PRESENTED BY 
 
RAMBLING NOTES 
 
 OF A 
 
 RAMBLING TOUR 
 
 THROUGH 
 
 EGYPT, PALESTINE AND EUROPE 
 
 ^ 
 
 By C C. ROYCE 
 
1^ 
 
 
I 
 
 
 T 
 
 'HE AUTHOR has only three excuses for the seeming ego- 
 tism of this publication. 
 
 ^ 1 . That reference to its pages serves to recall and to 
 fix more definitely in his mind many of the pleasurable, 
 not to say wonderful sights and incidents of the trip. 
 
 ^ 2. That sundry friends have expressed a desire to 
 peruse its pages, and 
 
 ^ 3. That it is printed exclusively for private circulation 
 among such friends. 
 
 (3) 
 
RAMBLING NOTES OF 
 A RAMBLING TOUR 
 THROUGH EGYPT, PAL- 
 ESTINE AND EUROPE 
 
 BY C. C. ROYCE 
 
 Chico, California, January 22, 1912. 
 
 A journey long contemplated is about to be under- 
 taken. For years it has been the hope and the expec- 
 tation that a trip abroad to the land of the lotus and 
 the sacred crocodile; to the home of the Pharaohs 
 and the scene of the captivity and final emancipation 
 of Israel would be vouchsafed to us. That our eyes 
 might look upon the land flowing with milk and 
 honey; the land which Moses of old was only per- 
 mitted to view from Nebo's lonely heights; the land 
 where Jericho's massive walls v/ere leveled with the 
 blasts from the ram's horns of Joshua's mighty hosts; 
 the land where Jesus of Nazareth spake as never man 
 spake ; where the miracle of the loaves and fishes was 
 enacted among the lowly fishermen of Galilee; where 
 the crucifixion and resurrection of the Saviour of 
 mankind occurred, and where more than a thousand 
 years later the faith and the fanaticism of the crusad- 
 ing millions of Europe left their bleaching bones in the 
 futile effort to reclaim the holy city of Jerusalem from 
 the accursed domination of the Moslem. 
 
 Long and earnest had been our desire to sail the 
 waters of the blue Mediterranean where the opposing 
 
 (5) 
 
6 
 
 fleets of ancient Rome and Carthage fought the fight 
 of barbarous lust and conquest ; where the virile sons 
 of Greece annihilated the mighty Persian fleet of 
 Xerxes, and where, in the later centuries, the pirates of 
 the southern coast were brought to a realizing sense 
 that a new but potential power had arisen in the 
 Occident when our Decatur and his little squadron 
 taught them the wisdom of good behavior. So, too, 
 our hopes had been pinned to a desire to wander 
 amidst the ruins of classic Greece, that were reminisc- 
 ent of the eloquence of Demosthenes, of the wisdom 
 of Solon, of the philosophy of Plato and of the mili- 
 tary valor of Miltiades ; to beard the lustful Turk in 
 the midst of the multiplied mosques and minarets 
 of his Mohammedan might on the picturesque banks 
 of the Bosphorus and the Golden Horn, and to wander 
 beneath the cloudless skies and among the sun-kissed, 
 vine-clad hills of historic Italy, whose magnificent and 
 awe-inspiring ruins speak of the age when the far- 
 reaching conquests of Csesar and Pompey and Antony 
 had made Rome the mistress of the civilized world. 
 
 And so it has come about that our hopes and expec- 
 tations are about to be realized — our itinerary has 
 been scheduled — our tickets have been purchased — 
 our sailing day fixed and this is our last day in Chico. 
 It is the closing of twenty-three years of continuous 
 service as Manager of Rancho Chico. 
 
 Locally it marks the end of an era, the passing of 
 Rancho Chico after an existence under Mexican and 
 American jurisdiction of sixty-seven years, and 
 throughout most of this period the widest known, the 
 most picturesque and the most diversified in its 
 product of any ranch in California. Its history has 
 been filled with varying triumphs and vicissitudes. 
 
Agriculturally and horticulturally it has triumphed 
 in its exhibits at county, state, national and inter- 
 national expositions. Its owner has been in years 
 past the generous and genial host to many famous 
 men and women, including Presidents of the United 
 States, generals of the army, senators and repre- 
 sentatives in Congress, noted scientists and scholars. 
 On the other hand the latter years of his life were 
 deeply troubled by large financial obligations which 
 unfortunately were not canceled until after his death. 
 I leave Chico with mixed feelings of relief and 
 regret; relief at the lifting of responsibility from my 
 shoulders, and regret at breaking the many ties of 
 affection that cluster in a reminiscent way around 
 the ranch, its orchards, its fields, its woods and its 
 natural scenery, as well as the association with its 
 many old and faithful employes. 
 
 January 23. — Left Chico at 6.48 a. m. for Sac- 
 ramento, arriving there at 10 a. m. and leaving on the 
 Overland Limited for Chicago at 2 p. m. Gen. N. P. 
 Chipman, a friend of forty-five years' standing, came 
 to the train to bid us God-speed. The weather is 
 fine and warm in the valley, but as we ascend the 
 Sierras the first snow is encountered at Dutch Flat, 
 and from there on snow is omnipresent. This is my 
 first day without an occupation since leaving home as 
 a boy fifty years ago, and I seem unable to realize its 
 full significance. It probably means that my life's 
 work from a business standpoint is over. I am a 
 "has been," a back number, one in whom the busy 
 world finds no further interest — one whose years have 
 become a handicap and whose destiny is to float for a 
 little while as a piece of water-logged flotsam, down 
 
8 
 
 the stream of life to where it empties into the gulf of 
 obhvion. 
 
 January 2Ji.. — All day we are passing through a 
 snow-bound, sage-brush desert, except in a few fa- 
 vored spots, where the system of irrigation has worked 
 a miracle in the vegetable world. Left Odgen about 
 noon, and as the shades of night are falling we are 
 skimming the plains of Wyoming. 
 
 January 25. — Passed Cheyenne at 5.30 a. m. and 
 rolled into North Platte at 1 p. m. The weather has 
 moderated, the sun shining brightly and the snow 
 rapidly melting. After crossing the continent so 
 many times by this route the scenic outlook is with- 
 out flavor, the dead grass and leafless trees — where 
 there are any — are distastefully monotonous and the 
 trip is stupid and tiresome. Generations yet unborn 
 will probably see this vast area of desert and unoc- 
 cupied land conquered by the plow and teeming with 
 an industrious population, but it strains the imagin- 
 ation to foresee it. And yet within my own experi- 
 ence and observation the farms have multiplied, 
 towns have sprung up like mushrooms and the agri- 
 cultural limit has extended hundreds of miles to the 
 westward and back from the railroad on both sides in 
 a marvelous degree. Arrived at Omaha at 7.30 p. m. 
 
 January 26. — Arrived at Chicago in the midst of a 
 heavy snowstorm at 8.30 a. m., secured sleeper tickets 
 and left for Washington at 10.30 a. m. Found on 
 board Mr. James M. Chadsey, whom I had known as 
 a government clerk in Washington more than forty 
 years ago and whom I had not seen for more than 
 
9 
 
 thirty years. His hair, which was coal black when 
 last I saw him, was now white with the frost of his 
 seventy-four years. Passed through Fort Wayne, 
 Lima, Crestline, Alliance, Mansfield, Canton, Mas- 
 silon and numerous smaller towns, all showing growth 
 and prosperity under the beneficent influence of a 
 protective tariff, which the so-called progressives, 
 acting as assistants to the democratic party in Con- 
 gress, are endeavoring to destroy. With the com- 
 bined efforts of Roosevelt, LaFollette, Cummins and 
 their followers, the prospects for a democratic free- 
 trade President are daily improving. 
 
 From the car window a view of the passing land- 
 scape gives evidence that the m^elancholj^ daj^s of the 
 year are now regnant over hill and vale, over country 
 and city. Over hill and vale, whose bronzed glories 
 of autumn have passed away; over country and city 
 where again there is felt the chilling presence of the 
 frost king. Over hills and over vales, every vestige, 
 every reminder of heated summer and mellow autumn 
 have wholly vanished; beautiful flowers, verdant 
 meadows and wealth of foHage have entirely dis- 
 appeared. Here and there upon the hillsides the 
 trees stand desolate and denuded. Throughout 
 the boughs and branches, like invisible fingers playing 
 upon many irregular strings of natural harps, there 
 passes and repasses the cold breath of winter's wind 
 wailing in a sort of musical monotone. Near by 
 there still bubbles the sparkling brook ever in motion 
 coming down from the wooded hills above, flowing 
 silently across some rocky pasture and finally burying 
 itself as silently amid the other waters of a winding 
 river. From cottage chimneys there rises a hos- 
 pitable smoke, and reflected upon the window-pane 
 
10 
 
 there flickers the cheery fire on the open hearth. The 
 first half of winter with its snow and ice are here and 
 surely the melancholy days are now regnant over 
 hill and vale, over country and city. 
 
 January 27. — Arrived in Washington at 8.30 a. m. 
 The magnificent new Union Depot (probably the 
 finest structure of its kind in the United States, with 
 the possible exception of the new Pennsylvania sta- 
 tion in New York) contrasts indescribably with the 
 old, dirty and altogether disreputable station of the 
 Baltimore and Ohio R. R. at which I landed on my 
 first advent in Washington, in November, 1862. 
 How well I remember that day when, as a boy of less 
 than seventeen years, I reached here to take a clerk- 
 ship in the Treasury Department and was assigned 
 to duty in the office of the great War Secretary of the 
 Treasury, Salmon P. Chase. It was in the midst 
 of the great Civil War and Washington streets were 
 filled with the steady tramp of arriving soldiers and 
 the hotels were thronged with the brass buttons and 
 gilded epaulettes of army officers, many of whom were 
 destined to attain high rank or fall gloriously upon 
 the field of battle ere the close of the war. The 
 Capitol building was then unfinished, as was likewise 
 the Treasury, and the great State, War and Navy 
 Department building was not yet begun. Washing- 
 ton, from a scattering, ill-built, unpaved and unpre- 
 possessing southern town of those days, has gone 
 through an evolution that entitles it to the claims 
 of being one of the most beautiful, fascinating and 
 desirable of modern residence cities. To-day and 
 the succeeding days to and including January 31, 
 were spent in visiting old friends, making the neces- 
 
11 
 
 sary purchases and preparations for the ocean voy- 
 age and sight-seeing about the city. 
 
 February 1. — Left Washington at 10 a. m. for New 
 York. Stopped over one train in Philadelphia to 
 meet by appointment and lunch with our old friends, 
 General and Mrs. R. B. Beath. Leaving Phila- 
 delphia we reached New York about five o'clock and 
 went to the Breslin Hotel. The evening was passed 
 in enjoying the theatrical presentation of Kismet by 
 Otis Skinner. 
 
 February 2. — Mr. H. W. Dunning, the leader of our 
 excursion party, arrived from Boston early in the 
 evening, gave us some preliminary information about 
 the trip and introduced us to several of our fellow 
 excursionists. An old friend, Prof. Frank Stewart, 
 called to spend the evening. He has had a highly 
 successful career as a musical professor and director. 
 When I first knew him, about fifty-four years ago, he 
 was a small boy and his father was keeping a country 
 hotel at Troy, Ohio. 
 
 February 3. — Left the Breslin Hotel at 10 o'clock, 
 a. m. and went aboard the steamship Laconia. 
 The weather is very cold — thermometer down to zero 
 point at 8 o'clock. Mrs. Guy Kennedy, W. M. 
 Alexander and wife and Margaret Stewart, old Cali- 
 fornia and Washington friends, came down to see us 
 off. They brought a farewell message and some 
 beautiful roses from Mrs. Bidwell. The steamer 
 sailed at noon with a large passenger list and with the 
 sea as smooth as a skating pond. The list of our 
 fellow-passengers booked for the same trip with our- 
 
12 
 
 selves is made up of the following: Rev. A. E. Cross, 
 Dr. W. H. Cobb and Miss A. L. Frost, of Boston; 
 Mrs. Ella Hubbard of Azusa, Calif. ; Mrs. W. H. Petit, 
 Belvidere, 111.; W. F. Sandrock, Milwaukee, Wis.; 
 Capt. W. W. Woodruff, Knoxville, Tenn.; Mrs. 
 Henrietta B. Alexander, Macon, Ga.; Miss Edith 
 Gammans, Newton Centre, Mass.; Mrs. Laura 
 Gammans and Gordon Gammans, Portland, Ore.; 
 Mrs. J. Q. Adams, Omaha, Neb. ; Miss Mabel E. Cole, 
 Portland, Ore.; Mrs. J. H. Ives., Chicago, 111.; Mrs. 
 W. S. Blaisdell, Buffalo, N. Y. ; Miss Annie P. Walker, 
 Wynecote, Penn. ; Miss Lilian Jones, Conshohocken, 
 Penn. ; and Mr. and Mrs. F. T. Pember, Granville, 
 N. Y. We have a delightful outside room and are 
 seated at table with Mr. and Mrs. Pember, Mrs. 
 Alexander and the ship's surgeon. 
 
 "We've left behind the painted buoy, 
 "That tosses at the harbor mouth; 
 "And madly danced our hearts with joy 
 "As fast we fleeted to the south. 
 "The broad seas swept to meet the keel 
 "And swept behind, so quick the run, 
 " We felt the good ship shake and reel — 
 "We seemed to sail into the sun." 
 
 February 4- — All day long we have been moving 
 steadily on, assaulting the winds and waves until, as 
 night comes on, the spray is dashing high up on the 
 vessel, but she rides the storm like a bird. 
 
 Mai de mer has not taken any strangle-hold on us 
 yet, though the craving for dinner was not sufficiently 
 strong to draw us up one flight of stairs to the dining 
 room. I am testing the efficacy of Mothersill's sea- 
 sick remedy and so far faith, together with a quiet 
 recumbent posture, seems to hold for me a winning 
 hand. Episcopal service was carried on in the recep- 
 
13 
 
 tion room this morning, but personal comfort out- 
 weighed any desire to attend. Everything about 
 the ship is new and clean and the attendants, who are 
 all English, are extremely polite, kind and attentive. 
 I have to-day several times doubted the wisdom of 
 two people of our years undertaking such a trip with 
 its rapid and repeated changes of climate, its untried 
 and mysterious changes of diet and its severe physical 
 strain in riding through desert sands, climbing rugged 
 mountains and sleeping in strange, uncomfortable 
 beds. But the microbe of wanderlust has infected us 
 and we must take our chances. 
 
 February 5. — The storm of last night increased in 
 violence as the hours went by — the wind blowing at 
 fifty miles an hour, but we went to bed and were 
 sound asleep, not knowing until breakfast time that 
 at about 1 a. m. the vessel turned over on her side and 
 for a time it was doubtful if she could regain her 
 equilibrium. This indifference to the situation 
 reminds me of the old poem entitled: "The Sailor's 
 Consolation," in which it is recited that, 
 
 "One night came on a hurricane; 
 "The sea was mountains roUing, 
 "When Barney BuntUng turned his quid, 
 "And said to Billy Bowling: 
 "A strong nor'wester's, blowing Bill, 
 "Hark! don't ye hear it roar, now. 
 "Lord help 'em, how I pities them 
 "Unhappy folks on shore, now; 
 "Foolhardy chaps who lives in towns, 
 "What danger they are all in; 
 "And now he quaking in their beds, 
 "For fear the roof shah fall in; 
 "Poor creatures — how they envies us, 
 "And wishes, I've a notion, 
 "For our good luck, in such a storm, 
 "To be upon the ocean." 
 
14 
 
 This change of cHmate and the salt sea air have a 
 tendency to develop drowsiness, and no difficulty is 
 experienced in "dreaming, sweetly dreaming the 
 happy hom's away." The weather has moderated 
 greatly since we left New York and the day has been 
 given alternately to showers and sunshine. A heavy 
 hailstorm occurred about 1 p. m. but lasted only 
 a few moments. The white-caps are chasing each 
 other like a band of wild horses, overtaking and 
 trampling each other with an exciting fierceness that 
 is both beautiful and awe-inspiring. 
 
 February 6. — Awoke this morning with the sun 
 shining brilliantly, and far as the eye could reach the 
 crest of the billows was polished silver, dazzling the 
 eyes beyond endurance. After breakfast we occupied 
 our steamer chairs on deck and were greeted with 
 mixed showers and sunshine with a strong N. W. 
 wind. 
 
 Made the acquaintance of Mr. Woodruff, of Knox- 
 ville, Tenn., who is a member of our party; a loyal 
 Kentuckian by birth, who served four years in the 
 Union army. He is seventy-three years old — is 
 making this trip for the second time, and is a most 
 intelligent, kind-hearted and companionable man. 
 I anticipate much pleasure in his society and frank 
 companionship during the trip. 
 
 There is a beautiful ladies' cabin or sitting-room on 
 the ship, where, after dinner, the ladies in full dress, 
 with their male escorts, resort for a game of bridge 
 whist. In the rear of this is a gentleman's smoking 
 and card-room with the bar adjoining. As yet I have 
 seen no gambling, which is more or less of a surprise 
 to me, as it is a contradiction of all the stories I have 
 
15 
 
 heard of these ocean steamers. Notwithstanding a 
 large surplus of sleep and an appetite measuring up 
 to four full meals a day, I am steadily losing flesh. 
 We are now about twelve hundred miles from New 
 York and are making an average of sixteen knots an 
 hour. 
 
 February 7. — To-day has been a duplicate of yes- 
 terday so far as the weather is concerned. A life on 
 the ocean wave is becoming very monotonous. 
 Gazing on the brilliant and ever-changing billows is a 
 breeder of headache. We are making from 375 to 
 400 miles each twenty-four hours and expect to reach 
 Madeira Saturday evening. The saloon after dinner is 
 filled with handsome and handsomely dressed women 
 playing bridge, many of them for money. In the 
 smoking-room an auctioneer was selling pools on the 
 number of miles the vessel will make in the next 
 twenty-four hours. 
 
 It is beginning to be a question in my mind whether 
 people over sixty years of age are not more comfort- 
 able and happy in their own homes and among their 
 old friends than trekking it around the world, living 
 for months within the lids of a steamer trunk and a 
 suit case. But perhaps when we are brought in con- 
 tact with new scenes and strange peoples we shall 
 feel compensated for any slight discomforts and 
 inconveniences that may have attended our getting 
 there. 
 
 February 8. — A dreary sunless day with almost 
 continuous showers ; a head wind but not a heavy sea. 
 About midday we passed the longitude of the Azore 
 Islands, being some two hundred miles to the south 
 
16 
 
 of them. After a two hours nap in the afternoon I 
 awoke with a clear brain and a vanished headache 
 for the first time since leaving New York. We are 
 told we shall reach Madeira Saturday evening, but 
 that if the weather is stormy we shall not land. At 
 11 p. m. the saloon is still full of demented women 
 playing bridge whist. Very little card playing 
 among the men. At midnight I strolled out upon 
 deck, w^here I found a few couples facing the ship's 
 promenade, blissfully indifferent to the lateness of the 
 hour, but keenly alive to the sentimental joyousness 
 of the locality and the opportunity. The sky had 
 cleared and the wind had lulled to a gentle zephyr. 
 
 "The fleeting hours like birds flew by, 
 
 "As Hghtly and as free. 
 
 "Ten thousand stars were in the sky, 
 
 "Ten thousand on the sea. 
 
 "For every wave with dimpled face, 
 
 "That leaped upon the air, 
 
 "Had caught a star in its embrace, 
 
 "And held it trembling there. 
 
 February 9. — Sun shining brightly and a warm 
 spring-like atmosphere. Everybody on deck looking 
 happy and cheerful. This is the first day the steerage 
 passengers have had opportunity to come out on deck 
 because of the previous cold and rainy weather, and 
 they are making the most of their opportunity. They 
 are mostly Italians returning to their native land, 
 chiefly laborers, with a few disconsolate looking women 
 and now and then a brood of dirty children. The 
 atmosphere surrounding them is laden with obnoxi- 
 ous odors, but their happiness does not seem to be in 
 any degree minimized thereby. 
 
 I have been thinking all day with what greater zest 
 and more eager expectation I should have experienced 
 
17 
 
 the opportunity for this trip twenty-five years ago, 
 before the edge of curiosity had been dulled, and the 
 fountains of anticipation dried up. But as the old man 
 said about the circus : ''When I was a boy and yearned 
 to go to the circus, I didn't have the fifty cents; now I 
 have the fifty cents but I haven't the yearn." Passed 
 the steamer Coronia of the Cunard line at 2.30 p. m. 
 on her way to New York, about five miles distant. 
 During the afternoon the Italian steerage passengers 
 danced on the lower deck to the music of an accordion 
 and with the stimulus of sundry small coins from the 
 first cabin passengers. 
 
 February 10. — Last night a charity concert was 
 given, followed by a ball. Every one was decked out 
 in his or her best togs, and seldom have I seen finer 
 costumes at on-shore functions. Went to bed at mid- 
 night and awakened about 2 a. m. with an acute 
 attack of lumbago, necessitating a call for the ship's 
 doctor. About 10 a. m. came in sight of the Madeira 
 Islands. Was unable to go on deck, but propped my- 
 self up and looked through the port hole. As we 
 came nearer the bold shore and more lofty hill-sides, 
 numerous trickling streams and silvery cascades dot- 
 ted the landscape, winding in and out among the beau- 
 tiful green trees and grass covered slopes. About 
 4 p. m. we steamed into the harbor of Funchal, pre- 
 pared to anchor, and were met with a fleet of small 
 boats, each containing a man or two at the oars and a 
 half-naked native who with tense and eager counten- 
 ance, violent gestures and vociferous cries demanded 
 the throwing of silver coins into the water that he 
 might forthwith dive from the boat and catch the 
 same ere they could sink to the bottom. The skill 
 1677—2 
 
18 
 
 and dexterity manifested in this is quite remarkable. 
 Funchal appears to be an aggregation of one and two- 
 story houses scattered along the crescent-like beach 
 and extending quite far up the steep hillsides and 
 mostly of a white or yellowish color. This is a Por- 
 tuguese colony. Late in the afternoon a large pro- 
 portion of the passengers went ashore and many of 
 them stayed all night. A half dozen or more steam 
 vessels were in the harbor when we arrived, but no 
 sign of an American flag at any of their mastheads. 
 When will our so-called statesmen become broad- 
 minded and patriotic enough to encourage the up- 
 building of an American merchant marine? 
 
 February 11. — The day opened bright, balmy and 
 with radiant sunshine. The wind died down to a 
 soft, soothing breeze and the bay became as smooth 
 and placid as a millpond. At 9 a. m. all of our party, 
 except myself, went ashore, while I was compelled to 
 divide my attention between the excruciating pains 
 of lumbago and anathemas upon my ill-luck in being 
 deprived of this first chance for landing on a foreign 
 shore. However, about 4 p. m., I awoke from a pro- 
 longed sleep feeling much better. I dressed, went on 
 deck and got shaved just as Mrs. R. returned from 
 shore. We immediately jumped into the launch and 
 returned to the island. At the wharf we hired a bull- 
 sled and rode to the depot. These bull-sleds are 
 curious affairs ; a little boy goes ahead of the animals 
 on the trot and they follow him implicitly, urged on 
 by a man with a stout pole and the sled glides over 
 the street paved with small, smooth, rounded stones, as 
 glibly almost as if it were a bed of snow. Arrived at 
 the depot we took the cog railway for the top of the 
 
19 
 
 mountain. The rise in two or three miles is probably 
 twelve to fifteen hundred feet and the ground is a 
 continuous succession of terraces. Interesting culti- 
 vation is shown on every hand. The farms or 
 gardens, or whatever they may be called, range in size 
 from that of a good liberal dining-room to several 
 acres in extent and are almost invariably divided by a 
 narrow pathway, paved and bordered on each side by 
 a stone wall. So rank is the vegetation that it over- 
 tops and overhangs these walls, almost entirely hiding 
 the pathway, except at its point of entrance from the 
 main road. Within these gardens the main product 
 is sugar-cane, so thick in its growth that by compari- 
 son the buck-brush of the Sierra Nevada mountains 
 might be called scattering. In some places, where 
 the cane is not permitted to monoplize every inch of 
 space, there are a few grape vines trained upon trel- 
 lises ; when the crop of grapes is mature and gathered, 
 the leaves are all clipped off and cabbages and other 
 vegetables are grown in the soil underneath the arbor. 
 The houses are very quaint and curious in their con- 
 struction, with tiled roofs, barred and grated windows 
 and tightly closed doors, giving more the appearance 
 of jails than residences. Coming back from the 
 mountain we again took a bull-sled and went to the 
 Casino, which is beautifully located on a bluff over- 
 looking the ocean and surrounded by grounds filled 
 with beautiful trees, shrubbery and flowering plants, 
 the trunks, limbs and branches of which were literally 
 filled with bulbs for illumination. Our visit was at 
 7.30 p. m., but as the dance and illumination did not 
 take place until 9 o'clock we were not fortunate in 
 seeing the full glory of the place. There are more 
 children and more beggars to the square foot here 
 
20 
 
 than I ever dreamed of. On every hand, not only in 
 the stores, but on the streets, native merchants 
 importune one to buy their embroideries of hnen and 
 cotton. Every one of whom you ask any information 
 expects and almost demands compensation. The 
 streets are crooked and narrow; sidewalks, where any 
 exist, are about four feet wide and the streets vary 
 from ten to twenty feet. Here and there on the hill 
 is a beautiful villa, generally two stories with perhaps 
 ten to twenty rooms, surrounded by spacious 
 grounds, filled with trees, shrubs and vines and from 
 which emerged properous looking, well dressed people, 
 evidently the aristocracy of the community. A fine 
 German hospital for tuberculosis patients stands on 
 a prominent site on the hillside overlooking the entire 
 harbor, and a new hotel is being built high up on the 
 mountain side, to which the cog railway will soon be 
 finished. While the islands belong to the Portuguese, 
 the chief business interests are controlled by English 
 residents, including the shipping, the banking and 
 the wine trade, and by reason of this commercial dom- 
 ination there is no good feeling between the English 
 and Portuguese inhabitants. The gardens and garden 
 walls are bright with luxuriant and many colored 
 flowers. Geraniums are indigenous, and when grow- 
 ing along side walls or other support assume the char- 
 acter of climbing plants and grow to the height often 
 of twelve feet, with flowers much larger than with us. 
 
 February 12. — At 1 a. m. the ship weighed anchor 
 and steamed for Gibraltar. Many of the passengers 
 were so late coming aboard that it was 2 a. m. before 
 quiet reigned about the ship. A strong head wind 
 set in which continued to increase in violence as the 
 
21 
 
 day grew older and the motion of the ship became 
 more pronounced than at any time so far on the 
 voyage. Nothing of importance occurred on ship 
 board during the day. The evening was spent by 
 most of the passengers in the usual games of bridge 
 and poker. 
 
 February 18. — Awoke at 8 a. m. with the bright 
 sunshine streaming in at the port-hole. Went on 
 deck after breakfast to find that the wind had sub- 
 sided and the air was as balmy as April in California. 
 Everybody was on deck and on the lookout for a first 
 glimpse of the African coast. About noon land was 
 sighted on the Moroccan shore and as we approached 
 more nearly, the city of Tangier came into view. 
 Just before reaching Tangier we sighted on the rocks 
 the wreck of the English steamer upon which the 
 Duke and Duchess of Fife so recently came near los- 
 ing their hves. As we entered the Mediterranean the 
 change in the color of the water was most pronounced 
 and definitely defined from the dark blue of the 
 Atlantic, to a bright green. By 2 o'clock the houses 
 and fortifications of Gibraltar became clearly defined 
 and at 3 o'clock we cast anchor just outside the break- 
 water. At 4 o'clock all went ashore and our party 
 were driven across to the old Spanish town of Linea 
 de la Concepcion. The town is composed mostly of 
 one story houses stuccoed on the outside and cov- 
 ered with tile roofs, some of them so old that they 
 are overgrown with moss and other vegetation. The 
 streets are narrow, dirty, full of stagnant pools and 
 emitting odors in no degree resembUng attar of roses. 
 A perfect multitude of children thronged the streets 
 and all looked bright, happy and contented. Beggars 
 
22 
 
 were somewhat in evidence, but in nowise so numerous 
 or persistent as those of Funchal. We visited the 
 bull-pen where bull-fights are wont to be held, and 
 found the arena patterned much after the Roman 
 Coliseum, the structure being circular in form and the 
 seats rising tier after tier, one above the other. Com- 
 ing back from the Spanish town to Gibraltar we dis- 
 mounted from our vehicles and walked for nearly 
 an hour up and down the main business street, noting 
 their methods of doing business, the character of 
 goods offered for sale and the dark and inconvenient 
 conditions of their store buildings. The houses in 
 Gibraltar are generally two to four stories in height 
 and much more commodious than those in the Spanish 
 town. The streets seemed to be perfectly alive with 
 people, but what industry could support and feed 
 them all was not apparent to the casual observer. 
 Fruits were abundant and tempting. Dates of 
 undreamed of sweetness and delicacy, fat and luscious 
 figs, oranges that challenge the most succulent flavor 
 of a California navel and sweet flowers of infinite 
 color and variety are everywhere offered for sale and 
 at prices that make a dollar look as big as a cart 
 wheel. Turks and Moors strolled the streets with 
 lazy and indifferent air, looking picturesque and 
 comfortable in their loose baggy trousers, their red 
 fezzes and white turbans. English soldiers from the 
 garrison in spruce, tight-fitting red jackets, a little 
 pill-box of a cap over one ear and an air of dominant 
 importance, pushed their way through the narrow and 
 crowded thoroughfare regardless of the convenience 
 or comfort of the downtrodden Orientals. We 
 returned to the ship for dinner at 7 p. m. 
 
23 
 
 February 11^.. — Arose at 7 a. m., sun shining brightly 
 and temperature mild. Went ashore at 8.30 a. ni. 
 Took carriage for trip up the mountain. We wo\md 
 around between houses built upon the soHd rock, 
 going higher and higher until we reached a point where 
 we were required to alight, and after procuring a sol- 
 dier escort, proceeded to climb along a road or cause- 
 way cut deeply out of the solid rock, until finally we 
 entered a tunnel, still ascending, and every few rods 
 came to a large old-fashioned cannon, with a port-hole 
 opening through the rock and facing upon the open 
 ocean. The highest point we reached was some 
 twelve hundred feet above sea level, and looking down 
 upon the houses of the Spanish town below us, they 
 resembled the little house-blocks made for children's 
 playthings. The view across the harbor is one of 
 almost unparalleled beauty — the water thickly dotted 
 with vessels of all kinds, from a British man-of-war to 
 the smallest fishing smack, and off across to the south, 
 the African coast holding its bold outline against a 
 cloudless sky. Returning to our carriages we con- 
 tinued the drive down and around the rocky moun- 
 tain side, passing the Alameda gardens and reach- 
 ing by a round-about way again the town of Gibraltar 
 and back to the ship again at 12.30 p. m. At 1 p. m. 
 the ship sailed for Algiers, and about sunset, on our left, 
 the Sierra Nevada mountains of Spain loomed up 
 with their snow-capped summits. 
 
 February 15. — Breakfast found us plowing the 
 Mediterranean at a sixteen knot pace, bound for 
 Algiers with nodand in sight on either side. About 
 noon the peaks of the Atlas mountains appeared in 
 outline against the southern horizon, and gradually 
 
24 
 
 the whole coast Hne, with its rugged and undulating 
 surface, greeted our eyes. An hour later the white 
 and shining houses of the French city of Algiers, 
 aligned against the dark-green background of the 
 lofty hill-side, presented a beautiful picture to the 
 vision. At 2.30 p. m. we anchored outside the break- 
 water, being unable to find room inside because of the 
 presence of other vessels, among them the Cincinnati 
 of the Hamburg American line. 
 
 A steerage passenger died last night of tuberculosis, 
 being the second death since we started. Went 
 ashore at 4.30 p. m. A surprisingly busy scene pre- 
 sented itself. The great massive stone wharves 
 were crowded with merchandise of various kinds, 
 chief among which were thousands of casks of wine. 
 Dozens of carts, driven by dirty, ragged, bare-legged 
 and shoeless Arabs, with four horses each, — one in 
 front and three abreast in the rear, — were continu- 
 ally passing to and fro hauling freight. Winding 
 back and forth along the causeway leading up to the 
 level of the business portion of the city, we reached 
 the main business thoroughfare, running parallel 
 with the shore line and extending for possibly a mile 
 and a half in length. Everything was bustle and 
 activity, and the streets were thronged with a cos- 
 mopolitan crowd of French, Spaniards, Italians, 
 Turks, Moors, Arabs and Negroes, all but the first 
 clothed in habiliments characterized in greater or less 
 degree by dirt, rags and filth. The French, as a rule, 
 are neatly and many of them elegantly dressed and 
 show all the marks of culture and prosperity. Arab 
 women peddling embroideries and boys vending 
 postal cards assault you at every step with their 
 importunities and follow you for blocks. After an 
 
25 
 
 hour spent looking through the stores, took the street 
 cars and rode to the end of the route in each direction. 
 The number of new and beautiful business buildings 
 and apartment houses ranging from four to seven 
 stories in height, is very surprising, and an air of busi- 
 ness activity and rapid growth is everywhere mani- 
 fest. Returned to the ship at 7 p. m. 
 
 February 16. — Arose for a 7.30 breakfast. At 8.30 
 our party went ashore for a drive. We drove up the 
 main business street to the end of the street car line, 
 then began ascending the hill to the Kasba quarters, 
 being the site and ruins of the old Moorish castle. 
 Continuing our ascent we skirt the Jardin Marengo, a 
 public park laid out on the site of the old Moham- 
 medan cemetery. Here on every side are trees, 
 shrubs and flowers, most of which are familiar to a 
 Calif ornian. Almond trees in bloom, olives, palms, 
 magnohas, sycamores, live oaks, bignonias and a 
 luxuriant wealth of bougainvilleas climb in purple 
 masses over the sides and roofs of the buildings. 
 As we continue to ascend in a winding course we 
 reach Bella Vista, where one of the most marvelously 
 beautiful views of the city and the bay breaks upon 
 the sight. At our feet lay the white city, its stuc- 
 coed buildings shining with a dazzling brilliancy in 
 the warm sunshine, and beyond, the wharves, the 
 breakwater, the innumerable vessels, tugs and small 
 boats scurrying back and forth, and still beyond, the 
 sky blue waters of the crescent shaped bay and the 
 hmitless expanse of the Mediterranean. No more 
 charming or beautiful vision, it seems, could be spread 
 before the gaze of mortal man. Continuing our 
 drive we descend by a gradual and winding way to 
 
26 
 
 the city, passing a former mosque, now the cathedral 
 of Notre Dame, the Palace of the Governor, the 
 National Library and other public buildings, coming 
 at last to the old Arab section of the city with its 
 narrow and crooked streets, its fecundity of ragged, 
 dirty and offensive looking human beings with whom 
 bathing seems to have been a lost art, and finally, wind- 
 ing up at noon at the Place de la Republique, a small 
 park near the wharf. Here the party dismounted 
 from the carriages, the ladies went shopping, while 
 Mr. Woodruff — whose companionship I had grown 
 to highly appreciate — and myself refreshed ourselves 
 at a near-by cafe before returning aboard the ship. 
 Roughly speaking, Algiers may be divided into three 
 parts; the French town, containing all the best shops, 
 which lies along the shore by the harbor; the Arab 
 quarter, lying on the slopes of the hill above the 
 French town, and "Mustapha Superieur," the fash- 
 ionable quarter, lying on a thickly wooded and 
 extremely beautiful slope to the southeast of the 
 town and containing the villas of the principal resi- 
 dents and many fine hotels, patronized mainly by 
 English and American travelers. The Arab quarters 
 present some very quaint streets and alleys, which, 
 however, are dangerous at night to the foreigner, and 
 even by day wisdom dictates the leaving of all valu- 
 ables aboard ship. It is little more than a hundred 
 years ago that Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli constituted 
 at once a menace and a disgrace to European and 
 ^American civilization. Their pirates and corsairs 
 infested the Mediterranean Sea and levied tribute 
 upon the commerce and upon the citizens of the civi- 
 lized world. The United States, in common with 
 other civilized powers, had submitted to and paid 
 
27 
 
 this tribute until it became too burdensome and 
 resulted in a declaration of war, which, through the 
 activities of the American fleet under Commodores 
 Preble, Bainbridge and Decatur, soon brought these 
 barbarians to terms. But it is to the French and the 
 French only that the world owes the modern regen- 
 eration of Algiers; the cleansing of one of the fil- 
 thiest Augean stables in the modern world. For more 
 than eighty years the French have persistently pur- 
 sued the conquest, the reformation, and the develop- 
 ment of Algiers, in spite of depleted armies, in spite 
 of financial losses, in spite of jealous criticisms from 
 other nationalities, until they have caused an evolu- 
 tion in the city of Algiers from a collection of mud 
 huts, miserable mendicants and miasmatic marshes, 
 to one of the busiest commercial marts, with sub- 
 stantial modern business buildings, unexcelled at any 
 port on the Mediterranean Sea. 
 
 Having finished coaling we sailed out of the harbor 
 at 6 p. m., the white star steamship Canopic and the 
 Marseilles mail steamer Mustapha having arrived 
 almost simultaneously about an hour and a half 
 before. It is understood that instead of landing at 
 Villefranche, we go direct to Monaco on account of 
 labor troubles at the former place. 
 
 February 17. — Weather still beautiful. We are on 
 our way to Monaco but are only running at about one- 
 half speed, in order, as some say, to save coal, and 
 according to others that, as we are ahead of schedule 
 time, we may not reach Monaco until Sunday morn- 
 ing, it being difficult to land at night in case of heavy 
 weather. But whatever the cause, we have dawdled 
 along all day, with a sea smooth as a waxed floor and 
 
28 
 
 as blue as the water in a Monday wash tub. We 
 shall lose a number of passengers who are eager to 
 meet and greet the temptations of Monte Carlo and are 
 expected to receive some shorn lambs at that point if 
 they have wool enough left to comfortably clothe 
 them for the trip. Nothing of moment occurred 
 aboard ship except the usual Saturday evening dance 
 and card-playing, and a good night's sleep followed 
 preparatory to the landing to-morrow morning. 
 
 February 18. — Cast anchor off Monaco at 6.30 
 a. m., breakfasted at 7 o'clock and went ashore at 8.30. 
 The approach to Monaco is characterized by the 
 same bold, rocky bluffs that greet us at most places 
 we have so far visited. Beginning at the water line the 
 ground begins to rise with more and more abruptness — 
 first a line of buildings paralleling the shore line — then 
 a narrow street, — then a terrace with another line of 
 buildings, and so on indefinitely to the crest of the 
 hill. The buildings in Monaco and Monte Carlo are 
 all of stone, the walls that sustain the terraces are of 
 stone and the hill or mountain upon which they are 
 built is of solid stone. The streets and roads are 
 macadamized and are kept in exceedingly clean and 
 perfect condition. Upon reaching shore our party 
 walked up the long incline to the Casino, where we 
 took automobiles for a drive to Nice. The route 
 passed along the shore line, giving us an excellent view 
 of the harbor and the sea. On reaching Villefranche 
 we were greeted with a small but beautiful land- 
 locked harbor, where three French battleships and 
 half a dozen torpedo boats were anchored, as was also 
 the beautiful steam yacht of James Gordon Bennett, 
 the latter flying the only American flag we have seen 
 in any of the ports. 
 
29 
 
 Arrived at Nice we left the automobiles and strolled 
 through one of the public parks for an hour or two, 
 where preparations were being made for a grand floral 
 festival on the day following. A goodly portion of 
 Nice is built upon fairly level ground, but, as you 
 get a few blocks back from the seashore, the same bold 
 ridge of hills meets you face to face and the lines of 
 terraces and stone walls climb the eternal hills. 
 Returning from Nice by the same route, we entered 
 the famous Casino of Monte Carlo. Seated at the 
 various tables and standing in lines two or three deep 
 behind them were men and women in almost equal 
 numbers, eagerly risking their money on the turn of 
 the roulette wheel. Women young, beautiful and 
 handsomely dressed, women old, wrinkled and with 
 trembling hands, were alike in the zeal with which 
 they deposited their silver or gold coins upon a fa- 
 vorite number, and with more or less resignation saw 
 them ruthlessly raked into the coffers of the bank. 
 Now and then one was encouraged by a five or ten to 
 one favorable play, only to linger until the fatal per- 
 centage of the game dribbled it all away. I saw 
 however but little tenseness or anxiety displayed 
 among the players. Most of them sat with placid, 
 indifferent expression and took their changes of luck 
 with unchanged features, evidently being habitues of 
 the game. No bet seemed to be permitted less than 
 five francs, and at one or two of the tables a game was 
 in progress where nothing but gold appeared in the 
 betting. A private room where higher playing was 
 in vogue could only be entered upon the payment of 
 a fee of five dollars, which exceeded the limit of my 
 curiosity. One of the handsomest as well as most 
 charming and venturesome ladies of our party, with the 
 
30 
 
 spirit of daring that characterizes the clear and breezy 
 atmosphere of our western life, boldly laid down her 
 five franc piece upon the board and a moment later 
 was surprised and delighted to have the croupier toss 
 her in return sixteen bright and shining five franc 
 pieces. With unexampled wisdom and discretion 
 she retired beyond the pale of further temptation, 
 remarking she had long wanted a nice panama hat 
 and now she could afford one. No other trade or 
 industry seems to be in vogue except gambling and 
 hotel-keeping. 
 
 Monaco is a very old town. Its origin is traced 
 with more or less authenticity by historians far back 
 in the centuries to 1700 B.C., although it was little 
 spoken of until some twelve hundred years later. 
 
 In the days when Hannibal and his Carthaginian 
 legions were seeking the destruction of Rome the 
 people of Monaco and immediate surroundings 
 were also engaged in deadly hostility to the Romans. 
 Following down the centuries Monaco sided with 
 Csesar in his contest v/ith Pompey and the former, 
 after his victory, embarked from Monaco to Rome. 
 It has been successive!}^ under Roman, Spanish and 
 French rule and is now an independent principality. 
 It contains about fifteen hundred or two thousand 
 inhabitants and holds little of interest to the stranger 
 except the Palace and the Casino. The former is 
 said to contain many fine pictures and frescoes, 
 though it is difficult to obtain admission, especially 
 when the Prince is at home. The Casino is a hand- 
 some, though not highly ornamental building, con- 
 taining a reading room with periodicals from almost 
 every country, a fine ball room and an excellent band 
 which discourses sweet music every afternoon and 
 
31 
 
 evening. Extreme poverty does not seem to be 
 prevalent among the people, and yet one is beseeched 
 on every hand for charity, apparently more from habit 
 than anj'^thing else. The road from Monaco to Men- 
 tone is unsurpassed for scenic beauty. Hewn out 
 of the face of the mountain it winds in a yellow ser- 
 pentine way among a forest of fig, fir, locust, carob 
 and olive trees, many of the latter being of immense 
 size and bearing the scars of a thousand years bat- 
 tling with the elements. At 2.30 p. m. we returned to 
 the ship and sailed for Naples at 6 p. m. 
 
