^K. Gpiglitl^"- COPnUGHT DEPOUK / M L • ' Digitized by tine Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from The Library of Congress http://www.archive.org/details/earthgirdledOOtalm The Earth Girdled The World as Seen To- Day / va: IfcA^f^^^- '^- DeWitt Talmage, D. D. }~..r,.. Embracing SCENES AND EXPERIENCES AMONG SEMI-CIVILIZED AS WELL AS CULTURED PEO- PLES OF THE WORLD. Dr. Talmage's description of his journey to THE SANDWICH ISLANDS THE SAMOAN GROUP NEW ZEALAND AUSTRALIA. INDIA CEYLON, EGYPT BIBLICAL ISLES OF THE MEDITERRANEAN RUSSIA, ENGLAND SCOTLAND, IRELAND MAGNIFICENTLY ILLUSTRATED WITH 40O PHOTOGRAPHIC VIEWS And Eiglit Plates in the new Photographic Color Process, representing every feature of Dr. Talmage's Tour. Sold by Subscription Only. F> '^!r«i%^'<'- People's Publishing Co. PHILAD'A. PA. ST. LOUIS, MO. 2169 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1896, by H. S. SMITH, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, THE ENGRAVINGS in this volume were made from original photograpiis, and are specially protected by Copyright, and notice is hereby given that any person or persons guilty of reproducing, or infringing the Copyright in any way, will be dealt with according to law. PHIl^DELPHIA Author's Pieface, PUBLISHER'S PREFACE. The popularity of Dr. Talmage — His pastorate in Brooklyn — The tabernacles which he has built — The immense amount of work he does — His decision to visit foreign lands — His friends determine to celebrate the twenty-fifth year of his Brooklyn pastorate — A wonderful silver jubilee — Description of the ceremonies— An international commemoration of the event — Distinguished participants from other countries — Speeches by the Doctor — Telegrams and cablegrams of felicitation — Destruction by fire of the great Talmage Tabernacle — A dreadful conflagration — An amazing record of fiery visitations — An interview with Dr. Talmage, 35~54 CHAPTER I. TRANSCONTINENTAL. Departure of Dr. Talmage upon his tour of the world — Retrospection and war memories — A visit to Mammoth Cave — Across America to the wonderlands of Yosemite — The Yellowstone Park — Marvels of the Grand Canon - Some beautiful descriptions, 53-67 CHAPTER II. FOLLOWING THE SUN. An accident — Mount of the Holy Cross — Bethels of Nature -Some queer names that approach irreverence — At the California Fair — Opening oration — Campaign of the wilderness — An incident in a sleeping car — An old lady's mistake 68-73 CHAPTER III. PARADISE OF THE PACIFIC. All aboard for the South Sea — A grizzled captain of the Pacific — A stay on the Sandwich Islands — Some important facts — The question of annexation — Hawaiian progress - Arrival at Honolulu — Cannibalism — Official courtesies — A sermon in the church at Honolulu -A veritable land of flowers — Wonders and beauties of Nature — The world's greatest volcano — A convention of fiery mountains — Coronation of Kilauea, 74-79 CHAPTER IV. PRESIDENT AND QUEEN. A visit to Queen Lilliokoulani — Interviewing dusk)' royalty — Reception by President Dole— Establishing a new government — Both sides of Hawaiian affairs — A most instructive catechism and interlocution — The Royalist view — The Republican side of the case — A rational conclusion S0-R5 vi CONTENTS. CHAPTER V. AN ISLAND OF LEPERS. page. The -world's heroes and heroines— Joseph Damien, the noble priest — A tribute to his godliness and self- sacrifice— Molokoi, the pest island— Regime among the lepers— Cheerful, though doomed— Story of William Ragsdale, leper— Leprosy diagnosed— Progress of the disease — Parting of the lepers from their friends— Moral lepers, 86-94 CHAPTER VI. BATTLE AND SHIPWRECK. A cyclone on the Pacific — Vision of the Samoan Islands — Among the warring factions of Samoa — Queen of the islands— Hell of the Pacific— Trade, gin and kava— How the latter is made — Malietoa, King of Samoa — Labors of the missionaries — Tattooing and ocean chromatics— Martyrdom of fashion — Inhabitants of the oceans — The voice of many waters— An apostrophe to the sea — A swoop of tornado 95-I03 CHAPTER VII. UNDER THE SOUTHERN CROSS. Four stellar evangelists — A tribute to the missionaries — Some pathetic stories of self-denial and suffering — Customs of the Tahitans — Significance of the Southern Cross 104-106 CHAPTER VIII. ANTIPODEAN EXPERIENCES. Balaklava on a dining-table— Reception at Auckland, New Zealand — Dashed with a bucket of water — Early voyagers — Churches and female suffrage in New Zealand — A new interpretation of the .story of Adam and Eve — Reminiscences of war and peace in New Zealand — Intercontinental commerce — Charge of the Light Brigade, explanation of the blunder, 107-112 CHAPTER IX. THE BRIGHT SIDE OF THINGS. Dr. Talmage's lecture at the Auckland Opera House — Perfections of nature — Harmonies that smother all discords — The blessings of amiability — The fault-finder — Two ways to read the same letter — The deaf man's enthusiasm — An angel in a hospital — How to distinguish a gentleman or lady — Many apt illustrations — Tittle-tattles— A bear in society — Senator Gruff and Speaker Kindly — Around the hearthstone — The " eddicated" legislator — An interesting portrait gallery — The gloomy- Sunday' — Habits diagnosed — Board-fence literature — The religion of wholesome exercise — Illustrative anecdotes and metaphor 1 13-134 CHAPTER X. MURDER AS A PASTIME. The aborigines of New- Zealand — Massacres and cannibalism — Murder as a fine art — Experiences of early missionaries— Horrible customs — An opportunity for lecturers, 135-13S CHAPTER XL WOMEN IN NEW ZEALAND. Women's rights ascendant— A great scarcity of women— The mountains of New Zealand — Wonderful natural terraces— Incomparable beauties wrought by eruptions — A burning mountain — A might}' cataclysm— The animal life of New Zealand— The giant Moa bird— An aviary of wondrous curiosity — A land of surprises 139-144 CHAPTER XII. OCEAN GATE OF AUSTRALIA. A rough sea experience— The glorious prospect of Sidney— A remarkable harbor— In the streets of an Australian city — Sheep raising and agriculture - A post-office with chimes 145-150 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XIII. GOLD, GOLD, GOLD. A descent into the golden caverns of Australia — Some interesting facts about mining — Fabulous dividends — Observations on the world's money — Reckless speculations — Dr. Talmage's interests iu Australia, . 151-157 CHAPTER XIV. A BAKED MISSIONARY. Among the Fiji Islanders — Harrowing experiences of a missionary — Strange customs of the island savages — Banqueting cannibals — Stor3- of tlie Haggard brothers — Dramatic close of a fraternal tragedy — The hot blast of a scandal — Savagery in civilization — Gridirons of persecution 15S-163 CHAPTER XV. SHEEP BEFORE THE SHEARERS. Introduction of sheep into Australia — Some astonishing statistics — Sheep shearing by machinery — Tangled up with an adder — Capital and labor — How strikes are avoided — The lamb of sacrifice — The shepherds of Australia, 164-170 CHAPTER XVI. CHAINS AND EXILE. A historj- of Botany Bay — Deportation of criminals — Horrors of prison life — Man's inhumanity to man — A blasted parentage — The evolution of honor — From crime to eminent respectability — Good citizens and noble manhood in Australia — The flower fields and rich vegetation of the island continent — A stroll on the beach of Botany Bay, 171-176 CHAPTER XVII. ZOOLOGICAL WONDERS. One nugget of gold worth $50,000 — Australian cities — Metropolitan rivalries — Land of the kangaroo — Marvelous contrarieties — Birds of wondrous habits — The laughing jackass — A pest of rabbits — A word about the bushrangers — Highwaymen of fame and how they were extirpated, 177-181 CHAPTER XVIir. SOME BIG BLUNDERS. Reception at Melbourne — A lecture before an immense audience — A dreadfully mixed advertisement — The University of Hard Knocks — How fortunes have been made — Variety of occupations — Analysis of pro- fessional mountebanks — Encouragement for the persistent — Concentration of effort — Amusements- Home ties — Philosophy in the household — Domestic economics — Strength in a wife's fidelity — Secret of contentment — A striking debit account — Mesmerism and credulity — A happy night in the country' — ^The old-fashioned fireplace — Progress, progress— Story of the old engineer 182-198 CHAPTER XIX. GATE OF DEPARTURE. How Dr. Talmage paid the expenses of his tour — Preaching in the Town Hall of Melboume— A panic barely averted — Some prominent persons the Doctor met in Australia — The siege of Lucknow explained by a participant— Something about Sir Henry Parkes— Renewing old acquaintances — Good-bye to Australia, I99-205 CHAPTER XX. THE ISLE OF PALMS. The voyage to Ceylon — A land of delight to the sportsnian^Nature in a profui;ion of both animal and vegetable life — First sight of Cevlon's emerald shores — The harbor of Colombo — Visit to a Huddhist college — The noisy ceremony in a Buddhi.st temple— Dr. Talmage addresses a group of natives in the street — Pillar of light and colossus of gloom 206-2II viii CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXI. RELIGIONS, GOOD AND BAD. p^^^ A solemn procession - Education in Ceylon— The devil-worshipers— Superstition taking the part of phy- sician — Buried cities of Ceylon — Comparison between churches militant— Stor>' of creation — Different sects among Christians confusing to Hindoos— Zoroaster, Buddha, Mahomet and Christ 212-219 CHAPTER XXII. THE CINGALESE. Busy scenes in the streets of Colombo— Male and female natives of Ceylon— Queer people and .strange customs — Cities of the past — Wonderful ruins uncovered by archaeologists- Wild animals howling through deserted halls— Sacred relics of Buddha— A gigantic tooth — Pearl fishers of Ceylon— The largest ruby in the world, 220-226 CHAPTER XXni. ISLE OF IVORY. Munificence of Ceylon — Animal life of the Island — Flying foxes intoxicated — Land of the elephant— A grand hunt bj' royalty — Man killed by an elephant — How a war elephant captured a cit}' — The deadly cobra — Sacredness of the poisonous reptile — An implacable enemy — Fight between a cobra and mon- goose — Valuable trees of Ceylon, 227-233 CHAPTER XXIV. THE ENTRANCE TO INDIA. Ascent of the Hooghlj' River — Interesting sights along the shores— Suspicious of the kodak — Provisions for the hot climate of India — Adaptation to changed conditions — A. pen sketch of Calcutta— The land of idols — An interview with a fakir — Adroitness of the priest — Headquarters of Christian missions, . 234-243 CHAPTER XXV. BURNING OF THE DEAD. The capital of Hindooism — The holy city of Benares — Preparation of dead bodies for cremation — Corpses committed to the Ganges — Sacrilegious customs — Marriage in India — Treatment of wives — Manufac- ture of Hindoo gods— Condition of women in India — The ghatsof Benares — The Golden and Monkey Temples — Wonder worship of the fakirs — Devils acting as attendants to Siva — Sacred monkey's — Sumptuous marriage of two monkeys — Activity of the missionaries — Their hard work and self-denial, 244-252 CHAPTER XXVI. GREAT SNAKES! Dreadful mortality from snake-bites — A natural enemy of the cobra — Description of a battle witnessed by Dr. Talmage — How a mongoose fought and killed a cobra — A state of nervous expectancy — Reptiles make repulsive bed-fellows — Worship of snakes — Snake charmers — Some chilly experiences — Uncanny things of the household, 253-258 CHAPTER XXVII. THE TRAGEDY OF LUCKNOW. A !>tory of cruelty, heroism and horror — The Sepoy rebellion — Causes which led to the mutiny — Siege of the Residency — Dr. Talmage's visit to the place of slaughter - Description of a battle — Bravery of Sir Henry Lawrence — Heroic death of the General— Pathetic incidents —Horrible massacre of women and children — Instances of wonderful devotion — "The Campbells are Coming " — Life out of death, . 259-267 CHAPTER XXVIII. ANOTHER WOE IS PAST. An Iliad of woes — A mutilated and groaning procession — Death of Havelock— Life of a Christian general —A speech that fired a regiment — The charge at Lucknow— War to the death — Story of the survivors — Atrocious customs of Hindoos — How the English are regarded by the natives — A suggestion to the Home Government — A banquet with heroes of the India wars — An epigrammatic order, 268-273 CONTENTS. ix CHAPTER XXIX. THE CITY OF BLOOD. ^^^^ Storv of the Cawnpore massacre — Nana Sahib tlie monster — Something of his personality — Extract from a famous document — Refuge place of the hunted Christians — A brave defence — The dance of death — Allured to destruction — Inscriptions of hope on prison walls— Nana Sahib's treachery — T\vent\--eight boat loads of women and children butchered — The climax of diabolism — A story that makes strong hearts bleed — Punishment of the butchers — A visit to Memorial Well — The end of Nana Sahib— The lost ruby, 274-281 CHAPTER XXX. MAGNIFICENCE OF THE TAJ MAHAL. The most sumptuous structure in the world — A sublimation of all architecture — Dr. Talmage's visit to the Taj Mahal— Rapture of garden, and ecstasy of marble — -A bewildenuent of splendors — Description of the mari-elous mausoleum — A building that cost sixty millions of dollars — .Architectural miracle of all ages, 2S2-286 CHAPTER XXXI. DELHI, THE ANCIENT CAPITAL. Antiquitv of Delhi — A rage of malignant fevers — A menagerie in a glass of water — How the natives butter toast — Provisions for India travel — A dramatic storj- of flight and murder — Heroism of the Wagen- treibers —Siege of Delhi — John Nicholson, hero - Description of the fight at Cashmere Gate — Palace of the Moguls — The Peacock Throne, which cost one hundred and fifty millions of dollars — .A coronet em- blazoned with the Kohinoor diamond — Floors reddened with slaughter — Mosque of Jumma Musjid — Relics of Mahomet — Wonders wrought at the order of Shah Jehan — .A dream of the past 2S7-299 CHAPTER XXXII. CITY OF ELEPHANTS. A visit to Jeypore — Description of the city- Street scenes — The king's herd of elephants — Invasion of the sand — Temple of the Sun — Zoological and botanical gardens — Palace of the Maharaja — The Prince Jev Singh — Magnificence heaped \%-ith splendors — The deserted citj- of Amber — Dr. Talmage describes his ride on an elephant's back — Dazzling beauties, 300-306 CHAPTER XXXIII. THE FIRE WORSHIPERS— RELIGION OF THE PARSEES. Something about the Zend Ave.sta — Beliefs and superstitions — .An interview with a Parsee priest — A lovely garden — The Tower of Silence — Disposition of the dead — Vultures at the feast — A Parsee priest defends the custom of exposing corpses — Democracy of the tomb — A Parsee wedding ceremony — Condition of women in India — Christianity contrasted with Hindooism, 307-314 CHAPTER XXXIV. UNDERSIDE OF INDIA. A visit to the Elephanta Caves — Profusion of vine and flower — A cobra by the way — A temple of porphyrj' Colossal statues of the Hindoo gods— Hindoo mythology — A great congress of Gods — Work of the missionaries 3IS~3l8 CHAPTER XXXV. THE PYRAMID. A stroll through Cairo— Strange emotions — Ascent of the pyramid — A view from the apex — Description of this wonder of centuries — The uses it serves- Some reflections — Who was Cheops ? — The ravages of time — The voice of God 319-33O X CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXXVI. THE ARTERY OF EGYPT. page. Wonderful ancient river — Efforts to discover its source — A fulfillment of prophecy — A trip up the Nile — Relics of mightiness — Alexandria of the past — Death of Hj'patia — Destruction of the city — Spoiling the Egyptians — Bible records along the Nile — A land of graves — A stop at the ruins of Memphis — Temple of the Sun — Hundred gated Thebes — Testimony of the dead city — War about a book — Mar- velous Karuac— Dust to Dust, 331-341- CHAPTER XXXVII. THE BRICK-KILNS OF EGYPT. The mother of nations — Observance of old customs — Brutalities of Egyptian taskmasters — Tears and blood — Pharaoh's works — Taxation and slavery — Joseph the prime minister — Moses a saviour — God works in mysterious ways — Deification of the Nile — ^Journey of the Israelites — The Red Sea Cataclysm — Mohammedanism in Egypt — Sarcophagi of mouarchs — Pharaohs of the present 342-351 CHAPTER XXXVIII. THE ARCHIPELAGO. The sphinx — Something grander than the pyramids— Good-bye to Egypt — Among islands of the New Testament — In a harbor of Cyprus —Resurrected treasures — Wonderful history of Cyprus — Threading the islands of the Grecian cluster — Island of Rhodes — The great statue of Apollo — Following St. Paul — Isle of Patmos — Scene of the apocalyptic vision — Miserable loneliness of St. John — Panorama of the cavern — The broken seals, 352-35S CHAPTER XXXIX. EPHESUS. The martyrdom of Polycarp — Bible porphecy fulfilled — St. Paul and the mob — The wonderful Stadium — ■ St. Paul before the lions — The magnificence of ancient Ephesus — Temple of Diana — Wonder upon wonder — Architecture that dazzles all ages — Description of the grandest statue ever set up — Worship of Diana — Grave of the holy mother — The magic arts — A treasure house of nations — Decline of Ephesus — Altars, temples and gymnasiums, 359-36S CHAPTER XL. THE CROWN OF GREECE. Arrival at Athens — City of culture and beauty— A walk through the streets — The Stadium at Athens -A slaughter of wild beasts — Description of the Acropolis — Victory without wings — Marvelous Pantheon— O, wonderful works of men — St. Paul on Mars Hill — A splendid comparison — Resurrection and judgment — An astounding scene — Voice of Mars Hill — Vanished glories — Reminiscences, 369-379 CHAPTER XIvI. POMPEII. Volcanic illumination— The mysteries of Vesuvius— At the corpse of a dead city— Description of Pompeii — Temples of the buried city — Pomp and beauty overwhelmed in a night — Review of Pompeii in its glory — The last day — Vesuvius in awful eruption — Avalanche of ashes and fiery cinders — A scene of unparalleled fui-y— Resurrection of the buried city— Reading the story of the ruins— Disentombment of galleries, rare specimens and bodies— The sins of a city— Verification of the prophecies— America for God, 3S0-3S7 CHAPTER XLII. THE COLOSSEUM. A visit to the eternal city— In the footsteps of Paul— The Mamertine dungeon— A miracle of architecture- Description of the Colosseum— Gladiatorial combats— Bloody beasts and dying men— Horror upon horror — Heroism of Telemachus — Savagery of modern civilization — Evils of present day politics — Cruelties and oppressions— Solitude of the ruined Colosseum— Monarchs arraigned before judgment —Mercy 3SS-396 CONTENTS. xi CHAPTER XLIII. MY RECEPTION IN THE RUSSIAN PALACE. page. Misconceptions of Russians - Slanders and vituperation — Cause of this malignant falsification — The cholera incubus — Sample falsehoods — A plain question — Russia no worse than other nations — An optimistic picture — Right ideas about Russia — How that great countr}' has ever been America's best friend — Meaning of Russian fleets in American waters — Importance of cultivating Russia's friendship — Calum- nies about the Emperor — Some apt comparisons — Emancipation of the serfs — Merciful disposition of Alexander II — The devil of persecution — Falsehoods about Siberia and the convicts — Trial by jur}'— Charitable organizations — A charit)' that challenges all history — Invited to meet the Emperor — An interview in the palace of Peterhof — Emperor Alexander's cordial hospitality — Description of Alex- ander III — The Empress and her children — A visit to JIoscow — Surprising things in that ancient city —Accession of Nicholas the Second, 397-430 CHAPTER XLIV. GOSPEL OF BREAD. The famine in Russia— Dr. Talmage takes a ship-load of flour to St. Petersburg — His reception by the Mayor — Food for the starviug — Presentation of a superb tea-set 431-432 CHAPTER XLV. GREAT BRITAIN. Painting in cheerful colors — Good words about England — A generous welcome — Samples of English weather — A criticism on growlers — Disagreeable persons are everywhere — Muscle and digestion — Down in a coal mine— Something about men who delve in the earth — Ruins of Kirkstall Abbe\' — Spirits of the past — A tragic romance — An interview with Gladstone — A ramble with the grand old man through Hawarden forest — Story of a wounded soldier — Discussion on home rule — John Ruskin — An accidental meeting with the great author — Influence of his writings, 433-450' CHAPTER XLVI. SCOTLAND. Charming scenerj- — Baptism of a Scotch baby— Robert McCheyne, the great preacher — Remarks about the Scotch character — ^John Bright — Our exports to the British Isles — The Highland show — A sail on the River Taj' — Wishart and the assassin — Heroes of the past — Ruins of famous castles — False opin- ions about aristocracy — Interesting facts about famous persons — The midnight charities of London — . Lord Kintore among the poor — A visit to Wales — Land of unpronounceable names — Literature of the Welsh — In a car with a maniac — .•Vn hour of terror — Some differences between America and Eng- land — English homes and resorts — A tribute to the Rev. Robertson — The Isle of Wight — Famous places of England — Ruins of U\'icanium — Wonderful recoveries — .A queer story about Peverel and the devil — A trip to Ireland — The magnetic eloquence of O'Connell — Ireland of to-da\- compared with Ireland of the last centurj' — Tom Galvin, the hangman — Tiger Roche's career — A better time com- ing — Belfast and Londonderry — The giant's amphitheatre and Dunkerry cave — Traditions and description of the Giant's Causeway, 451-4S5 CHAPTER XLVII. ' ON THE HOME STRETCH. Life on the ocean wave — The discomforts of traveling — Some thanks for hardships endured — A p^ean of the sea — Impressions of the journey — Troubles that beset us — Tales of travelers— America the land of blessings — Labor in America compared with that in other countries — Republic America contrasted with Monarchical Europe — Princely salaries to sinecures —The Thanksgiving table being set in Amer- ica — The civic and the military, the political and the religious —Ecstatic sight of native land — New York harbor — Conclusion of the journey — An apostrophe to home, 4S6-503 My Palanquin and Bearers froiilispicce. Royal Elephant Carriage Used by Dr. Talinage in India, . . xii Carved Representation of Heathen Deity, . . . xvi Carving in Balcony, Kyaung, at Mgingydn, East India, 34 Celebration of the Silver Anniversary of Dr. Tal- mage's Brookh^n Pastorate, 37 My Traveling Companion, Frank DeWitt Talmage, aS The Tabernacle Before the Fire 49 Grand Caiion of the Colorado, 52 Photograph of Dr. Talmage, 55 Lookout Mountain, 57 River Stj'x, Mammoth Cave, ... ■ ■ ■ ■ 59 Main Street, Salt Lake City, 60 Mount of the H0I3' Cross, .... 6r Denver, from the Capitol, 63 Broadmoor Casino, Colorado Springs, .... 64 Pulpit Rock, Utah, ' 6,s Grand Caiion of the Colorado, . 66 The Devil's Shde. Utah 67 The Breaking Railroad Bridge, 68 Cliff House, and Seal Rocks, 70 Chinatown, San Francisco 71 Captain Morse, of the "Alameda." 74 The " Alameda " Passing the Golden Gate, ... 75 Dr. Talmage on the "Alameda," 76 Harbor of Honolulu 77 Night Scene in the Crater of Kilauea, 78 Ex-Queen Lilliokoulani 80 S. P. Dole, President of Hawaii, 81 National Palace, Honolulu, 82 Main Street, Honolulu, 84 Hawaiian Girls, . . 85 Princess Napilonius' Residence, ... .... 87 Remains of King Kalakanu Lying in State, ... 88 Statue of Kamehameha I. 89 Kaufohe Park, Honolulu, 90 Captain Cook's Monument, 91 Rice Cultivation, Hawaii, 92 A Native Feast, Hawaii 94 An Aspirant to the Throne of Samoa 96 Samoan Residence, 98 King and Queen of Samoa 99 Burmese Mother and Son, Showing Sample of Tat- tooing Among Uncivilized Races, 100 Samoan Girls Making Kava, 10 r Samoan Girls Playing Cards, 102 Samoan Country Residence 103 A Maori Chief, New Zealand 104 A Maori Dwelling 105 Rhinoceros Himters loS Maori Couple, New Zealand, no Suburbs of Auckland, in Maori Widows 1 14 Fijian Houses, 116 Milford Sound, New Zealand, 118 A Lady of the Archipelago 120 Banana Grove, Fiji, 122 New Zealand Scenery, 124 Shipping an Elephant, 126 Public Buildings, Sidne}-, Australia 130 Sidney Tram Car, 134 Dr. Talmage Among South Sea Savages, 138 A Beautiful Woman of the East, 140 Mount Camamera in Eruption, 141 The Pink Terraces, 143 Australian Aborigines 146 Tattooed Girl of Oceanica, 147 Barron River Native, 14S Sidney Head, Sidney Harbor, . . 149 Dr. Talmage Preparing to Go Down into a Gold Mine, 151 Loddon Falls, New South Wales 153 Cascade, Loddon River, 155 Tasman's Arch, 156 Corabboree Dance, Australia, 159 Singalese Beggar, 161 Work in the Shearing House 165 Shearing Sheep, 167 Sheep Range, Australia 169 Old Penal Colony of Australia, .... 172 A Blind Hindoo Boy Reading with His Fingers, . 173 Sidney Gardens, Australia, 175 Sidney Harbor, 177 Kangaroos, 17S Laughing Jackass, 179 Town Hall Organ, Melbourne, J S3 General Post-office, Sidnev 185 Town Hall, Sidney, . . . ' 187 Native Sailors of the South Seas 189 Jenolan Caves, India igr Burmese Puray, Danced Before Prince Albert Vic- tor, at Mandalay, 193 A Princess of Bunnah in Court Co.stume 195 David Jamal, Dr. Talmage's Dragoman, .... 197 The Elephant Bath, ' 198 Sir Henry Parkes, 200 The Relief of Lucknow, 201 Dr. Talmage on Deck of Ceylon Steamer 203 Anuilets Taken from the Body of Tippo Sahib, . . 204 Commander-in-chief of the Kurmese Army, . . . 205 Weighing the Emperor 207 Modern Crucifixion of Criminals in India 208 (xiii) ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE. Colossal Idol of Buddha, 209 The Wonderful Iron Pillar 213 An Incident of Railroading in India 215 Famine Scene in an Indian City 217 State Horse of India, 218 A Brahmin Wedding, 221 Serpent Pagoda, 223 The Worshipful Tooth of Buddha 224 Worship at Sunset on the Saami Rock, . . 225 Return to the Monastery of Burmese Priests After Begging Their Daily Food, 226 The War Elephant, .... 229 Lower Flight of Stone Steps, Mihinteale 230 Shrine on the Summit of Adonis Peak, 232 Group of Hindoo Girls at their Toilet, 233 A Devotee Enduring the Fire 234 Shipping in the River Hooghlj', 235 Bishop Heber's Statue, Calcutta 236 Nepalese Ladies in Costume, .■ 237 Site of the Black Hole, 238 Group of Devotees in a Temple, 239 A Burmese Cart, 240 The Three Cars of Juggernaut, 241 Carved Images of Dagon, 242 Corpse in the Ganges and Cremation on the Bank, 244 Our Camel Carriages 245 Preparation for the Immolation of a Widow, . . . 246 Monkej- Temple, Benares, 247 Brahma as the Four-faced Buddha 24S Golden Temple, Benares 249 Gosain Temple, Benares 251 The King of Napaiil and Commanding Generals, . 252 The Mongoose, . 253 Festival of the Serpents, 254 Indian Conjuring Trick, 255 A Hindoo Juggler, 256 Fakir of the Immovable Foot, 257 Fakir of the Long Nails, 257 Fakir Hanging to a Limb, 257 Hindoo Stone Carvers, 258 Lieutenants Havelock and Fuselien, 260 Relief of Lucknow, 261 General Havelock Greeted by Those He Saved, . 262 Signatures of the Heroes of Lucknow, 263 Prayer by the Wayside 264 Hindoo Priest at His Devotions, 265 Nepalese Generals and Chinese Embass}- 267 Sir Henry Havelock, 268 The Viceroj-'s Elephants, 269 Sir Colin Campbell, 271 A Hindoo Girl's School, 272 Hiudoos Telling Their Beads 273 Nana Sahib, 275 Scene of the Cawnpore Massacre, 277 Memorial Well, Cawnpore, 280 On the Banks of the Ganges, . . - 281 The Taj Mahal, 2S2 Gatewa}- to Garden of the Taj, 284 Tomb of the Oueen in the Taj 285 The Fort at Agra, 289 Akbar's Palace, the Throne Room, 290 Rebel Sepoys at Delhi, 291 Shooting Prisoners from a Gun 292 Through the Streets of Cawnpore 293 Chamber of Blood, Cawnpore 295 Audience Room, or Peacock Throne Chamber, . . 297 Buddhist Sacred Cave and Carved Figure of Gan- daura, . . 299 Shira's Bull, Mysore, 300 Dr. Talmage and Son on an Elephant, 30J: The Prince of Wales Starting on a Hunt, .... 302 Burmese Cart, 304 Sir J. Fayrer, 306 Parsee Tower of Silence, Bombay, 307 Plan of a Tower of Silence, 309 Car of Juggernaut, 310 A Parsee Wedding 312 Colonnade at Mahablesbwar 313 Inspection Daj' at an East India Penitentiary . . . 314 Entrance to the Elephanta Caves, 315 A Wall Inside the Elephanta Caves, 316 Black Marble Elephant 317 Suez Canal and Suez Town 319 The Port of Lsmailia, 320 Great Pj'ramid and Sphinx, 321 Pompey's Pillar, Alexandria, 322 Cit}' of Alexandria, Place of the Consuls, .... 323 Caravan on the Waj- to Mecca, 324 Dr. Talmage on the Summit of the P\-ran)id, . 325 Great P\'ramid of Cheops, 326 Cake Vendors of Cairo, 327 Interior of the Temple of Denderah, ... . . 328 Temples of Luxor, 329 Shadorf, for Raising Water from the Nile, . . . 332 Moorish Ladies' Apartment, 333 A Dahabeah, or Nile Boat 334 Natives of the Upper Nile at Prayer, 335 Barrage, or Wingdam, on the Nile, 336 Rameseum and Tombs of the Kings, Thebes, . . . 337 Obelisk and Propylon of the Temple of Luxor, . 33S Goddesses Crowning Pharaoh 339 The Colossi of Thebes 340 General View of Luxor 342 Island of Philae, 343 Propylon of the Temple Denderah, 344 Pharaoh's Bed, Philae 345 Mummy of Rameses III 346 View of the Ruins at Philae, 346 Tombs of the Caliphs, Cairo, 347 Avenue of Sphinxes. Karnak, 348 Deck Scene on a Dahabeah, 349 Great Hall of Columns, Karnak, 350 Prop}-lon,of the Temple of Isis, Philae, 351 Greek Ceremony of Washing the Feet 353 Church of San Georgio Maggiore, Venice, . . . 355 Venice, Pearl of the Adriatic, 357 Ephesus Restored, . . 360 Theatre of Dionj-sius, Ephesus 361 Statue of Diana in the Ephesian Temple 363 Whirling Dervishes of Constantinople, 365 Ruins of the Gymnasium, Ephesus 366 Ancient Corinth, Restored, 367 Paul Exhorting Felix 370 General View of Athens 371 View of the Acropolis, 372 Paul Discoursing with Aquila and Priscilla,. . . '. 373 Ancient Athens, Restored 375 Facade of the Parthenon 376 Prison of Socrates, Athens, 377 Theatre of Bacchus 378 Eruption of Vesuvius 381 Street of the Tombs, Pompeii, - . 3S2 Cast of a Human Body, from Pompeii, 383 Crater of Vesuvius, 385 Interior of the Museum, Pompeii, 3S6 Ruins of the Colosseum, Rome, 389 Temple of Minen-a, Rome, 390 Altar to the Unknown God, Rome, 391 Interior of the Chapel Where Peter Was Crucified, 392 General View of Rome 393 Excavations of the Forum, Rome 394 The Vatican, Rome, 395 House of the Romanoffs. Moscow, 397 Louis Klopsch, Editor Christian Herald, .... 39S ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE. The Imperial Family, 399 Dowager Empress and Her Daughter 400 A Winter Day in St. Petersburg, 401 Prefect of St. Petersburg 402 Arch of Triumph, Moscow, 403 Dr. Talmage Leaving the City Hall, 404 Russian Jlilitary Types 405 Fortress of Sts. Peter and Paul, 406 Public Jluseum, Moscow, . . 407 The Way I Was Received at St. Petersburg, . . . 40S A Friendly Talk with the Czar 409 Nicholas II., Emperor of Russia 410 My Reception and Inter\-iew with the Czar, ... 411 Scenes of Dr. Talmage's Reception, 412 The Baths, Peterhof, 413 Fountain in the Garden, Peterhof, 414 Basin of Neptune, Peterhof 415 The Great Bell, Moscow, 416 Convoy of Condemned, Russia, 417 Winter Palace, St. Petersburg, . 418 St. Isaac's Cathedral, St. Petersburg, 419 Jew Merchants 420 Toiver of Soukareff, Moscow, ... .... 421 House of Peter the Great, 422 General View of the Kremlin, Moscow 423 Great Votive Church, Moscow, 424 Palace and Treasur}', Moscow, 425 Gold Enameled Tea Service, 426 Temple of Our Saviour, Moscow 427 Autographs of the Emperor and Empress, ... 42S Cathedral of Ostaukino, Moscow, . . .... 429 Dr. Talmage Responding to Speech of Welcome, . 431 Buckingham Palace, Front Mew, 433 Buckingham Palace, Side View, 434 Buckingham Palace, Throne Room 435 Marlborough House, Loudon 436 A Corner in the House of Commons, 438 St. Paul's Cathedral, from Bankside, 440 Front View- of St. Paul's Cathedral, 441 Fleet Street and St. Paul's, London, 443 Hawarden Castle, 444 Gladstone in Hawarden Wood 445 Rt. Hon. Wm. E. Gladstone, 447 PAGE. John Ruskin, As I Saw Him, 449 House of John Knox, Edinburgh, 452 Knox Church, where I Preached, 453 Balmoral Castle 454 The Queen's Cameron Highlanders, 455 Ross Castle, 456 Holyrood Castle, 457 Robert Burns' Cottage, 458 Downe Castle and Gallows Tree, 459 Melrose Abbey, 460 The Old Curiosity Shop 461 Victoria Embankment, London, 463 Westminster Abbey, London, . . 464 Westminster Bridge and Clock Tower, 465 Coronation Chair, Westminster, 467 The Beach at Brighton, 469 Tower of London, 470 London Bridge, 471 Tower Bridge, London, 473 Victoria Embankment Gardens, 475 PiccadilU' Circus, London, 476 Oueenstown Harbor, Ireland, 477 View of Lake Killarney, 478 Blarne}- Castle, Showing Blarney Stone, 479 Fingals Cave, Staffa, Ireland 480 Eton College, 4S1 Stoke Pogis Church and Churchyard, 483 North Front Windsor Castle, . " 484 Balliol College, Oxford, 486 Bank of England 487 Crystal Palace 488 Law Courts, London, .... 489 Dr. Talmage's Farewell Meeting at Hyde Park, . 491 Conway Castle, North Wales, 492 St. James' Palace, London 493 Nelson's Monument, Trafalgar Square 494 Room in which Shakespeare Was Born 495 Open Air Seri'ices Before John Wesley Church, . . 497 Spurgeon's Tabernacle 498 New Vork Bay and Castle Garden 499 Drawing Room in Dr. Talmage's House, 501 Sleeping Room in Dr. Talmage's House, 502 EIGHT PHOTOGRAPHS IN COLORS. 1. IVfy Palanquin and Bearers. 2. Tea Gatherers. 3. Mohammedan Rajah and Court Officers. 4. Burmese Country Carriage. 5. King Thebaw's Prima Donna. 6. Children of the Orient, 7. Golden Pagoda. 