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Folks Next Door
THE
LOG BOOK OF A RAMBLER
^ BY
W! AtT:ROFFUT
Author of History of Connecticut ; The Prophecy ; A Midsummer Lark ; A
Helping Hand; Bourbon Ballads ; Deseret ; The Vanderbilts ; The
Open Gate of Dreamland; St, Peter's Mistake, Etc.
ILLUSTRATED
THIRD EDITION
THE EASTSIDE PUBLISHING COMPANY
WASHINGTON, D. C.
FROM THE PRESS OF
THE HENRY E. WILKENS PRINTING CO.
WASHI^TjW, D. C.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE.
A "RAMBLE ALONG NEW ENGLAND'S COAST.
A YACHT CRUISE IN JUEY. — "SHALL WE HAVE TO BILE UP?"—
ON Garfield's pleasure steamer. — through hell-gate. —
AT the PIAISfO — turning IN - I
THE FIRST WEEK OUT.
NEWPORT. — SAIL AND STEAM YACHTS. — ^THE DOCTOR. — WHAT A
CUNNER LOOKS LIKE. — QUEER BURDEN ON A HOOK. — THE
devil's APRON. — HOW A ELOUNDER'S EYES TRAVEL. — MARVELS
OF THE SEA - , 6
FISHING FOR COD.
AND FINDING GREWSOME THINGS. — DO FISH FLY A FLAG ?^A
SALINE JAIL-DELIVERY. — SETTING THE BUNTING IN THE
MORNING. — READING THE SIGNALS. — BILLY CLARK AXD HIS
NANTUCKET 13
AROUND CAPE COD.
WAITING FOR BREAKFAST. — A MISERABLE AND DESPERATE COW. —
THE BEAUTIES OF THE SQUID. — SEA-ROBINS AND HOW THEY
SING. — ^MARBLEHEAD. — BURIED TO STAY PUT 20
OFF THE COAST OF ^lAINE.
TWO RIGHT WHALES. — THEY ARE PLAYFUL AND COMPANIONABLE.
— EFFECT OF MARINE FOOD. — WHAT BECAME OF THE GOOD
RESOLUTIONS TO STUDY. — HARVESTING A TRAWL. — QUEER
DENIZENS OF THE DEEP 2~
HUNTING A SWORDFISII.
HOW THEY GO AFTER "THE SOLDIER OF THE SE.\." — "THIS IS
GLORIOUS." — THE SLOOP BOWLS AHE.M) — M .\ N 0.\ THK !!OW-
SI'RIT. — "bring a BUCKET, PETE." — COXCKKNMXG CIIAI'IM,-
GEAU 34
AMONG THE QUODDY ISLANDS.
" WHERE THE SUN RISES." — FlKIiS .\NM) STK AWr.KKKI KS IX AIT.UST.
— CAMPOBELLO. WILLI.VM I'lTZ Wll.l.l.V.M. Till-: APMIKAL. —
GEN. LIXCOLN .\XII I'.KXEDICT .\KX01.|). — MVl'IIS, l.HGEX'DS
AXD S.VKDIXKS 39
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
WONDERFUL FISHING.
FISH BIGGER THAN THEIR CAPTORS. — SOME NEOPHYTES GO A-
FISHING. — AND GET NUMEROUS BITES AND SOME FISH. —
"WHAEE TO PORT." — DEMAND FOR A SEA-SERPENT. — THE
ROOST OF MOTHER CAREy's CHICKENS. — GRANDEUR OF GRAND
manan 44
AMONG THE BLUE NOSES.
AROUND THE BAY OF FUNDY. — ST. JOHn'S TURBULENT HARBOR. — ■
STEAMER GOES UP OVER AN EIGHTEEN-FOOT FALE. — SPECTACLE
OF ENORMOUS TIDES. — A THRASHER, THE FOE OF THE WHALE.
— TIDE RISES TWO INCHES A MINUTE. — IS THERE A " BORE " ? 51
THE HOME OF EVANGELINE.
THE FALCON ON THE AVON. — WHY LONGFELLOW DID NOT VISIT
HERE. — SOME VALUABLE POETICAL SUGGESTIONS. — -"GRAND
PREE ! GRAND FREE ! " — CHARACTER OF THE ACADIANS. —
VISIT TO "BASIL THE BLACKSMITH'S." — OFF TO CANADA. ... 5/
OFF FOR NEWFOUNDLAND.
GENESIS OF NOVA SCOTIA. — A CHILD OF NEW ENGLAND. — THE
YANKEE FARMERS. — WHERE CAN SAM BE? — THE CRY OF
AJAX FROM A STATEROOM. — SIZE OF NEWFOUNDLAND 66
NEWFOUNDLAND 4^ND LABRADOR.
COAST AND INTERIOR. — ST. JOHn's CITY AND HARBOR. — THE FISH-
ING FRENZY. — ROBBING THE ICEBERGS. — LONELINESS OF
LABRADOR 70
QUEBEC AND MONTREAL.
UP THE SAGUENAY'. — A TREMENDOUS CHASM. — CURIOUS OLD
QUEBEC. — A CITY' OF THE MIDDLE AGES. — SURROUNDINGS OF
MONTREAL. — THE ST. REGIS BELL. — FISH AGAIN 75
A PREMIUM FOR CHILDREN.
THE POLICY OF LOUIS XIV. — " GET A SUPPLY OF PEOPLE ! " — SHIP-
LOADS OF WIVES SENT FROM EUROPE. — ^,A MIXED ASSORTMENT.
— EMBARRASSING TO MOTHER MARY. — A PRIZE OF $6 A YEAR
FOR INFANTS 8l
LAST DAYS IN CANADA.
JO BEEF AND HIS BENEVOLENT MISSION. — A UNIQUE ESTABLISH-
MENT. — PHYSICAL AND SPIRITUAL COMFORT. — SIR PETER
MITCHELL AND THE PREMIER. — HOW THE WIDOW MURPHY's
COW GOT PAID FOR. — HOMEWARD BOUND 86
TABLE OF CONTEXTS.
FOLKS IN MID-OCEAN.
INCIDENTS OF A VOYAGE TO THE " VEXED BERMOOTHES." — THE
ISLANDS OF THE ATLANTIC^ V^'HERE PEOPLE GO TO GET WARM
WEATHER IN WINTER. — ROUGH EXPERIENCES AT SEA. — THE
ISLANDS AND THEIR INHABITANTS. — EFFECTS OF A TROPICAL
CLIMATE. — CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PEOPLE. — AX INCIDENT
OF OUR REVOLUTION. PECULIARITIES OF BERMUDA AS A
HEALTH RESORT. — BERMUDA OFFICIALS. — A LITTLE CORAL
WORLD OF MAGNIFICENT PRETENSIONS 94
CUBA, THE ISLAND REPUBLIC.
PINK PIGS IN THE BLUE SEA. — BIRDS OF ZIGZAG FLIGHT. — STRIK-
ING FIRE AS THEY GO. — A TORCHLIGHT PROCESSIOX. — THE
GATEWAY OF THE ANTILLES II4
THE CAPITAL OF CUBA.
INTO THE HARBOR OF HAVANA. — BARCALIERS. — POLYGLOTS IN
POLYCROME. — THE VOLANTE. — STREET SCENES AND SOUNDS.—
HARD LINES AT THE HOTEL. — ■" USTED ! USTED ! " — AMERICA
EVERYWHERE IN EVIDENCE. — TFIE MUCH-NAMED ISLAND.... I18
GLIMPSES OF RURAL CUBA.
ITS ABSORPTION OF RAIN WATER. — VEGETATION BY THE W.WSIDE.
— TO MATANZAS NOTWITHSTANDING. — A SUGAR PLANTA-
TION. — AN EXAMPLE OF SPANISH COURTESY. — SIXTEEX""
HOURS A DAY. — RELIGION AT A DISCOUNT 125
A BIT OF YUCATAN.
OFF A STRANGE AND DESOLATE COAST. — NEW ST.\RS. — HOME OF
THE ANCIENT TOLTECS. — THE TEMPLES OF TULOOM. — THE
INGENIOUS BUILDERS. — WHERE CORTEZ FIRST LANDED. —
SIXTY-TWO RUINED CITIES. — THE LOST METROPOLIS. — CHANCE
FOR YOUNG EXPLORERS 133
THE SE.VPORT AND THE C.\PIT.\L.
.\ I'.VrSI'. AT I'UOCRKSI). — .\ KIDE UP TO MERIDA. — ITS HOTEL. — THE
.\CTIVE AND THRIFTY YUCATECAN. — THE .MARKET. — THE
CIl.AM KI.F.ON. — THE OMNIPRESENT H.VMMOCK. — A " C.WERX
BATH " 139
GOOD-m'E TO YUCAT.W.
\\1Ii;rE OUR SUMMER BIRDS TAKE REFUGE. — THE HOME OF HEMP.
—THE BAG-MAKING HONEY BEE. — "' WANOS IHAs!" — .\ MIS-
TAKE IN THE MAN. — I.l-NCHIXG WITH VICATECAXS. — " DE
SEA BLUUHER." — i/env(ii 145
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
ZIGZAGS TN MEXICO.
WHAT VERA CRUZ LOOKS LIKE. — GOING ASHORE. — A BIRD SACRED
TO UTILITY. — CLIMBING THE MOUNTAIN TO THE CAPITAL. —
NATIVES. — FLORAL LUXURIANCE. — THROUGH THREE ZONES. —
ORCHIDS AND EVERGREENS 155
A GLIMPSE AT THE CAPITAL.
ON A MOUNTAIN TOP. — CONDITION OE THE CITY. — A HEAVENLY
CLIMATE.— NO CELLARS. — NO DRAINAGE. — FEVERS AND DEATH
IN SUMMER TIME. — THE GREAT NEED OF MEXICO 161
THE STREETS AND HOMES.
NAMES OF STREETS. — HOW THE HOUSES LOOK. — NO CHIMNEYS.
— THIRD FLOOR ARISTOCRACY. — SEEN FROM THE BALCONY. — ■
BARGAINS IN THE PATIO. — AIDS TO DIVINE WORSHIP. — -WATER
FOR DOGS. — CALL ON MRS. SANTA ANNA 165
FOOD AND DRINK.
FRUITS, VEGETABLES, GRAIN. — HOW DO THE MEXICANS LIVE? — ■
THEY EAT QUEER THINGS. — FLIEs' EGGS. — THE CACTUS. — THE
VIRTUES OF THE PULQUE COW 173
THE FLOATING GARDENS.
THE ZOCHIMILCO CANAL. — IN THE SUBURBS. — THE GARDENS HAVE
MOSTLY COME TO ANCHOR. — AFLOAT ON A BARGE. — FLOWERS
GALORE. — LIKEWISE ODORS. — AN INHERITANCE FROM THE
AZTECS 182
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS.
COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE. — WIVES AT TWELVE AND FOURTEEN. —
OLD MAIDS AT SIXTEEN. — MARRIAGE OFTEN AN UNATTAIN-
ABLE LUXURY. — BALCONY COURTSHIPS. — THE MEXICAN DUDE.
— HIS COSTUME AND HABITS. — HOW THE GIRL IS BARGAINED
OFF. — ■"' HOW PRETTY SHE IS ! " — THE CR.XCK UNDER THE
DOOR 187
THE LAST OF EARTH.
FUNERALS ON STREET CARS. — THE UNDERTAKING OF THE UNDER-
TAKER. — ON A RUN. — HIRED COFFINS. — THE JOLLY SEXTONS.
— WAITING AT " THE GLORY OF THE WORLD " ig5
HABITS AND MORALS.
MIXING OF RACES. — UNIVERSAL POLITENESS. — " PASSE USTED." —
JEALOUSY OF AMERICANS. — CRUELTY OF THE WHITES. —
LAZINESS FASHIONABLE. DO WE WANT MEXICO? — SCHOOLS. IQQ
TABLE OF CONTEXTS.
INFLUENCE OF THE SPANL\RDS.
■MEXICO WHEN CORTEZ LANDED. — WHAT THE CONQUERORS
BROUGHT. — THE SWORD AND THE CROSS AND THE RACK. —
NATIVES REDUCED EROM THIRTY MILLIONS TO SEVEN MIL-
LIONS. — CRIPPLES. — SLAVERY ESTABLISHED BY THE CHURCH.
— IT OWNED A THIRD OF ALL THE PROPERTY 204
REGENERATED MEXICO.
THE WORK OF JUAREZ. — A STARTLING TRANSFORMATION. —
CHURCH PROPERTY CONFISCATED TO THE STATE. — A NATIVE
INDIAN DISPOSSESSES THE RELIGION IMPOSED UPON HIS AN-
CESTORS. — SERVICES BY PERMISSION OF THE STATE 211
THE PEONS.
THE NATIVE WORKERS. — THEIR EFFICIENCY AS PORTERS. — THE
DONKEY. — THE ADVENT OF THE YANKEE. — DRESS OF THE
PEASANTRr. — STARTLING CONTRASTS. INDUSTRIAL PARA-
DOXES. — RAILROADS. — SIGNS OF PROGRESS 219
OVER THE ANDES.
.V TRIP DOWN THE PACIFIC SLOPE. — A NARROW-GAUGE RAlLRO.\D. —
SPARSE POPULATION. — VAST CATHEDRALS> — HOMES OF THE
PEONS. — THE CLIMB TO CIMA. — DROVES OF PORTERS AND
DONKEYS. — INERTIA. — RELIGION AT MORELIA. — CURIOSITY OF
THE PEONS. — THE DEIFIED LOCOMOTIVE 228
AMONG THE TOLTEC RUIXS.
TKll' TO S.\N JUAN. — WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF THREE SMALL
a(l^■S. — LITTLE STONE GODS TOO NUMEROUS TO MENTION. —
OBSIDIAN KNIVES. — NO TWO IMAGES ALIKE. — A GRANITE GOD
TEN FEET HIGH. — .\X IXHI.VX'S DWELLING. OUR COM-
PANIONS AT LUNCH 236
TM1<: LAND 15.\R(^XS OF MEXICO.
\u'..\\. i-:sT.\Ti: .M()N()i'()i.izi':ii i;\ a ii:w. — immkxsi-: i.axh TursTs.
— .\ I'ANM I,.\UGER TH.\X .M .\SSACH USETTS. — HOW HACIEN-
DADdS KEKI' PEONS IN BONDAGE. — NEED OF EXTEKI'KISE. — IN-
IH:STK1.\1, OI'I'OKTUNITIES.-HKIVE WEI.I.S 243
ORU^IX OF THE MICXICAXS.
BEI'OKK COI.U.MIU'S .\xn I.ICM' ERICSSON. — KDKX .\1' Till-; XOKIII
POLE. — DISCOVERIES BY .\CCII)ENT. — THE VOV.\C.E oF IIWUI
SHAN. — THE EMI'EKOU OF CUIX.\ HEARS HIS STORY. — KING
ASOKA SENDS MISSIONARIES TO FU SAXG. — CURIOUS CO-
ixtinENCES 250
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
COMING TO THE FRONT.
SCHOOLS SUPERSEDING CONVENTS. — WORK SUPERSEDING WORSHIP. >
INDIANS HUMANELY CARED FOR. THREE ENEMIES OE
PRESENT PROGRESS. — THE BACKWARD-LOOKERS. — THE HACIEN-
DADOS AND THE RAILROADS. — FUTURE REVOLUTIONS IMPOSSI-
BLE. — VALUE OF CROPS NOW GROWN IN MEXICO 255
MEXICANS AS REPUBLIC MAKERS.
LOOKING NORTH FOR AN EXAMPLE. — A LIBERAL CONSTITUTION. — •
VOTERS AND VOTING. — PEACE AND ORDER FOLLOW TURBLILENCE.
— WHAT SORT OF MAN IS DIAZ? — AN IMPORTANT REVOLU-
TION. — NO LONGER A PARIAH AMONG THE NATIONS 261
PANAMA.
HEAT. — YELLOW FEVER. — SCORPIONS. — TARANTULAS. — RAIN. — THE
devil's PARADISE. — SIR HENRY MORGAN. — ■ THE DARIEN
SCHEME. — CHAGRES FEVER. — THE BERI-BERT. — THE PARIS
SWINDLE. — BRIBERY. — DEATH. — ANOTHER ACT OF THE
TRAGEDY. — SCAVENGERS. — A FOOT OF RAIN A DAY. — ROOSE-
VELT's way. — THE TREATY. — THE BULLYING AND PLUNDER
OF COLOMBIA 268
THE SECRET OF PERENNIAL YOUTH 295
SOME RECENT POEMS 321
ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE.
•J Our Yacht at Low Tide ; Frontispiece
■J Under Brooklyn Bridge ^
J Unloading a Lobster Pot 14
■i At Nantucket ig
' The Fisihing Fleet 26
4 Baiting a Trawl 30
i An Hour's Catch With Hook .' 46
, Codtish Drying 70
■J Quebec, from the South Bank 74
\1 Montreal 80
[ Lilies — Bermutdia 98
,_ A Bit of Surf 117
-1 Morro Castle 122
' " Bietf Not Fool Wid Dat Fella ! " 152
. Organ Cactus t6o
A Tolerable Load 172
?^laking Bread 172
Grinding Corn in iMexico 172
:\lilking the Maguey i8o-
Tlie " Floating Gardens " 186
Going to Market 186
! The Mexican Restaurant 240
, Funeral Caravan 24S
: Flower Girl 248
" Charcoal ! " 248
FOLKS NEXT DOOR.
FOLKS TOWARDS SUNRISE.
A Ex4MBLE x\LONG XEW ENGLAND'S COAST.
iC
A YACHT CRUISE IX JULY. SHALL WE HAVE TO BILE
UP ? " — OX GARFIELD'S PLEASURE STEAMER — THROUGII
HELL-GATE. — AT THE PIANO. — TURNING IN.
" You'd better change your mind and conic witli us."
That's what my friend, the Commodore of the yacht
Falcon, said to me. I liad reluctantly expressed great re-
gret at not being al)le to accept his invitation to take a
cruise through July and August with him on his pleasure
yacht — with him and a family party. It seemed to me not
easy to get completely away from business so long.
" You'd better come."' he insisted : " in a week it'll be
hot enough here to roast chestnuts on the pavement or
fry eggs in your hat. Come up to the Maritime Provinces
and cool off. What sort of a personal decoration do you
call that ? " and he laid a familiar finger on my collar that
had melted and was running down o\cr my wilted necktie.
I asked how far he was going. "To Maine." he said.
" touching at all interesting points on the way — may 1)6
farther yet. to Xova Scotia and the St. Lawrence and
Saguenay to Quebec."
^ 1 ' 1
FOLKS NEXT DOOR
The invitation took my fancy strongly. I may never
have such a chance again, I said to myself. And the hos-
pitable Commodore, seated at his desk, whistled '' The sea I
the sea I the open sea ! " His coat was off, and he turned
toward the window and looked down the bay — a far-off,
penetrating look, as if he were gazing a hundred miles.
Then he rose and walked to the thermometer hanging in
the shade of the cashier's desk, and said : " H — m ! 95 deg.
right here in the office ! Isn't this an oven to get out of? "
I acquiesced, and went home to think it over. The scheme
was fascinating. A yacht cruise is always delightful,
and olf the coast of upper Xew England and in the Gulf
of St. Lawrence, niust be a glorious luxury. I lay awake
half the night thinking al)out it. and then telegraphed
111" 111 : " Count me in. I will be on hand on the 3d."
The preparations were simple. If we were to go on a
sailing vessel, we should need to provide against rough
weather — tarpaulin hat, india-rubber boots, oil overalls
and a potato sack full of very old clothes, in which we
could appear on deck as marine tatterdemalions. And
then, too, not knowing exactly how often we should touch
land, we should have to take provisions for a voyage — salt
pol'k and hardtack, canned goods and a medicine chest.
But we were not going on such a craft by a good deal; we
were going on a steam yaclit. i)roliably the UK^st com-
modious and luxurious vessel in tlu^ Xew York yacht club.
The (V)innio(lore had wi'itten to me in reply to questions:
■■ Wo shall ]\-<\\v no itiut'rary of the cruise, shall be
bound by no linic-lable. We have all the time there is and
all the space we nocil, and shall go whi'i'c and wlirn we
please. Tl)ere will be onl\' one ebjeet bi ibe trip — 1o suit
oursebcs and liaxc a good time. As I'or elotbes. eoine as
voii ai'e. iiring an e\ti'a suit if you wi^b, an ovt'rcoat any-
how, and a elaw-bannner eoat i I' yon want to go to hojis
along shore. Xothing else but your tootli-Iuaish. and a
razor if you wanl one. for there's no barber aboard."
To my (pu'stion "^^ shall we have l(^ liile u]) eveiw day?"
ALOXG XEW ENGLAND'S COAST.
he merely answered with dignity, that meals would he
furnished on board. He misunderstood my simple query,
which was to ask in the vernacular of the woods, if there
was a diurnal necessity for assuming the laundried article
of apparel known as the white shirt with its starched ac-
cessories. I took my chances and carried some.
On the eve of July 3 I went down and crossed Wall
street ferry to Brooklyn, encumbered only with a hand-bag,
for my hamper of clothes had gone the night before. The
Falcon was already at her moorings at the end of the large
])ier. down a narrow lane among piled molasses hogs-
heads. On the heights that overlook the river defile the
mansions of retired merchants, and from the rear windows
of the Commodore's house some ecstatic person, left behind,
was waving a flag of greeting to the yacht, which, gay with
flags and streamers, was puffing and eager to go. There
were ten of us in the party, including a professor of natural
history from Union College, who, I had heard, enjoyed
a personal acquaintance with most of the fish of the North
Atlantic.
The Falcon is a pretty sight straining her hawser at the
end of the pier, her nose up the river, and pensively puffing
as if in thought of getting away from the everlasting
racket of the morrow. She was built for President Garfield
in Washington, owned in part by him, and used by him
in trips down the Potomac when he sought to escape from
the clamor of office-seekers during the early weeks of his
administration. She is quite fit for a president or a king,
or the ample American sovereign who owns her and can
afford to own her. She is 110 feet long, 16 feet wide, and
draws 8 feet of water. Her parlor, dining-room, kitchen
and staterooms (five) are all above deck, and very high
and airy. The parlor and dining-room. aft. are finished
in hard woods, subjected to highest polish, and furnished
luxuriously in gold and crimson. These rooms are floored
with velvet carpets and the halls and staterooms with tes-
selated marble and tiles, warmed here and there by a rug.
FOLKS XEXT DOOR.
The round table under the chandelier draws itself out
three times a da_y and seats ten persons comfortably. In
the spaces below deck are the staterooms of the officers and
crew, the storerooms, and the boilers and machinery. Over
all is the hurricane deck, stretching almost from prow to
stern, and covered with ample awnings. This is obviously
the loafing-place, and the canvas lounges and long steamer-
chairs grotesquely drawing up their knees grasshopper like,
and drowsily straightening out their backs in the attitude
of rest, are wonderfully suggestive of afternoon repose
and siestas to come. It seems as if one really could stand
a month of it.
At last all the members of the party, having filed
through Molasses Alley, are present and aboard ; boxes and
hampers are piled up here and there ready to be unpacked ;
the lines are cast oif, and the Falcon, with a dozen turns
of the screw, moves away from the pier, Avhen one of the
crew wheels around the brass cannon on the l)ow and the
commodore fires a thundering salute — a noisy P. P. C. to
the hot city left behind. We swarm upon the upper deck
as the Falcon steams under the big bridge, rounds Cor-
ker's Hook, and, in the wake of a Fall River steamer,
stretches her neck toward Blackwell's Island with its acres
of grated windows. It is an animated scene. Ferry-boats
dash to and fro across the river. A sloop tacks lazily in
our path, a man in l)rickdust garments leaning on the
helm. A tow of l)arges comes down from the Sound
freighted witli I know not what, Imt urged onward by a
midget of a tug tliat wheezes and ])uslies and makes its
wa}'', like those Brazilian anls that carry burdens a hun-
dred times their size. We loolc up but can sih^ scarcely any-
iliing on Ibe gigantic suspension bi'iilgei pt'(lestrians. car-
riages, trucks and slreet cars are there, but they are hid-
den within its elaborate mesh of girders and cables, so
closely woven about tbat the roofs far beneath them arc
scarcely visible from their windows.
The shadows deepen behind us, after we pass through
ALOXCI NEW ENGLAXD'S COAST. 5
Hell Gate. Above the setting sun the sk_y turns to amber;
amid the greenness arise the phantom towers of Ward's
Island; behind, the river vanishes in the twilight, and
ahead of ns the horizon is wiped out and our little vessel
seems sailing up the s.kj. A melody floats from the cal)in ;
two of the ladies are already at the piano singing one of
the familiar but ever-delightful airs from " The Beggar's
Opera." So, in one of the most beautiful of midsummer
nights, we go out into the silence of the Sound, where,
after an hour or two, we make a quiet cove near Greenwich,
drop anchor, haul a lantern up the mast, and turn in.
Y^ou never go to bed at sea; you turn in. You do not get
up ; you turn out. And you soon come to say, with more or
less grace, fore and aft, Ijow and stern, starboard and
port. Perhaps, in time, we shall come to banish all ideas
depending on the clock market, and boldly ask how many
bells it is. To-night Ave sleep the sleep of the innocent and
the immaculate. No dust; no Hunter's Point smells; no
heat ; no mosquitoes ; no flies ; no sound but the rumljle of
the distant locomotive, the bells marking time each half
hour, and the soothing swish-swash of ripples breaking
against the guards.
FOLKS NEXT DOOR.
THE FIRST WEEK OUT.
XEAVPORT. SAIL AyO STEA:M yachts. THE DOCTOR. —
WHAT A CUXNEK LOOKS LIKE. QUEER BURDEX OK A
liOOK. THE devil's APRON. HOW A FLOUISTDER's EYES
TRAVEL. MARVELS OF THE SEA.
A WEEK passes away while we linger in the sheltered
coves of Long Island and creep around the breezy southern
shore of Xew England. Newport seems to me an ideal
watering place. It has every favorable feature which a
favorite summer resort can have. It is on an island
stretching its rough tongue into the sea, washed by all the
tides and blown over by all the winds of heaven ; it has
good Avater, a well-stocked market, and as fine surf bath-
ing as our coast afi:'ords. Its better part is embowered in
trees. Its hundred raml)ling cottages, amid green and
Avide-spreading laAvns. each Avearing a Joseph's variegated
coat and decked in holida}^ bravery of flags, hammocks
ajid tents, lend it uncommon picturesrjueness ; Avhile the
ocean, pitching its foam aloft from all the rocks along
the sul)url)an l^each, gives a sense of coolness and rest to
tlie most fatigued Avanderer.
Tliere Avere ten or a dozen handsome sailing yachts in
the harbor of Newport. These winged A-ehicles are lovely
to look upon Avhen under full sail,- but they. are almost
alAvays becalmed and impatiently Avaiting for Avind to blow
them somcAAdiere. The owner of a sailing yacht never
knoAvs AAdiere he can go or hoAv long he Avill stay in a par-
ticular harbor ; but Avith our Commodore, inclination is
decision and decision execution. " If it doesn't storm too
THE FIRST WEEK OUT.
hard we will go fishing to-morrow," he said, Friday even-
ing. " We can get cod or haddock, shark or swordfish off
Block Island."
It did not storm, and we started early. The doctor was
radiant. Fie had brought an elaborate supply of private
fishing tackle, and had been all this time waiting for what
he called " a good chance at 'em." He had been quite
industrious, and had already caught some scores of porgies
oft' the stern of the Falcon while coming down Long Island
Sound, and he had even captured a little cunner while we
lay at anchor, but this did not satisfy his ambitious soul.
When we had actually steamed up and started out after
larger fish, even the red shirt he wore, which was amelior-
ated with latticed laces and tassel decorations on account
of the ladies, seemed to turn a more joyous red. He set his
white canvas cap on one sifle of his head, whistled a lively
tune, and went to the bathroom and gave his shoes an
extra shine, as if he were about to be ushered into superior
society.
Even the ladies caught some of his enthusiasm prepara-
tory to catching fish. They fiew to the locker on the upper
deck, supplied themselves with great reels of lines with
hooks attached, descended to the l)ow, where tliere was a
pail of fresh dams for bait, aud eacb took a clam and f(>ar-
lessly stuck the iron barb sli'aiglit thi'ougli that himiMe
insect and flung the hooks and sinker in the st'a. " Fm
not a bit afraid of clams," said the srhool mistress. " for
they don't squirm. I've got a uilibU'I Fve gut a bite!
I've got him! " she excbiimcd. Fudev the (.-aiitain's guid-
ance she gave a sudden twilt-li t<i tbe line, thru drew it
rapidly in, liand over han(L Tbei'e was a Hop as the bur-
den reached the surfacr. and hioking over ihc rail we saw
a small section of rainhow hisldng the water with its tail.
Il was oidv a cimni'i': hut cunniM's ai'e \ arioii,-l\' colored,
and the brighles) specimens are \ci'\- lieanlil'nl.
Ilis caplor di'ew him on tit'ck : ami. as he in(bdge(l in a
little shudder when she tried to unhook him. one of the
FOLKS NEXT DOCK.
sailors, unemployed at tlic liuir, rushed to her assistance.
The fish Avas a handsome fellow, some ten inches long, of
a dark orange hue, with head and gills of chocolate color,
spotted with light blue. The fins were of a delicate light
l)lue, and the back fin was armed with eighteen s})ines as
sharp as needles, which he erected savagely or in alarm as
he was thrown into a ])ail. Some of the cunners lately
caught were of a dark l)rown. with transverse bars of yel-
low and blue; and one now and then was iridescent and
changealjle, taking on new ])ink and purple hues as he was
turned in a new light. The eye of the cunner looks exactly
like a variety of Mexican opal that is much prized. He is
found all along the coast of the Xorth Atlantic. He is
hardy and has an excellent appetite, and he multiplies and
inherits the sea. Off Delaware he .still bears the Indian
l)aptismal name of " chogset." Hi Xew York he retains
the Dutch cognomen of " Ijergall." In Connecticut he is
called a " nipi)er."' In Boston he is known as a "• l)lue
perch '" — and that is pretty nearly what he is. At Ply-
mouth cunners are caught by the bushel in scoo]>nets, and
dressed by stripping off the skin entirr^ly. They are good
pan fish, quite solid and savory.
" I've got one," said one of the ladies, '" but he doesn't
twitch any." She solemnly pulled him up. ""He" was
an enormous weed — brown, tough of fiber, Avith a small
stem supporting a leaf ten inches lu'oad, four feet long and
a quarter of an inch thick'. It was unyielding as india-
rublx'r and aljout the shape of an oar l)lade, excepting that
the edge was crimped and wa\y. The doctor removed it
carefully from the tangle of h.ook and sinker, and said he
wanted to "save it." (Save it! At this rate the Falcon
will be loaded down to her fender with saline tropliies 1)e-
fore we get to Nova Scotia.)
"This," he explained with a learned air, "'is the Ln mili-
aria saccharina, or ' Devil's apron.' It is commonly called
oarweed. It can't eat, but it su])ports itself in this way,"
he added facetiously, pointing to the base of the stalk.
THE FIEST \VP]EK OUT.
There was a claw of roots that grasped a cobblestone aljout
as big as an egg, and held it immovable as in a vise.
" This is the anchor that holds it at the bottom," said
the doctor. '" And here is something else. Held to the
stone by the clasp of the smaller wel) of rootlets, is a lim-
pet." He pulled off a bit of root, and gently removed it.
It was an ordinary shellfish, with a low convex house on its
liack, and its broad, white foot set firmly on the stone. It
Avas brown, with Idiie trimmings. There was still some-
thing else. A liit of pinkish jelly, al)out as large as a
dollar, lay immovalde on the india-rii1)])er paddle. I
scraped it off into a bucket of salt water near hy. and it
immediately assumed its natural attitude, lying in the
water, disc-like, inclined about forty-five degrees to the sur-
face, ujid languidly pushing itself ahead by jerks. It was
a young specimen of the medusa, of which we had seen
hundreds in the harbor of Newport ; and as this singular
marine inhal)itant generally reuiains near the surface, it
is probable that it adhered to the great weed as it was
twitched past him on tlie hook. This sjx'cimen was of
cream color, aud as he became accustouied to the bucket,
and rct-overcd t-onfideuce. be Ix'gan (|uietly to trail his pink
filanicuts and tentacles bcliind liim in a iiluiy V(m1. aud to
o])en ]iosi)itably tliat one yawning m-ifice in tlie center
Avliicli I l)elieve serves liim as mouth, eyes. ears, nose and
sloinneb.
One of the sailors di'ew in liis line and Hung on deck a
liveh- (ish decked in sombre gi'ey. willi sliglit splaslies of
color. "A sliad I "" exclaimed one of llie lailies.
''No.'" said lite doctor. '• bnt il is his doppelganger.
Does anybody know what it is?"
" It is a ralhacl<."" said tlie skiiipei".
" \o| exaclly: Ihat's a |iilchei'."" piii in llie ('<Mnniodore.
"called an alewil'e in New ^'(n'k.""
" I always hear il called a hard-head shad, luil it ain't
good to eat," spoke n|i his captor.
" Ain'l u'ood to eat?" aske(l anotlier sailor: "of course
10 FOLKS NEXT l^OOR.
it's g'ood to eat. It"t> a pookagen; and scores of vessels with
cargoes of pookagen sail from Boston and Portland for
Europe every fall."
" It looks like a shad," said the captain, "■ but it isn't.
I've always heard it called a scad. It's a nuisance and tlie
plentiest fish there is on the Xew England coast."
Another sailor ventured his opinion that it was a ''horse
mackerel. In the West Indies,'' he added, " I know it is
called a saviga."
'• I think I can settle this discussion," interrupted the
scribe. " That is a menhaden in Boston, a pogy in I^ew
Bedford, a moss-bunker in Maine, and a whitefish in Con-
necticut. I have caught seven cartloads of them in one
luiul, in Connecticut, on the shore of my native town of
Orange."
" Seven cartloads ! Give him the blue rib))on ! " ex-
claimed the Commodore.
" Wait a minute,'' said the Doctor, with an air of au-
thority. '■ I have elected myself umpire to decide all fish
controversies. You will be surprised to know that all of
you are right in your guesses at this fish's identity. It is
actually known in different parts of the coast l.)y all the
names you have given it. As to quantity, it is no very
uncommon thing to catch ten thousand at a single haul of
the seine. Farmers within ten miles of Long Island Sound
cart them home in great quantities for manure. In New
Bedford they are pressed for oil, and in Boston they are
canned for the French market. They are a chief food
for the hungry fish along this coast. Doctor Brown Goode
estimates that the number of menhaden annually destroved
on the Xew England shore by predaceous fish is 'a million
million of millions.' Ten million menhaden, or whatever
they are locally called, have been caught in one season by
one Xew London firm."
It did not take us as long to examine these creatures as
it has taken me to describe them ; Init we are on a six
weeks' cruise, and the inland reader mav as well know.
THE FJK8T WEEK OUT. 11
once for all, how those specimens of marine life look which
we shall prohably meet with often. We had now caught a
pailful of cunners, three menhaden, and seven fine black-
fish. We drew in also a handsome flounder. And, b}' the
way, we have been out long enough now to know that there
is just as much difference between fish of the same species,
as between human beings. Occasionall}^ indeed, an old
fisherman will haul up a queer fish and acknowledge that
he doesn't know what it is — it is a mongrel — a cross of
different species. Take this flounder, for instance. It
Avas obviously a flounder, for it was a flat fisli, some ten
inches long by five broad, mahogany color on one side and
wliite on the other, and both of his eyes were on the brown
or upper side, somewliat askew, and looking very groggy,
indeed. But his brown side was speckled with light spots
of an uncertain color, giving him the appearance of having
a bad attack of measles.
" This flounder, by the way," said the doctor, '• is a cur-
ious example of evolution — of organic change following
the change of environment. Originally — a thousand or a
million years ago — it moved n])right ilirough Ibe water.
its broadest dimension being up and down, and its eyes
on each side. But it was so thin tliat it maintained that
position with dilficulty, being much inclined to topple
over to rest. It did topple ovei' to rest, more and ]nore
frequently, and the eye that was on thi' under side strained
itself to look u]). The side that was on tlie top tlie most
Ijegan to be tanned by (he sun. and the lowci' eye kept
])ulling its socket toward the back of the head to look u|)
'around the corner," till, in process of timi'. it actually
passed thrcnigh the soft bones of the head and botli eyes ap-
peared on one sid(> of the bodv — not in the niiildle of the
side, but toward tlic uppei' edge. 'I'hc (rmlcnt-y of the left
eye to work over to the right side strengthened t-cmstantly,
and the o)itical migration became constantly easier, but
(be strange ])rocess is still gone through with by earh suc-
ceeding genei'ation. When the vounu' llounder is batched
12 FOLKS NEXT DOOR.
his eyes are on opposite sides of the head, and his mouth
is a narrow and deep slit across below the e^^es, and his
two sides are white. Soon after learning to swim he begins
to lose his balance, his upper side begins to turn brown,
his left eye starts on its queer pilgrimage, and even the
mouth, finding a vertical movement of the Jaw inconven-
ient, begins to twist awkwardly and set itself slantwise.
The uncanny result is a fish that has complicated strabis-
mus both in his eyes and mouth — the result of his obe-
dience to Edward Everett Hale's aml^itious motto, ' Look
up and not down.' " The doctor ex]3lained all of this to us
as we stood around him on the forward deck. The old
skipper shook his head, and evidently didn't believe the
yarn ; but I find that it is confirmed by books on marine
life.
" He has a funny Ijatin name — this species of fiounder
has," said the doctor, throwing the specimen into a pail.
" Perhajjs he himself doesn't know that he has such a ma-
jestic name as Platysomatichihys hippoglossoides."
'^ Doc — I'll bet that's what you began your interesting
lecture for," said one of the boys, " so that you could par-
atyze us with his full name."
" Let's hear you pronounce it," said the Doctor.
" I pronounce it quite unnecessary," replied the viva-
cious youth.
When we had counted our game, and handed over to
the cook four of the tautog, or blackfish, for dinner, the
party mostly redistributed themselves — some going to the
piano and some to the lounging chairs on the upper deck to
resume the novels which the fishing had interrupted.
PLSinXG FOR COD. 13
FISHIXG FOE COD.
AND FINDING GREAVSOME THINGS.— DO FISH FLY A FLAG? —
A SALINE JAIL-DELIVERY.^ — SETTING THE BUNTING IN
THE MORNING. READING THE SIGNALS. — BILLY CLARK
AND HIS NANTUCKET.
I AVENT with the ladies in one of the gigs, and we spent
the afternoon trying to get some codfish. We were in the
track of codfisli; hut the Avind Avas hloAving fresli and the
sea Avas A'ery lumpy. No land was in sight except the
broAvn cliff of Block Island, lifting suddenly aboA^e the
Avhite caps five miles to the Avest. The second gig A\'as
swung doAvn from the davits and manned by four sailors,
Avho brought it alongside of the gangway, Avhere it danced
five or six feet up and down like a cork. The ladies had
a time of it getting in, but after combined patience, skill
and dexterity they were seated, the orders Avere quickly
obeyed : " Push off ! " " Toss !'' " Give way ! " and the
Falcon Avas left l)ehind. AVe threw out the cod hooks, but
got no bites for half an liour. In the meantime the fog
had shut close down.
jSTo land was visible anywhere, and even the pretty Fal-
con drifted, a mere spectral yacht, ahuost out of sight.
No codfish. T Avas in favor of returning, but the ladies
protested that avo must have something to take back Avith
us.
Just then my eye caught siglit of a flag, about as big as
my hat, floating above tlie Avaves, at a distance of four or
five boat-lcngtlis away. An Anuu'ican flag — and it Avas,
apparently, being Avaved by somebody, perhaps a mermaid
— for it stood u])right. It Avas several days after the
U FOLKS NEXT DOOJi.
Fourth ; wh}' should the silent sea be greeted l^y this gol)lin
emblem of patriotism? One of the ladies shuddered, and
suggested that it must be on the top of the mast of a vessel
that had sunk — " perhaps Capt. Kidd's,'' she said, and we
lauglied. We rowed to the flag. It was fastened to an
empty keg, and thus floated and kept vertical.
The men could not unravel the mystery, for they had
shipped at New York and were unacquainted with these
waters. I thought that perhaps here was a case of treas-
ure trove, or flotsam and jetsam, or something of that sort,
and to settle the question we pulled the keg on board the
boat and found that something was anchored to it by a
line below. The ladies agreed that if it was a million
dollars we would instantly divide it, and go and live honest
and luxurious lives in Newport for the remainder of our
days. It did not occur to me till afterward that the sailors
who had rowed us might not approve of being left out in
the cold. We got hold of the line and tugged at it. Ha ! —
it yielded. But it was heavy. It might be gold. It oc-
curred to me that nobody knows where the money of
Captain Kidd, Oom Paul Kruger and the Orleans family
is hidden. We hauled it slowly up, fathom after fathom,
and peered down into the inky depths to see if we could see
anything.
Beneath old ocean's sunless deep.
Where whales disport and dolphins sleep,
And ghostly wrecks their vigils keep,
What was it we had got ?
It seemed tlie burden of my sin ;
But as I sadly hauled it in
It proved — a lobster pot !
That's what it was. A wooden box rudely nailed to-
gether, with a tunnel in either end, enabling these " spiders
of the sea " to get in, and preventing their escape. There
were six lobsters in the box. We opened it at the sides,
carefully lifted them out and transferred them to our
boat. For Ave reasoned that thev were badlv crowded, and
FISHING FOR COD. 15
if we kindl}' took them out, more could get in. Then we
wanted lobster. Above all, it was fogg}-, and nobody could
see us. The dear, delightful days of my boyhood came
thronging back upon my memory, and I am not ashamed
to admit that tears gathered in my eyes as I felt once more
the thrill of pleasure I experienced when I obtained water-
melons from a neighbors patch. We now conscientiously
examined the box, and found nine other ropes clinging to
it. We pulled them all up, and spent an hour inspecting
the nine suspended lobster-pots. They were shamefully
neglected, and contained no less than sixty-eight captive
lobsters of all sizes. We did not take them all. The so-
ciety for the prevention of cruelty to animals, of which I
am an earnest member, required that we should release the
poor insects and give them the unrestrained freedom of
our boats ; but we assumed that the proprietor of the traps
would ultimately think of his moral responsibility. Be-
sides twenty or thirty were as many as all of the Falcon's
passengers and crew could eat. We set the traps again and
rowed back, catching four fine cod on the way with a good
bait of menhaden — an otherwise worthless fish, step-
brother to the shad, and known by a multitude of
names. We agreed to tell our companions on the Falcon
that the lobsters had climbed into the boat while we were
fishing. Just as we were regaining the deck of the yacht
the hat of one of the ladies blew off into the water, falling
a distance of twenty feet away. The sailors were just back-
ing the boat around to get it when a shark came out of
the water and seized it, and straw, rose and blue ribbons
vanished in a twinkling. It was so surprising and absurd
as to cause a general roar of laughter, as the baffled sailors
struck savagely at the spot with their oars.
" Sharks," said the skipper, " will try to eat anything
they can get in their mouths. I have saw them take in
glass bottles and oyster cans and chew 'em up. The shark
is the goat of the sea. I remember down in the Gulf of
Mexico they once catched a swelled-up sliark, and, open-
16 FOLKS XEXT BOOK.
ing him, found two suits of clothes that the sailors had
trailed l^ehind the ship to wash 'em. The shark is not
such a game fish as he is said to he hy a heajj. But we
will go for some shark with a harpoon in a day or two."
This skipper served as first mate. He was long, limher
and lean, and his leathery face was wrinkled as if it had
been carved from an old piece of black walnut. His life
was spent between the codfishery and the lumlier regions
of Maine and his talk was weather-beaten.
" That reminds me/' said the doctor, " of what I saw
last year in the United Service Museum in London. In
that queer corner of old AVhitehall, among the souvenirs
and curiosities is a great bundle of manuscripts looking
like a hornet's nest. A slaver running from a pursuer,
had flung the tell-tale parcel overboard on the African
coast ; it was found again the same year in a shark cap-
tured off Jamaica, carried to England, inspected, taken
to court and used as evidence, resulting in the conviction
of the slave-trader."
A listening sailor uttered an iml)ecile grunt of in-
credulity, and was reproved by the skipper who added. " It
might easily happened. Such things doos."'
"What an incident for a detective novel!" exclaimed
the schoolmistress.
" Ef you come by them lol)sters onlawfully." added the
skipper, " it may go tough with us wen we git ashore — ef
anybody tells."
We assured him that the l)easts. to escape drowning, took
the boat l)y storm.
" We knowed *em to do tliat.'' said the skipper, (h'uiurely.
"Lucky they was content to merely board you. Lobsters
is savage fighters, and they sometimes seize small craft,
in resentfulness. They'll bite a oar right in two.""
We were all up on deck next morning before the crew
set the three flags which the Falcon carries flying all day
— the iionnant of i]\c Anu'vicau club on the foremast (a
white maltose cross on 1)1 ue triauo-ular field with red bor-
FISHING FOPt COD.
cler.) the private signal " F " in a rod circle on the main
truclc, and from the ftagstatl: astern tlie national yacht en-
sign. Besides this bright trio, which are flung out at S
o'clock, there are other significant flags for special service.
A white flag is set in the main crosstrees when we are at
dinner in port, so that visitors will kindl}^ keep away at
that solemn time. A blue flag in the same ^Dlace indicates
that the Commodore is absent from the yacht. A meal
pennant is set at the port fore-crosstrees to show when the
sailing master or captain is at dinner. The stars and
stripes, union down, is a flag of distress. It may mean
sprung a leak, lost rudder, out of coal, water or food — al-
most anything of that sort — and a favorable response is
not compulsory on any vessel. It is a mere matter of cour-
tesy. To call a pilot, the union jack and blue flag are set
together on the fore-topmast. To " speak (to) a vessel,"
an ensign is set in the rigging. Vessels often speak each
other to get the news, to send word ashore, to get reckon-
ing, etc. Besides these there is a code of nineteen flags,
each about three feet square. All of these are conspicu-
ously different, and each means a word or sentence — an in-
terrogation or answer. Vessels often set them in their
rigging to make inquiries or to exchange salutations. A
formal salute is given by three toots upon the whistle.
These nineteen flags are also employed in holiday demon-
strations, and when the skipper ranges them from the top-
mast down the halyards, the effect is very pretty indeed.
Of course we paused at jN'antucket. Everybody does.
ISTantucket is in the sere and yellow leaf. Fifty years ago
she was young, blooming and buxom — wedded to the sea,
like Venice. Her whale ships were on every ocean. She
had 200 of them out. She quite looked down on Boston,
but took a patronizing interest in New York. Her mer-
chants were opulent; her girls received grand offers from
" the continent." Suddenly a prospector's harpoon struck
oil in Pennsylvania, and Nantucket's sea-spouse deserted
and left her a widow. The whale ships came home to rot.
18 FOLKS NEXT BOOK.
Her population dwindled away. How the survivors lived
nobody knew. They lived partly on wrecks of ships that
were cast away on their barren and inhospitable beach.
There was a wreck every month before the lighthouses
were built. Then the town crier went raging through the
streets with a bell and a toothorn, joyously proclaiming
more good luck, and the citizens rallied and went for the
wrecked ship, and dragged it, bit by bit, ashore, and car-
ried it oti in triumph to their homes. They also sometimes
saved the passengers and crew, incidentally. I don't know
whether the yarn is true that our skipper tells, that the citi-
zens used to hold a prayer-meeting for thanksgiving when-
ever a strange ship was cast ashore with grub aboard, and
that they prayed " Give us this day our daily wreck," but it
is certain that flotsam and jetsam Avas a welcome support to
the good island for years. At last the government inter-
fered with this pet industry l)y building lighthouses, and
was l)itterly regarded as an enemy to the prosperity of jSTan-
tucket.
Summer boarders were the next recourse, and now they
are the chief nourishment. So the island, whose popula-
tion had sunk from 15, (XH) to l.oOO. is once more slowly
gaining. It is growing in favor. 1 don't know why on
cartli it should, I'ov it is a dcsolaU' place. Any cemetery
around New York is lixclicr and more t'licerful. There is
oidy one amnsenicnt in Xantnckct — only one excitement —
Ihat is the ai'ri\al of the daily boat. It is a thrilling event.
I)illy Clai-k. Ibc town crier, used to watch from the tall
rnilai'ian cbnrcb ( Xantnckct is drcadtully nngodlw l)y th(^
wav — liair the people are I'nitarians ) , and when he spied
the lall column of smoke westwai'd he wound his lisli-horn
in a slentoi'ian toot, rushed madly up the sti'eet and rang
his hell and sci'camed that the boat was in! The veteran
whalei's would then enthusiastically stai'l. the \illage resi-
dents go on a I'lin, the mei'ehants lock u]i iheii' stmvs and
hui'riedlv seek the whaid'. and the summer-hoarders, hat-
less and pei'spiring, come hounding down over the grass
FISHING FOE COD. 19
that grows rank between the cobble-stones, to participate
in the onl}^ soul-stirring event of the day. As the local
paper says, " From the deck of the l)oat the scene was
animated and inspiring beyond description."
20 FOLKS NEXT DOOR.
AEOUND CAPE COD.
AVAITING FOR BREAKFAST. A ^^IISERABLE AND DESPERATE
COW. THE BEAUTIES OF THE SQUID. SEA-ROBINS AND
HOW TPIEY SING. MARBLEHEAD. — BURIED TO STAY PUT.
TiiE Falcon left Nantucket before we were up in the
morning and steamed away for Provincetown, around the
hooked end of Cape Cod. The weather was so lovely that
we were all np early, before the sailors had finished their
morning's job of swalil)ing the deck and polishing the brass
taffrail that runs around it. They had done the earlier
work of washing the whole of the sides of the yacht and
rubl)ing with chamois-skin all the windows. We were
speeding too fast to fish, though the sea was smooth as
glass, so we lay off in our steamer-chairs and wasted time
in mere listless enjoyment. Our consciences have now be-
come so callous that we can do this sort of thing every day
for hours at a time without feeling at all guilty. It is
possible that some of us remarked upon the beautiful morn-
ing, but it is certain that every one said to every other one,
" I am hungry!" This salt air is a tremendous thing for
the appetite, especially when you can smell the savory in-
cense of fresh cod creep up the companion-way from the
kitchen — or, as I ought to say, from the galley.
Presently we all sprang to onr feet as the bells rang 8
o'clock— breakfast time. At the same moment the captain,
at the pilot house, gave the M'ord for the three flags to be
simultaneously set for the day — an interesting ceremony
that always takes place at 8 o'clock each morning and the
flags are lowered at sundown. As the signal was i^assed,
a sailor at the foot of each of the two masts and one at
AEOUND CAPE COD. 21
the stern responded. Over the stern was unfurled tlie
American flag, with an anchor crossing the field of stars —
the general yachting flag.
As we neared the end of the peninsula we ran the Falcon
toward shore, where, halting, we threw over our lines to
tempt some of the fish after which the sandy cape is
named. The cod loves rather deep water, and he generally
keeps close to the bottom. We fished with stout hooks
weighted with lead, baited with clams or large winkles,
and attached to cords some two or three hundred feet long.
Even with Hwe lines out we had only moderate luck, and
we shortly pulled them up and steamed away around the
cape. An adult cod is a foot and a half or two feet long,
of a handsome brown-green tint, and a bar of silver run-
ning down' each side like a chalk mark. And he is not the
same shape as he is when western people lift him from a
barrel.
Cape Cod stretches around Massachusetts bay like a
cat's paw, and Provincetown lies snugly in its claw — an
ideal harbor, ])eautifully land-locked. One of the boys
went ashore in the gig and got our letters and the day's
papers, and we anchored for the night. Provincetown is
a row of ancient houses on the beach at the jumping-otf
place. Here the Pilgrims landed first, but they climbed on
their schooners again as soon as possible, exclaiming:
'' Holy Calvin ! If that's the only spot there is, we had
better stay adrift forever!" Then they floated over to
Plymouth, stuck up an oar in the sand, and cried in devout
rapture, "Let us establish religious liberty wlicre all shall
be free to worship God just exactly as tliey please, accord-
ing to the creed of Congregationalism ! "" Aud it was done.
Shrewd and buxom old martyrs those Puritaus wri'c; and,
verily, they talked tui'key to themselves every tiuie.
This harbor is secure and spacious enough to shelter a
thousand line-of-1)attle ships.
We went ashore in the gig to search for souu^ fresh
milk. " Hain't uot none." said a vilhmcr ; ^ tlier hain't but
FOLKS NEXT DOOR.
just one cow in town, and she don't git nothin' to eat but
fish, poor critter ! " So we liad to put up with the canned
article. We compensated ourselves, however, by buying
lobsters of a fisherman for three cents apiece. We caught
several flounders (''flat fish") in the harbor, which were
very tender and sweet ; also some pollock. Fishermen de-
spise the pollock as " not fit to eat ; " but taken fresh, it
makes a good breakfast. It is a comely and graceful fish.
Running down its green sides is a strongly defined line of
silver, somewhat like the cod. It sometimes grows the size
of twenty or thirty pounds, but those we caught were not
one-tenth as large. It is plenty off' the coast of England,
where the fishermen call it the cythe, the doctor says. By
the way, the doctor is the fountain of most of our technical
information. He says the pollock spawns in winter, and
that young pollock may be rapidly taken in the spring
with an artificial fly — especially with the scarlet ibis.
Around Provincetown a favorite bait is the squid, an
inferior first-cousin to the octopus or devil-fish, with which
Victor Hugo's hero, Clubin, had a life-and-death struggle.
The squid looks like a pocket-flask, with eight arms com-
ing out of the neck of it, and two immense protuberant
eyes, that look at you as if they had marked you for their
own. Every squid is both father and mother; and he, she
or it lays forty thousand eggs at once, leaves them afloat,
and then wanders off to find some other paying job. Like
the large cuttle-fish, the squid carries a nice little bottle
of black indelible ink concealed in his stomach, and when
an unsophisticated cabin boy ran to release one that had
clasped a fish line and come up on it, it delivered the whole
charge into his face with the precision of a skunk. He
looked surprised; probably he thought, like Tom Hood,
that it was a " new-fangled fire engine."
The books on octopods allege that " the squid is not
eaten in this country," but the captain of the Falcon tells
me he has often eaten it ; and, he adds, " The flesh is white,
something like tripe, and sweeter and tenderer than any
AROUND CAPE COD.
fish I ever saw." I remember reading somewhere Iiow
much the Eussicins eat squids during the long fasts of the
Greelc church, when both meat and fisli are forbidden, the
partalvers insisting that the squid is neither fish nor flesh.
In the morning, before the ladies Avere up, the doctor and
I tumbled out and went on deck and threw the lines, hop-
ing to stril^e something. He had a Ijite, gave a jerk, and
cautiously hauled in. A lut of rainbow flounced up on
the top of the water. "' Hang that sea-robin," he ex-
claimed. H was new to me, and he held it up for my
inspection. Another of those gaudy fishes, an eight-inch
fellow with a large head and disproportionately large
mouth, amber gills, pectoral fins ranging from brown to
red, white belly, and blue sides running up to the purple
on the back. He had a savage and pugnacious counte-
nance, and looked exactly as if he had just come out of a
battle and got the worst of it. He doesn't look as if he
would ever he tame enough for the table, so sailors and
fishermen always imprecate sea-robins and then throw
them overboard.
Our specimen, I have said, was principally mouth. He
may have been end man in some marine minstrel show.
For ho not only had the mouth, Imt could sing with it.
"Don't you hear liim sing?"" one of the sailors said.
Sure enough ! When he liad flopped a minute he uttered
a low sound, half-way between a monotonous moan and a
melodious grunt. And he kept it up, apparently not even
stop])ing to catch his l)roath. I can't say that it was much
like a rol)in's morning song. Init it was certainly a vocal
hum — ])ossibly musical eiuuigli to justil'v his naiiio. We
throw him into the harbor, and he vanished. 1 liope the
sturgeon and the haddock dragged the sutrercM' to their
seaweed h()S])ital and clu'ci'cil him \]\). i)ut they prdliably
ate him the minute he touched the water.
I ought to say that the singer was caught, not on a hook,
hut a jig, whicli the doctor had di'o]»|iiMl a-tern to catch
a squid. 'I'his jig was a scarlet snoon of (in, with a circle
24 FOLKS XEXT DOOR.
of twenty barbs around the lower end, and bait is never
used to increase its attractiveness. The sea robin had
swallowed it whole !
Back of Provincctown, just across the narrow ]3eninsula,
the Atlantic flings its breakers, with Ireland the nearest
land. I went ashore with the doctor and walked upon the
sand;, while he repeated the lines:
White clouds, whose shadows liaunt tlie deep,
Light mists, whose soft embraces keep
The sunsliine on the hills asleep,
O, Isles of calm ! — O, dark, still wood,
And stiller skies that overbrood
Your rest with deeper quietude.
Transfused through you, O. mountain friends !
With mine your solemn spirit blends,
And life no more hath separate ends.
I read each misty mountain sign.
I know the voice of wave and i)ine.
And I am yours and ye are mine.
Life's burdens fall, its discords cease,
I lapse into the glad release
Of Nature's own exceeding peace.
O, welcome calm of heart and mind !
As falls yon fir tree's loosened rind
To leave a tenderer growth beliind,
So fall the weary years away ;
A child again, my head I lay
Upon the lap of this sweet clay.
We steamed across Massachusetts bay in a few hours,
to old Marblehead, and the trip was nowise notable except
for the wonderful placidity of the sea and the beauty of
the sky, the cirrus clouds turning a lovely pink as the sun
crept down. Over the waters of senna-brown rose the dis-
tant spires of Boston as we turned nortli, the dome of the
illustrious state house showing bold upon its immortal hill,
and two gigantic towers over-topping all. I asked the cap-
tain about these two latter, and he said one was Bunker
Hill monument and the other was a soap factor}^ chimney,
he believed. One was taller than the other, and I asked
him eagerly if that wasn't Bunker Hill monument.
" No," he said, " if I remember correctly, that is the
soap factory."
AKOUND CAPP] COD. 25
On our wa}' across we sighted a school of mackerel, and
went back and chased them around the bay. Twice we
turned out in the gigs and jaaddled right in among them,
but they disappeared almost before we could cast a hook.
They swam, when in sight, directly on top of the water,
a thousand heads sticking out within a quarter of an acre,
and breaking the water into myriad dimples. When a
gig came where they were they sank ten or fifteen feet and
we seemed to be gliding over a floor inlaid with panels of
silver. In the evening, on getting into Marblehead, we
told an old fisherman about them.
" Oh. them isn't mack'rill," he said, " them's pogies — •
no good whatsomedever, 'cept to scare off their betters.
They're desaiving critters ! Pogies acts altogether differ-
ent from mackerel. Mackerel is quieter. Pogies cut ilp
a good many didoes. They jump and slap the ocean with
their tails like all possessed. You can hear 'em half a
mile. Mackerel are not so boisterous."
We went ashore at Marblehead, and while driving over
the rocks recalled to one another the story of Ireson, the
sea captain who was cruel to his men, and who was called
to account for it when he and they got home. You know
the old story with the vernaeularious refrain:
Old Flud Oirson, with his hord hoart,
Torred and futhered and corred in a coart,
By the women of Morblehead !
We drove up among the quaint slanting old buildings,
and wound among the rocks in a landau. I tbink there is
no place where the street is straight more tlian two rods.
The houses ai'c built on rocks; potatoes are jtainl'iillv and
pathetically growing in the crevices of rocks. Jn tbe cem-
etery we foTind an old gravestone dated KiSO — forty years
after the town was settled. The gi'aves are excavated in
the solid rock ; tlie sexton is ol)liged to resort ti'* binsting
powder wlicncNrr then' is a (l(>ath.
'■'^ What do you think of that way of burying? "" 1 asked
tbe di'ivci-.
20 FOLKS NEXT DOOR.
" Ef the resurrection idee is true," he said, " it's rough.
They'd ought to each on 'em be supplied with a hand drill
and one charge of blasting powder, at the very least ! "
When we had "done the town" we went over and ac-
cepted the hospitalities of the Eastern Yacht club on the
opposite bank and listened to the music, and rowed back
to the Falcon at 10 o'clock through a fleet of dories, and
a larger fleet of jellyfish, in whose magic phosphorescence
our gig left a luminous streak.
OFF TFIE COAST OF MAINE.
OFF TFIE COAST OF MAIXE.
TWO RIGHT AVIIALES. THEY ARE PLAYFUL AND COMPAN-
IONABLE. EFFECT OF MARINE FOOD. WHAT BECAME OF
THE GOOD RESOLUTIONS TO STUDY. HARVESTING A
TRAWL. QUEER DENIZENS OF THE DEEP.
Next morning the Commodore weighed anchor and
fired the cannon in salutation of the queer old town, and
steamed away toward Cape Ann and the coast of Maine.
He said if we kept outside of the Isles of Shoals, and
struck straight across the ojDen sea out of sight of land,
we should be likely to see swordfish, sharks, dogfish, black-
fish, and the other big fish — maybe whales. And so, verily,
we did. Xo shark or swordfish appeared " for certain,"
though we caught glimpses here and there at a distance of
sundry black fins above the water that might appertain
to either. The shark and swordfish sometimes lift their
noses out of water to see what is going on, the latter giving
liis sword an occasional toss into the air; but the grampus
is a bull-headed fellow, and he rushes along apparently
without observing anything. For an hour at midday we
chased a couple of grampuses around ; and then we overtook
two whales — right whales, the captain said they were —
and we steamed up very close to them, as soon as they had
seen us for a short time and become familiar with our
peaceful appearance. These last were objects of great in-
terest to us; and the Falcon was at one time directly be-
tween them, and within a few feet of the nearer one. We
could have tossed a biscuit on their backs. They were
nearly as long as the Falcon, and moved about it playfully
as if to satisfv a livelv curiosity. Findino; that we could
28 FOLKS NEXT BOOK.
do nothing with them, even if we were to throw a harpoon
at them, and reflecting that they might possihly damage
us, we at hist steamed away to Bar Harhor.
I like the sea the hest of anything in tliis interesting
world — except, perhaps, the land. There is a beauty in
marine life that I had never before discovered. All fish,
when first taken out of the water, are fascinating to an eye
tliat is fond of animation and brilliant coloring, and some
are so bright as to resemlde nothing but some strange
jewelry, overgrown and vitalized.
" We have et a good many fish," remarked the skipper
yesterday. " I begin to feel my eyes buggin" out and my
mouth bein' sot back furder into my countenance? Don't
you notice it? These fish-fed folks up here is said to re-
semble fish some. You jest notice 'em. Their wapper
jaws hev a underhung expression like the sad and melan-
choly mouth of the cod. I've not the least doubt that some
of these coasters hereabouts have sprouted fins on their
shoulder-blades. Ef you git a chance to peek when their
coats are off "
Our skipper is a solemn sort of personage, and he dec-
orates his conversation with wise remarks. He serves as
the captain's assistant on all occasions.
All pronounce these fish the best we have ever tasted.
It is astonishing how mucli l)etter a fisli. like other fruit,
is when it is first picked.
We are by no means lonesome^ on the P^ik-cui. We get
loads of fun out of mere cabin life. We can generally suc-
ceed in ]mlling through with anytliing tliat doesn't re-
(|iiire i)r()longed exertion — a song at tlie ])inno. a recita-
tion, a sliort reading, a waltz, a rublier at whist nv rrib-
bagc pcrliaps — but our grand ])urposes of study are all
collapsing. We brought a (Jcvnian graiiunar and four
French grannnars. and ]iot om^ bas been (^pcniMl yet. Cod
are more atti'acti\c than conjunctions, and hli iriJl ('.<i
liahen is not half so exciting as " I've got him." Then,
almost ever}' night we steam into a harbor somewhere, and
OFF THE COAST OF MAINE. 29
exchange calls of courtes}^ and curiosity with other pleas-
ure-craft, or receive groups of agreeable villagers who come
out to visit us, or run up to the sea-sicle hotel and join in
the lancers. We brought a ver}' library of books — mostly
novels, of course. The boys have visited the marvelous
cave with Monte Cristo, and are now eagerly on the track
of the Wandering Jew, and the ladies have done up the
latest fiction. We are even making a desperate effort to
read " The Wreck of the Grosvenor " aloud in the cabin
evenings. The lady who has been constituted secretary of
the party keeps a memorandum book always open for ref-
erence, in which she records all the good conundrums, iokes
or stories that anyl)ody tells. It is filling up. On the fly
leaf is this exj)lanation :
THIS BOOK.
Here the laughter-making lore is —
Jokes, cliarades, conundrums, stories,
Riddles, puzzles, puns and verses
Whatsoe'er the gloom disperse —
Buried in tliis ciioice collection,
Shall have joyous resurrection
When, oppressed with ennui, all can
Search the log-book of the Falcon.
And in the body of the book, among the other facetious
miscellanj^, selected and original, is this charade :
My first recalls the tale of Adam,
And of his acquiescent madam.
My second means to think — to know.
In prose it is infrequent, though.
My whole as lion bold in fight,
And as an arrow swift in flight.
My first, spelt backward, gives the sound
That most prevails when jokes abound.
My second, backward spelt, is like
The movement when a door you strike.
Now teli me what the whole may be,
And I will wander there with thee.
30 FOLKS NEXT DOOR.
Of course, the word was guessed during the first after-
noon by the whole party — " Falcon."
Every few days we go ashore and get a city dinner. At
Bar Harbor the waiter assumed that of course we wanted a
salt water repast, and he asked, " will you have hake,
bream, carp, scrod or cusk ? " We answered that we would,
and we tried them all.
After inspecting Mount Desert island, the Falcon
steamed out of Bar Harbor quite early in the morning,
before anybody had turned out of berth. By 7 we began
to crawl to the pleasant steamer-chairs on deck and look
l^ack on the vanishing land, and ahead at the stormy sea.
The wind was blowing stiff and rising fast, and our little
yacht keeled over to starboard and churned the water an-
grily. " Yon sloop ahead on the portquarter is a trawl
fisherman; do you want any fish?" Thus the captain to
the Commodore, who at once responded eagerly that he did.
The yacht was hauled up to the Avind, and in ten minutes
the sail-boat was alongside, bobbing up and down serenely.
There were forty or fifty fish in it, cod and haddock, many
of the latter being two feet long. The fisherman explained
that he was visiting his lines, and expected to get 100 fish
in all. "' How many lines have you got out — a thousand ? "
asked the captain. '" Jest exackly that number," said the
fisherman.
A Maine trawl, it should be explained, is a long rope
lying on or near the surface of the water, and sustained
there by buoys, placed at frequent intervals. From this
line are suspended a large number of lines — in this case,
as has been said, a thousand. Herring is used for bait.
Once a day the skipper makes the round of his trawl —
usually every morning.
" Queer-lookin' fish we git sometimes," said the skipper,
after we had taken as many cod and haddock as we needed,
" mighty queer."
"Yes?" said the doctor interrogatively. "What have
3^ou struck this morning?"
OFF THE COAST OF MAIXE.
" What ? " said the skipper, touching with his hoot an
irregular lump in the bottom of his boat that looked like
a piece of furnace coal. " That's a lump-fish. Ken you
ketch it ? "
He tossed it to our deck, and I caught it only to find that
it was nearly a cube, and armed with sharp and savage
thorns — more than twenty of them erected from his var-
ious corners. They pricked my hand but little, for the
creature's tough skin masked the spines ; l)ut, if he chose
to unsheath them, he could evidently do mischief. He was
an ugly morsel for any sort of fish to try to swallow.
" Yaas," said the fisherman, reph'ing to a question.
" By gorry, it doos take a dreadful sight of bait to set
a trawl proper. A good cod line is a mile and a quarter
long, and every three feet has a cod hook liangin' to it.
By jings ! It takes every member of my family to bait
the hooks and sometimes I a'most wisli there was more
children. They are to home now baiting a line for to-
morrow — young herrin', cunner, clams, squid, eels, — any
ole thing."
As we steamed away from the fisherman, the sea became
rougher and rougher, and a wave now and then would seek
the hospitality of our main deck. A bad day was promised,
and the Commodore, with the cordial ai>]Trovnl of the whole
party, turned the Falcon's nose around and returned to
the sheltered port we had left. It was the first time we
had to retreat, and the last.
