experience has shown them the pitfalls of an ed- 
 ucation exclusively mental — hence, in endeavoring to 
 avoid the Xemesis that overtakes the unwary student, 
 they have gone quite naturally to the other extreme, 
 and are turning loose upon the world hordes of mag- 
 nificent athletes who, like the Arabs, are children from 
 the shoulder up. 
 
 We concluded our visit to Folkestone with a skim 
 on the waters of the Channel, whose waves were ruf- 
 fled by the welcome breeze, just enough to give the 
 row boat that gentle bounding motion suggestive of a 
 horse in a lope. Then we bade the little fellow, who 
 was to have a new page in life opened for him, a tear- 
 ful good-bye, and with hearts just a little sad returned 
 again to the smoky city. 
 
CHAPTEE XIII. 
 
 BRITISH AND KENSINGTON MUSEUMS NATIONAL GALLERY 
 
 OF PAINTINGS — MADAM TUSSAUD's WAX WORKS. 
 
 In the long list of attractions which this city affords 
 there is nothing, to my mind, of much greater interest 
 than the museums and picture galleries, so profusely 
 stocked with works of art and curiosities from the four 
 quarters of the globe. I shall have occasion to describe 
 as I go along the most important, confining n^self in 
 this chapter to four, namely: The British Museum, 
 the South Kensington Museum, the National Picture 
 Gallery and Madam Tussaud's wax works. The Brit- 
 ish Museum was first opened to the public in 1759. 
 From its ever increasing collection of antiquities it 
 outgrew its original quarters, and in 1823 the present 
 magnificent edifice was commenced and is not yet com- 
 pleted, although five millions of dollars have been 
 already expended in the building alone. Here are 
 mummies from Egypt, half as old as creation itself, 
 displayed under glass, Nineveh marbles and the orig- 
 inal tablets, containing an account of the creation and 
 deluge, discovered in Assyria, and an endless variety 
 
96 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 of statuary and bronzes of great antiquity ; besides 
 engravings, manuscripts, old books, coins, and every 
 article of utility used by the ancients, or by savages 
 of a more modern era, including their idols and weap- 
 ons of warfare. In fact, the whole known world has 
 been searched for relics of this description. There are 
 probably seven hundred and fifty thousand volumes of 
 valuable books in the library of this institution, and 
 botanical specimens on the same grand scale. 
 
 The South Kensington Museum next engaged our 
 attention. It is an offshoot, in some respects, of the 
 British Museum. It has been the depository, also, of 
 collections acquired in the great exhibition of 1851, and 
 of the fine art collection exhibited at Marlborough 
 House. In two large apartments are reproductions in 
 plaster of all the best works of noted sculptors and 
 carvers to be found in any part of Europe, the most 
 prominent object being a full sized copy of the Column 
 of Trajan, which has stood for more than seventeen 
 centuries over the ashes of that noted emperor in one 
 of the forums of Rome. 
 
 In other apartments are fine collections of paintings, 
 tapestry, lace, Sevres and other porcelain, bric-a-brac, 
 wood carving and inlaid work, centuries old and of 
 incalculable value, bequeathed to the institution by 
 individuals who gratified a taste for the artistic, and 
 after spending a lifetime collecting these specimens of 
 man's handiwork and genius, left the result of their 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 97 
 
 love and munificence to the world, that the arts, and 
 all that was aesthetic in our natures, might be further 
 cultivated and encouraged. In one apartment are 
 seven cartoons executed by Raphael in 1513. These 
 cartoons, representing scriptural scenes, are merely 
 designs for tapestry work, ordered by Pope Leo X. In 
 size they are about twelve by twenty feet. The tapes- 
 tries, of which there are ten, are now in the Vatican. 
 The cartoons have quite a history of their own. 
 Oliver Cromwell bought them for fifteen hundred 
 dollars from Charles I., who had purchased them on 
 the advice of Rubens from the manufacturer at Arras, 
 in whose warehouse they had lain since the death of 
 Raphael. They finally passed through the hand of 
 royalty until they reached Queen Victoria, who per- 
 mitted their removal to the museum in 1865. 
 
 The largest collection of paintings in the museum 
 was the gift of the late Mr. John Sheepshanks. There 
 are perhaps one hundred of them executed by such 
 noted artists as Sir Edward Landseer, Turner, Leslie, 
 Mulready and others. The Jones collection, acquired 
 in 1882, is the most important gift, as well as the most 
 valuable, yet secured. Here you see not only rare 
 paintings, but sculpture, bronzes, and a great variety 
 of porcelains, enameled and inlaid work. 
 
 I can merely give you a glimpse of these things. To 
 describe them in detail would take a volume, so vast 
 are the collections throughout this huge building. The 
 
98 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 national gallery of pictures is located on Trafalgar 
 Square, near the American Exchange. It contains 
 more than one thousand paintings of the British, 
 French, Dutch, Flemish, Italian and Spanish sehools. 
 Here are some of the finest paintings of Leslie, who 
 was born of American parents. Those of Benjamin 
 West, another American, had been temporarily re- 
 moved from the gallery. A true lover of fine art, I 
 fancy, could be well entertained in the national gallery 
 for two or three days. There are two rooms entirely 
 devoted to the Turner collection, painted by himself, 
 and by his will bequeathed to the nation. This eccen- 
 tric artist, who painted over two hundred and fifty 
 pictures and acquired a fortune, died under an assumed 
 name in obscure lodgings in 1851. In his will he be- 
 queathed all his pictures and property, which was of 
 great value, to the nation. The heirs disputed the 
 will and a compromise was effected, whereby the gov- 
 ernment only came into possession of the Turner 
 collection of pictures. 
 
 Another room contains a number of Hogarth's best 
 works of art. There is also a considerable number 
 of paintings from the hands of each of the following- 
 artists, whose names are inscribed high up on the rolls 
 of fame : Rembrandt, Rubens, Van Dyck, Vanderneer, 
 Correggio, Titian, Paul Yerronese, and Eosa Bonheur. 
 To one who is not educated up to a correct apprecia- 
 tion of high art, as illustrated in these wonderful gal- 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 99 
 
 leries, a visit to Madam Tussaud's exhibibion of wax 
 figures and French relics will present quite a relief. 
 
 Madame Tussaud was an artist in her day, and her 
 sons have inherited her talent. She learned modeling 
 in wax from her uncle more than a century ago. She 
 at one time resided at the court of Louis XVI. and 
 Marie Antoinette, engaged in instructing the king's 
 sister in the art of modeling — hence her competency 
 to model many actors in the sad dramas of the French 
 court of that and a subsequent period. Her master- 
 piece is said to be a model of Voltaire, taken from life 
 two months before his death, and exhibited here. Of 
 course, some representations, while they reflect credit 
 on the artist, are imaginary, like the hundreds of fine 
 paintings of our Savior, but many are executed from 
 the living subject, and wherever historical discriptions, 
 portraits, or busts could be procured, the visitor is 
 assured that they have been faithfully copied, and re- 
 created in life-size form, clothed in such apparel as 
 their position in life, or the custom of the times in 
 which they lived, renders appropriate. The hair 
 which adorns the waxen cranium is all human hair, 
 and so deftly secured as to give the appearance of 
 having grown there. There has been no individual 
 of any great prominence since the days of William the 
 Conqueror up to a recent period, whose effigy in wax 
 is not exhibited in these rooms ; and while a majority 
 are in a standing position, some have been given a 
 
100 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 sitting posture, or to carry out the effect of a tableaux, 
 kneeling. The kings, queens, and all the royal blood 
 are clothed in costly raiment, military men in uniform 
 and armor, statesmen and the clergy in the finest of 
 robes, or in clothing befitting their distinctive avoca- 
 tion. The eyes, of course are of glass, natural as life, 
 and the feet encased in the shoe or boot corresponding, 
 as the clothing, to the period they are designed to 
 represent. 
 
 Entering the main exhibition rooms on the first floor, 
 if you turn inmiediately to the left, you behold a me- 
 dium-sized man with florid locks and a dark gray mil- 
 itary cloak. This is Garibaldi. Your first impression 
 is that it is some individual on duty connected with 
 the institution. William the Conqueror, on the right, 
 is seated in a graceful attitude, while over him bends 
 Matilda, his ambitious wife, through whose aspirations 
 he attempted the conquest of England — and succeeded. 
 William was the son of Duke Robert, surnamed " le 
 Diable." His mother was the daughter of a Norman 
 tanner. Thus we see that leather has had something 
 to do in the history of this country as well as in that 
 of our own. The man who can trace his ancestry back 
 to one of the band of marauders that subdued this 
 island in 1066 is a lord or a peer of the realm. In so 
 vast a collection as this it would be tedious to name 
 more than a few of the more prominent characters. 
 The short, heavy-set man surrounded by a harem might 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 101 
 
 be recognized as Henry VIII., with his six wives, and 
 here one pauses longer than a moment, for the charac- 
 ter study is interesting. 
 
 Here are the kings and queens that have ruled Eng- 
 land since the day of the Norman conquest. Their 
 visages conform to one's idea of their actual worth as 
 described in history. Stern Oliver Cromwell, with his 
 armour buckled on, occupies a chair removed from the 
 sacred precincts of royalty, and it is fitting, from an 
 English standpoint, that such should be. Groups ox 
 royalty, both native and foreign, are quite common. 
 The year of jubilee entitles Queen Victoria to more 
 than one representative. There is one expressive 
 group wherein John Calvin consents to the execution 
 of Michael Servetus and Jacques Gruet for heresy. 
 This group, if I recollect right, contains also Mary, 
 Queen of Scots, and Lady Jane Grey. On a pedestal 
 stands George Washington, with powdered hair and 
 que, velvet coat, vest and knee breeches; close by him, 
 on the floor, Charles Dickens in plain citizen's suit. 
 On another pedestal is Benjamin Franklin in brown 
 apparel, of the stj^le worn towards the close of the 
 eighteenth century. In a modest group, distinguished 
 by no trappings, insignia of office, or rank, in the plain 
 simple garb of the citizen, stand facing each other, 
 Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, James A. Garfield 
 and Ulysses S. Grant. It is said Grant's effigy was 
 made nineteen years ago. If modeled from life it re- 
 
102 FEOM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 fleets no credit on its creator. The representation here 
 is a caricature. While the other three are recogniza- 
 ble, Grant's bears so little resemblance to the old chief 
 that they might as well substitute it for that of Gui- 
 teau, which occupies a prominent position in the cham- 
 ber of horrors. You may say these are only " wax 
 figgers," what do they amount to? Simply this, that 
 this exhibition is visited by people of every clime, na- 
 tionality and walk of life. They form impressions 
 here, whether erroneous or not, that are irresistible, 
 and I defy the man to visit this cunningly got up show 
 and go away from it unimpressed by a feeling akin to 
 that produced by having been in the actual presence 
 of those whom these figures are intended to portray. 
 
 The sensation on visiting a portrait gallery is en- 
 tirety different. There you are filled with admiration 
 for the artist who has so skillfully transferred the liv- 
 ing features to canvas. Here you never give the artist 
 a thought ; you are thinking of the man who stands 
 before you, lacking but the breath of life to make it 
 all real. Those whom I have enumerated are the only 
 Americans whose effigies are on exhibition, except 
 Tom Thumb. 
 
 On payment of an additional sixpence, we were ad- 
 mitted to the room containing the French relics, or 
 Napoleon's room, and from there to the chamber of 
 horrors. Lying in state upon the veritable bed upon 
 which the great Napoleon gasped his last breath, was 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 103 
 
 the superb effigy of the greatest general of modern 
 times. It was only the waxen image of the acknowl- 
 edged chief among chiefs, yet what would you or I not 
 give to see a figure, even in wax, as well authenticated 
 of Alexander the Great, Caesar or Hannibal, those 
 three alone of all the world's great generals whom his- 
 torians will care to contrast with his name and fame ? 
 When I stand by the tomb that enshrines the mor- 
 tal remains of the man of destiny, who carved his 
 way with his sword from a humble position in life to 
 the throne once occupied by Charlemagne, I doubt my 
 own personality if I shall feel the same deep emotions 
 as when I stood by his image in plastic wax, viewed 
 the mattress on which he expired, the articles of cloth- 
 ing he had worn, the sword he sheathed for the last 
 time on the fatal field of Waterloo, the pen which he 
 wielded as ably as the sword. Was it not pardonable 
 that I should feel these emotions when I mounted the 
 same coach that was once his private property, placed 
 my feet on the same steps his had trodden, sat on the 
 same seat where his weary limbs, on that memorable 
 retreat from Moscow, had reposed ? 
 
 But the French exhibit does not commence and end 
 with Napoleon the Great. There are also fine repre- 
 sentations of other prominent characters who have 
 figured in the history of that erratic people, of whom, 
 perhaps, the illustrious " nephew of his uncle " and 
 his luckless son are the most conspicuous. In a suburb 
 
104 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 of London, one of the most romantic and picturesque 
 spots in all England, both are laid away. When 
 Gabriel's trumpet sounds, for anything I know to the 
 contrary, they may be awakened on British soil, but 
 it is not among the impossibilities of the future that a 
 sense of national pride will cause the removal of their 
 remains where the tri-colors which Napoleon III. 
 lowered in dishonor at Sedan may wave over their 
 tomb. 
 
 When Kaiser William and Bismark and Yon Moltke 
 have passed over the silent river, if you happen to 
 survive them don't be surprised if France " lets slip 
 the dogs of war " and declares the battle on. Napo- 
 leon precipitated a war upon his country without 
 provocation and lost Alsace and Lorraine. The war 
 that I am figuring on will be for the purpose of recti- 
 fying Napoleon's mistakes. 
 
 We now descended from Napoleon's room, the cham- 
 ber of horrors, down a flight of stairs to a dismal 
 basement. Do not fear that I am going to tell you of 
 things that will curdle your blood and make each 
 separate and distinct hair on your head stand on end 
 
 ' ' Like quills upon the fretful porcupine. ' ' 
 
 This chamber of horrors is like the ass in the lion's 
 skin — pretty much all bray. Here are effigies of all 
 the great malefactors of the age. I failed to see vil- 
 lain written upon a single countenance ; is not that 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 105 
 
 strange? But then, it is perfectly natural. Noted 
 criminals, as a rule, are not detected as such by their 
 physiognomy. 
 
 While there were no headless bodies exhibited, there 
 were a number of heads, minus the trunk, illustrating 
 the artistic work of decapitation, and the veritable 
 guillotine which had severed the heads from twenty- 
 two thousand luckless bodies was the masterpiece of 
 this diabolical appendage to an otherwise chaste and 
 highly entertaining show. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE PARKS OF LONDON. 
 
 Any description of London would be very partial 
 and incomplete were it to fail in making mention, be 
 it ever so briefly, of those delightful bits of landscape 
 which here and there relieve the monotonous aspect 
 of the ugliest city named b}^ tourists ; for, aside from 
 a few public buildings, palaces and hotels, the archi- 
 tecture of the buildings present little else than plain, 
 dingy rows of stone, brick and mortar. Even the 
 most modern buildings, such as are just now receiving 
 the finishing touches, would be no credit to some of 
 the ambitious cities of the western plains ; but as an 
 offset to this lack of architectural taste, the public 
 parks and gardens are all that the most fastidious 
 critic could desire. 
 
 I have counted twelve in my peregrinations through 
 the metropolis, to say nothing of little independent 
 plats not rising to the dignity of public parks. It is 
 sufficient for my purpose if I describe, but briefly, a 
 few only of the twelve, and of these, Regent's Park 
 takes the lead. It was given to the nation by George 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 107 
 
 IV., when Prince Regent, and contains four hundred 
 and seventy acres, abounding in pleasant walks, lined 
 with over-arching shade trees, smooth lawns, shrubs 
 and groves, and an extensive artificial lake. Sheep and 
 deer roam its pastures unmolested, whilst thousands 
 of children and numerous cricket and lawn tennis 
 clubs utilize it at their own sweet will. Here are 
 located the Zoological and Royal Botanic Society's 
 Gardens. The former possesses a collection of three 
 thousand animals, taking the lead of all similar insti- 
 tutions in the world. One of its main features is a 
 large edifice wholly devoted to reptile life. There is 
 not a slim}- creature on God's footstool seen by man 
 that has not its living duplicate here. But the great- 
 est single attraction in the garden is unquestionably a 
 female specimen of the bald chimpanzee, or manlike 
 ape. Sally, as she is named, is a rare specimen, I am 
 told, having a black face and a bare head. She is quite 
 intelligent for one of the species, and very tractable, 
 doing just what she was bid to do by the attendant. 
 She was even so obliging as to sing for us. That song- 
 convulsed her audience in laughter. Then she actually 
 chuckled to herself and became so radiant that she in- 
 sisted on presenting me with a bouquet of two beards 
 of wheat, which she placed in my button hole and 
 which I bore away as a souvenir. 
 
 Hyde Park, not a great way from the last named, is 
 three hundred and eighty acres in extent, and is 
 
108 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 largely used by the nobility on account of its pleas- 
 ant drive. The famous " Rotten Row " is com- 
 prised in this park, and is nothing more than an en- 
 closed track for equestrian exercises. In the after- 
 noon of a pleasant day a lively scene is presented. 
 Between the riding and the driving track are thou- 
 sands of chairs where the onlooker can lounge for a 
 penny. No two-wheeled vehicle is allowed on the 
 drive, but the handome equipages in London, with 
 drivers and footmen in livery, and wealth, fashion and 
 beauty (ugliness not debarred) are on exhibition. On 
 the south side of the park is the Albert Memorial, a 
 very handsome gilded statue, beneath a richly deco- 
 rated canopy whose spire reaches to a height of one 
 hundred and seventy-five feet. It cost six hundred 
 thousand dollars, and is replete with carvings around 
 the base, representing life-sized effigies of nearly all of 
 the great men of the world, distinguished in art, poetry, 
 music, or letters. At the four corners of the base, 
 removed several feet from the statue, are rich sculp- 
 tures representing Europe, Asia, Africa, and America. 
 Kensington Gardens contain two hundred and ten 
 acres, separated from Hyde Park by a lake called 
 Serpentine — the great skating pond of London when 
 frozen over. On the west side of the park is Kensing- 
 ton Palace, where Queen Victoria was born, and south 
 of it the South Kensington Museum described previ- 
 ously. 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 109 
 
 Kew Gardens, which we visited by a Thames 
 steamer, are something like seven miles from the 
 American Exchange. It is a delightful spot, and the 
 steamboat ride up the Thames, past "Westminster 
 Abbey. Parliament House, and other places of interest, 
 was highly enjoyed. Here we inspected the old palace, 
 once the residence of George III., the Botanical Gar- 
 dens, which contain a palm house three hundred and 
 sixty feet long and ninety feet wide, a tall pagoda, and 
 the museum which is contained in two separate build- 
 ings — the first with specimens of timber, and the 
 second, three stories in height, with all manner of 
 seeds and matured vegetable growth, or if perishable 
 and of an edible nature, in colored wax. Fruits of 
 every clime are so represented ; and speaking of vege- 
 tables, even the ambitious little yellow pumpkin that 
 flourishes in Posey county, Indiana, and which was 
 said to have climbed the telegraph poles to get a peep 
 at Horace Greeley in passing, has its niche. There is 
 a glass-domed building here, devoted to aquatic plants 
 in which grow some monster lilies, of which our pond 
 lily is a miniature. The largest leaf I saw would 
 measure fully four feet in diameter. 
 
 Greenwich park is down the river Thames, about 
 the same distance, I should judge, from the Exchange. 
 The boat leaves the foot of London bridge, and passes 
 close by the Tower of London and the East India 
 wharf. The bulk of the water craft which plies in 
 
110 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 such vast numbers on this noted river, seldom goes 
 above London bridge. The park stands back from the 
 river perhaps half a mile and is beautifully diversified 
 with steep hills, fine old trees and meandering avenues. 
 Here is the Greenwich Observatory, established in the 
 time of Charles II., and now the meridian from which 
 geographers reckon longitude. Hard by, and lying 
 between the river and park, is the Greenwich Hospital. 
 The Palace of Placentia in which Henry VIII. and his 
 daughters Mary and Elizabeth were born, though al- 
 most demolished by Charles II., forms part of these 
 hospital buildings. This monarch erected new build- 
 ings, and under the reign of William and Mary the 
 palace was converted into a seamen's hospital and to- 
 day is a great curiosity. Of course it has a museum 
 in connection with it. I went through eight long- 
 rooms containing models of ships of all kinds, includ- 
 ing models of the various inventions of the present 
 age. In another building was an art gallery contain- 
 ing portraits of all the great naval officers who have 
 figured from time to time in English history. 
 
 Likewise paintings of naval engagements, and relics 
 of Admiral Nelson and the Franklin expedition. But 
 the grandest things of all to be seen here are the 
 painted ceilings and walls of this splendid gallery. 
 The hall is one hundred feet long, fifty-six feet wide 
 and fifty feet high. The ceilings, as well as portions 
 of the walls, are decorated with paintings executed by 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. v 111 
 
 Sir James Thornhill. It is said he was nineteen years 
 in doing the great work of art, and after its comple- 
 tion he never stood upright, and died three years after- 
 wards. It commemorates the reign of William and 
 Mary, and has many allegorical representations. The 
 colors are rich and warm, and every figure distinct and 
 perfect. If one could lie on his back for two hours and 
 study out the whole design there would be some satis- 
 faction in viewing it. 
 
 There is a little ante-room at the end of the hall 
 which visitors are likely to overlook. I blundered into 
 it quite by accident myself, and thanked my lucky star 
 for it. It contained about twenty exquisite paintings, 
 one by Benjamin West (and, by the way, the only pro- 
 duction of America's great artist I have been able to 
 see) portraying the deathbed scene of Admiral Nelson. 
 The subject is a prolific one, as I have observed several 
 others by noted artists, none, however, in the minia- 
 ture form as here portrayed. In the vestibule of the 
 hall is a fine old painting of Columbus. The paintings 
 in this gallery are all donations, a large proportion 
 having been presented by King George IV. 
 
 St. James Park lies near the heart of the cit}^. It 
 contains about ninety acres and is appropriately laid 
 out with parterres, drives, and ornamental water ; 
 close by is the House of Parliament, and, overlooking 
 it, many of the Government buildings. On the north 
 side is St. James Palace, the town residence of the 
 
112 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 Queen. Victoria Park is in the northeast of London 
 and contains nearly three hundred acres. The Baron- 
 ess Burdett-Couts, who, some years ago, married an 
 American, Mr. Lehman Bartlett, who, as one of the 
 conditions of the union, was required to assume her 
 name, has erected a handsome drinking fountain here 
 at a cost of twenty-five thousand dollars. 
 
 Viewed from a hygienic standpoint, the numerous 
 parks of London are an absolute necessity. 
 
 From an aesthetic standpoint, they make London life 
 endurable. 
 
 The native Londoner loves them as the mountaineer 
 loves his own favorite haunts. 
 
 Without its parks, London would be the dreariest 
 spot on earth ; whereas, during the fashionable season 
 from May until August, it is the most delightful city 
 in the world, not excepting Paris. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 CRYSTAL PALACE HAMPTON COURT. 
 
 The Americans colonizing the Midland Grand have 
 been re-inforced by fresh accessions from across the 
 seas. We meet them in the corridors of the hotel, and 
 in the parlors, where, according to English custom, the 
 utmost quiet usually prevails, but which now resound 
 with loud laughter, and a medley of voices pitched in 
 falsetto, indicating as plainly as though heralded by 
 the hall boy the arrival of a " Cook party " of tourists. 
 
 Do mine eyes deceive me ? 'Tis he, 'tis he, my long 
 lost brother ! Such is the greeting, as I clasp the hand 
 of a fellow Kansan, Hon. B. W. Perkins, M. C, and 
 in the name of the Queen and both houses of Parlia- 
 ment, bid him welcome to London, and extend to him 
 the freedom of the city. 
 
 The Judge being a member of the Cook party, and 
 our original intention being to travel on the Continent 
 under the auspices of the same, we linked our fortunes 
 together for a matter of two months, although the 
 membership of myself and wife in the " third vacation 
 party of Thos. Cook & Son," as set forth in the circu- 
 
114 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 lar, did not become operative for ten days thereafter, 
 the interim being allowed the new comers to see the 
 sights of London. 
 
 We had still a few places of interest left to visit, 
 mostly in the suburbs. Amongst these, the Crystal 
 Palace at Sydenham, first engaged our attention. 
 It is reached by rail from Ludgate Hill, London Bridge, 
 or Victoria Station. We drove to the latter, and se- 
 curing our seats, were soon gliding over the smoothest 
 of tracks, at such an elevation as left us nothing to 
 see, at times, but the red tiled roofs and unsightly 
 chimney pots of uninteresting houses ; then, as we got 
 away from the smoke and noise of the thickly settled 
 portion of London, isolated rows of yellowish brick 
 buildings and unoccupied spaces of greensward indi- 
 cated the " addition " advent, which here means the 
 encroachment of the ever spreading tide of humanity, 
 which, like the sands of the great desert, or the sedi- 
 ment of the Nile, never yields up what it has once 
 invaded. 
 
 The Crystal Palace, as its name indicates, is con- 
 structed largely of glass, much of its material coming 
 from the old Exhibition building of 1851. It stands 
 upon an elevation surrounded by two hundred acres 
 of land laid out with a view of surpassing in landscape 
 beauty anything of a similar character in Europe. 
 The building is sixteen hundred feet long, the central 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 115 
 
 transept three hundred and ninety feet in width and 
 in height one hundred and seventy-five feet. 
 
 We spent the entire afternoon in viewing the curios- 
 ities contained in its museum, its half mile or more of 
 paintings, and the industry of turning and carving 
 objects in vegetable and natural ivory. 
 
 There is a vast rostrum and auditorium where im- 
 mense crowds are often entertained with music and 
 oratory. A large portion of the building is devoted 
 to a refectory, and here we obtained an excellent din- 
 ner and then strolled around through the grounds, 
 admiring the shrubbery, and having our enjoyment 
 much enhanced by the sweet strains of music wafted 
 to our ears on the gentlest of flower-laden breezes, 
 from one of the famous military bands of which Her 
 Majesty's army seems just now to have a supera- 
 bundance. 
 
 The crowd, which up to sundown was scarcely wor- 
 thy to be so designated, now, as twilight approached, 
 began to assume huge proportions, there being not less 
 than thirty thousand persons present to witness 
 the grandest pyrotechnic display of this matchless 
 season. 
 
 When the curtain of night had been let down, as it 
 were, the ball opened, and for about one hour luminous 
 sheaves of wheat, starry showers of the varied hues 
 of the rainbow, and fiery serpents rained down from 
 above, while Niagara Falls, amidst salvos of artilleiy, 
 
116 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 discharged a molten flood, and London Bridge, as here 
 represented, shone np grandly and distinctly, then 
 vanished in smoke. Balloons with comet-like tails 
 sailed away in the distance, and fountains, the most 
 stupendous in the world, cast their glittering spray 
 upwards in the glare of Bengal and calcium lights, 
 until they, too, seemed transformed into a dazzling 
 sheen of evanescent light and glory. 
 
 Deeming it the part of wisdom to leave before the 
 last fiery scene laid down in the programme had be- 
 come an accomplished fact, we avoided the crowd and 
 got off on the first train for the city. 
 
 Having heard so much of the interesting character 
 of Hampton Court, we took the train one day at Wa- 
 terloo station, and reached its vicinity after a pleasant 
 ride consuming less than one hour, the distance being 
 thirteen miles. 
 
 This old historic pile of buildings covers about eight 
 acres of ground on the banks of the Thames, sur- 
 rounded by stately trees, looking out upon lovely vistas, 
 shaded lawns, and ornamental water, worthy to be 
 classed with Versailles of which it became a rival more 
 than two hundred years ago. 
 
 Bushy Park, five miles in circumference, lies adja- 
 cent to it, an excursion to both places being usually 
 accomplished in one day. 
 
 Hampton Court Palace was erected by Cardinal Wol- 
 sey in the sixteenth century, but additions have been 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 117 
 
 made to it by such of the royal family as chose to make 
 it their residence. 
 
 A monarch with the covetous disposition of Henry 
 VIII. could not bear to see a courtier, even one pos- 
 sessed of the scholarly attainments and proud bearing 
 of a Wolsey, in the enjoyment of such a fine estate. 
 Hence, the man who, when the headsman's axe, as it 
 seemed, stood only between him and eternity, regretted 
 that he had not served his God with the same fidelity 
 as his king, generously bestowed it on his erratic mas- 
 ter, with whom it became a favorite place of abode. 
 
 Here, in succession, after Henry VIII., who died in 
 1547. dwelt the youthful King Edward who died in 1553, 
 likewise Queen Mary, 1558, Queen Elizabeth, 1603, 
 James I., 1625, Charles L, 1649, Cromwell, 1658, Wil- 
 liam III.. 1702, Queen Anne, 1714, and George II. « 
 1760, — the date referring to the death of each. 
 
 The state apartments, to which we gained admit- 
 tance, are thirty-two in number. The walls of each 
 are hung with old paintings and tapestries, many of 
 the latter placed there by Wolsey himself, whose chief 
 delight seemed to be in the ornamentation and beauti- 
 fying of this child of his heart. Who can fathom the 
 depths of his misery when, through a sense of policy, 
 the heroic act of voluntarily parting with it all was 
 consummated. I have had occasion to allude to the 
 absence of the paintings of Benjamin West in the na- 
 tional gallery ; here at Hampton Court are no less than 
 
118 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 seventeen of his productions, for the display and pres- 
 ervation of which one entire room is set apart. A 
 
 local historian says : "This room is now exclusively 
 hung with the paintings of West, all of which were 
 executed for George III., who greatly admired them 
 and extended to him a most liberal patronage. He 
 was equally in favor with the public, who lauded his 
 performances to the skies, and with his fellow artists, 
 who made him president of the Royal Academy. We 
 now hardly know which to wonder at most — an obscure 
 lad from the wilds of Pennsylvania, who took his first 
 lessons in painting from a tribe of Cherokees, accom- 
 plishing what he did ; or the English fetish, Public 
 Opinion, so deluded as to regard his efforts as master- 
 pieces of art. The depreciation which has overtaken 
 him may be judged when we hear that an ' Annuncia- 
 tion ' for which £800 was originally paid, was knocked 
 down in 1840 for £10.' ? 
 
 Of the thousand paintings occupying space on these 
 walls, there is little to excite the admiration or satisfy 
 the aesthetic taste of the connoisseur. The novice 
 would be even less attracted by this display of art, 
 though, of course, their antiquity goes for something. 
 A picture, dimmed with age, unless the work of one 
 of the old masters, receives but a passing glance from 
 the average tourist. 
 
 No palace now-a-days, open to public inspection, 
 would be complete did it not have some special attrac- 
 tion in the way of a relic of defunct royalty. Here it 
 materializes into three old beds of state. William and 
 Mary, of blessed memory, wooed the drowsy god on 
 two of these crimson couches, and on the third George 
 II. slept the sleep of the just. 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 119 
 
 One not accustomed to the grandeur of palaces sees 
 much to admire here in the large dimensions and ar- 
 tistic finish of the rooms ; particularly does this apply 
 to the Great Hall, built by Henry VIII., after the 
 death of Wolsey, for an audience chamber and thea- 
 tre. It is all of one hundred feet long, forty feet wide, 
 and sixty feet high. The roof is of timber, and per- 
 haps the best specimen of the Tudor-Gothic style ex- 
 tant. In this hall, where royalty itself drew on the 
 buskin, Shakespeare, it is said, played ; for he was a 
 well-known member of the king's company of actors. 
 
 This hall, built by Henry the VIII. on the ground 
 presented to him by the luckless Wolsey, was utilized 
 on one occasion, and perhaps for the last time, 1718 in 
 the production of the play " Henry VIII. , or The Fall 
 of AVolsey." Considering the peculiar significance of 
 the place where this drama was mirrored, one might 
 almost be pardoned for excusing a rendition of the 
 Passion Play in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. 
 
 The chief external objects of attraction, are a mag- 
 nificent row of horse chestnuts fully one mile in length ; 
 and a mammoth grapevine over two hundred years 
 old, that will measure at least three feet in circumfer- 
 ence, with branches long enough to give color to the 
 old woman's story of a " grapevine telegraph." I sus- 
 pect there are larger vines in the world than this, but 
 when a single vine for one hundred successive years 
 produces from one-half to one and a quarter tons of 
 
120 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 grapes, it can lose none of the importance through 
 rivalry. 
 
 The time allowed us here was not sufficient to ena- 
 ble us fully to gratify our curiosity — it but seldom is 
 in England. The bell of the Thames steamer by 
 which we were to return, was giving the " third and 
 last call " when we crossed the gang plank, wishing 
 only for one hour more at Hampton Court. 
 
 The Thames river is rendered navigable thus far — 
 twenty -four miles — by the canal system of lock and 
 dam. In the summer season, when the tide is in, it is 
 preferable to any other route. It was near the middle 
 of July and before we reached Westminster Bridge 
 night had overtaken us, and not being prepared with 
 warm wraps we paid the penalty of neglect, and actu- 
 ally suffered with cold. 
 
 During a stay of ten weeks in London, we experi- 
 enced only three days that were uncomfortably warm, 
 and but few evenings when one cared to dispense with 
 
 wraps. Colonel C and his estimable wife remained 
 
 here during the summer and expressed their delight 
 with the climate and all the surroundings, in unmeas- 
 ured terms. 
 
CHAPTEK XVI. 
 
 BLAINE OF MAINE — THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT — ROYAL 
 COURTS OF JUSTICE CHURCHES OF LONDON. 
 
 Shortly after the arrival of Mr. James Gr. Blaine in 
 London, I called upon the distinguished American, in 
 company with three casual acquaintances. I had 
 previously obtained a glimpse of Mr. Blaine as he was 
 entering a carriage at the Metropole, bound for the 
 American Exhibition as the guest of Buffalo Bill. The 
 whiteness of his hair and the pallor of his countenance 
 impressed me at the time as not being in strict accord- 
 ance with a published interview, emphasizing the ro- 
 bust condition of his health. 
 
 However, before I had been in his presence five 
 minutes, I discovered that Blaine of Maine, although 
 not as tough as the pine knots of his adopted state, 
 was far from being an invalid. The conversation was 
 confined almost exclusively to incidents of travel and 
 estimates of English life and English methods. Mr. 
 Blaine is a keen observer of what is going on around 
 him, and an anecdote loses nothing in raciness, 
 piquancy or ludicrousness, after passing through the 
 crucible of his mind. 
 
122 FROM NILE TO JSTILE. 
 
 The courtesy of the English people to him exceeded 
 that shown to any other visitor not in public life. Of 
 course, appearing here at a time when public attention 
 was completely absorbed by the Jubilee festivities, and 
 when crowned heads and crown princes were at the 
 front, he did not make such a stir as a statesman of 
 his caliber would have made in ordinary times. I 
 scrutinized the London dailies closely and observed 
 that Mr. Blaine was receiving all the attention from 
 our British cousins that a well disposed people, on the 
 one hand, could accord, or a fair minded people, on the 
 other, expect. It is unnecessary to add that the re- 
 spect shown him by his countrymen was profound and 
 unmarred by partisan bias. 
 
 The Judge, being a member of the legislative branch 
 of our government, had some curiosity to witness the 
 sessions of the British Parliament. Through the 
 courtesy of Minister Phelps, with whom we spent a 
 pleasant hour at the American Legation, we were ad- 
 mitted to the galleries of each house. I confess to a 
 sense of disappointment in the miserable, dark, nar- 
 row stairway by which the bird-cage of a gallery is 
 reached, in such marked contrast to the magnificent, 
 broad marble steps that lead to the galleries in the 
 Capitol at Washington, where the ladies are ad- 
 mitted. Here they are relegated to a seat beyond ear- 
 shot, where the highest favor shown the sex is to per- 
 mit them to gaze on this august body through a screen. 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 123 
 
 There is plenty of ornamentation here — " windows, 
 with gilded and canopied niches between them : the 
 royal throne, glowing with gold and colors ; the richly 
 carved paneling which lines the wall, with its gilded 
 emblazoned cove, and the balcony of brass, of light 
 and elegant design, rising from the canopy ; the roof 
 most elaborately painted and with its massive beams 
 and sculptured ornaments and pendants richly gilded." 
 
 In the House of Commons we sat through hours of 
 a running debate, in w T hich there were two divisions 
 of the House, necessitating the rising and withdrawal 
 into another room of every member for the purpose of 
 taking a vote. 
 
 The speeches of Mr. Labouchere (the Sunset Cox of 
 the House) and Mr. Balfour were listened to with 
 much pleasure. It was late when we took our seats 
 in the House of Peers, and as this sleep}^ old body had 
 up for consideration a subject as dreary as two of the 
 speeches delivered in our hearing, we quietly with- 
 drew. 
 
 We spent part of an afternoon at the Royal Courts 
 of Justice, a magnificent new building, recently erected 
 near Temple Bar, and where now sit the Courts for- 
 merly located at Westminster, Lincoln's Inn, Doctors' 
 Commons, etc. The judges all appeared in wig and 
 gown, likewise the barristers, who were assisted by 
 counsel in plain citizen's attire. The procedure in 
 these courts is very similar to our own. 
 
124 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 All good Americans who spend a Sunday in London 
 are likely to attend services at one of the following 
 churches : Metropolitan Tabernacle, Christ Church, 
 St. Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, or Temple 
 Church. The first named is in Newington, on the 
 Thames. We drove thither on Sunday morning, cross- 
 ing by the Blackfriar bridge. This Tabernacle, an im- 
 mense structure, owes its existence to the popularity 
 of Rev. C. H. Spurgeon. When we stepped down 
 from the cab there was a vast concourse of people in 
 waiting for the doors to open. A gentleman kindly 
 informed us that we could avoid the crush and secure 
 a seat by passing through a side entrance and deposit- 
 ing a small sum with the gate-keeper for the foreign 
 mission fund. We followed his advice, and, being ad- 
 mitted, were conducted by the usher to a seat in the 
 upper gallery, abreast of the pulpit, which was to be 
 occupied that day by Mr. C. H. Spurgeon. Sometimes 
 the younger Spurgeon supplies the pulpit, and stran- 
 gers go away disappointed. 
 
 I have never seen so large a chapel so thoroughly 
 packed. It seats only one-third as many as the Mor- 
 mon Tabernacle at Salt Lake, but the galleries extend- 
 ing entirely around the interior on three sides gives a 
 solidity, or compactness, to an audience, not attainable 
 in Brigham's huge structure. The choir occupies an 
 elevated position in rear of the pulpit ; the singing be- 
 ing congregational, requires no organ. I think all of 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 125 
 
 four thousand voices must have joined the choir that 
 day in singing the praises of God. They seemed to 
 sing with the intensity of feeling that the Grand Army 
 puts into ''Marching through Georgia" — with a 
 "spirit that will move the world along." In close 
 proximity, but underneath the pulpit, sat demure look- 
 ing charity girls, and deaf men and women sat through 
 a rather lengthy discourse, on the life and character of 
 Moses, with open hand or trumpet to ear, not willing 
 that any of the droppings of the sanctuaiy should es- 
 cape them. Mr. Spurgeon has been described so often 
 as to render a repetition here unnecessary. He is a 
 charming and effective speaker, though not eloquent ; 
 but above all, he is a clean man. 
 
 Christ Church is also on the south side of the Thames 
 and we reached it by the Westminster Bridge. This 
 church also owes its existence to the genius of one 
 man. It was built for the Rev. Newman Hall. It has 
 a tower two hundred and twenty feet high, the cost of 
 which was defrayed in part by American contributions, 
 in commemoration of the Emancipation Proclamationt 
 It is called Lincoln Tower, and further to weave into 
 its history a memory that should endear it to patriotic 
 Americans, the church was dedicated on July 4th, 1876. 
 AVhile it is an Independent church, its services are 
 conducted, as I heard a gentleman say. on the "Euro- 
 pean plan," meaning, I suppose, according to the lit- 
 urgy of the established church. Mr. Hall, whatever 
 
126 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 he may have been in his younger days, is now neither 
 a pleasing nor impressive speaker. The singing was 
 of the intermittent kind — the audience striving to get 
 ahead of the leader, and when once there, dropping to 
 the rear again with an occasional entanglement of 
 voices ending in discord, as when one stands at the tel- 
 ephone, and catches that strange jargon caused by the 
 interlapping of wires. There was life neither in the 
 sermon nor in the audience, which occupied no more 
 than half the seats in this superb edifice. An acquaint- 
 ance, as we filed out, remarked to me that the best 
 thing about the service was the benediction. 
 
 Westminster Abbey, at the time of which we write, 
 had not been re-opened to the public since the Jubilee 
 exercises had taken place. St. Margaret's, an appen- 
 dage, had, however, been made to serve instead, so we 
 wended our way thither to hear a sermon from Canon 
 Farrar ; but the crowd, of the same mind as ourselves, 
 was so great we could get no nearer than the door, and 
 that ended it for us. Allusion has been made, in a 
 previous chapter, to St. Paul's Cathedral, and we pass 
 on to the old round, or Temple Church. This was 
 erected in the twelfth century by the Knights Templar 
 — the soldier monks of the crusade period. It presents 
 two styles of architecture, the early English-Gothic 
 and the Norman. It stands not far from Temple Bar, 
 in the inner circle of historic London. Thither, pil- 
 grims from all over the English speaking world direct 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 127 
 
 their footsteps, not so much from curiosity to inspect 
 the old church, as to stand by the tomb of Oliver 
 Goldsmith, whose "Vicar of Wakefield" and "The 
 Deserted Village " take rank with the best productions 
 of English literature. Goldsmith was of Irish birth, 
 a typical son of Old Erin, a literary genius of whom 
 it was said : ,k Thieves had only to plunder a stranger 
 to make him a neighbor.-' He lived contemporane- 
 ously with Sir Joshua Reynolds, Dr. Johnson and 
 David Garrick, and was their intimate associate. 
 AVhat a combination of talent was comprised in this 
 " big four I" At the age of forty-six, in the pride of 
 manhood and zenith of his fame, his life ended. 
 
 " As some tall cliff that lifts its awful form, 
 Swells from the vale and midway leaves the storm, 
 Though round its breast the rolling clouds are spread, 
 Eternal sunshine settles on its head. ' ' 
 
CHAPTEK XVII. 
 
 ANTWERP BELGIUM . 
 
 When the Cook party was rounded up at the Mid- 
 land Grand on the evening of its departure for the 
 Continent, the courier in charge found he had a party 
 of twenty -three Americans nearly equally divided as 
 to sex, who for the next two months were to do his 
 bidding, while upon him was shifted the responsibility 
 of attending to every detail of comfort and sight- 
 seeing. For the same length of time these twenty- 
 three tourists were to travel the same route, by the 
 same train, or other conveyance, view the same 
 scenery, stop at the same hotels, sit at the same table, 
 haunt the same picture galleries and museums, and 
 drink, as it were, "from the same canteen." The 
 party consisted of three persons from California, three 
 from Kansas, one from Minnesota, two from Michigan, 
 five from Pennsylvania, three from New Jersey, three 
 from New York, one from Massachusetts, one from 
 Connecticut and one from Canada. 
 
 Fortunately, there were in the party neither bores, 
 moss-backs, busy-bodies, nor constitutional grumblers 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 129 
 
 — either one of which would destroy the peace of 
 heaven. 
 
 Wealth, position, and learning were closely allied 
 with youth, beauty, and fashion. 
 
 Individual selfishness, a feature so prominent with 
 independent travelers as to merit the suggestion of 
 affinity with the great American hog, was conspicuous 
 here by its total absence. This was a party of Bohe- 
 mians out on a lark ; dull care was relegated to the 
 bow-wows, and no obstacle was allowed to stand in the 
 way of the full and complete enjoyment of the pros- 
 pective picnic. 
 
 We traveled via the Harwich route from London to 
 Antwerp, arriving in the latter city after a voyage of 
 eleven hours on smooth waters. 
 
 Antwerp is a grand old city on the river Scheldt, of 
 two hundred and thirty thousand people. The tide 
 here rises to the height of six or eight feet ; and the 
 Scheldt, like the Clyde, appears as an arm of the sea, 
 giving passage to vessels of the heaviest tonnage. 
 
 Of course, on landing among a strange people, in a 
 strange land, attention is drawn to the inhabitants ; 
 their manners and customs are scrutinized, and the 
 dress worn, if novel, is as much an object of interest to 
 the! omnivorous tourist — whose digestive apparatus for 
 sight-seeing is of forty-horse power and in constant 
 motion — as the works of high art, -or the wonders of 
 nature, which mainly serve to decoy one abroad. 
 
130 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 The wooden clogs of the peasants impress one with 
 their uncomely appearance and apparent unfitness for 
 either utility or comfort. 
 
 The milk-huckster and bread carts drawn by dogs 
 (often a single dog) would be a novel sight to strangers 
 even in benighted Lapland, but here in the abiding 
 places of luxury and art, in one of nature's own gar- 
 den spots, where the lowest order of beasts of burden 
 would presumably be the donkey or the ox, the dog 
 has had the " dignity of labor " thrust upon him ; and 
 instead of being a worthless cur and vagabond like the 
 majority of his species the world over, here in Belgium 
 he is a bread winner and deserves to have the old 
 Hebrew curse, that has for ages rested on the money 
 value of his kind, reconsidered. 
 
 The women are beasts of burden too, to a certain 
 extent ; as, for example, I saw with my own eyes on 
 the streets of Antwerp a woman, a child, and a dog 
 drawing a heavily laden cart. 
 
 Bareheaded women perform the menial task of 
 sweeping the streets, and in the harvest fields use 
 hook and sickle, and bind up the sheaves as dutifully 
 as they would bind up the wounds of a friend. 
 
 Menial service of this kind is confined to the peas- 
 antry. Advance a step higher in the social scale, and 
 you find them occupying positions more after the En- 
 glish style — women at the bars and in all the stores, 
 
FROM X1LE TO NILE. 131 
 
 and employed in vast numbers in the factories, especi- 
 ally in the manufacture of linen goods and laces. 
 
 The history of Belgium is an eventful one. It is the 
 land of the Flamms, or Flemings, but is now so mixed 
 up with other natioiialties, by reason of subjection to 
 them, that it possesses at the present time but few 
 distinctive characteristics. In its day it has been 
 subject to Holland, Spain, Austria and France. In 
 the cities the French language is universally spoken. 
 Their standard of money is the same as the French, 
 and their weights and measures likewise correspond. 
 
 Antwerp, the second city, in population, in the 
 kingdom, is well fortified, abounds in handsome boule- 
 vards in the modern portion of the city, and can boast 
 of a large number of beautiful buildings. 
 
 The first place of special interest to which we were 
 conducted was the grand Cathedral, said to be the 
 finest church edifice in Belgium. It was commenced 
 in 1352 and finished in 1530. The interior, like that 
 of most buildings of its class, is gloomy. One looks 
 up and down its naked aisles, four hundred feet long, 
 and across its equally naked transept in some wonder- 
 ment, his mind recurring to a period in its history 
 when Philip II. held a chapter of the Golden Fleece 
 here. It was said of this gay monarch that in spite 
 of his love for Isabel of Portugal, whom Ke married, 
 he had not banished from his heart a cherished mis- 
 tress at Bruges, whose wit and rare beauty had capti- 
 
132 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 vated him — although her hair was red. He had prom- 
 ised to hand her " golden locks " down to posterity ; 
 and so established the order of the Golden Fleece. 
 Then one thinks of the time when the great Napoleon 
 entered these doors and robbed it of its chief attrac- 
 tion, namely, two of the great masterpieces of Rubens, 
 the " Elevation of the Cross," and the " Descent from 
 the Cross," which were carted off to Paris as trophies 
 of the war ; but on the downfall of the gray-eyed man 
 of destiny, were returned by order of Lord Wellington. 
 Of course, this little episode only adds to their value 
 and importance. 
 
 The guide who was to take us over Antwerp, and 
 explain and point out all objects of interest to us, grew 
 so elated at the prospect of reaping a big harvest from 
 such a ripe and fruitful field as our party presented, 
 that by the time we had our lunch and were ready for 
 business he was totally incapable of performing his 
 functions. The prospect was too overpowering for his 
 intellect, and he tried to hold himself down with a 
 keg of beer — and succeeded. The Count, our very 
 efficient courier, was thoroughly disgusted, and pranced 
 around like a gladiator until he was furnished with 
 another one, who, though he might get tangled in his 
 English was proof against getting tangled in his legs. 
 
 In addition to the two exquisite paintings by that 
 prolific old master Rubens, a third one is here shown, 
 " The Assumption." In these works of acknowledged 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 133 
 
 greatness, the artist has portrayed, in full life-size, the 
 features of the whole Rubens family, father, mother, 
 sister, self and two wives ; he has even remembered 
 the dog. Well, I rather like that, for who comes so 
 near one's own conception of a Madonna, as one's own 
 mother, or to one of the Marys as his own sister or 
 perhaps his wife ! And who knows but that Rubens 
 possessed that blind love for his dog that lends to the 
 character of Rip Van Winkle such a charm, who in 
 finding that all had forgotten him, bethought him 
 of a friend who he knew would still be faithful — his 
 dog Schneider. 
 
 Peter Paul Rubens was born at Siegen, in County 
 Nassau, in 1577. He died at Antwerp in 1640, his 
 remains reposing in the church of St. Jaques. 
 
 Van Dyck and Teniers also dwelt here ; all three 
 of these great masters of the art sublime have their 
 lives commemorated by handsome .statues which adorn 
 the streets, sharing the honors in this respect with 
 King Leopold. 
 
 There are many quaint wood carvings, nearly all 
 life-size, in the Cathedral, relics of an art that flour- 
 ished ages and ages before the invention of oil paint- 
 ing, by Jean Van Eyck, gave such an impetus to art. 
 
 Close by the Cathedral, is the noted Well Canopy, 
 made of hammered iron, by Quentin Massys, in the 
 fifteenth century. There is a legend connected with 
 the life of Massys, which, in view of the career of this 
 
134 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 wonderful man, deserves to be related. Massy s was a 
 blacksmith ; and, as the story comes to me, in the 
 brokenest of English, the lover of a maid of high 
 degree. The artisan asked her hand in marriage, but 
 the father, more ambitious than the daughter, being a 
 patron of high art then in its zenith, swore a round 
 oath that no man should marry his daughter unless he 
 had proven his ability to paint a picture that should 
 win the first prize. 
 
 Massy s, nothing daunted by a rebuff which in effect 
 seemed practically to rule him out of the race, in an 
 incredibly brief space of time produced a picture of 
 such undoubted merit as to convince the fastidious 
 parent that in the artist blacksmith he had struck a 
 bonanza. There is certainly no discount on that su- 
 perb painting, the work of his hands, " Lot Tempted 
 by His Daughters." Quentin Massys was born here 
 in 1460, and here he died in 1530. St. Paul's Church 
 presents some attractive features of wood carving, 
 paintings, and a fine organ. Its facade borders some- 
 what on the grotesque, with its representation of grot- 
 toes containing allegorical figures, niches filled with 
 statues, and lava-like blocks of stone irregularly piled 
 up, Vesuvius fashion. 
 
 In the closing hour that remained to us before our 
 departure for Brussels, we were shown the ancient 
 palace of Charles V., and conducted by devious ways 
 through narrow, crooked streets to the oldest house in 
 
FEOM NILE TO NILE. 135 
 
 Antwerp, then to the house where the painter Van 
 Dyck was born in 1599. He died in London in 1644, 
 although some claim that his death occurred in this 
 old house. 
 
 Antwerp was the birth-place of David Teniers, the 
 elder, who died here in 1649, and of his son David 
 Teniers, who died in Brussels in 1690. David Jr. in- 
 herited the family talent, but became more renowned 
 as an artist than either his father or his uncle Julian. 
 One recognizes his productions at once by the partiality 
 he has shown for peasant life and gay tavern scenes. 
 We leave here for pastures new, feeling that we have 
 not cropped this so closely as the rich herbage war- 
 rants, leaving to others the full pleasure of what was 
 denied us. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 BRUSSELS. 
 
 Brussels, the capital of Belgium, is only about one 
 hour's ride from Antwerp. It contains a population 
 of four hundred thousand, and bears the reputation 
 of being not only a delightful resort for tourists, but a 
 pleasant abiding place for that class of the English 
 speaking race which is more at home in a foreign land 
 than in the country to which it owes allegiance. I 
 have never been in so handsome a city — the contrast 
 to London in wide boulevards, beautiful residences, 
 and extensive shops, or stores, being very favorable to 
 this inland city. The public buildings, too, are mar- 
 vels of beauty, magnificence and convenience, mostly 
 of modern construction, but of such elegance of design, 
 both externally and internally, as to engage the atten- 
 tion fully as much as those erected in medieval ages. 
 
 The city hall is an extensive white stone building, 
 erected between the years 1402 and 1443, with a spire 
 three hundred and seventy feet high, topped by a 
 colossal statue of St. Michael. The tapestries here 
 are the finest we have yet seen, and in their rich, 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 137 
 
 warm hues, distinctness of contour, and faithful rep- 
 resentation of character and expression, scarcely sur- 
 passed by the best oil painting, show to what a state 
 of perfection this glorious art has attained, fostered, 
 as it has been, by both church and state ; for without 
 the encouragement of either, or both, none of the old 
 masters, I apprehend, would have had his genius so 
 fully recoguized by the world, nor would it have been 
 possible in the days in which they lived to prosecute 
 their noble vocation without the aid and encourage- 
 ment of those two great and powerful benefactors. 
 
 We were conducted into the elegant banqueting hall 
 of this superb edifice, the same in which the Duchess 
 of Richmond gave the grand ball, and at which the 
 Duke of Wellington was a guest, on the memorable 
 night of June 15th, 1815, when a courier, splashed 
 with mud, strode into the festive hall and delivered a 
 message to the Iron Duke, which, ere an hour had 
 flown by, caused the utmost consternation among the 
 guests of the gay Duchess. 
 
 "Ah! then and there was hurrying to and fro, 
 
 And gathering tears, and tremblings of distress, 
 And cheeks all pale, which but an hour ago, 
 Blushed at the praise of their own loveliness." 
 
 From here we passed into the official chamber of 
 the burgomeister, or mayor, of Brussels, and found 
 ourselves just in the nick of time to witness the civil 
 rite of marriage performed by his excellency, in full 
 uniform, assisted by other officials, and supported by 
 
138 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 four of the king's soldiers with muskets. We remained 
 only long enough to see the nuptial knot tied between 
 two couples, for there were others present with their 
 parents and friends who were only waiting their turn 
 to occupy the silken cushions upon which none sat 
 except those who had been elected to travel life's path- 
 way of roses and thorns together. 
 
 Opposite to the Hotel de Ville is the Maison du Eoi, 
 built by Charles V. in 1425. Here in front of the 
 building, which we did not enter, the Counts Egmont 
 and Home suffered decapitation in the sixteenth cen- 
 tury. 
 
 In the square of which the two last named buildings 
 formed a part were held tournaments in the fifteenth 
 century, and many of the houses, which are old but in 
 good preservation, were built and occupied by various 
 guilds and corporations more than three hundred 
 years ago. 
 
 We next proceeded to the Palais de la Nation, built 
 by order of Empress Maria Theresa in 1783, mostly 
 destroyed by fire in 1883, since rebuilt in greater mag- 
 nificence. It is used as the capital building for ses- 
 sions of the senate and house of representatives. The 
 stairways are broad and of fine marble. The halls 
 and vestibules, as well as doors and ceilings, of daz- 
 zling whiteness, and the doors, ten feet in height, of 
 solid mahogany. The senate chamber is decidedly the 
 most complete, appropriate, and elegant room of this 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 139 
 
 special character within my knowledge. It is not 
 large, but sufficiently so to meet all the requirements 
 of a country not more than half as large as Kansas, 
 though possessing five millions of people. The mem- 
 bers sit in semi-circle, facing the presiding officer. 
 The chairs are luxurious, upholstered in red plush, 
 and the desks are models of the cabinet makers' skill. 
 The panels in the background, on the semi-circular 
 wall are embellished with portraits of kings, queens 
 and emperors, who have figured conspicuously in the 
 history of the Netherlands since the days of Charle- 
 magne. 
 
 In the foreground, or above the President's platform, 
 as well as to the right and left, are fine paintings of a 
 historical character. The gallery, likewise semi-circu- 
 lar, is supported by marble columns, and contains 
 boxes for royalty, embassadors and visitors, and as 
 regards comfort and elegance is superior to either 
 chamber in Westminster. At the time of our visit the 
 lower house was in session and but one of our party 
 gained admittance. The other twenty -two are confi- 
 dent that he freely administered taffy, when lingering 
 in the rear, to the Belgian beauty who seemed to 
 occupy the position of charge-d'affaires. We missed 
 him while inspecting some fine tapestries in the smok- 
 ing room of the Senate, and when we had just con- 
 cluded our inspection of the Senate chamber he put in 
 an appearance with the very image of childlike inno- 
 
140 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 cence stamped upon his countenance. It takes an M. 
 C, who knows all the ropes, to enter where common 
 angels fear to tread. 
 
 We were conducted into the various committee 
 rooms, which are more like elegant parlors than any- 
 thing else I can compare them with. In each of them 
 are magnificent paintings, as large as the side of a 
 house, and each one worth a small fortune. For a 
 little recreation, our whole party was set down at a 
 fine lace making establishment, where none but hand 
 made fabrics were produced and sold. Lace making, 
 as practised in Brussels, is a fine art. In the estima- 
 tion of the select world of fashion, a genuine, first-class 
 article of hand made lace ranks next to diamonds. 
 The dry goods stores of America are over stocked 
 with lace — such lace as you can over burden an ox- 
 team with at ten cents a yard. It bears about the 
 same relation to real lace that paste does to diamonds, 
 or a chromo to one of Miss Jekyll's best paintings. 
 We saw a number of women wearing out their eyes 
 and their youth at this underpaid labor ; one, in par- 
 ticular, who was engaged on a pattern requiring six 
 months of the most tedious and pains-taking work to 
 complete a single yard, for which her employers would 
 get five hundred francs or one hundred dollars, she 
 herself earning about forty-five cents a day. 
 
 Of course the gentlemen of the party, when solicited 
 to buy, pleaded the old chestnut of having left their 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 141 
 
 purses at home on the piano ; but the ladies, realizing 
 the importance, financially speaking, of buying at 
 headquarters, and knowing a good thing when they 
 saw it, had every saleswoman in the house, who could 
 speak any English at all, busily engaged in displaying 
 her wares, and if that house was not reduced to pen- 
 ury and want, by reason of the great sacrifice in prices, 
 it was not the fault of our American women, who, for 
 the whole balance of the day, were in ecstasies over 
 little parcels that you could carry in your watch 
 pocket, the equivalent of which, in greenbacks, would 
 make double the bulk. You can form some conception 
 of the magnitude and importance of the lace industiy 
 of Brussels, if you credit the statement that no 
 less than one hundred and thirty thousand women 
 gain a livelihood by the use of the bobbin. 
 
 I shall have little to say of the churches of this fine 
 city, having visited only the cathedral of St. Grudule, 
 which was founded in the eleventh century, and con- 
 tains a handsome pulpit carved in wood, made in 1699, 
 and representing the expulsion from Paradise ; also, 
 some fine tapestries and beautiful stained windows. 
 About all the churches here are Roman Catholic. 
 
 We were well well repaid for our time in a visit to 
 the Wiertz Museum, which contains nothing but the 
 works of this eccentric genius who died in 1865 and 
 left the entire labor of a life time, a few portraits ex- 
 cepted, to the government, on condition that they 
 
142 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 should be preserved in the museum aud exhibited free 
 of charge. I doubt if there are mauy Americans 
 familiar with the name and productions of Wiertz 5 
 but after viewing miles and miles of paintings executed 
 by almost every artist known to fame, I confess my 
 ignorance up to this time of the existence of these 
 works, about one hundred in number, and my perfect 
 delight at the surprise which was in store for me here. 
 The history of Wiertz is as strange as some of his 
 paintings. At three years of age he developed a won- 
 derful talent for drawing and wood carving, and when 
 only fourteen there was no master in Belgium compe- 
 tent to instruct him. 
 
 He made wood cuts of his own drawings and printed 
 from them, and his musical talent was something sur- 
 prising. But the great aim and object of his life was 
 to surpass Rubens. It is a question in the minds of 
 many connoisseurs if he did not equal him in his mas- 
 terpiece which hangs in this gallery, " The Greeks and 
 Trojans contending for the body of Patroclus." The 
 figures are colossal, and the expression on each coun- 
 tenance, as well as the attitude given to each character 
 portrayed, is truly fascinating. In many of his best 
 works the figures are grotesque, some of them literally 
 frightful, and to further increase this aspect, they were 
 arranged by the eccentric artist to be viewed only 
 through a glass that may or may not possess magnify- 
 ing power. One of these pictures was too horrible to 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 143 
 
 look at. It represents a mother driven to insanity by 
 hunger. She is seated on the floor of her wretched 
 hovel. In her lap is her infant partially covered up. 
 In her hand is the dripping knife with which she has 
 severed one of the infant's legs, which is thrust into a 
 pot of boiling water heated by the clothing stripped 
 from the babe ; the little shoe has fallen oft' and lies 
 in plain view. The expression on the mother's face is 
 demoniacal. 
 
 " The Young Sorceress " is such a superb piece of 
 flesh coloring that I have added a photographic copy 
 to my ever increasing collection. It is, however, of 
 that class which recently has fallen under the bann of 
 Mr. Anthony Comstock, who should have his ideas 
 recast by an inspection of the art galleries of Europe. 
 I made no especial note of a score or more of gems in 
 this gallery, which I regret, for no man will ever see 
 the originals or any pictures from the hand of this 
 artist unless he sees them in the museum at Brussels, 
 the exceptions before mentioned being portraits painted 
 as " pot boilers." 
 
 Wiertz was poor all his life. He was offered for pic- 
 tures prices that would have placed him in affluent 
 circumstances, but he loved these creations of his own 
 brain and skillful hand as a mother loves her children. 
 When it came to parting with his treasures, money, 
 though hunger gnawed his stomach, had no tempta- 
 tion. He lived for art and was beholden to neither 
 
144 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 priest nor king. Rubens lived for art and was the pet 
 and beneficiary of both. In many respects Wiertz 
 resembled Turner, but in point of genius and excellence 
 of production was, in my judgment, Turner's superior. 
 But this is not the only collection of pictures on 
 exhibition at Brussels. The Palace of Fine Arts 
 contains almost as many pictures as the National 
 Gallery in London. I counted about fifteen by Eubens, 
 others by Teniers, Van Byck, Rembrandt, De Crayer, 
 Massy s, and a host of others, mostly of the Dutch and 
 Flemish school. We tarried so long here, that we 
 failed to gain admittance to the Palace of Justice, a 
 magnificent new building that stands on quite an 
 elevation overlooking the city. It occupies more 
 ground than St. Peter's at Rome, and cost eight 
 million and a half dollars. We rode past the 
 King's palace and numerous statues and places made 
 historical, not of special interest to an American, and 
 the following day made a pilgrimage to Waterloo. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 AVATERLOO. 
 