 February 19. — Awoke in the morning still on the 
 watery way to Naples. Passed the Islands of Cor- 
 sica and Elba during the night. About 3 p. m. 
 came in sight of the island of Ischia on the left and 
 shortly after on the right the island of Capri, with 
 Mount Vesuvius looming up in front of us and the 
 city of Naples stretching for several miles along the 
 shore. Entered the Bay of Naples and anchored 
 inside the breakwater, half a mile from shore, about 
 5 p. m. Many cabin passengers left us here and about 
 two hundred steerage passengers. Three large barge 
 loads of baggage were fished from the bowels of the 
 ship and went ashore also, where the owners were 
 obliged to stand or sit for hours awaiting the slow 
 and irritating actions of the customs officers. At 
 5.30 we went ashore for an hour or two, to look around 
 the city. Walked up town several blocks, coming 
 at last to a public square or plaza containing a monu- 
 ment surmounted by a heroic sized statue of Gari- 
 baldi. The streets seemed to be crowded with sol- 
 diers, policemen and officials of various character. 
 Three transports were at the dock bearing wounded 
 
32 
 
 and sick soldiers from the campaign in Tripoli and pre- 
 pared to re-load with fresh reinforcements for the war 
 against Turkey. The beauties of the Bay of Naples 
 have been exploited in song and story the world over 
 for generations, and it is probably the rankest and 
 most presumptuous heresy to discount in any degree 
 these superlative descriptions, and yet to my mind 
 the Bay of Algiers far surpasses it in scenic beauty. 
 But possibly when we return to Naples and have 
 opportunity to view the bay from the heights above 
 the city the impression of the present may be modi- 
 fied. On our arrival the view of Mount Vesuvius 
 was clear and free from clouds. It was having a 
 restful day, however, and only now and then did a 
 slight rim of white smoke or steam show itself above 
 the crater. The white line of the inclined railway 
 was plainly visible as it climbed the steep side of the 
 mountain. All night long the process of unloading 
 cargo and coaling ship proceeded amidst the noise of 
 machinery and the voluble and excited exclamations 
 of the Italian coal-heavers as they dumped basket 
 after basket of coal into the depths of the bunkers. 
 
 February 20. — Arose at 8 a. m. and found we were 
 still at anchor in the harbor of Naples. However, at 
 9.45 the unloading and coaling having been finished, 
 we weighed anchor and bore out of the harbor, 
 bound for Alexandria, where, alas, we leave this beau- 
 tiful and most comfortable ship for we know not 
 what. At 6 p. m. we passed the island and volcano 
 of Stromboli rising abruptly from the sea to a con- 
 siderable height. A village of some proportions lies 
 at the foot of the mountain. The summit of the peak 
 was hidden from view by a very heavy black cloud 
 
33 
 
 which seemed to envelop the whole mountain half- 
 way to the foot. According to the guide-book Strom- 
 boU is 3,022 feet high. 
 
 At 8 p. m. we entered the Strait of Messina, passing 
 Scylla and Charybdis of ancient fame and fear, 
 and soon coming in sight of the long line of hghts 
 from the city of Messina on the starboard side and 
 of Reggio on the port. Both these cities were par- 
 tially destroyed by the earthquake of 1908, the former 
 losing two-thirds and the latter three-fourths of its 
 population. 
 
 February 21. — Today has been a monotonous all 
 day sail with no land in sight on either side and the 
 weather clear and warm in the sunshine, but with a 
 cool stiff breeze blowing. This afternoon our party 
 assembled in the Lounge to receive preliminary 
 instructions regarding the trip up the Nile. Instead of 
 having a couple of days in Cairo, as we had expected, 
 we find that the river steamer will leave the same 
 day of our arrival and that we shall have to leave 
 Alexandria immediately after arrival there in order 
 to connect with the boat at Cairo. Everybody 
 seems to be getting tired of the long trip on ship- 
 board, but I apprehend it will be some time before we 
 are again so comfortably situated. 
 
 February 22. — To-day is but a repetition of yester- 
 day, steadily steaming S.S.E.,with a limitless waste of 
 water on either side. Many of the passengers made 
 their appearance on deck after breakfast, with small 
 American flags attached to their persons, and at 
 dinner the orchestra, as a finale, played a medley of 
 American airs, winding up with Dixie and The Star 
 1677—3 
 
34 
 
 Spangled Banner, amid much enthusiastic applause. 
 The sun went down like a great ball of fire, followed 
 by an afterglow and cloud painting as gorgeous as the 
 tints of Moran's Yellowstone. 
 
 February 23. — This morning at 6 o'clock we came 
 to anchor in the harbor of Alexandria. It is a large, 
 well protected harbor, inside a substantial break- 
 water or sea wall of masonry. The outlook is radi- 
 cally different from that of any port we have pre- 
 viously entered. Instead of the bold, rocky and 
 mountainous shores of Madeira, Gibraltar, Algiers 
 and Morocco, the view is that of a perfectly flat, water- 
 level country, resembling very much the delta of the 
 Mississippi River, and in fact it has been formed in 
 exactly the same manner from the alluvial deposits 
 brought down during the flood-periods of the great 
 river above it. After breakfast we went ashore and 
 were hustled without ceremony and without oppor- 
 tunity to see the city — amidst the shrieks and 
 demands of innumerable insatiable Arabs — into the 
 waiting train for Cairo, where we arrived at 1 p. m. 
 The ride through the country between these points is 
 a revelation to the untraveled American. On every 
 hand is a hive of industry. At every glance some- 
 thing strange and unique greets the eye. Every acre 
 — nay every square foot — is intensively cultivated and 
 all under ancient but effective methods of irrigation. 
 In some places the water is lifted from the irrigating 
 canals into the lateral ditches by a large hollow wheel 
 with holes at regular intervals for the outlet of the 
 water, the motive power in most instances being the 
 water buffalo. 
 
35 
 
 At other places the water is Hfted by means of a 
 hand-power well-sweep in a bucket to the first level, 
 and then by a second uplifting operation of the same 
 character is carried to the level of the lateral ditch. 
 At every point you see wide areas of alfalfa, corn, 
 wheat, beans, garden vegetables and sugar-cane in a 
 forward state of growth. Other fields are being pre- 
 pared for crops, the plowing being done with an old- 
 fashioned wooden plow pulled by a team of water 
 buffaloes. Camels and donkeys are everj^where seen, 
 the former frequently in long column following closely 
 after one another, carrying burdens of various kinds 
 stowed away in panniers hung from each side of the 
 saddle. Every driver of a donkey or camel carries 
 a bunch of alfalfa with him as fodder and it is doled 
 out to the animal with greatest care. On reaching 
 Cairo we went immediately aboard the little Nile 
 steamer Mayflower, where we were assigned our rooms 
 and sat down to lunch, after which a small gasoline 
 launch carried us to the opposite bank of the river, 
 where we were taken in carriages up one of the prin- 
 cipal and most beautiful streets of the city to the 
 Hamburg- American steamship office. The beauty 
 and solidity of the buildings in Cairo were far beyond 
 expectations. As our boat was to leave promptly 
 at 4 p. m. we had but about an hour for looking 
 around. Promptly at the hour fixed we cast loose 
 from the bank and proceeded up the Nile. The 
 prospect from the start was one of unprecedented 
 novelty and beauty. The banks of the river are low 
 and for several miles on each side the land is level 
 and subject to the fertilizing overflow of its waters. 
 The country is teeming with population, all appar- 
 ently busy plowing, sowing or harvesting crops. 
 
36 
 
 Every few minutes we passed a village of mud houses 
 with roofs thatched with corn stalks, covered with 
 manure, and surrounding or adjacent to each house 
 is a large pile of dried camel chips, presumably for fuel 
 or fertilizing, and with an odor that is reminiscent 
 of the Augean stables. The great pyramids of Ghizeh 
 are in sight on our right and the groves of date palms 
 intersperse the landscape here and there, resembling 
 feather dusters with the feathers somewhat the worse 
 for wear. They are, however, quite picturesque and 
 lend much beauty and variety to the generally entranc- 
 ing scene. Fourteen miles above Cairo we reached 
 our first stopping place and tied up to the bank for the 
 night. 
 
 February 24-. — Arose at 6 a. m., breakfasted at 6.30, 
 and at 8 o'clock our dragoman was ready with our 
 donkeys and Arab donkey boys. All mounted and 
 set out for our first point of sight-seeing, this being the 
 village of Badrashen. It is a town of some five or 
 six thousand inhabitants, composed entirely of adobe 
 huts, mostly of one story and filled with Arabs, dirt, 
 goats and monuments of camel chips. Passing 
 through the town and skirting several beautiful 
 groves of date palms and fields of bright green barley 
 and alfalfa, we came to the site of the ancient city 
 of Memphis, founded by Menes in the first Egyptian 
 dynasty, 4400 B. C. Memphis suffered many dis- 
 asters in the various wars and the buildings were 
 finally pulled down from time to time by the Moham- 
 medans and others and the stones used in the building 
 of old Cairo and other cities. The first object of 
 interest on the site of Memphis is the colossal statue 
 of Rameses II. It formerly stood in front of the 
 
37 
 
 temple of Ptah, but is now prostrate and broken. 
 It is made of very fine hard limestone and was 
 upwards of forty feet in height. Leaving the statue 
 we continued our ride on to Sakkara, which was the 
 sacred burying-ground of the ancient Egyptians. 
 Here are four pyramids, one called the step pyramid, 
 being built of stones about three or four feet square 
 and being about two hundred feet in height and said 
 to be the oldest pyramid in the world. Another 
 object of interest is the tomb of the Apis bulls where 
 all the sacred bulls were buried in granite sarcophagi. 
 These long unknown tombs were rediscovered and 
 excavated in 1 850 by M . Mariette. The old historian, 
 Herodotus, describes the Apis as "the calf of a cow 
 incapable of conceiving another offspring; and the 
 Egyptians say that lightning descends upon the cow 
 from Heaven and that from thence it brings forth 
 Apis. This calf, which is called Apis, has the fol- 
 lowing marks : It is black and has a triangular spot 
 of white on the forehead, and on the back the figure 
 of an eagle; and in the tail double hairs and on the 
 tongue a beetle." The tomb of Thi is also an object 
 of great interest. It was originally all above ground 
 but in the lapse of ages has been covered by the drift- 
 ing sands. Its galleries have been excavated and 
 cleared out so that you can enter and follow their 
 various windings, the walls of which are decorated 
 with paintings and carvings in the stone showing Thi 
 and his household in the performance of their multi- 
 farious farm and domestic duties and in his numerous 
 hunting and fishing excursions. Speaking again of 
 the tombs of the Apis or sacred bulls — they are hewn 
 out of the solid rock and have a length of nearly 
 four hundred yards — are on each side of a passage 
 
38 
 
 way some ten feet wide and eighteen or twenty feet 
 high. These bulls were worshipped by the ancient 
 Egyptians and at death were embalmed and buried 
 in huge stone coffins chiseled out of a single piece of 
 granite or limestone thirteen feet in length, seven feet 
 wide and eleven feet high, and each weighing more than 
 sixty-five tons. Our return trip was timed so as to 
 reach the boat for lunch. The trip was altogether 
 unique and intensely interesting. The wonderful 
 strength and endurance of the donkey boys is marvel- 
 ous. For hours they follow behind the donkeys and 
 keep them on the trot, most of the time shouting 
 and gesticulating without apparent fatigue. My 
 donkey's name was Yankee Doodle, and the small 
 Arab boy who engineered and guided him spoke 
 smattering English enough to recite the song of Yankee 
 Doodle Dandy and to suggest every few minutes, in 
 very plaintive tones, that he would like a little back- 
 sheesh to buy some clover for the pony. Shortly after 
 reaching the boat we again cast off the lines and pro- 
 ceeded up the river, coming about 5 o'clock to a fleet 
 of Egyptian boats, all anchored in the channel of the 
 river and blocking our farther progress, until by means 
 of puUing and pushing and amid great excitement 
 and angry gesticulation among the native crews, we 
 squeezed our way between them and continued on 
 throughout the night, although the original program 
 provided for our landing and tying up at 10 o'clock. 
 The picturesque hamlets of mud, surrounded by the 
 clustering palms, which forever bend their feather- 
 like leaves to the gentlest breeze; the blue-robed 
 women who come with their graceful poise to the 
 river's side to fill their balanced pitchers; the village 
 girls and boys driving the buffaloes to drink — all these 
 diversify the picture. 
 
39 
 
 February 25. — All day long we have been pushing 
 our way up the Nile with great similarity of view to 
 that already passed, viz : mud villages, chattering and 
 excited Arabs, patches of alfalfa, wheat and sugar- 
 cane, groves of date palms and fleets of sail-boats 
 loaded with limestone and other freight — except that 
 on the east bank, a little over a hundred miles above 
 Cairo, the country becomes rougher and the river 
 is flanked closely by limestone bluffs, ranging from 
 fifty to three hundred feet in height . This stone, when 
 quarried and dressed, is almost as white and beautiful 
 as marble. About one hundred and twenty miles 
 above Cairo on the west bank we pass the town 
 of El-kais, where is located a Coptic convent. Min- 
 yah,the capital of the province of the same name, with 
 a population of twenty thousand, was passed during 
 the afternoon, and at 5.30 we tied up for the night at 
 Beni-Hasan, where are some famous tombs that we 
 shall visit to-morrow. A miscellaneous gathering 
 of natives and donkeys greeted us. After a short 
 walk on shore we returned to the boat to dinner and 
 listened to a lecture from Doctor Dunning. 
 
 February 26. — Breakfast at 7 a. m. Aboard the 
 donkeys at 7.30, lined up for the village of Beni-Hasan, 
 half a mile from shore, through the narrow street 
 of which we rode amidst the worst bedlam of screeches, 
 howls and appeals for backsheesh we have yet experi- 
 enced. Everyone, from infancy to imbecile old age, 
 had an outstretched hand and an appealing cry. Pass- 
 ing on we climbed the hill to a high mesa at the foot 
 of a towering ledge of limestone, out of the solid sides 
 of which were the excavations for the temple of Speos 
 Artemidos. The walls were adorned with carvings 
 
40 
 
 in the solid rock and also with paintings illustrative 
 of the everyday life and occupations of the builder. 
 Passing from here by a trail leading along the foot of 
 the bluff, for a couple of miles, we came to the tombs 
 of Beni-Hasan, thirty-nine in number, which are also 
 carved out of the solid rock, the roof being sup- 
 ported by sundry pillars or columns more or less 
 carved and ornamented. In one tomb the columns 
 were fluted Corinthian and in another, the tomb of 
 Kahdi, each column represents four lotus stems with 
 unopened buds, and painted in red, blue and yellow. 
 The view of the Valley of the Nile from these heights 
 is broad and beautiful. Returned to the boat at 9.30 
 and proceeded up the river at 10 a. m., passing Roda 
 and sundry other small villages, at the former of 
 which is a large sugar factory. The east bank of 
 the river has been characterized all day long by a steep, 
 lofty and continuous cliff of white limestone, which 
 is at many points being blasted and rolled down to the 
 river's edge to be loaded on the native vessels, to be 
 used for rip-rapping the river's banks, for building 
 stone and for converting into lime. About 11 p. m. 
 we tied up to the bank just below the dam at Asyut, 
 two hundred and fifty miles above Cairo. 
 
 February 27. — Arose for a 7.30 breakfast and looked 
 out upon a crowd of natives on native boats lining the 
 shore and also upon several native men, naked and 
 taking their morning bath in the river with the ther- 
 mometer standing at 45°. In a few moments we cast 
 off our lines and steamed into the lock followed by four 
 native vessels and were lifted to the level of the water 
 above the dam. This dam is about half a mile long 
 and is composed of a series of limestone arches or 
 
41 
 
 openings more than one hundred in number, on top of 
 which is a bridge floor for both animals and pedes- 
 trians. The difference in level of the water above 
 and below the dam is eight feet three inches. After 
 breakfast we went ashore amidst the excited impor- 
 tunities of native merchants, who lined the bank, with 
 metallic embroidered shawls for sale . Mounted on don- 
 keys or in carriages we set out for the town of Asyut, 
 passing through the principal streets and the bazar. 
 We have seen filth in multiplied forms before, but 
 never in such magnificent extravagance and in such 
 richness of detail as here. Flies swarm in countless 
 millions over everything and everybody. Children 
 from babes in arms up, can be seen with their faces 
 absolutely covered with flies and manifesting no 
 apparent annoyance and making no effort to remove 
 them. Grown people and children alike attend 
 to the calls of nature whenever and wherever the spirit 
 moves them, be it beside the front door or in the market 
 place. Passing through the village we ascended a 
 high hill and visited several tombs of a similar char- 
 acter to those already visited. From the summit of 
 the hill we had a fine view of the city and surrounding 
 country. On the return journey we stopped for half 
 an hour and visited a Protestant mission school in 
 which some of our party appeared deeply interested. 
 Asyut is noted for its pottery manufactures and also 
 as one of the chief places for the manufacture of white 
 and black tulle shawls, embroidered in gold and silver, 
 and for which tourists pay all sorts of prices, meas- 
 ured only by their gullibility. An Arab merchant 
 will begin by offering the shawls at from ten to 
 twenty-five dollars, according to quahty, but will wind 
 up, if the tourist is sufficiently patient and conserva- 
 
42 
 
 tive, in clinching a sale at two to five dollars each. 
 We reached the boat shortly after 11a. m.,and imme- 
 diately cast off and proceeded up the river. 
 
 February 28. — After an all night run we reached, 
 shortly after breakfast, the city of Abydos, about four 
 hundred miles above Cairo. Instead of a donkey 
 we took a sand cart for a drive to the temples 
 of Seti I and Rameses II. Seven or eight miles 
 across a level country of great fertility and product- 
 iveness, intersected by several large irrigating canals, 
 and carrying heavy crops of beans, wheat, barley 
 and sugar cane, brought us to the temples, whose 
 present ruined condition served only as a guide to the 
 imagination in picturing the magnificence of their 
 original architectural and artistic beauty. The roofs 
 of the temples were supported by limestone columns, 
 some forty feet in height and six feet in diameter. 
 Every inch, not only of these columns, but of the walls 
 of the temples, was covered with carved figures and 
 hieroglyphics illustrating the life, the occupations, the 
 adventures and the achievements of the kings who 
 erected them. The carvings on the pillars were 
 uncolored, but those on the walls were beautifully 
 colored, and while in most cases the coloring is badly 
 deteriorated, yet in some of the best protected spots 
 it is still quite vivid. These ruins mark the site of 
 the oldest known capital of Egypt. The ride back 
 to the boat was somewhat tempered in its pleasure by 
 the slowness of our pony and the heat of the sun. 
 Immediately following our return the boat proceeded 
 on up the river until 6 o'clock p. m., when we tied up 
 for the night at Nag Hamadi, where a railroad bridge 
 crosses the Nile and where a large sugar factory is 
 located. 
 
43 
 
 February 29. — At 7.30 a. m. we cast off from shore 
 and proceeded through the draw of the railroad bridge, 
 which is only open for half an hour twice a day. We 
 have been passing to-day many shadoufs with the 
 natives industriously raising the water from level 
 to level for irrigating their crops. It is work well 
 calculated for muscular development, and their lithe 
 and active bodies carry not a pound of surplus or 
 flabby flesh. The Egyptians average fully as great 
 in height as Americans, which is rather a surprise to 
 me. We have passed to-day great fields of poppies 
 in full bloom, for the first time on the trip. The 
 scenery is unchanged and monotonous and the tem- 
 perature is reaching the point of discomfort, standing 
 above eighty degrees in the shade on the boat and 
 hotter than a Sacramento Valley Fourth of July in the 
 sun. Shortly after lunch we stopped at Denderah 
 where the donkeys were in waiting to take us to the 
 temples, a half hour's ride distant. Taking into 
 consideration the state of the temperature and the 
 similarity of temples and tombs at different points, 
 I considered discretion the better part of valor and 
 remained aboard the boat, while most of the party 
 proceeded on the trip. At 8 p. m. reached Luxor. 
 At 10.30 went ashore and had a moonlight view of the 
 temple of Luxor, which stands only about one hun- 
 dred yards from the landing. In the soft and sub- 
 dued light of the moon the effect was awe inspiring 
 and transcended anything we have yet seen. 
 
 March 1. — Arising just as the sun was greeting the 
 horizon, the air was soft and balmy as a California 
 summer morning. The yellow cliffs of the ragged 
 mountain range on the west bank began to take on a 
 
44 
 
 pinkish tint which gradually deepened to a royal 
 purple, and finally shaded off into a robin's egg blue. 
 The sky was as blue as a Colorado sapphire and as 
 guiltless of clouds as an Egyptian peasant boy fre- 
 quently is of clothes. At 8,30 we mounted our 
 donkeys and set out for a view of the great temple of 
 Karnak. I shall attempt no description of this won- 
 derful ruin with its colossal columns, its extended 
 avenues of sphinxes and wonderful carvings and bas 
 reliefs, for all that can be obtained in extenso from the 
 guide-books. After spending several hours in study- 
 ing the ruins we returned to the boat for lunch and 
 spent the afternoon in wandering about the town, 
 which contains ten or a dozen small stores and several 
 tourist hotels, one of which, the Winter Palace, is new, 
 beautiful and modern in all its appointments, sur- 
 rounded by extensive grounds filled with trees, 
 shrubs and beautiful flowers. Several English noble- 
 men and many wealthy Germans were among its 
 guests for the winter. The ruins of the Luxor temple 
 are lacking in the carvings and inscriptions that char- 
 acterize Karnak and are much more impressive by 
 moonlight than in the sharp glare of the midday sun. 
 
 March 2. — Having contracted a severe cold, I 
 found on rising this morning that I was unfit for 
 excursion duty. Concluded therefore to cut out the 
 official trip of the day, which consisted in crossing the 
 river in a native sail boat and a visit to the tomb of 
 the Kings, the temples of Kurnah, Ramisseum and 
 the Colossi. 
 
 The ancient city of Thebes with its one hundred 
 gates, its teeming population and its historical splen- 
 dor stood upon the site surrounding us and covered 
 
45 
 
 both banks of the Nile. The chmate of Egypt has 
 been eulogized unstintedly by the guide books, but 
 to me it is most trying. Its sudden changes from heat 
 to cold and from balmy, dreamy quiet to blustering, 
 disagreeable winds, with the sand filling your eyes and 
 mouth, has no counterpart outside of San Francisco. 
 
 By train or boat, crowds of tourists are constantly 
 arriving, half of whom are Americans and the re- 
 mainder English, French and German, the latter pre- 
 dominating. The restlessness of thrift and pros- 
 perity has become epidemic; and the privations, dis- 
 comforts and irritating conditions that .people of 
 assured incomes will undergo, under the guise of satis- 
 fying their curiosity and having a good time, are more 
 astonishing than the works of antiquity and the 
 peculiarities of the people they spend their money to 
 see. America, even with its inflictions of Teddy 
 Roosevelt and Wm. Jennings Bryan, and sundry other 
 grievous pests, is paradise compared with anything 
 we have steered up against in this oriental domain. 
 
 But as I sat here on deck waiting for the dinner call, 
 the sun went down in a bank of clouds and for a few 
 minutes the dullness of the shades and shadows gave 
 disappointment; the yellow hills turned to a dark 
 gray and it looked as if the twilight was about to close 
 into evening's darkness, when suddenly, the clouds 
 began to light up; a stream of crimson shot athwart 
 the northern sky; then a tinge of lavender underlaid 
 with a belt of gold, trimmed with a fringe of azure 
 blue, all finally shading into a broad curtain of blaz- 
 ing red, as if the day of judgment had arrived and the 
 western half of the world was being consumed with 
 an all pervading conflagration. For nearly half an 
 hour it seemed, though possibly not so long, this beau- 
 
46 
 
 tiful painting adorned the western horizon, and then, 
 as its glory faded, the silvery shades of the beautiful 
 moon cast their glamour over the eastern sky and 
 lighted up the ruins of the temple, filUng every column 
 and niche with a ghostly and mystical aspect reminisc- 
 ent of the pomp and glory of ancient Thebes. The 
 spot upon which ancient Thebes stood is admirably 
 adapted for the site of a great city. The mountains 
 on the east and west sides of the river sweep away 
 from it and leave a broad plain on each bank, of several 
 square miles in extent, easily adapted to irrigation 
 from the waters of the Nile. It is here that the great 
 river makes its nearest approach to the Red Sea and 
 then soon turns away from it in a great bend to the 
 west. 
 
 It seems that in those days there were men whose 
 egotism reached a point in no wise inferior to that of 
 some of our public men of to-day. For instance, 
 in the reign of one of the early sovereigns of Thebes, 
 there lived a famous artist and sculptor who said of 
 himself: "I know the things of sacred literature and 
 the regulations of the festivals and every word of 
 power with which a man should be provided. I have 
 never put them away from me. I am, moreover, 
 a workman skilled in his craft, who, by reason of his 
 knowledge, hath risen above all others. I have 
 knowledge concerning the water flood of the Nile and 
 of the rising of the scales in making reckoning by 
 weighing, and how to depict the motion of a limb 
 when it is extended and withdrawn to its place. I 
 know how to depict the gait of a man and the way 
 in which a woman beareth herself, and the two arms 
 of Horus and the twelve abodes of the monster and 
 how to gaze with that unequaled eye which striketh 
 
47 
 
 terror into the fiends, and how to balance the arm 
 in such a way as to smite down the Hippopotamus, 
 and how to depict the stride of him who runneth. 
 I know how to make the amulets which will enable us 
 to go unharmed through every fire whatsoever and 
 which will keep us from being washed away by any 
 water whatsoever. No man getteth skill in these 
 matters except myself and the eldest son of my 
 body, unto whom God hath decreed that he should 
 advance in them. " Is there any need for the geneal- 
 ogist to search further for the ancient lineal ancestor 
 of the Roosevelt family? 
 
 March 3. — Spent the morning looking about the 
 streets and shops of Luxor and strolled through the 
 beautiful grounds of the Winter Palace Hotel, filled with 
 trees, shrubs and flowering plants. Among the cul- 
 tivated flowers is a row of old fashioned Jimson weed, 
 such as used to line neglected yards and waste places 
 in Ohio when I was a boy. Roses do not seem to do 
 well here, most of the buds being blasted either by 
 the trying winds or insect pests. At 11 a. m. all 
 lines were cast off, and we proceeded up the river, pass- 
 ing here and there date palm groves, sugar factories 
 and natives busily engaged at their shadoufs irrigat- 
 ing their crops. 
 
 Arrived at Esna, four hundred and eighty-five 
 miles from Cairo, about 5 p.m.; landed and proceeded 
 through the village on foot to the temple of Thotmes 
 III. While this is one of the latest temples built and is 
 of minor dimensions compared with Karnak, its 
 portico is supported by twenty-four of the most 
 beautifully carved columns; the capital of each col- 
 umn is of a different pattern and every inch, both 
 
48 ■ 
 
 of the columns and of the walls of the temple, is cov- 
 ered by the most artistic and best preserved speci- 
 mens of hieroglyphics and historical bas-reliefs that 
 have greeted us. Leaving Esna we proceeded up 
 the river some thirty miles, passing several small 
 villages on the way and reaching Edfu at 11 p. m., 
 where the boat tied up for the night and a number of 
 the party went on an exploring expedition through the 
 town. 
 
 In the morning an excursion was made to the temple 
 which, though not so ancient as some others, is remark- 
 able for its almost complete state of preservation. 
 Begun more than two hundred years B. C, it was over 
 one hundred and eighty years in building, with towers 
 more than one hundred feet high. The columns and 
 pylons are covered with historical inscriptions showing 
 battle scenes, hunting and domestic incidents. The 
 temple had in course of time been completely buried 
 by the shifting sands of the desert and other houses 
 and stables had been built above its roof, but about 
 fifty years ago, M. Mariette, under the auspices of an 
 archeological society, caused the debris to be exca- 
 vated and once more exposed the beautiful building 
 to the gaze and admiration of the modern traveler. 
 
 March 4- — About 11 a. m. we reached Kom Ombo 
 and stopped for an hour to visit the temple, which was 
 very similar in its general aspects to those already 
 seen. Here are the mummified carcasses of two 
 alligators. Although the temple was but a short 
 distance from the boat-landing the trip was very 
 uncomfortable on account of the heat. I have never 
 felt the rays of the midsummer sun in California 
 more intense than at this place. By sundown, how- 
 
49 
 
 ever, it was cool enough for an overcoat. For the last 
 twenty miles the river has narrowed up to about one- 
 half its previous width. Another beautiful sunset 
 characterized the close of the day. At 7.30 p. m. we 
 reached Assouan. The meals on the boat during 
 the trip have been progressively bad, consisting of five 
 or six courses of indescribable and mysterious com- 
 pounds, each one more distasteful than its predecessor. 
 To add to the aggravation of it the steward stops you 
 each time as you leave the dining room and inquires 
 how you enjoyed your meal. 
 
 March 5. — At 8.30 a. m. took a boat rowed by six 
 natives and visited the temple of Isis, which stands on 
 the island of Philae and which, owing to the construc- 
 tion of the Assouan dam, is now partially submerged. 
 When the addition to the dam now in process of con- 
 struction is finished the temple will be almost entirely 
 submerged. 
 
 The temple of Isis or Philae is not as large as those 
 at Luxor and Karnak, but is very similar in style of 
 construction. From the temple we re-entered our 
 boats and were rowed to the Assouan dam, about two 
 and one-half miles below Philae ; there we landed and 
 had lunch. Owing to the constructive work in prog- 
 ress we were not permitted to walk across the dam, 
 but walked down to thecanal locks where, after seeing 
 a native plunge fifty or sixty feet from the surface of 
 the lock to the water below and rewarding him with 
 backsheesh, we took to our boats again at the lower 
 of four locks and rowed to the village of Assouan, 
 where we spent an hour exploring the mysteries of the 
 bazaar with its infinity of small shops and curious 
 wares of every oriental pattern. Returned to the 
 1677—4 
 
50 
 
 steamerat 5p.m. The Assouan dam is considered one 
 of the greatest of its kind in existence, while its greatest 
 head of water (66 feet) is far surpassed by several of 
 the irrigation projects in the United States its great 
 length — more than one and one-fourth miles — gives 
 character to the claims for the vastness of the proj- 
 ect. Opposite the village is Elephantine Island, some- 
 what noted for its tombs, but which did not excite our 
 curiosity sufficiently to visit it. This island was 
 regarded in the ancient days as the key to lower 
 Egypt from the south and during the Roman occu- 
 pation was strongly fortified and garrisoned. 
 
 March 6. — At 2 a. m. a number of our party got up 
 to see the southern cross, but did not feel repaid for the 
 exertion. At 11.30 a. m. started on our return trip 
 down the river, reaching Kom Ombo at 2.30 p. m. 
 and stopping for another view of the ruins. Just 
 below here is a very large irrigation plant pumping 
 through three immense main pipes and supplying 
 water sufficient for the irrigation of forty thousand 
 acres. In fact the ancient and the modern are curi- 
 ously commingled along the whole stretch of this 
 mighty river. Within sight of this modern irrigating 
 plant, with its Herculean engines, can be seen the untir- 
 ing native operating his shadouf in the same identical 
 way that characterized his ancestors four thousand 
 years ago in refreshing the thirsty soil. Side by side 
 with obelisks and tombs one sees the smoking chimney 
 of an up-to-date sugar factory, with its massive and 
 complicated machinery, and all along the banks, in 
 inconsistent defiance of their repose, the railway 
 engine shrieks its triumphant challenge to the slow 
 and ungainly camel, and the telegraph spins its thread 
 and sends stock quotations of London and Paris in 
 
51 
 
 front of the stony and unmoved faces of old Rameses 
 and the Colossi. Life and death here are ever in sight 
 and in perpetual contrast. The land is one sublime 
 charnel house saved only from mournfulness by the 
 ever fertilizing river of life which passes through it. 
 At 8 p. m. tied up for the night at Edfu. Another 
 magnificent sunset greeted us this evening, following 
 a whole day of very strong, disagreeable cold wind, 
 with the sky partially covered with scattering clouds 
 and the air full of fine particles of sand. 
 
 March 7. — At 8 a. m, most of the party went ashore 
 for another view of the temple of Edfu. Continuing 
 our trip down the river, about 2 p. m. we passed through 
 the lock of the dam at Esna, reached Luxor at 6 p.m., 
 and the tints of evening which begin so early already 
 clothed the abrupt and channeled mountains with 
 their mother-of-pearl hues. The princely date palm 
 is almost the only landscape companion and its colors 
 vary as do the colors of everything here through the 
 nice gradations of daylight. As the fresh morning 
 strikes it, it is of a silvery green, and in full light its 
 stem is a golden brown, warmer than any other tints 
 in the landscape, and when the wind is strong its 
 graceful hair is tossed over its eyes like that of a 
 mermaid amidst the waves. 
 
 March 8. — Still at Luxor. Ten of our party crossed 
 the river and made a trip on donkeys to the tombs of 
 the Queens. Everybody at Luxor sells antiques. 
 The Arab idea of our meaning of the word antique 
 seems to be something beautiful or that commands 
 the admiration, and that it is applicable alike to 
 scarabs, chameleons, babies or watermelons. If you 
 
52 
 
 examine or take an apparent fancy to any object in 
 his stock, it becomes at once in his eyes and by his 
 most fervent assurance a "sure enough" antique. 
 
 March 9. — Still at Luxor. In company with my 
 congenial friend Woodruff wandered through the 
 gardens surrounding the Luxor and Winter Palace 
 hotels and patronized some of the photograph shops. 
 The sun is very hot — thermometer 92° in the shade. 
 Left the steamer at 6 p. m. and boarded the railroad 
 train for Cairo an hour later,. The sleeping car was 
 hot and stuffy and packed to the limit with irritable 
 and perspiring humanity. In comfort or conven- 
 ience it is not to be mentioned in the same class with 
 a modern Pullman. We were offered and some of us 
 ate a supposititious dinner aboard the train com- 
 posed of the vilest compounds, such as would have 
 made fairly good slop for the hogs at home. 
 
 March 10. — Reached Cairo at 7.50 a. m. and went 
 directly to Shepheard's Hotel. It is in the center of 
 the busiest part of Cairo and from its portico the 
 scene is one of kaleidoscopic beauty and variety. 
 At every glance the scene is new and varied. Passing 
 in review are a dozen or two street merchants vending 
 with industrious persistency their wares of silver 
 spangled shawls, gaudy beads, scarabs of doubtful 
 antiquity and Turkish rugs of varied value. Mendi- 
 cants of a hundred different ailments, appealing 
 with annoying pertinacity for backsheesh; boys in 
 circus tights turning somersaults and cartwheels on 
 the hard asphalt pavement almost under the passing 
 horses' feet in the hope of a half piastre contribution 
 from some easy going tenderfoot; dozens of postal- 
 
53 
 
 card vendors with views of everything in Egypt, 
 ancient or modern; peddlers of Nile water at half- 
 penny a glass and slight of hand performers, whose 
 skill in deceiving the eye is little less than marvelous. 
 Arabs of clear, almost copper-colored complexion and 
 wearing a red fez; Egyptians of darker shade with 
 vari-colored turbans and skirts touching the ground ; 
 Nubians and Soudanese, black as the night, with 
 wooly hair, thick lips and shining white teeth much 
 in evidence by reason of their smiling good nature; 
 French, Italian and German Jews, who are proprie- 
 tors of most of the small shops; Dragomen with their 
 gaily and many colored habiliments wearing their 
 badge of office in silver or gold letters upon the left 
 arm; Turkish soldiers and native policemen clothed 
 in khaki uniforms and making their authority manifest 
 at frequent intervals by scattering the hoodlums and 
 beggars, and to finish up the panorama are the hun- 
 dreds of American, German and English tourists 
 arriving and departing in a continuously flowing 
 stream. It is the beginning and the end of the gen- 
 erations. Long strings of ancient moth-eaten camels 
 such as furnished the transportation in the days of 
 Abraham ; trains of donkeys like unto the one ridden 
 into Jerusalem by our Saviour; bicycles and auto- 
 mobiles of the latest twentieth century pattern are 
 all in evidence and all essential to the varied dealings 
 and doings of this combination city of the Occident 
 and Orient, this city of the past and present. A more 
 varied, conglomerate and highly colored human pic- 
 ture cannot be found on this great round world of 
 ours. At 3 p. m., in company with Mr. Woodruff, 
 took the tram car and went out to see the great 
 Pyramids and the Sphinx. At a distance the Pyra- 
 
54 
 
 mids look as if they were smooth and finished, but a 
 close approach shows them to be rough and sadly- 
 disintegrated on the outside by the remorseless inroads 
 of time. Great masses of debris that have crumbled 
 from the sides, lie scattered about and are more or less 
 covered up by the continually shifting and drifting 
 sands of the desert. In such a climate as that of the 
 United States these monuments of an early civiliza- 
 tion would have disintegrated, collapsed and entirely 
 disappeared thousands of years ago, but in a country 
 where it rarely ever rains and never freezes, the life 
 of limestone and even of wood itself is immeasurably 
 prolonged. We saw people in considerable numbers 
 ascending and descending the great Pyramid of Cheops 
 with the boosting aid of Arab guides, and one common 
 every day American dog followed his master to the top 
 and back with apparent delight and without assist- 
 ance. Passing beyond the Pyramid we came to a 
 bench whence we could look down upon the Sphinx, 
 but did not go further, as we expect to go again the 
 latter part of the week. 
 
 March 11. — This morning we took a long drive out 
 to the site of ancient Heiiopolis, about five miles 
 northeast of Cairo, stopping on the way at the small 
 village of Matariya, where, according to the tradition 
 of the credulous, are the tree and well where Joseph 
 and the Virgin Mary sat down to rest on their flight 
 to Egypt with the child Jesus. Our guide, however, 
 took pains to destroy the depth of our reverence by 
 informing us that the old sycamore tree, which is 
 now prostrate, was planted in the seventeenth cen- 
 tury of our era and that it is supposed in the vagaries 
 of faith-filled minds to have been planted on the 
 
55 
 
 selfsame spot where its apocryphal predecessor 
 sheltered the weary refugees with their sacred child. 
 There is also close by a spring or well in which the 
 infant's garments are alleged to have been washed, 
 the water from which, when thrown out, started the 
 growth of a new variety of balsam-bearing plants, 
 a drop of the oil from which was essential to the safe 
 and sane baptism of every Christian. At Heliopolis, 
 which was once a great city, there is only left to mark 
 its site one granite obelisk about sixty-five or seventy 
 feet high. Going and coming back from Heliopolis 
 we passed the palace of the Khedive of Egypt, sur- 
 rounded by beautiful gardens and enclosed by a high 
 wall. 
 
 This afternoon we visited the Egyptian Museum, 
 where are collected a vast mass of the exhumed antiq- 
 uities from all parts of Egypt. Our Mr. Dunning 
 pointed out and explained many of the most ancient 
 and remarkable exhibits, but the fact that the old 
 edition of catalogues was exhausted and no new ones 
 were yet ready for distribution or sale rendered it 
 impossible to make a detailed study of the exhibits, 
 even had one the time and inclination. But the col- 
 lection gives a wonderful insight into the religious 
 superstitions, the arts, architecture, mechanical skill, 
 instruments of labor, burial customs and habits of life 
 of the world's oldest civiHzation. 
 
 March 12. — Sick all day with an attack of ptomaine 
 poisoning. Our party was joined here by Prof. M. R. 
 Sandford, of Middlebury, Vermont ; Dr. H. T. Webster 
 and wife, of Oakland, Cal., and Mr. L. Lodge, wife and 
 daughter, of Long Beach, Cal. 
 
56 
 
 March 13. — Our section of the party spent the 
 morning about the hotel or shopping as we pleased. 
 In the afternooii we took carriages for a drive to the 
 various mosques. Our drive carried us through the 
 "Suk" or what is commonly called by Europeans, 
 the Bazaar. For miles the narrow streets are lined 
 on both sides with small shops and stores containing 
 all kinds of oriental goods and wares, and natives are 
 seen engaged in the manufacture and repair of every 
 known article that enters into their daily use, either 
 for food, clothing or luxurious adornment. Every 
 niche in the wall from five to twenty-five feet square 
 constitutes a separate store or shop, and together with 
 the street itself, is literally teeming with people. 
 Children of all ages and colors except white, some 
 clothed in nature's smooth and shiny garments, and 
 others in a long flowing night-shirt, generally of a uni- 
 form color of blue or black, fill the streets, and in a 
 smiling, good natured way hold out their hands for 
 backsheesh, but manifesting no sign of disappoint- 
 ment at not receiving it. The bazaar of Cairo is a 
 repetition of those we have seen at smaller towns up 
 the Nile, except that its vastness of extent is multi- 
 plied many times as compared with them. Emerging 
 from the bazaar, en route, we passed the site of old 
 Cairo, now nothing but an immense pile of dirt liter- 
 ally filled with small pieces of ancient and broken pot- 
 tery. We visited during the afternoon five small 
 mosques of more or less interesting character. The 
 mosque of Amur, which is the oldest in the city, is now 
 used only for sight-seeing purposes. It is a stone 
 building, built of stones taken from the Pyramids — 
 around a large exterior court, faced with columns 
 originally over three hundred in number. It is now 
 
57 
 
 nothing more than a picturesque, well-worn ruin. 
 The mosque Al-Aghar is about a thousand years old 
 and in its present use constitutes one of the most 
 interesting and instructive sights of Cairo. It is now 
 the largest Moslem University in the world and has, 
 according to the information of different authorities, 
 from Baedeker to our official dragoman, from seven 
 thousand to eighteen thousand students. After 
 having our heretical feet encased in moslem slippers 
 we were permitted to pass the portals, and there, 
 seated in groups of from three to a dozen persons, were 
 students ranging from boys seven or eight years old 
 to men of mature years, all studying aloud and with a 
 swaying motion of the body and of the head, com- 
 miting to memory lessons from the Koran. All sat 
 cross-legged on the hard stone floor. Many of these 
 students come from distant portions of the Turkish 
 empire and in numerous instances are too poor to have 
 separate lodgings, and so live altogether in the build- 
 ing. Each one of these is furnished with a small 
 cupboard, about two feet square, within which he 
 keeps his food and all other earthly possessions. 
 