"By the way," said the doctor. " let's look at the things
I emptied out of mv (lre(lg(\"
We all followed bin) a ft t<i bear bim discoursi^ learnedly
over his favorite pail.
"There." he said. ])icking up a green string. " is a })lant
of eel-grass. Zoslcni iinirliiii. not of popular interest, but
prized by naturalists when in seed, like this. Isn't that
beautiful, now, when you come to look at it? There's a
gaster0]")O(l mollusc — Tret urn ifsiuil'Diix."
He showed us a specimen of the ordinary limpet — a
FOLKS XEXT DOOE.
imivalve, not spiral, but in the form of a little shell boat
as big as a cent, nearly as broad as it was long, and the
whole afterpart elevated as a seat or deck, with an ample
cabin underneath.
" But, see here ! — ah ! Here's something worth seeing —
a fine specimen of the sea-spider or decorating crab. He
actually rigs himself up jauntily, for the purpose, it seems,
of attracting attention. He carries a concealed pot of glue
with him, and he sticks all sorts of bright-colored bits upon
his shell. He is of the crab genus, Lihinia canaliculata.
Just look at him ! He is dressed like a dude. See that bit
of red seaweed on his nose, and others waving on his back
and claws ? "
High colors there were, as the doctor said, on the things
stuck upon the creature fantastically, but I doubt the or-
namental purpose. It seems to me much more likely that
he sticks the bits of colored stuff on him to mask his move-
ments, so that he can better seize his prey. In a vast
slaughterhouse like the sea, where every living fish is him-
self a finny hecatomb of slain, and where he is constantly
fighting and flying in an endless and terrible struggle for
mere existence, I doubt if any crab ever attains sufficient
wealth and leisure to lead him to personal adornment for
the purpose of adding to his fascinations. It is just one
of the doctor's sweet and harmless delusions.
" You have heard that there are in the ocean experts at
all trades, haven't you ? — fish that are architects, house-
builders, masons, weavers, jewelers, dyers, cordwainers,
butchers, reapers, surgeons! Yerily. it is true. I will
show you all these during this cruise. ]My own opinion is
that fish ought to be classified above animals for intelli-
gence. Some of you saw that lovely sj^ecimen of the anne-
lids that I hauled up — the Serpula contortupHcata. Wasn't
it a daisy? The creature cannot live out of his artificial
house. When an infant he lives in his mother's residence ;
then he collects grains of sand or lime and lays up the walls
of his new house as deftly as a stonemason, mortaring
OFF THE COAST OF MAIXE. 33
them all together in a long and serpentine structure just
big enough to hold him. When his head is sticking out of
the chimnc}^, decorated Avith tall, splendid plumes like a
glorified feather-duster, he is one of the most attractive of
marine objects, as beautifvil as the brilliant sea-anemone
or the rose. The color of the plume varies, ranging from
pink to orange, salmon and a rich amber. These houses
are generally built in groups, cemented together, a dozen
or so living in a village. We will drag uj) some more of
them."
FOLKS NEXT DOOR.
HUNTING A SWORDFISH.
HOW TI-IEY GO AFTER " THE SOLDIER OF THE SEA." — " THIS
IS GLORIOUS." — THE SLOOP BOWLS AHEAD, MAN ON THE
BOWSPRIT. — " BRING A BUCKET, PETE." — CONCERNING
CHAFING-GEAR.
Yesterday I went out sworclfishing, and this table rocks
and reels like a porpoise when I think of it and my stomach
heaves a sigh.
I had longed to go swordfishing all my life. I knew the
creature was flavorous, gamey and good, for I had eaten
savory bits of him broiled. I knew that he carried on his
pugnacious snout a sword of polished ivory, as lively as an
Italian's stiletto and as heavy as King Arthur's Excaliber.
I knew he would fight like a cowboy, and was from eight
to fifteen feet long. So I Avanted to go after him, or I
foolishly thought I did. I was talking in this way on the
pile of stone they called a wharf when a skipper spoke up
and said, " Yon goes a feller after 'em. W'y don't you go
along 'er 'im ? "
He pointed at a sloop bowling along under a stiff breeze
straight out to sea towards the Grand Menan.
" Get him," said I, " and I'll give you a quarter."
" And Mm two uv 'em ? "
" Yes, quick ! "
He blew on his fingers a shrill pipe, one long blast and
two short as a signal, and received a similar answering
horn. The sails luffed, the sloop hove to and came around,
and my whistling agent put me aboard from his own dory.
I climbed to the little deck, not more than two feet above
the water, and bore away for the open ocean. It was a
HUNTING A SWORDFISH. 35
small craft, of about a dozen tons or so, and the skipper had
a crew of two men and two l)oys. The wind was high, and
the smack lay down to it, and bowled ahead, jumping over
the big waves gleefully.
When she tacked she laid herself right down before the
wind. It seemed nice. Each wave was about as long as
the sloop, and rolled up from towards Spain. It was like
the corduroy toboggan slide at Coney Island. It suggested
going to heaven in a hammock. The skipper and I intro-
duced ourselves. His name I had been told was Hallibut,
but after I had called him l^y it al)0ut a dozen times I
found out tluit it was Hurlbut. He was at the helm and
held the reins. Another man climbed to a little platform
about thirty feet up the mast, and it was his business to
discover the fish and tell the captain which way to steer. A
third man took position right out on the end of the bow-
sprit with a harpoon in his right hand, a sharp, iigly-look-
ing steel weapon six or seven feet long.
Before these last two entered " on duty '' officially, we
lay around on deck and listened to the skipper. He was a
shrewd man, well fed and of a dark brown color ; he had
a sharp face, and spoke fair grammar, except when excited
or sarcastic, and liad evidently seen the inside of a New
England school house a good many times. In reply to
questions, he said :
" I fisli for mackerel al)out four months of the year, and
for swordfish tlie other four. This is my swordfish season.
There, whack it around! |This to the mate, having
special referenc(^ lo the main bctcin. | ^'(>s. hsbing would
be pretty good Imsiucss if it wasn't fin- the (hul gam Blue
Noses. Tliey rusli dowii to Boston — t'ase away that hal-
yard a little — and they just flood the market with fish.
Mackerel? Well. Ihcy s(^ll by the ])ieci\ T1h\v are now
going at about 12 cents apiece in l^oston, l)ut I have sold
thousands of them at Tii cents a hundred within a year —
that's three-quarters of a rent ajnece. Talk alxmt ]irotec-
tion ! Congress. I should think — look out for vour head
36 FOLKS NEXT DOOR.
there ! — ought to pass a kiw to protect us fishermen against
the ruinous competition of these Nova Scotians. Wha' do
ye see, Hank? Mackerel are mostl_v caught in nets nowa-
cla3's — they are caught in a net so successful that they
scorn to bite a hook. This fleet that we are passing
through here are some dozen vessels, they are all fishing
for mackerel. You'd better let go that stay-sail up there,
John; the top-mast won't stand it."
The stay-sail was very corpulent, indeed, and rising in
a white bubble over all, it bent the main topmast forward
like a bow strained for an arrow. " John " loosened the
rope and the sail fluttered crazy for a minute, then rushed
down to the deck and was folded up in the dory helpless.
The wind blew harder and harder. The spars quivered.
The maintopsail pufl'ed out like a cap, and fairly seemed
to lift the little vessel over the waves. The balloon Jib
quite justified its name. We were nearly out of sight of
land.
" This is glorious ! " I shouted.
" Hey ? " sung out the skipper, above the whistling wand.
" Glorious ! " I repeated.
" Tail of a storm/' he shouted back, " shan't git no fish."
I went over to where he stood. There were two vessels
like our own a little distance off, with men in the cross-
trees and on the bow.
The captain tacked, and as the boom came around yelled
out, " 'Iv out for your head ! " I looked out for it. and
then I observed for the first time that he seemed in trouble.
He was swearing in a low, gentle baritone voice uninter-
ruptedly, mildly, Avith cpiite a surprising range of epithet
and of metaphor. It was the most serene profanity I had
ever heard. It had wheedling and even pathetic accents,
like a Newfoundland dog that is being petted.
" What is it, sir? '" I ventured to ask.
" That infernal son of a sculpin on the lee quarter stole
a fish from me yiste'day," said he in the same subdued
voice. " TVl like to whale 'im sos't he couldn't stan' " —
HUNTIi^G A SWORDFISH. 37
and then he blasphemed again in a foolish and ridiculous
voice.
" Did he take it right off the deck ? " I asked.
He cast a withering glance at me, swore a little, and re-
marked, " He did not ; but he might jest as well uv. It
was my fish. It wan't more'n ten rod ahead uv us, and
we wuz jest a goin' to gather 'im."
I said I "never considered a deer mine till I'd shot him."'
He grunted five or six times in a way that was sad to see,
embroidering that utterance with an arabesque of profanity
quite dazzling to hear, and added, " Hu ! a deer ! well he
might git away f'm ye, mightn't he? an' a swordfish
couldn't git away f'm me, could he? That's the difference,
ain't it. Just as soon that white livered measly cuss
had took it right off'm my deck."
" Labbord bow ! " yelled the man in the rigging.
" Hello ! " said the captain in a surprised way, and put
his helm a-port. The sloop listed to the leeward and the
man on the bow held up his harpoon at arm's length and
gazed anxiously down into the water.
A writhing convulsion — chug — the sharp iron had left
his hand and gone into the sea. The rope rattled after,
the sloop came around into the wind, a boat was tossed over
the guards by a man and a boy, and the chase began.
Answering my inquiries, the skipper said, " he'll run till
he tires out, then he'll come to the surface and they will
haul him up to the boat, knock him in the head witli an
axe, and pull him aboard — if they are strong enough. If
he's too big they'll tow'm over here."
We were almost out of sight of land. The sloop was
running a hurdle i-acc, jumping over waves as high as a
house. She pitched fearfully and she rolled awfully. To-
bogganing was tiring me out. It suggested going in a
hammock to the other place. My stomach was queasy.
In the distance I could see a forest of sardine vessels at
the wharves ready to start when the storm sul)sided.
" When are we going ashore ? " I asked.
38 FOLKS NEXT DOOR.
" When we git some fish," said the skipper. " This is
glorious ! "
I stood up a minute longer heroically, and then I calmly-
lay down in the bottom of the vessel — in my white flannels,
oh, beloved reader ! in my white flannels. It was wet and
mackerel had apparently just been shoveled out of it,
but I did not care. I was indifferent as to what became of
my clotlies or myself.
The skipper began to sing.
I cast one imploring look at him and
" Bring a bucket. Pete ! '' he exclaimed to the boy.
Pete did as he was told.
"Say! Yer siling yer garmints ! " remarked the skip-
per. I tried to remember the things he had said about the
unscrupulous mariner who stole his swordfish. The sloop
lay wallowing in the trough of the sea and I lay wallow-
ing in the trough of the sloop.
'^ Say ! "' repeated the skipper, in his mellifluous voice,
"you are faint fer lack of vittals. The boy'll bring you
some meat. Wot you want is to put some chafing gear
right down on your gizzard."
I was too wretched to reply, or even to look at him. I
thought I would postpone his assassination till I caught
him ashore.
We got back to town some time toward night, and after
lying on a pile of boards for a couple of hours I got so that
I could stand up and even speak a few words.
Seeing the infant fiend passing up the street in the
gloaming I asked him if they got the swordfish.
" jSTo, sir," he said. " Didn't ye know he got away fm
us and took the harpoon ? That's what made the cap'n so
all fired mad coming home. Scurse ever seen 'im madder."
I shall not go swordfishing again till I cross the blessed
river Styx, to whose calm waters sea sickness (I hope)
never comes.
AMONG THE QIIODDY ISLANDS. 39
AMONG THE QUODDY ISLANDS.
" WHERE THE SUN" RISES." — FIRES AND STRAWBERRIES IN
AUGUST. CAMPOBELLO. WILLIAM FITZ WILLIAM, THE
ADMIRAL. GEN. LINCOLN^ AND BENEDICT ARNOLD.
MYTHS, LEGENDS AND SARDINES.
It was a bright morning in early August when we
steamed into the great harbor of Eastport, Maine, under
a cloudless sky. This is the Jumping-off place. It is where
Uncle Sam loses his grip of the northeastern corner of the
continent.
" This is where the sun rises, I believe ? " I ventured to
say inquiringly to a woman who was keeping store. She
was a long, strong, tough-looking specimen of her gentle
sex. Ostentatious rope-like ligaments led from her top-
knot down her neck to her shoulder-blades, and her back
was evidently able to stand alone, and her fist could ham-
mer beefsteak, and her weather-beaten eye looked sharply
after a bargain, and her jaw Avas pendulous and loosely
hung.
" So this is where the sun rises y "' T asked.
" Yis, sir! " she answered wath a snap. '' rises soiue; and
we jump out of bed early in tlu' moi-ning and \)V\- it u|t with
a cro\vl)ar.'"
I did not express any surprise, for she looked as if she
could do it.
Oil, Ix'loved reader! tliis is an ideal Summer resort. I
am writing at the St. Andrews hotel, in front of a fire-
place ablaze with a big wood fire. We sleep under two
blankets and a sjiread. Most of us wear our winter flan-
nels. I^ast eveninsf the vouno- folks had a dance in the
40 FOLKS NEXT DOOR.
spacious music-room and a fire of maple logs roared at
one end, wliile we read in tlie Boston papers of tlie morn-
ing that the day before had been the hottest day of the sea-
son and that cattle were sunstruck in the street. Then we
majestically arose and coolly took a turn in the Spanish
dance.
We had strawberries this morning for breakfast, and
they have them all through August, large and luscious.
These are from Maine — the New Brunswick strawberries,
not ripe yet, will come to the table in a week or two.
Why on earth do people go to Saratoga and Richfield
Springs and the Berkshire Hills and Deer Park and Chau-
tauqua to escape summer heats, when, for $5 more, they
can come here where there is not one single uncomfortably
warm day through all the intemperate months? The
Health Board at Washington reports Eastport as the sec-
ond city in the United States in point of healthfulness —
San Diego, Cal., being the first. Nobody who prefers the
sea need &j to the mountains to avoid hay fever, for no
hay fever exists here, and that which is brought here dies
a sudden death.
The island of Campobello lies of? the southeast corner
of Maine, in Passamaquoddy Bay, three miles from shore,
and is, politically, a part of New Brunswick and Canada.
It is ten miles long and three broad, and sits high in the
sea, washed by the cooling waves and fanned by all the
winds of the Bay of Fundy, at whose mouth it lies. It is
a pretty wild island, mostly overgrown with a tangle of
spruce and tamarack. There are some fine private resi-
dences here, but no hotel extending its welcome to the
public.
This fine, cool island is a bequest from George III. In
1761 that wrong-headed old gentleman, in what we must
regard as a fit of inadvertence, gave it to one of his most
deserving naval officers. Admiral William Owen, who here
set up a colony. He soon died, on half pay, leaving a baby
in an English kitchen, across whose cradle he had spiked
AMOXG THE QUODDY ISLAXDS. 41
a bar sinister. William Fitz William this boy was accur-
ately called, and when he grew up he ascertained to whom
he owed his left-handed patronymics. He followed his
father into the English navy, endured privation, hardship
and disaster, fought his way to renown and the friendship
of Lord Jielson, became himself an admiral, and fifty years
after his father died he bought Campobello and made it his
little principality. Like a nautical despot he ruled it from
stem to gudgeon. Its bow was in Passamaquoddy Bay and
its stern sheets fluttered over the Bay of Fundy, and be-
tween the larboard shrouds amidships he set up his tall
flag and built a quarter-deck of plank out over the sea, ac-
cessories of his vanity and symbols of his lordly authority.
From the cliff he fired guns of salute to imaginary poten-
tates, and in full uniform and with heavy sword in hand
he strode up and down his quarter-deck and talked to him-
self out loud. He was vain, devout, domineering, gener-
ous, garrulous, capricious, contentious, and he made all the
inhabitants of the island fear him and pay him tithes and
an obedience akin to reverence. His castle on the clifl;s was
court and church, he was parson and judge, high sheriff
and parliament. He governed this mimic realm and en-
forced his whimsical will for many 3'ears ; and finally, in
1857, when he felt his end approaching, ho said his prayers,
hung his sword and cocked hat on an adjacent hemlock
and reluctantly died.
Benedict Arnold enlivens one ol' tin* cliicL' traditions of
this place. Within sight of tlie window where I write is an
old-fashioned L-shaped house on Friar Head, wliich. it is
declared, the distinguished traitor occu]ued as a residence
after ho escaped from tlial cniliari'iissiiig nlTair at West
Point and got out of the country. It is well known tliat he
lived here oi- licrcalxuits, in ITST and later, and feasted his
eyes on the Tnited States right across the strait, and oven
traded \\\\\] its inhabitants.
Then^ are other traditions. It is e(|ually well known
that Gen. Ivincoln, of ^(Evolutionary fame, whose unjust
42 FOLKS NEXT DOOE.
jn'omotion over Arnold in 1777, created und^ying hostility
between them, established a home, after the declaration of
peace, on one of the loveliest islands of this archipelago,
and numerous are the phantom reminiscences about him
and the perfidious and fugitive Yankee soldier. It is re-
lated that Arnold one day gave a great dinner at Campo-
l^ello — possibly in the castle of old Admiral Owen,^and
audaciously invited Gen. Lincoln, his former associate, to
attend, breathing the prayer, " Let us have peace." Lin-
coln received the card-bearer with " Get out ! Begone ! If
you are not away in a minute I'll set the dogs on you.
And " — snatching down his sword from the wall — " tell
your infamous master that if I come I will bring this and
run it through him ! "'
I ran against a goe^sipy old fellow in Eastport and asked
him if this story was true.
" Why, certain," he said. " Arnold did business there
for years, and died there. New Brunswick and Nova
Scotia, you know, were settled almost entirely by fugitives
and expelled Tories from the revolted colonies, and iVr-
nold was made welcome by them. Have you visited Wash-
ington's headquarters ? ''
" Where ? " I asked in surprise.
" I^p on the Schoodic Eiver yender, about twenty miles.
Great large brown house, roof sloping to the ground.
Enormous andirons."
" Nonsense, man ! " I said. " Washington was never
here. Was never within hundreds of miles of here. Never
could have been. When was it that Washington was here,
do you think ? "
" Jest after he whaled the British at the battle of Bun-
ker Hill. Come up here to warn 'em to encroach no fur-
ther. Stayed a week. Lived in his headquarters, over
yender, and fished in Schoodic."
As I fled in astonishment I took refuge in a sardine
factory. This is the great industry of Eastport. Two
million dollars worth a year, it is estimated, are sold from
AMONG THE QUODDY ISLANDS. 43
here. That makes 35,000,000 boxes. If the clear reader
should toss one box in the air every second for twenty-four
hours every day, without eating or sleeping or saying his
prayers, it would take him two years to count the boxes
turned out here in a single season.
These are not really sardines like those caught in the
Mediterranean and put up so neatly at Marseilles. They
are young herring, somewhat inferior to true sardines.
And they are put up in cotton-seed oil, somewhat inferior
to true olive oil. But the price of Eastport sardines is
more inferior than the quality; they sell for a quarter the
price of the French sardines, and they are equally clean
and equally wholesome.
It would not matter much if these sardines were less ex-
cellent than they are. There is a good deal of humbug in
the world about food, and millions go hungry because their
table is limited to tlieir jDrejudices. They eat broiled horse
in Paris and it is just as good as broiled steer; they eat
grilled flies and baked cakes of flies' eggs in Mexico, and
they are quite appetizing. They are by no means to be
despised as food in an exigency. Little herring in sar-
dine-form are as good as big herring are in any shape, and
I heartily indorse the apothegm of the venerable savant,
whoever he was, who said that the man who made two
sardines grow where one grew before is a benefactor of the
human race.
■ii FOLKS NEXT DOOR.
WONDERFUL FISHING.
FISH BIGGER THAN THEIR CAPTORS. — SO^SIE NEOPHYTES GO
A-FISHING. — AND GET NUMEROUS BITES AND SOME FISH.
" WHALE TO PORT." DEMAND FOR A SEA-SERPENT.
THE ROOST OF MOTHER CAREY's CHICKEXS — GRANDEUR
OF GRAND MENAN.
1 NEVER saw such good fishing as there is here in Pas-
samaqiioddy Bay — never. The expert angler wouldn't like
it. For the expert angler is never happy unless the fish
are very difficult to catch. The expert angler avoids those
spots where fish are plenty. He likes to sit all day in the
hot sun and get two reluctant l)itcs and carry home a
three-story appetite and a nose that peels like an over-ripe
hanana. Let the expert angler go down where fish are
plenty and he hlushes, acknowledges that he has made a
mistake and at once moves off to some spot where the game
he seeks is more reticent and exclusive. As for me, I don't
care much for fishing anyhow, and I despise it where fish
are scarce or shy.
There are shoals, flocks, swarms and herds of fish here,
tremendous fellows, solid, sweet and toothsome — cod, pol-
lock, haddock, swordfish, hake, scrod, halibut and all the
'longshore fighters of the sea. The individuals of a school
of fish here average about the size of the individuals of a
school of children. Babes of five or six pull in fish bigger
than themselves.
I had listened to these yarns and had received them with
bushels of allowance for the florid imagination of fisher-
men. I never knew an amateur fisherman who would lie;
but I never knew one from whose hook fish did not occa-
WOXDEEFUL FISHING. 45
sionally escape that were twice as big as they ought to
be. One day 1 mustered a sail-boat party for the fishing-
grounds — about twenty acres of pollock paradise out in the
briny just where (^)uoddy Bay meets the Bay of Fundy.
There were five of us — the party besides myself being four
ladies just about as ignorant of fishing as I was. All of us
had fished, but none of us had ever caught a fish if we could
help it. 1 never could bear to see an angleworm wriggle.
Thus handicipped, it was naturally not expected that the
boat would bring in a fish.
But it did. Listen to my tale:
We shortly tacked across the track of a small boat and
got some bait — for ten cents a water-pail full of undressed
minnows — sardines decollete. The two-inch hook is
baited with a whole sardine. It was deep-sea fishing, 150
feet of stout line. To tell the melancholy truth, the fish
got away with most of our bait. The painful silence in
which we began the solemn exercise was broken by one of
the ladies, who eagerly exclaimed :
" I got 'im ! I got 'im ! I've got a fish ! I feel 'im bite !
He pulls like everything ! Perhaps it is a log. There ! he
keeps biting ! "
" Why don't you pull up your line ? " suggested another.
" There ! he bit again ! Oh, isn't it fun ! I wonder if
any "
" Yank 'im in ! " we shouted in chorus.
It took her about three minutes to pull in the line, and
then her hook was bare.
"What made him get away?" she asked, looking dis-
tressed.
" After gettin' y'r bait," said the skipper. " and eatin'
on it and digestin' on it I reckon he must have laughed
and went off to consider- wo't to do next."
"I feel a bite!" said another. "I'm sure it's a bite!
Oh, dear, he kecj^s a biting ! There ! see that ! How he
pulls! There, he bites again! 1 shall just spoil this
dress ! "
4G EOLKS lYEXT DOOR.
" Pull 'im in ! " was yelled again.
The skipper hurried across the boat, took the line in
hand and hauled in and landed a good pollock weighing
fifteen pounds. He put on fresh bait and handed back
the line, observing:
" Wen you git a fish you must git 'ini. Fish injoys
conversation, but 'tain't good fur 'em.
The capture of a fish stopped our nonsense. We grad-
ually settled down to business. There was little more
gabbling or dallying. When one of the girls got a bite she
tackled to the animal and hauled him in hand over hand.
Three or four were so big that the captor could not lift
him over the guards unaided. This really was fun.
As I intimated, about two-thirds of our fish got away
from us on account of our inexpertness in taking them.
But at the end of an hour we had got into the boat al)out
two hundred and fifty pounds of them — pollock, cod and
hake — and the largest one weighed twenty-fiive pounds.
There were twenty-two dead fish in all. We did not count
the number that spit out the hook and sauntered oif while
we were considering the propriety of hauling them in,
but I estimated that there must have been at least sixty
of them. The skipper insisted that the fugitives laughed
at us, and I suppose they did. We all felt it keenly. Noth-
ing is more humiliating than to be the object of a fish's
derision. As we tacked back to the wharf at Eastport and
met the Falcon returning from a brief excursion up the
St. Croix, we felt that we had spent a memorable afternoon
notwithstanding the assurance of the skipper that we were
" scorned and hooted at " by the tinny population of the
bay.
Passamaquoddy Bay, I think, is the finest archipelago
in America. Portland Harbor boasts three hundred isl-
ands, and at the Thousand Islands there are actually, as
well as nominally, several times three hundred; but those
are serene islets in tranquil waters under smiling skies,
while these are breathed on bv all the winds of the earth
Bi^BrfwHT'^iiiiQ^^i^BB^, ^ ^^iw9^^^I^^R^I^^^9^^^^^B^^^^^ 'iciO'^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
W y^'^^^^^^LW^i^ J^ ^ ^*'iiHI^^^^HB^^^^^r~-'^^^^nH^I
^=^
^^ ■ " '^^f^-* ■ ''S^^k "
1
^^vi^^S^ "^"^ml^^.
^
W'^^f^A
1 ^B
1
1 ■ '^^^^Hr
J
^^■i^:^'. ■■^^^amSm-' '"iiw
f
■■ ..MM
i ^Hlg^g^m^l^^^^B
WOXDEEFUL FISHING.
and swept by fierce tides as high as a meeting-house.
Through Quoddy Bay and the twin Cobscook Bay and their
afHuents a steamboat may wander for a month and never
go twice among the same scenery.
While we were steaming out next day the doctor jDulled
in his dredge and found in it two hermit crabs in a death
grapple. One had seized a beautiful spiral shell after dis-
lodging its original inhabitant and had backed into it. A
larger crab had discovered the squatter in his attractive
dwelling and had opened a battle for its possession. When
they Avere turned into the pail the fight continued, like the
fight of two hardy boxers. At the second or third round
the assailant seized the tenant and snatched him from the
shell with the fierce gesture of an athlete, and calmly ex-
amined it and backed into it himself as if he were the
original and only proprietor, while the evicted lay sprawl-
ing and wounded on the deck, one of his arms lying ampu-
tated by his side. It is a curious habit: as soon as a crab
or lobster receives a severe injury in a claw it " shoots "
it — ^that is, it deliberately severs its connection with the
body, discards it, and reproduces it after the lapse of a
few days, as the tropical lizard his tail. This ability con-
stitutes a great advantage in war time.
One day we scudded for the open water on a prospecting
tour. It Avas a bright morning and we were languid. We
loiinged in the steamer chairs most of the day, and read
and slept. Probably we missed some of the frisky creatures
of the deep that jump into visil)ility for a moment, but
we are getting satiated with mere sharks and hlase in rela-
tion to blackfish. Nothing but a whale can move us now,
and I look forward to the day when we shall be compla-
cently insensible to the charms of any monster v\diatever
short of " the '' sea-serpent. The ladies are already de-
manding a sea-serpent of the captain, as calmly as they
would ask the steward for another cup of coffee. To gage
this growing callousness, the doctor shouted, " Whale to
port ! There she blows," when one of the young men Avas
48 FOLKS NEXT DOOR.
playing cribbage with the school-mistress. He ran to the
companionway with four cards in his hand and answered
back : " Hold on ! Tell him to hang around till I make two
more points I "' We saw, during the day, perhaps a hun-
dred two-masted fishermen lying-to outside of our track,
most of them after sword-fish or mackerel. We ran in-
side of the island of Grand Menan — Great Britain's last
point of vantage ofl' our coast — a wild, cliff-girt spot, look-
ing from the sea as if the top were quite inaccessible. Off
its shores you get the savory and beautiful red cod — that
is, perhaps you do; we didn't.
" That's where Mother Carey's chickens breed/' said the
engineer. " Cranks think they hatch in the sky or under
the water ; but I happen to know that Grand ]\Ienan is
their home. They burrow in the sand cliffs like swallows.
They swarm in multitudes there, and the great sand wall
is so filled with their nests that it looks like some tremen-
dous honeycomb."
I was waiting in the cal)in a short time afterward, when
I heard the captain give the engineer one bell — to slow
down to half-speed. Wondering what that was for, I
started up, when a sailor came running down to say that
the Commodore sent word that a whale was in sight. We
scuttled to the upper deck, and sure enough, there was a
whale of the third class — a humpback — off the starboard
quarter, east of Grand Menan, coming out of the water
about once a minute to take a good look at us. The Fal-
con's nose 'was pointed around toward him, and we fol-
lowed him some distance down the coast, but he was skit-
tish — nothing like the civilized right whales whose genial
society we had enjoyed off Portsmouth. Wo presently
withdrew from the race and went on our way. From this
point we got tlie liest view we obtained of (irand ]\Ienan.
Its purple top was toned up and down the gamut of color,
bringing out the dark green of a crowning forest, the vivid
green of intervales, the brown of rugged cliffs, and the
gloom of high, deep gorges, the whole picture framed by
WONDERFUL FISHING. 49
the glaucous tints of the restless sea breaking over rocks,
and the uncertain blue of the overhanging sky. The pre-
cipitous shores are the throne of a wild grandeur, which
is augmented by the loneliness of the island and the ac-
cessories of an untamed sea.
The run over to Grand Menan was short. This is the
wildest island on the Atlantic seaboard south of New-
foundland. Indeed, between the Florida reefs and heights
of Mount Desert there is scarcely a hill of respectable size
in sight from the ocean. And the promontories around
Bar Harbor bear no comparison in grandeur to the over-
hanging cliffs of this seagirt rock. The bright sky, the
smooth shingle beach, the old l)oats and tumble-down cab-
ins, the coves and land-locked bays of lapis lazuli chal-
lenge the admiration of the artist's eye.
Its shores are perpendicular. Its seas are tumultuous
and uproarious. Eagles poise over it. Seals bathe them-
selves in the sunshine on its ledges. Whales float in the
offing and eye it, susi:»ecting that it may be some colossal
brother. A wild deer, it is said, still Avanders in the
woods. It is a most delicious summer retreat. At St. An-
drews we needed fires night and morning, but here they
blaze gratefully at midday. There we used two blankets
at night ; here we require three. There they have straw-
berries all through August ; here they are eaten still
later.
This island is the most untamed and unkempt thing on
the whole Atlantic coast. It is a turret of the bold and
romantic. It is like one of the Hebrides that Black prat-
tles of in " The Princess of Thule," or like Walter Besant's
isle of Sampson, where Roland Lee found Armorel. There
is no hay-fever here, no consumption, and even gout lifts
its agile feet and flies and dyspepsia ceases from troubling
here, because the visitor can find little that is good to eat.
The more one sees of the earth, I think, whether it be on
sea or shore, the more one wishes to see of it. I expressed
this opinion in the cabin one evening after dinner: "I
4
50 FOLKS XEXT DOOU.
would like to go around the world," I said, " if I could
go with this 3'acht and in this comijany."
" We go around every twenty-four hours.'' said the phil-
osophical Commodore; "all we need to do is to keep our
eyes open.'"
Then the chatelaine rose from the sofa, took down from
the hookshelves a copy of Whittier and contributed the fol-
lowing to the discussion:
I know not how, in other lands,
The changing seasons come and go ;
What splendors fall on Syrian sands,
What purple liglits on Alpine snow,
Or how the pomp of sunrise waits
On Venice at her watery gates ;
A dream alone to me is Arno's vale,
And the Alhambra's halls are but a traveler's tale.
Yet, on life's cui'rent. he who drifts
Is one with him who rows or sails ;
And he who wanders widest lifts
No more of Beanty's jealous veils
Than he who from his doorway sees
The miracle of flowers and trees,
Feels the warm Orient in the noonda.v ciir.
And from cloud minarets hears the sunset call to prayer.
The eye may well be glad, that looks
Wliere Pharpar's fountains rise and fall ;
But he who sees liis native brooks
Laugli in the sun, has seen them all.
Tiie marble palaces of Ind
Rise round him in the snow and wind :
From his lone sweetbrier Persian Hafiz smiles.
And Rome's cathedral awe is in his woodland aisles.
And thus it is my fancy blends
The near at hand and far and rare ;
And while the same liorizon bends
Above the silver-sprinkled liair,
AVhich flashed the light of morning skies
On childliood's wonder-lifted eyes.
Within its round of sea and sky and field.
Earth wlieels with all her zones and Cosmos stands revealed.
xVMOXG THE BLUE NOSES. 51
AMONG THE BLUE NOSES.
AROUXD THE BAY OF FUXDY. — ST. JOITN's TURBULENT HAR-
BOR. — stea:\[er goes up over ax eighteen-foot fall.
SE'ECTACLE OF ENORMOUS TIDES. A THRASHER, THE
foe of the WHALE. — TIDE RISES TWO INCHES A MIN-
UTE. — IS THERE A " BORE " ?
One afternoon wc ran np the coast of New Brunswick,
and at G o'clock p. ni. we rounded Partridge Lsland, passed
the steam fog-horn and tlie ruins of a cliff battery, and
hurried into the spacious, but perilous harbor of St. John
on a ilush tide. To get up opposite King street, at the
center of the city, was exactly like going through Hell
Gate in the old time before it was subdued — the same
whirling eddies, the same treacherous smoothness as of
oil, the same braiding and tangle of tides, boxing the
Falcon this way and that, as the most illustrious prize-
fighter boxes a suspended bag of wool, the same yawning
of hungry submarine chasms, which are the more terrible
because they cannot be seen. At one moment it seemed
like " shooting the rapids " above Montreal ; and then we
slid out upon a space which was supposed to be safe because
the tide rushed through it like a millrace from four dif-
ferent directions. Here we grappled to a wooden buoy
as big as a Connecticut school house, and we had the ath-
letic rehearsal over again, and were knocked out all
through the night, refusing to come up each time till we
were dragged up.
Next morning we were booked for another novel expe-
rience. Into the head of the bay the great St. John
river empties the drainings of 10,000 square miles — pours
52 FOLKS NEXT DOOE.
them through a gloomy gorge three hundred feet wide and
a quarter of a mile long and over a water-fall from to 18
feet high. The variation in the height of the waterfall of
course results from the tides. So when high tide came,
at eight o'clock, we noticed that the falls had entirely dis-
appeared and the water was ten feet deep above their brink.
We thereupon turned the Falcon's nose northward, slid
over the falls as easily as a fish, and made an excursion
up the pleasant St. John. At the next high tide we came
down again and lay in the whirlpool below and
watched the sprouting and blossoming of the great fall —
watched its voice, too, grow from the faint silvery tinkle
to the deep diapason of the plunge.
The port of St. John presents a singular spectacle at
low tide. At this hour of the day, there is so little water
that the ships cannot keep their places at the wharves, and
they, therefore, retire down the slope and stand upright
on the harbor bottom, each being built with two bilge-
keels, or false keels outside of the true keel, which prevent
it from tipping over when left by the refluent wave. To
see farmers drive tlieir wagons down at low tide and bait
their horses under the very rudder of a great ship, while
their produce is hauled by a tackle at the yard arm, is a
sight obtainable nowhere else on earth.
We shook ourselves out of the whirlpool's clutches in the
afternoon and found the capricious Bay of Fundy smiling
and auspicious. Never was a sweeter day, and as we
passed the headlands we could see farmers on the fertile
meadows beyond jumping into hay-making after a fort-
night of rain. At St. John the tide rose twenty-eight feet,
but we now struck for the head of the l)ny where the rise
is about sixty fe(>t.
The Falcon was hcadcMl towards tlie Souili l-'ork of the
upper bay (the reader is respectfully referred to a map
for more specific information), and we had already ad-
vanced within sight of llie high rocks of Cape Sjjlit and
Mount Blomidon, when one of tlie men called our atten-
AMONG THE BLUE NOSES. 53
tion to an enormous fish leaping into the air far to the
starboard. The captain said, " He's a thrasher, but I never
saw one so near land as that before." There was a gen-
eral expression of amazement when, a couple of minutes
later, he sprang into the air again. He was enormously
large, probably the largest fish we had seen except the
right whales. He leaped into the air vertically, straight
towards the zenith, and at almost every leap he entirely
cleared the water, so that we could see daylight between
the water and himself. The captain said :
" That is. I think, the largest thrasher I ever saw ; he
is not less than twenty-five feet long, and he may be thirty,
and he jumps so high that he must rise fifteen feet clear
of the water."
The doctor knew what a thrasher was.
" But I never expected to see one — much less here," he
said. " The thrasher stands, perhaps, at the head of game
fishes, in size, courage and strength. He will kill a shark
and eat him ; and even fight a whale. It is alleged that a
swordfish and a thrasher sometimes go in company and at-
tack a whale, the sword-fish plunging his dagger into him
from beneath and tlie thrasher worrying him from above."
" Yes, I've seen it done," cried the captain, " more than
once — that is, as far as the thrasher's business was con-
cerned, though I couldn't see what his pard was up to.
I've seen a big whale running away from a thrasher, and
trying to get a chance to blow and breathe. If a whale
can be kept under a little while he will fill up with water
and die. Just as surely as a cow will. This thrasher over-
took the whale every little way, leaped high al)ove him and
came down with a crash upon his huge liulk. I heard the
blow distinctly, and heard the whale roar with pain as
he fled. I uever saw the result of such a fight, though."
While this conversation went on the thrasher had leaped
ten or twelve times, straight up ; and he came out of the
water so silently and rose so steadily to such a height with-
out the movement of a fin or any apparent effort, that
54 FOLKS NEXT DOOR.
it seemed exactly as if he were shot out of some machine
below. This illusion was perfect, and a wooden fish of the
same size shot upwards from a submarine bow or catapult
would have had precisely the same effect, even to the great
helpless splash on the water in falling. Three-cpiarters
of all his leaps were straight into the air, a few giving
only a partial exposure and occasionally the gigantic
creature would lie quietly on the water. We tried to run
the Falcon near him, but he avoided us and went his frisky
way. I never saw a fish that appeared to have so much
fun.
Around Mount Blomidon we came straight up the Basin
of Minas, which at high tide is a huge inland sea, bigger
than Long Island Sound or Lake Champlain, and at low
tide presents a hundred square miles of moist land to the
sky. Here we are now at Windsor — the middle of the old
French Acadia — and the Falcon, which this morning was
floating in twenty feet of water here is to-night sitting on
her dry keel in a little groove of cobblestones on top of a
hill from which the water has all receded. We have not
changed our moorings at all, and are lashed at the same
wharf where we were afloat this morning. But if the wet
mud were ice a boy could start from our keel and slide down
hill for a quarter of a mile, and the nearest water that
would float the Falcon is eight miles off'!
Past the town and past the yacht the yellow river Avon
rushes up and down four times a day after Ijeing bitten by
the lunar mad dog. It is of a striking orange color, and
sometimes approaches true lemon glory, like a cloud that
is full of warmth at sunset. This, dear reader, is mud.
When the tide flows up the river and up the hill of mud,
on whose to]i the Falcon is balanced at low tide, we can
hear its rusliiug and swnsliing, so I'apid is tlie rise. Where
we ai-e now llie tide rises just aliout two inches a minute,
and t-omes dancing up from the Bay of Fundy right mer-
rily. I do not quite understand what makes the tides rise
sixty feet here when they rise only five or six feet right
AMOXG THE BLUE NOSES.
across a twenty-foot peninsula in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
It is all very well to say that the tides are pushed up the
Bay of Fundy because it is so long ; but why are they not
pushed up Chesapeake Bay, and up the Gulf of California,
and up the Baltic Sea, and up the Adriatic Sea to Venice ?
The tides at Venice do not rise and fall more than a foot.
Why the mountain of water in the Bay of Biscay should
gallop across the earth at the rate of twenty miles a minute
and climb up this bay, inundating twice a day 1,000 square
miles of dry land in this Basin of Minas alone, is some-
thing that I do not understand. And the doctor, who is
the scientific authority of the Falcon, doesn't understand
it either. Somebody suggests the Gulf Stream, but as
the Gulf Stream does not flow up the Bay of Fundy, but
does flow to Baffin's Bay, the explanation seems lame.
We were badly off one night here. It was flood tide at
6, and floated us to the top of the A\diarf. Then it turned
and began to rush down like the Khone from its glacier
above Andermatt. The Falcon dropped a foot in the first
ten minutes, and then increased the pace. The captain
carefully floated the yacht just where he thought she ought
to fall, in order to hit the keel-trough excavated by the
weight of any number of former ships, and lashed her
there. She dropped and dropped, and rested her keel a
foot inside the old trough ! It was now too late to improve
her position, and the departing tide left her fast, with a
gutter four feet deep and five feet wide just outside her
keel ! The result was that as she settled she tipped away
from the wharf, the top of her masts changing their incli-
nation for a while at the rate of a foot a minute ! This
could not last long: she would either settle in the old
trough and stop, or she would roll completely over and go
rolling hundreds of feet down the declivity. She chose the
more conservative and circumspect conduct, and rested
after listing over so that her masts stood at about sixty
degrees with the horizon. We, who had gone upon the
wharf to give the Falcon a fair chance to decide the mat-
56 FOLKS NEXT DOOE.
ter uninfiiienced by our presence, now climbed aboard
the sloping ship and carefully sought the state rooms on
the up-hill side. The Falcon did not capsize. Towards
morning she suddenly righted with the incoming tide, and
stood erect, as complacent as if she had never done any-
thing out of the perpendicular in her life. [Mem.: — So
it is with human nature. A person will , however, I
have no room for moralizing.]
T have not seen the bore yet — that perjDendicular wall
of water that comes up the bay twice a day — the moist
eyebrows of the tide, as it were. I have looked for it, but
I have not found it They told us at St. John that we
would "■' see a splendid bore in the Avon ; '" they assure us
here that we will find a very wild bore "' \ip at Sackville "
that puts hens to flight and pens up pigs and cows unci
drowns them before they can get away. It ranges from
three to seven feet high and marches along at the rate of
eight miles an hour, as vertical as Niagara. I know there
is such an aqueous monster as this bore; for, though I
have not exactly seen it myself, or seen anybody who has
seen it, I have seen a man who has seen a woman who has
seen it, and my eyes have feasted on a boy who says that
another boy has seen it. This is much better than seeing
it myself, for it leaves me entirely free to imagine it twenty
feet high, and more too. This terrible bore stands at the
liead of the incoming tide, but never of the outgoing tide.
It is a fact, by the way, that an enormous school of black-
fish — some two or three hundred in all — got stranded in
Minas Basin last year, and being badly left when the tide
went out. the people rushed out with every sort of weapon
and slew them on the mud and towed them asliore. I learn
that these irregular captors were arrested and tried in tlie
local court. This shows how stringent Nova Scotia law
is. What they were tried for I do not know — trespass,
probably.
THE HOME OF EVANGELINE.
THE HOME OF EVANGELINE.
THE FALCON ON" THE AVON. — WHY LONGFELLOW DID NOT
VISIT IT. — SOME VALUABLE POETICAL SUGGESTIONS. —
"•' GRAND FREE ! GRAND FREE ! " — CHARACTER OF THE
AOADIANS. — VISIT TO " BASIL THE BLACKSMITH'S." — OFF
TO CANADA.
It is very odd to remember that all this region was once
Massachusetts. In 1691, William and Mary, "by the
grace of God King and Queen of England," granted to a
favorite the province of Maine, Nova Scotia and New
Brunswick under the name of Massachusetts.
We linger for some days in Nova Scotia, and our
yacht is high if not dry on a muddy hill fifty feet above
low water. But before supper-time the angry tide will
rush foaming and bellowing past, and her native element
will return to the Falcon. This is Windsor, the very cen-
ter of the old iVcadian country, and this week we have
been ransacking " the home of Evangeline " at Grand Pre,
ten miles below here, on the river Avon, at its confluence
with the great Basin of Minas. Longfellow fell into sev-
eral trivial errors of fact concerning the Acadians and
their rural capital, owing perhaps to the slight circum-
stance that he never visited the spot. When he was asked,
while writing the poem of " Evangeline," why he did not
come here, he replied, like a true poet, that it would only
confuse and embarrass him. " I have formed my ideal,"
said he, " and the intrusion of gross facts would only ob-
scure it." Spoken like a seer. The pilgrim, taking the
poem in hand and following its landmarks, would discover
almost anv countrv but this.
58 FOLKS NEXT DOOR.
I was down at Grand Pre yesterda}'. I tramped through
the nuid and rain all over the site of the old Acadian vil-
lage. I saw all the relics that remain of Evangeline's
time, and brought away my share of them. I was bitten
by the mosquitoes till I almost wished the Acadians had
never been banished at all. I groped around in the fog
and caught cold at Basil, the blacksmith's. Never hav-
ing been here, Longfellow wrote of this place :
This is the forest primeval. The murmuring 23ines and the hem-
locks,
Bearded with moss and with garments green, indistinct in tlie
twiliglit,
Stand like Druids of old, with voices sad and prophetic.
Stand like harpers hoar with beards that rest on tlieir bosoms.
Blomidon rose, and the forests old, and aloft on the mountains
Sea fogs pitched tlieir tents, and mists from the mighty Atlantic
Looked on the happy valley, but ne'er from their station de-
scended.
The cold and naked fact is that there are no forests
of deciduous trees within a hundred miles. There are
no pines murmuring or otherwise in Nova Scotia, and T
have not seen any hemlocks. There arc thousands of
good-for-nothing tamaracks and junipers all about, but
they have no moss on their bosoms, for Spanish moss does
not thrive in this latitude. Blomidon rises, it is true —
not very far, but it rises; and the fogs are not at all back-
ward about walking out of their tents and crawling down
to the meadows of Grand Pre. If Longfellow had dis-
pelled his sweet illusions by coming how. he would have
written some such commonplace trash as the following:
This is tl)(> i)r;i.irie jn-imeval. The nuirmnring siirncesand tama-
racks.
Good for notliing to speak of, lonnge and loaf by the roadside.
Lounge like modern tramps, unwashed, uncombed and im-
laundried.
Robbing the farmers freely, bnt giving tliem never a stiver.
Sea-fogs squeeze tlieir sponge and sjiread o'er the land a wet
blanket.
Giving the folks influenza, colds, catarrhs and neuralgia ;
Gaze upon Blomidon also, but hardh' ever go up there.
THE HOME OF EVANGELINE. 59
In the Acadian land on the shores of tlie Basin of Minas.
Distant, sechided, still, tiie frolicsome village of Grand Pre
Suffered a little from Indians, bnt very much from mosquitoes,
Bloodtliirsty, ravenous, huge, wings like the wrings of ApoUyon,
Legs like the masts of the Admiral's ship in the Spanish armada.
Voice like the voice of the tide that roars in the Basin of Minas,
Auger like unto the screw that pushes the mighty Cunarder !
When they alighted upon the Acadian nose, cheek or ear-flap,
Or, when they went into business outside tlie Acadian gayments,
They extorted a bellow of rage commingled with angiiish
Drowning the cheerful ballad Benedict s.ang to liis daughter.
Flooding with wail discordant the forge of Basil the Blacksmith.
And so forth and so on. Perchance the discriminating
reader Avill agree with nic that this is enough of the kind,
and enough to show what we shoukl have heen afflicted
with if Longfellow had visited Grand Pre and seen it as I
did. [Memorandum: If you want to write poetr}^ about a
place, don't go there.]
Longfellow misses it in another particular. He repre-
sents the Acadians to have been a sweet, peaceful, pastoral
people, good neighbors and excellent citizens, having no
ambition except loving all mankind and worshipping God.
Thus dwelt together in love the simple Acadian farmers.
Suddenly the troops of Great Britain swooped down
on them, carried 3,000 of them otf to Delaware, Florida
and Louisiana, and burned their homes behind them, con-
fiscating their cattle and their goods. So they have come
to be regarded as early martyrs.
The fact is that the Acadians were a quarrelsome, bump-
tious lot of people, almost always in a fight. They were"
the worst of citizens, made so mainly by their priests —
Father Felician and his fellows — who constantly stirred
them up to tumult. They refused to take the oath of alle-
giance, and held just about the same relation to the Brit-
ish government that South Carolina did to our government
during the rebellion. Out of 500 men of Grand Pre 250
were taken prisoners while fighting against the country
and aiding its enemies. Basil must have been busv most
CO FOLKS NEXT DOOE.
of the time hammering out swords and fixing up old mus-
kets. Of course it was hard and cruel to drive the Aca-
dians from their homes and burn the houses and barns
l:)ehind them, but they had been the aggressors all along,
they had been often warned, and the English in Nova
Scotia were not then strong enough to exercise clemency
in behalf of their enemies, a virtue which they have not
learned even in their strength. The Acadians were by no
means a particularly virtuous, harmless and unoffending
peojsle. They had a hard lot, l^ut then, they were a hard
lot. However, they have disappeared — let them pass.
The facts in the case have no particular relation to the
poetry in the case, and Longfellow's poem will stand as a
masterpiece, admired by all wlio love a sweet tale, beauti-
fully told. I do. So, as I said, I went to Grand Pre yes-
terday. I went on the 10 o'clock train, and got there in
twenty minutes. '' Grand Free ! Grand Free ! " shouted
the conductor — for the English hate the French so that
they always Anglicize everything. I wonder they do not
call it simply Big Meadow. The station was a small,
square building, almost by itself, in the open coun-
try. Standing on the platform, facing the front, I knew
that the vacant field opposite must be that in which the
Acadian church stood where the ]nen were taken pris-
oners, and that tliose 1)eyond it, still further nortli, must
be the vast meadows which the Acadians had diked and
recovered from the Basin of Minas which flowed beyond.
An inquiry of the only other person at the station revealed
that he knew all about tlie locality, and was both courteous
and intelligent. Fie was a Grand Fre farmer, and he spent
some hours making me acquainted with all the relics of the
Acadians that remain. We waded through the Avater and
wet grass down tlii'ough tlic meadow in front, of which I
have spoken, and tlici'c round small lint stones in large
numbers, which it is claimed wei'i- ]tarl of the foundation
walls of the Catholic church where Ihe Acadians wor-
shipped, and from which they were finally dispersed. I
THE HOME OF EYAXGELINE. 61
put some muddy stones in my pocket as a sentimental
keepsake. Near tliis an old Acadian coffin has lately been
dug up. I was conducted to a well some fifty feet distant,
alleged to have been the village well. It was found only
two years ago, covered Avith dirt and debris, but otherwise
in a good state of preservation. The walls were intact,
and now stand precisely as they did when Evangeline or
her representative peeped down into it and saw her pretty
self.
Fair was she to behold, that maiden of seventeen summers ;
Black were her ej'es as the berry that grows on the thorn by the
wayside,
Black, yet how softly gleamed beneath the brown shade of her
tresses !
I took a sip of the water, put some more muddy stones
in my pocket, and picked some daisies and buttercups to
stick in my buttonhole now, and press by and by. We
went back past the depot, and diagonally opposite to it,
across the track, is an octagonal base Avail — probably the
remains of an Acadian windmill. On the hill that sloped
up from the rear of the depot to the south, are long lines
of Avillows, with large trunks and stunted tops, the result
of repeated cutting back. These, the farmer said, marked
the streets of ancient Grand Pre, but they now run through
the fields. Overshadowing the land, they have been at-
tacked with fire and the axe, but they have resisted all
efforts to exterminate them. Near a stream one of them
had been recently cut down, but a hundred yellow saplings
had already feathered around it, and the limbs Avhich had
been cut into pieces and flung on the ground or sot up
against the rail-fence, had all sprouted and were groAving
briskly. A little further on up the road is an enormous
Avillow some four or five feet through at the base, and
back of it is the alleged site of Basil's blacksmith shop.
Here Ave found some cinders — cinders 130 years old at
least. Climbing into the Avide-spreading avIHoav I cut
63 . FOLKS NEXT DOOE.
several straight twigs to set out on arriving home, a sou-
venir of the possible home of the plausible Basil, before
whose anvil C7abriel and Evangeline
Stood witli wondering eyes, to behold him
Take in liis leathern lap the hoof of the horse as a plaj'thing.
Further up the road is an ancient and rheumatic apple
tree, which I should think would produce very old cider
indeed. From this I devouth- ate a horribly green apple,
and passed on up the hill to one of the three or four houses
in sight from the depot. The proprietor had always lived
in Grand Pre, and in reply to questions he brought from
the house a rusty old pail filled with rustier old iron.
" This gentleman," said my guide, "■' dug out the old
well I showed you, and these things were found in the
well."
" At the bottom," explained the finder, " about fourteen
feet deep. There is now a wooden cask at the bottom of
the well, Avhich was placed there when the well was opened.
Having always been under water, it has never decayed, and
seems to be just as good as ever. I examined it lately."
This Ijeing a new find, and unquestionably genuine, I
took an inventory :
Two heavy, awkward chains, each about two feet long,
with clumsy swivels; a pair of enormous pincers; two
bucket-l^ails ; two hammers, with oaken haiulles in a good
state of preservation; three axes, with a "head."" look-
ing like tomahawks; a leaden sinker for fisliing, weight
three pounds; the bottom of a pot; an enormous brass
spoon, with attempts at decoration on the handle; a knife
and fori-:, badly rusted, with handles; a big fish-hook, too
large even for cod ; an old pail and a " litli(> brown jug; ""
a cui'ious old pocket-kui fe, with two blades rusted together
forever, and a hook on the back to clean horses' hoofs with.
All the iron articles were made with a hammer. The
knil'e was ]»i'()bal)lv oiie which (iabricl bad ilung into the
well, belon^iiiii,- to his cheerful father; but the dolls which
TPIE HOME OF EVANGELINE. G3
Evangeline had given sepulchre there had entirely disap-
peared. I told the custodian of the bucket that if he
would go into the house I would gladly steal some of the
contents, but he declined to turn his back upon me for a
moment. In an adjacent blacksmith shop we found an
Acadian plow, all but the woodwork. The landslide,
moklboard and share were in one piece, solidly welded upon
a heavy platform, covering the whole bottom. An idea of
this strange agricultural implement can be gained by
imagining a flatiron a foot wide, a foot and a half long and
an inch thick, with two sides erected from the edges of the
V and joined above to some sort of handles. It was found
buried in the fields.
I was conducted back to the station by my guide, Avho
asked the stationmaster about " the old coffin," and the
latter produced the lower side of the coffin before referred
to as having been dug up in the field by the church. He
helped exhume it. It was completely covered with water,
and was, being completely saturated, well preserved. He
gave me a piece big enough to make a cribbage-board of,
and I am free to infer that Evangeline's grandmother
once occupied it. Only two or three w'hole bones were
found in it.
This good stationmaster also gave me a portion of a
gridiron, which he plowed up in the same field, and I shall
eat broiled fish from it in the sweet confidence that Evan-
geline herself has sniffed from it savory incense, and even
quenched her appetite with its morsels — if the dear crea-
ture ever had an appetite. About all that is left of the
ancient Acadie is its trees and its dikes. The trees are
wholly of willow and apple, and they define great squares
in the green landscape. The dikes have survived all changes,
and have grown until there are now three thousand acres
of the marsh fenced in instead of the two thousand acres
that had been stolen from the tides when Grand Pre was in
its pride and prime. They were thrifty, those old, French-
men. They didn't take many chances. The dikes of their
64 FOLKS NEXT DOOE.
handiwork that still remain are mostly inclosed \nthin
one another, and their formation shows that they built
little experimental dikes first, and, when these proved a
success, extended the effort and continued the battle with
the sea by means of other dikes beyond. From little to
more was their motto.
The people who now occupy this region of Grand Pre,
Horton and Wolfville, from which the French marauders
and insurgents were expelled in 1755, are mostly New
Englanders and their descendants. It is a curious his-
torical turn-about — transplantation of Acadians to the
States and of Yankees to Acadia. Yet so it is. The
present farmers of Grand Pre, the fishers at the mouth of
the Gaspereau, where the Acadians were put on shipboard,
and the loungers gathered out of the rain in the groceiy
store of Wolfville (or "• Wolfl," as they call it), seemed
exactly like the same class in Concord, Groton or New
Canaan, — the same garb, the same whimsical manners,
the same slant in their speech. And most of the Y^ankees
who came here were about as much expelled and exiled as
were the Acadians. They were Tories in the Eevolution,
and left the towns along Massachusetts Bay and Long Isl-
and Sound when their native land got too hot to hold them.
They had about as hard a time as the Acadians; for, like
them, they had the distress to see their property confiscated
by the government which they had opposed. The paral-
lel, however, seems to end here. For the Tories who fled
to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick — especially the 5,000
who founded the city of St. John — were generally a high-
minded, independent, superior class of men, and a much
larger part of them were educated than of the revolution-
ists who had expelled thein. They rose to commanding
positions in these provinces, and their descendants are now
among the first citizens. I met one yesterday who bore
a familiar old Khode Island name.
" j\[y great-grandfather was a Tjoyalist." lie said, "and
was sent away from New Bedford for hurraliing for King
THE HOME OF EVAXGELINE. Go
George. He was sincere, of course, in his position, but
he lived to see that King George wasn't a very great bundle
of wisdom, and in 1813 both he and my grandfather wished
the States to triumph. As to the status now — well, there
is abundant loyalty and kind feeling for the roya) family,
but 3'et the opinion is all but unanimous that Nova Scotia
Avould be three times richer and more prosperous to-day
if it was the forty-sixth state of the American Union. It
will never happen, I suppose."
The fact that " every old crow thinks her own young the
whitest,"' is founded on the tenderest of emotions; Imt is
it not odd that every villager should think his own village
the loveliest? Every person that I have met here takes
a iDroprietary interest in Windsor. It is well for their
peace of mind that it is so. " Don't you think this a beau-
tiful town ? " asked one of them yesterday. " Yes, indeed,
it is," I said. If the reply was politely disingenuous, it
certainly was not untrue. All towns have elements of
beauty. If they have nothing else, they always have the
sky perpetually within sight ; and there are, I think, few
landscapes so beautiful as shifting clouds. Windsor is a
slouchy and disheveled old town, having few attractions
l)ut its plumed elms, its amiable citizens and the pretty
towns that lie next door.
Here we leave the yacht Falcon, and go touring to Can-
ada. It is with real reluctance that we quit our lux;urious
quarters. Presentation copies of " Evangeline " are flying
around thick, and we drop the conventional tear to the dear
unwedded maiden's memory.
6G FOLKS NEXT DOOK.
OFF FOR NEWFOUNDLAND.
GENESIS OF NOVA SCOTIA. A CHILD OF NEW ENGLAND.
THE YANKEE FARMERS. WHERE CAN SAM BE? THE CRY
OF AJAX FROM A STATEROOM. SIZE OF NEWFOUNDLAND.
t
The 3'aclit Falcon we have left lashed to the wharf at
AYindsor, on the Avon^ one of the upper affluents of the
freaky Bay of Fundy, on top of a mud mountain from
which a sixty-foot tide had withdrawn in the morning, and
we talce the steamer Miramichi at Pictou, in the Gulf of
St. Lawrence. The trip to the vessel is not exciting. In
the matter of fertility New Scotland cannot compare even
Avith Old Scotland. From Windsor across to Halifax is
a dreary waste of rocks and scrub-spruces and wild ponds
for fifty miles, awakening in the mind ideas of hopeless
desolation. This accounts for the fact that any town where
apples can be grown is called the garden of the province.
A farmer might do worse than to settle in Nova Scotia.
Nova Zembla would be worse, and perhaps even Greenland.
I am proud to reflect that Adams and Franklin knew
enough to insist that Great Britain should keep Nova Sco-
tia in the settlement of 1783. What consideration King
George claimed and received for yielding the point, I do
not now remember. The New Englanders have inadvert-
ently overrun and conquered Nova Scotia two or throe
times. In 1690 men from Massachusetts and Connecticut
captured all the fortresses of Nova Scotia, just for physi-
cal exercise, and observing what sort of a country it was,
gave it l)ack to the French immediately. Thirty years
later a new generation had risen around Boston and New
Haven ; and, in the ignorant restlessness of youth, they
OFF FOR NEWFOUNDLAND. 67
fancied that they wanted Nova Scotia — especially the fort-
resses. Off they went on their sloops and picked the cov-
eted fruit, and when they had got it and looked it over, of
course they didn't want it, hut France refused to accept
it again and England had to keep it. Thirty years later
the same meddlsome Yankees thought they wanted Louis-
bourg, one of the strongest fortresses in the world, on
Cape Breton Island, known as " the Gibraltar of the
West." They didn't want it, but not having any trinket
like it, it excited their covetousness. So 4,000 of the
farmers of Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Connecti-
cut, having polished off the local Indians, marched for
Louisbourg, under command of a Boston lawyer named
Pepperel. They ought not to have taken this well-manned
fortress, on which France had spent $8,000,000, l)ut they
did — by sheer l:)lundering luck they did. And when the
garrison of 2,200 French soldiers surrendered, and the
agricultural conquerors marched in and saw that the fort
was actually impregnable, their knees smote together with
surprise and mortification, and they went to the ex-com-
mander and told him they " wouldn't have taken it if they
had known how thundering strong it was." Europe was
astounded at the exploit. King George II. made Pepperel
a baronet and his assistant a rear admiral, and those of the
assailants who were alive went back to New England, and
got home in time to hoe the potatoes.
We are afloat on the big and rather depressing steamer
Miramichi (Me-ra-ma-shee), making our way tediously
toward Labrador. Tediously, of course ; any mode of
travel would be tedious to a party spoiled by a month upon
the Falcon. And yet there are alleviations. My berth
is exactly sixteen inches wide, by actual measurement, and
there is reason for most profound thankfulness that it is
no narrower. I cavort on it with gladness, and reflect how
I must suffer if it were only two inches wide. Then the
stewardess (Neptunese for chambermaid) is a sunny, joy-
ous, frolicksome, freckled thing, red-headed and happy.
68 FOLKS NEXT DOOE.
with a hare lip and a pure heart, a foot like the doorstep
of a Connecticut meeting house, and a voice like the sound
of many waters. The charming creature began to sing
" Sweet Hour of Pra^-er " at 4 :30 this morning, and it
rang through the saloon for an hour like a pestilent bene-
diction. The character of the benediction was modified
from time to time, by the ejaculatory responses which the
hymn elicited from the staterooms, where a hundred peo-
ple were trying to sleep.
" Holy Moses, Hanner ! " I heard a voice shout,
" what'U you take to come and stand right here by my
door and sing for three hours, and not be waltzing around
and shedding them seraphic tones among strangers who
don't appreciate 'em ? "
She muttered something I could not understand, and
went prancing away to confer some of her vocal ambrosia
on sleepers at the bow. This is a pretty fair, steady-going
steamer. The saloons are spacious and airy, and the
promenade deck reaches over almost the whole vessel. The
table is good, too, though some " green corn " that showed
itself for dinner last night was smudgy and melancholy,
and looked as if it had been rescued from some agricultural
morgue. The staterooms are tolerable, except that there
are too many in a room — too many, I mean, besides those
who pay their passage. The lamps are never lighted,
whether from motives of safety or economy, I do not
know. x\fter retiring last night I heard a voice —
" Steward ! Hey, Steward ! "'
" All right ! All right ! " said that officer, huriying up
and sticking his head into the room.
'' Steward, see here, my good fellow ; are there any jelly-
fish in these waters ? "
" Why, yes, sir," replied the steward, in a surprised tone
of voice. " There's plenty of 'em all along here. Sea
nettles, the sailors calls 'em.'
" But they're not the kind that give light — phosphor-
escent they call 'em, vou know ? "
OFF FOR NEWFOUNDLAND. 69
" 0, yes, sir ; these are jest the kind," said the steward.
"They're wonderful fiery, sir; you can see 'em sparkle in
the waves like stars."
" 0, ah ! that's the sort, then. Well, steward, I wish
you'd just catch me a couple and hang 'em in this state-
room till I find my collar button."
A sally of laughter from adjoining staterooms greeted
the request, and the steward gave a snort of disgust at the
poor quality of the joke and strode off. The sufferer was
the same chap who this morning tried to negotiate wdth
the stewardess to locate her brass band in front of his door.
Some people are never happy.
For an hour before daylight the stewardess wandered up
and down the saloon turning the lamps lower and shout-
ing, " Sam ! Sam ! " in a frenzied sort of way, as if she
supposed Samuel was concealed in every stateroom. I
don't know who Sam is, or where Sam is, but I do wish
he would come forth. Having saluted every sleeper with
the abbreviation she has lapsed into vocal piety again, and
has struck up " Pull for the Shore." I don't see wdiy she
desires to go thither, though the boat has snubbed up,
or why she exhorts everybody to pull in that direction, for
Prince Edward Island has a most uninviting aspect from
the deck — low, sandy and commonplace, a long street of
slouchy buildings, as I make them out in the dawn, and
the sign of the town's industry at the water's edge, in the
shape of the yellow ribs of a prospective vessel standing
up naked and gaunt like the skeleton of a megatherium
aground.
We shall approach Quebec by the somewhat roundabout
way of Newfoundland, with glimpses of the grim coast of
Labrador. It is in keeping that the greatest outflow of
water on the North American continent should be inter-
cepted at its mouth by the greatest island on our coast —
an island larger than Long Island, or even Cuba. New-
foundland is large enough to make six states like Massa-
chusetts.
70
FOLKS NEXT DOOR.
NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOE.
COAST AND I^'TERIOR. ST. JOHN's CITY AXD HARBOR.
THE FISHING FRENZY. ROBBING THE ICEBERGS. LONE-
LINESS OF LABRADOR.
The Norsemen were familiar with the coast of New-
foundland and had visited even the interior four hundred
years before Columbus was born. They called it " the
brother of Iceland." So, indeed, it is. The huge and un-
kempt island rises from the sea, a triangular colossus of
rock and gravel, thrusting its eastern wedge afar towards
Galway. The traveler accustomed to the verdurous vel-
vet of New England is startled and shocked at the barren
inhospitality of its hard and stormy outlines. Along the
bleak and precipitous shore is a fringe of meager birch
and dwarf firs; inland spreads wide an unexplored wilder-
ness of moss and marsh, and through these solitudes roam
herds of deer pursued by the wandering remnant of the
Micmacs.
St. Jolm's has certainly one of the finest harbors in
the world, vying in this respect with Halifax, and it is the
most easily defended city on the whole Atlantic seaboard.
The ocean-wall encircles the outer bay, a mighty Coliseum,
and ships make their way to the city through a narrow
notch in the lofty and rugged cliffs, a very pass of Killie-
crankie, invisible uutil the mariner is almost within its
towering Inittresses of dark red sandstone. In the heart
of this fortress sleeps the sluggish city — the sleepiest and
the fishiest city in America.
The most picturesque characteristic of Newfoundland
is its rude and untamed coast — a marvelous labvrinth of
JSFEWFOUXDLAiYD AND LABEADOE. 71
dark fiords and maze of islands pathetic in their loneli-
ness but often presenting magnificent vistas. Within the
brown bleak mountain range that fences out the Atlantic
is here and there a hint of verdure, Imt the inhabitants
are mostly farmers of the ocean and live upon its harvest.
St. John's is a wooden city, irregular and unclean — tur-
bulent and quarrelsome, too, when the cod-fishers come
home. It has no manufactures save such as result from
the effort to supply fishermen with hard-tack. Around a
great part of the harbor are fishers' sheds, whole acres of
them, roofed with cod, split in half, overlying each other
like slates or shingles, and trying hard to dry in the damp
and foggy air. In early spring almost all of the men go
out in fleets to meet the icebergs floating down from Baf-
fin's Bay, and gather the seals, still clinging to them. A
month or two later a half of all the families of St. John's
go in schooners up to the coast of Labrador, and spend the
summer fishing there. And they joyfully carol as they
go:
" Now brothers, for the icebergs
Of frozen Labrador,
Floating spectral in the nioonsliine,
Along the low, black shore,
Where, through gray and rolling vapor,
From even unto morn,
A thousand boats are hailing,
Horn answering unto horn.
" There we'll drop our lines, and gather
Old Ocean's treasures in.
Where 'er the mottled mackerel
Turns up a steel dark fin.
Tlie sea's our field of harvest.
Its scaly tribes our grain ;
We'll reap the teeming wateis
As at home they reaj) the i^lain.
Tlio women and children who are left behind sow and
])lnnt and woo the frigid suiiiiiici- and dry the fish.