 Waterloo is distant from Brussels about twelve or 
 fourteen miles. The transfer from the hotel to the 
 station furnished about the only episode, thus far, of 
 an exciting character. We were bowling along the 
 principal street of the city, eight of us in an open 
 conveyance, at a 2:40 gait, when our team ran into a 
 reckless young chap with a mattress on his head, who 
 had miscalculated either his speed or ours and thus 
 came to grief. To try to avert a calamity our driver 
 dexterously threw his horses, though not in time to 
 enable the young man to escape unscathed. The vic- 
 tim was led off limping, the mattress was rescued 
 without serious damage, and the driver, who had got 
 his horses on their feet again, was whipping them up 
 to gain lost time, when a mob swooped down upon us, 
 seized the bridles of the horses and made such dem- 
 onstrations of wrath as made more than one of our 
 party turn pale. Things looked quite serious when a 
 squad of police armed with swords rushed into the 
 crowd, motioned the men to let go the bridles of the 
 
 10 
 
146 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 horses, and after taking the number of the coupe, held 
 back the crowd and bade the driver to go ahead, and 
 he did so with a right good will. 
 
 The train bore ns along rapidly over a beautiful 
 landscape denuded of fences, presenting at this season 
 of the year the appearance of a many hued piece of 
 Mosaic work on a stupendous scale, every acre of land 
 being in cultivation in a succession of small squares or 
 strips, ranging in extent from one to ten acres. There 
 seemed to be no dividing lines between these well 
 cultivated gardens and farms, and mixed husbandry, it 
 was evident, universally prevailed. Cast the eye in 
 any direction and the view that met it would be 
 something like this : a strip of rye, ready for the 
 sickle ; a strip of wheat just past the milk state, a 
 patch of potatoes, another of beets, and another of 
 clover ; and this method of small farming I found to be 
 the custom wherever I traveled through Belgium. 
 
 The land is farmed for all there is in it, and counting 
 turnips and cabbage as a crop, is made to do double 
 duty in a season. The rye, cut close to the ground, as 
 is the invariable custom, and placed in shocks, is so tall 
 that on first sight one is deluded into the belief that it 
 is a field of Indian corn treated on the Pennsylvania 
 plan, in which fodder enters into the economy of the 
 barn yard. The wheat grows to the height of a 
 woman's head, and the fields are carefully gleaned by 
 children and old men, so that what goes to waste on a 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 147 
 
 Kansas grain field of some magnitude, would feed a 
 family here for a season. 
 
 Wherever I go in niy rambles, I am struck by the 
 close economy practised by all people on this side of 
 the water. Nothing is allowed to go to waste, and 
 this applies to hotels as well as individuals. Instead 
 of a great variety of meats, vegetables, etc., being 
 placed before you promiscuously, in small dishes, you 
 are limited in both selection and quantity, and you are 
 very likely to eat just what you are offered (or else 
 starve), served in half a dozen courses; instead of 
 having the major part of it returned to the kitchen, to 
 be hauled off as swill by some Black Joe and returned 
 to your table months afterward, transformed into the 
 choicest pork chops and sausage. The refuse from a 
 European hotel would metamorphose a " chuffy," well 
 contented, Kansas fed, Poland China pig into such an 
 unsightly *' elmpeeler " that death in any other form 
 than by starvation would be a relief to it. 
 
 For example, our morning repast consists of bread, 
 butter and coffee ; the noon-day meal of bread, cold 
 meat, and sparkling — water ; the evening meal, or 
 dinner, of soup and a clean plate ; fish and a clean 
 plate ; meat, potatoes, cauliflower, and a clean plate ; 
 chicken, lettuce, and a clean plate ; pudding, or ices, 
 and a clean plate ; cheese, butter, and a clean plate ; 
 and finally fruit, nuts, and cake, and another clean 
 plate. Only water with the addition of ice is served, 
 
148 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 although the frequent popping of corks to be heard 
 might create a suspicion that other liquids could be 
 obtained by interviewing the head waiter. 
 
 Such a bill of fare as I have described will cost the 
 individual about $2.50 per day exclusive of wines, of 
 which a good brand will stand an epicure from $1.50 
 to $3.00 per bottle, although I am of the opinion that 
 the bulk of the wines used at the European hotels, 
 exclusive of vin ordinaire, does not exceed seventy- 
 five cents a bottle. But we leave further reflections 
 pertaining to the cuisine of the continental hotels for 
 future comment. 
 
 Instead of leaving the train at Waterloo station we 
 go on two or three miles further and here we find 
 conveyances to carry us to the battle ground. Before 
 arriving there, however, a high, cone-shaped hill with 
 a bronze lion on its apex greets us, and this object, 
 which can be seen for miles, is the principal monument 
 to commemorate the decisive engagement that occurred 
 here June 18, 1815, between the French, under Napo- 
 leon, and the Allied armies commanded by Wellington. 
 We dismounted, walked to the base of Lion Hill, as it 
 is called, and ascended a steep flight of steps possibly 
 two hundred and fifty in number. This artificial 
 elevation of earth has a perpendicular altitude of one 
 hundred and fifty feet, a circumference at the base of 
 half a mile, consumed the work of three years, and 
 cost three millions of francs. The lion, which is of 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 149 
 
 huge dimensions, stands on a pedestal of granite 
 and marble. Our guide, who had grown gray in re- 
 peating the oft told tale to visitors, was vain-glorious 
 over the fact that his father, at the time the battle 
 came off, was seventeen years old and witnessed the 
 event from the back of the lion. We very naturally 
 mistook the lion for the British emblem, but it ap- 
 pears that it was placed there by Holland and the 
 do wn ward droop of its tail and the right foot resting 
 on a cannon ball were emphatically pronounced by the 
 guide to be characteristics of a Dutch lion. As the 
 " Dutch have taken Holland," if you will pardon the 
 resurrection of the old chestnut, we were willing they 
 should have the credit of this lion, particularly, after 
 a second thought, when it occurred to us that the Brit- 
 ish specimens were always represented with the tail 
 erect. 
 
 One has a grand view from the top of this huge 
 mound, not only of the brief extent of the territory 
 over which the battle was fought, but of miles upon 
 miles of undulating landscape and red-tiled villages 
 and hamlets. The situation, the day before the con- 
 tending armies took possession of the ground, would 
 have appeared to a man in a balloon much as it 
 appeared to us, for the intervening sixty -two years 
 have effected but few changes. Some of the timber 
 has been cut away and earth sufficient to complete the 
 mound has leveled a portion of the ground where the 
 
150 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 French cavalry were engulfed in the sunken road. 
 There were the same fields checkered as I have before 
 described with waving grain and succulent roots. The 
 hamlets have not perceptibly grown or diminished. 
 The cross roads where the Iron Duke made his head- 
 quarters, the farm house where the Man of Destiny 
 directed the movements of the French army, the fields 
 where the Scotch Greys stood like a stone wall, the 
 spot where Wellington uttered the memorable words, 
 "Up guards and at them," are all the same. But 
 there is one spot where not so much the ravages 
 of time as the devastating hand of war made a change, 
 and that is the hamlet of Hugumont, which to me, as 
 the guide described it, was the most interesting portion 
 of the battlefield. This hamlet was of brick material 
 and enclosed with a wall, say eight feet high, furnishing 
 a protection to three or four hundred men. This was 
 Wellington's right wing, facing south. Between this 
 wall and the French line was a heavy stretch of timber 
 through which it was impossible for Napoleon to push 
 his artillery; when his infantry charged through these 
 woods amidst the smoke of the contending armies, 
 they mistook the red brick walls for the scarlet coats 
 of the British and did not discover their mistake until 
 they were right on it, with no power to scale it, or 
 batter it down. 
 
 As a natural consequence the French line, rather 
 than fall back, crowded to their right to get clear of 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 151 
 
 this obstacle, and in doing so ran into a trap where 
 they were exposed to a cross fire, and in less time than 
 I have taken to describe this episode, the French had 
 lost 2,000 killed and were repulsed from this part of 
 the field. I could easily see why Hngnmont was held 
 so tenaciously by Wellington. It was the key appar- 
 ently to the whole position, and enabled him with a 
 force only one-third as great as that of Napoleon, to 
 hold his line of battle all through that memorable day, 
 until the last fatal charge of the French, as Blucher 
 hove in sight, when he advanced it over piles of the 
 slain to the ground occupied by Napoleon, whence all 
 had fled but the Old Guard. 
 
 With a glass you can sweep every portion of the field 
 and discern the smallest object, but we thought it 
 worth while to descend from our exalted position, and 
 after lunch walk down to Hugumont, whose walls are 
 sadly picked in holes by the relic hunter. The chapel 
 suffered more in the battle than other portions, as 
 Napoleon, by elevating his pieces, was enabled to 
 throw a few shells into the enclosure, which set it on 
 fire, and it is now in ruins. As we stood in the court 
 yard its gates were thrown open to admit a wagon 
 loaded with sheaves of rye, this still being a habitation 
 for peasantry who reap also quite another kind of a 
 harvest in the sale of photographs and walking canes. 
 
 We spent a very enjoyable day here ; to me it was 
 especially so. We then returned to Brussels, the streets 
 
152 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 of which presented a gay and animated appearance, 
 being enlivened more than usual by reason of a 
 military review then in progress, and likewise a fair in 
 the interest of which booths had been erected on a 
 suburban street for the distance of a half a mile. 
 Here the fakir, the Punch and Judy outfits, and all the 
 modern devices usually found on festive occasions 
 were hold high carnival. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 COLOGNE THE RHINE. 
 
 Our route from Brussels led us through eastern 
 Belgium where the landscape, for the most part, was a 
 continuation of the checker board style of agriculture, 
 the exceptions being where we struck one of the great 
 coal basins of this region where mining and manu- 
 factures are pushed with great vigor, and on a 
 stupendous scale, carrying one back to scenes of a 
 similar character in Pennsylvania, and elsewhere in 
 our own land. 
 
 An incident occurred, as the train halted in a driving 
 rain storm at the first town on our entrance into 
 Germany, which caused no little mirth to the occupants 
 of our compartment, being the enforcement of the 
 revenue laws upon four "innocents" engaged in the 
 absorbing game of whist. A revenue officer entered 
 the car, seized the cards and carried them off. In the 
 course of time he returned them stamped, and, 
 demanded twenty-eight cents. As the cards only cost 
 originally twenty-five cents, it would have been 
 economy to abandon them to their, fate. The owner, 
 
154 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 however, irate as he was, would have paid twice 
 that amount, rather than have the amusement of 
 the party cut short, even in a manner smacking so 
 much of the stand-and-deliver style. This trifling 
 incident of travel is merely given as a contrast to what 
 occurred later on when we arrived at Cologne, and 
 where our personal effects were subject to the lynx 
 eyes of the custom house officials. Each man and 
 woman stood by their baggage arranged on a long 
 table, key in hand, ready to expose their unwashed 
 linen, when an "insult" from our courier, placed 
 where it would do the most good, relieved all anxiety 
 and permitted us, without further delay, to mount the 
 coaches that would set us down at the grand Cathedral 
 for which Cologne is celebrated, and afterwards deliver 
 us at our hotel. The exterior aspect of this wonderful 
 architectural feat is grand beyond description. I might 
 enter into detail and fill a chapter that would contain 
 nothing else than praise of the finest purely Gothic 
 structure in the world. It will suffice, however, to say 
 that two elegant towers are each 500 feet in length, 
 with stained windows of enormous value, and, of 
 course, the orthodox designs. It was. commenced in 
 1248 and only received the finishing touches in 1880. 
 The next morning before breakfast we all repaired 
 to the church of St. Ursula, where the unfortunate 
 princess of that name, together with eleven 'thousand 
 virgins, yielded up her sweet life as a willing sacrifice 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 155 
 
 on the altar of religion. Their bones are contained in 
 the museum of the church, arrayed on shelves, and 
 there, also, are the bones and skulls of many saints, 
 about whose names cluster a sacredness only enhanced 
 by these relics snatched from the decay of centuries 
 past, and exhibited to dupe and skeptic alike — for the 
 same consideration. We were shown two thorns, 
 vouched for as taken from the crown that was thrust 
 upon the Savior's brow. A piece of the vesture worn 
 by Him at the crucifixion, and for which the soldiers 
 cast lots, and one of the water pots used at the 
 marriage feast in Cana form parts of the unique 
 collection. Wonderful must be the faith and appalling 
 the credulity and superstition of the masses of the 
 old world who accept these relics as genuine ; but 
 what must one think of an educated priesthood who 
 perpetuate the fraud from year to year? Of course, 
 one would like to believe the assertions so boldly made 
 by the monk in charge, but the evidence is not 
 conclusive, and the glaring imposture has a tendency 
 to weaken one's reverence for other things sacred. 
 
 Cologne is the sixth city in Germany in point of 
 population, and judging from the activity in building 
 operations has not yet reached its zenith. The old 
 portion of the city is about as antiquated as American 
 novelty seekers could desire, and the forty stinks of 
 Cologne are by no manner of means a foul slander on 
 the fair city. I counted up to seventeen different 
 
156 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 kinds of odor that assailed my olfactories in a brief 
 walk through the more ancient part of the city. 
 It must not be understood that these odors were all 
 offensive, or that I became overpowered when I stopped 
 short at seventeen. Cologne water is vended here 
 more as a souvenir than an article of the toilet. The 
 shops of Cologne are good, and I want to say right 
 here, before I forget it, that the recreation called 
 shopping is the most delightful occupation we met 
 with ; I really think the ladies of our party prefer it to 
 hours spent in gorgeous picture galleries and gloomy 
 old churches. The pleasure of spending money (not 
 the faculty alone) is an attribute of some natures that 
 is not paralleled by any other desire. 
 
 Cologne, I believe, manufactures no specialties. A 
 mania for such things influencing all tourists, and the 
 sights not being numerous, we departed the day after 
 our arrival by steamer up the Rhine as far as Biebrich, 
 hence by coach only a few miles to Weisbedan, where 
 a halt was made over Sunday. 
 
 We had a lovely day on the water, and enjoyed to 
 the fullest extent of earthly pleasure our voyage up 
 the picturesque Ehine. There is no scenery in Amer- 
 ica like it. It is art, poetry and music combined, pre- 
 sented through the medium of the eye. The Hudson 
 from Albany to New York is a succession of beautiful 
 views, with just legendary and historical lore sufficient 
 to touch us on the poetic side of our nature, but it 
 
FROM XILE TO NILE. 157 
 
 lacks the charm of antiquity. The Rhine possesses 
 all the bold scenery of the Hudson. There are castles 
 and old ruins perched on rocky cliffs that were the 
 strongholds of powerful barons as far back as the 
 twelfth century. The frowning walls of some old 
 fortress or castle look down on the red-tiled villages, 
 and the old Roman walls that nearly surround them 
 seem as lasting as the eternal hills. 
 
 The grandest scenes commences at Coblentz, and 
 across the river from that city, on the heights, are the 
 strongest and best constructed fortifications I have yet 
 seen. Xot all the castles on the Rhine are in ruins by 
 any means ; quite a number which I will not take 
 time to designate are owned by royalty; and, though 
 enveloped in the cloak of antiquity, still possess such 
 characteristics as to make them objects of great in- 
 terest. 
 
 It was about seven o'clock in the evening when we 
 arrived at Bingen, " Fair Bingen on the Rhine." That 
 refrain has been ringing in my ears since boyhood. 
 
 " I saw the blue Rhine sweep along, 
 
 I heard, or seemed to hear, 
 The German songs we used to sing, 
 
 In chorus sweet and clear; 
 And down the pleasant river, 
 
 And up the slanting hill, 
 The echoing chorus sounded through 
 
 The evening calm and still. 
 And her glad blue eyes were on me, 
 
 As we passed, with friendly talk, 
 Down many a path beloved of yore, 
 
 And well remembered walk: 
 
158 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 And her little hand lay lightly, 
 
 Confidingly in mine; 
 But we'll meet no more at Bingen — 
 
 Loved Bingen on the Rhine." 
 
 Snatches of the old song were heard on all parts of 
 the steamer, and sentiment, that some affect to despise, 
 ran riot as we realized that the beautiful little city, 
 enshrined in our hearts through the medium of a simple 
 song, lay before us, overlooked by the grand ruins of 
 castle Klopp, where Henry IV. was confined by the 
 treachery of his son. 
 
 Wiesbaden is not on the Rhine, but distant about 
 five miles, and may be described in a very few words, 
 as an inland watering place with beautiful residences, 
 lovely drives and handsome parks. 
 
 On Monday, bright and early, a few of us took a 
 train in advance of the party, bound for Heidelberg, 
 and stopped off for a couple of hours at Frankfort on 
 the Main. We were driven pretty generally over the 
 city, and were shown many places of interest, such as 
 Goethe's house, the building where Luther preached 
 his famous sermon before his departure for Worms, 
 the house where the Rothschilds were born, etc. Of 
 course we visited, briefly, a picture gallery, were 
 driven across the bridge that has stood for five hund- 
 red years and is embellished with a very ancient 
 statue of Charlemagne. I regretted the haste we were 
 compelled to exercise in visiting a city which has long 
 been regarded as one of the great money centers not 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 159 
 
 only of Germany but of the world. Failing to con- 
 nect, as we expected, with the balance of our party at 
 the specified time, we took the first train that came 
 along and went as far as Darmstadt. A rapid walk of 
 a mile through the town revealed handsome streets 
 and fine buildings. Here the party again became 
 united and without further stoppage we reached the 
 classic city of Heidelberg. 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 HEIDELBERG MUNICH. 
 
 The great university located in this city has perhaps 
 made its name more familiar to American ears than 
 many larger and otherwise more important cities of 
 the continent, but aside from its educational character- 
 istics Heidelberg possesses many features dear to the 
 heart of the tourist. In the first place, its origin dates 
 back to the Roman period and coming up through 
 successive eras of peace and warfare, now in possession 
 of one dominant power, and again of another, has 
 suffered, perhaps, as much as any city in existence. It 
 lies in the valley of the Neckar, and the mountains 
 seem to hem it in completely. Besides the great uni- 
 versity there are two or three other schools, and a 
 normal school somewhat on the plan of our state nor- 
 mal, but admitting only females designing to prepare 
 themselves for teaching. 
 
 Much has been said about the time honored custom 
 in the university of Heidelberg of resenting the slight- 
 est insult, or fancied insult, by resort to the duel by 
 sword; and if the scarred and disfigured countenances 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 161 
 
 of at least a large proportion of the students we met 
 on the streets are not misinterpreted, the custom still 
 prevails. I am told that this high toned species of 
 mutilation is performed at the gymnasium, where 
 along with other athletic exercises that of handling 
 the dueling sword with ease, grace and precision is 
 taught as a line art. This institution is not connected 
 with the university, though patronized almost exclu- 
 sively by its students. The university was founded 
 in 1386 and its course of lectures is attended by more 
 than eight hundred students from nearly all parts of 
 the civilized world. 
 
 The great attraction which Heidelberg possesses for 
 tourists is confined more particularly to the old castle 
 than perhaps all other objects combined. It is a huge 
 pile of masonry, standing on a rocky declivity over- 
 looking the city, some three hundred and thirty feet 
 above the Neckar, and was founded in 1294, but im- 
 proved from time to time by kings and electors until it 
 looks more like a strong fortress with high turrets and 
 stone bastions than a simple castle. It requires con- 
 siderable leg muscle to explore its numerous halls, 
 chambers, chapel and towers, but one feels well repaid 
 for any excessive demand on his strength, for this is the 
 grandest ruin in all Germany, and nowhere else have 
 I seen any which, for magnitude and architectural 
 beauty, will compare with it. 
 
 11 
 
162 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 The extensive wine cellars are one of its leading 
 features, and here is the great tun, a huge wooden 
 cask with a capacity of three hundred thousand bottles 
 of wine. In 1689 the French in retreat blew up a por- 
 tion of the castle, and seventy-five years later a thun- 
 derbolt completed the work of destruction. 
 
 We missed the morning train for Munich and loit- 
 ered around until afternoon, which occasioned a stop- 
 over of six hours at Wirzburg, and compelled us to 
 take the train a little after midnight and ride until 
 eight o'clock the next morning. Our car had two 
 compartments, into one of which the gentlemen were 
 crowded to sit out the journey, whilst the ladies fared 
 no better in the other. For my part I watched my 
 chance when all seemed to be in the land of Nod ; then 
 I slipped from my cramped position on the seat to one 
 of ease on the floor, and with a fellow traveler's grip 
 for a pillow, managed to pass away the night in partial 
 oblivion. 
 
 • On awaking in the morning before sunrise, I noticed 
 the peasants already in the fields. The patches in cul- 
 tivation bore a resemblance to the agriculture of Bel- 
 gium, and the plowing and reaping, as well as other 
 menial work seemed to be performed largely by the 
 peasant women. The somber colored houses of north 
 Germany had given way to those almost uniformly 
 painted or washed white. The church spires were less 
 pretentious and usually of the character seen in Euro- 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 163 
 
 pean countries on the Jewish synagogues, resembling 
 an inverted balloon. In the dim distance against the 
 sky could be discernad the Alps, and the cool wind 
 that blew from its glaciers, even at this early hour, was 
 none too chilly. 
 
 It was a tired, woe-begone looking party of " Cook- 
 ies " that was set down in time for breakfast at the 
 hotel in Munich, where we were to spend three days. 
 Dissipation of this kind is not conducive to good looks, 
 but a few hours on a comfortable bed, with the moun- 
 tain breeze stealing in at the open windows, lulled us 
 (the ladies, I mean) into a " beauty sleep," and at 
 luncheon each one came up to the table smiling and 
 apparently none the worse for that long, dreary night 
 journey through Bavaria. 
 
 Munich is a city of nearly three hundred thousand 
 inhabitants, situated on the Isar, a tributary of the 
 Danube. The river is narrow and swift, calling to 
 mind the Hohenlinden of Campbell, so familiar to 
 all school boys, 
 
 " The Isar rolling rapidly." 
 
 Munich occupies a high position in the arts and 
 sciences, and very much of the interest felt in visiting 
 this city centers in that fact. There are two fine public 
 galleries of paintings here, one representing ancient 
 works, the other, modern. Then the king's palace, 
 which is open to visitors on application for a guide, is 
 
164 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 not only a picture gallery containing many rare paint- 
 ings, but is a store house and treasury of valuables, 
 and was the most beautifully adorned and furnished 
 edifice I have ever seen. On entering the first room 
 one is struck by the beauty of a life-size portrait of a 
 dashing looking officer, possibly thirty years of age, 
 who but a few years ago, in a fit of insanity, committed 
 suicide. This was the young King Louis. The pre- 
 sent king, by the way, is also insane, the affairs of 
 state being administered by a regent, the uncle of the 
 king. 
 
 The palace, in many respects, resembles Hampton 
 Court, near London, described in a former chapter, 
 except that this is in a better state of repair. There are 
 no tapestries, but the frescoes are perfectly grand, and 
 the floors of such exquisite inlaid work as to make it 
 appear like a sacrilege to walk upon them. Some of 
 the walls are finished in bas relief, and the columns 
 that support the galleries and ceilings are of a richly 
 mottled marble. The throne room where the regent 
 gives audience, is lined on each side with statues of 
 the male ancestors of the ruling dynasty. They are 
 life-size, cast from cannon captured from the Greeks, 
 and are heavily burnished with gold. The throne 
 itself is a marvel of grandeur, and for once in my life 
 I sat where kings are accustomed to receive their peti- 
 tioners. There is one other room here that deserves 
 special mention for the reason that it is the most gor- 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 165 
 
 geous bedchamber any of us had ever seen, and be- 
 cause it was occupied by Napoleon the Great, and is 
 just as he left it. The bed he slept on, with coverings 
 and canopy, is rated as the finest in the world. It cost 
 one hundred and twenty-live thousand dollars, and 
 required the labor of forty people ten years to complete 
 it. The chairs and sofa correspond with the bed in all 
 respects. 
 
 There is another room called the Hall of Charle- 
 magne, which contains frescoes difficult to distinguish 
 from oil paintings. It is said that no such frescoes 
 have ever been produced elsewhere. There are so 
 many rooms filled with pictures, frescoes, and bric-a- 
 brac that I might just as well stop right here in my de- 
 scription and leave the balance to your imagination. 
 The gallery contains the paintings of the old masters, 
 is very fine, and the best arranged as to classification, 
 and with the best catalogue I have yet seen. 
 
 There are fourteen pictures by Albert Durer, who 
 was born in Nuremburg, 1471, and died in that city, 
 1528. " The Death of Lucrece " was the one painting 
 of this collection that struck my fancy, particularly as 
 I had had an opportunity to compare works by two 
 other noted artists on the same subject, and could not 
 help noticing the superiority of Durer's work. Three 
 are by the Dutch painter, Rembrandt, who was born 
 in Lyden, 1607, and died in Amsterdam, 1669. " The 
 Entombment " and " The Sacrifice of Isaac " are con- 
 
166 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 sidered among his best. I counted no less than sev- 
 enty-eight pictures by Rubens. His best paintings 
 here are " The Rape by Castor and Pollux," " Christ 
 Enthroned upon the Clouds/' " The Fall of the 
 Damned," and " The Last Judgment." 
 
 There are five by Raphael, who was born in Urbino, 
 Italy, 1483, died in Rome, 1520. His picture of the 
 " Holy Family " is, perhaps, the best in this collection. 
 
 Altogether there are fourteen hundred and forty- 
 three paintings in this collection, and I know of noth- 
 ing more pleasurable than to spend a good portion of a 
 day viewing, the authenticated works of the greatest 
 artists of their day and generation, and, perhaps, of all 
 generations that follow after them, as they are exposed 
 to view in this well appointed gallery, known as the 
 Old Pinakothek, of Munich. 
 
 The other gallery, distinguished as the New Royal 
 Pinakothek, stands as a monument to the liberality of 
 King Louis I., who bore the entire expense of the 
 building from his private purse, being a sum equal to 
 two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. A great pat- 
 ron of art, he spent a fortune in collecting the best 
 modern works for this gallery. 
 
 On a canvas of immense proportions is a painting 
 of the Deluge, by Karl Schorn, who died at Munich in 
 1850, leaving the lower and least important part of the 
 picture unfinished. No painting by Rubens, and I 
 have seen nearly all the masterpieces of this great art- 
 
A Murillo. 
 
 allery in Munich. 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 167 
 
 ist, so enchained my attention as the awful grandeur 
 of the scene where the last remnant of the race, save 
 the eight souls floating away serenety in the ark of 
 safety, led a forlorn hope up the rugged sides of the 
 last pinnacle of the tallest mountain, and as the angry 
 waves of the ever-advancing flood surged closer and 
 closer about their feet, the stronger overriding the 
 weak (fine illustrations of the survival of the fittest), 
 struggled to the top only to meet their fate. The art- 
 ist has well portrayed the passions of man in such an 
 emergency — fear, hate, and despair. After that pic- 
 ture I don't care for word painting, and I never want 
 to hear another sermon on the Deluge. After a feast 
 with the gods the soul abhors mediocrity. 
 
 I have not intended to give undue prominence to 
 this picture over one of equal merit, and by some con- 
 sidered greater, painted by Wilhelm Kaulbach, who 
 died in 1874. This picture is " The Destruction of 
 Jerusalem by Titus." Raphael, Rubens, YanDyck, 
 and others might have had the genius to produce a 
 finer production of such a scene than Kaulbach. You 
 have heard the irreverent chestnut, that " God might 
 have created a better species of fruit than the straw- 
 berry, but he never did." So with the picture in ques- 
 tion. It is partly historical and partly allegorical, but 
 the two are blended in accord with prophecy. 
 
 The third one of the large paintings is " Thusnelda 
 in the Triumphal Procession of Germanicus," by Karl 
 
168 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 Von Piloty, who died at Munich about one year ago. 
 It is of a historical character, portraying the firmness 
 and courage of the German princess, who was betrayed 
 by her own father, Segestus, into the hands of the 
 great Roman general, Germanicus. 
 
 I paid my respects to only one of the churches in 
 Munich and then merely to see the three great frescoes 
 executed expressly for Ludwig's church by Peter Cor- 
 nelius. One of the side altar pictures represented the 
 Roman soldiers throwing dice for our Savior's vesture. 
 Our version says they " cast lots," but as that language 
 fails to describe the mode, it never occurred to me be- 
 fore that the little cubes of bone or ivory with black 
 dots, in common use nowadays where chance is the 
 umpire, dated back to a period so remote ; but one 
 must live and learn. 
 
 From this church we drove to the " Gate of Victory," 
 a triple archway erected by King Louis I. to the Ba- 
 varian army. It is built in imitation of the triumphal 
 arch of Constantine in Rome, which I shall take occa- 
 sion to describe when I reach it. The decorations are 
 of white marble reliefs, and the whole is surmounted 
 by the colossal figure of a woman standing in a chariot 
 drawn by four huge lions, being cast in bronze. There 
 is another gateway through which we passed, called 
 the Propylsea, which is an imitation of the Acropolis 
 at Athens, and cost a quarter of a million of dol- 
 lars. The expense was borne by Louis I. The muni- 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 169 
 
 ficence of this king was simply marvelous, and the 
 sums he expended in beautifying his capital would 
 bankrupt any monarch of the present day. By him, 
 or at least by his order, was erected that splendid 
 Doric edifice named the " Hall of Fame/' containing 
 busts of a large number of national celebrities. Imme- 
 diately in its front stands the bronze statue of Bavaria, 
 fifty-six feet or more in height. It represents a woman 
 after the style of our Goddess of Liberty attended by a 
 lion, on which rests one hand, whilst the other is up- 
 lifted, holding a chaplet of flowers. It is made of 
 cannon captured from the Turks, and weighs about 
 seventy-eight tons. 
 
 There is a winding stair case inside leading up to 
 the head, which is large enough to contain six people, 
 and from whence a splendid view can be had of the 
 surrounding country. There are a great many fine 
 statues to be seen in different parts of the city, and 
 the style of architecture of all public buildings is com- 
 mendable. The manufacture of stained glass for win- 
 dows, and of bronze work, is carried on extensively 
 here. ^ 
 
 The drives about the city are very fine, and one is 
 struck by the evidence of thrift on all sides. Here, as 
 elsewhere, much of the menial work is performed by 
 women and it is no unusual sight to see them, where 
 buildings are in process of erection, carry the hod up 
 steep ladders, mixing mortar, or sawing and splitting 
 
170 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 wood in front of dwellings and carrying it, by means 
 of a pack on their backs, np two or three flights of 
 stairs. 
 
 Bavaria, you know, is noted for the excellent quality 
 
 of its beer, and in Munich it reaches its highest state 
 
 of perfection. From the vast quantity consumed here 
 
 you might judge that it was cheap. Well, perhaps it 
 
 is considering the size of the mugs, which are almost 
 
 uniformly made of pottery, with pewter lids, and 
 
 when filled contain one quart, which costs about seven 
 
 cents of our money. It is used more freely than water 
 
 as a beverage, and turn which ever way you will, beer 
 
 gardens and drinking halls are sure to be met with. 
 
 Our whole party, as is the custom of tourists when 
 
 under orders, was driven to the Eoyal Court Brewery, 
 
 which was erected in 1544. A local guide book says : 
 
 " A visit to the Hoffbrauhaus is to be recommended to 
 strangers on account of the characteristics of Munich 
 life to be seen there, as well as of the excellent ' stoff ' 
 which is here dispensed." Comment is unnecessary. 
 
 Alluding briefly to statues, my attention was drawn 
 to one, whilst driving in the square, of Count Rumford, 
 a Massachusetts man named Thompson, I believe, who 
 drifted to this country many years ago, laid out the 
 celebrated English garden here, and made himself so 
 generally useful as to be received in great favor as an 
 adopted citizen of Bavaria. The obelisk is an imposing 
 monument, one hundred feet high, of captured gun 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 171 
 
 metal, erected to the memory of thirty thousand Ba- 
 varians who perished in the Russian war. 
 
 Of course a visit was made to the shops, and our 
 respective allowance of baggage, visibly increased by 
 the addition of bric-a-brac and the hundred and one 
 things to be seen, coveted, and finally secured on a 
 foreign tour. I know of some travelers who lie awake 
 nights planning how to beat the custom house on their 
 arrival at New York. 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 VERONA. 
 
 From Munich we traveled direct to Verona, through 
 the Brenner Pass of the Alps. Fortunately, our cou- 
 rier had secured us a car large enough to contain al- 
 most our entire party, and as we are now just like a 
 well regulated family, we had about the liveliest day 
 of our journey. Ordinarily, six of us have occupied 
 the same compartment to ourselves, and sometimes we 
 have grown tired of each other's company and gone to 
 sleep. Seventeen persons in close juxtaposition, in- 
 spired by the grand mountain scenery in the Austrian 
 Tyrol through which we passed, were not disposed to 
 sleep, you may be assured. We were promised the 
 gratification of seeing the Tyrolese in their fanciful 
 costumes, but were doomed to disappointment, as all 
 the costumes worn by the peasants, male and female, 
 were less picturesque, if anything, than those worn by 
 the lower order of society in any other land — but there 
 was no discount on the scenery. The highest point in 
 the Alps we reached was only a little over five thous- 
 and feet, but the snow fields were in plain sight nearly 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 173 
 
 all the time, and the relief from the heat of Bavaria to 
 the invigorating air of these mountains, fresh from the 
 snow caps that whiten many a rugged peak, was sim- 
 ply delicious. A swift mountain torrent sweeps by us 
 as the huge engine toiled upwards with its serpentine 
 train, and the mist and rain occasionally obscured the 
 vision, and once in a while the clouds would hang low 
 down and become blended with their near kindred, the 
 snow fields ; whilst at times they would shut out, like 
 a drop curtain let down, our view of some neat bit of 
 hillside landscape, where, perhaps, ages ago the trees 
 had been felled, and a clearing made large enough for 
 some bold mountaineer to erect his hut, and carry on 
 a lilliputian farm, on which in narrow strips the yel- 
 low grain was ripening. Occasionally we passed a vil- 
 lage or town, of Sleepy Hollow proclivities, which 
 seemed the favorite abode of superstition, and shrines 
 to circumvent the devil were almost as numerous as 
 the mile stones in Ireland. We passed through numer- 
 ous tunnels, which had a demoralizing effect on the 
 whist players, and occasionally a fine cataract would 
 draw such superlatives from those addicted to the use 
 of slang, as " most beautiful," " lovely," " isn't she a 
 daisy," etc. 
 
 We were to have no dinner this day, but sandwiches 
 had been distributed at one of the stations, and if 
 there had been a water tank aboard, or even a beer keg- 
 filled with water, the party would not have suffered. 
 
174 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 You see they make no allowance in this country for 
 the customs or habits of Americans. With us, water, 
 in traveling, is a necessity as a beverage ; with Euro- 
 peans it is only wanted at the end of the journey, for 
 external use. Wine and beer are offered at every 
 station, but we have often found it impossible to obtain 
 a drink of water. Hence these tears. It was nine 
 o'clock when the lights of Yerona appeared in the dis- 
 tance, giving promise of something tangible to stay 
 the cravings of an outraged and disappointed stomach. 
 
 Yerona is walled in, and when we entered " through 
 the gates into the city," we realized the peculiar sen- 
 sation produced upon the mind by foreign manners 
 and antiquated customs. Defining my own particular 
 sensations, they were similar to my first experiences 
 of Cork. The next morning I was up bright and early, 
 and before breakfast took a stroll into the market 
 place which is a large paved square with no cover save 
 such as is improvised with canvas by the truck vendors. 
 Fruit and melons were displayed in great abundance, 
 at very reasonable prices. I have observed no melons 
 in Italy that can compare with our Kansas melons in 
 size. As a rule, the water melons weigh about ten 
 pounds ; the rind is thin, and the meat a rich red. A 
 foreigner must be so careful of his diet in this country 
 that I have not ventured to sample their quality. 
 However, I filled my pockets with luscious peaches 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 175 
 
 and returned to the hotel with two huge bunches of 
 dahlias for distribution among the ladies. 
 
 After breakfast we were driven to the tomb of Ro- 
 meo and Juliet, and afterwards to the house immortal- 
 ized by Shakespeare, where the balcony scene between 
 the lovers occurred. The building stands in a narrow 
 street, flush with the pavement, is four stories high, 
 with several projections called balconies, but, alas, the 
 one upon Avhich the fair Juliet had revealed her charms 
 to the impatient Romeo had disappeared. The natives, 
 who have but little reverence for the romance, gazed 
 upon us with eyes that fairly flashed their contempt 
 for a lot of American idiots who stood enraptured be- 
 neath the rays of a sun focused to a white heat, silently 
 adoring the homely spot around which the immortal 
 dramatist had woven a tale so pathetic, and so morally 
 sensuous, that in all the bright gems of passion's do- 
 main this one shines without a rival. We visited the 
 tombs of the Scaliger family, who ruled Yerona more 
 than a century, commencing with the year 1262. These 
 tombs, which are in the city, entered through a unique 
 iron gate, are surmounted by elaborate structures in 
 Gothic style with equestrian statues in bronze, and 
 other figures too numerous to mention. Close by is 
 the church of St. Maria Antica, with a splendid deep- 
 toned organ, upon which one of the fair ladies of our 
 party executed " Home, Sweet Home," momentarily 
 creating a feeling of sadness in the hearts of some to 
 
176 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 whom home had seemed for a good while as a dream 
 of the past. 
 
 We were shown some elegant panels in inlaid work, 
 and exquisite pieces of wood carving executed by a 
 former priest of this church, whom Napoleon carried 
 back with him to France, where he remained for a 
 period of ten years. 
 
 We likewise visited the stately cathedral, built on 
 the Gothic plan in the fourteenth century, and tramped 
 around its cloisters where four hundred years ago the 
 monks wandered in silent meditation and prayer. 
 
 Perhaps the finest and most interesting object to be 
 met with in Verona is the arena or Roman amphithea- 
 ter, built by Trajan, and in the middle ages covered, 
 like many of the antiquities of Rome, with earth and 
 debris. It is oval, fifteen hundred and eighty-four feet 
 in circumference, one hundred and six feet high, and 
 can accommodate easily seventy-five thousand specta- 
 tors. Unlike the Colosseum of Rome, it is in a state 
 of good repair, and is utilized on various great occa- 
 sions. 
 
 Verona dates from 350, B. C, and was once the capi- 
 tal of the Gothic emperors. In 1866 it became an 
 Italian city, having belonged for seventy years prior 
 thereto to Austria. Its population at the present time 
 approximates seventy thousand. Lying so near the 
 borders of Austria, it may be considered one of the 
 main strongholds and outposts of Italy, hence it is 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 177 
 
 well fortified. I have not enumerated all the attrac- 
 tions of this, to us, initial city of Italy. It was im- 
 possible to see everything in the brief time allotted us, 
 and I do not care to spread upon paper what "mine 
 eyes" do not behold. 
 
CHAPTEE XXIII. 
 
 VENICE. 
 
 Leaving Verona on the afternoon train, we sped 
 rapidly along through a landscape not in the least 
 picturesque, nor worthy, so far as I could see, of more 
 than a passing glance. The fields in cultivation were 
 of the quilt-patch order, separated by rows of olive 
 trees or grape vines. The whole country seemed to be 
 undergoing a fearful drouth, judged by the dry beds 
 of the streams, the brown grass, and fired condition 
 of the corn. The long horned, white or mouse colored 
 oxen common to this region, with lolling tongues toiled 
 along the dusty, dazzling highway with huge loads of 
 hemp, whilst the women in the fields, mostly bare- 
 headed, worked on unmindful of the fierce rays of old 
 Sol. Then we struck a dead level country, and pretty 
 soon were running along a narrow tongue of land with 
 water on each side, and before we could realize it, we 
 found ourselves at the end of the track where gondo- 
 las were waiting to convey us a mile or two farther, to 
 the hotel. 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 179 
 
 Everyone is familiar with the characteristics of this 
 city built in the sea, as it were, on one hundred and 
 seventeen islands, reached by means of one hundred 
 and fifty canals which are spanned by no less than 
 three hundred and seventy-eight arched bridges con- 
 structed of stone. 
 
 There is little that is strictly modern about Venice. 
 One sees the evidences of prosperity more in the shops 
 and factories and commercial enterprises than in the 
 erection of new buildings. The fact is, Venice, with 
 one hundred and thirty-five thousand people, seems 
 to have about attained its growth, leastways I saw no 
 new buildings under headway, which is the surest 
 indication whether a city is advancing or not. 
 
 On reaching Venice by rail, passengers are conveyed 
 from the depot to the hotels by gondolas, correspond- 
 ing to cabs or 'busses, and accommodating two, four, 
 or as many as can crowd in, according to seating ca- 
 pacity. With more than four passengers there are in- 
 variably two rowers, one at the bow using a single oar 
 on the left, the other at the stern using a single oar on 
 the right. The oarsmen are called gondoliers and 
 have been celebrated in song and story for ages. All 
 of the passenger traffic of Venice is performed by 
 them. A single gondolier, standing in the stern of 
 his unique craft and plying only one oar, will convey 
 four persons at as great a rate of speed as one horse 
 would convey the same number of persons through the 
 
180 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 streets of Rome. Many of the gondolas are fitted up 
 in considerable elegance, with cushioned seats and em- 
 broidered canopies. The gondoliers, especially those 
 catering to the bon ton traffic, are handsome fellows 
 clad in white linen jacket and trousers, with a colored 
 silk sash around the waist. At night they go bare- 
 headed, and whether natural or acquired, strike an at- 
 titude in rowing which is grace itself, or, as the Judge 
 expressed it, a " superb illustration of the poetry of 
 motion." 
 
 Venice by moonlight is a vision of loveliness. I 
 have read of the realms of enchantment and of Elys- 
 ian fields ; I have gone into ecstasies over a picture 
 painted by a masterhand, and been enraptured by the 
 eloquence of one who reached above the stars for in- 
 spiration, but I am prepared to say, and will maintain 
 it too, that a ride by moonlight in a four-seated gon- 
 dola, manned by a gondolier capable, at a moment's 
 notice, of impersonating Achilles — him of the vulnera- 
 ble heel — has no equivalent on this mundane sphere 
 when attended by all the conditions and surroundings 
 that favored a certain quartette of the Cook party, 
 which, one evening when the moon (not the party) 
 was full, strolled through the long corridors of the Vic- 
 toria, across the paved court yard and through an im- 
 mense hall, ending with a long flight of marble steps 
 leading down into the waters of the canal and which 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 181 
 
 served as the landing from which these four stepped 
 into an open gondola in waiting. 
 
 Soon they were gliding past scenes of revelry, where 
 the clinking glasses revealed the sensual worship of 
 Bacchus, past marts of trade where the closed doors 
 and windows betokened a cessation of hostilities for 
 the day, past barges leisurely returning from the busy 
 haunts of traffic, from shadow and the gruff shouts of 
 boatmen, dead walls and stench, into the bright moon- 
 light — the enchanted scenes of the Rial to and the 
 grand canal ; down past the winged lion of St. Mark, 
 the gilded copper horses that surmount the facade of 
 that old cathedral — brought as they were from Con- 
 stantinople in 1204, carried as trophies of war to Paris 
 in 1797. and returned hither in 1815 — past the palace 
 where the infamous reigns of the doges added a vol- 
 ume to the world's history, every page of which is 
 stained with agonizing tears and the blood of the inno- 
 cent, past the Bridge of Sighs, where hope, the anchor 
 of the soul, deserted her votaries and the grim spectre 
 of despair became enthroned. 
 
 Thus # on and on we glide, past marble halls and 
 summer gardens whence the seductive tones of music 
 steal over the water, into the broad lagoon where the 
 ships of every clime, with furled canvas, repose upon 
 the bosom of the silent waters — no, not past these, for 
 a huge barge, illuminated by numerous Chinese lan- 
 terns, containing a serenading party out on a lark. 
 
182 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 with singers and band complete, sufficed to round out 
 the picture and, save for a few finishing touches, render 
 it ready to be hung in memory's dome, where the good 
 and indifferent are stored until life's fitful dream is 
 over. Here was also the silent schooner, with its 
 white wings folded, and from the deck a dark line of 
 spectators — call them listeners if you will — looked 
 down on the scene below where the barge, like an oval 
 bed of choice flowers, was brilliant in all colors. Sur- 
 rounding it were the gondolas, conspicuous for the 
 argus-eyed lamp in the bow, and the John L. Sullivan 
 statue in the stern. 
 
 The high tension notes of a magnificent tenor voice 
 heard in the distance was the loadstone that attracted 
 us hither, and when a female voice in the purest 
 soprano followed, there was no discordant sound to 
 mar the effect — only the lapping of the water on the 
 sides of the gondola, or the soft plash of some gondo- 
 lier's oar to keep his craft in position — then the whole 
 party of serenaders joined in one harmonious chorus. 
 When this had been thrice repeated, followed by the 
 encores of the delighted cordon of tourists from many 
 a land, the barge moved off followed by a perfect fleet 
 of Venetian water craft. I shall always think the fine 
 Italian hand of the man in this fine Italian moon was 
 accountable for the spell cast upon the pleasure seekers 
 on that memorable Saturday night. 
 
CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 VENICE CONTINUED. 
 
 And this was Venice by moonlight towards the close 
 of the nineteenth century ! The time was when the 
 gondolier was not simply an automaton, bnt belonged 
 by birth-right to a guild that was held in high esteem. 
 Instead of the gay music and singing of pleasure par- 
 ties, they sang a dreary accompaniment to the splash 
 of their oars. 
 
 " How much better was this somewhat melancholy 
 song of two gondoliers answering each other in the si- 
 lence of the Grand Canal, than the so-called serenades 
 with music, Bengal lights, etc., which were not at all 
 Venetian. A mandolin and a guitar, or a flute and a 
 harp, the song of Tasso, old instruments and an old 
 song in a dark night, as well as by moonlight, produce 
 in Venice more that feeling of sweet revery, of a secret 
 wish you cannot explain to yourself, and of the dearest 
 records of the past, than the airs of Boccaccio and the 
 Cancan of Orphee aux Enfers."* That settles it. 
 
 Rovere. 
 
184 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 University people have to thank the Venetians for 
 the regatta, which became one of their fetes as early 
 as the fourteenth century.* 
 
 We had a little regatta of our own on Monday after- 
 noon. Five gondolas, handsomely canopied, were en- 
 gaged to take our party to the Armenian Monastery 
 on the island of St. Lazzaro, distant about two miles 
 from the city. The day was uncomfortably warm on 
 the water, so that the four persons on our craft were 
 eager to get out of the glare of the sun. The three 
 occupants of another gondola seemed to be of the same 
 mind, as they shot past us and took the lead. "We 
 stimulated our craftsmen by the promise of a reward 
 if they could overtake the other gondola. They did 
 some tall rowing then, and so did the other fellows, 
 who were working under the stimulus of the whip and 
 spur of reward likewise, and as they carried but three 
 of the party — and in a race every pound counts — they 
 
 * Since the earliest times the Lido was the place where the 
 people of Venice made the exercise to shoot at the target. 
 Every wealthy man had to go there almost once a week and 
 the others on holydays. A fine was imposed upon whom 
 did not go there, and this exercise gave clever archers to the 
 fleet. In 1406 a palace was built on the shore for one of the 
 Signorl dl notte, who had to maintain order and reward the 
 best. The government, in order to facilitate the passage, 
 kept ready at St. Mark's a certain number of boats for thirty 
 or forty rowers, so that those who had no other means to go 
 to the Lido had also to row. This second exercise gave origin 
 to wagers, and as the boats were first disposed in a horizontal 
 line and after in a vertical (line, riga), it was called regatta. 
 — A. D. Rovere. 
 
FROM NILE TO MLK. 185 
 
 reached the goal at least a full length ahead. But on 
 the return trip, under promise of an increased reward, 
 our oarsmen bent every energy to the task, and the re- 
 serve strength that now came into play and put us far 
 in advance of any competitor, awakened my suspicions 
 that the first one was a " pulled " race. 
 
 The interest for us on the terra firma portion of 
 Venice centered in and about the Square of St. Mark, 
 a paved court whose arcaded sides were in length 
 about five hundred and fifty feet, and in width two 
 hundred and fifty feet at one end, narrowing to one 
 hundred and eighty feet at the other. 
 
 On three sides of this grand square are fine cafes, 
 and numerous shops almost wholly devoted to the sale 
 of Venetian glass wares and trinkets, bric-a-brac, jew- 
 elry, paintings and photographs. In this respect, I 
 am told, its equal can not be found on any spot on 
 earth. 
 
 Here in this square at two o'clock each day a vast 
 number of pigeons are fed, in perpetuation of a custom 
 commenced seven hundred years ago, when the pro- 
 genitors of these pigeons were loosed on Palm Sunday 
 from their imprisonment, and during the remainder 
 of their days were the wards of the state, being fed for 
 centuries, by an act of the senate, from the public 
 crib. I rather admire the spirit that prompts private 
 individuals to keep alive and foster, as the years and 
 ages go by, a custom so simple and yet so humane. 
 
186 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 The great Campanile, or bell tower, whose founda- 
 tions were laid in 911, stands in the east end of the 
 square, and affords the best outlook to be found in 
 Venice. To the right and in the rear is the far famed 
 Church of St. Mark. Between the church and the 
 water side stand two columns of granite transported 
 from Syria in the twelfth century. One of them is 
 surmounted by a statue of St. George, the other by the 
 bronze winged lion of St. Mark which, like the copper 
 horses, fell into the clutches of Napoleon and made 
 the Paris trip. 
 
 St. Mark is the patron saint of Venice. It is claimed 
 that in the year 828 the remains of the Evangelist 
 were brought here by stealth from Alexandria, Egypt. ' 
 It is tolerably well authenticated that St. Mark suffered 
 martyrdom in that city by being dragged through the 
 streets for two successive days, until death released 
 him from persecution. Then they burned the flesh 
 from his bones and left him, when loving hands gath- 
 ered up the remains and interred them near the place 
 where he had been accustomed to preach. 
 
 Seven centuries and a half rolled by, when a certain 
 Doge of Venice conceived the bold scheme of doing a 
 stroke of business for his native city that would give 
 it an ecclesiastical position and make him the spiritual, 
 as well as political, ruler of it. Under pretext that 
 the Saracen Caliph was pulling down the Coptic, or 
 Christian churches of Alexandria in order to obtain 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 187 
 
 material for the construction of a grand palace, two 
 merchants of Venice, under orders from the Doge, 
 bribed two Coptic priests to deliver into their hands 
 the relics of St. Mark and conceal the theft from the 
 knowledge of the Copts by the substitution in the sar- 
 cophagus of other remains. The relics were packed 
 in a case along with a lot of bacon. Now, a Moham- 
 medan has a worse horror of pork than a Jew. The 
 custom house officers threw up their hands in holy 
 horror and allowed the case to pass on board a Vene- 
 tian ship in the harbor, without so much as laying a 
 finger upon it. In course of time it arrived at Venice, 
 was received with great pomp, and laid away with im- 
 posing ceremonies in a chapel built expressly for it in 
 the Doge's palace. When the church of St. Mark was 
 completed the remains were supposed to have been de- 
 posited there in a tomb. The tomb, however, was dis- 
 covered to be empty, and for eight centuries and a half 
 the remains have been lost. 
 
 St. Mark's has been almost destroyed by fire once 
 or twice, but in the present building they point out a 
 marble slab where St. Mark appeared in person to con- 
 vince the faithful that, though they had suffered his 
 bones to become hopelessly lost, he would still be loyal 
 to them as their patron saint. 
 
 Over the tomb prepared for him in the church of St. 
 Mark is an altar and in rear of it, four beautiful ala- 
 
188 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 baster spiral columns which, they claim, stood in Solo- 
 mon's temple. 
 
 The treasury of relics is said to contain articles of 
 fabulous value. I did not see them. My attention 
 was taken up with a granite rock brought from Jeru- 
 salem, on which our Savior stood to preach to the mul- 
 titude. This was in the baptistry, and here the guide 
 pointed out a marble slab containing dark blotches, 
 for this was the stone upon which the honored head 
 of John the Baptist fell, by the headsman's axe. 
 
 I take the liberty of digressing here briefly, in order 
 to enter a solemn protest against all the vile mockery 
 of things sacred that one hears from the lips of the 
 brazen-tongued guides, whose profession it is to amaze 
 more than instruct. They consider it a fine stroke of 
 business to magnify all the absurd tales by which the 
 more susceptible votaries of saint worship are deluded. 
 When repeated in my hearing, the refrain of the bal- 
 let singer in the Royal Aquarium always suggests it- 
 self — " If you believe that, you can believe anything." 
 
 The Doge's Palace, in view of all the remarkable 
 events that have transpired within its walls, is perhaps 
 one of the most interesting places on earth to the tour- 
 ist. It is only a picture gallery and museum, now, 
 but the various chambers still retain their original 
 designations, and are surrounded by that strange at- 
 mosphere of mystery and horror that clings to every 
 object associated with the shedding of innocent blood. 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 189 
 
 The grand council chamber, as its name implies, was 
 the assembly room of the soverign power of the state, 
 composed of the nobility over a certain age and a pre- 
 scribed number of elective members. In this room, 
 above the throne, or speaker's stand, is the masterpiece 
 of Tintorello, " The Glory of Paradise." containing 
 eight hundred characters, a work completed in his 
 seventieth year. He likewise painted the portraits of 
 a number of the doges, each of which has its allotted 
 space on the wall. One of these was the portrait of a 
 doge so infamous that he was slain by one of the Coun- 
 cil of Ten. In the year 1366 this portrait was taken 
 from the wall, and the vacant panel is painted out to 
 verify history. The artist Tintorello has left in Venice 
 a multitude of his works, which attest not only the 
 genius of the man, but the value set upon them by 
 his contemporaries. He was born here in 1519 and 
 died in 1594. 
 
 Another chamber into which we passed was the 
 Hall of the Council of Ten, occupied by the tribunal 
 selected by the grand council, who had jurisdiction in 
 criminal cases of magnitude. The prisoner brought 
 to the bar of this court was practically defenseless, 
 although a member of the court would be allowed to 
 act as counsel for him. The prosecution was conducted 
 by the attorney general or judge advocate. This court 
 strongly suggests the model after which military 
 courts martial have taken pattern. This system, how- 
 
190 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 ever, goes farther back than Venetian paternity; it 
 originated with the Greeks. 
 
 The Hall of Ministerial Council was occupied by 
 sixteen officers of the state, selected by the grand 
 council to perform the duties corresponding to the 
 offices of secretary of war and secretary of the navy 
 with us. Above the throne in this room is a grand 
 picture by Paul Veronese, " The Savior in Glory." 
 This artist was born in Verona in 1528, and died here 
 in 1588. He has few superiors amongst the old masters. 
 
 The Hall of the Senate was devoted to the sittings 
 of a legislative body, also elected by the all powerful 
 council. Tintorello was employed to decorate this 
 chamber, the ceiling fresco being one of his best works 
 in this branch of the art of painting. 
 
 Perhaps the most interesting chamber is that one 
 where the three State Inquisitors worked silently, but 
 as cruelly and as effectively as three human spiders 
 could work. There was little hope for a man accused 
 of crime when once he mounted the golden stair, as 
 that elevated passage way is here called, and which 
 doubtless gave rise to the song, ki Climbing the Golden 
 Stair." 
 
 The hall of the Bussola was an ante-room for the 
 police, but its most attractive feature is not the fine 
 ceiling piece, by Paul Veronese, but a small aperture 
 in the wall, once the lion's mouth through which 
 passed the written accusations, generally anonymous, 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 191 
 
 against people, that were usually prompted by jeal- 
 ousy or malice, rarely through patriotic motives for 
 the public good. Satan never devised a witch's hell- 
 broth more potent for evil. 
 
 A narrow, dismal passage leads from the hall of the 
 Council of Ten to the prison cells of Pozzi, and like- 
 wise to the Bridge of Sighs. Byron remained in one 
 of these cells, where not a ray of light penetrates, nor 
 a breath of fresh air is inhaled, for a space of twelve 
 hours, that he might have a realizing sense of the mis- 
 ery and prolonged despair of a man immured here for 
 life. To the Bridge of Sighs he has given a reputation 
 not borne out by the facts of history. We felt our way 
 through the damp, gloomy passage — sometimes able to 
 see the oaken planks of the prison from the feeble rays 
 of a taper, carried by the guide; at other times, espec- 
 ially if bringing up the rear, enshrouded in total dark- 
 ness. 
 
 We stood on the Bridge of Sighs and were pointed 
 to the spot where political executions had taken place 
 and the bodies had been dropped through a trap door 
 to the gondolier in waiting beneath. 
 
 There was much of Venice that the shortness of our 
 stay prevented us from seeing. Eight days, at least, 
 should be devoted to the undertaking, if one has the 
 time and is sufficiently interested in the medieval cu- 
 riosities of the unrivaled Queen of the Adriatic. 
 
CHAPTEE XXV. 
 
 FLORENCE. 
 
 From Venice we traveled southwest through the 
 picturesque Appenines to the ancient city of Florence. 
 Here in the twelfth century originated a quarrel be- 
 tween the pope and the emperor of Germany for the 
 possession of the city, which eventually led to inter- 
 necine strife between the supporters of the former, 
 called Guelphs, and the adherents of the latter, dis- 
 tinguished as Ghibellines, which ran through a period 
 of one hundred and forty-three years. Afterward, 
 near the beginning of the fifteenth century, the 
 famous, or rather infamous, Medici family came into 
 power, and swayed the destinies of the Florentines 
 for many years. Florence owes much of its present 
 magnificence and marvelous art collections to two 
 members of this family who, like Louis of Bavaria, 
 courted popularity by catering to the aesthetic craze 
 of their day. 
 
 The city lies on both sides of the river Arno, the 
 two sides being connected by four stone and two sus- 
 pension bridges. One of these bridges built in 1345. 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 193 
 
 composed of three solid arches, is unique in its way. 
 It is covered with jeweler and goldsmith shops, like 
 the Bialto at Venice, whilst above it is a picture gal- 
 lery connecting the two palaces of Uffizi and Pitti. 
 This long gallery contains no less than one thousand 
 six hundred paintings, mostly portraits, being six 
 hundred more than are contained in the national gal- 
 lery of London. 
 
 One peculiarity of Florence lies in its streets, paved 
 with large flag stones, laid with as much precision, 
 and kept as scrupulously clean as the stone sidewalks 
 in our large American cities. The population is about 
 one hundred and sixty thousand, and since it ceased 
 to be the capital of Italy in 1870, has been going into 
 a gradual decline, but it is a grand old place for the 
 tourist to revel, and in winter, I am told, offers an 
 asylum for invalids requiring a mild and invigorating 
 climate second to no place in southern Europe. 
 
 This is headquarters for mosaics, and if one has a 
 penchant for this style of art he can satisfy the inner- 
 most cravings of his heart — provided they are com- 
 mensurate with the balance left on his letter of credit. 
 I saw one mosaic table that sold for one hundred and 
 fifty thousand dollars. 
 
 At Venice the party invested all its small change in 
 glass trinkets, the manufacture of which has been a 
 specialty there for six hundred years — one establish- 
 ment, still in operation, having been founded in the 
 
 13 
 
194 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 thirteenth century ; but at Florence the exquisite pro- 
 duction of mosaics called out the reserved funds — a 
 single specimen, eight inches by twelve, costing as 
 much as sixty francs. Fine jewelry here is cheap, and 
 of such ornate design as to create a perfect hunger for 
 it. 
 
 The drives are fine, and one in particular — the Cas- 
 ine — seems to possess all the attributes which ease, 
 luxury, and a taste for the beautiful and picturesque 
 could demand. There was the broad, whitish gray 
 roadway, smooth and level as a billiard table, lined 
 with shade trees, just sufficiently arched to leave a nar- 
 row strip of the blue Italian sky for a key-stone. 
 There were charming villas, where the architect and 
 landscape gardener had blended utility with the orna- 
 mental in nature. There were patches of woodland, 
 with dim converging aisles, fountains and statuary, 
 and a graceful curve in the road revealed the rushing 
 waters of the Arno, parallel with which the road now 
 ran crossing one of its historic bridges, then up the 
 heights in a zigzag course, where terrace after terrace 
 led to the Piazzo Michael Angelo, a handsome esplan- 
 ade, with its grand monument and superb copies of 
 the great sculptor's matchless works. Here one ob- 
 tains a grand panoramic view of the city lying at his 
 feet, with the blue range of the Appenines in the dis- 
 tance, the winding river, the vine clad hills, the lowly 
 cottage of the peasant, and the embowered villas of 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. L95 
 
 the titled and wealthy. My memory enables me to re- 
 call no fairer scene. From here you view the half 
 destroyed walls of the citj'. 
 
 The dome of the great cathedral looms up in the 
 foreground, dwarfing all objects near it. save the Cam- 
 panile, or Giotto's bell tower, whose variegated marble 
 casements, further enhanced in beauty by numerous 
 bas relief and statuettes, rises squarely to the dizzy 
 height of two hundred and ninety-two feet. Not far 
 away stands the ancient church of St. Croce, with its 
 modern facade erected by the late Pope Pius IX., in 
 1857. Within the walls of this edifice rest the bones 
 of Michael Angelo — patriot and soldier, sculptor, arch- 
 itect and painter ; the world's history records not his 
 equal. Here, likewise, sleeps Galileo — the brightest 
 star in all the galaxy of science, and Machiavelli, the 
 diabolical, who made Italy, in medieval days, a nation 
 of treachery and deceit. Here are stored rare treas- 
 ures of art ; and in the open square, which the church 
 confronts, is a colossal statue of Dante. 
 
 Farther along is the Uffizi art gallery, consisting 
 of thirty large halls, probably the finest art collection 
 in the world. The works of the old masters are nu- 
 merous. Next we cross the Yecchio bridge, before 
 alluded to, and enter the Pitti palace — once the resi- 
 dence of the Medici — and still occupied as such by 
 royalty. In this palace, erected in 1840, are some five 
 hundred superb paintings of priceless value. There 
 
196 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 are many fine marble statues, and a marble bust of 
 Napoleon I., said to be the best in existence. There 
 is one cabinet of gems, containing four hundred pieces 
 of workmanship, too numerous to mention here, but I 
 will give a few samples, such as a jasper cup, with a 
 small statue of a warrior, in gold, ornamented with 
 diamonds ; two vases in sardonyx ; a head in turquoise 
 the eyes of which are two diamonds ; A large vase in 
 red jasper ; a triangular cup in emerald, and a lapis- 
 lazuli vase ornamented with pearls. One will see 
 here the finest tables in the world, round and oval, 
 with vases and flowers in mosaic, tables in Persian 
 lapis lazuli, tables in Egyptian porphry, with sea shells 
 and pearls inlaid or incrusted with amethysts and jas- 
 per, tables of alabaster, and, in fact, tables so numer- 
 ous, so costly and of such exquisite workmanship as to 
 make one wish that in poverty stricken Italy all this 
 stuff could be " sold for much and given to the poor." 
 
CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 NAPLES. 
 
 It is considered extremely hazardous in midsummer 
 for tourists to visit Naples — hence, some members of 
 our party branched off and went to Austria, rejoining 
 us subsequently at Pisa, but the main body, regardless 
 of the rumors of cholera, continued on from Florence, 
 stopping over night at Rome. As we were to return 
 to the latter place and remain five days, we thought it 
 scarcely worth while to take in any of the sights of 
 the Eternal City upon this occasion. 
 