 The earnestness and zeal with which these ragged 
 and poverty' stricken people devote themselves to 
 their lessons — if voluntary — is in the highest degree 
 commendable, but I was unable to ascertain how 
 much this seeming zeal was promoted by a fear of 
 corporal or other punishment in case of failure to 
 master their lessons. 
 
 The mosque of Mohammed Ali, which is within the 
 citadel, is the most modern of the mosques and con- 
 tains his tomb in one corner. Its dome is more than 
 one hundred feet high and is lighted through some of 
 the most exquisitely beautiful stained glass windows 
 
58 
 
 my eyes have ever beheld. The floor is covered with 
 a rich and beautiful oriental carpet, made to fit the 
 circular space of more than a quarter of an acre. The 
 citadel or mosque of Saladdin was the last one we 
 visited and was in its general purpose intended to be 
 the strongest part of the fortifications of Cairo. 
 From its ramparts, now manned by English soldiers 
 and defended by English cannon, we obtained a beau- 
 tiful view of the entire city of Cairo and saw the sun 
 go down amidst a bank of clouds followed by the 
 usual rainbow afterglow. 
 
 March I4 and 15. — Remained at the hotel sick. 
 
 March 16. — Went for drive again through the 
 bazaar and visited several additional mosques, also 
 the palace now on the site of the palace of the Phar- 
 aohs whose daughter discovered and rescued the 
 infant Moses out of the basket in which he was hidden 
 amidst the bullrushes bordering the Nile. We saw 
 the tree on the bank of the river at the spot where he 
 was found, but the bullrushes have been pulled up. 
 We also visited the Coptic convent, being the oldest 
 Christian church in the world, dating from the first 
 century, and the place where Joseph and Mary and 
 the child Jesus remained in hiding while in Egypt, is 
 shown with a full guarantee of genuineness. After 
 returning to the hotel we took the tram-cars to the 
 river, crossed on a steam launch and had lunch at the 
 Ghezireh Palace Hotel. 
 
 Our tour through Egypt is ended. To-morrow we 
 leave for Port Said and Palestine. Historically and 
 physically Egypt appeals to the wonder and the 
 imagination. The earliest cradle of the world's civi- 
 
59 
 
 lization, for centuries the home of the arts and sciences, 
 its architectural genius fully proven by the massive 
 and battered remnants that multiplied centuries of 
 disintegration and the vandal hands of barbarous 
 men have failed to entirely destroy, it stands to-day 
 outside the very frontier of progress, handicapped 
 by ignorance, superstition and Mohammedan domi- 
 nation. Physically, beyond the reach of the fertilizing 
 waters of its historic river, the country is a barren 
 desert of sand and desolation. Within the narrow 
 margin of the Nile's distribution, a fecundity sur- 
 passed nowhere in the known world prevails, and yet 
 the methods and instruments of cultivation and 
 development have in most respects remained un- 
 changed since the biblical days when the brothers of 
 Joseph sold him into Egyptian bondage. Under 
 present English paternal direction and suggestion, 
 however, when the system of dams, reservoirs and 
 canals for the harnessing, conservation and distribu- 
 tion of the surplus waters is completed, the area of 
 productivity will have been greatly enlarged and 
 modern methods and appliances for the better and 
 more economical utilization of such waters will be 
 brought to the service and benefit of the agricultural 
 population. The Nile, to whose agency Egypt is 
 indebted for all that she is or ever has been, has its 
 birth in the lakes of tropical Africa some three degrees 
 south of the equator, and is among the very longest 
 of the world's rivers, though much inferior in volume 
 to many others. Its course has been interrupted at 
 six different points by difficulties of erosion through 
 the Nubian sandstone, and these interruptions are 
 known as cataracts, the last of which occurs at Ele- 
 phantine island near Assouan. Below this island 
 
60 
 
 some distance the geologic formation changes to a 
 soft and friable white limestone, almost as beautiful as 
 marble, which afforded less resistance to the erosive 
 power of the stream, and thereafter the Nile has a 
 clear journey to the Mediterranean through the sands 
 of the eastern Sahara. With a current averaging 
 three miles an hour and at no place more than eleven 
 hundred yards in width, it flows through a valley or 
 bottom ranging from ten to thirty miles in width for 
 a distance of seven hundred and fifty miles, which 
 valley constitutes all of Egypt that is available for 
 the production of the things necessary for the con- 
 tinued existence of human life. All else beyond the 
 cliffs on each side of the Nile was and is a barren and 
 sandy desert. Not over ten or twelve thousand 
 square miles of all its area of four hundred thousand 
 is capable of cultivation, but the richness and pro- 
 ductivity of its soil, constantly renewed by the 
 annual overflow of the great river, renders possible 
 the raising of crops sufficiently bountiful to maintain 
 a population of nearly ten millions of people, a dens- 
 ity almost, if not quite, unknown anywhere else on the 
 earth's surface. So sharply defined is the line of 
 demarcation between the habitable and the desert 
 areas that one may stand with one foot in the verdure 
 of the valley and the other in the desert sand. The 
 Egyptian's world was only a deep and narrow valley 
 of unparalleled fertility winding between lifeless 
 deserts. As seen from a height it resembles a great 
 yellow blanket, with two narrow green stripes run- 
 ning down the center of its entire length, between 
 which lies a meandering thread of burnished silver in 
 the glaring sunlight. When the American traveler, 
 setting forth from a country with less than three 
 
61 
 
 centuries of history behind him, sets foot in Egypt, 
 he is brought face to face with scarcely anything that 
 was not ancient when the Christian era was in its 
 early childhood. Customs, types of men, hiero- 
 glyphics, mummies, rolls of papyrus, temples, tombs 
 and pyramids, all call to him from an unknown num- 
 ber of remote centuries through which has coursed 
 the life-blood of all human history. 
 
 March 17. — Left Cairo for Port Said by rail. 
 Had a beautiful ride for the first half of the distance 
 through intensively cultivated fields of grain, sugar- 
 cane, alfalfa, etc., being through some of the richest 
 portions of the Nile delta. After turning east the 
 country became a desert waste of sand. We soon 
 arrived at the Suez Canal and for an hour or two fol- 
 lowed its banks. Almost every few hundred yards 
 could be seen a great dredge busily hfting or pump- 
 ing out the sands of the desert, which seem to drift and 
 slide into the bed of the canal, and without constant 
 and costly work would soon render it unnavigable. 
 Several ocean steamers were passing enroute to the 
 East Indies. Reached Port Said about the middle 
 of the afternoon and after a drive about town took 
 the steamer Tewfikia for Jaffa. Our vessel was sur- 
 rounded by a frenzied mob of natives in their boats, 
 and nothing seemed to exhaust their vocal powers 
 nor to diminish their determination to obtain back- 
 sheesh. The boat was overcrowded with passengers, 
 many of whom were forced to sleep in the cabin. 
 
 March 18. — Reached Jaffa after a comparatively 
 quiet and comfortable night at 6.30 a. m. This is a 
 much dreaded landing place in stormy weather, but 
 much to our gratification there was no wind blowing, 
 
62 
 
 and the sea was perfectly calm. Immediately after 
 breakfast we landed amidst another pandemonium 
 of howling and begging natives. We were driven 
 direct to the hotel and after lunch took a drive 
 through the town and its surroundings. Passing 
 over a road flanked on both sides by extensive orange 
 groves we ascended a long hill to visit the house of 
 Simon, the Tanner, where, according to scripture, 
 Jesus "tarried many days." From thence we visited 
 the Russian or Greek church, where, in the church- 
 yard is the rock tomb of Tabitha, whom Christ 
 raised from the dead. Returning to the Park Hotel, 
 which by the way is the only familiar name we have 
 encountered since leaving home — we assembled our 
 luggage and drove to the depot, where we took a 
 narrow gauge train for Jerusalem, arriving at the 
 Fast Hotel after a ride of three and one-half hours. 
 The ride from Jaffa to Jerusalem leads you first 
 through beautiful orange groves and later through 
 the fertile and highly cultivated plain of Sharon, the 
 fields showing heavy crops of grain, and the roadsides 
 bordered with many varieties of beautiful wild 
 flowers. Gradually, as the train climbs the grade, the 
 physical character of the country changes and at a 
 distance of thirty miles from Jaffa the country 
 becomes gradually more and more rocky and deso- 
 late, until Jerusalem is reached. En route we passed 
 near the town of Zorah, the supposed birthplace of 
 Samson. 
 
 March 19. — The Jerusalem of to-day consists prac- 
 tically of several towns. The ancient city is still 
 confined within its massive stone walls. Outside the 
 walls a modern town has sprung up and is growing 
 
63 
 
 rapidly. Our hotel is in the modern city. Following 
 a comfortable night's rest we started out in the morn- 
 ing for a tour of the places of interest. Passing 
 through the Damascus gate we followed through the 
 winding passages called streets until we reached the 
 spot where Jesus is said to have taken up the cross, 
 and then followed each step of his progress toward 
 the crucifixion, all of which is given in full detail in 
 the guide books and need not be reiterated here. 
 The alleged tomb of the Saviour, the mosque of Omar 
 and various other points of historical interest were 
 visited, occupying the full day. The street scenes 
 in Jerusalem are to me the most interesting sights of 
 the city. Every nationality, every costume, and 
 every degree of prosperity or of abject poverty greet 
 the eye at every step. The full-blooded Turk with 
 his swagger of authority ; the fierce and gloomy look- 
 ing Bedouin with his ragged but picturesque costume; 
 the persecuted and downcast Jew still holding to his 
 penchant for grabbing the almighty dollar; the alert 
 and vociferous Arab; the "holier than thou" Arme- 
 nian with his hypocritical and revolutionary cant; 
 the jet black, thick-lipped and brawny Nubian 
 with his white turban; the blufT and domineering 
 Englishman; the sociable and chatty German; the 
 dressy and excessively polite Frenchman, and the 
 sight-seeing American tourist are types to be met 
 with almost any time within a block's walk. The 
 passing show also includes long trains of camels and 
 donkeys laden with all kinds of merchandise as well 
 as with an odor that knocks the props from under 
 limburger cheese or asafoetida as leaders in first 
 class perfumes. Down in the narrow, crooked streets 
 of the old town a veritable multitude of dirty, scabby 
 
64 
 
 and leprous looking people infest every nook and 
 corner, and an infinity of ragged children persistently 
 follow you with a cry for backsheesh, and every 
 woman you meet has at least one baby astride her 
 neck and another almost ready to get there. The 
 whole atmosphere and surroundings seem infested 
 with a rabbit-like fecundity. If it were not that 
 seventy per cent of the children die in infancy, the 
 city would soon become a writhing, crawling mass of 
 human worms, embedded and stuck together with 
 their own filth. And this is the holy, sacred and 
 glorious city of Jerusalem toward which the truly 
 pious pilgrims of the world turn their longing steps, 
 and upon which they feast their eager and fanatic 
 eyes. From battle, murder and from modern Jerusa- 
 lem, ''good Lord deliver us." 
 
 March 20. — This morning we took carriages for a 
 trip to Jericho, the River Jordan and the Dead Sea. 
 The road led us around the outside walls of old Jeru- 
 salem with a gradual climb to the top of the ridge for 
 a mile or more, whence the road led off through the 
 country on a descending scale all the way to Jericho. 
 The topography of the country was a complete sur- 
 prise and scenically was beautiful and varied. It was 
 a continuing succession of lofty hills, seamed and 
 scarred and gashed with deep and narrow canons. 
 The first half of the distance the hillsides were cov- 
 ered with a spring growth of grass and flowers, many 
 of the latter being of beautiful shades, and most 
 numerous among them was a small blood-red poppy. 
 The latter half of the distance the hillsides were as 
 yellow and barren as a Nevada desert. In one of 
 the deepest and wildest canons the cave was pointed 
 out to us where Elijah was fed by the ravens. 
 
65 
 
 The road down the mountains winds and twists hke 
 a mammoth snake, and at almost every turn we met 
 trains of donkeys and camels loaded to their utmost 
 capacity with sacks of charcoal on the way from the 
 mountains of Moab, beyond the River Jordan, to the 
 treeless market of Jerusalem. The drivers of these 
 animals were in almost every instance pinched, 
 emaciated, half-starved creatures, with devilish hope- 
 lessness of expression and in the matter of raiment 
 were simply animated rag-bags. If these are samples 
 of what two thousand years of religion of one brand 
 or another has done in the way of material and moral 
 uplift for a people, then religion has been anything 
 but an unmixed blessing to them. Superstition in 
 its most hideous and revolting phases, fed, nurtured 
 and dominated by a fanatical priesthood, controls 
 their every action and movement. In the midst of a 
 horde of pilgrims, whose religious enthusiasm prompts 
 them to come thousands of miles on foot to pay their 
 devotions at the tomb of Jesus, we are warned by 
 our party director and guides to beware of having 
 our pockets picked by the most expert thieves in the 
 world. 
 
 In the latter half of the journey we follow for a 
 long distance a very deep and precipitous canon, at 
 the bottom of which is a running stream which emp- 
 ties into the Jordan near Jericho, and which is sup- 
 posed by some to be the biblical brook of Cherith. 
 On the left hand side of the canon, in an almost inac- 
 cessible spot, a large stone monastery has been 
 erected which is said by Baedeker to be a kind of 
 penitentiary for Greek priests. About three-quarters 
 of an hour before reaching Jericho, as we rounded the 
 corner of a high cliff, we came in sight of the broad 
 1677—5 
 
66 
 
 valley, the city of Jericho itself, and of the winding 
 silver thread of the River Jordan, and still beyond to 
 the right, the broad expanse of the Dead Sea, forty- 
 seven miles long, seven to ten miles wide and nearly 
 thirteen hundred feet below the level of the ocean. 
 We drove on through the present village of Jericho, 
 about a mile to the site of ancient Jericho, where 
 some recent excavations have exposed to view a few 
 old walls of no particular interest. Returning we 
 passed the pool or fountain of Ehsha, which tradi- 
 tion says is the water he healed with salt. The basin 
 of the spring is surrounded by a stone wall and forms 
 a pool some thirty or forty feet square, and five or six 
 feet deep. Continuing our ride we returned to mod- 
 ern Jericho, and put up for the night at the Belle view 
 Hotel. The food was vile, the flies swarmed around 
 the victuals as persistently and viciously as a hive of 
 bees, and the beds were as lumpy and uneven as 
 though, when they put the feathers in, they forgot 
 to take the chickens out. 
 
 March 21. — After breakfast we entered the car- 
 riages and drove over a plain of desolation for about 
 an hour, when we reached the Jordan River, a swift 
 flowing, muddy stream, some sixty to eighty feet 
 wide at this point, where boats were taken for a 
 short ride up stream to see the place where Joshua 
 and the Israelites are supposed to have crossed on 
 their way to take Jericho. The banks of the stream 
 are lined with willows, tamarisks and a variety of 
 poplar somewhat resembling our Carolina poplar. 
 From the Jordan, we continued our ride for another 
 hour to the Dead Sea. The waters of the sea are clear 
 and of a greenish cast. They contain twenty-six per 
 
67 
 
 cent of solid matter, though only seven per cent of 
 this is common salt. There is a strong, bitter taste 
 to the water, complicated with a peculiar sweetish 
 after taste. The beach is composed entirely of small 
 pebbles, from the tiniest size to one-half pound in 
 weight, but there is a total absence of sand. A large 
 proportion of the stones are flint. A number of the 
 ladies in our party trailed down the beach to the 
 left, a distance sufficient to meet the proprieties of 
 the occasion, while the men indulged in a similar 
 "hike" to the right, and all enjoyed the novelty of a 
 bath in the buoyant waters. Returning to the hotel 
 by a different route, we ate lunch, rested for an hour 
 and started on the return trip to Jerusalem. At this 
 hour the sun was blistering hot and when we reached 
 the steep hill about two miles from town, every one 
 was ordered to alight from the carriages and walk up 
 the hill. It was a strenuous climb and we reached 
 the summit reeking with perspiration. Soon after 
 taking the carriages again, it began to cloud up and 
 a cool wind arose which rapidly increased in strength 
 and chilliness until we became very uncomfortable. 
 To add to our discomfort an axle broke on one of the 
 carriages, and the people occupying it were distributed 
 among the other vehicles, and we were detained so 
 long while the drivers rigged up a false axle that we 
 did not reach Jerusalem until long after dark. His- 
 toric and holy spots are as numerous in Jerusalem as 
 are the flies in Jericho, and the Arab guides for a little 
 backsheesh will lead you to them with all the posi- 
 tiveness and assurance of a contemporary participant. 
 A preconceived belief and an all dominating faith 
 are required for the acceptance of these assurances. 
 Ag the city has been destroyed and rebuilt several 
 
68 
 
 times, each time on top of the ruins and debris of its 
 predecessor, the confusion and uncertainty concern- 
 ing the exact location of historic spots and events can 
 be readily seen. The Holy Sepulchre, now within 
 the walls of a Mohammedan mosque, was sought to 
 be identified more than three hundred years after 
 Christ, by the mother of the great Christian Emperor, 
 Constantine, who caused a beautiful church to be 
 erected over it. This church was, however, destroyed 
 and some seven hundred years after its erection 
 another was built, supposedly in the same place, by 
 the fanatical Crusaders. Under the dome or canopy 
 of the sepulchre is a fragment of the stone which was 
 said to have been rolled away on the morning of the 
 resurrection. In an adjacent chapel at a slight ele- 
 vation is the alleged summit of the Mount of Calvary, 
 but a close inspection raises a question of doubt as to 
 whether this rocky eminence is composed of natural 
 or artificial stone. 
 
 March 22. — Not feeling well I remained in the 
 hotel all day. Hearing an unusual sound on the 
 street I stepped to the window and looking out beheld 
 a procession of about a thousand Russian pilgrims 
 just arriving to pay their devotions to the Holy 
 Sepulchre. They were headed by several priests 
 and were chanting a religious song of some sort. 
 The sight was picturesque, but pitiful. Men and 
 women, many of them heavily weighted with years, 
 clad in almost every conceivable style of garment, 
 faded in color and ragged in condition, some entirely 
 barefooted, others with their feet protruding through 
 their wrecked brogans, were dragging their weary 
 bodies slowly along. Not a happy or satisfied coun- 
 
69 
 
 tenance, but on the contrary faces full of heaviness 
 of heart, drudgery, privation and physical suffering 
 characterized every one. Not even a trace of fan- 
 atical ecstacy was visible. They were simply a body 
 of dirty, ragged and stolid human animals. It is 
 approaching Easter, and it is said that during that 
 season more than one hundred thousand of these poor 
 misguided creatures make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, 
 many of them coming more than a thousand miles 
 on foot. The Holy City is the lode-stone for all creeds, 
 sects and crank inspired conceptions of rehgious 
 faith. The poorest and most fanatical Jews are here 
 in thousands, and on Friday afternoons may be seen 
 in swarms by the wall, wailing out their imaginary 
 griefs over the fact that the site of the old temple is in 
 the hands of the Gentiles. Equally fanatical Mos- 
 lems abound, for to them Jerusalem possesses a 
 sacredness second only to that of Mecca. Monks 
 and nuns by the hundreds are here in the interests 
 of and in the propaganda of the Roman Catholic 
 faith — Franciscans, Dominicans, Assumptionists and 
 the Lord only knows how many sisterhoods are repre- 
 sented in their longing to be near the Holy Sepulchre. 
 All branches of eastern Catholics, including Greeks, 
 Russians, Armenians, Syrians and Copts have their 
 churches, monasteries and minor places of worship. 
 Protestants of various sects are scattered through 
 the unleavened mass. Here is a bunch whose abiding 
 faith compels them to await here the second coming 
 of Christ in the hope of securing a reserved seat. 
 A colony is also here whose leader represents in him- 
 self the reincarnation of Elijah, and a deluded but 
 patient and persistent Englishwoman has been wait- 
 ing for many years to give Christ a cup of tea when 
 
70 
 
 he comes again. Such is the religious muddle and 
 confusion that pervades the Holy City. 
 
 We left Jerusalem at 5 p. m., after bidding good- 
 bye to the members of Section A of our party — ^v/ho 
 up to this time had been with us, and started in 
 ambulances, each pulled by three horses, for Ramalleh. 
 After a two hours drive through a rough, stony and 
 mountainous country we reached Ramalleh in time 
 for supper. Near the hotel is located a Quaker, or 
 Friends' school in charge of Mr. and Mrs. Rosenberger, 
 formerly of Indiana, but more recently of Iowa. 
 After supper we were invited to visit the school, where 
 they have sixty native girls and forty boys being 
 educated. The boys had gone to bed, but the girls 
 welcomed us with several songs and recitations in 
 English and Arabic. They sang with voices of 
 unusual sweetness and harmony. 
 
 March 23. — At 8 a. m. we left Ramalleh over a fine 
 government road through a rough, mountainous and 
 highly picturesque country, the scenic views chang- 
 ing with panorama-like suddenness. The country is 
 a continuation of limestone hills and ridges, the stone 
 cropping out on the surface and seemingly impossible 
 of cultivation, and yet there is terrace upon terrace, 
 each bounded by a stone wall enclosing a small patch 
 of ground, which has been plowed and sowed to grain or 
 planted to olives and figs . The ground is infinitely more 
 stony, the soil shallower and more uninviting looking 
 than our California foot-hill stock ranges, and yet 
 these people eke out a living where our American 
 farmer would starve. Along the roadside and side- 
 hills are many very old olive trees, the trunks full of 
 holes and decay, many of them measuring three to 
 
71 
 
 four feet in diameter. On inquiry as to why every 
 little patch of ground was surrounded by a stone wall 
 I was told by Mr. Rosenberger that when a man pur- 
 chased a piece of land from the government, if he did 
 not immediately inclose and mark its boundaries 
 with a stone wall the government would reclaim 
 and take possession of it. As our trip continued the 
 country became more and more interesting and 
 many of the views superb. We passed Shiloh, where 
 for more than four hundred years the Tabernacle and 
 Ark of the Covenant rested, and where the prophet 
 Eli died ; passed the ancient village of Lebonah, and 
 descending abruptly, with many snake-like turns 
 and twists of the road, we came to Jacob's Well, where 
 all the party alighted and walked down a steep hill 
 to see it. It is evidently an artificial hole, and so far 
 from being a living spring is only a receptacle 
 for rain-water. There are numerous natural springs 
 in this vicinity, and they naturally raise the query 
 why Jacob preferred stale rainwater with its natural 
 accompaniment of wigglers to good fresh springwater. 
 It was at this well that Jesus had the conversation 
 with the Samaritan woman and proclaimed the 
 spirituahty of God. The well is surrounded by a 
 high stone wall and belongs to the Greek Catholics. 
 After leaving here the road turns sharply to the 
 west and enters the beautiful and — by comparison 
 with the preceding country through which we have 
 passed — fertile valley of Shechem, lying between 
 Mounts Ebal and Gerizim. Mount Ebal is barren 
 and desolate to its very summit, while the lower 
 slopes of Gerizim are thickly covered with the 
 greenest of verdure and prosperous looking orchards, 
 while the uncultivated places are adorned with rich 
 
72 
 
 and variegated masses of wild flowers. About the 
 middle of the afternoon we reached Nablous and 
 stopped at a beautiful stone hotel of the same name 
 under the same management of the Hotel Fast at 
 Jerusalem. Nablous is a city of twenty-four thou- 
 sand inhabitants, almost exclusively Moslems, and 
 is noted for its numerous soap factories, the olives 
 in this section being all made into oil or soap and 
 not pickled. It is on the site of ancient Shechem, 
 one of the oldest cities of Palestine, and is the first 
 city of the Holy Land mentioned in the Bible. It 
 was at Shechem, according to the story of the 
 Patriarchs, that both Abraham and Jacob came, on 
 their entrance into the land of Canaan. Some one 
 tells the story of a young woman who was about to 
 visit the Holy Land, and who, before her departure, 
 called on an old lady friend of pronounced orthodox 
 views and told her she hoped soon to see Jerusalem, 
 Nazareth and other noted places of biblical history. 
 The old lady removed her spectacles and looking up 
 with mixed wonder and incredulity ejaculated: "Well 
 now! I knew all those places were in the Bible, but 
 I never thought of their being on earth." Such as 
 they are, however, we are now in the midst of them. 
 Agriculture here is still of the most primitive 
 character. The plow used is built practically, if not 
 exactly, on the same model of the one used three 
 thousand years ago. It is so light that the husband- 
 man going to the field carries it on his shoulder. 
 It has but one handle, upon which the plowman 
 presses with his right hand to prevent its jumping 
 the furrow. A Palestine plow team is frequently a 
 trinity of contrasts, for often it is made up of a 
 camel, a donkey and a woman, driven by a full- 
 
73 
 
 grown, healthy-looking, well-fed man. A landed 
 proprietor in Palestine, commonly if not always, 
 rents or leases his several holdings on the lottery 
 plan. In other words, each recurring year, the appli- 
 cants for tenancy are assembled and a small boy is 
 utihzed to draw from a bag filled with pebbles, the 
 pebbles being marked with numbers corresponding 
 to the numbers of the plotted land tracts. Each 
 tenant receives a pebble, which indicates the number 
 of his tract, and this is the land he must cultivate 
 for the ensuing season, regardless of whether his luck 
 has landed him upon level plain of strongest fertility 
 or upon a sloping hillside thickly interspersed with 
 broken fragments of limestone. Eternal vigilance 
 seems to be the price of harvesting or preserving the 
 husbandman's crop, for every field and vineyard is 
 nightly guarded by the proprietor or a hired retainer, 
 to stand off the predatory incursions of his neighbor- 
 ing countrymen. Nubians of jet black skin and 
 fearsome aspect are largely employed for this service. 
 
 March 24- — Left Nablous after breakfast and pro- 
 ceeded along the Jaffa carriage road, which is a 
 beautiful macadamized highway and winds its way 
 like a great yellow serpent over hills and through 
 valleys picturesque in the extreme, fringed by small 
 fields of grain and frequent olive orchards, most of 
 the trees being of immense size and age. Here and 
 there we encountered small mixed orchards of peaches, 
 apples, pears and pomegranates, but the trees looked 
 diseased and mangy. Some five or six miles from 
 Nablous we left the carriages and chmbed a long hill 
 to the site of ancient Samaria, long the capital of 
 the Kingdom of Israel. After its destruction it was 
 
74 
 
 rebuilt by Herod, who erected a magnificent palace 
 and temple, many of the columns of which are still 
 standing, though in a sad state of dilapidation. 
 From this site a most entrancing view of the sur- 
 rounding country is obtained. Descending the hill 
 from the other side we came at the foot to an old 
 aqueduct and reservoir, the latter of which is 
 alleged to be on the site of the pool of Samaria, where 
 the blood-stained chariot of Ahab was washed after 
 that monarch's violent death. In this connection 
 it is well to note that on the hill of Samaria is an old 
 church built by the Crusaders, and also one of the 
 alleged tombs of John the Baptist, which is reached 
 by the descent of twenty-five narrow steps cut in 
 the solid rock. After resuming our carriages for a 
 couple of miles, we stopped at the village of Silet 
 and ate our lunch under the shade of an orchard of 
 fig trees. The figs were green and only about one- 
 third grown, yet a ragged and scantily dressed native 
 woman belonging to a party camped a few yards 
 beyond us, ascended one of these trees like a wild 
 ourang-outang and proceeded to devour the fruit as 
 fast as she could gather it with both hands. It 
 would seem as if nothing but long continued fasting 
 and nearly approaching starvation could account for 
 such appetite and indulgence. Continuing our 
 journey through a country of similar character we 
 reached the town of Jenin in the latter part of the 
 afternoon and stopped for the night. 
 
 March 25. — Left Jenin shortly after breakfast for 
 the drive to Nazareth. Soon after leaving we entered 
 the beautiful valley of Esdraelon. Foi* three or four 
 hours we drove through this level and highly fertile 
 
75 
 
 plain, encompassed on all sides by beautiful green 
 fields of grain, being by far the most extensive area 
 of rich and productive soil we have seen since leaving 
 Egypt. This plain is said to have been the great 
 battlefield of Israel, as recorded in the Bible. As we 
 approached the end of the valley the symmetrical 
 and rounded form of Mount Tabor came into view. 
 Turning north we began to ascend the hillside, but 
 owing to the roughness of the road we descended 
 from the carriages and walked up the hill for ten or 
 fifteen minutes and then resumed our ride. As we 
 continued to ascend the view of the valley and the 
 country at large became more and more expansive 
 and beautiful, until at the summit a picture of scenic 
 beauty lay spread before us the equal of which is 
 seldom seen in any country. Shortly after reaching 
 the summit of the hill we stopped to eat our lunch 
 and rest for an hour. Resuming our journey, we 
 soon came in sight of Nazareth and arrived at the 
 Germania Hotel about the middle of the afternoon. 
 After half an hour of rest we visited the Greek Church 
 where, underneath, carved out of the solid rock, is the 
 supposed work-shop of Joseph, the father of Jesus. 
 From there we passed to the Roman Catholic Church 
 of the Ascension, built upon the foundation and ruins 
 of an old Crusader Church, and witnessed the ser- 
 vices and the administering of the sacrament. The 
 residence of Joseph and Mary is alleged to be under- 
 neath the church. This we failed to see because of 
 the anger of the priest at the hesitation of some of the 
 party to accede to his demand for one franc each, as 
 an admission fee, something our dragoman said had 
 never to his knowledge been demanded before. The 
 streets of Nazareth are as filthy, and the people are 
 
76 
 
 as disgustingly dirty and ragged, and the air is per- 
 meated with at least as many different odors as Jeru- 
 salem. I have a sense of being infested with fleas 
 and vermin of various sorts, especially since picking 
 a bed-bug from my coat sleeve last evening. Oh, 
 for a good room with bath once more at a good Ameri- 
 can hotel, with a good square, wholesome American 
 meal! Nothing short of Paradise would furnish 
 compensation for leaving it. When one sees these 
 poor, impoverished wretches, with scarcely any 
 clothes to wear, and stunted and emaciated from 
 perennial starvation, and then looks upon these fat, 
 wholesome, well-groomed and sensual looking priests, 
 who are absorbing the people's slender earnings in the 
 name of Christianity, and under fear of their eternal 
 damnation, one is impelled to cry shame upon the 
 whole rotten system of robbery and deceit. The 
 whole of Palestine is cursed and robbed by a set of 
 so-called rehgious brigands of sundry Christian and 
 Mohammedan sects, who play upon the ignorance 
 and pitiful fears of an impoverished and degenerate 
 people. 
 
 Jesus spent his early life at Nazareth, and here are 
 shown many so-called sacred places. There is a 
 living spring, where, as of old, the women still bring 
 their earthen pitchers or jars to be filled. 
 
 March 26. — Resumed our journey this morning for 
 Tiberias, on the lake or Sea of Galilee. Passed 
 through a country similar to that of yesterday, except 
 that it became gradually more stony and barren. 
 Shortly after leaving, we passed Mary's well, which 
 is now used as a general washing place for clothes by 
 the surrounding natives. Here is also a French 
 
77 
 
 hospital and a Russian mission. On reaching the 
 crest of the hill overhanging Nazareth there is opened 
 to the eye a beautiful and expansive view of the sur- 
 rounding country. Mount Hermon, the only snow- 
 capped peak in Palestine, now looms up in the dis- 
 tance and as we began to descend rapidly into the 
 valley, and after stopping on the way to eat our lunch, 
 we again climbed a high hill from which we could see 
 the deep depression where "the blue waves roll 
 nightly o'er deep Galilee." Descending rapidly a 
 long hill by a tortuous, serpentine road, we reached 
 Tiberias in mid-afternoon, snuggling closely to the 
 bank of the lake. Half an hour after our arrival we 
 procured boats and were rowed for two hours to 
 Capernaeum, at the head of the lake, where the ruins 
 of an old Roman temple and a present Catholic 
 Church were inspected. Returning, we sailed back 
 with a stiff breeze, had our dinner, and at night 
 attended a native theater or dance house. 
 
 March 27. — We were called at 5 a. m., had breakfast 
 and left at 6 o'clock in sail boats on the Sea of Tiberias 
 for Semakh the railroad station at the foot of the 
 sea where we took the cars for Damascus. The 
 railroad follows up the valley or canon of Yarmuk 
 River, amidst scenery that is rarely excelled in pic- 
 turesqueness and often rises to the dignity of grand- 
 eur. This continues for the first three or four hours 
 of the trip. At* one point as we ascended the grade 
 a very high wall of rock arose several hundred feet 
 above us, and pouring over the topmost cliff there 
 came dashing down a most beautiful waterfall. 
 Wild flowers of the most brilliant and variegated 
 colors strewed the roadside and fields as we went 
 
78 
 
 along, and notwithstanding the cramped and uncom- 
 fortably filled compartment on the cars, we found the 
 ride one of great enjoyment. Emerging from the 
 canon, we entered upon the broad and uninteresting 
 plain of Hauran, with a red soil very inuch resem- 
 bling that of our Cahfornia foot-hills. It is largely 
 sown to grain, but looked as if six to eight bushels 
 per acre would be all the crop that could be expected. 
 Shortly after entering the plain of Hauran, we had a 
 full but distant view of snow-capped Mount Hermon. 
 We reached Damascus — after a fine lunch at the vil- 
 lage of Dara — about dark and were driven to the 
 Damascus Palace Hotel, where we found a comfor- 
 table sitting-room and a fire for the first time since 
 leaving the Laconia. 
 
 March 28. — After breakfast we entered carriages 
 for a drive about the city. We wound our way 
 through narrow, crooked and dirty streets, lined with 
 bazaars or shops of all kinds, similar in many respects, 
 but not nearly so attractive as those of Cairo. 
 Alighting from the carriages, we entered the brass- 
 workers' shops, where seven hundred boys and men 
 are employed in decorating brass vessels of every 
 description. The sight is one of the most unique 
 and impressive character. A large proportion of the 
 workers were children ranging from six to twelve 
 years of age, and the skill and rapidity with which 
 they handled their tools and the beauty of the 
 designs they executed upon the plain brass vessels 
 were little less than marvelous. They are paid one 
 franc per day for ten hours' work. Here also they 
 make the finest carved woodwork inlaid with mother- 
 of-pearl, etc. 
 
79 
 
 From here we again took the carriages, visited the 
 house of Annanias, the Christian disciple who healed 
 Saul of his blindness, passed the mosque of the Omei- 
 yades and the tomb of Saladin, and ascended the hill 
 overlooking the city, from whence there is a broad 
 and most beautiful view of the entire city and the 
 surrounding plain. 
 
 One of the chief glories of Damascus is the River 
 Abana or Barada, which rises in the mountains forty 
 or fifty miles northwest of the city and flows in a 
 rushing stream right through the heart of the city, 
 furnishing an abundant and perennial supply of 
 cold mountain water. The River Parphar, although 
 not flowing through the city, passes only a few miles 
 outside the walls and furnishes a copious supply of 
 water for the irrigation of the fruitful and beautiful 
 plain that stretches for miles around the city. Dogs 
 are maintained here as scavengers. There being no 
 sewers, the slops and refuse are cast into the street, 
 and these otherwise unfed canines fight and snarl 
 and yell in the strenuous struggle that ensues for the 
 possession of the titbits. Likewise, there is much 
 less begging and demand for backsheesh here than 
 at any point we have visited since our first landing at 
 Funchal. The waters of the River Barada are the 
 object of an unmeasured pride on the part of the 
 natives. They are commonly vested in the minds of 
 these superstitious and credulous people with mar- 
 velous curative functions, especially in the case of 
 preventing, if not absolutely curing, leprosy. It is 
 little wonder that Naiman, the leper of biblical fame, 
 felt a sense of personal injury when informed that 
 he must make a long journey and dip himself seven 
 times in the Jordan, when there was such a superior 
 
80 
 
 stream within his immediate reach. Within the city- 
 limits the water is conducted in underground channels 
 or pipes to nearly, if not quite, every house, really 
 leaving no excuse except that of personal inclination 
 for the dirt and filth that characterize every house- 
 hold within and without. 
 
 March 29. — Left Damascus by rail about 8 o'clock. 
 It had rained the night before and still showed symp- 
 toms of being showery. For the first few miles we 
 passed through the highly cultivated fields and 
 orchards of the plain of Damascus, then gradually 
 entered the canon of the Barada and arose rapidly 
 through the wildest and most picturesque scenery 
 to a height of forty-five hundred feet at Zerghaya. 
 Along the first two-thirds of the thirty-six miles the 
 narrow valley and hillsides are lined with mulberry 
 and apple orchards and vineyards, the vines growing 
 apparently out of thickly broken rock and being 
 trained to lie flat along the ground. After reaching 
 the summit, we descended at a heavy grade to the 
 station of Rayak, where passengers change cars for 
 Baalbek. Mrs. R. had been suffering with a severe 
 cold that caused apprehension of pneumonia, and as 
 the weather had become cold and threatening we 
 decided to continue on to Bayrouth, while the 
 remainder of the party visited Baalbek. Ascending 
 rapidly from Rayak, amidst the most rugged and 
 beautiful scenery, we reached the summit of the ridge 
 at Ral-el-Baidar, nearly forty-nine hundred feet above 
 sea level, amidst as fierce a snow storm as you would 
 see in the high Sierras. Descending again at an 
 almost breath-taking pace, the snow soon turned to 
 rain, and little cascades came shooting over the high 
 
81 
 
 limestone bluffs into the valley below, like silver 
 threads running through the golden or carmine warp 
 and woof of nature's beautiful oriental rug. We 
 continued to descend on an average grade of over two 
 hundred feet per mile for twenty miles to Bayrouth, 
 which we reached the latter part of the afternoon. 
 The scenery throughout the entire distance is wildly 
 picturesque, and as we approached our destination 
 we came into a view of the Mediterranean Sea and 
 the modern city of Bayrouth, beautifully esconced 
 at the foot of the hill and stretching along its rocky 
 beach for a mile or more. Arriving, we took a car- 
 riage for the Deutscher-Hof Hotel , where a fine room 
 was assigned us on the first floor, and where we found 
 at dinner the first meat or other food that had a 
 natural taste since leaving the Laconia. After dinner 
 I strolled around the streets sight-seeing, but found 
 the bazaars nothing to compare with those we have 
 seen in other cities. The remainder of the party 
 arrived about midnight, having visited Baalbek. 
 Looking eastward from the sea-shore, Bayrouth is con- 
 fronted with an amphitheater of mountains, clothed 
 in a garment of bright and varied colors, shading 
 from the light green of the grassy meadow in the 
 immediate foreground to the dark bluish green of the 
 gnarled and rugged pines at the summit. 
 
 Crags and cliffs of dull gray, lively yellow and 
 screaming red fill the eye with their variety, garnished 
 as they are by lofty towers and gloomy monasteries, 
 whose forbidding portals are reminiscent of days 
 long past. Midway between the valley and the 
 summit, thickly dotting the lower hillsides, are the 
 white and shining walls of numerous villas, each 
 surrounded by a tiny garden and filled here and there 
 
 1677 — 6 
 
82 
 
 with an olive, an apricot and a peach tree, com- 
 panioned by a few cHmbing vines, gorgeous in their 
 blossoms of deep purple, scarlet and yellow. The 
 houses of the city are painted in bright, oriental taste, 
 with red-tiled roofs and green shutters, and at a dis- 
 tance the whole landscape presents a bright and fasc- 
 inating appearance. But like all other oriental cities, 
 close inspection dissolves the spell and dissipates the 
 glamour. The streets are narrow, the houses and 
 shops infectious with filth and dirt, and the odors 
 bear no resemblance to sweet myrrh and frankincense. 
 A stream which enters the sea near the upper end of 
 the city fringes the reputed site of the famous 
 encounter between St. George and the dragon, in 
 which, if I have the legend straight, he rescued a 
 Syrian princess, and if you have any doubt on the 
 subject, the well is still there, where he washed his 
 hands after finishing the job. 
 
 Here ends our journey through Palestine. While 
 it has been in some respects fatiguing, it has been 
 full of interest and novelty, if such a word can be 
 used as descriptive of a civilization and customs 
 hoary with antiquity. The seasons in Palestine 
 correspond closely with those in California. 
 Toward the end of October heavy rains begin to fall 
 at intervals, for a day or several days at a time, fol- 
 lowing which the farmer begins his plowing. The 
 rains increase in volume and frequency during 
 December, January and February, and then gradu- 
 ally decrease, practically ending in April. During 
 the winter snow and hail frequently fall on the hills, 
 but rarely in the valleys. Their summer winds are 
 the reverse of those in California, the south wind 
 being the hot wind, and the cool breezes coming from 
 
83 
 
 the north. They have, however, at times an east 
 wind called sherkiyeh or sirocco. It comes from 
 the desert with a mist of fine sand, veiling the sun, 
 scorching vegetation and carrying malaria and fever 
 with its pestilential breath. Frequent droughts occur, 
 sometimes lasting for two years, and causing wide- 
 spread famine and pestilence, and the all-destroying 
 locusts fill the air every fifth or sixth year. Add to 
 this the frequent recurrence of earthquakes, and there 
 seems no controlling reason why even an American 
 Jew should be filled with an insatiable desire to 
 migrate to the Holy Land. There is no turf in Pales- 
 tine and very little grass that lasts through the sum- 
 mer drought. After the fall rains begin, the fields and 
 roadsides spring thick with grasses and wild grains, 
 clover, lupins, many succulent plants, lilies, anemones 
 and hosts of other wild flowers, chief among which is 
 a species of blood-red poppy, which in its abundance 
 and attractive beauty rivals our California esch- 
 scholtzia. 
 