Some features of the natural liistory of the island were
quaintly outlined by Whitbourne in 1622 : '" Neither are
FOLKS NEXT DOOR.
there any Snakes, Toads, Serpents or an}- other venomous
Wormes in that Conntry, but only a very little niml:)le Fly
(the least of all other Flies) which is called a Miskieto ;
those Flies seem to have a great power and Authority upon
all loyteriuii- and idle People that come to the Newfound-
land."
The coast of Labrador, above the strait of Belle Isle,
consists of a multitude of precipitous crags and turrets in
rank and file, towering into the air, and cut into every
grotesque form that fancy could devise — every variety of
human architecture, tower, l:»astion, temple, mosque, cathe-
dral. The skv-line of New York from Jersey City does not
present greater contrasts. There are no cities in Labra-
dor — no villages — of inhabitants there are only squalid and
scattered clusters, living precariously on fish and wild
fowl. Even the birds are so unsophisticated that they do
not fear the sight of man, but suffer themselves to be lifted
off their very nests without protest. July is the rosy time
of Labrador — the one single month when visitors find it an
agreeal")le refuge.
Before reaching the mouth of the St. Lawrence we pass
Perce's rock above Cape Despair. It is a tower of red sand-
stone and conglomerate, the wrinkled and menacing sides
of which are full of a fierce grandeur, and the inaccessible
top of which is the home of countless Ijirds. There are two
villages of these, one of gulls aud the other of cormorants.
They have tacitly divided their aerial tal)le evenly between
them, and this compromise insures peace, except when the
inhabitants of one village intrude upon the territory of
the other, which is about once in fifteen minutes. Then
ensues a battle for possession, and the angiT warriors are
seen wheeling in speckled clouds above their aerie, and
their fierce cries salute the passing ships. [Mem.: — This
reminds the spectator of , however, this is no place for
moralizing.]
The Perce ghost is also frequently seen by mariners hov-
ering about the scene of the tragedv of long ago, when
NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOK. 73
Queen Anne sent Admiral Hovenden to storm Quebec.
He wickedly paused at Pictou and stole an Acadian bride
from the side of her betrothed at the altar: then he set sail
again for Quebec, and his squadron was wrecked on the
rocks at Perce.
Noi'tbward Sir Hovenden made full sail,
But down from Labrador's dai'kened coast
The Storm-king sent him a frozen gale
And the fleet on Cape D'Espoir vvjis tossed ;
From the rueful wreck there rose a wail —
The wail of a countless iiost.
And now, when the moon is drowned in clouds,
A ghost-sliip drives througli the blinding storm ;
Her deck is alive witli clamorous crowds,
And out of the midst of tlie mad alarm
An ofificer leans from the larboard shrouds
With a dead girl on his arm.
Yes, dead, I say, in a robe of white ;
And offc the Admiral's signal gun
Is heard ashore in the dead of night
When the ghost-ship over the reef has run.
And the girl's eyes glow with a filer}' light
As the ship goes dancing on !
O; skipper ! I speak the trutli. Benare !
I see her face from tlie misty sliore.
I hear ascend througii the midniglit air
A wailing above tlie tempest's roar ;
" Cape Hope " no longer, but " Cape Despair "
For the tragedy wrought of yore.
Another day passes. We leave the gloomy bastions of
Perce's rock and its quarrelsome population, trace off the
starboard quarter the green reaches of Anticosti Island,
the terror of mariners, take a farewell look through the
glass at the vanishing coast of misty Labrador, and finally
feel tliat tlio groat Gnlf is far beliind us as wo thread our
way througli myriads of lishing l)oats and glide ahuig the
smooth surface of the St. ]>awrenec. A ^■ast river it is!
AVhat an estuary! An inland sea, mow truly. Neither
shore is visible, for the I'ivcr is !)(! miles wide! At 100
miles from its numth it is .SO miles wide, and the averaire
FOLKS NEXT DOOR.
width to Quebec, 400 miles from its mouth, is more than
^5 miles ! It is certainly the most navigable river in the
world, for ships ma_y ascend for 150 miles without seeing
land or throwing lead. The St. Lawrence was famous in
Europe while Cortez was busy in Mexico, and before any
other American river was known at all ; and I remember
seeing an old map made in Antwerp 300 years ago, in
which the great river is clearly outlined, while the where-
abouts of jSTew England is indicated only by the mythical
cities of Xorumbega and Orsinora, and the rest of the
twin continents dwindles away into " unknown regions."'
Whales are seen in the St. Lawrence every week, and there
is a fisherjr for these whales on the Isle of Orleans, 400
miles from sea ! Taking the St. Lawrence all in all, its
tremendous estuary, the immense volume which it out-
pours, the black ravines that feed it, the huge precipices
that overshadow it, the thousands of peerless islands that
begem its path, the fall over which it plunges, and the
vast seas in which it rises, and it is, without doubt, unique
and unequaled among the rivers of the planet. It is the
open highway to the heart of tbe continent ; it drains an
empire of 1,500,000 square miles, and the great seas in
which it has its source are said to contain one-half of all
the fresh water on the surface of the globe. I approve of
the St. Lawrence; it is an immense success. It is exactly
such a river as ought to have been produced, just to show
what can be done in riparian articles of that sort. And
now I will go up on the deck of the Miramichi and take a
constitutional in the bracing air, l)y walking thirty times
around, observing, meanwhile, the blue far-off shores and
the fishermen near at hand, who bave drifted out from their
quiet coves to quarry in the silver mines of this inland sea.
QUEBEC AND MOxVTEEAL. 75
QUEBEC AND MONTREAL.
UP THE SAGUENAY. — A TREMENDOUS CHASM. — CURIOUS OLD
QUEBEC. A CITY OF THE MIDDLE AGES. SURROUNDINGS
OF MONTREAL. THE ST. REGIS BELL. FISH AGAIN.
We spent one day np the cai\von of the Saguenay, that
naked and untamed affluent of the St. Lawrence. It
courses southward down through Labrador, and is worth
visiting as a gloomy gorge. It is not like a river; it is
like a Norwegian fiord walled in by volcanic rock, into
which the sun shoots its cold rays slantwise, and scarcely
touches water. There is hardly any life anywhere — few
huts in the base of the black clitfs, no Indian peeping out
of the copse, no fishing boat on the sorrow-haunted water,
no bird in the abyss; and there is no beaut}^, either, except
the sublime beauty of overhanging peak. There are not
even those magical illusions of atmosphere that are suffi-
cient to soften and irradiate if not to transform any wild
landscape. Silence reigns. There is nothing but an awful
and tremendous chasm, like the Dead Sea, black as tar,
surrounded Avith a sharp escarpment of gigantic gneiss
feathered with firs of a gloomy green, and relieved against
a background of cold sky. We needed our overcoats and
wraps to sit on deck, and at night there were loud calls
for more blankets.
Curions old Quebec! relic of the middle ages. I do not
know of any view on this continent that equals that ob-
tained from the salient angle of the citadel. It finds a
parallel, perhaps, in that from Stirling Castle, in Scot-
land, but it is still given first place by the infinitely varied
scenery of low-lying meadow, and distant mountain van-
'6 FOLKS ^^EXT DOOR.
ishing in blue, river like an inland sea, blossoming with
sails and alive with steamers that look like animated toys,
and majestic public buildings and antique spires and
feudal walls. Quebec is a gigantic parapet of rock, cov-
ered with 20,000 people, like ants clinging to a camel's
back. In the old town the streets are narrow and tortu-
ous, the houses are crooked and aslant, and fantastic ;
there are sabots, blouses, portcullises, and posterns; the
scenes through which one passes are picturesque as a pano-
rama. From Duiferin terrace one looks down on ships'
masts — ships showing every flag Imt ours — and hundreds
of acres of pine timber floating down to market. And the
ferry boats are weaving their web of light upon the water,
and shadowy ships come beating up the river to their
haven. Wherever one goes about the city the gigantic
citadel on Cape Diamond towers above. This is a city of
contrasts. A seaport 400 miles from sea; a fortress and a
mart in one. An American city inhabited by French,
governed by English and garrisoned by Scotch ; a town of
the middle ages under constitutional government ; street
cars running over moats and drawbridges, and telegraph
wires clinging to the sides of feudal castles; a refined city
flanked by Indian tribes and barren mountains; in the
latitude of Paris, but suffering the winter cold of Green-
land. Before the Eevolution this whole continent was
governed from the castle of Quebec — Xew York and Bos-
ton were held subordinate to this eagle's nest of the
north. We went through the citadel yesterday. It is a
powerful fortification, covering forty acres of ground, but
not near so powerful as it looks. It could be shelled out
from the Isle of Orleans, or the distant heights, or even
the bay ; and, without strong batteries on the river, would
prove by no means impregnable. There are aliout 180
militia in possession at jiresent. Imt I don't know exactly
what would happen if England and France were to break
friendship and the French of (^)uebec should really wish
to capture the citadel.
QUEBEC AND MONTREAL. 77
In Montreal you feel that 3'Ou are in a foreign land.
Everywhere a chatter of French, or what passes for it ;
everywhere an inexplicable tangle of races and bewilder-
ment of strange usages; every little way an odd patch-
work of stone and stucco; scattered thickly, the old
churches, almost as many as there are in Naples, recalling
the ecclesiastical and feudal domination of the past. It
is scarcely necessary for me to describe the city in detail.
The finest thing about it is the great mountain that rises
like Gibraltar sheer from the back door. The summit is
reached by a direct zigzag almost up the very face of the ac-
clivity — a sort of terraced wagon way, meeting alternate
ends, like the paths familiar to Alpine travelers. From the
top the view is magnificent : the St. Lawrence plunging over
the rapids above and winding around the town and farther
north the turbid Ottawa ; below, so near that the Agnostic
of our party suggests throwing a stone upon it, the convent
of the Grey Nuns; far down the river through the trees
the top of the Convent of the Sacred Heart ; here at the
right the broad wings of the great hospital, Hotel Dieu ;
everywhere the tin spires glittering. After inhaling the
whole grand scene, and exclaiming over it, we wind slowly
down again. This is the mountain where they have the
snow-shoe races every winter — from the city straight up
over it through forest and underbrush without regard to
paths. The distance traveled is three miles, and it has been
done in nineteen minutes — the time that Courtnej^ made
in his best boat race. The Princess Louise competed in
the ladies' race one winter, and made the distance in less
than thirty minutes, they say. It seems to be the proper
thing to do — to race over the mountain in the coldest of
weather in a pair of slippers as long as sleigh runners.
Here at the right as Ave go down is a naked scalfolding
twenty or thirty feet high, the top inclined, and running
down obliquely to the hill top which we are traversing.
This is the celebrated " toboggan slide," where the youths
of Montreal of both sexes rally every pleasant day and
78 FOLKS J^EXT DOOK.
night in tlie winter. Sometimes tliere are hundreds here
sliding on tlieir toboggans from this sliarp artiticial hill
down the mountain slope into the valley below. The tobog-
gan, I believe, is a narrow board eight or ten feet long,
capable of carr}dng three or four. It must be jolly fun ; I
should think the boys and girls of all ages would erect
toboggan slides in all high latitudes where snow is a fix-
ture. As we drove by a little park with a monument of
Xelson in it, I asked what place it was. " Zhockerty
square," said the amiable driver. I had to ransack the
lists of local heroes before I came to the conclusion
(which proved to be correct), that he had tried to tell me
it was " Jacques Cartier square."'
" And this is Bosco market," he said shortly afterward,
and I had to have recourse to my guide book before discov-
ering that it was the celebrated market, Bonsecours. Tt
doesn't look like a market. It looks a good deal more like
the capitol buildings of my beloved country done in gran-
ite.
The loAvest rapids on the St. Lawrence are the Lachine
Eapids, only nine miles from Montreal — its boiling caul-
dron in sight from almost every street in the city. In
the midst of the humble cabins on shore, which form
the village of St. Eegis, a church lifts its tin spire, and in
the spire the vesper bell is ringing, as our paddle-wheels
stop and we wait for the deliberate and majestic Bap-
tiste. That bell has a bloody history. During the French
and English wars of the last century it was sent by the
Jesuits of France as a present to the new Indian converts
at St. Regis, and was captured by an English ship and
taken into Boston. There it was sold at auction and un-
suspectingly bought for the new Puritan church at Deer-
field. Two weeks later Deerfield was attacked by Indians
in the night, sacked, burned to the ground, forty-seven
white men, women and cliildrcn were tomahawked, and
120 fell into a more fearful ca]itivity. The boll was res-
cued from the sacrilege of a Protestant steeple, and some
QUEBEC AND MONTREAL. 79
of the half-naked captives were compelled to help drag the
hell across the woods and mountains to Canada before they
were put to the torture and allowed to escape through the
merciful door of death. For 150 years now, it has called
the priest-led habitant to prayer, here at St. Regis, but its
old voice trembles over the water as if shaken with emotion
by a memory of woful things.
There is a great deal of fishing around here, especially
for salmon and trout. I have seen more fishing here than
1 ever saw anywhere before in my life. I haven't seen so
many fish as I have fishing, but that's perhaps because T
haven't tried. Pickerel, black bass, muskalonge weighing
■15 pounds — you ought to hear the frenzied fishermen talk
about them. I am not an f. f. I hate fishing as a pro-
fession. I consider a real enthusiasm for fishing a mild
form of insanity. I generally let my fishing out to another
party, as the wise Chinese hire servants to do their dancing
for them. There is a sort of sport in digging potatoes,
because when you hunt for the potatoes you always bag
them; but what satisfaction there is in hunting for the
furtive and elusive fi.sh when you don't know within a milo
and a half where they are — that's a myster}^ Nokomis,
Hiawatha & Co. used to fish here, and they didn't see any
sport in it. They fished because they were hungry, and
would have smiled deep and long at the idea of spending
seven hours in the hot sun merely for fun. And they
might have shouted :
Yet you Yengese go a-fishing.
Seek the livel}^ fish, the Kee-go.
First, prepare the bait seductive.
Not tlie angle-vvorna, the Rig-giihl,
But tlie dragou-fl}', Kwo-iie-shee,
Or the hoppergrass, Pali-puk-icali ;
Stick it on a hook of silver,
On a pole that cost $10.
Then row out among the islands,
Througli each narrow nook and inlet
In and out around the islands,
Till your back is very weary,
And your aching hands are blistered,
80 FOLKS NEXT DOOR.
And your nose is skun completely.
You have seen no bass or pickerel,
King of fish, the Mishe-nahnia,
Seen no pike, the Mas-ke-no-zha,
Nary niuskalonge or dolphin,
But you've caught an eel, the Squm-squm
And the So\v-ga-sow, the Bull-head,
And you've hooked your hook incessant
Neath the flanges of the mountain,
(Thinking you a whale had captured,)
And have broke your pole to flinders.
Then, like Shaw-ga-shee, the crawfish,
You will slowly journey liomeward,
Redder than a boil-ed lobster.
Buying, as you journey liomeward,
Of the small boy, the Ne-chin-chin,
A big string of bass and pickerel
He has taken with a pin-hook.
Then you hold your head quite lofty,
Like A-goo-ma-goo, the boaster.
And you raise your Eb-e-ne-zer,
When you come to where the folks are,
And you cry, " Behold my victims !
See the fish I caugiit this morning !
Eighteen muskalonge and pickerel —
Caught 'em all myself tliis morning.
And the biggest one, a whopper.
Larger 'n all of these together
Got away from me and scooted ! "
All of this I see no fun in.
I would rather grasp the Hoe-hoe,
And, along the Big-Sea- Water,
Hunt the festive clam, the Qua-liaug.
A PEEMIUM FOR CHILDREN. 81
A PREMIUM FOR CHILDREN".
THE POLICY OF LOUIS XIV. " GET A SUPPLY OF PEOPLE ! '^
SHIPLOADS OF WIVES SENT FROM EUROPE. A MIXED
ASSORTMENT. EMBARRASSING TO MOTHER MARY. A
PRICE OF $G A YEAR FOR INFANTS.
The sparse population of Canada suggests that it will
never successfully rival the LTnitecl States unless it should
adopt again the heroic policy enforced by that good and
gorgeous monarch, Louis XIV., for populating his domin-
ions around Quebec in "■ ISTew France." He went further
in this direction than any other " immigration agent ''
ever did, before or since. He went so far, indeed, and
pursued his way so vigorously as to induce the wonder that
Canada is not by this time populated 500 to the square
mile, like Flanders or Hong Kong. If his methods of
multiplication had been as energetically enforced by his
royal successors as they were by him, there would now be
a populous cabin by the side of every pine tree and tama-
rack in the Dominion, and the rather torpid country to
the north of us would be a very lovely land of 100,000,000
people. And a dozen Canadian Pacifies would be finished
by this time, and there would be trains starting every hour
for Alaska and the Mackenzie River, Baffin's Bay and
Boothia Felix. A right jolly and vivacious old king
was Louis le Bon.
For when he saw his own young colonies planted in Can-
ada side l)y side with the young English colonies, starting
westward on tlie race of empire, and not more than 2,500
people in the whole of his dominion, he indignantly said
to his viceroy:
Q '.
83 FOLKS NEXT DOOR.
" Sacre ! zounds ! What are you about ? Why don't
you furnish people? Without people you can never sub-
due the Indians and build up an empire that shall honor
your king. Therefore get a supply of people."
And he repeated with severe emphasis the command that
was given to Adam concerning the third primary rule of
arithmetic. The poor governor-general was embarrassed.
lie didn't know exactly how to produce an unlimited
population in an inconceivably short time. King Louis
was equal to the emergency. He immediately discharged
the royal regiment' in Xew France and wrote on the dis-
charge papers, " Settle down and take homes and wives."
" Whose wives and homes shall we take ? " asked the eman-
cipated conscripts. " ]\Iay it please your majesty," Avrote
the governor-general in explanation, " the land is yours
and there are no single women here."
The king was a champion of the paternal government
theory, so he gave every soldier a home from the public do-
main. This was more than 200 years ago. Then he sent
over another regiment and disbanded that. The men
could not easily get home again. Then he issued a public
call for girls to go to New France and marry his soldiers.
Twenty responded at first; then fifty, and they were con-
signed to Mother Mary at the Quebec convent. She took
charge of the business of marrying them off. Mother
Mary occasionally found damaged goods in the cargo —
naturally enough, for they had come a good way, and had
come from France at that. One of the historians of that
time quaintly says:
" After the regiment of Carignon was disbanded, ships
were sent over freighted with girls of indifferent virtue,
under the direction of a few pious old duennas, who di-
vided them into three classes. These vestals were, so to
speak, piled one on another in three different halls, where
the bridegrooms chose their wives as a butcher chooses his
sheep out of the midst of the flock. There was wherewith
to content the most fantastical in these three harems, for
A PEEMIUM FOE CHILDREN. 83
here were to be seen the tall and the short, the blonde and
the brown, the plump and the lean; ever^^body, in short,
found a shoe to fit him. At the end of a fortnight not one
was left. I am told that the plumpest were taken first,
for it was thought that, being less active, thej^ w^ould be
most likely to stay at home, and that they could resist the
winter's cold better. The marriage was concluded at once,
with the aid of a priest and a notary, and the next day the
governor-general caused the couples to be presented with
an ox and cow, a pair of swine, a pair of fowls, two bar-
rels of salted meat and eleven crowns in money."
The young ladies had the veto power, of course, and
" were allowed to reject suitors," the record says. They
were divided into three classes to match the three classes of
suitors — the youths who had considerable money, those
who had a little and those who had none. The last class
of young men mentioned were allowed access only to the
'' hall " containing the least attractive girls. The first
class of girls contained not only the physically attractive
but a few demoiselles — girls from the French middle class,
with some education and accomplishments. Mother Mary
playfully alluded to the average consignment as " mixed
goods," and said that the first question asked by those of
the girls that had come from the French alms-houses was,
"Have you a house and farm?" As the king generally
gave them a farm, and the governor-general stocked it and
added $13 with which to furnish the cabin that the pioneer
could knock together with his own axe, the question was
doubtless answered in the affirmative. But, alas ! The
king found that some of the soldiers ho liad sent over re-
fused to marry. " Punish the disobedient," wrote the king
to Frontenac. " ]\Iarry your young men off at eighteen,
and your girls at fifteen. If fathers neglect this, fine
them ! I will send over men and maidens. Do you marry
them off at once ! " A somewhat exacting old king was
Louis. But the viceroy seconded him. Orders were is-
sued before the coming of a shipload of beauty that
8i FOLKS NEXT DOOR.
young men should marry " within a fortnight " after the
arrival of the prospective brides. Another order was is-
sued declaring that it was infamous and disgraceful not
to marry, and forbidding unmarried men to " hunt, fish,
trade with the Indians, or go into the woods under any
pretense whatever ! " This was rather rough on old bache-
lors. There was no penalty on old maids, and it is rather
startling to notice that it was assumed that every womaii
would marry almost any stranger off-hand, if she could
only get a chance. Indeed, the result seems to have justi-
fied the conclusion. The fines and disabilities worked lo
a charm. " No sooner," wrote Mother Mary, " have the
vessels arrived than the young men go to get wives, and
by reason of the great number, they are married in thirties
at a time.''
Hymen was put nnder whip and spur, but it does not
appear that Cupid materially increased his gait, for the
intendant presently wrote to the king that " a good num-
ber of our newly-married are already unfaithful, and our
population does not increase as it should."' To the report
of infidelity Louis the Good was indifferent, but the last
clause of the intendant's letter enraged him. " Make it
disgraceful not to have children ! " said the King to his
premier; "fine 'em!" It was not clear how this penalty
could be made effective, so he changed his tactics from a
fine to a prize. He immediately passed, in council, the
decree that
" In future all inhal)itants of the said country of Canada
who shall have living children to the number of ten, born
in lawful wedlock, shall each be paid out of the moneys
sent by His Majesty to the said country a pension of 300
livres a year, all those who shall have twelve children a
pension of 400 livres. To this effect they (all husbands)
shall be required to declare the number of their children
every year in the luonlhs of June and July to the intendant
of justice, police and finance, established in the said coun-
try, who, having verified the same, shall order the payment
A PEEMIUM FOR CHILDRE^^. 85
of said pensions, one-half in cash and the other half at the
end of each year."
This novel industry was more profitahle than hunting
Indians ; for $58 a year for ten children and $75 for
twelve children, was better than six shillings apiece for
Iroquois scalps. The result was that in a population of
4>000 there were 700 babes born every year ! Louis was,
in fact, as well as in name, "the father of IsTew France,"
for the robust settler was found by the king, sent over by
the king, turned into a farmer by the king, supplied by
the king with a wife, a farm, food for six months, and
sometimes with a house and furniture, and insured in his
old age with an endowment policy, depending not on his
health, or his savings, or his crops, but solely on the num-
ber of children he could succeed in raising alive. The plan
seemed likely to prevent " race suicide " — the terror, if
not the peril, of later times.
Obviously Canada should have been the most populous
country in the world, thus defying Malthus and the proph-
ets: the trouble was, I think, that Louis XIV. died before
the Indians did.
8G FOLKS NEXT DOOR.
LAST DAYS IN CANADA.
JO BEEF AND HIS BE^TEVOLENT MISSION. — A UNIQUE ES-
TABLISHMENT. PHYSICAL AND SPIRITUAL COjMFORT.
SIR PETER MITCHELL AND THE PREMIER. HOW THE
WIDOW jMURPHY's cow GOT PAID FOR. HOMEWARD
BOUND.
" Jo Beef '' is one of the notabilities of tliis "' northern
capital."' His name isn't Beef, any more than Montreal
is the northern capital, and I don't know that it is even
Jo, but everybody calls him Jo Beef. He is a leader and
has his partisans by the ten thousand, who are very proud
of him, and who pronounce his brief name with an orotund
accent, as they would speak that of the Marquis of Lome,
or Gen. Wolseley. Jo Beef owns and keeps an enormous
four-story stone building down on the revetment along
the river front, and there he caters to the manifold wants
of the sailors and stevedores. He boasts that he furnishes
everything that his patrons want at the lowest possible
price.
I looked into this unique philanthropic establishment
one morning. There is, I am satisfied, nothing else like
it in the world. The first floor is a l)ar of original pat-
tern; the second floor is a 10-cent restaurant; and on the
third and fourth floors are lodging-rooms where the toilers
of the sea can sleep for 10 cents a night; while under
the whole concern, in a deep cellar, is an iron cage in which
Jo locks up his customers wdien they become drunk and
disorderly. '' I won't have any policemen around my
place," says he ; " I'm my own police, judge and jury, and
I keeps my own jail and meetin'-house." I forgot to say
LAST DAYS IX CANADA. 87
that he sees that the spirituous and spiritual wants of the
longshoremen are both properl}^ ministered to, — but of
that further on.
The bar-room runs clear across one side of the building.
and behind the bar is gaudy and fantastic decoration in
the shape of relics and souvenirs from every quarter of the
globe — whales' teeth, elephants' tusks, idols from Mexico
and Java, tom-toms from China and spears from South
Africa. Up behind the bar is a row of human skulls
which he declares are the remaining upper portions of his
deceased relatives, and in a closet near by hangs a skele-
ton which he solemnly exhibits and speaks of in a low
voice as that of his " dear grandmother." On one end of
the bar lies always a quarter of beef — raw beef — with a
very old cheese lying by it, and a knife with which tbe vis-
itor is expected to saw off a piece of each and eat it. I
didn't eat any of the raw beef ; it looked a little too ghastly.
This apparently gave the caterer his popular name.
Just off the bar room is the spacious concert hall, al-
ways open to Jo Beef's patrons. There is every weekday
evening a free- concert by some broken down musicians
whom he keeps around, and sometimes clog dances, min-
strels, etc. ; and on Sunday evening there is always preach-
ing and Jo induces his followers to go and listen and be-
have themselves. The preaching is Avell attended, the con-
certs are popular, but the iron cage in the cellar is re-
garded by his customers as the most useful and kindly of
all Jo Beef's auxiliary institutions, for it kee}is tbem out
of the public lockup and saves them tlie disgrace and the
$10 fine. Some of Mr. Beef's most enthusiastic champions
— ready to fight for him anytime — are the men whom he
has seized when drunk, dragged to his dungeon and left
there to sober up.
" Our hero " is not by any means a formidable-looking
man. He is not a bruiser, and rules by the law of kind-
ness. But he is prepared for emergencies, and he keeps
a bear-pit under the concert room, containing three or
88 FOLKS NEXT DOOR.
four savage bears; and it is related tliat, during a fight
in the bar-room which he was unable to quell, he led into
the bar-room one of those bears in each hand and there was
the liveliest getting out of window ever seen in Montreal.
Then he lectured the roughs over their foolishness and
invited them to gather around the mouth of the pit and
see the bears sit up and drink milk out of bottles and toss
the empt}' bottles to him.
The two upper floors that serve as dormitories are cut
up into small rooms, which are inexpensively furnished
with sawdust on the floor and wooden benches running
around the four sides — each bench covered with a long
cushion and holding one dime lodger. There is only one
luxury indulged in here — a luxury rarely found in such
a place — cleanliness. By various devices these rooms are
kept clean and wholesome. If an applicant is very un-
clean Mr. Beef says : " Git out and go to some common
place; you can't lodge here." Jo is a kind of public insti-
tution. He advises the working classes in all their
troubles; is their counsel in strikes; and goes their bail
when they get in quod. Moreover, he is charitable. He
contributes to the hospitals, and in a recent time of need
he gave 3,000 loaves of bread to men out of Avork. A
strange and grotesque character is Mr. Joseph Beef — like
the aforetime Barnum's menagerie, he is " a grand, bril-
liant, combined aggregation " all by himself.
In Montreal I heard a good story of Sir Peter Mitchell,
member of parliament for New Brunswick. He was an
opposition member during the lamentable government of
Sir Alexander Mackenzie, in the last decade, and was a
most constant and uncomfortable thorn in the side of that
unhappy premier. Sir Alexander was conspicuous as a
railroad magnate, and, just before the opening of parlia-
ment one winter. Sir Peter called on him to induce him to
pay $40 for a cow of the widow Bridafet ]\Iurphy, that had
been run over by the cars. " I don't believe there's any-
thing in it ! " exclaimed the premier peremptorily ; " it's
LAST DAYS IN CAXADA. 89
probabl}' a trumped up case, but I'll inquire, and you can
call to-morrow."
The gentleman from New Brunswick was not used to be-
ing treated so cavalierly, but he pocketed it, and called
in the morning.
" There's no justice in it ; we won't pay for the cow,"
broke in Sir Alexander.
"You won't, won't you?" rejoined Sir Peter, with a
manner quite as bouncing as that of the leader of the Gov-
ernment. " Have you been there or sent there and investi-
gated it ? "
" No, I haven't, but I have inquired and I won't pay for
the cow. It's a mere trifle, and she ought to have kept it
off the track."
" Don't the law say you shall have a fence ? "
" I won't pay for the cow, now, and that's all the answer
you'll get ! "
" Y^'ou won't pay for the widow Murphy's cow, won't you ?
Sir Alexander Mackenzie, I'll make you pay for it ! '' ex-
claimed Sir Peter, now thoroughly aroused.
" You will ? you will ? How will you ? " growled the pre-
mier.
" I'll take it out of you during this very session, as sure
as you're a living man ! The widow's $40 isn't anything,
isn't it? I'll take it out of you!"
It was an Irishman against a Scotchman, and both were
angry. The sequel proved that Sir Peter " took it out of
him," very thoroughly. He is a round-headed man, a hard-
worker, a pugnacious and redoubtable foe, an unforgiving
enemy, bold and eloquent in debate, no dilettant, but a
hard hitter, and some of his onslaughts were furious. If
he has not great tact he has great force, and he never forgot
the cow. In the speeches he made every day against the
measures and methods of the government, then under se-
rious suspicion, he told the story of the widow Murphy's
cow, and trotted her out with a frequency that must have
seemed like crueltv to animals, and alwavs caused a laugh.
90 FOLKS NEXT DOOK.
Finall}' the last day of the session dawned, and the con-
sideration of Mackenzie's expense budget was resumed. It
provided the ai3propria lions for the coming year.
Sir Peter Mitchell took the floor and launched into a
eulogy of the deceased cow and the propriety of making
an appropriation for the widow Murphy. He was greeted
with laughter and mock applause, and then his auditors
waited uneasily for him to finish. He did not finish. He
told the story over again, with embellishments and elabora-
tions. He contrasted the stinginess of the wealthy ruler
with the qniet endurance of the penniless widow. He be-
gan to read from the Bil:»le the commands to mercy, jus-
tice and charity, when the honorable members straggled
out one by one to dinner. Sir Peter bit a biscuit, drank a
swallow of water and continued, impressing upon the
empty chairs about him the tender duties and graces of
humanity. Members straggled in again. He repeated the
Song of the Shirt. He quoted, " I would not number on
my list of friends," etc., and recited the whole of Hart-
leap Well from Wordsworth, about " blending our pleasure
or our pride with sorrow of the meanest thing that feels."
Members appealed to him to draw his remarks to a close.
He retold the story of the cow and went into the physiology
and the osteology of the genus Bos. Meantime Sir Alex-
ander Mackenzie was perspiring with wrath and anxiety in
the premier's apartment hard by. iVU his hopes were
bound up in the Appropriation Budget. What if it should
not come to a vote !
The honorable meml)er from New Brunswick could not
be stopped, for this was the one bill in a Canadian parlia-
ment on which a member could speak as long as he wished.
There was no way of cutting short the debate. No mo-
tion was in order while he was speaking except the motion
to adjourn — and that would be adjournment sine die. The
government members were in consternation as the orator
began an elaborate oration on the blessings of vaccination,
explaining " the unexampled services of James Phipps in
LAST DAYS IN CANADA. 91
spreading a knowledge of the m^^sterious prophylactic,"
eulogizing the heroism of Edward Jenner, Mary Wortley
Montagu, and Caroline, Princess of Wales, and ending
that branch of his subject with a fervid outburst. " It
thrills the heart to reflect that perchance the variolus pus-
tule whose mystic virtues have revolutionized therapeutics
and saved 'millions of lives, was contributed to afflicted
humanity by a humble ancestress of Mary Murphy's cow."'
This was received with a shriek of rage by the government
benches, b^Tt Sir Peter accepted the attention as so much
applause. He then looked at the clock and presented some
valuable statistics on the cost of fences in the United States
and enlarged on the methods of hobl)ling cows in Eussia, on
the various uses of cows' horns and hoofs, on the immense
su23eriority for draught jDurposes of Devon cattle, to which
class the deceased domestic friend of the bereaved widow
Murphy belonged, and on the activity of the cow in ancient
times and lands where in juvenile mythology, she is al-
leged to have vaulted even higher than our principal noc-
turnal luminary, and then began to describe the religious
ceremonies in which the sacred cow of Burmah takes part,
when the bell rang for vespers. A short time more and the
session would expire by law, and the government had
passed no appropriation bill !
At this critical juncture one of the government memliors
returned excitedly from the premier's room, rushed to the
orator's desk and exclaimed : '" In the name of God, what
ails you, Mitchell? What do you want?" "—and still,"
said Sir Peter, finishing the sentence he had on his lips,
" not a cent has ever 1)een paid for the Avidow Murphy's
cow ! " The member uttered a vehement exclamation alwut
tliat aniinal, and added, '" Sir Alexander Mackenzie au-
thorizes me to say that he will pay for the cow if you'll
let this bill come to a vote."
Sir Peter sat down, rather tired, and the widow got her
pay. The government organs declared Ihat tlic widow's
cow had cost $40,000. Her champion came to be known
92 ' FOLKS NEXT DOOE.
in Canada as Bismarck Mitchell, on account of his boldness
and shrewdness in outwitting a cabinet and making him-
self long the adviser in cliief of a vacillating governor.
In a few days we took a train southward. If we had
been good-sized octopods we certainly should have hugged
the yacht when we met her at Portland and returned to
the shelter of her hospitality from the wilds of Canada.
Not being octopods, literal embracing was out of the ques-
tion, but we gathered around the piano and sang for the
first time the following song, which one of the homesick
party had written during our exile. It went to the air of
'' Lauriger Horatius : "
Falcon fair of pinion free,
Bird of flight undaunted,
By the singing of the sea
Be her praises chanted.
Chorus —
As slie mounts the wave and flings
Foamy fountains from her.
We, beneath her drowsy wings
Dream away the summer.
Drifting on from day to day,
Past the purple highlands,
Through the shadow-liaunted bay.
Round the shining islands.
Chorus — As she mounts the wave, etc.
Far away from eager crowds.
And the land's commotion.
Dancing with the dancing clouds
O'er the azure ocean.
Chorus — As she mounts the wave, etc.
Morning sends her rosy rays
O'er the water streaming,
So the golden summer days
Glide away in dreaming.
Chorus —
As she mounts the wave and flings
Foamy fountains from her.
We, beneath her drowsy wings.
Dream awMv the summer.
LAST DAYS IN CANADA. 93
This was pealed forth with great enthusiasm. We all
sang, regardless of the minor question whether we could
sing. There was a good deal of noise. I wish you had been
within a mile or two, so that you could have enjoyed our
vocal fervency toned down by distance. Then Ave sang
it all over again. Then we went and sat in the steamer-
chairs on deck and conversed more or less, and asked one
another if it Avas not almost dinner-time. Before leaving
the yacht at the wharf in Brooklyn we had sung the song
a good many times and we all agreed before dispersing that
there Avas no other way in Avhich a hot summer could be
so delightfully beguiled. And Ave Avould meet again.
9J: FOLKS NEXT DOOE.
FOLKS IX MID-OCEAK
INCIDENTS OF A VOYAGE TO THE " VEXED BERMOOTHES." —
A TRIP TO THE ISLANDS OF THE ATLANTIC, WHERE PEO-
PLE GO TO GET AVARM WEATHER IN WINTER. — ROUGH EX-
PERIENCES AT SEA. — THE ISLANDS AND THEIR INHABI-
TANTS.^EFFECTS OF A TROPICAL CLIMATE. — CPIARAC-
TERISTICS OF THE PEOPLE. — AN INCIDENT OF OUR REVO-
LUTION. — PECULIARITIES OF BERMUDA AS A PIEALTH RE-
SORT. — BERMUDA OFFICIALS. — A LITTLE CORAL AVORLD OF
MAGNIFICENT PRETENSIONS.
I AM adrift on a great green ship in the middle of the
Atlantic, a thousand miles from solid land, her sharp prow
standing northeast and splitting a keen blast that left
the gates of the Baltic Sea yesterday morning. A thou-
sand cannon are trained along her sides, and over tliem
float a forest of British flags. Regiments in scarlet jackets
pace her decks and there are more than 11,000 passengers
beside — two-thirds of them )3lacks and perhaps a thousand
of them Americans. The Baltic blast, heated l)y travel,
breathes softly along the decks and through the cabins;
and everywhere roses blossom in gorgeous abundance, and
fruity vines cling, and ripe oranges tempt the hand, and
tropical birds sing among the palms. The name of the
great green ship is '' The Bermuda." The passengers call
themselves inhabitants, and the big verdant vessel they
speak of as an island, merely because it is staunch and
seaworthy, and doesn't seem to be going anywhere in par-
ticular; but it is a very little speck in the tremendous
ocean, and I am of the opinion that it is dragging its
anchor and slowly drifting to and fro in the deep.
FOLKS IN MID-OCEAN. 95
It was the first of March that a friend in New York
asked me to go to Bermuda with him for a short trip. " No,
thanks," I said, '• it's too all-fired cold up there I'Ot. When
it gets warmer I'll go." He kindly explained that it wasn't
" up " at all ; that instead of being near Lal)rador, it was
an island in the Atlantic, 1,000 miles off Charleston ; and
that it was " just the riffle " to go in the winter or early
spring. '"' You'll get green peas there," he continued ;
'" and ripe tomatoes and new potatoes ready for the table,
and oranges and bananas hanging right beside your win-
dow, and loquottes and strawberries, and peaches, and — "
It had been the coldest winter since Joyce Heth was a
baby. Another belated lilizzard had bored through the
Rocky mountains and was overdue at the sea coast. Young-
sports were organizing a race with ice-yachts on the Hud-
son. It was exactly the time for disappearing.
" I'll go ! " I exclaimed, " I'll go ! " And I telephoned
to the steamship company for a stateroom for myself and
wife. So Ave three came. What sort of passage did we
have? Well, it was a passage in the book of life which I
would willingly see blotted out forever. We had taken
rooms on a good vessel — a trim, taut, gallant ship fore and
aft, from the capstan l)ar to the lee scuppers ; and yet,
somehow, I do not feel enthusiastic over the trip out. The
gulf stream, which the Portuguese called the " Devil's
Basin," was not smooth by a good deal ; it was as unstable
as his property usually is; and only the ultimate Bermudan
lieaven enabled me to endure the horrors of the Gulf
Stream purgatory. I felt as if I had lieen threshed in a
threshing machine and brayed in a mortar.
If sea-sickness is "'good for people," as I have so often
heard, the hurricane-ridden water between New York and
Bermuda is the healthiest spot in the woi'ld. The Atlantic
was dreadfully " rocky " and tlu> \v:iy was rough. If any
of my companions of tliat Friday niglit, after being ferried
over the Styx, sliould fetch up in the land which preachers
warn us to avoid, he will look around uneasilv and sav
9G FOLKS NEXT DOOK.
'' All, here we are again ! "' During the last twelve
hours at sea it kept getting warmer and warmer, till over-
coats and all sorts of wraps became a burden, and our
flannels seemed a delusion and a snare. The sun shone
hot; the winds blew warm; the Gulf Stream lapsed away
to westward; strange birds and floating things were seen,
and off at the east crept above the water the rounded hills
of blue, which the captain said were the Bermudas.
The Bermudas are a nest of white rocks. So ragged
and fragmentary are they that the entire surface above
water is not greater than four miles square, and not more
than one-fifth of the whole is subject to tillage. After
arriving within the group the steamer winds in and out
and round about in crazy fashion — twelve miles east,
then ten miles west, then four miles east again, till it
reaches the middle of the lobster-shaped labyrinth, where
the town of Hamilton, the capital and chief sea-port, strag-
gles over the undulations.
The approach is picturesque. In the offing innumerable
coral reefs jut above the water in a long, irregular curve,
flinging the spray high in the sunshine; ashore, the houses
gleam among the palms — the palms tall and tattered and
feathery-topped, the houses as white as the snow huts of
the Eskimo. The Avater is of that delicate greenish blue
which excites the wonder of the traveler, like that which
sparkles around Capri and under the Blue Grotto, and
lights up the Bay of Naples.
At last our ship finds rest within forty feet of the white
stone wharf. Tt is an exciting event to the Bermudans
— evidently the event of the week — the one waking up
from the Bermuda sleep. Down they come pouring from
the hills; out they come swarming from the houses; along
the various roads they come afoot, and in carriages, and
on donke3'-back, all centering at the wharf. How to get
ashore is the puzzle of tbe passengers. Presently a long
timber is slid out from the wharf over the chasm between;
a wooden twin is pushed out parallel with it, derrick
FOLKS IN MID-OCEAN. 97
ropes hanging from the yards are hitched to them, and,
after a quarter of an hour of wheedling, their ends are
cautiously lifted into the gangway. Then two black fel-
lows — very black and very slow fellows — get astride the
long timbers and slowly and timidly hitch towards the ship.
Each one bears in his hand the end of a rope, the lower
end of which is tied to the end of a plank which is thus
borne out horizontally beneath the great l)eams. They stop
to rest. They pant for breath. The ship waits. On again
they hitch. A little boy shouts to them not to fall. They
scorn him. They are now within twenty feet of the ship.
They pause again. They calmly take off their hats and fan
themselves, and look around at the assembled thousands.
The boiler blows off steam. The heroes pant and start
again. On and ever on! Excelsior! A^il desperandum!
Do not give up ! No, never ! They cling tighter around
the timbers and hitch along till they have crossed the
awful abyss and have got within five feet of the gangway !
Here they pause, fan themselves again, rest awhile and
then tie the ropes around the timbers, leaving the plank
suspended underneath. Aha ! victory ! Then two others
hitch out with anotlier plank, and two more with another,
till a dozen cross-girders have been arranged, and on these
many planks have been slowly brought and slowly
tied.
I asked a merchant why so much time was spent in this.
" Oh," he said, " the people like it. This is the only
amusement they ever have. It wouldn't do to shorten it."'
I don't know just how many spectators there were of the
languid entertainment; probably there were about 12,000,
as that is the population of the island. The natives hcn-e
are not lazy, they are merely sluggish — born tired. Pass-
ing along one of the crooked roads you will notice a high,
white wall, with an irregular row of white statues on top
of it. You will in(|uire: " Is that native sculpture?" and
a citizen will say: " Oh, no; those are laboring men; they
are ])uilding that wall."' By standing there awhile you
7
98 FOLKS NEXT DOOR.
Avill notice that its growth is like the growth of the coral
reefs in the harbor — imperceptible to the eye.
Bermuda is virtually, but not technically, in the tropics ;
just within the temperate zone, it is yet subject to all the
balmy influences of eternal summer. In these islands
there is never any cold weather. Fruits ripen the year
round. Every week in every month the peasants are plant-
ing; every day they are harvesting. Opposite my window
at the hotel they are digging potatoes; opposite the other
porch they are planting them. Peas are ripening always;
roses always hanging on the wall; onions always distil-
ling their fragrance. This last is important ; for the onion
is the test and measure of all the interests of the island.
It is the badge of the local aristocracy^ It is the chief
commercial product. Excepting potatoes, indeed, it is
about the only staple. Ships often go laden with onions.
The onion is a loud-smelling plant; but there is a Bermu-
dan offset to it — the Easter lily. This queen of odorous
flowers grows here all the year round in the open air and
attains a majesty and fragrance unknown elscAvhere in the
world.
We are on a coral reef nine hundred miles from Xew
York, in the midst of eternal summer. The air is l)land and
warm. The harl)or is liquid turquoise. Birds sing in the
palm trees. Everywhere tropical fruits grow. Ladies and
gentlemen in cool linen and lawn and straw hats saunter
down the street. This is Bermuda — three days from the
ice-yacht race. There is nothing in the United States with
which I can compare these midget islands. A man who
counted them tells me that there are exactly 365 of them,
wliich shows that leap year has l)een mysteriously omitted.
Many of them are no bigger than a dining table. Lumped
all together, they might make a spot aliout as large as the
city of Washington. Xothing is visible anywhere but car-
bonate of lime — no clay, no sand, no drift, no rocks — not
a stone anywhere of any sort except the white carpentry
of the coral. The soil is inilverized coral, with the thin
•MlJ
FOLKS IN MID-OCEAN.
99
skin of vegetable mould which two centuries of tillage have
conferred. It is naturally about the most barren spot in
the Avorld. Originally there were no fruits here, no vege-
taliles, and no liowers. There were no animals, not even a
frog or a snake ; there were no birds, not even a bat. No
wonder the Portuguese discoverers gave it bad names, for
it was a hard spot. A navigator in 1607 called it " Devil's
Island. " They were almost always cold and hungry in
those ancient days, and they charged everything to the
devil. But they were certainly right in assigning the Gulf
Stream to him. He superintends it yet.
The touch of culture has converted this diabolical reef
into a charming winter resort and the barren whiteness
into a blooming garden. A^egetables mature best in win-
ter, but two or three ctoj)s can be raised in a year. To-
matoes, beets, peas, beans, turnips, etc., are grown here and
marketed in New York during the winter months. Yet
almost everything that is eaten here comes from New York
— flour, meat of every sort, poultry, butter, eggs, cheese
and even milk selling for al:)0ut double the New York
prices. Notwithstanding this, tourists can live for about
the same here as at any of our Northern resorts — $2 to
$5 a day.
I bask in winter sunshine — sunshine and zephyrs, nei-
ther too warm nor too cool. The thermometer stands at
about 70 degrees all the while ; the mercury seems paralyzed
in the tube, and a balmy breath suspires across the town of
Hamilton and whisks along the drowsy corridors. The
waiters at the hotels are vacation-taking schoolma'ams from
New England, and it is comfortable to see them slipping
quietly around in cool apparel — lawn dresses and tennis
shoes.
All flowers bloom in wild luxuriance from September to
]\Iay, but begin to languish before the summer solstice ; all
fruits ripen during the same season, and, as I write, masses
of oranges and lemons still cling golden to the shining
branches outside mv window ; fio- trees, still in bearinsr.
r mC
100 FOLKS NEXT DOOE.
nebtle in the angles of the wall, and the superb loquotte
tree, prince of native vegetation, offers to the hand of
the newly arrived tourist its great yellow plums.
This is the place to rest. The soft, humid atmosphere
induces languor. The natives of these islands never walk
if they can ride; never stand if they can sit; never sit if
they can lie down. It was a Mugian whose watch ran
down while he was winding it up. For the first few days
this sluggishness is dreadfully tr}dng to a live Yankee. It
irritates him beyond bearing. He orders a horse and
carriage, and it is an hour in coming; he misses his ap-
pointment. He is exasperated. He orders a boat to visit
Fairyland coves, and it comes at last, too late for the tide.
He imprecates. But as the days pass by his irritation
grows less and less at each disapjDointment At the end
of a week he isn't very particular whether the vehicle comes
at all or not. At the end of a fortnight he has been vac-
cinated with the laziness of the tropics, and when the boat-
man makes his appearance, an hour behind time, he says,
"Well, what's your hurry? What are you rushing so for?
You will kill me yet dragging me around so." At the end
of the three weeks, he forgets all about the appointment,
and the boatman finds him asleep in his rocking-chair
leaning against the side of the house. He has learned to
bid farewell to every care, and to worship Morpheus in this
verdant and floral Chapel of Ease in the Atlantic.
To an American nothing could well seem more thor-
oughly foreign than Bermuda. The tropical trees, fruit-
ing at all seasons; the perennial flowers ol' nil gorgeous
varieties; the narrow, deep cut, winding roads; the build-
ings, solid, square and low, flashing white as snow amid
the trees, all remind one of Mexico or Spain, or Al-
giers, or lower Italy, or Greece. One cannot help expecting
to be addressed in tlie soft language of the ^lediterranean ;
he thinks the boatmen may salute him in the melting Cas-
tilian of the black barcalier of Havana. On the contrary,
he hears nothing anywhere but Euolish ; sees nothins; l)ut
FOLKS IN MID-OCEAN. 101
English manners — the imitation somewhat exaggerated, of
course, as is the way of neophytes and colonists. Yan-
kees keep the hotels; and very good hotels they are, in-
deed. English preferences are so strong on the islands
that no French appears on the bill of fare. It is not a
" menu," and it offers no " potages," or " huitres," or " en-
trees." If the cook makes some pate de foie gras, he re-
cords it as plain " goose-liver patties."
Another contrast is pleasantly noticeable here. There
are no beggars. There must be people on some of these
islands who have less money than they could use to ad-
vantage, but the tourist never discovers their identity,
unless he guesses it from the plainness of their garb. There
are hardly any very rich peojDle here, but there is a high
average of comfort.
More than half the heads of families own the houses
they live in. This is not difficult to account for. In
the first place, every man owns a quarry, and it extends
all over his place, or, rather, all under it. And any man
can build him a handsome house if he owns or can borrow
a handsaw. Into the ground anywhere he saws, as he
would cut into a cheese, and out of it he lifts the cubes
of spongy and plastic stone, dazzling white, a foot or tvro
square, and lays them up in the sun to dry and harden.
When he has taken out enough of these spotless blocks,
he cements up the sides of the hole he has excavated, to
keep the water out ; and, presto ! it is a cellar, and around
and over it he builds his white dwelling, block on block.
Every darkey on this island dwells in a marble hall, and
everywhere these shine, white and dazzling. He plants
banana trees at the gate, and from them he picks rich
fruit every day in the year. If he have a couple of acres
of land he can raise two or three annual crops of potatoes,
onions and other vegetables, and he and his family are
fed. Clothing is regarded as a mere luxury — a textile
tub to the conventional whale. Tourists and soldiers
spend a good deal of money here — three or four hundred
102 FOLKS NEXT DOOR.
thousand dollars a year, in all. So nobod}' is wretchedly
poor. There are some traces of the breed of Caliban, but
more evidences that the tricksy sprite Ariel actually
did visit the " still-vext Bormoothes " as the poet tells
us.
In our Eevolution, Bermuda lent us a valuable hand.
In 1775, George Washington, commanding before Boston,
made the important discovery that the army was out of
ammunition, and that without it even the most experienced
cannon lost much of their effectiveness. In this extremity
he wrote a cunning letter to the Bermudans, setting forth
that there was a big magazine of powder on one of their
islands, under a very feeble guard, and if they would
kindly look the other way for a few moments he would
gather it in. The Bermudans had not yet begun to grow
onions, but they wept when they read the request, and
succeeded in amusing and diverting the garrison till Wash-
ington's sea captain rushed into the magazine, seized the
powder and loaded it on board his ships. It was carried
triumphantly to Boston, and this very supply enabled
Washington to win those advantages which compelled Lord
Howe to evacuate Boston and flee to Halifax within two
months.
At a later day, Bermuda again became interested in
American affairs. At the breaking out of the rebellion of
1861 a new industry Avas developed, known as "run-
ning the blockade." Ammunition and other things needed
in the South were brought here in English steamers, then
transferred to swift privateers, which took them to
Charleston, Savannah and all along shore, where they
were exchanged for cotton, and shot back again. A good
many were captured l)ut enough escaped to make the Inisi-
ness very lucrative. Single ships made great fortunes, and
common sailors became opulent. Never before or since
was so mucli money spent on these islands. j\Ierehants
put their profits in the banks and grew to be millionaires.
Suddenly the little affair at Appomattox occurred. Then
FOLKS IN MID-OCEAK 103
the merchants who had invested in Confederate money
and Confederate bonds, and the extravagant shipowners,
suddenly collapsed. The bubble of their wealth was punc-
tured by the sword of Grant. When the once-rich Ber-
mudan now goes to church — everybody belongs to the
Church of England — and prays to be delivered " from the
crafts and assaults of the devil," he always thinks bitterly
of Gen. Grant.
In no other part of the world, I think, did nature show
such supreme niggardliness as here. She gave the Ber-
mudas neither soil nor water. She simply conferred the
most delightful weather under the canopy and then stood
off and said: "'Such weather as that is a bountiful outfit
if you don't get another thing." So it has proved. To
the prize weather all other things have been added by vis-
itors. The only wild animals known here are the rat and
the mouse, brought by vessels, the casual and oleaginous
whale, and the bat that has flown across the Atlantic by
accident. There is no game whatever, and never has
been. Of l3irds, the splendid cardinal of the tropics is
here. The blue robin of New England is here, piping
as bravely as ever. The cat bird has put in an appearance,
and so has that even greater nuisance, the English spar-
row, pirate of the winged world. Two Spanish birds, the
" chick of the village " and the pretty ground dove, move
quietly about. And that is all. Not a native bird among
them I
This island is as white as so much chalk, and about as
barren. Water soaks into it like a sponge, and in five
minutes after a sharp shower one can go out walking and
find neither mud nor moisture anywhere. On some low
lands this comminuted coral, with the mixture of ele-
ments it has taken up, is not as hard as elsewhere, and
here it is occasionally cultivated, by the admixture with
the soil of a large quantity of fertilizers from America.
It can absorb unlimited cargoes of these stimulants with-
out having its impulses much stirred by them. Tickle this
lOi FOLKS NEXT DOOR.
coral reef with a hoe ever so vigorously, it never laughs
with a harvest; and after 3'ou have poured into it oceans
of poudrette, and dosed it with loam, and bound poultices
of warm guano upon its stomach, it only smiles a faint
and ghastly smile. But under these circumstances, pota-
toes, onions, tomatoes and lily bulbs are planted, and
if they can clasp a rootlet around anything softer than
a cast-iron stove-lid, they grow. Some things grow in a
warm climate without much encouragement. I saw here
a tamarind tree as large as a full-grown New England
elm that had been torn up by a hurricane long ago and
stood on its very top, its roots pointing toward the sky.
The branches that stuck into the ground put forth roots
and gave the wreck a new anchorage, while the up-turned
roots reverted and sent forth new limbs, and a dense mass
of foliage now shades the ground and invites the still
faithful giant to forget its disaster.
There is no fresh water on the island, except what comes
direct from the clouds. The sky is the cistern of Ber-
muda. The houses are all built of the coral that is quar-
ried in l^eautiful white cubes from the ground anywhere
seeming fit for the sculptor's chisel ; then every house is
topped with a slant roof of the same, and furnished with
abundant tanks. In these the rain is gathered; and the
tanks are so very clean, and the roof is so very white, and
the air is so very free from dust, that the water is the
purest in the world — pellucid as if drawn froui the choic-
est mountain spring. I never saw such delicious water
anywhere. Nature knew what she was about wlien she
omitted the Bermudan springs. So essential is tliis sup-
ply to the life and healtli of the island that there is a law
that every building shall have so many square feet of
" working " roof. Local pride does the rest. If a Bermu-
dan neglects to keep his roof clean he is despised and
handed over to derision. After growing bullis and tul)ers,
the only staple industry of this island is whitewashing
roofs. Men with buckets pwarm evervwbiM-e. Tiike a'row-
FOLKS IN MID-OCEAN. 105
ing onions, it is a sign of opulence or financial decay, and
if a roof begins to turn brown, the neighbors regard it
compassionatel}' and say to each other, " Poor Thompson ;
he's running to seed. Wonder if he has gone to drinking
again ! " — just as they would of the owner of a weedy
door-yard up in Stockbridge. And there are still other
reliances besides roofs. Wherever the ground — that is,
the coral — is sloping, and is not occupied by a house or a
crop, it is utilized. It is not painted over with the glories
of Perkins' Liver Pad ; but it is whitewashed, and a gut-
ter of cement is turned around its base, and the rain is
coaxed down the watershed and into some adjoining cis-
tern. This is whitewashed and exposed to the sun, and
the sun in this latitude is sometimes hot ; but you may open
the hot door on the hot side and dip up some water and
find it quite as cold as it is sweet and wholesome to
drink — almost as cold as ice-water. The secret of it is
that the tanks are built of the porous coral, and this
serves as a rapid evaporator, like the porous chalk bottles
of Mexico.
The view from my window is white and glaring. The
" ground " is white, save where the all-pervading cedar
grows, or flowers or shrubs have caught root. The houses
are a blinding white, and their roofs look as if there had
been a snow-storm. There is but little grass, and this of
a coarse variety that will fill up the interior cavities of a
cow but leave her pining for nourishment. There are
a few browsing goats that nibble the coral reef and seem
refreshed.
I have been investigating the question of salubrity.
Bermuda is a good place for consumptives to keep away
from. Certain sorts of rheumatism are also known to
thrive here. The climate undoubtedly has an ameliorat-
ing influence on nervous diseases and is said to furnish a
panacea for insomnia — that distressing result of modern
civilization. But it is chiefly well folks who find Ber-
muda delightful and helpful — they who are worn out with
106 FOLKS NEXT DOOK.
work and want rest afar from harassing cares and the in-
finite gibberish of a daily newspaper, or they who are tired
of the continuous cold of our northern winter. It would
seem triste to me to remain here all the while, but as an
occasional retreat among picturesque scenery, there is
nothing more attractive in the world.
" How much will it cost me to go to Bermuda and stay
a month ? " is one of the first questions the traveler will
ask. Well, of course this depends on the taste of the ques-
tioner. It will cost quite as much to come here and set up
housekeeping as it would cost in the United States. Board
for a short stay costs just about the same as at an Ameri-
can watering-place — rather less than more. At the Prin-
cess the terms are $3 to $4 a day, or $18 to $25 a week —
about the same as at similar first-class hotels in the States.
At the best boarding-houses a good room and good table
(fresh fruits and new vegetables the year round) can be
had for $]0 to $14 a week. A carriage for half a day
costs $2.50; a boat is quite as reasonable.
This is the middle of the British Empire. Around
Bermuda revolve in their happy orbits England, Canada,
Australia, India, and all the dominions of the Queen.
The first man I saw on landing was a soldier. The last
man visible as I looked out the window just now was
thirty or forty soldiers. Everywhere are uniforms, flags,
cannon, stacked arms. Amputate Gil)raltar and you have
Bermuda.
Every hillock is a fortress. The air is sulphurous with
]iowder. The little islands in the bay are barracks and
powder-magazines. I never saw so much pomp and cir-
cumstance in my life.
I am standing upon the very top of a mountain higher
than Mount Blanc ! Eternal flowers instead of eternal
snow crown its suiiiiuit. The wliole mountain is sub-
merged beneath the Atlantic, and down its slimy sides
play the mullet and luTam. chub and amber-fish, among the
wrecks of Spanish galleons, and far below float, jioiscd in
FOLKS IN MID-OCEAN. 107
the compact cleeiD, the gold and silver coin lost by mer-
chantmen or flung away by pirates centuries ago.
There is scarcely anything even now that can be called
soil; what there is has been distilled from the sea by the
little zoophyte. These islands — or let us say, this island,
for that named Bermuda is the largest and the one on
which reside the most of the 13,000 inhabitants, is merely
a white coral reef, with a thin skin of verdure on its sur-
face. The coral has assumed various forms. In one place
it is simply calcareous sand drifted up from the coral sea
and blown inland ; in another, sundry parts of the marine
limestone have been washed out by the rain, leaving a
rough bony skeleton, like the scoria of volcanoes; in still
another, the other inorganic substances which coral con-
tains besides carbonate of lime, such as the peroxide of
iron, alumina and silica, have united in what is called
*' red earth," which, mixed with vegetable mold, con-
stitutes the principal soil of the islands. This last is only
one per cent of the whole; but it is enough to form sev-
eral sizable pockets and mask the naked coral in a good
many places.
The island is thinly set with trees, shrubs, grass, of
nameless sorts and unnumliered varieties — all brought
here from other lands, I suppose ; for even the cedar, which
grows everywhere and seems indigenous, is exactly like
the Virginia cedar, and was evidently transplanted hither
by Sir George Somers, who settled Bermuda from that
colony during Captain John Smith's escapades.
Somers explicitly relates that he found no living thing
on the islands except droves of wild hogs, resulting from
a pair left by a previous navigator. They, he said, '" had
overrun and possessed all of the lands." This shows that,
though Sir George says nothing about the breed, it was
the ordinary British hog familiar to tourists. The only
wild animals here at present are mice and whales — if they
will permit me to mention them together.
When this Atlantic continent sank beneath the sea, and
108 FOLKS NEXT DOOE.
the last pinnacle of rock disappeared forever, millions of
years ago, the zooph3ftes came from southern seas and be-
gan their work of building a beautiful coral reef around
it, like the gorgeous crown the Persians constructed for
their dead king. These poh'ps — gelatinous, mucilaginous
and shapeless creatures without legs or hands, or eyes, or
heads, or even stomachs, called " coral insects" by the
earliest writers about them — were away from home. They
were the very huml:>lest of terrestrial masons on the very
northern edge of the coral-building zone, 500 miles north
of the tropics. But they went at work briskly — or, rather,
they began to live. From the water they distilled lime for
their l^ranching bones, as oxen do from grass, and when
they died they left these bones, in the shape of white and
red coral, to fill the shallow water over the mountain's top.
Through centuries the work went on. Higher and higher
were piled the bones in the coral cemetery. Here and
there the reef stuck out of water at low tide, and on the
windward, or southwestern, side the wind blew the lime-
sand of the pulverized coral into heaps. So these islands
were formed at last — so they are forming now. So this
vast extinct volcano has burst into bloom, and here where
the yawning crater was, all tropic fruits and flowers find
perfect maturity in the middle of the northern winter.
The tea roses here are the choicest in the world. I can
see from where I sit a bank of flowers which includes the
most superb marshal neil, lamarque, bon silene. agrippinas,
and other varieties of this superb flower. There is also
here an original called the shell-rose — a most delicate
purplish-pink, which ought to be known in x4.merican con-
servatories. Above tbe hedge beyond climlis the familiar
convolvulus, with a blossom of unfamiliar size — some four
inches across. Over tbe white roadway hangs, like a
plume, the laburnum, and swings its yellow bells. Here
and there bursts the sharp flame of the cactus, and by the
side of almost every door is seen the purple mass of the
banana's bloom under tbe tattered umbrella of foliage.
FOLKS IN MID-OCEAN. 109
The nervous excitement attributable to the yelling news-
boy and his messages are unknown here.
'■ I see that the Eepublicans have carried the States
again," said a lily farmer.
I reminded him that the news had been on the island
nearly a week.
" Yes," he said, " but it has onl}^ just reached me in my
daily paper."
He laiighed and then explained : " I am trying to realize
the whim of having a daily pajDor every morning, as I
have always been accustomed to at home. The papers
arrive all in a lump, of course, when the steamer comes in ;
but I lay them economically aside and read only one each
morning, waiting till the next morning for the next. In
this way I always have fresh reading and the papers never
grow stale. I am just a week behind; that's all. I fancy
that I keep up a livelier interest in things in this way than
in any other. Now, this is next to the bottom of the
pile. To-morrow another steamer comes in and I shall
begin again."
Bermuda is merely a little coral world projecting above
the sea; but when one comes to inspect its government, he
is reminded of the Declaration of Independence engraved
upon a dime. Its government is as perfect as a lady's com-
bination pen-knife, with file and nail brush, button hook,
gimlet, chisel, awl and corkscrew attached. It is a perfect
nest of authority. I never saw so much government to the
square inch in my life ; it is the most governed part of the'
terrestrial globe. If the Jeffersonian maxim be correct —
" that governm^ent is best which governs least " — Bermuda
must have the worst government under the sun. In the first
place, a division of the British army is stationed here, un-
der a major-general ; and the West India fleet of warships
under an admiral. Do you suppose that satisfies the amlji-
tion of the Mugians? Why, not at all. There are about
1,300 acres on this entire crescent of islands under cultiva-
tion; and there are just al^out 12,000 people here, all told.
110 FOLKS NEXT DOOE.
About 4,000 are white — of these 1,500 are soldiers and
marines. Of the remaining 2,500, something like 800 are
white men and voters. A town in New England of this
size and population would have two selectmen, three school
ma'ams and a hog-hayward, and get along first rate. But
here they have 522 public officials of one sort or other —
just about two-thirds of the whole white male population!
Below Major-General and Admiral they have, first, a
Governor at $15,000 a year; second, a Cabinet at a good
stiff salary, somewhat like the British Ministry; third, a
division into eight counties and several towns and cities,
and each city has a Mayor, and a Board of Aldermen and
Common council; fourth a regular full-fledged Parliament
with upper and lower house and forty-three members !
And they have their mimic scjuabl)les and their soul-stir-
ring speeches, and they sit all the time they can, and enact
thousands of laws and the compilation is about as big as
that of Great Britain. Then there are twenty-six Custom
House officers. After this, instead of relying on a couple
of justices of the peace, as a Connecticut town of the same
size would do, they sport a hundred justices of the peace,
an Admiralty Court, a Court of Bankruptcy, ■ a Court of
Ordinary, a Court of Chancery, a Court of Assize, with a
chief justice and two associate justices. Style? Well, I
should think so! These 4,000 white folks and 8,000
colored mean to maintain their dignity if every man has
to 1)0 an officer. And on Sunday, from the top of every
house that is a house is unfurled the Union Jack in all
its glory.
With all this prodigality of offices, no man can vote here
unless he owns real estate worth $300. If he aspires to
go to Parliament he must be worth $1,200 at least. But
if the Bermudans are much governed, they offset it by
being slightly taxed. Great Britain pays most of the ex-
penses. Taxes here arc only 48 cents on $1,000 — five
cents on $100, or haU' a mill on $1. I suppose this is the
lightest taxation in the world — it is imperceptible. It
FOLKS IN MID-OCEAN. Ill
shows how much more liberal we are willing to be when
somebody else foots the bill. The Bermudans incur no
unnecessary expenses. They do not build bridges for they
have no rivers. They do not build roads, for the roads are
cut in the coral beds everywhere, and never need rebuild-
ing. There is little use for jails, for there is no encour-
agement for thieves. If anybody loses anything it is only
necessary to search the inhabitants of the island to find out
who has it. It is an antithesis to the little republic of
San Marino, whose people pay their own expenses, and
whose regular army therefore consists of fifty soldiers, one
cannon and one mule.
In a minute steam-tug we went " out to the coral reefs "
— a scimeter of shoals facing the northern shore, ten miles
long. In the vicinity the waters of the bay assumed lovely
tints running through the gradations of many colors — yel-
low, orange, pink and apple-green, and here and there a
well marked belt of red and purple. Over one of these
shoals we anchored. The reef was only some five or six
feet under the boat, and it was very rich in color. The
water was rippled by the wdnd, l)ut to offset this we used a
'■ water-glass." A water glass is a square bucket with a
plate-glass bottom, and by lowering it just below the sur-
face it breaks the waves and renders all below almost as
clear as if seen through the air.
The very first glance through the water-glass excited
wonder, which was constantly increased. It was the reve-
lation of a new world, as if one could get a bird's-eye view
of the strange vegetation of the planet Mars. The whole
bottom was a field of coral, dead and living — the dead
white and ragged, the living trembling and waving above
their beautiful homes like many-colored jellies.
We could see the great masses of brain-coral, some
whited sepulchres, some a vivid green, showing that the
shell was still inhabited ; near by was a grove of the purple
gorgonias and all sorts of fluttering and feathery things.
There were yellow sponges, standing up and l)cckoning like
113 FOLKS XEXT DOOE.
human hands, and bunches of seaweed of all shades of olive
and bright green- and red. What surprises us most is that
almost the whole bottom is coralline.
Eight feet under the bow is spread a mimic garden.
The growing corals look so much like flowering plants that
it is not remarkable that Reaumur and all the old natural-
ists classified the coral as a vegetable growth. There is
a broken hedge of fan-coral of a bright brick-red, and
growing under its side, as if in its shadow, a mass of bril-
liant things that look like thistles, marigolds, carnations,
asters, daisies, and gazonias; they have evidentl}' been
flung over the hedge in clearing the garden, but they
have persistently taken root again and gone on flowering.
The branching coral grows like a tree, putting forth
branches; and each branch is covered with buds, and each
bud is a young polyp. The base is dead and forms a part
of the reef, but each of the living branches (green or yel-
low) is tipped with its sea-anemone, which goes on drink-
ing of the sea and depositing lime in the skeleton of which
it is at once the mother and the child. In many places
the fringes of fluttering tentacles reaching upward are
so conspicuous that they quite mask the coral and hide it
from view. The brain-coral grows here finer and larger
than anywhere else in the world. When alive, the curious
cerebral labyrinth on its surface is still visible, but some-
what obscured by the myriads of tenants which ajipear to
be little more than a scum of yellow mucus.