 However, as there was a fine moon, and we had been 
 advised to view the Colosseum by moonlight, the same 
 quartette who had been lured by Luna's rays out into 
 the Lagoon at Venice, ventured forth about ten o'clock 
 behind a pair of good steppers, braving the alleged 
 noxious night air that " used formerly" to find its way 
 into the city from the miasmatic Campagna, and soon 
 the glorious sight of this " noble wreck in ruinous per- 
 fection " loomed up before us. As we entered its dark 
 portals, in front of which a feeble gas jet only served 
 to intensify the gloom, the moon opportunely, and as 
 
198 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 though timed for the occasion, peeped over the wall, 
 revealing to us the vast amphitheater where, ages ago, 
 one hundred thousand people had turned their thumbs 
 up or thumbs down in token of approval or disap- 
 proval, in some gladiatorial feats, where the vanquished 
 stood awaiting the fate that, by this strange procedure, 
 would assign them to instant death or give them one 
 more chance for their lives. 
 
 Here where we stood, in the heart of old Rome, was 
 the arena of arenas, where, in one day, one hundred 
 lions fell by the supple arm of a gladiatorial monarch, 
 and one hundred ostriches gave their last kick through 
 the same agency. Beneath us five thousand wild ani- 
 mals had been confined in one day to be let loose in 
 this arena, according to programme, for the amusement 
 of the spectators. They were pitted against each other 
 to fight to the death. Sometimes it was a wild beast 
 and a Christian. At other times captives, who were 
 made slaves, fought each other, and the victor, though 
 a murderer, became a freeman. It is related that 
 one individual of this class, through his expertness in 
 all gladiatorial feats, rose to such renown that even 
 nobles and royalty itself were his pupils. 
 
 On this spot the sanded floors of the arena were at 
 times removed and water to the depth of ten feet was 
 let in. The populace of Rome could then witness the 
 naval engagements gotten up for their entertainment 
 with as much zest as probably they had manifested a 
 
FROM XTLE TO NILE. 199 
 
 day or two previously when the Numidian lions had 
 licked their chops over the mangled remains of a mar- 
 tyred Christian. For five hundred years Rome kept 
 up this kind of sport. The same moon that was gloiy- 
 fying these dismantled terraces and broken Avails with 
 a sheen as illusory as the opium devotee's dream, 
 looked down on the Colosseum eighteen hundred years 
 ago, and beheld it in all the beauty and symmetry of 
 youth. In its old age, decayed, broken and useless, it 
 hides as with a garment these defects, only too glaring 
 in the broad light of day. 
 
 The next morning we boarded the train for Naples, 
 running parallel for a long distance with the Appian 
 way, a stone pike laid out by Appius Claudius 312 B. C. 
 Many of the towns along this route are perched upon 
 abrupt elevations, presumably for defense, and show 
 evidence of considerable antiquity. One of the most 
 striking objects that meets the eye is the Benedictine 
 Monastery of Monte Cassino, an educational institution 
 of much renown in Italy for the preparation of such 
 only as design to enter the priesthood. The monks, 
 some thirty in number, have charge of one of the most 
 precious libraries in the world. 
 
 Farther along we enter the Campania, one of the 
 richest agricultural districts in southern Europe. I 
 am told that it is no uncommon thing to raise two 
 crops of grain and one of grass each year from the 
 same ground. Capua, through which we pass, is a 
 
200 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 fortified town about as large as Emporia. It was here 
 that Garibaldi defeated King Francis II. in 1860. 
 Long before reaching Naples Mt. Vesuvius is discerned, 
 emitting from its crater a moderate column of smoke, 
 which at night, in plain view from our window, 
 changes to a lurid glare, which, to be appreciated must 
 be seen, for no artist's brush or tourist's pencil can 
 do it justice. 
 
 At three o'clock on Sunday morning we were aroused 
 from our slumber to eat a hurried breakfast, and then 
 take carriages that would convey us up the rugged 
 sides of Vesuvius as far as the station of the inclined 
 railway, which reaches nearly to the crater. All of 
 our party responded to the summons except a young- 
 lady, the favorite of the party, who sacrificed the fond- 
 est desire of her heart to a sense of conviction in 
 keeping both the letter and the spirit of the divine 
 injunction, " Remember the Sabbath day to keep it 
 holy.'" I have no recollection of any instance where, 
 in real life, a sublimer sacrifice has been made. The 
 ascent of Vesuvius was one of the main attractions 
 that had tempted her abroad. For this she had risen 
 from a sick bed at Florence, determined to let no fore- 
 seen obstacle hinder a life's anticipations. The party, 
 one and all, endeavored by jeers, argument and coax- 
 ing, to induce her to view the matter in a different 
 light, but be it said to her undying credit, she contin- 
 ued true to her convictions. 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 201 
 
 The distance from our hotel to the crater of the vol- 
 cano was about eighteen miles. The lazaroni of Naples 
 were astir, even at this early hour, thus giving color 
 to the suspicion that they prowled around o ? nights, 
 and slept, like owls and bats, in broad daylight. Our 
 caravan threaded narrow and crooked streets, where 
 the goats and vermin infested offspring of these same 
 lazaroni crowded the sidewalks or quite obstructed the 
 lava paved roadwaj T . 
 
 At intervals we passed milkmen on their morning 
 rounds, pursuing the novel, but honest, custom of de- 
 livering the lacteal fluid in its purity, fresh and warm 
 from the cow, drawn from the udder in the presence of 
 unkempt patrons. Such procedure in America would 
 drive the average milkman to the verge of bankruptcy. 
 In these purlieus, through which we were passing, of 
 a city containing a half million of souls, all the requi- 
 sites necessary for a cholera epidemic were approaching 
 ripeness. 
 
 Mark Twain commences a chapter with: " See 
 Naples and die!'' Well, I have seen Naples, and the 
 melon-cholic wonder to me is that I survived the ter- 
 rible gripings that, for forty-eight hours, made life a 
 burden and the beauty of Naples a delusion and a 
 snare. If the attraction had been anything but 
 Vesuvius, I should have kept to my bed and let the 
 cholera morbus wear itself and me out together ; 
 but the nerve, pluck, or resolution — call it by what 
 
202 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 term you will — that has never, sick or well, deserted 
 me in an emergency, triumphed again and made it pos- 
 sible for me to be conveyed up the steep and winding 
 road to the station, hence up that dizzy, flesh-creeping 
 incline, where the motive power of a stationary engine 
 elevates the car at an angle only attained by an ascend- 
 ing balloon. From here on came the tug of war. 
 Bunyan must have had this portion of the ascent in 
 view when he wrote the Pilgrim's Progress, and Dante, 
 I imagine, caught the inspiration here that led on to 
 the production of that literary nightmare — the Inferno. 
 Talk about the abomination of desolation ; here it is 
 revealed in all its ugly nakedness. Look below and 
 shudder at the thought of committing one's life to the 
 frail and frayed cable that served its purpose in bring- 
 ing us hither over the glacier-like beds of lava ; con- 
 tinue the ascent on foot where human ingenuity to aid 
 one's progress consists of a grip at the end of a rope 
 secured to a guide — terms, five francs, and declined, 
 somewhat reluctantly, with thanks. Then we buckle 
 down to work. Up and up, over hot ashes, and past 
 crevices emitting the stifling, sulphurous breath of 
 hell ; still higher, in hot ashes to the ankle, the fumes 
 growing worse with each advancing step ; a supreme 
 effort now, requiring nerve and muscle, and plenty of 
 it, and lo ! we stand on the ragged edge of nature's 
 safety valve, where the awful sublimity of the inde- 
 scribable scene presented dwarfs all previous sensations 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 203 
 
 of an awe-inspiring character. I have crouched on 
 the steamer's deck when the tempest tossed the mad 
 waves higher than its mast. I have been spellbound 
 beneath the thunder of Niagara's flood ; and long years 
 ago made one of many who, with blanched faces, with- 
 stood the battle's shock ; but in the presence of the 
 Unseen Force, whose pulsations no man could calcu- 
 late, all these paled as the stars when the sun appears. 
 Perhaps it was the unearthly noise of earth's sub- 
 terranean gases escaping that appalled me. Perhaps 
 it was the great patches of molten lava that were 
 hurled in the air one hundred feet or more, and then 
 fell like a quivering mass of coagulated blood into the 
 basin of the volcano. Perhaps it was an undeniable 
 resemblance it bore to a preconceived idea of the in- 
 fernal regions. This is Vesuvius, which in the year 
 79 for twelve hours rained hot ashes on the city of 
 Pompeii, buiying it to the depth of twenty feet, and 
 causing the death of two thousand of the citizens. 
 Whilst this was going on. streams of lava were pour- 
 ing down the mountain side toward Naples, and bury- 
 ing to the depth of ninety feet the ancient city of 
 Hercules, called Herculaneum. Since then the town 
 of Eesina, a populous suburb of Naples, has sprung 
 up on that spot, and in consequence of the valuable 
 buildings that have been erected from time to time, 
 but little effort has been made to excavate the last 
 city. 
 
204 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 With Pompeii it is different, and the excavations 
 here have revealed nearly all of the old town. We 
 spent a whole afternoon wandering through the de- 
 serted streets, which eighteen hundred and eight years 
 ago resounded to the babel of voices and the traffic of a 
 busy city, but which in the twinkling of an eye, as it 
 were, sunk into the quietude and peace of the grave. 
 The excavations and clearing away of the debris have 
 been thorough. There is no groping in the dark, nor 
 stumbling over heaps of ashes and lava. Pompeii 
 stands out in as bold relief as any of the ruins of Italy. 
 Its streets are all paved, and the ruts worn by wheeled 
 vehicles more than eighteen hundred years ago have 
 undergone no change. The lower stories of the build- 
 ings, composed of concrete or brick, are all that re- 
 main, but these are sufficient to give one an idea of the 
 grand temples, theaters and palaces which here 
 abounded. In the museum at Naples are eighteen 
 thousand bronze objects discovered in Pompeii, to say 
 nothing of the marble sculpture and a vast array of 
 mural paintings, and other objects of great interest. 
 
 This museum likewise contains many curiosities exca- 
 vated from Herculaneum. At Pompeii there is a small 
 museum, the most striking objects being casts of bodies 
 discovered in excavating. The exact position in which 
 the originals were found is faithfully portrayed. 
 
 Naples is the busiest city I found in all Italy. The 
 improvements that are taking place are simply won- 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 205 
 
 derful. Block after block of fine business houses are 
 in process of erection, while whole rows of old build- 
 ings are being torn down to give place to new ones. 
 The streets are a constant jam with drays and carts 
 hauling away debris or conveying building material 
 where required. Of such proportions is the boom that 
 gangs of laborers work by electric light all through 
 the night. 
 
 Overlooking the city and commanding the harbor is 
 the fortress of St. Elmo, now a military prison. It 
 stands on an elevation of more than eight hundred 
 feet, and is grander in perspective than Edinburgh 
 Castle. 
 
 Viewed from Vesuvius, Naples, lying in a crescent 
 around the bay of the same name, and covering the 
 hills that slope almost to the water's edge, certainly 
 presents a charming sight ; but viewed from the deck 
 of a steamer is more worthy the exclamation of the 
 enthusiast, " See Naples and die ! " 
 
 In plain view from Vesuvius, looking down the bay, 
 is the island of Ischia, where, some three or four 
 years ago, an earthquake swallowed up over four 
 thousand of its inhabitants. There are many places 
 of interest to the tourist in and around Naples, but 
 with the mercury at 100° and cholera in the air one 
 breathes, I confined my ramblings to only a few of the 
 most prominent objects. 
 
CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 ROME. 
 
 I am at a loss to know how I shall do justice to Rome 
 in a few brief chapters, where a mine so inexhaus- 
 tible in historical lore lies open before me. The libra- 
 ries of the world are replete with volumes written con- 
 temporaneously by such grand old historians as Plu- 
 tarch, Tacitus, Dionysius, Pliny, and others, and 
 modern writers, with the compilation of twenty-six 
 centuries in which Rome has had an existence, have 
 found a fruitful field within the walls of the Eternal 
 City for the exercise of literary labor. 
 
 Ancient Rome and modern Rome are as distinct in 
 characteristics as the Pompeii of to-day and — Naples. 
 Ancient Rome dates from 753 B. C. It was six 
 times partially destroyed by fire, and from time to time 
 was torn by internal dissensions, and subjected to cap- 
 ture and pillage by alien forces. Occupying the proud 
 position of mistress of the world at one period, it 
 eventually became shorn of its glory, and sank so low 
 in political importance, as well as in population, as to 
 merit only pity for its deplorable condition and com- 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 207 
 
 miseration for the struggling seven thousand inhabi- 
 tants to which it had been reduced. 
 
 The fires, of course, destroyed many of its temples, 
 palaces, and works of art. The iconoclastic hordes 
 from the north that swept down upon the Empire re- 
 spected nothing of a civilization higher than their 
 own. 
 
 Constantine, the first Christian emperor, and, by the 
 way, a Briton, in A. D. 330, set up a new capitol in 
 Byzantium, now called Constantinople, and embel- 
 lished it with monuments and works of art taken from 
 Rome. Her own citizens helped on the work of de- 
 struction by the pulling down and removal of bronzes 
 and marbles, ofttimes converting the latter into lime for 
 purposes of utility. It is questionable if anything of 
 archaeological value would have survived the dark and 
 medieval ages, except the " stones of Rome," had it 
 not been for the concealment afforded through the 
 operations of natural laws. The debris of fallen build- 
 ings, the wash from the rain shed, the accumulation 
 of garbage through many centuries, and the deposits 
 left by the Tiber's overflow, buried Rome to the depth 
 of thirty feet. Recent excavations are attended with 
 grand results, and the spectacle revealed, while not so 
 imposing as at Pompeii, is of the same character. 
 
 Modern Rome is built partly over the ruins of an- 
 cient Rome, but extends farther north into the valley 
 of the Campus Martius, beyond the limits of the old 
 
208 FROM NILE TO NILE.. 
 
 city. It dates from the seventeenth century, and the 
 older portion of it is a strange conglomeration of 
 churches (there are only three hundred churches in 
 Rome) palaces, open squares and narrow streets, foun- 
 tains, obelisks, ruins and dirt. The newer portion, I 
 fancy, owes its existence to the advent of the railway 
 and the severance of church and state. The streets 
 here are wide and straight ; the buildings first-class, 
 and the air as pure, say, as in our own national capi- 
 tal. The building boom is in full force, and hither 
 laborers flock from all parts of the kingdom to find 
 employment at such starvation wages as would pro- 
 duce anarchy in America in less than no time. 
 
 I have observed these hewers of wood and drawers 
 of water at their daily toil in the broiling sun, exer- 
 cising more muscle and expending more energy than 
 laborers under a free government will contribute for 
 thrice the remuneration they receive. I have seen 
 them at their "nooning," and at sundown when the 
 long midsummer day's labors had ceased, munching a 
 piece of black bread and an onion. Meat would have 
 been too rich for their blood, considering the state of 
 their exchequer. Again, I have noticed them under 
 the silent stars, stretched by the score on mother earth 
 or the steps and porticoes of churches and public 
 buildings, seeking that rest and forgetfulness which 
 honest toil vouchsafes to all her subjects. Under these 
 conditions, where the laws of hygiene are so wofully 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 209 
 
 disregarded, there is little wonder that Borne labors 
 under the opprobium of being "a sickly hole." The 
 experiment carried to excess in our own matchless 
 state would give it a reputation as unsavory as attaches 
 to the regions of the Campagna. 
 
 We were exceedingly fortunate in having pro- 
 vided for our instruction and entertainment the ser- 
 vices of Professor S. Russell Forbes, the eminent 
 archaeological and historical lecturer on Roman anti- 
 quities, who for three successive days conducted us 
 through the labyrinth of curiosities in which the Im- 
 perial City abounds, explaining their significance and 
 historical importance. Professor Forbes is of English 
 birth, and has made the antiquities of Rome a life 
 study ; a thorough gentleman and a ripe scholar, with 
 a supreme passion for his calling, he has aided the 
 authorities in their Herculean task of unearthing an- 
 cient Rome, by bringing to bear his superior knowledge 
 gleaned from the writings of the ancients, determining 
 locations and historical land marks, often before a 
 basketful of earth was removed. 
 
 The picture is presented of the audience of nineteen 
 or twenty American ladies and gentlemen, with sun 
 shades spread, grouped around the lecturer, in the 
 presence of the remnant of a wall built by Romulus 
 two thousand six hundred and forty years ago. If we 
 follow the demarcation of the wall in its extension 
 around the Palatine hill, which it encloses, we need look 
 
210 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 no farther for the town site of original Rome. Near 
 this spot was the Porta Carmenta, through which 
 the Romans rushed bearing captive six hundred 
 and eighty-three presumably fair Sabine women. 
 Romulus had just enclosed his city and settled down 
 to enjoy life with his fellow freebooters ; but his " stag 
 parties " grew monotonous and he felt kind of lone- 
 some, for 
 
 " There was a lack of woman's nursing ; 
 There was dearth of woman's tears." 
 
 That's what was the matter with Romulus, else why 
 so pensive ? From his chamber window he could see 
 over into the camp of the Sabines, and, though the 
 grapes hung high, he resolved to sample their qual- 
 ity. I have known young fellows in a similar condi- 
 tion, as to bachelorhood ; take a claim, erect a hum- 
 ble mansion thereon, and settle down to the enjoyment 
 of Arcadian solitude, with the delusion that they were 
 having a good time, with no ladies about. I have 
 passed the same ranches months later, and was im- 
 pressed by the surface indications that another " Rape 
 of the Sabines " had been fully consummated. Such 
 is life in the far west. 
 
 From contemplating the wall of Romulus and the 
 gate which admitted all this stolen sweetness, we curb 
 the imagination and come down to plain, matter-of- 
 fact historical objects and reminiscences. 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 211 
 
 Palatine, in plain English, signifies " possessing royal 
 privileges ;" and so in this quarter of Rome, which, at 
 its zenith, encompassed seven hills, all the emperors, 
 commencing with Augustus Caesar, erected palaces, the 
 ruins of which are fully exposed. We were shoAvn 
 some floors of mosaic, and Avails richly frescoed, in a 
 remarkable state of preservation ; balustrades, leaden 
 water pipes, and the various chambers used by royalty. 
 Connected with each dining room was a closet called 
 the vometarium — an essential in every well-regulated 
 house in the days when gluttony was considered an at- 
 tribute of virtue. To this novel appendage, when ap- 
 petite was fully satiated, the Roman noble retired and 
 quickly proceeded to bring on a premature attack of 
 sea sickness, which lasted but a moment, when he re- 
 turned to the table as serene as a bishop, and resumed 
 the stuffing process. Such buzzard like habits, if per- 
 sisted in, would enfeeble any race, and render it an 
 easy prey to nations whose abstemiousness from luxu- 
 rious habits incited to vigilance and aggressiveness. 
 
 The word " basilica " is one often heard in Rome, 
 and as it is as full of meaning as an egg is of meat, I 
 will describe it in Professor Forbes' own words : " The 
 Basilica was the hall of justice, and consisted of a tri- 
 bunal, nave and aisles. Its form was oblong and in 
 the middle was an open space which we call the nave. 
 On each side of this were rows of pillars which formed 
 the aisles. The end of the nave was curved and was 
 
212 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 called the tribunal, from causes or complaints being 
 heard there. A rail separating the tribunal from the 
 body of the hall was called cancelli, because it was of 
 open work. Not far from the entrance was a round 
 stone in the pavement on which the prisoner stood to 
 be tried. Between the judges seat on the tribunal and 
 the rails stood the altar of Apollo. These halls were 
 likewise used by business men as places of exchange. 
 Being the largest halls the Romans had the form of 
 them was copied by the early Christians for their 
 churches. The judge's seat gave place to the bishop's 
 throne ; the altar of Apollo to the communion table ; 
 the cancelli to the chancel, and the foundation in the 
 court in front to the holy water basins, and so the 
 name was handed down and given to Christian 
 churches, though there is not a church in Rome but 
 was once a pagan basilica, or hall of justice. * Many 
 of the so-called basilicas are not true basilicas, for 
 they have introduced the transept to give them the 
 form of a cross." 
 
 This I have observed is true of St. Peter's and in 
 fact all the great cathedrals of Europe. The basilica 
 of the Palatine hills occupies the same spot of a for- 
 mer one, where Nero sat in judgment when Paul took 
 his appeal unto Csesar. 
 
 Before ascending the flight of stairs in Caligula's 
 palace, leading to a garden that was once the reservoir 
 containing the water supply of the Palatine, we were 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 213 
 
 pointed out the vestibule where Caligula the tyrant 
 was assassinated. 
 
 Judging from the extensive ruins of no less than 
 nine public bath houses, one would conclude that the 
 pagan Romans esteemed cleanliness in the same ratio 
 as the Christian Romans regard Godliness. All baths 
 of modern days pale into insignificance when compared 
 with the extent, grandeur, and convenience of these 
 old Roman baths. Take, for instance, the one called 
 the Baths of Caracalla, which we inspected. They 
 were begun by the Emperor Caracalla, in the year 212. 
 The baths proper were one thousand seven hundred 
 and twenty feet long by three hundred and seventy- 
 five feet wide, surrounded by pleasure gardens and em- 
 bellished handsomely. One thousand six hundred 
 people could be accommodated at one time with hot or 
 cold baths. An immense collection of superb works 
 of art was discovered in these baths when the excava- 
 tions were made, which we had the pleasure of seeing 
 subsequently in the Vatican Museum. 
 
 Skipping over the balance of this day's sight seeing, 
 we commenced our second day's rambles with an in- 
 spection of the old Roman forum. The word forum as 
 applied to Roman antiquities signifies an open market 
 place, and there are several of these in the city; but when 
 Rome occupied only the Palatine and Capitoline hills, 
 with the intervening territory, she could boast of but 
 this one forum. It was surrounded by temples and 
 
214 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 public buildings. Its dimensions were seven hundred 
 and eighty feet long by one hundred and sixty-five, 
 widening to four hundred and twenty feet. 
 
 Here were enacted some of the most stirring events 
 in the lives of the early Komans. Here stood the 
 temple of Vesta, the temple of Janus, the temple of 
 Saturn, the temple tomb of Julius Csesar, the Basilica 
 Julia, the Rostra Julia, the senate chamber, and many 
 other notable buildings of which space forbids mention. 
 The temple of Yesta was globular in form, to repre- 
 sent the earth, and contained the palladium and holy 
 fire. The vestal virgins were the custodians. They 
 were bound to their duties for a term of thirty years. 
 If one became recreant to her trust and broke her vow 
 she was doomed to that " stuffy " death of being bur- 
 ried alive. Plutarch says " they were ten years in 
 being instructed in their duties, ten years they prac- 
 tised them, and ten years they passed in instructing 
 others." It is only a surmise on my part, but " taking 
 the veil," as practised in the Catholic denomination, 
 bears traces of pagan ancestry in as marked a degree 
 as the basilica form of arrangement in their cathe- 
 drals. 
 
 The temple of Janus I discovered was not the grand 
 and lofty edifice conceived by me in my school- 
 days. I have a clear recollection of a passage in my 
 old dog-eared Parley's history alluding to a treaty of 
 peace, "that the doors of the temple of Janus had not 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 215 
 
 been closed for five hundred years," and again, allud- 
 ing to a declaration of war, " the doors of the temple 
 of Janus were again flung wide open." The temple, 
 or more properly speaking, the shrine of Janus, as 
 represented to us was no larger than one of Daisy's 
 upright water carts. It had two doors, facing east 
 and west, that remained closed in time of peace and 
 open while the Roman legions were at war. It con- 
 tained the bronze figure of the two-faced god, Janus ; 
 hence our significant term, " Janus-faced." 
 
 The temple of Saturn was the treasury building — 
 all than remains of it are seven handsome Ionic col- 
 umns. On the steps of this temple it was the custom 
 to administer an " affidavy " to the generals, setting 
 forth that the spoils of war taken by them had been 
 properly accounted for. I know some generals who 
 would have been badly left if they had been subjected 
 to the same ordeal on the treasury steps at Washing- 
 ton. 
 
 The temple tomb of Julius Caesar stood on the spot 
 where his body was reduced to ashes in the Forum. 
 The Basilica Julia was built by Julius Caesar and 
 named for his daughter, of whom he must have been 
 excessively proud. This was the great court of appeal 
 at that time, and here Caesar administered law and 
 justice. There was another tribunal where Brutus sat 
 in the judicial chair. 
 
216 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 There were two rostras in this Forum where the 
 people were harangued. Caasar, not liking the old 
 one, erected another and called this the Rostra Julia. 
 Here from this pulpit, as Shakespeare calls it, he loved 
 to address the populace and receive their plaudits. 
 
 The Senate House facing the Forum is not the place 
 where Caesar was assassinated ; this chamber, when 
 the foul deed was committed, was undergoing repairs, 
 and Pompey had placed at the disposal of the senate 
 an elegant hall adjacent to his theatre. Here the con- 
 spirators gathered around Caesar as he entered it, and, 
 at a given signal, rushed upon him with drawn daggers, 
 inflicting on his God-like form no less than twenty- 
 three wounds. Some citizens of Rome, out of grati- 
 tude to Pompey, who had advanced the price of city 
 lots by a liberal expenditure of money for improve- 
 ments in their locality, presented him with a superb 
 statue of himself (still extant). This statue Pompey 
 had placed in a room contiguous to his senate chamber. 
 Caesar was doubtless pushed or jostled into this room. 
 
 " And in his mantle muffling up his face, 
 Even at the base of Pompey 's statue, 
 Which all the while ran blood, great Caesar fell." 
 
 His body was borne to his home under the Palatine 
 hills by three slaves, and the following day brought to 
 the Forum and placed in front of the Rostra Julia. 
 From this platform, with the dead body of Caesar be- 
 fore him, and in plain view of the crowd, Marc Antony 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 217 
 
 delivered his funeral oration. As there were no short- 
 hand reporters in those days to take down his speech, 
 we must content ourselves with Shakespeare's version. 
 It must have been a powerful appeal to the passions 
 of men, for the people insisted on lighting his funeral 
 pyre here, and it is a well authenticated fact of his- 
 tory that his ashes were buried on this spot and a tem- 
 ple erected over them. It is now a heap of ruins eight 
 or ten feet in heigh th, and, as it was connected with 
 the Rostra Julia, we climbed to the spot where Marc 
 Antony stood, not forgetting that it was the tomb of 
 the great Caesar — the noblest Roman of them all. 
 
CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 ROME CONTINUED. 
 
 Perhaps there is nothing left of classic Rome that 
 gives one a better idea of its grandeur than its arches, 
 thirteen in number, erected at various periods and in 
 various localities to perpetuate and glorify the names 
 and worthy actions of favorite emperors. They were 
 erected in a conspicuous place, usually spanning a 
 street or roadway, and consisted sometimes of a single 
 arch, and again they were double or triple. Without 
 knowing the exact dimensions of any, I should judge, 
 by the measurement of the eye, that they might ap- 
 proximate from seventy to one hundred feet in height, 
 sixty feet in width, and twelve to twenty in thickness. 
 As a rule they were constructed of volcanic stone and 
 marble, sometimes surmounted by marble statues of 
 men and animals, and embellished with sculptures in 
 bas relief, commemorative of such events as were de- 
 signed to be perpetuated. In some instances they 
 served a two-fold purpose of a monument and an 
 aqueduct over which water was conveyed to various 
 parts of the city. 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 219 
 
 I have already mentioned the Colosseum and the 
 old Roman Forum. Well, the arch of Titus stands on 
 a ridge between these two ruins. It is a single arch, 
 erected after the death of that doughty warrior and 
 emperor,, as a triumphal arch commemorating the cap- 
 ture of the Jews and destruction of Jerusalem. A 
 piece of sculpture in bas relief represents a triumphal 
 procession, with Titus in a chariot advancing to the 
 temple of Jupiter, while in the procession are borne 
 as trophies the seven branched candlestick and tables 
 of shewbread from the temple at Jerusalem. Titus 
 was emperor for two years and died in 81 of the Chris- 
 tian era. 
 
 On some of these arches one sees the initial letters 
 S. P. Q. R., which signify the Senate and People of 
 Rome ; so by the order of the S. P. Q. R, an arch was 
 erected to Constantine the Great to " commemorate 
 the victory of the first Christian emperor." This arch 
 stands facing the Colosseum and is triple in construc- 
 tion. It has handsome columns supporting statues, 
 and a number of fine bas reliefs both within the main 
 arch and its exterior walls. To effect this, the arch of 
 Trajan, a much older structure, was denuded of its 
 decorations. This arch is such a model of beauty and 
 symmetry that modern nations have copied it. In no 
 less than three other cities I have seen arches the 
 duplicate of this, except the decorations. The Con- 
 stantine in whose honor this arch was erected reigned 
 
220 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 as emperor thirty-one years, dying at Constantinople 
 in 337 A. D. 
 
 The fine columns and obelisks that point heaven- 
 ward in Rome are too numerous to receive from my 
 pen more than a brief mention. The Column of Tra- 
 jan, one hundred and twenty-seven feet in height, 
 constructed of marble and decorated with thousands 
 of figures, is very beautiful and impressive. It was 
 erected A. D. 114, by the Emperor Trajan himself as 
 a mausoleum for his bones, and history records that 
 his remains were buried here. He, of all the Roman 
 emperors, has the proud distinction of resting within 
 the walls of his capital city. Surmounting this superb 
 work of art is a statue of St. Peter, eleven feet in 
 height, which owes its paternity to Pope Sixtus the 
 Fifth, or Fiftheth the Sixth, I am not clear which. 
 
 In the Plazzo Colona — a large square or court, where 
 a brass band discourses excellent music during the 
 evening, and where the populace of Rome now-a-days 
 throngs to interview King Gambrinus and gaze at the 
 electric lights through the bottom of a beer mug — 
 stands another splendid column, that of Marcus Au- 
 relius. It is composed of white marble blocks, one 
 hundred and thirty-seven feet in height, with fine 
 sculpture representing scenes from battles fought in 
 Germany. It is surmounted by a statue of St. Paul — 
 another monument to commemorate the zeal and ar- 
 tistic propensities of Pope Sixtus the Fifth. Napoleon, 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 221 
 
 when he conquered a province, fixed his eagle eye on 
 any worthy objects of art, if any there were, lying 
 around loose, and sent them home as trophies. The 
 emperors of Rome, whom Napoleon imitated, made 
 heavy drafts on the antiquities of conquered Egypt, 
 and embarked extensively in the obelisk business, 
 there being no less than twelve of these shafts stand- 
 ing in Rome — monuments, not to the greatness of 
 Rome but of a civilization surpassing that of Rome, 
 and dating far anterior to it. Thus, for instance, the 
 obelisk of Monte Cavalla dates back three thousand 
 nine hundred and sixty-one years, or more than 
 two thousand years before Joseph fled with Mary and 
 the young Child into Egypt. The obelisks range in 
 height from fifteen feet to one hundred and five feet. 
 They are simply tapering quadrilateral shafts of stone, 
 upon which are inscribed hieroglyphics relating to the 
 philosophy of the times, or commemorating events in 
 the reigns of the early kings of Egypt. 
 
 Of the bridges that span the Tiber I shall mention 
 but two. The bridge of St. Angelo, which we crossed 
 in order to reach the Vatican, is a superb structure of 
 stone, built by the Emperor Hadrian one thousand 
 seven hundred and fifty years ago. The approaches 
 and sides are beautified by ten marble statues repre- 
 senting guardian angels, and two colossal statues of 
 Peter and Paul. In crossing the bridge towards the 
 Vatican one is much impressed with a huge castellated 
 
222 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 edifice right in the front, which was once the tomb of 
 Hadrian, but is now called the Castle of St. Angelo. 
 It has been an appendage of the Vatican, once contain- 
 ing its archives and treasures, and serving as a fortress 
 and, at times, as a prison. Its guns were cast from 
 bronze, appropriated from the roof of the Pantheon. 
 
 The Sublician bridge which we entered only on foot 
 because of its unsafe condition, is not remarkable as a 
 structure, but there are scraps of history and legends 
 connected with it that render it somewhat interesting. 
 I remember when a boy (ancient history being a hobby 
 with me then, whatever it is now) reading of Horatius 
 and two other Roman nobles defending a bridge 
 against the advancing foe. They held their position 
 until their friends broke the bridge down in their rear, 
 when Horatius jumped into the murky waters of the 
 Tiber, with all his armor on, and swam to the other 
 side, coloring the water as he went with his blood that 
 poured from a wound in his hip made by a Tuscan 
 spear. That happened in the heroic age of the world, 
 and this was the bridge where it occurred. 
 
 The Pantheon is an object of interest which deserves 
 a more minute description than I am able to give it. 
 At the present time it is a papal church ; twenty years 
 before the birth of Christ it was the sweating room of 
 a public bath. But its construction was so perfect, 
 and its design such a marvel of architectural excellence 
 that it was diverted from the purpose for which it was 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 223 
 
 intended, and consecrated to the gods as a temple 
 worthy of pagan divinity. It has survived the wasting 
 tooth of time, the ravages of red handed war, the 
 cremating effects of fire, and the convulsions of old 
 mother earth herself when houses toppled over in 
 Rome like the card houses of children. In a few 
 words, the Pantheon is a circular and dome shaped 
 building, constructed of brick. It is without windows 
 and receives its light from the dome above, a circular 
 'open space twenty-eight feet in diameter. The interior 
 is one hundred and fortj^-two feet in diameter and one 
 hundred and forty-three feet in height. It is entered 
 from a portico containing sixteen Corinthian columns 
 forty-six and one-half feet high and five feet in diame- 
 ter. Within its walls rest the remains of King Victor 
 Emanuel II., the liberator of Italy and friend of Gari- 
 baldi. It is also the burial place of Eaphael, the peer, 
 if not prince, of the " old masters." 
 
 In all the old cities we have visited, the churches 
 have been an especial object of interest, but nowhere 
 else under the sun do they present the same attractive 
 features as in Rome. You may go into almost any 
 church, at any hour of the day, and you find worship- 
 pers on their knees before some patron saint. 
 
 The intrusion of a gabbling bevy of sight seers from 
 across the Atlantic fails to divert them for an instant 
 from their devotions. Whilst Rome is priest ridden, 
 and churches abound as numerously as real estate of- 
 
224 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 fices in Wichita when the boom is on, one's sensibili- 
 ties are shocked when they see how little the Sabbath 
 day is respected as a day of rest, to say nothing of a 
 day of holiness. The shops are kept open as on week 
 days, and the traffic on the streets is scarcely dimin- 
 ished by a single sand cart. In the evening the pnblic 
 squares are Parisian in their gayety, and the worship 
 of Bacchus has more devotees by gas light than Saint 
 Peter, Christ, and the Virgin Mary in the sombre light 
 admitted through the stained windows of all the 
 churches at midday. Priests and monks are encoun- 
 tered everywhere, and now and then a beggar swoops 
 down upon some unprotected American as though he 
 were his lawful spoil. Where there is so much pov- 
 erty there must also be great wealth, else how could 
 an army of priests and a city of churches be main- 
 tained? The priests are proverbially sleek and fat, 
 their parishioners of the order of the " lean kine." 
 Having stated these wholesome truths and relieved my 
 mind of the weight of their importance, I am prepared 
 to hasten on to a description of such churches as our 
 limited time permitted us to visit. 
 
 In full view from our hotel stands the Basilica of 
 St. Maria Maggiore, occupying a central position be- 
 tween two squares, upon which are erected one of the 
 obelisks mentioned above, and a column forty-six feet 
 high with a bronze statue of the Madonna. The church 
 is entered by a broad flight of steps extending nearly, 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 22o 
 
 if not quite, across the imposing front. It was erected 
 A. D. 352, and tradition says that the cause which led 
 to its location on this spot was a miraculous fall of 
 snow in the month of August, which, as it descended 
 on this elevation, and nowhere else, was conclusive to 
 the mind of Pope Liberius that the Lord wanted a 
 temple right here. When a person has seen one .bas- 
 ilica, there is no new feature to behold in others, aside 
 from decorations. This one has a high altar, covered 
 by a canopy resting on four columns of porphyry. A 
 sarcophagus under the altar contains, so we are told, 
 the remains of St. Matthew and portions of the manger 
 cradle of Christ. In one of the side rooms or chapels 
 is a painting of the Virgin and Child, said to be the 
 artistic work of St. Luke. Let me see ! Luke, if I am 
 not mistaken, has been dead for over eighteen hundred 
 years. What a remarkable souvenir of one of the 
 " four witnesses ; ' this is ! The tomb of Sixtus the 
 Fifth is here, and it is without question an exquisite 
 piece of workmanship. The late Pope Pius IX. had 
 designed that his bones should find a resting place 
 here, but his quarrel with the King precluded him 
 from applying to that personage for permission to be 
 buried within the walls of the city. His remains have 
 found a temporary resting place, outside of the city, 
 in the church of St. Lorenzo. 
 
 We were told that the first gold brought from Amer- 
 
 15 
 
226 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 ica was given to the pope by Ferdinand and Isabella to 
 adorn this church. 
 
CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 ROME CONTINUED. 
 
 The church of St. John of Latern, founded by Con- 
 stantine, is considered the mother of churches. The 
 bishop of Rome takes his title from this church. Its 
 late bishop was Pope Pius IX., and the present one is 
 Leo XIII., Pope of Rome and head of the Catholic 
 church. There are several chapels in this church 
 richly decorated with paintings, mosaics and statues. 
 Turn whichever way you will and the eye rests on 
 some magnificent piece of sculpture. Above the high 
 altar is a Gothic tabernacle containing the heads (?) of 
 Peter and Paul. As we passed out of this magnificent 
 edifice the guide halted us and called our attention to 
 the huge bronze doors that had just closed behind us. 
 " These," said he, " are the bronze doors to the senate 
 chamber that in the days of Julius Caesar, forty-four 
 years before Christ, hung there facing the old Roman 
 forum." 
 
 Across the street or open space diagonally is the 
 Scala Santa, reached by twenty-eight marble steps, 
 now encased in wood, which it is said our Savior de- 
 
228 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 scended after his coronation in the judgment hall of 
 Pilate. They were brought hither from Jerusalem by 
 St. Helena, the mother of Constantine, in the fourth 
 century. They are of marble, which became so worn 
 by constant use as to render it imperative that they 
 should either be encased in wood or laid by, to be 
 gazed on as a sacred relic. 
 
 No one is permitted to go up these stairs unless 
 he ascend them on his knees. We found four per- 
 sons doing penance in this manner, and the thought 
 occurred to me, as I cast my eye up to where various 
 stages had been attained in this novel ascent, of what 
 heinous crimes had these poor wretches been guilty 
 that a penalty so humiliating and exhausting should 
 be required of them ; and then I remembered that 
 this was Rome, where the blind faith and usages of 
 the dark ages were still practised. Martin Luther 
 had ascended these self-same steps until he got about 
 halfway up; he said a voice then whispered to him, 
 " The just shall live by faith." He immediately arose 
 to his feet and walked down. There was considerable 
 bantering in our party which one should imitate Lu- 
 ther, but after polling the entire outfit there was not 
 one of all the twenty who had the — what shall I call 
 it, irreverence, or temerity? — to bend the knee even at 
 the initial step. 
 
 Out on the Appian way, a good long ride from the 
 city, is the church of St. Sebastian. The church does 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 229 
 
 not amount to anything except as the entrance to the 
 catacombs of the same name. On entering the church 
 each ghoul composing the party was given a tallow 
 dip. Heavy wraps were put on, and in single file, 
 each one bearing his or her greasy taper, we descended 
 into the bowels of the earth, as it were. These cata- 
 combs, as everyone knows, were the ancient burial 
 places of the Eomans. They are simply underground 
 chambers filled with dead men's bones, and are con- 
 nected by a labyrinth of passages as bewildering as the 
 streets of London. When the early Christians were 
 hunted like wild beasts and brought into the Colos- 
 seum for torture and death by the ten thousands, they 
 sought, as a last refuge, safety in the various cata- 
 combs that line the Appian way. It was into one of the 
 least important of these we were conducted. It was 
 not a pleasant experience, and I will spare your sensi- 
 bilities. 
 
 Near this church is the tomb of St. Cecilia, the wife 
 of Sylla. It is a circular tower seventy feet in diame- 
 ter and perhaps one hundred feet high. It is one of 
 the best preserved ruins about Rome, and ante-dates 
 the birth of Christ seventy-nine years. 
 
 Opposite are the ruins of the circus of Maxentius, 
 which gives one a pretty good idea of what a circus 
 was fifteen hundred years ago. This one was oblong, 
 fifteen hundred and seventy-four feet by two hundred 
 and sixty-nine feet, and accommodated eighteen thou- 
 
230 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 sand spectators. Long stretches of the walls are still 
 remaining. 
 
 Having crossed to the other side of the Tiber we 
 drove np past the fountains into the semi-circle of the 
 Vatican and mounted the steps to St. Peter's. In my 
 day dreams and musings along through the years that 
 have passed since arriving at man's estate, I have pic- 
 tured to myself this acme of architectural skill. I 
 have formed opinions of its beauty and magnitude from 
 accounts I had read of it. I suppose now that if I had 
 gone through Europe blindfolded, and removed the 
 bandage only after I had entered St. Peter's, all my ex- 
 pectations would have been realized. I must confess 
 to a feeling of disappointment, which I tried in vain 
 to shake off, even after a second visit, when, on Sun- 
 day, I had plenty of leisure to attend service in one of 
 its numerous chapels, and roam, at my own sweet will, 
 throughout its length and breadth. Whether its im- 
 mensity was beyond my comprehension, or my pre- 
 conceived ideas of it were so exalted as to dwarf it 
 when in its actual presence, is a problem I am not able 
 to solve. When a mosaic representing St. Luke writing 
 with a quill at a distance, apparently, of two hundred 
 feet above me, was pointed out, and I was assured that 
 the quill was seven feet in length, I couldn't believe it. 
 My sense of measurement told me that it could not 
 possibly be more than two feet long. Figures that I 
 was told were colossal, appeared as life size. 
 
FROM NTLE TO NILE. 231 
 
 St. Peter's was built by Constantine, A. D. 326, on 
 the site of Nero's circus (where, they say, Peter 
 was martyred). Ambrose relates that on Peter's 
 second visit to Rome he found the Christians in great 
 distress, and the feeling against them, incited by Si- 
 mon Magus, intensely bitter. The friends of Christ- 
 ianity fearing that the Apostle's life would be taken, 
 appealed to him to leave the city and seek a place 
 of safety elsewhere. Peter reluctantly consented, 
 and fled by night, but at one of the gates of the city 
 he encountered one in the form of the Savior and 
 questioned him as to where he was going ; the sor- 
 rowful reply was made, " To Rome, to be crucified 
 a second time." Peter took this for a reflection on 
 his courage, and so returned to his abode, and was 
 afterwards, with Paul, cast into the Mamertine Prison, 
 pointed out to us from the Forum, but which we 
 did not enter. I understand the pillar is shown to 
 which Peter was chained. Some Protestants are slow 
 to believe that St. Peter was martyred in Rome, or, in 
 fact, that he was ever there in person, while others 
 claim that from this prison he wrote his second epistle 
 to the Jews. I believe all fair minded people are wil- 
 ling to accept the general account that has come down 
 to us through the ages, even if not confirmed by Scrip- 
 ture. By the order of Nero both Peter and Paul were 
 condemned to death. Peter was led from the prison 
 to the Vatican Hill and there crucified with his head 
 
232 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 downwards — choosing this posture because he deemed 
 himself unworthy to die as the Master. His body was 
 taken from the cross and embalmed by one Mercellinus, 
 and buried near the Appian Way, about two miles 
 from Rome, from whence it was removed to an obscure 
 place in the city, until Constantine built St. Peter's, 
 which occupies the site of the present unequaled edi- 
 fice. 
 
 Charlemagne and many emperors and popes were 
 crowned there. It was subsequently razed to the 
 ground, and in 1450 to 1626 the present church was 
 built, Raphael, Michael Angelo, and Bernini, who put 
 the finishing touches upon it, being among its archi- 
 tects. " It cost over sixty millions of dollars, took 
 one hundred and seventy-six years (the reigns of twen- 
 ty-eight popes) to build it, and covers two hundred and 
 forty thousand feet, being the largest church in the 
 world. Its total length is six hundred and ninety-six 
 feet, length of transept four hundred and fifty feet, 
 length of nave six hundred and nineteen feet, width of 
 nave eighty-eight feet, height of same one hundred 
 and fifty-three feet, height of dome, from pavement 
 to base of lantern, four hundred and forty feet. The 
 interior has thirty altars, one hundred and forty-eight 
 columns, inlaid marble pavement, brilliantly gilded 
 vaulting upheld by Corinthian pillars and piers, famous 
 bronze statue of St. Peter enthroned, many colossal 
 statues of saints, vast inscriptions and pictures in mo- 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 233 
 
 saic, canopy ninety-five feet high made by Bernini of 
 bronze and taken from the Pantheon, high altar over 
 the tomb of St. Peter, beautiful chapel, tombs of the 
 popes, many paintings by great masters, and statues 
 of Michael Angelo, Canova, and Thorwaldsen." 
 
 In one of the chapels we witnessed the ceremony of 
 the christening of an infant ; and standing in front of 
 the statue of St. Peter, in bronze, we viewed the mot- 
 ley throng who took their turn in kissing the toe of 
 the apostle's effigy. The left transept was the space 
 occupied by the Ecumenical council at their sessions a 
 few years since, when the doctrine of infallibility was 
 declared. 
 
 The Vatican, which adjoins St. Peter's, has the dis- 
 tinction of being the largest palace in the world. 
 Think of eleven thousand halls and rooms being con- 
 tained in one building. It has for many centuries 
 been the abiding place of the popes, and at one time 
 furnished kingly apartments to the ubiquitous Charle- 
 magne. On entering the vast hall that leads to the 
 museums to which visitors are admitted, one is struck 
 with the fantastic uniforms worn by the Swiss guards 
 in attendance, which were designed by Michael Angelo, 
 and in the years that have fled since he passed away, 
 say a period of three hundred, no change has been 
 attempted. These guards are an especial feature of 
 the Vatican, being subject only to the order of the 
 pope. They are usually of almost gigantic stature, 
 
234 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 like the body guard of Frederick the Great, and their 
 unique uniform of yellow and red, with brass helmet, 
 seems only befitting the tinsel of the stage. 
 
 We first entered the Sistine chapel, built by his 
 holiness, Pope Sixtus IV., in 1473. The chief object 
 of attraction here is the great fresco of Michael 
 Angelo, representing " The Last Judgment." He was 
 eight years engaged at this work, and completed it in 
 his sixty-ninth year. Viewed from the further end of 
 the hall the figures stand out like colossal sculptures 
 in bas relief. The figure in the right hand corner, 
 representing Midas with ass' ears, is not a celebrated 
 New York philanthropist, but a man of the same 
 stripe, Messer Biago of Casena, the pope's master of 
 ceremonies, who said the nude figures were indecent, 
 on which account the pope ordered Daniel da Volterra 
 to cover them with drapery, which obtained for him a 
 cognomen of " breeches-maker." Michael Angelo said, 
 " Let the pope reform the world and the pictures will 
 reform themselves," and to spite Biago he represented 
 him in hell, whereat he complained to the pope in 
 order to have his figure removed. His holiness replied 
 that lm as he was in hell he must remain there, as he 
 had no power to release from hell, but from purga- 
 tory." 
 
 From this chapel, which is one of the sights of the 
 Vatican, we passed into the picture galleries, contain- 
 ing a vast number of frescoes, mosaics and paintings, 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 235 
 
 both modern and ancient. Here is Raphael's mas- 
 terpiece, " The Transfiguration," and a great many 
 other works by the same hand, also by Murillo, Titian, 
 and others known to fame. Many of these paintings 
 were taken by Napoleon from the churches in Rome 
 and appropriated by himself. As in the case of Ru- 
 bens' two masterpieces, taken by him from the cathe- 
 dral at Antwerp, they were returned after his down- 
 fall, and those belonging to Rome are now contained 
 in this collection. The museum of sculpture is quite 
 extensive. Many of the figures have served as models 
 for half the statuary that graces the museums of 
 Europe and America. 
 
 There are eighteen hundred pieces here exhibited, 
 including Apollo Belvedere, Juno, Minerva, Mercury, 
 Penelope, the reclining statue of Ariadne, the bust of 
 Caesar Augustus, Socrates, Demosthenes, Diogenes, 
 Homer, and, in fact, all the demi-gods, muses, and 
 great personages who figured in the history of classic 
 Greece and Rome. There is an armless statue called 
 the Torso of Hercules, which is considered to be 
 the most perfect resemblance to human flesh extant. 
 It was so admired by Raphael and Michael Angelo 
 that the latter accepted it as his model and claimed to 
 be its pupil. There are two tolerably modern statues 
 of The Combatants, that for poise and facial expression 
 have no rivals in marble. 
 
236 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 The last church visited in regular routine was that 
 of St. Paul, two miles from the city, on the Tiber be- 
 low Rome. The original church built by Constantine 
 was destroyed by fire in 1828, rebuilt in 1854, but is 
 not yet completed. When Paul was led forth to exe- 
 cution he suffered martyrdom as a Roman citizen. He 
 was decapitated at the Aquise Salvia?, three miles from 
 Rome, and was buried, it is said, on the present site 
 of the temple that bears his name. The exterior is 
 not imposing, although an ornamentation in mosaic, 
 on the facade or front of the basilica, is charming. 
 The mosaic was manufactured in the Vatican ; it took 
 thirteen years to complete it, and is composed of twen- 
 ty-three thousand different shades of material. The 
 interior of St. Paul is grand and gorgeous beyond my 
 ability to describe. It is the most perfect and elabo- 
 rately finished building of the kind in Rome. Its mar- 
 ble floors cast a reflection like a mirror, and the hand- 
 some stained windows admit a soft, subdued light con- 
 sistent with the polished marble walls, floors, and col- 
 umns, the alabaster pillars that support the canopy, 
 given by Mehemet Ali, Pasha of Egypt, and the mal- 
 achite altars, donated by the Czar of Russia. 
 
 The decorations consist of superb statues, one each 
 of Peter and Paul, and the walls are adorned with fine 
 paintings and mosaics, whilst above the columns are 
 portraits of all the popes, commencing with St. Peter. 
 
 Thus we closed our brief but absorbing tour of Rome. 
 
CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 PISA TURIN — MILAN. 
 
 We left Rome on the morning of the " Feast of the 
 Assumption," in the observance of which the papal 
 city had donned holiday attire. Great crowds of work- 
 ing people in their best clothes nocked to the railway 
 depot intent on boarding a train that would take them 
 to their homes for the enjoyment of a brief holiday. 
 Our route led us in a northerly direction, coasting the 
 blue Mediterranean, over a stretch of low, level coun- 
 try, for the most part given up to grazing. In the 
 distance, rising out of the sea, lay the island that 
 made France great, Corsica, the birthplace of the 
 Bonapartes, and close by, the island of Elba, to which 
 Xapoleon was banished, and where pity he had not 
 died, instead of fretting his heart away in chagrin and 
 the bitterness of defeat at St. Helena. 
 
 Along in the afternoon we reached Pisa, where 
 every schoolboy knows stands the leaning tower that 
 has been the wonder of mankind for more than six 
 hundred years. Pisa is a quiet city of fifty thousand 
 people, built on both sides of the river Arno, about 
 
238 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 fifty miles from Florence and twelve from Leghorn. 
 It is much visited by tourists on account of its medie- 
 val attractions, although its history dates back to a 
 period long antedating the Christian era, for it became 
 subject to Rome 180 B. C. 
 
 Having a spare hour or two before dinner (seven 
 o'clock) we repaired to that interesting corner where 
 are grouped the cathedral, baptistry, Campo Santo, and 
 campanile, or leaning tower. We were just in the 
 nick of time to witness the ceremonies of the Feast of 
 Assumption then taking place in the cathedral, con- 
 ducted by the bishop of that diocese. There was an 
 immense crowd in attendance, nearly all standing, and 
 we had to do considerable elbowing to keep out of the 
 bishop's way, as in grand procession, with flowing 
 robes and censors swinging, he descended from the 
 throne and passed through the body of the house. Of 
 course, being protestants, we cared more for antiquities 
 than for papal forms and ceremonies. As the Catholic 
 churches all derive a revenue from visiting tourists, 
 we never considered that we were intruding, no matter 
 what the occasion. We paid our money to see the 
 show, and aimed to get the worth of it. 
 
 We seldom entered a church for the purpose of sight 
 seeing without a guide. On this occasion he had his 
 hands full. It was a difficult matter to get his audi- 
 ence together before a painting and talk against the 
 loud peals of an organ assisted by a hundred voices 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 239 
 
 and a section of a brass band. I don't know what the 
 people thought, but they stared at us as if we were es- 
 caped lunatics. In the noise and confusion that pre- 
 vailed, we paid but little heed to the guide, but on our 
 own hook silently admired the antique columns sup- 
 porting the gilded ceilings of Tuscan-Gothic architec- 
 ture, the carved pulpit and the altars, designed by 
 Michael Angelo, the bronze doors, rare pictures, and 
 the veritable swinging lamp from which Galileo got 
 the idea of the pendulum. 
 
 In close proximity to the cathedral stands the bap- 
 tistry, said to be without a peer in the world. I guess 
 there is no question about it. It is built of marble, 
 one hundred feet in diameter and one hundred and 
 ninety feet high. The baptismal font stands in the cen- 
 ter, and a little to one side is a unique pulpit standing 
 on seven columns, with some superb sculptures in bas 
 relief. The echo here obtained is something wonder- 
 ful. Our guide produced sounds with his voice that 
 came back to us with all the sweet cadences of a flute, 
 or that could be produced by a deep-toned organ. 
 
 The Campo Santo is a small square filled in with 
 earth transported in ships from the Holy Land. It 
 represents a cloister surrounded by a hall over four 
 hundred feet long and one hundred and fifty feet wide, 
 constructed in 1278, and contains many frescoes and 
 splendid monuments. One of the old frescoes, dim 
 with age, is a representation of hell. It is on an ex- 
 
240 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 tensive scale and horrible enough to have been painted 
 by Gustave Dore. It had now grown too late to do 
 anything more than inspect the great tower from the 
 outside. 
 
 The next morning, before train time, a party of us 
 returned, and, after gaining admittance, commenced 
 the spiral ascent to the belfry. There are two hundred 
 and eighty-four steps to climb, and, as the guide face- 
 tiously remarked, two hundred and eighty-four to come 
 down. There were only two ladies of our party pos- 
 sessing the temerity to undertake the task. They 
 hailed from Kansas and Massachusetts, and showed 
 their pluck, not only in reaching the belfry, but after 
 having obtained an elevation of one hundred and sev- 
 enty-five feet and fourteen out of the perpendicular, 
 laid hold of the rope, which the tired bell ringer was 
 monotonously pulling to and fro, and infused some of 
 their superabundant energy into the tongue of the old 
 bell that made it fairly talk. The view from here is 
 magnificent. One can see the Apennines, the rich val- 
 ley of the Arno, through which the river winds like a 
 silver ribbon, the azure sea reflecting an azure sky- 
 save where two black looking hulks, Elba and Corsica, 
 seem to float on its surface ; lastly, the old city towards 
 which you lean and grow dizzy. 
 
 The principal occupation of the Pisans seems to be 
 delving and dealing in marble. The best quarries of 
 Parian marble are not far from here. This excellent 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 241 
 
 material of virgin purity and whiteness is sculptured 
 into all manner of statues, statuettes and brick-a-brac, 
 but in the latter alabaster is used to a considerable 
 extent. In Pisa, as elsewhere in Italy, the most skill- 
 ful workmen in mosaics, precious stones, and marbles 
 are Jews, and I might add that the handling and sale 
 of them are almost exclusively confined to men and 
 women of their race. Generally speaking, they are 
 eager to sell, and will " knock down " handsomely 
 rather than not effect a sale. It became second nature 
 to some of us to select an article, price it, offer twenty 
 per cent less, and break for the door. A hurried invi- 
 tation to " come back " always resulted in a trade. 
 My fancy caught on to an exquisite little marble 
 Psyche, about sixteen inches in height, which Isaac 
 priced to me at twenty-five lire. I offered him twenty, 
 at which he looked horrified and shook his head. I 
 turned my back upon him and started for the hotel, 
 but had scarcely got five steps from the door when I 
 felt a hand laid on my shoulder, accompanied by the 
 persuasive words, " Come back." It is needless to say 
 I went. 
 
 From Pisa we journeyed direct to Turin, where 
 there is nothing to see except a very clean and pros- 
 perous city of two hundred and twenty thousand peo- 
 ple, with wide streets laid out at right angles, and 
 arcades around the principal squares and business 
 streets. The street car system is fine and traverses all 
 
 16 
 
242 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 parts of the city. The shops are perfect models of 
 neatness and filled to overflowing with merchandise. 
 Of course the windows, as is the case all over Europe, 
 mirror the contents of each store in a manner truly 
 fascinating to the onlooker. 
 
 One obtains a charming view of the snow-clad sum- 
 mit of the Alps from here, and after the terrible heat 
 of southern Italy it was quite a solace to look at the 
 mountains and feel the air tempered by the icy breath 
 of the Snow King, who dwells in regions exalted as 
 the clouds and cruel as the grave. The railway jour- 
 ney from Pisa to Turin is not a pleasant one, for it is 
 mostly underground. On approaching Turin the road 
 leaves the hills that skirt the Gulf of Genoa, and the 
 landscape is Southern Kansas to a dot. A thunder 
 storm that we ran into completed the illusion for us. 
 It was so like one of those sudden downpours, when 
 the clouds are ink and heaven's artillery a masked 
 battery, if not deadly, still terrifying. 
 
 From Turin to Milan the country is a garden, and a 
 well kept one at that. Fruits and flowers, waving 
 corn fields and productive rice ponds, an atmosphere 
 that Adam left behind him in Eden, a jolly crowd of 
 Bohemians, and no care, what more would you want? 
 The hotel at Milan was first-class. I consider any 
 hotel in Europe first-class when they have an elevator, 
 and an incandescent electric light in your room that 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 243 
 
 you can let on or off, like water in a bath tub, at your 
 pleasure. 
 
 The first evening in Milan we spent at the opera. 
 We secured a box for twenty lire — now don't be 
 alarmed, that was only four dollars and the box held 
 six of us. The opera was Faust, and as I can't hear 
 very well in Italian I was thrown on my recollection 
 of the plot for some idea of what it was all about. I 
 was glad I went, for I sat in an audience where a man 
 applauded if he felt like it, or exercised the divine 
 right to hiss if he took exceptions to the performance. 
 At times the applause was harmonious, at others the 
 hisses assailed your ears like the steam escaping from 
 a dozen locomotives. The Fausts and Margaritas met 
 the applause with obeisance and smiles, the hisses 
 with supreme indifference. The company was a large 
 one, with one hundred in the chorus. The orchestra 
 seemed nearly as large but evidently were short on 
 beer, otherwise they would have got more noise out of 
 their horns. 
 
 The next day was a hard one on us, for Milan pos- 
 sesses attractions which no tourist can afford to slight, 
 and we had but one day at our disposal to take it all 
 in. First we went to the cathedral, which ranks in 
 size with those of Cologne and Florence. The exterior, 
 whilst differing from all others in outward adornment, 
 was not so impressive as the Cologne edifice, but then 
 it has an individuality of its own, and this, I suppose, 
 
244 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 is what the architect aimed at. The facade was de- 
 signed by that prince of architects, Michael Angelo, 
 who has left the imprint of his genius in every city in 
 Italy. 
 
 It is a cruciform building, running up into pinnacles 
 and turrets, and in various parts of the upper struct- 
 ure are four thousand five hundred marble statues, 
 most of them life size. The statue of Napoleon is 
 perched on one of these pinnacles, and it is fine too. 
 On the other pinnacles are statues of men eminent in 
 the papal church. I forget who it was that likened 
 Napoleon, in this connection, to "the devil amongst 
 the saints." In this cathedral Napoleon was crowned 
 King of Italy. The guide related the circumstance to 
 me this way. Cardinal Capraras refused to place the 
 crown on Napoleon's head. He seized it himself, and 
 with his own hand placed it there, giving utterance to 
 these words, " God gave it to me, let him who will 
 touch it at his peril." 
 
 On entering the cathedral our attention was first 
 called to the painted ceiling, made to look like open 
 work, and, next to the baptistry, constructed to perform 
 the rite of baptism by immersion. The marble floors, 
 superb stained windows, and curiously wrought pulpit, 
 are in keeping with the grandeur of its exterior. We 
 descended to the crypt, which was dark and oppressive 
 with a heavy atmosphere, and entered the tomb of St. 
 Carlo Borromeo, which cost two hundred thousand 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 245 
 
 dollars. The remains are visible, decked with crown 
 and cross sparkling with rare jewels. This saint came 
 as near taking his riches into the kingdom of heaven 
 as the Indian his implements of warfare and the chase 
 to the happy hunting grounds. I say this with due 
 reverence for this one, whose remains a priest with 
 lighted candle exhibits for a stipend, was a man who 
 went about doing good. 
 
 From the cathedral we crossed the street to the 
 Royal Palace and were conducted through its many 
 elegant chambers, with floors of marble and polished 
 wood, ceiling richly painted and frescoed, walls hung 
 with costly silks and laces and adorned with rare 
 paintings, furniture of which any king could be proud 
 and a queen or princess satisfied. At Munich, we 
 were shown a gorgeous bed prepared for the Emperor 
 Napoleon. Here we were shown a couch scarce infe- 
 rior, in which Napoleon and the more unfortunate 
 Maximilian have sought repose. 
 
 In the church of St. Ambrose, built in the fourth 
 century, we beheld the pulpit in which that saint 
 preached, and the brazen serpent which Moses held 
 up in the wilderness. " If you believe that, you can 
 believe anything." We had to believe it, or else dis- 
 credit the story of the spike taken from the cross on 
 which our Savior was crucified, which is preserved in 
 the apse of the cathedral. 
 
246 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 In this old church the early kings of Lombardy were 
 crowned with the iron crown and Augustine embraced 
 Christianity. Here also swing the gates that Ambrose 
 closed in the face of the Emperor Theodosius, in the 
 year 395. In the refectory we were shown the muti- 
 lated fresco by Leonardo da Vinci so widely copied, 
 "The Last Supper." It covers one end of a hall, and 
 a door, cut through by the monks to carry victuals, has 
 destroyed the lower part of the center of the picture. 
 I rather think this masterpiece of da Vinci's is re- 
 garded by art connoisseurs as superior to any work 
 performed by any of the old masters. Copyists were 
 present, with their easels and canvas, in full force, and 
 well executed imitations, nearly completed, were priced 
 to us at one thousand francs, but, from circumstances 
 over which we had no immediate control, we were 
 forced to content ourselves with a photograph at just 
 the one thousandth part of the cost of the picture in 
 oil. 
 
 In the foregoing chapters I have mentioned visits to 
 so many picture galleries that I have grown nervous 
 over the result of so much sameness of description ; I 
 will therefore forego any allusion to the hours spent, 
 with lagging footsteps and wearied eyes, in the picture 
 galleries of Milan. 
 