8. Palace of an Indian Queen. Choice Initial Letters. Presentation Plate. AUTHO-R'S PHEFACE. OHE preface is something that must be done. A book without a preface is a house without a knob on the door, and without front steps. A book cannot look you full in the face until it is introduced by such a prefix. But in the millennium there will be no prefaces. They belong to the imperfect ages. If a book be good it needs no preface, and if it be useless or bad no amount of literar\- genu- flexions at the start can sa\-e it. Beside that, if the author tells in a preface what he is going to do in the subsequent Jjages, he robs them of novelty. If }'ou want to know what this book is, read it. Suffice it to say that it is an account of one journey around the world, v/ith here and there a scene from my previous journeys to complete the links of the story. Washington, D, C, March s, iSg6. (3.3) Publisher's T^reface ..Concerning... "Dr. Talmage's American Celebration and "Reception Before Startins on His Earth-Girdling Tour. OHERE are heroes of peace greater, because more glorioxis in fheir iisefulness, than demi-gods of war. He who builds is better than he who destroys ; that one who binds up a wound is nobler than he who strikes down. The truly illustrious, the lordly, the blessed, are they who add to the joys of life, whose lives are at once song, fragrance, sunshine and e.xample. It is infinitely better to endure for all time in the hearts of men, than to rest under the most splendid monument that pride can rear to genius, for one speaketh continualh' while the other becomes dumb and forgotten under the rust of age. A man's reputation should be measured not onl)' by the esteem of his contemporaries, but also by his deeds and works for mankind, which will live after him. By such an appraisement of man's value, the Rev. T. De Witt Talmage must be regarded as a conspicuous example of worldly benefice as well as an instrument in God's hands for infinite good. His life is like a benediction, for he makes every man his brother ; he scatters kindness as the sower scatters seed ; he is a Samaritan among the needy, a defender of the weak, a Samson that gives battle to the lions of evil. People often ask, " To what denomination does Dr. Talmage belong ? " The answer must be given that while he is a member of one church he is a clergyman of all churches that teach Christ. Not one who prepares the way as did the Baptist, nor as one who establishes churches as did Paul, but he is a disciple and evangelist ; a teacher not of doctrines, but of brotherhood ; who talks to the human heart, and who dispenses joy and love to all people, whose taber- nacle is the heavens above, and the world his congregation. For twenty-five years Dr. Talmage ministered to a charge in the city of Brooklyn, New York. He went to that place a stranger, and he began preaching there to small audiences, but his friends multiplied, his hearers rapidly increased in numbers, his popularity grew apace, and very soon the church in which he discoursed was found to be too small to accommodate all who came to hear him. A larger one was erected, but in a few years it too became inadequate, both in size and convenience. A fire destroyed it, without loss of life, and then a larger tabernacle was built, but his congregation increased so rapidly that, large as the structure was, it could not contain all that would hear him. A second time the tongue of flame touched and consumed his church edifice, but fire purifieth, and with unruffled resolution, unquenchable and unconquerable spirit. Dr. Talmage took upon himself the burden of raising a sum of money with which to build tlie largest tabernacle in America ; a temple of worship that would gi\e opportunity to thou.sands who had been denied the privilege of listening to his eloquence ; large enough not only to receive his regular congregation, but sufliciently ample to also hold tlie great number of (35) 36 . THE EARTH GIRDLED. strangers who, visiting New York, sought the chance of hearing the most famous divine of the century. In this work of designing, and of raising funds, Dr. Tahnage contributed all the energies of his tongue, pen and means. He preached, lectured, wrote and appealed ; every day of the week his efforts were exerted in this splendid enterprise. No other man gave so liberally as he, both of work and mone}', toward carrying his conception of a colossal, grand, triumphant tabernacle to success. At last the great edifice was completed ; the most glorious hour of his life was when the oratorio of dedication resounded through its spacious naves, and the world accepted the Brooklyn Tabernacle as a monument to the indefatigable energies and wide-reaching influence of Dr. Tahnage, as well as a magnificent temple for the worship of God, the doors of which were thrown wide open to people of every faith, and in which charity and brotherhood had an unalterable abiding place. Dr. Talmage has always been an immense worker ; who that has read his sermons, has read his contributions to the press, has read the books which pour from his pen, has .seen, or can understand, the numerous duties which devolve upon him as pastor of the largest congregation in America ; the lectures which he delivers, the traveling that he is forced to ■do, the entertainments which his position requires him to attend, the correspondence which ■occupies so much of his time ; who that considers all this, will fail to wonder how he manages to do so much, and above all how human mind can accomplish what he does so well. But there is a limit even to his marvelous spirit and endurance, though his genius seems to rise above all physical limitations. He felt not the heavy hand of years so much as the burdens of manifold exactions and increasing requirements. When, therefore, the twenty- fifth 3'-ear of his pastorate in Brooklyn was about to close — twenty-five years of unremitting labor that would have crushed any man of less resolution — Dr. Talmage, through the urgings of his own congregation as much as by reason of an appreciation of his own ph3-sical needs, resolved to take an outing. He cannot endure rest, but he longed for recreation, for a change from the exhausting duties which had enslaved him for many years, and for the freshness of God's mornings in the wide pastures of the world. So, his determination having been made to take a vacation, he resolved to make a tour of the globe ; not as a tourist, but rather as a pastor who visits his communicants, for as Dr. Talmage has for a long while preached through the newspapers to more than twenty-five millions of persons ever}- week, and in nearly all the languages of civilization, wherever he might travel he would be certain to find many who are regular readers of his sermons. When the purpose of Dr. Talmage became known, it was immediatelj' proposed by many prominent citizens of Brooklyn to fittingly celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of his pastorate in that city. The suggestion was hailed with such universal approval that the movement spread all over the country, and thence to Europe, and to all Christendom, until, to satisfy the demand, the demonstration took the form of a national and international reception, which was to be given in the Great Tabernacle on the tenth and eleventh of May, 1894, three days before the day he had appointed for starting upon a circumnavi- gation of the earth. For this magnificent jubilee commemoration, which was at once ovation and psean, the great church building was splendidly and elaborately decorated with banners and flags. On the front of the great organ was a large portrait of Dr. Talmage surrounded by a cluster of American and flags of other nations. Underneath these was the inscription: " The Taber- nacle his pulpit ; the world his audience." The back of the platform was hung with crimson plush, embroidered with gold. In the centre stood an enormous bouquet of lilies and roses. The front of the galleries was draped with blue plush, heavily embroidered in gold, and 38 THE EARTH GIRDLED. everywhere were the Stars and Stripes, draping the cornices and windows, twined about pillars and outlined against the other hangings, so that the American flag dominated the building, and the occasion. And how grandly appropriate were these embellishments, for next to his allegiance to Christ Dr. Talmage acknowledges with loyal pride his loving fealty to his country. Eight o'clock was the hour appointed for the beginning of the celebrative services in the Tabernacle, but long before that time a tremendous crowd had gathered about the building completely blocking, with a jam of eager humanity, several squares. By seven o'clock, before the front doors were opened, the immense edifice, capable of seating comfortably 5000 persons, was filled to its utmost limit, save the platform, which had been reserved for special guests and those having in charge the commemorative exercises. When the hour of eight arrived services were opened by the organist, Henry Eyre Brown, rendering a brilliant composition of his own for the occasion, entitled " The Talmage Silver Anniversary March," which was received with a great applause. When the last note of the organ died away, and expectation was on tip-toe, a distinguished company of participants, headed by the Mayor of Brooklyn (Mr. Schieren), filed out of the pastor's room and onto the platform, followed by Dr. Talmage himself, who.se face was radiant with goodwill and gratitude. The exercises of celebration began by the entire audience singing the doxology, after which the Rev. James M. Farrar offered a prayer, then followed the introduction by Mr. Dimon, one of the trustees, of Mayor Schieren, who had been chosen to preside. The first night of the commenioratioir was a distinctively Brooklyn celebration, and nearly all the speakers were notables of that cit)-, among the number being distinguished Catholics, Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians and representatives of other denominations, besides the most prominent officials and citizens of Brooklyn. Mayor Schieren welcomed the vast audience in a speech of much warmth and congratulation, wherein he paid a splendid tribute to Dr. Talmage and to his congregation ; other eloquent speakers delivered encomiums on the genius and work of the great preacher, which were recei\-ed with the heartiest acclamations from the delighted gathering. Those who thus addressed the vast audience on the first night of the celebration were : Hon. Charles A. Schieren, Editor Bernard Peters, Rev. Father Sylvester Malone, Rev. Dr. John F. Carson, ex-Ma^^or David A. Boody, Rev. Dr. Gregg, Rabbi F. De Sol. Mendes, Rev. Dr. Louis A. Banks, Hon. John Winslow, Rev. Spencer F. Roche, Rev. A. C. Dixon. At the reception, Thursday evening, Rev. Dr. Gregg, among other things, said : "There is only one Dr. Talmage. There is more or less Talmage in every minister, but he is all Talmage. He lives among us unique. There is but one man in the American pulpit that can draw, and hold, and thrill, twice ever)' Sabbath the year roirnd, an audience of 8000. There is but one man on the globe that preaches the gospel every week through the press to 25,000,000. There is only one man living who, in taking a trip around the world, can say : ' I am simply out for a season of pastoral calls. I am taking a walk among the people of my congregation.' [Laughter and applause.] There is only one Dr. Talmage. With this fact before my mind I come to this great meeting to-night to congratulate our municipality that Dr. Talmage is a citizen of Brooklyn ; to congratulate this vast church that Dr. Talmage is still the pastor of the Brooklyn Tabernacle, and to congratulate my brethren in the ministry that Dr. Talmage is still a member of the Bi-ooklyn Presbytery in good and regular standing. [Laughter.] As his nearest Presbyterian neighbor, and as one of the delegates of the Brooklyn Presbytery appointed to stand on this platform, I bring to THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 39 Dr. Talmage and his great flock the goodwill and the prayers and the Godspeed of the Presbyterian community in this city of churches. I have come to this meeting to-night for another reason. It is a reason which all the ministers here have for coming. I come, as my brethren here come, to demonstrate to the public the freedom from jealousy which characterizes the men of the American pulpit. [Applause.] We heartily rejoice in the success of every true man of God, and we are glad of the opportunity to pay to every such man the tribute which he has lawfully earned. While I disclaim all jealousy and to-night willingly pay the tribute of praise to my beloved brother who rounds out a quarter of a century of multitudinous and successful labors in this tabernacle, I am honest enough to confess that I should like to be able to preach with a power that could set all these flags afloat and at full mast. The man who can do that is entitled to be circled round and round and to be saluted by these flags as Dr. Talmage is on this occasion. [Applause.] As I have seen Dr. Talmage from the pew I consider him the greatest word painter on any continent of earth. He paints for Christ. He thinks in pictures, and he who thinks in pictures thinks vividly. He paints with a large brush, with colors that burn and glow, and nations gather around his pictures and feel an uplift and a holy thrill. There is one thing which Dr. Talmage is able to use beyond any man I have ever heard speak, and that is the rhetorical pause. He makes his sermons vivid and impressive with the flash of a golden silence. Having rounded his period and finished his point he stops until the hush of heaven fills the house and until the audience has felt the power of God's truth." Among other things Rev. Dr. Banks said : "I am very glad, Mr. Chairman, of the opportunity of bringing my handful of wild flowers from the Oregon hillsides where I first came to know and admire Dr. Talmage (and where I never dreamed that I should ever live to see him in the flesh, much less take him by the hand), and add them to the garland we are weaving for the head of the most widely known chieftain of the American pulpit — indeed, I doubt not, the most universally read of all preachers now living in the world. I am glad to do this for several reasons. First, because Dr. Talmage has, in my judgment, done more to revolutionize preaching in respect to its being made entertaining and interesting, than any other man now among us. " It is equally true to say that no other minister of our time has done so much to give consecrated individualit}^ the right of way. I believe that in no other way has humanity lost so much as in the repression of individuality. Against the tendency to cut all ministers off of the same piece of cloth, make them up in the same style and hold them to a sort of sanctified dudeism, midway between a corpse-like dignity and pious imbecility. Dr. Talmage has stood as a pulpit Gibraltar, and thousands of young ministers, encouraged by his example and inspired by his independence, have been brave enough to be themselves and live their own lives and do their own work in their own way." At the close of the meeting Dr. Talmage was called for, and as he came forward the audience hailed him with such applause that it was several minutes before cjuiet could be restored sufficiently for him to speak. His response to this ovation was as follows : " Dear Mr. Mayor and friends before me, and friends behind me, and friends all around me, and friends hovering over me, and friends in this room and the adjoining rooms, and friends indoors and outdoors — forever photographed upon my mind and heart is this scene of May 10, 1894. The lights, the flags, the decorations, the flowers, the music, the illumined faces will remain with me while earthly life lasts, and be a cause of thank.sgiving after I have passed into the great beyond. Two feelings dominate me to-night — gratitude and unworthiness ; gratitude, first to God, and next to all you who ha\-e coniplimculed me by 40 THE EARTH GIRDLED. your presence or your speech, or who have by letter or telegram or cablegram sent salutations ; and unworthiness — for who would dare to take to himself one-half of the applaudatory things here to-night uttered? While our magnetic and eloquent friends were speaking it seemed that they must mean some other man than myself, someone with more gifts and holier life and higher achievements. What a commingling of all religions ! Surely upon no platform since the world stood have there been gathered so many different styles of belief. This is a section of the millennium let down. The lamb and the lion here lie down together, and you cannot tell who is the lion and who the lamb. The same spirit reigns here that the Quaker expressed to George Whitfield, when Whitfield in his clerical gown was disposed to criticise the broad-brimmed hat of the Quaker, and the latter said : ' George, I am as thou art. I am for bringing all men to the hope of the gospel ; therefore, if thou wilt not quarrel with me about mj' broad brim, I will not quarrel with thee about thy black gown. George, give me thy hand.' God bless the mayor, the ministers, the lawyers, the doctors, the merchants, the citizens, the splendid men and the magnificent women of Brooklyn. I am not surprised at what a policeman told me on the Brooklyn bridge a few days ago, when he said that he would rather be hung in Brooklyn than die a natural death in any other city. I cannot quite adopt that sentiment, but I do believe that Brooklyn is a lovely place for residence. There are three classes of people whom I especially admire : Men, women and children. All this scene to-night confirms me in the idea I long ago adopted, that this is the brightest and best world I ever got into. The fact is, I can stand as much kindness as any man I ever knew. My twenty-five years in Brooklyn have been happy years. Hard work of course. This is the fourth church in which I have preached since coming to Brooklyn, and how much of the difficult work of church building that implies you can appreciate. This church had its mother and its grandmother and its great-grandmother. I could not tell the story of disasters without telling the story of heroes and heroines, and around me in all these years have stood men and women of whom the world was not worthy. But for the most part the twenty-five years have been to me a great happiness. With all good people here present the wonder is, although they may not express it, ' What will be the effect upon the pastor of this church of all this scene ? ' Only one effect, I assure you, and that an inspiration for better work for God and humanity. And the question is already absorbing my entire nature, 'What can I do to repay Brooklyn for this great uprising?' Here is my hand and heart for a campaign of harder work for God and righteousness than I have ever yet accomplished. I have been told that sometimes in the Alps there are great avalanches called down by a shepherd's voice. The pure white snows pile up higher and higher like a great white throne, mountains of snow on mountains of snow, and all is so delicately and evenly poised that the touch of a hand or the vibration oi air caused by the human voice will send down the avalanche into the valleys with all encompassing and overwhelming power. Well, to-night I think that the heavens above us are full of pure white blessings, moimtains of mercy on mountains of mercy, and it will not take much to bring down the avalanche of benediction, and so I put up my right hand to reach it, and lift my voice to start it. And now let the avalanche of blessing come upon your bodies, your minds, your souls, your homes, your churches and your city. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting, and let the whole earth be filled with His glory ! Amen and amen ! " At the conclusion of Dr. Talmage's remarks and thankofferings the audience applauded most heartily and then further manifested their feelings of loving appreciation and endear- ment by singing " God be -with you till we meet again." THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 41 The services of the first day of celebration were concluded b\- the organist playing the march from " The Queen of Sheba," but it was not until after midnight that the gathering dispersed, so delightful had been the entertainment, in correspondence with the warmth of their affectionate esteem for the universally beloved pastor. SECOND DAY OF THE CELEBRATION. The evening of ]\Iay 10, 1894, will ever be a memorable anniversary for the people of Brooklyn, for upon that date, it will long be remembered, was given to Dr. Talmage such an ovation as few if any other civilians have ever received at the hands of their friends. The celebration of the conclusion of his twenty-five years of active ministerial labor in that city was made an event not only municipal, not only national, but international as well. The first evening of the services of commemoration was largely devoted to an expression of the loving regard in which Dr. Talmage is held by the people of his own city, but all Christendom wanted a voice in this service of celebration, approbation and admiration, and the occasion was therefore at hand upon which to express it. The second evening was accordingly made an international obser\^ance of the silver anniversary, and the participants, by presence, speech and letters, were from all parts of the world ; great men and distinguished women, thankful for the opportunity to offer their tributes to the preacher who every week sermonizes to people of every civilized land. The exercises of the second evening of celebration were opened with pra}-er by the eloquent Dr. Milbiirn, chaplain of the United States Senate, followed by the rendering of the " Talmage Silver Anniversary March " by the organist. Hon. B. F. Tracy, ex-Secretary of the Navy, was chosen to preside during the evening, and in accepting the position spoke as follows : SPEECH OF GENER.'VL TRACY. '■'■Ladies and Gentlemen — Among the great cities of the Union Brooklyn has man}- claims to distinction, and not the least of these is to be found in the learning, ability and patriotic zeal of its clergy. I speak only the simple truth when I say that the fame of Brooklyn rests largely upon the fame of its great preachers. It will, I think, be admitted by all that the people of Brooklyn are able to recognize a great preacher when they hear him, and when they call him to one of their churches they take him as a man takes the partner of his life, for better or worse so long as they both shall live. No really great preacher once settled in Brooklyn has ever left it to take up his field of labor elsewhere. Brooklyn is not a commercial city in the sense that is true of New York, Chicago, Boston or San Francisco. It is a city of homes and there is something in the strength and purity of its home influence and in the love of its people for a home life that has contributed largely to the marked success of its great public teachers. It has been called the City of Churches, not so much I apprehend because the proportion of churches to the population exceeds that of other cities as because of the deeper hold of the churches themselves upon the life of the people as well as the exceptional ability and devotion of the ministers that have filled their pulpits. Brooklyn does not postpone the just recognition of the services of its great religious teachers until after they are gone, but assists and co-operates with them in their good work by extending to them in their lifetime words of praise and encouragement. Such is the object and purpose of this celebration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the pastorate of Dr. Talmage in Brooklyn. Last evening Brookl\-n honored itself by a celebration, local in character, but this evening the celebration takes a wider scope. It becomes national and 42 THE EARTH GIRDLED. even international in its character. And it is fitting that it should be so. While Dr. Talmage for the last twenty-five years has been heard in Brooklyn, his sermons delivered here have been read the world over. No preacher of to-day, or of any day, or of any time, has been so generally heard and so widely read as Dr. Talmage. His sermons are published every week in more than three thousand different newspapers, each of which reaches thousands upon thousands of readers. There is scarcely a city or village in the United States from Maine to Texas, or from New York to San Francisco, in which the sermons delivered in this Tabernacle are not regularly published in full every week. The same is true of Great Britain. They are also published in Australia, New Zealand and in India, and they have been translated into more than half a dozen different European languages. It is believed that the sermons of Dr. Talmage enter week by week more than five millions of homes and are placed within the reach of more than twenty millions of people. And this has been so now for many years. No minister of the gospel in the world's history ever commanded in his lifetime so great an audience, and no stronger proof could be given that this man teaches what the world needs to hear, that he truly ministers to the souls of men. This is the secret of the influence which our friend has exerted, that in bearing his message he speaks a language that finds a response in every human heart. The breadth and depth and strength of that influence are attested by the warm and kindly greetings that we shall hear to-night from men of worth not only in this country, but throughout the world, men whose esteem and friendship are a valued possession to all who have been fortunate enough to win them. Many such men have come here to do him honor. Others, who could not come in person, take part in this celebration by sending their earnest congratulations. Among them are Senators of the United States, Governors of States, clergymen of distinction all over the world, the bishops of other churches and public men of foreign lands, and foremost among these last is that prominent statesman and scholar, only recently retired full of years and of honors. I mean the late prime minister of Great Britain, William E. Gladstone. Upon such men has the influence of the teachings of Dr. Talmage made itself felt. It has been diffused over all lands and among all classes and conditions of humanity. It has reached the furthest boundaries of the civilized world. It has touched those who guide and direct the affairs of nations as well as the humblest citizen. Such an influence is a powerful instrument for good. It is a common boast in this country that there is no connection between church and State, and in the sense that the State seeks not to control the church or the convictions of its members the boast is justified. But there is a broader meaning than this to the relation of church and State, which lies in the influence for good by the membership of the church upon the State and those who direct its affairs. And by the church I mean no sect or denomination, but the whole body of Christian believers. In this sense the connection cannot be too close, and it is far from being as close as it ought to be to-day. The church should exact the same standard of right in the conduct of public affairs that it exacts in the private lives of its members. It should tolerate no divergence from the straight path of public integrity. It should not palter with wickedness, even when the wickedness is sought to be excused on the ground that the offence is political rather than personal in its character. It should teach and should enforce the same code of morals and honesty in public life as in private life. It should crush out the theory which has been the root of much evil in our political system, that there is one code of morals in affairs of the State and another code of morals in the conduct of private relations. A man cannot be honest in streaks or in spots. An honest man must be an honest man throughout. A man who is not honest may simulate honesty for years, though his heart is rotten all the THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 43 while. It is onh- the temptation and the opportunit}- that are wanting to show liini in his true character. A man with such a character, raised to eminent public office, engaged in the administration of public affairs, may work incalculable mischief both to the morals of the community and to the welfare of the State ; but so long as his dishonesty is against the State it is too often condoned and forgotten. To correct this error is one of the foremost duties of Christian citizenship in this age and in this country, and it is, I believe, in recognition of this fact and to do honor to one fearless in the discharge of his duty as a Christian teacher, in public as well as in private affairs, that we are assembled here to-night." General Tracj' was followed by the Hon. William M. Evarts, who spoke in a similarly eulogistic strain, after which Hon. Patrick Walsh, United States Senator from Georgia, delivered a most eloquent tribute which brought forth repeated applause. Hon. Joseph C Hendrix, Congressman from Brooklyn, delighted the immense audience with many witty references, and also with unstinted praise for Dr. Talmage, at the conclusion of which letters, telegrams and cablegrams were read from hundreds of persons, all expressive of great admiration for the subject of this grand and fitting international reception. Among those who thuf' participated in spirit in the celebration were Mr. Gladstone, the Arch- Deacon of London, Canon Wilberforce, Professor Simpson of Edinburgh, Thain Davidson, the Bishop of lyondon, the Governor-General of Canada, Count Andre Bobrinskoy, of St. Petersburg, ex-President Harrison, Senator John Sherman, Governor McKinley, and in fact Governors of nearly all the States, many members of the United States Senate, prominent ministers of various denominations, members of the Supreme Court, General Schofield, commander of the armies of the United States, and from distinguished persons in the various walks of life. Among the hundred or more letters and cablegrams containing congratulations that were read, were the following : Letter from Herbert Gladstone, Dollis Hill, N. W. : Mr. Gladstone, being somewhat out of healtli, has to restrict his correspondence as much as possible, but he desires me to say for him that Dr. Talmage always has his best wishes, and that he remembers with much interest the occasions when he has had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Talmage. Herbert Gladstone. Cablegram from Loudon : Cordial congratulations ; grateful acknowledgment of splendid services in ministry during last twentj'-five years. Warm wishes for future prosperity. Archdeacon of London, Canon Wilberforce, Thain Davidson, Professor Simpson, John Lobb, Bishop of London. Letter from Earl of Aberdeen, Governor-General of Canada, Ottawa : I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the twenty-tliird of April, inviting me to be present at the reception to be tendered to the Rev. Dr. Talmage on the eleventh. I regret that, owing to engagements here, I am compelled to decline the courteous invitation thus extended to me, but I beg to offer good wishes in relation to this demonstration of esteem and goodwill toward Dr. Talmage. j$-6t4.<..,^CC^^X^ 44 THE EARTH GIRDLED. Russian cablegram from Count Andre Bobrinskoy, St. Petersburg, Russia : Heartfelt congratulations from gratefully remembering Russian friends. Letter from United States Senator John Sherman : Your kind invitation in behalf of your committee that I attend the reception to be tendered to Rev. T. DeWitt Talmage, D.D., LL.D., on the completion of the twenty-fifth year of his pastorate in Brooklyn is received. There is no one for whom I would more cheerfully express my sincere regard and my hearty appreciation of his wonderful ability than Mr. Talmage. I have heard him and heard of him for so many years, and have read so many of his sermons that I hold him in my estimation as the greatest preacher of our time. All this and much more I could say for him if I were at liberty to attend, but I feel that my official duties here will not permit me to leave at a time when so many interests are involved in the legislation of Congress. Thanking you for your kind invitation, I am. Very truly yours. Letter from William Walter Phelps, ex-Minister to Germany, Hot Springs, Va. : I shall not be well enough to accept the invitation, of which I would gladly avail myself, to testify that an acquaintance of a score of years, renewed at home and abroad, in public and private, has onl}' increased my admiration for the amount of patriotic, social and religious work which that impetuous, unselfish and gifted man, Dr. Talmage, has done. Letter from Governor McKinley : I feel honored by the invitation 3'ou have sent me to take part in the reception to be tendered to the Rev. Dr. Talmage in celebration of the twenty-fifth year of his pastorate at the Brooklyn Tabernacle. While it is impossible for me to be present, I take occasion to give expression to the great respect and esteem in which I hold Dr. Talmage. The American people, irrespective of denominational differences, have a pride in the ability and public services of Dr. Talmage. His influence for good, in the direction of public sentiment, extends far beyond his own church and his own congregation ; it is felt all over our country, and even beyond the seas. Please convey to the Doctor my regards and congratulations. Very truly yours, ^^UJ^L"^/^-^ The Governor of Virginia, Hon. Chas. T. O'Ferrall, wrote : Among the clergy of America he is the foremost man of the age, and his influence is felt at almost every Christian fireside, while his scholarly ability' and eloquence have won him a world-wide reputation. The compli- ment to be conferred upon him is a well-merited one, and is, after all, but another laurel added to the honors of a long and useful life. The Governor of Wyoming, Hon. John E. Osborn, wrote : No name stands higher in the galaxy of great American names than that of Dr. Talmage. No man has done more for the lasting benefit of the race than he, and no one has done more for the dissemination of the doctrine of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, the beautiful religion of the Carpenter of Nazareth, than he, and there is, I think, no true American citizen but feels a wave of admiration and love swell in his breast at the mention of the great teacher of the Brooklyn Tabernacle. THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 45 Letter from Joseph Parker : I have so olteii expressed my appreciation of Dr. Talmage that I feel it to be quite needless to add one word of eulog}-, even in view of the impending celebration of his twenty-fifth pastoral anniversary. I Lave been asked to join others in sending a telegram of congratulation, but I do not wish to be one of a number in recognizing an event which is so intensely personal. In the realm of religious imagination, power, fertility, and ardour of fancy. Dr. Talmage stands in my esteem absolutely without a rival in the Christian pulpit of to-day. It is within my certain knowledge that not only is his ministry imaginatively and verbally splendid, but that it carries with it converting and elevating power. This is of course the highest tribute which can be paid to any ininistr\- ; and I do nothing but the barest justice to a brother minister in thus solemnly and gratefully recording the fact. Association with Dr. Talmage is most discouraging to men of smaller capacity and feebler nerve. We can only stand back from him and each say, "I, too, am a preacher." I offer him my love, and confidence, and gratitude, on the occasion of his Silver Wedding with the church in Brooklyn. The Governor of ]\Iichigan, Hon. John P. Rich, wrote : While Dr. Talmage has been pastor of the Brooklyn Tabernacle for the past twenty-fi\e years, he has had the nation, and to a large extent the civilized world, for an audience. United States Senator James K. Jones wrote : The results of his great labors will be felt to the last syllable of recorded time, and his name will be honored through all the future as it is loved by those who know him now. Bishop John F. Hurst wrote : The church in this and all other countries has been enriched by his labors. Many a life has become beautiful through his teachings. All classes have shared in the benefactions of his heart and hand. Bishop John H. Vincent wrote : I rejoice in all successes which crown Dr. Talmage, the brilliant and lo^'al American preacher. After more than an hotir spent in reading these congratulator}' tributes, Rev. Charles L. Thompson spoke eloquentl)' of Dr. Tahnage's genius, work and influence, followed by Murat Halstead, as representative of the press, who in turn was succeeded by Rev. Dr. J. J. Lansing. At the conclusion of the latter's remarks Gen. Tracy called for Dr. Talmage, who responded to the ovation tendered to him as follows : SPEECH OF DR. TALMAGE. " Whether to address the presiding officer of this evening as one of the heroes of the LTnited States anny and call him General, or as recenth^ a member of presidential cabinet, who helped lift the navy from insignificance to a war armament that commands the respect of the world, and call him ex-Secretary ; or as one of the brilliant leaders in the American court-room and call him attorney-at-law, I am undecided, and so will do neither, but address him as Mr. Chairman. God ble.ss you for your kindness in coming here to-night to preside over this audience. What in this scene has made the deepest impression upon 46 THE EARTH GIRDLED. the mind of this audience I do not know. The most vivid on my mind is an impression that has no reference to myself at all. We have been told that religion is a weak thing, fit for the weak mind, and an obsolete affair belonging to the ages of superstition. I point to the group of illustrious men on this platform to prove that the brain, the learning, the eloquence, the splendid manhood of America is on the side of Jesus Christ. If religion had been a sham, these are the men who would have found it out. We have in this land and on this platform the man who, after filling the office of Secretary of the United States, and belonging to two Presidential Cabinets, and pleading in the most important cases that ever came before judge or jury, stands now a combination of Edmund Burke and Daniel Webster — I mean William M. Evarts. We have been led to-night in prayer b\- the John Milton of the American pulpit, like the one after whom I call him, his eye-sight blasted by excess of vision, turning aside from the United States Senate to pray for us at the time when the Senate most needs his prayers to help them in the struggle with the Wilson bill. Georgia sends to us its distinguished citizen, the achievements of his great editorial pen now to be eclipsed by his mighty mission in the United States Senate. Henry W. Grady and Senator Col quit have passed away, but, thank God, we have in their place Hon. Patrick Walsh. On this platform we have a member of another branch of the national legislature, but whether he is on the way to gubernatorial or presidential chair I know not, but this I •do know : He is our joy and our pride, Hon. Joseph