Looking downward from one of the windows in the
cabin, we can see a curious sight. Here is one of the
edges of this section of the reef, breaking sharp off in a
perpendicular wall or cliff, dowji which wo can look s(uue
thirty or forty feet. The side of this precipice is covered
richly with sea-flowers — many sorts ol" coral in all stages
of death and life. It is like looking down the steep side
of a mountain. .Sentient morning-glories palpitate to-
wards the sun. IMiniic trees are growing there, like the
spreading antlers of an elk — like arboi- vita^ bushes turned
FOLKS IX MID-OCEAX. 113
to crimson and gold. Star-coral gleams there, sending out
its purple tentacles like petals around a thousand pretty
disks. Sponges flutter and wave along the dizzy height.
Sea-anemones cluster like half a dozen marshal neils on
one stalk. x\ fine specimen of brain-coral has tumbled
oft" and lias caught in the antlers. We fish up some of these
with hooks and tongs, and at last, as the tide rises, we turn
with our trophies home again across a sea surpassing the
Bav of Naples for loveliness.
8
IM FOLKS NEXT DOOR.
CUBA, THE ISLAND EEPUBLIC.
PINK PIGS IK THE BLUE SEA. BIRDS OF ZIGZAG FLIGHT.—
STRIKING FIRE AS THEY GO. A TORCHLIGHT PROCES-
SION. THE GATEWAY OF THE ANTILLES.
We left New York two da3^s ago. To-morrow, Febru-
ary 20, we shall spend in Havana. Yesterday, shot out
of a cyclonic revolver off the Carolina coast, we crossed
into the calm warm w^ater of the Gulf Stream, where we
are now scudding due south. The Florida coast is a mile
oif at the right, and the tall cocoanut palms, topped with
a whorl of long-ribbed fronds, shake their torn umbrella
plumes at us as we pass. Now and then, ten miles apart
or more, missha]3en huts shaml:)le down to the beach ; no
other sign of human life is visible all day, not even a
boat. This strand could not have been more desolate
when strange birds fluttered in the sails of the Pinta,
and strange weeds drifted about its keel; or later, when
Ponce de Leon drank here from the fountain of perpetual
youth and died.
Even the monotony of the Florida coast has its fasci-
nations. Beyond the deep-blue water, still flecked with
white recollections of the storm, stretches a low sand-l)ar.
with the yellow sun on it ; ))eyoud this, an almost interm-
inable bayou that makes Florida an island within an isl-
and; beyond this, again, rises greenly the varied vegeta-
tion of the vast Everglades. The Everglades contain
30,000 square miles — as much as New Hampshire, Ver-
mont, ]\Lissachu setts, Rhode Island and Connecticut —
and they consist of an endless swani]). untillable, impene-
trable, the home of the snake antl ])elican, and the para-
CUBA, THE ISLAND RP]PUBLIC. 115
dise of the crocodile — the old boss crocodile, who pulls his
victim into the water, by the leg, bites off a piece for
lunch, and thoughtfull}' stows the rest away in his larder
under the bank, where he can get a cold bite when he
wants it. I shall not go ashore.
A so-called improvement company has bought a few
million acres of this swamp that lies high enough to be
drained, and experiments thus far made show it to be
solid vegetable mold, six or eight feet deep, capable of
becoming the finest sugar-growing land on the continent.
If we live long enough we shall, perhaps, see " the eter-
nal Everglades " turned into a sugar plantation, and the
crocodiles, by a kindred process of agricultural evolution,
turned into social sheep and companionable hogs.
Speaking of the latter interesting creatures, I have just
been called on deck to see their marine prototypes, the
porpoises. I am fairly tired of these creatures' gambols;
of their racing round and round, hold of each other's tails
and turning summersets high in the air ; of their various
military evolutions; of their ranging themselves in pla-
toons a quarter of a mile to leeward, and jumping across
the tops of waves till they head us off: though these an-
tics are interesting and give rise to sundry speculations in
dynamics, they at last l^ecome fatiguing. But just now
the animals gave us a new and curious variety of friski-
ness. Half a dozen of them ran ahead of our how and
kept there within just about a foot of the vessel, exactly
as you have seen a spry dog run ahead of a wagon-wheel
that continuouisly brushed his tail, or a drove of swine, to
which they are likened, run obstinately ahead of a car-
riage and refuse to get out of the way. The name these
queer fish Ijear moans '' sea-hog " in various languages.
They are just about as big as swine, with skins of a pol-
ished pinkish gray, and they paddle on with precisely the
motion that legs would give them, with scarcely a move-
ment of fin or tail, and they have arched backs, bright,
small eyes and long, flexible snouts with which, now and
116 FOLKS NEXT DOOE.
then, they vigorously root each other aside; and, after
half an hour of racing they suddenly dive off right and
left and disappear with a flirt of the tail, as if angry he-
cause they hadn't thought of it before.
Just as the porpoises adjourned and went down to lunch,
half a dozen strange birds appeared close to the bow, and
resumed in the air under the bowsprit a similar exciting
race. They were a brisk bird of zigzag flight, of slate
color, with spots of white, and I thought they were swal-
lows at first, till they exhibited two pairs of wings, one
large pair in front and a smaller set behind. They came
within a dozen feet of us, and I was trying to decide what
sort of swallow they were, when one seemed to lose his
balance and fall headlong beneath the waves. " Poor
chap ! That's the last of him," I exclaimed, as he sunk
completely. " Drownded ! " said an old lady near by ;
" must 'a had the heart disease 'ur sonthing ! ''
Then another dropped and sunk, and then another, till
all of them had disappeared within ten seconds.
" Those are flying fish," said the purser standing near ;
" any quantity of them around here. They drop into the
water as soon as their fins are dry."
''Here is another of the pink pigs!" cries a little girl,
and sure enough the porpoises come trooping back and
take position in the race at the bow of the steamer. They
gather side by side till there are a dozen of them in the
rank, averaging from four to ten feet in length, and then
six or eight others come and form a front rank ahead of
them, none of them more than a foot or two lieiicatli the
water. It is wonderful what a straight line they keej) ;
they are evidently well drilled, and their race in double
rank recalls the old orders of "(U : "Heads up! Eyes
right! Little finger on the seam of your pants." At
regular intervals they juiii]) out of the water and dive
again as if by a stated signal, as if the sei'geanl (prob-
ably the fellow with the rainbow back) had said, ''Now,
boys!" This movement is so reguhir that I have tinied
CUBA, THE ISLAND EP]PUBL1C.
11^
it and found just a1)out ten seconds intervene between
the curious leaps, and in the top of each one's head is a
hole as large as a half dollar, through which the creature
takes breath, with a noise half way between a snort and
a grunt. Probably I have not discovered anything im-
portant about the porpoise or the flying-fish, but some of
these antics are new to me^ and so I have set down my
impressions.
The porpoises are still cavorting at the bow, and as
night has fallen, the sea is very phosphorescent and their
sides are fairly luminous, so that each fish carries a tail
like a comet. iV porpoise traveling alongside the steamer
looks like a fiery serpent thirty feet long, and when they
assemble in a bevy at the bow it seems as if we were being
led into Havana by a torchlight procession. And the
flying-fish, looking almost white now in the darkness, flash
out of the water and into it again, striking fire as they go.
When we steam under the sombre battlements of Morro
Castle and move up the bay to our anchorage, we can see
fiery fish darting in the depths below, and on every hand
are phosphorescent flames, wdierever the water is stirred.
118 FOLKS NEXT DOOE.
THE CAPITAL OF CUBA.
INTO THE HARBOR OF HAVANA. BARCALIERS. POLYGLOTS
IN POLYCROME. THE VOLANTE. STREET SCENES AND
SOUNDS. I-IARD LINES AT THE HOTEL. " USTED !
USTED ! " AMERICA EVERY'WIIERE IN EVIDENCE. THE
MUCH-NAMED ISLAND.
Havana lies at the head of a large land-locked harbor,
like New York, approached from the sea by a narrow
strait. At the left of our steamer the historical Morro
Castle rises fifty feet above the water, and at the right is
the fort^'ess of Punto — neither of them very formidable.
Inland from the Pnnto spreads the bedraggled city. The
most noticeable sight as we steam up the harbor is the
flotilla of little boats surrounding us, clamoring for our
baggage and a fee, manned by black barcaliers in cotton
trousers and straw hats. They hold on high l)unches of
bananas to tempt us, but they are not very insistent, and
are content at last when the captain anchors off shore, and
we creep down the oscillating rope-ladder to their lioats.
The city is so insalubrious and the wharves so hlthy and
pestilence-ridden, that vessels always anchor out in tlie
harbor when they can. And when we take a boat to go
ashore, manned l)y a negro who seems a in-odigy of learn-
ing because he speaks both French and Spanish glibly, his
lifted oars trickle as with drops of red-hot iron, and as I
dip the sponge over the guards and squeeze it, it seems a
mass of fluent flame.
Stepping ashore we transTer ourselves to tbo only visi-
ble land vehicle, a volante. As we curiously inspect it,
the iiilot of tlie auxiliary donkey announces with a distinct
THE CAPITAL OF CUBA. 119
note of triumph that there are six thousand vohmtes in
the city. The volante is a pretentious two-wheeled ma-
chine swung hetween two immense wheels and a horse,
upon a pair of very limber shafts fifteen feet long — so
long that it cannot turn around in several of the streets
of the city. From these shafts tiny sleigh-bells jingle,
and between them the passenger crouches and holds on to
his trunk. Also between them, at the other end, is a long-
eared animal surmounted by a vociferous little negro who
wears a huge pair of leathern leggings, or galligaskins,
decorated with brass buttons, through which his naked
feet protrude and which at the lower end are garnished
with enormous spurs. Add white breeches, red jacket em-
I)roidered with gold lace, and a broad-brimmed straw hat
trimmed with colored feathers, and we have a picture sug-
gestive of a rainbow on a jackass. My particular mozo has
also a proud and radiant countenance and a piercing yell
aimed at everj^body that gets in his way.
As we rattle along over badly paved streets we become
conscious of several curious impressions: there seem to be
no women abroad but negresses; naked picaninnies swarm
in the gutters; there are many-colored multitudinous awn-
ings. Most of the residences are one-story onl}^ and the
front windows are cut down to a level with the sidewalk-
These windows are generally grated and without glass,,
and even without curtains, revealing the entire interior —
here and there a flash of marble floor and handsome colon-
nade. This renders communication between the residents
and the wayfarers very easy and social : the curious can
" assist " at balls without being invited.
At the hotel : We and our trunks are handed over by
the landlord (supine in a hammock) to the tender mercies
of one Eul)io, who deposits us at the top of the house in
a room that has another trunk in it. Eubio vanishes. I
capture him and bring him back by the collar. I want ar-
rangements for washing; also a towel. Eubio looks thun-
der-struck, but assumes an acquiescent air and saunters
120 FOLKS NEXT DOOE,
out. He returns no more. There are no call-bells in the
room. Nor in the hall. I go downstairs. 'J"-:> hammock
is empt}^ Nobod}^ in the office. But there is a tin wash-
basin there. In the adjoining room I find a pitcher of
cleanish water, and I surreptitiously lave my features and
regain my room without being discovered in the gviilty act.
As we try to adjust ourselves to the strange surroundings
the door opens suddenly and in comes an obvious Span-
iard. I rise. He looks surprised and murmurs something
inarticulate. My wife also looks surprised. He speaks
English a trifle better than I speak Spanish, and I make
out that he proposes to stay, as he calmly takes possession
of one of the two beds, and boldly sits on it. I remon-
strate, adopting to some extent, I doubt not, the ingenious
device of Mrs. Plornish when she addressed the Italian,
Cavaletto. Eemonstrance unheeded, I seek the office
again.
Officials still absent. I push open a door and find my-
self in the dining-room. At the other end of the room
double-doors swing open, and a dark brown manikin
pushes into the room and stations in a corner of it a vol-
ante, vnth all its fifteen feet of shafts. No! Yes! It
is — it is — my own iridescent mozo, and the very volante
which brought us from the Avharf ! I am surprised for
the moment, but shortly ascertain that Cuban volantes
are generally stabled in the dining-room or the front hall.
In a few minutes the landlord becomes again visible.
He speaks a little English. Yes, sure enough, he had
forgotten that there were others in the room ! He did
not lay it to Eubio, and I have been ever since wondering
why. He frankly took it upon himself and hi id it to the
aberrations of his own mind. If he added a few Spanish
expletives, far be it from me to report that fact. In the
end I got a room that was not already cr(nvdo(l : also
lavatory arrangements.
We try to sleep. The house is pervaded liy a persistent
odor wliich rei)els the drowsv <'"(id. Tlu^ noises are also
THE CAPITAL OF CUBA. 121
conducive to wakefulness. I hear Cubans singing some-
where, and other Cubans extorting a wail from a dis-
consolate guitar in the next window; the squeak of fid-
dles; the voices of croupiers vending lottery tickets and of
picadores announcing the next bull-fight ; the clamor of
maskers returning from a revel, an opera-tronpe rehears-
ing across the alley, street-car bells jangling, mules and
trumpets braying, drums beating on the ramparts, church-
bells ringing to frequent mass, all punctuated by the noise
of washing and breaking dishes in the kitchen and the
shout of " Eubio ! Eubio ! " down the unresponsive stair-
way. And then comes knocking on the door, presumably
by the landlord, who cries " Usted ! Usted ! Was it you
wanted to be called at five for Matanzas ? " " No ! Go
way ! " Then to the next door " Usted ! Usted ! Was it
you wanted to be called at five for Matanzas ? " " No !
Get out ! " and the crash of some heavy article flung down
the hall after the unhappy landlord. On the whole it is
an uncomfortable night, and the hotel charges are just
the same if you lie awake. We can tarry but a couple of
days in Cuba. Let us hasten to observe :
The streets are gay with stars and stripes, lending viva-
city to the morning. There are other evidences of Ameri-
can possession besides our flag and our soldiers. An
urchin intercepts you with all the audacity of the Bowery
with " Me Americanos ! Shine 'em up ! " He placidly
smokes a cigar as he polishes, and when I question him I
find that he has exhausted his small reservoir of English.
Fakirs from the continent have reached Havana and
possessed it. Here we find the shirt-stud and shoe-string
peddler; here the itinerant picture hawker, yonder a hand-
organ and monkey; here the sidewalk shooting-gallery
("only penny"). And that reminds me of a sign over
a store opposite my room. " All kinds ! All kinds ! You
can surely shoot yourself here ! "
Another slightly ambiguous sign reads ; '^ Eooms to
let ! For connivance of guests ! "
122 FOLKS NEXT DOOE.
The fact that the American (as the United States man
is called) is very numerous, is recognized in a sign " Stop,
Americans ! Stop ! Chewing gum sold here ! "
Cuba is about the size of Pennsylvania and its popula-
tion (about one-half white) is a million or so — say a
third that of Pennsylvania. It had a long struggle with
church and king for the privilege of retaining its short
and euphonious heathen name. Columbus first called his
new find " Juan," in honor of the young son of Ferdi-
nand and Isabella ; then " Fernandina," in honor of the
king; then, as the expedition was fundamentally a religious
one, " Santiago" (St. James,) then " San Cristobal," after
Columbus himself, and finally '' Ave Maria," (Hail
Mary!) but the old native name, "Cuba," persisted, and
at last survived them all. Havana was called " Carenas "
by Velazquez, but the original name " Havana," meaning
simply " The Harbor," drove it out.
The Cubans are recklessly extravagant in their selec-
tion of fanciful and fantastic names. Each man, woman
and child has half-a-dozen, though some of them, perhaps
borrowed from relatives who are impecunious, are per-
mitted to rest. Every town is canonized with a saintly
name in addition to its popular name. Every cell in
the Havana jail is named after some martyr of the cliurch
and for generations the twelve cannon on the battlements
of Morro Castle, frowning over the bay, have been named
in honor of the twelve apostles. Every store on the main
street has its grandiloquent designation. These are
named for gods and goddesses ; for tlie sun, mo(Ui and
stars; for flowers ai^d fruits and precious stones ; for
feast days and women's names; for ])leasing odors and
flavors; for strength and beauty and all the virtues. It
is a nomenclature of hyperboles, and to translate the
street ro(|uires a glossary of sweetness.
The typical Creole of Havana is a weak, sickly, frivolous
creature, with long scraggy neck, tliin lluted legs, indo-
lent haliits and enervating pleasures, genc^rnlly submissive
THE CAPITAL OF CUBA. 123
to the Spaniard and American, destitute of either energy
or ambition, courage or knowledge. Between Spaniard
and Creole are as sharp racial jealousies and hostilities as
between the Creole and the black. But they beat all the
inhabitants of the revolving globe in politeness. Polite?
I should think so. With bowing, embracing and oral pro-
testations they grease the wheels of personal intercourse
constantly. If they had as much energy as they have
courtes}', I don't know but they could capture the United
States.
We went one night to hear the audience at an opera.
For the opera itself is the last thing heard by the cultured
Spaniard or Creole. Without listening much you shall
hear the hum of animated conversation and the cachin-
nation of laughter drowning out the prima donna and driv-
ing the distracted tenor into a corner of the stage. But
if the theater is a bad place to hear the pla}^, it is an ex-
tremely good place to hear the audience — and see it,
too. The pit is high and convenient, and only men are
admitted to it, and around the edge is a fringe of soldiers
in full uniform of blue seersucker, broken out in little
blisters, and each one fans himself with his l)road straw
hat. The proscenium and mezzanine boxes are wide open
front and rear, yielding an unobstructed view of the occu-
pants and their scanty full dress, even to cream-colored
slippers and bits of pink stocking. These ladies are ex-
perts in flirtation, and they seem to ])ay oven more
attention to their attitudes and movements than to their
speech, and more to wheedling inflection than to the words
themselves, and the way they use their hands and should-
ers and arms and eyes is a caution to unsophisticated
Americans.
But these luxui'ious Itoxcs are rented at ]iric-cs wliich
even in New \ ovk would ]n' emailed extravagant, and wo-
men wbo wish to attend tliis conversazione and cannot
afford the lioxes have to eonsent to l)e slnit off in a gallery
1)V themselves — in the uii])er Wvv. This is fenc-ed off from
124 FOLKS NEXT DOOR.
the rest of the theater, and no man is permitted to enter.
Husbands and beaux stop at the gate, and between the
acts the)' compensate for their absence by sending in bon-
bons, ices, and cnps of water b)^ the hand of duennas in
waiting.
THE CAPITAL OF CUBA. 1^5
GLIMPSES OF EUEAL CUBA.
ITS ARSOIiPTlON OF KAIN AYATER. VEGETATION" BY THE
WATSIDE. — • TO MATANZAS NOTWITHSTANDING. A
SUGAR PLANTATTONT. — AN EXAMPLE OF SPANISH COURT-
ESY. SIXTEEN PIOURS A DAY. RELIGION AT A DIS-
COUNT. CONVERTING PAGANS. BAPTISM BY FORCE.
It has not rained for some months. By and b}- it will
begin to rain, then look sharp ! Then lay in, or, rather,
lay out, your entire supply of umbrellas and galoshes, for
when it rains here it spills upon the landscape unfrae-
tured seas. Last year ten feet of rain fell on this island
during the summer months !
There are fewer shade trees in Havana than in the bet-
ter class of American cities, and immense is the contrast
with our national capital, which possesses a hundred thou-
sand shade trees — trees every twenty feet on both sides
of its five hundred miles of streets. To see an abundance
of umbrageous foliage of novel and grotesque sorts one
should go out on the railroads which radiate from Ha-
vana.
I told the landlord when he called me " Usted,"
('■ You ! ") that 1 would not go to Matanzas. Therefore
let us go; for one of the chief pleasures of travel is the
delight of violating the itinerary. The country does not
look thrifty, it must be confessed, except as bounteous na-
ture has made it everywhere hixuriant. We run on the
cars ]iast farms not well equi]iped and not neatly cared
for, flauked by tall aloe hedges, their stiff gigantic dag-
gers closely interlaced — most perfect abatis — while from
the, center of the sheaf of lances shoot tall stems with
12G FOLKS NEXT DOOE.
twining branchlets and blossoms of colossal cups of pink
and yelloAV, so candelabra-like and symmetrical that they
look like some prim work of art done by some gardening
milliner. The odorous lime-hedge, with its prettily clus-
tered white flowers, is equally impenetrable, and, auxiliary
to these, are the very arid-looking " stone " fences of the
rough coralline formation abounding throughout the isl-
and. Within these inclosures are many acres of pine-
apples indigenous in Cuba, in stately checkerboard of gar-
dening, some of the apples held up red and golden in the
sun by a short fil)rous arm thrust through the mat of
thorny leaves and small blue blossoms; others still imma-
ture and slowly turning from greenish brown to yellow.
Next we come to great fields of slatternly plants, crowd-
ing socially together, but robed in unlaundried tatters,
like impoverished maidens at Mayfair. These are ba-
nanas. They grow fifteen to thirty feet high, and each
plant shoulders its bushel of luscious fruit at the top of
its stem Avhere it swings it gently in the midst of the
shredded fan-like leaves which the wind has rent to rags.
But the field here is not a hospital, and the plants have
not the look of our conservatory invalids : on the contrary,
they are ver}^ stahvart tatterdemalions indeed.
A large proportion of the landscape is occupied with
vast but half-ruined sugar and coffee and tobacco es-
tates, and by the side of the porteria rises majestically
the royal palm, queen of the forest. This and its kin-
dred of the great palm family, ranged in long avenues
like the surviving Corinthian columns of the Roman
Forum, the thirty-foot leaves interlacing and forming one
superb and continuous high-sprung arch, make the finest
conceivable background for the picturesque thatched ne-
gro huts of the tropics. One of these palms, mottled gray
and tough of bark, seemingly composed of feldspar, mica,
and hornblende, and vaulting straight seventy-five feet
without a limb or a leaf, looks so much like a cylindrical
monolith of granite that it might deceive the eye of a
THE CAPITAL OF CUBA. 127
geologist, were it not for the whorl of mighty fronds at
its summit.
If the tourist has an extra afternoon he ma}^ visit one
of the sugar plantations and see some novel sights before
seeking again the steamer waiting in the harbor. Here,
near Matanzas, is one of these where we have a warm re-
ception and see the process of sugar manufacture. The
Cuban — like the Spaniard, wherever on earth one meets
him — welcomes a visitor with voluble courtes}^, offers him
coffee and wine, asks him to accept the house and planta-
tion as a souvenir, and ends by loading him down with
cigars about three times as large as they ought to be.
" Let me do something for you — it will make me so
happy," fervently exclaimed my entertainer after a break-
fast of a soup made with rice and eggs, broiled pheasants,
and vegetables.
" You have — you do, sehor," I protested, '' with the
privilege of your acquaintance. But the cigars — thanks,
but I do not smoke."
He would not believe it. It was incredible. Was I
not a male biped, and no chicken? Then, of course, I
smoked. I still shook my head and said, " Xo, gracias !
gracias ! " He laughed good-naturedly, as if humoring
my joke, and got more overgrown cigars and stuck them
in all my obvious pockets.
The planters of Cuba are no longer rich, for they have
had too much expensive trouble. The laborers are no
longer slaves. They look generally sk^ek and fat, and
they have the hereditary habit of untiring song.
This plantation consists of eighteecn liundred acres, —
six liundred of them in sugar-cane. The last year's prod-
uct was thirteen hundred hogsheads of sugar, selling at
I forget how much a hogsliead. The negroes work
during "crop time" sixteen hours out ol' the twenty-four,
and those whom I see look ns if tliey throve on it. ^Fost
of tliem liave l)een liaptized hy tlu^ Catholic Cliurcli. hut
they linve hni'dly seen a ]ii-iesi <ir a cliurcli since. Tliey
138 FOLKS NEXT DOOR.
are almost as irreligious as their employers. Worship of
every kind is at a very low ebb throughout Cuba — even
among the emotional blacks. The whites have a saying
among themselves, " Old women of both sexes go to
mass."
But the visitor will hardly get an adequate idea of Cuba
by lingering in the vicinity of Havana, Matanzas, and
Cienfuegos. He should take the long railroad ride length-
wise of the island and leave the cars at intervals for a
day's ramble. Then he will see life as it is. In some
parts of the island the vegetation is a rare tangle — thou-
sands of square miles of mountainous forest, almost im-
penetrable even to the native.
The expedition of Columbus had chiefly a religious pur-
pose. He sought to convert the heathen to Christianity,
and incidentally to obtain enough gold to enable Ferdi-
nand and Isabella to wrest Jerusalem from the Saracens
and recover the Holy Sepulchre. When he arrived in
Cuba he thought he was in Japan, or further down the
coast of Asia in the empire of the Grand Khan. He told
his followers that they could '' go home to Spain a-foot
if they preferred walking." ^
The natives, on the other hand, believed the white
strangers to be angels of light come from Heaven, and
they received them with a humility and adoration akin to
worship.
Nobod}' who has a heart to feel can visit the West In-
dies without recalling the terrible atrocities of the Span-
ish discoverers as related by the good apostle. Las Casas.
When Columbus first landed, the islands were thickly pop-
ulated by docile and affectionate races who called them-
selves '" Tainos,'"' — that is, good people — but the largest
tribe were called by the Spaniards " Yucayos." One of
the first things done by Velazquez, Columbus's lieuten-
ant, was to overrun the whole island with his armed sol-
diers. They met with little resistance, for the natives
were terrorized by the explorers' weapons and the strange
THE CAPITAL OF CUBA. 129
beasts which the invaders rode. This meekness so enraged
Velazquez that he seized the king, Hatuey, and burnt him
alive at the stake. He and Ovando, the governor of San
Domingo, thenceforth carried on a wicked and horrible
crusade for the conversion of all the Indians to Christian-
" Soon after they arrived on this strange shore one of the
ships was flung upon the rocks and Avrecked in a terrible
storm. Columbus had already treated the natives with a
heartless cruelty which might well have stirred them to
revenge. But, scorning to retaliate and take advantage
of the' distress of the visitors, the Indians showed the live-
liest emotions of sorrow and hastened to their relief. A
thousand canoes plunged into the dangerous sea, sur-
rounded the helpless wreck, and bore the sailors and sol-
diers and priests to the shore in safety. "Not a life was
lost," says the Spanish chronicle, " and of the goods and
provisions saved from the wreck not the smallest article
was embezzled."
Columbus himself, in a letter still extant which he
wrote to Ferdinand and Isabella immediately on his first
return to Spain, says of the character and habits of the
natives :
" These people are Avithout weapons, which, indeed, are
unknown, nor are they competent to use them because they
are timid and full of fear. Yet when they perceive that
they are safe, putting aside all fear, they are of simple
manners and trustworthy and very liberal with evcvy thing
they have, refusing no one who asks for anything they
inay possess, and even themselves inviting us to ask for
things. They show greater love for all others Ibau for
theinsclves; they give valuable things for triHes, l)eing
satisfied even with a very small return or with nothing.
* * * [They] visited us eagerly, filling the road with
a great crowd, some bringing food, and some drink, with
great love and extraordinary goodness. These people are
verv amiable and kind, to such a degree thai the king
130 FOLKS NEXT DOOE.
gloried in calling me his brother. * * * I promise,
if 1 am supported by our most invincible sovereigns with
a little of their help, as many slaves for their navy as
their majesties may demand.* * * Therefore, let the
King and Queen give thanks to our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ, who has bestowed upon us so great a victory
and gift."
It was so always. Whenever the white strangers landed
on the coast the peaceful, gentle, awed, bewildered Yu-
cayos flung themselves upon the ground, kissed their
hands and feet, hailed them as brothers and brought them
great quantities of fruits and wines. There were more
than a million of these kind-hearted and generous crea-
tures, populating the whole island thickly, living upon
the harvests of its fertile fields. Wherever Columbus 'ap-
peared they hastened to bring him whatever he wanted, to
extend to him every hospitality, and to make with him a
league of eternal friendship. They were slightly under-
sized, not very vigorous, quiet, docile, domestic, lovers
of peace and of the family hearth. Columbus said in a
letter home : '" So loving, so tractable, so peaceful are these
people that I swear to your majesties that there is not on
earth a better people. They love their neighbors as them-
selves."
Ought not such a reception from such a people to have
stirred the responsive sympathies of any manly heart?
How did it affect A^elazquez ?
lie showed himself a monster — he and his infamous
captains and his not less infamous priests.
Over and over again it had been declared that the voy-
age was made' for religious reasons — to extend the domin-
ion of the Cross among the heathens of the realm of the
Grand Khan. jSTow he proceeded to appropriate all the
gold and silver he could lay hand on and to take and sell
all property that could be turned into gold and silver. He
seized the royal caciques of the island and held them as
prisoners, occasionally baptizing one by force, and Ijurn-
THE CAPITAL OF CUBA. 131
ing alive at the stake those who objected. He seized all
the land and divided it among his retainers and then took
the inoffensive people and made them slaves. When they
proved to be feeble workmen, he and his followers organ-
ized a system of Avholesale slaughter, the memory of which
still causes the blood to leap indignantly in the veins of
humane men. Universal baptism was required. Those
who resisted were shot down. Some of the conquerors
more zealous than the rest, forced the miserable captives
into the water, and, after administering to them the rite
of baptism, immediately cut their throats to prevent their
apostacy. Others, so their own historians say, " in honor
and reverence of Christ and his apostles," hanged thirteen
natives together, so that their toes could just touch the
grotind, and then slowly pricked them to death with their
swords. Whenever a Spaniard was killed, fifty or sixty
natives were called up and their hands cut off. Las
Casas tells us that little children were thrown into the
water by the conquerors with less concern than they would
feel in drowning puppies.
Slavery was established, and bevies of slaves were given
away to favorites. The conquerors swapped glass beads
and colored rags for handfuls of gold, which confirmed
the suspicion that they were in Asia and that the natives
had access to the ancient mines of Solomon ; and when the
precious metal did not come fast enough a decree
was issued that every Cuban over fourteen years must
bring in a hawkbell of golddust (about $15 worth) everj^
three months, on pain of death. This was impossible, as
gold is scarce in Cuba. Tens of thousands fled to the
mountains and swamps. A life of leisvire was at an end.
Tbey were pursued with horses and bloodhounds. Sui-
cide Iiecame epidemic. The harried natives pathetically
inquired, " Good masters, when go you back to heaven?"
Multitudes resorted to self-starvation.
Finding that paganism still ])ersisted, Ovando invited
six hundred of the principal ehiefs into a building to see
132 FOLKS NEXT DOOR.
his people practice " a new and amusing game," and when
the}^ were all imprisoned he turned his armed soldiers
on them and slaughtered ever}^ one ! On this occasion
he gave the signal for the massacre by touching an image
of the A'^irgin Mary which he wore suspended from his
neck. Then he founded a new city and piously named it
Santa Maria. When one of Ovando's victims was being
burnt alive, a priest held a crucifix before his eyes and
besought him to l)e converted so that he could go to
Heaven. " I don't want to go to Heaven," exclaimed
the sufferer, '' if there are any Christians there." A Span-
ish chronicler says they instituted a series of athletic
games in the centers of population, which consisted in
seeing which could cut off a heretic's head the quickest
and neatest at a single hlow. x4nd they offered the same
excuses for their atrocities that strong nations always offer
for the tortures and robberies they inllict upon the weak.
Under this awful treatment by the conquerors the entire
nation of a million people perished — almost in a single
decade. Robertson says that in fifteen years after the dis-
covery there were only 60,000 left ! In another ten years
there was apparently not one remaining upon the islands
where the gentle Yucayos dwelt in Arcadian peace and
happiness, and now it is quite impossible to trace the least
strain of their blood. For African slaves were brought
and the entire population of the larger Antilles consists
of descendants of these and of the Spaniards and of in-
finite intermixtures. This is the sad, sad story of the
Spaniard's cruelty and ineradicable shame. Let us leave
the unhappy record behind us, and hasten on across the
channel to Yucatan, where we shall read more humane
chronicles in the ruins of a vanished race of pagans.
A BIT OF YUCATAN. 133
A BIT OF YUCATAN.
OFF A STRAJfGE AND DESOLATE COAST, XEW STARS. liO^MR
OF THE ANCIENT TOLTECS. THE TEMPLES OF TULOOM. — •
THE INGENIOUS BUILDERS. WHERE CORTEZ FIRST
LANDED. SIXTY-TWO RUINED CITIES. THE LOST ME-
TROPOLIS. — CHANCE FOR YOUNG EXPLORERS.
Almost three clays have passed since I repeated the
story of Spain's infamy. It is night. A tall heron of
speckled white and hrown has alighted in the cross-trees,
and is hailed by the sailors as a harbinger of good luck.
This evening a flock of scarlet ibis flew over like a winged
flame. We are steaming steadily westward. That terror
of the gulf — the Norther — has not yet appeared. A gentle
zephyr breathes across the deck. The Captain says we
could see land if it were daylight. Some more birds of
gorgeous plumage have fearlessly alighted in the sails,
and the sailors are carefully counting tliem to determine
that there are not just thirteen. In face of the moon Cano-
pus lifts a brilliant beacon above the southern pole. It
is in the very end of the rudder in the constellation Argo
Navis, and it now drifts within our visil_)le sky for the first
time. Another notable addition to the familiar stars is
the Austral Cross which flames zigzag across the sky.
Near by and below the good ship Argo burn the great
stars of the Centaur — a splendid aggregation, but far less
impressive than our Orion followed across the lirmauu-nt
by Sirius.
"We sailed at hazard towards that ]);irt of the horizon
where the sun had set," wrote Captain Bernal Diaz, coiii-
])anion and historian of Cortez, in his chronicle of the ap-
13-t FOLKS NEXT DOOPt.
proach of the explorer's fleet to Yucatan in 1517. So
come we from the sunrise country, but we know we are not
on the coast of Asia, and shall not meet the subjects of the
Grand Khan of Tartary. Our steamer pauses some miles
from shore.
When morning dawns there looms off the port bow the
low-lying island of Cozumel, twenty-five miles long, hug-
ging the eastern coast of Yucatan. It is as desolate as it
looks, occupied only by wild animals amid heaps of ruins
on the ver}^ border of that vast empire of the Toltecs and
Mayas, which was partially wrecked in war and folly be-
fore Cortez or Columbus came. Here on Cozumel Cortez
first landed on his way to Mexico, cast down the idols
from the altars in the temples of Tuloom on the main-
land shore, baptized the worshipers at the point of the
sword, and then pushed forward in his career of brutal-
ity. In these temples, now buried in a dense wilderness,
the explorer, StejDhens, found decayed palaces of ambi-
tious architecture, sculptured stones, imposing altars,
watch-towers, paintings, stucco-work and on it the figure
of the red human hand, sacred symbol of devotion, in-
tended to propitiate the imps and elves supposed to pre-
side over the world and direct the destiny of man. We
shall not land and peruse these antique memorials, but I
wish to set in these pages that poem of the almost un-
known l)ut picturesque writer, E. W. Ellsworth, of Con-
necticut, commemorative of the uncanny spot :
On tlie coast of Yucatan,
As untenanted of man
As a castle under ban
By a doom
For the deeds of bloody houi's,
Overgrown with tropic bowers,
Stand tlie teocallis towers
Of Tuloom.
One of these is fair to sight,
Where it pinnacles a height ;
And the breakers blossom white
As they boom
A BIT OF YUCATAN". 135
And split beneath the walls,
And an ocean murmur falls
Through the melancholy halls
Of Tuloom.
On the summit, as you stand.
All the ocean and the land
Stretch away on either hand,
But the plume
Of the palm is overhead,
And the grass, beneath your tread,
Is the monumental bed
Of Tuloom.
All the grandeur of the woods,
All the greatness of the floods.
And the sky that overbroods,
Dress a tomb,
Where the stucco drops away,
And the bat avoids the day,
In the chambers of decay
In Tuloom.
They are battlements of deatli :
When the breezes hold their breath,
Down a hundred feet beneath,
In the flume
Of tlie sea, as still as glass.
You can see the fishes pass
By tlie promontory mass
Of Tuloom.
Towards the forest is displayed,
On the terrace, a fagade
With devices overlaid ;
And the bloom
Of the vine of sculpture, led
Tlirougli the sofiit overhead,
Was a fancy of the dead
Of Tuloom.
Here are corridors, and there.
From the terrace, goes a stair;
And the way is broad and fair
To the room
Where the inner altar stands;
And tlie mortar's tempered sands
Bear the ]>rint of human hands.
In Tuloom.
O'er the sunny ocean swell,
Tlie canoas running well
13() FOLKS NEXT DOOR.
Towards the isle of Cozumel
Cleave the spume :
On the}^ run, and never halt,
Where the shimmer, from the salt,
Makes a twinkle in the vault
Of Tuloom.
When the night is vrild and dark,
And a roar is in the park.
And the lightning, to its mark,
Cvits the gloom, —
All the region, on the sight,
Ruslies upward from the night
In a thunder-ci'ash of light
O'er Tuloom.
Oh ! could sucli a flash recall
All tlie fiamens to their hall.
All the idols on the wall.
In the fume
Of the Indian sacrifice —
All the lifted liands and eyes.
All the laughters and the cries
Of Tuloom,
All the kings in feathered pride,
All the joeople, like a tide.
And the voices of the bride
And the groom ! —
But, alas ! the prickly pear
And the owlets of the air
And the lizards make a lair
Of Tuloom.
We are tenants on the strand
Of the same mysterious land.
Must the shores that we command
Reassume
Their primeval forest hum.
As the future pilgrims come
Unto monuments as dumb
As Tuloom ?
'Tis a secret of the clime.
And a mystery sublime.
Too obscure for coming time
To assume ;
But the snake amid the grass
Hisses at us as we pass, •
And we sigh, " alas ! alas
For Tuloom ! "
A BIT OF YUCATAN.
-1 O -w
lo i
This is a typical landmark. In Yucatan the ancient
civilization touched a higher level than anywhere else on
this continent. When Greece and Rome were in their
glory and even when Phoenicia had subdued the Medi-
terranean, Y'ucatan was their polished rival in the West.
Some of the fine arts throve here, and architecture and
sculpture came to a beautiful maturity. Here three thou-
sand years ago, contemporary with the ancient Egyptians,
dwelt a bold, ingenious, dominant and overmastering race,
of elegant tastes and vigorous pursuits, who rose to cul-
ture and achieved extraordinary things. We know not
whence they came or where they went; but still on the
plains are found teocallis of masonry that vie with the
vast pyramid of Cheops. On the slopes of the hills we
walk through ruined temples worthy to be classified with
the castles of Heidelberg and Ehrenbreitstein, and, hid-
den in the depths of a tropical forest, are the crumbling-
remains of ancient cities as large as New Y'ork and Bos-
ton. While there are but eight inhabited cities now in all
Yucatan, there are sixty-two ruined cities, known only to
the lizard and the owl.
Southward of Yucatan is a broad territory, unexplored
by the white man, where dwell the dreaded Mayas, sup-
posed to be descendants of the Toltecs, the creators of
the now vanished civilization. They refuse to have any-
thing to do with the white man except to buy powder and
bullets from the English at Belize. They have never been
conquered, though they pay fitful taxes to Mexico, and
though they conferred upon Cortez that celelirated T;i-
bascan princess, Marina, who served him as friend and
interpreter and shared his tent for years, who more than
once saved his life by stratagem, who followed him
through battle and siege, in fight and flight, till they
became identical in the mind of the Aztecs, and Cortez
himself was called by her Indian name, ]\Ialinche. In
the depths of this mysterious jungle history and tradi-
tion locate the " phantom city," which is without a name
138
FOLKS NEXT DOOR.
and has no place in geography. The locality is as little
known as the centre of Africa. The priest of Qneche
tells of the city, Morelet vouches for it, Don Pedro Ve-
lazquez claims to have seen " its white walls shining in
the sun." Hu Mayas speaks of its beauty. Why does
not some traveler go and hunt it up and tell the world
about it?
THE SEAPORT AND THE CAPITAL. 139
THE SEAPORT AND THE CAPITAL.
A PAUSE AT PROGRESO. A RIDE UP TO MERIDA. ITS
HOTEL. — TITE ACTIVE AND THRIFTY YUCATECAN.^ — THE
MARKET. THE CHAMELEON. THE OMNIPRESENT HAM-
MOCK. — A " CAVERN BATH."
The white dots twinkling along the distant shore under
low palms are the houses of the new town of Progreso,
sizzling in the snn at the northern extremity of Yucatan.
It is a town which might be labeled " a. m. i.," like houses
to rent in the newspapers, as it aims to have all modern
improvements. It was named by the spirited regenerators
of this rusty old peninsula, as the growing Rocky Moun-
tain towns are called " Whoop-er-Up," " Hail Columbia,"
" Get There," and " Go Ahead." We are lying off shore
in the steamer, impatiently waiting for another " canoa,"
as the clumsy scows of this locality are called, to claw off
from the flat sand-beach town with sisal hemp and get
another load of Yankee corn. There is no harbor or shel-
tered anchorage on the south side of the gulf, at Progreso,
Campeachy or Vera Cruz, and the steamer comes to rest
far away in the open storm-swept sea and watches for the
dreaded " norther."
Yucatan is far the most thriving part of Mexico at this
time, and Merida, its capital, lying on low hills, twenty-
seven miles from the sea, may well be called the Chicago of
the South. It has doubled in population in ten years;
it is connected with the coast by a railroad and telegraph;
it boasts of three street railways, handsome dwellings, high
rents, opulent beer saloons, a sbowy cathedral, a montldy
140 FOLKS NEXT DOOR.
literary magazine and three weeklies, a spacious and sump-
tiTOus jail, and two varieties of " our respected contempo-
rary," the daily newspaper.
A party of ns went ashore. We came back certain of
what before we knew onh^ by hearsaj^ that the natives of
Yucatan are one of the superior races of this latitude —
the equal of the Spaniard and more than the equal of the
average Cuban and Mexican. The Mexican is rather slug-
gish ; the Yucatecan is active, alert, industrious, quick
as a cat. The Mexican is satisfied with his lot ; the Yuca-
tecan is hopeful, restless and ambitious. The Mexican
laborer is generally filthy in his personal habits; the Yu-
catecan is as neat and clean as the Hollander. The Mexi-
can is docile, submissive, obsequious; the Yucatecan is
haughty and warlike. The Mexican is poor and so dis-
honest that nothing that can be lifted is ever left exposed;
they say they have to chain down the spikes that hold
the ties on the railroads; the Yucatecan is thrifty and
prosperous, and his honesty is a proverb.
We paid $1 apiece to go ashore. It was too much, but
the Yucatecan is shrewd and acquisitive. Progreso is a
village of half-a-dozen narrow streets, along a sandy
beach; low houses of wood or a '' doby " of shell or pebble
stones — the best ones 23ainted in gaudy colors of red,
yellow, pink and blue, the huts of the poor squatting
under a ponderous thatch of palm leaves. Here and there
rises a mango tree or a banana or cocoa palm; everywhere
shine wild blossoms of three or four varieties, including
the single tuberose, and over all, as throughout Mexico,
the pulpy cactus holds in rest its innumerable spears.
Along the sandy beach we found a great variety of sea-
shells and marine products, but none of them very com-
plicated or rare — myriads of the debris of sponges and
broken coral washed up on the side of this great coral
reef of Yucatan.
In the market place, an open space under a large flat
roof, were offered for sale simple products of the penin-
THE SEAPORT AXD THE CAPITAL. 141
sula — fruit, prepared food, ropes and matting, bead work,
emljroider}', and especiall}^ the chameleon.
This hitter is not, I suppose, a chameleon at all, except
in the fact that he " lives on air " — that is, without ap-
parent food. He is a 3'ellowish-gra_y beetle, about two
inches long, with black spots on his back. Each well-
bred lady of Yucatan has at least one of them for a pet.
With a small, six-inch gold chain fastened to his waist
and pinned to his mistress' waist, he wanders about her
shoulder for months, till tired of life and senile with old
age, his soul forsakes its earthly tenement. This well-
mannered but rather sluggish bug is the poodle dog of
the tropics, and in some cases he seems to become fond of
his owner.
I saw one on board ship, wearing a golden harness,
pinned on one end of a pillow Avhere a pretty Creole was
sleeping. He had dragged his shining tether to its fullest
length in the direction of her dainty nose, and there he
stood, silent, immovable and impassive, watching that pre-
cious promontory with affectionate interest. The chame-
leon has tremendous endurance; his digestive apparatus
works so feebly that he can live for six months or a
year without a mouthful of food. Pie is literally a light
eater, for the owner of one confessed to me that she gave
hira for a monthly lunch " a bit of cork.'" But he looked
fat and was probably a glutton.
The cars run up to Merida twice a day ; fare, first-class,
seventy-five cents. The houses here, as in Progreso, arc
square, flat-roofed and wholly without chimneys. The
larger ones are built around a court, have elaborately
carved fagades, and are of two stories height, each story
being fifteen to twenty feet between joints. The ordi-
nance of the city coum'il ])r()hil)its tlie painting of a house
white. The visitor is very grateful for that, for the sun
is so fervent and the sand so lustrous that white houses
would b(> iis blinding as the "marble halls" of Bermuda.
Generally the streets are unpaved, but they are neat and
14:2 FOLKS NEXT DOOH.
well cared for. There are fifteen plazas or public squares,
in this cit}^, and each one has a church facing it; but since
the confiscation of churcli propert}^ many years ago. the
former grandeur of religious ceremonials has disappeared.
An American can now decline to remove his hat when the
priest goes by without l)eing subjected to insult.
The largest plaza is paved with tiles and radiant with
blossoming flowers, and the evening is made lustrous by
a galaxy of six electric lights hauled to the top of a spar
as in Madison Square, New York. But at 10 o'clock this
conspicuous glim is extinguished and the ]\Ieridans go to
bed.
Not to bed, but to hammock. Every individual in Me-
rida, except strangers at the E[otel Yucateco, sleeps in a
hammock the year round. Even the wealthy people, the
magnates, the leaders of society circles, as well as natives,
not only sleep in a hammock, but they are born and die
in it. It is generally swung under a roof, but often hangs,
from the beginning to the end of the year, from the low
branches of embowering trees.
A hammock, in Yucatan, is usually occupied by two
people at night. The longitudinal cords in the middle of
the web are pulled up tight between the two, and they
sleep with their heads in different directions — also their
feet.
Our hotel proved a queer place. Roomy it was, but the
partitions between the rooms extended only about two-
thirds of the way up to the ceiling. This arrangement
prevents loneliness, and enables every guest to hear every
other guest snore. All conversation is in common, and
there is a sociability about the sleeping together which is
delightful. I never saw anything to beat it, except when
I tried to go to bed in a French sleeping car, in the com-
pany of several archaic maidens.
Most of the transportation here is done between sunset
and sunrise, for the sake of comfort ; so there is a clatter
of hoofs coming through the barred windows till morn-
THE SEAPORT AXD THE CAPITAL. 143
ing, and the stranger guest sees in his broken dreams an
endless procession of donkeys (burros) going and coming
along the country roads all night. [A trifling damsel on
the ship has invented a conundrum about this creature,
the answer to which is, " because he is the only burro
drawer that never sticks."] The street car of Merida is
of Philadelphia make, and is drawn very fast by an equine
insect that goes on a run in a far-flying harness of strings.
The driver slashes his donkey with a stick, holds the reins,
smokes a cigarette and blows a fish horn all at the same
time — indeed, I think he collects the fare, too. And when
they hear that trumpet, pedestrians fall to the right and
left, and the chariot dashes through. Musicians, more or
less gifted, make the night more or less melodious. One
jingles a triangle and another tickles the abdomen of a
frivolous guitar. Some balconies give forth the sounds of
song, and ladies in scanty full dress appear behind the
iron grating of the windows, seeming like penitential dam-
sels in the penitentiary.
When the party of Americans rose and looked forth at
five o'clock in the morning, the unwinking jackass was still
moving pathetically past, the native, with his broad sc-
rape thrown over his shoulders, was passing nimbly across
the place, and the soldier of Yucatan, who gets for wages
just six cents a day and boards himself out of it, was
yawning in one of the arcades.
In Merida we found one unique thing — the '' cavern
bath." These admirable facilities for bathing arc in
caves (cenotes) cut in the coral or calcareous rock thirty
or forty feet below the level of the street and reached by
ste])s. When tliis rock is tapped its springs yield an
abundance of water soft as borax fountains, and wonder-
fully pellucid. There are no rivers in Yucatan, and no
fresh water except such as is caught from the clouds and
such as is " dug up,"' as the Yucatecan calls reaching the
subterranean sii})iily. A batli here after three weeks at sea
and in a Havana hotel is indescribal)lv refresbing, and
14-i FOLKS NEXT DO OK.
comparatively inexpensive. These natives have as yet
but imperfectly learned the trick of extracting tips, pour
boire, fumata, and other synonyms for small and large
change, from the sight-seeing traveler. A very few pen-
nies once in a while, in place of much silver all the while,
go far to secure immunity from the solicitations of porters
(cargadores) and other servitors of the wayfarer.
GOOD-BYE TO YUCATAN. 145
GOOD-BYE TO YTTCATAX.
WHERE OUR SUMMER BIRDS TAKE REFUGE. THE HOME OF
HEMP. — THE BAG-MAKIXG HOXEY BEE. — '' WAXOS
DIAS ! " — A MISTAKE IN THE MAN. — LUNCIIIXG AVITII
YUCATECANS. " DE SEA BLUBBER."' l'ENVOI.
Progreso is on one of the long sand-dunes of the coast ;
l)ack of this is an immense lagoon, shallow, hroad and a
hundred miles long. Here many of our northern summer
birds spend the winter and earW spring: here the question,
" Where do the birds go ? " is answered. On every hand,
not yet taken wing, we see the duck and teal, the white
heron, the wild goose, the ibis, egrets, snipe and sand-
pipers, curlews, even robins sometimes, they say, and
others of the great cheerful thrush family.
Inside the lagoon the entire territory of Y^ucatan is
composed of coral, older than the main land of the Ber-
mudas, and not otherwise unlike it. The soil is thin,
sluggish and unresponsive. The road to ]\rerida passes
through great henequen plantations — the sisal honi}) of
commerce — miles on miles. Within the walls that hedge
it, planters' dwellings are embowered in cocoa palms, and
approached through impressive lanes with arched gate-
ways.
The population is Ijoth thrifty and prolific. Almost
every woman over fourteen has a brown baby upon her back
laugliing inside of her blanket, and if she liasn't a baby
of her own just at the moment she borrows one for a week
to avoid seeming eccentric. The lieggars are modest, and
there does not seem to lie very much jioverty.
I ate some of tlie lionev here, and became miijlitilv in-
14G FOLKS NEXT DOOE.
terested in its winged manufacturers. It tastes somewhat
like our northern honey, but it has a sharper tang to it,
and is even more acrid and thinner than the pungent
lione_v of Hjaiiettus, that is served to tourists in i^thens. It
is not so delicious as the thiclv mountain hone}^ of Swit-
zerland, but is a very fair substitute. The bee is a still
greater contrast. He — or, I suppose I ought to say she —
has no sting whatever. And she — or, perhaps, I ought to
say it — does not apparently understand geometry or trig-
onometry, and is perfectly ignorant of that wax-walled
hexagon with which the buzzing flower-despoiler of other
climes excites so much of the wonder of mankind. But
if it is not skilled as a comb-maker, the Yucatan bee is
expert as a bag manufacturer. It stores its honey not in
cells, but in bags of wax which it secretes in hollow trees
or sometimes hangs upon the bushes. Each of these pen-
dant sacks will hold perhaps a couple of thimblefuls, and
as the buzzing proprietor is stingless and therefore help-
less, collecting honey is without peril, and is somewhat
like picking huckleberries.
The favorite carriage in this peninsula is called a
" volan," and is simply a hammock with two wheels put
to it and three mules put to the wheels. The passenger
lies down and gets along as well as he can. Roads do not
always seem quite so rough if the traveler can oscillate
freely. I hired a volan-hammock, lay down in it like a
bag of meal, shut my eyes and told Juan, the driver, (on
one of the mules) to go ahead. After rolling around for
a mile or two I halted the hammock on what seemed to
be an unused road. An old man who stood under a cocoa-
nut tree at the roadside snatched off a dilapidated som-
brero and bowed very low, exclaiming excitedly, " Wanos
dias ! wanos dias ! "
" Yes, how are you ? " I answered, " wanos dias ! "
and I was glad that I brought no ladies along, for he was
not half dressed and what he had on looked as if it were
about to fall off.
GOOD-BYE TO YUCATAN. 147
, , At first I thought he was a beggar, and may be a foot-
pad, too, so I shook my head and held up an empty hand
to show him that I hadn't a cent with me. I fancy that
I also laid a hand on my revolver, while my outrider
seemed expostulating with me in half legible gestures, but
an unknown tongue. Then it occurred to me that I would
propitiate the tough-looking citizen 1)y hiring him to get
me a cocoanut. " Here ! " I said, " wanos dias ! cocoanut !
coco ! two ! " holding up two fingers and handing him a
tlaco (about 1 1-2 cents), the market price in that lati-
tude.
He uttered an unpleasant exclamation, salaamed again,
took the tlaco, looked at it, and handed it back to me!
Then he jabbered to Juan. I thought he was swearing
in Spanish, but he laughed heartil}^, and that reassured
me. He opened the gate, walked in and beckoned. Juan
drove the hammock in, up the lane to the castle and under
the. portico. The old man vanished and returned in five
minutes, followed by an obvious slave, bearing a
highly polished salver containing plates, bottles, glasses.
He salaamed again, gestured to the attractive lunch and
then to the old palace, and I understood that he must
be offering to make me a jDresent of the premises after the
cheerful habit of the Mexicans. " Gracias ! gracias ! '' I
said ("thanks! '') and ought to have blushed if I did not,
as I accepted some cocoanut milk and white grapes — won-
derfully cooling — and after that some wine, the hospita-
ble old tramp drinking with me. Then I said some more
'' gracias " and backed out as well as 1 could and at last
got away safe in my wapper-jawed hauimock. \yhen we
returned to the post-office I learned that I liad fallen in
with one of the rural aristocracy — an t)ld fellow who has
subdued a thousand acres to cocoa and sisal and is rich
beyond counting. But he really ought to tog up a little
and not thus impose upon unsnsjiecling strangers by his
ambiguous jx'rsonal appearance. I suspect that T overpaid
Juan for lie gave me no more peace while I was on the pen-
148 FOLKS NEXT DOOE.
insula. For an hour I felt as if I were in the capital of
my native land, making the circuit on one of the " see-
ing Washington " cars. Among the things he brought me
was an enormous lizard, a foot and a half long, with a ten
inch tail. The chief peculiarity of the reptile was that his
body and tail did not associate. Juan brought the body
in one hand and the tail in the other. " When I caught
the beast he snapped his tail off," he said.
I expressed incredulity. " Si, seiior," he said, earnestly,
'' they almost always do. They care not for their hinder
part."
It was an ugly looking customer, leathery and warty,
with bead-like, twinkling eyes, and a forked and extensile
tongue, and Juan opened the creature's mouth by squeez-
ing its neck, and I saw two rows of l^ack teeth.
" They bite your shadow sometimes," Juan solemnly ex-
plained, " and then you die quick. And often they shoot
their sharp tail and it pierces you like an arrow. I
show."
He led me out on the plain and after hunting around
a little, found a fine agile lizard, wearing his tail proudly
and wriggling over the stones. " Fling your handkerchief
on him," he said.
I did as suggested, and was astonished to see the reptile
drop his tail and leap away, leaving the broken appendage
on the ground, still wriggling in an uncanny fashion. I
picked it up. Sure enough, the vertebras had been un-
hinged and the saurian had lost his self-possession and
his rudder at the same time. I saw several other in-
stances of this curious phenomenon, and afterwards I
read the explanation of naturalists, that the species dis-
cards its least valuable member when pursued, because
it has learned, through a million years of suffering, that
by this renunciation it can divert the attention of the
enemy. But the discarded tails did not seem to possess
any of the qualities of an arrow.
Hot days and cool nights characterize the Yucatan sum-
GOOD-BYE TO YUCATAK 149
mer, if my brief experience and the unanimous testimony
of Americans on the ground are trustworthy as to the fact.
Sandflies, chinches, mosquitoes, chiggers, ferocious ticks,
and carnivorous fleas also. Likewise birds in vast flocks
with pleasing melodies and gaudy apparel — pelicans, her-
ons, parrots, flamingoes. And centipedes. And scorpions.
And serpents in a variety of species calculated to delight
the soul of the naturalist.
As I did not yearn for pulque, I joined the ranks of those
who cannot afford that very loud liquor, in partaking of
mere water from the caverns flavored with atol}^, — corn-
meal spiced and sweetened. It is quite palatable and re-
freshing.
I have said that the citizen of Yucatan is shrewd and
lively, or, if not, 1 say it now. Example : the railroad
to Merida was built by a native contractor. He bribed
the governor (as usual) and got a "concession," one of
the conditions being that the passenger fare and freight
charges should be fixed at a very reasonable rate (speci-
fied) "when the line is finished." ^Yell, do you know,
that sagacious entrepreneur built all of the road except
about half a mile and left it unfinished for years, so
that he could make the rates " all the traffic would bear ''
meantime ! And he began to lay the rails at Merida, too,
having carried them up from the coast, twenty miles, on
the backs of mules! He said Merida needed a railroad
more than the seacoast did, and perhaps he knew.
There is a railroad across to Campeachy now, and one
to the soutlieast, nearly to Uxmal, and several of the
ruined towns.
I know how tlio Yucatecans live, and what their jiriu-
cipal food tastes like. We were three hours tacking back
to the steamer under a red hot sun, aud the three men
who sailed the scow, while tliey were not lying on their
backs wifli tlie sun burning their faces, beguiled the time by
indulging in the pleasures of the stouiaeli. >Vs I was
near them T was invited to partake, and aece]ited. They
150 rOLKS NEXT DOOE.
first produced a gourd as large as a small pumpkin, with
a hole in the top, and they set it among them. Then they
unrolled a large leaf, containing Avhat looked like a pile
of thin pancakes. These were tortillas, made of corn-
meal. One of the men went for a bottle of something,
and while I was watching to see Avhat he was going to get,
the others prepared my dinner, for when I looked back
they handed me a pancake full of the stuff from the
gourd. I took it and ate. It was the reverse of good, but
I put it through both the processes of mastication and
deglutition. I swallowed it little by little, the pancake
of dry cornmeal, the filling of black beans (frijoles), red
peppers, fierce and fiery, pieces of mysterious uncanny
fat, and three or four other elements unrecognizable. I
ate it nearly all. I saw them j^repare another. One
took a pancake in his left hand and dipped it into the
gourd, using his right hand to assist in obtaining what
he wanted. He had no more hesitation about soiling
his fingers than Napoleon had. Then slyly I threw the
remainder of the feast away. I was not hungry, anyhow,
for I had had breakfast only nine hours before. Then I
smelt something — a very searching odor — and thought we
had run upon a reef of dead catfish. 'No, it w^as beer from
the bottle — pulc[ue — pronounce it pull-kee, if you please,
and pronounce it as far off as possible. I was not thirsty.
Pulque should be drunk only as a duty.
As we finished our repast the shore grew dim, but novel
sights did not vanish with the shore. A tall negro, of
whose command of English the native boatmen are madly
jealous, rowed me from the scow to the ship, and on the
way we passed near to a curious and beautiful object float-
ing on the Waaler, which I at first supposed was a cham-
bered nautilus, with all sails set. Then I remembered
having read that the story of the nautilus progressing by
means of a mysterious sail was fabulous.
" Dat ? " said the negro, with a dip of his oar in the
direction of the object, " dat fella out yon humpin' him-
GOOD-BYE TO YUCATAX. 151
self up outer de watah? Dat's cle sea blubber. Might}^
pink and purple, but don't you let him hit you ! "
We were now so near that it was obviously a medusa
or sea nettle, such as abound in the Potomac and Chesa-
peake Bay, yet it was not like them. It was as jelly-like
and fringed and tasseled as they, but instead of propelling
itself through the water, like a small live parasol, it sat
serenely upon the wave, trailing its lace-like appendages
underneath, and lifting above it a light membrane ap-
parently filled Avith air. This last would hold, I should
think, a quart, and it was puffed up like an inflated blad-
der. The part above the water was blue and pink, and the
sun struck from it iridescent hues, and it dragged after
it through the Avave lovely filaments of netted purple. The
bladder was so large that the creature drifted before a
light breeze. It was a brilliant example of the oceanic
hydrozoan, and the filaments, armed with thousands of
little arrows, were eight or ten feet long.
I remembered Holmes's most beautiful poem, and said
to myself:
" This is the ship of pearl, which, poets feign,
Sails the unshadowed main."
I thought it Avas the prettiest thing I had ever seen
afloat, and told the boatman to stop, and let me get it.
" Ye bettali not ! " he exclaimed, earnestly, " bettah not
fool Avid dat fella ! It's a kind o' serpent, not a snake,
ye knoAv, but a serpent, and he don't Avant to be fooled
Avid ! " But at my repeated command he drcAV alongside.
" Don't tetch him though, boss," he earnestly repeated,
'' not ef you Avant to live to git asho' ! "
1 reached out with my umbrella and drew the magnifi-
cent mariner towards me, Avhilo the boatman Avent on:
"My GaAvd, Cap'n, y'ain't gAvine tetch 'im, be ye? Holy
Mother, he kill ye, sho* nuf ! Jcs' like tetchin' 'lectic
Aviah ! "
152
FOLKS XEXT DOOR.
I had now recognized it as a fine specimen of the phy-
salia, or "• Portuguese man-of-war," and knew it was not
dangerous. 80 I swept my hand under it and lifted it
into the l)oat. It stung me at once, as all sea-nettles will,
and the darts were a little sharper than I had ever felt
them before. After examining it for some minutes I took
it by the inflated fin and restored it to the wave, on which
it tossed, a very gaudy and perfect bit of color.
" N"ow you'll catch it ! " persisted the boatman. " I
wouldn't give much fer you! You may live along fer
some time, becase he didn't git a chance to bust on you.
Sometimes dey busts on folks and dere lives ain't wuff
a pickyune. A zambo was a swimmin' here only las' week
— jist ofl: yere — an' he run against one 0' dem fellahs and
it clawed right hold of his ribs an' it busted on him, and
killed him in a minute ! "
He turned towards shore, and there was silence for a
couple of minutes, but I saw that he was whispering to
himself as he touched the rosary about his neck. " Bet-
tah say you prayers ! " he presently broke out again. " A
cull'd lady heah in de city went out a wash in' clo's one day
in de full ob de moon an' she trailed 'em behind de boat.
One dese devils got tangled in 'em, sah, and wen she
haul 'em out he busted on 'er an' she sunk right down
on de wauf onconsciously and died fore dey could git a
priest.''
Thus did my tawny servitor beguile the tedium of the
journey. My hand was red and it smarted as if sunl)urnt.
I climbed aboard the steamer. My fingers pained me more
and more, and rapidly began to swell. I met the surgeon
shortly and showed him the scotched member. " Yes," he
said, " sea-nettles. Come into my room." I wont. One
of the stewards was sitting on the l)i'd, gazing at one of
his hands, wliich had swollen to twice its usual size, as
if it had l)een stung liy a whole swarm of bees. It was
covered witli l)lood and lilood was running from the fin-
gers, "lie lias hvvu catebing these rortugiicse men-of-
GOOD-BYE TO YUCATAN. 153
war, too, and I have lanced his liand in half a dozen
places. He ought to have known better," said the doctor.
My hand was not badly swelled, but he insisted on lancing
it. I declined to let him, refusing to pay sanguinary
tribute to the power of the physalia as a fighting charac-
ter. I was right. The swelling M^ent down in an hour
or two, but I could well believe the physalia might be
capable of inflicting considerable injury on a person not
in robust health.
Looking over the guards for more, half a dozen of
the beautiful creatures were in sight, careering over the
waves like large and lovely marine blossoms filled with
the southern sun.
Multitudes of fiying fish have appeared to-day, and we
have seen unnumbered specimens of that lovely pink and
purple mariner — the opalescent soap-bubble on the wave.
The gulf is full of poetry that easily sets itself to music:
O. bounteous life that came to me
Where earth her every grace betrays
In cactus, palm and orange tree,
And all her opulence displays
Within the tropic's tangled maze ;
AVhere Orizaba's peak of snow
Nods to Malinche through the haze
Bej'ond the Gulf of Mexico.
We left tlie land upon the lee —
Its beaches brown and peacef id bays —
And drifted silent down the sea
Wliere gannet dives and dolphin plays,
Wliere the physalia sets her stays
And purple sail in si^lendid show,
Reflecting all the sunset's rays
Upon the Gulf of Mexico.
O, tropic night ! Tliy glories be
Responsive Nature's fairest phase;
Ever the zephyr wanders free.
And the inconstant planet strays;
Canopus sings liis song of praise ;
New constellations rise, and lo !
The Southern crucifix ablaze,
Above the Gulf of Mexico !
154 FOLKS NEXT DOOR.
L'ENVOI !
Serene delights and pleasant ways !
How life is sweetened by the flow
Of silver nights aud golden days
Above the Gulf of Mexico !
ZIGZAGS IN MEXICO. 155
ZIGZAGS IN MEXICO.
WHAT VERA CRUZ LOOKS LIKE. — GOING ASHORE. — A BIRD
SACRED TO UTILITY. — CLIMBIXG THE MOUNTAIN TO THE
CAPITAL. — NATIVES. — FLORAL LUXURIANCE. — THROUGH
THREE ZONES. — ORCHIDS AND EVERGREENS.
Mexico is in the shape of a cornucopia with its back
to the Pacific Ocean, and the comparison is justified by
its tremendous luxuriance and productiveness. More than
half of the fruits and edible vegetables known to the hu-
man famil}^ grow in Mexico. Three-fourths of the Mexican
republic — a section of the earth's surface as large as all
of the original thirteen States of our Union — is one stu-
pendous mountain higher than Mount Washington. This
mountain, 1,500 miles long, is covered with a population
twice as dense as that of Michigan or Minnesota — a popu-
lation which, outside of the basin on the mountain-top
in which lies the capital, is remarkably healthful, robust
and prolific. And every fruit and flower that is intro-
duced, comes to superb maturity either on the great table-
land at the summit or on the warm hillsides (tierra ca-
ll ente) that slope downwards to the gulf and ocean.
Approaching Vera Cruz on a clear day, the snow-capped
peak of Orizaba may from a deck fifty miles from shore
be seen shining sixty miles inland — its brilliancy quite
justifying the name given it l)y the Aztecs — the Star of
the Sea. Our steamer heaves in sight of the old city in
the early morning — a line of tawny white buildings shim-
mering in the sun along a sandy beach. In front of us
frown long and threatening reefs which we must carefully
thread; on the left a gaunt head-land, sticking its brown
156 FOLKS XEXT DOOR.
back out of the surf, called the Isle of Sacrifices, because,
the natives say, a custom formerly prevailed of slaying
a youth there on a certain day in every year — an offering
to the Devil-god, — but we can detect another reason for
the name in half a dozen dismantled hulls which have
evidently found their doom there, some of them stripped
to stately skeletons through which the fresh wind whis-
tles. On the right is the chalk-like disreputable fortress
of San Juan de Uloa, commanding the town from its rocky
islet. This last has been checkered by powder, rain, lime,
slime, and time, and interest is augmented by the fact that
Scott captured it and that Santa Anna and a good many
other kings and presidents have been immured there.
Above the shore rise the city walls, tinted in rainbow
colors, and beyond and over all show the steeples, turrets
and domes, more than a score of which can be counted
pale and rich in the morning sky.
It is impossible to land at Vera Gruz in a storm, and
difficult at any time. There being no harbor, we come to
anchor in the roadstead, and presently a score of sail-
boats flock close around us like hungry gulls. They are of
every gaudy color, simple and mixed — white, saffron, pink,
orange, blue and peacock green, striped and starred, —
a perfect marine kaleidoscope as they dance about. The
cotton-clad boatmen hail us individually with their " wa-
nes dias/' assure us laughingly in softest Castilian that
they are rejoiced to see us, shout at us in toughest Eng-
lish and declare that their craft possesses seraphic quali-
ties and that they themselves are simply philanthropists
who would gladly leave to us the trivial question of com-
pensation. After a while the quarantine officer comes
aboard, feels of the doctor's pulse and gives us leave
to enter; then the custom house officer arrives and ex-
amines our credentials; then the seraphic lioatmen climb
up on deck and off'er to carry us ashore for $3 apiece.