 In Palestine there is every climate from the sub- 
 tropical of the lower end of the Jordan valley to the 
 sub-Alpine of the other end. There are palms in 
 Jericho and pine forests in Lebanon. In the depres- 
 sion or valley of the lower Jordan the summer tem- 
 perature climbs far above the hundred mark, and 
 yet, looking to the northwest, the snowclad fields 
 of Mount Hermon are visible. All the intermediate 
 temperatures between these extremes are within the 
 limits of human vision from the summit of Mount 
 Carmel; the sands and palms of the coast, the broad 
 wheat fields of Esdraelon, the oaks and sycamores of 
 Galilee, the pines, the peaks and the snows of anti- 
 Lebanon. The elevations and depressions range 
 
from nine thousand feet above sea level to thirteen 
 hundred feet below. Early writers describe large 
 forests as covering considerable portions of the coun- 
 try, but if they ever existed they have long since dis- 
 appeared in that section of the country west of the 
 Jordan. Fruit trees of all varieties common to the 
 temperate zone ought to flourish here, but, so far as 
 general cultivation goes, the olive and the vine take 
 precedence of all others. A few apricot, fig, and now 
 and then a peach are to be seen along the roadside. 
 Palestine may be said to be a land of ruins. No part 
 of the earth's surface has been scourged more fre- 
 quently or more disastrously by the contending forces 
 of hostile armies. Ravaged and plundered through- 
 out the centuries by Egyptians, Persians, Mace- 
 donians, Saracens, Moslems and crusading Christians, 
 each of whom outvied the other in devihsh destruc- 
 tiveness, there is but little left antedating the Chris- 
 tian era tending to show the character or the achieve- 
 ments of its earlier civilization. In fact, the ruins of 
 the multitude of fortresses and churches built later 
 by the crusaders are practically all that is left, and 
 they are in such a state of utter demolition and dis- 
 integration as to possess little interest to the traveler. 
 Josephus and other early historians compel us to 
 believe that the country was far more thickly popu- 
 lated than it is to-day, but if that is true, the com- 
 paratively small area of fertility must have been 
 more intensively cultivated; the system of irrigation 
 must have been more widely and ingeniously extended, 
 and even the stony and barren hillsides must have 
 been touched with the miracle of productivity to 
 have furnished subsistence for so numerous a people. 
 Palestine is hkewise a land of legends and these 
 
85 
 
 legends have been invented and multiplied to meet 
 the longings of the credulous and superstitious visitor. 
 There is no holy place, no spot made sacred by the 
 feet of the Saviour, that is not pointed out to you by 
 these modern Arab guides with all the definiteness 
 and assurance of a well established fact: the house 
 of the holy family at Nazareth; the holy sepulchre at 
 Jerusalem; the spot where stood the angel Gabriel 
 at the annunciation; the three several spots where 
 three several times John the Baptist was beheaded ; the 
 house of Jericho, where the spies of Joshua lodged; 
 the house of Simon the Tanner; the steep place where 
 the bedeviled herd of swine ran violently down into 
 the sea and perished in its waters, and so on, ad 
 infinitum, are all to be seen if one is willing to pay 
 the price for being humbugged. 
 
 March 30. — After an early stroll along the beach 
 had breakfast and entered carriages for the boat. 
 On our way from the landing to the ship we passed 
 close by the sunken wreck of the Turkish gun 
 boat that was put out of commission about three 
 weeks ago by the Italian fleet in its attack upon Bay- 
 reuth. From time immemorial I have read and 
 heard of the phenomenally blue waters of the Mediter- 
 ranean Sea, especially in the Bay of Naples, but until 
 leaving Bayreuth this morning I have seen nothing 
 in the color of the water that seemed to justify the 
 extravagant descriptions. But as we steamed out of 
 the harbor of Bayreuth, the water was a deep indigo 
 blue. The weather is mild and pleasant, very little 
 wind, and the water smooth. About 10 p. m. we 
 passed close to the island of Cyprus. 
 
86 
 
 March SI. — A bright and beautiful morning — a 
 smooth sea and no land in sight. Our vessel — 
 the Saghalien — is a pigmy compared with the La- 
 conia, has few conveniences and no luxuries. In 
 case of stormy weather the only place of retreat 
 would be our small and inconvenient state-rooms, 
 with the option of standing up or going to bed. 
 Just before dark we entered the harbor of Rhodes, 
 where according to Herodotus and sundry other 
 ancient historians, once stood the Colossus, classed 
 as one of the seven wonders of the world. The fate 
 of the Colossus is shrouded in mystery, and no rem- 
 nants of him have been produced to prove his actual 
 existence. The city of Rhodes presents a pleasing 
 appearance from the vessel, many of the houses being 
 of modern construction. In fact, the only evidence 
 of antiquity manifest from a distance consists in por- 
 tions of the old stone wall and fortifications that once 
 surrounded the city. After unloading and taking on 
 some freight we again proceeded on our way. 
 
 April 1. — We have been running all day amidst the 
 Greek archipelago, with numerous islands on either 
 side of us, most of them bold and rocky, with scattered 
 patches of land under cultivation, and here and there 
 a grove of olive trees. Small villages of one-story 
 houses invade the landscape at intervals, but as a 
 whole the islands seem sparsely populated. The 
 scenic effect as we glide past, with the blue waters of 
 the Mediterranean beneath as calm and peaceful as 
 the blue heavens above, is charming and impressive. 
 Shortly after passing the island of Chios, much cele- 
 brated in the Odes of Horace for its wine, we turned 
 sharply to the east and entered the Gulf of Smyrna, 
 
87 
 
 where the water changes in color from blue to green, 
 and an hour later, changing our course sharply to the 
 south, we soon came in sight of the city of Smyrna, 
 stretching from the water's edge far back and up the 
 hillside, with its modern architecture contrasting 
 strongly with the ancient mud ruins of most of these 
 oriental cities. Shortly before entering the inner 
 harbor, a Turkish patrol-boat came out and guided 
 us through a winding channel to avoid the torpedoes 
 that are thickly planted as a means of preventing the 
 entrance of the Italian fleet. A number of dismantled 
 vessels were also anchored across the harbor, pre- 
 paratory to being scuttled and sunk as obstructions 
 in case of an attack by the Italian fleet. 
 
 April 2. — This morning our party went ashore and 
 taking carriages drove to the ancient portion of the 
 city, which is built upon the hillside, back from the 
 water's edge. As we ascended the hill by a winding 
 road through a maze of old dilapidated one-story 
 dwellings, the view of the modern city and the harbor 
 as it lay spread out before us became more and more 
 fascinating. At the top of the hill are the ruins of an 
 old castle dating from the Byzantine period, and 
 forming a picturesque background to the city. De- 
 scending the hill we drove for two hours through 
 narrow and devious, though cleanly streets, con- 
 stituting the Greek, Turkish and Armenian quarters, 
 visiting the beautiful Greek Cathedral and returning 
 to the boat for lunch. At noon we again went ashore 
 and wended our way on foot through several miles 
 of bazaars, seeing nothing of special interest and 
 beauty except the oriental rugs and silks. We 
 passed several trains of camels, the animals being 
 
88 
 
 far superior in size and less filthy and fragrant than 
 any we have heretofore seen in Egypt or the Holy 
 Land. These camels were loaded with cotton, grain, 
 raisins, figs, and many other fruits with which the 
 country abounds. We had witnessed, by the way, in 
 the back streets and market place, workmen packing 
 these figs, and if ever I am tempted to buy and eat 
 another package of figs, it will be only after I have 
 ascertained by careful scrutiny of the label that they 
 were packed in Oroville, Fresno or some other clean 
 and disinfected region of California fig culture. 
 Nearly all day a stiff breeze has been blowing, which, 
 as we weighed anchor toward evening and steamed 
 out of the harbor, ripened into a veritable gale, but 
 as it was blowing off shore it only accelerated our 
 speed. 
 
 April 3. — Just before breakfast we sighted the 
 entrance to the Dardanelles, where we were forced to 
 await for several hours the arrival of a pilot-boat, 
 in order to avoid being blown to kingdom come by 
 accidental contact with some of the submarine tor- 
 pedoes, which are said to be lying in wait for the 
 Italian fleet. Shortly after entering the strait we 
 passed the site of ancient Troy, of which nothing is 
 now visible except a small hill. Both old and 
 recent fortifications are in sight on either side at 
 various points along the shore. Stopping for a short 
 time abreast of the city of Dardanelles, we saw nine 
 Turkish men-of-war with modern armor and arma- 
 ment, discreetly waiting under the protecting aegis of 
 heavy shore batteries, for the anticipated attack of 
 the Italian fleet. The strait in its narrowest 
 place is three-fourths of a mile wide and could be 
 
89 
 
 rendered absolutely impassable to a hostile fleet by 
 properly constructed fortifications. About the middle 
 of the afternoon we passed from the Dardanelles into 
 the Sea of Marmora, reaching Constantinople about 
 midnight and remaining aboard the ship until 
 morning. 
 
 April 4- — Arising early I hastened on deck to get a 
 first view of the world-famed Mohammedan capital. 
 Anticipation had been extravagant and imaginative, 
 but now reality was about to succeed to imagination. 
 As my eyes fell upon the scene before me, and aided 
 by a strong pair of field glasses, took in the whole scope 
 of the surrounding landscape, I felt that Constan- 
 tinople needs no overwrought enthusiasm of the artist 
 in colors, no eulogistic word-painting of the fanciful 
 poet, to place her in the forefront of the scenic 
 beauties of the world. The clear, blue sky, the 
 gleaming waters of the Golden Horn and the Helles- 
 pont, the amphitheatre of thickly peopled hills, the 
 delicate and graceful minarets piercing the sky like 
 great needles, the rounded domes of the five hundred 
 mosques, and the massive walls of the stately palaces 
 and, above all, its surpassing novelty, made the scene 
 one long to be remembered. At every recurring 
 glance, some new vista of gleaming towers, gilded and 
 burnished by the morning sun, met the view. After 
 breakfast we left the boat and in carriages proceeded 
 to the Hotel Bristol, from which an hour later we 
 resumed the carriages for a drive to various points of 
 interest. The weather, which had changed during 
 the night, became very much colder and a drizzling 
 rain set in, rendering the situation very uncom- 
 fortable. But, encased in all our heavy wraps, we 
 
90 
 
 managed to get along without serious inconvenience. 
 Our first stop was at the museum, a large and hand- 
 some building literally filled wth rare specimens of 
 ancient Greek and Roman sculpture, among which 
 the tomb of Alexander the Great, exhumed by 
 Schleiman at Sidon, is a marvel of artistic and beau- 
 tiful sculpture in marble; also the sarcophagus of the 
 mourning women and the satrap's coffin are of the 
 highest order. Two large rooms are devoted exclu- 
 sively to Greek and Roman sculptures and another 
 to Babylonian and Assyrian antiquities . Still another 
 large compartment is filled with the most exquisite 
 specimens of modern art, consisting of presents from 
 the various rulers and nations to the late deposed 
 Sultan, and which, upon his abdication, were taken 
 from his palace and placed in the museum. Leaving 
 the museum we proceeded to the famous Mosque of 
 St. Sophia, the largest and most important in the 
 city. Originally erected by the Emperor Constan- 
 tine as a Christian Church, it was destroyed by fire 
 and again by war, and was successively rebuilt by the 
 Emperors Theodosius and Justinian, and finally falling 
 into the hands of the conquering Mohammedans, 
 was converted into a mosque. Much of the original 
 mosaic work of the Christian builders was painted 
 over and destroyed by the Mohammedans . The chief 
 beauty of the mosque lies in the massive and sym- 
 metrical dome, which is supported by two half-domes 
 and four massive pillars, and rises to a height of 
 nearly two hundred feet. Looking up to this stu- 
 pendous dome, resting in gloomy grandeur upon the 
 towering strength of the sweeping columns, the 
 impression is one of delighted wonder and deep solem- 
 nity. The exterior of the building is less imposing 
 
91 
 
 owing to the enormous piers reared against it as a guard 
 against earthquakes, yet the four minarets in their 
 lofty and dehcate beauty reheve the heaviness. Our 
 next point of interest was the Mosque of Ahmed I, 
 which is the only one outside of Mecca that contains 
 six minarets. Its chief beauty consists of the white 
 marble lining of its lower walls and the exquisite blue 
 fayence tiling above, reaching to the ceiling. Leav- 
 ing here we proceeded to the bazaars and alighting 
 from our carriages walked for an hour and a half 
 through an apparently endless arcade of shops of 
 every imaginable character. While they are per- 
 haps more extensive than at any other place we have 
 visited, they did not impress me as being anything 
 like as typical and oriental in their display of wares as 
 the bazaars of Cairo or Jerusalem. 
 
 April 5. — This morning we drove across the bridge 
 spanning the Golden Horn, visiting first the Mosque 
 of Bayazid, or as it is commonly called, the pigeon 
 mosque. Here the distribution of a few handfuls of 
 grain summons thousands of pigeons of beautifully 
 tinted plumage, but the mosque in itself is unattrac- 
 tive. Passing from here we next visited the Mosque 
 of Suliman the Great, noted as being internally the 
 most beautiful in the city. Its original decorations 
 which were elaborately beautiful, are sadly marred 
 by the striped painting done about fifty years ago, 
 but there is much elegant blue fayence tiling and the 
 most exquisite windows of Persian stained glass that 
 we have yet seen. Driving from here we proceeded 
 to the tower of Galata, a circular monument rising 
 to the height of one hundred and fifty feet, marking 
 the spot where the new walls of Galata met on the 
 
92 
 
 east and west side in the fourteenth century. CHmb- 
 ing the two hundred and fifty or more winding steps 
 that lead to the top, we gazed out upon the magnif- 
 icent capital of the Mohammedan world, spread like 
 a beautiful painting at our very feet, the deep green 
 and blue waters of the historic Bosphorus and its 
 right arm, the Golden Horn, being flecked and dotted 
 and ruffled with innumerable water craft of every 
 description, from the great ocean liner to the tiniest 
 row-boat. 
 
 The world does not perhaps, in all its wide and won- 
 derful expanse, offer a safer, more easily defended or 
 more picturesquely beautiful site for a great city than 
 here lies before us. Descending from the tower, we 
 proceeded to the vicinity of the palace of the Sultan's 
 mother, where the present Sultan repairs on Friday 
 at noon to offer his prayers. We reached the open 
 area near the mosque and awaited the coming of the 
 great ruler of a hundred and fifty millions of people. 
 Presently a troop of soldiers in yellowish-green khaki, 
 marching with measured tread, halted and lined up on 
 one side of the street. Another and yet another bat- 
 talion of infantry followed, forming a line on either 
 side of the roadway. Following these a squadron of 
 mounted lancers, each lance bearing a small red 
 Turkish flag lined up on both sides, reaching from the 
 main gate of the Sultan's palace to their point of junc- 
 tion with the line of infantry. After an hour's wait- 
 ing a signal was heard and the Sultan's carriage was 
 seen coming out of the palace gate. Preceding him 
 came a mounted guard of twenty-five men, uni- 
 formed in light blue coats, the skirts lined wih crim- 
 son and crimson bands around each sleeve, blue 
 trousers with a broad red stripe down the side and 
 
93 
 
 drawn sabers held at a carry-arms. A mounted 
 guard of like numbers followed behind the carriage. 
 The Sultan's carriage in model was nothing out of the 
 ordinary except that it was somewhat elaborately 
 ornamented with gilt and was drawn by two large 
 fine roan horses. In person he is a large, heavy 
 featured man with very white whiskers and mustache, 
 and a complexion almost tallow-like in its paleness. 
 His mien was sober and almost stolid. Only once 
 did he raise his head and mechanically salute the 
 commanding officer of his guard as he passed him. 
 As he came riding down between the lines of soldiers, 
 he was greeted with perfunctory cheers, but no voice 
 of welcome or enthusiasm came from the surrounding 
 crowd of civilians. As soon as the Sultan had entered 
 the mosque, the crowd broke in all directions and we 
 rapidly drove to the monastery of the whirling der- 
 vishes, where, after waiting an hour, we were admitted 
 upon payment by our dragoman of five piastres each 
 to witness the performance. The exhibition was a 
 distinct disappointment. Arranged around a circular 
 room were seated some twenty-five solemn- visaged 
 men arrayed in loose robes, and wearing a tall brown 
 sugar-loaf shaped fez. Presently a high-keyed voice 
 in the gallery began a low monotonous chant, grad- 
 ually increasing in volume and continuing without 
 further demonstration for fifteen minutes. At its 
 conclusion there began the sound as of an ama- 
 teur player on the flute, which continued in 
 monotonous discord for another period of a quarter 
 of an hour. Then the solemn circle of dervishes 
 arose in unison and slowly circling around the room, 
 each one as he reached a point opposite the chief 
 priest, turning and solemnly bowing to the one next 
 
following him, who in turn repeated the salute. This 
 continued for another five minutes, when suddenly 
 all discarded their shoes and outer wraps and at a 
 whispered word from the chief priest began one after 
 the other to whirl round and round slowly and con- 
 tinually, gradually increasing their speed until the 
 skirts of their long loose garments stood out almost 
 straight horizontally. How long this continued is 
 unknown, as ten minutes of it was sufficient to satisfy 
 our curiosity, tempered as it was by a fiercely increas- 
 ing appetite for lunch, which had been awaiting us 
 at the hotel for an hour and a half. Returning to the 
 hotel we packed our baggage and drove to the boat, 
 sailing an hour before dusk on the Lloyd-Austrian 
 steamer Leopolis for Athens. Of all the peoples we 
 have seen in these oriental regions the Turks are the 
 cleanest, handsomest, most intelligent and self- 
 respecting. The cleanliness of the streets in Con- 
 stantinople was a surprise and was in distinct con- 
 trast with the filthiness of those we found without 
 exception in other Mohammedan cities. I suppose 
 it is attributable to the reform measures inaugurated 
 by the "Young Turk" administration. 
 
 The numberless, ownerless street dogs that were 
 wont to perform the office of city scavengers have 
 been banished to one of the adjacent islands, and in 
 their places are to be seen numerous men with stiff 
 brooms, carefully and continuously sweeping and 
 gathering up the refuse and animal droppings, much 
 after the manner in American cities. The streets are 
 all paved with granite blocks, some of which in the 
 older and less frequented parts of the city are very 
 rough and sadly in need of repair. In fact as to most 
 of the streets it can only in truth be said they are 
 
95 
 
 paved with good intentions. No asphalt pavements 
 are yet in evidence, and telephones and electric lights 
 are alike conspicuous by their absence. Dishonesty 
 in all lines of business is all pervading. From the 
 hotel-keeper to the smallest shopman, no oppor- 
 tunity is wasted to "short change" the unwary or 
 inexperienced purchaser. There is, however, an 
 almost total absence of the universal cry for back- 
 sheesh that has filled our ears at every point in our 
 progress from Funchal to Damascus. The Turkish 
 porters, like most of their oriental brethren of similar 
 occupation in Egypt and Palestine, are marvels of 
 strength and endurance. Slung to their backs is a 
 padded bag or cushion as a protection from bruise or 
 abrasion, and often have I seen one of them with head 
 and back bent almost to a level with his knees, car- 
 rying a full-sized lady's trunk, a large leather suit- 
 case and a hand-bag, while in one hand would be 
 borne a well-loaded canvas carryall and in the other 
 two or three canes and umbrellas. For carrying such 
 a load a distance in many instances of nearly a quarter 
 of a mile, he feels richly compensated with the con- 
 tribution of the equivalent of an American quarter of 
 a dollar. The Turks are a curiously irrational people. 
 They are all solemn fatalists. In their view it makes 
 no difference whether sanitary measures are taken 
 to prevent disease or not. If one's time has come 
 to die, quarantine will not save him; if it has not 
 come, cholera won't kill him, and yet, in spite of all 
 this, they have widely prevalent quarantine regula- 
 tions, though I surmise these have been brought about 
 more through the fear of losing the harvest of Euro- 
 pean and American travel than from any gleam of 
 light that has penetrated their religious darkness. 
 
96 
 
 April 6. — All day we have been steering a south- 
 westerly course through the Aegian sea, passing the 
 islands of Mitylene and Skyros. The weather has 
 gradually moderated and the water is smooth and 
 well behaved. The sun went down behind the hills 
 of Euboeia with full notice that there would shortly 
 follow a panorama such as human artist never painted. 
 Five minutes after the god of day had hidden his 
 golden face behind the rugged mountain, a belt of 
 volcanic fire shot athwart the western sky, sending 
 pointed spears of flame far out into the northern and 
 southern horizon; immediately above appeared a 
 heavy band of lilac purple, superimposed by a narrow 
 ribbon of magenta, interspersed here and there by 
 divers oases of lemon yellow. Still above this was 
 a long narrow belt of robin's egg blue, and in con- 
 tinued succession a strip of carmine dominated by a 
 wider band of royal purple, a heavy cord of light 
 orange, a mixed bank of mahogany, dark purple and 
 blue-black and then as a final wind-up, the entire 
 horizon became overspread with a broad blaze as 
 from the bottomless pit, gradually fading into dull 
 gray as the shades of night closed the scene. 
 
 April 7. — Came on deck at 6 a. m., and found we 
 were just about steaming into the harbor of Piraeus. 
 A Grecian man-of-war lay at anchor decorated with 
 all her bunting in honor of Easter Sunday. Numer- 
 ous other vessels crowded the anchorage and the city 
 presented a quite modern appearance, a number of 
 tall chimneys indicating quite a manufacturing indus- 
 try of some kind. After landing and a detention of 
 half an hour at the customs house we took carriages 
 and drove over a fine, smooth macadamized road to 
 
97 
 
 Athens. The road was lined with a double row of 
 pepper trees that looked stunted, sickly and almost 
 without foliage. An hour's drive brought us to our 
 hotel — the Palace — where we found that owing to an 
 educational convention now in session our pre-engaged 
 rooms had all been turned over to the delegates and 
 our director was obliged to scatter us in various third 
 rate hostelries. While our baggage was being 
 adjusted we took a walk about the city and wound up 
 at the King's palace, where we listened to a Lutheran 
 church service and saw the King and Queen as they 
 came out of church. 
 
 April 8. — After breakfast we entered carriages and 
 were driven first to the Stadium or Greek theatre. 
 This is situated in a natural basin or depression and 
 was originally planned by Lycurgus some three hun- 
 dred years B. C. The present building is the gift 
 of a wealthy Greek citizen. It is oval in shape, the 
 seats being of marble and ranged one row above 
 another, with an amphitheatre in the center. The 
 effect is very beautiful and the seating capacity is 
 nearly fifty thousand. The approach is guarded by 
 a gateway supported by Corinthian columns of terra- 
 cotta which are soon to be supplanted by marble. 
 From the Stadium we drove to the ruins of the Olym- 
 pieion, Hadrian's Arch, the Monument of Lysikrates, 
 the theatre of Dionysius, the Odeion of Herodes 
 Atticus, temple of Aesculapius, the Areopagus, the 
 Acropolis, including the Prophylaea, Erechtheon and 
 Parthenon, full descriptions of which are found in a 
 hundred different volumes on Greece. This being 
 Easter Monday, is a Greek national holiday, and the 
 streets and parks are full of people in holiday attire, 
 1677—7 
 
98 
 
 and all places of business are closed. In the evening 
 there was music by the National band and a grand 
 torchlight procession. But the crowning glory of the 
 evening was the fireworks and illumination of the 
 Parthenon and Erechtheon. Fixed cylinders con- 
 taining Greek fire had been placed at frequent inter- 
 vals throughout both buildings. At 9 o'clock the 
 firing of skyrockets began from Acropolis hill and half 
 an hour later the cylinders of Greek fire were lighted. 
 In an instant both temples were aflame and their 
 columns were sharply outlined against the sky. At 
 first the outside of the temples were of a vivid green, 
 while the inside was a sheet of blazing red ; gradually 
 the colors were reversed and the outside became 
 sheathed in the flames of a consuming conflagration, 
 while the inside took on the deep shading of green. 
 Four times in succession was this reversing of colors 
 maintained, lasting in all a full half hour, and then the 
 fire died down and the beautiful ruins sank into the 
 obscurity of night. Never have I seen anything in 
 the nature of fireworks or illumination that impressed 
 me so deeply with its beauty and grandeur. This 
 afternoon we were moved from our disagreeable 
 quarters in the Palace Hotel annex to more comfort- 
 able lodgings in the Continental Hotel. 
 
 A'pril 9. — During the morning we drove to the 
 principal cemetery of ancient Athens. The ceme- 
 tery has been excavated and most of the monuments 
 and sarcophagi have been removed, but a number of 
 the more durable monuments dating from four hun- 
 dred to three hundred B. C. have been left in their 
 original positions. From here we visited the National 
 Archaeological Museum, containing an endless collec- 
 
99 
 
 tion of statuary, implements, personal adornments 
 and other objects of Grecian antiquity, sufficient to 
 confuse the mind and paralyze the memory. After 
 driving through the bazaars, which here are trifling in 
 extent compared with those we have hitherto seen, 
 we returned to our hotel, but after lunch we again 
 entered the carriages for a two and one-half hours 
 drive to the ruins of Eleusis, where, although there 
 are some extensive and somewhat interesting ruins, 
 we did not feel fully repaid for the long and tiresome 
 drive. 
 
 April 10. — Following an early call for breakfast we 
 marshaled our luggage and left on the train for 
 Corinth. The country between Athens and Corinth 
 is poor and thin in soil, but every available inch is 
 under cultivation. In many places wheat is sown 
 on land covered with loose stones the size of one's fist 
 and apparently as thick as the fresh piles of broken 
 rock upon a macadamized road. Just before reach- 
 ing Corinth we came in view of the Corinth ship canal, 
 cut across the isthmus of Corinth and uniting the 
 Gulf of Corinth with the Bay of Salamis. The canal 
 forms a perpendicular cut about one hundred and 
 fifty feet deep and seventy-five feet wide and carries 
 twenty-six feet of water. Arriving at modern Corinth 
 we entered carriages and drove to ancient Corinth, 
 where we visited some rather inconsequential ruins, 
 and a small museum of antiquities excavated by the 
 American school. After lunch amidst the ruins we 
 mounted mules and took the trail for Aero Corinth. 
 This is a massive, almost perpendicular rock, rising 
 nineteen hundred feet above the plain. A winding 
 trail leads up to the foot of the fortifications, thence 
 
100 
 
 we ascended on foot for half or three-quarters of an 
 hour inside the fortifications to the summit. The 
 upper half of the giant rock is surrounded by a mas- 
 sive stone wall more than a mile and a half in length, 
 entrance to which is through a succession of three 
 massive gates. It reminds one of the impregnable 
 fortress, of Gibraltar, and the view from the summit 
 is one of imposing grandeur. We could see the hills 
 of Argolis; the country of Agamemnon and Mount 
 Parnassus and Helicon were clearly visible, while the 
 Saronic Gulf and the Gulf of Corinth mingled their 
 beautifully blue waters with the green and brown 
 tints of the surrounding hills. 
 
 Leaving Corinth for Patras we passed through a 
 plain under a high state of cultivation, and covered 
 in great part with vineyards and olive orchards. We 
 reached Patras after dark, encountering a severe rain 
 storm en route, had our dinner at the hotel and imme- 
 diately after repaired to the ship Scylla bound for 
 Brindisi. Looking back to my youthful days I call 
 to mind no historical readings that were as full of 
 interest, so intensely absorbing and that so grappled 
 the memory with lasting impressions as the annals of 
 ancient Greece. Preceding the period of authenticity 
 is a rich stream of mythological tradition, dealing 
 with giants and cyclops; with heroes and heroines 
 engaged in mighty struggles with monsters of the 
 plain or vasty deep; with distant voyages and peril- 
 ous adventures in search of rumored treasures or in 
 the redress of injustice and wrong. The siege of Troy, 
 the retreat of Xenophon, the defence of Thermopylae, 
 the defeat of Xerxes, and destruction of his fleet at 
 Salamis; the great victory over Darius at Marathon; 
 
101 
 
 the final triumph over the Persian invaders at Platea, 
 the Peloponnesian War and the all pervading vic- 
 tories of Alexander the Great, are events in Greek 
 history that every school-boy read with almost bated 
 breath. But these military glories and achievements 
 have passed like an iridescent dream. To-day her 
 philosophy, her architecture, and her sculptors' art 
 are in ruins; her people are steeped in ignorance, and 
 yet the traveler who is familiar with her ancient his- 
 tory and glories feels in the atmosphere and sees in her 
 plains and mountains a recrudescence of all the old 
 stories of his school days. Physically, Greece is now 
 what it ever has been, a country where the self- 
 asserting rock is ever thrusting its barrenness through 
 a thin plating of miserly soil. Barbarians of various 
 names have conspired to reduce the architectural 
 grandeur of Greece to crumbling and scattered ruins 
 and to dim the splendor of her intellectual achieve- 
 ments, but there still lives through the remnant 
 records of the vanished centuries, the philosophy, the 
 art and the wisdom of Pericles, Phidias, Socrates, 
 Plato and Solon. 
 
 April 11. — After lying in the harbor all night our 
 ship sailed at 6 a. m. for Brindisi. The storm of the 
 previous day had left the sea rather rough and shortly 
 after lunch we struck out into the open ocean. In 
 fifteen minutes the entire company of passengers were 
 as sick as a lot of poisoned pups. The vessel was 
 small and the waves tossed her about like a cork. 
 I was able to get in bed with all my clothes on and was 
 content to remain there without further activity all 
 day and all night throughout the weary sleepless 
 hours. 
 
102 
 
 April 12. — Arrived at Brindisi and reached the 
 shore after an exceedingly Ught breakfast, driving 
 directly to the railroad station, where we boarded 
 the cars for Naples. The route at first skirts for 
 several hours in a northerly direction, following closely 
 the coast of the Adriatic Sea, through a country that 
 is almost one continuous vineyard and orchard of 
 almonds and olives. The soil is red, thin and stony, 
 and yet every square foot of it that by any possibility 
 can be made to produce a crop, however meagre, is 
 brought under cultivation. Everywhere you see 
 great piles of stones that year after year for genera- 
 tions have been garnered from the fields and every 
 field is surrounded by a high stone wall as the result 
 of annual crops gathered from time immemorial. 
 No American farmer would dare to think of utilizing 
 such soil for anything but grazing stock for a few 
 months in the spring and early summer. At Foggia, 
 or a little before reaching there, the road strikes 
 across the country in a southwesterly direction, and 
 for a while passes through a level plain devoted largely 
 to vines and olives, gradually superseded by broad 
 wheat fields, which continue until the foothills of the 
 Apennines are reached, where the chief industry 
 appears to be sheep and goat raising. Here darkness 
 overtook us and we saw nothing more of the country, 
 reaching Naples shortly before midnight and driving 
 at once to the Hotel Metropole. 
 
 April 13. — Spent the day quietly resting at the 
 hotel except for a short walk of observation among the 
 stores and a drive up on the hill from which a com- 
 manding view of the city and bay was obtained. In 
 the course of these perambulations I learned one 
 
103 
 
 thing, that in Italy nobody in rendering you a service 
 is satisfied with the exact compensation agreed upon 
 between you beforehand. Everyone expects some- 
 thing additional at the end as an indication that you 
 are satisfied with him. If you hire a guide to escort 
 you to and through places of interest at a prescribed 
 rate of one dollar a day he will expect and insist at the 
 end of the day upon having what he calls a "buonos 
 manos" of twenty or twenty-five cents in addition to 
 the contract price. If you take a short ride in a taxi- 
 cab, for which the registered fare amounts to one lire 
 or twenty cents, the driver expects an additional two 
 to four cents with which to get a glass of wine or a dish 
 of macaroni, and in like proportion you are expected 
 to tip the barber after paying the regulation price for 
 a shave. Good humor and good spirits seem to be 
 epidemic. Even the black-eyed, barefooted street 
 urchins, who tell you they have had nothing to eat 
 for two days as they beg you for five centissimi, equal 
 to one cent, are convulsed with laughter even though 
 you refuse, and dart off turning the most agile cart- 
 wheels down the narrow street. Cows and goats are 
 driven from door to door, there to furnish their cus- 
 tomers with milk. The goats especially form a pict- 
 uresque element and Nanny is a remarkably intelli- 
 gent creature after being properly educated in city 
 ways. Each morning they are driven into town in 
 large bands from the surrounding country pastures, 
 and as they arrive the caravan gradually disintegrates 
 as in smaller groups they wend their way in different 
 directions and down different streets to the neighbor- 
 hood of their respective customers. When they 
 reach a house where one of them has to be milked, the 
 others lie down on the pavement while the selected 
 
104 
 
 Nanny marches gravely up the stairs with the goat- 
 herd to be milked and the operation over quietly 
 comes down the stairway and rejoins her companions. 
 A goat will step aside and give roadway to a horse 
 and cart, or an automobile, but in return requires the 
 same deference from a bicycle or a pedestrian. 
 
 April 14' — Spent most of the morning at the hotel 
 resting, but went to the museum for an hour and 
 spent another hour at the aquarium. A long street 
 car ride filled in a portion of the day, stopping off 
 from time to time and exploring the mysteries of the 
 narrow and crooked side streets with their tiny shops 
 and street vendors offering with great pertinacity 
 everything for sale that you don't want and wouldn't 
 have at any price. Vivid life and color greet you 
 everywhere. Officers in clanging swords and daz- 
 zling uniforms, gracious flower vendors with their 
 wreath of fragrant blossoms, ragged and uncomely 
 lazzaroni and a still different class of picturesque 
 Neapolitans, who seem to have no occupation but 
 that of seeking the sunny side of the street and lazily 
 basking in its warm rays without a care for to-day or 
 a thought of the morrow. 
 
 The Museum contains a fine library and picture 
 gallery including many wonderful works by Botticelli 
 Raphael, Titian, Correggio, Reni and others equally 
 famous, and the aquarium though comparatively 
 small, is filled with many rare, curious and beautiful 
 specimens of sea life. 
 
 April 16. — Spent the day in repacking our trunks 
 and suit-cases with a view to shipping the former by 
 express to Paris. 
 
105 
 
 April 16. — Took the train this morning for Pompeii, 
 The ride is through a level country, affording a beau- 
 tiful and extensive view of the Mediterranean and 
 the island of Capri on one side and Mount Vesuvius 
 and a snow covered range on the other side. Arriv- 
 ing at the ruined city, upon the payment of the equiva- 
 lent of half a dollar each, we were admitted through a 
 gate and left to wander at will along the excavated 
 and silent streets. Apparently the houses were 
 mostly one and two stories in height. They were 
 built of brick and many of the more pretentious ones 
 were built around spacious courts and adorned with 
 numerous Doric or Corinthian columns. These 
 columns were sometimes of limestone, but usually of 
 brick originally covered with a stucco made of crushed 
 or powdered marble. The inside walls of the building 
 were also stuccoed or plastered and usually frescoed 
 with decorations and designs suited to the character 
 of each room. These decorations were largely 
 ruined or obliterated by the heated ashes and fumes 
 that overwhelmed the city, and only here and there 
 sufficient remnants are found to bear testimony to 
 their original beauty. These courts were lavishly 
 adorned by exquisite marble and bronze statues, 
 nearly all of which have been removed to the National 
 Museum of Naples. There is, however, a small 
 museum in which are preserved the calcined corpses 
 of a number of persons and animals just as they were 
 overtaken by the shower of volcanic ashes, and show- 
 ing clearly the agonizing struggles of their last 
 moments. There are also preserved loaves of bread 
 that were just ready or had just gone into the oven 
 to be baked, and likewise figs and other fruits mar- 
 velously preserved and petrified by the action of the 
 
106 
 
 heat and gases. At least these are the things that 
 are shown and these are the stories that are told to 
 tenderfoot travelers, who, if they have not already had 
 their stock of credulity bankrupted by experience in 
 Egypt and Palestine, usually swallow them without 
 a grimace. Undoubtedly there was much outward 
 display and great luxury and extravagance of living 
 among the wealthier classes in the city, but as an awe 
 inspiring ruin Pompeii is not to be spoken of in the 
 same breath with the pyramids, temples and tombs 
 of Egypt or the classic remains of the Parthenon and 
 other Grecian temples. 
 
 April 17. — Took the boat this morning for a trip to 
 Capri and the Blue Grotto. In order that no oppor- 
 tunity may be missed to separate the traveler from 
 his coin, the steamer, instead of tying up alongside 
 the wharf so that passengers could step aboard, was 
 moored out about twenty-five yards from shore. 
 This rendered it necessary to take a small boat and to 
 pay the owner thirty centimes to be landed on board. 
 This financial scheme is carried out in monotonous 
 detail throughout the trip. Hardly has the steamer 
 started before a band of strolling musicians favor us 
 with ear-splitting music and at four different inter- 
 vals on the trip pass the hat and stare us out of 
 countenance until we yield up other instalments of 
 centimes. Furthermore, this holdup process is again 
 worked on us at the Blue Grotto and at the landing 
 from and returning to the vessel at Capri. The first 
 stop on the trip is at Sorrento, which like all these 
 Italian coast towns begins with a narrow street along 
 the water front and immediately proceeds to climb 
 the steep and rocky hillside back of it. There is 
 
107 
 
 nothing particularly interesting here except the villa 
 of F. Marion Crawford, which is on the very edge of a 
 high cliff overlooking the water. Passing the town 
 of Capri we proceeded first to the famous Blue Grotto. 
 Here we were taken from the steamer in small boats 
 holding but two persons each besides the oarsman. 
 The entrance to the grotto is in the face of a perpen- 
 dicular cliff at the water's edge, and as you approach 
 the entrance it is necessary to lie down flat in the 
 bottom of the boat to avoid hitting your head against 
 the rock above, but immediately after entering you 
 find yourself within a large cave. As soon as you sit 
 up in the boat and look down into the water, your 
 eyes are fairly dazzled with an intense shade of 
 blue, the lustre and brilliancy of which you have never 
 seen equaled in the heavens above, the earth beneath 
 or the waters under the earth. As there was a large 
 crowd on the steamer, all desirous of seeing the grotto, 
 the small boats had to make repeated trips and there- 
 fore one was only allowed to remain in the cave about 
 five minutes. After all had made the trip the steamer 
 proceeded back to Capri village. We landed and 
 took the Funicular railway to the town of Anacapri. 
 Here Monte Salaro rises abruptly from the sea nearly 
 two thousand feet. We walked a distance up the 
 via Krupp, a road that leads to a mansion erected by 
 the daughter of the great German gun-maker and 
 from a high point looked down directly into the beau- 
 fully tinted waters of the Mediterranean, shallow 
 enough at this point to reflect all the varied tints of 
 the rocks and sea moss on the bottom. From the 
 Krupp mansion a most marvelously constructed road 
 winds its tortuous way along the perpendicular side 
 of the cliff down to the water's edge. After spending 
 
108 
 
 several hours wandering around Capri we returned to 
 Naples in time for dinner. 
 
 April 18. — Spent most of the day in making prepa- 
 rations for our departure to Rome. Shipped our 
 trunks to London and bid good-bye to the remaining 
 members of our party. This ends our regular tour 
 with H. W. Dunning & Co, and henceforth we travel 
 on our own responsibility. We have had ruins, tem- 
 ples, tombs, pyramids and mosques galore. We have 
 had all the dialects that began with the dispersion 
 at the tower of Babel and that have survived the cen- 
 turies to date. We have looked upon Rameses and 
 the old Pharaohs as they caused themselves to be 
 pictured upon their own sarcophagi, and we have 
 dickered with their descendants for scarabs and beads 
 and shawls. We have seen the spot where Moses of 
 old was yanked out of his cozy bed amidst the bul- 
 rushes of the Nile and were surprised to find that it 
 was a place where apparently no self-respecting bul- 
 rush ever had the temerity to grow. We have been 
 through the country where Father Abraham said 
 unto Lot: "Let there be no strife between mine and 
 thine," or words to that effect, and if the whole region 
 were offered to an American stock-raiser free of rental 
 he would doubtless look further We have been to 
 Jericho and the River Jordan and the Dead Sea. 
 We have seen the place where the spies of Joshua 
 lodged, pending their return with the bunch of grapes 
 from Eschol, suspended from their shoulders upon a 
 pole, and we failed to see even by the eye of faith a 
 foot of land for thirty miles on either side that would 
 tempt a California vineyardist to invest thirty cents 
 in the planting of a vineyard. We have planted our 
 
109 
 
 feet within the sacred precincts of the Holy City of 
 Jerusalem, and have been puzzled to determine in the 
 quarters of which particular religious sect is to be 
 found the lowest depth of poverty, the most per- 
 vading accumulations of human filth and the most 
 persistent and scientific methods of beggary. We 
 have been to "fair Damascus on the fertile banks of 
 Abana and Paraphon," the oldest existent city of the 
 world, where the canine scavengers contend through- 
 out the slumberless hours of night with bark and 
 snarl and yell for a fair division of the public slops 
 and offal, and failed to find that time has been any 
 particular factor in the evolution of methods prac- 
 ticed forty centuries ago. We have sailed up the 
 beautiful strait of Dardanelles, carefully piloted 
 through the winding and tortuous channel, that we 
 peradventure might not be suddenly cut short in our 
 earthly careers by the system of submerged torpedoes, 
 and finally came to anchor in that great city of the 
 Golden Horn, once the capital of the illustrious 
 Emperor Constantine, but now the head and strong- 
 hold of the Mohammedan millions of the Orient. 
 We have walked the streets of classic Athens, where 
 the philosophy of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, that 
 has charmed the intellectual world for more than 
 twenty centuries, was first expounded ; where Demos- 
 thenes pronounced the orations that are still held as 
 models of eloquence; where the military achieve- 
 ments of Alcibiades and Miltiades gave glory and 
 prestige to their native city; where "the mountains 
 look on Marathon and Marathon looks on the sea;" 
 where the noble hill of the Acropolis stands, yet sur- 
 mounted with the ruins of that model of beauty, 
 dignity and splendor, the Parthenon. We have sailed 
 
110 
 
 amidst "the isles of Greece, where burning Sappho 
 loved and sung;" where the giant Colossus once 
 bestrode the harbor of Rhodes to the wonder of the 
 ancient world, and where present appearances indi- 
 cate that the goddesses of poetry and sentiment have 
 taken unto themselves wings and that hard, grinding 
 poverty is measured out in daily allowance to these 
 ignorant and unfortunate descendants of the world's 
 immortals. We have crossed the plains of sunny 
 southern Italy, where Hannibal and Fabius con- 
 tended respectively for the glory and power of Car- 
 thage and Rome. We have trod the streets and 
 gazed with wondering eyes upon Naples and her 
 beautiful bay, but have not felt like fulfilling the old 
 saying of "See Naples and die.' We have gazed 
 upon the erstwhile angry and vaporous crater of 
 Vesuvius, but find it now on its very best behaviour. 
 We have walked the resurrected streets of Pompeii 
 and have viewed its excavations with mingled feel- 
 ings of awe and disgust, and now we pass to other 
 scenes and wonders. 
 
 April 19. — Left Naples for Rome. The trip was 
 without special incident. The country through 
 which we passed was most beautiful and fertile. 
 Every foot of available ground was in the highest state 
 of cultivation and owing to recent copious rains the 
 crops bid fair to be bounteous. A large portion of the 
 land was devoted to grapes and olives, with con- 
 siderable fields of wheat, artichokes and garden vege- 
 tables. As per previous engagement we drove to the 
 Hotel Boos in the Palazzo Rospigliosi, where we 
 found our room ready for us. It is a large rambling 
 building, looking on the outside much like a dilapi- 
 
Ill 
 
 dated Spanish adobe, but on the inside very clean, 
 comfortable and for this country a very decent table. 
 As is customary, however, on this side of the great 
 water, the breakfast consists of nothing but vile 
 coffee, dry bread and jam, unless you supplement it 
 by ordering eggs, for which an extra charge is made. 
 We are very centrally located on the main business 
 street, or via Nationale as it is called and immediately 
 opposite the bank of Italy, which is a large four story 
 marble building covering half a block and adorned 
 with sundry and divers marble statues of heroic size. 
 