 After we had dismissed our guide, and the relic 
 hunters of the party had gone forth to lay waste 
 Milan and reduce the Jews to penury, the Judge, the 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 247 
 
 Doctor and myself boarded a car bound for the su- 
 burbs to take in the military fortifications of the 
 Lombards. 
 
 We halted at a vast barren square comprising fully 
 one hundred and sixty acres, which we took for 
 granted was the drill ground of a considerable portion 
 of King Humbert's army. On one side were the in- 
 fantry barracks where the undersized " doeboys," that 
 formed the strong arm of United Italy, were being 
 prepared and fitted against that ever present day of 
 dread that hangs over all European nations like a pall 
 — when the long roll shall summon to battle. On the 
 other side were the barracks of the cavalry from whence 
 issued, at the " feed call " of the brazen trumpet's 
 mouth, men in dirty linen blouses, with nose bags 
 thrown across their shoulders, going in quest of forage 
 for the impatient steed that had learned the signifi- 
 cance of the bugle calls quite as well as his more in- 
 telligent master. 
 
 But it was* not so much a commonplace sight as 
 soldier's quarters that brought us hither, as curiosity 
 to obtain a good view of the munificent undertaking of 
 Napoleon, who in 1804 reared an arch here that vies 
 in elegance with that of Constantine in Eome. It was 
 intended to designate the ending of the Simplon route 
 and commemorate the victories which his genius had 
 won, but he failed to complete it, and in 1830 Austria 
 
248 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 had the gall to utilize it to her own glory by setting 
 forth in figurative reliefs her victories over the French. 
 
 When Milan, by the fortunes of war, became a part 
 of reconstructed Italy, Victor Emanuel caused inscrip- 
 tions to be chiseled upon it that will remain a testi- 
 monial of his greatness so long as Italy maintains its 
 present cohesiveness. The other work of Napoleon, 
 which is scarcely worthy of him, is an amphitheater 
 capable of seating thirty thousand people. I fancy he 
 got his design from the circus of Maxentius — the 
 grand ruin that rears its broken walls along the Ap- 
 pian way. 
 
 From sunny Italy with its wealth of ruins, its mar- 
 ble palaces, magnificent churches and incomparable 
 works of art the readers will be invited to follow me 
 into picturesque Switzerland, where only the match- 
 less works of the Great master Hand of the universe 
 shall engage our attention. 
 
CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 SWITZERLAND. 
 
 I am writing of Switzerland, far away from its snow 
 capped mountains , glaciered gulches, and azure lakes, 
 with something of an effort to warm over the inspira- 
 tion engendered whilst in the actual presence of its 
 wondrous beauty and marvelous grandeur ; and yet, 
 why should it be an effort to write of these when the 
 golden chalice of memory presents a sweeter draught 
 than inspiration's cup rendered less potent by the fa- 
 tigues of travel, and the depressing thought, that it 
 must all too soon be as the spring that has run dry. 
 
 To " do " Europe and skip Switzerland, is to play 
 Hamlet with the leading character left out, or to join 
 an excursion in the East for Kansas, and be denied a 
 sight of the American Nile. 
 
 Switzerland is the Garden of the Gods, and, like 
 Eden, has no duplicate. 
 
 The man who has no poetry in his soul wants to 
 shun it. 
 
 The delicately reared woman of the hot-house order 
 should give it a wide berth. 
 
250 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 The man who finds old castles, art galleries, churches, 
 and the relics of effete monarchy cloying to the appe- 
 tite and hard to digest, can tamper with the wonders 
 of nature as here set forth so profusely, and surprise 
 his own stomach by the richness of the repast, and the 
 ease with which it is assimilated. 
 
 The little old republic is a "gem of purest ray, se- 
 rene," which one can enter with trunks that would 
 discount the luggage of a Saratoga belle, and have no 
 custom house minion lay himself wide open to " pocket 
 an insult." 
 
 One travels in Switzerland with a degree of comfort 
 truly surprising, considering the perpendicularity of 
 the country. 
 
 Their railway system is admirably adapted, not only 
 to their institutions, but to serve the convenience and 
 comfort of travelers. We no sooner arrived at the de- 
 pot at Milan, outward bound, than we discovered, 
 much to our delight, that we should occupy a car made 
 expressly for tourists, with end and side platforms sur- 
 rounded by an iron railing, thus affording the best op- 
 portunity in the world to view the mountain scenery 
 through which we were shortly to pass. Of course, on 
 entering the St. Gothard tunnel we had to crawl into 
 our holes, but a good portion of that delightful and 
 long to be remembered journey from Milan to Lucerne 
 was performed in the open air. About thirty miles 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 251 
 
 from the former city we came in sight of Lake Como, 
 and skirted its rock-bound coast for several miles. 
 
 This beautiful stretch of water is in Italy, but 
 deserves classification with the azure lakes of Switzer- 
 land. It is eighteen hundred feet deep, thirty-two 
 miles long and about two miles and a half wide. 
 Wherever humanity could get a foothold on its 
 precipitous shores or narrow beach, the white walls 
 and red tiled roofs of towns and villages are to be 
 seen. 
 
 The St. Gothard is the longest tunnel in the world. 
 Its approaches afford an infinite variety of striking 
 scenery and the tortuous windings of the road are 
 exceeded only by that matchless piece of engineering — 
 the Denver and Rio Grande railway. Along the route 
 were numerous waterfalls that leaped a thousand feet 
 from their snowy beds, and in their mad descent spread 
 out at times like a huge bridal veil. 
 
 In little patches of meadow land found here and 
 there in the narrow pass we were traversing, peasant 
 men and women were making hay in the old style, 
 cutting the short grass with a scythe, scattering it 
 with a fork and raking it up into narrow windrows 
 with superannuated wooden rakes. 
 
 On reaching the summit of the pass, the temperature 
 became decidedly chilly, the sky was overcast and 
 the clouds looked ominous, the Doctor declared it 
 was actually snowing. Be that as it may, as the train 
 
252 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 approached Lucerne the clouds " gave down" beauti- 
 fully, shutting out all the picturesque scenery of 
 which the eye never tires, and making things sloppy 
 in Lucerne for the balance of the evening. 
 
 We found the hotel where we expected to stop over 
 from Friday until Monday, filled to overflowing, and 
 so had to stay in another one not so pretentious, 
 where we dragged our unwilling feet up five flights of 
 stairs to the attic which was only endurable because it 
 appeared to be the only port left us in a storm. What 
 was true of Lucerne we found of every city in Switzer- 
 land; that the hotels were literally packed with 
 tourists. All the steamboats and trains were crowded, 
 and unless a diligence was engaged several days in 
 advance the probabilities were that you would not find 
 a vacant seat. 
 
 Lucerne is a city of 20,000 people, situated on the 
 lake of that name. There is a legend told here with 
 great unction, that Pontius Pilate, after assenting to 
 the death of our Savior, fled from Jerusalem in great 
 remorse of conscience to a mountain in this vicinity 
 which takes his name and that his spirit still dwells 
 there and haunts the waters. At times an old man 
 with hoary locks and the weight of years on his stoop- 
 ing shoulders, is seen to issue from a cleft in the 
 mountain and approach the shore ; he bends down and 
 washes his hands and then disappears. 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 253 
 
 Lucerne is the most beautiful of all the Swiss lakes. 
 It is also known as the Lake of the Four Cantons. It 
 is fourteen hundred and thirty-three feet above sea 
 level, is fifty-five miles long and one to four miles 
 wide. Many steamers, handsomely fitted up for pleas- 
 ure boats, ply on its waters. 
 
 Our itinerary for the first day included the ascent 
 of Rigi, and a tour of the lake to Fluelen and return. 
 The Rigi is a group of mountains nearly surrounded 
 by three lakes, the highest peak being Kulm, which 
 we ascended by means of a railway similar to that at 
 Mount Washington : a locomotive pushing a single 
 car almost to the summit of the Kulm, a distance of 
 four and a half miles. The incline is at an angle, or 
 scale, of one foot in four. The road spans some fright- 
 ful chasms. The ascent is far from reassuring to one's 
 nerves. A number of fine hotels have been erected at 
 the various stations along the route, but I can't see 
 why anybody, unless enamored of the ever recurring 
 and disappearing fog, would care to prolong a stay for 
 a greater period than would secure to him one clear 
 day in which to view the rising and setting sun across 
 the snowy peaks where " Alps on Alps " rear their 
 hoary heads till their summits seem to pierce the skies. 
 
 Wherever there was soil sufficient for grass to take 
 root, the sleek mouse-colored cattle, peculiar to this 
 region, nipped the short herbage. Their uniform- 
 ity of color and style denoted pureness of blood. In 
 
254 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 everything except size they are the exact counter- 
 part of the little Jerseys. I was informed that several 
 exportations for breeding purposes had been made to 
 America. If they flourish in the rich pastures of the 
 New World as they do here on the close croppings of 
 their native hillsides, they cannot fail to be a valuable 
 acquisition to the herds of thoroughbreds, which have 
 worked such a revolution in the cattle interests in all 
 the states in the past twenty-five years. Elsewhere 
 throughout Switzerland the absence of live stock is 
 remarkable. Nine-tenths of all the farming opera- 
 tions — if you can dignify the cultivation of a ten acre 
 patch of mountain side, or a less number of acres of 
 gravelly bottom land, with the distinction that at- 
 taches to a farm — are performed without the aid of 
 any four footed beast. 
 
 The Swiss peasant is, to my mind, the hardest 
 worked and poorest paid laborer in Europe. His crop 
 of hay, secured for the sustenance of the goats where- 
 by the supply of Sweitzerkase is perpetuated, is packed 
 in bundles and carried on the head, uphill and down, 
 and often a long distance to the goat shed. By reason 
 of the shortness of the season and the sterility of the 
 soil, but a meager crop is secured. Hay in Kansas, 
 marketed under the same circumstances, would be 
 worth, I immagine, about ninety-eight dollars a ton. 
 It is truly pitiable to see these hard-worked, under-paid 
 and under-fed people in the struggle for existence 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 255 
 
 economizing in the minutest respect in everything. 
 Their industry and frugality were a common subject of 
 remark, for they were ever present before us. Children 
 at the age of four years are taught to knit, and the 
 little weazened faces on the doorsteps that looked at 
 us with eyes askance, the flaxen hair twisted in a little 
 knot like their mother's, the bare feet and coarse 
 though tidy gown, the poor little thin hands that so 
 deftly plied the needles, all told of poverty, but honest 
 poverty, the poverty that would toil on, suffer on, any- 
 thing but beg. 
 
 About one woman in every ten is disfigured by the 
 goitre. One person told me that it was the result 
 of a lack of nutritious food through many generations 
 and the custom of carrying heavy burdens on the 
 head and shoulders. Another person thought he had 
 put the cap sheaf on when he said, "that it was 
 considered a mark of great distinction by the Swiss to 
 be the possessor of a well developed goitre." A de- 
 formity that is an undisguised blessing is such a vara 
 avis that the Swiss may, if they choose, make a virtue 
 out of it. 
 
 Having now reached the terminus of our aerial flight, 
 I resume the narrative specifically in hand. The sum- 
 mit of the Kulm had all the appearance of a fete day. 
 Booths were erected wherever the nature of the 
 surface admitted. A man with an Alpine horn six 
 feet long blew a blast that awakened the echoes for 
 
256 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 miles around. Souvenirs of the locality, from an 
 alpinestock made of native timber with a polished 
 chamois horn for a crook, down to the exquisite star 
 shaped " edelweiss" that is found only in these 
 mountains beneath the snow, the quintessence of 
 purity, an emblem fit to be worn by a vestal virgin or 
 a sleeping babe, these, and all the fancy articles of 
 home manufacture common to Switzerland, were pro- 
 fusely displayed, and I am happy to say found favor in 
 the eyes of the tourists. The view from this elevation 
 is grand and inspiring. We got only a momentary 
 glimpse of one of its best effects and this was about one 
 o'clock, when the clouds which were beneath us parted 
 and revealed a vision of loveliness such as no artist 
 would attempt to portray. 
 
 Not far from the summit is an elegant hotel to 
 which we descended and did ample justice to a lunch, 
 where coffee, chocolate and other decoctions were 
 partaken of to keep out the fog. Then we boarded 
 the car and came down to things terrestial. Once 
 more on the steamer's deck we resumed our tour of 
 the lake, of which the ascent of the Rigi was a part, 
 and headed for Fluelen, passing the well marked spot 
 where William Tell leaped from Gessler's boat and 
 subsequently slew him. At Fluelen is shown the 
 reputed spot, commemorated by a handsome fountain, 
 where he made a centre shot at the apple on his son's 
 head, and close by a colossal statue of the indomitable 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 257 
 
 William whom history has relegated to the realms of 
 romance and legendary lore, where George Wash- 
 ington's little hatchet should be sent to keep Gessler's 
 cap and Tell's bow and arrow company. Here we 
 changed boats and returned to Lucerne arriving in a 
 drenching rain, which continued to pour down all 
 night long. The principal art curiosity of Lucerne is 
 a dying lion twenty-eight feet long carved in the solid 
 rock of a ledge back of the town, by the sculptor 
 Thorswalden, to commemorate the death of 800 Swiss 
 guards who fell in defense of the Tuilleries in the 
 French revolution of 1793. 
 
CHAPTEE XXXII. 
 
 SWITZERLAND CONTINUED. 
 
 On Monday we took passage in a steamer for Alp- 
 nock and enjoyed a couple of hours in the bright sun- 
 shine, amidst scenery of surpassing loveliness. Arriv- 
 ing at Alpnock we found carriages in waiting to convey 
 us over Brunig Pass to Brienz, on the lake of that 
 name. This was our first experience in travelling 
 other than by rail or steamer. We made quite 
 a procession, as there were two parties of tourists 
 nearly as large as ours going the same way. The road- 
 way is broad and smooth, and winds in and out and 
 down and up until the summit is reached, when it is 
 down, down all the way to Brienz, which is one of the 
 quaintest old towns to be found anywhere. The sole 
 occupation of its people seems to be wood carving, but 
 were it not for the tourists this source of revenue, 
 which is a " pot boiler " for many a poor artisan, would 
 meet with slight encouragement, though I suppose 
 much of their work goes to the toy and bric-a-brac 
 shops of all lands. 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 259 
 
 I doubt if there is a pleasanter mountain ride in the 
 world than the one that can be enjoyed every foot of 
 the way from Alpnock to Brienz, a distance of perhaps 
 thirty miles. One sees every variety of lake and 
 mountain scenery, of deep dells once covered by wa- 
 ter, now drained by canals cut through the barriers 
 that confined them : their blue waters giving place to 
 verdure and the trim cottages of the villagers. Then 
 the huts of the hard}' mountaineer — who, for a liveli- 
 hood, hunts the wild chamois in regions accessible to 
 these two of all God's creatures alone — perched like 
 bird houses high up on the mountain's rugged side, 
 where a little patch cleared of stones gives haying 
 ground for the irrepressible goat, who rustles around 
 for himself in the summer, but when the snow king 
 rides upon the storm, he seeks the shelter provided for 
 him, and contentedly chews hay, weeds, and twigs, va- 
 rying his diet with an occasional mess of shavings. I 
 want to do justice to the goat, for in all the places I 
 have visited on the continent, he is the honest poor 
 man's help-meet. He is a bread winner that never, 
 like the mule, goes out on a strike. 
 
 We stopped for lunch and a change of horses in a 
 curious, sleepy, hollow old town, where the waiters 
 who served the table were young maidens, fancifully 
 attired in the famous Bernese costume, which we found 
 to be a feature of some hotels, and a trump card to 
 draw custom from the bachelor ranks. 
 
260 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 At Brienz we crossed the lake to Giessbach, and I 
 shall never, at least hardly e — that is, not soon, forget 
 the gorgeous sunset scene here witnessed from the 
 deck of the steamer. I might as well try to paint a 
 rain drop as describe it, hence I leave it to your im- 
 agination. Arrived at Griessbach we were elevated 
 a distance of seven hundred feet to our hotel, which 
 stands on a ledge facing the falls of Giessbach, that 
 tumble down in seven cascades a distance of twelve 
 hundred feet, and then rush madly on seven hundred 
 feet further where the water empties into the lake, which , 
 though only seven miles long and two and a quarter 
 wide is the deepest in Switzerland. 
 
 The night of our arrival the falls were illuminated 
 throughout their length by Bengal lights ; the heavy 
 growth of timber and thick foliage heightened the 
 effect of the scene, which was illusory. It became a 
 fairy picture, a dream of the lotus eater. 
 
 From here our route led us, partly by steamer and 
 partly by rail, to Interlaken, a sprightly town and a 
 fashionable center located, as its name implies, be- 
 tween two lakes, and overshadowed by mountains. 
 The Jungfrau, which presents a broad side entirely 
 covered with snow in plain sight from Interlaken, is 
 one of the sights that serve as a magnet to draw tour- 
 ists to this delightful summer resort. The hotels 
 are numerous, and if the one we patronized is a fair 
 sample, they are fully up to the requirements de- 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 261 
 
 manded of a first-class resort. It is estimated that not 
 less than one hundred thousand tourists visited Swit- 
 zerland the present season, and it is safe to say that 
 the great majority of them paid their respects to Inter- 
 laken. 
 
 We made a carriage excursion from here to Grinden- 
 wald, up the Jungfrau, a distance of about twelve 
 miles, through the usual delightful Swiss scenery. 
 This village lies in a valley surrounded by the snowy 
 peaks of the Wetterhorn, Mettenberg and Eiger, but 
 the principal attraction is two vast glaciers, seemingly 
 not a great way off, which are only reached on foot or 
 horseback. 
 
 When we dismounted from our carriages at the inn, 
 the courtyard was full of horses ready saddled for the 
 use of tourists, and appropriated as fast as they could 
 be led to the block. In the hurrying crowd I discov- 
 ered the familiar face of our old fellow townsman and 
 ex-mayor of Wichita, but now of New York, Mr. Sol. 
 H. Kohn, who, with his charming wife and little boy, 
 was making a Continental tour. There was only suf- 
 ficient time for greeting, when his caravan moved off, 
 and we sought the hospitable boards of the inn to refresh 
 ourselves with a lunch before undergoing the fatigue 
 of the perilous ascent to the ice gorge. 
 
 After lunch we stood around waiting for horses, as 
 our predecessors had appropriated the last one that 
 could be got for love or money. At length when it 
 
262 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 seemed that we were about to be left in the lurch, my 
 old friend Sol trotted into the court yard and I laid 
 claim at once to his two horses and a mule. I first 
 looked after the comfort of Mrs. S. and her bosom 
 friend the young lady from Massachusetts, seeing 
 them each mounted on their new raw-boned steeds, I 
 then turned my attention to the mule, which I was to 
 ride, but he was gone. Lustily I shouted for him but 
 there came not back the echoes of the old chestnut, 
 "here's yer mewl," and I was left to hold the bag. It 
 wounded my vanity somewhat, for I thought I had 
 soldiered too long to let anything get away from me, 
 and especially — a mule. 
 
 When I found that the ladies had ignored my com- 
 panionship, and without even a friendly " ta, ta," gone 
 ahead without me, I felt humiliated — decidedly 
 snubbed. But in the course of time when another 
 horse trotted into the yard, and I found myself on his 
 back ; my crushed spirits rebounded as I urged the 
 beast on to his utmost speed, never dreaming but that 
 I should overtake them and see to their welfare in 
 making the ascent. Vain hope! They were out of 
 sight before I reached the spot where the paths forked. 
 They had gone one direction and my guide insisted on 
 leading me in the other. They had gone. Their 
 path led to the upper glacier, mine to the lower one 
 and the least remote. The path I was traversing led 
 up a declivity that was extremely perilous to both 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 263 
 
 horse and rider, but we got there all the same, and 
 leaving my Pegasus in charge of the overseer, I went 
 forward a short distance and beheld for the first time 
 at close range an Alpine glacier. 
 
 I once thought that every patch of snow left on the 
 mountain peaks by the midsummer sun was a glacier. 
 I know better now. A glacier is a mass of solid ice 
 formed only in the gorges and clefts by the snow fall 
 of winter ; crystalized by the flow of water from the 
 melting snows above. I had no curiosity to explore 
 this glacier any farther than to enter a grotto cut deep 
 into the heart of the frozen torrent, preceded by two 
 mountain S}a'ens, who had laid in wait for me that 
 they might yodel a franc from my pocket into theirs. 
 It is barely possible that their warbling would have 
 sounded well even in a music hall, but in an ice cham- 
 ber, where the temperature chilled to the marrow, the 
 song of the syren had no charm for me. I parted 
 with the franc and fled. 
 
 Long after the Cook party (but few of whom suc- 
 ceeded in getting to the glaciers) had left Grindenwald, 
 on the return to Interlaken, the Doctor and I paced 
 the court yard of the inn, impatiently waiting the 
 return of the venturesome pair who had struck out 
 alone. I conjured up all the manner of mishaps that 
 might have befallen them, and if I had been a cussing 
 man would no doubt have anathemized the man that 
 got away with my mule, but it is a long story that has 
 
264 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 no ending, so in course of time my suspense was 
 relieved, as half dead from fatigue the truants put in 
 an appearance. They had a big story fixed up to 
 mollify me, which, of course, I swallowed without 
 straining a muscle. 
 
 In the gloaming we reached Interlaken, and after 
 doing justice to an elaborate dinner, attended an open 
 air concert held in the garden fronting the hotel, in 
 which the native Swiss warbled their roundelays until 
 all were charmed. 
 
 As for me, at a late hour I retired to rest, and was 
 
 soon in dreamland ; climbing over icy barriers in 
 
 search of a stray mule, while the syrens of the grotto, 
 
 shouted after me a melange of sounds something like 
 
 this : 
 
 "Jung frau, 
 Old frau, 
 Whose frau ? 
 Wetterhorn, 
 AVet-a-horn, 
 Wet whose horn." 
 
CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 SWITZERLAND CONTINUED. 
 
 \Ve left Interlaken for Berne, the capital of the lit- 
 tle republic, which has nothing to commend it to the 
 tourist, either in the way of scenery or the works of 
 art. The shops are poor, but the hotels, judging by 
 the one at which we were domiciled, very good. It is 
 true, one has a view of the distant mountains named 
 in a preceding chapter ; but when a person has been 
 to the top of Pike's Peak, it loses interest viewed 
 twenty or thirty miles away. So with the Jungfrau 
 and other peaks of the Alps. The " distance that 
 lends enchantment to the view " is a fraud in both in- 
 stances. 
 
 The hibernating animal known as the bear is held 
 in very high esteem here ; so much so, that as an em- 
 blem of Bernese loyalty and local pride, he eclipses 
 the " bird of liberty " in our own patriotic land. To 
 bear out this assertion, there is a bear pit maintained 
 at the public expense. In one of the public squares is 
 an equestrian statue, with four large bronze bears 
 guarding it at each corner. Go which way you will, 
 
266 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 regardless of your bearings, and you either see a 
 statue where the bear figures prominently, or a wood 
 cut or painting of bruin, or something to remind you 
 that 4 if these people were idolaters they would worship 
 a bear. The wood carvings in the shop windows bear 
 a very close resemblance to a bear. In fact, there are 
 bears, of all conceivable designs, and are the only sou- 
 venir of the capital city that the tourist bears away 
 with him. 
 
 Leaving Berne without regret, we traveled by rail to 
 Lausanne, thence a short distance by omnibus to Ouchy, 
 a superb watering place on the shore of Lake Lehman, 
 thence by steamer up the lake, past the noted fortress 
 of Chillon, immortalized by Byron, and Yevay, to 
 Villeneuve, where we again boarded the train, chang- 
 ing cars at Martigny for Vernayaz, where we spent the 
 night. Before breakfast, the next morning, we sallied 
 out to visit the much talked of Gorge-du-Trient, some- 
 thing like the Koyal Gorge of the Arkansas in Colo- 
 rado, only much more contracted, and scarcely as im- 
 pressive. After breakfast, we found the open space in 
 front of the hotel filled with one-horse vehicles, some- 
 thing of the nature of a buckboard, to transport us 
 over the Tete Noire Pass to Chamounix. 
 
 As I am somewhat partial to mules, I selected the 
 only one in the outfit, a great stout fellow, who never 
 once on that long, tedious trip which consumed the 
 whole day, gave me any provocation for regretting the 
 
FROM X1LE TO NILE. 2(>7 
 
 wisdom of my choice. His driver was a Savoyard 
 with all the daring qualities of a Hank Monk, supple- 
 mented by the politeness of a Frenchman and the 
 acuteness of a down east Yankee. Observing my 
 Grand Army badge when I unbuttoned my coat he 
 took me for some knight of high degree, and the sa- 
 laams he made me from time to time as he walked 
 up the steep mountain side, ever and anon looking 
 back at me, were worthy of the homage paid to an 
 eastern potentate. 
 
 We occupied a position in the middle of the caravan, 
 but my driver was of that heroic type that leads but 
 never follows. On entering a town just before com-i 
 mencing the ascent of the mountain pass he fell out 
 of the procession, steered his mule into a by street and 
 then laid on the whip. I could not divine his purpose 
 at first, but whispered to my wife that he was making 
 tracks for a wine shop and didn't want the conductor 
 to know it, but when we flew by without stopping at 
 any of these and came out on the main road at the 
 head of the outfit, I saw that it was strategy, " strategy, 
 my boy! " 
 
 After this until the main summit of the first moun- 
 tain was attained he trusted the mule to me and took 
 short cuts up the by-paths, putting in an appearance 
 from time to time, ostensibly for the purpose of seeing 
 if the mule was " blowed," but in reality to take off 
 his hat and salute me. That mule was worthy of such 
 
268 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 a master. That master was worthy of such a mule. 
 The road was the steepest we traversed iu Switzerland, 
 but that mule never turned a hair. He outwalked 
 anything that wore harness, and as a reward we pulled 
 him up under the shade of a tree, for it was an ex- 
 tremely hot day, and gave him a rest every few min- 
 utes until the nearest vehicle had caught up. This 
 afforded us a decided comfort and rest denied to the 
 others, for it was a steady pull from bottom to top for 
 their jaded horses, and as a consequence their passen- 
 gers had to sweat it out under an umbrella. 
 
 Now that driver knew on which side his bread was 
 buttered. He couldn't speak a word of English, and 
 my French was all Greek, Latin and Hebrew to him, 
 but he knew by intuition that when he got to the end 
 of the route he would reap his reward. Yea, verily. 
 
 When well down the reverse side of the mountain, 
 we halted an hour and a half for lunch — the name of 
 the place, if I ever knew it, has escaped my mind; 
 no matter, it deserves mention in this connection, for 
 it is one of the lovely spots of earth, not lovely in a 
 tame sense, as a flower garden might be, but in a sense 
 of grandeur, blended with the picturesque and sub- 
 dued by the trespassing hand of man. Cut close to 
 the mountain side was the roadway, with barely room 
 sufficient to plant a hotel and a few straggling cottages. 
 Attached to the hotel, but sloping away from it, was a 
 well kept garden and beyond the garden wall the jump- 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 269 
 
 ing off place. Here, reclining on the verge of the 
 precipice beneath the shade of a friendly tree, four 
 tourists took in the situation with that calm content- 
 edness that goes with a frame recovering from partial 
 exhaustion, an appetite appeased, and a conscience void 
 of all offense. There was just magic enough in the 
 surroundings to make one feel that all there was of 
 life lay in the present. Before us snow capped senti- 
 nels peeped over the intervening ledges of somber 
 rock, from whence leaped twin cascades which met 
 their doom in the depths below, where huge boulders 
 in the bed of a roaring torrent churned their com- 
 mingled waters into foam. 
 
 A cavern's yawning mouth, to which rude steps con- 
 ducted downwards, was suggestive of the robbers' 
 roost, whilst an isolated rock, moss covered, and in 
 whose fissures an Alpine cedar had taken root and 
 flourished, was equally suggestive of some pre-historic 
 altar. The mountain berries showed up seductively 
 — in a basket — and wild flowers of the sweetest per- 
 fume and most delicate tints were visible wherever the 
 scant soil afforded an abiding place. 
 
 The hour in elysium having expired, the faithful old 
 mule is again harnessed to — what shall I call it ? Ve- 
 hicle is too indefinite and knocks all the poetry out of 
 the situation. It is low wheeled, has a " rubber " that 
 works with a crank, contains two seats and a place be- 
 hind for luggage, and the springs are a misnomer. A 
 
270 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 man or woman with a weak back would as soon be in 
 purgatory, metaphorically speaking, as doomed to ride 
 in them. But they are one of the institutions of the 
 country, and it takes ages to root up either an institu- 
 tion or a custom in Europe, as all Americans have 
 found to their sorrow. Witness, for instance, the table 
 d'hote bill of fare. Poulet, otherwise chicken, and 
 saladi, alias lettuce, are just as certain to be placed be- 
 fore you in every hotel in Europe, as that you will be 
 charged extra for a cup of coffee. This is one of the 
 customs of the country, and no matter how much you 
 loath the very sight of them you find it incumbent 
 upon you either to dally with them and slight your 
 stomach, or, like Grirofle heroically say, " down it 
 goes," and answer the consequences of a disgusted ap- 
 petite. 
 
 But the " vehicle !" there's the rub. On reflection, I 
 have decided that so far as these pages are concerned 
 it shall be nameless. Suffice it to say that we endured 
 torture over a villainous road for ten or twelve miles, 
 then we struck a broad, smooth pike, where the bruises 
 were forgotten and the wrinkles disappeared, as the 
 tall peaks of Mont Blanc loomed up against the sky 
 and signaled to us that we were near our journey's end. 
 
CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 SWITZERLAND CONTINUED. 
 
 We had now crossed the frontier into France, and 
 the scenery through the vale of Chamounix was all that 
 our fancy had painted it. The peaceful valley which 
 industry and thrift have rendered productive lay smil- 
 ing in the red rays of the declining sun. A milk y 
 stream ran with race horse speed down the valley on 
 our right, and rugged mountains barred all labors of 
 husbandmen in that direction. To our left was the 
 vast ice gorge of the Mer de Glace, and the continua- 
 tion of the snowy range that culminates a little farther 
 along in Mont Blanc proper, that forms the dividing 
 line between France and Italy, and towers up to the 
 height of fifteen thousand, seven hundred and fifty -one 
 feet, covered with perpetual snow from the foothills to 
 its summit. 
 
 Our entrance into Chamounix was somewhat on the 
 grotesque order. The drivers whom my irrepressible 
 Jehu had so skillfull} 7 circumvented in the morning, 
 boiling over with suppressed rage, determined to get 
 even with him, and so when they were within a mile 
 
272 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 of our destination they fell in behind a diligence that 
 was diligently making about eight miles an hour on 
 the down grade. Of course we had to give them the 
 road or be snowed under. One of the vehicles suc- 
 ceeded in getting abreast of us, when it was neck and 
 neck for awhile. Fearing a collision, I laid my 
 strong right arm on our Jehu and made him curb the 
 mule. This had the effect of letting the other driver 
 ahead, with us a close second, and the balance of the 
 outfit holding their own. Thus we dashed into town, 
 through the crowded streets, to the evident wonder- 
 ment of everybody. I fancy some of the country folk 
 thought it was part of the show, though not set down 
 in the bills, for the next day (Sunday) was the centen- 
 nial celebration of the first ascent of Mont Blanc by 
 De Saussure in 1777, and the whole country for miles 
 around had assembled to do honor to the occasion. 
 
 We found the hotels crowded to their utmost, but as 
 quarters had been engaged in advance we were saved 
 the inconvenience of camping out. I have never seen 
 any place so profusely decorated as this picturesque 
 little city of the Savoys at the foot of Mont Blanc. 
 The great event had been well, advertised, and the 
 United States of America took a front seat. Aside 
 from the tri-colors of France the flag of no other na- 
 tion was so conspicuous. It made us feel at home and 
 as if it were a part of our celebration. There were 
 Americans here in sufficient numbers to demonstrate 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 273 
 
 to the people that the precedence they had given the 
 stars and stripes over the union jack of the present 
 mistress of the seas was a compliment duly appre- 
 ciated. 
 
 The bands played almost incessantly, and all night 
 long crowds of young fellows who evidently were 
 celebrating with a " stick in theirn," patrolled the 
 streets singing in the wildest discord the Marseillaise 
 hymn, which, taken in connection with the medley of 
 voices on the sidewalks that never ceased, and the 
 hoarse, soul harrowing notes of the bass horn plead- 
 ing for more beer, destroyed that repose, which tired 
 nature only grants under more favorable auspices. 
 However, we worried through the night and at the 
 appointed time set out for the grand stand in front of 
 which a superb statue of DeSaussure was to be 
 unveiled with great ceremony. An orator of some 
 celebrity had been brought expressly from Paris, and 
 lesser local lights were to indulge in nights of oratory, 
 but as they were delivered in French you will pardon 
 me for any absence of comments in these pages. 
 
 One of the most striking objects to be seen was a 
 group assembled around the statue, of old guides of 
 Mont Blanc, now on the retired list, but dressed in 
 the costume and provided with the implements used 
 by them in their perilous occupation. 
 
 My fancy painted a similar picture that might be 
 realized years hence, when the last remnant of the 
 
 18 
 
274 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 men who put down the rebellion might assemble 
 around the veiled statue of some loved chieftain — 
 Logan for instance, wearing the old army blouse, the 
 grey shoddy blanket, the despised forage cap, the cross 
 belt and waist belt with forty rounds that made the 
 hips blue, the odorous haversack, the deceptive canteen 
 with " commissary " or water as the case might be, the 
 old Springfield musket with the rust of many decades 
 on its once burnished barrel, then the old veteran him- 
 self, rusted out and useless as the old gun — a fit 
 companion piece to adorn the walls of a sanctuary 
 sacred to the memories of the brave. 
 
 All through Sunday the festivities were kept up, in- 
 cluding a banquet to the guides. In the evening there 
 were fire works and an illumination, and such an illu- 
 mination as none who witnessed it will ever forget. 
 The Judge and I had taken a walk in the gloaming, in 
 the direction of one of the glaciers, to settle our din- 
 ners and commune with nature. The moon was veiled 
 by a dark cloud that hung over the snowy crest of 
 Mont Blanc, the festive cannons of Chamounix were 
 awakening the echoes of the narrow valley, the music 
 of the bands in the distance sounded as sweetly as the 
 voices of a midnight serenade, the long strings of Chi- 
 nese lanterns, the candles and jets that illuminated 
 both houses and foliage, were magical in their effects, 
 but when the beacon lights of r'esinous wood came out, 
 one by one, far up the mountain sides, in front and 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 2/0 
 
 rear of the gala city, it electrified us, and we felt like 
 calling all the people together and, in the name of 
 Grover Cleveland, both houses of Congress, and the 
 Woman's Relief Corps, tender them a unanimous vote 
 of thanks. After returning to the hotel and securing 
 a balcony all to ourselves and friends, we witnessed 
 the display of fireworks, which was gorgeous, and 
 stinted neither in quality, quantity, nor design. Sleep 
 was out of the question that night, for the same condi- 
 tions prevailed as on the night previous. 
 
 Some of our party, in the course of the day, had 
 hired guides and mules to make the ascent of the Mer 
 de Glace. I fancy the " conditions" had nothing to do 
 with preventing them from wooing successfully the 
 drowsy god. We made no effort to go up Mont 
 Blanc ; it was too big an undertaking for the time al- 
 lotted to us at the never to be forgotten summer resort. 
 
 The next morning we ''broke camp " early for a 
 long ride overland to Geneva. All the diligences had 
 been taken in advance, so that we were denied the sat- 
 isfaction of testing the comforts of their excellence, but 
 three and four-seated hacks were placed at our dispo- 
 sal and the party, with one exception, had no cause to 
 grumble at the accommodation. The exception was 
 your humble servant, w T ho tarried in the hotel just one 
 minute too long, for, when I arrived in the court yard, 
 ever}' seat was taken but one, and into that one I at- 
 tempted to squeeze, but all in vain. The seat was in- 
 
276 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 tended to accommodate four persons. It was occupied 
 by two ladies and a Frenchman. The Frenchman, I 
 think, was Fritz Snitzler's brother. He covered all his 
 seat and two-thirds of mine, and he wouldn't give an 
 inch. Rather than discommode the ladies, I declared 
 my seat vacant and rode for five mortal hours on the 
 whiffletrees — at least the Judge accused me of it. But 
 there is no sacrifice without some recompense, and as 
 I posed in the attitude of a martyr, with a pain in my 
 " chist " and a dull ache through my back, by reason 
 of my unenviable position at the horses' tails, the 
 cockles of my heart were being warmed by the commis- 
 eration I knew I was exciting among the fair sex. 
 
CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 GENEVA. 
 
 Well the ride was a pleasant one notwithstanding 
 the episode mentioned. He of the Daniel Lambert 
 proportions, not being a through passenger left us at a 
 way station, and enabled me to secure a seat for the 
 remainder of the journey, more in keeping with the 
 dignity of a member of the Cook party. 
 
 We accomplished fully sixty miles this day, and as 
 it was the last ride of this description that our party 
 would ever take together, we one and all abandoned 
 ourselves to its full enjoyment; but fatigue will tell 
 on the spirits of a party and ours were down to zero 
 when the long caravan of overloaded coaches with 
 their hungry, tired, aud dusty loads of tourists rolled 
 into the city of European Yankees and sought refuge 
 at that model hotel — the Metropole. 
 
 Geneva is one of those places that a stranger falls 
 in love with, and would just as lief tarry in it and end 
 his days in quiet contentment, as to return to the 
 bustle and activity, the cares, and the ups and downs 
 
278 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 that may await him at home, in a far distant land. 
 That was the way it struck me. 
 
 There is one thing I like about the people of 
 Geneva. They think their city is the best in the 
 world and the only desirable place on earth to live. 
 Get that sentiment once grounded in the minds of the 
 denizens of a city, and its future is assured. 
 
 Geneva is situated at the southwestern extremity of 
 lake Geneva — or lake Lehman as it is called by the 
 French. Strange as it may seem, in the little republic 
 of Switzerland no less than three languages form the 
 dialect of her people — according to locality. In the 
 territory bordering on France, and including Geneva, 
 French is spoken almost exclusively, in the east the 
 German, and in the south the Italian prevails. 
 
 The outlet of lake Lehman is the river Rhone, a 
 rapid stream that courses through the city furnishing 
 motive power for all the industries that contribute so 
 immeasurably to the wealth and importance of the 
 wide-awake, well built, chief commercial city of the 
 Swiss. 
 
 Watch making is the principal occupation in and 
 about Geneva, but the town is likewise headquarters for 
 musical instruments of the music-box order, and 
 carving in wood is pursued with all the skill and 
 avidity which the howling of the wolf at the door 
 sometimes inspires. 
 
FROM NILE TO XILE. 279 
 
 It is also entitled to the distinction of being the 
 cheapest market for seal skin goods to be found abroad. 
 Americans are favorite customers, and whether one's 
 bank account is written in black or red ink, it makes 
 no difference if it is fathered by an American. It pays 
 to have a good name, and to be known here as an 
 American, without farther recommendation, is a pass- 
 port to unlimited credit. However, I would not ad- 
 vise anyone to grasp more than he can safely get away 
 with — for spot cash. Here we were left to our own 
 devices, the itinerary of Messrs. Cook & Son being 
 silent as to the attractions of Geneva, as they were of 
 Genoa, through which place we were strangely hurried, 
 forced to be content only with what we could see 
 from the train in passing. But " it is a cold day when 
 we get left," so the combination that worked so har- 
 moniously all through the waking hours of this six 
 weeks' journey engaged the services of a cab driver 
 to be shown the sights. We visited the house 
 which was at one time the abode of John Calvin, 
 and from thence were driven to the old cathedral, 
 wrested from the Catholics, where the great apostle 
 of predestination occupied the pulpit and dissemina- 
 ted a doctrine which, if infallible, makes the " father- 
 hood of God " and the " brotherhood of man " mere 
 catchwords. 
 
 In the course of our drive we reached the cemetery 
 where it is claimed Calvin was buried. We paid a 
 
280 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 franc to be conducted to the tomb of the founder of 
 the great Presbyterian church. But, alas! Calvin's 
 tomb like that of the equally stern and uncompro- 
 mising Cromwell, was non est. A simple white stone, 
 less than a foot square, carved with the initials J. C, 
 was all the guide had to show, and on pinning him 
 down to a solemn assurance that this stone marked 
 the identical spot where his remains had been laid 
 away, he was forced to admit that he had only the 
 stereotyped " they say " for his authority. 
 
 John Calvin was born in France and moved to 
 Geneva in 1536. His ministration covered a period of 
 twenty-eight years. He died here in 1564 at the age 
 of fifty-five. 
 
 From this city, whose shops, buildings, beautiful 
 wide streets and parks, and extensive frontage on 
 the great azure lake of Switzerland, rendering it about 
 as attractive in these respects as any minor city of the 
 old world, we parted with reluctantly, and journeyed 
 direct to Paris, passing through the great silk manu- 
 facturing city of Lyons. 
 
 French landscape is proverbial for its beauty, but I 
 want to go on record here and now, as asserting that 
 neither the domain of England. nor of France presents 
 features more attractive to the eye, than can be seen 
 in our own broad prairies, from Oswego to Anthony, 
 or from Emporia to Garden City. 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 281 
 
 The long hours of that uneventful ride to the gay 
 capital of France seemed of interminable length, as 
 night closed in, and the feeble light of the solitary 
 lamp in each compartment rendered it impracticable 
 to while away the hours either in the indulgence of 
 novel reading or the absorbing pastime of whist. 
 
 I had a good deal of sympathy for the ladies of the 
 party, who were completely wearied out long before 
 we reached the suburbs of Paris, and had become 
 totally indifferent to whether their bangs fell over 
 their foreheads or the back of the neck. 
 
 It was quite a relief to me, being wakeful, when our 
 train reached its destination, for my sides ached with 
 long continued and suppressed laughter at the gro- 
 tesque figures they cut " bobbing for eels,'- in the ver- 
 nacular of the West, and unconsciously reposing their 
 heads, or feet as the case might be, on the person of 
 one of my distinguished fellow travelers, and the look 
 of consternation depicted on each tired, woe-begone 
 countenance when a waking moment discovered to them 
 what I only had witnessed, I, who was feigning sleep, 
 but dying to get out some place where I could roll and 
 relieve the pressure. 
 
 By the time we had worked our way through the 
 custom house and taken coach for the Grand Hotel it 
 was long past midnight, so that in retiring we said 
 both " good night " and " good morning.' * 
 
CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 PARIS. 
 
 The great majority of American travelers, in fact, I 
 might say about all, gravitate to Paris as naturally as 
 a duck takes to water. With many, London is only a 
 way station where one can make choice of the differ- 
 ent routes that lead to the head center of fashion — a 
 more important question than appears on the surface, 
 when one realizes all the perils and discomforts inci- 
 dent to a passage across the English Channel. 
 
 The ladies of our party were particularly impatient 
 to get to Paris. I do not know how many of them, in 
 the innocence of their hearts, and ignorance of " how 
 we do things in Paris," intended to visit Worth's es- 
 tablishment and interview the great designer as to the 
 fashions that were to be " all the rage" the coming 
 winter. I am betraying no confidence when I say 
 that not a soul of them ever came within a rod of the 
 effulgent rays of his smiling countenance. The Bon 
 Marche or the Louvre was rich enough for the blood 
 of this party of Americans. Interview Worth ? yes, 
 if money is no object; interview him by all means, 
 
FROM NILE TO XI LK. 283 
 
 have him prescribe for you a raiment equivalent in 
 value to a corner lot in the Peerless Princess, such a 
 raiment, in fact, as a London modiste will render satis- 
 factory to you for one third the cost of a Worth dress. 
 " What's in a name? " the immortal poet interrogates. 
 I answer that in Worth's name there is over two hun- 
 dred per cent. 
 
 We were to devote three days, out of the five allotted 
 to us, to sight seeing under the guidance of that accom- 
 plished, though verbose, prince of guides, Mons. 
 Cooper. To do Paris in three days, or four at most, 
 requires a strict attention to business : with a rustler 
 like Cooper in command, all that is worth seeing in 
 Paris can easily be accomplished in that time. 
 
 Our starting point was the Grand Hotel, which 
 occupies an entire square in the central part of the 
 city. Across the street north from the Jiotel stands 
 the Grand Opera House, the finest in the world, built 
 by Louis Napoleon at an enormous expense, and now 
 owned by the government. Some idea of its vast 
 proportions may be gained when one considers that 
 four hundred houses were torn down to make room 
 for the site it occupies. 
 
 In the opposite direction and less than five minutes 
 walk from our starting point, is the Madeline, or 
 church of St. Mary Magdalene. It is after the Greek 
 style of architecture and the heavy Corinthian 
 columns in front give it quite an imposing appearance. 
 
284 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 Though the foundations were laid in 1764 it was com- 
 pleted only in 1842. It cost $2,500,000. In the late 
 civil war it was barricaded by the communists, and 
 as a grand finale to that fearful drama, 300 insurgents 
 were shot to death on its colonnade, having taken 
 refuge in the sanctuary they had desecrated, only to 
 meet the doom that summarily awaited them. 
 
 The Place de la Concorde is nearly due south from 
 here. It is a beautiful square, containing an obelisk* 
 — the mate to Cleopatra's Needle that stands in Central 
 Park, New York — and eight statues representing a like 
 number of the principal cities in France. It has a 
 tragic history which renders it doubly interesting. 
 
 The Hotel des Invalides is also on the south side of 
 the Seine and a little ways east from the Champ de 
 Mars. It is a hospital for decayed veterans, erected 
 in 1670 and covers an area of thirty-one acres. A 
 large number of cannon, imperishable trophies, cap- 
 tured on many an ensanguined field, occupies a portion 
 of the square. Standing on the tower of the 
 Trocadero one sees a vast gilded dome which the 
 guide points out as the church of the Invalides be- 
 longing, and which might be said to be a part of the 
 hospital or Hotel des Invalides. Beneath this dome 
 rest the remains .of the great Napoleon. No more 
 fitting place in all France could be found for the tomb 
 of the illustrious little man who combined in his person- 
 ality all the elements of a scholar, statesman, ruler 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 285 
 
 and warrior in far greater degree perhaps than 
 impartial history accords to any of the great men who 
 preceded or have followed him. As I leaned over 
 the circular balustrade and gazed downward into the 
 crypt on the beautiful sarcophagus that contains his 
 ashes, I thought of the lines from Gray : 
 
 The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, 
 And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave 
 
 Await alike the inevitable hour, 
 The paths of glory lead but to the grave. 
 
 There was a clause in Napoleon's will in these words : 
 " I desire that my ashes rest on the banks of the Seine 
 in the midst of the French people, whom I have so 
 loved." The French nation, if fickle to him in 
 adversity, have not been lacking in devotion to his 
 memory, as the elegance of this mausoleum attests. 
 Jerome Bonaparte is buried in a chapel to the right of 
 the entrance, and Joseph, his other brother, to the 
 left. There are still two vacant chapels, which our 
 guide, who was an ardent monarchist, sententiously 
 informed us were being held in reserve for the remains 
 of Louis Napoleon and his son, the Prince, who both 
 sleep on British soil. 
 
 In 1770 twelve hundred persons were crushed to 
 death and two thousand maimed in a panic that oc- 
 curred without any cause on the occasion of a display 
 of fireworks given in honor of the marriage of the 
 Dauphin. In 1793, when the reign of terror was at its 
 climax, over two thousand persons, including Louis 
 
286 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 XVI. and Marie Antoinette, suffered decapitation by 
 the guillotine. The instrument that performed this 
 bloody work is the same one described in a former 
 chapter, exhibited in the Chamber of Horrors at Mad- 
 ame Tussaud's in London. Thrice has this square 
 been the camping ground for invading armies, the last 
 to occupy it being the Prussians in 1871. 
 
 The Palace of the Elysee is a little west of this, and 
 at the present time is the official residence of Presi- 
 dent Grevy. Wellington made it his habitation after 
 Waterloo, and Kaiser Wilhelm stopped beneath its 
 roof for three days when France lay bound at his feet, 
 and the crowned heads of many nations have been 
 sheltered beneath its roof. It was originally built for 
 the residence of the notorious Madame Pompadour. 
 
 The Champs Elysees is a broad, straight avenue 
 leading westward from the Place de la Concord to the 
 Arc de Triomphe. This is the finest promenade and 
 driveway in Paris. At night, when the myriad of gas 
 jets are lighted and the cafes are doing a land office 
 business, it presents a sight not to be found in other 
 cities. 
 
 The Arc de Triomphe owes its paternity to Napo- 
 leon I., who commenced it in 1806 when he was in the 
 arch business. Owing the stress of circumstances 
 which seemed to have a baleful effect on all his enter- 
 prises of this character, he failed to complete it. The 
 work was resumed by Louis Pnilippe, and finished in 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 287 
 
 1836. It is considered the grandest arch in the world, 
 and well it may be, for it cost two millions of dollars. 
 It is one hundred and sixty feet high, one hundred 
 and forty-six broad, and seventy feet deep. No less 
 than twelve fine avenues, laid out by Baron Hauss- 
 man, by direction of Louis Napoleon, radiate from it. 
 It is embellished with statues in high relief commem- 
 orating the victories of Napoleon. The Communists 
 elevated heavy guns, by steam power, to the top of it, 
 and were enabled, by the decided advantage it gave 
 them, to hurl destruction into the ranks of the Im- 
 perialists. 
 
 The Trocadero Palace and Gardens are nearly south 
 from the arch, and owe their existence to the exhibi- 
 tion of 1878. We ascended one of the towers in a 
 huge elevator that has capacity for conveying forty- 
 two persons at one time to the top. From here one 
 gets the finest view to be obtained in Paris. The gar- 
 den contains beautiful fountains and handsome shade 
 trees, besides other ornamentations. 
 
 The Champ de Mars lies south, across the river Seine. 
 I will only name it as the spot selected for holding the 
 exhibition in 1889, an event which will flood Paris 
 with Americans. Preparations are already under 
 good headway, which point to the importance attached 
 to it by the Parisians. Many of the buildings, con- 
 structed of iron, are nearing completion, and the mon- 
 ument of the greatness which is to stand forever and 
 
288 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 be without a rival, is already assuming vast propor- 
 tions. It is being constructed solely of iron, and will 
 tower up nine hundred feet. An elevator run by 
 steam, will convey visitors to the top. When it is 
 necessary to put on ascension robes there will be no 
 longer any use to flee to the mountains. 
 
CHAPTER XXXVII. 
 
 PARIS CONTINUED. 
 
 In most of the large cities of the Continent special 
 accommodations have been provided for tourists in the 
 matter of conveyances from one object of interest to 
 another. A huge wagon, as long and broad as a hay 
 rack, with five seats and a canop} r top, afforded ample 
 accommodation for our entire party of twenty-five, in- 
 cluding the guide. It was a heavy, lumbering vehicle, 
 drawn by four horses, and which, on more than one 
 portion of the route, disputed the right of way with 
 other conveyances. In one street of less than the 
 usual width Ave collided with a gentleman's carriage, 
 and greatly disfigured it. Complaint was at once made 
 to the police, and before the cocker had driven a rod, 
 he was arrested, and we were left three miles from our 
 hotel without a driver and surrounded b}^ a crowd of 
 curious and somewhat excited Frenchmen. At length, 
 however, the voluble Cooper, after much talking, 
 shrugging of shoulders, and other characteristic 
 contortions, succeeded in getting the officers to relax 
 their hold of our Jehu, and he was permitted to drive 
 
 19 
 
290 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 us to our destination, but the next morning a different 
 Johnny Crapaud held the ribbons. 
 
 This adventure was not quite as exciting as one that 
 took place in Rome, in which the Judge and I were 
 equally as much concerned, and which came near re- 
 sulting in both of us appearing as witnesses in the po- 
 lice court. 
 
 It was our first afternoon in Rome ; and, as we had 
 two hours to spare before dinner, we thought we would 
 steal a march on the remainder of the party, who were 
 not much inclined to stir. So we took a road car (sim- 
 ilar to a tram car, but requiring no track) and rode as 
 far as the Forum of Trajan. Having wandered 
 around in this neighborhood for an hour or more, 
 without a guide, and met no one who could give 
 us any information, we hailed the first car return- 
 ing that came along. It happened to be crowded, 
 so we stood on the rear platform, hence were wit- 
 nesses to the performances of an inebriated dray- 
 man and his companion, a mere boy. They were seated 
 in a cart heavily loaded with brick, and the poor horse 
 they drove had evidently fallen into cruel hands. At 
 some point on the road, the car had passed them, and 
 this seemed to excite their ire. They seemed de- 
 termined to regain the position they had lost, and be- 
 labored their poor beast unmercifully. At the turn of 
 a narrow street they attempted to pass us, and in do- 
 ing so, collided with a brick wall, tore off a wheel, 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 291 
 
 tipped over the cart, spilled out both individuals, and 
 the brick, and killed the horse. The driver seemed 
 dazed for an instant, then picked himself up, and with 
 all the speed he could muster started to head off the 
 driver of our car. He soon came up with him, and 
 fiercely attacked him with the whip he held in his 
 hand. Two or three gens-darmes, by this time, forced 
 their way on the platform and, instead of arresting the 
 culprit, let him go and insisted on taking our driver. 
 While a terrible war of words was going on between 
 the gendarme and the conductor a fearful mob was 
 gathering in our rear, incited by the cart-driver. The 
 entire rabble of Rome seemed to be let loose on us all 
 at once, but the conductor was game, and shouted to 
 the driver a magical word, that had the immediate ef- 
 fect of putting the horses on the dead run, which, in a 
 brief space of time, bore us out of the reach of the 
 threatened danger. The conductor, who spoke English , 
 insisted on our appearing the next morning at the po- 
 lice court as witnesses on his behalf, but we had busi- 
 ness in Naples about that time, and told him we would 
 see him later. 
 
 One great advantage the road wagon possessed was 
 that the lecturer, or guide, always had his audience 
 under his eye, and within sound of his voice, so that 
 in passing objects of interest, like the Column Yen- 
 dome, Column de Juillet, or house of Voltaire, he could 
 direct the attention of the entire party to it, and 
 
292 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 thereby consume no time, whereas, if the party had 
 been in carriages, the loss of time in waiting until each 
 vehicle arrived on the ground would have been some- 
 thing serious. 
 
 But to resume the thread of a narrative, that for 
 obvious reasons must partake of the nature of a guide- 
 book, we now recross the Seine on a bridge constructed 
 of stones of the old Bastile after it was demolished 
 by the revolutionists in 1789. In the dark pages of 
 history the Bastile takes rank with the Spanish 
 Inquisition, the reign of the Doges of Venice, and 
 the inhuman banishment of "suspects" to Siberia. 
 
 Here during four centuries in the dark and noisome 
 dungeons of this fortress, that was deemed impreg- 
 nable, men and women suspected of disloyalty to 
 state were immured and doomed to a lingering death, 
 as fiendish in conception and malevolent in execution 
 as General Wallace portrays in the imprisonment of 
 the mother and sister of Ben Hur. 
 
 A saying is common in Paris regarding the bridge 
 Pont Neuf that spans the Seine, that one nmy cross it 
 any hour in the day and meet either a priest, a soldier 
 or a gray horse. 
 
 Our first halting place on this drive was at the 
 Garden of the Tuileries, so called by reason of the 
 ground which it occupies being once a tilery where 
 tiles for roofing were made. In this garden stood the 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 293 
 
 Palace of the Tuileries, but it was an offense to the 
 Commune and they distroyed it. 
 
 Close by is the Palace Royal. It was built by 
 Cardinal Richelieu in 1829 and subsequently fell into the 
 hands of Louis XIV., who presented it to his younger 
 brother. By fast living the heir ran through with his 
 patrimony, and to save himself converted it into shops. 
 There are fine arcades here where no less than one 
 hundred and twenty-eight jewelry establishments 
 manage to exist. 
 
 Tourist are generally taken in the afternoon drive 
 to the cemetery of Pere la Chaise, which is considered 
 one of the great attractions of Paris. This city of the 
 dead dates from 1804 and contains one hundred and 
 ten acres. There are upwards of eighteen thousand 
 monuments here, and one who cares to cultivate a 
 taste for grave-yard statuary and tombs of unique 
 design, can be here gratified to his heart's content. 
 The Jewish cemetery is included in this, but is 
 separated by a low wall which the Jews are forbidden 
 to pass. 
 
 Many noted persons are buried here, amongst the 
 number ex-President Thiers. In the Jewish portion 
 is the tomb of Rachel, the queen of tragedy. The 
 tomb of Thiers, not entirely completed, is but little 
 less magnificent than that of Napoleon. The crypt 
 is of similar design, and the building which contains it 
 of such large proportions, that one on first sight 
 
294 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 mistakes it for a chapel. It reflects great credit on the 
 Thiers family, who of their own means, and not at the 
 expense of the government, have erected a mauso- 
 leum grander than was ever recorded to a simple 
 republican president here or elsewhere. 
 
 Probably the most attractive spot in this cemetery is 
 the tomb of Abelard and Heloise. The story of their 
 attachment and subsequent sorrows, has been related so 
 often, as to destroy all temptation to spread it on these 
 pages. Suffice it to say that the romantic youth of Paris 
 follow in the footsteps of their parents and keep up 
 the annual custom of making a pilgrimage to the tomb, 
 bedewing it with tears and scattering about it the 
 flowers of spring. 
 
 Every one has heard of the morgue of Paris, and 
 doubtless associated with it in their minds the horrible 
 sight of the unclaimed dead who reach their latter end 
 by foul play, suicide or accident. I confess to a sinking 
 about the regions of the heart when I ascended the 
 steps that lead to the vestibule, where one can stand 
 and gaze through the closed windows, jostled by the 
 ever present crowd looking at the corpses, not in a 
 winding sheet laid away in a coffin, but stretched in a 
 reclining chair in everyday clothes, their features as 
 natural as their manner of taking off and the ingenuity 
 of their attendants could render possible. If not 
 identified within eight days, the bodies of these luckless 
 creatures are buried or otherwise disposed of. Three 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 295 
 
 bodies, two of them men, was the ghastly sight that 
 met my eyes, and I cared not to tarry looking for the 
 fourth one. 
 
 We paid our respects to a number of churches, nota- 
 bly the cathedral of Notre Dame, the Pantheon, St. 
 Roch, and St. Sulpice. The former dates from 1163. 
 It has suffered much from the insurgents during the 
 revolutions to which Paris has 'been subject. The 
 stained glass windows are very beautiful and the 
 wood carvings and statuary fully up to the orthodox 
 designs found in nearly all the larger Catholic churches. 
 For a franc one can obtain a glimpse of the sacred 
 relics kept in the treasury. They consist of fragments 
 of the crown of thorns and of the true cross, a nail 
 from the same, and some silver busts of long departed 
 saints. 
 
 Cooper was the only guide, excepting always Pro- 
 fessor Forbes, who made no effort to paralyze us, when 
 the time came to speak of these sacred relics. On the 
 contrary he showed a disposition to ignore them en- 
 tirely, and when some one insisted on seeing " that 
 piece of the true cross," he significantly laid his finger 
 on one side of his nose and, addressing me in particu- 
 lar, said : "If all the pieces of the true cross held as 
 sacred relics, here and elsewhere, were got together 
 and placed end to end, they would make stringers for 
 a bridge that would reach across the Seine — and don't 
 forget it. r 
 
296 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 The Pantheon dates from 1764. It has a fine portico 
 of twenty -two Corinthian columns, eighty-one feet 
 high. We descended to the crypt and viewed the 
 tombs of Voltaire and other noted men. The remains 
 of Victor Hugo, in a coffin not yet sealed in its final 
 place of deposit, occupies a cell here. It is surprising, 
 the number of people that clamor for admittance to 
 see all that remains of the author of " Notre Dame," 
 and " Les Miserables." In the aisles above are cart 
 loads of wreaths and immortelles, banners, etc., that 
 were carried in his funeral procession when fifty thou- 
 sand people followed his remains hither. About two 
 years ago the Pantheon was secularized and nearly all 
 traces of worship removed. It was on the steps of 
 this edifice that Milliere, one of the leaders of the 
 Commune, was killed in 1871. 
 
 On Sunday, some members of the party attended 
 services at the Madeline, while others of us tramped a 
 longer distance to the church of St. Roch, on recom- 
 mendation of our courier that the best music in Paris 
 was to be heard at this church. We went early, ex- 
 pecting a large crowd, and sat through a sermon de- 
 livered in French, then witnessed the ceremony of high 
 mass, performed with all the pomp and precision of 
 the strictest adherence to ancient form and custom. 
 We one and all declined to partake of the bits of bread 
 offered without distinction to saint and sinner, as in 
 the Mormon churches. Before this ceremony ended, 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 207 
 
 no less than three collections were taken up, the 
 American contributions being not the most insignifi- 
 cant part of the sum total. 
 
 The fine music we came expressly to hear was some- 
 what disappointing on account of its brevity, but for 
 my part, I was well repaid in being carried heaven- 
 ward, by the notes of a clear soprano voice, that should 
 make the fortune of its possessor, were it not for one 
 thing — it belonged to a lad who had not yet attained 
 that critical period in a boy's, as in a young cockerel's, 
 existence, where the sounds issuing from the throat of 
 each are of such veiy uncertain timbre, and likely, as 
 maturity, in the case of either approaches, to result in 
 a change sometimes disappointing. 
 
 St. Sulpice is a grand old church situated on the left 
 bank of the Seine, whose inception dates back to 1646. 
 Its chief attraction is an organ with nearly seven thou- 
 and pipes, said to be the largest organ in the world. 
 I shall always remember St. Sulpice as the church in 
 which I got lost. 
 
 I was behind one of its ponderous pillars jotting- 
 down some notes, and had not observed the departure 
 of Cooper with his numerous retinue. When I found 
 mj'Self in the lurch, I flew from chapel to chapel mak- 
 ing inquiries, but alas ! could not make myself under- 
 stood ; then I rushed for the door, but was again per- 
 plexed, for here three streets confronted me, in none 
 
298 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 of which could I discern any signs of a gang of tou- 
 rists. 
 
 It was considered a breach of decorum for any one 
 to keep the party waiting. The culprit was scowled 
 upon, and felt conscious that he was being anathema- 
 tized secretly, and was thus made to feel the enormity 
 of his misdemeanor. If this had been my first offense 
 I should have rested easy. Before starting for any 
 place, when noses were counted, the courier, whose 
 duty it was to round us up, on discovering any absent- 
 ees, at once jumped to the conclusion — if the number 
 consisted of two — that I was one, and a gentleman of 
 the party whom he invariably alluded to as "Mr. 
 Schmidt" was the other. On this occasion I knew my 
 name was Grover, and if I could have believed that 
 they would have driven off and left me as a punish- 
 ment, I should have preferred it to the reception that 
 I knew awaited me, when I put in a tardy appearance. 
 Through a beggar woman, to whom I had refused alms 
 on entering the church, I was indebted for the discov- 
 ery of the party, who were sitting in the wagon, two 
 blocks off, while Cooper was scouring the neighborhood 
 for the lost sheep, and a black one at that. The " child 
 of alms," though not speaking or understanding a word 
 of English, and all my French being confined to the 
 inquiry, combieu f interpreted aright my perplexity, 
 and seizing my hand, ran with me down the Rue de 
 Vaurigard to a cross street, where, still a block away, 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 299 
 
 I discovered the object of my search, and the occupants 
 of the wagon the object of their wrath. I was so ex- 
 cited when I observed them, that I pressed a coin into 
 the beggar's hand without looking at it, and from the 
 expression of her face when she looked, I am inclined to 
 think it must have been a half-Napoleon — possibly 
 only a half-franc — either one was a windfall to that 
 creature, of whom there was no possibility of her name 
 being connected with anything that smacked of the ro- 
 mantic. In the commencement of this chapter I set 
 out to describe Paris a-la-guide-book, but these inter- 
 ruptions will creep in, in spite of me, but being facts, 
 why not ? 
 