They finally compromise on $1, and we go off' in sailboats
or rowboats to the mole, half a mile awav.
ZIGZAGS IN MEXICO. 15^
Everything seems povert^'-stricken ; the workmen look
like American beggars, and I wonder how the Spaniards
could ever have had the audacity to name Vera Cruz " the
Eich City of the True Cross."
The first thing that attracts my attention on climbing
up the wharf is a brown bird as big as a turkey sitting
pensive on a trunk bearing initials which I recognize.
I give him a " shoo " as one would a hen in the front
parlor, when a young dentist who has come with us shakes
his head and drojss a word of caution. He points beyond
the wharf, also, where I see large numbers of these awk-
ward birds, acting as if they own the town, roosting on
fences and housetops and striding with official and inquisi-
torial air down the gutters which run in the middle of the
streets. I now recognize it as a buzzard, or zopilote
(four syllables, please, in pronouncing him), the sacred
scavenger of the tropics, and know that I am in the
presence of a member of the street-cleaning department
of Vera Cruz.
'" It costs you $5 if you kill one of these fellows," says
the doctor, " and the jDolice will arrest you sooner for
snapping an orange seed at a buzzard than for stoning a
priest."
I let that bird alone. But I take an inventory of his
personal attributes. It must be acknowledged that he is
a tough looking customer. His faded pink eyes have little
wrinkled porches over them, and are the eyes of a dissi-
pated creature. His white under-beak is like the lower
jaw of a dredging machine, that has just been washed, and
his top-knot looks as if it had been through a cyclone.
His nostrils have a flaring and disdainful expression, per-
perhaps acquired from his epicurean habits, and his mouth
extends back just as far as it possibly can without cut-
ting his head off. He always forgets to move his head
and body simultaneously. He shows no fear, but he has a
pensive air, he tiptoes softly and deferentially, and his
aspect somehow suggests that he has been disappointed in
158 FOLKS NEXT DOOR.
his choice of a profession. But his career is extremely
serviceable, even if it does not confer happiness on him.
I take an empty street-car and ride out through the city
to suburbs where the bull-fighting arena is fenced in, and
am surprised, indeed, to find that the hottest and unhealth-
iest of Mexican cities is by all odds the cleanest. Streets
white and solid are drained by gutters free from sewage or
refuse, and though I suppose the " vomito " does sometimes
break out here, it is difficult to perceive what it lives on.
There are no carriages in Vera Cruz ; at least, I do not see
one. The ubiquitous donkey patiently plods, and mule-cars
run constantly, with nobody in them.
But, after all, there is nothing to see in Vera Cruz,
except things which nobody wants to see; so we hurry
off within an hour or two on the train of the Mexican
railway, which will bear us to Orizaba, half-way to the
capital, before night.
The ride of three hundred miles, from the gulf to the
city of Mexico, made in twelve or fourteen hours, is full
of constant surprises, and is an event never to be for-
gotten. It includes the temperature and flora of three
zones, and is like taking a railroad ride in Brazil, Penn-
sylvania and Norway, ail in a single summer dny. For
thirty miles we run across the plain — the ticrm calicnte
(hot land) of ^lexico. Barrenness at first; then cactus,
banana and cocoa palm and that infinite underbrush called
chaparral. Hovels here and there, with sides built of cane
sticks four or five feet high, standing on end, far enough
apart to admit air, light and centipedes, and covered slant-
wise witli a tliirty-foot-high and two-foot-thick thatch of
palm leaves, looking like a Yankee haystack or Eol)inson
Crusoe's home. By us whisk telegra]ih poles, coffee bushes
in l)lo()iii, bananas and brown infants, tliree-quarters
naked, solemnly making mud pies in tlie shade of a club
cactus.
Vnv tlie first seventy-five miles there are palms of many
kinds, mahogany, dye wootls, eottonwood and paint trees;
ZIGZAGS m MEXICO. 159
then, for fifty miles, a temperate zone with the oak, ash,
camphor tree, cj'^press, and a hnndrecl other trees in aliun-
dance; and even in the frigid zone along the sierras, vast
forests of pine, sprnce, cedar and fir. In the tropical part
of the ride the vegetation is ver}^ luxuriant. Great trees,
varieties we do not recognize, are on every hand, draped
with the long, gray, Spanish moss so familiar to the trav-
eler in Florida. ]\[any of the trees are also laden with
air plants, or parasites, fantastic and beautiful forms
clinging to them like some strange, crouching animal, half
unrolled and ready to leap upon the train. The convol-
vulus festoons the branches with its glory of purple flow-
ers. Here and there a coffee field lurks in the shade which
this savory bean requires, looking like rows of our Xorth-
ern barberry, hung with scarlet jewels and leaves as green
and shiny as a laurel. The castor-oil plant holds aloft
its gigantic brown beans. A rod of pale-green cactus
shoots twenty feet up the wayside rock, and watches us like
a snake — the splendid blossom of the century plant.
Flowers of strange sorts abound, and when the train stops
we get out and pick bouquets of them, crowned with a
new-fashioned thistle-bloom, red as a flame. Bananas in
groves are ripening by the wayside. Mango trees are in
pink blossom. Beautiful yellow orchids appear now and
then, and magnolia and orange trees make the air fra-
grant. The tulipan lifts its scarlet cup along the hedges.
A banana palm in blossom susj^ends its red flower like a
great inverted torch, and a peculiar high palm with ra-
diating leaves suggests green .fireworks on top of a pole.
This lasts for hours — an odoro\is tangle of rare beauty.
; As the train winds up the mountain side toward the
snowy._peak of Orizaba, white in the sun, Brazil gradually
: merges into Pennsylvania. The magnolia disappears.
Palms are fewer. And the traveler is made conscious that
the road has required extraordinary engineering. A pow-
erful engine, a blending of two locomotives with ihe ten-
der on the top, drags the train and attains the traction
-««i(»B5»-..^*^ar.
IGO FOLKS NEXT DOOR.
necessary to overcome the tremendous grade of one foot in
twenty-five. The vistas along these mountain sides are
magnificent. More than one view recalls the lovely val-
ley between the Alps, up which the St. Gothard railroad
from Italy winds; but the latter road ascends only 4,000
feet to the summit, wdiile the Mexican railroad climbs
from five feet above the Gulf of Mexico at Vera Cruz,
to over 8,000 feet at Guadalupe! There are many tun-
nels along the route, and numy fine iron and stone bridges,
feats of daring engineering. The track is of steel, and
as smooth as the best roads in our States.
A GLIMPSE AT THE CAPITAL. 161
A GLIMPSE AT THE CAPITAL.
ON A MOUNTAIN TOP. CONDITION OF THE CITY. A
HEAVENLY CLIMATE. NO CELLARS. NO DRAINAGE.
FEVERS AND DEATH IN SUMMER TIME. THE GREAT NEED
OF MEXICO.
TiiE city of Mexico, three hiindrecl miles from Yera
Cruz, lies in the bottom of a great saucer sixty miles
long and twenty wide, in the broad top of the Andes. The
time to see this lofty plateau at its best is the summer
months, for then, throughout the tierra fria (cold laud),
as it is called, the air is salubrious and bracing, and the
rain of every afternoon keeps dowji the dust, and brings
forward the lovely vegetation. From April to August the
trees that have borne luscious fruit all winter put forth
special efforts, and the out-of-door flowers which you
thought beautiful in January become wonderfully radiant.
At the same time there is no very hot weather, like that
which assails the people of even our most northern States.
But, though this is the season of splendid luxuriance, there
are other reasons why January, February and ]\Iarch are
the safest months for a visit to tlie capital.
This is a heavenly clinuite. jS'o umbrellas, no overshoes,
no piercing cold at the coldest, no dangerous heats at the
hottest, all fruits at all seasons, blue skies scarcely flecked
1)y a cloud — lifi^ hwo is a ]ior]i(M iial j^v. I am speaking
of tliosc mnnllis of Spring: there are other months, later
in llic sninuKM-. when rniiis fall (^vcry day, wlicn lliis un-
di'aJDcd basin in which the cajiital lies exiiales death, when
tlic nmltrella stieketh closer than a lirotber and tb.e wan-
dei'ing American ]iilgrini. warned liy tlic menace of ]meu-
monia and a rel)rile jnilsc, jumps into his gum shoes.
163 FOLKS NEXT DOOR.
draws his rubber manga over his shoulders and flies north
or to the higher mountain tops as fast as he can go. The
climate is not responsil)le for this unhealthfulness, for the
climate is always healthful. The undrained condition of
the city is responsible. If it were drained and properly
paved, and if the drainage were applied to the beautifying
of the broad suluirban avenues, Mexico would be the most
attractive city in the world to tourists — not architectur-
ally as handsome as Paris and Washington, but more de-
lightful, because set high above the reach of all pulmon-
ary and bronchial diseases, with a temperature ranging
less than fifteen degrees in a whole year, in the midst of
perpetual verdure.
There are no cellars in this city — not one anywhere.
Water lies wthin two feet of the surface, clogged and
rendered impure by the filthy accumulations of ages. Lake
Texcoco is only two feet lower than the cit}'^, and Lake
Zumpango, with many square miles of surface, is 24 feet
above it ! So during freshets the city is occasionally over-
flowed and water stands two feet high in the streets.
There is little water in the valley (twelve hundred scjuare
miles) fit to drink except such as is brought up
through deep artesian wells, and that is of questionable
quality. In the summer fevers and j^neumonia abound.
The average death rate here is twice as great as that of
Boston, and the average of human life here is 3(3 years !
AVhen Cortez found the city it covered a small island in
I^ake Texcoco, and was connected Avith the mainland by
two or three long and narrow causeways built through the
shallow water and broken here and there by defensive
bridges. Since then the lake has receded till it is nearly
ten miles away. The floating gardens of the "Aztecs —
rafts of wickerwork upholding rich vegetable mold — have
long since come to anchor and form beds of earth with
ditches running l)etween.
The city is now surrounded by a low, level plain
threaded bv broad and beautiful boulevards 300 feet wide.
A GLIMPSE AT THE CAPITAL. 163
embowered in cypress and eucalyptus trees. The terrible
canals in which the little band of Cortez was repeatedly
engulfed have withdrawn or dwindled into ditches. This
great waste of new land is terribly dry in the rainless sea-
son and unproductive.
For the first two days I was a little troubled for breath
on this lofty plateau, and my lips were dry and my throat
parched; but my lungs have now become accustomed to
the rarefied air, and by taking outdoor exercise early in
the morning and evening and drinking a little claret
and a good deal less water, I have succeeded in being
very comfortable. The clothes we wear are the same they
are wearing in New York.
The Mexicans are by no means indifferent to the un-
wholesome condition. Thrice they have made prepara-
tions to move the whole capital to the highlands, but the
work was too colossal for carrying out. In recent years,
they have put forth herculean efforts for sanitation and
have finished the great drainage canal, fifty miles long,
through the mountains to the Gulf, but it is by no means
all that its projectors hoped for as yet, and proves to be a
mitigation rather than an extirpation of the perils to
which they are constantly subject. The cit)^ of Mexico
is not yet a safe place to visit during the heavy rains of
summer.
All of Mexico except the Federal district, of which this
city is the center, is salubrious the year round ; but by this
I mean all on the high plateau of T.OOO feet, which really
constitutes three-fourths of the country. This city might
be removed from the list of exceptions if it would spend
a few million dollars for drainage, not by relying on the
])reposterous canal to the Gulf of IMexico, begun 300 years
ago by the Viceroy Salivas, on which $113,000,000 has
already been spent, but by disposing of the sewage ac-
cording to the dictates of modern science. What this
beautiful city needs to more than restore the fabled beauty
and fertility of the Garden of the Aztecs is to put in oper-
164 FOLKS NEXT DOOR.
ation here a system like that now so successful elsewhere,
where the sewage is allowed to run into a central sink
and is easily pumped therefrom upon the unfertile lands
around the town. The solid matter thus passes speedily
into vegetation, producing fruits and flowers. I know of
no place in the world that would feel the benefit of such
a system as Mexico would, excepting, perhaps, the sand
barrens of Long Island, if they could be fed with the
sewage of Xew York and Brooklyn.
Here it would be especially adapted to the end designed,
for not only would the fertilization be used to the very
best advantage, but the liquid portion of the drainage for
the greater part of the whole would make these parched
fields blossom like Tadmor all through the rainless winter
months. Not only would Mexico thus become one of the
three or four most lovely cities in the world, with avenues
as broad, straight and handsome as those of Paris and
Washington, in the midst of a garden radiant with bloom
twelve months in every year, but it would become one of
the most healthful cities on the planet — perhaps the most
healthful — the Mecca of every sight-seeing tourist and a
sanitarium for the invalids of both hemispheres. It is
r terrible pity that such an opportunity should be neg-
lected, when, for an expenditure quite within the ability
of the people, this cit}', now under a cloud of distrust in.
spite of the eternal summer, might Cjuickly become re-
nowned for attractiveness among the capitals of the world.
The very configuration of the outlying lands, the vast
benefits to accrue, the splendid avenues to be beautified,
the fertile fields to be reclaimed, the health of 300,000
people to be protected, and the seriousness of the
dilemma which defies any other solution, ought to tempt
the authorities to put it in operation at once. Instead of
being brown and dusty, parched and fever-stricken, the
valley of Mexico might be made a garden, sustaining the
happy population that it supported under Montezuma, and
blooming with more than historic splendor.
THE STEEET,S AND HOMES. 165
THE STEEETS AND HOMES.
NAMES OF STREETS. HOW THE HOUSES LOOK. NO CHIM-
NEYS. THIRD FLOOR ARISTOCRACY. SEEN" FROM THE
BALCONY. BARGAINS IN THE I'ATIO. AIDS TO DIVINE
AVORSHIP. — WATER FOR DOGS. — CALL ON MRS. SANTA
ANNA.
In naming cit}'' streets Mexicans have shown great origi-
na]it3^ Every street has as man}^ names as crossings.
A new name is assigned to almost every square — not a
letter of the alphabet or a number, but some gorgeous
appellation that quite fills the mouth to utter. A good
many are theological names. There are the street of the
Crosses of Sorrow, the street of the Saint of the True
Cross, the Heart of Jesus street, the street of the Holy
Ghost, the Hail Mary street, the Arches of Bethlehem,
the avenue of the Love of God, Jerusalem Court, and the
bridge of St. Peter and St. Paul. Potato street and Egg
alley run into St. Jerome street, and New Slaughter House
street runs into Jesus Christ street. Then there are the
street of the Lost Child, Famous Men street. Fifth of May
street. Fish street. Bird street, Goat street. Rat street.
Rooster street, and street of the Flies. Streets are named
after most of the mechanic arts and dozens of the saints.
Add to these the Square of the Thief, the street of the
False Entrance of St. Andrews, Little Candle Shop street.
Sad Indian street, Crazy Folks street, and Devil street, and
you begin to have some idea of the grotesque nomenclature
of the capital of Mexico. And half of the stores are named
after some saintly personage, or some hoaviMily suggestion,
as the Tobacco Shop of the Holy Virgin.
166 FOLKS NEXT DOOR.
This city of Mexico has been much modernized. The
streets are now generally broad and straight, flanked with
two-story jails, built of brick covered with stucco and
wliitewashed. These jails are residences and they are
erected flush with the sidewalk, and generally have a little
grated window on the first story — perhaps two. Entrance
is effected at one heavy double iron gate like barn doors,
which admits pedestrians and horses, especially horses, to
the first floor, which is floorless. This is the court or
patio, and the jail-like residence is built around it. In
this patio are flowers, vines and color plants, blossoming
shrubs, sometimes gorgeous and of great variety, and
around it winds the stone staircase leading to the living-
rooms. The only proper place to live is thought to be
on the third floor — the lower rooms are given up to ser-
vants and horses.
The heavy iron gate furnishes the only entrance to the
house. Sometimes the patio is handsomely paved with
tessellated marbles, and the stairs rise through gothic
arches, supported on airy and graceful columns, and dec-
orated with statuary. The upper front windows open
upon cozy and attractive balconies, shaded by linen awn-
ings, often in high colors.
There are no chimneys to this house. In fact there is
not a chimney in Mexico, I believe, except in the most
northern states, and their absence gives an odd aspect
to the architecture, like that of Arabian towns. No house
has a fire-place or a stove, for it is never cold, but the
kitchen is equipped with a sort of ungainly brick or stone
range, ten or fifteen feet long, having holes for pots and
kettles, in which charcoal is burned. The smoke escapes
by the open doors and windows. Charcoal is the fuel of
Mexico — almost the only fuel, except in the northern
states. It is packed to the cities, sometimes hundreds of
miles, by grotesque little donkeys, which carry loads four
times their size, or by the porters of the country, who will
tote on an average 150 pounds twenty miles a day.
THE STREETS AND HOMES. 167
Many of the houses of the cit}' are out of plumb, the
walls leaning and staggering like the walls of Yenice or
Amsterdam, and for the same reason. Where water washes
just underneath the surface in one perpetual sea, it can
scarcely be expected that heavy masonry will maintain
the perpendicular.
Immediately outside of every one of the 30,000 doors
in this city sits a wooden bowl of some sort containing
water. This is for the dogs of the street; and there is a
fine of $5 for every householder who fails to put this dish
out and keep it replenished all the time between the vernal
equinox and the summer solstice. This looks like real
kindness to animals, but it is in sharp contrast to the
bull fights in the suburbs, the cock fights in the city, and
the brutality of the spur with which the Mexican rides
his horse. Somewhat incongruous, also, seems the circum-
stance that an uncommonly large proportion of the well-
watered dogs here have only three good legs, and that they
hobble along holding up the broken one so that it will not
touch the stones. So I at last come to the ungenerous
conclusion that the drink is set in the doorways, not for
the comfort of the dogs, but for the protection of the deni-
zens against hydrophobia.
The view of the streets from the balconies of the fort-
ress recalls old Bible pictures; the plain, Ihit-roofed
houses, with outside of stucco; a portal broad as a port-
cullis the only entrance; peons clad each in a cot-
ton shirt and pair of white drawers, moving languidly
about; women selling lottery -tickets ; diminutive donkeys
carrying loads twice as large as themselves, so bulky some-
times as completely to hide the bearer: the ineffable dude
of Mexico in his jingling silver; the grotesque water ped-
dlers; cows and goats driven around and milked at the
doors, and the warm sun in every season glimmering over
all — it irresistibly reminds one of the street-vistas of Jeru-
salem, Joppa and Damascus.
To the newcomer Mexico is a country of stariling con-
168 FOLKS NEXT DOOE.
trasts. The same clothes are worn winter and summer,
and thongh we are about seven thousand feet above the
sea in a valley considerably higher than the highest moun-
tains east of Colorado, oranges, bananas and trojDical fruits
ripen every month out of doors.
Come to the balcon}^ — for almost every room in Mexico
has a l^alcony, either on street or court. An Indian woman,
with a brown baby strapped upon her back in a blanket like
our Western Sioux, rises from her seat upon the pavement
beneath us and nimbly steps upon an electric car by the
glare of the arc light !
You can buy almost every Mexican product from a
Mexican lialcony. Street venders go by constantly hold-
ing up things to tem]3t the purchaser. A cargador pauses
and looks up without a word. On his back are 150 pounds
of charcoal which he has toted 50 or 75 miles from far
beyond the Cordilleras. Our brazier is not out of fuel ;
if it were we could buy — for twice what it would cost in
New York.
A girl holds up a bunch of bananas. She is not pretty ;
in fact, there is no indigenous beauty here. One can see
more pretty women in New York in five minutes than in
Mexico in a hundred years. She will do for a banana-
holder, though. " How much ? " "■ Five cents apiece,
senor." Five cents! and this is the home of the banana!
1 can get as good ones in New York for half the money
every day in the year. In fact, oranges, pineapples and
all tropical fruit cost just about twice as much here within
sight of the orchards as they do in New York.
A woman stops below^ and lifts up a water bottle. I
call her up. She enters the heavy portal, crosses the
open court where flowers are in bloom and a few oranges
are ripening on a tree, and climbs the stone stairs. The
bottles are of Guadalajara ware, a chalk-like pottery, so
porous that the rapid evaporation cools water like ice. I
buy some bottles — 50 cents apiece — and the grotesque
painting on the outside is worth the money.
THE STREETS AND HOMES. 1G9
Here comes a peddler of antiques; he looks up and
shows me a parcel of something. I beckon to him. He
comes np, looks slyly around to see that he is unobserved,
then unfolds the package and produces a handful of rusty
iron that looks at first like old chain-armor. No, it is a
sort of spiritual armor. There is an iron band four inches
wide to buckle around the waist next the skin, and armed
on the inside with lacerating prongs and spurs to tear the
flesh. It was worn by a religious devotee, who strove
thus to increase his piety. There is a similar chain band
for the neck and one for each arm, all sharpened up nicely,
with barbs as sharp as pins. I should think it would
result in great personal excellence if used with energy.
There is also a chain whip, called by the church a disci-
■plina, with wbieh some penitent person used to scourge
himself. It has at the end half a dozen chain lashes, so
equipped with iron thorns that it would take a mouthful
of flesh out of the back at every blow. I have never seen
it used, and have not even used one myself, but Madame
Calderon do Barca, in her book on Mexico forty years ago,
says that she attended evening service in the church of
St. Francis, and at a given signal the lights were put out
and the congregation, slipping ofC their coats and loosening
their frocks, fell to thrashing their bare backs with the
disciplina, continuing it for half an hour till they were
completely exhausted, and the floor was stained with blood.
A clergyman now preaching here, tells me that ho himself
recently took a whole suit of this sort of armor oif of a
zealous blacksmith. I purchased the lot and shall put it
in my cabinet labeled " Aids to Divine Worship."
Yesterday I called with a small party of Americans upon
Mrs. Santa Anna (pronounced here '^ Sant' Anna"), wi-
dow of the celebrated general, wlio died many 3'ears ago,
after a life of extraordinary vicissitudes. The visitors
were received with great urbanity in hei' new residence,
in the center of the city, by ]\Irs. Santa Anna, who de-
clared that she liked Americans, and was alwavs glad to
170 FOLKS NEXT DOOR.
see them, and irx liberal Spanish fashion informed them
that her new house was theirs, to dispose of as they saw fit.
It was no sorr}^ gift — an immense three-stor}^ building of
cream-colored trachite, erected around a court ; twenty-five
or thirty rooms, I should think, in all, including the
stable. The court, or patio, is of course open to the sky,
and brilliantly illuminated with orange and cactus blooms
and a profusion of tropical flowers. Not half of the rooms
are yet furnished, but it wouldn't be a bad house to take —
not at all.
Mrs Santa Anna was found up the stone steps in the
parlor on the upper floor, where most of the Mexicans
live who can afford it. She is slightly bowed, and has the
personal appearance of a woman who had seen grief. She
is of smallish stature, and Avas in a plain dark gray
gown. She speaks English pretty well, and a third of
her conversation was in that familiar tongue. She owns
a "summer residence" in Tacabaya, a healthful village
full of gardens out beyond Chapultepec, but as it is always
summer here she occupies one place or the other accord-
ing to her caprice. She is accompanied by an intelligent
young lady from Michigan, who is assisting her to recover
her English, rusted from 3^ears of disuse.
Mrs. Santa Anna is only seventy, but I am bound to
say that she looks ten years older, in spite of the fact that
only a few white threads appear in her dark thatch of hair.
It is a wonder she does not look a hundred. Santa Anna
was President of j\Iexico three years before she was born.
She was plighted to him in her cradle and married to him
when she was thirteen. He Avas then a military dictator,
sleeping on his sword, beset by constant iDcril. In six
months he had lost a leg and got into that dismal prison,
San Juan de Ulua. For twenty years her life was spent
in a camp, surrounded by the whirl and fright of warfare.
Her husband was five times President of Mexico, four
times military dictator in absolute power. He was lian-
ished, recalled, banished again, and finally died when
THE STREETS AND HOMES. 171
with his wife in exile as a traitor. She lias seen much
" glory " and has received nnlimited adulation, but she
hardl}^ ever enjoyed one thoroughly peaceful month in her
life. It is a wonder she does not look as old as Methusa-
leh, for she has suffered more worry and trouble than a
liundred ordinary women. Mastered by the sympathy of
the moment, I could not help saying a good word for her
dead husband, that monster of cruelty and brutality who
killed 140 American ]3risoners in the Alamo, and shot down
in cold blood the brave, if quixotic, Fannin and his 500
followers after they had surrendered under solemn agree-
ment, on tbe shore of Texas,
A cloud came over her face, as she said : " I am glad to
hear you speak kindly of my poor husband. The people
of Mexico will not understand liim. They call him hard
names, but God knows he sought their welfare. He suf-
fered and sacrificed everything for them, only to be dis-
carded by them at last. I think the z\mericans wlio knew
him mainly as a foe understand him better than his own
countrymen."
Though Santa Anna defended this land repeatedly
against foreign invaders, and always showed great ability
in council and field, his memory is now dishonored, and
there is no statue or portrait of him in any public place
in ]Mexico. After trying in vain to govern this capricious
people for a whole generation, he finally concluded that a
foreign master would l)e best for them and recommended
Maximilian. This is the blunder which they will not for-
give. Perhaps they are right, from a political point of
view. Q II ten sahe?
''.Here is the best picture we have of the General," said
Mrs. Santa Anna, turning in Ikm" clinir and indicating a
portrait in a frame that sat on tlie Ibxn- and leantMl against
the partition. She spoke in a sweet voice and smiled ad-
miringly. It represented tlie cliieftain in tlie attitude witli
wlii(h be was most familiar — on liorseback. The face,
])ainled in oils, was said to be an admirable likeness. The
173 FOLKS NEXT DOOK.
rest of the picture was in rich and elaborate embroider}' —
heaps of sills:en thread, carefully and lovingly woven
through and through. It was a spirited representation.
Hanging on the Avail was also a portrait of herself,
taken many years ago, surrounded with court luxury and
looking like a young princess in the midst of her triumphs.
She had evidently not yet discovered that her dolls were
stuffed with sawdust.
" The general's picture ought to have been hung long
ago," said the widow, "■ but I have only just succeeded in
getting into this house. It was built by Mexicans, and
tliey are so slow ! They promised to finish it in four
months, and they have been exactly four years about it.
It was always ' Manana ! manana ! ' " So it is, indeed. It
is very difficult to get anything done promptly in this
country. They keep putting one off with their everlasting.
" manana " — to-morrow !
Mrs. Santa Anna has no children, and never had. She
is attended by six servants, none of whom wear livery.
She lives and dresses with conspicuous plainness, and it
is only when she speaks of her late husband that her wan
face lights up with much vivacity. As we passed down tlie
heavy stairway, a sleek team of mules hitched to a hand-
some landau stood in the imtio waiting to bear their mis-
tress out to her rural residence at Tacabaya. Santa Anna
never, T believe, acquired a large fortune, a testimonial
to his personal honesty, which does not attach to the names
of many of his successors. His gorgeous snutf-liox, worth
$25,000, is on exhibition at the Monte de Piedad. It was
a present.
I felt better after calling on IMrs. Santa Anna and ex-
pressing respect and sympathy, for it seemed, in a certain
way, like making personal atonement for the disgraceful
part my country had played in tlie war of 184()-47 — one of
the most barbarous and unjust wars for plunder ever waged
bv a powei'ful nation against one that was defenceless.
FOOD AND DRINK. 173
FOOD AND DRINK.
FRUITS, VEGETABLES, GRAIN. — HOW DO THE MEXICANS
LIVE? — THEY EAT QUEER THINGS. — FLIES' EGGS. — THE
CACTUS. — THE VIRTUES OF THE TULQUE COW.
It has been alleged that more than half of all the trees,
fruits, vegetables, cereals and flowers that are grown on
earth can be found in Mexico. Certain it is that there is
not one known to science that can not easily be grown
here.
In the tierra caliente, on the low slopes and plains of
the coast, the plants consist mostly of the fruits of the
torrid zone, cocoanut and a great variety of jDalms, dye
woods, coffee, sugar-cane, indigo and cotton.
In the tierra templada, on the narroAV outer slope of the
immense mountain-plateau, there are bamboo and cam-
phor trees, grapes, apples, pears, oaks, cypresses, maples,
tobacco and wheat.
In the tierra fria, on top of the immense mountain-
plateau which constitutes the most of Mexico, are decid-
uous trees, all kinds of pine and other varieties of needle-
bearing trees, and the various species of the invalual)le
cactus.
i-Vmong the fruits of the tierra caliente are granidita.
mamey, chirimoya, and many others of unfamiliar name,
besides oranges, limes, bananas and pineapples.
It is said that there are in Mexico fifty-six kinds of
building woods and twenty-one kinds of cabinet-voods,
twelve kinds of forage, a hundred species of odoriferous
flowers and fifty-two of cereals and vegetables, eighty-
"I
174 FOLKS NEXT DOOE.
seven kinds of edible fruit and one hundred and thirteen
species of medicinal plants.
How do the Mexicans live? To write this question is
easy enough: to answer it staggers me. The laborers of
Mexico consist of two-thirds of all the people; some 3,000.-
000 pure-blooded Indians and 6,000,000 half-breeds. They
are called " peons," and four-fifths of them live from hand
to mouth. Their habitations are of the simplest sort —
huts of dirt mixed with straw and dried; huts of cane
just large enough to creep into; shanties of bark in the
arlioreal regions; in fact, shanties of anything that will
afford a screen. They make their homes under other peo-
ple's houses, like cats; in holes in the bank, like swallows;
and sometimes they camp under railroad-bridges and un-
der freight-cars backed upon a siding. Eight were run
over and killed out of a party of thirty who had camped
under some freight cars out on the Mexican National.
They were asleep at the time.
Yesterday morning I rode with a companion — the agree-
al)le Purdy — out through the eastern suburbs of the city,
and there, in the centre of all the smells of Tophet, we
came upon the five-acre ground where the district dumps
its garl)age and refuse. Peons were poking over the un-
canny heap, and then we discovered that they had made
their homes there — scores and perhaps hundreds of them.
These houses were three or four feet high, and were Imilt
of old tattered palm-leaf mats pulled out of the garbage-
lieap. The henhouses and hogpens of New England are
palaces to these habitations. But the tenants were of
course of the very lowest class. And in a land where it
seldom rains for months at a time, and nevei' freezes, al-
most any slielter will answer.
JTow tlie peons get food for six or eight cents a day —
tliat is tb(- (juestion. If they required half as much to eat
as the workmen ot the ITnited States they could not sur-
vive; they wouhl be swe])t off by starvation at once.
Twentv vears ago during' mv first visit to ^Mexico I con-
FOOD AND DRINK. 175
sidered this difficult problem, and in a letter to the Chicago
Tribune, said:
" The peons live mostly on cornmeal, baked into thin
cakes, with water, beans cooked in lard, and a fiery pepper
called ' chilli,' which may stimulate, but can hardly nour-
ish. Corn grows here easier and more abundantly than
anywhere else in the world, several of the States producing
three crops a j^ear, one after another ; but corn is $3 a
bushel in the city of Mexico, and over half of the Eepub-
lic.
" Beans — the great stand-by of the peon, and on his table
always three times a day — cost $1 a bushel.
" In a dozen of the Mexican States two crops of wheat
are grown annually, and in many places the farmer reaps
thirty bushels for a single bushel sown. But flour sells at
the rate of $10 a barrel in the city of Mexico.
" Potatoes of all sorts grow abundantly here with little
care; but they are so high and scarce that the steamer on
which I came brought 2,000 bushels to Yucatan and Vera
Cruz and sold them at $2 a bushel.
'' The peons live, I am told, on five or six cents a day ;
but call it ten or twelve cents a day, and even then how are
they to get enough cornmeal, beans, and potatoes to support
life?
" Mexico, as might be inferred, is the very Paradise of
swine. In no part of the world can they be grown cheaper
and easier than in the tierra templada — the temperate table
lands that flank this great plateau. But most of the pork
is turned into lard, and the only good ham to be had in
this city is from New York and costs 50 cents a pound.
"■' The reason of the scarcity and high price of food is
duplex: a lack of enterprise in the farmers and a lack of
transportation. If transportation were at hand the enter-
prise would come half way to meet it as surel}'' as supply
responds to demand.
" If the peons chiefly lived in the cities they would cer-
tainly starve to death. At his home the native eats only
176 FOLKS NEXT DOOR.
Indian corn, fruit, berries and a few simple vegetables and
weeds, and he grows them himself, or gathers them himself
where they grow spontaneously. He distils and brews his
own liquors, mostly pulque and mescal from the maguey,
but occasionally he prepares the fermented juice of the
tuna, chicha, chilote, and a dozen other plants, and on the
slopes and low lands of the coast he luxuriates in palm
wine, grape brandy and rum from sugar cane. The reason
why the peons do not starve is because they eat no food
that has been transported."'
The regular price for a good house-servant here — a
chambermaid, for instance — is $3.50 (American money) a
month, and $3 a month for " rationes." Servants do not
board in the family they serve, but buy their meals and
eat them in their own quarters. For $1.50 a week (includ-
ing wages and rationes) the servant must support herself
and her family, with prices as I have outlined them. If
the family consist of three persons this is seven cents a day
apiece, with no allowance for clothes, and, worse than all,
nothing for the priest. But the priest will get two or three
cents of it.
I suppose the climate solves the riddle. It is so warm
here that the lamp of life burns little of the fatty carbons
of the body, so that they need but slight replenishment.
The visitor is tempted everywhere with fruits of every
strange shape and color, every delicious odor and flavor.
Almost every tree here seems to bear some sort of edible
thing. Yet fruit is dear in all tlie cities. Mexicans of the
poorer chvss eat queer things sometimes. ]\Iost of these
suburban canals are covered with what looks like a green
scum, but is I'cally, like most of the green " scum '" on
northci'ii ijonds, a line vegetable growth, a sort of cress,
wliic'li fi'('(|U('nts places of special fertility. Wlien Cortez
besieged the city, the inhabitants pieced out their rations
with this stuff skimmed from the pools, and thereby post-
poned their deatit by starvation. It was a lesson they never
forgot, and the peojile who dwell in these l)amboo huts
FOOD AND DBINK. 177
make a sort of salad of this frail blossom of decay and pol-
lution.
But the Mexicans eat even odder things than this. There
are no fish in these great salt lakes near the city, but a re-
markable spotted reptile lives in them with a fish-like body,
four legs like a lizard, and webbed feet. It is a batrachian
of the salamander type, about 10 inches long, and its
flesh is white and toothsome. This hideous protean is de-
voured in great quantities by the peons, as were the toads,
tadpoles, lizards and bulrush piths by their ancestors. I
suppose there is some truth in what an old fellow who
was fond of horse-steaks told me in Paris last summer.
" Why we eat one thing "stead of another is Just a matter
of fashion, like the cut of a coat. Everything's good to
eat."
Another curious product of the Mexican lakes is a marsh
fly called "' axayacatl," which deposits its eggs in myriads
on flags and rushes, from which they are gathered by the
bushel and made into cakes that are sold in the market
and eaten with a relish ! I had read the description of this
food by the festive monk Thomas Gage, who wrought here
250 years ago : " The Indians gathered much of this and
kept it in Heaps, and made thereof Cakes, like unto Brick-
bats, and they did eat this Meal with as good a Stommach
as we eat Cheese; yea, and they hold opinion that this
Scum or fatness of the water is the cause that such great
number of Fowl cometh to Lake, which in the winter season
is infinite." These eggs, looking like fine fish roe, are still
collected in " Heaps " that look like haycocks along the
mud flats of the lake marge. The insects themselves, about
the size of a house fly, are also caught in enormous quan-
tities, pounded into a paste and boiled in corn husks.
I neglected the two or three opportunities I had to taste
of the eggs, but I atoned for that sin of omission by eating
some of the flies one morning. They are not bad. They
are pretty good. About like shrimps, grasshoppers and the
large red ants of Brazil.
12 ■■ '
178 FOLKS NEXT DOOR.
I found them eating shark in Yucatan {" cazon," they
call it,) and our consul told me that if I would tarry an-
other day I should have some monkey steak. I Avas in a
hurry to catch the steamer and the opportunity to indulge
in the delicacy of the broiled simian was lost forever — or,
till I return, at any rate. Dear reader, there is hardly
anything that I wouldn't do for you. I even drank pulque
for you, and the flavor thereof lingers in my mouth as I
write, like a diabolical reminiscence.
During the dry season, in which for months no rain falls
here, the landscape is brown and barren, except where the
cactus lifts its evergreen spears, or a palm holds up its fan-
tastic umbrella, or an irrigated wheatfield shines with
grateful verdancy. The most obvious thing in all Mexico
is the cactus. Three sorts of cactus are very plentiful — the
beautiful organ cactus, which shows against the hillsides
everywhere, and holds up its straight and symmetrical
stalks like the huge pipes of a church-organ; the club
cactus, or prickly-pear, which is a perfect nest of pudding-
sticks uplifted with a very emphatic gesture; and the
maguey, or pulque cactus, the most prized plant of the
country. One sees this last everywhere, in every period
of growth, generally (as along the west slope of the Valley
of Mexico) carefully cultivated and stretching in straight
lines for miles and miles. Each plant is about as high as
it is broad, and its great spreading leaves cover from 100 to
4.00 square feet of ground. The fields are laid out with
mathematical symmetry, giving the whole valley a checker-
board appearance. The green aisles radiate from the train
in every direction at every foot of its progress.
There are several hundred known varieties of this gro-
tesque plant, but all the varieties are fleshy and srcculent,
and the_y liave in coiiinion tlu^ unconiinon peculiarity of
being able to tlirivo and ])r()(luco their magnificent blos-
soms only in the dryest and poorest soil. Lava or broken
bricks and mortar seem to be ]irefcrred. Their vital action
must be very sluggish. Their flowers range from pure
FOOD AXD DEINK. 179
white through violet and jaink to a rich scarlet, and that of
the grandiflorus, nearly a foot in diameter, has a gorgeous
yellow calyx enclosing lovely white petals, and dies in a
single night. The forms of the cactus seem infinite. Some
are stately plants, like trees. Some are clambering vines.
Some look like hedgehogs; some look like cannon-balls
chained together; some look like writhing green snakes;
some look like lawn-tennis bats, stacked, or snapping-tur-
tles holding a mid-air convention and climbing up each
other's backs like the athletes at a circus forming a pyra-
mid.
Only three things are cheap in Mexico — pulque, flowers,
and politeness. Flowers of all kinds are about as cheap
as anything in the world — everybody can have a bouquet,
and almost everybody does. Pulque is considered cheap
by the natives, who have it to sell, because it is sold at a
cent a tumblerful, but it seems to me it would be dear at
a cent a hogshead. However, the people like it — the In-
dians, mestizoes and Creoles, nearly all. The Aztecs man-
ufactured pulque and got intoxicated on it, just as do the
Mexicans of to-day. It is the great national beverage — -
the lager-beer or hard cider of the land. Xo less than 20,-
000 gallons are said to be consumed in the city of Mexico
every day.
Byron calls attention to the great fact that "' man, being
reasonable, must get drunk." Therefore what would man
in Mexico do without pulque? It is strange indeed how
kind Nature provides for all the indispensible needs of the
human family ! The maguey plant makes its dwelling-
place on the Mexican highlands that stretch from moun-
tain to mountain, 7,000 feet above the sea. Each plant
has a short stem and from this it sends upward fifteen
feet high huge bayonets of green. The plant matures at
eight or ten years and will then yield that sweet milk
which ferments and becomes pulque. The tojD of the stem
is cut ofl! and enough of the heart removed to leave a nat-
ural receptacle holding two or three gallons.
180 FOLKS NEXT DOOR.
This is drawn out twice a day, and when a patriarch of
the mague}^ family feels real good it will yield a gallon
of the sweet sap every day for months together. This
juice is then emptied into an unshorn sheepskin turned
wrongside out and the feet tied up, in which it is trans-
ported to the place of fermentation. When thoroughly
spoiled it is fit for use. Everywhere the traveler meets
donkeys laden with these full skins, or a cargador will
trot along with one on the back of his neck, so smooth
and slippery and unctuous that it looks like a hog that
has perished with dropsy. I don't want any more of it.
I tried it the first day out for the benefit of the reader.
It looks like sour milk a week old, tastes like sour milk
a year old sweetened with assafoetida, and smells like Con-
stantinople. If I couldn't become inebriated on anything
but pulque, I would forego that pleasure for the remainder
of my life.
But the maguey plant is certainly a thing of beauty in
the landscape, and when one becomes superannuated and
farrow it ceases to give down, and then it suddenly shoots
upward a gigantic central stalk like a glorified telegraph-
pole, the top of which bursts into gorgeous bloom before
it dies, bearing in a clustered whorl a half-bushel of green-
ish yellow flowers, sometimes as man}^ as three thousand in
number. This is a bouquet for the gods, and it is the old
" century plant " that we have read of. The pulque pro-
duced along the valley of Toluca is famous for its supe-
riority. It is the worst there is. It is viciously strong and
th(> smell of it ascends to Heaven.
The maguey is almost as useful to the Mexicans as the
cocoa ])alin to the South Sea islander. In fact, I don't
know l)ut it lias a hundred uses, as tbat is alleged to have.
Wlion cattle arc famishing from tbirst they chew the succu-
lent leaves and survive. It also furnishes vinegar. Ad-
mirable paper is made from tbe pulp; twine, thread, sad-
dle-blankets, bags for packages, shoes, sandals and caps,
from tb.e fibers; soap fi-iMU tbe thick roots; excellent
FOOD AXD DEINK. 181
needles from the thorns; clothes-brushes and razor hones
from the leaf ribs ; house-thatches from the leaves ; ropes
from the bark ; agua miel, pulque, mescal, and tequilla
from the sap; and its young sprouts are roasted in the
ashes and eaten with avidity as we eat roasted yams. This
extraordinary plant also contributes other luxuries to the
table of the peons; it. shelters a handsome white rat and
bears a nice brown worm which are often caught and
served up as delicacies.
182 P0LK8 iNEXT DOOIi.
THE FLOATI^TQ GARDENS.
THE ZOCIIIMILCO CAISTAL. — IN' THE SUBURBS. — THE GAR-
DEXS HAVE MOSTLY COME TO ANCHOR. — AFLOAT ON A
BARGE. — FLOWERS GALORE. — LIKEWISE ODORS. — AN IN-
HERITANCE FROM THE AZTECS.
Of old I read, in Prescott and otherwheres, how, when
Cortez came, the city of Mexico was an island in Lake
Texcoco, and liow all the vegetables and flowers required
by the inhabitants were grown upon artificial '^ floating
gardens " along the shore — large flat baskets, filled with
rich earth and tethered to the bank. Of late years these
beautiful gardens — long since disappeared — have been de-
clared to be a fable, like G. W.'s little hatchet, William
Tell and Mrs. Harris — a sort of sun myth, borrowed from
the Aryans.
One morning last week two of us started off to investi-
gate the matter, my companion being a gentleman thor-
oughly acquainted in the neighborhood. Of course we
w^ent on horseback ; nobody travels any other way here, and
pedestrianism is a lost art. Southward we turned along
the route where Cortez first entered the city — then a mere
dike, now a network of solidly built streets housing a popu-
lation of a hundred thousand. The lake has retreated some
four or five miles east and south, and can now be seen only
from the steeples and high roofs. In the interval, beyond
the houses, stretches a broad low land, almost treeless and
shrubless, the water nowhere lying more than two or three
feet below the surface, and a few narrow canals leading
ofP toward the lake. It is an alluvium — a deposit of the
THE FLOATING GARDENS. 183
floods of centuries with a slight intermixture of current
vegetation.
Through this, straight south, flows sluggishly the Zochi-
milco canal, 10 miles long and 20 feet wide, with a fine
1)ridle-path along its bank. We rode down the Paseo de
la Viga to the canal, then followed its banks for miles. On
the narrow strip of water, gliding softly down to the city
were scores of flat-bottomed boats, paddled by Indians in
the picturesque toggery of the poor, loaded with all sorts
of vegetables and " truck " from the gardens above. Pres-
ently we came to the gardens, stretching away to right
and left. Each one is some ten rods long and twenty feet
wide, and is surrounded by canals on three sides. These
canals are some ten feet wide and they wind among the
gardens everywhere. On some grow cabbages, on others
beets, lettuce, strawberries, peas, vetch, oats, poppies, roses
and many flowers and fruits whose forms and names are
strange to us. Around the water-flanked garden beds the
gardeners are paddling in their canoes or they have hitched
them to a twig and are weeding or tilling the growing
plants. On many of the small plats they are planting and
harvesting the same kind of crop, for it is eternal summer
here, and always seed-time and always harvest-time.
There are no rains, but watering the little gardens is
easy. The gardener paddles slowly around in his l)oat,
and with many a deft and slanting stroke upon the water,
dashes it in great jets across the bed. This is done two or
three times a day. These gardens are firm, or as firm as
any peat morass is likely to be; at any rate, they are not
" fioating." On some of the heavier of tht'se arc liuilt neat
liuts of light cane thatched with banana leaves, thoroughly
ventilated, for every wind must blow through them every-
where. This was merely a causeway, or a raised road in tlie
lake wlien tlie Spaniards first came, but it is now a very
solid road in the midst of a verdant and flower-embroidered
landscape. AVe gallop through a village or tw(\ mt'h a
queer little collection of residences crouching around a
18i FOLKS NEXT DOOR.
church, and then we ride back through the miles of luxu-
riant canals to San iVnita, the Cone}'- Island of Mexico.
But there are floating gardens. 1 have found out that
much. They are six or eight miles further out, along the
borders of the lesser lake. They are not easily accessible
without a long and circuitous ride and a stop over night
at the lake. Of course the natural floating gardens, if there
ever were any, are vanished — the chinampas of the Aztecs,
which so excited the wonder and admiration of those who
had never seen them, formed of small masses of earth held
together by roots, and detached from the shores of the
lagoon during stormy weather. Those still in use are
mainly little rafts of reeds, rushes, roots and brushwood,
covered with black mold dredged up from the bottom.
These are usually fastened to the bank by long stakes
driven into the mud below, but there are growing strips of
verdure called cintas (ribbons), which still wander about
at their own sweet will. ' It is no uncommon thing, also,
for the Indians to cut out from the permanent field of the
cinta a mat of vegetation, resting on a multitude of water
plants, bulrush, reeds, rice, liliums, ranunculuses, etc.,
which are said to have no attachment to the bottom of the
lake. I am told that occasionally an adventurous flower-
garden escaped from its tether, is found wrecked along
shore after a gale, like a freighted ship. But I cannot
verify this, for I have as yet encountered no storm in Mex-
ico.
San Anita, at the city end of the canal, is quite a lively
place. Here visitors who wish to take a boat-ride up the
filthy but picturesque water-way obtain their boat. Here
gather on Sundays and feast days the multitudes who de-
light in picnics. Here the tawny boatmen, as you ajoproach,
shout the virtues of their respective gondolas. To hear
them run on you would suppose that the boats surpassed
the glories of Cleopatra's barge, or Elaine's floating pal-
ace, but on inspection, you discover that they are rather
ordinary rigs of the mud-scow pattern with a white awn-
THE FLOATING GAEDENS. 185
ing flimo- over the traveler's head. The boatman sometimes
paddles, but generally poles this vehicle, and when his
pole irritates the bottom of the lagoon, he rouses there-
from an infinite variety of smells that thrill the traveler
Avith the momentary illusion that he is in Constantinople.
The fancy is dispelled by the mouldering red fortresses and
yellow villas on the bank (one of which is pointed out as
Cortez's summer residence), and by the bamboo cottages
here and there under banana palms, along the flat land-
scape.
And by the flowers, also. I never saw^ so many flowers
as at San Anita and along the A^iga canal. The boat loads
of hay, and charcoal, and parti-colored picnickers, alter-
nate with boatloads of flowers. And so many and beauti-
ful that I have bought lovely flowers of the rarer sort at
San Anita at the rate of ten for a cent. It seems a sin to
cheapen roses so. The first thing the participant in Sun-
day festivities does is to crown himself with thick wreaths
of roses and poppies and corn flowers, got for the merest
trifle.
One of the redeeming traits the Aztec retains is his
love of flowers, which has survived three centuries of
tyranny. Long after the domination of Cortez here the
Aztecs would stealthily visit their old prostrate god, Huil-
zilopochtli, lying on his back where the conquerors had
flung him, and lovingly wreath him with garlands of flow-
ers. I have always suspected that Cortez and his priests
lied about that old fellow.
In every church you find flowers in profusion before
every image of the Virgin. Large button-hole bouquets of
violets are sold at San Anita for a " tlaco ""• — two cents —
and a gentleman Avho bought a huge bouquet there for
twenty-five cents, took it to pieces and found it to consist
of thirty red roses, fifty white ones, tAventy-seven violets,
thirty heliotropes, and more than tAventy Avhitc and thirty
pink rose-buds. To be sure, all the roses of Araby Avould
scarce suflice to Avash out the stain of the multitudinous
186 FOLKS NEXT DOOR.
smells which a lack of drainage for a million years or so
has concentrated here; but if one can hold his breath for
three or four hours, I know of nothing more exhilarating
or interesting than a forenoon upon the Zoehimilco
canal.
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 187
MANNERS ANP CUSTOMS.
COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE. — WIVES AT TWELVE AND FOUK-
TEEN. OLD MAIDS AT SIXTEEN. MARRIAGE OFTEN AN
UNATTAINABLE LUXURY. — BALCONY COURTSHIPS. THE
MEXICAN DUDE.^ HIS COSTUME AND HABITS. HOW TILE
GIRL IS BARGAINED OFF. " HOW PRETTY SHE IS ! " TILE
CRACK UNDER THE DOOR.
In Mexico marriages do not take place at quite so early
an age as they do in Calcutta, where little girls marry at
six or eight, and generally have their first babies at ten,
but even here the peons marry at twelve or thirteen, and
very few remain unmarried at fifteen. An unmarried girl
of sixteen is regarded as an old maid.
In the ante-Diaz years the word " marry " was usually
applied to the peons in a Pickwickian sense. More than
half of them raised families without ever marrying. They
were so religious that they scorned a civil marriage and so
poor that they could not afford to pay a $15 fee to the
priest. So, Jose and Lupie often said " all same ! "
and lived together without any ceremony whatever. I say
Jose and Lupie, because these are probably their names.
In modern Mexico almost every Indian boy is christened
" Jose "' and almost every Indian girl " Guadalupe •' —
of which " liupie " is the pet diminutive. It should be
added that in these latter days marriage has become fash-
ionable, even among the peons. A civil marriage costs
nothing, so the priests have had to reduce their exac-
tions.
Even those of Spanish descent marry young — and how
they manage it is a mystery to me. For their young peo-
188 FOLKS XEXT DOOE.
pie of different sexes are sedulously kept apart. Court-
ships of the higher classes generally begin with the se-
norita on her balcony and her adorer on horseback in the
street below.
Love making in this country is a desperate passion —
it is no trifling bit of sentiment. The Mexican is an ani-
mal of rude instincts in this matter. In fact, Mexicans
— I mean the ruling class, the men with white blood in
their veins — do not trust each other.
Before marriage the girl is kept under constant vigilance,
perhaps not permitted to speak to her lover till he has
courted her for months in her balcony cage from his perch
on horseback, or to be in his presence alone until after mar-
riage.
Come to the balcony (every upper window in the city
has a balcony) and look out on one of these dashing caval-
leroes in his dress-parade costume. Memoranda : a pranc-
ing horse that goes with the pleasant pace called " single
step," a spirited, splendid creature with bright eyes and
broad chest, and saddle and trappings that cover him al-
most out of sight; his rider in a short leather jacket, be-
dizened with silver embroidery under which twinkles a navy
revolver in a sash ; pantaloons of grey stuff tight as a can-
dle-mold, decorated with two rows of half dollars up the
outside of each leg, so close as almost to touch, and braided
together with gold cord; silver spurs as big as saucers,
dangling from his heels and outweighing his boots five to
one ; the stirrups sheltered with two square feet of leather ;
a great yellow felt sombrero on his head with a gold cable
large enough to hold a captive bull wound around and
around it, and the broad thick brim bearing up a heavy ara-
1)esquc of gold; a cascade of turbulent frills in his shirt
bosom and a red scarf around his waist; then the horse
so trained that the rider never uses the rein, but bends
slightly to right or left to indicate his wish. It is a gor-
geous sight, and a pleasant sight. I wisli ihe dress-parade
costume of swell New Yorkers were half as attractive.
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 189
This fellow is probably one of the dudes of Mexico —
perhaps a wealth}^ 3'oiing planter or haciendado, for his
mozo, or groom, rides respectfully behind him, dressed a
good deal more soberly and wearing stuck in the saddle-
sheath a machete — a broad, savage-looking sword. Tliis
warlike rig is a survival of the time when personal de-
fense was needed, as it is not anywhere needed now. The
mozo is dignified, and ever looks straight at his master, as
who should sa}^ '" there he goes. His farm is a thousand
square miles, and that hat on him cost seventy-five dollars
if it cost a cent."
This gorgeous cavalier is not riding gently up and down
beneath the window for fun. No. He is on business bent.
Watch him and you shall detect his purpose. On the high
balcony across the street is a shimmer of Avhite and pink
behind the fluttering curtains fifty feet above the pave-
ment. A girl of the period is in ambush there. She has
scarcely met a young man in her life face to face except in
the presence of all the family and at stifl: parties in the
" danza " — so slow a movement as to be adapted to those fu-
nerals where the solemn Shakers dance. She has not yet
been bargained off by the old folks, and she half-clandes-
tinely watches the spangled being below, who has caught
a glimpse of her somewhere and thirsts to possess her. He
rides slowly and looks up at the awning through which
she peeps. He turns at the corner of the street and rides
back, watching the balcony. He holds out his hand, with-
draws it, lays it on his embroidered vest, and indulges in
other gestures supposed to indicate entreaty or protesta-
tion. A flutter of the curtain raises his hopes and he
spurs his steed into a caracole. The mozo prances around
and watches him, but quite out of the way. It begins to
rain. Does the bejeweled hidalgo retreat and seek a shel-
ter. Oh, no. He attests his sincerity and fervency by defy-
ing the elements. He acts as if quite unconscious of the
storm : he sits still and lets it beat on him. He would
drown rather than desert his post. If, in pity, she consents
190 FOLKS NEXT DOOE.
to smile on him or drops a flower, he withdraws wildly
happy, and resumes the courtship next day. This funny
spectacle is called " making the hear."
If she has smiled upon him, she takes the next step
towards an acquaintance. She possesses herself of a toy
telephone or constructs one with a couple of tomato cans
connected by a string, and one of these she gleefully lets
down from her balcony on his return. The vibration of the
disks carries the voice tolerably well, and the young caval-
lero welcomes the facility for conversation as an important
concession and is duly grateful — as he ought to be. What
they whisper to one another, we may not know. This tele-
phone contrivance is a nocturnal amusement ; the bashful
girl declines to let down her little cup full of coquettish
consideration in the garish sunlight.
And by and by, when they have said enough sweet noth-
ings to one another, the cavallero dismounts and makes
his way to the presence of her father, and asks his permis-
sion to marry his daughter. The old gentleman asks how
much the visitor is worth. If he is rich, the way is made
smooth. But perhaps he is a poor clerk in a store or a
salesman in the market. Then the father says, '' You have
very' little money; can you support my daughter in com-
fort ? "
" Ah, I think so, sir. I will try hard. I have $100 in
the bank, and a wage of $3 a week, and expect promo-
tion."
"Very well, senor; I will ask my daughter what she
thinks of it and if she is willing to be a ])oor num's
wife."
The fact that her father is rich is not taken into account
by any of the trio. He may be a millionaire; no matter;
no Mexican's daughter receives a dowry when she becomes
a bride. If she choose to wed a i)oor man, she must live
in a lowly cottage, while her unnuu'ried sisters dwell in the
palace. This may not l)e always comlortable, but it is the
defense of the countrv, for the absence of the " dot "" cer-
MANATEES AND CUSTOMS. 191
tainly cuts the ground from under the feet of the Euro-
pean fortune-hunter. No bankrupt British earl " makes
a bear " beneath the balcony of the Mexican senorita.
The ladies of Mexico of the better class never walk in
the streets, and they drive to the paseo generally in closed
carriages, leaving open barouches to the men ; and in shop-
ping excursions they do not enter the stores, but have the
clerks bring out the goods required, where they spend
their time examining textures and cheapening prices at the
curbstone.
It has been barely a generation since a lady, even an
American, could walk through the streets of Mexico alone
in the daytime without being grossly insulted. Men used
to look her straight in the eye and say whatever they
chose. As to their own wives, they are still prisoners gen-
erally. They are seldom permitted to walk or ride out for
a moment without their husbands, unless the need is very
imperative. One call from any gentleman may compro-
mise any married woman in the city of Mexico. It is not
believed to be possiljle that a woman can innocently appear
alone upon the street, or that she can receive a gentleman
in her parlor without criminal intent. An American lady
who boards at the Hotel Iturbide tells me of a Spanish-
]\Iexican wife there who, though as well as imprisonment
will permit, has not been out of her room once in seven
weeks, except to go to church (confessional doubtless) once
on Sundays ! Her meals are sent to her. To see American
ladies out shopping seems to both tyrants and victims a
degrading spectacle.
I wouldn't like to be a young girl in " May-he-co," as
they call this land — or a young fellow either. It is consid-
ered quite imprudent for them to speak to each other till
they have virtually become engaged, or to see each other
without the presence of third parties till they are married.
To behold a Mexican youth at his first courtship gazing
lackadaisically at a brown girl a hundred feet distant on an
upper balcony, whom he has never been permitted to speak
192 FOLKS NEXT DOOE.
to, holding his steed immovable and gazing up, keeping
his place with unwinking eye an hour at a time and com-
ing there day after day, week after week, rain or shine,
especially rain, drenched to the skin, persistent and pas-
sionate — well, I know few more edifying spectacles. In
two months, if he is lucky, he Avill be able to get into the
house and sit in the " front room "' with the old folks.
And in two months more he will marry the girl and lock
her up.
In some cities of the Republic a curious habit prevails
of complimenting unknown ladies on the street. Of course,
the lady is accompanied by father, brother, mother or
duenna, and it is considered by all parties quite proper
for the passing admirer to say : '^ How pretty she is ! " or
" What a dainty hand ! "" or "" What fine eyes ! '' or " What
a lovely foot ! " Then the object of admiration turns and
says to the stranger with her sweetest senile : " Mille gra-
cias, Senor ! " (A thousand thanks!) I know gentlemen
who have tried this with distinguished success. I have
never performed the feat myself, for I am naturally ner-
vous.
At Vera Cruz I saw an odd illustration of this Span-
ish-Mexican love-making. Negotiating for some cigars in
a little store I ol^served a man through the window in a
lane bowed on his face on the threshold of a door. He
was dressed in dark clothes, I thought, though all I could
see was the seat of his pantaloons and tlie soles of his shoes.
I conjectured that he was at prayer, for his attitude was
not unlike that of numerous peons around the street kneel-
ing in the vicinity of churches; but there was no churrb or
altar, and he did not rise to cross himself. And ho stirred
no more than the stone doorsill.
" What do you think he is doing? " askr<l ilic ti-;ulosiuan,
smiling.
''Ho is at prayer," I answoi'od, '" ami wnndoi'Tully de-
vout. He doesn't seem to stir at nil."
" You are mistaken," he said. " Xol)tuly Init the peons
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 193
are religious. Nobody prays in this country who has a
whole suit of clothes."
I knew the speech was an exaggeration, and felt it to
be ujinecessary, but I guessed again. " Then he must
be dead. Is he dead ? "
'' No ! he's making love. It's rather an odd case, even
for Mexico," said the speaker in good English, for, though
a Spaniard, he had lived in New York. " That door is
locked. The girl is there, locked in alone. Her father is
off looking after his mules. I fancy he doesn't like the
young man, but I never saw them speak. That chap has
got his mouth to the crack under that door, and he is whis-
pering very busily, and I suppose the girl is on the other
side listening. By-and-by the old man will come home and
a minute before he gets here the chap Avill rise from his
knees, where he has been for hours, and glide away through
the backyard. To-morrow the old man will go out and lock
the girl in, and half a minute after he turns around the
corner of the building up the street that chap will drop on
his knees at that door and lie there all day as if he was
eating cobble-stones."
" By-and-by," I suggested, reflectively, " that old fiend
may come home unexpectedly and catch that piece of devo-
tion on the toe of his boot and make him wish he had beeu
slain in the French war." As I spoke I saw that young
man suddenly nestle, as if with a premonition of the return
of his venerable adversary. When I left he was still at his
devotions.
I bought a hundred cigars. They were wretched ones.
They burned all along up the side and set fire to the mous-
tache. They must have been filled with some variety of
cactus, or perhaps the bark of a cocoanut. I made a pres-
ent of them to a friend who I heard had said I was a
fool.
Ever since that day I have wondered if the devout-look-
ing figure in the alley was not a stool-pigeon posing as an
exhibition to divert the attention of Americans from their
194 FOLKS NEXT DOOE.
purchases and to enable the shrewd tradesman to work off
his bogus cigars. But I think not, for his performances
were just what might be expected from the insanity of
these Mexican swains.
THE LAST OF EAETH. 195
THE LAST OF EAETH.
FUNERALS ON STREET CARS. THE UNDERTAKING OF THE
UNDERTAKER. — ON A RUN. HIRED COFFINS. — THE JOLLY
SEXTONS. — WAITING AT " THE GLORY OF THE WORLD."
The funerals of Mexico all seem grotesque to American
eyes. Yonder goes one — on the street cars. The front car
is draped in white, after the manner of a hearse, and bears
only the deceased, the undertaker and the driver. Forty
years ago the projector of the new horse-car lines here con-
ceived the idea of making bereavement pay a tribute to
his coffers. So he bought all the hearses — every one — and
when the next death occurred he offered to the afflicted
relatives the only alternative — his decorated tramway
hearses and mourning cars running straight into the ceme-
tery. The priests, by a financial consideration, were made
a party to the arrangement, and it became thereafter al-
most impossible to sleep in consecrated ground except by
use of the very worldly-minded horse-car.
Then came the problem of speed. How could the fu-
neral cortege creep in mournful slowness when it was neces-
sary for the other cars to go very fast ? The two conditions
were incompatible, and a compromise was finally made by
the gallop being adopted by all horses on street cars, what-
ever their burden or mission. So at the present day in
Mexico, an average funeral presents to the unaccustomed
eye the suggestion of the sexton running away with the
corpse.
Of course there are no interments under ground in this
saturated city, or even in the valley of which it is the
center. The cities of the dead are twelve to twenty miles
19() • FOLKS NEXT DOOK.
off, on the mountain ^^onder, a hundred feet above the level
of the capital. Many times a day — especially in the sum-
mer months — spacious and stylish catafalques are seen
going up the street on a run, followed by very volatile
mourning cars. A white hearse with six horses, four driv-
ers and two gold-embroidered lacqueys, costs $120. A plain
one, drawn by an inadequately-fed mule, is $3. Mourning
electric cars cost from $2 to $15 each. And whenever the
speedy funeral cortege whisks by, all people upon the street
hasten to get out of the way, then pause and face it with
uncovered heads.
Sometimes, indeed, the coffin is carried, not on electric
car or horse car, or in carriage, but on the stout shoulders
of a peon, the whole family and anourning friends slowly
following on foot to the graveyard in the distant hills, so
far off that the little procession takes two days for the jour-
ney. Sometimes, when the relatives of the dead are too
230or for even this scanty honor, the body is buried at the
expense of the city.
The habit of hiring coffins for a day and returning them
in the evening to the undertaker is not confined wholly to
Mexico, but probably it is more widely practised here than
in any other land. I have seen an Egyptian funeral in
Cairo, the deceased borne high upon a camel, the white face
exposed to the garish sun, and all over Egypt it is custom-
ary to return the coffin to the owner, if the occupant was
poor. But here the funeral of the penniless is far more
humble. Not only is the coffin hired, but the lid is left
loose, and the whole is carried ujjon a porter's back to
the grave several miles outside the city. I saw such a
funeral at Morolia. The procession consisted of four per-
sons — the porter, staggering under his uncanny burden, two
women wailing rhythmically in concert, and a child tod-
dling behind. I joined the group and respectfully accom-
panied thein to a distant field, where the porter put his
freight down, took from the loosely-tied coffin a spade, dug
a shallow grave, moved the coffin around bv the side of it,
THE LAST OF EAETH. 197
carefully rolled it over and spilled the human remains into
a coarse serape of hemp, lowered them into the grave,
shoveled in the earth again, and the procession wound its
wailing way home.
From our halcony one day I saw two peons, dirty and
only half clad, giving to a dead man the last earthly at-
tention. The solemnity of the occasion did not occur to
them, and they were full of merriment. They played
tricks on each other as they proceeded. One of them bore
the dead in a rude coffin on his back, while the other, tak-
ing advantage of his companion's helpless attitude, amused
himself by tickling and pinching him in exposed parts
and slapping him behind occasionally with a short spade he
carried. They laughed a great deal and the porter whirled
round and round in the street with his burden, crying out
to his tormenter, doubtless saying. " Wait till it is your
turn, and I'll get even ! "
Presently they paused in the middle of the next block,
took each of them hold of the loose rope that alone held
the lid on, and lowered the coffin and placed it on the curb-
stone. Then they laughed some more and went into the
pulque shop bearing across the front of it the sign " The
Glory of the World." I watched the lonely thing they had
left on the sidewalk, and wondered if somebody would come
along and hitch his mule to it. No; a lean dog wandered
down street and inspected it, gently nosing the lid aside,
and, after looking in the box and discovering nothing that
he wanted, zigzagged off and took a drink at the next door-
post. Wagons trundled past it within two or three feet
and the usual crowd of wayfarers made their way merrily
along the sidewalk; but I noticed that some of the women
hurriedly crossed themselves, as they became conscious of
the ghastly presence, and most of the men made a hasty
snatch at their hats even in the midst of a good story.
Pretty soon the porters came out of the pulqueria, wiped
their lips, lighted fresh cigarettes, and resumed their bur-
den, the man who carried the spade now toting the coffin on
198 FOLKS NEXT DOOE.
his head and shoulders, and receiving, as they strolled up
the street, many little tokens of encouragement from the
spadebearer by way of facetious reciprocity.
In the cemetery at Guadalupe two miles from Mexico is
the grave of ^anta Anna. Not far away is the famous
church of the Virgin of Guadalupe, with cords of crutches
and spectacles thrown away by those who have been healed
at its shrine. This virgin is the first saint in the Ameri-
can calendar. Here in 1531 — in the midst of the atrocities
of Cortez — " the most Holy Virgin appeared to a poor In-
dian, as he was on his way to mass. After commanding
that a church be built on the spot in her honor, she filled
his blanket with fiowers and disappeared. When Jose cast
the flowers at the feet of the Bishop, lo ! there was revealed
in the rough blanket an image of the Holy Virgin."
To this sanctuary flock every year footsore pilgrims from
all parts of the country to celebrate the twelfth of Decem-
ber. Processions come hundreds of miles. I saw a curious
sight in the streets of Mexico — a little band of these pious
wayfarers, consisting, apparently, of parents and their
daughters. The female penitents proceeded on their knees
along a carpet laid on the pavement. There were two
pieces of carpet, and a couple of peons constantly took up
the rearward carpet and placed it in front as the family ad-
vanced over it. I judged that the journey would take
several days at the pace at which they traveled. Having
something else to do, my attention was diverted long before
they were out of sight. It struck me, however, that they
were not half so devout as those monks who used to walk
on broken glass.
HABITS AND MORALS. 199
HABITS AND MORi^LS.
MIXING OF RACES. — UNIVERSAL POLITENESS. — " PASSE
USTED.'" JEALOUSY OF AMERICANS. CRUELTY OF THE
WHITES. — LAZINESS FASHIONABLE. — DO WE WANT MEX-
ICO ? — SCHOOLS.