 April 20. — Here we are in Rome. Rome whose 
 foundation is mythologically ascribed to Romulus 
 and Remus the twin babes, who after being cast into 
 the river were rescued and nourished by a she wolf. 
 Rome who gradually conquered and absorbed the 
 Sabines, the Etruscans and the Samnians. Rome, 
 the despotism and lechery of whose rulers inspired 
 the revolt that drove the Tarquins from the throne. 
 Rome whose glory was enhanced and whose power 
 was extended by the defeat of Hannibal and the de- 
 struction of Carthage. Rome, whose territories were 
 extended to Gaul and Britain through the genius and 
 mihtary sagacity of Julius Caesar. Rome, who at 
 last through her conquests became the mistress of the 
 civilized world. Rome,where the eloquence of Cicero 
 fired the heart and stirred the imagination and com- 
 manded the love of the common people. Rome, the 
 home of Raphael and Michael Angelo. Rome, the 
 head of the great Catholic Church with her tomb and 
 her church of St. Peter. Rome, with her majestic 
 and historic ruins that bear witness to her days of 
 pomp and power, that have survived her periods of 
 
112 
 
 distress and defeat and now stand as material evi- 
 dence of her former greatness and achievements. 
 
 Of course, we began our sightseeing by a visit to 
 the Church of St. Peter. For some reason, as we 
 approached it, the dome did not appeal to me as 
 being so commanding in size as I expected. The 
 shape of the Basilica — that of a Latin cross, no doubt 
 has much to do with this. But the grand and beau- 
 tiful things that are contained within its walls in the 
 way of exquisite statuary, historic paintings and 
 beautiful monuments, the amount of laborious and 
 painstaking ornamentation, the blind faith, zeal and 
 patience exercised in the conception and execution of 
 them, is one of the great mysteries of the human mind 
 and one of the great eccentricities of the human imagi- 
 nation. In the building, multiplication and embel- 
 lishment of churches and cathedrals, the central head 
 of the great Roman Catholic Church has for hundreds 
 of years exacted increasing contributions from its 
 millions of devotees throughout the world, most of 
 which has been spent, not in the uplift of the people, 
 but in the maintenance of a horde of priests whose 
 appearance indicates nothing but a lot of jolly good 
 fellows accustomed to the wines and warmth of good 
 living, and in the spectacular adornment of its innu- 
 merable and largely unnecessary places of worship. 
 And yet I must do the Catholic Church the credit to 
 say that were it not for the fear of future punishment 
 it holds so sternly and heavily over its devotees, the 
 ranks of anarchy and socialism would be rapidly 
 and largely increased. 
 
 These Italians, on the average, are a much better 
 and more prosperous looking people than the general 
 run of those we find in America, but that of course is 
 
113 
 
 due to the fact that we as a rule only get the refuse 
 and offscouring of the country. Among the mer- 
 chants however, business integrity is an unknown 
 quantity, at least so far as their dealings with strangers 
 are concerned. From the hackman who hauls you 
 through the streets, to the most fashionable store- 
 keeper from whom you make a purchase, the insistent 
 and unblushing attempt to balloon your bill or short- 
 change you in its payment is, so far as my experience 
 goes, invariably made. Nothing but a knowledge of 
 their money values can save one from this imposition. 
 If there is a more dishonest people on the face of the 
 earth I have never met them, unless it be the Japanese. 
 And yet such suavity, such deferential poHteness 
 and such all-around good natured attention as one 
 receives in his contact with them exceeds anything 
 we have yet encountered. From St. Peter's we pro- 
 ceeded to the Vatican and first took our way through 
 the museum, with its numerous and lengthy halls and 
 its nearly two thousand works of art. From thence 
 we were shown through the library containing many 
 most beautifully hand-illuminated vo umes and also a 
 large collection of most magnificent testimonials pre- 
 sented to the various popes by the sovereigns of the 
 world. In the evening we proceeded to the Coliseum, 
 where a band concert was in progress, and where, 
 after the close of the concert, a grand illumination of 
 the magnificent ruin with red and green Greek fire 
 took place, somewhat after the manner of that of the 
 Parthenon we saw at Athens, but not comparable 
 with the latter in beauty and effect. 
 
 April 21. — Visited the Galleria d'Arte Modernaor 
 gallery of Belles Arts, containing a large collection of 
 1677—8 
 
114 
 
 modern Italian paintings, some of which, to the eye 
 of the layman, are very fine and many more are medi- 
 ocre. In the afternoon strolled through the Coliseum 
 and a portion of the Forum. This magnificent 
 ruin of the Coliseum stands as the most striking 
 reminder of the days when Rome, in her pomp, 
 potency and power, ruled the civilized world. Built 
 through the toil, the anguish and the life-blood of the 
 Jewish captives who survived the capture and sacking 
 of Jerusalem by the Emperor Titus, it became the 
 scene and the resort for all the functions of a public 
 character. Here, at its dedication, a carnival of 
 blood and blood-thirsty carnage ensued, when five 
 thousand wild and ferocious animals were slain by the 
 no less savage and ferocious gladiators. Here the 
 early Christians were dragged from the dens and 
 caves and catacombs and consigned without mercy 
 and amid the cheers and frantic plaudits of the 
 onlooking multitudes to the tearing claws and bloody 
 fangs of the savage beasts of the African jungle. 
 Here for four hundred years the gladiatorial contests 
 took place and the untamed animal of the forest and 
 desert contended with the fiercer barbarian captive 
 for the holiday amusement of the Roman people. 
 But time, the tomb-builder, has laid his heavy hands 
 upon the massive pile, and out of its broken arches 
 and terraces grow variegated mosses, wild myrtle, 
 olive and a variety of other flowers and plants. 
 
 April 22. — This morning we visited the Gesu, 
 which is the principal church of the Society of Jesus, 
 and is the most beautiful and profusely decorated 
 place of worship in Rome. Numerous large and 
 massive columns of lapis lazuli and bronze adorn the 
 
115 
 
 interior, and the marbles used are of almost every 
 shade of beauty and richness. From here we pro- 
 ceeded to the church of St. Andrea della Valle, which 
 covers the site where Caesar was assassinated. These 
 churches, with their thick marble walls and an entire 
 absence of heat, are as cold and uninviting to one 
 whose blood has been thinned by long residence in a 
 warm climate as the veriest prison dungeon, and 
 lucky is the visitor who succeeds in leaving without 
 the nucleus of a severe cold. 
 
 April 23. — Visited and more particularly examined 
 the Forum and Column of Trajan. This column was 
 erected by Trajan in commemoration of his victory 
 over the Dacians. It stands about one hundred and 
 fifty feet high and is literally covered from base to 
 capital with bas-reliefs, recording the various inci- 
 dents of his conquests. The Forum lies between the 
 ancient Capitoline and Palatine hills. It was once 
 surrounded by a two story colonnade and adorned 
 with magnificent temples, and in the days of Cicero's 
 eloquence and Cataline's defiance was the resort of 
 tumultuous crowds of interested listeners. Only a 
 few of its noble columns remain standing, and although 
 its site has been excavated and exposed to modern 
 view, its floor was for centuries buried under some 
 twenty-five feet of accumulated rubbish and crum- 
 bling ruins. Looking upon these remnants of past 
 glory and magnificence one is brought to a realizing 
 sense of the mutability of human events. Eighteen 
 hundred years ago the legions of Claudius protested 
 against being led into the wilds of Britain, urging that 
 it was a barbarous land and lay beyond the limits of 
 the world, and now travelers from that same land of 
 
116 
 
 barbarous Britain look with wondering pity upon the 
 fallen grandeur of ancient Rome and point with 
 pride to that magnificent realm of world-wide power 
 and prosperity whose metropolis spans the Thames. 
 Not far from here is the monument to Victor Emanuel, 
 not yet completed, but one of the most beautiful and 
 magnificent structures of the kind in the world. It 
 makes Grant's tomb on Riverside Drive in New York 
 look like thirty cents by contrast. It has already 
 cost several millions of dollars, and will likely cost a 
 million or two more before it is finished. The mas- 
 sive building, with its many Corinthian columns, is 
 somewhat crescent shaped and is constructed of pure 
 white marble and adorned with almost innumerable 
 bas-reliefs, carvings and statues, the latter of heroic 
 and even gigantic size. Several equestrian statues 
 are covered with gilt and catch the eye in the glare of 
 the Italian sun as far as human vision can reach. 
 
 April 24. — Not feeling well, remained most of the 
 day in the hotel. From my front window I can look 
 out upon the main thoroughfare, the Via Nationale, 
 and watch the living, moving stream of humanity as 
 it passes, and note with wonder and astonishment, 
 even though it be in Rome, the hundreds and still 
 more hundreds of priests, monks, friars, nuns and 
 religious students, clad in the varied and striking 
 garbs of their respective orders. They are to be seen 
 singly and in groups, both large and small. Some of 
 these orders are supported by the government, but 
 the friars rely entirely upon alms and donations. In 
 other words they are chronic beggars, and in order 
 that they may be a credit to their profession, they 
 pursue it with constant and unflagging industry. 
 
117 
 
 It has been said that the priests, monks and nuns in 
 Rome number one in twenty-five of the total popu- 
 lation. Speaking of beggars, nearly everybody in 
 Rome is guilty of the accusation in some form or 
 other. A clerk in a shop expects a tip after you have 
 paid the store price for the article of your purchase. 
 A barber who shaves you follows you to the cashier 
 and solicits a donation after you have paid for your 
 shave. A cab-driver, who has been paid the agreed 
 price for his cab, invariably expects a gratuity with 
 which to buy a drink and so on ad infinitum and ad 
 nauseam. 
 
 April 25. — In the afternoon we entered a carriage 
 and had a beautiful drive to the gardens and park on 
 Pincio hill and at the Villa Borghese. The gardens 
 and park are embelhshed by numerous marble busts 
 of eminent Italians, both ancient and modern, and 
 also with monuments and obelisks. On our way 
 home we stopped at a cafe and refreshed ourselves 
 with some villainous Italian coffee and some moder- 
 ately good ice cream and cakes. We have not in all 
 our travels so far since leaving home, through Africa, 
 Asia or Europe, seen a single cup of coffee that would 
 be tolerated for one moment by the patrons of the 
 lowest class of American restaurants. One could 
 waive the single item of coffee and take hot water as 
 a substitute, except that one's breakfast never con- 
 sists of anything but coffee and bread and butter, 
 and if you eliminate the former, you have nothing 
 left but extreme prison diet. Possibly, however, 
 we Americans don't know good coffee when we see it, 
 and foreigners may for all I know, reverse the above 
 criticism when subjected to the morning diet of an 
 American hostelry. 
 
118 
 April 26. — Sick all day. 
 
 April 27. — Again visited the Vatican and wandered 
 through the Sistine Chapel, the hall of the Raphael 
 tapestries and the Vatican picture gallery, the latter 
 of which contains many noted pictures, including 
 Raphael's Transfiguration and Madonna di Foligno 
 and Titian's Madonna. The Vatican is a building 
 of tremendous proportions, covering about twenty 
 acres of ground and said to contain some four thou- 
 sand rooms. Its galleries are filled with the world's 
 choicest art treasures, both in paintings and stat- 
 uary. Climbing a broad flight of marble steps, and 
 passing through sundry saloons and corridors, we 
 came to a gallery that seemed to be nearly a quarter 
 of a mile long, peopled with statues of world-wide 
 fame. For hours our wanderings continued with 
 absorbed attention through halls, saloons and courts 
 filled with statuary until it seemed as if we were 
 threading the streets of a city whose inhabitants 
 had all been turned to stone. The interest and the 
 impressiveness of all these objects is greatly enhanced 
 by the recollections and associations with which the 
 imagination invests them. 
 
 Among the statuary, one of the most curious is a 
 colossal group of the Nile, displaying its River God 
 reclining at full length, accompanied by the Ibis, the 
 Hippopotamus and the AlHgator and surrounded 
 by sixteen children playing about him, in allegorical 
 allusion to the sixteen cubits which the river must rise 
 to fertihze the land of Egypt. Another suite of 
 rooms contains the Etruscan museum, where is 
 displayed a vast collection of most interesting memor- 
 ials of that ancient and obscurely known people who 
 
119 
 
 conquered Italy and who excelled in civilization and 
 the arts while the Greeks were yet barbarians and 
 Rome was not even founded. Ornaments of gold, 
 necklaces, chains, rings and brooches of beautiful 
 and delicate workmanship are much in evidence, to 
 say nothing of coins, vases and even tombs. 
 
 April 28. — Visited the Forum of Augustus and the 
 Palatine hill, including the Palace of Tiberius, House 
 of Livia, Palace of Augustus, the Stadium, etc. 
 From the summit of the Palatine a fine view of the 
 whole city is obtained. 
 
 April 29. — An all day rain kept us within doors. 
 
 April 30. — Took a long drive out the Appian Way 
 and to the Catacombs. The air was warm and 
 spring-like, and both wild and cultivated flowers were 
 blooming in profusion along the way. 
 
 May 1 . — Took the train this morning for Florence. 
 It began raining again just as we were leaving Rome 
 and continued all day, gradually getting colder and 
 colder, until when we reached Florence it was almost 
 cold enough to snow. 
 
 The country through which we passed was an agri- 
 cultural and horticultural region possessing no 
 unusual scenery or characteristics. The principal 
 crops seemed to be grain and grapes, with here and 
 there a few olive, apricot and almond trees. The 
 railroad for a good many miles after leaving Rome 
 follows the valley of the Tiber and then, after cross- 
 ing a divide, continues down the valley of the Arno. 
 On reaching Florence we entered the Albion hotel 
 
120 
 
 omnibus, with directions to drive us to that hostelry. 
 Later we found we had been driven to the hotel Roma, 
 where we had to put up with a single room without a 
 particle of heat anywhere in the hotel, with the 
 weather damp and cold enough for mid-winter. 
 
 May 2. — After luncheon we drove to the Albion 
 hotel, where we secured a good room with steam heat. 
 The one thing that has impressed me more than any 
 other throughout Italy thus far is the inherent, insist- 
 ent and universal dishonesty of the people. I have 
 alluded to it heretofore, but experience here so far 
 has only given it additional emphasis. Even the 
 small matter of a penny seems sufficient to bury all 
 moral instinct. During the afternoon took a walk 
 among the shops along the Arno, and crossed the old 
 Ponte Vecchio bridge which is lined on both sides 
 with shops containing jewelry, antiquities and pic- 
 tures of endless variety and style. The beautiful Arno, 
 of which the poets and enthusiasts have so often sung, 
 flows through the center of the city, walled in on 
 both sides and crossed by numerous presumptuous 
 bridges with massive stone arches. At present, 
 owing to frequent rains, its current is as muddy as 
 the Missouri, but its dimensions and its depth at 
 ordinary stage, so far as I can judge, would, if in 
 America, cause it to be denominated Arno creek. 
 Speaking of America, the contrast between traveling 
 there and here is most striking. In our land of mag- 
 nificent distances and wide areas of thinly populated 
 mountain and sage-brush desolation, a week or two 
 of time would mean only a hasty and exhausting visit 
 at large financial cost to a few of nature's interesting 
 and wonderful exhibits. Here in Italy the congested 
 
121 
 
 mass of interesting, beautiful and historically famous 
 works of art and architecture, supplemented by the 
 scenic charms of her lofty mountains and cerulean 
 lakes, keeps one in a state of daily surprise at the com- 
 paratively insignificant territorial size of European 
 countries. It is almost dazing to pass in such quick 
 succession from one interestmg place to another still 
 more interesting. In her palaces, her cathedrals, 
 her ancient ruins and her art galleries, Italy is like one 
 of her fine and delicate mosaics, not a particle of 
 whose surface but is beautified with some special his- 
 tory. Nowhere that we have been does the unpre- 
 pared and uninformed condition of the average tourist 
 become so painfully apparent, for the days are all too 
 short for both sight-seeing and study and the nights 
 are imperatively required for recuperation from the 
 day's fatigues. He who would enjoy this country 
 thoroughly, should preface his trip with several 
 months of careful preparation and study to familiar- 
 ize himself with what he is about to see, and of its 
 place and importance in the history of the world's 
 art, architecture, religion and natural wonders. 
 This fact is more deeply borne in upon me by reason 
 of my own vital deficiencies along these lines. 
 
 May 3. — Visited the Duomo or Cathedral of Santa 
 Maria del Fiore, erected in the fourteenth century 
 under instructions from the Florentines to rear a 
 temple which was to exceed in magnificence anything 
 the world had yet seen. The outside was con- 
 structed of many colored marbles, which before they 
 became dulled and stained by the ruthless hand of 
 time must have been marvelously beautiful. The 
 dome is larger than that of St. Peter's at Rome and 
 
122 
 
 in fact was used by Michael Angelo as a model for the 
 construction of St. Peter's. The ceiling of the dome 
 is covered with frescoes which are much obscured by 
 the dimness of the light. In fact, entering the Cathe- 
 dral from the broad glare of day, it is ten or fifteen 
 minutes before one's eyes become accustomed to the 
 gloom. The stained glass windows are the glory of 
 the place, and nothing more exquisite could be 
 imagined than the soft and variegated shades of light 
 that greet the eye on a bright sunshiny day. During 
 our visit a babe was brought by its parents and was 
 duly baptized by the officiating priest. Numerous 
 monuments and statues grace the auditorium. The 
 Sacristy in the right transept is said to have been a 
 place of refuge for Lorenzo de Medici to escape assas- 
 sination. Standing alongside the Duomo is the Cam- 
 panile or tower, designed and constructed under the 
 direction of the same architect, Giotto. It is nearly 
 three hundred feet high and its adornment is carried 
 out with a wealth of detail that is both confusing and 
 tiresome. We also visited the Baptistry and 
 admired its beautiful bronze doors, the like of which 
 it is alleged do not exist elsewhere. 
 
 In the afternoon we took a ride on the electric cars 
 to the hill on which stands Galileo's house, from which 
 a magnificent view of the city can be had. 
 
 May Jf.. — Took a tour around among several of the 
 superfluous churches that stare you in the face at 
 almost every turn of the street. Each one of them 
 is adorned on the inside with marble statues, gilded 
 and mosaic ceilings, a full supply of costly and beau- 
 tiful altars, images and paintings and a battalion of 
 fat and lusty looking priests and attendants, all on the 
 
123 
 
 keen scent for the people's money. Each one of these 
 churches seems to contain at least one particular 
 masterpiece in painting or statuary that is to be 
 found nowhere else, consequently the solemn duty is 
 impressed upon you of seeing them all. When one 
 stops to think of the enormous amount of money that 
 has been spent in building and decorating the infinite 
 number of cathedrals, churches and baptisteries 
 throughout this priest-ridden country, one can under- 
 stand in some degree the ignorance, poverty and 
 indebtedness of the people. One of the most noted 
 churches we visited to-day was that of San Lorenzo, 
 with its attachment of the Medici chapel, the burial 
 place of the Medici family, and on which, though still 
 unfinished, the family has expended three and one- 
 half million dollars. The walls are of the costliest 
 marbles inlaid with semi-precious stones. Here also 
 are two of Michael Angelo's masterpieces in the shape 
 of sepulchral monuments, pronounced by Nathaniel 
 Hawthorne to be the one work worthy of his repu- 
 tation. 
 
 May 5. — This morning we changed the programme 
 a little, and instead of starting in on more churches, 
 we began our rounds with a visit to the Academy of 
 Fine Arts. The masterpiece in this collection is the 
 heroic statue of David by Michael Angelo. Along the 
 walls of the various galleries are acres of paintings, 
 mostly of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, by 
 such noted artists as Fra Angelico, Fillipo Lippi, 
 Veracchio and Perugino. From here we strolled to the 
 grounds of the Palace Pitti. This is the residence of 
 the King whenever he visits Florence. On the upper 
 floor is the Pitti gallery, containing more unmeasured 
 
124 
 
 acres of beautiful paintings, many of them counted 
 among the world's masterpieces, but we deferred 
 visiting them until another day. The Palazzo 
 Vecchio, at one time the home of the Medici family 
 and the place of Savonarola's imprisonment con- 
 tains much of interest, and the Palazzo-Riccardi, also 
 an ancient palace of the Media family, contains a few 
 square miles of beautiful paintings and a chapel, the 
 beauty and costliness of its adornments being alto- 
 gether beyond the descriptive power of a layman. 
 In the afternoon we visited and wandered through 
 the Baboli gardens adjoining the Pitti palace, with its 
 long avenues of fantastically trimmed trees, with 
 their branches trained to interlace and form archways 
 overhead. In almost every out of the way corner and 
 nook one comes unexpectedly upon a marble statue 
 of some once-prominent Italian statesman, architect 
 or musician. 
 
 May 6. — This morning we visited the church of 
 Santa Croce, which is designated by all the guide 
 books as the Westminster Abbey of Florence because 
 of the many tombs, tablets and memorials of her 
 illustrious dead. Among others the tomb of Michael 
 Angelo, of Machiavelli, of Luigi Lanzi and monu- 
 ments to Dante and Bruno are here. Within the 
 church are half a dozen or more chapels, all contain- 
 ing beautiful bas-reliefs, frescoes and statues. In the 
 chapel of the Medici lies the body of Galileo. We 
 next proceeded to the church of S. Annunziata, and, 
 like all its congeners, it is filled in endless variety 
 with frescoes, mosaics, monuments, etc., and in one 
 of the chapels is an alleged miraculous picture ofthe 
 Virgin, which, it is said, was begun by mortal hands 
 
125 
 
 and finished by an angel. This is so sacred that it is 
 covered up and visitors are rarely allowed to see it. 
 We were among the unfortunates. 
 
 In the afternoon I visited the Florentine Fine Arts 
 gallery, filled with copies of the masterpieces, as well 
 as modern paintings and statuary, all the product 
 of Florentine artists and all for sale. I must confess 
 that the improvement in color and touch shown by 
 some of these copies over the originals was calculated 
 to confirm a long existing impression in my mind that 
 all the skill, beauty and cleverness of execution in the 
 world of art was not buried in the tombs of the 
 ancients. One very beautiful portrait on sale here 
 of the artist's wife interested me very much, and I 
 cast a longing eye upon it until, on inquiry, I found 
 the price was thirteen thousand francs and the subse- 
 quent proceedings interested me no more. 
 
 May 7. — Spent a couple of hours wandering through 
 the halls of the Uffizzi gallery, with its unending num- 
 ber of paintings, busts and statues. We have had, 
 as we thought, a profusion of these things before, but 
 they dwindle into insignificance in comparison with 
 the wealth and character of the collection exhibited 
 in this gallery. Its collection represents the chro- 
 nological development of art, beginning with the four- 
 teenth and running down the scale of centuries since. 
 Many of the earlier, and a considerable number 
 of the later canvases are to the uneducated eye pos- 
 sessed of little merit, but many of the sixteenth cen- 
 tury productions are masterpieces of the world's 
 most famous artists. Of all this collection the most 
 beautiful painting is, in my crude and inexperienced 
 judgment, Titian's Flora. Nearly all the pictures 
 
126 
 
 of the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries 
 have for their subject the Madonna and child, the 
 Crucifixion, the Adoration of the Magi, the Annun- 
 ciation and other incidents of the Ufe of Christ, and in 
 that sense are very monotonous. One large gallery 
 is devoted entirely to portraits of famous artists, each 
 one painted by himself. In the afternoon we took 
 the tram cars to Fiesole, over a winding, ascending 
 and switch-back route, until we reached the summit 
 of a very high hill from whence a rarely beautiful view 
 of the city and the surrounding country is obtained, 
 and where the yards and walls surrounding many of 
 the houses are covered with great masses of beautiful 
 roses, wistaria and other flowers. This hill was the 
 site of ancient Florence at a time when every com- 
 munity was forced to provide means for protecting 
 itself against the buccaneering tendencies of its next 
 door neighbor. 
 
 May 8. — During the morning visited the banking 
 house of French, Lemon and Co., where a number of 
 American newspapers are kept on file. The political 
 news from the United States is far from reassuring. 
 Roosevelt seems to still maintain his hold on the 
 canaille, and things seem to be rapidly drifting toward 
 socialism and anarchy. The great fetish of universal 
 suffrage that we have so devotedly worshipped is 
 likely to prove the ultimate downfall of the republic. 
 In the afternoon visited the Pitti gallery. While not 
 so large as the Ufizzi, it contains over five hundred 
 paintings, many of them the world renowned pro- 
 ductions of the genius of Michael Angelo, Raphael, 
 Titian and Rubens. The walls of the long galleries 
 are literally covered with these works of art, and the 
 
127 
 
 groined and arched ceilings are beautified by the most 
 exquisite of frescoes. The contents of this gallery- 
 consist of the accumulated private collections of the 
 Grand Dukes of Tuscany. In addition to the paint- 
 ings and statuary there are unnumbered tables of the 
 most exquisite workmanship, the tops being of highly 
 polished marble or great slabs of costly malachite, 
 onyx or agate, and in each case most beautifully 
 inlaid with artistic designs in mother-of-pearl, lapis 
 lazuh, ivory and semi-precious stones of great variety, 
 forming pictures of radiant beauty, and while they 
 are made of thousands of minute particles, they are 
 so artisticially inlaid and joined that the eye cannot 
 detect the line of cleavage between them. 
 
 May 9. — After a morning spent in shopping, the 
 afternoon was devoted to a visit to the Pitti palace, 
 and an inspection of this occasional residence of the 
 King of Italy, whenever his official perambulations 
 bring him within the precincts of Florence. It is 
 open on Thursdays to visitors, and its numerous 
 rooms are furnished with a splendor and adorned with 
 a wealth of paintings, statuary and tables that are 
 dreams of beauty, and frescoes that chain the eye 
 and stimulate the imagination. The palace has a 
 history of some six hundred years behind it, and was 
 built by a wealthy and ambitious merchant named 
 Luca Pitti, who sought to drive the Medicis from 
 power; though temporarily successful he was later 
 overthrown by them. It is built of stone, many of 
 the blocks of an immense size, even as much as twenty 
 to twenty-five feet in length, and has a frontage of 
 the main building of nearly six hundred feet, with a 
 height of forty feet in each of its three stories. In the 
 afternoon we took the street cars, crossed the Arno, 
 
128 
 
 and ascended to the summit of a steep hill whereon 
 stands the old monastery of Certosini. A monk in 
 white robes and long white beard, who looked as if he 
 might be a contemporary of Christopher Columbus, 
 and with a most benign and peaceful cast of counten- 
 ance, guided us through the many rooms and winding 
 halls of the old stone building. On the walls were 
 many ancient frescoes, showing the ravages of time, 
 angels with broken wings and mutilated faces, saints 
 with torn robes, crippled legs and short one eye, were 
 scattered about in reckless profusion. After viewing 
 the curiosities and mysteries of the old rookery we 
 were led to the sales room and turned over to the 
 mercies of the vendors of postal cards, perfumeries 
 and sundry kinds of wines and cordials alleged to be 
 made on the premises by the monks, with the sug- 
 gestion that we make liberal purchases. The view 
 from the hill and balcony of the monastery is fine and 
 expansive, though not equal to that from Fiesole. 
 
 May 10. — Rested all day preparatory to starting 
 for Venice to-morrow morning. 
 
 May 11. — Got an early morning start for Venice. 
 After an hour or so the country became hilly and 
 mountainous, and we gradually ascended the moun- 
 tains through a series of ninety tunnels, crossing the 
 Reno River some eighteen or twenty times. The 
 country looked fresh and beautiful, following recent 
 spring rains, and gave evidence of a high state of cul- 
 tivation. The weather was bright and almost too 
 warm for comfort. The grapes here, as well as 
 throughout all Northern Italy, are trained to run on 
 trees, which are planted in rows, and the limbs, with 
 
129 
 
 the exception of two or three leaders, are cut back 
 closely. By this means the grape vines are carried 
 in a trellis or arbor from tree to tree, and the leaves 
 of the trees afford considerable protection to the 
 grapes, from the heat of the summer's sun. We 
 reached Bologna, where the train waited for half an 
 hour, and then proceeded. An hour later the con- 
 ductor came through the car as we reached Modena, 
 and informed us we were on the way to Milan instead 
 of Venice. We hustled off with our baggage and after 
 an exciting and ludicrous interview with the ticket 
 agent and a wait of two hours, took a return train to 
 Bologna, and after another detention of half an hour, 
 boarded the train to Venice, where we arrived about 
 dusk, and paid four francs to a gondolier for steering 
 us through a maze of winding and dirty canals and 
 between rows of tall, blackened and begrimed build- 
 ings, until at last we landed at the Casa Frolla hotel 
 on La Guidecca Island. At Battaglia, before reach- 
 ing Padua, on the way to Venice, there is to be seen 
 on a high hill, the Chateau of Cattajo, which now 
 belongs to the Duke of Modena. It is surrounded 
 by very extensive grounds, the hillsides being cov- 
 ered with a dense growth of forest trees and under- 
 brush, amidst which could be seen a number of deer. 
 The approach to Venice is made through a cause- 
 way built across the lagoon and flanked on both sides 
 by numerous small islets and by a bridge more than 
 two miles in length, and having over two hundred 
 arches. At Brentna station, a few miles before 
 reaching Venice, there is a somewhat distant view of 
 the Tyrolese Alps. Actualities are seldom painted 
 with the filmy brush and iridescent colors of a dream, 
 and so it is that while Venice is in a class entirely by 
 1677—9 
 
130 
 
 itself and is wonderful and curious beyond compare, 
 the first impressions I gathered from our approach 
 in the dull gloom of a tiresome day's journey did not 
 meet my preconceived ideas of the beauty and grand- 
 eur of its marble palaces, the clear and limpid waters 
 of its multiphed canals and the gaily decorated gon- 
 dolas with the musical and interesting personalities 
 of their gondoliers of which I had heard and read so 
 much. Perhaps a night of restful slumber within the 
 precincts of this historic old palace, notwithstanding 
 its mildewed walls and musty atmosphere, will be- 
 get a refreshing and renewed zeal in the sight-seeing 
 of the week to come. 
 
 May 12. — Boarded a little steamer this morning, 
 fare one penny, and crossed the canal Delia Guidecca, 
 landing at the Piazza di San Marco, a large open space 
 paved with stone and forming the principal place of 
 promenade for the people summer evenings and dur- 
 ing festival occasions. Here are located the famous 
 church of St. Mark and the Campanile, recently recon- 
 structed and dedicated, the old one having fallen in 
 1902 after standing since the tenth century. Cross- 
 ing the square we entered the Palace of the Doges, 
 and for hours stood in or walked through its multiple 
 rooms and galleries, with their walls literally covered 
 with historic paintings and their groined and lofty 
 ceilings finished in gorgeous gilt or richly beautiful 
 frescoes. 
 
 As Ruskin says, "the multitude of works by vari- 
 ous masters which cover the walls of this palace, is so 
 great that the traveler is in general wearied and con- 
 fused by them." The multiplicity of paintings cover- 
 ing the same scriptural subject not only here in 
 
131 
 
 Venice, but at Rome and Florence, is calculated to 
 burden the mind and confuse the understanding 
 with its monotony. The Madonna and Child, the 
 Worship of the Magi, the Crucifixion, the Descent 
 from the Cross, the Entombment of Christ, the Coro- 
 nation of the Virgin, the Last Supper, the Virgin in 
 Glory, the Martyrdom of St. Bartholomew, the 
 Agony in the Garden, the Annunciation, St. John 
 the Baptist, and numerous other biblical subjects are 
 to be found in endless repetition wherever you enter 
 an Italian gallery or church. 
 
 In this respect the gallery of the Doges' Palace is in 
 some degree relieved by its many paintings, having 
 a distinct application to the momentous events in the 
 history of Venice. From the Doges' Palace we took 
 the steamer again for the Academy of Fine Arts and 
 took a "time limit" view of its marvelous collection 
 of pictures and frescoes arranged along the walls of 
 twenty or more large rooms or galleries. While at 
 the Doges' Palace we crossed the famous Bridge of 
 Sighs, which is a comparatively insignificant structure 
 connecting the palace with the former prison on the 
 opposite side of a narrow canal. This evening the 
 Piazza di San Marco was brilliantly illuminated by 
 thousands of yellow and white electric lights covering 
 the entire front of the buildings, and a band of seventy 
 five pieces discoursed music until midnight. The 
 square was thronged with people, principally of the 
 poorer classes, and two things were particularly notice- 
 able, one that rarely do you see a grown person and 
 never a child wearing spectacles, and secondly, that 
 the women over twenty-five years of age all show 
 marked evidences of a life of hard work and early 
 loss of youth and beauty. In traveling throughout 
 
132 
 
 Italy in the country, the field and farm work is car- 
 ried on by men and women side by side with no 
 apparent discrimination. The weather has been 
 beautifully balmy and springlike ever since the day 
 following our arrival at Florence. Roses and other 
 flowers are blooming in profusion and are as large and 
 beautiful, though not in such unlimited quantitites as 
 one sees in California. Referring again to the Palace 
 of the Doges, it is interesting to note that it contains 
 the largest picture ever painted on canvas. It is the 
 "Glory of Paradise," by Tintoretto and is 84x24 feet. 
 
 May 13. — This morning we visited the great church 
 of St. Mark's. It was almost a relief to find that there 
 is but one oil painting in the entire building and that 
 is of no particular consequence, but the marvelous 
 and all pervading display of mosaics is something 
 far beyond anything we have yet seen, and they 
 cover forty-six thousand square feet of space. The 
 church is filled with columns and statues and altars 
 and floors of marble from almost every then known 
 quarry in the world. It is filled with rare and beau- 
 tiful specimens and articles of porphyry, jasper and 
 verd-antique stolen in the days of Venetian com- 
 mercial supremacy from Tyre, Greece, Constanti- 
 nople and Egypt. There is a golden altar piece that 
 was stolen from Constantinople which is wrought on 
 plates of gold, and is lavishly set with pearls and 
 precious stones of every description. There are four 
 fluted columns of alabaster said to have belonged 
 to Solomon's Temple and stolen from Palestine in the 
 days of Venetian power. An alleged chair of St. 
 Mark and part of the skull of St. John, to say noth- 
 ing of a piece of the true cross and a crystal vase 
 
133 
 
 containing some of the Saviour's blood, are among the 
 much prized treasures of the church. Altogether it is 
 one of the most interesting places we have yet seen. 
 In the afternoon we took passage on a small steamer 
 for the island of Lido or Malamocco, which is a 
 fifteen minutes ride out toward the open Adriatic 
 Sea and where there are numerous fine hotels, hand- 
 some grounds, entrancingly beautiful flower gardens, 
 a long, sandy, sloping beach and a great bathing 
 pavilion. Notwithstanding the earliness of the 
 season, many people of both sexes were disporting 
 themselves in the surf without apparent discomfort. 
 
 May III-. — We are having balmy spring weather 
 such as even CaHfornia in beautiful May need not be 
 ashamed of. It is perfect for sightseeing and we are 
 making the most of it in this quaint, unique old city, 
 with its one hundred and fifty canals and four hun- 
 dred bridges; with its innumerable picturesque and 
 graceful gondolas; with its so-called marble palaces, 
 rising sheer from the water's edge, once possibly 
 handsome as well as substantial, but now corroded, 
 blackened and disfigured by the united action of time 
 and weather; with its narrow and crooked lanes pre- 
 sumptuously called streets, many of which can be 
 spanned from wall to wall with outstretched arms 
 and with its funny little shops and stores scarcely 
 larger than an American kitchen, filled to their 
 utmost capacity with everything from second hand 
 bottles to the most exquisite handiwork in Venetian 
 glass and mosaics. In no place as yet have we found 
 sightseeing less fatiguing, more surprising and clothed 
 with greater charm than in this bridal city of the 
 Adriatic. We spent the morning stroUing again 
 
134 
 
 through the always beautiful interesting and instruct- 
 ive corridors and auditorium of St. Mark's Church, 
 and about the shops dickering with the ever eager 
 merchants for pictures and beads and the ever ubiqui- 
 ous postal cards. In the afternoon through, the 
 medium of a delightful gondola ride we landed at the 
 Island of Murano, the home of the celebrated Venetian 
 glassworks, and witnessed not only the process of 
 manufacture, but the wonderful collection of mirrors, 
 chandeliers, glassware and mosaics of every descrip- 
 tion. 
 
 May 15. — Took a boat this morning and for two 
 cents apiece rode the whole length of the Grand Canal 
 and return. Boat riding is about the only cheap 
 thing here. Seeing some nice looking prunes in a 
 shop window, I was reminded of home and beset with 
 a desire to taste them, so I went in and bought a 
 pound and almost had a case of heart failure when I 
 was required to cough up forty cents for them. The 
 afternoon was used up in strolling among the shops of 
 various kinds. The history of Venice is an entranc- 
 ing romance filled with incidents that illustrate the 
 ever recurring lights and shadows of prosperity and 
 disaster, fulfilment and destruction of human hopes, 
 ambitions and efforts. Her foundation more than 
 fifteen hundred years ago amid the islands and 
 lagoons of the Adriatic, was the act of a plundered 
 and despairing people driven from their prosperous 
 homes on the mainland by the scourging incursions 
 of Alaric and his Visigoths, followed by the atrocious 
 Attila and his butchering cohorts of Huns. Begin- 
 ning their new abode with humble mud huts and 
 finding a modest subsistence in their occupation as 
 
135 
 
 fishermen, their gradual evolution into a community 
 of sailors whose vessels boldly launched out upon the 
 surrounding waste of waters and carried their dis- 
 coveries and their commerce to the remotest ports 
 and peoples of the Mediterranean, continued uninter- 
 ruptedly during the period of gradual disintegration 
 and overthrow of the Western Roman Empire. For 
 more than five centuries the commercial power and 
 importance of Venice gradually expanded until the 
 era of the Crusades brought them new power and 
 increased wealth. Possessing the most numerous 
 fleet they became the medium of transport for the 
 crusading hosts to the Holy Land and with the aid of 
 the French Crusaders conquered Constantinople 
 about the year 1200 and added largely to their pos- 
 sessions. One hundred and fifty years later a return- 
 ing swing of the pendulum deprived them of all this 
 territorial gain, only to be again recovered and greatly 
 enhanced by a series of conquests lasting to the close 
 of the fifteenth century. From this time her glory 
 and power began to fade, the first heavy blow to her 
 commerce being the Portuguese discovery of the new 
 route to India around the Cape of Good Hope. Dis- 
 astrous wars with the Turks followed and finally 
 the all-conquering Napoleon took possession and the 
 last of the Doges laid aside the Ducal bonnet, just 
 eleven hundred years after the election of his first 
 predecessor. The city was looted by the French and 
 despoiled of her jewels, paintings, statues and manu- 
 scripts, including the rich and historic treasures which 
 Venice herself in the height of her buccaneering 
 exploits had wrested from Egypt, Greece, Palestine 
 and Turkey. 
 
136 
 
 May 16. — Boarded an excursion boat from St. 
 Mark's for Chioggio, an island about eighteen miles 
 south of Venice. The weather was pleasant and the 
 trip very interesting. On one side is the Laguna Viva, 
 or live lagoon, a shallow stretch of water with here 
 and there a small patch of green or a yellow sand bar, 
 barely showing its naked body above the water line. 
 On the other side you pass a continuing series of 
 fully developed islands, some of them small and 
 round, with only a few acres, and others such as Mala- 
 mocco, Palestrina and Chioggia are each several 
 miles in length but at most points only a few hundred 
 yards wide. Each one of these islands contains a 
 village or town, the houses being of ancient and 
 quaint design, and not a new house has been built or 
 an old one repaired for at least three hundred years. 
 The trip to Chioggia consumed two hours, and an 
 hour elapsed between the arrival and departure of the 
 boat, so that we had opportunity to stroll through 
 the town and look at the beautiful women, for which 
 the misleading and imaginative guide book says it has 
 long been noted. We looked into one or two of the 
 numerous churches and found them, as usual, deco- 
 rated with paintings and mosaics, and with images of 
 Christ on the cross in every niche and corner. The 
 return trip landed us at our lodgings in time for dinner. 
 
 May 17. — Began raining in the early morning and 
 continued until noon with a very cold wind, and when 
 it cleared off in the afternoon the mountains were 
 displayed with their sides covered halfway down with 
 fresh snow. 
 
 May 18. — Wandered around the city during the 
 morning, and in the afternoon started out to find the 
 
137 
 
 church of Santa Maria Formosa. Securing a general 
 direction, we walked through numerous narrow and 
 winding streets or alleys lined with shops of all descrip- 
 tions and fairly teeming with thousands of people; 
 crossed numerous bridges, entered wrong churches, 
 butted up against closed walls and were compelled to 
 change our course and seek other outlets, but finally, 
 after an hour or more, were directed to the right place. 
 The church was built the same year that Columbus 
 discovered America. It had the usual number of 
 altars, the multiplied images of the crucifixion and the 
 usual marble floor. A number of paintings adorned 
 its walls, only one of which possessed any particular 
 merit and that was Vecchio's Santa Barbara and 
 Saints. Leaving the church we again lost our direc- 
 tion and finally, after more prospecting through 
 devious and winding thoroughfares, we came out at 
 the Rialto bridge, some two miles from our starting 
 point. After returning by boat to St. Mark's Square 
 we visited the public library, where are to be found 
 many magnificent specimens of illuminated books, 
 handsomely bound in leather, ivory and brass, and 
 dating back to the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. 
 Also a notable collection of early autographs and 
 maps. We also went through the various rooms of 
 the King's Palace, but found them not so elegant or 
 interesting as the one at Florence. 
 
 May 19. — Did not go out until noon and then 
 simply took another stroll through the galleries of the 
 Palace of the Doges and the Cathedral of St. Mark. 
 The allegation that the body of St. Mark is buried in 
 the shrine of the cathedral is founded upon a legend 
 that three seamen of a Venetian ship lying in the 
 
138 
 
 harbor of Alexandria conceived the project of steal- 
 ing the body from the tomb, replacing it with another 
 body, carrying it aboard ship and sailing for Venice. 
 With the aid and connivance of the guardian of the 
 tomb this was accomplished, and the thieves were 
 welcomed with great ceremony and thanksgiving by 
 the Venetian clergy and thenceforward St. Mark 
 became the patron saint of Venice. One hundred and 
 fifty years later, in the midst of civil strife, the cathe- 
 dral of St. Mark was burned and all knowledge of the 
 location of the body of the patron saint was lost for 
 more than one hundred years. When the new cathe- 
 dral was ready for consecration and after a solemn 
 fast and procession, a great light shone from a pillar 
 near the altar, part of the masonry fell away, the 
 body was found and the joy and thanksgiving of the 
 people was universal. More than seven hundred 
 years after, that is about a century ago, the alleged 
 body was rediscovered in a marble tomb in the crypt. 
 If you have any doubt about the truth or authenticity 
 of the above statement, I can prove it by reference 
 to any pious and patriotic native of the Queen City of 
 the Adriatic. 
 