C. Hendrix. But the committee of xeception does full honor to my own profession ; and so they invited to this platform a minister of the gospel who after rousing the cities of the west with his superb work now stands in New York Sabbath by Sabbath telling the sweetest story that was ever told, as he only can tell it — Dr. Charles L. Thompson. Boston also must be heard from, and Boston is here in the pastor of the most historical pulpit in that city, the Park Congregational — my friend of many ^^ears, the Rev. Dr. Lansing. And there is here Murat Halstead, our great editor, and one of the grandest acquisitions Brooklyn has ever had. Oh, I forgot that this meeting somewhat refers to myself, and that makes me feel a little weaker than I ever felt before. A hundred thousand thanks. I suppose I may as well make it a million." Dr. George W. Bethune, once a great preacher on Brooklyn Heights, was stopping over night at a Pennsylvania farm-house. In the morning the Doctor sat at the breakfast table alone, for the good housewife felt that was the best way to honor him. And when the buckwheat cakes were put upon his plate the good woman stood by him with the molasses cup to pour the sweetness on his cakes, and she said to him, ' How will you take this molasses on these cakes ? Will you take it crinkle-crankle or all in a puddle ? ' To-night to me the sweetness has come in the latter way, and all in a puddle. This is the supreme hour of my life. Many emotions stir my soul, but neither the Brooklyn City reception last night nor the national and international reception to-night, so far as I know my own heart, has created in me one feeling of exultation or pride. It has only stirred in me a profound wish and prayer that I might hereafter prove myself worthy of all this kindness. Up till forty years of age a man may have ambition for himself, but for the most part after that it is ambition for his children ; and I shall hand over to my children in every form that I can preserve the memories of last night and to-night. I shall tell them never to forget the men who stood on this platform and when the sons of these men come on the stage of action, to seek to cheer them as much as their fathers have cheered me. The fact is, that to all of us life is a struggle. By kind thoughts and kind words and kind deeds, let us help each other on the way and then may we all meet coming up from north and south and east and west, and THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 47 from both sides of the sea, in our Father's house, where so many of our loved ones are now awaiting our arrival. Myself having thanked the gentlemen who have taken part in this meeting, I ask this audience, when I shall give them the signal, to rise and take out their handkerchiefs and wave them and give three cheers for the illustrious guests of the evening." The audience was dismissed with benedictions, but it was not until the early morning hours that the Tabernacle was entirely emptied and Dr. Talmage was finally permitted to retire. The whole meeting seemed an echo of the appreciation expressed by Rev. Charles H. Spurgeon, of London, when he wrote to Doctor Talmage on the receipt of a book of sermons twent)--three }'ears ago : I shall greatly prize the volume you have sent me. The discourses I have read before, but from the giver I had not ere this received special greeting. Fellow-soldier, I return your salutation most heartily. The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour ! So maj' He ever be with thee till the campaign closes with victory. I am indeed glad of your voice. It cheers ine intensely. You love the gospel and believe in something, •which some preachers hardlj' do. I feel sure j-ou will give us a full Puritanic theology-. There are those about who use the old labels, but the articles are not the same. May the Lord win armies of souls to Jesus by you. I am astonished when God blesses me, but somehow I should not be so nmch surprised if He blessed you. Indeed I see much to admire in your speech, and feel that God will bless it. It shall be as He wills Yours most heartily. (j^. The meeting seemed also an echo of the appreciation expressed hy Canon Wilberforce -when introducing Dr. Talmage, in 1879, to an audience in Southampton, England. The Canon remarked : " I used to read Doctor Talmage's sennons, but I have ceased to do so, because the temptation to reproduce them is too strong." The Silver Jubilee, the magnificent celebration, the splendid tribute, the inter- national commemoration of the twenty-fifth year of Dr. Talmage's Brooklyn pastorate, was concluded with the Sabbath noon service, May 13, 1894. The immense temple, reared with sacrifices and dedicated with reverence, was packed with people who came with eagerness and affection to hear the farewell sermon of the beloved preacher^ who was to start on the morrow for a tour around the world. Every face in that tremendous audience was aglow with blessings, yet sorrow at the early parting showed in every eye. Dr. Talmage had been overwhelmed with three days of jubilation, wherein he had been made the central figure of an outpouring of Christendom such as no other minister in the world's history had ever provoked or received. , But he manifested no fatigue, his spirit was even more buoyant under the stimulus of the ovations that attested the appreciation and love in which he is held by Christians of every land. Six thousand people attended this last service, and twenty-five infants were baptized by his hands and blessed by his benediction. The subject of his discourse was " A Cheerful Cliurch," and his text was from Solomon's Song, " Behold thou art fair, my love," which he treated in a most eloquent manner, concluding with such feeling words as to his going away that tears glistened in even.- eye. At the conclusion of the sennon Dr. Talmage invited every one forward that they might have a farewell international hand.shake, which nearly all persons in the \'ast audience accepted, then the benediction was pronounced and while the organist pla}ed the Talmage Jubilee March the great gathering was dismi.ssed. THE EARTH GIRDLED. God's providence was perhaps never more distinctly manifested than on this occasion, for when less than twent)- persons were still in the Tabernacle, lingering to speak a last word with their pastor, Mrs. Talmage discovered a tongne of ilame leaping from the top of the organ upon which Prof Brown was still playing his " Silver Jubilee March." Suppose the fire had broken out a few minutes sooner, when the vast auditorium was choked with human beings ! Hearts are sickened by the very thought. When Dr. Talmage was appealed to by his friends to run for his life, he showed no excitement, but turned into his study to get his hat just as several of the large false pipes of the great organ fell with a mighty crash upon the ver\' spot where he had a moment before been standing. By another door he rejoined his family, at the sight of whom he exclaimed, " Thank God all are saved, but the church is certainly lost." But he was still reluctant to leave the Tabernacle, esteeming that he might be of service to assist some one who had not yet escaped, though, thanks be to God, the now fiery temple contained no lingering one. During this interval the flaming demons were working a swift de- struction, and spreading with inconceivable rapidity. They caught the silver jubi- lee bunting and whirled it aloft as if it had been made of tissue paper. They fast- ened their teeth of flame upon the ceiling so richly decorated and substantial looking, but which, made of papier mache, was as inflammable as if it had been saturated with kerosene. A cloud of smoke, black as the wrath of the gods, collected about the great and beautiful dome and slowly descended to the floor, masking the glorious cathedral windows, shutting out the sunlight which had for the last time lit up the cheerful interior of this almost cathedral church, and choking those who were still inside. And then with a sudden burst of venom, and with the jingle, far from merry^, of broken glass, it burst its way out through roof and window and sent a black and noisome column MY TRAVELING COMPANION IN THE JOURNEY ROUND THE WORLD. REV. FRANK DE WITT TALMAGE. THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 49 far up into the blue-topped sky, and following fast upon the smoke came licking flames, and after them a rosy fury. The alarm was promptly sounded, but the fire so quickly obtained mastery that human power could not save the great Tabernacle nor could the valorous brigade of fighters keep the long fingers of flame from grasping adjoining buildings. " Doomed, doomed," was the cry ; and so it proved. When the Tabernacle had, within ten minutes' time, become an inextinguishable furnace, the magnificent Hotel Regent, filled with guests, became an accession to the pyre and with this increase the holocaust was intensified till the fiends of fire crackled with glee and whelmed the whole city with lambent ire. It was the most extensive conflagration that ever visited Brooklyn, the losses being as follows : The Tabernacle, $450,000 Regent Hotel, 700,000 Private houses, 72,000 Summerfield Church 4,000 Total But while the loss of property mense, thanks be to God it panied by any destruction ol injury to any one, though narrow were numerous. Dr. Talmage has been peculiar tunate in respect to his churches, been both piirsued and persecuted ries of fire, as the follow- ing brief record of his losses will show : In 1869 Dr. Tal- mage received, while a pastor in Philadelphia, a "call" from three churches, one in San Francisco, another in Chicago and the third in Brooklyn. After due consideration he selected Brooklyn as his future field of labor. At that time the Brooklyn Tabernacle congregation was composed of but a few worshipers — a mere handful. The neighborhood, however, was thickly settled. The young clergyman began work with his whole heart, and before a jear had passed the barnlike edifice in which he and his people met was much too small for the crowds that wished to enter it. Accordingly, in 187 1, a new Tabernacle of corrugated sheet iron was erected, and that, too, was packed every Sunday. All the seats were free, and the work was supported by voluntary' contributions, which were enormous. On Sunday morning, December 22, 1872, this building was burned to the grouud. When the pastor arrived at the usual hour for beginning service he found his great con- gregation watching the conflagration. But, like the Rev. Robert Collyer at the ruins of Unity Church in the Chicago fire, he was animated with new vigor, and there by the 4 THE GREAT BROOKLYN TABERNACLE BEFORE THE FIRE. 50 THE EARTH GIRDLED. blazing timbers, he told his friends that the church just burned had never been large enough, and that, by God's providence, they would at once erect another on the ruins. Plans were immediately drawn for another, which, when completed, proved to be what at that tiine was one of the largest Protestant edifices in America. It was a splendid, spacioiis Gothic pile — cathedral-like above and theatre-like in the main body, with a seating capacity •of from 5000 to 6000, according to the packed condition of the aisles and space around the pulpit, where extra seats accommodated 1000 more on special jubilee occasions. This new church, which soon had world-wide fame, was dedicated on January 22, 1874. It soon became one of the chief churches of the country, and the centre of evangelical activity in Brooklyn. Copies of the sermons delivered in it were sent out broadcast by a special syndicate arrangement, and translated into French, German, Italian, Swedish and Russian. But this great church, like its predecessor, was doomed to burn. It went up in smoke and ashes on October 13, 1889. Again the fire broke out on a Sunday morning. Only four blackened walls greeted the sorrowing congregation. All was lost — the grand organ, the collection of choice music and the big library. From his bed-room window Dr. Talmage saw the wild spectacle, " the destruction of the temple of his heart and soul, wherein all his earthly hopes were centred." But, as he said in speaking of it, neither he nor his people were dismayed at this new and still greater calamity. Once again skillful architects were asked to prepare plans for a new Tabernacle, larger and more magnificent than either of the other churches. On the morning of October 28, 1890, ground was broken at the northeast corner of Clinton and Greene avenues, Brooklyn. Work was pushed with a will, and by the following spring the building was ready for worshipers. It was formally opened by Dr. Talmage on his return from his famous journey to the Holy Dand, in May of that year, 1891. The architects were J. B. Snook & Sons, of Brooklyn, who were credited with accomplishing the remarkable task of completing the vast edifice on time. It was this church that burned May 13, 1894. It was considered the largest Protestant church in America, and would seat 5000 persons comfortably. Ou extra occasions, by throwing open the doors leading into the Sunday-school annex, 2000 more could find seats in full view and within hearing of the preacher. It was called the most imposing church structure in Brookhm, and it cost $350,000. The stjde of architecture was Norman, solid, massive and imposing, of rich, dark, umber-colored granite, with facings of Lake Superior brownstone. The striking character- istics of the exterior were a high tower at the corner and two gables on each facade, with small towers at the extreme ends of each facade. The corner tower went up 160 feet high from the ground to the finials. The church's general form was square, but over the two principal entrances was a rounded projection which was carried up two stories. The interior was in the form of an amphitheatre. There were two galleries, and on the Waverly avenue side a commodious lecture-room and reading-room. On each side of the main auditorium were Bible and class-rooms, separated from the main room b}- sliding doors that could be pushed aside on special occasions, making one great room. There were also two large reception-rooms near the lobbies, for the exclusive use of strangers and visitoi-s. The lobbies and passageway's were spacious — none less than eight feet wide. There were no winding staircases. The idea was to have the church easy of entrance and egress. It has been specially arranged to prevent "choking" in case of a panic by fire, or accidents of any kind. Electric lights were used in every part of the structure. The windows were of cathedral glass, richly stained, and the much-praised rose window was considered particularly THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 51 ■fine. Of the interior it was written that the upholstery in the pews was " in warm, cheerful colors, and the prevailing effect (in harmony with the fine roof timbers in their natural colors) of orange and subdued tints." In every respect it was a magnificent building, original in design and a very model of adaptation to congregational uses. But it too was a shining mark for the demons of pyrotechny, who, despite its consecration, devoured the sacred edifice, and again left Dr. Talmage churchless. It is consolement to know, as a New York newspaper said the day following the fire : " Flames have destroyed the Tabernacle of Dr. Talmage, but fire can never destroy the splendor of his career." Dr. Talmage was interviewed in the afternoon of the day of the fire, and his indomitable spirit, profound and unswerving faith in God, and unchangeable cheerfulness of heart are manifest in his answers. Said he : " It is a great disaster, a great disaster, but the mercy of God overtowers the disaster." " You wish for my version of the catastrophe?" he said. " Here it is : At the close of the church service this morning I was shaking hands with a great multitude of people at the foot of the pulpit platform. I was about through, and went down the body of the church to speak to my wife, who was standing there. She immediately called my attention to a fire that was spouting from the top of the altar. When I saw it was under full headwa}', my first impulse was to look around and see who was there in the church. To my delight there were but about twenty. I said to myself, there are twenty people and twenty-five doors, and every one will escape. I then went over the shoulder of the burning platform and entered my study. Then I thought, ' Is it manly to run ? ' and continued walking up and down the study. I had just made up my mind to walk out and see if every one had escaped, when a New York friend rushed in and said : ' Get out ! Get out ! Mr. Talmage, you must leave at once ! ' We went out through the Greene avenue door and walked around to the front entrance, from which place I could see the fire blazing, and knew that the church was doomed." In spite of his calm manner. Dr. Talmage was deeply affected, and tears came into his eyes at the recollection of that last moment in the monument he had reared. " Yes," he repeated, " the mercy of God overtowers the disaster. If this had occurred half an hour before it did there would have been the calamit}^ of the century. There were at least 6000 persons packed into the church and lecture-room, and in the panic which must needs have ensued many would have been trampled under foot. If it had occurred during the Sunday-school hours God knows what horrors would have ensued. While the calamity has been infinite, the mercy has likewise been infinite. " Personally, I feel not one iota disheartened. I never had more faith in God, or a brighter hope for the future. As nearly as I can find out, the church officers feel the same way. It is a long procession of church disasters that is inexplicable. It may be likened to a family in which four or five children die of scarlet fever. You can't explain, and yoti just accept the facts. It's the same with the church. The matter is a niysterj' which I adjourn to the next world. I do not try to explain, but just bow submissively to the nierc>- of the Lord. " As far as I can learn, there were no fatal accidents. Howe\xr, two of our trustees, Thomas Pitbladdo and T. G. Matthews, had very narrow escapes from death. The}-, with other trustees, were in a i-oom in the turret, and their first intimation of danger was from smoke that filled the room. Their escape was providential. '' I believe also that Elder Lawrence crawled out through the smoke on his hands and knees." 52 THE EARTH GIRDLED. When asked his theory as to the cause of the fire, Dr. Tahiiage said : " Electricity beyond a doubt. That is something that is only partly harnessed, and even when bridled breaks its harness. I am confident there was a misarrangement of wires. Electricity destroyed our other church, and I am confident it did this one. " What is the meaning of the three fires which have destroyed Brooklyn Tabernacle ? As I leave, people in many lands are discussing that question, for telegrams from across the Atlantic, as well as from many parts of this country, show that the fiery news had leaped every whither. Three vast structures dedicated to God and the work of trying to make the world better, gone down, and all this within a few years. They tvere well built as to permanence and durability. All the talk about these buildings as mere fire-traps is the usual cant, for there is as much secular cant as religious cant. Have you heard in the last GRAND CAXOX OF HF COLORADO. forty years of any church, or any hall, or any theatre which, after destruction, was not called a fire-trap ? Tliat charge always makes a lively opening for any description of a fire. There have been no better structures, secular or religious, put up in the last twenty-five years than the three Brooklyn Tabernacles, and the modes of egress from them so ample that the thousands of worshipers assembled in any of them could be put safely on the street inside of five minutes. The fact is that there is nothing in this world incombustible. When the great Chicago and Boston fires took place they burned up stone and iron. The human race will go on building inconsumable churches, and inconsumable banks, and inconsumable storehouses, and inconsumable cities, and then all will be consumed in the world's last fire. " Builders, who had large experience and established reputation, pronounced the Brooklyn Tabernacles perfect structures. But what is the meaning of the three fires ? THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 53 There may be a Inindred different lessons learned b}- a hundred different j^eople and legiti- mate lessons. As for myself, I adjourn most of the meaning to the next world. We will learn there in two minutes more than we can find out here in fifty years. With that antici- pation, mysteries do not often bother me. "One reason for these consecutive disasters ma}- be that the patience of the best people in the world, the members of Brooklyn Tabernacle, was to be perfected. ' Purified by fire.' I\Iighty discipline for one of the Lord's hosts. Whether I ever meet them on earth or not, it will be a theme of heavenly reminiscence. We shall talk it all over, the story of the three fires. "Another reason why the last church went down may have been that some of us were idoliz- ing the building, and the Lord will not allow idolatr}-. The house was such a Midsummer Night's Dream of beauty. Enchantment lifted in galleries and sprung in arches and glori- fied in the light which came through windows touching it with their deftest fingers. The acoustics so rare that thousands of ears were in easy reach of common accentuation. An organ which was a hallelujah set up in pipes and banked in keys, waiting for a musician's manipulation, that would lead the congregational song as an archangel might lead heaven. Glorious organ ! When it died down into the ashes of that fire, perhaps its soul went np where Handel and Haydn began to play on it. The most superb audience-room that I ever gazed on or ever expect to see, until I enter the Temple of the Sun. On one memorial wall of that building, a stone which I had rolled down from Mount Calvary, where our Lord died, and two tables of stone that were sawed off from Mount Sinai, and brought on camels across the desert by my arrangement, and a part of Paul's pulpit, which the Queen of Greece allowed me, from Mars Hill. Architecture so chaste, so grand, so appropriate, so suggestive, so stupendous ! One of the doxologies of heaven alighted. Well, perhaps we thought too much of it. When we think too much of our children, the Lord takes them, and when we think too much of our church, the Lord summarily removes it. "I suppose another reason for the departure of that house was that it had done its work. Church buildings, like individuals, accomplish what they were built for and then go. One person lives ninety years, another forty jears, another three years, and when God takes an individual, whether at ninety, or forty, or three years, his mission is ended. This last church stood three 3'ears, and any person who knows what multitudes have there assembled, and what transactions for eternity have there taken place, will admit that it was well to build it, even if we had known at the start that it would only last from 1891 to 1894. "Another reason why I think this last church went down was to keep me humble. The Lord had widened my work through Christendom, and with two receptions the week before the conflagration, the one a city reception presided over by our mayor, and the other a national and international reception presided over by one of the chief men of the nation, who had recently stepped from the Presidential cabinet, and the occasion honored by addresses and letters and cablegrams from men of world-wide fame in Church and State, and the whole scene brilliant beyond description and in compliment to myself, who was brought up a farmer's boy, there was danger that I might become puffed up and my sonl weakened for future work. I did not yet feel any stirrings of that sort, and had only felt an humble gratitude for what had been said and done by friends, transatlantic and cisatlantic, but L had ordered full reports of the meeting laid aside for future perusal, and I had engaged the fleetest stenographer I know of to take down every word, from the opening doxolog\- of the first reception to the benediction of the last reception, and sometime, when less busy, I would take in all the eloquence and kindness and splendor of that memorable 54 THE EARTH GIRDLED. week. What might have been the result upon myself I know not. I have seen upon others the withering effect of human praise. A cold chill of the world's neglect is no more destructive than the sunstroke from too much heat of popular approval. The disaster may have been needed, and it came so close upon the adulation that it acted as an ever- lasting prevention. In the light of that awful blaze of that Sabbath in May, 1894, no self- sufBciency could stand a second. "Another reason for the fires I think is that somehow, and in a way that I know not, my opportunities are to widen. After each of the other fires new doors were open. I prayer- fully expect that such will be the sequence of the last conflagration. "Will the Brooklyn Tabernacle be rebuilt ? I know not. What or when or where shall be my work I cannot even guess, nor have I the least anxiety. Nothing but an inspired utterance of the Bible could bear such repetition as I have for the last twelve days given to the words of the Psalmist : " The Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice." No lamentations nor discouraging wails escaped the lips of this most optimistic of men ; like Job, he submitted to whatever it was the will of God to send ; that as rain falls alike upon the just and the unjust, so does adversity know no distinction in its visits, and he who loveth the L,ord should therefore accept whatsoever it seemeth good to Him to send. Sometimes the rod that chasteneth buds forth with blessings ; sometimes the heavy yoke becomes a crown ; sometimes the burden is a cross. And in this divine spirit of resignation Dr. Talmage watched the great Tabernacle, built with so much effort, dedicated with so much reverence, sustained by so much good, beautiful with so mxich promise, crumble into ashes, dissolve forever in a fiery embrace of the red wraith whose breath is destruction. " The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away ; blessed be the name of the Lord." The Earth Girdled. CHAPTER I. TRANSCONTINENTAL. T half past nine o'clock, on the night of May 14, 1894, I descend the front steps of my home in Brook- lyn, New York. The sen- sation of leaving for a journey around the world is not all made up of bright anticipation. The miles to be traveled are so numerous, the seas to be crossed are so treacher- ous, the peradventures are so great, that the solemni- ties outnumbered the ex- pectations. My family accompany me to the rail- way train ; — will we all meet again? The cli- matic changes, the ships, the shoals, the hurricanes, the bridges, the cars, the epidemics, the possibili- ties, hinder any positive- ness of prophec}'. I come down the front steps of my home ; will I ever again ascend them ? The remark made by Honor- able William M. Evarts a few evenings before, at the public reception on the conclusion of my twenty-fifth year of Brooklyn pastorate, though uttered in facetiousness, was consolatory. He said : " Dr. Talmage ought to realize that if he goes around the world, he will come (55) T.\KEN ON HIS JOrRNEY AROUND THE WORLD, JULY 27, 1S94, .\T .SYDNEY, ATSTKALIA. 56 THE EARTH GIRDLED. out at the same place from which he started." Ma}' the God who holds the winds in one fist, and the ocean in the hollow of the other hand, protect us. I leave home while the timbers of our destroyed church are still smoking. Three great churches have been consumed. Wh}- this series of huge calamities, I know not. Had I not made all the arrangements for departure, and been assured by the trustees of my church that they would take all the responsibilities upon themselves, I would have postponed my intended tour, or adjourned it forever ; but all whom I have consulted tell me now is the time to go, and so I turn my face toward the Golden Gate. I do not leave America because there are not wonders enough to look at between the Atlantic and Pacific. Before any one leaves this country for a toiir around the world he ought to see the Yosemite, Yellowstone Park, Mammoth Cave of Kentucky and Lookout Mountain. On your way across the continent sweep round by this last wonder of the planet. I took a carriage and wound up Ivookout Mountain. Up, up, up ! Standing there on the tip-top rock I saw five States of the Union. Scene stupendous and overwhelming ! One almost is disposed to take off his hat in the presence of what seems to be the grandest prospect on this continent. There is Missionary Ridge, the beach against which the red "billows of Federal and Confederate courage surged and broke. There are the Blue Mountains of North and Soirth Carolina. With strain of vision, there is Kentucky, there is Virginia. At our foot, Chattanooga and Chickamauga, the pronunciation of which proper names will thrill ages to come with thoughts of valor and desperation and agon)'. Looking •each way and any way from the top of that mountain, earthworks, earthworks — the beautiful Tennessee winding through the valley, curling and coiling around, making letter " S " after letter " S," as if that letter stood for shame, that brothers should have gone into massacre with each other, while God and nations looked on. I have stood on Mount Washington, and on the Sierra Nevadas, and on the Alps ; but I never saw so far as from the top of Lookout Mountain. I looked back thirty-one years, and I saw rolling up the side of that mountain the smoke of Hooker's storming part}- while the foundations of eternal rock ■quaked with the cannonade. Four j^ears of internecine strife seemed to come back, and without any chronological order I saw the events : Norfolk Navy Yard on fire ; Fort Sumter on fire ; Charleston on fire ; Chambersburg on fire ; Columbia, South Carolina, on fire ; Richmond on fire. And I saw Ellsworth fall, and Lyon fall, and McPherson fall, and Bishop Polk fall, and Stonewall Jackson fall. And I saw hundreds of grave trenches afterward cut into two great gashes across the land, the one for the dead men of the North, the other for the dead men of the South. And mj' ear as well as my eye was quickened, and I heard the tramp of enlisting armies, and I heard the explosion of mines and gunpowder magazines, and the crash of fortification walls, and the " swamp angel," and the groan of •dying hosts falling across the pulseless heart of other dying hosts. And I saw still further out, and I saw on the banks of the Penobscot and the Oregon and the Ohio and the Hudson and the Roanoke and the Yazoo and the Alabama, widowhood and orphanage and childlessness — some exhausted in grief and others stark and mad, and I said, " Enough, enough have I seen into the past from the top of Lookout Mountain. O God ! show me "the future." And standing there, it was revealed to me. And I looked out and I saw great populations from the North moving South, and great populations from the South mo\-ing North, and I found that their footsteps obliterated the hoof-mark of the war chargers. And I saw the Angel of the Lord of hosts standing in the national cemeteries, trumpet in Tiand, as much as to say, " I will wake these soldiers from their long encampment." And I looked and I saw such snowy harvests of cotton and siich golden harvests of corn as I had J 58 THE EARTH GIRDLED. •never imagined, and I fonnd that the earthworks were down, and the gnn-carriages down, and the war barracks were all down, and I saw the river winding through the valley, making letter " S " after letter " S " — no more " S " for shame, but " S " for salvation. And .as I saw that all the weapons of war were turned into agricultural implements I was alarmed, .and I said, " Is this safe?" And standing there on the tip-top rock of Lookout Mountain, I was so near heaven that I heard two voices which some way slipped from the gate, and they sang, " Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war .any more." And I recognized the two voices. They were the voices of two Christian soldiers who fell at Shiloh ; the one a Federal, the other a Confederate. And they were brothers ! After you have visited that historical place you had better come up by the Mammoth Cave. With lanterns and torches and a guide, we went down into that cave. You may walk fourteen miles and see no sunlight. It is a wonderful place. Some parts the roof of the cave a hundred feet high. The grottos filled with weird echoes, cascades falling from invisible height to invisible depth. Stalagmites rising up from the floor of the cave — .•stalactites descending from the roof of the cave, joining each other, and making pillars of the Almighty's sculpturing. There are rosettes of amethyst in halls of gypsum. As the guide carries his lantern ahead of yoii, the shadows have an appearance supernatural and ispectral. The darkness is fearful. Two people, getting lost from their guide onl}' for a few hours, years ago, were demented, and for years sat in their insanity. You feel like holding your breath as you walk across the bridges that seem to span the bottomless abyss. The guide throws his calcium light down into the caverns, and the light rolls and tosses from Tock to rock, and from depth to depth, making at every plunge a new revelation of the awful power that could have made such a place as that. A sense of suffocation comes upon you as you think that you are two hundred and fifty feet in a straight line from the sunlit ■surface of the earth. The guide, after a while, takes you into what is called the " Star ■Chamber," and then he says to you: "Sit here," and then he takes the lantern and goes ■down under the rocks, and it gets darker and darker, until the night is so thick that the hand an inch from the eye is unobservable. And then, by kindling one of the. lanterns, and placing it in a cliff of the rock, there is a reflection cast on the dome of the cave, and there are stars coming out in constellations — a brilliant night heavens — and you involuntarih' •exclaim : " Beautiful ! beautiful ! " Then he takes the lantern down in other depths of the ■cavern, and wanders on, and wanders off, until he conies up from behind the rocks gradually, and it seems like the dawn of the morning and it gets brighter and brighter. The guide is a skilled ventriloquist, and he imitates the voices of the morning, and soon the gloom is all gone, and you stand congratulating yourself over the weird and enchanting spectacle. Before taking steamer at the Pacific coast, you ought certainly to visit the two National Parks — Yosemite and Yellowstone Park. Who that has seen Yosemite and the adjoining Californian regions can think of them without having his blood tingle? Trees now standing there that were old when Christ lived ! These monarchs of foliage reigned before Csesar or Alexander, and the next thousand years will not shatter their sceptre ! They are the masts of the continent, their canvas spread on the winds, while the old ship bears on its way through the ages ! That valley of the Yosemite is eight miles long and a half-mile wide and three thousand feet deep. It seems as if it had been the meaning of Omnipotence to crowd into .as small a place as possible some of the most stupendous scenery of the world. Some of those cliffs you do not stop to measure by feet, for they are literally a mile high. Steep so 6o THE EARTH GIRDLED. that neither foot of man nor beast ever scaled them, they stand in everlasting defiance. If Jehovah has a throne on earth, these are its white pillars ! Standing down in this greac chasm of the valley, you look up, and yonder is Cathedral Rock, vast, gloomy minster built for the silent worship of the mountains ! Yonder is Sentinel Rock, 3270 feet high, bold, solitary, standing guard among the ages, its top seldom touched, until a bride, one Fourth of July, mounted it and planted there the national standard, and the people down in the valley looked up and saw the head of the mountain turbaned with Stars and Stripes I Yonder are the Three Brothers, 4000 feet high ; Cloud's Rest, North and South Dome, and the heights never captured save by the fierj^ bayonets of the thunder-storm ! No pause for the eye ; no stopping-place for the mind. Mountains hurled on mountains. Mountains in the wake of mountains. Mountains flanked by mountains. Mountains split. Mountains ground. Mountains fallen. Mountains triumphant. As though Mont Blanc and the Adirondacks and Mount Washington were here uttering themselves in one magnificent MA.IN STREET, S\LT LAKE CITY, WHFRF THE CHIEFS OF MOKMONISM CAME TO MEET ME. chorus of rock and precipice and waterfall. Sifting and dashing through the rocks, the water comes down. The Bridal Veil Fall so thin you can see the face of the mountain behind it. Yonder is Yosemite Fall, dropping 2634 feet, sixteen times greater descent than that of Niagara. These waters dashed to death on the rocks, so that the white spirit of the slain waters ascending in robe of mist seeks the heavens. Yonder is Nevada Fall, plunging 700 feet, the v/ater in arrows, the water in rockets, the water in pearls, the water in amethysts, the water in diamonds. That cascade flings down the rocks enough jewels to array all the earth in beauty, and rushes on until it drops into a very hell of waters, the smoke of their torment ascending forever and ever. But the most wonderful part of this American continent is the Yellowstone Park. My visit there made upon me an impression that will last forever. After all poetry has exhausted itself, and all the Morans and Bierstadts and the other enchanting artists (6.) 