Tpie process of mixing races has been pretty thorough
in Mexico. About one-half of the people are still pure In-
dians, a third inestizoes (a blending of Spanish and In-
dians), and the rest whites. Spanish is almost universally
spoken, though there is a tribe at the base of the great
volcano, Jorulla, out on the National Railway, said to speak
only the aboriginal dialect, and to refuse to hold any in-
tercourse whatever with whites. I need not say that they
have the very best of reasons for this exclusiveness. After
the results of the Spanish invasion, what wonder that they
decline to intermarry ?
I have never seen a more polite people than these ; in
fact, they beat all the others out of sight. When I say
" these " I mean not only the Spaniard and his descend-
ants, who may be supposed to have had good breeding,
but the Mexican also — the molasses-colored Indian, with a
pair of dirty cotton drawers on and a tattered serape of
many colors flung across the shoulders. The latter are
very conciliatory and yielding — as hospitable and good-
natured as they were when Montezuma invited Cortez to
come and dwell in one of his royal palaces and bring his
folks. It is a common thing to see two tatterdemalions
pause on the street and take off their ragged hats to each
other and embrace as fervently as if they were kings.
They are said to be afflicted with parasites; but that, per-
200 FOLKS 2^EXT DOOR.
haps, is because they are attractive and kind to dumb
brutes — anyhow it is a mere incident.
When you are first introduced to a Mexican of position,
he will probably say : " x4h, very dear friend ! consider my
house yours ! " But if you go to take possession of it he
will very properly set the dog on you. He does not mean
what he says practically, but he means it sentimentally.
He is emphatic, and explicit, and very comprehen-
sive. " Make my house your property ! " he will exclaim ;
'' my house — remember ! No. 124 Calle de Eodriguez — is
yours ; my horses are yours ; my carriage is yours ! " — and
he sometimes adds, I am told, " My wife is yours; my chil-
dren are yours " — but it seems to me this is going too far.
At any rate, you never come into your property without
sundry other formalities.
To see two Spaniards of about equal position get through
a door is enough to bring tears of laughter to the eyes of
a mummy. They approach the portal together ; one of
them opens it and both exclaim eagerly, extending one
arm its full length and looking at each other, " Passe
listed!" (Go you first.)
" ISTo ! oh no ! " says one, "" passe usted! "
"No; not at all!" exclaims the othei", spreading l)oth
arms as if about to fly, "passe usted!"
Then the first spreads his wings resolutely, declines to
advance, and explains to the other in brisk Spanish that
it would be grossly improper and impertinent for him to
take precedence of a hidalgo of such lofty family and ex-
cellent blood.
Then the second returns to the comliat, insists tliat liis
family position is really a very hunil)le one, and tlint it
would be the height of presumption, in fact scarcely less
than usurpation, for him to go through a door oi' any other
sort of hole ahead of a don of such a sjilendid lineage as
the other man.
TluMi llic other man comes 1)nck at him and wavrs his
arms again in violent de])reeation, and says lie hopes he
HABITS AND MORALS, 201
knows his place, and that before he has the audacit)^ not to
saj temerity, to assume a position which rightly belongs to
his superior — at this point you climb under their numerous
arms and skip through, so as not to miss the train.
There is one custom here unknown in the United States
that is very pretty and Avorth copying. In salutations the
bow is dropped almost entirely, and in its place is substi-
tuted a smile and a stretching forth of the hand w^ith
npturned palm and a rapid motion of the fingers on a level
with the eyes. It seems like beckoning. When the
clons and grandees go out driving at five o'clock in their
two-horse carriages (a thousand of these now, against
fifty only twenty years ago) and go slowly out to the Paseo,
recognizing friends on the balconies all along, the
effect of the suddenly and frequently uplifted hand and
fluttering fingers of greeting is quite pretty and significant,
and one might well wish it substituted for our formal and,
at its best, rather stiff, bow. Gentlemen in carriages or on
horseback lift their hats, as of old, sometimes adding the
manual salute besides.
Probably there is no more real kindheartedness and sin-
cere helpfulness here than with us, but the manners are
more lubricated, and I cannot help feeling that we should
be better off if we practised more politeness, even in out-
ward form. " He who expects good luck will get it,' says
the adage. So he who practices courtesy habitually will
be likelier to entertain that good feeling of which courtesy
is the outward sign.
The peons dress the same all over Mexico — in two cotton
garments that have once been white, the upper garment for
both sexes being a shirt, and the nether garment being
drawers for men and a skirt for women. These degenerate
through every degree of color and texture to the fortuitous
rags of the tatterdemalions that inhabit every land. Be-
side these two pieces of more or less imperfect apparel, the
better class of peons wear shoes that somebody else has
worn out first, or very rude leathern sandals, with straps
202 FOLKS NEXT DOOE.
coming up between the toes; and some of the men add to
the costume immense straw thimbles for hats, large-
brimmed and room}^ They are polite people, for when you
look at one he generally removes his hat quickly, and nim-
bly irritates his scalp with his unoccupied fingers. Pos-
sibly they also perform this mystic rite when they are not
observed, but nobody has ever been able to find out. All
classes who are exposed to the chill of night or the midday
sun have one protective wrap, known generally as the sc-
rape for men, and the rebosa for women. The former is a
large woolen blanket, the latter a cotton shawl. The re-
bosa is thrown over the head and wound around the neck ;
the serape is worn like the capa of Castile, and nearly like
the Roman toga; it is drawn about the body once or twice,
and the corner is flung with light dexterity over the left
shoulder, where it sticks through every jar and jostle as
if it were fastened by a phantom button. These wraps
rise through, all grades of excellence, and are often made
of silk or of the finest wool. All tropical birds delight in
high colors; so do these Indians, mulattoes, meztizoes and
exotic Spaniards, and their attire is of all combinations of
red and green and blue and yellow. I saw this morning a
fluttering gang of convicts go up the street to work, led
by a soldier with a revolver in his hand and followed
closely by two more. Their clothes were of all degrees
of picturesque patchwork, but one ragged pair of yellowish
trousers, seated with blue in the form of a heart, and worn
with jaunty grace, gave an air of pensive beauty to the en-
tire outfit.
The street costume is very picturesque, but if changes go
on at the present rate it will, in a few years, lose its dis-
tinctive features. The dress parade apparel of the well-to-
do citizen seems to nic the handsomest dress worn l)y tbe
male bi])cd in this age. It is an equestrian dress, of course,
for tbe well-to-do citizen in Mexico is always on horseback.
Walking is a lost art; in fact, gentlemen stand so little
that their feet are dwarfed and slirunken to inerediMe
HABITS AND MORALS. 203
smallness. I am told that the Spanish and Mexicans of the
upper classes here wear, on an average, No. 5, while many
of them wear the smaller ladies' sizes.
The dons and senoras of Mexico have a fine background
in the peons, who still number more than half of the popu-
lation. The elaborate dress of the one find an admirable
foil in the simple undress of the other. The streets are
full of peons — an ignorant, squalid, warm-hearted people.
Most of them wear a shawl of some sort, and in the morn-
ing and evening the wearer draws this garment up around
the mouth, as if hoping to protect himself against the pu-
tridity generated in the bottom of this undrained valley.
Many of the women wear a little piece of black paper
pasted on each temple, looking like the label of a spool of
silk. Go down and ask one what it is for and she will
say, " Headache, master ! If it were not for that prevent-
ive I should die of headache ! "
Bonnets are not worn here, except by a few score of the
donnas, who are imitating foreigners. The United States
consul told me that in 1878 a member of his family had
to send to New Orleans for a bonnet. There was not one
for sale in all Mexico.
J04 FOLKS NEXT DOOR.
INFLUENCE OF THE SPANIARDS.
MEXICO AYHEN COHTEZ LANDED. AVIIAT THE CONQUERORS
BROUGHT. — THE SAVORD AND THE CROSS AND TPIE RACK. —
NATIVES REDUCED PROM THIRTY MILLIONS TO SEVEN MIL-
LIONS. — CRIPPLES. — SLAVERY ESTABLISHED BY THE
CHURCH. IT OWNED A THIRD OF ALL THE PROPERTY.
The spirit of the twentietli century has at last entered
into Mexico, and this republic is swapping its serape for
a cut-away coat, and its donkey for a locomotive, and join-
ing the ranks of enlightened nations. It is high time. For
three centuries and a half of Spanish domination, this
beautiful and fertile country steadily retrograded, and
it is not to-day so far advanced in agriculture or manufac-
tures, in health or wealth, in manners or morals, as it was
ivhen Cortez, beholding the snowy peak of Orizaba afar,
pressed forward towards that luminous " Star of the Sea ""
and planted the cross upon the sands of Vera Cruz. A sad
comment, indeed, it is, that ever since " The Christian sol-
dier '' overthrew the altars of paganism on the teocalli,
this country has steadily declined in population, prosjjerity
and happiness. When Cortez began his brilliant career
of perfidy and butchery for the sake of converting the
heathen, ]\re.\ieo had thirty millions of natives — three times
as many as she has to-day — and they were better clad,
heller housed, better fed than they have ever been since.
If the Sjianiards had not introduced disease and starva-
tion, if Cortez had been poisoned by his Indian mistress,
Marina, or if he had l)een offered as a sacrifice by IMonte-
zuma, as be ouiiht to have been, when he made his first
INFLUENCE OF THE SPANIARDS. 20-5
lying advances to that mild sovereign, Mexico would have
been spared centuries of suffering and degradation. Cor-
tez found plenty and left consuming poverty; he found a
gentle religion of ignorance, probably harmless and com-
paratively bloodless, in spite of the lies about the " sacri-
ficial stone," and he left the priest, the inquisition and the
rack; he found buxom and boisterous health, and he
planted mysterious and loathsome diseases which swept
off millions of people; he found unfettered freedom,
and . he substituted the lash and the chains of chattel
slavery.
A large majority of all the wars of the world have beon
religious wars, and perhaps the most terrible of these was
that religious war of eight hundred years which ended with
the discovery of America — a war of which Spain was the
great battlefield, and in which the cross and the crescent,
upborne by frantic Moslem and Christian, were continually
bathed in human blood. Spain was for centuries a horrible
slaughterhouse of creeds. To torture a Mohammedan was
regarded as a deed on which angels smiled approval, and to
kill a heretic insured forgiveness for all sins. Men's
hearts were filled with religious rapacity. It was in this
spirit that SjDaniards turned from the conversion of the
Moors to the conversion of the Mexicans.
It is a mistake to suppose that the conquest of Mexico
was undertaken for gold or silver, for greed or empire.
These were merely incidental. It was a continuation of
those wicked " crusades " which had desolated Europe and
the East, and was prosecuted by religious zealots, who
sincerely felt that the death of a thousand was of no con-
sequence if they could thereby baptize a hundred. Just
before attacking the Aztec army Cortez published an ad-
dress to his soldiers, protesting that his principal motive
was "to wean the natives from their idolatry and to im-
part to them the knowledge of a purer faith; " and adding,
'• The conversion of the heathen is the work most accept-
able in the eye of the Almighty, and the prime object of
30G FOLKS NEXT DOOR.
the expedition, without which the war would be manifestly
unjust, and every acquisition made by it a robbery ! "
We have been told by the historian of Cortez's expedi-
tion how every crime was resorted to for the attainment of
this end; how, on visiting Cholula, the Holy City of Ana-
huae, and being hospitably received, he suddenly turned on
his unsuspecting entertainers and butchered 6,000 of them
in one forenoon, merely because another tribe, with which
the Cholulans were at war, charged them with treachery;
how his chief ruffian, Alvarado (whom Satan afterward as-
sisted to leap a ditch in this vicinity), while at peace with
the Aztecs and a guest in their city, foully fell upon six
hundred of the finest of the Aztec nobility while at a ball,
and killed them every one and robbed the corpses of their
jewels; how he plunged peaceful nations into war; how,
after killing Montezuma, having promised to protect the
young and gallant emperor, Guatemozin, and professed to
be his friend, he basely took him into the woods and
hanged him to a tree ; how he supplemented a courage that
had won for him the admiring wonder of the world with a
treachery which entitles him to universal execration. While
such men as Cortez are possible, the Universalist church
will be a failure. The " commander " strove to excuse his
acts on the ground that he was destroying the terrible god
to whom the Aztecs presented their multitude of human of-
ferings. But recent investigations render it certain that
the stories told by Cortez and Berual Diaz and the priests
who accompanied the expedition to do the liaptizing, are
gross exaggerations. It is not likely that any were slaugh-
tered on the great sacrificial stone except prisoners of war
and those who voluntarily offered themselves to the dread
deity, as zealots still do in some nations of the East. But
the Aztecs oeciii)ied only a snuiU part of Mexico, and in
most of the teocallis human sacrifices were unknown. Since
that day the numbers of the native population have been
reduced liy suffering from 30,000,000 to barely 7,000,000,
and those are degraded in every way. The Indians of to-
INFLUFA^CE OF THE SPANIARDS. 207
day are almost without ingenuity and enterprise; the Az-
tecs were skillful wood carvers, and sculptors of no mean
talent ; they wove cotton and fine linen, and made a species
of silk from the fine hair of the rabbit; their delicate
feather work and embroidery were the wonder of Europe;
Cortez declared that their jewelers were superior to the
jewelers of Spain; and they even made for their emperor
an air-gun with which he shot birds in the forests around
Chapultepec.
I have never elsewhere met so many cripples of all sorts
as one sees in Mexico ; lame and with gnarled arms ; blind
or of imperfect vision. But the Abbe Clavigero, one of the
early priests, said of the Aztecs: "There is scarcely a na-
tion on earth where there are fewer deformed persons; it
would be more difficult to find a single hump-back, lame or
squint-eyed man among a thousand Mexicans, than among
a hundred of any other people." Indeed cripples were so
rare that Montezuma set up a museum of the few in the
country as an exhibition, and the number was so small that
some parents mutilated their children's comely proportions
so that they might be eligible and thus support their par-
ents in luxury. Alas ! the diseases of the Spaniards,
spreading from generation to generation, have made crip-
ples no longer a marvel, and to build museums or alms-
houses enough to shelter them would bankrupt the nation.
Some of the beggars that crouch along the cathedrals to-
day have almost lost all semblance of the human form.
Death came with the Spaniards — death and religion. They
made serfs of all the natives, seized all their fertile lands
without recompense, levied terrible taxes on every article
that could be made to yield a revenue, and established a
wholesale system of legalized robbery. Eev. Gorham D.
Abbott says in his " Mexico and the United States " :
" Here was enacted one of the darkest, most deadly and
most demoniacal tragedies in the annals of time. In the
name of religion the deed was done. A simple, gentle,
docile race was all but exterminated. It was as if the
208 FOLKS NP]XT DOOR.
moimtain ranges of the continent were one great altar, and
the teeming millions of its valleys the victims for the sacri-
fice."
Under the laws which the conquerors made, the Mexi-
cans had no rights. Schools were forhidden under the plea
that " it was inexpedient for learning to become general
in America." The vanquished were converted and baptized
by force.
Prof. John W. Draper, speaking cf this time, says.
" Spain acted with appalling atrocity toward those In-
dians, as though they did not belong to the human race.
Their lands and goods were taken from them by apostolic
authority. Their persons were seized under the text, ' The
heathen are given as an inheritance and the uttermost
parts of the earth as a possession.' It was one unspeakable
outrage — one unutterable ruin, without discrimination of
age or sex. They who died not under the lash in a tropi-
cal sun, died in the darkness of the mine. From seques-
tered sand banks where the red flamingo fishes in the gray
of the morning, from fever-stricken mangrove thickets and
the gloom of impenetrable forests, from hiding-places in
clifts of the rocks and the solitude of invisible caves, from
the eternal snows of the Andes, where there was no witness
but the all-seeing sun, there went up to God a cry of hu-
man despair. By millions and millions whole races and
nations were remorselessly cut ofl^. The bishop of Chiapa
affirms that more than fifteen millions were exterminated
in his time." Ferdinand and Isabella did not like slavery,
but they wanted the Christians whom they had sent West
to "' inherit the earth," so they authorized one of the gov-
ernors of their colonies to compel the Indians to have deal-
ings with the Spaniards — to work for them on such wages
as he should see fit; to work under the guidance of over-
seers ; to go and hear mass and be instructed in the faith ;
and, finally, " to do these things as free persons, for so they
are ! "
For tliree liundred years there were no courts and no
INFLUENCE OF THE SPANlAFtDS.
209
justice for the Mexican ; for him the law was a labyrinth of
corruption, bribery, perjury, intrigue and outrage. Work
and hunger were his portion; the soil and the palaces, the
fruit and the mines were for the Spaniard. As the people
grew poor the bishojJS grew rich. The misery of the poor
found its counterpart in the glory of the church. When-
ever an article of merchandise passed from one hand to
another, it was compelled to pay a new tax for the benefit
of the church. The clergy charged an inexorable fee of
$16 for marrying: and the result was that most of the
working people of the republic lived together in a state
of concubinage.
In 1827 there were 150 convents and monasteries in
IMexico. One-tenth of the products of the country went to
the clergy as tithes. The estimated value of church prop-
erty in 1850 was $300,000,000— one-third of the entire
property of the nation. There were in the city of Mexico
5,000 houses, valued at $80,000,000, of which the church
owned more than one-half. Domes rose in every block.
The annual income of the church in Mexico was $20,000,-
000, while that of the republic was only $18,000,000 ! The
clergy of the city of Puebla held mortgages on farms in
that state alone to the amount of $40,000,000. A church
prosperous and powerful; a people hungry and in rags;
that Was the summing up of three centuries. I have seen
sights at the cathedral unutterably pathetic; hundreds of
Indians, most ignorant of the ignorant and poorest of the
poor, kneeling upon the floor and counting their beads —
men with a few cents' worth of vegetables on their backs,
Avomen with babies at their breasts, humble and credulous
still, kissing the stone pavement and saluting the golden
and bejeweled crucifix erected by that power that has
cursed them and their ancestors, and filled their homes
with want.
I wonder if the Protestant church, if it had had here
absolute authority, would have done any better ? I wonder
if Agnostics and Seculars would have left any better record
210 FOLKS NEXT DOOR.
if they had landed here, indifferent to the souls of the peo-
ple and thoughtful only for the welfare of their bodies?
I do not know. What we all do know is that there came
a change at last. The yoke was broken, if not quite thrown
off, by the Indians themselves.
EEUENEEATED MEXICO. 211
EEGENERATED MEXICO.
THE WORK OF JUAREZ. — A STARTLING TRANSFORMATION". —
CHURCH PROPERTY CONFISCATED TO THE STATE. — A NA-
TIVE INDIAN DISPOSSESSES THE RELIGION IMPOSED UPON
HIS ANCESTORS. — SERVICES BY PERMISSION OF THE STATE.
Xever, in their long vears of domination, did the Span-
iards do a thing to modify tlie condition of tlie Indians ex-
cept for the worse. All amelioration came from the despe-
ration and courage of their victims. In 1810 Hidalgo, a
half-hreed Indian, raised the standard of revolt against
Spanish rule, and began that revolution which was to con-
tinue through man}^ and terrible vicissitudes till it ended in
the absolute independence of Mexico. He was captured
and shot by the Spaniards, but his name became a familiar
watchword from mountain to sea, and to-day he is affec-
tionately spoken'of throughout Mexico and revered as "the
father of his country."
One of Hidalgo's lieutenants, Jose Morelos, then took
the field as the champion of independence, but after four
.years of fighting he, too, was overcome and executed.
Against heavy odds the crusade for freedom continued,
through victory and reverse, and the people of Mexico were
being slowly educated to understand its meaning. During
Hidalgo's campaigns there was living in jDaxaca a native
boy — Benito Juarez. He was a pure Indian of the Zapo-
tica tribe, and was born in an adobe house on a dirt floor.
At the age of twelve he could not read any language and
spoke the rude patois of his tribe. But he soinehow learned
to read Spanish and emerged from the bookless neighbor-
hood cherishing ambitions. It was thought that he showed
21,^ FOLKS NEXT DOOR.
promise, and he took about the only course that was open
to the studious poor, — the path that led to holy orders in
the church. Before being ordained, however, he began the
study of law and in manhood began its practice. He was
strangely wrought upon by the work of the patriots, Hi-
dalgo and Morelos, and in 1856 began the " War of
Reform," which ended in the confiscation of all church
property to the State and the supremacy of the civil power.
The church owned one-third of all the real and personal
property in the entire country. In the city of Pueblo,
assessed at twenty five million dollars of valuation, the
church owned eighteen millions. In Morelia the priests
owned three-fourths of everything. Not only had it ob-
tained the property, but it commanded the consciences of
the people. To touch the revenues seemed sacrilege. An
annual income of ninety million dollars was divided up
among seven thousand priests and monks.
Under the existing order both the church and the army
were exempt from arrest and trial by the civil arm. Con-
sidering that the church owned a third of all the prop-
erty, and was adding to it every day, and that the so-called
soldiers committed half of all the crimes, the condition
was felt to be intolerable. The revenues of the State were
quite insufficient for its needful expenses, for all of the
immense property of the church was exempt from taxation.
Juarez proclaimed a war in behalf of justice for the com-
mon people.
The church authorities entered the field against the ob-
scure Indian lawyer. He seemed to have every disad-
vantage. The whole religious forces of the realm were in
arms for his destruction. He was not i)re]iossessing in ap-
pearance, seeming to be a swarthy, low-browed, slow, ig-
norant scion of the Aztecs. He was no orator. He was no
soldier. He possessed no picturesque (pialitics. He was
merely lionest, fearless, diligent and ]intrioitic. Many times
he was defeated, l)ut he never despaired. He was driven
from the land, but he came back. He changed the music
EEGENERATED MEXICO.
313
of church bells by melting them into cannon. At last
patience had its perfect work, and he took his unchallenged
seat as president of the regenerated republic.
Now he had only just begun his difficult work. Laws had
been passed expelling the Jesuits, taking possession of the
nunneries, suppressing the monasteries and religious estab-
lishments of every kind, and confiscating to the uses of the
state all religious property. These drastic laws the Indian
was called on to enforce. He was excommunicated by the
Pope, but he defied the father of his church and pressed on.
To reform the existing order of things M^as a task hercu-
lean. Even after the passage and ratiiication of the law
confiscating the property of the church, it seemed impos-
sible to enforce it. When ordered to dismantle a church, or
to repossess a convent in the capital, the wretched peons fell
on their knees in terror and refused to proceed.
He began Avork at Vera Cruz, and the church which was
first sold at auction is now significantly enough a national
light-house, and its luminous rays, in warning and in
greeting, stream far abroad, the pharos of the gulf.
President Juarez set his face resolutely toward his old
home, where he drilled a regiment of full-blooded Indians,
then marched them to the capital. He went at their head
through the streets, reconstructing as he progressed.
Churches were turned into schools ; convents and other reli-
gious houses became hotels, stores, factories; real estate,
whose enormous rents had enriched the priesthood, was sold
to the highest bidder ; new streets were cut through to get
rid of a whole platoon of religious temples; nuns and friars
were banished, and priests were forbidden to appear in
public in their garb.
The universal confiscation of churches and convents has
also subjected this curious property to some strange vicissi-
tudes. When the Indian liberator uprose and confiscated
it at a blow, many of the religious institutions were sold out
to whomsoever would buy. Some churches are used as
stores, factories, barracks, theatres and tobacco warehouses;
314 FOLKS NEXT DOOE.
some (as at Zacatecas and ]Monterey), for hotels, and some
for public schools. I was told that the monastery of Sole-
dad was a stable, and the convent at Orizaba, where we tar-
ried all night, is now the arena for bull fights ! Verily,
there has been an overturning in Mexico ! If Cortez could
only have had the prescience to foresee Juarez !
The country retains one convent by a curious combina-
tion of circumstances, and it is in the city of Mexico —
the convent of Santiago. A century or two since, the story
goes, it was built for the church by one Count Del Valle;
but being an eccentric man he said he would lend it each
year instead of giving it. Christmas Day, therefore, he
handed the keys to the officers of the religious order that
was to occupy it, and left them in possession. In just a
year he made his appearance again. He was escorted to the
chancel and seated, after which he was addressed by the of-
ficer in charge and thanked for the use of the premises dur-
ing the year. The occupants then resigned possession,
handed him the keys, and passed into the street. They
soon reappeared at the threshokl, when he gave to them the
keys again and besought them to use the Iniilding '" for
the glory of God " another year. They accepted the trust,
and he departed for another twelvemonth. Every year
since, through many changes of the family's head, this
curious ceremony has been repeated, except on one occa-
sion, when a young free-thinking Count on receiving the
keys said to the astonished occupants : " You're welcome
for the past, but now get out; I can put thes.^ promises to
better use ! " They left. He stored his corn there for
ten years, it is said. At last the old custom was resunu'd,
not again to la])se. So when Juarez sent his confiscating
officer down there, the present Count Del Valle made his
appearance, and laid successful claim to the ]n'o]ierty as his
own, and the old lending habit still goes on. lo flic infinite
joy of the chui'ch and the order.
In many of the cafhcdi'nls and clnirehi's Catholic ser-
vices are hold on sufferance by jierniission of the Govern-
KEGEISTERATED MEXICO. 215
ment, and " on condition of good behavior," and of con-
stantly displaying the national colors from the roof, but
not a church, a rectory, a graveyard, or a rod of ground
does the church own in the country. The ringing of bells
is restricted to three minutes.
In Italy and Spain about every third person one meets
is a priest, a nun, or some variety of friar. Of the last
two personages I have seen not one in Mexico, though it is
said that a few eluded the act of expulsion and still linger
here in hiding. Of priests (who are forbidden to appear
in public in their robes) I have seen but one on the street,
and inferred that was his office only from the prostration
of the people when he carried the sacrament to a sicV cham-
ber.
In the city of Mexico as late as 1857 were broad streets
almost wholly devoted to religious services, churches and
convents lining both sides from end to end. Now these
buildings are devoted to commercial uses.
To bury the dead and to frighten and extort money
from the poor peons seems to be the chief function of the
priests that are left in Mexico. The church property which
was confiscated under the philosopher hero, Juarez, is still
perverted to the use of man, and everywhere prosperity
and heresy are succeeding to piety and noverty, and every-
where men are regarding less the admonitions of the priest
and more the comforts of the home.
In the capital the inquisition had its headquarters dur-
ing its halcyon days, in the convent of St. Dominic, a few
steps from the cathedral. A great mass of buildings behind
the church constituted the dungeon. An iron pillar in the
middle of the plaza shows where the heretics were burnt.
Near by were recently dug from a hole in the wall four
skeletons, chained to each other and to the rock, the victims
having apparently perished of hunger.
The more intelligent and thrifty classes in Mexico, like
those of Italy and Spain, have come to care little or nothing
for religion. They have discarded the Catholic church,
21G FOLKS NEXT DOOE.
but they do not incline to accept any Protestant denomi-
nation as a substitute. In fact, they generally decline to
adopt a substitute. They have knocked out the window in
their Aladdin tower, and are not in a hurry to patch it up
again. It is only the laboring classes that are still held
in bondage to the church. It is a proverb here that when a
peon earns one dollar he gives forty-five cents to the priest,
spends fifty cents for pulque, and supports his family on
the remainder.
But the work of Juarez set even the peons to thinking;
for this deliverer of Mexico from kingcraft and priestcraft
was one of their own class, himself a pure-blooded Indian,
raised to eminence b}'' his own talent and energy. He be-
came President, then Dictator, and in defiance of religion
and tradition he struck an arbitrary blow that shook the
land and redeemed it. The church appealed to the Catho-
lic powers of Europe, and they sent in the amiable weak-
ling, Maximilian. Juarez and Diaz caught the invader and
usurper and shot him, and two Mexican traitors by his side
" as a warning."
The great Juarez is almost idolized in Mexico, and he ap-
pears, in a certain fantastic light, as the avenger of his
racial relative, Montezuma. His portraits are seen every-
where. His statues are multiplied, and he is affectionately
spoken of as " The Second Washington."
The church is still potent in Mexico to bless or ban, and
still has tremendous influence on the hopes and fears of the
people ; but its temporal power is gone forever. Hence-
forth will peons give less and less from their thin purses
to its treasury. Henceforth will feast days be less and less
regarded. Henceforth will knowledge of the laws of na-
ture more and more take the place of devotion, and the
things which make for liuinnn comfort becoine iiioiT and
more considered. Juarez the Deliverer had before him a
greater task than Washington, and he performed it as well.
I found a sonnet tn him in one of the Sjianisli papers and
have ventured on the foUowini;' free renderina: :
EEGENEEATED MEXICO. 21?
JUAREZ.
The glory of a noble race art thou !
The girded armor of thy passionate plea
Was love of Country and of Liberty —
Shield of thy breast and helmet of thy brow !
What faith upheld that lion-hearted vow,
And bound tliy patriot followers to thee
Till all the worn and harried land was free,
Blooming with peace, as we behold it now ?
Free Mexico records tliy matchless worth !
Free Mexico salutes tliy shining brand !
Free Mexico, exultant in thy birth,
Proud of the prowess of thy conquering hand.
Crowns thee, in presence of the applauding earth,
Emancipator of a grateful land !
It is estimated that some two-thirds of all the people in
Mexico are unable to read or write in any language.
Juarez, the liberator, shortly after banishing the French,
caused common schools to be established, theoretically on
the model of those in the United States, and since that
time a special effort has been made to promote education.
But, as a matter of fact, the appropriation for schools is
quite too small, and in rural neighborhoods the peons live
so far apart as to make regular attendance impossible, even
if an attempt were made to enforce the law providing for
compulsory schooling. Girls attend only the parish schools,
as it is considered that religious instruction is all they need.
In most of the larger cities are industrial schools for boys.
In this city there are three kinds of public schools — the
federal and the municipal schools, and a military school
of high class. But the schools here have not had the advan-
tage of the graded system, and the branches taught are few.
Of the Federal schools there are fifteen in the city for both
sexes, mainly intended for those who purpose to practice
a profession or who require special culture.
There are three large industrial schools in this city, one
of the best results that the present educational renaissance
has produced. The principal boys' school was an old con-
vent. The pupils are taught how to work and make them-
selves useful. Among the things in which special training
218 FOLKS NEXT DOOR.
is given are carpentry, blacksmithing, masonry and other
common trades up to wood carving, telegrajDh}^, sculpture
and painting. The girls are taught needlework, flower-
work, embroidery, painting, upholstery, etc.
Scarcely any children now go to school save those of
Spanish blood. I visited two mission schools here, taught
by bright young ladies from the north, and they assured me
that the Indian children were quite as competent students
as the whites, as ready to acquire and as steady in retain-
ing. Of adult peons few can read or write at all.
I went into the office of the American daily puljlished
here — existing b}^ governmental bribes, like all the dailies
— and found an old friend at its helm editorial. Paus-
ing near the type-setters I noticed that they were scanning
the manuscript as if they were partially blind, sometimes
picking out the letters with their fingers. " Very good
compositors,"' said the editor, " but they are Mexicans, and
not one of them understands English. They have to set
up the copy mechanically, letter by letter, without compre-
hending a sentence of it."
At school the pupils learn foreign languages in the ordi-
nary course of studying geographv, arithmetic, etc., for
these text-books are printed in French and English and
occasionally in German, so that when the graduate emerges
he is pretty sure to be a tolerable linguist, not only without
ever having been abroad, but without ever having applieil
himself to foreign languages as separate branches. It
M'Orks well, and is an idea worth transplanting to our soil.
THE PEONS. 219
THE PEONS.
THE NATIVE WORKERS. — THEIR EFFICIENCY AS PORTERS. —
THE DONKEY. — THE ADVENT OF THE Y^ANKEE. — DRESS OF
THE PEASANTRY. STARTLING CONTRASTS. INDUSTRIAL
PARADOXES. RAILROADS. SIGNS OF PROGRESS.
Ever since the beginning of its history apparentl}^ the
transportation of Mexico has been carried on by the native
porters — cargadores, as they are called — each of whom will
carry 150 pounds 20 miles every day. I rather like the
Mexican Indian. He is capable of courage, is steady and
enduring, and is one of the most humble and obedient of
servants, being even given to self-abasement. He will come
100 miles from a distant village and tote to the city a
few chickens, vegetables, or eggs, that cannot bring him
more than a dollar or two. When employed as a porter
his average load is 100 pounds, but in the mines he will
climb up a rude ladder — merely a notched pole — with -100
or 500 pounds of ore on his back. In the city these porters
carry everything that can be carried. I saw one man go
past this morning with tiventy-fovr ordinary wooden chairs
upon his back, making a tower ten feet above his head ;
and last week I met one bearing alone a large upholstered
sofa and six upholstered chairs ! I believe a grand piano
sometimes requires two men.
As a result of the tenacious quality of the soil in heavy
rains, in a country where it rains every day for four
months, the most of the transportation in Mexico has al-
ways been done by cargadores and donkeys. The former
still do the most of it. They make very long journeys,
sometimes alone and sometimes in large parties, and they
carry every iu"!aginal)le thing that is grown or used in the
220 FOLKS NEXT DOOR.
country. Some of these are women and some children.
Whoever rides out of this cit}^ early any morning on the
road by which Cortez fought his way in will see hundreds
of these copper-colored peons with strings of live chickens,
geese and turkeys around their necks and hanging head
downward. They have brought this live freight ten, twenty,
thirty, fifty miles, and still thqy go much of the time upon
a short-stepping trot that must carry them five or six miles
every hour. I would like to back a healthy cargador to
go-as-you-please 100 miles against any of the saw-dust
sprinters of New York.
Some of these porters are laden with green grass for the
city horses (these women and girls, mostly), some with
charcoal, the only fuel of the country; some with wheat
or bags of corn, some with cocoanuts. A strong man here
and there will carry a great load of earthen pots and round
jugs — half a cart-load — tied on in some mysterious
manner by a string that goes around each of the outer
jugs — and I have seen this porter sit by the wayside to rest,
leaning back against his thirty cubic feet of crockery cargo
that towered far above his head, and sticking his legs
straight out before him — the only way to dispose of them.
I have wished that I could see him get up, liut I never
happened to be present when that convulsion took place.
The cargadores are the most useful beings in Mexico.
They are humble officials of the government, and tliey range
from California to Guatemala. Every one wears a brass
check wliich is numlx-red. Tbis number is a guaranty of
his honesty and an insurance against loss 1)y his employer.
Tlie donkey, or burro, trains form an auxiliary to the
landscape that is quite as pictorial and more fantastic.
Tliey carry everything that the cargadores do; or, to state
the Fact more accuratel}^ everything tliat the cargadores
don't. Tliis little burro, with his average load, looks very
mucli like a cat tied betAveen two liundlcs of wheat. Look
out ilie window in tlie morning early and yiMi shall see
half-a-dozei] burros up and down the street hailing before
THE PEOXS.
221
the doors and delivering milk. th(> great milk cans, Iwu or
three of them, strapped to each ol' his sides.
The most numerous thing in all Mexico is this donkey.
He is a perennial. His neck is of dangerous length, and
his head, sjirouting two wni'in cahhage-leavcs ujion its sum-
mit, is almost heavy enough to tin him ovci-. The centre
of gravity is not far from his fi'ont toes. His eyes are of
liquid tenderness and seem to carry within their deeps tlie
wisdom of Budda. He is superior to the currycomh: he
never saw one. He carries anything that you can tie u])on
him, or pile over him, and he sutfers without intermission,
but never dies. They declare in Mexico that nobody ever
saw a dead donkey. There is a current belief that he is im-
mortal — that, when he ought to die of old age, he merely
puts forth a new set of teeth, sheds his coat and ambles on.
The Spanish ^Mexicans are fearfully jealous of " Amer-
ica," as they properly call the United States, and unani-
mously agree that we are only waiting for a good o]ipor-
tunity to annex their land to ours. It is not surprising
that they imagine that jMexico is a country coveted by the
whole human race, and they think it quite incredil)le that
the great, aggressive, rapacious republic of the north does
not burn to possess it. Ask one of these why we should de-
sire to own Mexico, and he will reply, " why does a horse
want oats? Why does a wolf want lamlj?"
And it may be admitted tliat our lu'utal seizure of tlie
great Philippine archipelago in defiance of the wish of its
people, goes very far to justify this suspicion on the ])art
of our southern neighl)ors.
Yet, in fact, there is nothing in the universe that we do
not need more than Mexico. If we could take tlu^ country
with only its aborigines, without the Spaniards or a drop
of Spanish blood, it might be worth considering. Tlic
peons, who constitute three-quarters of the inhabitants, are
industrious, modest, peaceful, docile, amiable. But the
whites bear themselves towards these natives witli the con-
ceit and arrogance whicli despotic rule always begets.
222 FOLKS ^TEXT DOOE.
Wherever on earth is found a white ruling class calling
itself " superior," there is found its inevitable characteris-
tics — cruelty, conceit, indolence, arrogance and supercil-
iousness. The members of the ruling class look, act and
speak as if nobody on the planet were worthy of their recog-
nition. So are the Dutch in Java. So are the British in
India. So are the American adventurers in Manila.
The whites of Mexico are so vain and lazy that they re-
gard work as disgraceful, and I have never known one to
carry a parcel of any sort through the street. They do
serve as clerks in the city stores ; but they are always apolo-
gizing even for this, and reminding their friends of the
good old days when they were not compelled to submit to
the humiliation. If one of these varnished youths of Mex-
ico has a book to carry to the next corner he will hire a
servant to carry it for him. A Yankee here tells me :
" When I first went into business in IMexico I hired a little
darkey named Jim to run of errands for me. I occasion-
ally missed my "^ mozo ' downstairs and wondered where he
had gone. One morning, having a horse's bit that needed
fixing, I gave it to Jim, to take to the blacksmith's. Pretty
soon I started for home, and, pausing on my way, what
was my astonishment to see that little darkey come strolling
past, my groom behind him with the bit. He had waited
for the groom to come. I stopped him and asked him if
lie was too proud to carry a bit in his hand througli the
street. ' Yes, sir ! ' he said, straightening up. ' Very
well,' I said, ' I'll carry it myself." T did s(\ In the af-
ternoon I had him paid off and discharged, but I suppose
he got a servant to carry his l)niidle away for him. He
had learned that trick of the white fellows."
These arc the people who insist that the Ignited States
wants and nutans to swallow Mexico. Two or three news-
papers live by continually denouncing the Yankees, and
keeping alive Ihe alarm ot an invasion of the Huns and
Yandn'ls of the Js^orth.
Two of the papers here habitually apply to those who
THE PEONS.
favor immigration and the adoption of northern m(!tliods,
the queer Peqnot-Greek name, "' Yankifilos '' — Yankee
lovers — and the story is around the street, and has even
got into print, that '^ 30,000 Americans " will come down
like the Assyrians within the next year. They insist that
the trunk railroads have heen built to facilitate the work
of conquest. A good many of the Spanish-Mexicans think
that our country is such a desolate and forbidding place to
live in that nobody will stay there who can possibly get
to Mexico, and that if a general welcome were extended
the Northern Eepublic would at once be depopulated.
It must be confessed that while this idea is altogether
mistaken, it is plausible. The so-called "Mexican war''
of 1847 was assuredly one of the most inexcusable wars
that a powerful nation ever waged against a weak one —
a war of conquest and brutality merely, such as a big bully
makes upon a little boy. But the party of the first part has
long since become ashamed of it, and is not likely to repeat
it, let us hope, even in the disguise of peace.
General U. S. Grant, who was a lieutenant in that war
of aggression, says in his " Memoirs " : " To this day I
regard the Mexican war as one of the most unjust wars
■ever waged by a strong nation against a weak one." It
was clearly a case of the wolf and the lamb, and every
reputable historian has expressed his sense of the dis-
grace.
The average Spanish-Mexican seems incapable of com-
prehending the facts — that we have all the people we want ;
that our population is already sufficiently mixed; that
though we are heterogeneous, the temper of our citizens,
like their language and origin, belongs to the temperate
zone ; that we have made a mistake in making vassals of the
Filipinos,,an.d that we cannot afford to imperil our security
by any more tropical marriages. So they refuse to study
English or try to speak it, or suffer their children to do so.
Indeed, the untraveled Mexicans are as narrow-minded and
provincinl as the Parisians; as proud of their weaknesses
224 FOLKS NEXT DOOE.
and deficiencies as the Cockney who asks if New Jersey
is the capital of Cliicago.
They have excellent military music here — every large
town possessing a good band — and yet the soldiers, in
marching, are not required or expected to keep step. They
look odd, and not very formidable, straggling along in
their slouchy white cotton uniforms. Each soldier wears his
number conspicuous on the front of his cap — a precaution
made necessary by the fact that many of them are crimi-
nals, let out of prison under agreement to serve a number
of years gratuitously.
A great need of Mexico has been the completion of its
railroads. This now seems provided for, for it already
has three great railroads locking its distant states together.
The road between Vera Cruz and the capital is a mine
of wealth. The Central connecting the capital v/ith Colo-
rado, and threading the lofty plateau almost from end to
end, has already several feeders running into the tributary
country and giving an outlet to the great mining territory.
The National has built 2,000 miles, and it is the shortest
thoroughfare between Mexico and all of the United
States east of the Mississippi. Along its track lie mines
of all the precious metals and great deposits of good coal
— the only coal in Mexico.
Formerly it was impracticable to visit Mexico in sum-
mer on account of the traveling. The constant rains filled
tlic dry gullies with brooks and swelled the brooks to
torrents. The roads became obliterated. Numerous trav-
elers were drowned, or, in their distress, were beset by
brigands and robbed. But the steam railways, radiating
in picturesque lines from the capital to the interior, and
tlie long mule-railways tliat are in opt'ration everywhere
as auxiliaries to these, make travel now not only cheap
but easy, and safe even during the rainy season.
No other enlightened country in tlio world needs rail-
roads as much as does Mexico, for jMexico has no rivers.
The United States had excellent means of internal trans-
THE PEONS. 225
portation even before railroads were built — the St. Law-
rence, the Penobscot, the Connecticut, the Hudson, the
Susquehanna, the Delaware, the Potomac and many other
rivers in the East; and the Mississippi and its tributaries
carrying steamboats to twelve or fifteen States. But Mex-
ico, with twenty-seven States, has scarcely one mile of
navigable river. I have never heard of a steamboat
here.
Not only is Mexico without rivers, but it is almost with-
out roads. Cortez made a good artificial road from Vera
Cruz up to Mexico 350 years ago, and this is still in use
for the occasional wagon. But the employment of wagons
for transporting either freight or passengers is scarcely
known in Mexico. The reason for this doubtless is that
in the rainy season — June to September, inclusive — most
of the roads are impassable.
Mules have been known to be drowned in the very streets
of the capital — stuck in the mud, and as they strug-
gled to get free swallowed up at last out of sight. " You
see that place in the street yonder, where it is improved ? "
asked an acquaintance of me the other day, indicating a
spot on the next block.
I said yes.
" That's a bad place in the rainy season," he continued.
" I once saw a team of forty mules stalled there while try-
ing to draw an empty wagon ! "
I believe railroads are going to continue to pay in Mex-
ico. In the first place the average Mexican dearly loves a
ride. The second-class horse-cars in this city are almost
always full, and the blanketed peon, rising from his ever-
lasting plate of black beans and tortillas (pancakes made
of Indian meal and water), steps briskly on board the car
and pays his six cents for a lift across town. I suppose
there are proportionately more horse-cars in this country
than in the United States. Every city has its quota of
them and they have been set running past hundreds of
villages and haciendas. Steam railroads generally run
226 FOLKS NEXT DOOE.
a mile or two from each town, which is connected with the
station by horse-cars — perhaps I ought to say mule-ear;-,
as a span of this left-handed child of the horse is the mo-
tive power, and they ordinarily go on a gallop.
From the city of Mexico they radiate in every direction
— four, eight, ten, fifteen miles. Several of the lines of
street-cars in this country are thirty, forty and fifty miles
long, and one, from Vera Cruz to Jalapa, extended twenty
years ago no less than seventy-six miles ! Almost every
line in the country is paying an interest on the investment,
too, I am told. This demonstrates that the Mexican likes
to ride — a fact of some importance to the promoters of the
ferro carril, as the steam railroad is called. Probably the
street railroads of Mexico are the best in the world. A
friend told me yesterday that he had ridden twelve miles
in fifty-two minutes on one of these rural vehicles.
The progress of Mexico is shown in other ways. It
looks as if there would be no more revolutions in this gen-
eration. There is a prevalent sense of security. Forty
years ago everybody went armed, and there were frequent
outbreaks. Few citizens now carry pistols. Thirty years
ago there were, I am told by a friend who lives here, not
more than twelve private two-horse carriages in the city;
now there must be a thousand. Eiding out upon the
Paseo yesterday I met no less, I think, than three or four
hundred carriages — victorias, cabs, coupes, landaus, New
Haven buggies, Boston dog-carts — about everything in
the line of handsome vehicles that one would sec in Cen-
tral Park or up Eiverside Drive.
Life is as safe here as anywhere in the world. Peace
reigns and security is guaranteed. I brought with me from
heme a self-cocking revolver. I have now been in Mexico
more than a month, and have traveled a good deal — over
the Andes 400 miles toward the Pacific on the National
Eailroad, and northward to Celaya, to Orizaba, and out to
the ruins of San Juan Tcotihuacan, through this city in
every direction at all hours, and on horseback in the early
THE PEONS. 227
morning through the suburbs for ten miles around — and
I have not only had no occasion to draw or to exhibit my
revolver, but I have never carried it for a moment ; it is in
my trunk and has never been out.
The peons are an unobtrusive, obedient, good-natured,
docile race, who will never tight if they can help it. Peo-
ple from the United States are popular among them, for
the advent of the Yankees and their railroads has been
followed everywhere along the lines by a rise of wages
from 20 or 30 cents a day to 40 or 50 cents, which means
more frejoles to eat and more pulque to drink. The Yan-
kee, just at present, is generally regarded as the goose that
lays the golden egg. Of the auriferous quality of the egg
there can be no doubt ; as to the goose — that is the question
to consider.
228'
FOLKS NEXT DOOR.
OVEE THE ANDES.
A TRIP DOWN THE PACIFIC SLOPE. A FIRST-CLASS RAIL-
ROAD. SPARSE POPULATION. VAST CATHEDRALS. —
HOMES OF THE PEONS. — THE CLIMB TO CIMA. — DROVES OF
PORTERS AND DONKEYS. INERTIA. RELIGION AT
MORELIA. — CURIOSITY OF THE PEONS. — THE DEIFIED LO-
COMOTIVE.
Mexico as a whole can best be seen from the cars. I
have enjoyed this opportunity on a 500-mile ride over the
sierras to Morelia, half-way to the Pacific, where, from a
neighboring mountain, I could have looked down upon its
waters of alleged tranquillity. Curiously enough, these
mountains are here generally called the Andes-Cordillera,
meaning merely a chain.
The road that leads from the house where I am a guest
in the city of Mexico to the station of the Mexican Na-
tional Railroad is a historic thoroughfare. It is a solid
street now, with no water in sight anywhere ; 390 years ago
it was the causeway flanked by a lake on both sides and in-
tercepted by lateral canals down which Cortez fought his
way on that memorable night of his expulsion, and up
which he fought his way in his subsequent re-entrance to
the Aztec capital. Still we are shown on the way to the
station the place where the chieftain was captured for a
moment during that night of terror, the spot where Ve-
lasques de Leon fell, the bridge where Alvarado, miracu-
lously upl)orne by an angel evidently in league with the
devil, leaped the fifty-foot chasm and escaped from his ene-
mies ; and, just beyond the station, the celebrated Noche
Triste (sad-night) tree, still standing, wounded and weath-
er-beaten, under the branches of which Cortez sat down and
OYP]K THE ANDES. 229
wept the destruction of his army. The site of the resi-
dence where I am writing, now miles away from any water,
was then in the lake, surrounded by flowing canals, and
containing a house standing on piles like the houses of
Venice. The street in front still bears the name of St.
Francis Bridge.
After leaving the capital a hundred miles behind, the
country we pass through, were it not for the close-tilled
fields, would scarcely seem to be inhabited. But it is.
Houses are not conspicuous, and they are not evenly dis-
tributed — as in our own rural districts. The dangers of
war and plunder (which the railroads have banished) com-
pelled them to cluster, and the villages and haciendas are
numerous. Here at the left rise the tower and dome of a
great white stone church. It is 200 feet long and has a
chime of bells, and is magnificent, worthy of any city. You
ask : '^ What on earth is that tine church standing out here
alone for?" Look closer and you shall see small hum-
mocks, the color of the earth, a cord or two in each — hun-
dreds or thousands of them scattered all about. You in-
spect them through your glass and say : " I think they
are piles of brush or peat for the church fire. Or are
they — is it possible that they are human habitations ? ''
Yes, they are dwellings. This is an Indian village, and
those are villagers. Most of their homes are low huts,
built of turf or of cane stuck in the ground, without a win-
dow, without a table, chair, stove or bed. Some of these
people have large families. They possess various earthen
pots for cooking. For knives and forks they use fingers.
They shut the door by setting up a sheaf of straw at the
only orifice.
Yet they have built a splendid church, with nave, and
choir, and apse; with fretted ceiling and resounding dome;
with a font of onyx or of jasper; with a marble pulpit and
a silver chancel rail. It is the only conspicuous building
in the village ; it cost more than all the homes of its build-
ers, which are mere kennels by its side. They are devout
230 FOLKS NEXT DOOE.
Catholics; they are peaceable, kind-hearted, polite, and ig-
norant ; and to raise this superb temple and ]3ay the priests
who minister at its altar they deny themselves even the
comforts of life. How full this poor world is of men who
are willing to earn a good stout salary by telling other
men what neither of them know !
I wish I could see a tall school-house somewhere. Here
far away on the side hill at the right is a different sort of
structure — a vast straggling one-story building covering
five acres. If it were in Connecticut I should infer that it
was a particularly solid structure erected for the county
cattle-show and fair. Out here it looks like a fortress. And
yet it may be a church, for there is a tower to one corner
with a bell in it.
Yes; it is both a fortress and a church. In other words,
it is a Spanish farm-house — the homestead of one of the
immense estates of Mexico. It is called a hacienda. All
of the country around as far as you can see belongs to the
haciendado. Soldiers belong to him, armed for the de-
fense of the place against the brigands, who formerly,
before the era of railroads, infested all this land. And a
doctor belongs to him to heal, or otherwise, his sick. And
a priest belongs to him who helps all the people to say their
prayers in the chapel. And around the outside now you
Avill see large numbers of the same sort of human burrows
before descri))ed.
On the western boundary of the valley of Mexico the
track climbs over the foot-hills. Then the heavy grade
l)egius. We thread numerous cuts, sometimes through hard
metaiiior])hic rock, but oftener through tlie spongy and
cruml)ly volcanic ash called tipetati. whieli one sees in
many of the buildings of IMexico. We leap gulches with
little brooks babbling at the bottom, most welcome after
leaving the dust-swept jdatenu ; wc skim along tlic sides
of tremenrlous ravines, or Ixirrancds. and suddcidy plunge
into a inniu'l. In cnun-ging wc look back'wai'd across the
broad deep valley and get a farewell gliin])se of tlie (*apital
OVEE THE ANDES. 231
of [he Aztecs, twinkling afar off among lakes in a misty
atmosphere. The valley below us is one of the most
highly cultivated parts of Mexico. Fields are carefully di-
vided and thoroughly tilled. In two months, when the
summer rainy season has begun, they will fill the eye with
beauty.
We sweep around great ox-bow curves, over solid stone
and iron bridges, past myriads of unknown trees, under
the shadow of high rocks water-worn into grotesque shapes,
battlemented castles, towers, and minarets, and colossal ca-
ricatures of the organ cactus with pipes of carven trachite
clustering in the sun. We climb up, up, up, 200 feet to
the mile, and soon reach Cima, or Summit, at the top of
the Sierras, and 10,200 feet above the sea. There is only
a little station here. This is, I believe, the highest point
reached by a railroad on the continent. Here are a couple
of springs within sight of each other from which two
streams flow, one trickling down to the great waters of the
east and the other finding its way through deep canons into
the Pacific Ocean. We take a drink and push on. Pines
and spruces now abound. The scenery is like that of the
Eocky Mountains. Eespiration does not seem more diffi-
cult than at Mexico. The descent is begun, and presently
on the left shines the majestic snow-clad volcano, now
extinct, of Toluca^ 15,156 feet high. The maguey plant
appears again in mile-square fields — then Toluca, the loft-
iest city in the Eepublic, a thriving and prosperous place.
During the next 150 miles Ave pass through Jodana (no
building — the station is a freight-car on a siding), Del
Eio, Flor de Maria, El Oro, Tepetongo, Maravatio, Acam-
baro, and some other towns. There are deep caiions along
the wajr, great valleys filled with the maguey and waiting
for rain that they may blossom with wheat and Indian
corn ; several Indian villages ; droves of black and red
pigs (yet American hams bring 40 cents a pound in Mex-
ico) ; the plains of Salazar, where the battle between the
Mexicans and Maximilian's soldiers was fought; and bat-
232 FOLKS NEXT DOOI?.
talions of men laden with freight, trudging towards the
Capital — sixty, seventy, eighty miles away ! These are
the porters of the Republic, jealous competitors of the
locomotive.
Inertia is the strongest characteristic of the Mexican —
whether by that term we designate the Creoles (Spaniards
and their descendants), who are about one-sixth of the
population, the full-blooded Indians, who constitute two-
sixths, or the Mestizoes, who make up the other half. They
all like the old ways instinctively, and nothing but a strong
expectation of gain causes them to turn (ver}^ slowly) to-
wards improved methods.
For instance, the railroad still finds in the crowds of
human porters and the droves of donkeys natural and
vigorous rivals in the business of transportation. In many
cases the haciendado could send his produce cheaper to
market by rail, but he is tardy about finding it out. A
railroad manager tells me his experience : " These farmers
are willing to make money, but they seldom think of leav-
ing the old way, till somebody has demonstrated the econ-
omy of the new. There is a rich haciendado with
some tens of thousands of acres of land out towards jMo-
relia on our line. He has always sent his crop to market
with his droves of donkeys — nearly 200 miles. I sent
word to him that we could carry it cheaper, and furnished
him with rates, but it made no impression. Finally I got
him down to a table, with pencil and paper, and figured it
out for him. I showed him that his burros cost so much,
feed so much, interest on money so much, and we threw
in the peons, for he said he had just so many men all the
while and they might as well be at work. I showed him
that he would make thousands of dollars a year by send-
ing his produce by us, and then he gave in reluctantly, and
tried the ' experiment ' — of course permanently. But it
would be slow work to go to every farmer in ^Icxico and
show bill! that bis intcrcsi would bo ])roinoted by shipping
by our road. This is what nuikes })rogress so slow."
OVER THE ANDES.
About 250 miles from the Capital, and near our des-
tination, we suddenly debouch upon the picturesque salt
lake, Cuitzeo, which has several islands and a coast of more
than fifty miles. Its beach is white with salt, and salt-
works are active in gathering the product for market.
They have no clean wooden vats and ducts like the works
at Syracuse, but the water is led inland in little rivulets
and then sprinkled over a carefully-swept surface with
paddles, where it sinks into the earth, leaving its saline
deposit to be swept up in its turn, dirt and all. Along the
shore, too, we find boiling springs where we cook eggs for
Innch, poking them out of their boiling bath with sticks.
Over some of these mineral springs sit Indians muffled
in great blankets, taking a sweat to rid themselves of phy-
sical ailments; and in others, barely tepid, we find a num-
ber of squaws bathing, who with great presence of mind
hop out on the smooth bank to avoid observation. This
lake will make a delightful sanitarium when Americans
come to Mexico by tens of thousands to spend their leisure
and pleasure time and somebody erects a hotel here; for
the thermometer ranges only ten degrees the year round,
and it is quite as pleasant and healthful out of the Valley
of Mexico in the rainy season as in midwinter, and even
more agreeable. Lake Cuitzeo is haunted by strange birds
— tall cranes with pink pantalettes on striding np and
down the beach, white pelicans with their uncouth pouches,
and ducks literally in millions, going and coming in clouds,
and sitting near the water's edge unmindful of the cars.
The water is also said to be alive with fish.
On speeds our little train, till we draw up at Morelia.
Next to Mexico itself this is the finest city I have yet seen
in the country. The spirit of the church is still very
strong here. The peons reverently uncover and sometimes
kneel when they pass the Cathedral ; and if you neglect to
remove your hat when the priest drives past with his
white mules and his inferential " host " somebody will
knock it off for you. It was here that a shoemaker was
23-1 FOLKS NEXT DOOE.
killed for kneeling on his workbench instead of on the
ground when the holy procession passed. I was saluted
with a violent imprecation and menace by a soldier on en-
tering the park with my hat on. I thought the man was
crazy: but presently he fell prostrate on the ground and I
ascertained the cause of the assault — the priest was ap-
proaching, with his white mules and his " host." I had
not heard the bell.
The cathedral cost $5,000,000. The Pasco, or Prome-
nade, is a solidly-paved way in the suburbs, half a mile
long, embowered in giant ash and eucalyptus trees, a con-
tinuous stone seat running the whole length on both sides,
and outside of these again an equestrian way where the
young cavaliers of the town, wearing broad sombreros
heavily decorated with silver and gold, and with double
rows of coins or silver buttons shining down the legs of
their pantaloons, and with savage spurs that weigh a pound
apiece, prance back and forth on superb horses under the
animated balconies of the local aristocracy.
There is in Morelia a fine old convent, built of the hand-
some pink trachite of the surrounding hills, and confiscated
l)y the Government, that would make a delightful hotel
for Americans who seek a dry and equable climate. It
is erected around a great flowery court open to the sky.
and there is something quite imposing in the long arcades
roofed with groined arches, the stairways of heavy masonry,
the light and spacious vestibules, the battlementcd coping,
and the feudal but thoroughly comfortable look of the
spot that would make it the delight of the pulmonary ]iil-
grim from the fickle intemperate zone.
This trip was full of interest — not only tlic lnndsca])c
and the inhabitants, but the road itself. The steel rails
and the careful ballasting make it one of the smoothest
roads I have ever ridden over — as smooth as any road mc
have in our own land. The National is what is called " an
American road."
All the wnv to iNlorelia and liack tlu> coltou-e-lad ijoons
OVER THE ANDES. 235
held up to the open windows whenever we stopped, tlie
tempting staples of the conntry — gorgeous flowers (seventy
roses for sixpence!) and all sorts of luscious fruits, just
picked. One of these, who looked like an Arab, walked
up and down with a can on his head, winking in a fasci-
nating manner, and shouting : " A louse ! a louse ! " It
was startling. I said : " I pass," and the ladies didn't seem
to want any of it. Then, reflecting that I had already seen
a flea, eaten flies and tortillas and drank pulque, I beckoned
to the Arab and told him I would try a few. He swiftly
removed the can from his head, opened it, and produced
tin cylinders of delicious ice-cream ! The traveler in Mex-
ico will lose a good deal by not understanding Aztec-Span-
ish.
I don't know which showed the most curiosity in the
garb and manners of the other — our little party or the
peons of Morelia. There was scarcely a moment when
some tawny nose was not flattened against our car win-
dows. The ladies, and all they had on, excited undisguised
interest. But the locomotive was regarded with awe. It
was amusing to see the natives approach, and inspect it
with evident fear, and when at last they became sufficiently
familiar to touch one of the wheels, they w^ould suddenly
draw back and exchange looks — half fear, half delight — -
like a child that has laid its hand on the trunk of an ele-
phant. I saw a native stand perfectly still for at least
five minutes, looking at a small bolt-head on the boiler,
never removing his eyes from it, never stirring, scarcelv
winking. He acted as if he were in a superstitious trance
— as a devotee might act in the presence of a god. The
iron-horse has been here every day for some years, now, Init
these Indians do not yet feel really acquainted with the
monster, and thousands from neighboring towns have never
5^et had a chance to see him at all.
23G FOLKS XEXT DOCK.
AMONG THE TOLTEC EUINS.
TRIP TO SA]Sr JUAN. WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF THREE
SMALL BOYS. LITTLE STONE GODS TOO NUMEROUS TO
■ MENTION. OBSIDIAN KNIVES. NO TWO IMAGES ALIKE. — ■
A GRANITE GOD TEN FEET HIGH. AN INDIAN'S DWELL-
ING. — OUR COMPANIONS AT LUNCH.
On Sunday ,with three other Americans of an inquiring
mind, I went to San Juan Teotihuacan, twenty-five miles
from the city of Mexico on the Vera Cruz road, to see the
great truncated pyramids. Out of the north side of the
city we passed along the dike of Tepejacac, where, during
the siege of the capital hy Cortez, Sandoval cut off the last
communications of the Aztecs with the country. Though
traversed hy a double-track railway, the dike is somev/hat
in the same condition in whicli the Spanish found it. The
watery bayous which flanked it have withdrawn to tlie lake
which now lies ten miles distant, barely two feet lower
than the streets of the capital. Out of the window the
passenger catches the distant gleam of the snow on Popo-
catepetl (accent on the first and fourth syllables) and his
lazy wife. The White Woman, lying on her side in the sun.
Everv mile or so we pass shrines of masonry, built before
Juarez laid his lieavy hand upon the church. The country is
ll;)t, and lliere is little else worth seeing till we pull up at
" San Wan," and clind) out.
Tliere is no town hero — notliing but tlie station, and near
l)y it the fondita, or little saloon wlici'e W(> can get jtoor
wine. There are no otlier l)ui](lings in sight, and the only
inhabitants seem to l)e llii'ee Ijlcaelied l)oys of assorted sizes
wlio have their white aprons full of little stone gods which
AMONG THE TOLTEC RUINS. 237
they are willing to sell. One of them has a deity of more
majestic i3roportions — some 10 inches high, with flat nose,
cataract-afflicted eyes, flaring lohes of ears, and an elabo-
rate headdress, which he offers to me for uno peso — a dol-
lar. I sneer incredulity and defiance at him, as is custom-
ary here when the first price is mentioned for any article,
and he says in a subdued tone of voice that I may have it
for six reals — seventy-five cents. I ask him if he owns and
operates the god-factory himself, but he does not under-
stand my ironical Spanish, and only follows me with the
stone image into the plowed field adjoining the station.
In a moment of inadvertence I offer the urchin two reals
for the sacred treasure — twenty-five cents — thinking to
frighten him away, when he snaps me up as quick as a
wink. " First blood ! " shouts one of my traveling com-
panions. I thoughtfully pay for it and stow it away in the
bag with my lunch. It is heavy. I ask the small boy if he
won't trade back, as I really don't require the god and, per-
haps, shall never worship it in the world. He declines and
pockets his small coins with a grin. We all march on.
" Manufactured, of course," said the doctor, in soliloquy.
" Certainly," said the professor from Philadelphia ;
"there are no genuine remains here in this old city of the
Toltecs — nothing but yonder twin hills — the teocalli of the
sun and moon. And it is sometimes said — hello ! I've
found a head ! "
He holds up something brown in his fingers, and we press
around to see. It is a face, nearly as large as a hen's egg,
of earthenware, broken at the neck and minus one flaring
ear. It is flat on the forehead, broad at the eyes, and
mouth ajar as if intently listening. " ISTot made yesterday,"
says the finder, stowing it carefully away.
" Somebody must have lost it after buying it and start-
ing for home," I suggested. " You ought to advertise for
the owner. It is quite elaborate."
" Manufactured, however," repeated the doctor. " That
old city no doubt stood here and was destroyed by the Az-
238 FOLKS NEXT DOOE.
tecs when they came down out of ISToman's Land, but these
grounds have been scoured over so often that there !
I've found something, too. I shouldn't wonder if this was
genuine."
It is a piece of black glass, half an inch wide, four inches
long, and so thin that one side is an edge — somewhat ser-
rate but keen — recognized by us all as the knife, razor and
spear-head of the Aztecs and their predecessors. It is ob-
sidian — natural glass, made of silica melted ten thousand
years ago in the natural furnaces of Popocatepetl and Ori-
zaba, and used by the Aztecs for their weapons. They
called it itztU. Says Prescott : " They wielded the terrible
maquahuitl, with its sharp and brittle blades of obsidian."
Again he speaks of " warriors whose spears and bludgeons,
armed with blades of volcanic glass, gleamed in the morn-
ing light."
" I don't see how this can be bogus," exclaims the doc-
tor, depositing it thoughtfully in his vest pocket.
Presently the professor finds another little image; then
I find two, imperfect, close together; then a boy at my side
picks up one, large and grotesque; then the agent of a
New Mexican mine finds several interesting fragments.
Then we all find the translucent razors of various lengths,
obviously the product of skill and careful labor. Then the
miner holds up a bit of pottery — the nose, mouth and chin
of a man, life size, with the top-head gone.
" How ingenious these fellows are around here ! " ex-
claims the miner, " to make so many things to fool travel-
ers with, and to make them all different ; and then how gen-
erous to bring them all out here and scatter them around
for travelers to pick up ! "
We think about this as we press on towards the pyramid
of the sun, now about a mile away. The fields we are go-
ing through are strewn with fragments of pottery — loads
on loads of it, mixed here and there with little earthen
heads, no two alike, glass beads, and ornamental bits,
whose use we cannot divine. Pieces of broken obsidian
AMONG THE TOLTEC EUINS. 239
— spear heads, razors, arrows and what not — sparkle every-
where, and soon become so plenty that we no longer pick
up any but the rarest forms. Earthen heads are not so
common. We save all the good ones that we see till we
are loaded down. The three boys that followed us have
now become ten, and some of them are girls, all with
dozens of the Toltec gods to sell. Many fields are filled with
the maguey plant — the green cow of the tropics, whose
milk the thirsty native turns into pulque and then turns
the pulque into himself. Each plant holds up a bundle
of tremendous green bayonets, each bayonet a foot through
and twelve feet long. And in the broken mold of every fal-
low acre we find the earthen gods. And sometimes we
halt and buy a choice dozen from one of the boys or women
venders, paying a quarter of what they ask — an average, I
should say, of about a cent per god. And, remember, no
two gods alike !
Now we are on the imposing face of the greater pyra-
mid, dedicated to the sun. It rises 130 feet above, each
of the sides of the pyramid measuring at the base 682 feet.
Guided by one of the boys whom we have retained to show
us the way (for twenty-five cents) we move around the
mound to the left and soon come upon the great god which
formerly stood upon the top, and which Charnay disen-
tombed near the base. It stands in the midst of the
debris with which the terrified Toltecs covered it in their
final overthrow. It measures some ten feet high, I should
think, and seven or eight feet through the head. The face
is not that of a monster, like the blood-thirsty god of the
Aztecs, but it is shapely and not particularly savage in ex-
pression. The eyes are as large as a barrel head, the nose
flat, the ear-flap ludicrously flanged, the mouth half open
and of the shape of a watermelon, as if his majesty were
about to whistle, and in the breast a square orifice is
cut in which a man perhaps might put his head if he
wanted to. The whole is carved from a solid block of gran-
ite — or, perhaps, trachite. How did the early Mexicans
240 FOLKS NEXT DOOK.
cut it from the rock and get it on the top of the pyramid
when they had no iron tools or any beasts of burden ?
Now we climb speedily up the slope, passing on our way
to the top the edges of two terraces of solid masonry now
mostly filled up. On the side of the pyramid we find very
few earthen images or knives of obsidian. The platform
of basalt at the top is about seventy feet square, and a
modern cylindrical monument crowns the summit where
stood the god now dethroned.
A superb view is obtainable from here — many cities and
villages — the distant mountains and white Mexico between.
From here we hurry down again and up the pyramid of
the moon, where another colossal stone figure has been un-
earthed. Neither the figure nor the pyramid is as large
as the other.
We have now walked three or four miles and are uncom-
fortably warm. The boys declare that at a restaurant in
the little Indian village of San Martin, close by, we can get
some wine and a place to lunch. We hasten thither
through long paths fenced with organ cactus on both sides
that grows 20 feet high, and its immense green jiipes so
close together as to form a perfect shade. Shanties of
doby, too, we pass, and women covered with a single gar-
ment, and babies creeping everywhere — and other creeping
things.