 May 20. — Left our hotel in Venice this morning via 
 gondola and wound our way amidst the intricacies of 
 numerous narrow canals, congested to the limit with 
 hundreds of gondolas, to the railway station, where 
 we took the train for Milan. The country was on 
 dress parade, clothed in its freshest and fairest of 
 spring garments. On every hand were evidences of 
 industry and the highest state of cultivation. Or- 
 chards, vineyards, gardens and meadows, sweet with 
 the odor of new mown hay, joined each other in end- 
 
139 
 
 less succession. Not an inch of ground was wasted 
 and a most complete system of irrigation, sustained 
 by the generous allowance from numerous mountain 
 streams, rendered the farmer independent of drouth. 
 We passed through Padua, one of the oldest towns in 
 Italy, dating back to the days immediately following 
 the fall of Troy; then through Vicenza, Mantua and 
 Verona, the latter beautifully situated upon the 
 River Adige, a clear, swift mountain stream, and the 
 reputed scene of the amours of Romeo and Juliet. 
 Next comes Brescia with its silk, woolen and linen 
 manufactories, but halfway between Verona and 
 Brescia we skirt the southern end of Lake Garda, the 
 largest of the Italian lakes and lying like a superb 
 sapphire amidst its emerald surroundings at the foot 
 of the Eastern Alps. We reached Milan at 3 o'clock 
 in the afternoon and took up our quarters at the 
 Hotel du Nord, near the railway station. After 
 dinner we took the street cars to the great cathedral, 
 the grace and beauty of whose numberless spires and 
 carvings and statues I shall not, through very poverty 
 of expression, attempt to describe. In the presence 
 of such a structure adjectives are without force and 
 superlatives are unavailing. 
 
 May 21. — Spent all the morning in a delightful 
 inspection of the wonders within the walls of the great 
 cathedral. No preconceived ideas of its vastness or 
 of the infinity of detail in its construction are com- 
 mensurate with its actuality. To receive any in- 
 telligent conception, one must have personal vision. 
 During our stay we had the good fortune to witness a 
 very elaborate church service which was participated 
 in by thirty or forty priests and by the cathedral 
 
140 
 
 choir. For a fee of one franc each we were shown the 
 Treasury which contains two full length statues in 
 solid silver of St. Ambrose and San Carlo, together 
 with the smaller statues of gold and a great number of 
 solid silver crosses and candelabra ornamented with 
 precious stones of every variety. The stained glass 
 windows of the cathedral are enriched with scenes 
 that represent almost every incident of historical 
 note in both the old and new testaments. After sev- 
 eral hours spent in the body of the church we climbed 
 the stairway to the roof of the main building, crossed 
 the roof to the main tower and ascended an almost 
 interminable winding staircase to the top, whence 
 one could look down upon the innumerable spires and 
 statues that crowned the vast edifice. Unfortunately 
 the atmosphere was very foggy and smoky and the 
 view was limited to the city and its immediate sur- 
 roundings. Leaving the cathedral we visited the 
 church of Santa Maria del Grazie, in the refectory of 
 which is the original of Leonardi da Vinci's famous 
 picture of the last supper. The picture is dreadfully 
 marred by time and rough usage and having been 
 retouched several times by indifferent artists, prob- 
 ably bears but little resemblance to the original. 
 Later in the afternoon we took a "circumvallatione" 
 car and made a circuit of the entire city. 
 
 May 22. — A heavy shower which began last night 
 continued throughout the forenoon and our plans for 
 a trip to Lake Como were therefore deferred. In 
 the afternoon we made another visit to the great 
 cathedral and also to the King's Palace, where we 
 were shown through room after room containing 
 beautiful frescoes, tapestries and furniture, together 
 
141 
 
 with numerous marble busts of Napoleon by Canova 
 and other great sculptors. We also visited La Scala, 
 the great theatre or opera house, said to be with the 
 exception of San Carlo at Naples, the largest theatre 
 in Europe, with five tiers of boxes around the whole 
 auditorium, each box having a dressing room, and the 
 entire theatre having a seating capacity of thirty-six 
 hundred people, with a stage one hundred and fifty 
 feet deep. 
 
 May 23. — Left this morning for Como, reaching 
 there in one hour and immediately boarded the boat 
 for a trip down the lake as far as Menaggio ; thence 
 by cars we crossed to Porlezza on Lake Lugano; 
 thence down Lake Lugano to the town of the same 
 name, where we took the cars for the return trip to 
 Como and Milan, reaching the latter place in time for 
 dinner. The beauty of the scenery along both lakes 
 reminds one in many respects of Lake George. Sur- 
 rounded on all sides by lofty and picturesque moun- 
 tain peaks reaching precipitously to the water's edge 
 and clothed to their very summits in garments of 
 richest green, with numerous villages hugging the 
 shores and the hillsides dotted in all directions with 
 cottages and summer hotels and the clear green 
 waters of the lakes flecked with steamboats and 
 pleasure craft, a picture of rare beauty is painted upon 
 the face of nature. Throughout the whole trip from 
 Milan and return I have noted the almost total 
 absence of domestic animals; no horses, cattle, sheep 
 or even goats being in evidence along the route, 
 although everywhere you see the farmers cutting and 
 raking their small patches of hay, creating the sup- 
 position that there is something besides human 
 animals to be fed. 
 
142 
 
 Our tour of Italy is practically finished as we leave 
 Milan for Geneva to-morrow morning. The local 
 differences in Italy are perhaps more marked than in 
 any other country in Europe in the sphere of manners, 
 customs, daily life and domestic economy. While 
 each individual province or state portrays marked 
 distinctions of character and temperament, the great 
 and general differences are marked and bounded geo- 
 graphically into Southern and Northern Italy. The 
 South is given over almost exclusively to agriculture 
 and poverty. The North is largely inudstrial, full 
 of activity, absorbent of modern progressive ideas 
 and from a European standpoint reasonably pros- 
 perous. Politics and patriotism are live issues in the 
 North, while apathy and indifference cast a blight 
 over the South. While more than fifty per cent of 
 the population of Sicily and Naples is illiterate, the 
 average in the northern provinces is only about fifteen 
 per cent. 
 
 In criminality, also, the difference is even greater, 
 the statistics showing that while the murders in the 
 south average from twenty-five to thirty in each one 
 hundred thousand of population, the northern prov- 
 inces average only two and one-half to three and to 
 our detriment and warning it must be remarked 
 that the bulk of our now enormous Italian immigra- 
 tion comes from the southern provinces, where is 
 found the home of the Mafia and the Camorra. 
 
 Northern Italians look with more or less contempt 
 upon their southern brethren and this is returned by 
 a full reciprocity of jealousy bordering on hate by 
 the latter. For hundreds of years prior to the 
 national unification of Italy, each province, and in 
 many instances, each city and town maintained a 
 
143 
 
 sort of individual independence and hedged itself 
 about with its own local manners, customs, and occu- 
 pations; developed its own political system, difTer- 
 entiated its own social life and in fact was a little 
 world in itself. Even now many of the inhabitants 
 of the smaller towns have little knowledge of what is 
 transpiring outside their own walls and care less. 
 
 All these differences are more or less incidental to a 
 diversity of dialects that exist in the various prov- 
 inces, as well as to a diversity in the local forms of 
 government under which the different localities have 
 from time to time existed, varying from the most 
 liberal democracy to the most crushing tyranny. Not- 
 withstanding all these differences and the contrast of 
 interests that characterize the different sections of the 
 country, it would be hard to find any considerable 
 number of Italians from the toe of the boot to its 
 northernmost strap, who would listen for one moment 
 to any proposition for a divided nationality. The 
 standard of living in Italy is on so low a level as 
 to challenge the credulity of the average American 
 employer who has been subjected to the arbitrary 
 demands of our foreign controlled labor unions. 
 Skilled labor finds its compensation for ten or twelve 
 hours of drudgery in a sum ranging from what in our 
 currency would be twenty-five cents to one dollar. 
 Farm and orchard laborers receive from sixteen to 
 thirty cents in Central and Northern Italy, while in 
 the south it more often ranges from ten to fifteen 
 cents. Of course, with such a compensation the 
 daily diet is necessarily of the simplest and most 
 frugal character. That of the laboring classes con- 
 sists almost wholly of wheat or corn bread, vegetables 
 and fruit, but meat is seldom tasted except on rare 
 
144 
 
 feast days. The very general consumption of 
 "polenta" a preparation of maize, is alleged to be the 
 cause of the widespread skin disease, pellagra. Pov- 
 erty and wealth are not so apt to be restricted to 
 separate localities in the cities and towns, as is often 
 the case in America. Associated millionaires are not 
 communistically gathered for residential purposes on 
 Nob Hills and Fifth Avenues, but you will very fre- 
 quently find pride and poverty, palaces and hovels in 
 neighborly propinquity. Indeed, I am told that often 
 a family of wealth will occupy with much ostentation 
 one floor of a dwelling, while the upper or the base- 
 ment floors may be filled with those who are strug- 
 gling against the demands of the most grinding 
 poverty and destitution. Considerable of our so- 
 called progressive legislation of the Roosevelt- 
 Johnson type is already in vogue in Italy. That 
 phase of state socialism known as the employers' li- 
 ability act obliges every employer to insure his 
 employes against accident, and if any one of them 
 is killed or totally disabled, even though it be occa- 
 sioned by his own viciousness or carelessness, his 
 family is paid a sum equal to five years wages in the 
 first instance, or to an equivalent pension in the 
 second instance. The people, even of the cities and 
 towns, are much given to outdoor life. The streets 
 and cafes or gardens are the resort of all classes, 
 individually and in family groups. They resort 
 there for light luncheon or drink and to discuss all 
 questions of domestic or public importance. In fine 
 weather half the sidewalk or street will be filled with 
 tables in front of the cafes, where crowds gather to 
 enjoy their moments of leisure. No attention seems 
 to be paid to warmth or comfort in the Italian houses 
 
145 
 
 of either a public or private character. There seems 
 to be a legendary notion that Italy is a warm country, 
 and at certain seasons there may be some truth in it, 
 but in winter or early spring there are raw cold winds 
 that send shivers up and down the foreign spine and 
 for which the only refuge is to put on your heavy 
 overcoat or go to bed and cover up. It reminds one 
 of the old days in San Francisco, when there were no 
 furnaces and few lighted grates and the hostess sat 
 enveloped in heavy wraps while entertaining her 
 half-frozen callers. 
 
 The houses are of stone, the floors are of stone, and 
 the absence of carpets renders contact with the bare 
 feet in the early morning a peculiarly uncomfortable 
 infliction. The franchise in Italy has property quali- 
 fications, with some special exceptions in favor of 
 veteran soldiers, government officials, university 
 graduates, etc., but the totality of those entitled to 
 its privileges does not exceed seven per cent of the 
 total population, and of these not over fifty per cent 
 on an average, avail themselves of the privilege. 
 
 May 2Ii.. — Left Milan this morning for Geneva. 
 Passed through a fine agricultural country, reaching 
 Lake Maggiore, along whose level and uninteresting 
 banks we rode for a number of miles, contrasting 
 greatly with the beautiful scenery of Lakes Como and 
 Lugano. From here our ascent was gradual but 
 continuous, amidst increasing grandeur of scenery, 
 to Iselle, where the train enters the Simplon tunnel, 
 the longest work of its kind in the world, and for more 
 than twelve miles speeds through this underground 
 passage, seven thousand feet below the summit of 
 the mountain. The train is conducted through by 
 1677 — 10 
 
146 
 
 electric power and the car windows are closed to keep 
 out the heat. It emerges near Brigue, where you have 
 magnificent views on either side of the snow-clad 
 Wasserhorn and Spaarhorn. From here to Villeneuve, 
 on Lake Geneva, the journey almost is one continu- 
 ous recurrence of inspiring views, of snow-clad moun- 
 tains, silvery cascades, dark and disagreeable tunnels, 
 ancient castle ruins and picturesque Swiss villages 
 streaking the hillsides and narrow valley of the Rhone, 
 which stream has its beginning in the glacier of the 
 same name near St. Gothard. From Villeneuve the 
 railroad skirts the north shore of Lake Geneva, passing 
 through Montreux, Vevey, Lausanne and sundry 
 other towns and villages, composed for the most part 
 of hotels, apartment houses, and pensions for the 
 accomodation of tourists. Reaching Geneva the 
 middle of the afternoon we found comfortable accom- 
 modations, previously engaged, and readjusted our- 
 selves for further sight-seeing. 
 
 We have been met with extra charges for almost 
 every conceivable thing all along the line of our jour- 
 ney, but the hotel at Milan put over a new one on us 
 by charging fifty centimes at each meal for the use of 
 napkins. 
 
 The great lake of Geneva spreads in a semi-crescent 
 shape to the north and east, with its northern and 
 southern shores defined in striking contrast. On 
 the northern side are abrupt and sloping hillside 
 pastures, flecked with green and pleasant groves, 
 and stretching far back and ever up and beyond, 
 through thick forests to the everlasting snow-clad 
 peaks of the Jural Alps. 
 
 From Lausanne to the eastern end of the lake, the 
 level plains and gentle slopes of a less insistent rug- 
 
147 
 
 gedness of topography are covered with a continuous 
 succession of orchards and vineyards, interspersed 
 with picturesque villages and hamlets. On the 
 southern shore, however, the Savoyan Alps rise with 
 sudden abruptness from the foreshortened foot-hills 
 into gloomy, awe inspiring peaks, with their cheerless 
 northern slopes turned from the sun's life-giving 
 warmth, and hence appear in their arrested develop- 
 ment of flower and foliage to belong to a different 
 climatic zone. Geneva has been a noted lake ever 
 since it was known as Lake Lemanus of the Romans, 
 and has filled the theme of many a song and story. 
 It is forty-five miles long, four to eight wide, and has 
 its greatest depth, of one thousand feet, opposite 
 Lausanne. Its deep blue waters have their sources 
 in the hundreds of tiny rivulets that trickle down the 
 sides of the towering snow-covered mountains at its 
 eastern end, and in the melting snows and glaciers 
 of the St. Gothard and Mont Blanc ranges, where the 
 transparent Rhone and the murky Arve have their 
 beginning. On the north shore, near the eastern end 
 of the lake, is the Castle of Chillon, made famous by 
 Byron's beautiful and imaginative poem. As the 
 train passes, shortly after leaving Villeneuve, a fleet- 
 ing view was had of the old castle prison, and its 
 pyramidal and conical-top towers. It is built upon 
 a rocky islet in the lake some fifty or seventy- 
 five feet from shore, and is reached by an ancient 
 bridge of quaint construction. When the castle was 
 built, or by whom, is unknown, though its traditions 
 date back more than a thousand years. 
 
 May 25. — Rained with slight intermissions all day. 
 Walked down town through the market and business 
 
148 
 
 section. The buildings are substantial and mostly 
 modern. The universal language is French. They 
 have the least familiarity with the English tongue 
 of any place we have yet visited, and it is much 
 harder to make them, than it is an Italian, understand 
 an American's wants. Many of the residences are 
 surrounded by large grounds filled with large and 
 beautiful trees and shrubbery. The black locust and 
 horse chestnut are favorite trees, and are profusely 
 filled at this time with blossoms. There are also 
 many fine sycamores and oaks, with occasional elms 
 and maples. In the parks they have a curious 
 fashion of cutting off the tops of the sycamores and 
 causing them to spread out somewhat after the manner 
 of the Texas umbrella tree. In this connection I 
 have noticed that throughout Italy nearly all the trees 
 have been cut back repeatedly until they are robbed 
 entirely of their natural beauty, presumably for the 
 purpose of replenishing, from time to time, the family 
 supply of fuel. Geneva, the home of Calvin, was 
 long the Protestant stronghold of the continent, but 
 gradually, year by year, mostly within the last cen- 
 tury, the Roman Catholic immigration has increased 
 until now they have a slight preponderance in num- 
 bers, a fact that must be highly disturbing to the 
 spiritual comfort of the great Protestant Reformer. 
 
 May 26. — Cloudy in the morning, with a strong 
 north wind bearing an icy blast from the mountain 
 peaks. Walked down to the lake and through the 
 small park known as Jardin Anglais. Lake Geneva 
 is a most beautiful sheet of water, and with the 
 rapidly stiffening breeze its vivid green surface was 
 soon covered with a multitude of shining white-caps. 
 
149 
 
 chasing and racing with each other like a school of 
 mermaids out for a lark. In the afternoon crossed 
 to the north side of the lake and went to Ariana Park 
 and Museum. It being Whitsunday, the museum 
 was closed, so we strolled through the park, where are 
 kept a large number of deer of different varieties, 
 some of them pure white, and where also are an 
 Alpine and a Botanical Garden, alleged by the guide- 
 books to be very fine, but did not impress us as com- 
 paring favorably with many in America. 
 
 May 27. — Strolled around town after breakfast; 
 bought a New York Herald and came back to the 
 house to read the political news from America. It 
 would seem, in the light of the result of the Ohio 
 primaries, that the people — at least the Republican 
 portion of them — have lost their reason, and have 
 been stampeded into a wild, insensate mob. The 
 fact that a ranting, untruthful, egotistical dema- 
 gogue like Roosevelt can command a majority of the 
 votes in one of the most intelligent communities 
 in the country, renders more than ever apparent, the 
 fact that the most monumental humbug and folly 
 fastened upon the American people is unrestricted, 
 universal suffrage. It seems evident that the Repub- 
 lican party is hopelessly divided and Democratic 
 success assured. 
 
 This afternoon we drifted down to the point of 
 junction of the Rhone and Arve Rivers, which occurs 
 a short distance below where the former leaves Lake 
 Geneva. It is called the union of the blue and the 
 gray, from the fact that the water of the Rhone is 
 clear as crystal and of a bluish tint, while the Arve 
 is full of muddy sediment of a light gray color. From 
 
150 
 
 this point we crossed a bridge over the Arve and 
 ascended a steep hill through a beautiful shady grove, 
 and from the summit beheld a most entrancing view 
 of the entire city of Geneva and the surrounding moun- 
 tains. Later we entered a gasoline launch on the 
 lake and rode to the Pare Mon Repos, fronting on 
 the lake bank and containing a wealth of roses and 
 other flowers, together with many varieties of magnif- 
 icent trees, forming altogether a picture such as the 
 pencil of artist never succeeded in painting. From 
 here we expected a fine view of Mont Blanc, but were 
 defeated by the clouds. 
 
 May 28. — Made a trip to the Saleve for the pur- 
 pose of getting a view of Mont Blanc. In doing this 
 we took the electric tramway from Cours de Rive to 
 Vernier, and from thence a rack and pinion railway 
 to the top of the mountain. The Saleve is an abrupt 
 hill or mountain of limestone rock rising to the height 
 of over four thousand feet, and is just across the Swiss 
 border in French territory. As you ascend from the 
 valley in a serpentine course the view gradually 
 broadens and becomes more and more beautiful. 
 The city of Geneva, with its shaded grounds and 
 attractive homes, lies at your feet, the blue expanse 
 of the greatest of Swiss lakes glistens in the sun, 
 dotted here and there with excursion steamers, gaso- 
 line launches darting swiftly about like so many fire- 
 flies, and sail-boats and row boats of all sizes and 
 descriptions. For miles the winding and disreput- 
 able current of the River Arve can be traced to its 
 marriage with the beautiful and unstained Rhone, 
 and then as each higher step is taken in the ascent, 
 mountain after mountain, and range succeeding 
 
151 
 
 range, come into view, until the horizon is bounded 
 and the view hmited on all sides by distant snow- 
 capped summits. Half way up the hill is a com- 
 paratively level tract, the site of a small village and 
 sundry diminutive farm and garden plats, with here 
 and there a luxuriant meadow of red-top and clover, 
 and the uncultivated spots are covered with a thick 
 growth of hazel-brush, interspersed with dwarf oaks, 
 black locusts and European linden. At the end of 
 the route is found the inevitable Swiss restaurant, 
 where a glass of cold lager or a bottle of sour wine 
 awaits the thirsty traveler. The view from the sum- 
 mit is one of surpassing grandeur, though at first we 
 were disappointed to find the face of Mont Blanc 
 hidden behind the clouds. An hour later, however, 
 just before time for our return, the silvery veil was 
 hfted and the face of Europe's highest and most noted 
 mountain peak was exposed to our longing gaze. 
 The world has sung its praises, and it is little less 
 than treason not to join in its enthusiastic refrain, 
 but truth compels me to admit that in majesty and 
 grandeur it at least does not excel our own Mount 
 Ranier, Mount Shasta, nor several of the most noted 
 peaks in Colorado. However, we expect to get a 
 nearer and better view when we visit Chamonix, 
 and are told that our opinion will undergo a radical 
 change. 
 
 May 29-30-31. — Spent such time as the frequent 
 showers of rain would permit in strolling around town 
 and exploring the many beautiful and sequestered 
 nooks and enclosures in the suburbs. 
 
 June 1. — Between morning showers visited the 
 railroad station for information as to departure of 
 
152 
 
 boat and trains for Interlaken, and in the afternoon 
 strolled over to Pare aux Vives, along the lake 
 shore, where there is a small "zoo," beautiful trees, a 
 fine restaurant and a Luna park copied on a small 
 scale from the one at Coney Island, New York. 
 Made plans for visiting Chamonix to-morrow, but 
 the weather thickened up and a steady rain set in 
 for the night, so we abandoned them. 
 
 June 2. — Rained again to-day but visited the new 
 Academy and Museum in the afternoon. The latter 
 is located on the hill and is a fine modern building of 
 white sandstone, and contains the city collection of 
 antiquities, weapons and coins, collections of indus- 
 trial art, Swiss uniforms, paintings and sculptures. 
 About four miles from Geneva is the village of Ferney, 
 which for the last twenty years of his life was the 
 residence of that brilliant, erratic, mercurial and 
 inconsistent stormy petrel of France, M. de Voltaire, 
 the man whose writings laid the foundation for the 
 social unrest and the fierce passions of the canaille, 
 which brought about the bloody horrors of the 
 French revolution. With a wit keen as a Damascus 
 blade, a sarcasm that stung like an adder, and with 
 an unlimited love and capacity for controversy, he 
 kept Europe in general, and France in particular, in a 
 state of continual social and political agitation. 
 To-day the foe of imperial authority; to-morrow 
 cringing and fawning before the king and his satellites 
 for pecuniary and social favor; now writing a scur- 
 rilous and indecent pamphlet denouncing religion 
 and the church, and shortly after, begging permission 
 of the Pope to dedicate one of his tragedies to his 
 holiness. But Voltaire had a mission in life — the 
 
153 
 
 freeing of mankind from arbitrary power, whether 
 civil or religious — and with him the end was every- 
 thing, the means inconsequential, and as he said, 
 ''What hope of freedom to speak in these times with- 
 out the Royal indulgence." Twice incarcerated in 
 the Bastile for his bold and indiscreet writings; com- 
 pelled to flee Paris time and again to avoid the royal 
 anger; driven from Prussia with the bitter resent- 
 ment of his erstwhile friend, Frederick the Great, he 
 was at last enabled to return to Paris amidst the shout 
 and frenzy of the canaille, the welcome of the Acad- 
 emy, the joy of the philosophers, the ecstacy of the 
 drama and the fear of the court and church. 
 
 A few weeks later his mortal remains were borne 
 secretly from Paris for burial at Scelliers, from whence 
 thirteen years later, by order of the National Assem- 
 bly, they were borne back to Paris and buried with 
 such universal acclamation and honors as had never 
 before been accorded to a citizen of France. 
 
 June 3. — Left for Chamonix this morning. 
 Weather more or less cloudy and showery. The 
 scenery along the route was very attractive and 
 opened to our vision many densely wooded mountain 
 sides, snow-clad peaks and beautiful waterfalls. 
 The perpendicular leap of the cascade at Oex is so 
 great that much of the water floats off in mist before 
 reaching the bottom. Villages and chalets, or farm- 
 houses, tattoo the landscape and hillsides in every 
 direction. Reached Chamonix shortly after noon, 
 had lunch, and after some hesitation decided not to 
 go up the rack and pinion railway to Mer de Glace, 
 as the weather was too cloudy to see Mont Blanc, 
 but instead took the train to Les Tines and thence 
 
154 
 
 climbed a winding mountain trail through a forest of 
 great beauty to the Chapeau, a point that overlooks 
 the Mer de Glace. Here we saw and stood upon 
 the edge of thi^ great glacier, whose melting ice forms 
 one of the main sources of the River Arve. In a few 
 minutes after our arrival it began to rain and we 
 retraced our steps halfway down the mountain until 
 we reached a small hotel, where we had dinner and 
 stopped for the night. 
 
 June Jj.. — Awakened at 4.30 a. m., and looking out 
 the windows found that the storm had passed and 
 the atmosphere was clear and pure. A glance at the 
 mountains, and there, in all its white-robed glory, 
 piercing the sky with its many pointed needles and 
 minarets, stood one of nature's grandest temples, 
 Mont Blanc. The moon, with her pale silvery light, 
 capped the top-most needle and cast a fading and 
 deathly pallor over the face of the mountain, as she 
 fled from the first burning glance of the sun, who had 
 just awakened and was rubbing his lustrous eyes 
 preparatory to taking up his daily rounds. In a few 
 moments there began to steal over the face of the 
 mountain's higher pinnacles a delicate shade of purple, 
 gradually ripening into a glowing pink, and fascinat- 
 ing the eye with its almost unearthly beauty. For 
 only a few moments did this evanescent glory last, 
 and then as the sun mounted higher in its course the 
 colors faded and the whole broad breast of the moun- 
 tain became a dazzling sheet of white, scarcely less 
 beautiful than before. The surrounding peaks, of 
 inferior though still majestic height, soon caught the 
 glow and became masses of burnished silver, con- 
 trasting beautifully with the deep green of the pines 
 
155 
 
 on the lower slopes, while the valley, with her scatter- 
 ing villages, was hidden in a thin, dreamy veil of 
 silvery fog, which a little later, kissed by the morning 
 breeze, drifted gracefully and lazily up the canon and 
 disappeared from view. Feeling the full inspiration 
 of the scene we again, with zealous steps, climbed the 
 mountain path to a point where we could look down 
 upon the full-lengthed mass of the Mer de Glace and 
 the valley below, more than five thousand feet, and 
 at last regretfully, with downward steps, returned to 
 the hotel for breakfast. After breakfast we took 
 our way down the mountain trail again to Les Tines, 
 where w^e boarded the upward train for Argentieres, 
 only a. few minutes ride, from which point we also 
 had a grand view of the mountains and of the Glacier 
 d'Argentieres. Returning by the train to Chamonix, 
 we looked about the town for a couple of hours and 
 left for Geneva, arriving at our hotel in time for 
 dinner. 
 
 June 5. — Left Geneva for Interlaken. Took the 
 boat at 9 a. m., and after a delightful ride up Lake 
 Geneva to Montreux we left the boat for an electric 
 train, which immediately upon leaving begins the 
 ascent of the mountain and gradually winds its way 
 back and forth in making the ascent, affording some 
 of the most charming and picturesque views of the 
 lake and the surrounding country one could well 
 imagine. Not only the shores of the lake, but the 
 green and beautiful hillsides are everywhere sprinkled 
 with villages, hotels and pensions for the accommoda- 
 tion of tourists during both summer and winter 
 months. In fact, the whole of Switzerland is appar- 
 ently given over in these days of wealth and leisure to 
 
156 
 
 the entertainment of the world's fortunate multitude 
 who come here to spend their money and enjoy the 
 climate and scenery of this most contented little 
 Republic. 
 
 At Zweisimmen we changed from the electric to the 
 steam cars and after crossing another divide reached 
 the Lake of Thun, and skirting closely the bank of 
 this little gem for its full length, reached Interlaken 
 shortly before dark and took up our quarters at the 
 Hotel Rugenpark. 
 
 June 6. — From our bedroom window we look out 
 upon the Jungfrau, but on arising this morning it was 
 obscured by clouds, which gradually drifted away, 
 and about 11 o'clock left the massive snow-bound 
 heights exposed to full view. It is a beautiful pic- 
 ture, but from this point, at least, not nearly so 
 impressive as Mont Blanc. Interlaken not only in 
 itself, but in its scenic surroundings, is a most attrac- 
 tive place. Like all other Swiss towns, it is made up 
 of hotels, pensions and small shops. Swiss wood 
 carving, in all sorts of fantastic and beautiful designs, 
 is much in evidence. We visited the Kursaal, a 
 beautiful restaurant and beer garden surrounded 
 by ornamental grounds with profusion of flowers, and 
 listened to a concert by a band of fifty pieces, after 
 which we took a carriage and drove for an hour 
 through the town and to Lake Briens. After dinner 
 we took a walk through a dense forest of beech and 
 pine to the caf^ Unspunnen, on a commanding emi- 
 nence, from which a fine view of the Jungfrau, Lake 
 Briens and surrounding mountains is had. The 
 glittering dome of the Jungfrau towers, in its loftiness, 
 amid the clear, crisp atmosphere, and lower down its 
 
157 
 
 sides the crapy and vapory clouds glide past like 
 avant-couriers presaging the coming of the hosts 
 that follow the storm king from his lair in the deep, 
 dark canons. 
 
 June 7. — Took the boat on Lake Thun and landed 
 at Beatus Hohlen, from whence we ascended by foot- 
 path to the main road, and from thence on up along- 
 side the beautiful cascade of Beattenbach. This con- 
 sists of a succession of falls, from one bench to another, 
 until the stream, with a final plunge, reaches the lake. 
 After an ascent of perhaps a thousand feet from the 
 boat landing we entered the so-called Wet Grotto, 
 being a cave which by a winding and upward channel 
 penetrates the bowels of the mountain for a distance 
 of a mile and a quarter. The Beattenbach courses 
 its way through the grotto the entire distance with 
 alternate musical murmuring and deafening roar. 
 Here and there the walls and floor of the grotto 
 are interspersed with small stalactites and stalag- 
 mites, not in any way comparable either in size 
 or beauty with those to be found in Luray or Mam- 
 moth caves in America. Adjoining the wet grotto 
 is a small cave called the dry grotto in which St. 
 Beattus is said to have lived, and which for many 
 centuries was a much frequented resort for pilgrims. 
 The saint's grave is just outside the grotto, and a life- 
 size image of him, seated at his table poring over the 
 scriptures, is within. We returned to Interlaken 
 on the boat in the midst of a heavy rain storm that 
 lasted during the night, but will, if the weather 
 permits, visit Lauterbrunnen and Murren tomorrow. 
 
 June 8. — Cloudy and threatening this morning, 
 and therefore trip to Lauterbrunnen postponed. 
 
158 
 
 Spent the time wandering around town among the 
 stores and dodging the frequent showers. Every- 
 where one travels through these Swiss mountains, 
 whether by rail or on foot, one is almost constantly 
 in sight of isolated log or frame cabins, ranging from 
 the lower mountain reaches to points far up toward 
 timber line. In the spring, as soon as the snows have 
 melted on the lower hillsides and the fresh grass and 
 foliage begin to give color to the landscape, the thrifty 
 Swiss peasant releases his cattle from their long 
 winter confinement, and driving them in procession 
 up the winding and rough mountain trails, halts at 
 the lower pastures, making his temporary abiding 
 place in one of these rude cabins, and then, as the 
 season advances, moving higher and higher up, his 
 cows fattening their sleek sides upon the succulent 
 grasses and wild flowers, until the late autumn's chill 
 and nipping frost warns him to again seek the valley's 
 protection. 
 
 June 9. — Rained hard nearly all day. In the after- 
 noon, during a short intermission, climbed a high hill 
 near by and had a comprehensive view of the town, 
 the lakes and the flat meadow between. This town 
 seems to be one of the head- centres for the manu- 
 facture, display and sale of wood-carving, much of it 
 of very exquisite design and showing great delicacy of 
 touch. One of the favorite subjects is the brown bear, 
 which is carved in all sorts of attitudes, designs and 
 sizes, from an inch in length to full natural size. If 
 our Teddy should secure the Presidential nomination, 
 it might mean a season's prosperity for the merchants 
 of this community. While the "going" dialect at 
 Geneva and Chamonix was French, here it is German . 
 
159 
 
 June 10. — This morning took a trip to Lauter- 
 brunnen and the famous Staubbach and Trummel- 
 bach falls, the former nine hundred and eighty feet in 
 height and the latter, fed by the glaciers of the Jung- 
 frau, descending with great violence and noise in five 
 falls through a narrow, spiral and almost perpendicular 
 gorge. To describe this trip, however, is but in large 
 measure a repetition of previous descriptions ol Swiss 
 scenery. It would only mean more adjectives, more 
 superlatives, more rushing streams, silvery cataracts, 
 grassy slopes, dense forests, many-colored wild 
 flowers, quaint Swiss chalets, endless hotels and pen- 
 sions, towering cliffs and snow-clad summits. At 
 one time on the way to Trummelbach, twelve distinct 
 cataracts were in sight on both sides of the canon. 
 We did not go up on the cable and electric railway to 
 Murren because the mountain summits were so ob- 
 scured by clouds as to render a good view of the range 
 impossible. 
 
 June 11. — Left Interlaken this morning by cars; 
 changed at Brienz, the next station, to a boat and 
 rode the full length of Lake Brienz to Meiringen, 
 where we again changed to the cars and where our 
 hand luggage was unceremoniously seized, weighed 
 and transferred to the baggage car after paying what 
 they termed excess baggage charges. It seems the 
 railroad baggage allowance in Switzerland, free of 
 charge, is only twenty-two pounds per person, 
 although this is the first time the rule has been en- 
 forced on us. Leaving Meiringen we begin the ascent 
 by cog and pinion railway, of the Brunig Pass, again 
 opening to our view as we ascend, a scene that would 
 be of rare beauty anywhere but in this ever beautiful 
 
160 . 
 
 Switzerland. As we reach the summit of the pass at 
 Brunig — altitude thirty-three hundred feet — to the 
 south rise the snow-capped peaks of the Engelhorn 
 and the Faulhorn chains, and below us lies the green 
 and peaceful valley of Meiringen, with its little farms 
 and fields laid off, and each one surrounded by a stone 
 wall, giving the effect, at that height, of a table-top 
 inlaid with different colored mosaics. Descending 
 on the north side of the pass, in two and one-half 
 miles Lungern is reached after a descent of eight 
 hundred feet, and the small lake of the same name is 
 in view far below us. Descending still further to 
 Giswill, the view to the south comprehends the 
 Schwarzhorn chain and the three towering ever white 
 and dazzling peaks of the Wetterhorn. Crossing the 
 river Aa, and passing Sarnen lake and the Melchthal 
 valley, we enter the broad valley of the Allmend, 
 reach the southwest arm of Lake Lucerne, and in a 
 few minutes more are in the city of the same name, 
 where we found most comfortable quarters at the 
 Pension Friedeau, situated on an eminence that over- 
 looks the main portion of the city and commands an 
 inspiring view of the surrounding mountains. 
 
 June 12. — Spent most of the day walking about 
 the streets of Lucerne, looking at the stores and 
 strolling along the beautiful Avenue of Horse Chest- 
 nuts, that fronts the lakeside. Visited also the 
 famous Lion of Lucerne, modeled by Thorwaldsen 
 and carved out of the solid rock by a Swiss artist 
 named Ahorn. It was conceived and executed in 
 memory of the officers and soldiers of the Swiss guard 
 who fell in 1792 defending the palace of the Tuilleries 
 from the mob of the French revolution. Spent an 
 
161 
 
 hour in the afternoon Hstening to the music at the 
 Kursaal. Lucerne is flanked on one side by the 
 barren and rocky heights of Mount Pilatus, rising in 
 almost perpendicular abruptness to its generally 
 cloud-clapped altitude of nearly seven thousand feet, 
 and on the other side by the more massive but less 
 lofty and less repellant contour of Rigi. One of the 
 imaginative and fondly cherished traditions of the 
 people is that the name Pilatus, as attached to the 
 name of the peak first mentioned, had its origin in 
 the fact that Pontius Pilate, in a fit of remorse, came 
 hither, and in the midst of his dejected wanderings 
 committed suicide by drowning in the waters of 
 Pilatus lake. Like numerous other Swiss mountains, 
 the summit of Pilatus is made accessible by a cog 
 and pinion railway of the boldest and most remark- 
 able construction, the ascent at times verging upon 
 an angle of forty-five degrees, and the average grade 
 of ascent being forty-two feet in one hundred. There 
 is a spacious plateau on top crowned by a magnificent 
 hotel, from whose roof every evening during the open 
 season, a strong search -light reveals the restless 
 crowd of promenaders in the city of Lucerne far 
 below. Though Pilatus and the Rigi are not high 
 mountains, as mountains go in Switzerland, their 
 popularity and scenic importance are emphasized by 
 the fact that they stand as sentinels guarding the 
 northern frontier of the Alps, and from their summits 
 the most expansive and far reaching views are ob- 
 tained in the direction of Basel and the German 
 frontier. 
 
 June 13. — Rained hard and continuously all day 
 long. There was nothing to do but remain indoors 
 1677 — II 
 
162 
 
 and ruminate on the beauties and the history of this 
 wonderful little Republic. Switzerland has long been 
 the theme of song and story. The historian, the 
 poet and the traveler have each in turn contributed 
 to the praise of its political, its heroic and its scenic 
 grandeur. Myth and legend have been rife in paint- 
 ing its people as the soul and embodiment of every 
 patriotic instinct, the defenders of their hearthstones 
 against the intrusions and the attacks of tyranny, 
 and the upholders of republican principles against 
 the monarchical sentiment of all Europe. And yet, 
 for four hundred years there was scarcely a war of 
 conquest waged on the continents in which Switzer- 
 land did not furnish a corps of hireling soldiers in 
 aid of one side or the other, and sometimes both. 
 A Swiss guard perished in defence of the French 
 monarch whose tyranny, corruption and licentious- 
 ness brought about the French revolution. A Swiss 
 legion bore the banners and followed the fortunes of 
 Frederick the Great to victory or defeat. A Swiss 
 contingent shared with the hireling Hessians in the 
 efforts of Great Britain to prevent the establishment 
 of American independence, and only within the last 
 few years has the Swiss law forbidden the enlistment 
 of Swiss citizens for foreign service. The fact is that 
 while Switzerland is one continuous stronghold of 
 almost impregnable mountains, and that the people 
 living in these mountains naturally grow up in more 
 or less isolated freedom and absorb independence of 
 spirit and action, yet the country owes her unique 
 freedom and autonomy to her geographical situation. 
 It was Bismark, I think, who said that "Switzerland 
 is a geographical expression." Surrounded by vari- 
 ous Powers of competitive ambition and vastly 
 
163 
 
 greater strength, she fills the function of a buffer in 
 separating their respective frontiers, and finds her 
 safety from absorption by reason of their political 
 jealousies. The present-day stream of travelers and 
 tourists, flowing with constant and ever-increasing 
 current through her valleys and over her mountains, 
 is working a marked change in the customs, habits 
 and ambitions of the people. The simplicity of 
 every-day life and the quaintness of immemorial 
 customs are rapidly yielding, especially in the cities 
 and towns, to the corrupting influences of foreign 
 fashions. It is only in the country, on the out-of-the- 
 way hillsides, and in remote villages that you find 
 that ancient and uncorrupted type of living charac- 
 teristic of the fading centuries. In some of these 
 time-stained cottages you will find an old patriarch 
 whose years have long out-numbered the scriptural 
 limit, whose birth, as well as that of his father and 
 grandfathers for many generations happened under 
 the same roof, none of whom ever stepped foot upon 
 foreign soil or yodled his native song hardly beyond 
 the hearing of his own door-yard. 
 
 June IJf. and 15. — Spent the time in strolling about 
 the city, visiting stores and shops and prying into 
 curious out-of-the-way nooks and corners. 
 
 June 16. — Boarded the steamer on Lake Lucerne 
 for a trip to Fluelen at the other end of the lake, 
 passing on the way the villages of Weggis, Vitznau, 
 Beckenried, Gersau, Treib, Brunnen and Tell's Platte. 
 The trip is exceedingly interesting and picturesque. 
 High mountain peaks surround the lake on all sides, 
 and beautiful hotels give life and variety to the land- 
 
164 
 
 scape. At Vitznau a rack and pinion railway- 
 ascends to Rigi-Culm, an altitude of nearly six 
 thousand feet. At Brunnen, also, a similar railway 
 ascends to Axenstein about twenty-four hundred feet. 
 At Tell's Platte is a ledge of rock on which stands 
 Tell's chapel, erected upon the supposed spot where, 
 according to Swiss myth, William Tell sprang out 
 of Gessler's boat and escaped. After landing at 
 Fluelen we took the road along the steep mountain 
 side and walked back through Axenstrasse as far as 
 Tell's Platte, where we again took the boat for 
 Lucerne. 
 
 June 17. — ^Very cloudy in the morning, so a con- 
 templated trip to the Rigi-Culm was postponed. 
 Spent the day wandering around the city and adja- 
 cent hills. 
 
 June 18. — Unfavorable for sight-seeing in the 
 mountains. Visited the Kursaal in the morning 
 and read the New York papers. It seems as if the 
 spirit of socialism, anarchy and hell-bent determina- 
 tion on the part of the mob to pull down the pillars 
 that sustain the structure of constitutional govern- 
 ment in America is developing with celerity and 
 certainty. Roosevelt, with his passionate determina- 
 tion to rule or ruin, is kindling fires that in his 
 more sober moments he will be utterly unable to 
 control. If nothing else, the history of the French 
 revolution and the fate of his counterpart, Robes- 
 pierre, should give him pause. 
 