 While I am on this subject, I may as well relate an 
 incident whereof the Judge figures prominently in the 
 role with respect to which these lines have brought 
 me into undue prominence. 
 
 It was in Rome, on a sleepy August afternoon. 
 Time was called at 4 o'clock, sharp, and as "Mr. 
 Schmidt" and I were both present, the courier 
 concluded we were all aboard, and signaled the driver 
 to move on. We occupied two wagons, and this in a 
 measure accounted for our friend, the Judge being left, 
 the occupants of our wagon supposing he was with 
 the party in the rear, and, vice versa, none of us dis- 
 covering that he was not along until we had covered 
 at least a mile. It was then too late to return and we 
 went on to the Pantheon without him. 
 
300 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 On the return of the party to the hotel he was not 
 to be found, and as table d'hote waits for no man, we 
 found it incumbent upon us to sit down to the table 
 with his accustomed seat unoccupied. When dinner 
 was about half over he put in an appearance, and as a 
 truthful chronicler, whether the shoe pinches my own 
 foot or that of a friend, I am bound to say that on the 
 entire trip, this was the first instance where the 
 Judge's even temper had swerved a particle from its 
 balance. On all previous occasions, no matter 
 what the provocation (and that there was pro- 
 vocation heaped up and running over no one of the 
 Cook party will deny), he was always the courteous, 
 self-sacrificing, all wool, three-foot-to-the-yard gentle- 
 man, and I want to say right here that the best place 
 to size a man up, next to the army, is on one of these 
 close corporation excursion parties. The man or 
 woman that will command the admiration of their fel- 
 low travelers until the party- disbands at the end of 
 the journey deserves the highest encomiums. 
 
 I think that when I join another Oook party, which 
 is by no means impossible, I will have it organized 
 on the progressive euchre plan, and at its termination 
 award first prizes to the gentleman who was the 
 most affable, and the lady who could be amiable 
 under the most trying circumstances, while a " booby " 
 prize designed for the selfish, ill natured creature of 
 either sex, might altogether avert its bestowal. 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 301 
 
 There was not one of our party, if the truth were 
 known, who did not feel guilty of culpable negligence 
 when they found the Judge was missing, and when he 
 strode into the dining hall, this consciousness was so ap- 
 parent that each one seemed anxious to offer a word of 
 apology, and some offered to condole with him ; but he 
 shut them up, by hotly asserting that if the Colonel 
 (alluding to me) had been a whole hour late, they 
 would all have waited for him. "We finally appeased 
 his just wrath by giving him to understand that after 
 the ices were served and disposed of we would 
 have a grand self-inflicted kicking match in the court 
 yard. The kindly light came back to his eye, and as 
 the ices, Roman ices, slowly, lingeringly disappeared, 
 he told us of his chagrin when he found he had tarried 
 a few moments too long in writing. He concluded to 
 make the effort to follow us up, but got bewildered and 
 lost, and when he supposed he was near the hotel, 
 found he was three miles away, and with not sufficient 
 knowledge of Italian to make his wants known, he 
 was under the necessity of imitating Bayard Taylor 
 on his first European tour, and that was to go it afoot. 
 
■ 
 CHAPTEE XXXVIII. 
 
 PARIS CONTINUED. 
 
 The Column Vendome, standing in the Place Ven- 
 dome, is one of the most conspicuous objects that greet 
 the eye in the streets of Paris. The original was con- 
 structed by order of Napoleon I., in imitation of the 
 Column of Trajan, at Rome, to commemorate victories 
 over the Austrians and Russians. It is built of ma- 
 sonry encased with bronze, the product of one thou- 
 sand two hundred cannons. It stands one hundred 
 and forty-two feet high, with a diameter of thirteen 
 feet, and is surmounted by a statue of the Little Cor- 
 poral himself. The Communists pulled it down and 
 broke it into a number of pieces, but it was re-cast 
 from the same material, and will now doubtless stand 
 until another Commune gets ripe. 
 
 The palace of the Louvre and the palace of Luxem- 
 bourg are the two great picture galleries and art depos- 
 itories of Paris. The old portion of the Louvre was 
 erected by Francis I., and was occupied as a palace by 
 Catherine de' Medici and her son, Charles IX. Suc- 
 cessive rulers have added to the vast proportion, but 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 303 
 
 not improved the early architecture, known as the Re- 
 naissance. Opposite to the Louvre stands the church 
 of St. Germain. From a window in this palace, Cath- 
 erine de' Medici held a candle at midnight as a signal 
 to toll the great bell of St. Germain, which was to an- 
 nounce the dreadful moment when the most atrocious 
 act in the whole history of religious persecution should 
 commence. St. Bartholomew's day of that year was 
 written in blood. 
 
 The Huguenots, or French Protestants, were cut 
 down like dogs wherever found, and the carnival of 
 blood never ceased for a moment throughout that ter- 
 rible day until fully thirty thousand, and I know not 
 how many more, of the heretics had yielded up their 
 lives, martyrs to the simple faith of Luther. There 
 was more venom concentrated in the fangs of the 
 mother church throughout this and subsequent periods 
 of its existence than the heathen world has exhibited, 
 even under the reign of the monster Nero. Truly, 
 the saying of Christ, " I come not to send peace, but a 
 sword," has been literalty fulfilled. 
 
 There is a room in the Louvre where Henry IV. 
 died from a stab received in his carriage by Ravaillac, 
 a Huguenot, incited out of revenge for a change of 
 faith on the part of the king. Ravaillac was a religi- 
 ous crank. 
 
 Napoleon's room has a fine frescoed ceiling, repre- 
 senting Michael Angelo presenting the plan of St. 
 
304 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 Peter of Eome, to Pope Julius. There is another 
 room containing a large number of costly snuff boxes 
 owned by one of the kings of France, and also some 
 costly saddles presented by the authorities of Egypt 
 to Napoleon I. 
 
 In another room is shown the Bible of Catharine 
 de' Medici, the helmet of her son, Charles IX., and the 
 sword of Charlemagne. 
 
 The main picture gallery is seven hundred and fifty 
 feet long, and the pictures of the Louvre, if strung out 
 in a line, would reach seven miles ; so says Cooper, 
 the redoubtable. Rubens resided for a while in Paris, 
 and this gallery contains twenty-one pictures executed 
 by him. Of course in so large a collection there are 
 many works .of the old masters prized beyond compu- 
 tation. The Louvre is perhaps the center of attrac- 
 tion in Paris. It is impossible to do justice to it in 
 one visit ; a dozen would scarcely satisfy the taste of 
 the true lovers of art. There is one painting here by 
 the Spanish master, Murillo, " The Immaculate Con- 
 ception," which the emperor of Russia coveted for his 
 collection and offered a fabulous sum for, but the 
 offer was declined with thanks. 
 
 In a room containing statuary is the celebrated 
 " Venus de Milo," excavated on the island of Milo in 
 1821. It was purchased for twelve hundred dollars, 
 but is so highly prized that an offer of two hundred 
 thousand dollars has been refused for it. There is also 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 305 
 
 a colossal statue of Melpomene which is the very per- 
 fection of artistic skill. 
 
 The Palace of Luxembourg was erected in 1615 by 
 order of Marie de' Medici. After the first revolution 
 in 1793 it was transformed into a prison. At the pre- 
 sent time it is utilized for a three-fold purpose, viz.: 
 the residence of the chief of police, the assembly hall 
 of the senate, and the gallery for modern painting and 
 other works of art. Aside from the glamor that at- 
 taches to the work of the old masters, the production 
 of modern artists which hang in the gallery are far 
 more seductive and pleasing to the eye. And the 
 same may be said of the exquisite pieces of sculpture 
 that fill one entire large hall in this gallery. In an- 
 cient sculpture it is a rare thing to find even in the 
 most cherished objects that have survived the effects 
 of the despoiler's hand, that which excites to more 
 than mere admiration. 
 
 With only one or two exceptions, the priceless relics 
 of antiquarian art, sculptors have conveyed no illusions 
 or excited the enthusiasm on their merits alone, which 
 the devotees of culture claim for them. Doubtless the 
 fault lies with me in lacking the necessaiy qualifica- 
 tions to form a just conception of their superiority 
 over the modern school of art. It may be claimed 
 that one is the mere reflex of the other, but to do that 
 would be to stultify ourselves in the belief that mod- 
 ern artists are lacking in originality of design ; that 
 
 20 
 
306 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 the workmanship is deficient in tone and finish, no 
 one who compares the two will care to admit. I have 
 seen statues of modern date possessing the very pose 
 and expression of the " human form divine," so realis- 
 tic, as by a slight stretch of the imagination, one 
 could almost fancy they were moulded of animate clay 
 by the master hand of the Omnipotent. 
 
 The Luxembourg serves as the nursery to the Lou- 
 vre gallery, as the most meritorious paintings are re- 
 moved from time to time to the latter, their places 
 being occupied by later productions. Art is encour- 
 aged fully as much iu Paris as in Rome. 
 
 The palace of Versailles is about fifteen miles from 
 Paris, but so easy of access as to be considered almost 
 as one of its chief attractions. We drove out, halting 
 briefly at the ruins of the palace of St. Cloud, built in 
 1658 by Louis XIV., and destroyed by fire in the bom- 
 bardment of 1870. It was the favorite resort of Na- 
 poleon I. and likewise of Napoleon III. After the 
 battle of Waterloo, Blucher made his headquarters 
 here in 1815, and it was here that the terms of the 
 capitulation of Paris were signed but a short time be- 
 fore its destruction. 
 
 The palace of Versailles was built by Louis XIV., 
 at a cost of two hundred millions of dollars. It stands 
 on an elevation, approached through a picketed enclos- 
 ure, in the center of which stands an equestrian bronze 
 statue of the founder. It was at the base of this statue 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 307 
 
 that the generals of the Prussian army declared King 
 William Emperor of all Germany. Looking towards 
 the palace from this point can be seen the balcony 
 where Maria Theresa, in answer to the cries of the 
 mob, made her appearance with the Dauphin in her 
 arms. But the mob was not appeased, and broke down 
 the doors of the palace. Under the protection of La- 
 fayette, she and the king were conducted to the palace 
 of the Tuileries, where the mob again forced an en- 
 trance, overpowering and killing the Swiss guards, 
 eight hundred of whom forfeited their lives. The 
 lion of Lucerne commemorates this event. The prom- 
 ised protection of Lafayette, who was a revolutionist 
 by nature, proved abortive, for both the king and queen 
 were led forth to the guillotine. 
 
 The square or court yard alluded to contains several 
 statues, amongst which are those of Bayard, Colbert, 
 and Massena. In the reign of Louis Philippe the pal- 
 ace was converted into a museum, and what a grand 
 one it is. The inscription, " To all the glories of France," 
 does not belie it. Its halls are crowded with the por- 
 traits of the generals, admirals, and sovereigns of 
 France, and hundreds of battle scenes, forming a bril- 
 liant and intensely interesting panorama. In a hall, 
 three hundred and ninety-six feet long and fifty-two 
 feet wide, are hung thirty-three battle scenes. In an- 
 other hall is the famous painting by David, " The Cor- 
 onation of Napoleon I." But the most absorbing work 
 
308 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 of the painter's skill, to my eye, was portrayed on an 
 immense canvas, " The Last Days of the Eeign of Ter- 
 ror." I have forgotten the name of the artist, but the 
 picture left an impression on my mind which will re- 
 main there. We were shown the various state apart- 
 ments — one chamber where three queens of France 
 have lodged, and an apartment furnished expressly for 
 Queen Victoria, on her visit to France, but which, I 
 believe, she did not occupy. Of course, these apart- 
 ments, including those occupied by Louis XIV., are all 
 furnished and decorated in a style of magnificence un- 
 surpassed. 
 
 A visit to Versailles would not be complete without 
 an inspection of the beautiful gardens, and the state 
 carriages, some six or eight in number, which now 
 that royalty is banished from France, are no longer of 
 any use save as curiosities. In point of magnificence 
 they are far superior to any state carriages used in the 
 procession of the Queen's jubilee in London. 
 
 On the return drive to Paris we stopped at the 
 factory where the costly ware known as Sevres china 
 is made by a process that is a state secret. It takes a 
 long bank account to become possessor of a single vase 
 or half a dozen plates of this beautiful ceramic ware. 
 
 We also paid our respects to the government manu- 
 factory of Gobelin tapestries. None are made for sale. 
 The custom of sovereigns or the ruling power in 
 nations exchanging costly presents exhausts the supply. 
 
PROM NILE TO XILE. 309 
 
 The art of weaving in colors so that the production 
 looks like an oil painting or a piece of mosiac turned 
 out by the Vatican, is here brought to the highest state 
 of perfection. The trade is handed down from father 
 to son and is the most particular and tedious work on 
 earth. One expert hand is only able to complete one 
 and one-half square inches per day. We were shown 
 one design that was commenced in 1876, labored at 
 assiduously and will be ready for exhibition in 1889. 
 They showed us a Persian rug of tapestry work which 
 was four hundred years old. They have specimens of 
 the work here from the infancy of the art up to the 
 present time, showing the gradual improvement that 
 has been made in its manufacture as the ages rolled 
 
 by. 
 
 The disintegration of the party now began to take 
 place, some preferring to remain in Paris indefinitely, 
 others taking the night train for London, while the 
 remainder, including ourselves, continued on under 
 the guardianship of the courier, leaving Paris on Mon- 
 day morning for London via Dieppe and New Haven. 
 
 It was a stormy day, and we had our misgivings 
 before going aboard the steamer that was to carry us 
 across the stormy waters of the English Channel. 
 They were more than verified when the tub of a side- 
 wheeler encountered the angry waves of^the meanest 
 stretch of water in existence, and was tossed about 
 like an eggshell in the teeth of a fierce gale that 
 
310 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 threatened to send us all to a watery grave, and suc- 
 ceeded in exacting tribute to Neptune from one hun- 
 dred and ninety-five passengers out of the two hun- 
 dred that had shipped by this vessel. Most of us had 
 remained on deck until our clothing was completely 
 saturated, when, the storm growing more violent, the 
 ladies were conducted below and given in charge of 
 the stewardess, who took them under her motherly 
 wing and administered to their well being, in a crisis 
 when each one was too sick even to die. I never was 
 more thankful in my life than when the chalk cliffs 
 of old England, still seven miles distant, hove in sight. 
 When at length the boat landed and the passengers 
 went ashore, some of their own volition, some in the 
 brawny arms of the sailors, we were absolutely the 
 most washed-out, bedraggled, woe-begone party of ex- 
 cursionists, I venture to say, that had crossed the 
 Channel in the year of jubilee. We had no opportu- 
 nity of changing our wet garments until we reached 
 the Midland Grand in London, so we shivered and 
 tried to cheer each other up in the two or three hours' 
 ride to London. It was eight o'clock when we reached 
 home, for home it was to us so long as we remained 
 abroad. And thus terminated our circular trip on the 
 Continent. 
 
CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 
 STRATFORD-ON-AVON STOKE POGIS ETON COLLEGE 
 
 WINDSOR CASTLE WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 
 
 Now that we were back in London, we set about 
 visiting such places as had been denied us before, or 
 as had been reserved until this time. First we 
 took a run up to Stratford-on-Avon, noted as the birth 
 and burial place of Shakespeare. We traveled by rail 
 as far as Leamington, and then took a carriage for 
 Stratford, passing through a lovely stretch of country 
 for a distance of fourteen miles. We dined at the Red 
 Horse Inn, made famous by Washington Irving, whose 
 sojourn here has added no little prestige to the reputa- 
 tion of the town, besides proving a bonanza for the 
 proprietor of the inn, for all Americans feel honored 
 by the fame of one of their most distinguished coun- 
 trymen and patronize the Red Horse rather than the 
 Red Lion, out of respect for the memory of the author 
 of Rip Van Winkle, and not because of any especial 
 merits the Red Horse possesses for the comfort of man 
 or beast. 
 
312 FEOM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 We were conducted after dinner to the house in 
 which Shakespeare was born, and shown the room in 
 which he first saw the light of day. The old house 
 has been converted into a museum, where some anti- 
 quated English ladies point out to you relics of Shake- 
 speare's time, some of which they claim once belonged 
 to him. Strange to say, there is not a scrap of paper 
 in this museum, nor anywhere else that I am aware 
 of, containing specimens of his handwriting, not even 
 his signature. The nearest to it — and that is nowhere 
 — is a time stained note addressed to him by an impe- 
 cunious friend asking for the loan of a small sum of 
 money. 
 
 From the museum we drove around in a pelting 
 
 storm — the conveyance was an open one — to the old 
 
 parish church, some portions of which date from the 
 
 thirteenth ceAtury, where the remains of the immortal 
 
 bard were laid away. Within the chancel is a bust of 
 
 him and beneath it a flat stone with the well known 
 
 inscription as follows : 
 
 Good frend, for Jesvs' sake forbeare, 
 To digg the dvst encloased heare: 
 Bleste be ye man that spares thes stones, 
 And curst be he that moves my bones. 
 
 Another inscription, in Latin, is on the tablet beneath 
 
 the bust, which rendered into English is as follows : 
 
 "In judgment a Nestor, in intellect a Socrates, in art 
 
 a Virgil, the earth covers, the people mourn, Olympus 
 
 has him," followed by a verse in old English, too 
 
FKOM NILE TO NILE. 313 
 
 lengthy to copy, but closing with the date of his 
 death, April 23d. 1616, aged fifty-three years. A fine 
 memorial hall has been erected to his memory, and 
 another monument still in the hands of the workmen 
 is being put up with a fund contributed by certain 
 Americans. 
 
 Here we parted company with that portion of the 
 Cook party who were to embark for their homes in 
 "God's country" the following day. Speaking for 
 myself, I am free to say that I gave the parting hand 
 with reluctance. For fifty days they had been my 
 companions through all the pleasures and discomforts 
 of a trip, which to all of us I doubt not, was so replete 
 with happiness that it would have been like ingratitude 
 to Providence to hope for another in this life that 
 should equal it. In that brief period, ties of friend- 
 ship were formed which absence and the cares of life 
 are not likely to tear asunder, or cause a relapse into 
 forge tfulness. It was close to midnight when we 
 reached London in a special, and rattled over the 
 Cobblestones for two miles to our hotel. 
 
 The next excursion we made was to Windsor Castle, 
 distant about twenty -two miles out from London. 
 The queen being absent from Balmoral, we anticipated 
 no difficulty in being shown through the apartments 
 of state. We arrived before the doors were thrown 
 open to visitors, and an old gentleman seeing us 
 loitering around and divining that we were Americans, 
 
314 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 volunteered to drive us behind his pair of fast cobs to 
 Stoke Pogis, distant about six miles, and show us the 
 house where William Penn was born and the country 
 church yard where Gray wrote his Elegy, and where 
 his remains were laid. Promising to return in about 
 an hour, we accepted and found ourselves bowling 
 along over a smooth road and through one of the most 
 beautiful rural sections to be found in England. We 
 were not long in getting there, and improved the time 
 by asking the driver all sorts of questions relating to 
 Penn and the poet Gray. He always had an answer 
 ready which created a suspicion in my mind that the 
 old gent thought that he had caught four suckers on 
 his hook whom it might be policy to humor a little. 
 He pointed out the magnificent park of five hundred 
 acres, in which vast herds of big red deer were tamely 
 feeding, once belonging to the Penn estate. The 
 large white mansion partially concealed by huge 
 ancestral trees, he assured us was the veritable house 
 in which William Penn was born, spent a portion of 
 his mature years, and after a life of usefulness, 
 checkered with hardships and imprisonment, laid 
 himself down and died in the house where his mother 
 had given him birth. 
 
 A cab driver is not supposed to know everything, 
 but here was one who knew it all. It is the general 
 impression that the great philanthropist was born in 
 the city of London and died at Euscombe, in Berk- 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 315 
 
 shire, seventy years ago. When we came to the old 
 church yard we had no need to pin our faith to the old 
 man's utterances. It tallied with one's conception of 
 the finest pastoral poem in the English language. It 
 was surmounted by a stone wall, but laborers were at 
 work extending its limits, for, sad reminders of one's 
 latter end, the inheritance of all mankind to six feet 
 of earth had all been pre-empted, and here no claims 
 are jumped. The little old church, with its ancient, 
 high-backed pews, stands in the center. A tablet fixed 
 to the outer wall has an inscription w r hich, amongst 
 other things, notices that Thomas Gray, the author of 
 Gray's Elegy, lies buried near this spot. Between the 
 church yard and the road a fine monument, inscribed 
 with verses from the Elegy, is erected to his memory. 
 
 On the return we were let down, for a moment, at 
 Eton College, which stands on the opposite side of the 
 Thames from Windsor Castle. We entered the court 
 yard, where stands a bronze statue of Henry VI., and 
 made our way into one of the class rooms, dingy with 
 age, and viewed with vivid recollections of our own 
 school boy days, the uncomfortable benches and desks 
 of a by-gone period. The oaken posts that supported 
 the upper floor were carved by the penknife with the 
 names or initials of boys who are now old men, or are 
 at rest in their graves; one, more ambitous than all 
 the rest, carved his at the very top, affixing the date 
 
316 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 1767 — nine years before the independence of the States 
 was declared. 
 
 Recrossing the Thames, we drove into the spacious 
 court yard of Windsor Castle, and, after procuring a 
 permit, entered by one of the doors, and were ushered 
 into a waiting room, where quite a crowd had congre- 
 gated for the same purpose that brought us hither. We 
 were detained here for a few minutes, when, following 
 the guide, we proceeded up a narrow, winding stair- 
 way to the first of ten rooms comprising the state 
 apartments. I confess to a sense of disappointment, 
 after going through these apartments, at the lack of 
 grandeur displayed in ornamentation and interior fin- 
 ish, as compared with palaces we had visited else- 
 where ; and yet this residence of monarchy, sharing 
 the honors at one time with Hampton Court, is consid- 
 ered as the acme of all structures of the castellated 
 order to be found in Europe. There were two rooms 
 containing portraits painted by Van Dyke and Zuccar- 
 illi, another one contains tapestries and a stained glass 
 portrait of George III. The Waterloo chamber, where 
 state banquets are sometimes given, contains some- 
 thing like forty portraits of reigning sovereigns of 
 Europe in the time of George III., together with those 
 of leading characters of that day, both civil and mili- 
 tary. 
 
 The grand reception room, which really is a fine one, 
 contains a number of Gobelin tapestries and a superb 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 317 
 
 malachite vase, presented to the Queen by the Em- 
 peror Nicholas, of Russia. St. George's Hall is two 
 hundred feet long by thirty-four feet wide and thirty- 
 two feet high. It contains the sovereign's throne, 
 manj^ portraits of Knights of the Garter, and twenty- 
 four shields emblazoned with the arms of each sover- 
 eign, covering many decades. The guard chamber 
 was, to me, the most interesting of all the rooms. In 
 it are contained the armour of knights and princes as 
 far back as 1530, two unique chairs — one constructed 
 from an oak beam taken from " Alio way's auld haunted 
 kirk," which the genius of Burns brought into repute 
 — the other made from an elm grown on the battle field 
 of Waterloo. There were, also, relics of naval battles, 
 trophies from Inkerman, Zululand, and King Kaffee's 
 umbrella from Ash an tee, besides a handsome silver 
 shield presented to Henry VIII., on the Field of the 
 Cloth of Gold, by Francis. 
 
 The Queen's presence chamber contains tapestries 
 illustrating scenes from the life of Queen Esther, and 
 some old portraits. The Queen's audience room, like 
 its predecessor, has its walls decorated with tapestries 
 in continuation of the life of Queen Esther. There is, 
 also, a full length portrait of Mary, Queen of Scots, 
 whom the papal authorities are about to canonize — 
 three hundred years after she was beheaded. There are 
 three inscriptions in Latin surrounding this picture, 
 giving an epitome of the causes that led to her execu- 
 
318 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 tion — mainly her adherence to the Romish church. 
 From here we passed into the vestibule and stepped 
 down and out. 
 
 But a little way, and we entered Albert Chapel, for- 
 merly Wolsey's Chapel, built by Henry VII., and re- 
 stored a few years since. It is the handsomest church 
 we saw in England, not large, but embellished elabo- 
 rately with mosaics and pictures in marble — a style of 
 art I do not remember to have seen elsewhere. 
 
 It contains a superb cenotaph of Prince Albert, and 
 the tomb of Leopold, the queen's deceased son, 
 which is very beautiful. We next entered St. George's 
 chapel, built in 1474, which is of Gothic design, and 
 considered one of the finest in Europe. It contains 
 the tombs of some of England's kings, and of many 
 other noted persons, including the Duke of Kent, 
 father of the queen. The choir is hung with banners, 
 helmets, and insignia of the Knights of the Garter. 
 Its numerous chapels abound in handsome monuments 
 and the windows are rich in coloring, intended as 
 memorials of the defunct sovereigns of the lineage 
 represented in the person of the present queen — the 
 proud and successful house of Hanover. A painting 
 by Benjamin West of " The Last Supper" is one of 
 the not least valued adornments of St. George. 
 
 This closed our sight seeing for this day, and we 
 returned to London. 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 319 
 
 During the preparation for the queen's jubilee, and 
 for some weeks thereafter, Westminster Abbey was 
 not accessible to the public. Happily the restrictions 
 were removed in time to enable us to survey it at our 
 leisure. To the English speaking race, as a whole, 
 there is no ecclesiastical building of medieval times 
 that presents a stronger attraction than this old Ab- 
 bey. It is built on a site where King Sebert erected a 
 monastery for the Benedictines in 616, which was de- 
 stroyed by the Danes, but was rebuilt by Edgar in 985, 
 and had additions made to it by Edward the Confessor, 
 Henry III., and Edward I. It was a Catholic institu- 
 tion up to the time of Queen Elizabeth, except for a 
 period during the reign of Henry VIII. All the En- 
 glish sovereigns since Harold have been crowned here, 
 and the chair in which they all sat is one of the treas- 
 ured relics of the place. There is a constant stream 
 of visitors going into and coming out of the Abbey. 
 
 To one who has seen so many of the churches of 
 Europe it might be supposed that disappointment 
 awaited me when I gained access to Westminster 
 Abbey, but such was not the case. There is nothing 
 here but what inspires one with veneration. It is 
 vast, harmonious and solemn, and you feel this when 
 you enter its sanctuary. It is replete with statues and 
 tablets, lining the isles and transepts, and in the chap- 
 els repose the bones of many historical characters. It 
 would be wearisome to specify these, but among them 
 
120 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 are the tombs of Henry VII., James I., Charles II., 
 William and Mary, Edward VII., Queen Anne, 
 George II., Queen Elizabeth, Mary Queen of Scots, 
 Edward V., Henry V., Henry III., Kichard II., Ed- 
 ward the Confessor, and Edward I. In the Poet's 
 Corner are inscriptions to all the poets and great writ- 
 ers of England, some of whom are buried here. There 
 is likewise in this corner a superb bust of our own 
 Longfellow. 
 
 It must not be inferred from the manner in which I 
 have treated the historical objects of Great Britain 
 that I have deemed them unworthy of elaboration. 
 In this narrative I have aimed at nothing higher 
 than to refresh the memory of the casual reader of 
 history, or excite an interest in the minds of some 
 who have attached but little importance to the land- 
 marks of a nation with the proudest record of any 
 monarchy that the world has known, that has an 
 existence to-day, and with which the threads of our 
 own history are so inextricably interwoven, that, 
 whether we will or no, we must accept English history 
 prior to the revolution, as being as much a part of our 
 own, as it is of the present " tight little isle." Hav- 
 ing now paid our last respects to England so far as 
 these pages are concerned, we invite you to accom- 
 pany us to that far away land where the mystic scenes 
 of a civilization of which we can have but a faint 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 321 
 
 conception were enacted at so remote a period that all 
 we have written of hoary Rome, and ancient Britain, 
 seems to be of the last century in comparison. 
 
 21 
 
CHAPTER XL. 
 
 FROM LONDON TO GENOA. 
 
 On the twenty-fifth of September, after storing all 
 our baggage in London, except two valises containing 
 just such effects as necessity demanded, we boarded 
 the train at Charing Cross station for Folkestone. 
 Charlie having spent a vacation of two weeks with us 
 in the metropolis, was reluctantly returning to those 
 duties which the innate fondness for play, implanted in 
 the minds of all healthy children render, after a 
 pleasurable vacation, excessively irksome. 
 
 Remaining over night in Folkestone, we bade the 
 little fellow a heart-rending farewell on the steps that 
 descended from the Montague school, and then sorrow- 
 fully wended our way to the West Cliff Hotel, to pass 
 the night and partake of an early breakfast, then being 
 rapidly driven to the Shorn cliff station were just in 
 time to catch the down train for Dover, where we 
 landed after a rapid run and immediately went aboard 
 the superb steamer that plies between this point and 
 Calais, on the French side of the channel. The con- 
 trast between this passage that lasted eighty minutes, 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 323 
 
 and the one described in a former chapter that 
 consumed five hours, was very striking ; we had a 
 smooth sea, and nothing occurred to mar our trip to 
 Paris. 
 
 In the gay French capital we lingered three days, 
 but the incessant rain, sometimes a deluge, seriously 
 interfered with anticipated enjoj'inents and confined 
 us for the most part to the dreariness of a Parisian 
 hotel. 
 
 We left Paris in a drenching rain storm at night as 
 the clocks were tolling out the hour of nine. The 
 prospect of a long ride over a road noted for its rough- 
 ness, made me somewhat anxious to obtain the best 
 accommodations possible, but when the courier handed 
 me a bill of seventy-eight francs for two berths in a 
 sleeper, to be occupied until seven o'clock next morn- 
 ing, I concluded, that rather than submit to extortion? 
 almost any kind of accommodations would be good 
 enough, and so I returned the bill with thanks. Our 
 party for Palestine was small, consisting only of a 
 third person besides myself and wife. We were fortu- 
 nate in securing the lion's share of a compartment to 
 ourselves, of which I had ten feet of cushioned seat to 
 myself, my wife all that comfort demanded, and a 
 third person, who chanced to be a lady of that class 
 of whom Weller the elder cautioned his son Samivel 
 to bevare, all that she cared to occupy, as she seemed 
 
324 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 to prefer huddling up in a corner, to the elongated 
 process of being wooed and won, by the drowsy god. 
 
 Toward morning, as we neared the French frontier, 
 the ladies both accused me of snoring. It cut me to 
 the heart, for if there is any great virtue I claim more 
 than another, it is the soft and childlike respiration of 
 my nocturnal slumbers. Having occupied rooms with 
 certain comrades of the Grand Army of the Republic 
 at a crowded annual encampment, and lain awake 
 through the long watches of the night, with every 
 nerve strung to its utmost tension, and wondering if 
 the next nasal explosion would equal the last, I could 
 sympathize with the two lone women locked in a com- 
 partment, subjected to the disturbing notes of the man 
 who snores. 
 
 Now, don't you know that so perverse is human 
 nature that I boldly denied the grave charge, claimed 
 that I was the aggrieved party, and by inuendo laid the 
 deed at the door of passenger number three? She 
 declared that she had not slept a wink the whole night ; 
 but, on being pinned down to the facts, admitted that 
 she might have " dropped off" just for a minute or 
 two. 
 
 After a late breakfast at Modean, on the French 
 frontier, we proceeded on our journey, but soon shot 
 into the Mont Cenis tunnel, which occupied thirty 
 minutes in passing through. Then we descended the 
 Alps on the other side, down through vineyards with 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 325 
 
 drooping bunches of juicy grapes awaiting their doom 
 in the wine press. Wherever a chestnut tree could 
 find root, amongst the rocks on the hillsides, its 
 branches stooped to the burden of an excessive yield 
 of sweet but unwholesome nuts double in size the 
 American variety. 
 
 Leaving snow, mountain vineyards and chestnut 
 forests in our rear, we presently emerged into the 
 broad, fertile plain surrounding the handsome, wide 
 awake city of Turin, where we found accommodations 
 at the " Trombetta " until the ensuing day, when we 
 continued the journey to Genoa and tarried here three 
 or four days, waiting until our steamer was in readi- 
 ness to leave its moorings and carry us out into that 
 sea whose sky blue waters looked tempting enough for 
 a sail here in the harbor, but beyond, presented that 
 peculiar ruffled appearance indicative of a rough 
 
 You will remember that in a former chapter I 
 expressed a regret that we were not allowed sufficient 
 time in Genoa to take in its sights. I was not then 
 aware that I should be so fortunate as to return to it, 
 with time enough to spare to see all that was worth 
 seeing. Securing the services of a guide, whose 
 knowledge of the English language, accompanied by 
 the usual prolixity of gesture was barely able to make 
 him understood, we visited the various churches, 
 
326 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 palaces, gardens, etc.. of which Genoa seems to have. a 
 surfeit. 
 
 The cathedral of St. Lorenzo was built in the 
 eleventh century, of the style known as the Gothic 
 Renaissance with alternate layers of black and white 
 marble. It contains some .fine paintings, one by 
 Borrachio, which Napoleon carried off to Paris, after- 
 ward returned by the government of France ; also fine 
 statues of the school of Angelo, the Tomb of Doges, 
 who with a council of ten ruled Genoa at one period 
 of her history in the same manner, though perhaps 
 not so infamously as they governed Venice. In this 
 church are preserved relics held to be sacred by those 
 of the Catholic faith, consisting of two silver gilt 
 boxes made by Contucio in 1488, containing the ashes 
 of John the Baptist brought from the city of Myra, a 
 seaport town of Lycia, in 1097. and which are paraded 
 through the streets on Corpus Christi day with great 
 pomp. Another relic is an emerald dish on which the 
 paschal lamb was served at the last supper. " If you 
 believe that you can believe anything.'* This was 
 captured from the Saracens at the storming of Ca?sarea 
 in 1101. 
 
 The church of the Annunciation was begun in the 
 year 600, but only completed in 1783. It is a true bas- 
 ilica, and with its large Corinthian columns of mottled 
 marble, its groined work and cornices, all blue and 
 gold, and its seven chapels on each side of the aisles 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 327 
 
 finished in the most elaborate manner, has a very 
 pleasing effect. The canopies of the two main altars 
 are supported by serpentine columns of purest alabas- 
 ter, and two chapels, one on each side of the apse, are 
 fitted up most gorgeously. The frescoes, which are 
 one of the main features of its attractiveness, were ex- 
 ecuted by Carlona, who, having killed a rival artist 
 through jealousy, fled to this sanctuary for refuge. 
 The wily priests, knowing his value, set him at work 
 to embellish the bare and unsightly plastered roof of 
 their church, and murderer and hiding culprit as he 
 was, he has left the impress of his genius on that na- 
 ked ceiling in a manner so gorgeous and beautiful that, 
 outside of a few of the old masters, his work has no 
 rival elsewhere. The exterior appearance of this 
 church is very commonplace, but the grandeur of the 
 interior compensates one for his disappointment before 
 entering it. 
 
 The church of St. Matthew is noted only for its 
 erypt, which contains the sarcophagus of Andrea Do- 
 rias, called the " Father of his Country," and proba- 
 bly the greatest man Genoa ever produced. In the 
 cloister are two mutilated statues of colossal size, mi- 
 nus head, feet, and arms. They were statues to Prince 
 Dorias and his brother, and are all that were left of 
 many fine statues and works of art when the revolu- 
 tionists destroyed the Doges' palace, in 1849. 
 
CHAPTER XLI. 
 
 GENOA CONTINUED CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 
 
 There are no art galleries in Genoa, outside of the 
 palaces, but of those, we visited so many in the course 
 of our three days' stay that we were forced to call a 
 halt. Even palaces grow monotonous after one has 
 climbed three nights of stairs from six to twelve times 
 a day, and witnessed a remarkable sameness in style 
 and adornments. In two of these palaces we were 
 shown beds where Napoleon had slept and tables 
 at which he dined. The royal palace, of course, dif- 
 fered somewhat from the others in grandeur and ex- 
 tent. We were admitted to the private apartments of 
 the King and Queen through the potency of a French 
 coin. The Queen's bed chamber was somewhat more 
 gorgeous than my queen occupies. I had eyes for one 
 object only, and that was the bed. It was of modern 
 construction, all gold and crimson velvet, with a hand- 
 somely worked coat of arms at the head, a silken can- 
 opy over all, surmounted in the center by a golden 
 crown. 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 329 
 
 The throne room was very elegant, all the orna- 
 mentation gold, the walls hung in rich velvets and the 
 furniture laid with gold and upholstered in embroi- 
 dered silk. The reception room with the floors of 
 polished inlaid wood work, silk hangings and fine 
 paintings, was also truly admirable. The remaining 
 palaces, except the municipal, are the property of 
 scions of the old families prominent in the history of 
 Genoa. Some, however, have passed into plebeian 
 hands and been diverted to the uses of trade. 
 
 The municipal palace was the most attractive to us, 
 for it contained relics that can nowhere else be found. 
 We were first admitted after ascending two flights of 
 marble stairs, each step a single slab sixteen feet long, 
 into a large, finely frescoed room, called the balloting 
 chamber, containing on its walls two superb mosaics, 
 presented by the city of Venice, one of Christopher 
 Columbus, the other of Marco Polo. 
 
 From here we passed into another elegant room, hung 
 with fine paintings, one, of Columbus, said to be the 
 oldest and most accurate in existence. His features 
 are those of a bluff old sea captain. In the mosaic 
 they might be taken for an Italian opera singer. Here 
 is also a portrait of the great composer, Paganini, and 
 in a recess his violin is displayed with a great many 
 gestures, smiles and bows by the custodian. In a cor- 
 ner of the room is Garibaldi's battle flag, of embroi- 
 dered silk, the tri-colors painted red, white and green, 
 
330 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 on which is painted his portrait. In the opposite cor- 
 ner is the white silk flag of the old republic. On the 
 wall, encased in a frame, is a decree, cast in bronze in 
 the year 187 B. C, relating to some matters between 
 Eome and Genoa. Hanging near this are three fac 
 simile letters of Christopher Columbus. I was much 
 disappointed when informed that the originals could 
 not be seen. 
 
 I brooded over it considerably, and that night formed 
 a resolution to use, the next day, a persuader of such 
 wonderful potency that the iron door of the vault 
 that contained them would fly open as though touched 
 by the magic wand of an enchantress. The guide de- 
 clared by all the saints in the calendar that those let- 
 ters had not been exhibited for many years. I asked 
 how many, and he said about one hundred. Then I 
 knew he lied. I told him Mark Twain had seen them 
 not over twenty years ago. He looked incredulous, 
 and then he conferred with two or three others, and 
 finally gave me to understand that if I was willing to 
 risk a certain amount in persuading the custodians to 
 produce them, they might be forthcoming. 
 
 So we followed him again to the municipal palace, 
 where he hobnobbed with two or three officials, one of 
 whom motioned us to a seat, and then ceremoniously 
 produced a key and unlocked the door of a vault, and 
 returned with a small glass case, say eight by ten 
 inches, and a book somewhat larger. The case con- 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 331 
 
 tained the three autograph letters of Columbus, writ- 
 ten in Spanish, one addressed to the Republic of 
 Genoa, one to the bank of St. George, and the other 
 to his son. Each letter was fixed between two glasses 
 and framed. Their authenticity has never, I believe, 
 been brought in question. The following is an exact 
 copy of the signature attached to each of the letters : 
 
 8 
 S A S 
 . X M Y 
 X P. O. F. E R E N S. 
 
 Perhaps some erudite student of fifteenth century 
 literature may be able to decipher the full signifi- 
 cance of that signature. I once made a wild guess at 
 it myself, but investigation has convinced me that I 
 was in error. I give it up. 
 
 It is said that Columbus was a victim of rheuma- 
 tism, which so affected his fingers that only at times 
 could he write a clear, legible hand. I am of the opin- 
 ion these letters were written when the rheumatics 
 had him foul. I do not wonder that Mark Twain, 
 with all his love for mischief and disregard of relics 
 highly reverenced, or held sacred, should feign disbe- 
 lief that the great admiral had used the pen in mak- 
 ing such characters as a tomtit with inked feet would 
 leave on hopping over a sheet of white paper. I was 
 in a situation where I could fully realize the conster- 
 nation of the guide when the Doctor indignantly as- 
 
332 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 serted "that he had seen boys in America only four- 
 teen years old who could write better than that." 
 There was likewise a memorandum in the same hand- 
 writing as the body of the letter. The book, which 
 was nearly an inch thick, was a gift to Columbus from 
 his kind patroness, the Queen Isabella. Its leaves 
 were of vellum most beautifully engraved and illumi- 
 nated, but alas ! the contents were as unreadable to 
 any of the group who stood around the table as though 
 written in hieroglyphics. t 
 
 We had a curiosity to see the old bank of St. George, 
 of which it is claimed Columbus was a patron. We 
 approached it by a long flight of stone steps. The cor- 
 ridor, as well as the banking room itself, is embel- 
 lished with life-size marble statues of the old bank 
 presidents, and other persons of note, in the Genoa of 
 an early period. 
 
 Thus far I have not alluded specifically to the 
 system of banking or style of bank buildings one sees 
 abroad and with which he is likely to transact some 
 business if he carries a letter of credit, which for more 
 reasons than one is the safest and most convenient 
 form of carrying ready cash or its equivalent. In this 
 old bank building of St. George (now used as a custom 
 house) there is more in keeping with the style and 
 elegance that characterize our American bank build- 
 ings, than prevails in Europe at the present time. In 
 almost every instance when I desired to draw money 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 333 
 
 — outside of London — I was directed to buildings far 
 from imposing in outward appearance and usually up 
 one or two long nights of stairs, into such apartments 
 as might suit the propensities of a Ralph Nickelby, 
 but were totally at variance with all my preconceived 
 ideas of continental banking. 
 
 With us the banks, as a rule, seek out the most 
 eligible corners in a city, and rear a palace in which 
 to conduct their financial operations. In continental 
 Europe seclusion is sought, and business is conducted 
 in such a manner as to convey the impression that 
 banking is illegal, and, like the saloon business of 
 Kansas, must be kept in the dark. 
 
 It has been a mooted question whether or not Co- 
 lumbus was born in this city. The guide informed us 
 that the authorities had recently discovered that Colum- 
 bus was a native of Genoa, and he would show us the 
 house in which he was born. So .we followed his lead- 
 ership through various narrow, winding streets, where 
 the houses from the opposite sides almost touched, and 
 which were so crowded with the teeming population 
 of the lower order as to make our progress exceedingly 
 slow work. At length he halted before a narrow four 
 story building, showing evidences of great age, and, 
 pointing to the second story, said : " Here the great 
 Christophero Columbo was born." 
 
 There was a marble tablet fastened to the wall with 
 an inscription in Italian, but the only words we could 
 
334 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 translate into English was the name of Columbns. It 
 may be that the guide was hoaxing us, but I relate the 
 incident for what it is worth. The fine monument 
 which Genoa erected to the memory of Columbus 
 stands near the railway fetation. It was placed there 
 in 1862, and represents America kneeling at the feet 
 of Columbus, with sitting allegorical figures of Wisdom, 
 Religion, Geography and Strength. Each of these oc- 
 cupies a corner beneath the statue of Columbus. 
 
 The remains of this remarkable man, who died at 
 Valladolid in 1506, were transported to the island of 
 St. Domingo, and when that island came under French 
 domination, were removed to the cathedral of Havana, 
 where, let us hope, they will repose undisturbed so 
 long as their sepulture remains an object of interest. 
 
CHAPTER XLII. 
 
 Genoa's campo santo — on the mediterranean — storm 
 at sea arrival at alexandria. 
 
 We spent an hour or two very pleasantly in the 
 gardens of Dinegro and Rosazza. If these were gar- 
 dens of the orthodox style I would not occupy 
 your time in attempting to describe them, but 
 they are not. Genoa is built on the rocky declivities 
 that in a crescent overlook the gulf. These gardens, 
 you might say, were hewn out of the rock in the form 
 of terraces and earth conveyed hither and filled in at 
 great expense. They are traversed by winding paths 
 and numerous steps which lead through a profusion of 
 flower beds, semi-tropical plants and shrubs, orange 
 and lemon, palm and date, camphor, pepper, and I 
 might almost exhaust the catalogue of trees common 
 to a southern latitude. Besides, there are numerous 
 fountains, statues, cascades and grottoes, and when you 
 have ascended in the Rosazza garden to a height of 
 two hundred and seventy feet, you have a noble pano- 
 rama spread out before you ; the amphitheatrical city 
 
336 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 and the beautiful harbor, where the flag of almost every 
 nation may be seen fluttering from the tall spars in 
 the shipping. Dinegro at his death bequeathed his 
 lovely garden and fine museum to the city, and great 
 pride is taken in keeping it up to the standard designed 
 by its founder. 
 
 But to my mind the most attractive feature of Genoa 
 is its Campo Santo or burial ground. It lies distant 
 from the city about one and one-half miles, and 
 unquestionably bears away the palm from any other 
 city in the world for novelty, grandeur and artistic 
 excellence in graveyard statuary. It is in the form of 
 an immense cloister or square, each side has an arcade 
 probably one thousand feet long and twenty feet wide. 
 The arcade as you enter, is on that side double. 
 The first contains the bones of the middle class, 
 designated merely by a suitable inscription over the 
 slab, if buried beneath the pavement, or in tablets if at 
 the sides. The inner arcades contain the bones of the 
 wealthy and distinguished. Spaces are allotted on 
 either side, and here are the most magnificent tombs, 
 except a few isolated cases, I have seen in Europe. 
 If all the statuary visible in the galleries of Europe 
 were collected in one immense hall, it seems to me that 
 it could not equal the superb works of art either in 
 numbers or skillful workmanship, that beautify Genoa's 
 "Holy Field." You pass from one ideal to another 
 stupefied with astonishment. The figures are nearly 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 337 
 
 all life size, and if delineating the form, features, style 
 of dress and expression of emotion, in Parian marble, 
 is a work of art, then it is here attained in its highest 
 perfection. I will cite but a few examples. 
 
 A widow reclines on the coffin of her deceased hus- 
 band, her attitude and expression are those of mute de- 
 spair. In her hand is a bunch of poppies, which sig- 
 nifies that her grief is too heavy to be borne. She has 
 come here to die of poison. Another represents a 
 doorway; the face of the husband and father stands 
 out in bas relief. The widow stands in front holding 
 up her babe to kiss the marble lips ; her other child 
 kneels by her side. Another represents an angel, clad 
 in a coat of mail, leaning on his sword ; he stands in 
 the door, and his attitude and bearing are suggestive of 
 the sentinel " who never sleeps on guard." On either 
 side, at the foot of the tomb, stand two angels " in 
 white." Another, and the last one I shall name, is a 
 boat with sail unfurled and, at the helm, the angel 
 that is to guide it over the dark and silent river ; on 
 the seat is a pillow trimmed with lace, seemingly — the 
 whole about ten feet long, four feet wide, and eight feet 
 high, sculptured out of a single block of marble. On the 
 opposite side of this arcade is a handsome chapel, but 
 the doors were closed before we reached it. The guide 
 said it contained many statues equal to any we had 
 seen. In the square, enclosed by the four walls of the 
 arcade, is the burial ground proper, where the bodies 
 
338 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 are first buried for three years. The bones are then 
 taken up, polished, and laid away forever in the tombs 
 of the arcades. 
 
 Having exhausted the sights that claim the atten- 
 tion of tourists in the city of palaces, we were eager 
 to be again on the wing, and being notified that the 
 Italian steamer Enna sailed from her moorings in the 
 harbor, on Monday evening, October 3d, at eight 
 o'clock, we repaired to the docks, and here took a 
 yawl for the small steamer (small in comparison with the 
 Umbria) which lay out in the harbor getting up steam 
 for a voyage that would consume nearly as much time 
 as our voyage across the ocean. 
 
 On board the craft, said to be the best on this line, 
 we at once retired to our state room, and the next 
 morning woke up to find we had made progress as far 
 as Leghorn, where the boat remained all day, taking 
 on freight and receiving passengers. 
 
 When she got under weigh in the evening, it ap- 
 peared to me that we had taken on board more freight 
 and passengers than was consistent with safety and 
 comfort. In the steerage there was hardly room to 
 stretch out. In the saloon every state room was full, 
 but in all this crowd there were but three Americans 
 and two English ; the others were Italians, even to a 
 pasha of Egypt and a justice of the Egyptian courts 
 with whom we sat daily at table, and listened to an 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 339 
 
 animated conversation in which all the Italians joined 
 as the humor seized them. 
 
 They appeared to be less reserved in their inter- 
 course with each other than is customary with our 
 own people. Those who spoke English were excess- 
 ively courteous to us, and in all intercourse with peo- 
 ple of this nation during our sojourn abroad, we were 
 greeted with uniform courtesy and kindness. 
 
 We steamed up the bay of Naples in the evening 
 and tied up opposite the great Neapolitan city, of 
 whose glories I have already spoken. We remained 
 here twenty-eight hours, discharging freight on lighters, 
 getting rid of all steerage passengers, and waiting for 
 the mails from Rome. As Alexandria had quaran- 
 tined against Naples on account of the cholera, no 
 passengers destined for that port were allowed to land, 
 so we lay there in sight of Vesuvius, fanned by the 
 gentle breezes of this glorious clime, yet bewailing our 
 unhappy fate in being compelled to endure the monot- 
 ony of our situation when, but for the grim spectre, 
 cholera, we might have been reveling in all the de- 
 lights of Naples at this pleasantest season of the year. 
 
 I can recall but one incident of that dreary twenty- 
 eight hours in the bay of Naples that excited one iota 
 of interest. We were sitting on the benches, listlessly 
 idling the hours away, when suddenly a horrible, 
 blood-curdling sound at the ship's side, in the water, 
 told us that a man was drowning. We all rushed to 
 
340 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 the side of the vessel, when a nude man (except as to 
 the loins) in the water raised a smiling face and, to our 
 great disgust, signified that he was there for our amuse- 
 ment and his benefit. He requested some one to throw 
 a penny in the water and he would dive for it and 
 bring it up in his teeth. This he did as many as 
 twenty times, never missing once, and to further make 
 a display of his amphibious qualities, dived underneath 
 the boat, popping up like a cork on the opposite side. 
 
 At length, when the mails were all on board, we 
 steamed out of the harbor, and soon the myriad of 
 lights in Naples was left glimmering in the distance, 
 and we sought our couches, immediately over the screw 
 of the boat, that pounded away like a trip-hammer all 
 night long, and each successive night while we re- 
 mained aboard the ship. The next morning we passed 
 close by the active volcano of Stromboli, and not long 
 after steamed through the narrow strait of Messina, 
 anchoring opposite to this plague spot, where people 
 had been dying of cholera like swine for the two 
 months previous ; fourteen new cases being reported 
 for that day by the ship's surgeon, who went on land 
 with the yawl that carried out and returned the mail. 
 
 We were there some three hours, and all the time 
 the ship flew the yellow flag, and the little boats from 
 shore swarmed around us, and the greasy mail bags 
 were loaded into the hold of the vessel, and the sur- 
 geon and sailors who had been ashore mixed with the 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 341 
 
 passengers without doffing a rag which they had worn 
 in the polluted city. And yet this boat steams into 
 the harbor of Alexandria with a clean bill of health, 
 unloads its passengers and freight, and the law of 
 quarantine, like some other laws I know of, is observed 
 more in the breach than the observance. 
 
 Then we passed out of the harbor of Messina, past 
 Catania — another plague infested spot — all the time 
 with the smoke crowned summit of Mt. ^Etna in plain 
 view ; past Syracuse, into the broad, open sea, where 
 no land was visible, nothing but water and sky, until 
 the approach of evening, when the latter became ob- 
 scured, and soon the mutterings of distant thunder 
 and the flashes of lightning foreboded a storm at sea. 
 The black clouds banked up against the wind, but 
 when the wind changed, it bore down rapidly upon us, 
 and there was more than one heart that quaked with 
 fear of the angry elements. Egypt and Palestine, with 
 all their un tasted sweets, would have been in this hour 
 exchanged for a yellow cottage I knew of, far across 
 the briny deep, on the east bank of America's Nile. 
 
 The clouds were of inky blackness, the rain came 
 down in torrents, the thunder was incessant ; and talk 
 of chain lightning, sheet lightning, and the railroad 
 map of Illinois depicted in the heavens, but I tell you 
 we had the whole display here on the boards at one 
 time. An electric shower ? Yes ; but the next one I 
 am called on to witness I want to be on terra firma, 
 
342 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 with a cellar close by. Well, that storm occurred in 
 the precise locality where the apostles, Paul and Luke, 
 encountered the euroclydon when the former was on 
 his way to Rome, a prisoner, more than eighteen hun- 
 dred years ago. Of course this would bear no compar- 
 ison to that. They were crowded into a smaller ves- 
 sel, two hundred and seventy-six souls in all. 
 
 It was before the discovery of the mariner's com- 
 pass, and the storm raged with such fearful violence 
 for fourteen days that they saw neither sun, moon, nor 
 stars, and their terror was such that they ate nothing 
 for the same length of time. Their vessel had put out 
 from Alexandria with a cargo of wheat for some Ital- 
 ian port. It was precisely the same time of year as 
 when we encountered this storm. Contrary to Paul's 
 advice, they left a good harbor at Crete — an island 
 which we passed the next morning — and the captain, 
 for his temerity, lost his cargo and his ship, for he 
 drifted out of his course to the southwest, and in at- 
 tempting to run into an inlet in the isle of Malta, the 
 prow of the vessel ran ashore and the waves broke 
 her in two. 
 
 One seldom finds in literature an account of a storm 
 at sea so brilliantly told, and in so few brief words, as 
 the account given by St. Luke towards the close of the 
 Acts of the Apostles. As I expect to quote a good 
 deal of Scripture in the pages that follow, permit me 
 to make a commencement now. Observe how Luke 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 343 
 
 identifies himself with the crew of the ship, just as 
 any of us would do in relating the circumstance, thus : 
 " And when the ship was caught and could not bear 
 up into the wind, we let her drive." 
 
 Well, our storm continued. for about two hours, dur- 
 ing which time our boat slowed up to two knots an 
 hour, and blew her fog horn at intervals to avoid col- 
 lision. The next day the sea was rough, and continued 
 so up to the last day of the voyage, with an undertow 
 that caused the ship to rise and sink in such a way as 
 to bring discredit upon the " staying " qualities of my 
 stomach. 
 
 One evening at dusk, as I was writing in the cabin, 
 my English fellow traveler came running to me with 
 the pleasing intelligence that Alexandria was sighted 
 and we should soon anchor. It was an indescribable 
 sensation that crept over me when I mounted to the 
 deck and beheld the distant lights of one of Egypt's 
 famed cities. It was hard to realize that in the space 
 of two brief hours my feet would be on terra firma, 
 pressing the soil in the city of Cleopatra, in the land 
 of the Pharaohs, washed by the waters of the Nile — 
 Egypt's Nile. 
 
CHAPTER XLIII. 
 
 ALEXANDRIA. 
 
 As the entrance to the harbor of Alexandria is 
 narrow and somewhat dangerous to navigate, vessels 
 arriving after six o'clock are compelled to anchor out- 
 side until the next morning. We should have been 
 under the necessity of remaining on board the steamer 
 another night but for the forethought of Cook's local 
 agent, who sent a yawl, manned by five stalwart 
 natives dressed in the style peculiar to oriental countries, 
 who carefully handed us with our baggage into their 
 craft, and in something like thirty minutes landed us 
 at the custom house, where we were detained but a 
 moment — the examination of baggage in our case being 
 omitted. Usually, I am told, the search for dutiable 
 articles is quite rigid. It was dark when we quit 
 the steamer, and nine o'clock when we reached the 
 Hotel Khedivial. However, we had a good opportunity 
 as we drove through the crowded streets to obtain a 
 first glimpse of oriental life. One always has strange 
 emotions on setting foot, for the first time, in a land 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 345 
 
 foreign to him, but this feeling is intensified when the 
 country is remote and of an order of civilization so 
 widely differing from that of his own land. 
 
 There is little at Alexandria to be shown the tourist, 
 but as it occupies the position of a vestibule, entered 
 before going farther into Egypt and lower Palestine, 
 one's first impressions of oriental life are had here, 
 and the strange sights to be seen in the streets is novelty 
 enough to compensate for a lack of antiquated wonders. 
 Until this novelty has worn off, the traveler is perfectly 
 satisfied to sit in the shade with the mercury at ninety- 
 two and let the unique procession pass in review. 
 Alexandria contains a population of over two hundred 
 thousand people, one-fourth of whom are Europeans — 
 mostly Greeks and Italians. At least ninety per cent 
 of the male population wear the fez or turban. The 
 English and American residents do not adopt this 
 mark of distinction and national subserviency, but the 
 Greeks and Italians seem to take a pride in wearing it. 
 
 The natives remind me forcibly of our American 
 Indians, particularly the Sioux tribe. They are tall, 
 lithe, and muscular, and in passing through crowds of 
 them I felt that peculiar, flesh-creeping sensation that 
 one cannot resist when surrounded by either Indians 
 or Chinese. Their complexion is of that variety of 
 shape aptly, though inelegantly, expressed in the old- 
 time couplet : 
 
 " Some were black, some were blacker, 
 Some were the color of a chaw-tobacker." 
 
346 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 but the black ones are not properly Egyptians; they 
 are mostly natives of Nubia. The inhabitants of the 
 lower order, as a rule, go barefooted, and hide their 
 nakedness with a long gown that reaches nearly to the 
 ankles. It is usually of white material, or what was 
 once white ; though blue, yellow, and black are some- 
 times worn. The middle and upper class wear a nether 
 garment resembling bloomers, or of the pattern of 
 the zouave trousers worn by a few regiments of our 
 soldiers during the first year or two of the war. A 
 short jacket, sometimes a robe, or a European coat, 
 with red, yellow, or black shoes, and turban or fez com- 
 pletes the picturesque, or if you prefer it, the grotesque 
 costume. This description, of course, applies only to 
 the male dress. The native women appear principally 
 in black or blue, with their features concealed by a 
 short veil, and a peculiar arrangement like a double 
 spool placed between the eyes. Those of them whose 
 faces I have seen had tattooed chins. Their resem- 
 blance to the type of humanity known as " squaw " is 
 striking. The children are mostly half-naked, dirty 
 and sore-eyed. Blindness is quite prevalent, but men- 
 dicancy is not as common as in Cork. 
 
 The city is just recovering from the effects of the 
 revolution and bombardment of 1882. What was con- 
 sidered a great disaster at the time is proving to be a 
 great benefit now. I have seen nowhere such magnifi- 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 347 
 
 cent buildings under construction as are nearing com- 
 pletion in this city. 
 
 We took a drive out to Pompey's Pillar, which is the 
 leading attraction of Northern Egypt in the line of 
 antiquities. It is a plain column, with a Corinthian 
 capital, and stands on a base of heavy square blocks 
 of red granite. The column is of the same material, 
 hewn from one block sixty-seven feet in height, nine 
 feet in diameter at the base, tapering slightly to eight 
 feet at the top. Including base and capital it is one 
 hundred and four feet high, and, to my eyes, far more 
 imposing than the various obelisks I have seen in other 
 lands. 
 
 It is erroneous to suppose that it was named in 
 honor of Pompey the Great. An inscription shows 
 that it was named for the Roman prefect, Pompeius, 
 who nourished some three centuries after the death of 
 Pompey, who was murdered at Pelusium, east of here. 
 Near by the column is an Arabian cemetery of consid- 
 erable extent, but the walking was not good and we 
 retraced our steps to the carriage and drove along by 
 the border of the grand canal that brings the waters 
 of the Nile past the city. Steamers and sailboats ply 
 on its waters to Cairo, which is distant one hundred 
 and twenty-eight miles. 
 
 Perhaps the most striking feature to one who sees 
 this land for the first time, is the groves of tall palm 
 trees, with their drooping branches of red or yellow 
 
348 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 dates just ripening. It is a familiar sight here, and 
 in the court yard of our hotel are as fine specimens as 
 can be found anywhere. 
 
 Our dragoman escorted us through a fine garden of 
 great extent, where there was the largest grove I have 
 yet seen. This garden contains also a large grove of 
 bananas, well laden with fruit, and all manner of 
 flowers, trees, shrubs and plants. It is irrigated by 
 water from the Nile, without which, Egypt would be 
 as the trackless desert. 
 
 Returning to the city, we encountered strings of 
 camels heavily loaded with wool and cotton, also 
 droves of little donkeys with everything animate about 
 them concealed except four nimble heels and two pro- 
 jecting appendages in which Paddy tried to deposit the 
 grain when told to feed the mule " corn in the ear." I 
 had not yet taken my initial ride on one of the quad- 
 rupeds ; time enough for that when the exigencies of 
 the situation make it imperative. 
 
 All the cattle I have seen thus far are the domesti- 
 cated buffalo, and it was a novel sight to see large 
 numbers of them taking refuge from the flies in the 
 muddy waters of the canal, where often nothing was 
 visible of them but their muzzle and peculiarly shaped 
 horns. The butter we were served with for breakfast 
 was buffalo butter — by any other name it would smell 
 as rank. It is a fortunate circumstance for us that 
 custom has decreed its usage at but one meal a day. 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 349 
 
 The fluid that is intended to whiten the coffee is 
 drawn from the same source. Chalk and water would 
 be an admirable substitute for it, but as it is permitted 
 to offend our stomachs but once a day, we can imitate, 
 on a reduced scale, the woman who said she was not 
 overly fond of beer, but she guessed she could worry 
 down a quart or two of it. 
 
 We lay by in the heat of the day, and toward seve- 
 ning followed our Arabian guide, who speaks five lan- 
 guages, to the humbler portions of the city where the 
 bazars are located. Here the streets are crowded, 
 dirty, and filthy, and one gets a true conception of 
 oriental life from a business standpoint. The stalls 
 are rarely larger than eight by ten feet, and here the 
 barter and sale and the various trades and occupa- 
 tions of life are carried on. Separate quarters are as- 
 signed to the different nationalities, but I could see but 
 little difference in the methods pursued by each. The 
 w T ork of artisans is performed in every instance in sit- 
 ting posture, generally on the floor. It looked a little 
 odd to see tinners, harness makers, and workers in 
 hard wood, as well as in iron, working away diligently 
 in such an attitude ; but their forefathers have done 
 the same from time immemorial, and orientals are 
 Bourbons, if they are anything. They neither forget 
 nor learn. 
 