The Indian's dwelling is a modest affair — high enough
for liim to stand in when bent, and long enough for him to
lie in when ditto. In the lowlands he builds this cabin of
rushes or bamboo, wi.th no windows save the crevices be-
tween the upright sticks ; on the tablelands, of adobe— mud
leaked in the sun. Out here, on the site of the ancient
ca])ital of the Toltecs, the Indian huts were built of the
stones of the long-perished city. I pushed some naked In-
dian children aside and stepped into one. The roof was of
palm branches. The floor was of earth. The room, the
only one, was unpapercd and unpainted ; in fact, there was
nothing to paint or paper, for the walls were of loose
AMONG THE TOLTEC EUINS. 241
stones, piled up haphazard like those of a rude stone fence.
There were no chairs, no table, no bed, no stove. There
was a bit of charcoal fire between some stones. Near b}'
was the familiar flat stone, by the side of which the brown
lady of the house knelt and broke grains of corn, mixed
some water in, and flattened the paste into cakes with a
stone roller. The wardrobe of the family not in use was
in one corner — a torn shirt suspended from a bit of palm-
leaf. There were a few unglazed pots and pans, large
dij)pers of gourd-shell, and a chromo of the vegetable com-
pounded by Lydia Pinkham, which I suppose was an ob-
ject of religious worship. Kush mats answered for seats,
table, and beds, and would ultimately serve as shrouds. A
shovel hung on the wall, and the woman's sticks for weav-
ing lay on a mat. Probably no meat of any sort was ever
eaten in this house. Not one of the family can read.
Not one of them ever wore a shoe or slept in a bed. The
master brewed his own humble liquor from that species
of cactus called the maguey, and maize and pulque are
their sole support. They seem contented, the whole fam-
ily. I wonder if a multi-millionaire is any happier.
At last we come to the welcome cabin-restaurant — an
open door, a counter, a half-lireed behind it, three Indian
customers in various toggery in front of it buying trifles
to eat. The only dry goods I see are a few yards of calico
and a little coarse white muslin. The favorite edible is
contained in an immense earthen bowl, and looks like ma-
hogany shavings swimming in mud. Tlio proprietor says
it is pork, and two men take some of it to their little dishes.
While I am inspecting some bundles of palm-leaf basket-
work that prove to contain brown sugar, a boy suddenly
leads a horse up tlirough the store and around the end
of the counter and up a couple of stairs into another room.
We can get no w'me, but can have some coffee, which is
quite as good. Wo are assigned to a table in one corner
of the apartment, and a brown girl kindly puts a brown
bedspread on it and we sit down and wait, taking out our
24:2 FOLKS NEXT DOOE.
hiiicli meantime. We hear a griint and start. It is an
unsatisfied grunt^, and proceeds from the shady corner of
the room. A pig, as sure as I have ej^es. A red pig ! In
fact, two red pigs and one little girl in one modest gar-
ment. I had seen red pigs out on the National road —
they are a staple of this land. The little girl held them
both tethered by a string — the kind-hearted little girl !
As we ate our frugal meal — not so frugal as it would
have been without the chicken and tongue sandwiches from
our bags — each piggy kept up a running comment of
nasal remonstrance, and when we departed the kind-
hearted little girl led forth her charge and she and they
took what was left.
We hastened back to the station, through the pulque and
corn fields, past the long, splendid files of the organ cac-
tus, and we found more gods^ and we met other dozens
of girls and boys and women with gods to sell, and we
replenished our pagan stock and took the cars, with a hun-
dred or two images apiece, and we unanimously passed a
resolution that if anybody is manufacturing counterfeit
gods in Mexico he is working for nothing and boarding
himself.
THE LAND BAEONS OF MEXICO. 243
THE LAND BAEONS OF MEXICO.
REAL ESTATE MONOPOLIZED BY FEW. — IMMENSE LAND
TRUSTS. — A FARM LARGER THAN MASSACHUSETTS. — HOW
HACIENDADOS KEEP PEONS IN BONDAGE. NEED OF EN-
TERPRISE. — INDUSTRIAL OPPORTUNITIES. — DRIVE WELLS.
The one change of which Mexico stands most in need
is an increase in the number of its proprietors. It is now
a vast land with few owners.
Mexico is as large as all the United States east of the
Mississippi, and has a population of thirteen million; but
its land is owned, it is said, by less than 20,000 people !
Only one person in 600 is a land-owner. That is, only one in
600 owns any of the soil, and this one is generally a de-
scendant of those who seized the land under that devout
prince of liars and brigands, Hernando Cortez, who ravaged
and plundered this lovely land in the name of God. There
are no small farms in Mexico, nothing but vast haciendas,
enormous estates, whose homestead is a fortress of masonry,
high walls and frowning, and whose laborer? are little
better than slaves.
One of these haciendas comes in view every few miles.
There are some 13,000 of them in Mexico, and they own
four-fifths of all the land. One of them, reaching from
El Paso down to Chihuahua, covers 4,000 square miles,
more than three times as large as Ehode Island. Another,
still larger, near the mouth of the Eio Grande, belongs
to a rich family, and there is nnother wyi the National
Eoad that includes from 10,000 to 13,000 square miles, as
large as Connecticut aud Massachusetts! — These over-
shadowing haciendas were grants of the King of Spain
2i4 FOLKS NEXT DOOR.
to his cavaliers after the conquest, and, owing to the law of
primogeniture, which was repealed but recently, they re-
mained mostly intact. This feudal system of vase estates
is the present weakness and constant peril of the Re-
public.
They are not held for speculative purposes like the
great areas in Dakota and Montana, to be sold by-and-by
to the people, but are kept for what can be filched from
their depreciating acres year by year by aristocratic owners,
who often live in New York or in some of the great cities
of Europe and as indolently receive their tribute as did
the Aztec Caciques of old.
One of the largest of these haciendas contains towns,
villages, and cities, and a great population of persons.
The owner lives in Paris. These enormous ranches are
not merely agricultural divisions of Mexico : they are also
political divisions, giving a real feudal importance to the
owners. The proprietor of a hacienda strives to keep all
the people in his debt by trusting them at his stores, and
as long as the employee owes monej^ he is likely to remain
a sort of appendage of the soil.
Having got rid of the incubus of the church, Mexico
now needs to fling off the incubus of the baron. She can-
not have great prosperity till her land is made accessible
to the common people. How this will come about is a
prol:)lem ; perhaps by the wisdom of the haciendados them-
selves, who, attaining an enlightened self-interest, will be
able to see that a subdivision of these great estates will
promote their own good in the end, as well as the good of
others. If every hacienda in Mexico were cleft through
the middle and half of it given away in small parcels to
the more ambitious of the peons who now work upon it,
the donor would be enriched by his act of justice and
generosity. The stubbornness of the untitled nobles in
clinging greedily to every rood that the Spaniards wrenched
from the Aztecs at the point of the sword finds a fitting
parallel in the ignorant blindness of the peons themselves.
THE LA]S'D BARONS OF MEXICO. 245
who often destroy labor-saving machinery, not compre-
hending the subtle fact that every device that multiplies
the necessities and luxuries of life without the interven-
tion of the human hand, blesses and benefits all men, and
especially the 230or.
The Government feels the need of immigration, so it
offers a bonus for all foreigners who come. Agents are
employed to bring settlers into the country, and $40 or
$50 a head is paid (or promised) for every immigrant, and
each helpless one gets 25 cents a day till he can support
himself. This becomes often a mere scheme of charity
for loafers. The plan is of course inadequate. No liberal
bonus to settlers will solve the problem. It will be solved
to the benefit of all when the great feudal lords, the un-
titled nobility of this realm of eternal summer, come to
comprehend that this is the twentieth century instead of
the sixteenth, and when every haciendado, grown enlight-
ened, voluntarily relinquishes half of his land to the State,
to be given away to actual settlers. Then no bonus will
be needed to fill the land with enterprise and wealth. The
average citizen of our day, like the mythological hero of
old Greece, acquires new strength when he can touch the
ground.
No mere workingman of the United States should come
to Mexico — not even a miner, unless he possess ability to
sujDerintend — for there is now a glut of labor here at 40
cents a day. Three-quarters of the people of Mexico can
be hired very cheap. They never had an ancestor wlio
could read or write, or who had any manual training of
any kind, or wore any clothes but a blanket or its equiva-
lent, and they live at a smaller daily expense than the
average dog costs in New York city. American labor can
not compete with these.
Nobody should come here except manufacturers, con-
tractors, mine-developers, large drovers — nu'u witli money,
skill, sagacity and pluck, for these there is an abundant re-
ward. What is needed is more Yankee (or some other
24G FOLKS NEXT DOOR.
sort of) enterprise — that is, brains and capital, to shorten
the distance between supply and demand.
A great deal of money is yet to be made here by those
who invest in drainage companies, in irrigation and re-
clamation companies, in the manufacture of paper, cotton
and woolen cloths and hardware, in dredging and break-
water building, in good hotels and boarding-houses, in pe-
troleum wells and refineries, in district telegraph and tele-
phone companies.
Mexico produces every metal that science has named, and
yields nearly half the stock of existing silver in the world.
In her manifold harvest is almost every fruit and vegetable
product between the equator and the poles. Though the
Aztecs made their hatchets of copper and tin, her deposits
of iron are unsurpassed, giving to enterprise and energy
an unlimited field of action.
Mexico is a great and splendid mine of gold that has
never been worked. Though with a population of 13,000,-
000 its entire annual product, counting vegetables, cereals,
fruit, lumber, metals, and precious stones, is less than that
of the single State of Indiana — less even than that of New
Jersey. And the x\mericans in business here are few.
The whole number of people who came to Mexico last year
from the United States was less than the Europeans who
land at Castle Garden in one day from a single steamer !
This is yet the terra incognita — the land of great possibili-
ties.
Let us examine the details of these possibilities :
There is need in Mexico for a large number of canning
establishments. Almost every savory fruit and vegetable
known to the markets of the world grows here in abundant
perfection, yet no effort is made to preserve it. There is
fruit enough grown here to supply the world, scores of de-
licious varieties of which I do not even know the name, but
there is hardly a canning factory in Mexico. Hitherto
this industry has been impossible, because transportation
was so expensive that it cost too much to gather the fruit
THE LAND BARONS OF MEXICO. 247
at one point, but the completion of 12,000 miles of rail-
way in the country solves the problem of transportation,
and enables Mexico to do a large export business in canned
staples.
Mexico is supplied with an unlimited quantity of the
cactus and yucca plants, the best known material
for paper, and yet she has only three or four paper-mills,
and these turn out a small quantity and poor quality. She
possesses an abundance of cheap labor, and material enough
to supply the whole world with paper, yet she imports from
across the sea almost all she uses. If, in any of the rural
towns, you send out for sugar, it will be handed or sent
to you done up in a little matting of woven palm-leaf; if
you ask for butter, it will be handed to you wrapped up
in a corn-husk from which the ear has been removed.
Hardly any wrapping-paper is used outside of this city.
There is plenty of clear running water — not on this great
plateau but all around the sides of it for a distance of
3,000 miles. A good deal of money is to be made in the
manufacture of pajjer here.
There are no glass-works to speak of in Mexico. Nearly
all of the window-glass is imported and sold here at enor-
mous prices, while every State contains admirable deposits
of silica well adapted to the fabrication of glass in all
forms. I think there are not three bottle factories in the
whole country, for medicine is often sent to the patient in
l)eer bottles and beer in medicine bottles.
In half of the twenty-seven Mexican States cotton is
cultivated. It grows in all the lowland States, and the
land yields at least twice as much as in our own Southern
States. Yet the cotton-mills here turn out (Uilv the coars-
est sort of cloth (the dress for the peons), and niost of
the calico, of which an enormous quantity is worn, is im-
ported and sold here for 10 to 20 cents a yard.
There is great need of the organization of companies
for the purpose of irrigation. Artilitial watering of the
land (riogo) is necessary for more than half of the surface
248 FOLKS NP]XT DOOR.
of the country. In the Aztec Empire irrigating ditches
were used, and Cortez was astonished to find here a sj'stem
equal to that which the Moors had established in Spain.
Under Spanish rule here, however, tliis establishment, like
almost everything else in Mexico, has degenerated, till
now only a small part of the arable land of the country
is supplied with water. There is an era of rich land five
times as large as the State of New York that needs only
such water as could be easily obtained to be made marvel-
ously productive, yielding a hundred times its present store
of wheat. This could be procured by damming up the
huge ravines or barrancas in the mountains and economi-
cally distributing water from these reservoirs, or by arte-
sian-wells and drive-wells, which the Mexicans at 2:)resent
know little about.
Again : I step down to the street and ask the price of
a pineapple, a fruit which is now ripe through the low-
land states. It is 50 cents, and I can get one for the same
money in Fulton market, ^ew York. In August pines will
sell for 25 cents here; for 10' or 12 in New York. Water-
melons in great quantities are ripe throughout the tierra
calientc, but a half-size watermelon costs fifty cents in the
capital of Mexico.
The petroleum-wells of the Tuxpan district have over-
flowed the whole country round, but kerosene sells at 50
cents a gallon in this cit}^, and $1.00 a gallon in most other
cities.
There are huge mountains of iron in Durango and
Sonora; but pig-iron in 1884 was $80 a ton in Mexico,
against $18 or $20 a ton in New York; bar-iron was six
cents a pound here, against two cents a pound there ; and
castings were 11 cents a pound here against two or three
cents a pound in the United States. Eails are all im-
ported.
Along the line of the National Eailroad on the Texas
frontier are vast deposits of excellent coal, but all the
coal used in Mexico is brought from England — thousands
THE LAND BAKONS OF MEXICO. 249
of tons a month- — and the most of the country is without
any adequate fuel of any kind. No railway runs to the
tremendous hardwood forests and timber belts of the South.
Hard coal costs $24.50 a ton ; soft coal, $23.
This is a natural sugar-producing country, and cane
grows wild in several States, but so sluggish are the sugar-
planters that Mexico imports one-tenth of all she uses,
and sugar brings the same ])Tice here as in Chicago.
In two-thirds of the country there is eight months'
grazing every year, and in the other third there is twelve
months' grazing; yet good butter sells in this city at 50
cents "a pound, and the same price a pound is also paid for
canned corned-beef brought from New York.
Indeed, manufacturing is in its infancy here. Walk
through this city and look in at the store windows and you
shall see the very same merchandise you see in the stores
of New York, London, or Paris. All fine goods of every
sort except raw pearls and opals, are brought across the
sea.
There is a good market here for agricultural imple-
ments, but they need pushing. The people are inclined
to stick to their old habits. In some States they still reap
their wheat with a little hooked clasp-knife, the blade of
which is about an inch and a half long a good many
farmers in Nuevo Leon, adjoining Texas, ploA\ two inches
deep with a forked stick.
So let it be understood that this is no place fen- untrained
]al)orers to come. It is also no place for men who wish
to get land for a farm unless they are prepared to liuy
5,000 acres or upward and begin on a gigantic scale.
There are no small farms in Mexico farmed by white men,
and even if a settler could get one or two or three lumdred
acres somewhere (which is doubtful), he would have no
society, no schools, no neighbors, no market, and he would
be bankrupt before he began.
250 hX)LKii NEXT DOOE.
OKIGI^^ OF THE MEXICANS.
BEFORE COLUMBUS AND LEIF ERICSSON. EDEN AT THE
NORTH POLE. — DISCOVERIES BY ACCIDENT. — THE VOY-
AGE OF HWUI SHAN. THE EMPEROR OF CHINA HEARS
HIS STORY. — KING ASOKA SENDS MISSIONARIES TO FU
SANG. — CURIOUS COINCIDENCES.
Nobody can walk through the silent streets of the'
ruined cities of the Toltecs at San Juan and other places,
or even look upon the great images of their gods which the
Aztecs left in this city, without asking over and over again
whence came those old civilizations. The problem still
baffles us but it is not quite so inscrutable as it once was
when it was supposed that the torrid zone was the cradle
of the race and that Leif Ericsson or Columbus was the
first European discoverer of this continent.
Science throws light upon the question. The classifi-
cation of the little knowledge Ave possess concerning the
earth's evolution, makes it probable that the human race
originated at the poles of the earth, which were the ear-
liest portions of the planet to become cool enough to sup-
port life; that the uniform migration is ever towards the
equator, and that along that belt, when the sun has lost
its fervor and the earth has become frozen up, the last
of our kind will finall}^ perish. From the original place
where man was developed from inferior animal forms, at
least half a million years ago, and probalily a million, the
Mexicans may have trekked southward and lingered in
this rul de snr under the tropic of Cancer.
But that they have been constantly visited Ity people
from across the sea is now ol)vious. Even if the Atlantis
ORIGIX OF THE MEXICANS. 251
of Plato, Aristotle and Ignatius Donnelly should be only
a brilliant and plausible myth, the early Mexicans were by
no means lonesome. During this very generation a
Chinese junk has been blown across the Pacific every few
years and stranded with shipw^recked sailors on the coast
of California or Oregon. If this was equally true in the
past, hundreds of shipwrecked barks must have landed on
our Pacific coast, manned by Oriental people who con-
stantly modified the blood, the laws, the language, the re-
ligion and the manners of the natives.
Indeed, the great voyage of the Hindoo, Hwui Shan,
fourteen hundred years ago is now regarded as pretty well
authenticated. It seems that he made his famous expe-
dition in the last decade of the 5th century of our era,
and in 499 he reappeared in China on his difficult return
homeward. He was fortunate in attracting there the at-
tention of scholars, and was summoned before the em-
peror, to whom he told his wonderful story. The em-
peror commanded the official historian to make a full
record of it, and there to-day it remains, subject to in-
spection and study, in the archives of the Celestial Em-
pire.
The voyage of Hwui Shan was for missionary purposes
— to bring the light of Buddism to the nations that were
in darkness. Buddism has existed for 2500 years and is
to-day the prevailing religion of the world. About 300
B. C. arose Asoka, King of Magadha, who became to Bud-
dism what Constantine later became to Christianity, ex-
cept that he did not propagate his religion by persecution
and the sword. Following the teaching and example of
the gentle Budda he preached his own religion earnestly,
Init tolerated all. He did not resort to bloodshed. But
he excited among the monks of Hindostan a wonderful
spirit of propagandism, and, with shaven tonsures, they
girt their ropes and hair shirts about them and carried
their new gospel into all the world — to Africa, Turkey,
Norway, Russia, China and Japan.
FOLKS XP]XT DOOE.
It was in the crusade thus begun that Hwui Shan found
Mexico. With four other monks of his order he pressed
northeasterly from Hindostan, preaching the blessings of
Nirvana in China, Thibet, Mongolia, Kamskatka; then,
in a boat they crossed to Alaska by the Aleutian islands,
and down the Pacific coast to California and Mexico. He
called Mexico Fu-sang, after a marvelous tree or bush
which flourished there, bearing broad leaves, from which
the inhabitants obtained food and drink, and thread to
make clothing of, and paper to write on. He declared
that the country was due east from China, and described
the people and their habits and land; said they had no
Availed cities — which is true of all Mexico; and that they
were not warlike which was probably true of the Toltecs,
whom the Aztecs expelled. Hwui Shan had got separated
from his companions, and knew not what became of them.
He managed to make his way back alone, however, for
there was only one place where he needed to be out of sight
of land, and then only for a single day. His comrades
prol)ably became denizens and jjriests of Fu-sang, im-
mensely modifying the religion and customs of the land.
No other theory enables us to explain the strange coin-
cidences that are found to exist between the people on the
eastern and western shores of the great Pacific sea.
When Cortez arrived here he found incense on the altars
and the Aztecs bowed before the great Latin cross of gran-
ite on the face of which they had sculptured the grotesque
image of their god — the same cross now exhibited in the
patio of the museum. It is well known that the cross was
a familiar religious symbol in Hindostan before Christ,
and that many of the ceremonies of his religion were bor-
rowed from the Hindoos. They had record of a deluge,
wliich only one man and one woman survived. Coxcox and
his wife, both Aztecs. When the waters had subsided they
sent out a dove to distribute tlie languages. Another tril)e
five hundred miles iiorthwest of here had n similar tra-
dition. Tlieir Xoah was named Tezpi. and he escaped
ORIGIN OF THE MEXICANS. 253
with a boat filled with animals. He sent out a humming-
bird, which returned with a twig in its mouth.
The building of the great pyramid of Cholula, 100
miles south of this city, was abandoned because the Aztecs'
god sent fire and thunder-bolts upon it to punish them for
their blasphemy — so they say.
In the Aztec religion the goddess Civacoatl was the first
to bear children, " and therefore," says the tradition, " by
her came sin into the world."
The Aztecs practiced the rites of confession and pen-
ance, and even held in a modified form the important
dogmas of the trinity and incarnation.
The Aztecs had monasteries and nunneries, monks and
nuns. They had fanatical ascetics and took vows of per-
petual poverty and continence. Their priest was called
" tlama " ; the Persian priest was " lama " ; the Buddist
priest was " blama." Their idols are always modestly
clad, like those of India. Their ruined temples resemble
the Buddist temples of the East, and the statues of their
god held a mirror in the hand, like Budda, in which he
could see all the actions of men, and all events of the
future. Their books folded back and forth, like those of
Siam. Their anchors were four strong hooks without
barbs like those of Asia. They played a game called
" patolli " which seems to have been the same as the
^' pachisi " played by the Hindoos and familiar to all Amer-
ican children Avho are acquainted Avith the l)ack-gammon
board.
For communion, before the Spanish came, they made a
wafer of corn meal mixed with blood, which the people
ate in sorrow and humiliation, declaring it the flesh of
deity.
They baptized infants, touching them with water on the
forehead and lips after an invocation.
Montezuma's court as depicted by Bernal Diaz was very
similar to that of the Grand Khan described by Marco
Polo. The marriage ceremony of the Aztecs was much
254 FOLKS NEXT DOOE.
like that of the Mongols; and both burned their dead, col-
lected the ashes and deposited at the bottom of each urn
a single precious stone ! Such a fantastic parallel could
hardly have been accidental.
Both the Mexicans and the Mongols divided the year
into twelve months, which they named after animals, and
seven of the months they named for the same animals,
while the other five whose names the Mongol months bear
did not exist in Mexico. Can this have been a coinci-
dence ?
Of course certain likenesses in the ways of primitive
peoples are attributable to nature, necessity and circum-
stance — such as the building of huts, the fashioning of
hatchets and arrows from stone, the stringing of bows,
the digging out of canoes, and the deduction of a deity
and a devil, but a close resemblance in the elaborate rites
of religion would seem to be outside of the range of this
tendency.
But the Aztecs had a fierce and relentless God, Taotl.
while the Buddists, now 400,000,000 strong, have no God
in their religion, nor any word for God in the languages
of the countries which they dominate.
The Aztecs, too, had plenty of bulls but did not use
them for draft purposes; like the Hindoos, they had hun-
dreds of thousands of cows, but did not know the use of
milk ; they had mountains of iron but had not learned how
to work it. If any chance castaway had taught these
things it does not seem as if they could have been for-
gotten ; but almost any theory is easier than to suppose
that the elaborate theological resemblances between the old
world and " new Spain " were the result of chance, or
that, as Catholics believed, tlio luartyrod a]iostle. St.
Thomas, flew over in tlie guise of an angel and taught
Christianity to the savages.
COMING TO THE FKONT. 255
COMING TO THE FEONT.
SCHOOLS SUPERSEDTN'G CONVENTS. — WORK SUPERSEDING
WORSHIP. INDIANS HUMANELY CARED POR. THREE
ENEMIES OF PRESENT PROGRESS.— THE BACKWARD-LOOK-
ERS. THE HACIENDADOS AND THE RAILROADS. FUTURE
REVOLUTIONS IMPOSSIBLE.. — VALUE OF CROPS NOW
GROWN IN MEXICO.
During the single generation just past, the Mexican
Eepublic has gone far to recover from the stagnation of
centuries. On every hand are seen not only signs of life,
l)ut demonstrations of vigor and tokens of advancement.
Modern methods are rapidly reconstructing Mexico.
The inventor has invaded the country and railroads and
telegraphs are overrunning it as the Spaniards did, and,
unlike the Spaniards, they are filling its veins with the
ichor of a life not only new but vastly better. Since the
confiscation of church property and the banishment of re-
ligious societies, worldly interests are more and more tak-
ing the place of other worldly interests. The soul is being
talked about less and the body is being cared for more.
Schools are superseding convents; the locomotive is push-
ing the burro to the wall ; the din of commerce is disturbing
the confessional. The need of redemption is still discussed
in the council-chamber, but it is redemption from unsani-
tary and unsavory conditions. Most of the poor and ig-
norant, the Indians and mestizoes, are still as devout as
ever were the Inquisitors themselves, but even they are
startled while telling their beads by the sceptical presence
of the twentieth century looking down upon them.
It is highly satisfactory to record that many of the abo-
25G FOLKS NEXT DOOE.
riginal race are well to do, having been partly cared
for by the race that overran their land and plundered them
of their possessions. The Spaniards, badly as they treated
the Indians, treated them better than we did; for, instead
of branding them wanderers and nomads, as we falsely
called our Indians, making the falsehood our excuse for
cruelly driving them from their permanent homes, the
Spaniards recognized them, if not as possessing • civil
rights, at least as human beings who loved their families;
and they not only conceded to them the right of self-gov-
ernment, but to every Indian village the conquerors gave
two square miles of land which they still cultivate in com-
mon and hold as their own. Perhaps this is not much,
but it is something. I wonder if it has ever occurred to
Masachusetts, Connecticut, Ehode Island, New York and
the Western States to hunt up the descendants and heirs
of King Philip and Massasoit, Santoway, Osceola, White
pjagle, Ogalalla, Eed Jacket, Tecumseh, Uncas, Sitting-
Bull, and Hole-In-The-Day, and pay them annuities for
the sufferings and losses of their people? I do not re-
member it. I wonder if our petrified American conscience
will ever soften and move us to make some trifling reim-
bursement to the brown men of the Orient whom we have
subjugated with sword and torch and from whom we have
stolen their beautiful islands?
There are now in Mexico some twelve thousand miles of
railroad, twice as many miles of telephone, and four times
as many miles of telegraph. Horse railroads are numer-
ous. No religious pageant is allowed to parade the streets,
and, although there are said to be 365 saints' days, or one
for every day in the year, they arc not allowed to greatly in-
terfere with industry.
There arc three sturdy opponents of t]u> progressive
movement — the aristocrats, the Catholics, and the brig-
ands. All of these parties would be glad to see a return
to the comfortable old times which existed before the
spirit of activity and restless enterprise took possession of
COMING TO THP] FRONT. 257
the land. The first mentioned of the baclcward-lookers
constitute a party of conservatives here, corresponding to
tlie Tories of England, but they are not very numerous or
very active. They lament " the good old days " when the
church was dominant and Maximilian was emperor, and
are shocked at the reign of infidelity and republicanism,
under which men can believe what they please, go to
church or stay away, govern themselves or let a junta gov-
ern them. They scoff at " the rabble,'' draw up their
pharasaical garments, and anticipate the return of the
day when king and pope will come again with a strong
hierarchy and an invincible army. But these people are
not aggressive. They scoff in a sleepy fashion, and will
never do much to foment a revolution. They are generally
content with their broad acres and their superior respec-
tability, and when they talk about the need of a change,
they always add " manana."'
Nowhere does opposition to progress originate with in-
telligent- laboring men or even with the working Indians,
the peons, for the best of reasons. Wherever the railroad
goes it at once doubles the wages of the peons, who dig and
delve, who plant and reap and take care of the herds on
the haciendas — the great farms of Mexico. At this very
time there are places in Mexico where the peon gets only
18 to 20 cents a day, the uniform wages of twenty-five
years ago. As soon as a railroad approaches up go the
wages to 40, 50, 60, 80 cents a day. At this the hacien-
dado growls, unless, indeed, he have enterprise and fore-
thought enough to see that the new market will double the
value of his crops also. The haciendados wdio oppose the
" new-fangled contrivance " the most bitterly are those
who are near enough to a railroad to have it interfere with
the wages of their workmen, but not quite near enough to
have it raise the price of their corn, wheat and potatoes.
" Eailroads ! h — m ! " exclaimed one of these the other
day. " Talk about their improving the country ! They're
a damage! Why, when the railroads got within twenty
258 FOLKS NEXT DOOR.
miles of me my peons began to sidle ofi' and get work there
for better wages than I was paying them, and now they
expect me to pay them twice as much as they had before,
and if I refuse they quit and work for somebody else.
That's what the railroad docs ! It raises wages — and they
say that benefits the country ! It is disastrous ! that's
what it is ! "
There is another element of opposition- — I mean those
local partisans who are in a chronic state of discontent.
For the railroads pretty nearly make future revolutions
impossible. Eebels hereafter will get short shrift. Through
the railroads and telegraphs the Government now can lay
its hand suddenly on Mexico. Formerly some chief in
the states of Michoacan or Durango could revolt, raise an
army and establish himself as a successful chieftain, and
the Government might not hear of it in a week or two, or
be able to reach it in a month ; but now the telegraph
conveys the news in a minute and the cars will throw half
a dozen regiments of federal troops in there within twenty-
four hours, or thirty-six at the furthest. The Central
road is a most poAverful arm of defense, and the great
Mexican National road is quite as puissant, for besides
watching over the whole middle plateau of the repulilic
from north to south, it vaults across a pass in the Sierras
11 000 feet high and serves as a sentinel on the Pacific.
If I remember correctly, the Great West of America is
the paradise of drive-wells. Let some drive-well manu-
facturers come to Mexico to try tlieiv hand. Tlu\v are
needed here, if anywhere on earth. One-half of this whole
country — an area large enough to make eight States like
Illinois — is wholly without rain during seven numllis of
every year. This huge plateau all lies more tlian a mile
high and evaporation is so rapid here that no dew falls.
Deprived of moisture, the soil is also deprived of vegeta-
tion, and. during most of the year the landsca]ie is wofully
barren and unattractiv(\ A few forests in the vicinity of
springs, as around the slope of Chapultepec. manage to
COMING TO THE FRONT. 259
exist, and files of shade-trees here and there are kept alive
by being artificially watered every day — a sort of basin
of masonry being built about each tree to prevent the
water from running off.
During the year 1899 the total value of agricultural
products, fermented drinks, and medicinal plants in the
Republic was as follows:
DURING THE YEAR 1889 THE TOTAL VALUE OF AGRL
CULTURAL PRODUCTS.
Rice $ 2,309,021 Unfermented
Barley 5,591.533 pulque 9,292,575
Indian corn 72,807,2(>5 Heniquen 33,227,203
Wheat 17,(507,924 Ixtle 808,621
Chickling vetch .... 427,997 Cotton 4,679,628
Beans ... 7.847,898 Grape brandy 139,064
Chick-peas 1.687,439 Grape wine 307,225
Lima beans 1,136,485 Indigo 35.826
Lentils 98.647 Brazil 145,656
Sweet potatoes 369,898 Campeachey 266,507
Huacamote 49,834 Cascalote 59,092
Potatoes 1,387,973 Tanning bark 1.557,091
Green peppers 2,420,563 Cocoa 689,907
Dried peppers 1,960,307 Coffee 11,065,657
Sugar 13,283,338 Tobacco 2.038,897
Brown sugar 5.022,500 Vanilla 868,967
Molasses 2,246,450 Chewing gum 502,471
Sesame seed 45,502 India rubber 272,821
Peanuts 344,674 Mezqviite gum 9,523
Linseed 172,58 Cocoa gmn 9,062
Rum 15,748,558 Jalap 15,830
Pulque 6,196,703 Sarsaparilla 7,464
Corn being the principal article of food, the failure of
the crop causes much suffering, and the peons must then
subsist on unripe fruit, berries, and roots.
If water could be obtained at any reasonable price for
irrigation, Mexico could easily raise 100 times as much
wheat as now, for two crops are easily harvested a year on
the terraces at the edge of the plateau, the seed yielding
a hundred and fifty fold.
Ramie thrives in Mexico and attains peculiar excellence.
Four crops may be cut annually from the same field, and
;ciGO
FOLKS NEXT DOOR.
each crop will give more pounds per acre than the ordinary
yield of cotton. The fibre of the plant is stronger than
cotton or flax, and is declared to be " equal to silk in all
respects." Its value in market is more than four times
as great as the ordinary upland cotton, and twice as great
as Sea-Island cotton. It requires but little labor.
The castor-oil plant is indigenous to Mexico, and grows
everywhere along the coast spontaneously and abundantly.
The expense of cultivation is very small, and it returns a
net result of $250 to $300 per acre after deducting $20
an acre for tillage and harvesting. If 50 per cent, of this
be deducted for machinery we still have a very fair profit
for the first year's crop and the needful machinery on
hand for future years.
Compared with the United States, the annual corn-crop
is one-tenth as great, the wheat-crop one-forty-fifth, and.
the cotton-crop but one forty-fifth. That is, Mexico grows
only one-half as much corn per capita as does the United
States, although it is the main article of food, and almost
everybody eats it three times a day ; and it grows only
one-ninth as much cotton, although cotton is the only ar-
ticle of dress of three-fourths of the people, and is worn
the year round.
Cotton thrives in half of the Mexican States — all
through the lowlands and up to an elevation of 5,000 feet.
If the seed be planted in March it will ripen in August
and mature in September. The crude methods of culture
hitherto employed and the want of transportation have
prevented the development of this industry, but better
methods are now being adopted and better results may be
looked for.
MEXICANS AS REPUBLIC MAKEES. 261
MEXICANS AS EEPUBLIC MAKEES.
LOOKING NORTH FOK AN EXAMrLE. — A LIBERAL CONSTITU-
TION. — VOTERS AND VOTING. — PEACE AND ORDER FOLLOW
TURBULENCE. WHAT SORT OF MAN IS DIAZ? AN IM-
PORTANT REVOLUTION. NO LONGER A PARIAH AMONG
THE NATIONS.
The United States of Mexico, as the country south of
us is oflficially styled, has a government organized on the
model of our republic. Its constitution is copied after
ours as interpreted by the war for the Union. It is not
a confederation of states, but it is a nation : a consolidated
and indissoluble republic. There are twenty-seven states
and each of them has a governor and a legislature. There
are also two territories. The ideal of Mexico is that all
poAver resides in the people, and that taxation and rep-
resentation go together; it has a quadrennial president',
like ours, and a forked Congress, like ours, elected from
districts the form and size of which are sometimes regu-
lated by equity and sometimes by chicanery. The Mexi-
can Congress consists of two senators from each state and
three for the territories, serving four years each, and a
Chamber of Deputies with some 230 members. It sits
twice a year — in September and April. According to the
constitution, marriage is a civil not a religious compact.
The oath " so help me God " is abolished in all courts, and
a witness is required only to promise to speak the truth.
A married man becomes a citizen of Mexico at eighteen
years of age, but an unmarried man must wait till he is
twenty-one. All citizens have the right to vote and be
26.8 FOLKS NEXT DOOR.
voted for, and this includes all men born in Mexico with-
out regard to race or color.
I never before was in a country where the people showed
so much interest in the government and so little interest
in politics. The president is elected b}^ unanimous indif-
ference. Many hate the administration and denounce it
roundly in private, but it never seems to occur to any of
them to overthrow it according to law. There are plenty
of gangs of marplots here, but no parties; plenty of con-
spirators, but no jDublic champions. As there are no par-
ties, there are none of the accessories of parties. It is like
our Washington city, without a party press, without a
party platform, without a nominating convention, without
a caucus, without a registration of voters, without a stump
speech, and, I fear it must be added in consequence, almost
without a patriot. When the quadrennium runs around,
the President incumbent and his particular junta pick out
his successor. To oppose him is constructive treason, and
it is assumed by all that the man thus named can be de-
feated only by a revolution.
This country may be said to be a Limited Eepulilic,
limited to about ten persons. Everybody is entitled to
vote but nobody votes. That is, next to nobody. By law,
all permanent residents — Spaniards, Americans, Italians,
Germans, Indians, negroes, mulattoes, mestizoes and zam-
boes — can vote on arriving at 21 5^ears of age. There
is no secret ballot, but each one must be signed Mdth the
voter's name and residence.
In the country there is a voting place near every ha-
cienda. In the capital there are twenty-five such pre-
cincts — one for each 10,000 of the population. The vot-
ing offices are called casillas elect orales (little houses for
election). Each precinct is presided over by a judge and
two clerks. Just before election-day the Supervisor sends
to each qualified voter a paper called the loJcia, stating
that a President is to be chosen and instructing the re-
cipient how and where to vote. The latter writes on the
MEXICANS AS REPUBLIC MAKERS. 263
back of the holeta two names of gentlemen whom he thus
designates as electors from his State, signs his name, goes
to the polls, and drops it in the box.
This is what he ma}^ do, I mean, but it is also wliat he
doesn't do. Probably not one man in a hundred in Mexico
reall}^ votes for President. It goes by default, for some
reason that I have not yet distinctly ascertained — partly,
I have no doubt, because the voter can not conceal the
identity of his ballot. If everybody did vote, according to
his honest preferences, I don't know what might happen.
Sometimes (they say) the distant haciendado, or the ab-
sent haciendado's manager, wishing to stand well in the
eyes of the coming President, and moved by that fervent
gratitude which is a lively sense of favors expected, col-
lects the boletas which have been received by the numerous
peons, who work his lordly acres, and generously goes to
the casilla and deposits them. Sometimes, when the in-
difference of a city is too unanimous to look well in the
returns, a regiment of soldiers are disguised in citizens'
clothes, it is said, and marched to the casilla, where they
solemnly deposit their compound ])oleta which
comes down as still
As snowflakes fall upon tlie sod,
And executes a freeman's will
As lightning does tiie will of God,
by recording the well-known preference of their boss.
The President is elected for four years, but before the
days of the present incumbent, Porfirio Diaz, not one was
fortunate enough to serve out his term. As a matter of
fact there were in the nineteenth century fifty-five presi-
dents in sixty-seven years, besides one emperor and one
regency, and ever}^ one came in through the bloody door
of war. During the two years of our contest with Mexico,
there were no less than seven changes in the head of the
government while Taylor and Scott were advancing. In-
deed, two Mexican " presidents" were fighting each other
264 FOLKS XEXT DOOR.
in the streets of the capital while raw levies were trying
to hold the field against the Americans at Contreras and
Cherubusco ! The present visitor to the very experienced
Capital hears about and perhaps encounters the thrifty
old lady who, years ago, desiring to rent a corner room in
one of her buildings, announced with a flourish of type
that it was " a charming situation — a beautiful window to
see the revolutions from " ! She could not rent it for that
purpose in these latter humdrum days.
Mexico has been most fortunate in having such a man
as Diaz to direct her destinies for a generation. He was
born in 1830 in Oaxaca, the state that had given the im-
mortal Benito Juarez to his distracted country twenty-
four years before. The mother of Diaz destined him for
the church, but he yielded to those martial tendencies
which made him a soldier instead. In the intervals of
battle he studied law. He was arrested as a traitor and
condemned to summary execution by Santa Anna. He
escaped through a volley of his sentries. During the
long struggle between the liberals and the church, Diaz
was always at the front, and during the work of confisca-
tion established his reputation as the most daring fighter
in Mexico. He was made Brigadier-General by President
Juarez. During the French invasion he was the Mexican
leader and always in the saddle, and after that was in
the thick of the internecine war. There were thirty years
of fighting during which Diaz was many times a captive,
many times wounded, many times an exile, an outlaw and
l)andit in his own country, a fugitive turning at hay as
o]i]K>i'lunity offered, in marvelous escapes unnumbered.
He was master of Mexico before he became provisional
president, in 1876, and since that time he has been the
unquestioned ruler.
The ca1)inet of Diaz consists of distinguished patriots
and scholars. A fair example of them is Manuel Gonzales
Cosio, Secretary of the Interior. For his brilliant achieve-
ments in the war with France he was appointed general.
MEXICANS AS EEPUBLIC MAKERS. 265
In 1863 he fell into the hands of the French and was
carried prisoner to Paris. He shortly escaped with two
fellow captives and fled to New York, homeward bound.
Their money was spent and they could get no further. In
a cheap tavern in Chatham street they drew lots to de-
termine which should enlist in the United States army,
so that with the bounty the other two might reach home.
The lot fell to Cosio, but just as the friends were about
to separate a generous American advanced the money re-
quired, and they hastened home. At the death of IMaximi-
lian, Cosio was elected to the national senate, then Gov-
ernor, then appointed a member of the President's Cab-
inet.
At the moment of this present writing it looks as if
the ultimate successor of President Diaz would be either
the ex-Secretary of War. General Reyes, or the Finance-
Secretary, Ijimantour, unless the President should, before
election day, "suspend all constitutional guarantees'' as
permitted by the constitution itself, and banish them both
for sedition. The best thing that could happen would be
for Diaz once more to succeed himself.
In all ways Porfirio Diaz has been the wisest and most
judicious friend that Mexico has ever had. Without his
strong hand on the helm what revolutions would have
shaken and impoA^erished his land ! Before his time she
was the butt of derision because of her weakness. Her
name was a synonym for disorder and plunder. She was
the prey of the priests and the slave of the army. She
did not think of jiaying her debts. Her credit and honor
were destroyed.
This wonderful man has built up her military strength,
but has made the army subordinate to the civil power. He
has fostered education. He has vigorously promoted rail-
road building. He has vastly increased agricultural pro-
duction. He has given new life to commerce. He has es-
tablished his country on the enduring foundations of
culture and prosperity. The realm which the brave Juarez
266 FOLKS NEXT DOOE.
bequeathed to him he has endowed with the safeguards of
national liberty : free schools, free ballot, free speech and a
free press, and that progress which these insure. He has
rehabilitated the credit of a nation that was bankrupt when
he became president. He has seen her imports and exports
double during the last ten 3'ears, while they are five times
as great as when he became president. If Hidalgo is the
Emancipator of Mexico, and Juarez the Savior of Mexico.
Diaz is preeminently the Builder of Mexico. Under him
she has undergone a peaceful revolution that seems per-
manent. For the first time she pays her debts like a man,
and proudly wears upon her brow that splendid crown of
honor known as a Treasury's Surplus; for the first time
she has attained dignity and holds up her head among
the nations; for the first time the railroad is blessing the
peons and the telegraph is civilizing the priest : for the
first time degrading credulity is being superseded by bene-
ficent commerce, and for the first time our ne-nrest neigh-
bor among so-called republics is vindicating her right to
the name by enforcing the equality of all men before the
law. Hail Mexico !
PANAMA. 2G7
PANAMA.
HEAT. — YELLOW FEVER. SCORPIONS. — TARANTULAS.
RAIN. — THE devil's PARADISE. — SIR HENRY MORGAN.
THE DARIEN SCHEME. — CHAGRES EEVER. THE BERI-BERI.
TLIE PARIS SWINDLE. BRIBERY. DEATH. ANOTLIER
ACT OF THE TRAGEDY. SCAVENGERS. A FOOT OF RAIN A
DAY. ROOSEVELT'S AVAY. THE TREATY. THE BULLY-
ING AND PLUNDER OF COLOMBIA.
" What is the best time of year to go to Panama ? " I
asked a A\^rlcl-girdler who had visited all climes and
scenes.
" Ah ! Panama ! " he exclaimed, " yes, surely ! The
very best time is the thirteenth month of the year and
the fifty-third week."
"As 'bad as that?" I asked; "no time at all?"
" Unless you wear your shroud under your double-
milled pilot cloth," he added, "and have made your will.
The Panama summer is winter. It is the Devil's para-
dise."
I knew that my friend was fond of hyperbole and was
not fond of the tropics, and I guessed that Satan's estate
was not quite so black as it was painted. At any rate,
one who goes to Panama goes because it is necessary, or,
at any rate, desirable, and a greater plenitude of yellow
fever and a few more alligators, mosquitoes, tarantulas
and scorpions are not to be considered.
The Isthmus of Panama writhes like a centiped:' or
some poisonous cateri^illar between the Atlantic and Pa-
cific oceans, or, what is the same thing, between the Carib-
268 FOLKS NEXT DOOR.
bean Sea on the northeast and the Gulf of Panama on the
southwest. It is fringed with hundreds of pretty islands,
verdant and picturesque and spicy, and is mounted and
boldly ridden by that superb mountain chain which the
world calls the Andes and which Spaniards designate as
the Cordilleras. Nowhere else does Nature present svieh a
continuous and compact elevation. From Alaska to Pata-
gonia it threads its devious way, with a mean height of
two miles, flanked by bottomless morasses and capped by
the most terrible volcanoes on the planet.
There is no danger whatever that North America and
South America will ever drift apart, for these Siamese
twins of the earth are bound together by a granite ligament.
It was only eight years after Columbus landed on Wat-
ling's Island that Eodrigo Bastidas reconnoitered this
coast, walked into the ocean up to his girdle, took posses-
sion in the name of God and the King, and founded here a
Spanish colony and the first European city in America ;
and twelve years later the ambitious Balboa got a simul-
taneous sight of both oceans from these hilltops as
" — ^With eagle eyes
He stared at the Pacific, and his men
Looked at each other with a wild surprise
Silent upon a peak in Darien."
This was Spain's earliest possession on the western con-
tinent, the nucleus of that Spanish Main which was the
haunt and home of buccaneers, distinguished from the
West India Islands on one hand and from j\Iexico and
Peru on the other. In those old times it was tlie refuge
of the ^Jirates of the western hemisphere Avho made it the
lair from which they sprang out and seized the silver-
laden Si^anish galleons. The most formi(lal)le of tliese
freebooters was Henry Morgan, wlio, liy boUluess and
recklessness rose from a common sailor t,i a self-styled
admiral, and with the booty of a hundred ships made
himself king of the Central Seas. In IGTl, he sacked
PANAMA. 269
Panama. He acquired a great fortune and at one time
.had more than fifty vessels in his fleet. He cruised und':'r
the British flag, and was such a successful robber that he
boldl}'' returned to England with enough plunder to ob-
tain immunity for himself and was knighted by the king,
and thenceforth saluted as Sir Henry Morgan and made
the hero of song and legend.
The isthmus of Panama has never been a delightful
possession. After it ceased to be the home of marauders
and the highway robbers of the ocean no longer made it
their rendezvous, it was still a repellent land, a land of
bloody traditions and with a mysterioiis and loathsome
history. It has been the scene of several very afflicting
tragedies. More than two hundred years ago culminated
here one of the most disastrous speculations in the records
of the human race. One Paterson and other adventur-
ers printed pamphlets filled with stories of imaginary
wealth of^ gold, silver, and precious stones enough to
freight great ships, and as a result of these exciting nar-
ratives the Darien Company was organized, by solemn act
of the Scottish parliament. It had for its proclaimed
object the building of a splendid commercial emporium
and metropolis at Panama, to become the entrepot and
depot of the world's commerce. An absolute monopoly
of the trade of Asia, Africa, and America was granted to
the company for thirty-one years.
The fascinating schen^e caused the wildest excitement.
All Scotland was seized with a frenzied determination to
get rich immediately by the purchase of Panama shares.
The conservative and canny Scotch went crazy. Two
million dollars were subscribed in a week. Other millions
followed. The poor flung their scanty earnings into the
maw of the wonderful enterprise without hesitation. It
was not a swindle : it was a popular torrent of excitement
which bore away all alike. The project had just enough
vagueness and glittering romance about it to be magnifi-
cent. The contagious insanity was moro like the reli2;^ous
270 FOLKS NEXT DOOE.
rhapsody of the followers of Mahomet, the " Mad Mullah,"
the dancing dervishes or the Messiahs who every year
break forth with prophecy even in enlightened nations,
than like the excitement of any of the worshijjers of
Mammon. Paterson was filled with self-confidence and
puffed up with pride on account of the lordly position in
which he found himself. He walked as if he were Atlas
carrying the earth upon his shoulders. Noblemen sought
his acquaintance and it was considered an honor to be
noticed by him in his daily walks. Paterson's receptions
were as famous as those of the Prince of Wales. Only the
captain of the enthusiasts knew, even the day before they
started, to what part of the earth they were bound.
Five ships with twelve hundred colonists aboard sailed
from Leith for Panama on the 26th of July, 1698. In
a delirium of excitement the whole city of Edinburgh
poured down upon its seaport to wave good-bye to the
fortunate voyagers, who spread their sails and turned from
the wharf amidst the tears and prayers and shouted praises
of relations and fri?nds. Caught up in the tumult of en-
thusiasm, many seamen and soldiers whose services had
been refused because hundreds more had offered than were
needed, hid themselves in the ships, and when dragged
ashore desperately clung to the ropes and spars begging
that they might go and serve without reward.
When the colonists sailed out of the estuary of the Forth,
commended by many prayers, they were flushed with hope
and expectant of a rapid voyage to the land of promi:e.
They carried four thousand magnificent periwigs, then
worn liy men of fashion, bales ol' Scotch woolen goods,
which nobody in the tropics could wear, and hundreds of
Englisli Bil)les which neither Spaniard nor Indian could
read. Alas, they were four months reaching their des-
tination. There one of the greatest of the Indian princes
came on board. He was attended by a, dozen courtiers,
stark naked ; but he himself was clad in a red coat, a pair
of cotton draAvers, and an old stove-pipe hat. His name
PANAMA. 271
was Spanish, he spoke Spanish, and affected great gravity
of deportment. The Scotch propitiated him, saluted him
with royal lienors, and presented him with a startling and
splendid hat blazing with geld lace siicli as he had never
seen.
They then went ashore, repudiated the euphonious In-
dian name, Panama, and renamed the country New Cale-
donia, and the two cities wliich they founded they called
New Edinburgh and New St. Andrews. They bought land
from Indians in exchange for a few trifles and fixed a fort
at Acta. Thither they were followed by four more ships
with thirteen hundred men on board. While this second
expedition was sailing amid the acclamations and blessings
of Scotland and indulging a blissful dream of glory and
prosperity, the first colony was coming to a miserable
end. Their enthusiasm did not survive the first terrible
summer. Hundreds died ; other hundreds were prostrated
by the dreadful Chagres fever and never recovered; still
other hundreds fled from the pestilence-ridden quagmire
and were lost among the Indian tribes of the north. A
few wretched men, the surviving remnant of the colony
which was to have been the magnificent emporium of the
commercial world, took ship again and found their devious
way to the English at the mouth of the Hudson. The
mart of Christendom had disappeared from the face of the
earth.
The fate of the second colony was still worse. Disease
made terrible havoc with the little community even before
it landed at the deserted rendezvous. Mortality rose to
ten or twelve a day. Both the clergymen died. Paterson
buried his wife and then was stricken himself. Those who
could crept on board the three ships that had brought them
and started back. " The voyage was horrible. Scarcely
any Guinea slave-ship ever had such a middle passage. Of
two hundred and fifty persons on board the St. Andrew,
one hundred and fifty fed the sharks of the Atlantic before
' Sandv Hook was in sight. The Unicorn lost almost all
273 FOLKS NEXT DOOR.
its officers and about a hundred and forty men. The Cale-
donia, the healthiest ship of the three, threw overboard a
hundred corpses. . . . The colonists left behind them no
mark that baptized men had set foot on Darien, except a
few Anglo-Saxon curses, which, having been uttered more
frequently and with greater energy than any other words
in our language, had caught the ear and been retained in
the memory of the native population of the Isthmus."
Only thirty out of several thousand colonists ever got back
to Scotland, and they transmitted to their descendants such
grewsome tales of suffering that " the Darien scheme "
forms one of the most terrible chapters in the history of
the Scotch people.
History repeats itself on the isthmus of Panama as else-
where, and other tragedies, as lamentable as the " Darien
scheme '' and as terrible and far-reaching in their conse-
quences, have filled the oozing and pestilential quagmires
of that narrow strip of land with the graves of countless
thousands of adventurers, exploiters, and deluded laboring
men. The ghastly and world-notorious Monkey Hill ceme-
tery, just outside of Panama, could chatter its fiendish
tales of fraud, lying, robbery, deadly miasma, prolonged
suffering, the terrible beri-beri disease, which thins the
blood and swells the limbs, — tales of sin, debauchery, death,
— if dry bones could be reclothed with fie.di whicli dared
to speak the truth.
It is a far cry from Scotland in 169S to France in 18S4,
"when, in a tumult of excitement exactly parallel to that
of Scotland, tlie French people, from the richest Itourgeois
to the poorest peasant, had flung two liundred million
dollars into the coffers of the Panama Canal Company, and
thirty thousand sturdy men were toiling, panting, drink-
ing, and suffering in the steaming heat and pe.-tilcntial
miasma of tlie trenches. There is nothing more pathetic
in history than the eager cheerfulness with which the very
poorest laborers of France, the factory hands, the farm
workers, the servant-girls, the hack-drivers, the washer-
PANAMA. 273
women, placed the small remnant of their hard-earned
francs in the hands of '• entrepreneurs " — greedy and
heartless speculators. " The poor man hath no other
medicine, but onl}- hope ; " and the poor people of France
hoped on from year to year and brought forth, from their
stockings their scanty savings. The company became bank-
rupt in 1888, and hundreds of the poorest investors com-
mitted suicide when there was revealed one of the most
scandalous orgies ever known to the world. It speedily be-
came known, to the general astonishment and disgust, that
the high officers of the republic had been bribed with mil-
lions of dollars in gold to cover up the rascally manage-
ment of the concern. The sum of $100,000,000 was spent
in bribing French newspapers and judges in a single year!
The managers of the company, first and last, handled over
$285,000,000, subscribed by the French people for canal
digging. Jt is estimated that about $170,000,000 was
spent in bribing members of the French Parliament, cabi-
net ministers and French newspapers, while about $115,-
000,000 was spent on canal construction. Much of the
$115,000,000 was absorbed by certain contractors, who
practically looted as they dug.
The great reputation of De Lesseps was submerged in
disgrace. On the Isthmus was a revelry of del^auchery.
The very shores of the bay were paved with empty cham-
pagne bottles. All that was left to show for the tremen-
dous expenditure now (with interest) aggregating more
than $400,000,000, was a mud-filled ditch ^with its banks
strown Avith millions of dollars' worth of rusting, rotting,
broken scrap-heap machinery paid for by money filched
through fraud and falsehood from the French peasantry.
The route as projected by De Lesseps extended forty-five
miles from sea to sea, cut straight through the Culebra
mountain. The canal was to be 164 feet wide, at the water-
line, and 72 feet wide at the bottom, with a uniform depth
of 28 feet below mean low tide. The " deep cut " was to
be fifteen and one half miles long and its greatest depth at
274
FOLKS NEXT DOOE.
the divide was to be 323 feet. When $200,000,000 had
been spent it was found that not one fifteenth of the work
had been done.
Those were halcyon days on the Isthmus ! Such living
as there was during the first excavations of the old French
canal, — and such dying ! Both were cumulative from
month to month and year to year. Money was scattered
in reckless profusion. Every other door was a gambling
house. The promoters flung French gold among the
thieves in Panama like worthless chaff. A million dol-
lars was disbursed every fifteen days. Houses rented for
ten times their value. Lame horses brought a thousand
dollars. Even Madame Sarah Bernhardt, sniffing the
lucre from afar, gave five performances in Panama during
the saturnalia. A season ticket cost $250, and a pink to
wear in the buttonhole cost a dollar. This was the day of
" high-rollers ; " of crazy promises and wild expectations ;
of fraud and filth; of death and disaster, until the very
name " Panama," an Indian word meaning abounding in
fish, stank in the nostrils of mankind.
They tell a story of 800 Chinese, who were brought from
Hongkong to work on the Panama Eailroad, almost every
one of whom fell a victim either to the rigors of the country
or the cupidity of the contractors.
The usual roseate pictures had been painted by the
agents, who secured their emplo^mient in their native
China, in order to induce them to make the triii. They
were promised wages that to Hongkong coolies seemed
boundless wealth and comforts they had never known.
Whatever vagaries the climate possessed were kept, as to
them, in the mysterious background; of these nothing was
said.
Tliey endured the discomforts of the voyage chocrfully.
or at least stoically. Some ten or a dozen died eii route
and were thrown to \\\o fishes, but their comrades ])roliably
regarded this as a tiling ordained, and made- no murmur.
Panama was reached, the party was disembarked and work
PANAMA. 275
on the railway construction was begun. Then the Chinese
began to die, as well of the pangs of homesickness and the
deprivation of their remedy for it — opium — as of the
fevers of the countr}^ They died in droves and the con-
tractors, in a panic, began to deal out opium. There was a
recurrence of cheer and a decrease in the death rate, but
this was suffered to last only for a time. It occurred to the
contractors it was wicked and unholy to pander to a de-
praved taste for the seductive drug and to permit their
fellow-mortals to ruin themselves by its use.
It may also have occurred to them that the practice was
expensive, for each of the Chinamen was accustomed to
consume each day opium of the value of 15 cents. Mul-
tiplied by many hundred Chinamen and many days' work
this represented a large sum. At any rate the issue of
opium was stopped. The coolies were caught and held in
the meshes of despair. The fever carried many of them
away and those who managed to resist its death-dealing
power sought death in other ways. Some impaled them-
selves on the tools with which they did their daily loil;
others tied heavy stones to their garments and flung them-
selves into the waters of the streams; others sat calmly by
the sea-shore until the tide came in and blotted them out
forever; still others bargained for death with their fellows,
yielding their every joossession to him who would admin-
ister the thrust that would end their miseries. By fever or
their own hand or that of one of their fellows practically
all of them died. It was one of the tragedies of the
isthmus.
Nobody knows just how many Irish, Italians. Frencn-
men, mestizoes and coolies died in digging the ditch which
was called the canal, or just how many carloads of " nig-
gers " were dumped on the flanks of Monkey Hill to have
some leaves raked over them. And the end is not yet.
This time the great republic, in the name of "collective
civilization," has deliberately resolved to plunge into this
morass of misfortune and quagmire of crime cost what it
276 FOLKS NEXT DOOE.
may in gold and human life. Scotland, 1698; France,
1884; the United States, 1904; and after us the deluge.
For President Koosevelt has raised the curtain on another
act of the tragedy — another act and ditferent actors, but
the same stage, the same tlorid scenery, and, it is to be
feared, the same dismal denoument. So let us see what
sort of place it is to which we are invited.
Dodging the northers of the Gulf and steaming across
the Caribbean Sea, the traveler sees lifted into view the far-
off greenery of the Isthmus. At this point the Cordilleras
are depressed, only a few of their spurs rising into the
thousands of feet and the Culebra saddle being less than
400 feet above high water. The port of Colon, named for
Columbus, was rechristened in the middle of the last cen-
tury and given the name borne by the chief promoter of
the Panama Railroad, Aspinwall, with about as much senc^e
of propriety as would be shown by an Irishman who should
insist upon renaming New York Dublin.
Fifty years ago the place contained less than a hundred
houses and it has changed very little since. Upon the
beach at the north were a few cottages gay with white paint
and green blinds, brought bodily from Maine and set up
here for the convenience of the officers of the railroad.
Near these the tourist finds the depot, telegraph office, ma-
chine shops, and other })ortions of the railway plant. The
shore at the north curves easterly and is edged Avith a nar-
row brim of white beach which borders an impenetrable
jungle. In the outskirts of the town can be seen mean huts
with thatched roofs and dirt floors, where half naked ne-
groes and ];ot-l)ellied children sun themselves or seek the
shade of banana trees the fruit of which keeps them from
starvation. Colon sprawls in the mire of the marsh with a
reckless abandon. In going about the place the tourist is
compelled to make his way over pools corru]it with decay-
ing vegetation, lilack and rotten roots of trees, and all kinds
of juitrefying oft'al, which resist even the activities of the
famous l)lack scavengers, the turkev-buzzards, which gather
PANAMA. 277
in flocks wherever garbage is thrown. The better class of
houses are wooden structures^ one or two stories high,
without ceHars, standing on posts to elevate tlie first floor
from the reeking ground. Under the houses stand stag-
nant pools of black water, iridescent with all manner of
noxious substances. The front doors are reached by a
flight of wooden steps and most houses have piazzas for
protection from the hot sun. The mercury here rises to
90° and never descends below 72°. During six months
it rains every day.
The Isthmus of Panama is a hotljed for the development
of disease. Most terrible of these diseases is leprosy. It
exists alike in the city of Panama, throughout the zone ten
miles wide that is now placed under the United States
government, in the city of Colon, and in the rural districts.
In the outskirts of Panama is a collection of filthy shacks
known as the lazaretto, but lepers need not go there unless
they wish."^ Beri-beri is also epidemic throughout the canal
route. Tuberculosis, trojjical dysentery, pernicious mala-
ria, elephantiasis, small-2Dox and yellow fever menace the
stranger on every hand. When the old Panama Canal
was in process of construction under the guidance of De
Lesseps, one of the principal topics of discussion among the
leading officials was the relative disadvantage of bilious
fever, remittent fever, Chagres fever, 3^ellow fever, and
fever and ague. In five months the mortality among the
engineers and other chiefs of construction was 83 per
cent. The sewerage system of Panama is antiquated and
defective, and the city is filthy in the extreme. In the dry
season, when for months there is no water for flushing, the
drains are filled with decaying masses of matter that form
the source of virulent disease. A terribly defective water
supply adds to the deplorable condition. In the dry season
water sells for one cent American per gallon, or fifty cents
of the local currency, and poor peojole are extremely econ-
omical. Buzzards roost everywhere. La Boca, about two
miles from Panama, and the site of the mouth of the pro-
278 FOLKS NEXT DOOE.
posed canal, has no sanitary regulations whatever. Malig-
nant diseases are always present.
Under American auspices the sanitation of Colon and
Panama at either end of the canal zone will be begun at
once. The first step will probably be to fill in the island
of Manzanillo on which lies the city of Colon, six iVet
below the sea at tide-water.
Some experts express the wish that Morgan and his buc-
caneers could return to earth and wipe out the present town
of Panama as they obliterated the old one ; or that it could
be burned down or destroyed by an earthquake. After
what may be called the surface sanitation of Panama and
Colon is secured, steps may be taken for sewerage and
waterworks. There is pure water in the mountains, but it
may have to be brought fifty or sixty miles in aqueducts.
The new Panama will cluster at La Boca, where the canal
debouches into the Pacific, and where the railroad runs and
the great wharf has been built. The city of Panama now
has a population of about 25,000, and a social element of
about forty families. The city includes a cathedral, a col-
lege and several convents, all of which are falling into de-
cay. It is built upon a coral and basaltic rock, and occu-
pies a tongue of land which extends some distance out to
sea in shallow water. Large vessels anchor three miles oiT
near the island of Perico. The former city of Panama,
established in 1518 as the seat of the Spanish government,
stood six miles northeast of the pori of Panama. It is
now a heap of ruins. There are numerous beautiful is-
lands along the Pacific shore. In the distance back of the
city stands Mt. Ancon, 560 feet high. In the rainy sea-
son streams of water flow down the streets of Panama, and
l)cfore the water works were constructed, that element in
the dry season used to be brought in carts from a distance
of several miles. Eents are high and living is very ex-
])ensive.
The late United States ]\linister. Mr. Scruggs, said:
" Colon is environed by stagnant ponds and lagoons and
PANAMA. 279
the land breeze is always laden with deadly malaria. One
seldom hears a hearty laugh or sees a cheerful face. The
mosquito is the only species of animated nature that enjoys
life.^' It is no place for a white man to live : just an as-
semblage of mean hovels and buildings for the railroad
without drinkable water or eatable food. There is a popu-
lation of about 3,000 souls embodied in all sorts of human
flesh, red, black, yellow, and a sickly white. The town
must either be wiped ofE the map or resolutely cleaned up.
For four centuries the whole isthmian region has been des-
titute of drainage, though closely embraced by two oceans.
Colon is virtually owned by the Panama Railroad Com-
pany; at least the corporation holds a lease for ninety-nine
years of the island on which it is built. The beneficent
results of monopoly follow r.s a matter of course. jSToth-
ing has been done in half a century to make the place
healthy, prosperous, or attractive; nothing for the general
good — all for the railroad and its stockholders. The is-
land on which Colon stands is laid out into 4,000 lots,
many of which, sold to credulous Americans, are perma-
nently under water. When the French were pretending
to build a canal the population rose in a year to 15.000.
Of the present inhabitants perhaps a hundred are x\mer-
icans; a few are English, French and Germans, and the
rest are negroes, mulattoes, Chinese, and natives, dirty
and miserable.
The fiscal system of Panama is as rotten as its politics
or its malarial atmosphere. In the summer of 1903 the
rate of exchange was one to one hundred, and if a tourist
goes to the bank to get a five-dollar gold piece changed,
he needs a servant with a hand-bag to carn^ home the paper
money. Prices correspond: laundry for a week, $680;
hotel room for one night. $250; pressing trousers, $45;
one pineapple, $1. The inhabitants of Colon are good
customers for lottery agents, cigarette venders, and un-
dertakers. There are very few stores or commodities of
any kind on sale, for there is no shopping class : no market
280 FOLKS NEXT DOOE.
for shoes, for bare feet are the fashion. If one have the
toothache he is obliged to hustle off across the Isthmus to
Panama on the Pacific where a solitary American dentist
charges Panama prices. Most of the hens are too weak
and sickly to lay eggs, though they could get ten cents for
every one. Sluggish cows chew their occasional cuds as if
they were tired, and milk is fifty cents a quart. There are
no good hotel accommodations; no news stands; no book-
stores; no tailors; — nothing excejit dirt, disease, and death.
Every undertaker is a wealthy aristocrat.
A residence of three years is said to render an American
immune from yellow fever, but it is l)y no means sufficient.
Three sisters of the President of the Panama Eailroad who
had lived here several years, were seized with the terrible
Chagres fever in May, 1903, and in two weeks all of them
were dead. You meet a dog — it will probably have the
mange ; you see a duck — its feathers are disheveled and its
feet sore; you encounter a hen with two starving chicks —
they pant with open mouths and run under the first thing
that offers shade; the frowsy mule that staggers at the task
of ]nilling a rickety cab is weak and dwindling; and all the
while a j)rocession of the dead files to the burying-ground
on jMonkey Hill. Even the native wears away under this
dreadful climate, and the newcomer, man or beast, falls
easy ])rey. Some Jersey cows wdiich I Avas told were
l)rought from the States, waded around in the mire a few
days, then retreated disconsolately to the damp l)arn
where they lowed and pined until they died. Plymouth
Eock chickens moped around and shortly perished. Some
tbnroug]ilir(Hl dogs were clieerful and even lively for the
first week during which they amused themselves by chas-
ing the red lizards and friglitening the buzzards, but the
blight soon touched them and they died.
Leaving Colon for the city of Panama across the Isth-
mus. Ihe tourist soon ascertains that the only region ac-
cessible to him is that which lies along the railroad. And
even here he comes in contact with the most depressing
PANAMA. 281
type of the stagnation for which Latin-America is noto-
rious. The people are a curious mixture of red and check-
ered, happy in tlieir poverty and wretchedness. They
seem to have few physical wants and no mental anxie-
ties. They live on plantain and bananas, which make
a .cheap substitute for bread. They catch a few fish in the
lagoons, and they pick the bones of a few blue-legged
chickens. Occasionally the traveler sees a razor-back shoat
nosing his way around the hovels and seeking for some
bit that will keep him from famishing.
The natural resources of the Isthmus are as undeveloped
as when Balboa cried " Thalassa ! " from its backbone.
The soil is a black mould several feet deep, producing
spontaneously almost all tropical fruits, flowers, plants,
roots, and herbs. Mahogany abounds, and along the coast
the Indians chase the sluggish turtle and rob him of his
shell. Other things are exported — India-rubber, hides,
ivory nuts, manganese, tobacco, various rich woods, vanilla,
sarsaparilla, — but the entire annual commerce is trivial.
Away from the seaport towns the country is an untamed
wilderness, where roam monkeys, baboons, jaguars, and a
multitude of wild beasts. There are no roads, only mule
tracks or Indian paths cut through the jungle. Every
tourist must be his own policeman. After leaving the line
of the road the country is wonderfully picturesque and in-
teresting. The primeval tropical forests at the base of the
mountains are most impressive, producing great varieties
of flowers unknown to the botanist, and parrots, cockatoos,
and many birds that vie with the flowers in brilliancy. In
the expansive greenery of the jungle is a dense growth of
strange ferns and of tender plants which could not endure
the sun, and many-colored butterflies sail round about un-
der the gray network of the swinging moss.
The average rainfall on the Isthmus, located as it is be-
tween two great ocean?, with a high mountain ridge run-
ning its entire length, causing the moisture to precipitate,
is something tremendous, and adds enormouslv to the dis-
282 FOLKS NEXT DOOE.
comforts and to the difficulties of the problem of living.