 June 19. — Took the boat on Lake Lucerne for 
 Vitznau, a small town on the North shore of the 
 
165 
 
 lake, where we took a cog and pinion railway for Rigi- 
 Culm, or the summit of the Rigi mountain, nearly six 
 thousand feet above sea level and forty-five hundred 
 above Lake Lucerne. This mountain, or rather 
 mountain group, is some thirty or forty miles in cir- 
 cumference, lying between Lakes Lucerne and Zug. 
 From Vitznau to the summit, by the windings of the 
 railroad, is about four and one-half miles, and at 
 almost every turn a new and more expansive view 
 greets the eye. The side of the mountain to its very 
 summits is clothed in the brightest and freshest of 
 spring verdure, both of forest and meadow. The forest, 
 on its lovrer slopes, comprises beech, chestnut, maple, 
 oak, linden and several other varieties not familiar to 
 me, and is underlaid with a thick growth of under- 
 brush. Higher up the coniferous growth puts in a 
 gradual appearance, until finally nothing but pines 
 and firs are to be seen up to within two or three 
 hundred feet of the summit, which is clothed only 
 with a luxuriant growth of grass and wild flowers. 
 Summer hotels are numerous along the line, and small 
 farms, with an occasional orchard of apples, pears, 
 cherries and cherry plums, are to be seen, while large 
 and fine flavored strawberries are offered by the 
 peasant women at about a cent apiece to the longing 
 and hungry tourist. Near the summit is an immense 
 hotel of four or five hundred rooms. Back of the 
 hotel, and some forty or fifty steps above it, from the 
 extreme summit, you look down a precipitous cliff, 
 where, several thousand feet below and spreading far 
 out to the north and west like an immense map in 
 colors, is seemingly a level plain, spotted with lakes 
 and villages, traversed by winding streams and orna- 
 mented with tiny trees that look like small twigs stuck 
 
166 
 
 in a flower bed. Turning to the east and following 
 with the eye westwardly along the horizon, an expan- 
 sive view of the snow covered chain of the Alps en- 
 compasses the limit of vision. In almost endless 
 succession many of the loftiest and most noted peaks 
 declare their individuality and command the admira- 
 tion to which their beauty and majesty entitle them. 
 The splendid isolation of the Rigi-Culm gives an 
 all-around view covering an expanse of territory three 
 hundred miles in circumference. To the north, and 
 far away, are Zurich and Basel, and even the outlines 
 of the Black Forest. Lake Lucerne on the one side 
 and Lake Zug on the other, far below, are like re- 
 flecting mirrors in the sunshine. It is indeed a charm- 
 ing and impressive view, which, so far as the natural 
 scenery alone is concerned, can be duplicated or even 
 surpassed at many points in the Rockies or Sierra 
 Nevadas, but can find no counterpart in those fron- 
 tier regions in the varied and attractive evidences of 
 civilized comforts and luxury. 
 
 June 20. — Loafed around all day; visited the Kur- 
 saal and watched the reckless and foolish people lose 
 their money at the gaming table, and lingered in the 
 vain hope that some news of the doings and results of 
 the Chicago convention might be proclaimed. We 
 get the Paris edition of the New York Herald here the 
 day following its publication, which is as near as we 
 can come to keeping up w^ith the procession of politi- 
 cal affairs in America. Looking out from the window 
 of the Kursaal, the eye is met by a constant proces- 
 sion of pedestrians pacing back and forth along the 
 shaded lake-shore avenue, ninety per cent of whom 
 are foreign tourists. It is said by the American 
 consular reports that between two and one-half and 
 
167 
 
 three million tourists visit Switzerland each year, 
 and that they spend an average of eighty dollars each 
 in the country, making a grand total of more than 
 two hundred millions of dollars poured into the lap 
 of three million frugal and conservative people. No 
 wonder that Switzerland, despite its rough and 
 mountainous topography, despite its limited agri- 
 cultural possibilities and deterrent climatic influences, 
 is each year attaining a higher degree of financial 
 prosperity, and a distribution of household comforts 
 and even luxuries among its peasant homes that 
 fifty years ago would have been considered the dream 
 of a disordered mind. 
 
 June 21 and 22. — This is our last stopping point in 
 Switzerland. To me this has been the most beautiful, 
 enjoyable and restful country we have visited. It is 
 not filled with the ancient monuments, the ruined 
 temples and the myth tainted history of Egypt. It 
 is lacking in the sacred traditions and the holy places 
 of biblical narrative that cover Palestine as with a 
 mantle of spirituality. It claims no fellowship or part 
 in the classic philosophy, divine art or military glory 
 of ancient Greece. It was never, except in a very 
 remote and incidental way, influenced by the mas- 
 terful passions, and world-wide achievements, nor did 
 it have part in the great architectural constructions 
 whose ruins still reveal the wonderful civilization of 
 ancient Rome. It is a country which nature has set 
 apart as her most beautiful and unspoiled child. 
 Majestic mountains, clothed and capped with the 
 snows of eternity; sloping hillsides wearing the 
 gorgeous garments of spring-time; dense forests of 
 deciduous and coniferous trees; an infinity of lakes, 
 
168 
 
 sparkling in the sunlight and with waters whose 
 depths are measured in tints of green and blue; cas- 
 cades whose descending floods ribbon the perpendic- 
 ular cliffs with a silvery sheen, and beautiful rivers 
 whose winding courses have their origin in the icy 
 fetters of her wonderful glaciers. Nature has indeed 
 been most prodigal in her gifts, and these gifts have, 
 since the outside world has grown rich in this world's 
 goods, been the means of increased prosperity and 
 development along modern progressive lines. The 
 riches and the restlessness of German, English and 
 American thrift have turned their pleasure seeking 
 steps in this direction, until every Swiss hamlet and 
 chalet has become an income producer to its owner 
 and a place of entertainment for the stranger within 
 its gates. The Swiss people are conglomerate. 
 The southern cantons bordering on Italy are Italian 
 in speech, looks and habit. In the western and mid- 
 central sections, French is the predominating lan- 
 guage, while in the northern and eastern portions, it 
 is as if you were in the realms of the Kaiser himself. 
 In appearance the Swiss, especially in the rural dis- 
 tricts, are not a prepossessing people. Though strong 
 and vigorous from their life of outdoor activity and 
 mountain climbing, they are dull and stolid of counte- 
 nance, slow of comprehension and not nearly so high- 
 bred in style and appearance as their uniformly large 
 and beautiful cattle. The school children, of which 
 there seems to be an infinity, have a happy and con- 
 tented look, but for clumsy figure and homely counte- 
 nance are in conspicuous contrast to their charming 
 surroundings. Perhaps three per cent of the women 
 and one per cent of the men are afflicted with goitre, 
 alleged to be caused by some property in the water. 
 
169 
 
 Going to the Kursaal, I have just heard something 
 that revives and strengthens my latterly dwindling 
 respect for the good sense and political wisdom of the 
 American people. The pride of the rough riders, the 
 Bwano Tumbo of the African jungle, the wild ass of the 
 the political desert, the alleged Annanias of American 
 politics, the self-constitutedleader of the socialistic and 
 anarchistic mob, the assassin of law and order, has been 
 ignominiously turned down by the national conven- 
 tion of the party that invested him with every trust 
 he has betrayed. The big stick can now go to the 
 family wood-pile and the bull moose can hide in the 
 fa,stnesses of his native forest and be forgotten. 
 
 June 23. — The day has been very hot and muggy, 
 something akin to what we are accustomed in Cali- 
 fornia to call earthquake weather. The sun's rays 
 are intensely fierce, and even sitting quietly in the 
 shade is none too comfortable. An afternoon nap 
 ends with perspiration streaming from every pore. 
 Just before dusk there came suddenly, and without 
 warning, the patter of a few drops of rain upon the 
 window sill. It was the first intimation that even 
 a cloud had crossed the sky. In a few moments, 
 however, the heavens were darkened; a flash of 
 hghtning, a clap of thunder and "the low hung clouds 
 dropped their garnered fullness down." For an hour 
 the lightning played alternately in zig-zag streaks and 
 broad blinding sheets along the rocky sides and around 
 the steepled summit of Mount Pilatus, and a torrent 
 of rain gullied the hillsides and flooded the city 
 streets. The thunder echoed and reverberated 
 among the hills, and the heaviness and oppressiveness 
 of the atmosphere was thoroughly washed out, leaving 
 
170 
 
 it clear, pure and fresh as a spring morning. Such 
 another inspiring storm I have not seen since my 
 camping days in the high Sierras. But, ah me! the 
 manifestations above recorded were as the opening 
 musketry skirmishing to the combined cannonading 
 of Lee's and Meade's artillery when Gettysburg was 
 in full progress, for about midnight the storm broke 
 upon us again with lightning that fairly burned into 
 one's closed eyes, and with an almost continuous 
 crackling and pealing of thunder that not only shook 
 the house to its very foundations, but fairly threat- 
 ened to dethrone the eternal hills. Once in my life 
 only do I remember to have seen its equal, and that 
 was something more than thirty years ago, when with 
 a mining companion I stood upon the summit of one 
 of the twin peaks of a lofty mountain in Colorado, 
 nearly thirteen thousand feet above sea level, and 
 witnessed the gathering and breaking of a thunder 
 storm on the other peak, when a bolt of lightning 
 struck its mineralized rock, and detaching a mass of 
 some thousands of tons, sent it rolling down the 
 mountain side, crashing through the timber below, 
 snapping large trees as if they were pipe-stems and 
 cutting a swath as clean as a combined harvester 
 through a California grain field. 
 
 June 24- — During the storm here last night the 
 church bells and fire bells were all tolled. I learn 
 this morning that it was for the purpose of giving 
 notice to people to get up and dress so as to be ready, 
 in case their houses were struck and fired by lightning, 
 to get out. A gentleman who has lived here for forty 
 years says he has never seen the equal of the storm. 
 
171 
 
 June 25. — Left Lucerne this morning; changed 
 ears at Basel, and thence north through Freiburg, 
 Baden, Rastatt, Karlsruhe, Mannheim, Worms and 
 Mayence, reaching Wiesbaden about the middle of 
 the afternoon, where we found an abiding place at 
 the Pension Fortuna in a favored location opposite 
 a most beautiful public park and only a couple of 
 blocks from the Kursaal. Barring the absence of 
 mountain and lake scenery such as surrounds one on 
 every hand in Switzerland, Weisbaden is one of the 
 most beautiful cities we have seen. Most of the 
 hotels, pensions and the better class of private 
 residences are surrounded by beautiful grounds, 
 embowered in lofty spreading sycamores or horse 
 chestnuts, and filled with a profusion of flowering 
 plants and bushes, scenting the air with delicious 
 perfume. Public parks are numerous and the trees, 
 in contradistinction to those of Italy and Switz- 
 erland, are not subjected to the constant amputation 
 of top and branches, but are permitted to reach their 
 full natural growth and beauty. Some of the syca- 
 mores are fully seventy-five to one hundred feet in 
 height, with trunks four to five feet in diameter. The 
 city has something over one hundred thousand 
 permanent population, and they derive a living, and 
 apparently a good one, from the two hundred thou- 
 sand rheumatic and otherwise human wrecks who 
 are said to visit here each season in the expectation 
 of being relieved of some of their pain and misery, 
 and incidentally of a share of their surplus coin. 
 The springs, of which there are fifteen, have their 
 combined outpour of five thousand gallons per hour, 
 concentrated at the Trinkhalle. You pay forty 
 pfennigs or ten cents for admission, and are furnished 
 
172 
 
 as many glasses of hot salt water as the strength of 
 your stomach and the pruriency of your taste will 
 permit you to drink. One curious custom, and one 
 that is most likely to create rebellious emotions in 
 the average American's mind is the rule that every 
 visitor is subjected to by the city authorities, viz.: 
 that of paying what is called a visitors' tax of thirty- 
 seven and one-half cents for one day, or one dollar 
 and a half for ten days, provided the visitor stays 
 over four days in the city. The Kursaal or Kurhaus, 
 is a very large and magnificent building more than 
 four hundred by two hundred feet in size. The 
 interior is finished off in highly polished marble of 
 various hues. It contains a large and small concert 
 hall, a conversation room, gaming room and a reading 
 room, where nearly all the prominent world's news- 
 papers and magazines are to be found on file. There 
 is also a wine room and a beer saloon. During the 
 summer afternoon and evenings the band dispenses 
 sweet music in the charming grounds just outside the 
 building. Wiesbaden and its healing waters were 
 known to the Romans, and there are yet found 
 remains of walls and ancient baths. 
 
 June 26 and 27. — Spent the time wandering around 
 the city inspecting and exploring its many shaded 
 nooks, visiting the Trinkhalle, partaking of the usual 
 number of glasses of hot spring water, and killing 
 time in the evening by resorting to the Kursaal, with 
 its music and its reading room. 
 
 June 28. — ^We have to-day made the trip down the 
 Rhine as far as Cologne, which includes all that 
 portion famed in book and story for its grand and 
 
173 
 
 picturesque scenery, and confess to a distinct and 
 unexpected disappointment. That some stretches 
 of the river may be rightfully considered mildly 
 picturesque and clothed with a beauty all its own, 
 may be conceded, but that it approaches grandeur 
 or presents features of natural scenery not common 
 to almost any stream of its magnitude and length 
 elsewhere in the world, is certainly not apparent. 
 In fact it is not worthy of mention in the same 
 category with the Hudson or the Columbia from the 
 standpoint of natural scenic attraction. The only 
 unusual things it can offer to the eye of the curious 
 traveler are a few old dilapidated and ruined castles 
 perched upon the rocks, most difficult of access, 
 where in the darkness and savagery of the middle 
 ages the robber barons or chieftains maintained a 
 defence against the assaults of their kindred neigh- 
 bors or issued at the head of their criminal bands of 
 retainers to rob and destroy or subjugate all the 
 less powerful or warlike human beings within reach. 
 Speaking, however, from the standpoint of practical 
 husbandry and commercial importance, the Rhine 
 and the country adjacent thereto are worthy of the 
 highest consideration. Its terraced and rocky hill- 
 sides are blanketed with the finest wine-producing 
 vineyards, while its more level stretches are given 
 over to the production of grain, hay and vegetables, 
 with here and there a small orchard of apples, pears 
 and cherries. The river itself is fairly teeming with 
 craft of all kinds. Regular passenger steamers leave 
 Mayence for Cologne almost every hour, while 
 excursion steamers and launches are plying unre- 
 mittingly from place to place. Almost every ten 
 minutes, as we steamed down the river, we met heavy 
 
174 
 
 tug-boats, each having in tow four to five large 
 barges, laden to the gunwale with coal, lumber or 
 miscellaneous merchandise. All this river traffic, 
 however, seemed in no measure to minimize the 
 number of freight or passenger trains that were ever 
 in sight passing up and down the railroads on either 
 side of the river. Cities and villages line the banks 
 of the river, the most important of which are Bingen, 
 Boppard, Coblentz, Bonn and Cologne, the latter 
 with more than half a million inhabitants. Our 
 journey down the river was enlivened at various 
 points by the advent of numerous bands of school 
 children, accompanied by their teachers, apparently 
 on picnic excursions, who sang their national hymns 
 and other songs. Historically the Rhine fills many 
 a page and volume of the world's most dramatic 
 and tragic events. From being a boundary of 
 Caesar's conquests, it gave passage to the northern 
 hordes that later swarmed the broad territory and 
 overthrew the power and prestige of the Roman 
 empire. It flanked the outposts of the great German 
 Emperor Charlemagne. 
 
 Its banks became the scene in the middle ages of 
 many a raid of contending bands of knights of the 
 temple and chivalry. Caesar, Attila, Charlemagne, 
 Frederick, Gustavus Adolphus and Napoleon all 
 tasted the sweets of victory within sight of its gleam- 
 ing waters. Rising within the glacier-fed canons of 
 Switzerland's most majestic mountains, and winding 
 its tortuous but ever northern course through several 
 cantons, it crosses the line near Basel, supplying 
 fertility, transportation and commerce the full length 
 of the Kaiser's realm and its little adjoining neighbor, 
 Holland, where its waters are swallowed up in the 
 
175 
 
 greater expanse of the North Sea. Perhaps no 
 stream in Europe has furnished the theme for greater 
 profusion of story, myth and poetic fancy. Every 
 cHff and headland, every ruined tower and every 
 ancient city and village along its banks is rich in 
 romance of the Age of Chivalry, in stories of relig- 
 ious bigotry and cruelty, in barbarous wars, inhuman 
 imprisonment and fiendish torture by the human 
 tigers of the Dark Ages. 
 
 June 29. — Visited the Cologne Cathedral, the one 
 great sight that tempted us to stop over here. We 
 were particularly fortunate in our visit, as we were 
 privileged to witness the Catholic service in all its 
 pomp and ceremony. As we entered the cathedral 
 the strains of the great organ and the rich musical 
 voices of the perfectly trained choir filled the great 
 auditorium. A thousand electric lights illumined the 
 building and dispelled the deep shadows incident to 
 a cloudy, threatening sky outside. At least two 
 thousand worshippers occupied the seats and filled 
 the aisles in front of the altar, behind which sat the 
 archbishop and ninety priests, at regular intervals 
 chanting and intoning the sacred service. It is a 
 great cathedral ; its tall and graceful spires, its tower- 
 ing columns, its lofty ceiling and its exquisite stained 
 glass windows would compel the highest possible 
 encomiums, were it not that we have already seen 
 the great Cathedral of Milan, and that being the 
 case, all superlatives are exhausted. 
 
 So far as my observation has gone there is a strong 
 and painful contrast between Germany and America 
 in the treatment of the women. There seems to be 
 an entire lack on the part of men of that chivalrous 
 
176 
 
 and deferential treatment of the female sex which 
 prevails in America. In the United States the most 
 abandoned hobo will step aside on the street to allow 
 a lady to pass; here I have seen handsomely dressed 
 ladies crowded off the sidewalk into the gutter to 
 allow the passage of two or three lusty young men 
 who have selfishly lined themselves across the pave- 
 ment. Men will meet on the street, take off their 
 hats to each other and almost bow to the pavement 
 in excess of politeness, but I never yet saw one of 
 them lift his helmet to a lady. Again, men will greet 
 each other with a fervent kiss on each cheek, which 
 to the onlooking American produces a feeling akin 
 to nausea, and while they may have a reserve fund 
 of salutations for their wives and sweethearts, the 
 latter, in some instances at least, are prone to waste 
 their sweetness on their lap-dogs. In Germany, as 
 well as in other parts of Europe, children are taught 
 to respect and obey their parents and in all other 
 ways to submit themselves to lawful authority. The 
 disrespect, the disobedience and the rough hood- 
 lumism that is becoming so characteristic of American 
 children is nowhere in evidence here. And yet it is 
 not because of any excess of inherent cussedness in 
 the American child, but is the result of neglect, bad 
 training and lax discipline on the part of American 
 parents. 
 
 June 30. — Took another look at the Cathedral 
 during services and then visited the old church of 
 St. Gereon, which though a rather unpretentious 
 building outside, has been recently beautified and 
 embellished in the interior with paintings by Gobbels. 
 On the way to the Cathedral we met an imposing 
 
177 
 
 street procession of a religious character, headed by 
 a band of music and a cordon of priests, followed by 
 various societies or guilds bearing banners, staffs 
 mounted with glass enclosed and lighted tapers, and 
 hundreds of children bearing dishes of rose leaves to 
 be scattered at the altars. The streets along the 
 route of the procession had previously been littered 
 with oak leaves. The affair seemed to be one of 
 great religious solemnity, but from our inability to 
 speak or understand German we were unable to 
 evoke any information as to its meaning further than 
 that one man said it was Kermess. In the afternoon 
 we took a ride on the street cars out to one of the 
 parks or gathering places of the people for Sunday 
 recreation and amusement. It is a grand gala day 
 for all classes. The tables under the trees are filled 
 with family groups or friendly parties making them- 
 selves comfortable and socially joyous, each with 
 ''ein glass bier" or "ein tasse kaffe" and whatever 
 of lighter beverages and cakes or confections are best 
 suited to their tastes. All are well clad and well 
 behaved. No quarreling or bickering, no offensive 
 language or conduct and no evidences of intoxication 
 are to be seen. 
 
 July 1 . — Left this morning for Amsterdam, passing 
 through Dusseldorf, Duisburg, Oberhausen and 
 Wesel, all large and important German manufactur- 
 ing towns. At Zevenaar we crossed the line into 
 Holland and were interviewed by the customs officer, 
 who readily recognized our honest poverty and grace- 
 fully vised our hand luggage. Those burdened with 
 trunks, however, were compelled to see them hauled 
 out of the baggage car and to follow them to the 
 1677—13 
 
178 
 
 customs office, where they were opened and examined. 
 From here on, the country is very flat and low, much 
 swamp land being in evidence, but affording abund- 
 ance of rich pasture to the numerous herds of Holstein 
 cattle that diversify the landscape in every direction. 
 Many of the quaint old Dutch windmills, familiar in 
 picture books of our childhood, were revolving their 
 long and awkward arms in the gentle breeze. After 
 passing Arnhem the character of the country rapidly 
 improves. The soil is richer, and instead of pasture 
 land it is devoted to potatoes and other garden truck, 
 including sugar beets. After passing through Utrecht 
 and sundry small villages we arrived at Amsterdam 
 and were driven to the Hotel Philadelphia. 
 
 July 2. — Visited Ryks Museum, a very large and 
 imposing building, covering three acres of ground. 
 It is dedicated to an illustration of Dutch art and 
 life. On the lower floor is an immense collection of 
 military and naval weapons from the fifteenth to 
 the nineteenth centuries, many of them of very 
 curious and ingenious design. There are mail shirts, 
 helmets, steel and chain armor, small arms and 
 cannon of every conceivable pattern, together with 
 models of old Dutch men-of-war and English and 
 Spanish naval flags captured during the time of 
 Admiral Van Tromp and the Dutch ascendancy as a 
 naval power. The upper floor is devoted through- 
 out its numerous long galleries to paintings by Dutch 
 artists, numbering over three thousand subjects, and 
 representing the nation's art from the fifteenth 
 century down to the present time. Rembrandt's 
 "Night Watch" is the most celebrated painting here 
 and is very beautiful^ though there are several others 
 
179 
 
 by less noted artists that are more pleasing to my 
 uneducated eye. There is also an almost endless 
 exhibit of works in gold and silver, Dutch cabinets 
 and wood- work, old tapestries, Gothic furniture, 
 porcelain and faience ware, engravings and sculp- 
 tures. In the afternoon we took a carriage and drove 
 around the city for two hours, visiting the old section, 
 the Jewish quarter, and the wealthy residence 
 section. The latter contains many large and costly 
 houses, but were architecturally, from the American 
 standpoint, very plain and unattractive. 
 
 July 3. — This morning we took a boat for the 
 excursion to Marken and Volendam, two of the old 
 villages that still maintain in their purity the primi- 
 tive dress and habits of their ancestors. Marken's 
 population is wholly Protestant in religion, while that 
 of Volendam is as unanimously Catholic. The 
 costumes of the people, though radically different 
 in the two villages, are strikingly odd and picturesque. 
 The men at Marken wear trousers that resemble two 
 large grain bags from the waist to the knees, where 
 they are narrowed into the size of the leg and stop. 
 The men at Volendam use as much or more cloth in 
 their trousers, but they are uniformly large all the 
 way down, and reach to their shoes. The women 
 of Marken wear a bodice of wool embroidered in 
 colors, laced up the back and with sleeves in bright 
 colored stripes. The skirt is usually of blue woolen 
 and is underlaid at the hips with a large roll. The 
 women of Volendam are more sombre in their colors, 
 except that they usually wear a gay colored apron. 
 Men, women and children of both places wear clumsy 
 wooden shoes. On this trip we made a short stop 
 
180 
 
 at Monnikendam and were shown through a dairy 
 where the celebrated Edam cheese is manufactured. 
 Everything within the building showed evidence of 
 frequent scrubbing and was as clean as water could 
 make it, and this applies to their houses as well. In 
 fact, cleanliness seems to have become a disease, 
 epidemic in form, and scrubbing goes on from morn- 
 ing to night both inside and outside a house. But 
 gentle reader, this passion for cleanliness pertains, 
 only to inanimate things. The average Hollander, 
 when it comes to the use of water on his own person, 
 issues a decree of 'persona non grata. He has an 
 aversion to it for either ablutions or drinking pur- 
 poses, and among the poorer classes bathing is as 
 scarce as gold watches. As in other continental 
 countries, wages are on a scale that would cause an 
 American wage-earner to gasp for breath. A car- 
 penter or blacksmith who with tolerable regularity 
 can earn five dollars a week is proud of his good 
 fortune and of the comfort with which he can support 
 his family. But the common laborer, with his 
 penchant for a rapidly increasing family, is compelled, 
 as fast as his children reach the age of twelve years, 
 to send them out to the workshop and factory to 
 supplement the family income. 
 
 Holland is a country of canals and dykes. Being 
 for the most part below the ocean level at high tide, 
 a fight has been carried on for hundreds of years 
 against the aggressive action of the sea. In times 
 past entire villages and thousands of acres of land 
 have been swallowed up, but the persistent optimism 
 and grit of the people have conquered, so that in the 
 last two centuries nearly four thousand square miles 
 have been retrieved from the desolation of the waters. 
 
181 
 
 The canals permeate the whole country, and form 
 the main method of transportation of merchandise, 
 and on these are clumsy luggers or canal boats where 
 more than fifty thousand people find constant employ- 
 ment as well as homes. Their whole life is passed on 
 these boats, and they pass from father to son, both as a 
 residence and an occupation, and in most instances 
 you will find their otherwise unattractive hulks 
 beautified by numerous pots of growing plants, bloom- 
 ing flowers and merry singing birds, for the Hollander 
 is a great lover of flowers. 
 
 What sort of a country Holland is, as has been ex- 
 pressed in many ways by many authorities, is summed 
 up by an Italian writer: "Napoleon said that it was 
 an alluvion of French rivers — the Rhine, the Scheldt 
 and the Meuse, and with this pretext he added it to 
 his Empire. One writer has defined it as a sort of 
 transition between land and sea. Another as an 
 immense crust of earth floating on the water. Others 
 an annex of the old continent, the end of the earth 
 and the beginning of the ocean, a measureless raft 
 of mud and sand, but all are agreed upon one point, 
 Holland is a conquest made by man over the sea; 
 it is an artificial country; the Hollanders made it; 
 it exists because the Hollanders preserve it and it 
 will vanish whenever the Hollanders abandon it." 
 
 But the wonderful fight made against the forces of 
 nature has been equaled, if not surpassed, in her 
 fight against organized political tyranny. Overrun 
 from the earliest times by barbarous Germans, dev- 
 astating Franks, aggressive Normans and piratical 
 Danes, and devastated for centuries by the bitter 
 and vindictive passions and hatreds of civil war, her 
 people arose superior to the desolation of it all, and 
 
182 
 
 fighting to a victorious issue her long struggle with 
 the Spanish oppressor, established a republic whose 
 rise has been so graphically depicted by our own 
 distinguished historian, Motley. For many years 
 hers was the dominant flag upon the high seas and 
 her coffers were filled with the wealth of returning 
 cargoes from her tributary colonies stretching from 
 the East to the West Indies and the Oceanic islands. 
 And while she has lost that militant dominance once 
 attained, her commercial traffic along peaceful lines 
 is still among the largest in proportion to her area 
 and population of any country on the globe. 
 
 July 4- — Left Amsterdam this morning for The 
 Hague. The country along the route is of the same 
 general character as that through which we have 
 previously passed, being low and flat and devoted 
 principally to the growing of hay and raising of stock, 
 except in the vicinity of Haarlem, where the chief 
 mdustry is the raising of bulbs and where many 
 fields of beautiful flowering plants were in bloom. 
 After getting located in our hotel we visited the 
 Mauritshaus, a picture gallery which is quite cele- 
 brated, and although not large, contains many fine 
 specimens of Dutch art by Rembrandt, Van Dyck 
 and others. From the picture gallery we passed to 
 the Binnenhoff, a large room which is used for 
 the joint sittings of the two legislative bodies and for 
 the opening of the States-general by the Queen. In 
 another room we saw from the gallery the first legis- 
 lative chamber in session and listened for a few 
 minutes to its proceedings, which were as quiet, 
 dignified and dull as an average day in the United 
 States Senate chamber. 
 
183 
 
 The large hall in the Binnenhoff is the place where 
 the second international Peace Congress met five years 
 ago. In the afternoon we took the electric train 
 for Scheveningen, the great Dutch watering place. 
 On the way out from The Hague we passed many 
 fine residences with surrounding grounds filled with 
 fine trees and beautiful flowers, the homes of the 
 magnates of the Dutch East India company, whose 
 wealth has been accumulated in the Oriental trade. 
 For one-third the distance the cars pass through a 
 park filled with a dense growth of native forest trees, 
 through which meander winding paths leading to 
 resorts where one can find a glass of wine or beer and 
 a satisfying luncheon. Scheveningen was primarily 
 a fishing village, but its beautiful beach, extending 
 for several miles along the ocean front, has attracted 
 the summer resort class to its shores and there has 
 been gradually built up a series of hotels, restaurants 
 and knick-knack shops somewhat similar to, though 
 not nearly so extensive, as those of Coney Island or 
 Atlantic City. The local population amounts to 
 twenty-five or thirty thousand and the annual 
 number of visitors is about the same. Instead of 
 having fixed and permanent bathing houses along 
 the shore, as is the American custom, they have little 
 houses on wheels into which the bather enters and 
 proceeds to undress and don his bathing suit. He 
 is then wheeled out into the surf, descends from his 
 wagon, and when through bathing calls his number 
 and the wagon is pushed out to him; he climbs in, 
 rinses himself with fresh water, dresses, and the 
 performance is over. This being the 4th of July, 
 our landlord, in recognition of our nationality, 
 decorated each plate at breakfast with a small silk 
 
184 
 
 American flag. The news of the nomination of 
 Woodrow Wilson reached us. He has of late pandered 
 to the cry of the socialist and labor union mob to such 
 an extent as to catch much of their floating vote, 
 and has no long political record of antagonisms to 
 overcome among the bosses. Taft will find him a 
 hard competitor to beat, but in any event the result 
 of the two conventions has been to seriously cripple 
 all future Presidential aspirations of the twin Samp- 
 sons of dangerous, if not demagogic politics, Roose- 
 velt and Bryan. 
 
 July 5. — Left The Hague this afternoon after 
 having taken a ride through various sections of the 
 city. Passed through Delft, Rotterdam, Dordrecht 
 and Rosendaal, reaching the Belgian line at Esschen, 
 where the customs officer boarded the train, and for 
 the first time examined our luggage. Leaving 
 Esschen, we soon reached Antwerp, where we were 
 unexpectedly forced to change cars for Brussels, 
 which city we reached in time for dinner. The 
 country through which we passed, until nearing the 
 boundary line between Holland and Belgium, was like 
 the rest of Holland, low and flat and devoted almost 
 entirely to hay and grazing. But the Belgian 
 country is higher and dryer land, devoted mostly to 
 grain, sugar beets, potatoes and garden truck. I saw 
 no women working in the fields such as has been the 
 case in other European countries through which we 
 have passed. Since leaving Italy we have seen no evi- 
 dences of extreme poverty and want among the lower 
 classes. In Switzerland, Germany, Holland and 
 Belgium the beggars, if there are any, are religiously 
 kept from view. In no city, so far, north of Italy 
 
185 
 
 have we found any such crowded, disgusting and 
 destitute tenement quarters as are to be seen in our 
 own New York. The common people over here have 
 a more satisfied and cheerful look than the gang of 
 offscourings that have emigrated to our own shores, 
 probably because they are what are left after elimi- 
 nating the dissatisfied, the rebellious and the vicious. 
 
 July 6. — Walked down town in the morning as far 
 as the Palace of Justice, which is an immense building 
 costing about nine million dollars and said to be the 
 largest architectural work of the nineteenth century. 
 It contains twenty-seven large court rooms and about 
 two hundred and seventy thousand square feet of 
 space, being considerably larger than St. Peter's at 
 Rome. The discoloration of the stone by smoke and 
 weather sadly mars the outside beauty of the building. 
 Visited the Palais des Beaux-Arts, which is filled 
 throughout its long corridors and galleries with stat- 
 uary and paintings, many Rembrandts and Van 
 Dycks being in evidence in addition to an hundred 
 other names more or less noted in Dutch and Flemish 
 arts. The gallery, however, in the quality of its 
 paintings, is not to be compared with the Pitti and 
 Ufizzi galleries at Florence. Brussels is divided into 
 upper and lower towns. Standing at the Palace of 
 Justice and looking almost straight down in front of 
 you nearlj'- a hundred feet and stretching far out over 
 the slightly undulating plain lies the lower and older 
 portion of the city, while the newer and handsomer 
 limits of the upper city, its main thoroughfares shaded 
 with large and beautiful trees, extend to the Bois de 
 la Cambre and beyond toward Waterloo. 
 
186 
 
 July 7. — In the afternoon took the cars on Louise 
 Avenue and went out to the Bois de la Cambre, one 
 of the municipal parks. It is filled with great horse 
 chestnut, beech and oak trees. Some of the beeches 
 are the finest I have seen both in size and beauty. 
 Many of them range from three to four and one-half 
 feet in diameter and a single specimen I noticed was 
 fully five feet through a couple of feet above the ground. 
 An excellent band discoursed fine music; there were 
 hurdy-gurdys, restaurants, beer saloons, tennis courts 
 and several thousand well dressed people strolling 
 around and seeking restful amusements. One fea- 
 ture of all these European parks is that although they 
 are plentifully supplied with benches and seats, one 
 has hardly time to sit down and comfortably adjust 
 himself before a satrap appears with a ticket-book 
 and demands payment for the use of the seat. In 
 the matter and manner of catching the strangers' 
 centimes and francs, both going and coming, these 
 foreigners have us Americans — using one of our slang 
 phrases — skinned a city block. After spending an 
 hour or two at de la Cambre we took the car and rode 
 to the park opposite the Royal Palace, but found that 
 the afternoon music was over. Dogs are utilized to 
 their full capacity as beasts of burden in Holland and 
 Belgium. Nearly every push cart has one or two 
 dogs harnessed underneath as aid to the owner in 
 propelhng the cart. This class of dogs unquestion- 
 ably earn their living. On the other hand, in 
 Amsterdam and Brussels about ten per cent of the 
 women and five per cent of the men on promenade 
 are either leading or led by the most reprehensible and 
 insignificant class of curs imaginable. 
 
187 
 
 With a denseness of population greater than that 
 of any other country in Europe it is essential in 
 Belgium that continuous and never flagging industry 
 should characterize its people. And while this 
 remark includes the men it is but fair to say that it 
 applies with much greater force to the women. Their 
 astonishing capacity for work is manifest in every 
 industry and employment. In nearly all the smaller 
 stores and shops women are in charge, and in fact 
 it is considered rather undignified for able-bodied 
 men to mind a shop. The husband usually seeks his 
 employment in some outside business, leaving the 
 wife and children to sell the bread, the cakes, the 
 candy, the fruit, the furnishing goods and the knick 
 knacks of all kinds. In place of our milk man, they 
 have the milk maid or milk woman who goes from 
 door to door with her cart drawn by two or three 
 spiritless and humiliated looking dogs, with her 
 brightly polished copper or brass milk cans. It is 
 claimed, however, that these dogs receive the special 
 care and supervision of the authorities, and that any 
 ascertained cases of neglect or abuse of them is 
 promptly corrected and the offenders adequately 
 punished. The women also fill the numerous lace 
 factories, and with deft and marvelous skill ply their 
 thread bobbins for twelve long working hours each 
 day, and withal they look more contented and happy 
 than do the working women on our side of the water. 
 
 July 8. — The weather here has been a pleasant 
 disappointment. Instead of being hot and uncom- 
 fortable it has been cloudy, cool and refreshing. 
 To-day it was almost chilly, and altogether on our trip 
 since leaving Egypt we have had, with only now and 
 
188 
 
 then a day's exception, typical sight seeing weather. 
 This afternoon we made a visit to the battlefield of 
 Waterloo, distant ten miles from Brussels. After the 
 changes of street and tram cars and a walk of about 
 three miles we reached the battlefield. The village 
 of Waterloo is a long straggling hamlet of a single 
 street, composed mostly of somewhat ancient one- 
 story houses, showing no signs either of wealth or 
 abject poverty. The battlefield lies from two to 
 three miles south of the village of Waterloo, and the 
 battle raged with the greatest fierceness around the 
 chateau of Hougomont, the fortified farmhouse La 
 Haie Sainte and the village of Mont St. Jean. About 
 a mile south of Mont St. Jean is the Butte du Lion. 
 This is an artificial conical hill or mound two hundred 
 feet in height, thrown up on the spot where the Prince 
 of Orange was wounded, and is surmounted by the 
 bronze figure of a Lion made from the metal of the 
 French cannon captured at the battle. About two 
 thirds of a mile south of Mont St. Jean, near the 
 roadside, stands a monument to Colonel Gordon and 
 also one to the Hanoverian Legion. From this point 
 there is a wide view of the battlefield, which covers a 
 beautiful stretch of undulating country now rich with 
 a ripening harvest of golden grain and redolent with 
 all the signs of peace and prosperity. 
 
 July 9. — Strolled about the city; visited the Hotel 
 de Ville and sundry other localities. While Brussels 
 is a large and compact business city, it is common- 
 place in appearance and lacks the many interesting 
 and novel sights that have hitherto greeted us in 
 many other places. The Hotel de Ville, which by the 
 way, in the American sense is not a hotel at all, is, with 
 
189 
 
 the possible exception of the Palace of Justice, the 
 most conspicuous and the handsomest building in 
 Brussels. It is the product of different centuries. 
 The oldest portion, now constituting the left wing, dates 
 from a little prior to the beginning of the fifteenth 
 century, and the right wing some half century later. 
 On the lofty and graceful tower stands a colossal 
 statue of the archangel St. Michael, the patron saint 
 of the city, while the front and sides of the building 
 are adorned with statues of various saints, dukes and 
 allegorical groups. The building fronts on a large 
 open square, around the other three sides of which are 
 several buildings of local note, including the Maison 
 du Roi, in which is a small museum, and the Guild 
 Halls of sundry corporations. From here I strolled 
 over to the Boulevard de Waterloo, and along the 
 same to the Porte de Hall, which is one of the old 
 gateways of the city and the only one now standing. 
 It is a massive and gloomy looking building with a 
 tower and bastions, and dates back to a hundred 
 years before the discovery of America. During the 
 cruel days when the Duke of Alva cursed the country 
 with his atrocities it was used as the Bastile of 
 Brussels. The interior is filled with a collection of 
 ancient arms and armor. Like all other European 
 cities of prominence, Brussels has a cathedral of which 
 she is proud, but while it is a fine building it is not to 
 be mentioned in the same class with those of Venice, 
 Milan or Cologne. Like all other cathedrals, it boasts 
 a patron saint in the person of Saint Gudule, a virgin 
 of some twelve centuries ago. Her life was filled 
 with penances, mortifications of the flesh and miracles. 
 Among other well established incidents in her life — 
 which no modern skeptic will presume to doubt, it is 
 
190 
 
 related that when a rash and over-arduous suitor 
 sought to steal a kiss from her saintly lips, a column 
 of the church opened at her command and received 
 her within its cold and stony protection until the 
 misguided youth departed. The pulpit of the cathe- 
 dral is a massive and beautiful specimen of the art of 
 wood carving and represents the expulsion of Adam 
 and Eve from the garden of Eden. High up in the 
 nave are ranged colossal statues of the twelve 
 apostles, and round about the choir are the heraldic 
 shields of the Knights of the Golden Fleece. 
 
 July 11. — Nothing doing but resting and strolling 
 about town. 
 
 July 12. — Left Brussels for Paris. The country 
 through which we passed was level or slightly roUing. 
 Bountiful crops of wheat, barley and oats were being 
 harvested and numerous orchards were scattered 
 along the route. The towns through which we passed 
 seemed to be filled with various manufacturing plants. 
 Reached Paris about the middle of the afternoon. 
 
 July IS. — Visited the Pantheon, the gardens and 
 gallery or Musee du Luxembourg. The weather was 
 very hot and sultry and made sight-seeing somewhat 
 of a burden, but the statuary and pictures on exhi- 
 bition were full compensation for the effort. Paris is 
 a swirling, seething maelstrom of electrified humanity. 
 It is a concentrated sounding-board for all the varied 
 noises that were ever played upon the tympanum of 
 the human ear. There seems to be no governor or 
 controlling hand on the safety valve of the engine. 
 Everything and everybody seem to run hell-bent in 
 full accordance with their own notions. Automobiles, 
 
191 
 
 electric cars and omnibuses, taxi-cabs, in fact, every- 
 thing in the transportation Hne, runs at topmost speed, 
 without regard to the rights, privileges or safety of 
 the human race. A mere pedestrian has no rights 
 that these insane chauffeurs, conductors and drivers 
 are bound to respect. Man, woman or child must 
 take all chances in crossing the most crowded thorough- 
 fares, without a policeman in sight to assist or to aid 
 in controlling or directing the congested traffic. If 
 human life is worth a continental in this paradise of 
 the commune, neither the people nor the authorities 
 give any evidence of it. It seems, as I am told, that 
 the law of the city gives vehicles the preferential right 
 to the use of the streets, and that if any pedestrian is 
 not alert enough to get out of the way, he not only is 
 run down, but if there is anything of an animate 
 nature left of him, he is liable to assessment for any 
 damage he may have caused to the vehicle that 
 knocked him down and out. It reminds me of the 
 question propounded as to the meaning of the Bible 
 passage, ''the quick and the dead," and the answer 
 was that if you were quick you escaped the auto- 
 mobile, and if not you were dead. 
 
 We also visited to-day the famous manufactory of 
 Gobelin tapestries and saw the artists weaving 
 them. It is a most wonderful work. The artists 
 are employed by the government; they are paid six 
 thousand francs per annum and only work when the 
 spirit moves them. These tapestries are not sold, 
 but are used in making gifts to foreign potentates and 
 governments. 
 