 We expected to pick up some trifles to add to our ac- 
 cumulations of bric-a-brac, but could find nothing of 
 
350 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 a distinctive feature confined to the limits of Al- 
 exandria. Now, in the Swiss and Italian cities special- 
 ties in the line of handicraft, not duplicated else- 
 where, were always to be found. For instance, at 
 Geneva they make a specialty of manufacturing by 
 hand filigree silver and gold articles of virtu. In a 
 certain portion of the city scarcely anything is car- 
 ried on, except what pertains to this branch of indus- 
 try, and the productions are exhibited in the most 
 tempting manner, rarely failing to victimize the tou- 
 rist, to which my purse can bear the diminished weight 
 of its testimony. 
 
 But there is a branch of industry followed in Alex- 
 andria which, in financial and commercial importance, 
 assumes far greater proportions than the production 
 of trinkets, or of such articles as pander to the taste 
 of wealth and refinement only, as conducted in the 
 European cities. I allude to the manufacture of to- 
 bacco into cigars and cigarettes, but principally the 
 latter. On my first arrival in Europe I was impressed 
 with the almost total abstinence of men from the use 
 of chewing tobacco. In all my rambles thus far I 
 have no recollection of ever seeing an individual, un- 
 less he was an American, ejecting a stream of the 
 dark liquid from his mouth, except one person — a 
 boatman at Folkestone. Smoking is largely the prac- 
 tice everywhere, but here it is the universal custom 
 and not confined to the lords of creation. 
 
FROM XILE TO NILE. 351 
 
 Tobacco is the open sesame that admits the govern- 
 ments, of the earth to the gold and silver treasures of 
 the people. It is the lamp of Aladdin that requires 
 but the touch of power, and the magic word of law, to 
 fill the coffers of a nation's treasury. It is a cloud by 
 day and a pillar of fire by night to lead misguided na- 
 tions from the desert of bankruptcy into the delectable 
 land of solvency. 
 
 It was a baleful genii who stretched out his hand to 
 the north and south of our land and whispered, " Here 
 are the sinews of war; fight on." America, England, 
 France, Germany, Italy and Egypt, all involved in 
 exhausting wars within the last twenty-five years, are 
 discharging their war debts largely by the revenues 
 received from the sale of the weed. In all the foreign 
 countries named, the customs law is more rigidry en- 
 forced against tobacco than any other commodity. The 
 tariff, except in England, is high, and in France, Ger- 
 many , and Italy the government has the monopoly of its 
 sale. It is a difficult matter to procure a good cigar 
 anywhere, and the smoking tobacco is simply vile. 
 Neither cabbage nor tobacco has any affinity for the 
 other, and the latter, I fear, fell into bad company, and 
 must bear the opprobrium that attaches from associa- 
 tion with the impure. Egypt imports the leaf in large 
 quantities from Turkey. The import duty is low, 
 from ten to fifteen per cent, and the best cigarettes in 
 the world, of pure Turkish leaf, are manufactured 
 
352 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 here extensively — principally by the Greek residents. 
 The best quality retail at from eighty cents to one 
 dollar and sixty cents per hundred. In Naples a 
 friend of mine paid four dollars a hundred for what 
 would cost one dollar here. 
 
 With regard to works of art, Alexandria is about nil. 
 There is only one piece of statuary that is public 
 property, the equestrian statue of Mohammet Ali, 
 which stands in the Place Mehemet Ali, near the scene 
 of the principal destruction in 1882. Much opposition 
 was encountered from the Moslem leaders when it was 
 proposed to erect it, as the Mohammedan religion 
 strictly forbids such representations of the human 
 form. However, the " doctors " were mollified when it 
 was placed in position with the face toward Mecca. 
 The statue is a bronze, sixteen feet high, and stands 
 on a pedestal of Tuscan marble twenty feet in height. 
 
 Perhaps it would be unfair to close this chapter on 
 Alexandria, without inquiring somewhat into its ancient 
 history. It was laid out by Alexander the Great, B. 
 C. 332. He died before it attained much importance ; 
 but one of his generals, Ptolemy Soter, son of Lagis, 
 became its Macedonian governor, and, about thirty 
 years after it was founded, assumed dictatorial powers 
 over the kingdom, and made Alexandria its capital. 
 He was the founder of the Ptolemy dynasty, that 
 ruled Egypt successively for a period of two hundred 
 and seventy-five years. Under him and the two 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 353 
 
 successive inonarchs, Alexandria grew to be not only 
 the leading commercial city in the world, but the seat 
 of learning, for a time even eclipsing Athens. 
 
 One of the last kings of Egypt belonging to this 
 family was Ptolemy XIII., nicknamed the flute player. 
 He left three children, Ptolemy XIV., Cleopatra VII., 
 and a younger brother. He willed that the elder 
 brother and sister should many (as was the sometime 
 Egyptian custom) and share the throne jointly, sub- 
 ject, however, to the confirmation of the Roman sen- 
 ate. At this time Egypt stood in the same relation to 
 Rome that she does to-day to Turkey. TJie marriage 
 was duly consummated and confirmed, and in a brief 
 time brother and sister, husband and wife, were fight- 
 ing like two Kilkenny cats. The king banished the 
 lovely queen, which called for the interposition of 
 Julius Caesar who landed on the coast and took sides 
 in the famity quarrel with the abused wife. Then the 
 god-like Caesar fell a willing victim to the charms of 
 the syren, who was soon to become a widow by the 
 drowning of her husband in the Xile. The younger 
 brother then shared the regency under the title of 
 Ptolemy XV. But it did not accord with the wishes 
 of his ambitious sister, and she had him murdered. 
 The next co-regent was Ptolemy XVI., her own 
 illegitimate son, by Julius Caesar. Licentious himself, 
 Caesar's wife must be above suspicion. Caesar's man- 
 
 23 
 
354 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 tie, in this respect, is worn by many a man of our own 
 day and generation. 
 
 After the assassination of Csesar, Marc Antony was 
 assigned to the command of the Roman legions in the 
 orient, and having summoned Cleopatra to meet him 
 at Tarsus for some offense she had committed contrary 
 to the will of the senate, met a fate that has befallen 
 many a better man, but seldom so good a general. The 
 spell she cast upon him was one he was never able to 
 throw off. 
 
 For eleven years he reveled in her charms ; and 
 when at last the Roman senate, growing weary of his 
 continued debauch, declared him an enemy of Rome 
 and sent an army under Octavius (afterward dubbed 
 Caesar Augustus) to reduce him to submission, he suf- 
 fered defeat at Actium, and after the battle committed 
 suicide. The victors marched into Alexandria, and 
 Cleopatra, whether through despair at Marc Antony's 
 untimely death, or to escape the degradation of being 
 carried a prisoner to Rome and made a spectacle of in 
 the triumphal procession of Octavius, resorted to a 
 painless death — the deadly poison of the asp. Thus 
 went down to shame and disgrace the dynasty of the 
 Ptolemies, in which none other that has existed will 
 compare in longevity, brilliancy, crime and utter 
 shamelessness. 
 
 From this time Alexandria declined, and though it 
 was a great city for centuries afterwards, it never 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 355 
 
 regained its ascendency ot the days of the early 
 Ptolemies, when it reached a population of over half 
 a million. In the dark ages it came near being 
 wiped out, at one time the population being reduced 
 to less than six thousand. Under European patronage 
 it has become the leading maritime city of the Medi- 
 terranean, and if the wheels of progress are not 
 clogged by Mohammedan bigotry and interference, the 
 chances are that it will be the leading maritime city 
 in the Eastern Hemisphere, if we except Liverpool 
 alone. 
 
 History records that the body of Alexander the 
 Great was brought hither from Babylon and buried in 
 the tomb of the kings in the city which he had 
 founded. 
 
CHAPTER XLIY. 
 
 JAFFA LYDD A — RAMLEH JERUSALEM . 
 
 We left Alexandria on the fourteenth by a steamer 
 of the Austrian Lloyd line arrived at Jaffa — the 
 ancient Joppa — on Sunday morning. On the steamer 
 we met Bishop Beckwith, of Georgia, his daughter, a 
 lady from Bloomington, Illinois, and another from 
 New York, bound for Beirut, from whence they would 
 go to Damascus and journey southward to Jerusalem. 
 As the entire distance from Beirut is performed on 
 horseback over a rugged mountainous country exposed 
 to the scorching rays of the sun, they have my sympa- 
 thy — for with the little experience I have gained of 
 traveling in Palestine, I have no desire to extend my 
 journey any farther than the Jordan and Dead Sea. 
 
 During the passage from Alexandria to Jaffa, 
 nothing worthy of special note occurred. We passed 
 the delta of the Nile in daylight, where it empties its 
 muddy waters and commingles them with the blue 
 Mediterranean at Bosetta and Damietta. The second 
 day out we entered the harbor at Port Said, and 
 remained there discharging and taking on freight for 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 357 
 
 about twelve hours ; as we return to this port en route 
 to Cairo, we thought it not worth our while to go 
 ashore. 
 
 Jaffa, while it is an important commercial city, has 
 no harbor worthy of the name. The ship anchored 
 one-half mile from shore, and Cook'-s yawl came out 
 to meet us as at Alexandria. Even the yawl could 
 not quite reach the land, but two strong Arabs 
 waded into the water and carried us in their arms the 
 few intervening steps. Thence we wended our way on 
 foot over loose timbers, rocks and rubbish, through a 
 steep, narrow, and filthy street, occupied on either side 
 by warehouses. Strings of camels and men on donkeys 
 claimed the right of way, to the utter disgust of the 
 pilgrims; but the discomfort was of short duration, for 
 at the end of this thoroughfare we found Cook's carriage 
 in waiting, which rapidly conveyed us to the inn of 
 mine host, Herr Hardregg, a German. Here we found 
 rest and refreshment before venturing out in the blazing 
 sun to visit the house of Simon, the tanner, where Peter 
 fell into a trance, "And saw heaven opened, and a certain 
 vessel descended unto him, as it had been a great sheet, 
 knit at the four corners and let down to the earth ; 
 wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts of the 
 earth, and wild beasts and creeping things and fowls 
 of the air. And there came a voice to him : Rise, 
 Peter, kill and eat." The significance of which was 
 that the law of Moses was now superseded by that of 
 
358 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 Christ. With it vanished the efficacy of circumcision, 
 the prohibition of certain fleshly diet, and the exclu- 
 siveness of the Jews as God's peculiar people. Hence- 
 forth salvation was to be free without regard to race, 
 color, or previous condition. "And it came to pass 
 that he tarried many days in Joppa with one Simon, a 
 tanner." 
 
 Our guide conducted us through the market reeking 
 with filth and bad odors, through narrow, crooked 
 streets, where a loaded camel would have been wedged 
 between the houses ; down several steps that led to a 
 Greek church ; then further on through the stifling air 
 to a one-story stone house, where a large wooden door 
 showing the marks of age and decay was thrown open, 
 and admitted us to the traditional house, or, rather the 
 spot of ground on which the house of Simon, the tan- 
 ner, stood ; for it is not claimed that this is the identi- 
 cal house where Peter had the vision, but that the 
 present one, which is quite ancient, occupies the pre- 
 cise location and is a duplicate of the former one. 
 The custodian was a blind Moslem, and one of the 
 rooms, in which no Christian is permitted to set foot, 
 is devoted to his use as a house of prayer. Its location 
 agrees with the site recorded by Luke ; and the old 
 well, where the natives were filling their goat skins 
 with water drawn from a great depth, leaves but little 
 doubt that tradition, in this respect, is correct; for 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 359 
 
 what would be more natural than that one engaged in 
 tanning should have a well of his own ? 
 
 Now, wells are not numerous in this land ; they are 
 so rare, in fact, that water is peddled out for drinking 
 purposes to the inhabitants. I drank of the water of 
 this well, but whilst it was cool, it had a brackish taste 
 as though it percolated through from the sea. Close 
 by the well are the stone steps leading to the house top — 
 an admirable place to sleep, if the sun is not shining. 
 Standing here and craning the neck to the left and sea- 
 wards, one gets a glimpse of the rock where some in- 
 ventive genius of a by-gone period — Pliny, I believe 
 — locates the mythical episode where, at the command 
 of Neptune, Andromeda is chained to the rock to be 
 devoured by a sea serpent, as horrible in conception 
 as some modern liars have conjured up as infesting 
 our own shores. Kingsley thus expatiates in his 
 inimitable style on this fancied occurrence perpetuated 
 in the stars forever : 
 
 "On came the great sea monster, coasting along like 
 a huge black galley, lazily breasting the ripple, and 
 stopping at times by creek or headland to watch for 
 the laughter of girls at their bleaching or cattle paw- 
 ing on the sand-hills or boys bathing on the beach. 
 His great sides were fringed with clustering shells and 
 sea-weeds, and the water gurgled in and out of his 
 wide jaws as he rolled along dripping and glistening 
 in the morning sun. At last he saw Andromeda and 
 shot forward to take his prey, while the waves foamed 
 white behind him, and before him the fish fled, leaping. 
 
 " Then down from the height of the air fell Perseus 
 
360 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 like a shooting-star — down the crest of the waves, 
 while Andromeda hid her face as he shouted. And 
 then there was silence for a while. 
 
 "At last she looked up trembling, and saw Perseus 
 springing toward her; and instead of the monster, a 
 long, black rock, with the sea rippling quietly around 
 it." 
 
 Recurring to Holy Writ, we find that Joppa 
 figures in that remarkable event received with so 
 much derision now-a-days, irreverently called the 
 whale story. " But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tar- 
 shish from the presence of the Lord, and went down 
 to Joppa, and he found a ship going to Tarshish, so he 
 paid the fare thereof and went down into it." 
 
 As this is the seaport of Jerusalem to-day, so it was 
 in the days of King Solomon. Hiram, king of Tyre, 
 in a letter to Solomon, says : And we will cut wood 
 out of Lebanon, as much as thou shalt need, and we 
 will bring it to thee in floats by sea to Joppa ; and 
 thou shalt carry it up to Jerusalem." Now, there is a 
 wagon road from Joppa to Jerusalem, and it is about 
 the only one, so far as I can learn, in this part of Pal- 
 estine. We came over it and I have no hesitation in 
 saying it is the most execrable road in existence. 
 There is but little doubt that the timbers for the tem- 
 ple came by this route, and I wondered what motive 
 power Solomon used to transport them. 
 
 At Joppa I saw them strapping heavy timbers on 
 the backs of camels, likewise lumber for building pur- 
 
FROM NILE TO VILE. 361 
 
 poses. I have not seen a wagon in Palestine strong 
 enough to bear up a heavy load of lumber, and the 
 hills are so steep and the curves so short that the con- 
 clusion seemed irresistible that the " ships of the des- 
 ert " have borne them hither. The wording of Hiram's 
 letter would seem to confirm this view, as he uses the 
 word " carry " instead of haul. 
 
 Jaffa has been subject to many changes. It was 
 anciently a Phoenician colony in the land of the Philis- 
 tines, but successively fell into the hands of the Jews, 
 Greeks, and Romans. In the wars of the crusades it 
 belonged to the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, but 
 was captured by Saladin, and subsequently, though in 
 the same century, the twelfth, was retaken by Richard 
 ,of the Lionheart, of England, only to be recaptured 
 by the Saracens. Towards the close of the eighteenth 
 century it was a city of some importance, surrounded 
 by a stone wall, portions of whieh are still standing. 
 For some days it withstood an attack from the French 
 under Kleber, one of. Napoleon's generals. On being 
 promised clemency, the city capitulated, but on the arri- 
 val of Napoleon he disregarded the terms accorded, 
 and marched four hundred of the captured down to 
 the seashore and had them shot. The place where 
 this occurred is still pointed out. It is said, but with 
 what truth I know not, that his army was here smit- 
 ten with the plague, and in order to stay its ravages 
 he ordered everyone afflicted with it to be poisoned. 
 
362 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 If the remedy was not Mephistophelean it was at least 
 Napoleonic, terms sometimes synonymous. 
 
 In 1866 a colony from America, consisting of sixty- 
 six persons, under the leadership of one Adams, 
 located at Jaffa. Adams proved recreant to the trust 
 confided in him by his followers, and after victimizing 
 them in a shameful manner fled to America where he 
 died. The steamer that conveyed Mark Twain to 
 these shores bore away others, so that the colony has 
 now dwindled down to six persons, of whom one was 
 our guide to the house of Simon, the tanner. Another 
 one, Mr. Clarke, formerly of New Hampshire, is the 
 very efficient agent of Thomas Cook & Son, at Jerusa- 
 lem. A German colony settled here has been better 
 handled. They number two hundred and fifty souls 
 and seem to be prosperous and contented. I have 
 observed that the German plant bears transplanting 
 better than that of any other nationality under the 
 sun, and in whatever land they may be placed, they 
 always show evidence of thrift. 
 
 There is another class of people here who are 
 worthy of brief mention, hailing from Africa. Their 
 thick lips, woolly heads, flat noses and black skins 
 denote their Nubian origin. They live in squalor and 
 filth, but they are endowed with the most remarkable 
 strength — muscular strength, I mean — that has ever 
 come under my notice. Their occupation seems to be 
 that of porter, and by the aid of a strap or rope 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 363 
 
 passing around the forehead and securing the load 
 piled on their backs, one will carry, from the landing 
 to the hotel, a burden sufficient for a camel. They 
 think nothing of packing in this manner from four to six 
 hundred pounds a half-mile or more without resting, 
 with the mercmy away up in the nineties. 
 
 We tarried but a brief spell in Jaffa, when, after 
 securing a dragoman or conductor we took our seats 
 in a hack for Jerusalem, intending to spend the night 
 at Ramleh, distant twelve miles from our starting 
 point. We found our dragoman to be a perfect jewel ; 
 he is a native of Jerusalem, born of Jewish parents, 
 but a very devout Protestant Christian, who has the 
 Bible at his tongue's end, and is a walking encyclopedia 
 in all that relates to this wonderful land. Though not 
 a classical scholar he speaks nine different languages 
 — the English quite fluently. His manner is kind and 
 obliging, and the slightest wish expressed by us is 
 gratified without a demur. We feel very kindly 
 towards Abraham Lyons ; he saves us all the annoyance 
 of paying " backsheesh." With a simple wave of the 
 hand the beggars slink away from our presence, though 
 all are not refused "backsheesh," he seems to know 
 just the right place to apply it. 
 
 We struck out through a narrow, dusty road, the 
 long string of laden camels and pack mules giving us 
 the right of way this time. For two or three miles we 
 passed by successive orange groves surrounded by 
 
364 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 hedges of gigantic prickly pears. At a well, where a 
 mosque had been erected, we halted for a moment 
 while Lyons explained that this was the traditional 
 burial place of Dorcas, whom Peter restored to life. 
 She was a resident of Joppa, a disciple, and had 
 endeared herself to the people by making garments 
 for the poor. A little further on and we entered the 
 Plains of Sharon. ''And Sharon shall be a fold of 
 flocks and the valley of Achor a place for the herds to 
 lie down in," sings Isaiah. On the left of our road, 
 but some distance away, we were pointed out the 
 village of Lydda, where Peter healed iEneas, the 
 palsied man. And here, also, is located that marvel- 
 lous event, mythical as it perhaps is, but of such 
 general belief among ancient christians as to have been 
 adopted as a device for the shields of Great Britian, 
 Russia and Genoa. How many have gone down under 
 the scimiter of the fierce Saracen with the battle cry 
 on their lips of "St. George and our Lady." 
 
 St. George and the dragon formed a prolific subject 
 in mediaeval days for troubadour, painter and sculptor. 
 It has not grown obsolete yet, for in our own country 
 St. George and the dragon are made to do duty on 
 labels and patent medicine advertisements as a kind of 
 trade mark. However, we turn not aside to Lydda 
 but keep the more direct road to Eamleh, whose 
 celebrated tower of the twelfth century looms up in 
 the distance ; we leave the road in order to reach it, 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 365 
 
 and passing on foot through a large Moslem burial 
 ground are soon gazing in admiration at this beautiful 
 and well preserved ruin ; reminding me much of 
 Blarney castle. All around are ruins of a huge 
 monastery which stamp it as of the crusaders. It lies on 
 the edge of Eamleh and barring earthquakes, judging 
 from the solidity and synmietry, looks as if it might 
 stand forever. The Moslems once erected a minaret 
 on the top of it, but that part is now in a tumble- 
 down condition. 
 
 Going back to our seats in the hack, we soon after 
 drove into Eamleh and quartered for the night at the 
 excellent inn of Herr Binehart. Before retiring for 
 the night there were many arrivals, and a motley 
 group we all presented — Americans, English, Germans, 
 Italians, Greeks, Armenians, Jews, Turks and Arabs. 
 Some departed that night for Jerusalem, and the next 
 morning, bright and early, we followed suit. Eamleh 
 is not a scriptural town, but they claim that it is the 
 birthplace of Joseph, of Arimathea. The Latin 
 monastery occupies the supposed site of his house. 
 The once ubiquitous Napoleon slept here. The city 
 was founded in the eighth century and was long a bone 
 of contention between the Crusaders and Saracens. It 
 once outranked Jerusalem in population — was well 
 fortified and supplied with water works of that period. 
 It now numbers about four thousand people, nearly all 
 of whom are Moslems, the exception being those con- 
 
366 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 nected officially with the Greek and Latin churches. 
 In Palestine the Eoman Catholic church is distin- 
 guished as the Latin church. 
 
 The road between Jaffa and the Holy City, as I 
 stated before, is in a wretched condition. It was orig- 
 inally made of boulders and cobble stones. From time 
 to time it has been repaired only in spots, where it 
 now presents a smooth surface. At the present time 
 it is undergoing extensive repairs, there being not less 
 than two thousand iVrabs at work along its line. They 
 have been eighteen years at work on it, and you will 
 not wonder at the snail's pace with which progress is 
 made when I tell you that not a single wagon, cart, 
 wheelbarrow, or shovel, can be found in use along the 
 entire road. In many places the old grade over which 
 we traveled is to be abandoned for another, which is 
 completed only in patches. This requires much labor, 
 considering that the larger stones used for bridging 
 and walling are packed on donkeys, and the smaller 
 stones, and all the earth, are carried in small baskets 
 on the heads and shoulders of the Arabs. The only 
 tools in use are the pick, hoe, chisel, and stone hammer. 
 A part of the new road near Jerusalem is as hand- 
 some a piece of roadway as I ever saw, and when it is 
 thrown open for travel will diminish by that much the 
 difficulties one encounters in reaching here. Along 
 the road, at intervals, are watch towers constructed of 
 stone, as this road has frequently been infested with 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 367 
 
 robbers, sometimes requiring an army to disperse them. 
 This system of guard houses has been instituted and 
 seems to work well. The mounted patrols are to be 
 seen almost any hour of the day. 
 
 Out from Ramleh a few miles the guide pointed to 
 some ruins on a distant hill. This was once the an- 
 cient Canaanitish city of Gezer, which Pharaoh pre- 
 sented to his son-in-law, King Solomon, as his wife's 
 dowry. You see, if a king had no dowry for his 
 daughter when she was to be given away in marriage, 
 he put on his war paint, mustered his army, went into 
 the domain of a weaker king, and stole a city. That 
 is just what Pharaoh, king of Egypt, did. Presently 
 we pass the half-ruined village of Latrun, where, tra- 
 dition says, was once the home of the penitent thief, 
 Dimas, who suffered with Christ on the cross. 
 
 Ity this time the sun was becoming uncomfortably 
 warm, and we were delighted when our accommodat- 
 ing guide informed us that we were about to stop at a 
 wayside inn for rest and luncheon. This was just at 
 the entrance of Babel-wady, or gate of the valley, a 
 pass which led into the mountains of Judah and Ben- 
 jamin, over which we were destined to have a long, 
 rough, tedious ride. However, we took it as it came, 
 and after a rest of two hours, more for the sake of the 
 horses than ourselves, we resumed the journey. 
 
 The mountainous road all the way now to Jerusalem 
 passes over a country destitute of everything else 
 
368 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 except here and there a struggling orchard of olive 
 trees, which seem to thrive best in scanty soil, and a 
 few stunted bushes, not destitute, however, of rocks, 
 of volcanic formation. We pass an extensive village 
 on our right called Abu Ghosh, once the roost of a 
 powerful band of robbers who nourished about the 
 year 1813. The gang consisted of seven brothers and 
 their descendants, and they were the terrors of all 
 pilgrims until crushed by the Egyptian government. 
 This village, it is claimed by some, was anciently 
 called Kirjath Jearim and was the place where the ark 
 of the covenant was deposited for a long period. 
 
 Farther on, was another robbers' roost, rather pictur- 
 esquely situated on a steep hillside. A brook flows 
 through a narrow valley here and on its banks is a 
 pleasant resort where we dismounted and took a cup 
 of delicious Turkish coffee. A fine stone bridge spans 
 the brook, and here, it is said, occurred the encounter 
 between David and Goliath. The hills on both sides 
 of the narrow valley are steep and rocky, but, withal, 
 so terraced, as to furnish admirable seats for the 
 friends of the respective champions to sit out of 
 harm's way and witness the tournament. There are 
 just such pebbles in the brook as a slingist of David's 
 proficiency would be likely to select. I could picture to 
 my own mind these hill sides alive with onlookers, 
 the Philistines defiant and confident of success, the 
 Israelites with blanched faces and quaking hearts, 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 369 
 
 waiting for the momentous result which would place 
 them at the mercy of their foes, or release them from 
 a nightmare of terror, and give the "little captain" 
 the first place in the affections of the people. Still 
 this may not have been the historic spot, but like 
 every thing in the Holy Land, we must take it on trust. 
 I am prepared to believe all I see and hear, even to 
 the finding of the true cross in an old cistern by St. 
 Helena — the mother of Constantine, in the fourth 
 century. 
 
 Soon we began to ascend that long, rough, zig-zag 
 hill on the approach to Mount Zion. Formerly, when 
 I read the expression "going up to Jerusalem" I 
 construed it in the same sense as I would make use of 
 the expression " going up to Valley Center;" but 
 the approaches to the Holy City are of that character 
 that the mind should grasp the idea in the sense of 
 "going up Pike's Peak." From the summit of the hill 
 just described there is an incline down a short ways to 
 Jerusalem. Here we pass a number of modern build- 
 ings, some in process of construction, and in a few 
 minutes are at Jaffa gate — one of the main entrances 
 to the city. We dismount outside of the walls, and 
 pass through the gate down the street of David to our 
 hotel, which stands on Mount Zion close by the pool 
 of Hezekiah, and not a great way from the Holy 
 Sepulchre, where after a journey of only forty miles, 
 but thrice that distance considering the fatigue one has 
 
 34 
 
370 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 to undergo, we pull ourselves together and try to 
 realize that we are in the city of the Great King. 
 
CHAPTER XLV. 
 
 IMPRESSIONS OF JERUSALEM. 
 
 Many of the drawbacks with which people here have 
 to contend are attributed to the mismanagement of the 
 Turkish government. Internal and harbor improve- 
 ments are discouraged, and without these it is useless 
 to expect people whose minds are still groping in the 
 gloom of the dark ages to emerge into the broad day- 
 light of the civilization of the nineteenth century. 
 But despite the many discouragements that block the 
 wheels of progress, the condition of things is not as 
 lamentable as it might be. Jaffa, without a harbor, is 
 rapidly increasing in population, and Jerusalem, with- 
 out a railroad, or highway worthy of the name, has 
 advanced from thirty-five thousand people, in 1876, to 
 fifty-five thousand, ten years later. The Jews, fleeing 
 from persecution in Europe, are emigrating here, which 
 is shown by the fact, that they have no less than one 
 hundred and fifty synagogues in this city alone. I am 
 indebted to our consul, Mr. Gillman, for this, and much 
 other valuable information. 
 
372 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 The peculiarities of Jerusalem, differing from any 
 other city I have visited, are quite marked. The 
 houses, for instance, are built with the almost total 
 disuse of either lumber or iron. The walls, floors, and 
 ceilings are stone ; the roof, tiling and stone. By the 
 use of the arch they dispense with joists and rafters- 
 The quadrilateral arch of the top story causes the pe- 
 culiar and not unpleasing dome-shaped roof so com- 
 mon all over Palestine. Again, there are neither 
 available water works nor wells in Jerusalem, but the 
 rain water, during the rainy season, is collected in 
 cisterns, and I am told that a supply for three years 
 can be husbanded in one season, if considered neces- 
 sary. All the water we have been drinking is more 
 than six months old, and it is as pure, clear, and sweet 
 as when it fell from the clouds. Every family has its 
 cistern, but when the supply runs short, it is supplied 
 by the water peddlers, who carry it on their backs in 
 goat skins, and these goat skins are quite an institu- 
 tion in themselves. I don't know just exactly how they 
 are prepared, but the hair is left on, and the body, vent, 
 and legs are sewed up, the neck being left open. When 
 filled this is tied, and the goat skin then presents a 
 plumper appearance than when it performed its normal 
 functions. A skin of water can be purchased for about 
 six cents, but an American would have to be as dry as 
 a fish on land before he could be induced to slake his 
 thirst at such a fountain. 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 373 
 
 This is a city within whose walls the rumble of 
 carriage wheels is never heard. The streets are mere 
 alleys, the Jewish quarters being the filthiest and 
 loudest smelling neighborhood that ever shocked the 
 sensibilities of the writer. The business streets are 
 crooked and ill paved. The street of David, com- 
 mencing at the Jaffa gate, runs nearly due east for 
 half a mile to the so-called Mosque of Omar on the 
 supposed sight of Solomon's temple. It is about 
 twenty feet wide and is traversed by terraces or stone 
 steps, each about ten inches high and eight feet deep. 
 On each side are shops — customers in every instance 
 making their purchases from the outside. There are 
 no sidewalks, and pedestrians take the middle of the 
 street along with the camels and donkeys, and it 
 requires one to be always on the lookout to avoid 
 being jostled or brought to his senses by feeling 
 the hot breath of a camel in his face, or being scraped 
 by the burdens with which they are loaded. 
 
 On this street is the grain market, and one can 
 but be impressed by the method in which business is 
 transacted. The stock in trade usually consists of a 
 few sacks of wheat or barley, or sometimes a heap 
 containing ten or fifteen bushels. Here one learns the 
 true significance of gospel measure " pressed down and 
 shaken together, and running over shall men give 
 into your bosom." I have seen the vender fill up the 
 measure with wheat, then shake it dowai and pile it on 
 
374 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 again until not another grain would stay on. Then he 
 would deftly dump it into his customer's bosom. That 
 may seem a strange receptacle, but in the mode of 
 dress worn, which has not varied for perhaps three 
 thousand years, it can be well adapted to the purpose. 
 If one cares to study the Bible and obtain a true con- 
 ception of it historically he must come to Palestine; 
 everything here is made subordinate to its teachings ; 
 and, though the Moslems confine themselves to the 
 reading of the Koran, they believe in Christ as a 
 prophet, and respect the Old Testament. In their 
 devotion they are quite exemplary. 
 
 There is an atmosphere of sanctity about the Holy 
 City that must impress the most skeptical. But 
 few visitors come here except on a pilgrimage; and 
 even tourists, as a rule, are in sympathy with some, 
 branch of the church ; and while they are perhaps 
 neither fanatical nor even worshippers, yet the tenor of 
 their conversation is invariably connected with relig- 
 ious subjects. The total absence of amusements and 
 frivolous recreation hedges up the lives of the people 
 here within a narrow compass — that of business and 
 religion, and the two terms are almost made synony- 
 mous. 
 
 There are no less than thirty-two monasteries, and 
 this, in connection with the mosques of the Moslems, 
 and the churches of the various Protestant denomina- 
 tions, will give you some idea of the ponderous ma- 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 375 
 
 chinery (if I may use the term) in use to perpetuate 
 the various creeds, and exercise an influence on all 
 who come within the scope of their teachings. Now, 
 this influence is by no means confined to the dwellers 
 at Jerusalem, for hither flock from all parts of the 
 Christian world, as well as from a large part of the 
 Moslem domain, pilgrims in vast numbers, whose offer- 
 ings and stipulated fees fill the coffers of the Greek, 
 Latin, Armenian, and Copt churches, and support all 
 those vast establishments which, without this moral 
 and material aid, would wither up like Jonah's gourd. 
 The same might be said with truth of the Jewish syn- 
 agogues and Moslem mosques. They are all fostered 
 by foreign aid. 
 
 The Protestant following is very insignificant. A few, 
 the Adventists, are here from a solemn sense of con- 
 viction that the time of the second coming of Christ is 
 at hand, and that it behooves them to meet Him in the 
 Valley of Jehoshaphat. I am not so sure but that they 
 believe He has already come, and that henceforth they 
 are without sin. Another denomination with views 
 equally peculiar is the Hoffmanites, or German colony, 
 numbering here and at Jaffa and Nazareth some 
 three hundred families. If I have a correct under- 
 standing of their religious belief, it is this : They be- 
 lieve in God, but reject the sonship of Christ. They 
 claim descent from the seven thousand who refused to 
 bow the knee to Baal, and their mission in Palestine is 
 
376 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 to reconstruct the temple. They have a nice village 
 out on the Bethlehem road, about one mile from the 
 wall of the city. The Episcopal church ranks high, 
 having at last secured a Bishop. Of course, it is fos- 
 tered by the English government, but in the way of 
 schools and hospitals it is doing a good work. 
 
 The schools of Jerusalem are numerous and, from 
 what I can learn, receive much support from abroad. 
 Almost every denomination has its separate institu- 
 tion, some of which are merely nurseries of their pa- 
 tron church. I noticed one day a long file of lads 
 dressed in European costumes, accompanied by their 
 tutor, reminding me much of similar sights in England. 
 This was a Jewish school. Another day I passed a 
 school-room crowded with barefooted youngsters, all 
 seated on the floor with little shovel-shaped boards in 
 their hands, on which were inscribed their lessons. 
 The tutor was also seated on the floor with a red fez 
 on his head. This was the Arabic school. 
 
 Near by was a court of law, which I had the temer- 
 ity to enter and witness the Moslems " dispense with 
 justice." The three judges were natives, and looked 
 as wise as a township " squire." There was little nov- 
 elty in their proceedings, and I walked across an ill 
 smelling court yard to where the Supreme Court was 
 sitting. At least, I inferred it was supreme, for I no- 
 ticed barristers, and all others, taking off their shoes 
 — those who wore any — and putting on slippers. I 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 377 
 
 looked in at the door and noticed only the presiding 
 judge, a patriarchal looking man, who sat cross-legged 
 on a divan, wearing the inevitable turban. The Mos- 
 lems say we begin everything at the wrong side. For 
 example, as a mark of respect or reverence we take 
 off the hat. They uncover the reverse end, by taking 
 off the shoes. We write from left to right. They re- 
 verse the order again and write from right to left. 
 Our consul tells me he finds but few brainy men 
 amongst them. He describes them as athletes physi- 
 cally and as dwarfs mentally. He says our mission- 
 aries all dislike them, but, for his part, he naturally 
 loves them. They are kind hearted and obliging, pa- 
 tient and good humored, and, in many respects, resem- 
 ble the Irish on their native bogs. 
 
 I was introduced to the sheik, or chieftain, of a 
 powerful band of Bedouins, who roam the country be- 
 yond the Jordan. He was dressed in rough attire — 
 well, when I come to think of it, it would not be truth- 
 ful to say he was dressed at all, for the Bedouins, this 
 time of the year, appear principally in the fig leaf cos- 
 tume. However, he wore a turban and carried a gun, 
 and his thigh was adorned by a cruel-looking, long- 
 handled knife, but he was the personification of all 
 that my preconceived ideas of a chieftain of the seed 
 of Ishmael ought to be; tall and straight, as a pine, 
 broad shouldered, brawny, and with a fist that would 
 fell an ox, dark skinned, and bearded like a pard — you 
 
378 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 may know what that is, I don't. He remarked that 
 it was a warm day ; at least I took it for granted that 
 such was his salutation, for he accompanied the re- 
 mark with an attempt to wipe the sweat from his 
 manly brow, and, as pantomime is the only foreign 
 language I am proficient in, it was so interpreted. I 
 agreed with him, wrung his hand, and promised to see 
 him later. I would not care to meet him alone on the 
 sands of the desert. 
 
 My dragoman says the father of this sheik is living 
 at the age of one hundred and fifteen years. Moses 
 was hale and hearty when, at the age of one hundred 
 and twenty, he stood on Mount Nebo, in plain view 
 of Zion's Hill where I write this, and closed his 
 earthly career, but not by reason of old age. I am 
 told that these Bedouins often reach the age of Moses 
 before being buried with their fathers. 
 
 Notwithstanding the air of sanctity that pervades 
 this place, I am occasionally under the delusion that I 
 am in the midst of a military camp. Opposite the 
 south window of my room looms up the grand citadel 
 of David, whose foundations were laid thousands of 
 years ago. Annexed to it are the Turkish barracks and 
 guard house. Every morning the guards march 
 by going to their respective stations. The reveille 
 awakes me in the morning, and tattoo and taps are 
 blown in the evenings with that degree of regularity 
 that used to make some of us tired. In the afternoon 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 379 
 
 the band plays. When discoursing Turkish music 
 we are delighted with its novelty, but when they 
 attempt a foreign air the effect on one's nerves is 
 equalled only by a Wichita band beating up for a dime 
 museum. The Turkish soldier will' compare favorably 
 in height with the French and Italian. The uniform 
 at this season consists of a greyish blue cotton sack 
 coat and trousers on the '"European plan," with the 
 fez for a headgear. On guard, they present anything 
 but a soldierly appearance. I heard an English 
 officer laughing at one of the guards who laid down 
 his gun, and slipping off a boot went on a voyage of 
 discovery after an aggressive flea. The poor wretches 
 are paid little or nothing, and the officers are not 
 much better off, receiving for their services paper 
 currency which the government refuses to redeem and 
 the money shavers will discount only by coaxing, at 
 fifty per cent. The principal duty of the Turkish 
 soldier stationed at Jerusalem seems to be, to keep 
 peace between the contending factions of Christian at 
 the holy places. 
 
 At the Church of the Nativity, only fourteen feet 
 from the manger where our Savior was born, I 
 observed a soldier on guard, and on asking why he 
 was stationed there of all places in the world was told, 
 "to keep the peace between the Christians," who, 
 without such precaution being taken, would come to 
 blows at the drop of a hat. It has required armed 
 
380 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 interference more than once to separate these fanatics. 
 The keys of the Holy Sepulchre, where the various 
 sects have each a chapel, are in the custody of two 
 or three Moslem sheiks, who occupy a divan near the 
 main entrance. 
 
 I was told that in Palestine any epicurean propen- 
 sities of mine in the way of variety of food would be 
 subjected to serious denial. I confess to a disappoint- 
 ment in being deprived of ice ; and as for butter — well, 
 Alexandria destroyed my taste for that, so that I have 
 been forced to seek the acquaintance of dry bread. 
 
 After getting a good look at the cattle of this country, 
 descendents of those famous herds of Jacob, I presume, 
 that adorned once a thousand hills, I concluded to 
 discard beef also. This reduced the bill of fare to 
 mutton and fowl. As I don't relish the former, and 
 the very sight of stewed poulet brings on nausea, I am 
 compelled to subsist principally on grapes. They are 
 abundant here and delicious. Pomegranates are in 
 large supply, but they are an "acquired taste'' and 
 life is short. 
 
CHAPTER XLVI. 
 
 THE HOLY SEPULCHRE THE GREEK FESTIVAL OF THE 
 
 HOLY FIRE. 
 
 I had not been in Palestine many hours before I be- 
 gan to realize the difficulty of ascertaining beyond dis- 
 pute where fact ended and speculation commenced. 
 Almost every object of interest here is wrought in un- 
 certainty, and one finds himself groping in the dark 
 after the truth, notwithstanding the labors to elucidate 
 the same by careful archaeologists. 
 
 Hundreds of volumes have been written in the vain 
 effort to establish theories that would stand the test 
 of the Bible account, and in other respects carry con- 
 viction with them, as to the precise location where the 
 startling events, closing with the ascension of Christ, 
 actually took place ; but after all has been said and 
 done, one is compelled to exercise more than a modi- 
 cum of blind faith in accepting for truth the numerous 
 places pointed out as genuine. 
 
 Now, take the Holy Sepulchre for instance, for the 
 possession of which rivers of blood have been shed. 
 
382 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 In a limited space, containing an area of less than half 
 that comprised in one of our city blocks, the great and 
 awful tragedy of the crucifixion is located. Here, under 
 one roof — the church of the Holy Sepulchre — is shown 
 the spot where the three crosses were erected, the place 
 of anointment, designated by a marble slab, where pil- 
 grims bring material and take the measurement for 
 their own winding sheet ; also, the place from which 
 the women witnessed the ceremony. 
 
 Beneath the dome stands the chapel of Angels and 
 the Holy Sepulchre. The two combined occupy a 
 space of about sixteen by twenty -two feet and sixteen 
 feet in height. Entering the first named chamber, we 
 observed a marble pedestal near the center, marking 
 the spot where the "Angel rolled the stone from the 
 door and sat upon it." Stooping down we entered the 
 chapel built over the "Sepulchre that was hewn in 
 stone, wherein never man before was laid." It is con- 
 cealed by a marble slab laid in the middle ages, 
 covering a cavity said to have been a tomb cut in the 
 rock and arched over. But to add strength to the 
 claims set up, other tombs not concealed from the 
 public eye, said to be those of Joseph of Arimathea 
 and Mcodenius close by, are shown, and if these are 
 genuine, it is strong proof in favor of the assertion. 
 To my mind the convincing testimony rests on the 
 proof, of whether the Golgotha of St. Helena lay 
 within the walls of the ancient city or without. At 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 383 
 
 the present time it is within the walls of the city and 
 John says "the place where Jesus was crucified was 
 nigh to the city," and further along he says that " in 
 the place where He was crucified there was a garden, 
 in the garden a sepulchre wherein was never man yet 
 laid," and that " there they laid Jesus." Now it is 
 generally believed that since the days of Solomon no 
 burials have been permitted inside the walls. From 
 the fact that much debris was found to the west of the 
 church of the sepulchre, and but little to the east, 
 conclusions are drawn that the old wall must have run 
 between the city and Golgotha. This would greatly 
 restrict the limits of the city, which Josephus says 
 contained over a million of people at the time Titus 
 made his attack, and as the walls at the present time 
 are only two miles and a half in circumference it is hard 
 to understand this statement. 
 
 Now just outside the wall is a high hill, called the 
 New Calvary. It is shaped something like a skull, 
 and contains the reputed tomb of Jeremiah and other 
 rock tombs. General Gordon spent some eight months 
 here making investigations, and before leaving here to 
 meet a cruel death in the Upper Nile region, expressed 
 his belief freely that this was the genuine Mount 
 Calvary. Many others are of the same opinion, 
 including the American consul. 
 
 In connection with the Church of the Holy Sepulchre 
 is the cave, now a chapel, and beneath this a cistern 
 
384 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 where St. Helena found, some three hundred years 
 after the crucifixion, three wooden crosses. In order 
 to discover which was the Savior's, she laid first one, 
 then the other, on a dead body, and the true cross was 
 revealed to her when the corpse, with which it came in 
 contact, at once sprung into life. Another account is 
 that a lady was sick, and the virtues that were in the 
 three crosses was tested — something in the manner of 
 the modern mad-stone. Two of them would not 
 "take hold," but when her touch came in contact with 
 the third, miraculous properties were so convincing 
 that there could no longer be any doubt that this 
 was the identical cross upon which the Son of Man was 
 crucified. It was hewn in pieces and distributed 
 amongst several churches where it is shown to this 
 day. 
 
 A gentleman of the Latin church, who resides here, 
 observing my skepticism, as the guide was detailing 
 the marvelous story, explained that the cross was made 
 of cypress — a resinous wood that would keep in a dis- 
 used cistern for centuries; that the material in them 
 was not skimped so that, on being cut into pieces, the 
 supply would be enough to go around. Then, to give 
 tone and vigor to his argument, he advanced the the- 
 ory that it would be quite natural to gather up these 
 crosses and store them away in such a convenient 
 place, and I admitted that it would. 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 385 
 
 The absurdities connected with this interesting place 
 detract much from its otherwise sacred character. For 
 instance, a brass slide about five feet away from the 
 cross, reveals, on being pushed aside, a cleft in a rock. 
 Here, it is said, stood the cross of the penitent thief, 
 and the cleft reaches down to the center of the earth. 
 They show the grave of Adam, and relate that the 
 blood of Christ flowed through a cleft in the rock until 
 it reached his skull, when it leaped to the surface, thus 
 giving him the power of resurrection. The skull seen 
 in pictures of the crucifixion has relation to this tradi- 
 tion. 
 
 During the Easter festival, the Church of the Sepul- 
 chre is crowded ; and, considering that four different 
 denominations hold high carnival here, and that stand- 
 ing room only is to be had, much confusion and uproar 
 occurs. In 1834 six thousand persons were here as- 
 sembled, when a riot broke out, which called for mili- 
 tary interference, and in the melee that followed three 
 hundred pilgrims lost their lives. In this connection 
 I may be pardoned for quoting from Dean Stanley * 
 what he beheld here during the Easter festivities, when 
 the ceremony of the Holy Fire is enacted. 
 
 ■" The chapel of the Sepulchre rises from a dense 
 mass of pilgrims, who sit or stand wedged around it ; 
 whilst round them and between another equally dense 
 mass, which goes round the walls of the church itself, 
 
 * Picturesque Palestine, D. Appleton & Co., New York. 
 
 25 
 
386 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 a lane is formed by two lines, or rather two circles, of 
 Turkish soldiers stationed to keep order. For the 
 spectacle which is about to take place, nothing can be 
 better suited than the form of the rotunda, giving gal- 
 leries above for the spectators and an open space below 
 for the pilgrims and their festival. For the next two 
 hours everything is tranquil. Nothing indicates what 
 is coming, except that two or three pilgrims who have 
 got close to the aperture keep their hands fixed in it 
 with a clench never relaxed. It is about noon that 
 this line is suddenly broken through by a tangled 
 group, rushing violently around till they are caught 
 by one of the Turkish soldiers. It seems to be the be- 
 lief of the Arab Greeks that unless they run round the 
 sepulchre a certain number of times the fire will not 
 come. 
 
 " Possibly, also, there is some reminiscence of the 
 funeral games and races round the tomb of an ancient 
 chief. Accordingly, the night before and from this 
 time forward, for two hours, a succession of gambols 
 takes place, which an Englishman can only compare 
 to a mixture of prisoner's base, foot-ball, and leap-frog, 
 round and round the Holy Sepulchre. First he sees 
 these tangled masses of twenty, thirty, fifty men start- 
 ing in a run, catching hold of each other, lifting one 
 of themselves on their shoulders, sometimes on their 
 heads, and rushing on with him until he leaps off, and 
 some one else succeeds ; some of them dressed in sheep 
 skins, some almost naked, one usually preceding the 
 rest as a fugleman, clapping his hands, to which they 
 respond in like manner, adding also wild howls, of 
 which the chief burden is ' This is the tomb of Jesus 
 Christ ! God save the Sultan ! Jesus Christ has re- 
 deemed us!' 
 
 " What begins in the lesser groups soon grows in 
 magnitude and extent, till at last the whole of the cir- 
 cle between the troops is continued occupied by a race, 
 a whirl, a torrent of these wild figures, like the 
 witches' Sabbath in ' Faust,' wheeling round the Sep- 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 387 
 
 ulchre. Gradually the frenzy subsides, or is checked, 
 the course is cleared, and out of the Greek Church on 
 the east of the Kotunda a long procession with em- 
 broidered banners, supplying in their ritual the want 
 of images, begins to defile around the Sepulchre. 
 
 " From this moment the excitement, which has been 
 before confined to the runners and dancers becomes 
 universal. Hedged in by soldiers, the two huge 
 masses of pilgrims still remain in their places, all 
 joining, however, in a wild succession of yells, through 
 which are caught from time to time, strangely, almost 
 affectingly, mingled, the chants of the procession — the 
 solemn chants of the church of Basil and Chrysostom 
 mingled with the yells of savages. Thrice the pro- 
 cession passes round ; at the third time the two lines of 
 Turkish soldiers join and fall in behind. One great 
 movement sways the multitude from side to side. The 
 crisis of the day is now approaching. The presence of 
 the Turks is believed to prevent the descent of fire, 
 and at this point it is that they are driven out of the 
 church. In every direction the raging mob bursts in 
 upon the troops who pour out of the church at the 
 southeast corner. The procession is broken through, 
 the banners stagger and waver. They stagger, and 
 waver, and fall, amidst the flight of priests, bishops 
 and standard-bearers hither and thither before the 
 tremendous rush. 
 
 "In one small but compact band the Bishop of Patra 
 (who is on this occasion the Bishop of 'The Fire,' the 
 representative of the patriarch) is hurried to the 
 Chapel of the Sepulchre, and the door is closed behind 
 him. The whole church is now one heaving sea of 
 heads. One vacant spot alone is left — a narrow lane 
 from the aperture on the north side of *the chapel to the 
 wall of the church. By the aperture itself stands a 
 priest to catch the fire; on each side of the lane 
 hundreds of bare arms are stretched out like the 
 branches of a leafless forest — like the branches of a 
 forest quivering in some violent tempest 
 
388 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 "At last the moment comes. A bright flame as of 
 burning wood appears inside the hole — the light, as 
 every educated Greek knows and acknowledges, 
 kindled by the bishop within — the light, as every pil- 
 grim believes, of the descent of God himself upon the 
 Holy Tomb. Any distinct feature or incident is lost in 
 the universal whirl of excitement which envelops the 
 church as slowly, gradually, the fire spreads from 
 hand to hand, from taper to taper through that vast 
 multitude till at last the whole edifice from gallery to 
 gallery and through the area below, is one wide blaze 
 of thousands of burning candles. It is now that, 
 according to some accounts, the bishop or patriarch is 
 carried out of the chapel in triumph, on the shoulders 
 of the people, in a fainting state, 'to give the impres- 
 sion that he is overcome by the glory of the Almighty, 
 from whose immediate presence he is supposed to 
 come.' It is now that the great rush to escape from 
 the rolling smoke and suffocating heat, and to carry 
 the lighted tapers into the streets and houses of 
 Jerusalem through the one entrance to the church, 
 leads at times to the violent pressure which in 1834 
 cost the lives of hundreds. For a short time the 
 pilgrims run to and fro, rubbing the fire against their 
 faces and breasts to attest its supposed harmlessness. 
 
 "But the wild enthusiasm terminates from the 
 moment that the fire is communicated; and, perhaps, 
 not the least extraordinary part of the spectacle is the 
 rapid and total subsidence of a frenzy so intense — the 
 contrast of the furious agitation of the morning with 
 profound relapse of the evening, when the church is 
 once again filled — through the area of the rotunda, 
 the chapels of Copt and Syrian, the subterranean 
 church of Helena, the great nave of Constantine's 
 basilica, the stairs and platform of Calvary itself, with 
 the many churches above — every part, except the one 
 chapel of the Latin church, filled and overlaid by one 
 mass of pilgrims, wrapt in deep sleep and waiting for 
 the midnight service. 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 389 
 
 "Such is tli e Greek Easter — the great moral argu- 
 ment against the identity of the spot which it professes 
 to honor — stripped, indeed, of some of its most revolting 
 features, yet still, considering the place, the time, and 
 the intention of the professed miracle, probably the 
 most offensive imposture to be found in the world. 
 
CHAPTER XLVII. 
 
 THE CCENACULUM GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE — HARAM 
 
 ESH SHERIF. 
 
 Outside of the city, by the Zion gate southward, on 
 the present site of an Armenian monastery, once stood 
 the house of Caiphas, the high priest ; a closet of small 
 dimensions is shown where Christ was imprisoned. 
 The altar in the chapel contains a stone which is said 
 to be the one the angels rolled away from the door of 
 the sepulchre, and which, like the toe of St. Peter, at 
 Rome, is worn by frequent kissing. The spot where 
 Peter denied his Master, and the court where the cock 
 crew, are also pointed out. In this locality, also, is the 
 coenaculum, or chamber of the Last Supper, on the 
 first floor, reached by a flight of stairs on the outside. 
 This is also said to be the burial spot of David and 
 Solomon, the exact location of which is shown on en- 
 tering another chamber by a short flight of steps. 
 Looking through a grated window we beheld nothing 
 but a green cloth that conceals the sarcophagus of 
 King David. Miss Barclay, who by strategy gained 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 391 
 
 admittance " behind the scenes," thus describes her 
 experience : 
 
 " The room is insignificant in its dimensions, but is 
 furnished gorgeously. The tomb is apparently an im- 
 mense sarcophagus of rough stone, and is covered by 
 green satin tapestry, richly embroidered with gold. 
 To this a piece of black velvet is attached with a few 
 inscriptions from the Koran, embroidered also in gold. 
 A satin canopy of red, blue, green, and yellow stripes 
 hangs over the tomb, and another piece of black vel- 
 vet tapestry, embroidered in silver, covers a door in 
 one end of the room, which, they said, leads to a cave 
 underneath. Two tall silver candlesticks stand before 
 this door, and a little lamp hangs in a window near it, 
 which is kept constantly burning, and whose wick, 
 though saturated with oil — and I dare say a most nau- 
 seous dose — my devotional companion eagerly swal- 
 lowed, muttering to herself a prayer with many a genu- 
 flection. She then, in addition to their usual forms of 
 prayer, prostrated herself before the tomb, raised the 
 covering, pressed her forehead to the stone, and then 
 kissed it many times. The ceiling of the room is 
 vaulted, and the walls covered in blue porcelain, in 
 floral figures. Having remained here an hour or more 
 and completed my sketch, we left ; and great was my 
 rejoicing when I found myself once more at home, out 
 of danger, and still better, out of my awkward cos- 
 tume." 
 
 The walls we inspected were so closely covered with 
 names and inscriptions of tourists, visiting Jews and 
 Moslems, that it was with some difficulty the pilgrims 
 from the Nile of America could find sufficient blank 
 space on which to leave their autographs — but it is 
 there notwithstanding. Both Jews and Moslems be- 
 lieve it to be the tomb of David. Its exact location 
 
392 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 was no secret in the days of Josephus, who says he 
 was buried in Jerusalem, by Solomon with great pomp 
 and in great magnificence, immense wealth being de- 
 posited in the tomb with him, so that, many centuries 
 afterwards, Hyrcanus, the high priest, when he was 
 besieged by Antiochus the Pious, in order to buy off 
 the besiegers, opened the sepulchre of David and took 
 out gold equivalent to five millions and a half of dol- 
 lars, and that subsequently "King Herod opened an- 
 other room and took away a great deal of money, and 
 yet neither of them came at the coffins of the kings 
 themselves, for their bodies were buried under the 
 earth so artfully that they did not appear even to those 
 that entered into their monuments." If this state- 
 ment of the great Jewish historian can be relied upon, 
 then was this peculiar people superior to the ancient 
 Egyptians in secreting their honored dead, and with 
 their remains the portable wealth they had acquired. 
 The Garden of Gethsemane lies east of Jerusalem 
 across the narrow valley of Jehoshaphat — a distance, 
 I should judge, of one-eighth of a mile. On the way to 
 it we pass the spot where Stephen was stoned just out- 
 side the city walls. Then the so-called tomb of the 
 Virgin appears on our left, and that of Absalom, which 
 is on the monumental style and ancient, is some dis- 
 tance down the valley. The Garden of Gethsemane 
 is a veritable garden belonging to the Franciscans. 
 The buildings, however, take up considerable ground, 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 393 
 
 so that the garden does not occupy a space much larger 
 than a lady would desire for her flower beds. It con- 
 tains, amongst other things, seven venerable olive 
 trees, one of them nearly twenty feet in circumference. 
 From the nature of the country or the lay of the 
 land, one could be easily persuaded that here at least 
 there was no deception. A fragment of a column 
 marks the spot where Judas betrayed the Son of Man 
 with a kiss, and the place is also indicated where the 
 apostles slept. Due east from the garden the stony 
 precipitous path leads up to the Mount of Olives or 
 Mount Olivet, which is often mentioned in the New Tes- 
 tament, and being the highest elevation around, one gets 
 the best panoramic view of the Holy City from here. It 
 is noted more particularly, and revered as the place 
 from whence the Savior ascended up to heaven. The 
 exact spot, of course, is pointed out, covered by a 
 mosque built in 1835. The location of the ascension 
 is not in accordance with scripture. Luke says : 
 "And He led them out as far as to Bethany .... 
 and while He blessed them He was parted from them 
 and was carried up into heaven." The Russians have a 
 monastery here and a handsome bell tower, which I 
 have seen from the banks of the Jordan, twenty miles 
 away. It is the first object that greets the eye coming 
 from Jaffa. Bethany is a dilapidated village on the 
 way to Jericho, not more than a mile from the Mount 
 of Olives. Here you are pointed out the ruins of the 
 
394 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 house of Simon the Leper, and close by the site of the 
 home of Mary and Martha. The tomb where Lazarus 
 was raised from the dead is hewn into the rock and is 
 probably genuine. Coming back to the city we enter 
 by the Jaffa gate — the most important at the present 
 time of the seven gates through which the city may be 
 entered. It is the only one that is left open after sun- 
 down. To the right, as before stated, is the citadel of 
 David ; obtaining a permit to enter it from the governor, 
 through the courtesy of our consul, who kindly fur- 
 nished a cavas, or Turkish orderly under his employ, 
 we cross the bridge over the moat, and, passing by 
 numerous antiquated Turkish guns, heaps of cannon 
 balls, and groups of lounging soldiers, we climb several 
 nights of stairs to the battlements. This is the highest 
 outlook to be attained from Mount Zion or in fact any 
 other elevation within the walls. It is a grand place 
 from which to fix in one's mind the precise locations of 
 the various objects that one comes to Jerusalem to see. 
 From here you observe that the church of the Holy 
 Sepulchre is not far from the center of the city, and 
 that the space it occupies dwarfs your preconceived 
 ideas of the extent of Mount Calvary. 
 
 Tradition says King David built a palace here. 
 When Titus destroyed the city, A. D. 70, there was a 
 strong citadel on this spot which he allowed to stand, 
 but in the numerous sieges which Jerusalem under- 
 went — seventy in all from the time of David — it shared 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 395 
 
 the general fate of all structures in Jerusalem, and 
 from the foundation up, the present walls perhaps date 
 only from the fourteenth century. 
 
 Facing is £he Mediterranean hotel, the Bishop's house 
 — an appendage of the hotel — the offices of the United 
 States consul and Thos. Cook & Son. These occupy an 
 angle where some space is allowed for streets, and is the 
 only decent place within the walls of the city for a civ- 
 ilized man to stop. Leaving this angle we follow David 
 street, which becomes narrow and difficult of passage as 
 previously stated and wend our way to the Haram esh 
 Sherif — as the extensive artificial plateau where once 
 stood the temple of Solomon, is called. 
 
 As we marched through the narrow crowded street I 
 fancied we were creating something of a sensation, for 
 the reason that our dragoman thought it incumbent 
 upon him to move in state ; hence he had procured the 
 services of the consul's cavas, an exceedingly handsome 
 Turk, bedecked in all the finery which a lucrative office 
 paying a salary of sixty -two and a half cents a day would 
 warrant. He marched at the head of the column with 
 drawn sword, and if an Arab failed to get out of his 
 way he received a blow from the broad side of it, that 
 made several of them grit their teeth — in silence 
 
 Presently we halted at a station where a soldier was 
 detailed to accompany us. The procession then marched 
 in the following order: first the cavas, second the sol- 
 dier, third the Kansas pilgrims, fourth the dragoman, 
 
396 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 and last a superannuated old dragoman from Circassia 
 who speaks English quite well, and had rendered great 
 service, he claims, to men of the Barclay and Bobin- 
 son stamp, but now in his old age, serves in the menial 
 capacity of boots, or the next thing to it. He carried 
 the slippers provided for the party, without which we 
 would be denied admittance to the sacred precincts of 
 the Moslems, or else make the venture in stocking- 
 feet. In this order we pass the reputed Pool of 
 Bethesda and soon ascend the broad white steps to the 
 paved plateau of Haram esh Sherif where rises up 
 before us the most unique building, as well as the pret- 
 tiest structure in Jerusalem — the Kubbet es Sakhra, 
 or Dome of the Bock, erroneously called the Mosque 
 of Omar. 
 
 It is an octagonal building, the outer walls of which 
 are veneered with blue and porcelain tiling, very pleas- 
 ing to the eye. It is surmounted by a huge dome cov- 
 ered with lead, the design of which was copied from 
 the dome of the church of the Sepulchre. Up to 1854 
 none but the followers of Mahomet were permitted to 
 enter its doors. As this was our first introduction to 
 a mosque, the novelty of seeing a place of worship 
 built on a different plan from the basilica style, which 
 had grown monotonous, was truly refreshing. It is 
 generally conceded that this celebrated mosque occu- 
 pies the site of Solomon's temple. As a place of inter- 
 est it still antedates that remote period, for it was here 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 397 
 
 on Mount Moriah that Abraham prepared the altar for 
 the sacrifice of his son Isaac, and David afterwards 
 purchased the ground, which was a threshing floor, to 
 offer sacrifices to the Lord. 
 
 After the destruction of the temple by Nebuchad- 
 nezzer, Zorobabel rebuilt it, but on a less magnificent 
 scale. This temple was torn down by friendly hands, 
 and a third one, erected by Herod, was the one of 
 which Christ said, " Not one stone shall be left upon 
 another." How literally the prophecy has been 
 fulfilled! Titus desired that it should escape 
 destruction, but the curse of God was upon it. A 
 soldier of the Roman legions threw a fire brand into 
 it, and from that day until now the Jews have had no 
 temple at Jerusalem. 
 
 The Roman Emperor Hadrian, who rebuilt Jerusa- 
 lem and called it iElia, also built a heathen temple to 
 Jupiter on this site, and it is recorded that as late as 
 the fourth century a statue of Jupiter and Hadrian 
 was found here and a statue of Venus on the Holy 
 Sepulchre. It is true that under Emperor Julian the 
 Jews were permitted to build another temple, but if 
 the}^ availed themselves of the privilege the attempt 
 was so feeble as not to be worthy of notice. 
 
 The Crusaders besieged and captured the Holy City 
 in 1099 and held it for eighty-eight years. It was 
 wrested from them b}^ Saladin in 1187, and subse- 
 quently falling into other hands, finally became 
 
398 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 subject to the Moslems, who have held it continuously 
 since 1244. In 1800 Napoleon set out to capture 
 Jerusalem, but abandoned the undertaking, perhaps 
 thinking the game not worth the powder. The Mosque 
 or Dome of the Rock dates from the seventh century. 
 Leaving our shoes at the door, which is of bronze, as 
 are likewise the other three doors, facing the four 
 cardinal points of the compass, we observe in the rather 
 dim light that filters through the curiously wrought 
 windows of colored glass, two rows of marble columns 
 forming an octagonal aisle. The columns are not all 
 of the same design, and have evidently been used in 
 other edifices. It is said that some of them stood in 
 Herod's temple, but more likely they are from the 
 temple of Jupiter. Inside the inner row of columns 
 which support the dome, is an enclosure about five feet 
 high and more than fifty feet in diameter. This encloses 
 the Holy Rock, the actual measurement of which is 
 fifty-seven feet long, forty-three feet wide and six and 
 one-half feet above the pavement. This rock is the 
 most sacred place in the world to the Jews, and the 
 Moslems regard it next to the Caaba at Mecca. The 
 Jews believe the ark of the covenant once stood here, 
 that it was here concealed by Jeremiah and still lies 
 buried beneath the rock. To them it is holy ground 
 and they never walk the pavements of the mosque for 
 fear of treading on the Holy of Holies, which at one 
 period of their history meant sudden death. Not long 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 399 
 
 ago it was deemed necessary to make some repairs 
 inside the dome, and as the Jews are the only skilled 
 workmen hereabouts, their services were demanded. 
 But thej 7 absolutely refused to enter the mosque at 
 any price. However, their conscientious scruples were 
 overcome at last, and they consented to do the work 
 provided they were carried back and forth on the shoul- 
 ders of the Moslems. 
 