62 THE EARTH GIRDLED. have completed their canvas, there will be other revelations to make, and other stories of its beauty and wrath, splendor and agony, to be recited. The Yellowstone Park is the geologist's paradise. By cheapening of travel may it become the nation's playground ! In some portions of it there seems to be the anarch}' of the elements. Fire and water, and the vapor born of that marriage terrific. Geyser cones or hills of crystal that have been over five thousand years growing ! In places the earth, throbbing, sobbing, groaning, quaking with aqueous paroxysm. At the expiration of every sixty-five minutes one of the geysers tossing its boiling water 185 feet in the air and then descending into swinging rainbows. Caverns of pictured walls large enough for the sepulchre of the human race. Formations of stone in shape and color of calla lily, of heliotrope, of rose, of cowslip, of sunfiower, and of gladiolus. Sulphur and arsenic and oxide of iron, with their delicate pencils, turning the hills into a Luxembourg or a Vatican picture-gallery. The so-called Thanatopsis Geyser, exquisite as the Bryant poem it was named after, and Evangeline Geyser, lovely as the Longfellow heroine it commemorates. Wide reaches of stone of intermingled colors, blue as the sky, green as the foliage, crimson as the dahlia, white as the snow, spotted as the leopard, tawny as the lion, grizzly as the bear, in circles, in angles, in stars, in coronets, in stalactites, in stalagmites. Here and there are petrified growths, or the dead trees and vegetation of other ages, kept through a process of natural embalmment. In some places waters as innocent and smiling as a child making a first attempt to walk from its mother's lap, and not far off as foaming and frenzied and ungovernable as a maniac in struggle with his keepers. But after you have wandered along the geyserite enchantment for days, and begin to feel that there can be nothing more of interest to see, you suddenly come upon the peroration of all majesty and grandeur, the Grand Canon. It is here that it seems to me — and I speak it with reverence — Jehovah seems to have surpassed Himself It seems a great gulch let down into the eternities. Here, hung up and let down, and spread abroad are all the colors of land and sea and sky. Upholstering of the Lord God Almighty. Best work of the Architect of worlds. Sculpturing by the Infinite. Masonry by an omnipotent trowel. Yellow ! You never saw yellow unless you saw it there. Red ! You never saw red unless you saw it there. Violet ! You never saw violet unless you saw it there. Triumphant banners of color. In a cathedral of basalt. Sunrise and Sunset married by the setting of rainbow ring. Gothic arches, Corinthian capitals, and Egyptian basilicas built before human architecture was born. Huge fortifications of granite constructed before war forged its first cannon. Gibraltars and Sebastopols that never can be taken. Alhambras, where kings of strength and queens of beauty reigned long before the first earthly crown was empearled. Thrones on which no one but the King of heaven and earth ever sat. Fount of waters at which the hills are baptized, while the giant cliffs stand round as sponsors. For thousands of years before that scene was unveiled to human sight, the elements were busy, and the geysers were hewing away with their hot chisel, and glaciers were pounding with their cold hammers, and hurricanes were cleaving with their lightning strokes, and hailstones giving the finishing touches, and after all these forces of nature had done their best, in our century the curtain dropped, and the world had a new and divinely inspired revelation. The Old Testament written on papyrus, the New Testament written on parchment, and this last Testament written on the rocks. Hanging over one of the cliffs, I looked off until I could not get my breath ; then retreating to a less exposed place I looked down again. Down there is a pillar of rock that ■64 THE EARTH GIRDLED. in certain conditions of the atmosphere looks like a pillar of blood. Yonder are fifty feet ■of etnerald on a base of five hundred feet of opal. Wall of chalk resting on pedestals of beryl. Turrets of light tumbling on floors of darkness. The brown brightening into golden. Snow of crystal melting into fire of carbuncle. Flaming red cooling into russet. Cold blue warming into saffron. Dull gray kindling into solferino. Morning twilight flushing midnight shadows. Auroras crouching among rocks. Yonder is an eagle's nest on a shaft of basalt. Through an eye-glass we see among it the young eagles, but the stoutest arm of our group cannot hurl a stone near enough to disturb the feathered domesticity. Yonder are heights that would be chilled with horror but for the warm robe of forest foliage with which they are enwrapped. Altars of worship at which nations might kneel. Domes of chalcedou}- on temples of porphyry. See all this carnage of color up and down the cliffs ; it must have been the battlefield of the war of the BROADMOOR CASINO AND CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN', COLORADO SPRINGS. elements ! Here are all the colors of the wall of heaven ; neither the sapphire, nor the chrysolite, nor the topaz, nor the jacinth, nor the amethyst, nor the jasper, nor the twelve gates of twelve pearls, wanting. If spirits bound from earth to heaven could pass up by way of this canon, the dash of heavenly beauty would not be so overpowering. It would only be from glory to glory. Ascent through such earthly scenery, in which the crystal is so bright, would be fit preparation for the " sea of glass mingled with fire." Standing there in the Grand Canon of the Yellowstone Park, for the most part we held our peace, but after a while it flashed upon me with such power I could not help but say to my comrades : " What a Hall this would be for the last Judgment !" See that mighty cascade with the rainbows at the foot of it ! Those waters congealed and transfixed with the agitations of that day, what a place they would make for the shining feet of the Judge of quick and dead ! And those rainbows look now like the crowns to be cast at His feet. At the bottom of this great canon is a floor on which the nations of the earth might 66 THE EARTH GIRDLED. stand, and all up and down these galleries of rock the nations of heaven might sit. And what reverberation of archangels' trumpet there would be through all these gorges and from all these caverns and over all these heights. Why should not the greatest of all the days the world shall ever see close amid the grandest scenery Omnipotence ever built ? Oh, the sweep of the American continent ! Sailing up Puget Sound, I said, " This is the Mediterranean of America." Visiting Portland and Tacoma and Seattle and Victoria and Fort Townsend and Vancouver, and other cities of the northwest region, I thought to myself: These are the Bostons, New Yorks, Charlestons and Savannahs of the Pacific coast. But after all, I found that I had seen only a part of the American continent, for GRAND CANON OF THE COI.ORAI Alaska is as far west of San Francisco as the coast of Maine is east of it, so that the central city of the American continent is San Francisco. Six times before this have I crossed the American Continent, and I ha\-e seen the sun rise from the golden cradle of the eastern sky and seen him buried beneath the pomp of the western horizon. Thi'ee girths have been put aroiind the American Continent ; the Northern Pacific, the Union Pacific and the Southern Pacific. All these girths have been tightened, and the buckles are moving ft-om one puncture to another until the continent is less and less in circumference. When I first crossed it, it took fully seven days. Instead of the elegant dining cars of to-day, we stopped at restaurants with table covers indescribable, for they had on them layers of other strata of breakfasts insulting in appearance. The first time I ever saw Judge Field, of the United States Supreme Court, was at one of these tables on the Rockv Mountains. DKVir.'s SLiiMC. \vi';iii;u ca.nc A niisnaiiK-il |)lace, for Salaii inner liail aiivUiiinj CHAPTER II. ACROSS THE CONTINENT. UR journey across the continent was prosperous. One day, however, was bounded on one side by a broken bridge and on the other by an avalanche of rocks. Before rising in the morning the Pullman sleeper gave a half dozen angry jerks, showing that we were derailed, or that the track was deranged. The train halted, arid it was found that a bridge had been washed loose by a mountain torrent, and the track was crooked and uneven and ready to fall. But it held us until we got over. We all stood and looked at the broken bridge and felt thankful to have crossed without damage. Indeed that broken bridge attracted more of our attention THB BREAKING RAILROAD BRIDGE THAT WE PASSED OVER. than the hundreds of faithful bridges that had put us across the chasms, and those few crooked rails, than the two thousand miles of track that had kept straight while we passed over it. So it is in all kinds of life, one crooked man excites more attention than a hundred thousand who preserve their integrity or maintain their usefulness, and ■o.ne man who breaks down under the heavy pressure of life is more remarked upon than whole communities of men who stand firm and true, though long trains of disaster roll (68) THE WORLD AS vSEEN TO-DAY. 69 over them. Thousands of homes moving on quietly and happily make not so much excitement as one family derailed by infelicity, or gone down the divorce embankment. Tens of thousands of banks, of insurance companies, of monetary institutions day by day causing no remark, but one absconding cashier converges all the pens and all the types and all the eyes of a nation upon the one recalcitrant. Thousands of consecrated men are preaching the Gospel and doing their work year after year, and nothing especial is said of them, but some man in canonicals gets off the track about who wrote the Pentateuch or about the miracles, or about immortality, and all Christendom is shaken. The theological professors who, during the last fifteen years, have become famous would never have been heard of, if they had not got off the track. It was not an excess of brain or consecration that made the disturbance, but the big jolt they gave the churches. A sudden wash-out loosened the pier of one of the bridges. The day in Colorado of which I spoke as opened with a disrupted bridge, closed with a descent of rocks directly across our iron way. After several hours of attempt by the railroad men to remove the obstruction the mountains roared with an explosion. What lever and wedge and crowbar failed to do, powder accomplished, and the rocks which had rolled down from one side the gorge, rolled over to the other. The saying that the age of miracles is passed is an untrue saying. Every mile of the great transcontinental railroad is a miracle, yea twice a miracle, a miracle of Divine power that heaved up the mountains, and a miracle of human engineering by which they were gashed and tunneled. But do you know what in some respects is the most remarkable thing between the Atlantic and Pacific ? It is the figure of a cross on a mountain in Colorado. It is called the " Mount of the Holy Cross." A horizontal crevice filled with perpetual snow, and a perpendicular crevice filled with snow, but both the horizontal line and the perpendicular line so marked, so bold, so significant, so unmistakable that all who pass in the daytime within many miles are compelled to see it. There are some figures, some contours, some mountain appearances that you gradually make out after your attention is called to them. So a man's face on the rocks in the White Mountains. So a maiden's form cut in the granite of the Adirondacks. So a city in the morning clouds. Yet you have to look under the pointing of your friend or guide for some time before you can see the similarity. But the first instant you glance at this side of the mountain in Colorado you cry out " A cross ! A cross ! " Do you say that this geological inscription just happens so? No! nothing in this world just happens so. That cross on the Colorado Mountain is not a human device, or an accident of nature, or the freak of an earthquake. The hand of God cut it there and set it up for the nation to look at. Whether set up there in rock before the cross of wood was set up on the bluflF back of Jerusalem, or set at some time since that assassination, I believe the Creator meant it to suggest the most notable event in all the history of this planet, and He hung it there over the heart of this continent to indicate that the only hope for this nation is in the Cross on which our Immanuel died. The clouds were vocal at our Saviour's birth, the rocks rent at His martyrdom, why not the walls of Colorado bear the record of the crucifixion ? I take it that this engraving on one of the most conspicuous places of the American continent means that this country- belongs to Christ, and that He will yet take po.sse.ssion of all of it. Human device has baptized with Satanic nomenclature much of the scenery between the Atlantic and Pacific, and some of the rocks are called the " Devil's Pulpit," and the " Devil's Saw ]\Iill," and the " Devil's Spinning Wheel," and the " Devil's Slide," and is it not high time that the world finds out that the Devil is as poor now as when on the top of the Temple, and not owning an acre of real estate, he offered Christ the kingdoms of this world, and tliat instead of the human and THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 71 blasphemous assigning of this or that part of the continent to Dialnihis, we take this high-iip and stupendous sign on the Mount of the Hoi)- Cross in Colorado as t\-pical of the fact that to Christ belongs this continent ? I closed this journey across the continent at the gates of the International Fair at San Francisco. Last autumn Mr. De Young, a great leader in California affairs, was seated in a room in Chicago, and a foreigner said he would like to make another exhibit of his country's fabrics before leaving America. Mr. De Young retired to his room and with his pencil began to calculate the possibility of making a success of a Midwinter Fair in San Francisco. Believing that it could be done he called together some prominent Californians, and a large subscription of money was made, and the mammoth undertaking was set on foot. Considering the short time that was allowed for the arrangements, and that no Congressional aid was voted, it is the most wonderful Fair ever held on this continent. The CHINATOWN, SAN FRANCISCO, AS .SHOWN ME BV THE CITY AUTHORITIKS. architecture, the fountains, the statuary, the fruits for size and abundance and lu.sciousne.ss unparalleled, and the immensity of the Fair makes it one of the great poems of the century. The day I visited it was the National Memorial Day, commemorative of those fallen in the battles of our civil war, and at the same time it was a holiday. I had been invited by the officers of the Fair to deliver the oration, and so after a banquet given to me by the Dii'ector-General, I confronted an audience crowded almost beyond endurance with the story of the prowess and the self-sacrifice of those who died for the country, and concluded by saying : The o^reatest day I ever saw was when some of you were present, the day when the armies, returned from our civil war, passed in review at Washington. I care not whether von were a Northern man or a Southern man, you could not have looked on withoiit tears. God knew that the day was stupendous, and He cleared the heavens of cloud and mist and 72 THE EARTH GIRDLED. chill, and sprung the blue sky as a triumphal arch for the returning warriors to pass under. From Arlington Heights the spring foliage shook out its welcome as the hosts came ov-er the hills, and the sparkling waters of the Potomac tossed their gold to the feet of the battalions, as they came to the Long Bridge and in almost interminable line passed over. The Capitol, for whose defence these men had fought, never seemed so majestic as that morning, snowy white, looking down upon the tides of men that came surging on, billow after billow. Darius and Xerxes saw no such hosts as those that marched in our three great armies of Potomac, Tennessee and Georgia. Those ancient rulers fought for fame ; these were the heroes of the Union. Passing in silence, yet I heard in every step the thunder of conflicts through which they had waded, and seemed to see dripping from their smoke- blackened flags the blood of our country's mart^-rs. For the best part of two days we sat and watched the filing on of what seemed endless ranks ; brigade after brigade ; division after division ; host after host ; rank beyond rank ; ever moving, ever passing, marching, marching! Tramp! Tramp! Tramp! These foirght in the Wilderness. Those rode in lightning stirrups behind cavalry Sheridan. These men were at Chattanooga. Those stood on Lookout Mountain. These followed their captain from Atlanta to the sea, holding the same flag, lifting the same sword, marching, marching. Tramp ! Tramp ! Tramp ! Thousands after thousands ; battery front ; arms shouldered ; columns solid ; shoulder to shoulder ; wheel to wheel ; charger to charger ; nostril to nostril ; commanders on horses with mane entwined with roses and necks enchained with garlands ; fractious at the shouts that ran along the line, increasing from the clapping of children clothed in white, standing on the steps of the Capitol, to the tumultuous vociferations of two hundred thousand of enraptured people crying Huzza ! Huzza ! Gleaming muskets ; thundering parks of artillery ; rumbling pontoon wagons ; ambulances from whose wheels seemed to sound out the groan of the crushed and the dying whom they had carried. These men came from balmy Minnesota. Those from Illinois prairie. These were often hummed to sleep by the pines of Oregon. Those were New England lumbermen. These came from the Golden Gate of the Pacific. Those came out of the coal shafts of Pennsylvania. Side by side, in one great cause consecrated, through fire and storm and darkness, brothers in peril on their way home from Chancellorsville and Kenesaw Mountain and Fredericksburg. In lines that seemed infinite, the}- pass on. We gazed and wept and wondered, lifting up our eyes to see if the end had come. But no ! looking from one end of that long avenue to the other we see them yet in solid column ; batterj' front ; host beside host ; wheel to wheel ; charger to charger ; nostril to nostril ; coming as it were from under the Capitol. Forward ! Forward ! their bayonets, caught in the sun, glinmier and flash and blaze till they seem like one long river of silver, ever and anon changed into a river of fire. No end to the procession, no rest for the eyes. We avert our head from the scene, unable longer to look. We feel disposed to stop our ears ; but still we hear it. Marching, marching. Tramp ! Tramp ! Tramp ! But hush ! uncover ever>' head. Here they pass, the remnant of ten men of a once full regiment. Silence ! Widowhood and orphanage look on and wring their hands. Uncover every head ! But wheel into the ranks all ye people, North, South, East, West, all decades, all centuries, all millenniums. Forward the whole line ! Huzza ! Huzza ! I have safely arrived on the Pacific Coast. A startling question was asked me just before I reached here. I was in deep slumber in a section of a sleeping car when the curtain was pushed back and a venerable lady seized hold of me and shrieked out : " Who are you, and what are you doing here ? " It was a sudden calling of the roll of passengers, and I did not feel like answering to my name. The question was repeated in more earnest- THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 73 ness and with louder voice. I could not at first understand win- the interrogation as to my identity, but after gathering my senses together I mildly suggested that perhaps she had taken my place for her own. This was no doubt the case, and she made a quick retreat. The fact is that the sections and berths of a sleeping car are very much alike. The new mode of hanging the number of the berth in large figures on the outside of the drapery of the sleeping place is a great improvement ; but midnight perambulation, even under the best of circumstances, is more or less confusing. The mistake that the venerable lady made is a mistake that thousands of people make, for they think some one else has their place. Most of the struggle in the world is in trying to get some one else's berth. Better go back contented and take the place assigned you. In trying to get some one else's place, we may lose our own without getting his. I cannot jeer at the old lady's mistake, for that night on the Southern Pacific Railroad I bethought myself that there are, during every Presidential campaign, at least one hundred thousand people trying to get the berths of the one hundred thousand present occupants. Good bye, my friends all over ! On the other side of the world I will think of those who have put me under obligation, and the first hour I have passed the latitude and longitude farthest away from home, and begin to return, I will count the weeks and days that stand between me and the lowest step of the front door from which, on the evening of May. 14, I departed. CHAPTER III. PARADISE OF THE PACIFIC. IT was two o'clock in the afternoon when at San Francisco I stepped aboard the Alameda, of the Oceanic Steamship Company, our Captain Morse, one of the most genial, popular and able commanders who ever sailed the seas. He and the Pacific Ocean are old acquaintances. He has been in seventeen hurricanes and safely out-rode them. Profusion of flowers were sent up the gang-plank and the masses of people on the wharf who had come to see their friends off, waved handkerchiefs and threw kisses and cried and laughed as is usual when an ocean steamer is about to start. The gong sounded for the leaving of all those from the shii^'s deck who did not expect to accompany us. The whistle blew for loosening from the wharf and the screw began to whirl and the ship moved out toward the Golden Gate. The Pacific Ocean met us with waves high enough to send many to their berths, and to arouse in the rest of us the question wh}^ so rough a sea should be called the Pacific. And for two days the roll, the jerk, the rise, the fall, the lunge, the tremor, the quake spoiled the appetite and hid from sight the ma- jority of the passengers. But after the third day the ocean and the ship ceased their wrestling, and Peace smoothed the waves and hushed the winds, for the same Lord who took a short walk upon rough Galilee takes a longer walk upon Pacific seas. Different from most voyages, there seemed no dis- agreeables on board. Enough pas- sengei's to avoid loneliness ; not so many as to be crowded. What difference between a sea-voyage now, with all comforts afforded and the table containing all the luxuries CAPTAIN MORSE, OF THE .AI^AMEDA. (74) THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 75 that can allure a weak appetite, and those da\s when the missionaries crossed to Honolulu in vessels greasy and rude, and with food rancid or stale, and with sail full of whims, now full-curved, and now limp and idle. Politics have never done much for the Sandwich Islands. If a man have no expecta- tions for these gems of the Pacific except that which comes from human legislation, I would think he would be as despairful as was Kamehameha III., King of Sandwich Islands, when on his dying bed, he said, " What is to become of my poor countr\- ? There is no one to follow me. Queen Emma I do not trust ; Sunalilo is a drunkard, and Kalakaua is a fool." .VII that has been done for the Hawaiian Islands has been done by our gracious God and the missionaries. A foreign ship brought to these islands the mosquitoes. The foreign sailors brought them the leprosy. American politics brought them the devil. Had it not been for the Gospel, those islands \\uul(l still ha\e been i)utting to death women for eating bananas when forbidden to do so, bowing to a disgusting idolatry-, and in all of the islands would have been a midnight of cruel tv and abomi- nation. THE AXXEX.A.TION OUESTIOX. But the mission- aries came, and in eight years 12,000 people gathered into the churches, and 26,000 chi 1- dren into schools proposing a Chris- tian civilization, which now holds a beautiful suprem- acv over the Sandwich Islands. There are two great parties in the Hawaiian Islands: royal- ists, who want the Queen, and annexationists, who want to come under our Eagle's wing. Neither of them will triumph. The final result will be a republic b\' itself, of which the present government is an antepast. The Hawaiian nation is strong enough to stand alone. Because a nation is not gigantic is no more reason why it should not have self- control than a man with limited resources of physical or financial strength should be denied independence. If God had intended Honolulu to belong to the United States, He would have planted it hundreds of miles nearer our American coast. The United States Government is not so hungry for more land that it needs to be fed on a few chunks of i.sland brought from 1800 miles away. No danger that .some other foreign nation .shall take possession of the island, and give us trouble when we want to run into Honolulu for the coaling and watering of our ships. With some ironsides from otir new navy and the THE AI.AMEnA IMS-^IN-, Just as it looked that ii..\ 76 THE EARTH GIRDLED. aid of our friends on the island, we would knock into smithereens such foreign impertinence. Beside that, if we become as a nation a great maritime power, and we will, none of the islands of the Pacific would decline us sheltering harbor or supply for our ships. What though they belonged to other nations, they would sell us all we want. It is not necessary to own a store in order to purchase goods from it. HAWAIIAN PROGRESS. These are venerable islands. Those who can translate the language of the rocks and the language of human bones say that these islands have been inhabited 1400 years at least. When found in 1778, they were old places of human habitation. The most unique illustration in all the world of what pure and simple Christianity can do is here. Before this supernatural force began, infanticide was com- mon, and not by mildest form of assassination, but buried alive. Demented people were mur- dered ; old people were allowed to die of neglect. Polygamy in its worst form reigned ; and it was as easy for a man to throw away his wife as to pitch an apple core into the sea. Superstitions blackened the earth and the heavens. Christianity found the Sandwich Islands a hell, and turned them into a semi-heaven. As in all the other re- gions where Christianity triumphed, it was ma- ligned by those who came from other lands to practice their iniquities. Loose foreigners were angered because they were hindered in their disso- luteness by a new element they had never before confronted. " There is Honolulu," cried many voices this morning from the deck of the Alameda. These islands, called by manj' an archipelago, I call the " Constellation of the Pacific," for they seem not so much to have grown up, as alighted from the heavens. The bright, the redolent, the umbra- geous, the floralized, the orcharded, the forested, the picturesque Hawaiian Islands! They came in upon us as much as we came in upon them in the morning. Captain Cook no more discovered them in 1778 than we discovered them to-day. He saw them for the first time for himself, and we see them for the first time this morning for ourselves. More fortunate are we than Captain Cook. He looked out upon them from a filthy boat, and wound up his experiences by furnishing his body as the chops and steaks of a savage's breakfast. We from a graceful ship alight amid herbage and arborescence, and shall depart with the good wishes and prayers from all the islanders. HIGH OFFICIAL COURTESIES. As you approach the harbor there is in sight a long line of surf rolling over reefs of coral. High mountains, hurricane-cleft and lightning-split, but their wounds bandaged DR. TALMAGE ON STEAMER AI,AMEDA CROSSING THE PACIFIC. THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 11 with the green of perennial foliage. In a few minntes after landing a chamberlain of the ex-Queen called to invite us to her mansion, and Chief Justice Judd called with a delegation to ask me to preach that afternoon. I accepted the invitation brought b\- tlie chamberlain and was beautifully entertained by the Queen. With President Dole, of the Provisional Government, and Chief Justice Judd, I went to the Executive Buildings, which were formerly the Palace. The Council of the President were already assembled in what was originally the Throne Room, and taking the chair on the platform he called for order and then rose, and all the Councillors arose with him and he led them in prayer, saying, as near as I can remember : " O Lord, God of Nations ! we ask Thy direction in the matters that shall come before us. Give us wisdom, and prudence, and fidelity in the discharge of our duties and Thou shalt have all the praise, world without end, Amen." I have not been told HARBOR OF HONOLUI.T'. whether most of the Presidents of the United States have opened their cabinet meetings in that way, but it certainlv is a good way. At three o'clock that afternoon the Congregational Church was packed to overflowing with a multitude, about one-half native Hawaiians and the other lialf people of many lands. It was amazing to me that with such a short notice of a few hours such a throng could be gathered. But the Honolulu papers have been publishing my sermons for years and it was really a gathering of old friends. An interpreter stood beside me in the pulpit and with marvelous ease translated what I said into the Hawaiian language. It was such a scene as I never before witnessed, and I shall never see it repeated. .A.fter shaking hands with thousands of people I went out in the most delicious atmosphere and sat down under the 78 THE EARTH GIRDLED. palm trees. What a bewitchment of scenery ! What heartiness of hospitality ! The Hawaiians have no superiors for geniality and kindness in all the world. In physical presence they are wondrous specimens of good health and stalwartness. One Hawaiian could wrestle down two of our nation. A LAND OF FLOWERS. Banks of flowers white as snow, or blue as skies, or yellow as sunsets, or starry as November nights, or red as battlefields. A heaven of flowers. Flowers entwined in maidens' hair, and twisted round hats, and hung on necks, and embroidered on capes and sacks. Tuberoses, gardenias, magnolias, passifloras, trumpet-creepers, oleanders, geraniums, NIGHT SCENE IN THE CRATER OF THE VOLCANO OF KILAUEA, HAWAII. fuchsias, convolvuli and hibiscus red as fire. Jessamine, which we in America carefully coax to climb the wall just once, here running up and down and jumping over to the other side and coming back again to jump down this side. Night-blooming cereus, so rare in our northern latitude we call in our neighbors to see it, and they must come right away or never see it at all, here in these islands scattering its opulence of perfume on all the nights ; and, not able to expend enough in the darkness, also flooding the day. Struggling to surpass each other all kinds of trees, whether of fruit or of rich garniture, mango, and orange, and bamboo, and alligator pear, and umbrella trees, and bread fruit, and algabora, and tamarind, and all the South Sea exotics. Rough cheek of pineapple against smooth cheek of melon. The tropics burning incense of aromatics to the hieh heavens- THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 79 THE world's greatest volcano. These islands are volcanic resnlts. The volcanoes are giants living in the cellars of the earth and warming themselves by subterraneous fires, and when they come out to play they toss islands, and sometimes in their sport the)- sprinkle the sea with the Society Islands and then they toss up the Navigator Islands and then the Fiji Islands and then the Hawaiian Islands. They are Titans, and when they play quoits they pitch islands. When the earth finally goes, as go it will, while it will be a very serious matter to us, it will be only the work of volcanoes which in their sport are apt to be careless with fire. While volcanoes are assigned to the destructive agencies we see here what they can do as archi- tects. See here what they have builded. All up and down these islands are dead volcanoes. Rocked in cradle of earthquake, they grew up to an active life, and came to their last breath, and the mounds under which they sleep are decorated with tropical blooms. But the greatest living volcano of all the earth is Hawaiian, and named Kilauea. What a hissing, bellowing, tumbling, soaring, thimdering force is Kilauea ! Lake of "unquenchable fii'e : Convolutions and paroxysms of flame : Elements of nature in torture : Torridity and luridity : Congregation of dreads : Molten horrors : Sulphurous abysms : Swirling mystery of all time : Infinite turbulence : Chimnej' of perdition : Wallowing terrors : Fifteen acres of threat : Glooms insufferable and Dantesque : Caldron stirred by the champion witch of pandemonium : Camp-fire of the armies of Diabolus : Wrath of the mountains in full bloom : Shininrering incandescence : Pyrotechnics of the planet : Furnace- blast of the ages — Kilauea ! Once upon a time all the geysers, and boiling springs, and volcanoes of the earth held a convention to elect a king ; and Etna was there, and Hecla was there, and Stromboli was there, and Vesuvius was there, and Fusiyama was there, and Manna Loa was there. The discussion in this convention of volcanoes was heated. They all spouted impassioned sentiment. Some were candidates for the throne and crown because of one pre-eminence and others for other superiorities. But when it was put to vote, by irnanimous acclamation Kilauea was elected to be king of volcanoes. All the active forces of the earth, all the vapors, all the earthquakes, all the hills, all the con- tinents voted aye ! And that night was the coronation. The throne was lava. The sceptre was of smoke. The coronet was of fire. And all the sublimities and grandeurs and solemnities of the earth kneeling at the foot of the burning throne, cried out, " Long live Kilauea of the Hawaiians !" And a voice from heaven added mightiness to the scene as it ■declared, " He toucheth the hills and the\- smoke." CHAPTER IV. PRESIDENT AND QUEEN. GHB chamberlain, come to invite lis to the residence of the ex-Queen, had suggested eleven o'clock that morning as the best hour for our visit. We approached the wide-open doors through a yard of palm trees and bananas and cocoanut, and amid flowers that dyed the yard with all the colors that a tropical sun can paint. We were ushered into the royal lady's reception-room, where, surrounded by a group of distinguished persons, she arose to meet us with a cordial grasp of the hand. The pictures of her hardly convey an accurate idea of her dignity of bearing. She has all the ease of one born to high position. Her political misfortunes seem in no wise to have saddened her. She spoke freely of the brightness of life to any one disposed to meet all obligations, and at my suggestion that we found in life chiefly what we look for, and if we look for flowers we find flowers, and if we look for thorns we find thorns, she remarked, "I have found in the path of life chiefly the flowers. I do not see how any one surrounded by as many blessings as many of us pos- sess could be so ungrateful as to complain." She said it was some- thing to be remembered thank- fully that for fifty years there was no revolution in the islands. She has full faith that the provisional government is only a temporary affair, and that she will again oc- cupy the throne. She asked her servant to show me, as something I had not seen before, a royal adornment made up from the small bird with a large name, the Melithreptes Pacifica. This bird, I had read, had under its wing a single feather of very exquisite color. The Queen cor- rected my information by saying that it was not a single feather, but a tuft of feathers, from under the wing of the bird from which the EX ourEv r.ii.i.ioKoui.ANi, AS SHE RECEivKD us. adommeut was fashioned into a (So) THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. chain of beauty for the neck. She spoke of her visit to New York, but said that pro- longed illness hindered her from seeing much of the city. She talked freely and intelli- gently on many subjects pertaining to the present and the future. I was delighted with her appearance and manner, and do not believe one word of the wretched stuff that has been written concerning her immoralities. Defamation is so easy, and there is so much cynicism abroad which would rather believe evil than good, that it is not to be thought strange that this Queen, like all the other rulers of the earth, has been beaten with storms of obloquy and misrepresentation. George Washington was called by Tom Paine a Ij'ing impostor. Thomas Jefferson was styled an infidel ; and since those times we are said to have had in the United States presidency a blood-thirsty man, a drunkard, and at least two liber- tines ; and if anybody in prominent place and effective work has escaped, " let him speak, for him have I offended." After an exchange of autographs on that day in Honolulu, we parted. PRESIDENT DOLE GREETS HIS GUESTS. At one o'clock Chief Justice Judd came to the hotel with his carriage to take us to the mansion of Mr. Dole, the coming Presi- dent. It was only a minute after our en- trance when Mr. Dole and his accom- plished and brilliant lady appeared with a cordiality of welcome that made us feel much at home. Mr. Dole is a pronoiuiced Christian man, deeply interested in all re- ligious affairs, as well as secular ; his pri- vate life beyond criticism ; honored by both political parties ; talented, urbane, attrac- tive, strong, and fit for any position where conscientiousness and culture and down- right earnestness are requisites. It was to me a matter of surprise that at a time when politics are red-hot in the Hawaiian Islands, and Mr. Dole is very positive in his opinions on all subjects, I heard not one word of bitterness spoken against him. Hawaiian and foreigner are alike his eulogists. When I referred to the tremendous questions he and his associates had on hand, he said it was remarkable how many of the busy men of these islands were willing to give so much of their time, free of all charge, to the business of the new government, and from what he believed to be patriotic and Christian moti\es. Mr. Dole is a graduate of Williams College, Massachusetts, and when I a.sked him if his opinion of President Hopkins, of that college, was as elevated as that of President Garfield, he replied, " Yes! I think, as Garfield did, that to sit on one end of a log with President Hopkins on the other and talk with him on literary matters would be something like a liberal education." 