 July 14- — Took a boat on the Seine as far as the 
 Louvre station and thence transferred to the tram 
 
192 
 
 cars on the way to Versailles, it being the under- 
 standing that as this is the anniversary of the storm- 
 ing of the Bastile, and a national holiday, that not 
 only would the palace be open to visitors, but that all 
 of the eighty-six fountains would be in full play in 
 the grounds. The engine on our train had a severe 
 attack of congestion of the lungs, threatening devel- 
 opment into mechanical pneumonia, and while under- 
 going medical treatment delayed us at frequent 
 intervals along the road. Arriving at last we found 
 to our dismay that the palace was closed. Nothing 
 but a stroll around the beautiful and extensive 
 grounds was left for us to do, while awaiting the 
 promised fountain display which was to take place 
 at 5 P. M. Thick groves or forests of magnificent 
 trees lent beauty and cool refreshing restfulness to 
 the surroundings. The trees, however, instead of 
 being left to the guiding and artistic hand of nature, 
 have been required to adapt their habits of growth 
 and expansion to the peculiar ideas of landscape 
 gardeners whose preference seems to have run to 
 geometric exactness and stiffness of outline. Thus 
 many trees are shaved off or curtailed of their limbs 
 on one side and made to present a flat surface; 
 others are pruned of their graceful and ambitious 
 tops and made to branch out and look like a row of 
 one story African huts with thatched roofs. This 
 mutilation of forest shade trees seems to prevail 
 almost everywhere we have been except in Germany. 
 After waiting until the hour for the supposed fountain 
 exhibit we learned that they would not be in action, 
 and with this second disappointment subduing our 
 enthusiasm we returned to our hotel. At 10 P. M. 
 we proceeded to the Place Hotel de Ville to witness 
 
193 
 
 the illumination and fireworks. An immense crowd 
 had assembled and the fireworks were very interesting 
 and beautiful in their effects. The avenue was illu- 
 minated in the conventional way with arches and 
 strings of various colored electric lights, and after the 
 fireworks were over the band discoursed dancing 
 music for those whose enthusiasm was sufficiently 
 alert to trip the light fantastic toe. The crowd, in 
 spite of many evidences of an over-indulgence in 
 wine and spirits, was quite good-natured and not 
 over boisterous. 
 
 July 15. — Changed our quarters to the Hotel 
 London and New York, near the Gare St. Lazare, and 
 in the midst of one of the busiest sections of the city. 
 The street in front of the hotel is crowded with all 
 sorts of vehicles and an infinite number of people, all 
 in a violent hurry to get somewhere other than where 
 they are. Crossing the street successfully is an act 
 of agility on which a veteran of nearly three score and 
 ten can well pride himself. To-day we visited the 
 church of the Madeline or St. Mary Magdalen. It 
 was begun by Napoleon as a temple of glory, but 
 finished by Louis 18th as an expiatory church to the 
 memory of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. It is 
 an imposing structure, surrounded by a colonnade of 
 beautiful corinthian columns, and according to the 
 guide book is 354 feet long, 141 broad and 100 high. 
 Sculptures and paintings of more or less merit adorn 
 the inner walls and chapels. In the street leading 
 from here to the Place de la Concorde, the Communists 
 erected, at the time of the Franco-Prussian war, a 
 stout barricade which was stormed by the French 
 troops entering Paris from Versailles and only taken 
 after heavy fighting and great slaughter, 
 
194 
 
 July 16. — Visited the Hotel des Invalides and the 
 tomb of Napoleon. Lying between the river Seine 
 and the Hotel des Invalides is the Esplanade, which, 
 aside from a few rows of sickly and discouraged elm 
 trees, looks in the summer sun like a hot corner of 
 the great Sahara, although it is spoken of by the 
 people with great pride and lauded in the guide-books 
 as a place of wonderful magnificence and beauty. 
 A handsome stone bridge, known as Pont Alexandre 
 III, connects the Esplanade with the Champs 
 Elysees. The Hotel des Invalides is an immense 
 rambling structure and was founded by Louis XIV 
 in 1670 as a home for the wounded and invalid 
 French soldiers, disabled in the wars of France. At 
 one time the institution contained seven thousand 
 inmates, but the number is now reduced to twelve 
 individuals, and the building is turned into a museum 
 of military accoutrements, arms and spoils of war. 
 The dome of the Invalides is the most striking feature 
 of the whole building. In the very centre of the 
 interior is the tomb of Napoleon I, and surrounding 
 it in their several niches are the tombs of several 
 Marshals of Louis XIV and sundry members of 
 Napoleon's family. 
 
 July 17. — Spent the afternoon wandering through 
 the endless galleries of the Louvre, bestowing a passing 
 glance upon the acres of paintings upon the walls, 
 representing the most eminent of the world's artists 
 during the last four centuries. The heat for the past 
 two days has been very oppressive and sight-seeing 
 an exhaustive burden. Paris is the most uncom- 
 fortable, the most nerve-racking and the most unsat- 
 isfactory place so far as the quantity and quality of 
 
195 
 
 the food supply is concerned that we have yet 
 encountered. In the variety and volume of its 
 noises it is a lineal descendant of the original Bedlam. 
 In its dangers to life and limb the modern aeroplane 
 is a vehicle of safety compared with it. The restau- 
 rants fill a hungry heart with hope, but realization 
 crucifies that hope between two thieves — the pro- 
 prietor and the waiter. Its women — some of them — 
 are striking in dress and appearance, but their voices 
 are as raucous as a flock of ravens. The sidewalks in 
 front of hotels and restaurants are filled with tables 
 at which succeeding and endless crowds of leisurely 
 people are sipping wine, beer or mineral water. An 
 American cocktail or sherry cobbler would seem like 
 an oasis in this vast desert of beverages, but the 
 cunning hand of the expert mixer is a stranger 
 within the gates. 
 
 July 18. — Not well. Rested at hotel all day. 
 
 July 19. — Visited the palace and forest of Fontain- 
 bleau. The chateau or palace, is about one and 
 one-half hours ride by rail from Paris. It is a large, 
 low, rectangular building, mostly two stories in 
 height, and the older portion dates from the six- 
 teenth century. It is on the edge of the forest, and 
 is surrounded by beautiful well-shaded grounds, 
 elaborate flower beds and a large carp pond, where the 
 carp in countless thousands fight like a drove of 
 hungry hogs for the scraps of bread that are thrown 
 to them by curious visitors. Historically this cha- 
 teau is one of the most interesting spots around Paris. 
 It was built for Francis I, and has been the summer 
 home and resort of every French naonarch from his 
 
196 
 
 time down to and including Napoleon III. Here Louis 
 XIV signed the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. 
 Here Napoleon Bonaparte divorced the Empress 
 Josephine. Here Louis XV was married and Napo- 
 leon III was baptized. Here Napoleon I bid adieu 
 to the Old Guard on his abdication of the throne and 
 here he reviewed the Old Guard on his return from 
 Elba. Within the walls of the chateau is a magnifi- 
 cent suite of apartments where Pope Pius VII was im- 
 prisoned by Napoleon's order; and here lived Marie 
 Antoinette, Madame de Maintenon, Catharine de 
 Medici and Anne of Austria, the mother of Louis XIV. 
 Near the entrance to the Chateau is a monument to 
 Rosa Bonheur, consisting of a large bronze bull, 
 designed by herself mounted upon a granite base 
 which is adorned with a portrait of herself 
 and three bas-reliefs of her paintings. The fur- 
 nishings and adornments of the various depart- 
 ments in the palace are rich, ornate, and in most 
 instances very beautiful, especially the gilded and 
 frescoed ceilings, the Gobelin tapestries and the 
 elaborately carved furniture. Leaving the chateau 
 we sought a restaurant for lunch, where the usual 
 holdup was practised on us. viz: six francs for two 
 cups of coffee and one dish of sliced tomatoes; three 
 francs for use of napkins and a franc and one-half for 
 use of knife and fork. Through some unaccountable 
 oversight the waiter forgot to charge us for wine that 
 we did not order and did not have. It must be as 
 Barnum said, that the American people love to be 
 humbugged, else they would not continue to flock to 
 Paris and be subjected to the bold, devious and num- 
 berless methods of Parisian swindling that are prac- 
 ticed upon them. After lujich we took a two hours' 
 
197 
 
 drive through the famous forest of forty thousand 
 acres, which for picturesqueness of scenery and 
 beauty of forest growth can be totally eclipsed by a 
 drive in almost any large American forest tract from 
 Maine to California. With an air of intense pride 
 our driver took us to what he called the gorge and 
 had us alight, walk through it and meet him on the 
 other side. It bore about as much comparison in 
 depth, beauty and grandeur to Chico canon as Marys- 
 ville Buttes do to Mt. Shasta. We were shown the 
 largest tree in the forest — an oak about 5| to 6 feet 
 in diameter — perhaps 100 to 110 feet high, but with 
 no considerable spread of branches and in no wise 
 comparable in size or beauty to our Sir Joseph Hooker 
 oak on Rancho Chico. 
 
 July 20. — Another day of rest as the result of a 
 severe cold. 
 
 July 21. — Made a second trip to Versailles, this 
 time by steam cars. Fortune favored us, for the 
 Palace was open and the fountains were in action. 
 The latter exhibit was more or less of a disappoint- 
 ment. Notwithstanding all the picturesque and 
 highly colored praise that has been devoted by guide- 
 books and tourists to this so-called wonderful display, 
 it is in no sense to be compared with the exhibits 
 along the same line that millions of Americans saw 
 at both the Chicago and St. Louis Expositions. On 
 the other hand, the Palace, both from a historic and 
 artistic standpoint, contains much that is highly 
 interesting. Originally a hunting chateau for Louis 
 XIII, it was enlarged by Louis XIV and made his 
 real seat of government, space enough being provided 
 
198 
 
 for the residence of his entire court and their retainers, 
 to the number of ten thousand, and at an estimated 
 cost including the laying out of the park and gardens 
 of one hundred million dollars. Nearly one hundred 
 rooms and vestibules, some of them of immense size, 
 with ceilings elaborately and beautifully frescoed, are 
 filled with paintings, statuary and Gobelin tapestries. 
 Many of the paintings are of indifferent execution and 
 small value, but there are many historic and impres- 
 sive battle scenes, showing how "man's inhumanity to 
 man" during the last five centuries has "made count- 
 less thousands mourn." The Gallery des Glaces, a 
 magnificent room more than two hundred feet long 
 and nearly fifty feet high contains, a series of frescoes 
 representing the reign of Louis XIV. It was in this 
 room that King William of Prussia was crowned 
 Emperor of Germany in 1871, after the German occu- 
 pation of Paris. The apartments of Madame de 
 Maintenon contain many portraits, including one of 
 herself by Elle. In the Gallery of Battles a large 
 painting of special interest and significance to Ameri- 
 cans is that of the seige of Yorktown, conducted by 
 General Washington and his French ally. General 
 Rochambeau. Battles and portraits of Napoleon 
 I are manifest on all sides, including all the mem- 
 bers of the Bonaparte family. In fact. Napoleon 
 seems to have been almost as universal a subject for 
 the artists here as the Saviour and the Holy Family 
 were with Raphael and Michael Angelo. After our 
 exit from the palace we wandered through the 
 grounds to the Grand and Petite Trianons, the former 
 of which was erected by Louis XIV for the occupancy 
 of his mistress, Madame de Maintenon. In the salon 
 of this building Marshal Bazaine was tried and found 
 
199 
 
 guilty of treason for his conduct during the Franco- 
 German war. 
 
 July 22. — Visited the Bibliotheque Nationale, or 
 National Library, containing some four million 
 volumes, and being the largest collection of books and 
 manuscripts in the world. The library is most 
 miserably and inconveniently housed, most of the 
 rooms being small and wanting proper light. It 
 contains very many rare and beautiful literary treas- 
 ures, an enumeration of which would fill a large 
 volume. Many samples of superb bindings in gold, 
 silver and ivory, adorned with semi-precious stones, 
 are in evidence, as are also hand-illuminated volumes 
 of the tenth to the thirteenth centuries. In one case is 
 a volume by Michael Servetus, which was saved from 
 the flames when the author was burned at the stake 
 in Geneva, by order of Calvin. Here also is a copy of 
 the Mazarin bible, printed in 1455 and said to be from 
 the press of Gutenburg; an old catalogue of the 
 Library, dated 1373, and a copy of the Voyage of 
 Amerigo Vespucci, printed in 1502. There is a 
 cabinet of medaUions and antiques, comprising gems, 
 intaglios, cameos, etc. From the library we walked 
 to the Bourse and saw and heard the French brokers 
 going through the same crazy and excited perform- 
 ances that can be witnessed almost any day in Wall 
 Street Stock Exchange or the Chicago Wheat Pit. 
 
 July 23. — Mounted an omnibus and alighted at 
 the Trocadero an extensive building adorned with 
 statuary, being a survival of the Paris Exposition 
 of 1878. From here we walked across a bridge over 
 the Seine to the Eiffel Tower and ascended by the 
 elevator to the second station, from whence a beautiful 
 
200 
 
 and extensive view of the city is obtained. From 
 here by boat we ascended the Seine to Sevres, about 
 six miles. Passing through a shaded street or park 
 we reached the museum, where the most surpassingly 
 beautiful specimens of Sevres china are on exhibition. 
 It is hard to conceive of anything more exquisite and 
 delicate than these products of human genius. Here 
 are to be found copies in porcelain of some of the 
 most noted paintings of world renowned artists, ex- 
 actly true in every minute detail of color and drawing. 
 Here also are an infinite variety of plates, dishes and 
 vases, many of the latter of gigantic proportions and 
 each worth a small fortune, one, the Vase Neptune, 
 being ten feet high and decorated with designs as 
 beautiful and fascinating as an oriental dream. We 
 were taken into the workshop and shown a glimpse 
 of the methods of manufacture, including the kilns, 
 but were not permitted to see much of the detail. 
 Leaving the factory at Sevres we walked through a 
 long avenue or park to the park and palace of St. 
 Cloud, or rather to the place where the palace stood 
 ere its destruction during the Franco-Prussian war. 
 This park contains nearly a thousand acres and is 
 beautifully laid out with broad drives, profusely 
 adorned with statuary and a majestic fountain called 
 the Grande Cascade, the main jet of which rises to a 
 height of nearly one hundred and forty feet. St. 
 Cloud was frequently the resort of Napoleon I, and 
 was a favorite summer residence of Napoleon III. 
 
 July 24- — Another day of idling and rest. 
 
 July 25. — In the afternoon we made another visit 
 to the Louvre. The collections of the Louvre are 
 of various kinds, embracing paintings, drawings, en- 
 
201 
 
 gravings, sculpture, ancient and modern, Assyrian, 
 Egyptian and Greek antiquities, Algerine and sun- 
 dry other museums, and a beautiful collection of 
 enamels and jewels. To the visitor whose time is 
 limited only general impressions are received and 
 with the exception of a few artistic gems of world- 
 wide note, he gains no definite or detailed knowledge 
 of the thousands of subjects offered for his observa- 
 tion. 
 
 July 26. — Peter the Great, of Russia, is alleged to 
 have once said that if he possessed such a town as 
 Paris within his dominion he should be tempted to 
 burn it down for fear it should absorb the rest of his 
 empire. Every rural Frenchman ever has a longing 
 eye and a hopeful heart for the day when he can live 
 in Paris.. 
 
 Balzac has said of it, "Paris is a veritable ocean. 
 Drop in your sounding line and you will never learn 
 its depth. Traverse it, describe it if you will, yet 
 with whatever care you traverse or describe it, and 
 however numerous and eager may be explorers of 
 this ocean, there will always be found one spot still 
 virgin and unknown, flowers, pearls, monsters or 
 something unheard of or forgotten by literary divers." 
 
 Paris is a living exhibit of the world's different 
 countries, their architecture, streets, peoples and 
 customs. The clannishness of the human race has 
 led to the gathering in various distinct quarters of the 
 representatives of almost every language and coun- 
 try. To a foreigner, especially to one who has never 
 left his country before, an hour spent on the boule- 
 vards or on one of the chairs in the Garden of the 
 Tuilleries would lead to the conclusion that the primal 
 
202 
 
 object of French men and women of every class is to 
 make life as easy and pleasant as possible ; to live for 
 the present, ignore or forget the past and take hair- 
 breadth chances on escaping future penalties. In fact, 
 pleasure in Paris becomes a business that is prosecuted 
 with all the zeal and persistency of which the mer- 
 curial French temperament is capable. 
 
 July 27. — Wandering with a purposeless step 
 around the streets, Paris impresses me as a city of 
 striking contrasts. There is modern Paris, with its 
 nineteenth century imposing architecture and its 
 fashionable multitudes passing down the broad 
 luxurious Rue de Rivoli, all gaiety and radiance. 
 A few steps and the busy lengths of the Rue S. Honore 
 are before you, lined by the tall, many- windowed 
 houses that have been the breeding places of so many 
 revolutions. Innumerable balconies, domes, win- 
 dows and little niches are filled with boxes of carna- 
 tions and other brilliant flowers, while the whirling 
 and kaleidoscopic crowd in the street below is com- 
 posed mostly of workingmen in blouses and women 
 in white aprons and caps. For five hundred years 
 this has been one of the most crowded streets of Paris. 
 The gate defending this street was assaulted by the 
 legions of Joan of Arc more than five centuries ago; 
 here the shot that opened the revolution of 1830 was 
 fired, and here were witnessed some of the most des- 
 perate struggles between the insurgents and the 
 militia in the revolution of 1848. 
 
 July 28 and 29. — Were spent in resting and per- 
 forming a few necessary errands preparatory to leaving 
 for London. 
 
203 
 
 July SO. — Left Paris for London this morning, via 
 Dieppe, passing through Rouen and sundry small 
 towns. The country is green and fresh from recent 
 heavy showers, though much grain in the fields is 
 badly lodged and that in the shock thoroughly 
 soaked. The general appearance and topography of 
 the country differed little from that of a railroad trip 
 through Ohio or Indiana, except that you see no fields 
 of Indian corn. Arriving at Dieppe we boarded the 
 steamer for crossing the English channel. A light 
 breeze at our departure soon ripened into a stiff gale, 
 and before an hour had passed many a good lunch 
 had gone to feed the fishes, though I had the good luck 
 to keep a strangle hold on mine. We reached New 
 Haven, on the English coast, shortly before 6 o'clock, 
 and after an hour spent in waiting for the customs 
 officers to vise all the baggage, the train departed 
 for London, passing through a country green and 
 beautiful, but with very much lighter crops of grain 
 than greeted the eye in France. The dairy industry 
 however seemed to "cut more ice" than on the other 
 side of the channel. The residences in the towns 
 along the route were of a generally uniform size and 
 ugliness. There was no symptom of architectural 
 variety or taste. We reached London at 8 o'clock, 
 and drove to the Strand Palace Hotel only to find 
 there was not a vacant room in the house, but found 
 comfortable quarters at Haxell's Hotel, next door. 
 
 July 31. — Rained all day and weather conducive 
 to overcoats. Strolled up and down the Strand from 
 Ludgate Circus to Trafalgar Square. At the latter 
 place is a beautiful and imposing monument to Lord 
 Nelson, nearly one hundred and fifty feet in height 
 
204 
 
 and defended at each of the four corners by a massive 
 bronze Hon modeled by Sir Edwin Landseer. Other 
 portions of the square are adorned by less pretentious 
 monuments of Sir Henry Havelock, Sir Charles 
 Napier, Gen. ''Chinese" Gordon and King George IV. 
 In the evening attended the Royal Opera by the Rus- 
 sian ballet at Co vent Garden Theatre. The music 
 was exquisite, the dancing very good — though 
 I have seen better, and the scenic display above the 
 average, but not to be compared to the wonderful 
 staging of the Hippodrome in New York. Our hotel 
 fronts on the Strand, at one of the busiest points in 
 London. The street is filled with a busy throng of 
 autos, cabs and omnibuses, but unlike Paris, they are 
 not cutting corners at forty miles an hour, but con- 
 form to the controlling hand of a level-headed and 
 keen-eyed police, who seem to have been instructed 
 that the life of a pedestrian is worthy of protection 
 against the reckless dare-devilism of the average 
 chauffeur. For six months we have been wandering 
 in countries where the English language is practically 
 an unknown tongue, and now it seems almost like 
 home to land in a country where you can make your 
 wants known and understood by any chance stranger 
 you may meet on the street. 
 
 August 1. — Wandered up and down the Strand; 
 also took an outside view of Somerset House, crossed 
 the Waterloo Bridge and wandered down to the bank 
 of the Thames. This afternoon my dear old friend. 
 General Burdett, of Washington city, arrived, looking 
 as fresh and fine as a man of seventy-seven years 
 could ever hope to look. His face is round and smooth 
 and without a wrinkle, and God bless him, he looks 
 
205 
 
 good for another decade of life and enjoyment among 
 the remnant of the Old Guard of the Grand Army of 
 the Republic, who love and revere him. 
 
 August 2. — Spent the day visiting with Burdett. 
 
 August 3. — In company with Burdett we visited 
 the Victoria Monument in St. James place or park, 
 a tract converted by Henry VIII from a hospital for 
 lepers into a royal park, and which has been added to 
 from time to time since, until it contains nearly one 
 hundred acres, and is beautified with green lawns, 
 variegated flowers, handsome trees and a small lake 
 or pond. The monument stands immediately in 
 front of Buckingham Palace, is of white marble, and 
 occupies the centre of a circular space within which 
 are allegorical groups representing the various British 
 colonies. At the base of the pedestal of the monu- 
 ment is a heroic statue of Queen Victoria, surrounded 
 by sundry allegorical groups, while the top is crowned 
 by a bronze figure of Victory. From the monument 
 we drove to the Parliament House, and as that body 
 was not in session, were permitted to pass through 
 both the chambers of the Lords and Commons, the 
 King's robing room, the Royal gallery, the Princes' 
 chamber, St. Stephen's Hall and Westminister Hall. 
 In the latter is shown the spot where Charles I stood 
 when he received sentence of death, and here Crom- 
 well was proclaimed as Lord Protector, only to have 
 his body a few years later disinterred from West- 
 minster Abbey and his head set upon a pole on one 
 of the pinnacles of Westminster Hall. Here, also, 
 William Wallace, the hero of that ancient novel, 
 "The Scottish Chiefs," was condemned to death, and 
 
206 
 
 the conspirator, Guy Fawkes, of Gunpowder Plot 
 fame, met his fate. It was also the scene of the 
 acquittal of Warren Hastings after his famous seven 
 years trial. We next proceeded to Westminster 
 Abbey, the Mausoleum of England's men of great 
 renown. 
 
 August 4' — Went with Burdett to Victoria station 
 and saw him leave for Eastbourne, preparatory to 
 returning to America. In the afternoon, in company 
 with a gentleman from New York, we visited the 
 National gallery, and there found many pictures of 
 world-wide fame by such artists as Rubens, Titian, 
 Sir Joshua Reynolds, Rosa Bonheur, Murello, Millais, 
 Gainsborough and others. Later I strolled down to 
 old London bridge, whose history has been an impor- 
 tant part of London's life almost since the days of the 
 Norman conquest. In fact, a wooden bridge existed 
 on this site in the days of the Saxon Heptarchy, and 
 even that is supposed to have been preceded by one 
 under the later Roman rule. But the famous stone 
 bridge was begun about one hundred years after 
 William the Conqueror humbled Saxon power and 
 pride at the battle of Hastings, and occupied some 
 thirty odd years in construction. It was built upon 
 nineteen stone arches and was described by a distin- 
 guished traveler about four hundred years ago, who 
 wrote: "Over the river at London there is a beautiful 
 long bridge, with quite splendid, handsome and well 
 built houses which are occupied by merchants of 
 consequence. Upon one of the towers, nearly in the 
 middle of the bridge are stuck up about thirty-four 
 heads of persons of distinction, who had in former 
 times been condemned and beheaded for creating 
 
207 
 
 riots and for other causes." About one hundred and 
 fifty years ago the houses on the bridge were all 
 cleared away, partly to relieve the great weight and 
 partly to give greater space for the passage of the 
 largely increased traffic. 
 
 August 5 and 6. — Showers of rain every few minutes. 
 Visited the Tate gallery, containing many beautiful 
 modern paintings by Reynolds, Gainsborough, Land- 
 seer and numerous other artists of the nineteenth 
 century. 
 
 Opposite our hotel is a saloon called "The Coal 
 Hole," wherein the liquors are served by the typical 
 English bar-maid, of whom so much has been written. 
 Apparently it is a first class, respectable place, so far 
 as respectability can attach to such a business, which 
 however is not so much under the ban as it is in 
 America. It is also apparent that almost everybody 
 here and on the continent patronizes the hquor sellers 
 as openly and as matter of fact as they would a lunch 
 counter, and in a majority of instances the hquor 
 constitutes a portion of their meal. Seldom do you 
 see men, as in America, rush up to the bar, call for a 
 drink, gulp it down at a swallow and go their way, 
 but on the contrary a man will sit down, often with 
 his wife or some other man's wife, and spend half or 
 three-quarters of an hour sipping a glass of wine or 
 beer, accompanied by a cake or sandwich. 
 
 August 7. — Went to see the monument erected in 
 commemoration of the great London fire of 1666, 
 which is a single column rising to a height of more 
 than two hundred feet. There being no "hft," I 
 declined to climb its staircase of some three or four 
 
208 
 
 hundred steps, for the sake of the view. Leaving 
 the monument I walked to St. Paul's Church. 
 Although of vast proportions it induces no such feel- 
 ing of commanding awe and admiration as St. Peter's, 
 the Cathedral of Milan, or even that at Cologne. 
 The main body of the church as you enter shows only 
 plain stone walls, discolored and soiled by the hands 
 of Time, with the liberal assistance of London smoke 
 and fog. Toward the farther end, however, above 
 and surrounding the altar, within the last few years 
 steps have been taken toward carrying out a system 
 of interior decoration in which gilding, rich mosaics, 
 stained glass and polished marble are prominent 
 factors, and which, if continued uniformly throughout, 
 will add greatly to the beauty and attractiveness of 
 the edifice. Throughout the auditorium are many 
 marble statues commemorating the lives and deeds 
 of England's noted military and naval heroes, though 
 none of them are of a very high order of artistic merit. 
 Taken altogether, the Cathedral bears no comparison 
 in beauty of architecture or interior adornment to 
 many of the churches, mosques and cathedrals we 
 have hitherto seen on the continent. 
 
 August 8. — Rain, rain and more rain. Visited the 
 Albert Memorial, erected at a cost of six hundred 
 thousand dollars, to the memory of Prince Albert, 
 consort of Queen Victoria. It is located in the south- 
 erly part of Kensington Garden, and is 175 feet in 
 height. The base is a broad platform approached by 
 granite steps. The four corners of the approach are 
 ornamented by allegorical groups in white marble 
 representing the four continents upon which England 
 holds territorial possessions. The lower portion 
 
209 
 
 of the pedestal is square in form, bearing at the cor- 
 ners marble groups representing respectively agri- 
 culture, manufactures, commerce and engineering. 
 A frieze in relief surrounds each side of the pedestal, 
 representing more than one hundred and seventy- 
 five men of all the ages, famous as painters, poets, 
 musicians, architects and sculptors. On top of the 
 pedestal sits a colossal bronze statue of Prince Albert 
 under a gothic canopy — the statue gilded. The 
 canopy is surrounded by a gilt cross and underneath 
 is richly ornamented with mosaics, gilt and colored 
 stones. 
 
 Kensington Garden, in which the memorial stands, 
 is nothing more nor less than a wooded park adjoin- 
 ing and forming an extension to Hyde Park. Passing 
 through the garden, viewing on our right a pond 
 called the Serpentine, which divides Kensington 
 from Hyde Park, and where the poet Shelley's first 
 wife committed suicide by drowning, we soon reached 
 Kensington Palace, a non-imposing brick edifice, but 
 historically noted as the place where William III and 
 his Queen Mary died, and where Queen Victoria was 
 born and resided until the time of her coronation. 
 A few only of the rooms are open to public inspection, 
 and these contain a number of the playthings, dresses, 
 etc., belonging to Queen Victoria in her earlier years, 
 as well as many paintings of England's rulers and states- 
 men and heroes of noted naval engagements. Retrac- 
 ing our steps through Kensington Garden, Ken- 
 sington Gore and Exhibition Road, we came to South 
 Kensington Museum, which is a most imposing build- 
 ing of gigantic proportions, being some seven hundred 
 feet in length. Within its walls is perhaps the most 
 complete, historic and chronologic exhibit of deco- 
 
210 
 
 rative and applied art in the world. Room after room, 
 and corridor after corridor, are filled with unending 
 specimens of Italian, French, English, Spanish, 
 Flemish, and German sculpture in marble, alabaster, 
 stone, glazed terra-cotta and wood, running through 
 the centuries, mediaeval and modern wood-work, 
 furniture, plaques, panels and cabinets. Like rooms 
 and corridors are devoted to cloths and tapestries 
 dating from those found in the early Egyptian tombs 
 down to the present time. Still other rooms are filled 
 with plaster or other reproductions of the world's 
 most famous architectural achievements as shown in 
 temples, churches, palaces and other public and pri- 
 vate buildings. Also to be seen is a multitudinous 
 collection of goldsmith and silversmith work and 
 ancient enamels, together with specimens of brass 
 work, bronzes, clocks, spoons and pewter work. 
 There is also a loan collection belonging to Pierpont 
 Morgan of bronzes, old jewelry, porcelain, ivory- 
 carvings, etc., and which is now being packed up for 
 shipment to America. 
 
 August 9. — Showers at intervals all day. Mounted 
 a two story omnibus, and after a long ride through 
 South London, landed at the south end of Tower 
 Bridge, a magnificent triumph of engineering skill, 
 one-half mile long and costing the munificent sum 
 of eight million dollars. Crossing the bridge on foot 
 we visited the Tower of London, a building fraught 
 with more of England's eventful history, and the 
 scene of more misery, more hopeless despair, devilish 
 cruelty and wanton murders than any other spot on 
 English soil. Here the mahgnity and jealousy of that 
 much married monarchy Henry VIII; held full sway 
 
211 
 
 and the axe of his official executioner ended the 
 earthly career of Sir Thomas Moore, Anne Boleyn, 
 Queen Catharine Howard, the Earl of Essex, and the 
 Countess of Salisbury. Here at an earlier period 
 were confined John Baliol and David Bruce, kings of 
 Scotland, as well as that sturdy and unselfish Scotch 
 patriot, Sir William Wallace. But even an allusion 
 to all the noted happenings in the tower would make 
 a good sized volume. The tower itself is an irregular 
 mass of buildings representing many changes and 
 additions, from the time of William the Conqueror to 
 Henry III. Its massive stone walls are thirteen feet 
 in thickness and were once surrounded by a deep 
 moat. For many years it was occupied as a royal 
 palace, but not since the time of Charles II. It is 
 now used as a government arsenal and fortress, and in 
 the courtyard we witnessed an interesting drill of the 
 garrison troops. In that portion of the building 
 called the Wakefield Tower, in a glass case surrounded 
 by steel frame-work are the crowns and royal regalia 
 and ornaments. The crown originally made for 
 Queen Victoria and altered for Edward VII is made 
 of gold and contains nearly three thousand diamonds, 
 besides three hundred pearls and other precious 
 stones. The famous Cullinane diamond, which was 
 presented to King Edward by the government of 
 Transvaal, has been cut into two stones, and they are 
 here exhibited under the name of the Stars of Africa. 
 There are several other crowns of gold and precious 
 stones, besides sceptres, staffs, bracelets, basins, etc. 
 all of solid gold. The total value represented in the 
 exhibit we were told by the guardian exceeds thirty- 
 five million dollars. 
 
212 
 
 August iO.— Showery again at intervals all day. 
 Visited the National Portrait Gallery. Here in some 
 thirty odd rooms are assembled the portraits of more 
 than sixteen hundred eminent Britons, carrying 
 national and many of them world-wide reputations 
 for military, naval, scientific and literary achieve- 
 ments. The portraits are arranged in chronological 
 order, beginning about the year 1350, and covering the 
 period from the reign of Richard II down to and 
 including the Victorian era. Of England's poets 
 the earliest portrait is that of Geoffrey Chaucer, 
 followed by the Chandos portrait of the immortal 
 Bard of Avon. Then come Milton, Pope, and Dryden, 
 and in their turn all that splendid galaxy of the 
 eighteenth and nineteenth centuries whose names are 
 household words among cultivated Americans. Rare 
 old Ben Jonson, and England's great cynic philos- 
 opher, Samuel Johnson, together with the satirical 
 and of times "naughty" Dean Swift; the profound 
 philosopher and corrupt statesman, Lord Bacon; the 
 most fascinating essayist, the most picturesque por- 
 trayer of human motives and action, though not the 
 most reliable in his deductions and conclusions, T. 
 Babington McCaulay and that trinity of modern 
 philosophic scientists, Darwin, Huxley and John 
 Stuart Mill, are all here. The only Americans who 
 have been dignified and honored with a place on these 
 walls are George Washington, painted by Gilbert 
 Stuart, and Benjamin Franklin. 
 
 August 11. — Ascended to the second story of a 
 Strand omnibus, and after threading the tortuous 
 streets of London and the approaches thereto for 
 nearly two hours, we reached Hampton Court, the 
 
213 
 
 largest of all the English palaces, built nearly four 
 hundred years ago by Cardinal Wolsey and by him 
 presented to Henry VIII. It is surrounded by 
 extensive grounds, adorned with the most beautiful 
 and elaborate beds of flowers, and shaded with tower- 
 ing oaks, horse chestnuts and sundry other varieties 
 of trees whose accumulation of years, unlike those of 
 man, have added to their strength, beauty and fas- 
 cination. Under a glass canopy near the palace is a 
 patriarchal grape vine of the black Hamburg variety, 
 nearly one hundred and fifty years old, with a stem 
 thirteen inches in diameter and with thirteen hundred 
 bunches of dehcious looking grapes pendant from 
 its branches. The palace, which is built of red brick 
 and like nearly all English architecture, severely 
 plain in outward appearance, contains one thousand 
 rooms, eight hundred of which are now occupied by 
 aristocratic pensioners of the crown. The remaining 
 rooms, or at least that portion of them now open to 
 the public, are filled with a few acres of paintings, most 
 of which are mediocre and uninteresting in character 
 compared with those we have seen elsewhere. Here 
 Henry VIII spent much of his time with his assort- 
 ment of wives. Anne Boleyn presided over his house- 
 hold at frequent banquetings, and here Jane Seymour 
 died after giving birth to Edward VI, and in quick 
 succession Catharine Howard and Catherine Parr 
 were publicly acknowledged as Queens of England, 
 and here also in succession resided King Edward VI, 
 Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, James I and Charles I. 
 After a heavy shower of rain had ceased we wended 
 our way to the boat landing on the Thames for a trip 
 back to London on the river. The first half of the 
 ride was delightful. Immediately after leaving the 
 
214 
 
 landing our steamer passed a long row of house-boats 
 occupied as summer residences by those seeking out- 
 door sports. Many of these boats are most elabo- 
 rately furnished and the upper decks surrounded with 
 a wealth of most beautiful flowering plants in boxes 
 and pots. The river was thickly dotted with small 
 row boats, gasoline launches, etc., filled with young 
 people and old; lovers and past lovers who seemed, in 
 spite of the falling temperature and cold wind, to 
 enjoy summer dresses and shirt sleeves. For several 
 miles both sides of the river are made attractive with 
 summer homes, green sward and abundant flowers 
 and trees, and their owners or occupants are appar- 
 ently determined to have a good time in spite of the 
 weather, picnicking, boating and fishing. Kingston, 
 an old Saxon town, is soon reached, where some of the 
 earlier kings of England were crowned. Then comes 
 Tedington, where we passed through a lock and soon 
 reached Twickenham, the residence and burial place 
 of Pope and only a short distance from Strawberry 
 Hill, the one-time home of Horace Walpole. Opposite 
 Twickenham is Petersham, where the grave of Cap- 
 tain Vancouver, the Pacific coast navigator, is located. 
 Continuing down the river we reached Isleworth, a 
 favorite residence of London business men, where 
 many fine residences and wooded grounds add beauty 
 to the scene. Here also is another lock through 
 which we dropped to the lower reach of the river. 
 Then comes Kew, with its noted Botanical Gardens, 
 followed by Chiswick, Hammersmith, Putney and 
 Fulham, and finally Westminster, where we landed 
 and returned by omnibus to our hotel. 
 
215 
 
 August 12. — Thunder showers still on the regular 
 bill of fare. In the afternoon visited the National 
 History Museum, which is a branch of the British 
 Museum. It is contained in a handsome and enor- 
 mous stone building and offers a most complete 
 exhibit of the world's animals, birds, reptiles, insects 
 and fishes, including many specimens of extinct and 
 pre-historic species. Exhibits are given of the family 
 groups of many animals and birds, showing the vari- 
 ations of their coats at different seasons and their 
 color adaptability to their immediate surroundings. 
 Many butterflies and other insects possess this faculty 
 in marked degree, and although when in flight they 
 are conspicuous for their brilliant coloring, as soon as 
 they alight and fold their wings they become in color 
 and appearance a part of the tree or plant upon which 
 they are resting. Exhibits are presented also of the 
 variation of species, the effect of cross-breeding, 
 albinism, etc., in animals. There is also a large and 
 complete mineralogical and botanical exhibit. 
 
 August 13 and 11^. — Overcoats, umbrellas and 
 galoshes in constant requisition. Visited Kew, where 
 are located the extensive and beautiful botanic garden 
 and arboretum. The grounds contain about two 
 hundred and fifty acres, and outside of the greenhouses 
 are embellished with specimens of almost every 
 variety of tree and bush that will stand the winter 
 temperature of England. Many of the trees, espe- 
 cially oaks, sycamores and horse chestnuts, are of 
 great size. Within the numerous greenhouses are 
 to be found an infinity of trees, plants and flowers 
 from the tropical and subtropical regions, among 
 which are lace-hke ferns, curiously shaped and gor- 
 
216 
 
 geously colored orchids, water lilies of every known 
 variety, including the famed Victoria Regia, with its 
 circular leaves six feet in diameter, and which was 
 almost ready to unfold its beautiful blossom. The 
 Egyptian lotus was also in evidence in full bloom, as 
 were many varieties of pitcher plants. Sir Joseph 
 Hooker, the eminent English botanist, was for many 
 years preceding his recent death the director of the 
 gardens. In 1877 he visited Rancho Chico, and after 
 pronouncing an oak tree growing there to be, so far as 
 he knew, the largest oak in the world, General Bid- 
 well named the tree the "Sir Joseph Hooker Oak." 
 
 Augiist 15 and 16. — Housed up on account of the 
 continuous rain. 
 
 August 17. — Left London for a visit to Stratford on 
 Avon, distant some ninety miles. Passed through 
 several towns of more or less importance, including 
 Oxford, Banbury, Leamington and Warwick. Ar- 
 riving at Stratford we secured the services of a small 
 boy who offered himself as guide, and proceeded first 
 to Shakespeare's house, where upon the payment of a 
 shilling per head we were permitted to wander through 
 the half dozen rooms and inspect many old relics in 
 the line of furniture, deeds and miscellaneous articles, 
 few of which held any personal relation to Shake- 
 speare or his life career. There were many supposi- 
 tions and beliefs expressed to the more or less 
 credulous tourist as to the authenticity of the numer- 
 ous relics on exhibition, but even the curator of the 
 museum was not willing to risk a positive guarantee 
 concerning the majority of them. The house is a 
 fair sample of the residence of a family of modest 
 
217 
 
 means of that period, with a total lack of what in 
 these days would be considered necessary conven- 
 iences by the humblest day laboring tenant. Leaving 
 the house we visited what is known as the "new- 
 place," purchased by Shakespeare in later life and 
 where he died. The house has long since disappeared, 
 but an inscribed tablet in the yard indicates the sup- 
 posed location of the room in which he died. Walk- 
 ing from here to the church where he is buried, 
 another six pence admits you to the interior. On the 
 way to the church we passed the residence of Marie 
 Corelli, the novelist, the front of which is beautifully 
 adorned with flowering plants and English ivy. We 
 also passed the house wherein once lived the mother 
 of John Harvard, founder of Harvard University. 
 After partaking of luncheon we called a carriage and 
 drove to Anne Hathaway's cottage, about a mile and 
 a half distant. It is a thatched farm house of the 
 EUzabethan period and contains among other relics 
 the bench upon which it is alleged young Shakespeare 
 and older Anne sat during their evening courtship. 
 Anne's bedstead, with heavy walnut posts and a 
 fairly well preserved plaited straw mattress, are also 
 shown. The home in its interior finishings shows all 
 the earmarks of the age in which it was erected, and 
 the thatched roof, more than a foot thick, is covered 
 in many places with a volunteer growth of grass, 
 weeds and wild flowers. It is claimed that more 
 than thirty thousand visitors arrive every year, and 
 the town lives mainly upon their disbursements. 
 The river Avon, which courses along one side of 
 Stratford, is a fine flowing stream, and many row 
 boats are for hire for a ride up and down its stretches. 
 The country between London and Stratford is slightly 
 
218 
 
 rolling, is under a high state of cultivation, and owing 
 to the over-abundant rains that have prevailed every 
 day so far during the month of August, the meadows 
 and trees are beautiful in their luxuriant coats of 
 green. The rains and low temperature however have 
 occurred at a time when haying and harvesting were 
 in full progress, and have caused vast losses in crops 
 to the farmers all over England and Scotland, as well 
 as on the continent. 
 
 August 18. — Jupiter Pluvius still reigns and 
 showers his blessings upon the just and the unjust 
 alike. Took an omnibus and rode down to Petticoat 
 Lane, where every Sunday morning is held an open 
 air auction market. The narrow street is densely 
 crowded with people, some coming out of curiosity 
 and some looking for bargains at the innumerable 
 small merchant stands, where every conceivable 
 article of cheap and second hand goods is offered for 
 sale, mostly at auction. A large proportion of these 
 goods are popularly supposed to have been stolen. 
 Leaving Petticoat Lane we rode to Hyde Park and 
 Park Lane, viewed the aristocratic mansion of the 
 American minister, the imposing stone palace of the 
 late Barney Barnato, of South African diamond 
 fame, and sundry other millionaire residences, crossed 
 over into the park where a crowd were listening to the 
 female orators of a suffragette meeting, one of whom, 
 a very pleasing and cultivated looking lady proved 
 to be a Mrs. Dr Moore, of San Francisco, who sought 
 to impress her audience with the great moral revolu- 
 tion that had been brought about in California 
 through the successful domination of that most 
 tyrannical and unscrupulous boss of all political 
 
219 
 
 bosses, Gov. Hiram Johnson. After the close of the 
 meeting went to the Tate gallery for a second visit. 
 
 August 19 and 20. — Busy with preparations for 
 departure homeward. 
 
 August 21. — Left the hotel for Waterloo station, 
 where we boarded the special steamer train for South- 
 ampton and the steamer Oceanic of the White Star 
 line for New York. The country from London to 
 Southampton is very similar in appearance to other 
 parts of England that we have seen, slightly roUing 
 and all under high state of cultivation. The con- 
 tinued rains for the last three weeks, while making the 
 grass and trees beautifully green, have caused enor- 
 mous loss to the farmers, who were in the midst of 
 their harvesting. Wheat, barley and oats are stand- 
 ing in the shock, much of it black and rotten and in 
 many cases sprouting. The hay crop is absolutely 
 ruined, much of it having been cut and lying in the 
 swath. 
 
 August 21 to 28. — Spent in crossing the Atlantic 
 without incident of special interest, and after landing 
 in New York on the latter date we took the train for 
 Washington city, reaching there at midnight. Here 
 endeth the journal.