 The Moslems reverence the rock because Abraham 
 sacrificed here, and they are just as proud — the Bed- 
 ouin portion — of having " Abraham to their father " 
 as the Jews, notwithstanding the scurvy trick he 
 played the mother of their race when he set her and 
 her illegitimate son down in the wilderness to starve. 
 
 From this rock Mahomet ascended to heaven on the 
 back of his miraculous steed, El Burak, the hoof prints 
 of which are still seen in the rock. The rock was desi- 
 rous of entering paradise with the prophet, but the 
 angel Gabriel shoved it back, and the imprint of his 
 hands still remain on its surface. They claim that the 
 rock hangs over the abyss, without material support 
 other than a slender column, which you observe to the 
 right in a leaning position, as you descend to the grotto 
 underneath, where Abraham, David, Solomon, Elijah, 
 and Mahomet resorted for prayer. The bottom of the 
 cave sounds hollow, and in the roof is a circular hole, 
 which gives the whole thing away, stamping it as noth- 
 ing more than an ancient cistern. 
 
400 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 The interior of the mosque is handsomely embel- 
 lished with mosaics of exquisite workmanship, some 
 of it quite antique. In front of the north entrance a 
 small slab of jasper is set in the floor "in which Ma- 
 homet drove nineteen golden nails. A nail falls out at 
 the end of each epoch, and when all are gone the end 
 of the world will arrive." They show you but three 
 nails and a half, all that were saved by the angel Ga- 
 briel, who one day caught the devil destroying them, 
 and arrived at the dome just in time to avert a terri- 
 ble catastrophe. When the crusaders beheld the 
 mosque they were electrified, and thought it was the 
 veritable temple of Solomon. 
 
 The Knights Templar here came into existence and 
 adopted the dome of the rock as part of their armorial 
 bearings. Walking across the plateau eastward we 
 pass the beautiful little pavilion called David's Place 
 of Judgment, and descending a few steps come to a 
 fountain that was fed by water from Solomon's pools, 
 of which I shall have something to say hereafter. In 
 front of this is Mosque El Aksa, once a Christian 
 basilica, founded by the Emperor Justinian. It is 
 much used as a place of w6rship by the Moslems. In 
 the apse two small foot-prints in a stone are shown as 
 those of Jesus, when at the age of twelve years he was 
 found in the temple "in the midst of the doctors hear- 
 ing them and asking questions." This basilica does 
 not differ materially from others described in former 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 401 
 
 letters, except that it has been somewhat modified to 
 suit the religious exercises of a different faith. There 
 is a large window here looking out into the valley of 
 Jehoshaphat and the brook Kidron. One obtains a 
 good view also of the village of Siloam, beneath which 
 is the pool of that name. I mention this window more 
 for the reason of relating the superstitious practice 
 connected with it, than for any merit that it possesses 
 as a work of art. On the wires that form the meshes 
 of the screen flutter hundreds of odds and ends of old 
 rags tied there by persons afflicted with diseases. It is 
 said to have the same effect on them that an applica- 
 tion of stump-water has on warts. 
 
 There is one other point of interest left to describe 
 (not that I have exhausted the subject by any means), 
 and that is the wailing place of the Jews. Picking 
 our way on a Friday evening, just before the Jews' 
 Sabbath, through narrow streets of filth and rubbish, 
 confronted on all sides by abject poverty and persist- 
 ent beggary, we arrived in a narrow passage, on one 
 side of which rises a high ancient wall constructed of 
 massive stone to support the filling of the Temple 
 platform. Here sights and sounds greeted us that 
 were novel enough to satisfy even the taste of one on 
 whom sight-seeing had begun to pall. Jews of differ- 
 ent nationalities and various stations in life, many 
 in tatters and some in silks, had congregated as was 
 their custom, to bewail and lament in piteous accents 
 
402 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 the misfortunes of Zion. All had their faces turned to 
 the wall, the women lamenting in tones of sorrow, the 
 men swaying their bodies back and forth and reading 
 aloud from the Hebrew book in their hands. I doubt 
 if a similar sight can be witnessed in the world outside 
 the walls of Jerusalem. Rothschild when he. was here 
 was much impressed with the poverty and wretch- 
 edness of his race in Palestine, and has done much to 
 ameliorate its condition in the way of erecting com- 
 modious buildings for hospitals and homes for indi- 
 gent Jews. 
 
CHAPTER XL VIII. 
 
 THE TOMBS OF THE PROPHETS TOPHET — RACHEL'S TOMB 
 
 ' — SOLOMON 7 S POOLS BETHLEHEM. 
 
 Our visit to Palestine, unfortunately for us, was ill- 
 timed on account of tire unusual heat that prevailed 
 in this latitude during the whole time of our sojourn 
 in Palestine, making it exceedingly uncomfortable and 
 dangerous to the health of persons of northern habita- 
 tion to be exposed to the fierce rays of the sun. The 
 nights were far from cool — being favorable to the noc- 
 turnal attacks of fleas and mosquitoes ; all of which 
 combined was not conducive to that repose of mind 
 and body so needful where the duties assumed partake 
 of the nature of severe and exhausting toil. Our op- 
 portunities for sight-seeing were confined to the morn- 
 ings, and the evenings after four o'clock. The inter- 
 mediate time we staid indoors and sought in vain to 
 keep cool. 
 
 Our first trip outside of the city was to the tombs 
 of the judges and kings. The former lie distant from 
 the walls of the city about a mile and a half, in a 
 northerly course, and the latter about half that dis- 
 
404 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 tance. The path leading to them reminds me of the 
 words of warning on a finger board in Virginia : 
 " This road is not passable; not even jackassable;" 
 but by stress of holding on hard to the saddle of the 
 donkey we accomplished the feat, and were amply re- 
 paid. These tombs are hollowed out of the solid rock. 
 You are admitted, by stooping a little, into a room 
 about sixteen feet square. In two of the corners are 
 choked up stairways, and on three sides are excava- 
 tions, each of them large enough to admit the stone 
 coffin, or sarcophagus, in which the ancient Jews of 
 distinction were buried. 
 
 The tomb of the kings is on a grander scale, the 
 rubbish having been removed only of late years to per- 
 mit a thorough investigation. You first enter a gate 
 and then descend a number of broad stone steps. 
 These lead to a water cavern or cistern, but turning 
 to the left you enter a spacious court yard cut in the 
 solid rock. On one side is a portal with an ancient 
 Jewish inscription and remains of pillars strewn 
 around. At the entrance to the tomb is a large circu- 
 lar stone bearing some resemblance to a rough hewn 
 grindstone. This could be rolled back and forth in a 
 groove, effectually opening or closing the entrance 
 when desired. ■' And they said among themselves, 
 who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the 
 sepulchre?" Our guide rolled the stone away for us, 
 and lighting candles, we passed from one chamber into 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 405 
 
 another, each of which contained either shelves or re- 
 cesses for depositing the dead. In one of these the 
 French discovered an elegant sarcophagus, which is 
 on exhibition at the Louvre. There is a vast number 
 of these tombs and sepulchres lying adjacent to 
 Jerusalem. 
 
 The town of Bethlehem, in which our Savior was 
 born, is due south from Jerusalem, a distance of four 
 or five miles. We took a hack as far as the tomb of 
 Rachel, which is on the main road to Hebron, and 
 within a half mile of Bethlehem, and there mounted 
 donkeys for Solomon's Pool, lying about three miles 
 further on. Whenever donkeys or horses are rendered 
 necessary in getting about, just take it for granted that 
 there is only a path, that it is steep and stony, and 
 progress slow. For this reason distance is meas- 
 ured here by the hour, and not by the mile. The 
 horses and donkeys have but one gait, and that a slow 
 walk. 
 
 On our right, after leaving Jerusalem, we pass 
 through the Valley of Hinnom, with the " Hill of Evil 
 Counsel " on our right where, it is said, Caiphas took 
 counsel with the Jews how he might slay Jesus. In 
 this valley children, in the days of wicked kings, were 
 sacrificed to the god Moloch. It has been designated 
 in the Scriptures as Tophet and Gehenna. Here we 
 crossed a bridge where a number of lepers were sitting, 
 who piteously showed their deformities and asked for 
 
406 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 alms, which were thrown to them at long range ; then 
 in succession we passed the neat, trim looking village 
 of the German colony and the hospital for lepers, be- 
 yond which is the plain of Rephraim, " where the As- 
 syrian came down like the wolf on the fold," as Byron 
 sings, but the boastful Senacherib retreated in great 
 consternation without drawing a bow. In a single 
 night " one hundred and four score and five thousand " 
 of that grand .army of invasion stricken with the 
 plague." melted like snow in the glance of the Lord." 
 
 The tomb of Rachel is a white stone building with 
 a dome after the usual style in vogue with the 
 Moslems, and contains a sarcophagus said to be quite 
 modern. " And Rachel died and was buried in the 
 way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem. And Jacob set 
 a pillar upon her grave, that is the pillar of Rachels 
 grave unto this day." Notwithstanding the fact that 
 tradition locates the spot here, and that Moslems, Jews 
 and Christians all revere it as genuine, there are yet 
 many doubting Thomases. 
 
 As related above, we mount the donkeys here for the 
 pools of Solomon, which consist of three large reser- 
 voirs, partly hewn out of the rock and pieced out with 
 masonry. The pools are not on the same level, but are 
 so constructed that the second and third successively 
 flow into the first, being fed by at least four springs 
 which burst from the hillside in copious streams, not, 
 however, in quantities sufficient to keep even one of 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 407 
 
 these immense reservoirs full at this time of year ; but 
 when the rainy season sets in the volume of water 
 from the springs is much increased. Leading from the 
 pools all the way to Jerusalem is a conduit of mason 
 work that follows the undulations of the surface, 
 showing that whoever constructed this remarkable 
 water main understood the principle of forcing water 
 when confined in pipes from a depression to an eleva- 
 tion. At intervals square vents, large enough to re- 
 ceive an ordinary pail had been cut, wherein the 
 crystal water came to the surface but no farther, and 
 it is a mystery to me why it did not spurt up and 
 waste the flow of water at the first one, instead of 
 flowing peacefully on, for these openings occurred both 
 in the elevations and depressions. We followed it all 
 the way to Bethlehem, by a route different, however, 
 from the one which brought us hither. The reser- 
 voirs differ in size somewhat, the dimensions of the 
 lowest, which, is also the largest, being five hundred 
 and seventy-two feet long, one hundred and forty-sev- 
 en feet wide at the top, two hundred and seven feet at 
 the bottom and forty-eight feet deep. It is really 
 questionable if Solomon constructed these pools at all, 
 the only authority quoted being from Ecclesiastes 
 whose authorship is ascribed to Solomon, wherein he 
 says: " I made me pools of water, to water therewith 
 the wood thatbringeth forth trees;" which would seem 
 
408 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 to indicate that they were constructed for purposes of 
 irrigation, and not as a water supply for Jerusalem. 
 
 A mile or so from the pools following the conduit, 
 but deep down in a narrow valley, is a very fertile 
 stretch of land occupied with gardens and orchards, 
 irrigated from this conduit. The eye, relieved from the 
 barren, rocky hills that enclose it, lingers here with 
 delight. Some say that here Solomon had located his 
 gardens and "planted trees in them of all kinds of 
 fruit." 
 
 It has only been a few years since this property was 
 purchased with English money, for the purpose of 
 creating a field for agricultural labor, that shall give 
 regular employment to Christian Jews and demon- 
 strate the possibilities of the soil under a system of ir- 
 rigation, and the capability of the society to maintain 
 it successfully for a series of years. What is now a 
 smiling garden was then but a barren ravine, and it 
 required many days of wearisome toil to get every- 
 thing in condition to commence seeding. In due time 
 the earth brought forth its fruits, but before any of the 
 vegetables had been marketed in Jerusalem, some evil 
 minded persons one night opened a vent in the Pools 
 of Solomon, flooding the little valley and washing away 
 all the loose soil, that had been so slowly, so laborious- 
 ly, yet so hopefully accumulated, and with it the entire 
 crop, which a few brief hours before held out such a 
 hope of honest reward. Three days afterwards, tur- 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 409 
 
 nips from the Dead Sea, whither they had been carried 
 by the flood, were offered for sale by Bedouins in the 
 streets of Jerusalem. 
 
 It looked like a death blow to the hopes and aspira- 
 tions of the society, but they rallied from it, this time 
 cutting a ditch along the hillside and constructing a 
 levee that would present an effectual barrier to the 
 waters in the future, and conduct them in a channel 
 around their growing crops. Perseverance in this 
 instance has been no exception to the rule, and the 
 garden to-day, if not as fruitful and seductive as in 
 the day, more than twenty-eight hundred years ago, 
 when Solomon rode out in his chariot in the cool of 
 the morning, is, nevertheless, the most fertile and best 
 cultivated spot in all Palestine. 
 
 Some writers attribute the construction of the so- 
 called Solomon's Pools to Pontius Pilate, who certainly 
 was engaged in an enterprise to convey water to 
 Jerusalem. If I am allowed to advance a theory of 
 my own, I should say they were not constructed in 
 Solomon's day ; for when Senacherib was threatening 
 Jerusalem, Hezekiah the king stopped all the fountains 
 near the city and dammed up or diverted the waters 
 of the brook Kedron, in order that the Assyrian army 
 might perish of thirst, which would have been entirely 
 futile with these immense reservoirs but a few miles 
 away. 
 
410 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 Although we had taken an early start, by the time 
 we left the pool, on which, perhaps, I have dwelt too 
 long, the sun was fairly melting us, while the donkeys 
 picked their way around the boulders as leisurely as if 
 we had been metamorphosed into inanimate matter. 
 I had no spurs, and my heels were raw in jogging 
 their cast-iron sides ; it required an expert to carry an 
 umbrella, use a whip and hold up a donkey at the 
 
 same time. Mrs. S vowed it was the last time 
 
 any one would catch her on the back of a donkey. In 
 the course of events she saw fit to qualify her decision, 
 and to confine her denunciations of the quadrupeds 
 exclusively to the Syrian variety. When patience had 
 her perfect work about exhausted, we at length 
 threaded the steep, narrow, filthy streets of Bethlehem 
 and alighted more dead than alive in front of the 
 great monastery, where the Franciscan Monks won 
 our eternal gratitude by their hospitality. One of 
 them had been to Cincinnati, and when I told him I 
 was from Kansas, he wanted to know if I hailed from 
 Emporia. The idea of a pilgrim hailing from Emporia ! 
 I wondered at his stupidity in supposing that any 
 other city in Kansas except the Peerless Princess of 
 the Plains could muster up enterprise of the requisite 
 sort to be represented by a dusty, sunburned and 
 thoroughly disgusted pilgrim in the God-forsaken 
 country known as the Holy land. There, I have said 
 it and I will stand to it. A man should come to this 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 411 
 
 country of his own accord only to do penance for his 
 sins. Viewed in this light, at the time I write, I 
 think I have fully expiated mine. 
 
 After rest and refreshments we followed our drago- 
 man to the Milk Grotto, an ancient cave converted 
 into a chapel. Here it is said the Virgin concealed her- 
 self for three days with the infant Jesus, from Herod, 
 who about this time was issuing the edict to slay all 
 the babies in Bethlehem " and in all the coasts thereof," 
 hoping to spread by this means a net large enough to 
 catch what his cowardly nature conceived to be a rival 
 to his throne. 
 
 The Milk Grotto is so called and revered by this 
 legend, which is farther embellished by the story that 
 the Virgin, being overflush with the life-sustaining fluid, 
 permitted a drop of it to fall on the floor of the cave, 
 which converted the greyish blue rock into a white 
 chalky substance. Each pilgrim is expected to deposit 
 a small fee, and bear away souvenirs of the grotto 
 made into little cakes of its material, which are said 
 to possess the efficacy of producing a copious flow of 
 the lacteal fluid when powdered, mixed in water and 
 drunk. I should perhaps qualify this statement so far 
 as to add that the charm fails to work except as ap- 
 plied to mothers who find themselves " short." I have 
 stored away a supply for the exclusive benefit of 
 Wichita matrons. Lest my motives be misunderstood, 
 
412 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 I will place myself on record by stating that I am not 
 a candidate for office. 
 
 From here we returned to the monastery and de- 
 scended to another grotto, of which I wish to treat 
 with an entire absence of any spirit of levity or ex- 
 pression of irreverence, for if there is any spot in this 
 portion of the Holy Land where my fortunes have led 
 me, any one place where conviction of genuiness 
 forced itself upon my mind, and destroyed the illusions 
 of a life-time, the spot where tradition says our Savior 
 was born. 
 
 Perhaps I should have been better informed, and not 
 measured things in Palestine by an American stand- 
 ard, but from my earliest recollection I have labored 
 under the impression that Christ was born in a com- 
 mon old log stable. I know I have seen pictures por- 
 traying such structures, with the cows and the donk- 
 eys looking wild-eyed at the intrusion of those who 
 had invaded their quarters. Beading the Bible narra- 
 tive as recounted by Matthew and Luke, and bringing 
 it to bear on traditions unwritten and uninspired 
 record, there is neither inconsistency nor improba-, 
 bility, so far as I can see, in the claim that this cavern 
 which for more than sixteen hundred years has been 
 regarded as the identical spot in which our Savior was 
 born, is other than genuine. Matthew alludes to it as 
 a " house " and Luke says : " They laid Him in a man- 
 ger because there was no room for them in the inn." 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 413 
 
 The cavern, which is about forty feet long, twelve 
 feet wide, and ten feet high, has doubtless been en- 
 larged to meet the purpose of serving as a chapel. At 
 one end is an altar where lamps are kept constantly 
 burning. A few feet from this altar is the chapel of 
 the manger, not more than six by eight feet in size. 
 It contains, on the left hand, an altar adorned with a 
 painting representing the adoration of the Magi. On 
 the right hand is a manger of marble. The genuine 
 manger, St. Helena carried off to Rome. I pre- 
 sume it was of stone, like some I have seen unearthed 
 in the so-called stables of Solomon, under the temple 
 plateau at Jerusalem. 
 
 Now, the question may be asked, what has all this 
 to do with Christ being born in a stable? Simply 
 this : these caverns, which are common in all the hill 
 country of Judea, were utilized as stables then, as I 
 myself have seen them on two occasions used at the 
 present time, and the customs of these people have no 
 more changed in this respect than they have in a 
 hundred other things, since long before the event of 
 Christ's birth. 
 
 When we entered this cavern, or chapel, a priest of 
 the Greek church was swinging a burning censer, and 
 a few devout persons were kissing all the marble in 
 sight. From here one is conducted to the cell occupied 
 by St. Jerome as a hermitage when translating the 
 Bible, towards the close of the fourth century. Con- 
 
414 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 tinuing our subterranean journey we are shown a 
 round hole where water is said to have gushed from 
 the rock for the use of the Virgin. A narrow passage 
 in the rock is next pointed out, where Joseph received 
 the divine message to flee into Egypt. Descending a 
 few steps, we enter the chapel of the Innocents, where, 
 tradition says, Herod caused the death of some infants 
 who had been brought hither for safety. 
 
 After viewing the tombs of several saints, we 
 mounted the steps that lead into the old basilica — 
 the church of St. Mary, which, from the best informa- 
 tion I could glean, has been standing, keeping guard 
 over the place of the nativity, ever since the year 330, 
 when well authenticated history relates the building 
 of a church here by Constantine, thus, by common 
 consent, making this the oldest church edifice in the 
 world. It is owned jointly by the Greeks, Latins, and 
 Armenians, all three holding devotional exercises as 
 we passed through. I think I made a vow to describe 
 no more basilicas. 
 
 Bethlehem contains about five thousand people and 
 is distinguished as one of the few Christian cities of 
 Palestine. The men, so far as I could see, presented 
 no distinctive features different from their Moslem 
 neighbors. The women, however, exhibited charms of 
 person that reflects credit on their Frank forefathers, 
 the stalwart crusaders, who clung to Bethlehem with 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 415 
 
 the tenacity of a last Lope, when driven from the Holy 
 City. 
 
 One can, with a slight stretch of imagination, fancy 
 that Ruth, the Moabitess, who gleaned barley in the 
 fields over which my eyes have roved to-day. was as 
 attractive in form and feature as the dozen or more of 
 gazelle-eyed brunettes that have crossed my pathway. 
 If so, hard indeed would have been the heart of her 
 kinsman Boaz, to have refused her hand on that 
 eventful leap year morning, so graphically described 
 in the chronicle which relates how Ruth the Moabitess 
 happened to be the great-grandmother of King David. 
 
 Returning to plain matter of fact, Bethlehem in all 
 the centuries that have flown since the time of Ruth 
 has held its own better, perhaps, than any city in 
 Palestine. Its numerous artisans find employment 
 in carving relics from mother of pearl and olive wood, 
 and though ill paid, their condition is doubtless better 
 than that of thousands who are forced to spend their 
 time in idleness. After visiting the wells, of whose 
 waters David craved when hiding in the cave of 
 Adullam, we walked it down a steep hill, and there 
 met our hack, which along towards evening set us 
 down at the Jaffa gate, where the usual throng of 
 camels and camel drivers, donkeys and donkey drivers, 
 half-naked Arabs, mendicants and dogs, blocked up the 
 way and made confusion worse confounded. 
 
CHAPTER XLIX. 
 
 JERICHO THE DEAD SEA THE JORDAN. 
 
 In the foregoing I have said nothing of the Via 
 Dolorosa, or the Sorrowful Way, as it is sometimes 
 called, over which the Savior was conducted on the 
 way to crucifixion. There are something like eight 
 stations, each of which is designated by a church, 
 convent or house where the miraculous events, in no 
 instance verified by scripture, are said to have 
 occurred. 
 
 I forbear entering into detail into what has been so 
 accurately described by others and invite you to bear 
 me company to Jericho, the Jordan, and the Dead Sea. 
 
 There is no joke about the desire for company, as the 
 trip on horseback is absolutely too severe for any 
 woman unless she has the constitution and nerve of an 
 Amazon; and particularly would this apply at the 
 present time, because of the great heat prevailing. It 
 so happened that no other man cared to make the trip 
 just at this time, but with me it was now or never. 
 
 I set out at two o'clock in the morning with my 
 dragoman, a cook, and the young Arab who served as a 
 conductor of the pack train, which consisted of one 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 417 
 
 poor forlorn donkey. At Bethany our force was in- 
 creased by the addition of a Bedouin guard, armed 
 with an old shot gun and a dilapidated sabre that must 
 have seen service in the days of the crusade. It was 
 what Colonel Bill Phillips used to call a scimiter. 
 
 The descent from Bethany to the Apostles' well is 
 by sharp turns of a perpendicular character and a 
 road bed covered with loose and jagged stones, render- 
 ing progress both -slow and unsafe, especially when 
 made in the dark. About half way down we 
 encountered a string of camels toiling up the hill, but 
 so noiseless was their approach, by reason of their 
 cushioned feet which gave no sound of warning, that 
 my pony instantly took fright and sprang up the 
 embankment on the top of some huge boulders. I 
 think I was worse scared than the horse, but the 
 muleteer came to my relief and led the pony, quivering 
 in every limb, back into the road. If there is anything 
 calculated to affright a "skeery" animal it is the 
 weird-like sudden approach of a troop of camels 
 loaded with huge bales or bundles of brushwood, when 
 the night is dark, and the stars lend just sufficient 
 light to magnify moving objects into ghost-like appari- 
 tions. 
 
 I think that my pony received a nervous shock that 
 will get him into trouble, and perhaps be the death of 
 him. To his excited fancy a little donkey carrying a 
 load bigger than himself was a " spook," and discerning 
 
 27 
 
418 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 it a long way off, when the nature of the landscape 
 admits such a thing, he would prick up his ears, whisk 
 his tail and prance side ways like a hog going to war. 
 I have a spite against him for he came near unhorsing 
 me three different times, and I have no desire in 
 particular to imitate the author of Ben Hur when at 
 Jerusalem. 
 
 This was told me by a Turkish general. He said 
 Wallace wanted to ride a favorite horse of his, priding 
 himself much on the equestrian habit he had acquired 
 in the army. They were riding together near the tomb 
 of Rachel, when his lordship, the Arabian stallion, 
 began to step high and put on airs. The general, 
 like myself, found his seat not so firm as when young- 
 er and in practice. The Turkish general's eyes twinkled 
 as he related how he had picked him up, and if his 
 acquaintance with Shakespeare had been at all famil- 
 iar, doubtless he would have exclaimed, " Oh ! water- 
 fall was there my countrymen." 
 
 The United States consul also relates a sad accident 
 that befell an English officer. The pony spilled him 
 off and badly fractured his skull. However, I had not 
 learned of these mishaps until after the pony and I 
 had parted company. 
 
 The Apostles' well (also called by other names) is at 
 the foot of the elevation which, if followed to its sum- 
 mit, leads back to the Mount of Olives through Beth- 
 any. I have before stated that Luke describes the 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 419 
 
 ascension of Christ as from the latter place, seemingly 
 to contradict the account given by him in the first 
 chapter of Acts, which intimates that it was on Mount 
 Olivet. The two locations are, however, within one 
 mile of each other. From the well to Jericho — a dis- 
 tance of nineteen miles — there is no water to be found, 
 nor any signs of habitation except a lonely Kahn call- 
 ed the half way house, where a solitary individual 
 ekes out a scanty subsistence by the meagre pay he 
 receives as keeper of a corral. Near this place, a leg- 
 end locates the scene of the parable of the Good Sa- 
 maritan. 
 
 By this time day has dawned, but we still climb the 
 chalky cliffs and descend deeper and deeper into that 
 valley whose level lies twelve hundred feet lower than 
 that of the Mediterranean Sea, or what is known gen- 
 erally speaking as the sea level. These mountains 
 that we are trying to get off of are the Mountains of 
 Judah and Benjamin, so called because they were in- 
 cluded within the limits of the inheritance given to 
 those two tribes when Joshua parcelled out the land. 
 As an offset to the barrenness of this territory they 
 were given a large strip of the plain of Jericho, or val- 
 ley of the Jordan, which if properly cultivated, even 
 now, would literally, as well as figuratively, be a land 
 flowing with milk and honey. Toward the close of 
 our day's journey the dragoman calls my attention to 
 a narrow ribbon of green, visible between the precip- 
 
420 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 itous wall of a canon, more than five hundred feet be- 
 low where I stand. There is the glistening of small 
 pools of water showing that here was a natural water 
 course. This is the Wady Kelt, popularly known as 
 the brook Cherith, where Elijah concealed himself 
 and was fed by the ravens. It corresponds with the 
 Bible account, and the ravens were there just as they 
 must have been when the Prophet of old supposed that 
 he was the only one of God's servants that had escaped 
 the hatred of a backslidden king. "Hide thyself by 
 the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. And it shall 
 be that thou shalt drink of the brook ; and I have com- 
 manded the ravens to feed thee." 
 
 Since the publication of this in the Eagle I have 
 been taken to task for pinning niy faith to any such 
 belief. An English traveler, with whom I conversed 
 on the return ocean voyage on board the Etruria, was 
 decidedly of the opinion that the Scriptural brook 
 Cherith was east of the Jordan, from the fact that the 
 Bible account stated clearly that he was to hide him- 
 self in the brook Cherith that is before Jordan — equiv- 
 alent to saying east of Jordan. He furthermore as- 
 serted that the word translated Raven in our Bible 
 had the same meaning as that of Arab, thus throwing 
 discredit, not alone upon the generally accepted loca- 
 tion of the event, but upon the miracle itself, the very 
 essence of inspired history. Elijah fed by the birds 
 of the air is an event worthy of record. Elijah sup- 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 421 
 
 plied with food by a roving band of Ishmaelites, on 
 the other side of Jordan, partakes too little of the 
 marvelous to occupy a niche in sacred history. It 
 don't suit me, and therefore I stick to it, backed up by 
 the opinion of Prof. Abbet, that before Jordan means 
 behind Jordan. 
 
 The descent from here to the plain of Jericho is very 
 abrupt and stony. The sun was becoming every mo- 
 ment hotter, the umbrella heavier, and the pony slower 
 in his movements — except when he scented a camel, 
 which was of frequent occurrence, when his pace was 
 side wise, but did not in the least accelerate our speed 
 onward. These steep places are all terraced, and there 
 is not a shovelful of earth on any of them. The off- 
 sets occur very often, at intervals of say twenty feet. 
 When my pony came to one of them, he halted for a 
 second, then let both front feet down at once, gathered 
 in his hind feet, and came down with a dull thud that 
 was sickening. The sensation to the rider was that 
 of having the termination of the spinal column driven 
 up into the small of his back. After a man has ridden 
 eighty-five miles over the "roads" of Palestine he 
 gets used to it. The " don't have to " expression must 
 be relegated back to the United States, where it be- 
 longs, if a man ever expects to go to Jericho. 
 
 I never before knew the significance of the old ne- 
 gro melody, " Jordan is a Hard Road to Travel," until 
 I learned it by actual experience. The fame of that 
 
422 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 song has even reached the comprehension of the drag- 
 oman, and mine begged for just another verse of " Jor- 
 dan." When I stood on the " stormy banks " I regaled 
 them with a verse of that other melody sung with so 
 much gusto by Wichita's great basso profundo, the 
 whilom " Pussey Jones :" 
 
 " Roll, Jordan roll, roll, Jordan roll ; 
 I want to go to heaven when I die, 
 To hear old Jordan roll." 
 
 As we descended from the last hill that borders the 
 plain of Jericho, the panorama that lay spread out be- 
 fore us was one of great beauty, monotonous enough 
 as it appeared to us afterward, when objects that ap- 
 peared not more than a mile away were found, when 
 we attempted to reach them, to be three times that 
 distance; and I tell you that every mile counts here, 
 with stiffened limbs, half blinded eyes, flesh that feels 
 basted, and stomach that yearns after the flesh pots of 
 Kansas ! 
 
 The grass, if any grows here,' was activating, and 
 only thorns and briars held up their heads in the 
 greenness of life — deceptive as to utility, for, seen from 
 the hills, they give all the appearance of trees that 
 might have borne oranges, figs, or pomegranates. The 
 last mile and a half, though nearly on a level, seemed 
 of immeasurable length, but as the longest lane must 
 have an end, so did this delectable road to Jericho, and 
 about nine o'clock we drew rein at the stables of the 
 
PROM NILE TO NILE. 423 
 
 Russian hotel, and with great dignity — only another 
 word for stiffness — dismounted. Proceeding to the hotel 
 we found it in charge of two French ladies who, 
 politely ushered me into a chamber where there was a 
 bed with snowy linen, canopied with mosquito netting, 
 a ewer of water and basin, clean towels, and, as I 
 live, soap ! Yes, actually SOAP ! Emphasize in capi- 
 tals, for this is the first soap furnished us by any hotel 
 since we left old England. Furthermore, there was a 
 kerosene lamp on the table. Such munificence will 
 surely lead to bankruptcy. As these out-of-the-way 
 places are not prepared to furnish refreshments to trav- 
 elers, my dragoman had given his attention to the com- 
 missary department before leaving Jerusalem. The 
 excellent cook we had brought with us installed him- 
 self in the kitchen, and in due time the filling up pro- 
 cess was under headway, and it was a caution how 
 rapidly the viands disappeared, and with them that 
 feeling of "goneness" and sensation of fatigue and 
 recklessness of whether school keeps or not, so well 
 known to every old soldier who has ever been on a 
 raid. 
 
 My dragoman had prepared with his own hands a 
 dish so palatable that, like Kellar with the butter, I 
 seemed to have a place in my stomach which nothing 
 else had ever satisfied. I know you will turn up your 
 metaphorical nose, when I give the thing away, but if 
 ever your system becomes reduced by such fare as 
 
424 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 foreign travel has forced on an unwilling stomach, you 
 will rejoice when a dish you can relish is placed before 
 you, be it ever so plebeian or unknown by any high 
 sounding French name. Well, my right bower had 
 gone out into the garden and gathered a mess of pig 
 weed — otherwise — -purslane. Then he went amongst 
 the tomato vines and plucked some of the fruit there- 
 of. Casting his weather eye around him it rested on 
 an overburdened lemon tree, which, out of gratitude 
 for the relief afforded, shed some of its juicest produc- 
 tions at his feet. The first named was carefully picked 
 over and washed, the tomatoes were mixed in after be- 
 ing sliced ; salt, pepper and Worcestershire sauce were 
 added to give it tone, and the juice of the lemon took 
 away all thought that Jericho salad was not as aristo- 
 cratic as the swell vegetable called lettuce, the never 
 failing appearance of which at every dinner table I 
 have sat down to in three continents, has become so 
 very repellant that when I reach home I shall erase 
 the very name from my Webster. 
 
 We found this embowered little inn a pleasant re- 
 treat, notwithstanding the heat was very oppressive, 
 both on account of the sun's rays, and that which 
 would naturally occur in consequence of the great de- 
 pressions that constitute this, the lowest area inhabited 
 by man on the face of the earth. I lay around in the 
 shade wherever a spot seemed the most inviting, until 
 towards evening, when I sauntered out with the 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 425 
 
 dragoman on foot to take a look at the village. Er 
 Riha, the modern Jericho, contains about three hun- 
 dred people, principally Moslems, and of a very low 
 type of humanity. The majority of them are Africans 
 who have found a climate congenial to their half civil- 
 ized taste. Some think they are the degenerate 
 descendents of the old Canaanites reduced to their 
 present condition by the oppressive climate ; for they 
 are the only people who reside the year round in this 
 torrid vale. Their dwellings are mere hovels and life 
 is sustained with the least possible effort to gain a 
 livelihood by the sw^eat of their brow. There is a 
 Russian hospice here, rather a fine, commodious build- 
 ing constructed of stone with a walled garden, con- 
 taining tropical trees and plants. A fine new hotel 
 nearly completed, a square tower said to have been 
 built by the crusaders and at certain seasons occupied 
 by a squad of Turkish soldiers, and a small Greek 
 church constitute the new Jericho. The gardens, of 
 which there are quite a number, abound in orange and 
 lemon trees, the latter being of two varieties, the sour 
 and sweet, the sweet lemons being a misnomer, yet 
 differing from the orange. Bananas are raised quite 
 abundantly, also pomegranates, figs, dates and other 
 fruits, of which I could not get the correct name. 
 Durra is raised to some extent, and furnishes the prin- 
 cipal food of the inhabitants. 
 
426 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 The # tnorn bushes, otherwise the dom, of which I 
 spoke, rise to the dignity of trees, and produce a little 
 apple not at all repugnant to the taste. This tree also 
 produces a gum called jujube, from which has arisen 
 our imitation of jujube paste, sold by confectioners. It 
 is said that the crown of thorns was made from this 
 tree. The apples of Sodom also grow here, of which 
 the fable relates — and is believed by many — that fair 
 and seductive to the eye, if attempted to be eaten, they 
 turn to ashes on the lips. They are bright yellow, 
 and about the size and shape of the yolk of an egg 
 when hard boiled. The shell is hard and the inside a 
 mush as bitter as gall. 
 
CHAPTER L. 
 
 JERICHO, THE JORDAN, AND DEAD SEA CONTINUED. 
 
 Approaching New Jericho from the mountains, on 
 the right are the ruins of a large pool, said to have 
 been built by Herocl. Near this was the site of the 
 Jericho of the New Testament, and here Herod died. 
 Christ was here just shortly before his crucifixion, 
 when he sought entertainment with the publican of 
 low stature, who was perched among the branches of 
 a sycamore tree ; but the sycamores, like the palm 
 trees of another Jericho, are conspicuous only by their 
 absence. 
 
 This once splendid city became the property of that 
 great freebooter, Marc Antony, who presented it as a 
 keepsake to Cleopatra, the seductive, who disposed of 
 it, woman-like, to Herod — for a consideration, it is said. 
 
 It was here that the inhuman monster, Herod the 
 Great, imprisoned all his nobles, and exacted a promise 
 from his wife and daughter that, on his demise, they 
 should all be put to death, that there might be mourn- 
 ing throughout the land — ostensibly for him. 
 
428 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 About one mile and a half to the left is the site of 
 ancient Jericho, the scene of the ram's horn catastro- 
 phe. The fountain of Elisha pours out from under 
 the ancient walls of this once great city in a stream 
 that would turn a mill. An event that occurred here 
 makes this fountain a place of peculiar interest. 
 Nearly due east of here, some ten or twelve miles, oc- 
 curred the scene of Elijah's disappearance, when his 
 mantle was caught up by Elisha. The latter returned 
 to Jericho, and the people complaining of the bitter- 
 ness of this fountain or spring, Elisha called for a 
 cruse and some salt, " And he went forth unto the 
 spring of the waters and cast the salt in there and 
 said : ' Thus saith the Lord, I have healed these wa- 
 ters ; there shall not be from thence any more death or 
 barren land ;' so the waters were healed unto this day." 
 I can testify to their sweetness and purity, but their 
 temperature 80° Fahr., was enticing only for bath- 
 ing purposes. With the water that flows from this 
 fountain in a volume undiminished the year round 
 properly husbanded, a vast area of fertile land might 
 be reclaimed from the desert, but the Sultan, who owns 
 personally the greater portion of it, I am told, for rea- 
 sons satisfactory to himself, prefers to personate the 
 dog in the manger. A handsome aqueduct of ten 
 arches carries a stream of its water across from bank 
 to bank of the brook Cherith, on which New Jericho is 
 ' situated, but at this season of the year the brook is 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 429 
 
 dry. except the pools up in the mountains, as I have 
 before indicated. The water by this aqueduct is con- 
 veyed a long distance to a Greek monastery inthe di- 
 rection of the Dead Sea. Immediately back of the 
 site of ancient Jericho is the Mount of Temptation, 
 where, tradition says, our Savior was tempted of the 
 devil. It is one of the highest peaks of all this 
 range, nearly inaccessible from the Jericho side. About 
 half way up the Greeks have a monastery where water 
 is packed the year round in goat skins on the backs of 
 donkeys. 
 
 It is remarkable, the hold the Greek church has 
 taken on all the places were tradition has located the 
 events pertaining to the life of Christ. 
 
 I can imagine the grand picture that unfolded to the 
 eyes of the Savior when he stood on the towering 
 peak of this exceeding high mountain and looked from 
 this coigne of vantage up and down this beautiful 
 valley, dotted with smiling towns and cities, and a 
 country lush with all the rich productions of the soil. 
 
 From where He stood it seemed but a short distance 
 across the valley to Mount Nebo 
 
 ' ' Where Moses stood 
 And viewed the landscape o'er." 
 
 I doubt not, but with the natural eye He could see 
 Jerusalem, and spiritualized by fasting forty days and 
 forty nights beheld the panorama of all the kingdoms 
 of the earth pass before His vision, as the tempter, 
 
430 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 given for the time the power, could exercise the miracle 
 just as the witch of Endor could cast a spell that 
 should bring up in the presence of Saul the spirit of 
 the dead Samuel. 
 
 At precisely two o'clock the next morning, we were 
 in the saddle bound for the Dead Sea and the Jordan. 
 I confess to a peculiar sensation in riding along at this 
 uncanny hour, attended by four men, natives of 
 Palestine, and no comrade near to communicate the 
 fraternal touch of elbow. The horses' iron shoes gave 
 forth no metallic ring on the yielding sand, and with 
 guard and guide both in advance with shot guns to 
 their back like mounted infantry, showing up against 
 the starlight, it seemed to me at times that the inter- 
 vening years since '64 were all a dream and I was out 
 on a midnight prowl after the Johnny rebs. So 
 noiselessly, none of the natives uttering a sound, and 
 awed into silence by a nameless something, call it a 
 waking nightmare, that oppressed me, we passed along 
 through a succession of creased and fantastic appear- 
 ing hills, emerging from which on to a level piece of 
 ground that appeared to have been once flooded, 
 we struck a line of drift wood — beyond this a pebbly 
 beach leading down to the famed Dead Sea — dead, 
 because its waters are death to all species of life that 
 would dwell beneath the water. Dead, because on its 
 unruffled surface, ten miles by forty-six, not an aquatic 
 fowl wets a feather, nor an oar grates in the rowlock, 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 431 
 
 nor a wheel churns the water into foam. It receives 
 Jordan's flood into its maw as the horse leech, or as 
 Arab children learn to say as their morning and 
 evening prayer, "give, give," but impart nothing for 
 humanity's sake. 
 
 It is too close to the lower regions to have any out- 
 let unless into sheol itself, and that would be outrage- 
 ously unorthodox. I stooped down and with my hand 
 conveyed a draft of its water to my mouth. Gee whiz ! 
 Did ever mortal man take such a dose, even for the 
 cholera ! Assafoetida might have taken the taste out 
 of my mouth, but I had none and it lingers there still 
 — in memory. As the dawn broke I discovered that 
 the water was transparent and the gentle waves lap- 
 ped against the beach as though to charm away into 
 forgetfulness the horror with which its name and in- 
 fernal taste inspire one. 
 
 About a quarter of a mile from where we dismount- 
 ed on the beach, the fires of the Bedouin moonshiners, 
 making salt, as the Bedouins of North Carolina distil 
 mountain dew — in defiance of the revenue laws, 
 glowed red and intermittent. . Having some suspicions 
 that we might be " Federals " they sent two of their 
 party armed with long guns to reconnoitre. This was 
 the occasion for our Bethany guard to show his 
 bravery and delude me into the idea that they meant 
 to attack us. 
 
432 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 . Both he and my Syrian dragoman threw themselves 
 into a hollow square and prepared for battle, but the 
 guard when his gun was brought to the proper level, 
 instead of shooting commenced to talk. Of course I 
 couldn't understand a word of the angry colloquy that 
 ensued. 
 
 Whatever threat he made, it was potent enough to 
 induce the enemy to draw off his forces. From the 
 manner in which that guard conducted himself after- 
 wards in my presence, I was satisfied that the extra 
 backsheesh he thought he had earned, would support 
 his family through the ensuing winter. 
 
 I have not before alluded to the abominable smell 
 that arises like a stench in one's nostrils from the sul- 
 phur that oozes out of the ground and the asphaltum 
 that is from time to time thrown up from the bottom 
 of the sea. 
 
 Thus in 1837, such a large piece of bitumen, or as it 
 is commonly called here stinkstone, became detached 
 from the bottom of the sea by an earthquake, and 
 rising to the surface floated to the shore and the 
 Bedouins sold in the neighboring cities no less than a 
 ton of it, to be manufactured into relics aud souvenirs 
 for sale to tourists. 
 
 It remained for the American people to throw much 
 light in the way of general knowledge on this myste- 
 terious inland sea. Two small iron vessels in charge 
 of Lieut. Lynch were shipped to the Sea of Tiberias 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 433 
 
 in 1848, and thence passed down the Jordan to this 
 sea on which they spent about three weeks. Its exact 
 level is twelve hundred and ninety-three feet below 
 that of the Mediterranean and at its greatest depth it 
 is thirteen hundred and eight feet. 
 
 There was no occasion to linger any longer by its de- 
 ceptive waters, and so we swung ourselves into the 
 saddle and struck diagonally across the plain for the 
 Jordan. Eiding for an hour we at length entered the 
 immediate valley of the river where rocky formations 
 of a chalky nature in many fantastic forms presented 
 a barrier to any overflow beyond its limits. 
 
 On the other side was the range of the mountains 
 of Moab. The Dead Sea lies between this range and 
 the mountains of Judah, both coming down to the 
 water's edge. Much as I have heard of the insignifi- 
 cance of the Jordan as a river, I confess I was not pre- 
 pared for the disappointment that greeted my eyes 
 when I first beheld the narrow, discolored stream that 
 rushed past me between the high banks fringed with 
 willows, tamarisk and wild cane. I at first thought 
 the dragoman was playing upon my credulity ; but when 
 he assured me with a face as long as the pack mule's, 
 that this was the veritable Jordan, which pilgrims 
 from America came seven thousand miles to see, I was 
 forced to believe him. 
 
 We drew rein at a place he called the ford, and here 
 he said was the spot where Jesus, according to tradi- 
 
434 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 tion, was baptized by John. The stream here was 
 about as wide as Little River at the Oak street bridge. 
 It bears quite a resemblance to that stream, except 
 that the current is very rapid, the volume of water 
 larger and of a greyish color. Above the spot which 
 I have described, is the ford now in use. 
 
 Two shepherds, stripped to the skin, were wading 
 back and forth transfering their flock of sheep and 
 goats from the opposite bank. Their method was a 
 novel one. They would take an animal by the ear 
 (both goats and sheep have long lop or drooping ears), 
 one in each hand, and force them along, the water 
 helping to buoy them up. They ba-ad piteously and 
 when their muzzles became submerged they made a 
 noise more easily imagined than described. 
 
 Just to say that I had done it, I picked out a 
 spot and went in bathing. I had scarcely concluded 
 the job when a herd of breeding camels, some three 
 hundred in number, came down with their young to 
 drink. That pony of mine, tied to a sapling, was 
 about to uproot it, so I turned my attention to him 
 until the muleteer woke up out of a stolen sleep and 
 took charge of him. Then we had lunch on the banks 
 of the Jordan, where tradition locates another Bible 
 episode — that of the crossing of the children of Israel 
 with the ark of the covenant. 
 
 By the time lunch was finished that dread monster, 
 the sun, was beginning to come down the near way, 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 435 
 
 and so we mounted and made a bee line for our quar- 
 ters, in full view, but ten miles distant. It was a fear- 
 fully hot ride, the last two or three miles particularly ; 
 but once under shelter beneath the grape arbor of the 
 inn, I stretched myself out and took it easy for the 
 balance of the day. 
 
 The next morning we were in the saddle by two 
 o'clock, and after a repetition of the first day's ride, we 
 dismounted at the Jaffa gate of the Holy City, where 
 I turned over that pony to his owner without one word 
 of regret. Not long afterwards we packed our relics 
 of mother of pearl and olive wood and with our modi- 
 cum of baggage passed out of the Jaffa gate for the 
 last time. We left Jerusalem and, for the matter of 
 that, Palestine, without any desire to remain longer. 
 I am reminded of the words I heard Mr. Spurgeon ut- 
 ter in a sermon in the Tabernacle at London. Said he, 
 in substance : "I have never been to Jerusalem, and 
 the Lord willing, I never shall go there ; I would not 
 have the illusion of a lifetime destroyed by what I am 
 told are the sad realities presented. The shadow, in 
 this, is more than the substance." Yet I think any 
 Bible student would be largely benefitted who could 
 devote a few months of study and investigation in the 
 cradle of Christianity. 
 
CHAPTEE LI. 
 
 FROM JERUSALEM TO PORT SAID. 
 
 There was but little pleasure to be got out of the 
 return trip to Jaffa, chiefly because of the roughness 
 of the road and the dust and extreme heat that pre- 
 vailed. We seemed to feel these drawbacks to our 
 creature comfort in a much greater degree than when 
 we passed over the road before. Then Jerusalem, 
 Bethlehem, the Jordan and the Dead Sea were pleas- 
 ures held in anticipation; and what man is there who 
 has not risked life and limb — at least subjected him- 
 self to a hundred inconveniences and discomforts, in 
 order to obtain a certain desire, roseate in anticipation, 
 but when gratified, a metaphorical apple of Sodom? 
 So with us ; when this great anticipated pleasure of a 
 life time was realized, we found that the happiness lay 
 not in the act of viewing these objects of interest, but 
 in the retrospective. I have no doubt that when I sit 
 in my chimney corner a few years hence, I shall see 
 all that my eyes have beheld in the Bible land, in a 
 new light — the softened sunlight of memory that shall 
 clothe every rugged hill with a garment of green, that 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 437 
 
 shall make straight the crooked paths and change the 
 heavens of brass for the bluest of cerulean skies. 
 
 Where is the old soldier — unless he played old 
 soldier — who looks back through the vista of departed 
 years with anything like a vivid realizing sense of the 
 hardships and privations suffered almost beyond the 
 measure of endurance? Why, every wormy hard-tack 
 issued to him, in the days that tried men's soles is more 
 precious in his mind than the frosted cake of last 
 night's banquet. 
 
 There were three stage loads of tourists returning 
 from Jerusalem this afternoon, overtaking and passing- 
 each other from time to time, on the down grade. 
 This would not have been possible on the up grade, for 
 like the colonel's orderly, they " might meet a turtle, 
 but would never overtake one." 
 
 Every mile or two, caravans of laden camels or 
 asses, were met, and frequently Arab women would be 
 seen coming from a well with large water jars perched 
 on -their heads, carried in this manner two or three 
 miles. 
 
 Arriving opposite the village of Abou Ghosh, a fine 
 looking Arab, clad only in a turban and white cotton 
 gown belted at the waist, joined us on foot keeping a 
 little in advance of our horses as we ascended rather 
 a steep hill. Arrived at the summit, we made the 
 descent at our usual down hill reckless speed, and I 
 expected our barelegged Arabian recruit to drop to the 
 
438 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 rear. Not a bit of it ! For a stretch of four miles, in 
 which the whip was applied freely, he trotted along in 
 advance of the horses, never lagging, never seeming to 
 catch his breath or manifesting the least signs of 
 fatigue; Ever and anon he threw his head back over 
 his shoulders to regulate his speed and after this 
 manner, the dragoman told me, such as he would run 
 for twenty miles without becoming fatigued. 
 
 Night was beginning to overtake us as we cr&ssed 
 the ravine which widens out into the valley where the 
 children of Israel fought a bloody battle with the 
 Ammonites and ceased not to smite them throughout 
 the longest day on record, when their great General 
 Joshua invoked the aid of the God of battles and said in 
 the hearing of his army, il Sun, stand thou still upon 
 Gibeon, and thou Moon in the valley of Ajalon." 
 
 As the shades of night gathered about us and we 
 struck the fertile plains in which Ramleh is situated, 
 we passed by groups of natives sitting around the dull 
 red camp fires composed of dried offal from the camel, 
 the peculiar odor of which carried me back to similar 
 bivouacs on the plains of the Wild West when buffalo 
 chips were a God-send, and the dun colored alkali 
 water, the substitute not only for a thirst quencher, 
 but an aperient that required no compounding. 
 
 Some of these groups in silhouette were decidedly 
 oriental. The fires afforded just light enough to dis- 
 cern the turbaned head and womanish costume of the 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 439 
 
 Moslem, the faithful devotee at prayers, the camels in 
 the back ground tethered for the night, in silent ru- 
 mination. 
 
 We were both tired and hungry when finally we 
 drove through a Mohammedan burial ground, past the 
 Greek convent where many benighted travelers had 
 put up for lodgings, and dismounted at the comforta- 
 ble new stone hotel of Herr Phinehart, where the ac- 
 commodating landlord waited on us, and served us at 
 the table in person. 
 
 The next morning we were early on the road, reach- 
 ing Herr Hardregg's inn at Jaffa, in time for lunch. 
 
 An English lady, who has charge of a Protestant 
 school in Jerusalem, was spending a brief vacation 
 here, and sat down to the table with us. Before taking 
 her seat however, she extended her hands over the 
 table and said grace with an unction that meant some- 
 thing more than a mere jumble of words. The simple 
 brief ceremony was rendered doubly impressive to me, 
 first from being uttered by a woman in a standing at- 
 titude, and second because it seemed in such perfect 
 accordance with the eternal fitness of things, that one 
 should be thankful for getting anything at all to eat in 
 Palestine. 
 
 In the afternoon, we threaded our way through the 
 narrow, filthy street that leads down to the water side, 
 finding ourselves at times hemmed in between a camel 
 and a stone wall, and at others compelled to climb over 
 
440 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 bales and boxes that blockaded the main thoroughfare 
 of Jaffa, the same as though it was private property; 
 
 A yawl was in waiting for us at the waterside, into 
 which we were borne through a few yards of surf, in 
 the brawny arms of a porter, and then rapidly rowed 
 by four pairs of stout arms to the vessel riding at anchor 
 in the open sea. We here parted from our fellow tour- 
 ists who had raced with us on the down grades from 
 Jerusalem, and were now bound for the same port as 
 ourselves, but by a different line of steamers. 
 
 At four o'clock we put to sea, and the next morning 
 at daylight found ourselves slowly steaming into the 
 harbor of Port Said, a city that was to rival Alexan- 
 dria in importance, as Duluth was expected at one 
 time to rival Chicago. Its present population is esti- 
 mated at twenty thousand, one-third of which is Eu- 
 ropean, amongst whom the French predominate. 
 
 It cost us two shillings to go ashore in a yawl and 
 another shilling to get through the custom house, but 
 this was owing to our own perversity in not accepting 
 the services of a dragoman, whom Cook's agent at 
 Cairo had sent down to take charge of us. He was late 
 in getting aboard the steamer after our arrival in 
 the harbor, and so we engaged a boatman on our own 
 responsibility, but immediately afterwards resigned 
 ourselves to his guidance ; and although he was a Mo- 
 hammedan and wore the costume, and prostrated him- 
 self with his face to the East five times a day, he proved 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 441 
 
 himself honest, trustworthy and an agreeable, enter- 
 taing companion. I never had a particle of respect 
 for an}' Mussulman until I met Ibrahim Ismail. May 
 his tribe increase. 
 
 We arrived at Port Said just one hour too late to 
 make connection with the Suez steamer ; there was no 
 alternative but to make the best of it for twenty-three 
 hours, by sitting around in the cool verandas and cor- 
 ridors of the Hotel-de-France. Once we took a stroll 
 to the parade ground of a detachment of the English 
 army. The superb band that here discourses music at 
 a given hour each day, for the delectation of Eu- 
 ropeans, discovering that on this day there were 
 Americans in the cosmopolitan audience that stood 
 around in the shade, struck up " Marching through 
 Georgia," followed by " Hail Columbia " and the " Star 
 Spangled Banner." It was as much of a treat to us 
 as to hear English spoken with the American accent, 
 after two weeks spent exclusively in the company of 
 Arabs and Italians. 
 
 Outside of Great Britain and Paris, the natives 
 whom we meet seemed to have a crude idea of Amer- 
 ica. Occasionally we' met a foreigner who had visited 
 our land, but as a rule Americans were classed with 
 English. They seemed to have no conception of the 
 magnitude of our country, summing it all up compre- 
 hensively as New York and located not a great way 
 from London. 
 
442 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 One is apt to find a little more intelligence, geograph- 
 ically, amongst the dragomen, who are naturally quick 
 and shrewd, and, coming in contact with so many 
 Americans and English, might be thought to be well 
 posted ; and yet none whom I met had any conception 
 of the vastness of the waste of waters that lies between 
 the two great cities of the Eastern and Western Con- 
 tinents. 
 
 It is said that Americans betray their nationality 
 not so much by their features as their prodigality. If 
 the conduct of a few specimens with whom we came 
 in contact is taken as a fair sample of American prod- 
 igality, I fear that the distinguishing trait will have 
 the opposite effect. 
 
 On our visit to the so-called Mosque of Omar, two 
 American women, traveling without escort, applied for 
 admittance, and insisted on entering its sacred Mos- 
 lem precincts without removing their shoes. From 
 the persistency of their resistance to usage as inflex- 
 ible as the laws of the Medes and Persians, I was led 
 to suspect that they might be in the same condition as 
 a countryman in the mountains of Pennsylvania, who 
 made his appearance at the county seat, on the fourth 
 day of July, and the mercury at 94°, clad in a heavy 
 overcoat buttoned to the chin. He was observed to 
 visit the taverns frequently, which in those days was 
 in a certain sense only another term for the modern 
 saloon. By and by he grew hilarious and then relapsed 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 443 
 
 into a belligerent mood that speedily resulted in a free 
 fight. It was incumbent upon him to strip for the 
 fray, and then the mystery of that heavy overcoat in 
 the hottest day of the season was solved. 
 
 Our dragoman (who, on this occasion, was the con- 
 verted Jew, Abraham Lyon) seeing that these two 
 women, if they persisted in their unwise demands, 
 might place us all in jeopardy, went to them and ef- 
 fected a compromise, whereby they were permitted to 
 enter by drawing on slippers over their shoes. Then, 
 without even an invitation, they attached themselves 
 to our party, and so monopolized the dragoman under 
 our employ that we really felt that we, not they, were 
 the intruders. They stuck to him like a leech ; but as 
 I thought honest Abraham would earn a couple of 
 shillings extra for his trouble, I interposed no objec- 
 tion. I never dreamed that two women, hailing from 
 the proud United States, would not only show ill breed- 
 ing towards their fellow countrymen, but that they 
 would allow a poor and worthy Syrian to pay their 
 share of the backsheesh to doorkeepers and then slip 
 meanly and quietly away without refunding it, 
 or in any manner compensating him for his services, 
 or thanking us for the protection we had afforded them 
 in our retinue consisting, as before stated, of a cavas, 
 guard, dragoman, and slipper holder. Well, we were 
 not the only victims of the brazen impudence of these 
 by no means rare specimens of foreign travelers ; for 
 
444 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 the very next day the consul came down to dinner 
 complaining very much of fatigue. He said two 
 American ladies had called on him, stating that they 
 were without escort, and would like him to conduct 
 them through the Jewish and Moghrebin quarters. 
 He thought it exhibited considerable gall, but as they 
 were from his own country he would have to comply. 
 They walked him for two hours, but when returning 
 to his office and congratulating himself that the ordeal 
 was over, they expressed a desire to ascend to the top 
 of the citadel of David. He plead the excuse that he 
 could not go there without a cavas. They said they 
 would wait at the entrance until he went to his office 
 and procured one. This he did, and had the supreme 
 felicity of paying, in addition to his own services, all 
 the expenses incident to the occasion. 
 
 Whenever I hear of a person having made a tour 
 abroad, boasting that it cost him less than to travel at 
 home, I am inclined to class him with these female 
 rovers of the adamantine cheek. 
 
 Another example of the American abroad with whom 
 prodigality cuts no figure, was illustrated in the person 
 of an eccentric divine hailing from one of the western 
 states, who thought it an imposition when the 
 customs officer at Jaffa, after vising his passport 
 demanded the usual fee of five francs. It chanced at 
 this time that an American war steamer was riding 
 out at anchor floating the stars and stripes. He 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 445 
 
 related the incident himself with much complacency 
 one evening at the dinner table of the Mediterranean 
 Hotel in Jerusalem. Said he: "When they told me 
 the charge was a dollar for a man just writing his 
 name on that document, I just told them I wouldn't 
 pa}- it. Then the officer said I couldn't have the pass- 
 port and that made me hot. I took him by the shoulder 
 and turned him round with his face to the old 
 Mediterranean sea, and asked him if he re-co^r-nized 
 the flag that floated from her masthead. That, said I, 
 is the flag of Uncle Sam, e pluribus unum requiescat in pace, 
 wherever that flag floats there is liberty, and don't 
 you forget it! Now give me my passport." He gave 
 utterance to this bombastic speech as though it were a 
 praiseworthy act. " I frightened the A-rab so that he 
 handed it back to me and it never cost me a nickel. 
 No, sir-ee, I don't mean to let any of the heathen get 
 away with me — not if the court knows herself." 
 
 To show you that this is not an overdrawn picture, I 
 quote from the "Handwriting of God," page 118. 
 
 "Just upon the opposite bank lies Gizeh,from which 
 these p3 T ramids are named, with a ferry at the upper 
 end of the town. As we approached this, Hassan, who 
 had been quite silent during our three miles' ride, again 
 approached me, ' Got change to pay de boat?' 'Yes, 
 how much will it be ? ' Eeducing English currency to 
 federal money, as I shall generally do — 'Fifty cents, 
 sah. Gib you me de money ; I make de bargain for de 
 
446 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 boat; I know 'em best.' 'Fifty cents! It costs no 
 fifty cents to get ferried over the Nile.' 'How much 
 you pay? ' ' Don't know,' said I. 'All de gemmen he 
 pay fifty.' ' I don't believe a word of it,' said I. 
 Hassan walked a few rods in silence. ' You gib me 
 twenty-five cents, I make de bargain for boat.' 'I 
 shall not pay the half of twenty-five, and I choose to 
 make my own bargains.' The deceitful rascal knew 
 that I could not understand Arabic, and he had calcu- 
 lated upon making a few dimes out of me by the 
 ferriage." 
 
 The third incident that came under my notice, and 
 one that exasperated me not a little, occurred a few days 
 later in the museum at Bulak. We were under the 
 guidance of our especial dragoman Ismail, much in- 
 terested in the wonderful objects contained in this 
 matchless old curiosity shop. In the midst of a lec- 
 ture in front of the "Village Chieftain," an American 
 woman accompanied by her husband, who gave unmis- 
 takable signs that the " gray mare was the better nag " 
 stepped up in front of us and at once began to pro- 
 pound questions to Ismail and monpolize the time for 
 which we were paying pretty liberally. I attempted 
 to head her off with all the strategy I possessed, but 
 she was a match for old strategy himself. At length, 
 out of all patience, I stepped into an adjoining room 
 and signed to Ismail to follow me. There the pent up 
 fountain of my wrath broke forth. " Who pays you 
 
The Village Chief 
 
 Museum of Bulak. 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 447 
 
 for this," I hotly demanded, " the brazen outfit that 
 you have been entertaining for the last half hour so 
 glibly, or I ?" His shining countenance fell from blood 
 heat to zero, and he apologized, as only an oriental can, 
 with a step backwards, and a low salaam, not in the 
 villainous lingo of the Arab Hassan as above quoted 
 for no Arab talks that way. "I' beg your pawden 
 Connel," he said in the most approved English, " you 
 pay me, but I thought they were your people, and you 
 would like me to talk to them, I will do it not any 
 more.' ; When we returned to the Chamber of the 
 Mummies they were in waiting ready to get the first 
 peep at Rameses II., but a word whispered by 
 Ismail to the keeper had the desired effect. The ad- 
 mittance to the museum is free, but a look at the Phar- 
 aohs means backheesh. I confess I was more than 
 disgusted when this burnished pair of brass andirons 
 turned away without showing the color of their money. 
 These are not isolated cases but, can be doubly dis- 
 counted by some travelers whom I have heard talk, 
 and they were not commercial travelers either. 
 
CHAPTEK LII. 
 
 SUEZ CANAL ISMALIA BY RAIL TO CAIRO EGYPTIAN 
 
 COSTUMES. 
 