6 ^"^ ■ is. ^ jH ^#Mh i iOV "iH^H. ^_ '^ 'vl^^^^^^^^^^^^HP ►' SANDFORD P. DOLE, PRHSinENT OF Tllli REPUBLIC OF HAWAU. 82 THE EARTH GIRDLED. The wife of the coming President is a charm of loveliness, and is an artist withal. Her walls are partly decorated with her pencil. And though under her protest, as though the room was unworthy of a visit. Chief Justice Judd took me to her studio, where she passes much of her time in sketching and painting. The ride I took afterward with the coming President and Chief Justice Judd allowed me still other opportunity of forming an elevated opinion of the present head of the Hawaiian Government. The cordiality with which we had been received by the present ruler and the former Queen interested us more and more in the present condition and the future happiness of the Sandwich Islands. HEARING BOTH SIDES ON HAWAIIAN AFFAIRS. Aware of the different ways of looking at things and of putting things, I resolved to get the stor}- of Hawaiian affairs from opposite sides. We have always taken it for granted that two and two make four. And }et two and two may be so placed as to make t w e n t }■- two. The figure 9 is only the figure 6 turned upside down. There are not many things like the figure 8, the same which- ever side is up. The different ac- counts I here pre- sent are reports from different stand- points. I had opportu- nity of earnest and prolonged conversa- tion with a roj-alist, educated, truthful, NATIONAL PALACE, HONOLULU. of l^igj^ jj^Oj-^J ^h^^. acter, born in these islands, and of great observation and experience. The following conversation took place between us. Qitesfwji : " Do you think the ex-Oueen a good woman ? " Answer: "I have seen the Queen very often. I have been one of her advisers, and my wife has been with her much of the time from childhood, and has seen her morning, noon and night, and under all circumstances, and neither of us has ever witnessed anything compromising in her character. She has made mistakes, as all make them, but she is fully up to the moral standard of the world's rulers. She is the impersonation of kindness, and neither my wife nor myself, nor any one else has ever heard her say a word against any one. In that excellence she is pre-eminent. In proof of her good character I have to state the fact that there is not a household in Honolulu that did not feel honored by her presence. If she had been such a corrupt character as some correspondents have THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 83 represented her, I do not think that the best men and women of the Hawaiian Islands would ha\'e sought her for guest and associate." Question: "Do you think she has been unjustly treated?" Aiis-a'cr : "I do. She has been most infamously treated. While our island was at peace, and with no excuse for interference, the United States troops were landed. A group of men backed up b\- the United States Minister and troops formed a cabinet and chose a President, and sent a committee to the palace and told the Queen to leave the place. It was another case of Naboth's \-ineyard. The simple fact is that there were men who wanted the palace and the offices and the salaries. From affluent position she was reduced in estate until she had to mortgage the little left her to pay commissioners to go to Washington and present her side of the case. As I said, she made mistakes, but she was willing to correct them, and in a public manifesto declared she was willing to retrace her steps in the matter of the ' New Constitution.' She had as much right to her throne as any ruler on earth has a right to a throne ; but by sharp practice when she was unsuspecting, the United States troops drove her from the palace, took possession of the armament, and inaugurated a new government." THE ROYALIST VIEW. Question : " If the choice o. royalty or annexation were put to the vote of the people, what do }ou think would be the decision ? " Anszccr : "The Queen's restoration by a majority of at least ten to one. We who are royalists are without exception in favor of leaving these matters to a ballot-box. In the United States the majority governs and the majorit}- of the people of the Hawaiian Islands ought to have the same privilege of governing." Question : " Are the Hawaiians property rholders or nomads ? " Anszcer: " They are property-holders. They have their homes. They have a practical interest in public affairs. Moreover they are for the most part intelligent. You can hardly find a Hawaiian born since 1840 who cannot read and write." Question: "What do you think is the most pro\-oking item in the condition of }our country ? " Ans'cccr : "It is that a professed friendly power has robbed xis of our go^•ernment. All the nations of the earth consider that your nation has done us a wrong." Question : " Taking conditions as the}- now are what do )"ou think had better be done, or is that a hemispheric conundrum ? " Anszcer : " It is a hemispheric conundnnn. Our Queen is dethroned, and her palace and her military forces are in the possession of her enemies. While I cannot see any wa\- in which the wrong can be righted, she has such faith in the final triumph of justice that she expects to resume her throne. Her estate as well as her crown taken from her, she deserves the sympathy of the whole world. I believe in republics for some lands, and monarchies for others. One style of government will not do for all stales of people. A republic is best for the United States, a monarchy for the Hawaiian Islands." Thus ended mj' conversation with the royalist. THE RKPriiLIC.W .SIDE OF THE C.\.SE. But I also had the opportunity of learning the other side of this question from a spirited, patriotic and honest annexationist, and I asked much the same questions that I had asked the rovalist. 84 THE EARTH GIRDLED. The following conversation between the annexationist and myself took place : Question : " Do you think the Queen is fit to reign ? " Answer: "No! By her signing the Opium License and the bill for the Louisiana Lottery, and by other acts, she has proved herself unfit to govern." Question: " Do you think that the present conti'oversy would be relieved, if the ques- tion in dispute were left to the votes of all the people on the island ? " Answer : "No! The Chinese, the Japanese and the Portuguese would join with the natives and vote down the best interests of the Hawaiian Islands." Question : " What do you think of the present attitude of the United States Govern- ment with respect to the Sandwich Islands ? " Answer: "Most unfortimate. We are waiting for a change of administration at Washington. Your President has unwisely handled our affairs. We want an administra- MAIN STREET, HONOLULU. tion at Washington which will favor an annexation, and your next Presidential election may settle our island affairs, and settle them in the right wa}-." Question : " What is the present feeling between royalists and those in favor of the provisional government?" Answer: "Very bitter and becoming more and more dangerous, and great prudence and wisdom will have to be employed or there will be blood shed." Thus ended my conversation with the annexationist. As I said in a previous letter, without taking the side either of ro\a]ist or annexa- tionist, the Hawaiian Islands will yet be a republic by itself. What an amazing thing that THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 85 after all the trouble the United States Goveniinent has had with the Chinese population now within our borders, trying this and that legislation to suit their case, any American statesman should propose,' by the annexation of the Sandwich Islands, to add to our popu- lation the 22,000 Chinese and the 12,000 Japanese now living in those islands. If we want this addition of 34,000 Chinese and Japanese, had we not better import them fresh from China and Japan ? HAWAIIAN" From what I have seen and heard in this my journey I have come to the conclusion that it will be a dire day when the American government hopelessly mixes itself up with Hawaiian affairs. It would be disaster to them, and perplexity and useless expense to our- selves. "Hands off," and "Mind your own bn.sine.ss " are, in tliis case, .sentiments that had better be observed bv English, Oerman and .\mcrican governments. CHAPTER V. ISLAND OF LEPERS. OHE most of the world's heroes and heroines die unrecognized. They will have to wait until the roll is called on the other side of the Dead Sea. I have seen no celebration of the courage and fidelity of Rev. S. Waiwaiole, who died two years ago in the leper settlement of the Sandwich Islands, nor of the Rev. Mr. Pahio, who, himself struck with leprosy, goes right on with his evangelical labors, except when especial fever of his disease prostrates him, and will continue his work of love until he has neither foot to walk nor tongue to speak because of the dreadful disintegration. But once in a while there are circumstances which thrill the world with some story like that of the brilliant Belgian Catholic priest, Joseph Damien, who, after a week's considera- tion of whether he had better do so, accepted the appointment as missionary to Molokai, the Isle of L,epers ; for sixteen years administering to the leprous and then d}'ing of the leprosy. When told by his physician that he had the fell taint upon him he showed no alarm or even agitation, but said, " As I expected. I am willing to die for those I came to save." The King knighted him and a memorial slab designates his resting-place, but Protestantism has joined Catholicism in the beatification of this self-sacrificing ecclesiastic. A TRIBUTE TO D.^MIEN. That moral hero completely transformed the Isle of L,epers. It was, before his work begun, a pen of abominations. No law, no decency, all the tigers of passion were let loose. Drunkenness and blasphemy and libertinism and cruelty dominated. The moral disease eclipsed the physical. But Damien dawned upon the darkness. He helped them build cottages. He medicated their physical distresses. The plague which he could not arrest he alleviated. He settled the controversies of the people. He prepared the dead for burial and digged for them Christian graves, and pronounced upon them a benediction. He launched a Christian civilization upon the wretchedness. He gave them the gospel of good cheer. He told the poor victims concerning the Ivand of Eternal Health, where " the inhabitant never says i am sick," and the swollen faces took on the look of hope, and the glassy eyes saw coming relief, and the footless, and the limbless, and the fingerless looked forward to a place where they might walk with the King robed in white, and " everlasting songs upon their heads." Good and Christlike Joseph Damien ! Let all religions honor his memory. Let poetry and canvas and sculpture tell the story of this man who lived and died for others, and from century to century keep him in bright remembrance long after the last leper of all the earth shall have felt through all his recovering and revitalized nature, the voice of the Son of God saying : " I will ! Be thou clean." THE REGIME AT MOLOKAI. The eternal pathos of Molokai has attracted the attention of all nations, because it is a leper colony. It is a small island, but it contains a continent of woe. It was established in mercy. Leprosy was so rapidly advancing in the Sandwich Islands that the entire population (86) THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 87 was imperiled. To control and extirpate the ghastly evil it was necessar)- to put it by itself on an island not easily accessible. But those banished there are made as comfortable as possible. In one year this leper settlement cost the Hawaiian government $55,000. Every week each patient is allowed four pounds of salmon, nine pounds of rice, one pound of sugar, or if preferred from five to six pounds of beef and twenty-one pounds of paiai^ which is a near approach to bread. Leprosy reigns there. The victims have bands of inusic, all the players lepers ; they have churches, all the worshipers lepers ; they have carriages, all the drivers and occupants lejiers ; they have hospitals, all the nurses and patients lepers ; they have the drama, and all the actors lepers ; they have schools, all the ruiN'Ci'.ss xAr'ir.fixirs rksidi'. :i: IN' TioNorji.r. teachers and scholars lepers ; marriages are performed and the contracting parties leper.s. Children are born there and they are mostly lepers. Everything tiiat pustule and scarifica- tion and inflammation and gangrene and disfiguration can do is done here. Science, which has successfully fought back most of the world's disorders, has here closed its pharmacy, put back into its case its surgical instruments and come down to the government boat and retreated from this island of death. Thank God this dominion of deatli is being broken and he will have to dismount this sepulchral throne. Segregation of the victims will complete the overthrow of the foul plague, and in these islands a leper will be as rare as in America, where most of the people never saw a leper. THE EARTH GIRDLED. CHEERFUL, THOUGH DOOMED. What most strikes a visitor at Molokai is the placidity and cheerfulness of the victim- ized. One would think they could never smile, never sing, never get out from under a sense of despair. But whatsoever agonies may fill the hearts of these lepers, they appear to the beholder as in a resignation that amounts to good cheer. They seem among the happiest people on earth. Many of them on horseback, come galloping down the road. Songs roll over the fated village by day and night. Human nature adjusts itself to circum- stances. We have often seen people who through pulmonary or Bright's disease were certain of early demise and yet with a mirth bubbling and resonant. The fact is we must DOWAGER XAPILOXIUS, AT KING KALAKANTJ'S COFFIN, HONOLULU. all die, and yet we manage to keep cheerful, and why not those struck by leprous fatality have sunshine in their countenance and talk. The mercy of the Hawaiians has made this colony of doomed inhabitants more tolerable than in most lands. I have seen in the suburbs of Jerusalem and Damascus scores of those cast out for this disease and inhabiting caverns and tombs. Beaten of the elements, living on the coin which passers-by may fling to them, while day by day they are rotting alive. Let us thank God that those smitten with incurable sores, in the Sand- wich Islands, have homes, and schools, and churches, and food, and nurses, and alleviations, and parterres of sweetest flowers under arches of bluest skies. THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 89 THE STORY OF WILLIAM RAGSDALE, LEPER. No respecter of persons is this ph}-sical calamity. William Ragsdale, a popular lawyer, was sent there. He was eloquent both in Hawaiian and English, and could make his audience weep and laugh and shiver and resolve. He had the satire of a Junius and the impassioned abandon of an O'Connell. No one suspected he was a leper before the day when he sent a letter to the authorities surrendering himself, and sa)'ing that on the morrow he would go aboard the steamer for Molokai. He spent the morning of the day of his departure in riding around to say good-bye to his friends, and just before the hour of .sailing came down to the boat, his neck adorned with gardenia, and turned around and made a farewell address, closing with the words : " Aloka ! May God bless you, my brothers !" Hundreds of the people and a glee club accompanied him to the boat, and they rent the air with lamenta- tions as the boat swung off from its moorings. He took a Bible and some law books with him into his dreadful exile, and the prayers of churches were offered that he might have courage and peace in the remaining days of his earth- ly tarrying. Queen Emma's cousin. Honorable Mr. Kaco, was also sent to Molokai ; and there was no power in his royal connection to keep him outside of that island. ■^T'^""'- "" ><^^";,.amki.a .., imNn,.,-.,,.. ]\Irs. Napela, of high social circle, had her cottage of enforced e.xilc on that island of sepulchres. A legislator of the Hawaiian Islands is there closing his life. He was probably a good legislator in the da\-s of his health, but I cannot help thinking what a good thing it would be if all the leprous legislators of the earth could be put on some island by themselves. Such a banishment would be a mighty thinning out at Albany, Harrisburg and Washington, legislatures State and national. The United States Gov- ernment could afford to provide such a Molokai, and the moral lepers sent there could have their legi-slature and congress and board of aldermen and army and navy all of THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 91 the same blotch. But while the Hawaiian legislator could be found out and sent to the so-called "Isle of Precipices," the moral leper is not so easih- designated, because he has the blotch not so much on his forehead as on his heart. What every State and nation now needs is a Molokai, or Isle of Lepers. LEPROSY PIAGNO.SKD. Conversation about leprosy with a former member of the lioard of Health for the Hawaiian Islands revealed to me the following facts : Question : " In what part of the system does leprosy begin its work ?" Anszccr : "It attacks the nerve-centres." Question : " I thought it was a disease of the blood ? " Anszt'cr : " No. It begins with the uerv-es, and just as the girdling of the trunk of a tree first shows its withering results in the tip end of the long branch of the tree, so leprosy is apt to first show itself in the paralysis or doubling up of the little finger, or in the toe, or 111 the lobe of the ear. Sometimes there appears upon the body a shining surface, and it is unimpressible. Prick it with a pin, and there is no sting. All the rest of the patient's bodv may be in perspiration, but that spot remains dry. Sometimes all tlie signs of physical disorder disappear, and the disease seems gone. Then there will come a leprous fever, and that will throw out a blush or efflorescence that more empliatically announces the progress of the disease. Then all signs of skin disturl)ancc disappear, but ; .1 '■S V 1 ^^^^^ Hi|H^^H^';.W^ -^^ 't^^H , ./^ '^ .- - ■ .V ,.. -'■^l... . _A„ ■ (92) THE WORLD AS SEP:N TO-DAY. 93 after tlie following leprous fever the case is worse than before. So each retreat of the disease is followed by a more decided advance." Question : " Is it painful ? " Ansivcr: "No. That is one of the mercies. From the first assault of the plague to the hour of death there is an absence of physical suffering." Question : " But is there no mental depression ? " Anszvcr : "Oh, yes. At the first acquaintance of the fact that the disease is on him, a horrid gloom settles upon the patient. But after a while a slight hope of recoven,- is born, and the incipient leper tries all forms of cure, and no form is so absurd that it will not recommend itself as worthy of experiment. And then all the time the patient thinks it may be something besides leprosy." Question: "When a victim of the disease is first charged with having the plague, I should think he would resent it." Anszver : " Yes, and the English law makes it a libelous case for the courts, if a man is unjustly charged with being a leper. Boards of Health have to be very careful in the work of segregation." Question : " Are there an}' cases of cure ? " Anszver: "The only cases I recall are those mentioned in the Bible. Naaman, the Syrian hero, and the ten cases whom Christ cured, nine of them too mean to acknowledge the divine medicament." Question : "What in ordinary cases is the velocity of the disease, and how long before it completes its work ? " Anszver : " Well, I have known one case last sixteen }'ears. I think the usual durance is five or six years." Question: "Has the leprosy different modes in demonstrating itself?" Anszver : " It has. The tuberciilous and the anesthetic. The former is more repulsive, it swells and bloats and distorts the face. The last sign of humanity is blotted from the counte- nance. There are cases of this kind called ' leonine,' for the reason that the face is so widened and enlarged and made severe that the countenance looks like a lion. The anesthetic form is a withering, a thinning out, a wasting away, a depletion, a skeletonizing process." Question : " Is it contagions ? " Anszver: "There are different opinions about that. I ha\-e seen in married life the husband or wife a leper for years, and the partner in life always in good health. I have known a leprous parent to have a healthy child. I was talking on this subject with an eminent ph)sician who said to me, ' Do you see those two children playing together? The one is a leper and the other my own child, and I have no fear about contamination.' " Question : "How many patients are there in Molokai at the present time?" Anszver : " About one thousand." Here ended my conversation with the former member of the Board of Health of the Sandwich Islands. Up to date the woe goes on. Only two weeks ago, a ship took twenty- five more lepers to ^lolokai. The scene of parting is .said to be so heart-rending that but few people go to the wharf to witness it. The wailing and the howling at the parting of families, as the filial, and fraternal, and paternal, and maternal bonds arc broken, is something that haunts the memory. Not long ago a young man, sentenced to the leper island, declared he would not be taken alive. He shot three of those who were attempting to segregate him, and then hid in a hut until a cannon on a neighboring liill bombarded the hut into a wreck. Then a relative went to the hut and found the \oung man dead. 94 THE EARTH GIRDLED. But do not let us give up discouraged. Leprosy as well as cancer and all the other now unconquered ailments will yet be cured. I do not know where the cradle now holding the coming doctor is being rocked, whether at Molokai, or in Honolulu, or on the banks of the Thames, or the Rhine, or the Tiber, or the Ural, or the Hudson, or the Savannah. Xor do I know from what college he will unroll his diploma, nor in what laborator>- he will make his experiments, nor in what decade he will give proclamation of the world's emancipation from diseases as yet incurable, but he will go through the same persecutions that Doctor Jenner did because of his discovery of a way to halt small-pox, and as Doctor Keeley has endured because of his almost supernatural cure of alcoholism, and the new A NATIVE FEAST, HAWAII. discoverer will run the gauntlet of caricature, and expulsion from medical societies, and will, like the most illustrious Being of all ages, become the target for expectoration, but the discoverer will give leprosy the command " Thus far shalt thou go, and no farther," and that disease will wriggle and crawl and slink out of the world, and after the medical emancipator is dead, the nations will build a monument so high to his memory, that the granite shaft will dispute with the' skies the right of possession, and in the epitaph thereon the clicking chisel will tr^' to atone for the slanderous tongue, and the world that held back from the discoverer the bread of honest praise will give him a stone of post-mortem commemoration. Forward the whole column of surgeons and physicians for the conquest of leprosv and cancer. CHAPTER VI. BATTLE AND SHIPWRECK. HUNDRED and sixty dead men in the angry waters ; one sliip sunk out of sight so that not so much as a plank or rope has since appeared ; of our tliree great American warships lying in the harbor, the "Leipsic" beached, the "Trenton " and " Vandalia" demolished ; of the three great German men-of-war, the " Eber " and "Olga" gone completely under ; the "Adler" rolled over on its side and cracked apart amid- ships; out of all the vessels in harbor only one saved, and that because it had steam up and coiild sail out into the sea ; three days of wreckage and fright and horror which shook the island, and by report of next steamer transfixed all nations ; all this a brief putting of what an Antipodean hurricane did for this harbor in March, 1889. While all up and down the beach of this island are pieces of the wreckage of that unparalleled tempest only one skeleton of the ship remains, the "Adler," sufficiently distinct to represent that scene of cyclonic infernization. It is rather unfortunate that Samoa in the popular mind of all nations stands as a synonym of shipwreck, for the place is as fine a specimen of foliage and fruitage as the world holds. Indeed, its harbor is the sea captain's anxiety. For though a wide harbor it has only a small entrance, and rocks in all directions toss the white foam. The captain told us that we need not think we were left if we saw him sailing out to sea, for he would do so if a squall came up, but he would return and take us. After more than seven days of ocean rolling, without sight of ship or land, the Samoan Islands greet you like a beatific vision. As we came on deck this morning the waters were covered with small boats of natives bringing specimens of coral and all manner of flowers and fruits, ready to sell these and transport to shore all the passengers who chose to go. A boat belonging to the German Legation with four stout oarsmen, took us three- quarters of a mile to the beach. From thence we went to King ^Malietoa's residence. But it is a time of war. The King had fled to the forest. A few nights before he was thought to be at a village house, and it was surrounded and shot into, and the King would have been slain if he had been there. The whole island is in turmoil. We were shown the King's rooms and his pictures and bric-a-brac. The walls suggested fondness for German and English royalty, but I found not a face of any American President or general. We saw the Queen and at the invitation of the warriors went into the guard's tent. About fifteen dusky soldiers, each reclining on a pillow of round wood upheld by two small supports. A more uncomfortable pillow it would seem to me than that in Bethel, from the foot of which Jacob saw the angelics. Each of the warriors had a gun within reach. .\t their invitation we sat down on a mat beside tho.se who were sitting, and in scant vocabulary talked over the Samoan troubles. We saw one soldier who had been .shot in the foot, and he was limping along leaning on an assistant. Four men were killed last night in a skirmi.sh and another skirmish is to take place to-niglit. There are natives who do not want to pay their taxes and their various grievances have been .summed up, and a young warrior wants to get the throne and intro- duce the millennium. A long-continued struggle is opening. Meanwhile a German and English man-of-war is in the harbor and an .