 Leaving Port Said, the morning after our arrival, in 
 one of the swift little steamers that attend to the local 
 traffic on the Suez Canal, we reached Ismalia a little 
 before noon, where we were to take the train for Cairo. 
 The canal, for quite a distance, skirts Lake Menzaleh 
 — a shallow body of water extending on the west to 
 the Mle, and believed to have covered one day the site 
 of several ancient cities. Then it cuts a passage 
 through the sand hills of the desert until it strikes the 
 Balah or Date Lakes, emerging from which it leads on 
 through the desert to Lake Timsah, or Crocodile, on 
 the northwest shore of which is located the once thriv- 
 ing city of Ismalia, whose decline was occasioned a 
 few years ago by a fever epidemic, the result of defec- 
 tive sewerage. As a winter resort for invalids, up to 
 that period it was supposed to have no equal. 
 
 The canal runs through the lake, then cuts into the 
 sand hills, again until it reaches Old Bitter Lake, 
 which it traverses throughout its entire length, then 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. ' 449 
 
 makes a final cut through the sand to its termination 
 in the Gulf of Suez. Its entire length is about one 
 hundred miles. In width it varies from one hundred 
 and ninety-five feet to three hundred and sixty feet at 
 the top, but with an actual width of channel at the 
 bottom of only seventj-two feet, with a depth of 
 twenty-six feet. 
 
 We passed several large British vessels returning 
 from India, running quite slowly in comparison with the 
 speed attained by our little cutter. To avoid the wash 
 of the waves on the banks of the canal, which would 
 be destructive to them, these large vessels were not 
 permitted to keep up their usual rate of speed. A 
 large force of men and camels are now at work on this 
 commercial highway, widening and deepening the 
 channel in places, and building a stone wall to protect 
 the embankment. 
 
 It is generally believed that a canal connected the 
 Mediterranean and Eed Sea in ancient times. When 
 Napoleon was here he had the route surveyed, but his 
 engineer reported to him that the Eed Sea was thirty- 
 three feet higher than the Mediterranean, and he 
 pursued the matter no further. It remained, however, 
 for another Frenchman to prove the utter fallacy of all 
 previous calculation of which we have any record, 
 although other engineers who had taken measure- 
 ments, reported the feasibility of constructing a ship 
 canal. In 1858 M. de Lesseps undertook the work and 
 
450 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 prosecuted it successfully, throwing it open to the 
 traffic of the world in 1869. 
 
 It is said to have cost ninety-five million dollars, 
 and the money expended by the Khedive in festivities 
 amounted to no less a sum than twenty-one millions of 
 dollars paid out of the private purse of Ismail Pasha, 
 the Khedive of Egypt, who afterwards paid the penalty 
 of his prodigality by being forced to sell the British 
 bondholders his stock in the canal, amounting to 
 thirty-one millions of dollars, for less than one-half 
 the amount it cost him. In one year (1883) the tolls 
 amounted to over thirteen millions of dollars, showing 
 what a profitable investment it has been to foreign 
 shareholders, and accounting in some measure for the 
 indefatigable display of energy with which Monsieur 
 de Lesseps pursued his purposes in the face of diffi- 
 culties such as no man has had to encounter, in the 
 construction of the Panama canal. 
 
 We took the train for Cairo about noon — a mixed 
 train, with one first and second class coach, a cattle car, 
 and two or three open cars no better than our average 
 stock cars, but with a double row of benches through 
 the center facing each other, for the natives to ride in 
 at a rate suitable to their means. For a few miles out 
 we ran through the hot sandy plains of the desert, then 
 struck a canal that conducted the water hither all the 
 way from the Nile, and the balance of the way our 
 route led through a broad level plain, much of it tilla- 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 451 
 
 ble, and, if not in growing crops, was being inun- 
 dated, preparatory to the work of planting. 
 
 Some fields were already drj r enough for the plow, 
 and it would have made a Sedgwick County farmer 
 contented with the old John Dere walking plow he 
 brought with him from Illinois and abandoned years 
 ago for a sulky, if he could have seen the farmers, or 
 fellahin, as they are here called, driving a yoke of 
 humpbacked cattle attached by a yoke to a long wooden 
 beam with a crook in it roughly shod with a three- 
 pronged iron and fitted with handles. This was the 
 plow invented five thousand years ago, and in the land 
 of the Nile it has never been superseded. 
 
 It is not always necessary to tickle the ground with 
 the plow to produce a luxuriant crop. I noticed a 
 number of fellahin in the mire up to their bare knees 
 shoving a block of wood by a long handle back and 
 forth on the yielding surface. Their movements puz- 
 zled me, and I inquired of the dragoman what they 
 were doing. His brief but convincing reply was " sow- 
 ing beans," and this method is pursued likewise in 
 sowing wheat and barley. 
 
 The chief wealth of Lower Egypt is in its agricul- 
 tural resources. Comparing the cultivable area, which 
 is less than that of the state of Kansas, with the teeming 
 population, six hundred to the square mile, it is evident 
 that the land must be taxed to the utmost to support 
 its inhabitants, and at the sametime produce corn and 
 
452 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 cotton in such vast quantities as to constitute Egypt 
 the most formidable rival the United States has in the 
 markets of Europe for these products. 
 
 Much as I had heard of the productiveness of 
 Egypt, I was hardly prepared to see the vast fields of 
 cotton in which men, women and children were at 
 work gathering in the crop, nor the immense acreage 
 of corn, and if it was not cotton or corn, then it was 
 durra, or sorghum, as we call it, which is not raised 
 for its saccharine qualities, but for the little tuft that 
 grows at the top of the stalk containing, when ripe, 
 the seed. This furnishes the staff of life for all the 
 lower order of human beings I have met with in the 
 Levant. It may not be generally known, that meal 
 made from the sorghum seed produced so bountifully 
 in the Sunflower state, makes a batter cake worthy to 
 transplant in the affections of the people, the degen- 
 erate buckwheat cake of our daddies. 
 
 Land is too valuable here to devote any considerable 
 portion of it to grazing, and yet a great many cattle, 
 goats, sheep and asses, besides camels and horses are 
 raised — principally on what a western farmer would 
 allow to go to waste on the farm. All the straw is 
 saved and being chopped fine forms the principal food, 
 along with corn and durra stocks, of the animals I 
 have named. The Nile mud is, as a rule, the only 
 fertilizer bestowed on the land, although the rubbish 
 heaps of defunct cities furnish a strong fertilizer, when 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 453 
 
 properly applied. All the fields in the territory over 
 which we passed are dotted singly, or in small groves, 
 with the date palm, and thus an extra crop of consid- 
 erable value is produced at little or no expense, and 
 from their peculiar growth, being without limbs or 
 foliage except the spike shaped formation springing 
 from the top, causes no detriment to the growing 
 crops. The villages, which are numerous, consist of 
 a collection of mud huts similar to those of the Pueblo 
 Indians in New Mexico. 
 
 At two places on the route I noticed a vast concourse 
 of people w T ith donkeys, camels and oxen, and an odd 
 array of home productions — vegetables, dates, limes, 
 fowls, goat and sheep skins, sugar cane, trays of cakes, 
 bags of cut straw and " fuel," and all the odds and 
 ends of which the farm traffic of this country consists. 
 I was told that it was market day, and in an open 
 space adjoining one of their wretched villages the 
 neighboring farmers had congregated to swap "wealth." 
 
 Of course the entire population here outside the 
 large cities is Mohammedan, and as long as they cling to 
 their faith they will be just what they are now, a su- 
 perstitious, improvident and non-progressive people. 
 
 It is claimed for them that these traits of character 
 will in time disappear, and that the natural docility 
 of their disposition, their temperate life, and indus- 
 trious habits, would advance them to the front rank of 
 that vast proportion of the human race, engaged for a 
 
454 FROM NILE TO 1 NILE. 
 
 livelihood in agricultural pursuits, if the land laws 
 were amended, and taxation reduced and systematized 
 on an equitable basis. Now my intelligent dragoman 
 tells me this is just what is being done, in a limited 
 measure. 
 
 The land laws of Egypt differ so widely from our 
 own, that a brief statement in relation to them may 
 not come amiss in these pages. The great bulk of the 
 farming lands belongs to the government, but is leased 
 to the fellahin for life. They can mortgage or sell 
 their lease subject to the approval of the government, 
 and after death the heirs of the leaseholder can renew 
 the lease upon payment of a specified registry fee. 
 Trees planted by the leaseholder or improvements 
 of any description, are regarded as personal property. 
 
 Up till quite recently the taxes were so oppressive 
 as to render the occupation of tilling the soil not only 
 unremunerative to the fellahin, but decidedly discour- 
 aging and grinding in its effects. 
 
 In fact, so little respect was paid to the rights of the 
 producing classes, that the tax-collectors regarded them 
 as their lawful prey, and with no other warning than 
 the hawk gives to the doomed bird, would swoop down 
 upon them and strip them to the bare necessaries of 
 life. 
 
 In bleeding Kansas, the farmer grudgingly (and no 
 one blames him), pays a tax ranging from two to four 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 455 
 
 per cent on a one-third valuation after an exemption 
 of two hundred dollars to heads of families. 
 
 In benighted Egypt the farmers have been forced to 
 pay eighty per cent of all the} T produced, and at such 
 times, frequently, as made it an increased hardship. 
 The present government under the advice of European 
 financiers, is in some degree ceasing to " muzzle the ox 
 that treadeth out the corn," but no radical reform may 
 be looked for in any eastern country so long as the 
 enervating religion of Mahomet furnishes the civil 
 as well as the moral code of laws that govern. 
 
CHAPTER LIII. 
 
 GRAND CAIRO. 
 
 We were about five hours iu making the run to Cairo 
 and, but for the intense heat and choking dust, would 
 have enjoyed the trip immensely. However, the day 
 following, there was a marked change in the tempera- 
 ture, which continued mild and pleasant during our 
 entire stay. We took up our quarters at Shepheards 
 Hotel, which some writers have spoken of slightingly, 
 but we found no cause for complaint. The fact is, its 
 superiority over any other hotel we patronized on this 
 trip, from the time we left London, without an excep- 
 tion, was so marked as to merit our heartiest encomiums. 
 All connected with this house are English, except the 
 chambermaid, and they are Arabs of the male gender. 
 I did not know this until we unexpectedly happened 
 into the room and observed what, at first glance, 
 appeared to be rather a " long waisted old lady," with 
 her head under the canopy netting, arranging the 
 sheets. I will not soon forget the consternation 
 
 depicted on the countenance of Mrs. S when the 
 
 cranium was withdrawn, and the white skirted in- 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 457 
 
 dividual revealed the features of — well, suppose we say 
 " an eunuch." 
 
 The appointments of this admirable house are what 
 one might look for, in the land of dates, but scarce ex- 
 pect to find. The parlor is fitted up in true oriental 
 st}de, with divans, Persian carpets and rugs, and orna- 
 ments from various parts of the Dark Continent, as 
 well as the land that lies still further east in the true 
 Orient. 
 
 The reading and smoking room possessed comforta- 
 ble chairs, convenient writing desks, and tables spread 
 with many English papers of latest date procurable, 
 and a so-called American paper published in Paris. 
 Here all that was necessary to supply the wants of an 
 indulged appetite was to touch a little button within 
 reach, and anything that the wine cellars of France or 
 the bottling establishments of London afforded, was 
 produced at a moment's notice. Remember this is 
 Grand Cairo, a spot from whence genii and fairies have 
 never been banished, hence if a man called for. any 
 brand of wine it was but the work of a moment to 
 produced it. The butler had but to refer to his alpha- 
 betical list of labels select the right one, and clap it on 
 a bottle filled from a cask marked red wine, or white, 
 as the order demanded. I am told that this feat of 
 ledgerdemain is not so prevalent here as in other 
 places frequented by English and Americans. 
 
458 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 The cuisine, while it included the ubiquitous poulet 
 and saladi, contained variety enough to satisfy the 
 hunger of an amateur fisherman, the puny appetite of 
 a dyspeptic, or the much abused, repellent stomach of 
 a pilgrim from the lesser Nile. 
 
 The first meal we partook of was a seven o'clock 
 dinner, spread in the open court yard, with the fleecy 
 clouds scudding overhead before the incoming northern 
 blast, that was to make life once more endurable. 
 Tropical plants, shrubs and trees, cast fantastic shadows 
 around us, and the fall of the heavy spray from the 
 fountains lent the additional charm of music — the 
 music of falling waters. 
 
 I wish I could characterize our chamber on the first 
 floor (upstairs) as worthy of equal encomiums. It 
 happened that our windows looked diagonally across 
 an open space into the English soldier's club room. 
 Every night seemed to be given up to banqueting and 
 untamed revelry. Just about the time I was getting 
 my ideas together for a letter to the Eagle or dropping 
 off into a much needed repose pandemonium would 
 break loose. 
 
 Charles Lever at his best, never put the Irish 
 Dragoon in a position where the flowing bowl was 
 provocative of the same amount of jollity to the par- 
 ticipators, and disgust to one who was with them in 
 spirit, but in inclination and habit a thousand miles 
 away, as at these moments he wished he was, de facto. 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 459 
 
 There was a piano in the room somewhat super- 
 annuated, in appearance I apprehend, and as 
 excruciating in tone as an old fiddle in the hands of a 
 beginner. It was thumped incessantly, and as the 
 club grew more and more hilarious, its discordant 
 notes were only exceeded by the inharmonious voices 
 of men in an energetic effort to keep up with the pro- 
 cession in the chorus of a drinking song, followed by 
 an immense applause when the agony of the effort was 
 over. Now that is what I call soldiering — a conclusion 
 I venture to say, that will not be disputed by the 
 fighting element of any army. 
 
 If there were no museum of Bulak, no pyramids, no 
 Sakkarah, no relics whatever of antiquity at Cairo, 
 still there would be attractive features enough in this 
 remarkable city to repay one for the time and money 
 spent in traveling hither. It is as good as a circus to 
 take a seat on the broad piazza of the hotel and watch 
 the strange street scenes that are daily enacted in the 
 metropolis of all Africa. One may watch the incess- 
 ant stream of people move by in the great thorough- 
 fares of New York, London and Paris without being 
 excited to any unusual degree of interest. The same- 
 ness of attire and the orderly manners of the passers 
 by convey no novelty to the eye, but here in Cairo 
 the very reverse prevails. 
 
 Groups of orientals in turbans and long gowns, and 
 usually barefooted, stand around and talk in such an 
 
460 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 excited manner that a resort to blows seems imminent, 
 but this is a way they have, and is far removed from 
 belligerency. Two Arabs will approach each other, 
 perhaps not having met for twenty-four hours, and sa- 
 lute by the customary sign and with a low salaam, fol- 
 lowed by kisses on the cheek thrice repeated. 
 
 On broad benches in front of shops or cafes, you will 
 see them sitting cross-legged, sipping coffee, and mean- 
 while applying to their lips the amber mouthpiece of 
 the hose-like attachment to the pipe, which rest on the 
 ground and is called a shibuk, or more commonly nar- 
 gileh or water pipe. I was induced to tamper with 
 one of them, but found it would be necessary, if 
 I wished to obtain satisfaction, to apply a mustard plas- 
 ter to the back of my neck to assist the draught. 
 
 Cairo is not yet sufficiently modernized to have adopt- 
 ed any system of street railway to assist rapid locomo- 
 tion, but European hacks and cabs are quite numerous, 
 though they have not yet fully succeeded in driving 
 out the cheap and delightful little donkeys, with their 
 patient owners, who follow in the rear once they have 
 secured a patron, armed with a stick to accelerate 
 speed and, no matter how fast one is inclined to ride, 
 they always keep pace with the nimble feet of the 
 long-eared quadruped. The saddles have a peculiar 
 shape in front about the pommel, resembling a hump, 
 which is invariably of red morocco. As compared to 
 a Jerusalem donkey, they stand in about the same re- 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 461 
 
 lation as a pacing horse does to a rough trotter. At 
 all hours of the day you will see be-turbaned and be- 
 fezzed individuals, some of avoirdupois equal to the 
 donkey itself, gliding swiftly through the streets, the 
 long gowns worn by them presenting the appearance 
 of a woman riding astride, and, by the way, that is the 
 attitude the female riders of the Orient assume, the 
 side-saddle being an abomination to them. 
 
 But connected with this subject of street locomotion, 
 the strangest sight to my eyes, and one that is pecu- 
 liarly oriental, is the avant courier, who, bare-legged, 
 with short gown and richly gold embroidered jacket, 
 and long uplifted stick, runs on foot in front of car- 
 riages containing ladies of the harem, or persons dis- 
 tinguished by rank or wealth. The runner, who is of 
 the type mentioned in a former chapter, is good for 
 twenty miles, it is said, and I have seen them so fre- 
 quently, sometimes in pairs, keeping ahead of swift 
 trotters, and yelling to all persons on the street to make 
 way, that I am convinced of its truthfulness. 
 
 There seems to be no scarcity of brass bands in 
 Cairo ready to turn out and play on every small 
 provocation. This is the season for the return of the 
 pilgrims from Mecca, to which very great importance 
 is attached by all Moslems, for it is one of the cardinal 
 principles of their faith, that requires every believer 
 in the prophet to make a pilgrimage once in his life 
 in person or by proxy to the Caaba, or sacred "Square 
 
462 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 House," at Mecca, a custom in vogue with Arabians 
 long before the days of Mahomet. This event, both in 
 the departure and return of the pilgrims, is celebrated 
 with considerable pomp, and here is where the brass 
 band paragraph applies. I have witnessed no less than 
 three processions in one day, preceded by the noise of 
 braying mouth pieces, a necessity which seems indis- 
 pensable wherever men form in line, except at funerals. 
 Following the band is a chorus of singers, who chant 
 the off repeated aphorism " La ilaha il Allah," 
 "Mohamed Resoul Allah." " There is no God but God, 
 Mahomet is the prophet of God." Then mounted on an 
 ass attended by admiring friends and relatives, the 
 returned pilgrim who henceforth has the title of Hadji 
 affixed to his name, parades the streets to his abode in 
 the proud consciousness of his having terminated a 
 journey, fraught with fatigue, suffering and danger, 
 and faithfully discharged one of the most onerous 
 duties exacted by the tenets of his religion. Hence- 
 forth, come what may, he will be honored by his 
 countrymen, and when his earthly career is ended, he 
 will be received into that paradise where Gabriel 
 stands at the gateway and neither Christian, Idolater 
 nor Jew can enter. 
 
 The funerals, which are of frequent occurrence in a 
 city such as this of four hundred thousand inhabitants, 
 are likely to engage the attention of foreigners, as they 
 partake immeasurably of the grotesque to the unfamil- 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 463 
 
 iar eye. In those I have witnessed, the body of the 
 adult was carried concealed in wrappings crosswise on 
 the back of a donkey, preceded by a picturesque body 
 of Arabs on foot, chanting verses from the Koran, 
 whilst the mourners and friends of the deceased fol- 
 lowed on foot or mounted, uttering their sad lamen- 
 tations. I noticed three funeral processions where the 
 deceased were infants, in which the same order was 
 observed, except that the remains were carried on the 
 head of a stalwart pall bearer. 
 
 The street hawkers are quite numerous, crying out 
 their wares in a blood curdling tone that is indescriba- 
 ble. Beggars form a considerable element in* the pot- 
 pourri I am mixing up, and the street Arabs — a desig- 
 nation we have imported into far-off America — offer to 
 shine your boots, or run errands, but when not thus 
 employed stretch themselves at the base of a wall or 
 along side of the curbing and go to sleep. Neither the 
 fleas, mosquitoes, nor the warm rays of the sun, seem 
 to exercise a disturbing influence on their slumbers. 
 
 The bazaars of Cairo are celebrated the world over, 
 and here one gets the truest conception of oriental life 
 to be had anywhere. They are situated in a portion 
 of the oity given over entirely to trade. One can 
 spend hours and days here and never become satiated 
 with the sights he beholds ; but it is well enough, 
 in order to feel that you are not an intruder, to go 
 
464 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 with a well filled purse, and then use it to some ad- 
 vantage. 
 
 "Whole streets, properly alleys, are occupied by one 
 branch of industry, say shoemaking, for instance ; and 
 here you are tempted to invest in Moslem slippers, 
 sharp pointed and turned up at the toes, made of red 
 or yellow Morocco, lined inside with the same material. 
 Three francs a pair will make you the possessor of all 
 that the limited storage at your command will permit, 
 much as one might wish to take each of his friends 
 a souvenir of this description. 
 
 Then there is a street devoted to the manufacture 
 of hammered brass goods with raised and chased 
 figures, of quaint oriental design, for purposes of or- 
 nament and utility. Ostrich eggs, old coins, antiques 
 from ancient tombs, Indian and Persian wares, every- 
 thing in fact that Asia and Africa produces in the line 
 of human skill may be found here. In the more mod- 
 ern parts of the city European wares are offered for 
 sale — in fact you can find almost anything here that the 
 shops of Paris, London and Constantinople contain. 
 By far the largest portion of the city is laid out with 
 wide streets, good sidewalks and handsome buildings, 
 and the gardens and open spaces ornamented with 
 trees and fountains make Cairo, in my judgment, a 
 most delightful place to live in during winter. The Eu- 
 ropean population exceeds twenty-five thousand ex- 
 clusive of English officers and soldiers who are seen 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 465 
 
 everywhere, the Egyptian army being largely officered 
 by the former. I am told that the European society 
 here is well organized, sociable and high class. The 
 influx of visitors in the winter months is of con- 
 siderable volume, many invalids coming hither hoping 
 to be benefitted by the thermal springs of this locality, 
 and the dry atmosphere of the great Libyan desert that 
 stretches out in a great waste of sandhills to the west- 
 ward from the pyramids — a nine mile drive from the 
 city. 
 
 30 
 
CHAPTER LIV. 
 
 MUSEUM OF BULAK THE TWO NILES POEM BY COL. 
 
 M. MURDOCK THE PHARAOH OF THE OPPRESSION. 
 
 Cairo is located on the east bank of the ISTile, south- 
 west a few miles from the commencement of the delta. 
 It dates from the tenth century only. What is known 
 as old Cairo lies to the southwest a short drive, and 
 under the name of Fosdat was founded in the seventh 
 century. Bulak, formerly an outlying suburb on an 
 island of the Mle, and the port of entry for Cairo, now 
 forms an important part of the city, and here our drag- 
 oman, Ismail, set us down at the Egyptian museum, 
 which contains the most valuable collection of antiqui- 
 ties of this country in existence. Before availing my- 
 self of the privilege of entering this vast storehouse, 
 containing relics of a period so remote that no contem- 
 poraneous history, save only that chiseled on imperish- 
 able granite, gives any account of them, we directed our 
 footsteps to the low wall that encloses the premises, 
 and beheld for the first time the sacred river of the an- 
 cients, which in majesty and power rolled its mighty 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 467 
 
 current in a swift and boiling flood to commingle its 
 tawny waters with the deep blue of the Mediterranean. 
 
 The distinction of first recognizing in the great Ar- 
 kansas river a likeness to the Nile of Egypt, which 
 some, perhaps, have thought far-fetched and preten- 
 tious, belongs exclusively to the editor of the Eagle ; 
 his poem, " The Nile of America/' having not only 
 christened it as such for all time to come, but having 
 likewise bestowed a title upon its chief city, that, long 
 after the readers of these pages have passed over the 
 silent river will maintain the cognomen of the Peer- 
 less Princess. Sometimes one obtains a glimpse of a 
 face that startles him by its resemblance to one that 
 long years ago passed from earth, or was at the mo- 
 ment thousands of miles away. Such was the im- 
 pression created on tcij mind when I looked across the 
 Nile to the yellow sands on the opposite shore, fringed 
 with a narrow belt of timber, and almost shrieked to 
 my wife: "Look at the Arkansas!" The banks are 
 fully as low, the water the same color, and just as 
 swift, with that swirling, rotary motion observable in 
 the Arkansas when the June rise is on. Even the 
 great Nile bridge that rests on the numerous piers was 
 in plain sight to help on the illusion. Nile of Amer- 
 ica? I should say so. 
 
 But the resemblance does not altogether cease here. 
 It is a well knowm fact that beneath the sands of the 
 Arkansas Valley, through which this river courses, 
 
468 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 bearing the flood from the greatest mountain range in 
 America, just as the Mle carries off the flood from the 
 greatest range in Africa, there is a constant sub-cur- 
 rent of water, that nourishes the roots of corn no mat- 
 ter how dry the season, and for eighteen years 
 has made it possible without a break, so far as drouth 
 alone is concerned, to produce a crop of corn. The 
 resemblance is striking when one is reconciled to the 
 difference between the overflow of a river that insures 
 a crop, and the under flow that in a limited measure 
 produces the same result. By permission of Colonel 
 Murdock, I present with great pleasure for the delec- 
 tation of my readers, the poem inspired by the coy 
 muse of the Eagle Eoost long years ago. 
 
 THE NILE OF AMERICA AT SUNSET. 
 
 A vast and lonely reach of boundless Yet to Be, 
 Whose wind swept swells roll wide in mute immensity, 
 Lies this sombrous sweep, a rhythm of ubiquity, 
 Tristful, silent and treeless. 
 
 Held 'neath Winter's gray gloom, a pensive unvexed sea; 
 Loosed by Summer's bright bloom, a blithesome beryl lea; 
 For aye, to all, a dumb, absorbing entity — 
 Sheer, tense, nude and limitless. 
 
 The gift of rifts and of the pine's sensuous sigh, 
 Its weary wanderer, with low and plaintive cry, 
 In murky swirls and shallows, goes eddying by — 
 In and out and meaningless. 
 
 Tears of a desert's dirge gleaming 'mid prairies green; 
 A turbid tide from the realms of the Toltec's dream; 
 A trailing woe blindly coursing the great Gulf Stream, 
 From out encircling vastness. 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 469 
 
 O'er these weird perplexing leagues of unchained rounds, 
 The wild, huge-backed cattle, of the Builder of Mounds, 
 Roamed, grazed and multiplied, restrained by metes nor bounds 
 In rolling herds and countless. 
 
 From this wide-spread altar, the Red Man's oblation 
 Of wreathing incense and mystic incantation, 
 Wafted the Great Spirit a propitiation 
 
 For burning deeds and shrift less. 
 
 'Neath the night's pale lights, here by ancestral graves, 
 Recounted were mighty deeds, of bold swarthy Braves, 
 And whispered woes and wrongs, borne by women-slaves — 
 Lo ! Passion's anamnesis. 
 
 By these white, dewless margins of light drifting sand, 
 The plumed devotees of a weary Spanish band, 
 Lit their bivouac fires, tracing in " The Silent Land " 
 Coronado's Nemeses. 
 
 The umbra of losel years shroud those scenes of yore,- 
 Vanished are the Spaniard's hope and Cibola's lore, 
 With the " seven cities " and all their golden store 
 To forgotten remoteness. 
 
 'Tis eventide once more. The brilliant god of day, 
 Midst s^ft opalescent glories resigns his sway, 
 And sinks in a mirage of diaphonous gray, 
 Rueful, wan and lusterless. 
 
 'Neath the shelter of an island's lissome willows, 
 Still warily watching for his meed of minnows, 
 A gaunt crane, far away from his native billows, 
 
 Stands poised in quaint grotesqueness. 
 
 In the faint-fretting ripples of a bar hard by, 
 Flocks of wing-weary geese, in wild discordant cry, 
 Lave and plume as they heighten and intensify 
 Their solitude's deep fastness. 
 
 Lamenting winds sweeping on from mountain to sea, 
 Regretfully sigh for the stream's lost pageantry, 
 Yet, anon, in exulting strains of ecstasy 
 Of its metagenesis — 
 
 Of a prouder life, of an imposing city, 
 Of a Peerless Princess, the child of destiny ; 
 For the Nile of the Occident, a history, 
 The promised metathesis. 
 
470 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 Fades the dream of Egypt's stream with ages hoary, 
 And pales the dull flow of Africa's dark story, 
 In this presence, this Quivari's cloudless glory, 
 And pledged epigenesis. 
 
 And o'er this truant tide, which, sealed to classic song, 
 Has, since time was born, in dull neglect, rolled along, 
 The Star of Empire beckons on its happy throng: 
 KaDsas' Palingenesis. 
 
 In the garden of the museum is a large array of 
 monuments, statues, and sarcophagi, and here also is 
 the tomb of the great Egyptologist, Mariette Bey, the 
 discoverer of many tombs and antiquities, and the 
 founder of this world-renowned museum. His useful 
 career was cut short in 1881. The relics to be seen 
 here are in perfect order, so that there is no difficulty 
 experienced in satisfying the inquiring mind as to the 
 exact locality in which they were found. About every- 
 thing here displayed has been taken at some period 
 from the tombs, which, being hermetically sealed, with- 
 stood the ravages of time for a cycle commencing be- 
 fore the flood. 
 
 The custom of the early Egyptians was to bury with 
 their dead (and some tribes of American aborigines 
 had the same custom) small images of porcelain, bronze, 
 gold ornaments, and imitation beetles, called scarabse, 
 fowls, small animals, and many of the products of the 
 soil were mummified, and thus preserved until this day. 
 The mummies were first placed in wooden coffins, or 
 in coffins sometimes made of layers of linen glued to- 
 gether and compressed. At the tomb of Sakkara I 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 471 
 
 found a piece of the latter larger than my hand and an 
 inch thick, plainly showing the linen threads that were 
 spun at least three thousand years ago. 
 
 Some of the statuary that graces the court yard of 
 the museum through which we passed dates back to 
 the Greek and Roman occupancy of Egypt before 
 Christ, but there is one huge figure in red granite of 
 Usertesen I., that goes back over four thousand two 
 hundred years. There are numerous sphinxes here, 
 containing inscriptions commemorative of kings who 
 lived in the fifteenth century B. C. 
 
 The inside of the museum, which consists of eight 
 apartments, has everything classified and arranged in 
 such a compact form as not to tire one in having to 
 wander over a vast space, as in the British Museum. 
 For the time being we commune with the relics of a 
 civilization greater than we can comprehend ; that 
 goes back to a period when even sacred history presents 
 a more mystical page than what has been w T ritten with 
 fingers of steel on these tablets of imperishable granite. 
 
 Besides a vast array of statues, statuettes, and mon- 
 uments, there is a number of specimens of wood 
 Carving, the most remarkable being that of the Village 
 Chieftain, to my mind the most expressive piece of wood 
 statuary I have ever seen. Think of a specimen like 
 this carved more than three thousand years ago out of 
 a cypress log, with every feature as skillfully cut in 
 
472 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 wood as the modern artist would create a model in 
 clay. 
 
 Here are wigs that were worn by an Egyptian queen 
 eleven hundred years B. C. In the three thousand 
 years that have followed, the sex has never been able 
 to so regulate fashion as to make a bald-headed woman 
 attractive. 
 
 But passing the multitude of cabinets, show cases, 
 pedestals, and shelves loaded with antiquities, we en- 
 ter a room that contains probably the most unique and 
 valuable collection of natural curiosities extant. First, 
 there is an array of empty coffins that once held the 
 remains of royalty. Further along is another array, 
 not of coffins alone, but of the actual remains of kings 
 of a period so remote as to carry no real conception 
 with it of the flight of years. The custodian removes 
 the cover and reveals to us in its original coffin the 
 mummy with features exposed of Thotmes II., who 
 ruled Egypt sixteen hundred years B. C; of Seti I., 
 the father of Barneses the Great, and the mummy of 
 Barneses II. himself, of which the accompanying litho- 
 graph is a correct representation. He is the same who 
 oppressed the children of Israel. These mummies 
 have only been brought to light in the last six years, 
 although they were known to Arab grave robbers as 
 far back as 1871. 
 
 From time to time antiquities of great value were 
 offered for sale in Cairo, which led to suspicion that 
 
r 
 
 $ 
 
 M 
 
 ummyofR ameses [, 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 473 
 
 the lost tombs of the ancient kings had been at last 
 discovered by some parties who were working them as 
 a rich mine. They were found to emanate from Luxor, 
 which lies contiguous to the ruins of Thebes, and here, 
 through a fine piece of strategy, related at length by 
 Colonel Wilson, the royal sepulcher containing the 
 mummies, of which the above mentioned, together 
 with the many valuables remaining untouched, were 
 brought to light and secretly conveyed to Cairo. 
 
CHAPTER LV. 
 
 THE NILOMETER MOHAMMEDAN MOSQUES CITADEL 
 
 COPTIC CHURCH THE HOWLING DERVISHES 
 
 THE RETURN FROM THE CAABA. 
 
 Our next drive was to the embowered island of 
 Roda, but in order to reach there we had to dismount 
 in rather a filthy neighborhood, and walk to the ferry, 
 where we crossed the arm of the Nile in a lateen 
 rigged sail boat. It was somewhere along here, Ismail 
 said, that tradition located the finding of Moses in the 
 bulrushes. 
 
 The principal attraction here is the Mlometer, a very 
 deep square well, lined with stone, containing a pas- 
 sage reaching to the water. In the center of this well 
 is a pillar marked like a thermometer to denote the 
 rise or fall in the river. When the water reaches a 
 certain mark which it does usually in July, the 
 Khedive is notified. The embankment is cut, amidst 
 universal plaudits and jollification, and the inundation 
 from the sacred river by which an abundant harvest is 
 promised is thus inaugurated. 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 475 
 
 The drive to the citadel, which occupies a position 
 overlooking the city, but not commanding it, Avas of a 
 quite enjoyable nature from the fact that our route led 
 through broad paved streets humming with Oriental 
 life and giving us a view of that portion of the city 
 inhabited by the wealthy and considered, I believe the 
 European quarter. We passed without stopping to 
 examine its interior, a huge partially completed 
 mosque erected entirely at the expense of the 
 Ex-Khedive's mother. 
 
 A little further on we halted and dismounted at the 
 ancient mosque of Sultan Hassan, about which some 
 marvellous tales are told. For example, it is related 
 that the work when completed in 1356 was considered 
 such a marvel of beauty and elegance that the Sultan 
 ordered the hands of the architect to be cut off in 
 order that no duplicate should rival it in splendor. I 
 tried my best to feel impressed with its greatness, but 
 the effort was a dismal failure. 
 
 It is said that by the falling of one of its minarets, 
 in the throes of an earthquake, three hundred persons 
 were killed. Another of its minarets towers up tall, 
 slender, and graceful to a height of nearly three hun- 
 dred feet, the remarkable feature about it being, as it 
 is claimed, that it is the highest minaret in the do- 
 main of Islamism. 
 
 The grade leading up to the citadel is quite steep, 
 but when the summit is attained one leaves it with 
 
476 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 reluctance, for the elevation affords one of the finest 
 panoramic views to be found on this mundane sphere. 
 The eye travels over an immense area covered with 
 buildings, thickly studded with mosques from which 
 arises a multitudinous array of minarets appearing 
 like smoke stacks of a vast manufacturing city whose 
 energies lie dormant. The absence of the cloud of 
 smoke that usually rests over cities of much less 
 magnitude than this, was wholly wanting ; and so the 
 vision extending, beyond the limits of modern possi- 
 bilities, and taking in, with its comprehensive sweep, 
 the Nile, that like a huge tawny serpent lay basking in 
 the rays of the morning sun, rested and went no 
 farther than the three strange conical shapen mounds 
 in the distance, erected by humanity ages and ages 
 ago, when the site occupied by this grand city lying at 
 our feet, was tilled by order of Joseph to serve the 
 purpose of the Omnipotent in producing such an 
 abundant supply of cereals that in the years of a 
 universal famine the lives of a chosen band of His 
 people in far off Canaan, where gaunt starvation con- 
 fronted them, should, in his own unquestioned way, be 
 preserved. 
 
 Standing on the parapet of this handsome fortress, 
 the exact spot was shown us where Amin Bey leaped 
 from these walls on his well trained steed to the depths 
 below — a distance of sixty feet, and escaped the fate 
 meted out to four hundred and seventy of his comrades 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 477 
 
 who had been entrapped in a narrow way leading to 
 the citadel, and slaughtered with as little compunction 
 as though they had been rabid dogs. 
 
 This occurred in 1811 and forever ended the power 
 of the Mamelukes, a dynasty that sprang from slaves 
 of Caucasian birth, ruling the destinies of Egypt for 
 more than five hundred years with varied success. 
 
 Before leaving the citadel we direct our steps to the 
 Mosque Mohammed Ali. We subsequently visited 
 other mosques, but none that could compare in 
 grandeur to this. It is said to resemble the mosque of 
 Sofia in Constantinople. Inserting our feet in goat 
 skin slippers we effected our entrance by paying a 
 small fee. We found the interior to be square with 
 small domes upheld by beautiful alabaster columns. 
 The floors were handsomely carpeted and lamps rich 
 in appearance and of unique design swung from the 
 ceiling. 
 
 Devout followers of the prophet were squatted on 
 the carpet, some in apparent idleness, others reading 
 the Koran. The vast amount of alabaster used in the 
 construction of this temple is simply wonderful, 
 exceeding in quantity all of the precious stalagmite 
 that my eyes had before beheld. 
 
 In old Cairo we paid our respects to the Mosque of 
 Amr, constructed in the fourteenth century. Its 
 columns, nearly four hundred in number, are of 
 marble. Two columns standing together have about 
 
478 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 the same celebrity as a pair that stand in the Mosque 
 El Aksa at Jerusalem, of which it was said that none 
 but an honest man could pass between them. In this 
 instance the Khedive has walled up the interstices and 
 destroyed the test. 
 
 The open court, which contains in the center a 
 fountain, and near them two trees, is about two hun- 
 dred and fifty feet square. In one corner is the tomb 
 of Abdallah, the son of Amr. Here are shown two 
 pillars believed by the faithful to have been myste- 
 riously transported through the air from Mecca just as 
 Mahomet was transported to heaven and thence back 
 to earth on his miraculous steed. 
 
 It is said that as late as the year 1800 a miracle in 
 answer to prayer was performed here. It appears that 
 at the expected time when the Nile should have 
 attained its periodical height, the water in the channel 
 began to fall. This produced great consternation in 
 the minds of all the residents of Cairo, and so without 
 regard to nationality or religious belief the men rushed 
 to the sanctuary in the confines of this huge misshapen 
 edifice and besought the Lord to withhold not the 
 customary rise. While they were yet pleading, the 
 Nilometer, close by, began to indicate an upward ten- 
 dency of the water that ere long was verified by the 
 exact amount needed to produce an exceedingly boun- 
 tiful harvest. 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 479 
 
 As we passed through it the dust lay half an inch 
 deep on the floor. Ismail said it is occupied but once a 
 year, it being the custom to meet here annually, since 
 the above incident occurred, to pray for the customary 
 rise of the Nile. 
 
 Another time we drove to Old Cairo, through narrow 
 streets, where two vehicles could not pass each other. 
 Dismounting, we walked to an ancient looking edifice 
 — the Coptic church of St. Mary — and were admitted 
 by a sprightly young Egyptian to the interior. This 
 has the reputation of being the oldest Christian church 
 in Eg}^pt. The Copts, who lay claim to being the di- 
 rect descendants of the ancient Egyptians, worship 
 here according to their peculiar form of religion, which, 
 travelers say, is a mixture of Christianity and idolatry. 
 The basilica was small and mean looking, and the 
 painted pictures, over which some have raved, in keep- 
 ing with all we saw here. 
 
 Looking through a peep-hole in the partition that 
 separates the priesthood from the laity, we were told 
 that the altar we discerned occupied the self-same spot 
 where the Virgin slept with the infant Jesus. The 
 guide lighted a wax taper and conducted us down a 
 dark stairway, where the Nile water had found en- 
 trance to the depth of four feet. " Here in this crypt," 
 said the guide, " the Virgin and Child were concealed 
 for many days." It was necessary to qualify this state- 
 
480 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 ment by the assurance that this occurred at a season 
 of the year when the cellars were not flooded. 
 
 No one goes to Cairo without making an effort to 
 witness that weird, demoniacal performance of the 
 howling and dancing dervishes. A few years ago their 
 fanatical exercises included the heathenish act of 
 throwing themselves on the earth in a uniform, compact 
 rank, in which position they were ridden over by men 
 mounted on horseback. This custom, however, has 
 been discontinued by order of the Khedive. 
 
 I feared that we should not have our curiosity 
 gratified in beholding any part of these outlandish re- 
 ligious rites ; but Ismail was equal to every demand 
 made upon him, and so one day, with his honest, 
 swarthy countenance beaming with smiles, he made 
 the announcement to us that, that day, Friday, being 
 the Moslem Sabbath, he would take pleasure in con- 
 ducting us to a mosque in Old Cairo where we could 
 witness the worship of some dervishes of the howling 
 order. 
 
 Driving some distance over a broad smooth road, we 
 at length halted in a narrow lane, and then made our 
 way through a garden to what seemed, on account of 
 its seclusion, to be a private mosque. 
 
 A word from Ismail to the doorkeeper admitted us 
 without the usual slipper requirement. The dervishes, 
 with unshorn beards, and long disheveled locks, were 
 just forming the half moon rank ready to commence 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 481 
 
 operations, when we took our seats twenty feet in the 
 rear. From Ismail I learned that not all who partici- 
 pated in these weird exercises are by any means of 
 that exclusive sect known as professed dervishes. Any 
 one who desires to do an act of penance to mortify the 
 flesh, as it were, usually seeks this convenient way to 
 ease his conscience. 
 
 Mrs. S inquired of Ismail if he had ever stood 
 
 in the ranks and howled. " Yes, lady," he replied with 
 a far away look in his eyes, " twice did I do it, and 
 once did I faint." On this occasion the ranks which 
 were full, contained some who by the paucity and 
 awkwardness of their motions and the faintness of 
 their howls indicated the amateur doing penance. 
 
 I was amused by one of the penitents in particular. 
 He was evidently a Turk, and was dressed in European 
 clothes except the fez. He could neither keep the mo- 
 tion nor howl in unison, and he continually cast his 
 eyes to where we sat, with a look on his face strongly 
 suggestive of self-disgust. 
 
 The leader in this unique performance that was soon 
 to follow, intonated in a high tone of voice with a me- 
 tallic ring, passages from the Koran to which the inev- 
 itable response : "La ilaha il Allah," was made in 
 chorus. 
 
 The officiating priest was a young sheikh in long robes 
 who at no time during even the wildest moments that en- 
 sued, exhibited any excitement, though deeply interest- 
 
 31 
 
482 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 ed in every matter of detail. When the leader ceased 
 intonating, they each nttered the Arabic word Hu 
 (He, that is, G-od), first uttering the word slowly, then 
 increasing by regular gradations faster and faster, with 
 three motions of the head from right to left and back 
 again, a motion of the hands and a bend of the knee 
 — the dervishes keeping perfect time, and continuing 
 in this manner so long, that I expected every moment 
 to see numbers of them swoon away. The most fa- 
 miliar sound I can compare with the noise they made 
 is that of the starting of a buzz-saw. It is not a howl, 
 it is a hundred times more soul harrowing than the 
 most excruciating howl that ever went up from the 
 muzzle of a lonesome dog on a moonlight night. 
 
 At times this bazoo chorus is assisted by an infernal 
 noise produced by thongs of leather, beaten on flat 
 drums, and rendered even less tuneful by the squeaks 
 of a reed flute. Then the motion of the body and^the 
 head is again varied and the buzz utterances change 
 to a deep guttural sound, the eyes of the devotee are 
 closed now, the face is pallid and utter exhaustion 
 seems inevitable ; but the side motion is again resumed, 
 the buzz-saw whizzes likewise, but weaker and weaker 
 grows the sound — flesh and blood can stand no more — 
 the priest comes forward, makes a sign and the sacrifice 
 to appease an offended G-od is consummated. 
 
 Near the citadel, called the place Rumeleh, occur 
 annually the ceremonies connected with the departure 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 483 
 
 in the spring and return in the fall of the caravans to 
 Mecca. We were so fortunate as to witness the latter 
 in all its pomp and grandeur. The procession was 
 quite as imposing as the queen's jubilee. For four 
 miles in the streets leading to the large open square near 
 the citadel was a mass of humanity, the red fez, white 
 turban and gowns of many colors, presented a kaleido- 
 scopic view not seen outside of oriental countries. 
 
 First came a band numbering about fifty instruments, 
 preceded by three men on camels, followed by a 
 battalion of soldiers in white uniform. Next came a 
 battery of six guns carried on the backs of camels, 
 then a troop of mounted infantry on camels. A band 
 playing followed next, and behind them came the 
 guards of the royal pavilion, and crowding close 
 around them a motley crowd of howling dervishes. 
 There were perhaps one hundred large flags and ban- 
 ners in the procession, but they were switched off before 
 reaching my place of observation. 
 
 Next, the camel advanced, glittering with a gold 
 bespangled cloth that covered a canopy perched on the 
 camel's back, on which are hung costly stuffs and two 
 copies of the Koran, in their significance representing 
 the royalty that accompanies the caravan by proxy. 
 Bringing up the rear was a long string of camels 
 bearing men on their backs, who incessantly hammered 
 on a rude kind of drum or made discordant noises with 
 wind instruments made of sugar cane. 
 
484 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 In the center of this unique cavalcade rode the ruler 
 of the Empire — the Khedive, Tewfik. He sat in an 
 open carriage attended by three of his ministers of 
 state, raising his hand back and forth to his head as is 
 the custom of the Moslems, in returning the salutes of 
 the multitude, who received him, not with the plaudits 
 that resounded in the ears of Queen Victoria from her 
 own subjects, but with a strange guttural sound, indi- 
 cating, amongst these peculiar people, supreme rever- 
 ence and satisfaction. He wore no insignia of royalty, 
 and might have been taken for a black bearded 
 European, save for the distinguishing mark of the red 
 fez. 
 
 Arriving at a given point, the procession disbanded 
 amid salvos of artillery. 
 
 We spent a half day in visiting the tombs of the 
 Mamelukes, which are contiguous to, and south of, the 
 citadel, and the so-called tombs of the Caliphs, lying 
 some distance to the northwest. 
 
 Many of these tombs are contained in dome-shaped 
 mosques and are the homes and loafing places of a vast 
 number of the faithful, who seem to have nothing to 
 do but to read the Koran and recite their prayers. 
 The monuments, in some instances, are costly and ele- 
 gant, but somewhat gaudy in embellishment. While 
 they are one of the main attractions of Cairo, yet a 
 person does not care to linger here, unless time is no 
 object. 
 
CHAPTER LVI. 
 
 HELIOPOLIS THE PYRAMIDS OF GIZEH THE SPHINX. 
 
 We drove out one day past numerous palaces, fine 
 gardens, and through beautifully shaded avenues, to 
 the site of the ancient Heliopolis, or City of the Sun, 
 called in the Bible the City of On. Here stood the 
 temple of Ra, the great sun god of the Egyptians. A 
 priest of this temple once had a lovely daughter named 
 Asenath. It occurred to Pharaoh that it would be a 
 fine stroke of policy to wed her to his prime minister, 
 a handsome young Jew, who had resisted all the 
 blandishments bestowed upon him by his master's wife, 
 Mrs. Potiphar. 
 
 We are now in the land of Goshen, where this amia- 
 ble youth, who had suffered all the wrongs that could 
 be inflicted by a revengeful, disappointed nature en- 
 dued with a little power, realized, as he lay in prison, 
 the truth of the adage, not yet born, " that hell hath 
 no fury like a woman scorned." 
 
 Like all stories with a moral, Joseph lived to reap 
 the full fruition of the trite saying that "virtue begets 
 reward," as well as the adage that "virtue is its own 
 reward." The author was pointed out the spot a few 
 
486 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 miles westward from here, and not far from the ruins 
 of ancient Memphis, where legend relates that several 
 years after the scene recorded in the Bible, and faintly 
 alluded to above, had occurred, Mrs. Potiphar again 
 intercepted Joseph, now in the zenith of his fame, and 
 full ripeness of his manly beauty. Herself once the 
 most beautiful woman in all the domain of Rameses, 
 but now, alas, a mockery of physical beauty, she up- 
 braided Joseph as the cause of her eyes having lost their 
 lustre, her cheeks the bloom of the peach, and her form 
 the voluptuous fullness that lent grace and beauty to 
 every movement, and once enshrined her in the heart 
 of her noble lord — but now, through her unrequited 
 love for him, she had pined away until no longer did 
 she find favor even in the eyes of a once devoted hus- 
 band whose honor she had sought to compromise. 
 
 Joseph did like any other sensible man would do 
 under the circumstances, maintained silence until she 
 was through — then whipped up his mule and left her 
 to live on in remorse. 
 
 All that remained of Heliopolis is a fragment of 
 wall and a superb red granite obelisk, sixty-six feet in 
 height. It marks the sight of the temple and has 
 escaped mutilation and for a wonder has never been 
 presented to any foreign government. Returning from 
 here we stopped at a garden and saw that remarkable 
 old tree where tradition says the Virgin and Child 
 took refuge in a hollow recess of its mighty trunk, and 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 487 
 
 that a spider concealed the aperture with his web. 
 Two Arabs here wrangled for thirty minutes of our 
 stay, as to who should receive the backsheesh, 
 amounting to about five cents. Such a war of words 
 and angry gesticulations I have but seldom witnessed 
 — one swearing that by the beard of his grandfather 
 the other was a thief and a dog, the other calling on 
 Allah to send blindness and fever on the family of the 
 first. Our dragoman, who interpreted the billingsgate 
 for us, exercised his own judgment in bestowing the 
 trifling coin, but we left them hard at it. I have seen 
 at least a dozen quarrels amongst the Arabs, but only 
 on two occasions did they come to blows and then 
 struck only with open hand. 
 
 Of course the pyramids are the great attraction that 
 serves as a loadstone to draw visitors from many a for- 
 eign shore. They commence about nine miles from 
 Cairo, on the west side of the Nile, and border the 
 Libyan desert for a distance of twenty-five miles ; but 
 in these pages I shall take no notice of any except the 
 three lying nearest to Cairo, called the pyramids of 
 Gizeh, and the step pyramid of Sakkara, standing 
 about ten miles further south. We crossed the Nile 
 on the splendid iron bridge, whose four corners are 
 surmounted by colossal lions of bronze, thence nearly 
 the whole way to Gizeh the road runs on an embank- 
 ment thickly shaded by the interlacing branches of 
 the acacia tree. 
 
488 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 As we arrived at the base of the largest pyramid, 
 called Cheops, for whom it was built as a tomb three 
 thousand one hundred years B. C, a swarm of Arabs 
 gathered around us, eagerly offering their services to 
 assist us in mounting its giddy summit. I selected 
 three assistants for myself and four for Mrs. S., and 
 with oozing courage we allowed them to seize our 
 hands. Fortunately, they spoke English so as to be 
 understood, and without much ado my fellows took the 
 advance. 
 
 At first I was inclined to help myself; but as we 
 slowly progressed, and the exertion began to tell on my 
 wind and muscles, I abandoned all self reliance and 
 allowed them to earn their money. When about half 
 way up I called a halt. I am not ashamed to confess 
 that I was exhausted, and wanted a few moments to 
 recover from the faintness and palpitation of the heart 
 which had seized me. 
 
 My right hand helper assured me that he was a 
 " doctor," and straightway began to deluge me with 
 water carried in an earthen bottle by the booster, or 
 man who followed behind. The effect was magical, 
 and after one more brief breathing spell, I stood on 
 the top of the tallest pyramid gazing downward at the 
 party who had Mrs. S. in tow, who presently planted 
 her feet along side of mine, apparently none the worse 
 for the venture. 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 489 
 
 We spent about thirty minutes on the summit, from 
 which an enviable view of all the surrounding 
 country is obtained. To the east is the Nile valley, 
 much of it now submerged, but still a picture that calls 
 out expressions of enthusiasm. Northward, the same 
 aspect greets the eye ; southward, the date palms 
 appear in the density of a forest. Westward, what a 
 strange contrast! The desolation of the grave is here, 
 spreading out in the wavelike sand hills reaching to 
 the bounds of the horizon — the great Libyan desert in 
 which there is neither life nor hope. 
 
 The present perpendicular height of this pyramid is 
 four hundred and fifteen feet. The steps vary in 
 height from two and a half to four feet. The perpen- 
 dicular surface of these steps is not smooth granite, as 
 I supposed, but enormous blocks of limestone crumb- 
 ling away here and there like alkali bricks in some of 
 our walls. There is room on the top of this pyramid 
 for quite a large pic-nic, the surface being something 
 like thirty-six feet square. On the soft limestone that 
 at present crowns the summit, thousands of tourists 
 have cut their names, those of English and Americans 
 predominating to the almost total exclusion of all other 
 nationalities. 
 
 The descent was made in a hurry, but for two or 
 three days afterwards we felt the effects of it in our 
 limbs to such an extent that locomotion was painful. 
 Of course we went into the long, low and narrow pas- 
 
490 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 sage that leads into the tombs in the center of the 
 pyramid, but the close noisome air permitted only 
 a brief stay. First, you reascend the pyramid on the 
 outside about fifty feet, then crawl into a hole three 
 and one-half by four feet and slide downwards sixty 
 feet, then you crawl up about one hundred and twenty 
 feet. This brings you to a lofty room seventeen feet 
 square called the queen's chamber. It is now for rent. 
 
 Groping your way back for some distance, you 
 observe by the flickering light of a tallow dip another 
 inclined plane. This is the grand hall that leads to the 
 king's chamber, which is double in size that of the 
 queen, and is vacant like that, excepting a sarcophagus 
 minus the lid. After one has " done " Cheops he has 
 lost all interest in the other two, and nothing remains 
 for us to investigate except some outlying rock tombs, 
 which we also omit, and the sphinx. What superb 
 mausoleums those ancient Egyptian kings constructed 
 in which to preserve their mummied remains a period 
 of four thousand years, when, according to the belief 
 they held, the body would again be reinhabited by the 
 return of the absent soul. Think of the kings who lie 
 in state at Bulak waking up, when the four thousand 
 years have [expired, to the humiliating knowledge 
 that for seven hundred years previous their bodies had 
 been exhibited in a museum at half a franc a head. 
 
 The " doctor " had all along been pestering us for 
 the sake of more backsheesh to use his camels for the 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 491 
 
 short ride to the Sphinx, and, as novelty, like variety, 
 is the spice of a tourist's life, we closed the bargain at 
 three shillings for the round trip. The first camel 
 brought forward and got into position for mounting 
 was for Mrs. S. At first she was afraid the camel 
 would bite her, but being assured that he was as harm- 
 less as a dove, she at last plucked up courage and took 
 her seat, being bidden to hold on tight to the u hand- 
 les" of the saddle. The camel makes a pyramid of 
 himself as he rises on bis hind feet first, that pitches 
 her over on his neck. Then, as he brings his fore legs 
 to the perpendicular, she settles back and feels at 
 home. 
 
 The dismounting is even worse, but the excruciating 
 gait of the humped backed animal is the worst of all. 
 Poetically he is described as the "ship of the desert." 
 To my mind, after a single test, I can compare him 
 only to a ship in a storm. I mounted with the same 
 grace and elegance as my better half, and the caravan 
 began to move. I thought if I only had an extra 
 hinge in my back. I could endure the torturing gait 
 for perhaps a mile. My wife said hers rode easily, and 
 then I began to suspect that I was on a freight camel. 
 
 We viewed the Sphinx and the temple of red gran- 
 ite blocks from our exalted position, and as the fea- 
 tures of the Sphinx are as familiar to every school boy 
 as those of G. Washington, I will not attempt a de- 
 scription, further than to remind you that when cleared 
 
492 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 of sand this colossal figure, with the head of a man 
 and the body of a recumbent lion, looms up to the 
 height of sixty-six feet, with a breadth of face meas- 
 uring thirteen feet, and a nose, before the iconoclast 
 got in his work, projecting over five feet. The temple 
 is the work of Chepren, who built the second pyramid, 
 and he was successor of Cheops. This concluded our 
 delightful visit to the pyramids of Gizeh. 
 
- 
 
 
 CO 
 
 co 
 
 UJ 
 
 < 
 
CHAPTER LVIL 
 
 STATUE OF R AMESES II. THE SITE OF MEMPHIS — SAK- 
 
 KARAH CONCLUSION. 
 
 The next day we took the train and rode for forty 
 minutes to the station of Bedreschein, where we« 
 mounted the little donkeys brought with us in a car 
 from Cairo, and followed the meanderings of an em- 
 bankment for two miles, which brought us to the spot 
 where the colossal statue of Rameses II. had but re- 
 cently been exhumed from the sands of the desert by 
 an English officer. 
 
 There are, in fact, two statues of Rameses the Great 
 here ; one carved out of a solid block of limestone, and 
 the other, and much finer one, from what I took to be 
 sandstone. The former, but less artistic, was pre- 
 sented, as it lay on its face in the sands, to the British 
 Museum some years ago; but in consequence of its 
 great weight the attempt to remove it has never been 
 made. The one of sandstone is enclosed by a wall, 
 and a fee is exacted for a view of it. It is in a reclin- 
 ing position, the legs broken off, and measured when 
 intact, I should judge, fifty feet in length and six or 
 eight feet across the face. Whilst not of as huge pro- 
 
494 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 portions as the Sphinx, it is a much finer work of art. 
 I am indebted to the wife of the officer who has the 
 credit of raising this mammoth statue from where it lay 
 twenty feet beneath the sands for the photograph of 
 this massive antique statue, of which the lithograph in 
 this book is a correct copy, as none was obtainable in 
 Cairo — only copies of the limestone statue as it lay on 
 its face for many years. 
 
 Near by is the site of the ancient city of Memphis, 
 *once the most populous city in the world. Its public 
 buildings only were constructed of stone, and this ma- 
 terial has been transported elsewhere to build other 
 cities ; so that now, whilst the sun dried bricks of Nile 
 mud still retain in some degree their shape, and the evi- 
 dence that a vast city once existed here is quite plain, 
 there is nothing to indicate the spot where Memphis 
 stood, except heaps of rubbish. This most ancient of 
 all the cities of Egypt of which history gives any ac- 
 count, was founded by Menes more than five thousand 
 seven hundred years ago, or within less than three 
 hundred years of the period assigned to the creation 
 of man. 
 
 Leaving the rubbish heaps of the defunct city, we 
 push on for a distance of three miles and reach the 
 great step pyramid, which differs from all others in 
 being somewhat oblong, and not standing squarety 
 facing the different points of the compass. It consists 
 of six steps, each six feet wide and ranging in height 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 495 
 
 from twenty-nine to thirty-seven feet. The stones are 
 not so large as in Cheops and have disintegrated much 
 more. The entrance was closed up, and so we con- 
 tinued the journey to the burying ground at Memphis 
 — a region so vast in ancient tombs cut in the rock, 
 and when explored so replete with curiosities, as to 
 constitute the necropolis called Sakkara, the most won- 
 derful subterranean area in the known world. For 
 ages these tombs, now covered for the most part with 
 the shifting sands of the desert, have yielded a rich 
 harvest of relics to every explorer who has had the 
 perseverance to court success, and yet the supply is 
 not exhausted. 
 
 The only sign of life visible is a solitary house in 
 the sands built by the great explorer Mariette Bey, 
 where the custodian of certain tombs, taken possession 
 of by the government, leads a lonely life, and where 
 tourists, if at all provident, consume the lunch thej^ 
 have brought with them. 
 
 We first descended to the tombs of the sacred bull. 
 Apis, and were conducted through wide, lofty passage 
 ways, sixteen feet wide and twenty-six feet high, cut 
 for probably five hundred feet into the solid rock. 
 Here were thirteen chambers each containing a com- 
 plete granite sarcophagus of exquisite workmanship 
 and large enough to contain the remains of the sacred 
 bull when mummified, in an upright position. By aid 
 of a ladder, I climbed into one from which the cover 
 
496 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 had been partially removed, and its sides were as 
 smooth as polished marble. It was by actual measure- 
 ment thirteen feet long, eight feet wide and eleven 
 high, weighing, it is estimated, sixty tons. 
 
 tl When Mariette," says Stanley Lane Poole, " opened 
 this amazing city of dead bulls, he found one vault 
 which, for some reason or other, had escaped the vio- 
 lating hand of the treasure-seeker, and there in the 
 mortar was the impress of the finger of the mason 
 who had set the last stone in the reign of Rameses II." 
 before the birth of Moses ; there in the dust were the 
 imprints of the feet that had last trodden the floor three 
 thousand and more years ago ; there were the votive 
 offerings dedicated in the sacred vaults by visitors who 
 have been dead since nearly twice as long a period as 
 we are distant from our Era — among them a tablet from 
 Rameses' own son, high priest of Apis, and one of the 
 chief dignitaries of the time of the oppression of 
 Israel. 
 
 It is not wonderful that when the great explorer set 
 foot in his tomb, which had remained inviolate for 
 thirty-five eventful centuries, he was overwhelmed and 
 burst into tears. When the Prince of Wales was 
 here these passage ways were brilliantly illuminated, 
 the numerous tripods which served as candle sticks 
 being suffered to remain, in the same manner as a tri- 
 pod erected on the top of Cheops by the American 
 pasha, General Stone, has remained there for six years ; 
 
FROM NILE TO NILE. 497 
 
 the object of its erection being to give one a true con- 
 ception of the original height of the great master-piece, 
 in the science of tomb building, of all ages of the world. 
 
 Leaving this subterranean passage, we repaired to a 
 tomb of a different design, originally built on the 
 earth's surface, but covered with sand until exhumed 
 by Mariette. This style of tomb is known as the 
 mastaba and this one was the mausoleum of Ti, cham- 
 berlain to one of the Pharaohs who reigned over Egypt 
 four thousand five hundred years ago. We approached 
 it by a passage on the right hand side, of which the 
 walls were covered with characters chiseled in the 
 facing of the smooth rock surface, on the left were 
 pillars giving it the appearance of a temple in ruins. 
 
 We were ushered into the tomb chamber, a square 
 lofty edifice where Ismail introduced a brilliant light 
 the more effectively to show off the treasures contained 
 on its walls — a gallery of paintings and sculpture as 
 fresh and perfect in all respects as though placed there 
 yesterday, yet two and one half times the age of the 
 Christian era has rolled around, since the hand that 
 outlined them in red chalk, that sculptured them on 
 enduring stone and colored them with pigments whose 
 brilliant colors had come to stay, was warm with the 
 blood of life. 
 
 Talk of the old masters of four hundred years ago ! 
 In comparison, they- are but the artists of yesterday. 
 
498 FROM NILE TO NILE. 
 
 This is the epitome, in a double sense, of the manners 
 and customs, of the civilization prevailing in that early 
 period of the existence of the human race. 
 
 A striking picture is that of the butchers preparing 
 to throw an ox by the side of one already slaughtered. 
 Another one that would do credit to Johnny Crapaud, 
 is a man surrounded by a flock of geese ; he has one by 
 the throat, putting it through the "stuffing process;" 
 still another represents shipbuilders at work, with the 
 style of tools used five hundred years before $"oah 
 completed the ship he had undertaken, which went to 
 pieces on Mount Ararat where relics of it could be 
 seen as late as eighteen hundred years ago, according 
 to that careful historian, Josephus. There is nothing 
 in the domestic life of the people of that day that is 
 not illustrated here. 
 
 It is a grand study for any one who in this respect 
 desires to see pictures on the walls after viewing those 
 at Pompeii. These are simple and chaste, but they 
 have opened up a page in the world's history that may 
 only be a sample of an undiscovered volume, of pre- 
 historic life. After lunch, we looked the field over for 
 relics, and then remounted the donkeys for the railway 
 station. We took the first train that came along, 
 which was a freight train, but we reached our hotel in 
 time for the evening meal — our last dinner in Cairo, 
 and the final meal of which these pages will bear any 
 record. the end. 
 

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