\nierican man-of-war is expected soon. What (95) 96 THE EARTH GIRDLED. will be the result no one can prophesy. But this is certain, this island and all the group of islands are suffering from foreign interference. It is a common saying among the natives that first comes the missionary, then comes the merchant, then comes . the consul, then comes the man-of-war, then oh, ni}' ! Why should three great nations like the English, German and American stoop to such small business as to be watching with anxious and expensive vigilance these islands, for fear that this or that foreign government should get a little advantage? Better call home your warships and leave all to the missionaries. They will do more for the civilization of Samoa, than all the guns that ever spoke from the sides of the world's navies. The captain of our steamer, in an interesting address a few evenings ago concerning the islands of the Pacific, declared that the onl}- move- ment toward civilization that amounted to anything in these islands had been made by the church. Gospel, not gun- powder. Life, not death. Bibles, not bullets. The only movement that at this time has full swing in Samoa is " trade gin." That maddens and embrutes and has given to Samoa the unsavory and unjust title of the " Hell of the Pacific." The foreign gin is helped in its work by a domestic drink called " kava." It is prepared in the following delicious way. There is a plant called Piper Methisti- cum, from the root of which the kava is made. A young Samoan woman moved to one of the Fiji Islands, but got tired and resolved to return to her native islands. Before starting home- wards she saw a rat, which seemed weak and thin, eat the root of this plant, when the rat soon after became strong and vigorous, and she concluded that the best thing she could do for her native land was to take this root to her people, that it might make them strong and vigorous too. So it was transplanted. As the root of it made the rat strong and vigor- ous, why not the same result be produced in the human race ? So she cultivated in Samoa the Piper Methisticum, from which the kava is made. Girls, and old men who have nothing else to do, prepare this kava by the following process : They take the root and chew it until the juice fills their mouth, then they discharge it from the mouth into a bowl, more root is put into the mouth and the liquid disposed of in the same way. It has become a popular drink. It is ordered on all occasions ; at the opening and closing of all socialities, before and after all styles of business, it is kava here and kava there and kava everywhere. And it is cleaner than most of the drinks of other countries and has in it no log-wood, strych- nine or nux vomica, but pure and simple expectoration. I consider it as an improvement AN ASPIRANT TO THE THRONE OF SAMOA. THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 97 on most strong drinks. It is said to be a niost delicions drink. Almost all visitors try this kava and see what it tastes like and what are its effects, bnt as I have great faith in the testimony of others, I did not taste it, believing all they said about the pungent and grateful flavor of this beverage of refined and delectated spit. The kava not only appeals to the taste, but it is said to beautify the cup or bowl from which it is quaffed. The bowl is not washed, but retains the settlings of this beverage, which harden and come to look like exquisite enameling, which submits to a high polish. Not only is the cup enameled, but the stomach of the one who takes it, becomes also an enameling so elaborate that I am informed that one who was in such condition, by sneezing violently, cracked the enamel and died. Instead of the burning out of the vitals by the brandy and whiskey and wines would it not be more sesthetic to carry^ around a whole art gallery of enameled insides ? Tell all the Methodists Malietoa is a Wesleyan and a consistent follower of the three worthies of Epworth, Susannah, Charles and John. Though his every drop of inherited blood is warlike, this king is a man of peace. One of his ancestors fought back an enemy from Samoa, and did it so well that the defeated troops, as they got back into their boats, cheered the Samoan king, shouting, "Well done, fighting cock." But the present king might better be symbolized by a dove rather than a chanticleer. As in America we never had but one man who declined being President of the United States when he knew that he could get the office, so Malietoa is the only man that I know of who declined to be king, when the honor fell to him. Again and again he preferred another for the throne, and accepted roy^alty only when circumstances compelled him to do so. There have been deeds of blood since he took the sceptre, but war is barbarism whether imder Samoan, or American, or English flag. Nearly all the great generals of our American wars have been good members of Presbyterian, or Episcopalian, or Methodist, or Baptist, or Congregational, or Catholic churches. Do not therefore sneer when I write that Malietoa is a Wesleyan. The flag that floats over his house is a one-starred flag contrived by a missionary. Indeed, the good work of the missionaries is found wherever we go on this island. The Bible is the chief book. There arc churches and schools. One of the group of islands has a college of fifty-five students in preparation for the ministry. Nearly all the inhabitants of these islands can read and write. There are no doubt enough bad people. Three ships of war lying for the most time in the harbor keep the natives familiar with the vices of more civilized nations. The beach-combers, as they are called at Samoa — that is, the men who combine the work of wrecker, pirate, thief, desperado, and agent for the slums — are found here ; but every city that I know of has its beach-combers, and the poor swindled immigrants find them more numerous at Boston, New York and Liverpool than the voyagers of the Pacific find them at Samoa. These islands are more thorough Sabbath-keepers than you will find in almost any land of all the earth. From early morning until late at night on Sabbath, the whole town, with few exceptions, is given up to devotion. At half-past six on Sabbath morning the church bells ring, and the people put on their best attire and assemble for worship. Again, in mid-afternoon, the church bells ring, and the people gather. Far on into the Sunday night the Christian songs may be heard, caught up and sounded back from home to home, and from mountain to beach. There is far more Sabbath kept in Samoa than in any town or city in America of the same size. But this was not always so. From what cruelty Christian civilization has lifted it ! In olden time when they conquered an enemy they broke his spine. To add to the humiliation of the defeated, some of them were 7 THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 99 roasted and eaten. When a woman was candidate for marriage to some chief, she was seated in the market-place for the pnblic to decide whether she were fit for snch marriage. If they decided in the negative, she was chibbed to death. They worshiped the dog, or the eel, or the tnrtle, or the lizard, or the shark. " Back!" cried the Christian religion to such monstrosities of behavior, and all things changed. TATTOOING AND OCEAN CIIRO:\IATICS. The Samoans have not much nse for clothes. I saw no fashion-plates in the windows. A tailor would starve to death in Samoa. Lack of complete ph}-sical investiture comes not from undue econoni)', not from pauperism, not from immorality, but origiualh' from the fact that, on these islands, the climate is so mild the year round that ne- cessity does not make inexor- able demand upon weavers and clothiers. But gradually calicoes and nankeens and alpacas are com- ing into demand. The Samoan somewhat substitutes tattooing, which in some cases appears quite like a suit of clothes. In the boat crossing from wharf to steamer I put my hand on. the knee of a Samoan, and said, "You are tattooed." He re- plied, " Yes ; that me clothes." I said, " When do you have that tattooing done ?" He answered, " Twenty years of age." I said, " Does it hurt ?" He replied, " Oh, yes ! Hurt ! Swell up !" I asked, " How long does it take to have that tattooing done ?" He answered, "Two months." Indeed, all the men I noticed had been tattooed. It is a badge of manhood. A man is not re- spected unless tattooed. He would be thrust out of society or not admitted. The most profitable business is that of tattooin the bush with a few candidates for two or three months KING AND ^ji-i'i;x In such attire thu (Jull The artist retires to Every day, as the patient can endure it, the pricking in of the paint by needles and sharp-tooth combs, the process goes on. The suffering is more or less great, but one must be in the fashion ; )-et I suppo.se in this there is no more pain than that which men and women suffer in the martvrdom of fashion through which some people go in the higher civilized life. What tight boots with lOO THE EARTH GIRDLED. agony of corns ! What piercing of the ear lobes for diamond rings ! Wliat crucifixion of stout waists to make them of more moderate size ! The tattooing is only another form of worship at the altar of fashion — no flinching on the part of the tattooed, no backing out. The work done, he who went into the bush a boy comes out a man. As we passed along the main street of the island, we had a crowd after us with something to sell. To buy a flower or a shell was greatly to reinforce the number of the es- corting part}'. The men are muscu- lar and well formed. The children are beautiful. As to the women, every nation has its type of female beauty, and no one of another nation is competent to judge concerning it. But there goes the whistle of the " Alameda." It has to sound three times, and then off for New Zealand. We wait for the second whistle and then start. Over the rolling billows to the ladder of the steamer, and up to our old place on the good ship, to which we again trust our lives. What a m^-stery it must be to all the innumerable creatures of the deep. We discuss some flying fish, or see once in a voyage a spouting whale, but we never realize that we are be- ing discussed by the inhabitants of an element filled with so much life that our captain says when a whale is wounded by its captors, it requires two men to keep off the sharks while the captive is being drawn in. What, suppose you, the inhabitants of Oceana think of this ship floating above them, of the bow plowing through, of the screw stirring the wave, of the passengers bending over the railing? Every moment, as we pass on by day and night, there are thousands of ichthyological inquiries of " What's that? " What do the seagulls flying hundreds of miles from shore think of us? What do the sharks think ? What do the whales think ? What does the octopus think ? We are as great mysteries to them as they are to us. And now we come back to study that which has been to me one of the great wonders in my voyages across the Atlantic, and is now as fascinating in my first voyage over the Pacific, and will, I suppose, be to me as great a BURJIESE MOTHER AND SON, SHOWING SAMPLE OF TATTOOING AMONG UNCIVIIJZED RACES. THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. lOI wonder until the last push of the steamer after I have entered New York harbor. I mean tlie architecture and adornment of an ocean wave. What mathematics could contrive its curve, or what compass execute it? Its gracefulness, its ease, its perfection, its suggestive- ness of more curves if it desired to make them. Then the lace-work of foam hung on it, all its threads woven by the finger of God, and looped up, and unrolled and folded and put back on shelves of crystal. Then the top of the wave, as it makes up its mind to recoil or drop on the other side or mount higher. Now the white melting into the blue, like snowy clouds dissolving into the blue of skies. Then two waves, each gamitured with surf, rising to meet each other, and married into one bliss of opalescence and emerald and fire. Oh ! SAMOAM GIRI.S MAKING KAVA. the rise, the rush, the arch, the fall, the voice, the splendor, the convolution, the miracle, the coronation, the Divinity in an ocean billow. All the harmonies of heaven did not make St. John forget the " voice of many waters." But there is the illumined wave, or the one that glows as it is struck through with light from the other side, or the wave that takes on the colors of hovering cloud, and is saffron or orange or solferino or beryl or amber or the shifting of all the colors from the centre of the wave's curve to the coronal and the base. Oh, the living wave, the inspired wave, the pictured wave, the wave just born, or the wave just dying. The complexion of the wave is ever changing : florescent, rubescent, iridescent. Now phosphorescence decorates it with a flash, or tlie night sinks into it a silver anchorage of star, or the morning jvM !.# w . W( (102 'i THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 103 puts upon its brow a coronet. Blanclied into white or blushed into carmine. Now black as a raven's wing ; now roseate as the flamingo's plumage. From russet to ultramarine, and thence to malachite, then incarnadined as if wounded, into vermilion or magenta. I celebrate not the ocean. It is too big. I celebrate only one ocean wave. But there are times when it is hushed to sleep, on the great bosom of its mother which never ceases to heave ; for though the billow may slumber, the ocean keeps its everlasting swell. The child may sleep while the mother rests not. But he who has only studied the wave asleep, or the wave aroll, does not fully know it. The wave has moods. It sometimes passes from the calm to the irate, from the beautiful to the awful, from the pleasant to the terrific, from the slumberous to the paroxysmal, from aesthetics to demoniacs, and though now it may play with the zephyr, it may after- ward wrestle with Caribbean whirl- wind or Mediterra- nean euroclydon. Nothing can stand before it when com- manded to destroy. It rallies from the abysms a semi-om- nipotence. From all sides under the strength of the winds it rolls toward the shore or bom- bards the ship. It was one wave that consummated al- most every ship- wreck. The preliminarv waves, the preparatory forces, the introductory furies may have done their work, but the final stroke was left for one climacteric force, and that gathered and rolled up and surged forward, black with wrath, and charged upon the i>alaces of the deep, submerging them, or moved into the unsheltered harlxjr with the twisted bolts, and the split beams of ocean conquerors. The capsized ".\dler" of the Cierman navy lying on its side, rusted and riven and parted amidships, shows what a wave, once bluc-cyed, and rocked in the lap of a bright day, and lullabicd of soft winds, may grow up to be whc!i, with demoniac yell and crushing vengeance, and all-conquering might, it swears the doom of everything between the coral reefs and the beach of the harbor of Samoa. The ocean .sentenced to death in the Book which says "There shall be no more .sea," seems determined to demonstrate, before it is slain, what «)ne wave can do, in lighting up the world with the beautiful, or blackening it under the swoop of a tornado. SAMOAN RESIUHNXi; IN T»K COl'NTRY AS I SAW IT. CHAPTER VII. UNDER THE SOUTHERN CROSS. OHERE are some things in the mind year after year remaining undefined. The time for explanation does not seem to come. We had for years seen allusions to the Southern Cross. We knew not what it meant. We supposed it to be an appearance in the heavens at certain latitude and longitude, yet we knew not exactly what that appearance was. But seated a few nights ago on the deck of this ship in our voyage around the world a gentleman bent over me and said, " The Southern Cross is visible. Let us go and see it." Going to the opposite side of the ship I looked up and beheld it in all its suggestiveness looking down upon us and looking down upon the sea. The Southern Cross ! It is made up of four bright stars. One star standing at the top of the perpendicular piece of the cross, and another star standing for the foot of it. One star standing for the right hand end of the horizontal piece of the cross, and another star for the left hand end of it. So clear, so resplendent, so charged with significance, so sublimely marking off the heavens that neither man nor woman nor child nor angel nor devil can doubt it. The Southern Cross ! To make it God put those four worlds in their places. The tender and tremendous emblem of our religion nailed against the heavens with silver nails of star. Four are enough. God wastes no worlds. He will not encourage stupidity. If you cannot see the Southern Cross in the four stars, forty stars will not make you see it. Up yonder they stand, the four stellar evangelists upholding the cross. What a Gospel of the firmament ! . The cross that Constantine saw in the sky with the words " By this conquer," was an evanescent cross and for one night, but maori chief, new Zealand. this Southern Cross is for all nights, and Brought by the author. to last while creation lasts. So every night of this voyage among the islands of the Pacific I am reminded by this celestial crucifix of the only influence that has turned the islands from their cruelty, and shamelessness, and horror, the influence of the Cross. Excepting the throne of the Deity I think there will be no higher thrones in heaven than those occupied by the missionaries. Others have lived and died for their own (104) THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 105 country. These lived and died for the natives of other countries. Many of tlie mission- aries were the graduates of Yale, or Princeton, or New Brunswick, or O.vford, or Cambridge, or Edinburgh, and were qualified for pulpits, for editorial chairs, for medical achieve- ment, for great words and deeds in court rooms, for commercial successes that would have brought all honors and all luxuries to their feet. Many of the women of this foreign mission cause were brought up in refined associations, could play well on musical instru- ments, were the charm of best society, had attractiveness that fitted them for any circle of ease or opulence. Such men and women took whale-ships for foreign lands, lived on fare that only coarsest digestive organs could manage, were tossed for months on rough seas, landed amid naked savages, abode in grass huts, spent their life amid the squalor and the stench, and the vennin and the epidemics and the low vices of those whom they had come to rescue. Of a roll of a hundred and eighty names of such men and women not more than four or five of them were ever heard of outside of their own kindred or the circles of barbarians among whom they lived. The story of the Christian heroes and heroines who came to these islands of the ^^-,-^^,,:^^^^^ - -^^^-^^ ^^^^^^ Pacific in the brig " Thad- " _ deus," the " Leland," the *' Benjamin Bush," the " Av- erich," and the "Mary Frazier " u n d e r Captain Charles Sumner, can never be fully told. All the tal- ents, all the scholarship, all the nerve and muscle and brain, all the spiritual ener- gies of these Christly men and women put forth on be- half of people whom they had never seen, and whose names they had never heard pronounced until the day of arrival on these islands. Some of these messengers of light were cut to pieces and devoured by cannibals. Some of them toiled to save the besotted savages while profligates of Christian countries landed from merchantman or war- vessel or whaling .ship were trying to destroy them. The daughter of one of the missionary families describes her mother as toiling until the .skin was blistered off her arms and says that while her father was about to preach, a group of drunken sailors broke the windows and brandished a knife alxiut his face, saying, " Here he is ; I have got him ! Come on ! " These mi.ssioiiaries .sent tlicir little children to America and Europe because they could not be properly brought up amid heathenism, and what heart-rending partings took place as fathers aiiion. He said about if'^(ir^-«f»»':*»»«w^i»'B«3ir'' ; A MAORI nwi io6 THE EARTH GIRDLED. I one of these Pacific islands, " I have been here before and I see the difference. Formerly as] soon as my anchor was down my ship was surrounded by dissolute men and women i swimming out from shore and trying to come aboard. How different now ! Christianity has made the change." And when some one traduced the missionaries he said, " Oh, you need not tell me these stories. I have lived four months with these dreadful people and know them well. I know the natives, too, as they were many years ago and I am fully convinced that the change I see is from the influence of the religion of the Bible." One boy was the means of the civilization and evangelization of the Sandwich Islands. His father and mother were killed and he ran away with his baby brother on his back. The infant was slain by a spear. The heroic boy got on a ship for New England. He was found weeping on the steps of Yale College, Connecticut. He told the story of his native island. That story aroused the Christian world. "A little child shall lead them." The Tahitian Islands have felt the same supernal power. They had been in the habit of slaying aged parents, and when there were too many children in a family they were put out of the way. Cannibalism was a part of the diet. There was no law of morality for unmarried women. One of their religious sacrifices was a man and a pig roasted together. In the Fiji Islands parents were buried alive, and wives were captured as buffalo are lassoed. Incantation was common and snake worship prevailed. Among the Marquesans polyandry, or the custom of having many husbands, was considered right. An iron needle was worn in the nostril. The lower lip by force of torture was driven out to utmost distortion. There was a canonization of filth and obscenity and massacre. The Friendly Islands and the Society Islands were at the lowest depths in morals and cruelty. All these islands have been illumined, and the most of the abominations have sped away, not because of the threat of foreign guns or as a result of national or international politics, but by the influ- ence of that which yonder mighty crucifix in the night sky typifies. Let no ship captain ever see it from a deck on the Pacific, or passenger whether for pleasure or profit sailing amid these islands behold it, without remembering what the Southern Cross has done for the besotted savages, bounded on all sides by these vast wildernesses of water. Oh, that Southern Cross ! Were ever four worlds better placed than those which com- pose it ? Though they were uninhabited, and built only for this significance, they were worthily built. Shine on until all the people of this hemisphere who see thee shall bethink themselves of the sacrifice thou dost depict ! A cross not made out of darkness, but out of light. A cross strong enough for all nations who see it to hang their hopes upon. One night while I watched this celestial crucifix, the clouds gathered, and the top of the cross was gone, and the foot of it was gone, and the outspread arms were gone. No more of it to be seen than if it had never been hoisted. Had the clouds conquered the stars ? No. After a while the clouds parted and rolled back and off, and there it stood with the same old emblazonment — the Southern Cross. So the hostilities of earth and hell may roll up and seem to destroy the hope of communities and of nations, but in God's good time the antagonisms will fall back, and all obscurations will be dispelled, and all the earth shall see it, the Southern cross for the South, the Northern cross for the North, the Eastern cross for the East, the Western cross for the West, but all four of the crosses found at last in the new astronomy of the gospel to be one and the same cross, that which was set up 1900 years ago, and of which I have found either a prophecy or a reminiscence in that uplifted splendor, seen night by night while pacing the deck of a steamer on the Pacific. CHAPTER VriT. ANTIPODEAN EXPERIENCES AND BALAKLAVA ON A DINING-TABLE. OHE Angels of Night were descending from the evening skies, and ascending from the waves of the Pacific, and riding down in black chariot of shadow from the mountains of New Zealand as we approached the harbor of Auckland, and the lighthouse on the rocks held up its great torch to keep us off the reefs and to show us the way to safe wharfage, seeming to say, " Yonder is a path of waves ! Ride into peace ! Accept the welcome of this island continent !" It was half-past seven o'clock when the great screw of our steamer ceased to swirl the waters, and the gang-plank was lowered and we descended to the firm land, our name called as we heard it spoken by a multitude who were there to greet us. Strange sensation was it, 10,000 miles from home, to hear our name pronounced by those whose faces we had never seen before, and whose faces could be only dimly seen now by the lanterns on the docks and the lights of our ship, just halted after a long voyage. What made the night to me more memorable, was that I was suddenly informed that at eight o'clock I was to lecture in their hall, and thirty minutes was short time to allow a poor sailor like myself to get physical and mental equipoise, after twenty-one days' pitching. But at eight o'clock I was ready and confronted a throng of people, cordial and genial as any one ever saluted from platform or pulpit. I told how for many days I had been looking off upon a great ocean of ipecac, but that I had not wanted, as many say under such circumstances, to be thrown overboard, and that I did not think any one ever did want to be thrown overboard, and reminded them of the sea-sick voyager, who said he wished to be thrown into the sea, and the captain had a sailor dash on him a pail full of cold ocean water, and when the .soaked and shivering man protested and asked what the captain meant by such an insult, the captain replied, " You wanted to be thrown overboard, and I thought I would let you try how you liked a bucket of the water before j'ou took the whole ocean. " Never so glad were we to stand on firm land as the night of our arrival at .Auckland. Wondrous New Zealand ! Few people realize how it was discovered. They tell us of Captain Cook and of Dutch navigators, but all the i.slands of the South Sea, as well as this immense New Zealand, were discovered as a result of the effort to watch the transit of \'enus over the sun's disk from the South vSeas. The Royal Society of Great Britain scut out ships for this purpose, and Captain Cook, and the astronomers and the botanists wlio accompanied him on his voyage, were only the agents of science. How the interests of this world are linked with the behavior of other worlds, and how tlie fact mentioned suggests that most of the valuable things known in this wf)rld have been found out while looking for something else, and what sublimity all thi= gives to the work of the explorer ; the transit of Venus, an island of light, resulting in the transit of many islands from the unknown into the well known. But the prowess of such men can never be fully a])prcciated. The sea captain who puts out in this day of charts and navigating apparatus with a ship of 10,000 tons for another hemisphere, daring typhoons and cyclones, strange currents and hidden (107) THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 109 rocks, must be a brave man ; but who can measure the courage of Cabot, or Marco Polo, or Captain Cook, sailing out into unknown seas, across wildernesses of water that have never been mapped, in ships of 200 tons, discovering rocks only by running upon them, and met on shore by savages ready to scalp or roast them. These challengers of tempest and cannibalism and oceanic horror must have had nerve and valor beyond that of any other heroes. Such men set New Zealand as a gem into the crown of the world's geography. To me, and to most people who come here. New Zealand is a splendid surprise. We have all read so much about the superstitions and outrageous cruelties of this land in other times that we are startled on arriving here to find more churches in New Zealand than in America in proportion to the number of the population. In one village that I visited since coming here I find eight churches to a population of 3000 people. There are too many churches in many places in New Zealand and they jostle each other, and contend for right of possession, hindering each other and half starving many of their ministers, as is sure to be the case when there are too many churches and consequently not enough support for every one of them. Another surprise to me is that female suffrage is in full blast. I found elegant ladies telling of their experience at the ballot box, and I hereby report to the. .Vmerican ladies now moving for the right of female suffrage that New Zealand is clear ahead of them, and that the experiment has been made here successfull>'. Instead of the ballot box degrading woman, woman is here elevating the ballot box, and why in New Zealand, or America, or anywhere else, should man be so afraid to let women have a vote, as though man himself had made such a grand use of it. Look at the illiterates and the incompetents who have been elected to office, and see how poorly the masculines have exercised the right of suf- frage. Look at the governments of nine-tenths of the American cities and see what work the ballot box has done in the possession of man. Man at the ballot box is a failure; give woman a chance. I am not clear that governmental affairs will be made any better by the change, but they cannot be any worse. New Zealand has tried it, let England and America try it. ■ It is often said in America that if women had the right to vote they would not e-xercise it. For the refutation of that theory I put the fact that in the last election in New Zealand, of 109,000 women who registered 90,000 have voted, while of the 193,000 men who registered only 129,000 have voted. This ratio shows that women are more an.xious to vote than men. Perhaps woman will yet save politics. I know the charge that she is responsible for the ruin of the race, since she first ate the forbidden fruit in Paradise, but I think there is a chapter in that matter of Edenic fruit not written. I think that Adam, when he saw Eve eating that apple, asked for a bite, and, getting it into his pos.ses- sion, ate the most of it, and that he immediately sliook the tree for more apples and has been eating ever since. If woman did first transgress I cannot forget that slie intro- duced into the world the only Being who has ever done much toward .saving it. Woman has started for suffrage and she is a determined and persevering creature, and .she will keep on until she gets it. She may yet decide the elections in England, and elect Presi- dents for the United States, as already she is busy in the political affairs of New Zealand. I was surprised also in these regions to find how warmly loyal they are to old ICnglaud. I had heard that they had become somewhat impatient of their governmental mother. But this is not so. They practically have things their own way, electing their own Parliament, and all governors sent out from the old country arc such men as arc agreeable, and the people are required to pay no tax to the British crown, and they arc in good humor with the Briti.sh flag. THE EARTH GIRDLED. I addressed an audience last night, on my right hand the United States flag, on my left hand the English flag, and you ought to have heard them shout when, at the beginning of my address I said, " When in my church at home I pray for the President of the United States I am very apt to add God save the Queen." Many of the streets of New Zealand cities are called after the generals and the ffir -^ ~ - 1 ,' - r~ ~ ■ fli prime ministers of Great Britain ; Wellington and Palmerston and Gladstone are the names of great thoroughfares. New Zealand feels the finan- cial depression very much, as the whole world at this time seems suffering an epi- demic. Indeed, the world is now a compressed and interlocked affair. Out of the hold of our ship ar- riving in New Zealand were lift- ed rakes, plows, and various agri- cultural imple- ments of Ameri- can manufacture. To-day all New Zealand is rejoic- ing that the American Con- gress has put wool on the free list, and the value of the sheep on all these hillsides is augmented. Among our most interesting hours in New Zealand were those spent at the Bishop's house in Auck- land, lyord Bishop Cowie is a man of marvelous attractiveness, and his home is an enchantment, adorned with many curios which he brought from India when he served as chaplain diiring that war which interests and appalls the world with its tales of mutiny. MAORI WOMliN SALl TI-NG, NEW ZEALAND. THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. While chaplain, he rode with Sir Colin Campbell and his historical host for the capture of L/Ucknow — that city whose name will stand in the literature of all ages as the synonym for Sepoy atrocities, and womanly fortitude and Christian heroics. He told us most graphically how the women waiting for death at Lucknow tore up their underclothes to make bandages for the wounds of the soldiers, and that when at last these women were rescued they appeared in the brilliant dress of the ball-room — these dresses formerly worn by the convivial having been suddenly come upon, and when the wives and daughters of missionaries and Christian merchants had nothing else to wear. Lord Bishop Cowie also had on his walls pictures of some of the most stirring scenes of the Russian war with which the military friends of the Bishop had been cognizant. IN THE SUBURBS OP AUCKLAND. Here is a pictured scene where there was no retreat for the English, and yet their standing firm seemed certain destruction, and their general cried out : " Men ! there is no retreat from this place ; you will die here !" and the men replied : " Aye, aye ; we are ready to do that !" And yonder another pictured scene of Balaklava, after the famous charge of the Six Hundred, and the commander said to the few men who had got back from the awful charge : " Men, it was a mad-brained trick," and they replied, " Never mind, General ; we would do it again." The Bishop's walls in other places were made interesting by swords, belts and torn insignia of battle from the fields of India, all the more interesting because we expect, in our journey around the world, to visit Lucknow, and Cawnpore, and Delhi, and many of the chief places made immortal by the struggle between British valor and 112 THE EARTH GIRDLED. Sepoy infamy. And here, from the Bishop's own words, I got a satisfactory answer to a question that I have asked many times, but for which I never received a satisfactory answer. I said, " Your Lordship knew the chief men of Balaklava, and will you please explain to me what I have never been able to find out, and to which Tennyson makes reference in his * Charge of the Light Brigade,' and in that line where he says, ' Some one had blundered.' Do you know, and will you tell me, exactly what that blunder was ?" He said, " I can, and will." Then the Bishop illustrated with knives and forks and napkin rings on the dining table the position of the English guns, the Russian guns, and the troops. He demonstrated to me plainly what the military blunder was that caused the dash and havoc of that cavalry- regiment whose click of spurs, and clatter of hoofs, and jingle of bits, and spurts of blood you hear in the Poet Laureate's battle hymn. Here was the line of the English guns, not very well defended, and yonder was the line of Russian guns, backed by the whole Russian army. The order was given to the cavalry regiment to take care of those English guns and keep them from being taken by the Russians, and the command was, " Take care of those English guns !" But the words were misunderstood, and it was supposed that the order was to capture the Russian artillery. Instead of the command, " Take care of those English guns !" it was thought the command was, " Take those Russian guns !" For that ghastly and horrible assault of the impossible, the riders plunged their spurs and headed their horses into certain death. At last I had positive information as to what the blunder at Balaklava was. At Edinburgh, Scotland, years ago, I asked one of the soldiers who rode in that charge the same question, but even he, a participant in the scenes of that fiery day, could not tell me just what the blunder was. Now I have it at last not only told in the stirring words of a natural orator and magnetic talker, but on the dining table of the Lord Bishop of Auckland I had it set out before the eye, dramatized and demonstrated by the cutlery on the white tablecloth ; but instead of the steel bayonets, the silver forks of a beautiful repast ; and instead of the sharp swords of death, knives for bread-cutting ; and instead of the belching guns of destruction, the napkin rings of a hospitality the memory of which shall be bright and fresh as long as I remember this visit to New Zealand. CHAPTER IX. LECTURE AT AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND.— "THE BRIGHT SIDE OF THINGS." OHE probable time of our arrival at Auckland, New Zealand, had been heralded before, by letters to friends, as well as by press announcements, but I was surprised upon landing to find the crowd in waiting so large, especially as the ship was nearly twelve hours behind the time of her expected coming, and darkness had begun to settle upon the harbor. A vast sea of faces and a shout of welcome greeted us from the dock, and as quickly as the vessel could be boarded from the wharf I was cordially received by representatives from the Ministers' and the Young Men's Christian Association, and hurried to the Opera House. There was no time allowed for any formal ceremonies, which usually make receptions tedious, for when I left the ship it was half past seven o'clock or within half an hour of the time that the committee had made arrangements for me to lecture to the people. But the crowd had first gathered at the wharf, and promptly repaired to the Opera House which was soon filled to its utmost and though my physical condition was very far from excellent, I had not the heart to disappoint the people, so I lectured to them on " The Bright Side of Things," as follows : IvADiES AND Gentlemen : — It is eight o'clock now, and just a half hour ago I stepped ashore after a voyage of twenty-two days from San Francisco to New Zealand. But I hope to gain equilibrium enough to address you. If we leave to the evolutionists to guess where we came from, and to the theologians to prophesy where we are going to, we still have left for consideration the fact that we are here. And we are here under most interesting circumstances. Of all the centuries this is the best century, and of all the decades of the century this is the best decade, and of all the years of the decade this is the best year, and of all the months of the year this is the best month, and of all the nights of the month this is the best night. We are at the very acme of history. It took all the ages to make this minute possible. I am very thankful for this hearty reception, and the only return I can make for your kindness is to ask you to come and see us. Come to New York, come to Brooklyn, come to my house, but do not all come at once. This is a very pleasant world to live in. If you and I had been consulted as to which of all the stars we would choose to walk upon, we could not have done a wiser thing than to select this. I have always been glad that I got aboard this planet. The best color that I can think of for the sky is blue, for the foliage is green, for the water is crystalline flash. The mountains are just high enough, the flowers sufiiciently aromatic, the earth just right for solidity and curve. The human face is admirably adapted for its work ! Sunshine in its smile : Tempest in its frown. Two eyes, one more than absolutely necessary, so that if one is put out, we still can look iipon the sunrise and the faces of our friends. One nose, which is quite sufiicient for those who walk among so many nuisances, being an organ of two stops and adding dignity to the human face whether it have the graceful arch of the Roman, or turn up toward the heavens with celestial aspirations, or wavering up and down, now as if it would aspire, and now as if it would descend, until suddenly it shies off" into an unexpected direction, illustrating the proverb that " it is a long lane which has no turn." 8 (113) 114 THE EARTH GIRDLED. Standing before any specimen of sculpture or painting or architecture, a dozen different men will have a dozen different sentiments and opinions. That is all right. We cannot all think alike. But where is the blasphemer of his God who would criticise the arch of the sky, or the crest of a wave, or the flock of snow-white fleecy clouds driven by the shepherd of the wind across the hilly pastures of the heavens ; or the curve of a snow bank, or the biirning cities of the sunset, or the fern-leaf pencilings of the frost on a window pane? Where there is one discord there are a thousand harmonies. A sky full of robins to one owl croaking. Whole acres of meadow land to one place cleft of the grave digger's spade. To one mile of rapids where the river writhes among the rocks it has hundreds of miles of gentle flow — water lilies anchored, hills coming down to bathe their feet, stars laying their reflections to sleep in its bosom, boat- man's oar dropping on it necklaces of diamond. How strange that in such a very agreeable world there should be any disagreeable people. I am very certain there are none of that kind here to-night. I can tell by your looks that none of you belong to the class that I shall hold up for ob- servation. These husbands, for instance, are all what they ought to be ; good na- tured, as a May morning, and when the wife asks for a little spending money, the good man of the house says : " All right, my dear, here's my pocketbook, take as much as you want, and come soon again." And these wives always greet their husbands home with a smile, and say : "My dear, your slippers are ready, and the niufflns warm. Put your feet up on this cushion ! bless the dear man ! " These brothers prefer the companionship of their own sisters to that of anybody else's •sisters, and take them out almost every night to lectures and concerts, and I suppose that in no other building to-night in all the world is a more mild, affable or genial collection of people than ourselves. But lest in the attritions of life we should lose our present amiability, I MAORI WIDOWS. THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 115 it may be well for us to walk a little while in the Rogues' Galler}- of disagreeable people, — the people who make themselves disagreeable by always seeing the dark side of things — and then, by reaction of soul we will come to the opposite habit and indulge in the finest of all the fine arts, the art of looking on the bright side of things. Let me say at this point in my lecture that my ideas of a literary lecture are very much changed from what they used to be. I used to. think that a literary lecture ought to be something profound, veiy profound. I had three or four lectures'of that kind. They were awfull}' profound. But I have not delivered them for some time, for there were always two difficulties about those very profound lectures : the one was the audience did not know what I was talking about, and the other was I did not know myself And I made up my mind that a lecture ought to be something genial, something helpful, something full of good cheer, for if you can put your shoulder under my burden, you are my friend, and if I can put my shoulder under your burden I will prove myself your friend. Let me also say that my ideas of religion are a little different from some people's. My religion is sunshine, and the difference between earth and heaven is that the sunshine of earth sometimes gets beclouded, while heaven is everlasting sunshine. Now, in all the album of photographs that I want to put before yon to-night, there is no face more decidedly characteristic than that of the fault-finder. The world has a great many delightful people who are easily pleased. I am every day surprised to find so many real clever people. They have a faculty of finding out that which is most attractive. They never attended a concert, but they heard at least one voice that pleased them and wondered how in one throat God could have put such exhaustless fountains of harmony. They like the spring, for it is so full of bird and bloom, and like a priestess, stands swing- ing her censer of perfume before God's altar ; and the summer is just the thing for them, for they love to hear the sound of mowing machines and whole battalions of thunderbolts grounding arms among the mountains. And autumn is just the thing for them, for the orchards are golden with fruit, and the forests march with banners dipped in sunsets, and blood-red with the conflict of frost and storm. And they like the winter, whose snow showers make Parthenons and St. Mark's Cathedrals out of an old pigeon coop, and turn the wood-shed into a royal tower filled with crown jewels. Thus there are persons pleased with all circumstances. If you are a merchant, they are the people you like to have for customers ; if you are a lawyer, they are the people you like for clients and jurors ; if ^-ou are a physician, they are the people you like for patients ; but j'ou don't often get them, for the)' can generally cure themselves by a bottle of laughter to be taken three or four times a day, and well shaken up. Now, in contrast with such, how repelling is a fault- finder ! Some evening, resolving to be especially gracious, he starts with his family to a place of amusement. He scolds most of the way. He cannot afford the time or the money, and does not believe it will be much, anyhow. The music begins. The audience are thrilled. The orchestra with polished instruments warble, and weep, and thunder, and pray, and all the sweet sounds of the world flowering upon the strings of the bass viol, and wreathing the flageolets, and breathing throiigh the lips of the cornet, and shaking their flower bells upon the tinkling tambourine. He sits emotionless and disgusted. He goes home saying, " Did you see that fat musician that got so red in the face blowing on that French horn ? Did you ever hear such a voice as that lady had ? Why, it was a perfect squawk. The evening was wasted." And his companion said, "Why, my dear, you shouldn't" — "Oh," he says, " you be still. That's the trouble with you. You are always pleased with every- thing." He goes to church. Perhaps the sermon is didactic and argumentative. He ii6 THE EARTH GIRDLED. yawns, he twists 'himself in the pew and pretends he is asleep, and says, " I couldn't keep awake. Did you ever hear anything so dead ? Can these dry bones live ?" The next Sunday he enters a church where the minister is given to illustration. He is still more displeased. He says, ' ' How dare that man bring such everyday things into the pulpit ? lie ought to have brought his illustrations from the cedar of L,ebanon, and the fir tree, instead of the hickory and the sassafras. He ought to have spoken of the Euphrates and the Jordan, and not of the Kenne- bec and the Schuylkill. He ought to have mentioned Mount Gerizim instead of the Catskills. Why, he ought to be disciplined." Perhaps, after a while he joins the church, then the church has its hands full. He growls and groans and whines all the way up toward the gate of heaven. He wishes that the choir would smg differ- ently, that the minister FIJI\N HOUSES woiild preach differently, that the elders would pray differently. They painted the church. He didn't like the color. They carpeted the aisle, he didn't like the figure. They put in a new furnace, he didn't like the patent. He wriggles, and squirms, and frets, and stews and stings himself. He is like a horse that, prancing and uneasy to the bit, worries himself into a lather of foam, while the horse hitched beside him just pulls straight ahead, makes no fuss, and comes to his oats in peace. Like a hedgehog, he is all quills. L,ike a crab that you know always goes the other way, and moves backward THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 117 in order to go forward, and turns in four directions all at once, and the first you know of his whereabouts you have missed him, and when he is completely lost, he has you by the heel, so that the first thing you know, you don't know anything, and while you expected to catch the crab, the crab catches you. So some men are all crabbed, hard-shell obstinacy and opposition. I don't see how such a one is to get into heaven unless he goes in back- ward, and then there will be danger that at the gate he will try to pick a quarrel with St. Peter. Once in, I fear he will not like the music, and the services will be too long, and that he will spend the first two or three years in trying to find out whether the wall of heaven is exactly plumb. Let us stand off from such tendencies. We can take almost anything in life and read it until it is bright, or read it until it is dark. More depends upon ourselves than upon our surroundings. The heart right, all is right. The heart wrong, all is wrong. A blacksmith received a letter from his son at college. He, the father, being unable to read writing, with the wife went down to the butcher to get the letter read. The butcher was a rough man, and he took up this letter written by the son at college to his father, the blacksmith, and read it in hard, rough voice : " Dear Father : I am very sick. Send me some money. " Your son, John." The father said, " If he writes that way to his father he shan't have a cent." The wife said, " Hans, the butcher, is a rough man, and don't know how to read it. Let us go down to the baker and get the letter read. He is a mild man, and he will know how to read it." So they went down to the baker, who was indeed a very mild man, and he took up this letter and read it in soft, smooth, gentle, tender voice : " Dear Father : I am very sick. Send me some money. " Your son, John." The father said, "Ah, if he writes that way to his father, he shall have all he wants." It is the way you read it. You can take almost anything in life and read it until it is bright, or read it until it is dark. Listen for sweet notes rather than for discord, picking up marigolds and harebells in preference to thistles and coloquintida, culturing thyme and anemones rather than nightshade, hanging our window blinds so we can hoist them to let the light in ; and in a world where God hath put exquisite tinge upon the shell washed in the surf, and planted a paradise of bloom in a little child's cheek, and adorned the pillars of the rock by hanging tapestry of morning mist, the lark saying, " I will sing soprano," and the cascade replying, " I will carry the bass," let us leave the owl to hoot, and the frog to croak, and the bear to growl, and the fault-finder to complain. I would rather have a man go to the opposite extreme than to that. Many years ago I had a friend attending a large meeting in New York in honor of a foreign patriot, who had just come to the country. It ■was a noisy meeting and the speakers did not speak very distinctly. My friend sat far back at the door and could not hear a word. A man just in front of him seemed to hear everything, and every few moments would get up with great enthusiasm and wave his hand- kerchief and shout, " Hurrah, hurrah !" . My friend thotight to himself, " That man must have a great deal better hearing than I have, for I can't hear a word." After a while there was something .said on the platform that seemed particularly to please the audience, and the gentleman in front of my friend, with more enthusiasm than ever, got up and waved his handkerchief and shouted, " Hurrah, hurrah !" My friend leaned over to him, and said, " I did not quite catch that last thing that was said ; what was it ?" The gentle- .man looked back, and said, " I don't know what it was, but hurrah." He had come there (iiSj i THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 119 to be pleased anyhow. You tell me that is one extreme. I know it, but I had rather be on that extreme than upon the other and never be pleased with anything. Pass a little further in this portrait gallery, and you come to the man of bad manners, chiefly showing his bad manners in the fact that he finds the deficit in everythiug and the dark side of everything. Now, I have no liking for Beau Brummells or I^ord Chesterfields. I have no retaining fee from any millinery or clothing establishment. Indeed, all the fine clothes that a tailor's goose ever hatched out cannot make a gentleman. One day a company of mechanics met together and resolved that they would manufacture a gentleman. The bootmaker said, " I will make a gentleman's foot," and the hatter said, " I will make a gentleman's head," and the clothier said, " I will make a gentleman's body." The work was done and the man went out, but before night he did something so perfectly contempti- ble that everybody saw that after all he was not a gentleman. The next morning these mechanics were met together, and they were talking over their failure in this matter, and a neighbor came in and said, " Sirs, you cannot make a gentleman. God only can make that large-hearted, magnanimous being which we call a gentleman." A very little thing will show you whether a man is a gentleman or not. You do not have to see him in a variety of experiences before you make up your mind in regard to him, and you make it up right. Just as a little conversation between a man and his wife revealed all their domestic history. They had quarreled a good deal, and the husband had been in the habit of beating his wife a great deal, and he was about to leave the world, and he thought before he left the world he had better say something pleasant to his wife, and he said, " My dear, I am now going to leave the world, and I am going to heaven." " Pshaw !" she said. " You go to heaven ! You would look pretty stuck up in heaven !" " Well," he responded, " Bridget, bring me the broom, and I'll give her another walloping before I go." And you have in that little colloquy all their domestic history as well as if you had it in a half a dozen volumes. And so I have sometimes seen a man in one flash of conversation or behavior reveal all his history. You know him in five minutes as well as if you knew him fifty years. You say he is a gentleman, and he is ; or he is not, and he is not. Neither can all the arts of a dressmaker and perfumer make a lady, while without any embellishment you sometimes find her. I saw her bend over the dying soldier. Her dress was very much faded, and she came out from an humble home with a little basket full of delicacies on her arm. She had a boy in the army who, after the battle of Gettysburg, was missing. She wanted to do something for others. She could do nothing for him. As she walked through the wards of the hospital with a cheerful smile, the sick straightened the bed covers to look as well as possible as she passed, and coughed just to make her look that way. She cheered up a fevered young man 'who was homesick, and feared that he would never again see familiar faces. She wrote letters for him, put ice on his shattered arm, turned his hot pillow, offered a silent prayer, and said, " God do so to me and my soldier boy that is missing if I neglect to care for these poor wounded fellows," and as she passed down the ward, a man, hearing the whisper of others, shoves up the bandage that covers his eyes which had been powder-blasted, and said, " God bless her! May she get back the soldier boy that is missing." And a great tall captain, wounded in the foot, whispered over to a lieu- tenant, wounded in the head, and said, " No sham about that ; she's a lady." That vision of kindness lingers in this soldier's dream, and that night he thinks he is home again beyond the prairies. Cattle coming down the lane. The cherry trees in front of the house in all their shaking leaves bidding him a welcome. Arms of affection about his neck. Children bringing out the toys for him to look at. His little boy strutting the floor with THE EARTH GIRDLED. his father's knapsack on. All the household work stopped to hear of his adventures. And they shall meet ag^ain in heaven. Compare such a lady with a woman I saw on a street car in Philadelphia. A soldier came in and sat near where she was. With great indignation she got up and went to the opposite side of the car, and said, " Oh, the dirty fellow ! " I thought to myself, "There is probably more patriotism in the poorest patch on that soldier's back than in all the elegant regalia of that woman from the top rose in her hat to the toe of her shoe." She was not a lady — never will be. Aye, when in the street, or hospital , or church, or lecture hall, wherever you are, you can tell the lady. Two rough boys were riding down hill on a sled on a cold day. They could not guide the sled just as they wanted to. A lady was passing by. The sled ran against her and tore her dress very much. The boys were rough fellows, and stood back expecting a volley of scolding, but the lady looked at her dress and then she looked at the boys, and said, "Ah, boys, you have torn my dress very much." Then she said, " Never mind ; I see }'ou did not mean to do it. Go on with your fun." The bo5's being rough fellows, one of them said to the other, "Jim, my eyes! Ain't she a beauty ? " So you instantly detect the gen- tleman from one who is not. I sat in a car on a cold day coming from Philadelphia to New York. A man had a window up. By putting an extra shawl around me I kept quite com- fortable, but there was a sick lady in the back part of the car who seemed very much disturbed by the open window. I thought I would go over and ask the man to put it down. I took on all possible suavity. My best friends would not have known me. I said, "My dear sir, will A I,ADY OF THE ARCHIPELAGO. THB WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. i2r you please to lower that window? It is disquieting a sick lady back here very much." He turned around and said, " No." I do not know who the man was, or who imported his patent leathers, or how bright the diamonds may have flashed in his cravat ; he was not a gentleman — never will be. You cannot make them out of such stuff. So I was in a boat going from Brooklyn to New York. A boy came in with almanacs for sale. With one hand he offered the almanacs. His other hand was all bound up and bandaged. It looked as if a surgeon had bound it up. A man seated next to me said, " Boy, what is the matter with your hand?" The boy said, "I got it crushed, and the doctor bound it ufj." The " man said, " Let me see it." The boy went to work and unwound it. It was an awful looking hand. Nobody would want to see it unless he could do it some good. After he got it all unwound, the man seated next to me said, " Now wind it up, wind it up ; I have nothing for such fellows as you." I could not restrain my indignation. I said to him, " Sir, that boy is engaged in a legitimate business. He is selling almanacs for a living, and you have no right to accost him in that way." I felt in my pockets for the loose change, and all the people in the boat seemed to hear the conversation, and they felt in their pockets for the loose change, and I think from the looks the boy carried off two or three dollars. I do not know who that man was ; he was far better dressed than I ; but this I do know in regard to him, he was not a gentleman — never will be. He was one of those mean kind of men you sometimes find — mean all the way down, and all the way up, and all the way through, forward and backward, backward and forward. Mean as the man who was asked by his friend if he would not take a drink. He said, " No, I never drink ; but I'll take a cigar and three cents." A man of good manners has a faculty of always making you feel good. Some day you have been soured by meanness on the part of a customer, or you have met with a business loss, or 5'ou have heard that hard things have been said about you. You feel irritated. You feel as if you could snap at the first man that speaks to you. In a word, you are unhappy. One. of your bright-faced, generous friends comes in, and says, "Good morning," in a pleasant tone. You respond in gruffest, "Good morning." He says, " I hear good news about you. I hear you are prospering in business. I came in more to congratulate you than anything else. I haven't any especial business, but must be going. Give ray regards to your wife. Good morning." You respond in blandest tones, " Good morning." He was there only half a minute, but he has left you saturated with good humor. In other words, you have felt the generous touch of a generous nature: In other words, he is a gentleman. Again you felt just the opposite. You got up with the sun, sang at the breakfast table, whistled all the way to business, when an ill-mannered acquaintance conies in. He says, "Are you at all embarrassed in business?" You say, "No, why do you ask that?" " Oh," he says, " nothing, nothing." " But," you say, " there must have been some reason for asking that, or you wouldn't have asked it." " Well," he says, " if you will have it, I heard on the street that you are going to burst up. How is that ? " You go down the street vexed and enraged, to lash this man with your tongue, and question that, imtil you are worked up into a fury, and the pickpocket who stole your purse was more of a gentleman than this man who stole your good humor. You sometimes find a person in a community without any particular attribute of wit or humor, yet by kindliness of spirit, genial behavior, looking on the bright side of things, trying to get others to look on the bright side of things, keeping a whole drawing-room, aye, a whole neighborhood in good cheer. Just as in early spring you go into the garden and you say, " Where is that flower? " " Oh, here it is, a violet ! " considering itself no doubt a very insignificant flower, yet filling the whole yard 123 THE EARTH GIRDLED. "with fragrance ; so there are persons who consider themselves perfectly insignificant, yet by the aroma of a Christian character and genialty of behavior keep all their surroundings happy. There is no more winsome art than that of saying pleasant things in a pleasant way, and no more distasteful and offensive character than that which always has something nettlesome to mention. One spring morning I was on my way to the cars, going through the New York market, and was in a good deal of a hurry, but I heard one boy say to another, "Joe, you will lose on them green peas." Although I was in a hurry I had to stop. I said to him, " How do you know he will lose on them green peas ? From the looks of I the boy and the looks of the peas I don't think he is going to lose on them." Now, my J B-^NANA 1 \ll IN IIJI IbLAND friends, if that boy was going to lose on " them green peas," would he not find it out soon enough? I never would take the responsibility of telling any man or any boy that he was going to lose "on them green peas." The fact is, some people are miserable themselves, and they want to make everybody else miserable. Indeed, there are some people who are not happy unless they are miserable ! They have a kind of miserable happiness, or a happy miserableness. I do not exactly know what it is. If there is one lank sheep in the pasture field all the crows within ten miles know it, and are ready to sit in post-mortem examination when the carcase drops. And there are some men who have a faculty for finding out everything that is weak in character, and are watching to see if it will not become carrion* THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 123 They say unpleasant things about your walk, about your clothes, about }our friends, about your church, about your club-room. If they find a half dozen people engaged in pleasant chat they are sure to break in upon them with some disagreeable subject. If your father was so unfortunate as to have been hung, they will persist in discussing with you capital punishment, or go dragging a long rope through the room. If you failed in business, they will make cutting remarks about bankruptcy laws and two-thirds enactments. They have always heard something unpleasant about you, and feel it their duty just to let you know all about it. They go through the world fulfilling what the Good Book says when it calls them *' whisperers." They go all through community whispering and whispering, and that is all they are good for. They always have suspicions about your health, and sometimes when you feel a little weary, they accost you with, " Why, how bad you do look ! " I had a brother who was going through one of the back streets of Brooklyn one day, when a man came up to him and said, " Are you the man on this street that is dying with consumption ? " My brother said, " No, I guess there is nothing the matter with me." "Well," said the man, *' I was looking for a man on this street who is dying with consumption, and I thought from your looks that you must be the man." " No," said my brother, " I am a minister and I stay in the house a good deal, and I suppose it makes me look a little pale, and I have been a minister for about fifteen years, and I suppose that during that time I have buried about fifty fat-looking fellows just like you." Sometimes it is not so much in words that they offend as in their way of doing things. For a good, hearty, natural eccentricity we have no dislike. What a stupid world this would be if all the people were alike. God never repeats Himself, and He never intended two men to be alike, or two women to be alike, or two children to be alike. Our peculiarities are the cogs of the wheel showing where we are to play in the great divine mechanism. God makes us all differently, but societ}' comes along with its conventionalities and tries to make us all alike, and in proportion as it makes us all alike, makes us useless. Everybody excused Horace Greeley's peculiar garb, and Rev. Dr. McClellan, of the Reformed Church, one of the mightiest men of this century, who used to put his shoes under the pulpit sofa, and then preach in his stocking feet. Once while I was riding with him, my father having sent me down to bring the doctor to the village to preach, and I was the boy driving, and we had a very lazy horse, and I was losing all my patience on the lazy horse, instead of sympathizing with me, the doctor would get up in the back part of the wagon and quote Greek epigrams, and then cry out at the top of his voice, " A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse ! " Now, I like to hear Shakespeare quoted as well as anybody, but not under such embarrassing circumstances. Still I excused him. I said, that is a little peculiar, that is all. Men often have harmless eccentricities, but there are oddities that are criminal, for the reason that they make inroads upon the happiness of others. If duty demand that we go straight across the wishes of others, then we must go straight across them. We despise a man who always waits to hear what other people say before he says anything. But the most vigorous and energetic means may often be conducted with gentleness. Luther's energy would have been mightily helped by Melanchthon's suavity. A June morning will bring out more flowers than all the blustering Januarys ever created. Society will bear anything sooner than a bear. In a former pastoral charge there was in attendance upon my ministry a very good man who had one or two offensive peculiarities. When the church was particularly silent and solemn, he would give one of those awful sneezes that you sometimes may have heard that seem as if the very foundations of the earth were being ripped out. Now, man has certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and the privilege of sneezing when he feels like it. Indeed, when 124 THE EARTH GIRDLED. one feels a peculiar irritation in the inner membrane of the nose that disposes him to a convulsive ejection of air through the nose, I consider it his positive and bounden duty to sneeze ; but I set it down to the score of bad manners that the man of whom I speak would so often in the most solemn parts of the discourse take out his handkerchief, make up a peculiar face and sneeze. Oh, how important it is that parents should educate their children in good manners. How much chagrin the)' would save themselves and their children. General Scott was visiting at a friend's house in New York. The gentleman of the house wanted his son to be acquainted with General Scott. He said, " Here, George, this is General Scott." George was one of those saucy, uncontrollable sort of boys you sometimes find, and he came up and said, " Are you General Scott ? " " Yes, I am General NEW ZEALAND SCENERY. Scott." " Are you the General Scott that was at Ivundy's L,ane ? " " Yes, I was at Lundy's Lane." "Are \'ou the General Scott that was in Mexico?" " Yes, I was in Mexico." " Are you the General Scott that ran for the Presidency, and got licked ? " " Yes," said he, " I ran for the Presidency, but did not get in." " Are you the General Scott that they call 'Old Fuss and Feathers?' " Then the father said, "Get out of the room, George, I will not have General Scott insulted in that way." You and I have seen the same thing on a smaller scale many and many a time. No one is well behaved who has no regard for times and circumstances. While we have no respect for one of those obsequious mortals whom we call the fop or the dandy — all curls and watch-chain jingle and squirm and strut and pocket handkerchief and ah's and oh's and he-he-he's, and wriggle and namby-pambyism THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 125 — we have just as little regard for him who through recklessness of demeanor breaks through all the proprieties of life as a drove of swine break through a blossoming hedge that surrounds a flower garden. L,et two young men go out into the world, one with ^20,000 of capital to start with, but bad manners, and the other with no capital at all but good tnanners, and the latter will surpass the former in all the great struggles of life. Every man that has come to any years knows that is so, yet the general impression is, if a man be urbane and courteous he is weak. They say he is very polite, but he is soft. I had a friend -who many years ago was visiting in the city of Washington. He was in the office of a Senator distinguished for great statesmanship, but for no politeness. The young man who had come to Washington and wanted to see the distinguished men of the day, knocked at the Senator's door. The Senator in a gruff voice shouted, " Come in." The young man entered, and as he had not any especial errand, but only wished to see the distinguished gentleman, he felt a little awkward and did not know what to do with his hands. The Senator said to him, " What do you want, sir ? " He said, " Well, — I — well, — I don't know — nothing." The Senator then said, " Then get out of the room. Why do you come here to bother me, if you don't want anything ? " My friend was afterward in the room of Henry Clay, and a young man, who had come to Washington and wanted to see the distinguished men of the day, knocked at Mr. Clay's door. Mr. Clay said, " Come in." The young man entered. Mr. Clay by one flash of gentlemanly instinct, knew what the young man wanted, advanced and gave him his hand and said, " Good morning, sir. I am very glad to see you. Walk in. I am very busy now with these papers, but here are some books and pictures and curiosities, and I hope you will make 3^ourself very much at home." My friend said the young man seemed as much at home as though he were in his father's house. And yet it was no evidence of weakness or effeminacy on the part of that man, for when a Speaker of the House of Representatives — that difficult position, held successfully only by three or four men since the foundation of the American government, and where the most vigorous pounding of the gavel on the desk could not keep order — it was said that when Mr. Clay was presiding and there was any uproar in the House, he never pounded with the gavel at all, but would take a penknife from his pocket and tap upon the desk. Those who were talking hushed up. Those who were standing sat down. Only a penknife, but it sounded like a thunderbolt. So you see that politeness and suavity are no indication of "weakness or effeminacy on the part of a man. A man may be courteous and urbane and yet strong for the great battle of life. Hear it, young man, hear it. We pass on in this gallery of disagreeable people to see the lounger — the man who always comes at the wrong time, and stays until you are exhausted. We say of such a one, " He is a perfect bore." You have all, in your different occupations and professions, been disturbed by this class of persons. I know of no greater joy in life than that of entertaining our friends when they come to see us. We rush out into the hall to meet them. A pain strikes us to the heart when they leave us. We give them the best ann- chair in our parlor. We give them the softest bed in our house. We deny ourselves many luxuries when we are alone that when they come we may have more wherewith to make them comfortable and happy. We always live better when we have company. Yet there are persons who are always apologizing when you are at their table — apologizing for the bread and the butter and the tea, and trying to give you the idea that they always have it better than just at that time when you happen to be there. Now, what is the use of lying? Perhaps it is winter, and one of our old school-mates or college-mates has come. We pull aip our chairs around the stove or register, and in true American style put our feet up higher THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 127 than our heads so that all the sensibilities and excellencies of our entire physical nature seem, by the greater elevation of our feet, to flow back into the heart and the brain. We talk over old times, sleigh rides, skatings under moonlight, romantic rambles through the woods on a summer day with some fair, rosy-cheeked, laughing-eyed — second cousin. We talk it all over. The fire burns and the midnight hovers. You talk over the past, and laugh and cry until you are startled as the clock strikes, " One — two," and you go to bed humming to yourself, " Should auld acquaintance be forgot And nevei- brought to min' ? Should auld acquaintance be forgot, And days of auld lang syne ?" But are there no persons in this community who have pestered you, as follows ? They have nothing to do, and suppose that you have not. They come and sit all around the room. They have nothing to say, but expect you to entertain them. They take out their watch and say, "Well, I guess I must go." You, out of politeness, say, "You need not be in a hurry," when, to your horror, they sag back for another two hours' heat. They discuss the weather. They tell you some old story in a very feeble way and expect you to laugh. They sit, and you look at your watch hoping they will take the hint ; but they sit. You go and take another chair, hoping to break up the monotony ; but they sit. You keep drumming your fingers nervously on the table, or tapping your foot on the floor, trying to fill up the time ; but they sit. You get desperate, and feel as if you could fly. They do not observe it. When your time is utterly exhausted, and the idea you wanted to put upon paper has flown, and it is too late to do the work you proposed, he gets up slowly, takes a great while to button his coat, moves out of the room at a snail's pace, keeps you standing at the front door long enough to take a bad cold, and then goes down the road to practice his outrages upon somebody else. Compared with such annoyance, blessed is seasickness, blessed is gout, blessed is the influenza, blessed are mosquitoes and fleas and bumblebees and grandfather-long-legs, blessed all cutaneous irritations, blessed the hot nights when you cannot sleep — blessed everything. When I see one of those bores coming down the street, I cross over or go clear around the block. I think one of the greatest bores in all the world is the speaking bore — the man who, at the Sunday-school meeting, or the church meeting, or the educational meeting, or the political meeting, always has the floor. He must speak or burst. He has an example ; he has a precedent for speaking. Balaam's traveling companion spoke, so he must speak. One of this sort arose in a legislature where some educational question was before the House, and said, " Mr. Chairman, I go in for eddication. In the words of the eminent Shakespeare, as he fell mortally wounded at the battle of Waterloo, ' Ignorance is played out. E pluribus unum ! Hie, haec, hoc f Suairter in mode' Mr. Chairman, I am sorry to see you smile at that word ' E pluribus unum,' for that was the sacred name of George Washington's mother. If it hadn't been for Providence, eddication and two or three other gentlemen, I should have been as ignorant as you are !" How many meetings have been talked to death by the speaking bore. I have seen Sunday Schools go right down under the process. They hardly ever breathed again. We pass on in this portrait gallery and stand before the man perpetually despondent and lachrymose, or, to use the common phrase, the man who always has the blues, always sees the dark side of things. There is no exemption from misfortune. The great and wise all had their share. Samuel Boyse, the accomplished author, was found famished with a pen in his hand. Richard Savage died in a prison for a debt of eight pounds. The poet 128 THE EARTH GIRDLED. Crabbe walked all night on Westminster Bridge, because too poor to pay for a lodging. Homer, it is said, had his mouth oftener filled with verses than with bread. Fielding, who tickled the world's fancy with the story of Tom Jones, was buried among paupers at Lisbon without a stone to mark his grave. Butler, after throwing the world into fits of laughter with Hndibras, starved to death for lack of a crust. Tasso, in a sonnet, begs the light of a cat's eye that he may see to write, because he cannot afford a candle. The greatest of Italian comedians is refused admittance into the hospital, that in better days he had built with money from his own pocket. John Wesley got pelted with stones. Milton was blind. Young's " Night Thoughts " were the cypress that grew on the grave of his darling child. And there is not in all this house an eye that has never wept, or a heart that has never been broken. But there are alleviations in every trouble, and paradoxical as it may seem, I think that the people who have had the most trouble are the happiest. The vast majority of those who go howling on their way, have comparatively little to vex them. We excuse a man for occasional depression just as we endure a rainy day. With overshoes and umbrella we go cheerfully through the storm, because we know that soon the heavens will shatter into sunshine. But who could endure three hundred and sixty-five days of cold drizzle ? Yet there are men who are without cessation, sombre and charged with evil prognostications. They do not realize their position. They are like the snake that the Irishman killed. He killed the snake, but it would keep on wagging its tail until the sun went down. So he kept on killing it, and a neighbor came up and said, " Patrick, what do you keep killing that snake for? It has been dead ever so long." Patrick answered, " Yes, I know it is dead, but the crayther isn't sinsible of it." We may be born with a foreboding and melancholy temperament, but that is no excuse why we should yield to it any more than a man born with a revengeful spirit should yield to that. We often hear people say, " Oh, I have a bad temper naturally, and I am not responsible." You are responsible. By the grace of God, you can have your temper changed. There is a way of shuffling the burden from shoulder to shoulder. In the lottery of life there are more prizes drawn than blanks. Whole orchards of " fall pippins" to one tree of crab apples. But one unfortunate pair of Siamese twins to millions of people happily born. To one misfor- tune fifty advantages. How important it is that parents who woiild have their children come up good and Christian, should teach them that religion itself instead of being a gloomy, doleful thing, is really the brightest, the most radiant, the most jubilant, the most triumphant thing that ever came down from heaven. Sunday morning comes in a house- hold. The father comes from his room to the room in which the children are, and he says, " Hush ! Throw out those flowers. Close that melodeon. The children will get down * Owen on Spiritual Mindedness,' and ' Edwards' on the Affections,' and ' Boston's Four- fold State,' and we will have an awful time. It is Sunday !" Sunday comes in another household, and the father comes from his room to the room where his children are, and he says, " Come, children, this is the best day and the happiest day of all the week. Throw back the shutters and let the sun in. Jennie will sit down at the melodeon or the piano, and get ready to play, while the other children get down the hymn-books, and prepare to sing ' Shining Shore,' and ' Rest for the Weary,' and ' Hallelujah, 'tis done,' as soon as I have read this Psalm of David, ' Praise the L,ord, mountains and all hills, fruitful trees and all cedars, beasts and all cattle, creeping things and flying fowl, let everything that hath breath praise the Lord.' " "The Hill of Zion yields, A thousand sacred sweets, Before we reach the heavenly fields Or walk the golden streets. ' ' THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 129 " Sing ! while I beat time for you." And let me say that a man who can sing and won't sing deserves to be sent to Sing-sing. Despondency is the most unprofitable feeling a man can have. Hyacinth is the only flower that I know of that will start best in a dark cellar. Ten raw cloudy days may pass along a garden without winning a smile from a single flower ; but no sooner does the sun look out than hundreds of carnation roses put up their lips to be kissed, and blush clear down to their shoulders. Good cheer divides our burdens and carries three-fourths of them. We all cry enough, God knows. We all cry enough and have enough to cry about, and if we could not sometimes be let up from the struggle of life, I do not know what would become of us. One good hearty laugh is a bombshell exploding in the right place, while spleen and discontent are a gun that kicks over the man that shoots it off. There is hardly anything impossible to the man who expects to succeed. Lack of acquaintance with the laws of health often results in depression of spirits. I have known people who for years have not experienced buoyancy of feeling, simply because they always take a late supper. Tell me what a man eats, when he eats, and how long it takes him to eat, and I will tell you his disposition, and out of a thousand cases I will not make one mistake. A man will go to the store in the morning and find business matters all complicated. He cannot see how he is going to raise the money to meet those notes, and fears that everything is going to ruin. He feels like the man who was going up Broadway, New York, in the midst of the financial panic of 1857. He had a note in the bank, and no money to meet the note. It was five minutes of three o'clock, and the bank to close at three. All absorbed about that note in the bank and no money to pay it, in his haste he ran against a man, and the man cried out, " Who are j'ou running against ? Do that again, and I will knock you into the middle of next week." He replied, *' I wish you would. That's just where I want to be with my note." So everything in the case I am speaking of may seem to be foreboding, when the fact is that business matters are not at all desperate. What is the matter? Has some evil spirit during the night ■entered the store and robbed the safe, and changed the figures in the account book, and stirred everything into disorder ? No. This is the secret. Last night at eleven o'clock, at a friend's house, he took lobsters. He didn't get his usual refreshment in sleep. In his dream he saw his grandmother and two or three great-aunts in coal-scuttle bonnets. The nightmare first balked and then ran away with him. Lack of exercise is a source of ■depression. Without exercise, the fluids of the body cannot be rightly prepared nor the solids become strong and firm. There is an idea abroad that exercise is important only for the student. That is a mistake. The merchant needs it ; the mechanic needs it ; the housewife needs it. You may work day after day to perfect fatigue, but that is not exercise. You need' a change from the routine of life. The amount of money and time expended in reasonable recreation would be a profitable investment. You would add ten years to your life, and in business you would in the course of the year sell more goods, make more garments, fashion more chairs, build more houses, make more boots, roof more buildings, shoe more horses, grind more corn. The attention of the world is being drawn to this subject. Gymnasiums have been established in all our towns and cities. I am glad to know that this institution is becoming better understood. The gymnasium was formerly looked upon as a place where pugilists went to get muscle — a college to graduate Heenans. Now, in all our gymnasiums you find the first merchants, physicians, mechanics, clergymen. ]\Ien of science swinging dumb-bells. Millionaires turning somersaults. Lawyers upside down ianging by one foot from the rung of a ladder. The doctor of divinity with coat off striking 9 (13°) PUBLIC BUILDINGS IN SYDNEY WHICH SURPRISED US WITH THEIR ATTRACTIONS • THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 131 out from the shoulder against a " punching bag," imagining how it would be if it were a controversial fight, and the bag getting punched were an opposing bishop. Rheumatics and neuralgias and kindred diseases hung up until dead on " parallel bars " like two rows of army deserters. Dyspepsia climbing out of sight on a rope ladder. Old age dancing itself young again on a "spi-ing-board." Gout, erysipelas, dropsies and consumptions on a " wooden horse," riding out of remembrance. As a preventive and corrective of disease and the consequent mental depression, I recommend the gymnasium in many cases as better than all " Plantation Bitters," and pain-killers, and elixirs, and panaceas, and cataplasms, and S. T. X.'s, and U. Y. G.'s and all the other board fence literature of the country. But those who can get into the country and have the time and the means, will find the open air the best of all gymnasiums. God built it and hoisted into its dome more glory than can be crowded into a thousand St. Peters. The steep hillside is the best ladder to run up. Forests tossing in the wind are the best boxing school. Do you own a horse ? Have him well groomed until every hair glistens and the long mane ripples over his neck, and from nostrils down over the haunches unto the fetlock ; be he bay, black, dun, chestnut or sorrel, there is nothing wanting. Have him brought out. Put the bucket to his mouth and hear the water rattle down his throat in great swallows. Give him a gentle patting on the shoulder, call him by a pet name, and then putting your left foot into the stirrup, vault into the saddle. Now, sail ahead. Let him leap, and prance, and champ his bit, and snort with pride as he careers along the highway. Your blood will tingle. You will feel as if you were flying. Health will come with every bounce. Let him trot, amble, gallop and his hoofs strike fire. Keep a stiff rein, pass everything on the turnpike, and with the keenest appetite you ever had come to supper. There is something wrong in that man's heart who does not admire a horse. William HI., Charles II., George I. found their chief amusement in his companionship, and the man who will abuse a horse — I say it deliber- ately — a man who will abuse a horse deserves to be kicked by a mule. Do you own a pair of skates ? Wrap yourself warm, start for the pond, sit down on the bank, strap on the skates- so that they can't turn, and then strike otit. Carve all the hieroglyphics of sport with your heel on the ice. Wheel round and round, now on one foot, now on the other, backward, forward, like a swallow skimming a brook, like a deer chased across the snow by the Laplander, swift as the hare with lugs flat back on Marlborough Downs, as an antelope over the plain, voices calling, pond resounding, steel skates ringing, hands clapping, hills echoing. Sportfulness is a queen, who often sits in a palace of ice, with sceptre of icicle and orchestra in which northern blasts sound their horn, and such come nearest her throne who approach with skater's tippet and sandals of clattering steel. But I do not know any army of horrors that can withstand an attack from a regiment with balls and bats. From the ball that the boy of four years rolls across the carpet until his mother catches it, to that which is flung up by the muscular arm of the sportsman in the sight of five thousand people come out in the suburbs to see the carnival, there is something bewitching about its bounce and flight. Every Roman villa had its place for this exercise. France had houses built especially for ball playing. Henry VII. and Maximilian engaged in this sport. German professors, weary of making dictionaries, come out to join in it, and we all at school used to take the bat, put spittle on one side of it, and then throw it up to see who should have the first stroke, and we had many a sharp sting from the ball that struck us before we got to the hunk. People who have spent fortunes at Saratoga and Sulphur Springs and Baden-Baden to o-et away from bodily disease, and came liome unbcnefited, have found out afterward 132 THE EARTH GIRDLED. that their ailments were unable to keep up with tliem in their swift turns at cricket, and the invalids in attempting to catch the ball have actually taken their lost health " on the fly." About the amusement of hunting and fishing, let me say that you have no right] to kill any game that you do not expect to make practical use of, and he who shoots a flock of singing birds just to see them fall, or hooks up from the stream a fish just for the pleasure of seeing it flop on the grass, is a barbarian. But rightly carried on it is a just and invigorating recreation. The best men have found health and exuberance in it. Isaac Walton reveled in the sport. And I suppose that some of you have started off with pockets full of flies, worms and grasshoppers to the river, flung out the line, sat down on a bridge with your feet hanging over, and for whole hours earnestly and patiently waited and watched, motionless and with your whole soul in* your face for some shy, obstinate and pro- voking fish to bite, and then as the cork began to wriggle, you got up, took firm hold of the tackle, and jerked it out, to find that you had caught a laniper eel or snapping turtle. One of the excellencies of this sport is that for the time it takes your attention away from the cares of life. Once I went out with some gentlemen to encamp for summer recreation among the Alleghany mountains. While we were there encamped on Saturday morning the clergyman from the village at the foot of the mountain came up and said I should have to preach for him the next day. So Saturday afternoon I went out to catch trout and to catch a sermon at the same time. Well, I succeeded. That is, I caught the sermon, but I did not catch the trout, although I came four or five times very near it. In other words, you cannot catch trout and do anything else at the same time, and in that very thing consists the excellency of the recreation. So of hunting. I have seen men who went out with colorless cheek and heavy heart, come home in a perfect glow, bringing a brood of grouse, or a wisp of snipe, or a covey of partridges, Dash and Towser, wet and panting with tongue out from answering of hunter's halloo, now sprawling themselves on the doorstep. But I have no time to particularize. For mental depression I commend exercise out of doors, if possible, if not, then in doors. Whether boat or skate or vehicle or saddle or hook or gun or gymnasium, let your sports be hearty, free from dissipation, conscientious and Christian, for this is a subject we will have to meet in all our churches yet. We keep telling our young folks, " You must not do this, and you must not do that, and you must not do the other thing." We shall after a while have to tell them something they may do. A religion of " Don't " is a very poor religion. The only way we will ever drive bad amusements out of this world is by introducing good ones. And you will come back to shop and counting room and studio and pulpit better prepared to bargain, to construct, to pray, to sing, to preach. Remember that there is no stock that pays larger dividend than a cheerful spirit, and that in all the gallery of disagreeable people there is no face more repulsive than that of him who always has the blues. Remember that despondency very often degenerates into peevishness, and people become waspish, or to use the more familiar word, " touchy." My father once got cheated in a bargain, and had thrown on his hands one of the most outrageous horses that I ever saw. We called her " Killposy." She was perfectly gentle with the exception that she would balk and bite and kick and run away. If her hair had not all stood straight up, and her hip bones could have been sunk about half a foot, she would have been handsome. Now that horse never appreciated the kind offices of a groom. We, the boys in the country, would take a long stick and fasten it to the end of a curry comb and then go to work upon her obstinate hide. She never appreciated it. All you had to do was just .to open the door and make a motion at her and she would kick. My father after a while gave her away. It was the only time he ever cheated anybody. In THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 133 other words, slie was " touchy," and a symbol of that class of persons, who, having sunk down from despondency into peevishness, cannot be approached without calling forth demonstrations of irritability and displeasure. Every little while I see some one in the community about whom I say, " There goes a ' Killposy.' ' ' In this large class of despondent persons I must place all political hypochondriacs whether in my country or in yours. They are not peculiar to any party, but are to be found in all parties. 1 mean the men who think everything is going to ruin. They always have thought so, think so now, always will think so. If my country is going to ruin it goes very slowly. Without treading on any man's political affinities I could in a few minutes show the folly of ever having the blues about your country or mine. Our future is not dependent upon the success of this or that partisan organization, but upon the Almighty Arm of God that will clear the way before us. We want no bigotry in Church or State. When the time comes in my country that free discussion is prohibited I want to move to Kamtschatka or the Kingdom of Dahomey. I am willing to acknowledge a man of any party a patriot provided he loves his country and strives for its welfare, be he Republican, Democrat, Freemason, Native American, Fenian, or Brooklyn lecturer. We should have a little more suavity and politeness in political discussion. How seldom it is you find two people talking politics, but they get mad. I do not know why a man cannot be as polite on the subject of politics as any other subject. A man was driving a cow along the road and the cow turned up the wrong lane, and he saw a man coming_down the lane and he thought he would just have him stop the cow. So he shouted, " Head that cow." The man answered, " She's got a head." " Well," said the other, "turn her." The man replied, "She's right side out now." "Well, speak to her." The man answered, " Good-morning, ma' m." Polite, even to a cow. So I like to see a man always polite to his cow, to his horse, to his dog, and especially to his fellow- man, and more especially if that man happens to know as much as you do. There never has been any reason why you or I should have the blues about our beloved lands, and there are no reasons now. By the throne of the eternal God I assert it that truth and liberty and justice shall yet be triumphant over all their foes. Many years ago I gazed upon a scene, which for calamity and grandeur, one seldom sees equaled. I mean the burning of the Smith- sonian Institute of the United States at Washington. You have all heard of the architectural grandeur of that structure. It was the pride of my country. In it art had gathered rarest specimens from all lands and countries. It was one of those buildings which seize you with enchantment as you enter and all the rest of your life holds you with the charm. I happened to see the first glow of the fires which on that cold day looked out from the costly pile. I saw the angry elements rear and rave. The shoxit of affrighted workmen, and the assault of fire engines only seemed to madden the red monsters that rose up to devour all that came within reach of their chain. Up along the walls and through the towers were stretched fiery hands, that snatched down all they could reach and hurled them into the abyss of flame beneath. The windows of the tower would light up for a minute with a wild glare, and then darken, as though fiends with streaming locks of fire had come to gaze out in laughing mockery at all human attempts, and then sank again into their native darkness. With crackle and roar and crash the floors tumbled. The roof began here and there to blossom in wreaths and vines of flame. Up and down the pillars ran serpents of fire. Out from the windows great arms and fingers of flame were extended, as though destroyed spirits were begging for deliverance. The tower put on a coronet of flame and staggered and fell, the sparks flying, the firemen escaping, the terror accumulating. Books, 134 THE EARTH GIRDEED. maps, rare correspondence, autographs of kings, costly diagrams burned to cinder, or scattered for many a rood upon the wild wind, to be picked up by the excited multitude. Oh ! it seemed like some great funeral pile, in which the wealth and glory of the land had leaped to burn with its consuming treasures. The heavens were blackened with ■ whirl- winds of smoke through which shot the long red shafts of calamity. Destruction waved its fiery banner from the remaining towers, and in the thunder of falling beams and in the roaring surge of billowing fire, I heard the spirits of ruin and desolation and woe clapping their hands and shouting, "Aha, aha !" I turned and looked upon the white dome of the Capitol, which rose through the frosty air, as imposing as though all the white marble of the earth had come to resurrection, and stood before us, and reminding one of the great White Throne of heaven. There it stood unmoved by the terrors which that day had been kindled before it. No tremor in its majestic columns. No frown on its magnificent sculp- ture. No flush of excitement in its veins of marble. Column and capitol and dome, built to endure until the world itself shatters in the convulsions of the last earthquake. Oh, what a contrast be- tween that smoking ruin on the one hand, and that gorgeous dream o f architecture on the other. Well, the day speeds on when the grandest achievement of man shall be consumed and the world shall blaze. Down will go galler- ies of art and thrones of roy- will scatter even the ashes of consumed Not one city unconsumed. Not one scene Seas licked up. Continents SYDNEY TRAM-CAR ON WHICH WE HAD THE PLEASURE OF RIDING. alty, and the hurricanes of God's power greatness and glory. Not one tower left. of grandeur to relieve the desolation. Forests dismasted, sunk. Hemispheres annihilated. Oh, the roar and thundering crash of that last conflagra^ tion ! But from that ruin of a blazing earth we shall look up to see the Temple of Liberty and Justice rising through the ages white and pure and grand, unscarred and unshaken. Founded on the eternal rock and swelling into domes of infinitude and glory in which the hallelujahs of heaven have their reverberation. No flame of human hate shall blacken its walls. No thunder of infernal wrath shall rock its foundation. By the upheld torches of burning worlds we shall read it, on column and architrave and throne of eternal dominion : " Heaven and earth shall pass away, but truth and liberty and justice shall never pass away." nx CHAPTER X. THE NOBLE MAORIS; OR, MURDER AS A PASTIME. 'HAT the Indians are to America, the Maoris are to New Zealand. These aborigines are dying out very rapidly, but you see them in all the upper portions of New Zealand. All this country was once theirs, and they would have kept it, but from whaling ships the foreigners alighted to furnish enough rum and vices of all sorts to kill the Maoris. They are said to be a superior race of savages, but the nobility of them I fail to see. Their faces are plowed up, not with age, but by a tattooing which they suppose pictorializes and beautifies. Sharp shells scooped out these furrows of the countenance. Their greatest fun was massacre. When some of them adopted Christianity, they received the Old Testament but rejected the New Testament. They liked the war scenes of the Old, but not the peace of the New. On occasions they made cartridges of the New Testament. When they could not eat all their enemies, they preserved them in tin cans and sent them as delicate presents to their friends. The ship "Boyd," bound for England, put in at one of the New Zealand harbors, and all on board were slain and eaten except a woman and three children, who hid away, the only survivors to tell the story. Of course, all ships knew that if they were wrecked on these shores they would become a part of the diet of the people. Two of their chiefs taken to London in 1820 aroused much interest, and they were loaded with presents of all sorts ; but before starting for home these recipients exchanged the presents for muskets, with which they drove back and destroyed the neighboring tribes who could not afford muskets. Some of these savages went so far as to lend clubs and powder and knives to their enemies, that lively fighting might be kept up. On one occasion they refused to capture the trains carrying food and ammunition to the opposing forces, and when the chief of the Maoris was asked the cause of this, he replied, " Why, you fool, if we had captured their ammu- nition and food how could they have fought !" One of the missionaries says that he held a religious service at a place between two fighting tribes, and from both tribes the audience was made up on Sunday, but on Monday they resumed their old fight. If they had had plainly put to them the first question of the Catechism, " What is the chief end of man ?" their reply, if frankly made, would have been, " The chief end of man is to make an end of him." De Quincy wrote an essay on " Murder as a Fine Art," but to the Maoris murder was pastime. Assassination was for ages their gladdest recreation. Massacre was their sport. It was to them what the tennis court and croquet ground and baseball are to many moderns. No hunter ever more enjoyed shooting reed birds or fetching down a roebuck ; no fisherman better liked throwing a fly and watching a spotted trout rise to snap it, than did these Maoris the slaughter of a man. Give beef or mutton to others, but the appetite of the Maori wanted something human in the bill of fare. Many of the Maoris may be good, and kind, and noble, but their ancestors were without nobility of nature, unless laziness and heartlessness and revenge and malevolence be noble. What an appetite they must have had for soup of human bones ! for white man on toast ! and for spare rib of missionary ! We search New Zealand in vain from top of North Island to foot of South Island to find among the Maoris anything muie noble than seen in the American Indian seated by a (135) 136 THE EARTH GIRDLED. bridlepath of the Rocky Mountains, wrapped in filthy blanket, hair combed once in forty years, waiting for a cowboy to toss him a rusty cent. These Maoris were the impersona- 1 tion of cruelty and diabolism. It was to them rare sport when they could take an enemy and scalp the skin from the bottom of the feet — if you can apply to the lower extremities the word usually applied to the upper extremities — and make the victim walk on a rough place, and the shriek of pain would make these noble savages laugh till you could hear ] them half a mile away. Sometimes they would, in order to have fresh meat, cut the flesh from their victim just as they needed it by nice tid-bits and day after day. Back of Gisborne, New Zealand, to make a fine peroration of their accomplishments, they killed all the men, women and children, so that the authors might not be charged with lack of thoroughness. They tell the most enormous stories of the bravery of their ancestors. These ancestors, they say, killed the two great warriors of Waterloo, Wellington and Napoleon, and the tribe believe it too. Within a few days one of their chiefs was buried amid wild scenes of lamentation, and after the body was put in the ground, the chief's hat and blanket and umbrella were thrown in after him, and then many of the tribe leaped upon the grave with howls and screams and dancing. Not satisfied with deeds of cruelty while living, these noble Maoris in olden time expected their wives to strangle themselves, and while twisting the flax for the rope, the sister of the dead chief is reported by a recent writer as looking up to the moon and saying : " It is well with thee, O moon ! You return from death, Spreading your light on the little waves. Men say, ' Behold the moon re-appears ;' But the dead of this world return no more. Grief and pain spring up in my heart as from a fountain. I hasten to death for relief. Oh ! that all might eat those numerous soothsayers, Who could not foretell his death. Oh ! that I might eat the governor ; For his was the war !" One of the most terrible things in all the country of the Maoris is their law of Tapu. If any one breaks that he must die. When a thing is said to be tapu, no one must use or employ it. For instance, a man gave a slave a knife, forthwith that knife became tapu, yet some one dared with that knife to cut the bread for a chief's mother, and the man who used the knife for that purpose was butchered. That whimsicality of tapu has left its victims all up and down New Zealand. The fact is that barbarisms are so repulsive in every form that there is nothing admirable about them, and the only thing to do, is by the influence of Christian civilization to extirpate them, and they are going, and for the most part have already gone. Cannibalism in New Zealand is dead. The funeral pyres in India have been extinguished. The Juggernaut has been put aside as a curiosity for travelers to] look at. Instead of the cruelties that once cursed these lands I find our glorious Christianity I dominant. All over New Zealand, the highest culture, the grandest churches, the best ] schools, and a citizenship than which the world holds nothing nobler. I hereby report to the American lecturers that New Zealand is a grand place for their! useful work. Only two or three English and one American lecturer have ever trod these! platforms. But the opportunity here is illimitable. Not in all the round earth are there more alert, responsive, or electric audiences. They are quicker than American or European | assemblages to take everything said on platform or in pulpit. They call out all there is in i THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 137 a speaker of instruction or entertainment. And the Church and the world have yet to find out that audiences for the most part decide whether sermons or lectures shall be good or poor. Stolid or unresponsive audiences make stolid and stupid speakers. Wendell Phillips, one of the monarchs of the platform, told me something very remarkable con- cerning himself, while we were standing in a Boston book-store, and he was chiding me for not appearing at Ann Arbor, Michigan, from which place he had just returned, and where I had tried to get a few days before, but was hindered by snow banks, and my offer of two hundred and fifty dollars for the use of a locomotive had been declined. Mr. Phillips said that the audience in one of the Eastern States nearly killed him. He said, " I stood for nearly an hour without seeing or hearing anything by which I could judge of the effect of what I had said. If they had only hissed or applauded, I did not care which, I could have got on with some comfort." . . . Mr. Phillips surprised me by this statement as to the effect wrought upon him by a phlegmatic assemblage. The audience decides the fate of sermons or lectures. A half dozen men might, if they wished to engage in so mean a business, take a contract to break down any speaker, if they would sit right before him, gape, take out their watches, and cough with mouth wide open, and then seemingly go sound asleep. An eloquent American preacher, standing before me in a former pulpit delivered the first half of his sermon with great power, and his words had wings and his countenance was aflame with holy enthusiasm, when suddenly his wings of thought and utterance dropped, and he stammered on his way, and got entangled in metaphor, and lost his thread of discourse, and failed to prove that which he said at the start he would prove, and then sat down. While the congregation were singing the last hymn he said, " Who is that distinguished-looking gentleman right in front of the pulpit? The sight of his somnolency and lack of interest completely upset me." " Oh ! " I said, " that is the Honorable Mr. so and so, one of the ablest men of the nation, and he was deeply interested in all you said. He is not asleep, but is suffering from weak eyes, and is com- pelled to keep them shut while listening." The uninteresting appearance of the auditor had overthrown a " Master of Assemblies." I say to the men who preach and lecture, come to New Zealand. But should ministers ever lecture ? Ought they not always preach ? My answer is that the intelligent lecture hall is half way to the church, and I notice that men who have been hating the church and all sacred things, if they come and hear one lecture, are sure to come and hear him preach. Beside that there are important things to be said, and things that must be said, which are more appropriate to lecture hall than to pulpit. The three mightiest agencies for making the world better are the Pulpit, Printing Press and Platform. Side by side may they always stand in the battle for righteousness. But for them the Indians' war-whoop would yet be sounding in America and on the Atlantic coast, the morning meal of human flesh would still be going on in New Zealand, and the Ganges would still be horrible with infanticide. Let all nations reconstruct their notions of New Zealand. I write this at Dunedin, imposing in its architecture, picturesque in its surroundings, unbounded in its hospitality, and another Edinburgh, after which I understand it is named Dun — Edin being the Gaelic for the Northern capital of intelligence. The Scotch founded it and what the Scotch do they do well. They believe in some- thing, and it is almost always something good that they believe in. High-toned morality characterizes everything that they do or touch ; solidity, breadth, massiveness and religiosity are the types of the men and cities and nations they build. No country is well started that has not felt the influence of the Scotch, with their brawny arms and high cheek bones. 138 THE EARTH GIRDLED. The seaport of this place is called Chalmers Port, named after, I have no doubt, Thomas Chalmers, the greatest of Scotchmen, unless it were John Knox ; and the largest church in this place, where I preached last night, is Knox Church, called, I have no doubt, after the man who at Holyrood made a queen tremble. Here I am in the mid-winter of this colony, for July here corresponds with our Ameri- can January ; but there are no such severi- ties of frost or snow as we are familiar with in our New York latitudes. The grass is at this moment a bright emerald, the gar- dens are in glorious flower, the miles of hedgerows that line the roads and part the fields are banks of gold because of their blossoming gorse. From the top of the North Island of New Zealand to the foot of the South Island, the colony is a be- witchment of interest. For 120 miles ever and anon geysers send up their steam curl- ing on the air. The glaciers, the romantic lakes, the drives, the wooded summits, the mountain peaks, the escarpment of the hills, the fertile fields, the falling waters, the hot springs and the cold springs, the flora with its infinitude of camelias, and its small heaven of ferns, the sunrises and sun- sets, and above all the people with a cordi- ality and heartiness independent of all weather and all circumstances, make New Zealand 1300 miles of invitation to the in- \ habitants of other zones to come here whether for health or pleasure, or liveli- hood or worship. What uplifted altars of basalt ! What blue domes of sky ! What bright lavers of river ! What baptism of gentle shower ! What incense of morning mist ! What doxology of sea on both beaches ! What a temple of beauty, and glory, and joy, and divine ascription is New Zealand ! DR. TAI