On the Atlantic coast the average rainfall is I-IO inches a
year; in the interior, 93 inches; on the Pacific coast 60
inches; in the Atra River country, the rainfall reaches the
tremendous depth of 400 inches in the year — 33 feet ! In
the problem of building the proposed interoceanic canal
the unparalleled rainfall will greatly increase the difficulty
of controlling the Chagres Eiver, which crosses the line of
the canal. It is 145 miles long, and above Bohio, where it
is proposed to make an artificial lake, it drains 875 square
miles and flows through mountains where there is an av-
erage annual rainfall of 130 inches. There has sometimes
been a rainfall here of a foot in a single day. The conse-
quence of such a flood is that the discharge of the Chagres
Eiver at Bohio may vary from a minimum of 350 cubic
feet per second to 36.000 cubic feet per second. The river
is thus torrential in its character, and when the flood comes
dashing and roaring down, wave upon wave, it drags down
with it immense boulders, forest trees, and an incredible
mass of heavy debris. If a lake were formed to receive this
mass of water and floating material, the dumping process
for which the Chagres is so famous would continue for six
months of each year. It takes no very vivid imagination
to conceive what the result would be.
At the time of this writing the President of the United
States is jierfecting plans to begin the construction of a
lock canal l)y the Panama route, having recognized Panama
as an independent nation, and having negotiated with her
a treaty to that end. The recognition of the independent
nationality of PananuT took place during the autumn o(
1903 and the ratification of the treaty Avas etl'ected during
the succeeding winter. Whether the independence ot Va-
nama was effected by honorable or by fraudulent means,
whether the republic of Colombia had a free hand in coerc-
ing ber rebellious State, and whether the President of the
United States engaged in a deliberate conspiracy for the
PANAMA. 283
purpose of consummating the robbery, — these are ques-
tions which it may be well briefly to consider.
The treaty of 1840 between the United States and New
Grenada bound the latter to keep open the right of way or
transit across the Isthmus for the benefit of the former;
and in consideration of this guaranty " the United States
also guaranteed in the same manner the rights of sov-
ereignty and property New Grenada has and possesses over
the said territory.'' This treaty, in the words of Secre-
tary Hay, " is not dependent for its efficacy on the person-
nel of the signers or the name of the territory it aifects,"
but " is a covenant, as the lawyers say, that runs with the
land." That is, the treaty binds both the United States
and the Republic of Colombia which has succeeded to the
rights and obligations of New Grenada. This means that
Colombia warrants to the United States that travel across
the Isthmus shall not be interrupted, and the United States
warrants to Colombia her rights of sovereignty and prop-
erty over the Isthmus. In this treaty also " the United
States guarantee jDOsitively and efficaciously to New Gre-
nada (Colombia) by the present stipulation the perfect
neutrality of the before-mentioned Isthmus."
In further definition of this treaty, if it needed further
definition, Secretary Seward wrote to our minister at Bo-
gota, under date of April 30, 186G : " The United States
desire nothing else, nothing better and nothing more in re-
gard to the State of Colombia than the enjoyment on their
part of complete and absolute sovereignty and indepen-
dence. If those great interests shall ever be assailed by
any power at home or abroad, the United States will be
ready, cooperating with the government as their ally, to
maintain and defend them."
When an emeute occurred on the Isthmus we landed
there a few soldiers to help Colomlua enforce her laws.
On October 27, 1873. Secretary Fish said that the landing
of a force under Admiral Almy, to protect the transit,
"was at the instance of the local authorities." And Secre-
284 FOLKS NEXT DOOE.
tary Bayard later repeated the same opinion, saying that
the landing of armed forces " is at the instance and always
mth the as?ent of Colombia." President Cleveland in his
message of December, 1885, spoke of the delicate task of
keeping the transit open as " always in aid of the sover-
eignty of Colombia."
Indeed President Eoosevelt himself only a year before
the conspiracy by which Panama was wrenched from the
parent republic, said in his message to Congress : " JSf o
independent nation in America need have the slightest
fear of aggression from the United States. It behooves
each one to maintain order within its own borders and to
discharge just obligations to foreigners. When this is
done, be they strong or weak, they have nothing to dread
from outside interference."'
The way in wbich this distinguished writer stultified
himself within a year recalls the manner in wliicli his illus-
trious predecessor declared that " forcible annexation by
our code of morals would be criminal aggres-ion,'" and
then proceeded forcibly to annex.
If President Eoosevelt's promises mean any tiling, and
if official precedents possess any value, and if consistency
is a jewel, then his subsequent action has shown to the
worhl and " tbo independent nations of America " that
neither promise nor precedent nor consistency is to be con-
sidered Avben a robbery is to be perpetrated. What are the
specific facts?
Por forty years tbe route througb Xicaragua bad been
preferred in all discussions of an isthmian canal. De Les-
seps himself preferred the JSTicaragua route and sought in
vain to obtain a concession there. Tbe ablest and most ef-
fective champions of an isthmian canal have from tbe first
been in favor of the Nicaragua route, while the Panama
route lias l)e('n championed by many men who were not
sus])ected of any great zeal for a canal anywhere — tliat is,
by tbe trans-continental railroad interests. Different com-
missions, composed of the greatest engineers in the world.
PANAMA. 285
have reported again and again in favor of the Nicaragua
route. At a meeting of tlie greatest engineers of all na-
tions held in London, all except those of France were de-
cidedly in favor of Nicaragua. On Feb. 7, 1876, the in-
teroceanic commission, after considering and carefully ex-
amining all plans submitted to it, reported to President
Grant in favor of the Nicaragua route, extending from
the harbor of Graytown on the Caribbean Sea, to Port
Brito on the Pacific. They unanimously declared that the
route as located by the United States surveying expedition
of 1873-73 '' possesses both for the construction and the
maintenance of a canal greater advantages and offers fewer
difiiculties from engineering, commercial and economic
points of view, than any of the other routes." Our last
commission recommended that route, and changed its
recommendation only after the canal company had re-
duced the price of its property to one quarter of the sum
demanded.
For a generation the French had been engage! in an at-
tempt to construct a canal across the Isthmus of Panama.
Th.ey had met with such insuperable obstacles that they
had given it up as practically impossible. They had spent
more than $400,000,000 and now offered to sell out all
their rights and property for one-tenth of the sum ex-
pended. The United States acce^Dted the proposition, and
then made overtures to Jolomlna for a treaty covering the
concession. This overture was made by Congress, which
authorized the President to negotiate with the republic of
Colombia for a right of way across the Isthmus. If such
a treaty could not be negotiated with Colombia after the
lajjse of a reasonable time, it was made his duty under the
law to go to the Nicaragua route. The government of Co-
lombia received an annual income of $600,000 from the
Panama Eailroad Company, and if the canal were built
on the line of the railroad, this source of revenue would
probably terminate. For these reasons the Hay-Herran
treaty was arranged in Washington to clear away the ditfi-
286 FOLKS NEXT DOOE.
culties and was offered for acceptance or rejection. After
a long and amicable discussion it was rejected by the Co-
lombian senate on the grounds that, first, the lease was not
l^erpetual, but renewable at long intervals; secondly, the
canal zone leased was too narrow; thirdly, the treaty was
illegal; fourthly, a conflict of jurisdiction within the canal
zone seemed inevitable by reason of the complexity of the
treaty; fifthly, the Colombian Congress had not the power
to alienate territory without first amending the Constitu-
tion.
The action of Colombia was strictly within her sover-
eign rights. The American Senate had repeatedly and
with very scant courtesy rejected prooosed treaties, as the
Hay-Pauncefote treaty, the Johnson-Clarendon treaty, and
others.
But now the case was different. It was our ox that was
gored. A weak and feeble nation had had the audacity to
decline to ratify a treaty with us. President Koosevelt
must have been in a frenzy of anger, for if ho had not been
entirely beside himself he would not have said in his an-
nual message to Congress in December, 1903 : " It seems
evident that in a matter such as this we should finally de-
cide which is the best route ; and, if the advantages of this
route over any other possible route are sufficiently marked,
we should then give notice that we can no longer submit
to trilling or insincere dealing on the part of those whom
the accident of position has placed in tempoi'ary control
of the ground through which the route must pass ; . . . .
and that, if they fail to come to such agreement with us,
we must forthwith take the matter into our own hands."
It is quite obvious that such imperious and impudent lan-
guage as this would not have been OHi])Ioy('(l if the otluT
]iarlT to the treaty liad been Gcrnuiny or Great P>ritain.
If such language had been used to eilher ot llicui. tlie
reader can inuigine how swiftly and vigorously the insult
would have lieen resented. But President Poosevelt knew
that he was dealing with a nation that could not anchor a
PANAMA. 287
fleet of battleships off New York, and demand an apology.
On June 9th Mr. Hay had cabled our minister at Bo-
gota in the following threatening language : " If Colombia
should now reject the treaty or unduly delay its ratifica-
tion, the friendly understanding between the two countries
would be so seriously compromised that action might be
taken by the Congress next winter which every friend of
Colombia would regret." Why should an independent re-
public be menaced with harm if it should refuse to ratify
a treaty?
The ratification was dela5^ed, and finally Colombia, de-
clining to act under coercion, rejected the treaty. What
happened next ? On October 21, the United States cruiser
Dixie was ordered to sea with four hundred marines in
addition, to her regular crew and was sent to Colon!
On November 2d the United States Navy Department
cabled to the commander of the Nashville as Colon : " Main-
tain free and uninterrupted transit. If interruption
threatened by armed force, occupy the line of railroad, pre-
vent landing of any armed force, with hostile intent,
either government or insurgent, at Colon, Porto Bello, or
other points.'"
The same orders were sent to the commanders of the
Boston and Dixie, while to Admiral Glass at Acapulco was
sent the following : " Proceed with all possible dispatch to
Panama. Telegraph in cipher your departure. Maintain
free and uninterrupted transit. If interruption is threat-
ened by armed force, occupy the line. Prevent landing
of any armed force, either government or insurgent, with
hostile intent, at any point within fifty miles of Panama.
G-overnment force reported approaching the Isthmus in
vessels. Prevent their landing, if in your judgment
landing would precipitate a confiict."
No insurrection or uprising had as 3'et occurred or been
reported. But on the next day, Nov. 3rd, at 3.40 P. M.
the United States Assistant Secretary of State, Mr. Loomis,
sent to our consul at Panama this singular dispatch : " Up-
288 FOLKS NEXT DOOE.
rising on Isthmus reported. Keep department promptly
and fully informed.''
At 8:15 the same evening the consul replied: "No
uprising yet ! Eeport it will be to-night. Situation is
critical."
An hour and a half later the so called " revolution "
occurred and the department was informed of the " sud-
den and startling event " for which the government had
made such complete preparations in advance, and which
Mr. Loomis said had been reported six hours earlier !
Some Colombian troops arrived at Colon to put down
any insurrection they could find and compel obedience to
the laws of the republic if there should 1)e any disobe-
dience. There were only six or eight j^eople in the " re-
volt," and in their behalf the United States marines con-
fronted the Colombian troops and compelled them to em-
bark and return to Carthagena ! Dr. Manuel Amador,
afterwards elected president of " the republic of Panama "
said in an article in the Independent : " Of course we ex-
pected that the United States would not let the C(ilom-
bian troops attack us.'' And one Bunau-Varilla. a
French engineer connected with the old canal company,
after consulting the administration at Washington, tele-
graphed Panama that the United States ships would
shortly arrive and assist the insurgents !
So what President Ivoosevelt did Avas to decide, against
the judgment of the most competent and accomplished
engineers, that the Panama was the best route; that it
possessed sufficiently marked advantages " over any other
possible route " ; that he had waited '" a reasonable time "
for Colombia to consider the matter; that he could no
longer submit to have her exercise her right to reject an
unsatisfactory treaty; and that he must forthwith "take
the matter into his OAvn hands." The manner in which
this was brought about and the new roiuil)lie of Panama
created in a day is a mailer of liistory. Three men, form-
ing what is called a junta, announced a revolution that
PANAMA. 289
nobody else had heard of and proclaimed the indepen-
dence of Panama ; the United States had gunboats and
marines on hand at the exact moment; these forces were
landed; anouncement was made by President Eoosevelt
that Colombia would not be permitted to land her troops
anywhere within fifty miles of the Panama Railroad, al-
though it was to suppress a rebellion on her own territory.
The right of secession was thus conceded and acknowl-
edged ; the rebellious state of Panama was prom23tly recog-
nized as a new republic at Washington, although she had
no army or navy, no constitution, no legislature, no courts,
no laws or system of government, and although the na-
tion of which she formed a part had been prevented by
superior force from exercising its authority ! The famous
Panama treaty was at once negotiated. It was this instru-
ment which precipitated the long and heated debate in
the United States Senate during January and February
of 1904.
The statute enacted by Congress charged the President
with the duty of negotiating a treaty with Colombia for
a canal across Panama; and in the event of failure to do
so within a reasonable time, it directed him to turn to
Nicaragua and arrange for the construction of a canal
by that route. In refusing to turn from Colombia to
Nicaragua he violated the plain letter of the law. In
sending troops and ships to Panama to assist her in re-
bellion and secession, he technically and actually made
war upon the friendly republic of Colombia, and thus
deliberately violated the Constitution of the United States
which confines that function to Congress alone.
The obsolete Clayton-Bulwer treaty had been rendered
nugatory by the repeated violations of its terms by Great
Britain, but we had permitted it to stand across our way
for half a century and prevent our advance in the path-
way of commerce and civilization by the construction of
a canal. We calmly endured the insolence of Great Bri-
tain from generation to generation and only entered upon
290 FOLKS NEXT DOOR.
an act of lawlessness and brutal aggression when we had
a poor and puny nation to deal with.
And, after all, the lawlessness and brutal aggression,
the violation of law and of justice, the intimidation and
chicaner}^, may not profit us in obtaining any valuable
thing. It will jjrobably be an entire generation before a
canal of any kind is dug across the isthmus and the utility
of the completed canal is very problematical indeed. In
any case, the bullying of a feeble sister republic is a deed of
President Eoosevelt's which his countrymen are not proud
of.
In the history of this country there is another diplo-
matic precedent which should not be forgotten and which
is almost as flagrant a violation of international comity
as this. Allusion is made to the famous Ostend Manifesto.
In 1854 Messrs. Buchanan. Mason and Soule, the ministers
of the United States at London, Paris, and Madrid re-
spectively, met at Ostend and issued a joint declaration
advising the purchase of Cuba by the United States for
$120,000,000 and proceeding to say :
" If Spain, dead to the voice of her own interest and
actuated by stul;)born pride and a false sense of honor,
should refuse to sell Cuba to the United States, then the
question will arise. What ought to be the course of the
United States under the circumstances ? "
They answered their own qiu^stion in the spirit of
piracy, by saying, — " After wo shall have offered Spain
a price for Cuba far beyond its present value, and this
shall have been refused. . . then, by every \nw. Iniman and
divine, we shall be justified in wresting it from Spain if
we have the power ! "'
This immnral and indecent declaration was justly con-
demned at the time by the Eepublican jiarty which in its
first national ])lntform in 1Sr)(; rcbnkiM] injustice in these
words : —
" The highwayman's plea that ' might makes right ' em-
l)odied in the Ostend circular was in every respect un-
PANAMA. 291
worthy of American diplomacy., and would bring shame
and dishonor on any government or people that gave it
their sanction."
Mr. Justice Story had in mind Just such acts of bucca-
neering as this and the subjugation of the Philippines
when he said, " The crying evil of this time is the tendency
of men to make their desires the standard for other men's
duties, and to consider their own wills a substitute for
law. . . . Such a doctrine means anarchy. Justice is the
same for individuals and nations." That nation will ac-
quire small reputation for honor or courage which is punc-
tilious in dealing with a mighty power but hastens to repu-
diate its obligations in dealing with a neighbor that is feeble
and defenseless. The detailed record of our performance
in Panama has yet to be written, but I shall be greatly sur-
prised if it is not reprobated by the sober second thought
of our people and written down by the serious historian as
one of the blackest pages of our history.
THE SECEET OF PERENOTAL YOUTH
THE SECEET OF PEEENNIAL YOUTH. 295
THE SECEET OF PEEENFIAL YOUTH.
The human mind is as much quicker than lightning in
its operations as lightning is quicker than a tired dog. I
first learned this important leston in psychology during a
farmer's nooning at the old homestead in Connecticut.
It was towards the end of July. I had pitched on two
loads of hay that morning and now sat resting in a rocking-
chair in the breezy front hall, waiting for dinner. I re-
member seeing a few unaggressive flies buzz languidly in
and out the open door; I remember seeing the old family
conch-shell, pink and satin-lined, that lay on the straw
matting holding the outside door open, and droning of
southern seas in tune with the drone of the flies ; I remem-
ber the generous bush full of snowy roses that hung over
the picket fence under the gigantic elm in front; I remem-
ber the lilac-tree whose fruity looking purple cones the sum-
mer breeze swung into the open window at my very
elbow, and I distinctly remember hearing my mother say
" Don't go to sleep ; for the chicken-pie is nearly done."
Probably that hint is what put me to sleep; for that I
must have nodded off at least five minutes I have not now
the slightest doubt. For some years I had been employing
odd hours and minutes in learning something of the pre-
tensions of the disciples of the great Oriental mystic,
Hermes Trismegistus ; of Paracelsus, the audacious quack
who found the philosopher's stone ; of Jacob Behmen, the
inspired shoemaker of Germany ; of Albertus Magnus, the
sorcerer ; of Eoger Bacon, the astrologer and alchemist, who
mixed the " golden elixir " and the " powder of attrac-
tion " ; of Ponce de Leon, who hopefully explored the
296 THE SECKET OF PERENNIAL YOUTH.
gardens of Bimini for the fountain of perpetual youth.
The works of these bold experimenters with Nature's sol-
vents had interested me deeply, as had a magazine article
that I had recently seen which described Lilienthal's ex-
periments with artificial birds and the mysterious aero-
plane.
Suddenly the duplex pictures took possession of my
mind. The golden elixir withdrew into past ages, but
Lilienthal whispered in my ear that he had found the secret
and would let me share it. On the back of a fantastic
machine with wings and creeping joints and far-sweeping
tail whose outlines I could not very definitely ascertain,
although I seemed a part of it, I was whisked away to
some remote region in the upper air bej^ond the clouds.
The earth became rapidly smaller and smaller as we as-
cended, until we observed the sun's iight reflected from it.
" Here we are," said my companion, whom I had not
till that moment noticed, " here we are in the suburbs of
Etheria."
I now saw a multitude of machines similar to ours
socially moored to each other by ropes. They were all
occupied by young people, and one of these who seemed to
have an official function, addressed me as we drew near.
" Welcome," he said, " to our community ! I am di-
rected to salute each guest and extend to him the freedom
and privileges of the city."
"Where am I, if you please?" I asked. "I fear I did
not notice as we came along."
" Always the first question," he said smiling. " Y(ui
are in the interstellar spaces beyond the influence of gravi-
tation. The revolution of the earth on its axis and its an-
nual journey around the sun have no influence ujioii u-^
here, and tlie result is that we have neither days nor years.
and hence do not grow old."
" How is that ? '' asked T.
" Age depends," he said. " upon the flight of years. All
we have to do in order to keep young is to ])revent the years
TPIE SECRET OF PERENNIAL YOUTH. 297
from flying. Is not this obvious? And there are no years
or days out here."
The remark bewildered me, and I told him I would like
time to think about it. The more I thought about it the
more clearly I saw that the proposition was entirely correct,
for it was unquestionably the jsassage of years which made
us grow old, and if we could keep ourselves from going
round the earth and round th« sun, it appeared perfectly
obvious that no more years would ever pass. " Yes," I said,
that's so. I see it. No more days, no more years; no
more years, no more old age. Yes, there is no getting
around that." For I had recently examined Tourmalin's
fantastic " Time-checks," and listened to Hiland Kirk's
grave speculations on physical immortality. But I told
the young man that the idea of never growing old was
rather paralyzing and made my head ache; I wanted time
to consider it. Moreover I was hungry, and at that very
instant I thought I heard a familiar tin horn blown at the
back door and a voice cry " Come on or you'll lose your
dinner ! "
I opened my eyes and there I sat in that rocking-chair.
I knew I had not been away. I knew it was a dream. I
saw the flies dancing their airy waltz — the very same flies
I had seen the minute before; I took note of the Persian
lilac caressing the window sash with its purple touch, and
I noticed the polished conch shell and listened and fancied
I could hear its moan. I recalled the grotesque dream I
had had, and laughed to myself ; and at that very moment
a young man leaned over the picket fence by the rosebush,
picked a rose with rustic freedom, and said " Good
morning ! "
I gave him greeting, and alleged, in order to start the
conversation amicably, that it was a hot day.
" It's a stinger ! " he said. '' I haven't seen so hot a day
for a hundred years ! "
" How long did you say ? " I asked, rising from the chair
298 THE SECRET OF PERENNIAL YOUTH.
and laughing. " That must have been when you were a
mere child."
" No/' he said, " I was sixty odd then."
" Sixty odd what ? " I inquired.
" I was sixty-four years old," he said, " the last warm
summer I ever saw. That was a hundred years ago down
in old Kaintuck."
He smelt the rose, and pinned the white blossom in his
button-hole. He was a youth of about twenty-five, of florid
complexion, blue eyes, and long black, wavy hair. He
wore a full beard also, neatly trimmed, but ample enough,
it occurred to me, to be of real service in cold weather.
" I was in Kentucky," he explained, " in 1804. I didn't
exactly live there : I wandered among the Indians. I was
disgusted with the human race. But you don't care to hear
my story."
" Excuse me," I said, " I do ; " for it was apparent that
he was harmless, and he might be amusing. He walked
through the gate, took a chair, and continued : " Stranger,
my name is John Fitch. Did you ever hear of me ? "
" No," I said. " But I may have heard of your great-
great-grandfather."
" That's me," he said.
" By the way, do you say ' that's me ' or ' that's I ' now-
adays? There is quite a discussion about it where I came
from."
I did not enter enthusiastically into the question of gram-
mar, but I asked " Where the dickens did you come from?
if you'll excuse me ? "
" North Pole. That's where I got young."
"Ah! How was that?"
He threw one leg over the other as if he were going to
stay all day, and went on.
"I invented the steanilioat some time l)efore 1 left here.
In fact, I made the steaml)oat. 1 got exclusive patents
good for fourteen 3'ears, to use them on American waters.
I put a boat on the Delaware, and ran the Conthi^ntal
THE SECEET OF PERENNIAL YOUTH. 299
Congress and the Constitutional Convention clown to the
sea and hack. I ran that boat all one summer between
Philadelphia and Burlington. Everybody called me crazy,
but they bought tickets. Then I got a concession from
France; but it was the fourth year of the Republic, and
Parisians thought a heap more of a chopping-block that
would work than a steamboat that would go. Finally I
got out of money, and worked my ^^assage home. I left my
specifications witli the American consul, where a man
named Fulton found them afterwards. Are there as many
sharpers to the square inch as there were in those days?
Well, about a year later I escaped from a lunatic asylum
where some kind friends had got quarters for me, and died.
That is, I hid for several years among the Indians of Ohio.
From there I went up into British America, and from
what is now Point Barrow I put off Avith two Eskimo, in
a kaiak, straight north. I was mad and sick, and did not
care what became of me. There was no ' gold cure ' in
those distant days. Am I getting tiresome ? "
I reassured him. He laughed and continued :
" One of those Eskimo was a daisy."
" It strikes me," I suggested, " if you will permit the
interruption, that you are exceedingly fly in the use of
modern slang for a man who departed this life a hundred
years ago."
" Very likely," he said, " why not ? We sing the Na-
vajo up there, and have enriched our vocabulary with a
good many of your latest local gags. Fugitives come to
our Polar colony now, every year, from the United States."
"What for? ".I ventured to ask.
" To prevent the flight of time," he said, " and to get
young."
I moved a little further off from him, carefully, and
without wishing to attract his attention, and said "'That
seems impossible."
" Well," he said, " object lessons ! Inspect me ! I am
164 years old, as nearly as I can make out. Do you notice
300 THE SECEET OF PERENXIAL YOUTH.
any gray hairs ? " he asked, running his fingers through his
abundant locks carelessly. " Any wrinkles ? I can jump
over that fence backwards."
" Will you kindly explain it ? " I asked.
" Did I detect the- suppression of a yawn, just then? "
" N"o," I protested. " It was only an expression of
amazement."
" Very well. A moment's reflection will show you that
anybody can keep always young at or in the vicinity of
either of the poles. Permit me to ask you a question, to
throw light on it. What makes a man grow old ? "
" The flight of years — I've been thinking about that."'
" And what measures the flight of years ? "
" The procession of days — I've been thinking al^out that,
-too."
" Correct ! " he exclaimed. " Now if you can prevent
the procession of days the flight of years will be impossible,
won't it?
" Undoubtedly— Init—"
'^ Undoubtedly ! Very well, now rest there! Wait!
All you've got to do is to j^revent the procession of days,
isn't" it ? "
" I should say there was no question of that," I ad-
mitted.
" Good ! That is, if we could go fast enough to keep
directly under the sun all the way round the earth each
twenty-four hours, no days would ever nuiture — there would
be no days for us."
"Yes," I answered, without venturing more.
"But the earth is about 16,000 uiiles round in tliis lati-
tude, and tlie sliortest way a man caii go it takes him abmit
60 days to get anumd it — (liat is. lie only saves one day
in 60. Do vou folhnv me?"
"1 do."
" It' an Eslcimo could go strniglu round it in the latitude
of Labrador he would nuike it in about "20 davs ; that is if
THE SECKET OF PEREJ^NIAL YOUTH. 301
he went with the sun he would gain one day in ev(!ry
twenty."
" Yes."
" If a Nova Zemblan could go round it in his latitude,
with the same appliances w^e have, he would make it in ten
days; that is every time he went round on that parallel it
would give him one day longer to live. Do you catch on ? "
" I do," I answered again, for I was now grown so serious
as not to care to comment on his pertness 'of expression.
" Very well ; now if a man should go so far north as to
be able to go round the earth with the sun every day, what
would happen ? "
" No days would pass," I said.
" Exactly ! Now sup|)0se he should go still further
north, so that he could go twice round the earth on that
latitude, (near the North Pole,) while the sun was going
round once : What Avould happen in that case ? Grow
younger all the while, wouldn't he ? "
" I grope," I said. " The way grows dark. I am uncer-
tain. I distrust my reason. I see what you are driving
at, but — Colonel Fitch, if you will permit me to call you so
— I have known figures to lie ; does astronomy lie, too ? "
He laughed, and merely answered, '' Look at me ! How
old am I ? "
" Twenty-five, or perha^os thirty, I should guess."
" Your guessery is out of order," he said playfully. " I
am about one hundred and sixty-four years old — American
time."
" How did you manage it ? ^ I asked in a tone of earnest-
ness which I fear had the inflections of acquiescence.
" Come and see," he said, rising from the chair. " I am
going back to-day, for I promised to get there by Christ-
mas."
HoAv I ever came to agree to a proposal that seems at
first so preposterous is impossible to explain; but the fact
is that I followed him out the gate with my straw hat on.
302 THE SECRET OF PERENNIAL YOUTH.
without a handbag, overshoes, pocketbook or umbrella, and
started upon the uncanny excursion.
" You can tog up when you get there," he said, making
that frequent slump into slang which seemed to distinguish
his conversation.
We made our way northward rapidly. Our journey by
rail and steamboat and wagon to Point Barrow on the
northern coast of British America was commonplace and
uneventful. It occupied about six weeks and there was
nothing mysterious about it. Before we reached the Arctic
circle it began to get dark and cold and we exchanged the
attire of low latitudes for the conventional fur bags of the
Eskimo, which were very snug and comfortable.
At the Point Barrow hut (Lat. 70°) where Fitch had
sometimes made his headquarters, he found an acquain-
tance — an Eskimo. After greeting him heartily he said to
me " This is my man, Su-Ivuok. He's a daisy ! "
" Ah, good morning, Kuok," I said. " I have heard of
you."
" In the knowledge of the region we are going through,"
continued Fitch, " he is King of the North, and I am only
his prime minister. It was he that found the way to the
Pole, and thousands are indebted to him for the discovery.
Let's go right a-board, Su."
"All is ready. Captain Fitch," answered the native;
" Everything is snug aboard."
We had had no breakfast, but Su remarked that the j^em-
mican was ready and we walked down to the shore of the
Arctic Sea. Here we stepped on Iwnrd a kaiak of very cii-
perior build and capacity. We had to stoop but little pass-
ing into the cabin. The Eskimo cast olf at once, moved
a lever at his sidc^ and tlie little boat wheeled round and
set her nose away froui land. Noting the absence of sails
and oars I asked wliat nmde us move.
" J\Iy electric engine," said Fitch. " It is tucked away
down in the l)ow. I had heen to Wasliington for a patent
when T met vou and next vear I am going to lu'ing it out
THE SECEET OF PERENNIAL YOUTH. 303
on the New York Elevated and Santos-Duniont'.s flying
machine. I don't have to burn coal or get up combustion
of any kind to obtain my power. I draw it in inexhaustil)le
quantities from the original fountain of electricity. The
universe is full of power unappropriated; all we need is
to seize it and use it."
' So we forged ahead. We spent the first six weeks dodg-
ing icebergs.
I had noticed an angry shore ahead up which the waters
dashed, and I asked, "You have made a canal through?"'
" No," he said, laughing, " we don't need it ! "
In another minute our boat was close to the icy coast,
and I was alarmed that its speed was in no wise diminished.
At this point the ice met the water in a very gentle slope
of not more than ten degrees, and while I was wondering
what we should do next, the remarkal)le craft, seeming to
catch hold of the icy shore with its claws, climbed up to the
top as agile as an overgrown goat. We did not pause on
gaining the summit of the ice field, but passed straight on
with a speed which was even increased, and I now observed
that we were on wheels. Our uninterrupted progress was
the more surprising to me because the ice was uneven and
in places broken into crevasses four or five feet across.
" You see we carry our own tracK," said the Captain.
Slight investigation revealed the secret of his method.
Around the boat-wagon endwise parallel with the guards
ran two continous bands of iron hinged together in sections.
That part of the bands which was at any moment beneath
the vehicle formed two tolerably steady rails on Avhieli
the wheels ran; as we moved forward that part of
the iron bands which was behind the wheels was lifted up
by an automatic cam and passed forward over our heads,
dropping again in front of the wheels, thus making an end-
less track. The necessity of having these tracks jointed
so that they could pass over the top of the car and fall
again into proper place in front of the wheels resulted in
some jolting and uneven movement in spots; but as the ir-
304 THE SECEET OF PERENNIAL YOUTH.
regularity was not half as great as that encountered by the
occupants of a carriage passing over the Rocky Mountains
by the smoothest road, we found little cause to complain.
As we advanced it kept getting colder, when my attention
was invited to a sheet-iron panel set in the bow; and this
I found radiated a high degree of heat.
" Cosmical electricit}^/' said Fitch, " transmutation of
forces. What's the use of freezing ? "
We were about two months more getting to the Pole.
We met and passed four or five people going or coming on
conveyances similar to our own. We saw droves of rein-
deer and musk-ox and added some to our cuisine; a few
prowling blue wolves, flocks of eider ducks, and near the
fiords we passed hundreds of seal and an occasional whale
in the offing. Our food was mostly a kind of pemmican
made of whale skin and whale gum, and a dessert of the
marrow from reindeer bones mixed with walrus blubber and
beaten up like whipped cream.
One morning I was awakened by Su-Ivuok"s electric
whistle tearing away like mad. I say "one morning"
conventionally, merely because it was the end of one of our
sleeps. It was a dusky twilight. We had not seen the sun
since Se2:)tember, and I just managed to keep alive my faith
that it was rolling around the earth somewhere below the
horizon of faintish pink. As Ave suddenly came to a stop
I looked out of the cabin Avindow, and through the semi-
darkness sa\A' that we Avere moored in the suburbs of Avhat
seemed a populous village. There AA'ere several carriages
like ours, and snoAv villas and ice palaces in every direction.
Tbe stars AA'cre all out, and Ave stood under the Little
Dipper.
" Yonder is tbo pole." said CajUain Fitch, ]-)ointing \o an
upright post alxnit seventy-five feet high, bearing Avhat
seemed to be a sun at its peak and moons upon its side.
"By the Avay." he continued. "I happen to know that
you haA'o not kept an accurate run of the days during the
THE SECRET OP PERENNIAL YOUTH. 305
coming- on of darkness; so you will perhaps be surprised
to hear that this is Christmas Day.
" I see that the citizens of Polopolis are in the midst
of their customary festival. Notice the luminaries on the
Pole, and the stars, crescents, hearts, and other symbols
outlined in flame upon the villas."
I hastened to follow him toward the pole, which seemed
the centre of light for all the region. The ice near it was
already occupied. Most of the people were walking around
it to the left, with the sun; and some were walking very
fast indeed, while others were weaving ribbons around it,
dancing and singing the joyous song of the solstice.
" Is this really the North Pole," I asked Fitch, when the
cheer with which the villagers greeted him had subsided.
" This is the very identical — the old original," he
chuckled. '" Su and I came here a hundred years ago ; and
these later immigrants, as you see, never tire of thanking
us."
" How on earth did you ever find it when so many others
have missed it? " I asked him.
" It was Su's idea," he said. " He piloted me to the
vicinity. Then I brought a zenith telescope and at first
set it up exactly under the great star Polaris. I was then,
of course, within fifty miles or so of the right spot. It was
winter, and the stars shone all the time. I moved round
experimentally and finally had the satisfaction of getting
the vertical tube directly under the little star j\_ Ursa
Minoris. Then, as everybody knows, I was within a
quarter of a mile of the right spot. An immense top, like
the earth, spinning in space, will wobble a little, but we
are now where the sun and stars march straight round the
horizon, and are within a few rods of the exact terres-
trial pole. I am finishing a mamietic chronometer vrhich
will enable me to correct my estimate to within a foot or
two."
I was about to ask him if he found the pole put up on
that spot on arriving, when he was saluted l)y some young
3()G THE SECEET OF PEEENNIAL YOUTH.
ladies near by to whom he presently introduced me. They
were blooming creatures full of ruddy health, a little in-
clined to be boisterous and on the outer edge of giggiehood.
" These ladies have been here," he said, '•' since me time
when your father was born."
" Impossible ! " I exclaimed.
" Yes, indeed ! And some of us were very passee at that
time," said one, laughing.
" Belonged to the Pal£eozoic Period," said another.
" You do not look at all antique at this time," 1 re-
marked.
"' I flatter myself not. We've been doing the circuit,"
said she.
" Wliat is that, if you please ? " I asked.
" My friend has just arrived," explained Fitch.
" Will you come and take a walk with me ? " said tlie
prettiest of the bevy. I gave her my arm with a little
thrill of regret that I had not known her l)efore, and we
walked toward the Pole.
''^ I was forty-eight years old when we got here," she
frankly explained. " I ran as hard as I could the first
day, and went around the Pole with the sun seven hun
dred and thirty times. I was dreadfully tired that night,
but I knew I had got ahead of the cruel tyrant of the skies
by about two years. ' How much better you look,' said my
friends the next morning."
When we had been about four times round the pole (we
had to keep a hundred feet from it on account of the
croAvd of earlier comers) she said playfully, increasing her
pace, "Come on! You need this l)adly. You ought to
have had some of it liefore."
"These elderly people here Avalking the snuie way we
are," she continued, "arc growing younger all the while.
Of course they are just as many days younger as they are
able to keep alu-nd of the sun. 'idiat scrawny looking old
ruin over there in a jioke bonnet (they revert to the cos-
tume of the States sometimes, when they walk very fast)
THE SECEET OF PERENmAL YOUTH. 307
has been here only a few daj^s ; she will he a blooming girl
of eighteen or twenty summers before the sun rises towards
the horizon next spring. You notice she carries a parrot
on her finger? Polly grows young too. And here's this
nice yellow dog at the heels of this man. He has grown
younger and sprier every day for the past six weeks. You
wouldn't know him ! "
" Why are some of the people going the other way ? " I
asked.
'■ Only the babies," she answered. " Kids are always a
nuisance when they are young; so their mothers, or the
nurses, take all the young things at six weeks old and draw
them rapidly round the Pole on these cradle sleds, — against
the sun of course. By this expedient, infants six weeks
old get to be six years old in about a month. Of course
the mothers and nurses grow rather faded in this operation,
but they take measures to make themselves young again
when the babies have been properly matured."
After we had walked for an hour, and I was beginning
to get quite an idea of my new surroundings, she sud-
denly cried, " Do you see that scythe hanging up on the
N. P. ? That's a s3'mbol, indicating that old Time hasn't
any further use for it. Now I must ask you to excuse me.
I have walked altogether too far in this direction already;
but the presence of a stranger was exhilarating, and I
walked on. I must run around the Pole fifty times
in the other direction, for I am falling into a state of ridi-
culous juvenility."
I saw Captain Fitch at a little distance, and I tliought
I would ask him who put up the Pole; but he cut me off
with '' How do you like our folks ? "
" Superb," I said. " Where in the world did you find
them ? "
" They all came from the States," he answered.
" Why haven't they been missed at home? "
" Your premises are faulty," he said. " They liave been
missed at home. They mostly personify the ' mysterious
308 THE SECRET OF PERENXIAL YOUTH.
disappearances ' that take place down yonder. Don't you
remember how many, not only obscure people, but bank
presidents, prominent lawyers, and college professors have
been missed and never heard of again ? — or ' hardly ever,'
as we say in Pinafore."
" Some afflictions you certainly avoid by camping up
here," I said, — '" matrimonial troubles, for instance."
" 0, no, we don't," said he. " Miss Lou Martin, that
girl whom you were talking with, and whom I told I had
bought you for her, asked me to bring you around to hor
egloo this evening ; so look out ! "
" I will heed your warning. But you certainly avoid
labor troul)les and controversies about property."
" Mistaken again. Wait till the Socialistic League holds
a meeting! According to the laws under which we now
live the pole belongs to the first comer — "
"■ By the wav," I put in. " about that pole — "
" Yes," he continued, " about that pole. The one who
gets there first has a right to go about the pole as close to
it as he can get ; the next comer must go around it a little
further off, and so on."
" That strikes me as fair," I said.
" The Socialistic League does not think so," he said.
" Its members insist that competition is the death of lui-
man rights, and that if a man is compelled to take liis
chance with others who have the same rights that he has,
he is virtually a slave."
" Yonr rules provide," I inquired, " that the man who
gets to the pole first, after a storm, for instance, has a right
to use it on that latitude ? "
" Exactly," he said, " and the next comer must use the
latitude a little further off, say a foot."
"And what does tlie Socialistic League want?"
" Its members want to abolish competition. They insist
that the benefits which the pole confers belong to each in-
habitant whether he will use them or not. Thoy insist that
nothing shall be left to individual abilitv or individual
THE SECRET OF PEEENNIAL YOUTH. 309
choice. They insist that the community shall decide
whether a man needs to go around the Pole and when he
needs to go and which way he needs to go. And having
decided this, that they shall take him and make him go or
carry him, and not permit him to go in any other way or
at any other time. This they call industrial equality. But
a good many of us think that the present method of com-
petition is more just and leaves a man more free."
He was silent and thoughtful for a moment, and then
added " There are also people here who are indignant at
our limitations, and insist that we at Polopolis are all
virtually slaves — can you conjecture why?"
I confessed that I could not and asked him to tell me
why they imagined themselves in a state of servitude.
" Because it is impossible for them to go North ! " he
exclaimed with a sniff of impatience. " They are pessi-
mists."
My gaze was again fixed on the illumination. " How do
you like our lights ? " he asked.
" Wonderful ! " I responded. "" Did I understand you
to say that your light and heat are obtained without fuel ? "
" Great Scott ! I should hope so ! " he exclaimed.
" Fuel is antiquated. We draw our electricity from the
inorganic universe direct, releasing it without the aid of
combustion. This ]3lanet is an immense storage battery,
and the Aurora Borealis is all the while being emptied into
it through the magnetic pole. I intercept this electric tor-
rent by a simple contrivance, and get all the power we
want for light, heat, transportation, and other dynamics."
" Sir," said I gasping for breath, " I suppose you gear
the Arctic Circle to the inner flange of the firmament l)v
cogs ! You are making fun of me. This tapping the Au-
rora Borealis is ridiculous and impossible."
" Certainly." he calmly observed, " that's what it is.
All great inventions are ridiculous and impossible. That's
the peculiarity of them. That's what makes them so
curious. Look at Edison's phonograph, for instance, and
the moving nictures."
310 THE SECEET OF PEEENNIAL YOUTH.
" Wlio put up that Pole ? " I asked;, breaking away from
his theme in desperation.
" 0^ yes," he said, '" I meant to tell you. The old Xor-
wegian put it up. Come and look at it ! "
The Pole was about two feet through, and we approached
and inspected it. The electric lamps made it look like a
colossal candelabrum.
" Letters on it," I said. " What a lot of queer char-
acters cut in the bark ! "
" Very old wood," he explained. " It does look like bark.
It is undoubtedly many thousand years old, and stands
nearly in the middle of the ship, — it is the mizzen mast."
" What ship are you talking about. Captain? "'
" The Om-Slaga, an old Norwegian bark that drifted
here at the beginning of the great northern Ice Age."
" How do you know ? " I said, looking at him incredu-
lously.
" This writing here is the Song of Annihilation," he re-
plied. " I will give you the substance of it after dinner."
" Dinner ! " I echoed. " What on earth. — or rather,
what on ice — do you eat here ? "
" Anything we prefer. We make all sorts of food com-
bining the chemical elements, salts, etc., around the arma-
ture of the dynamo. We can turn out ortolans, terrapin
and champagne, at the same price as water and cabbage."
I was surprised into a long whistle, l)ut I intermitted
it to listen to him when lie continued: "Yes; that's new
to you, isn't it? It is Franklin's latest invention. Let's
step in and see him."
"See who?"
" Franklin — Benjamin, the old printer and philosopher.
He likes to show his outfit."
I was paralyzed with amazement and said nothing, but
obediently followed him. He swung a block of ice away,
revealing a passage to a room where we found machinery
whizzing and whirling.
Sure enough! The old almanac-maker stood before us.
TPIE SECRET OF PEREJsT^IAL YOUTH. 311
in the colonial garb and with the whimsical smile so fa-
miliar in his pictures. To my surprise he called me by
name. " I saw by the Morning Chronicle that you were
in town," he added.
" Is this the market-garden, Doctor? " I asked, as calmly
as I could.
" Yes/' he answered. " It 's new 3'et, but I am already
manufacturing all the victuals our folks want."
" What do you call the Avonderful thing ? "
" I have named it," he said, " the Nutricator. I sup-
pose the Captain has told you that we have actually suc-
ceeded in combining the elements and making wholesome
food. I make tons in this way. The jirocess is as simple
as it is cheap; and it is capable of infinite variety."
I was dumb with awe as the possibilities of the new in-
vention unfolded before me. Looking about I saw nothing
on the shelves but some earthen pails and plates containing
samples of stuti of different colors ; and I noticed an agree-
able odor. " Can I see this miracle-worker — this mar-
velous machine ? "
With an acquiescent nod he led me down a pair of stairs
into a light basement room where swarthy looking men
were bending over various complicated bits of mechanism.
One vessel holding a hogshead was attached by a spiral
system of piping to what looked like a hydraulic ram. The
shelves were lined with chemical glassware — beakers, test-
tubes, retorts, distilling flasks, crucibles, and other un-
wieldy and curious contraptions too numerous to mention
and too comj)licated to descril^e. There was a gas furnace
in one corner and a small battery in another from which
two wires Avent to the vat.
" How is it now ? " asked Dr. Franklin.
" About 53," replied the man in charge. That was all.
"I shall simplify that machine one-half," remarked the
Doctor. " Yet with these equipments T can turn out five
tons of food every day of various kinds. I have already
furnished eighteen kinds of food."
312 THE SECRET OF PERENNIAL YOUTH.
" I would like to know more about it/' I said.
" Ver}^ well. All food comes^ of course^ primarily from
the earth. The plants and fruits we eat used to come
from the moist ground, and the animals we ate lived on
the plants or on other animals that the plants kept alive.
So the food of the human race has come from the elements
that are stored up in earth, air, and water. Take a grain
of wheat, for instance. It is mainl}^ composed of a few
simple gases and salts that last year were lying dormant in
the earth, air and Avater. It occurred to me that this pro-
cess might be hastened ; that, instead of waiting a year for
Nature to collect and compact those elements into an or-
ganic seed, I could obtain them in an hour, or perhaps a
few minutes, and arrive at the same result by the syn-
thetic method of combining them inorganically. This I
have done."
" You first find out what a particular kind of food is
made of ? "
" Yes ; I analyze it. There are sixty-five simple ele-
ments in Nature — that is, substances which we call simple
because we have not yet succeeded in proving them to be
compound. Carbon is the king of these sixty-five elements.
It is the great organizer ; it is never absent from any plant
or animal organism; it is at the base of almost everything:
it is the key to my discovery, for it possesses the iieculiar
capacity of being able to form molecules from its own
atoms. The diamond is ]nire carbon; so are graphite and
charcoal nearly pure carbon, though they are so difiierent.
Sugar and starch belong to tbe carbo-hydrates, and I can-
not understand why their manufacture hasn't been liit on
before. 1 form all my meat compounds by exposing seven
elements in a red hot state to nitrogen gas, though I use
different flavors, and sometunes T — "
'^Pardon the interrujition. Doctor. Imt do you lunnu-
i'aclui'e all the flavors toD?"
" Certainly ; synthesis again ; I have made a fragrant
wine that no man can tell from Chateau Yquem. Those
THE SECEET OF PERENNIAL YOUTH. 313
elements combine at their lowest temperature that have the
same atomicity — that is, the same bonds by which they
unite with one another or Avith compound molecules.'^
" Why has not this wonderful invention been ' hit on '
before, Doctor ? "
" Because analytic chemistry has received too much at-
tention to the exclusion of synthetic chemistry. Men have
been more devoted to learning than to doing — to taking to
pieces than to jautting together. Lavoisier was just on the
edge of it and missed it. Sir Humphrey Davy, Leibig,
and Faraday were all in sight of it and suddenly turned
aside. They succeeded in making urea out of the elements
and several other inorganic substances, but they stopped
there. They overlooked the simplicity of this thing. Ba-
con directly pointed it out in his Novum Organum. It is
a reproach to science that it has been left so long."
" What is to be the result of your invention, Doctor ? "
" Captain Fitch is going down to market the invention
in Wall Street next month. I think that after two or three
years New Yorkers, for instance, will no longer eat meat
or vegetables. They will not send to the tropics for fruits
or to Europe for wines, because the head of every family
hy turning a crank (or by a clockwork apparatus) can pro-
duce more delicious fruits and wines at a tenth of the
cost."
" How came you to think of such a thing. Doctor, if I
may inquire ? "
" Sir Isaac New^ton, you know, said ' The properties of
all food are in the dirt under out feet and in the air over
our heads, but they elude our grasp.' While thinking of
this I was led on by Dalton's great discovery of the law
of multiple proportions — that the atomic weight of com-
pounds is the sum of the atomic weight of their ingredients.
I was helped, also, by the well known law of i--omorphism —
that certain groups of substances exist, any member of
which can be replaced by any other member without chang-
ing the crystalline character of the matter. Then, as shown
31-t THE SECEET OF PEEENMAL YOUTH.
in the Torricellian vacimm. the extraordinary analogy be-
tween homologous groiqjs of organic compounds and cer-
tain small grouj^s of the elements as chlorine, bromine, and
iodine, has been remarked by many chemists. Not only
isolated triads but all the elements may be brought into
such homologous series expressed by the general formula
of the periodic law,- — a nh. You see how this is at once."
Without a moment's hesitation I assured him that it was
very simple and I understood it all ; then I asked him how
the public health would be affected by such a sudden and
radical change of food.
" No change of food is contemplated, my dear sir.
Every man can have food of the kind to which he is ac-
customed. It will be as easy to produce cabbages as
oranges, and partridges as pork. We shall actually pro-
duce these very things, but in a new form. It will be cab-
bages and oranges that have never felt the wind and rain,
and pork and partridges that have never been alive. V\'e
merely take a short cut and snatch the food from the earth
without giving it the trouble of growing. It will slightly
lack fibre — that is the only perceptible difference.
" How can you tell when you have got enough of any
given element, doctor ? "
" The equivalent value of an element is now measured
by the number of atoms of a monatomic or univalent ele-
ment with which it will coml)ine. It is known, for in-
stance, that chlorine combines with one atom of hydrogen,
oxygen with two, nitrogen with three, carbon with four,
and so on. I have struck souie astonishing examples of
allotropy, that is, the 2)roduction of entirely dissimilar com-
pounds from nearly similar elements. Nature is full of
suri)rises. For instance, I make bananas and chocolate
out of the very same ingredients, and the method of com-
bining differs only a trifle.''
I suddenly missed Ca])tain Fitdi, ami tlu^ next uionieiit
I found myself standing by his side up by the ]wle. It con-
fused me a little, for I did not rememl)er voluntarily
THE SECRET OF PEREXNIAL YOUTPI. 315
making the transit. And there was tlie delightful Miss
Martin.
"■ AVe have heen waiting for you," said the Captain.
" We wanted to show you around." I followed them down
a stairway nearby and along a corridor cut in the ice,
bringing us in a minute or two to the end of a spiral tun-
nel. Down this on easy slope we descended. The way was
luminous with what I judged was some invisible electric
contrivance.
I took out my watch at this ^Doint and casually glanced
at the face of it. " Half past two," I said.
"That's all very well," remarked Miss Martin, "but
I'll bet you can't tell whether it's yesterday or to-morrow ! "
" You are right," I said submissively, and I tried to re-
member how long it had been since I saw daylight. At
the end of the crystal hall we came upon what looked like
a section of a ship, and in its deck, sure enough, was
firmly fastened the mast whose upper portion we had seen
above.
" AYe have used up the rest of the hull and spars for our
vehicles and house-trimmings," he exjDlained.
" This," he continued, leading me round the mast to the
other side, " is the galley, and here, on digging around,
we found the crew of the ancient vessel."
" Alive, Cajitain ? " I asked.
" Oh. no. Frozen solid. We have them yet. Do you
want to see them? These little drawers here must have
been the cook's — where he kept his pepper, salt, and other
seasonings. We keep the crew in them now."
Before I could express the amazement I felt. Miss Mar-
tin drew out one of the tiny drawers and set it on the rude
slab of ice that served as a table. " There he is ! " she
exclaimed. The little box contained what I at first thought
was a doll, dressed in the eiderdown hood and long fawn-
skin skirts of a Norwegian baby.
As she took it in her hands and laid it upon my arm, I
saw that it actually was a bab}', or had been, but it was
316 THE SECEET OP PERENNIAL YOUTH.
an unpleasant sight. Its wizened face was pinched and
drawn with suffering. I looked from one to the other for
an explanation.
" Yes," said Captain Pitch, as if reading ni}' thought,
" as 3?ou say, they had a hard time of it. Twenty of 'em we
have in the drawers around this galley. We know by this
little iron chain which clasps the mantle that this was the
Captain, but this," he continued, opening another drawer
and exhibiting another midget face, " was the last survivor.
He was an ancient Viking of some learning, and he it
was who wrote upon the mast in Eunic characters the story
of their voyage, their distress and their extinction. He put
all these others in these drawers. He says he Avas about
seventy when the ship drifted into these jDarts and began
to go round in the whirlpool, while the rest were much
younger and of course they grew smaller and smaller and
perished first. There seems to have been no solid ice in
these parts at that time, but there was a great maelstrom
here directly at the Pole filled with floating ice and the
ship was drawn into it and couldn't get out. These people
never knew what the matter Avas Avitli them. They only
knew that they had become boys again. As they had to
float round the Pole constantly with the sun, they could
not try any experiments, such as we tried on the solid ice
before we had been here a week. They swung helplessly
round and round and kept getting younger and younger,
but knew not why. Jum Eui, as this man called himself,
l)cgan to suspect when tlie rest became little children what
the matter was, and he wrote on the mast in his strange
letters ' Doomed ! We are running down the sun ! ' He
records that he kept his companions alive by feeding them
long after they became perfectly helpless from extreme
infancy. 'Put,' lie added, 'I, too, am falling into the
green and tender leaf.' As to lus end we are left to in-
ference, l)ut we assiiine thai he also became too young to
feed himself and died of inanition."
"A very nice looking child," 1 said to ]\iiss ^lartin.
THE SECRET OF PEKENNIAL YOUTH. 317
handing back the little old man whose eyes followed me
as if he were alive.
" You cannot imagine," she said to me, " what a tre-
mendous interest we ladies took in Jum liui when we first
found him. We used to take him out of the drawer a
dozen times a day and run around the j^ole against the sun,
trying to make him grow older. It was terribly exciting,
hoping against hope, hastening round the circuit with the
little fellow, who Avas growing older every minute, but
couldn't be made to understand it. It was really pathetic,
too, I have seen the girls laugh and cry over little Jum Rui,
but it was of no use. Too late ! They themselves grew
older but he did not recover the vital spark."
" No ! " exclaimed the Captain, " I have seen them cry-
ing over him and tossing him up and saying ' Ittle woot-
sey-tootsey, so he should ! ' But he was a goner."
" What do 3'Ou suppose the little folks lived on, Captain,
is it known ? "
" 0, yes," he said. " Jum Eui wrote out the story on
the mast. Wild animals from the whole Arctic region
were attracted upon the broken ice by the curious whirling
with the sun. They, too, kept growing younger and
younger; and when they were young and tender the crew
caught them and used them for food. At last the vener-
able infants got too young to capture any, and then they
seem to have shut themselves up in the galley. It kept
snowing faster and faster, and freezing harder and harder,
till at last — 23rol3ably ten thousand years ago, and some
centuries after all had perished — the great Palaeocrystic
Sea became solidly congealed, and revolved only with the
earth. Great numbers of animals had assembled in the
snow at this point, having yielded to the centripetal in-
fluences, and their carcasses were frozen up solid. So the
ice under our feet, and around this wreck for miles, is a
vast refrigerator full of fresh meat."
" It will not prejudice yon, I trust, against our din-
ners," said Miss Martin with a laugh, " to know that the
318 THE SECKET OF PEBENXIAL YOUTH.
meat has been dead for thousands of years.. For I assure
you that you will find these aged castaways as savory and
nutritious as when first taken from your — what do you
call the cattle place? — yes, your abattoir. But 3'OU
are not compelled to eat it if you prefer Poor Eichard's
synthetic storehouse. Ah ! here comes Jacques."
A dashing sleigh was at our side that instant, and a
liveried lacquey exerted all his strength to fetch to a full
stop his prancing team of reindeer. " A little sur^Drise
for you. My oomiak," she remarked ; "" I thought that
you might enjoy a drive to Walrus Cove in it behind the
palmate horns." I folloAved my volatile hostess into the
strange vehicle, and we started on a gallop.
" You ought to have got another white bear robe for
our guest, Jacques," she said, and turning to me she ex-
claimed sjmipathetically, " I am sure you will be cold.''
" I must get hardened to this climate," I answered.
" Probably I shall not suffer. Gratitude for this superb
drive ought to keep me warm."
Our driver hauled up at an egloo and got some more
fur wra})S. My fair escort was generous, moreover, for
she let me share her muff. " I am glad that your hands
are not frosted," she said with a laugh.
To tell the honest truth I Avas in a fervent glow of ad-
miration of the lovely creature into whose care I had
fallen, and my warm temperature had little to do with
the temperature of the polar zone.
" Probablv you have not noticed that we are going down
hill," she said.
"Yes," I answered,'"' and your driver is speeding his
magnificent team in great style."
" I told him to let 'em out," she said. '" Our speed
will !)(' Caslcr and faster till we get to ^roscow."
"To wliere?" T asked, thinking I bad misunderstood
her.
"' Moscow, Piussia."' sbe rept'ated. " In an hour or so
Jacques will unhitch his cattle and take them back to
THE SECTER OF PERENNIAL YOUTH. 319
Polopolis, and the oomiak will glide the rest of the way b}''
its owii momentum. You are no light weight, and I am
no sylph."
" Glide ? " I repeated, with perhaps something of anx-
iety if not of alarm in my voice, " I do not understand
you," and I held both of her warm hands in mine.
'" Y^es," she said, feebly trying to release them, " see
here ! wake up ! I'll explain it to you. It isn't difficult
to understand that we are going down hill, is it? You
see for yourself. And how could it be otherwise? \Vhen
you go south you always go down hill, don't you ? Isn't
the top of every map north and the bottom of it south, and
isn't the top of everything always higher than the bot-
tom ? I have brought along a couple of pairs of skees,
and when tired of this seat we can skee right through to
St. Petersburg. When going down this tremendous de-
clivity we sometimes make five hundred miles an hour.
It is difficult to catch 3'Our breath."
Reaching suddenly into the back part of the sleigh, she
said " I brought some flowers for the wedding from the
Captain's conservatory, Mr. bless my stars ! Y^ou
haven't told me your name yet ! " and she brushed a fine
and fragrant spike of lilac blossoms across my cheek, and
uttered a ringing laugh. Just then I caught a glimpse of
a satin-lined conch shell and heard a far-off voice shout
'■ Come on or you'll lose your dinner ! "
The voice startled me so that I reeled to my feet, for
now I knew that it was not her voice, and perceived that
the hand was not hers that was laid lightly on my shoulder.
SOME KECENT POEMS,
SOME EECExNT POEMS.
323
THE POINT OF VIEW.
"\^n[ien George the Third, of Brunswick's line,
His feeble reason lost,
And in his brain without design,
The frenzied webs were crossed.
Upon the sea of darkness he
In doubt and dream w^as tossed.
" I cannot speak ! I cannot hear ! "
He wrote with trembling hand ;
" But symbols to m}^ mind are clear.
Go search throughout the land
For one inspired, w^ith wisdom fired.
Who signs can understand."
They sought the islands round and round.
Sought vainly till they came
To fair Killarney, Avhere they found
A peasant, Pat by name,
Who, when they told, made answer bold,
" Faith, I can do that same."'
Pat wore the usual brace of eyes
When his career begun ;
But time diminishes supplies,
And he, 'mid Orange fun.
Had, in the rout, an eye punched out,
Which left him onlv one.
324 SOME EECENT POEMS.
Confronted with the king^ he bowed,
But not with fear or dread,
And shouted to the monarch loud,
Whose ears were sealed and dead,
Forgetting that, " Now, then,^' says Pat,
" Yer honor, go ahead."
" Shut up ! " his majesty exclaimed,
" I cannot hear or speak.
But for translating signs am famed —
I read 'em like a streak.
Let's me and you exchange a few
And hidden meanings seek."
Upheld a single finger he;
Quick Pat with two replied ;
The king responded next with three.
And then all four he tried.
Pat clenched his fist to close the list.
As he the court defied.
The monarch l)owed and Pat went out
And still his fist he shook
At all the courtiers round about,
And cried, " Be gorry, look !
I matched him good ! We onderstood
Aich other like a book ! "
THE king's interpretation.
"A miracle!" tlie king wrote down;
" How quick lie caught the cue !
I raised one finger for one crown,
Tlie rogue re])li('(l with two —
The queen and me; then I raised tliree-
The last the prince's due.
SOME RECENT POEMS. 325
" Then lifted I my digits four,
For nobles great and wise,
Who Brunswick's mighty throne upbore;
The rascal winked replies.
He couldn't have seen my thoughts more keen
If he'd had forty eyes !
" Then clasped he all his fingers tight
To say ' Thy throne and worth
Have all the wisdom, all the light.
And all the power of earth,'
Then quit the place with matchless grace
As if of noble birth ! "
THE bishop's interpretation.
They asked the Bishop, standing near
If he had understood.
" Of course," he said, " 'twas all so clear
That e'en an infant could ;
The talk was cast, from first to last.
About the Holy Eood.
" One finger first the king displayed.
One God — His will be done !
Then Pat raised two, as if he said
' Another for the Son ; '
Then George showed three ; ' you're right ' says he
' And all the three are one ! '
" For Satan then he raised the fourth ;
Pat fiercely clenched them all
As if to say ' That Fiend of Earth
Shall yet in darkness crawl ;
For God's control can snatch the soul
From his Satanic thrall ! ' "
326 SOME EECENT POEMS.
pat's INTEKPRETATIOK.
" When first I seen the King," says Pat,
'•One finger up he threw
To say 'You're blinder than a bat!'
And then I stuck up two
To say ' My one can see more done
Than both the eyes of you. '
" The King turned scarlet in his place
And then he lifted three,
Then four he held forninst my face,
As bragging he could see
(Arrah! Bedad ! It made me mad !)
Four times as much as me !
"I shook my fist — his dirty flings! — .
My voice in silence rose :
' Bad cess to Protestants and Kings !
If you continue those
Eemarks — ohone ! — I'll climb your throne
And welt you on the nose ! ' "
L 'envoi.
Mysterious is each simple act.
E'en if we keep the clew;
For though we know the barren fact
As they the gestures knew.
The meaning, friends, you see. depends
Upon the point of view.
SOME RECENT POEMS. 337
THE WHITE MAN'S BURDEN.
(Dedicated to Mr. Rudyard Kipling.)
Take np the White Man's l)urclen !
Send forth thy radiant youth
To do the White Man's Duty—
To speed the White Man's truth;
To cheer the heavy-hearted,
To lift the sore oppressed ;
To send the poor your bounty.
And give the hunted rest.
Take up the White Man's burden;
Go pilot as ye may
Your new-caught sullen j^eoples.
Who do not know the way.
0, teach them not with cannon,
These fluttering folk and wild,
But lead them, as with yearning,
The mother leads her child.
Take up the White Man's burden ;
Not as, on Indus strand.
The sanctimonious butcher
Has laid his bloody hand.
All Albion's hone_yed phrases
Shall ne'er from memory drive
The dastard crimes of Hastings —
The infamies of Clive.
Take up the White Man's burden;
Not as in greed and pride.
He built his torture chamljer
Above the Ganges' tide.
338 SOME EECEXT POEMS.
While hearts shall ache with pity,
To heaven's blue dome will ring
The shrieks of Sujah Dowlah —
The groans of Cheyty Sing.
Take up the White Man's burden.
The lion, tired awhile
Devouring peaceful peasants
Along the languid Nile,
Salutes us as her otfspring;
" My noble cub," she says,
And offers us her leavings.
And smears us with her praise.
Take up the White Plan's burden;
Mark where his bullets sped !
Go face the frenzied mother
Above her precious dead.
Hurry the Eed Cross succor
To Luzon's patriot band.
That lie in awful windrows
Along Manila's strand.
Take up the White Man's burden !
Instead of torch and sword.
Let our triumphant banner
Bear Freedom's gracious word.
In peace let heathen worship
Around their altar fires —
This is tlie White Man's Inirden—
The burden of our spires !
SOME UECENT POEMS. 329
COLUMBIA'S CALL.
Men ! men of nerve ! Eise up and show A^oar faces !
This is the hour for valiant word and deed.
Come to the front ! From high and humble places,
Columbia summons you in direst need.
Columbia summons you. In passionate pleading,
Tears on her cheek and anguish in her tones,
Facing the callous demagogues unheeding,
Columbia, stricken, calls upon her sons.
Columbia calls. Her flaming indignation
Consumes the traitors who her creed deny- —
Who vould blot out her mighty Declaration,
And make her lustrous promises a lie.
Her promises ! She pledged the poor and lowly
To stand with them on Freedom's mountain height
She taught the world that human rights were holy
Beneath the shelter of her bannered might.
Her flag ! On Bunker Hill its stars had risen ;
A beacon through white Valley Forge it came ;
It glowed when Paul Jones nailed it to his mizzen
And smote perfidious England's coasts with flame.
But now to brown men of the farthest ocean
Yearning to save their homes and build a sta^e,
Its crimson is the blood of their devotion —
Its stripes the syml3ol of a tyrant's hate.
My country ! Once the scourge of the oppressor !
My country ! Once the terror of the throne I
Now subjugating — criminal aggressor ! —
A feeble people fighting for their own !
330 SOME EECENT POEMS.
My country ! Patrick Henry ! Marion ! ^Yar^en !
Grant ! Sherman ! Sumner ! Lincoln ! Proud array !
Heroes beloved ! Your noble work was foreign
To all the nation's words and deeds to-day !
Up, then, my brothers ! Eise in stern defiance !
Shall Freedom's lowly cradle be her tomb?
Shall sycophants and traitors in alliance
Betray our great republic to her doom?
0, no ! From seashore, prairie, hill and valley,
The arbiters of destiny and fate
At plough and loom and wheel and anvil rally
To smite down tyranny and save the state !
REINFORCEMENTS.
I heard a surly cynic say " The eagles all are dying ;
The Kings that rule our mountain thrones are vanishing
away ; "
But from a thousand cloudy nests the answer came reply-
ing
" The eagles of to-morrow are the fledo'linos of to-dav."
LIBERTY AND COLUMBIA— A COLLOQUY,
j.ibkrty:
CoLUiMBiA. put thy sons on guard
Where floats the banner of tlie free.
And day and night koo]) wntcli and ward
Where lierocs peril all for me
In battle bv the Southern Sea !
SOME RECENT POEMS. 331
COLUMBIA :
How foolish they. mother mine !
Britannia, treacherous and strong,
Will crush them, though their cause be thine —
Will crush them though they sing thy song,
And though their mission be divine
And hers be infamously wrong.
LIBERTY :
My sluggish daughter ! Wake ! Arise !
The wolf attacks my precious brood !
A tempest shakes the Afric skies
And spreads a desolating flood
Till all the veldt is wet with blood !
COLUMBIA :
I cannot rise ! Behold my chains !
They put the gilded baubles on
To keep me from the crimson plains
Until the despot's fight be won —
Until, with blow as foul as Cain's,
The avrful murder shall be done.
LIBERTY :
Degenerate child! The shackles break!
0. cry aloud ! For succor cry !
Not only for thy sister's sake.
If Freedom's guard of honor die
We, too, shall perish — thou and I !
COLUMBIA :
0. foolish mother! Smooth thy brow;
I wear my chains ; let others weep ;
332 SOME EECENT POEMS.
Because I gave a wicked vow,
The guilty promise I must keep.
I cannot help my sisters now —
What if they perish ? Let me sleep !
LIBEETY'S TORCH.
Lighthouse Board. Treasury Department.
Washington, D.C., February 12, 1902.
Official announcement — Liberty-enliglitening-the-world light
station. Notice is hereby given tliat on or about jMarch 1, 1902,
the fixed white electric light shown from the torch of the bronze
statue on Bedloe's island, New York Buy, will be discontinued.
By order of the Lighthouse Board,
N. H. Farquhar, Rear-Admiral. U. S. N.
Put out the torch whose lustrous beams
Were lit at Freedom's council-fires;
For in its flame no longer gleams
The lofty purpose of our sires.
When mouthing hypocrites efface
The noble charter of our rights,
And set brute forces in its place,
Put out the signal lights !
Till our great armies cease to slay
And call the roll of Tagal dead.—
Oh, let us shrink from light of day
And torch of night, and hang our head.
Put out the lamp ! lest it illume
Tlie ])atli o\' our ])oi'(idi(Uis fame.
Put out the lamp! for in tlio gloom
We hide our scarlet shame I
Ah. when our tyrants quench in night
The frei'doin ol' the Orient sea.
SOME RECENT POEMS. 333
Why ghould our goddess keep alight
The beacon flame of Liberty ?
Silence the eagle on his crag!
Hush holy Freedom's vaunting hymn !
Drop down the mast the starry flag,
And douse the harbor glim !
Wlien patriots welter in their gore
And perish where our squadrons press,
Wliy set this flambeau on the shore,
To shine upon our wickedness?
Ah, Goddess ! lift no trembling hand
To light the bloody path of hate,
But let grim Darkness scowling stand
And beckon at the gate!*
TO GEOEGE S. BOUTWELL.
On his eighty-third birthdaj', January 23.
Leader of men ! In foremost rank arrayed.
With Freedom's fadeless gonfalon unrolled.
With armor fashioned for the wise and bold
On anvil where our fathers' hopes were laid
And wrought to justice, and with falchion blade
Once wielded by the mighty men of old —
Disdaining party plaudits, honors, gold,
We see thee walk serene and unafraid !
Thou'rt not forgotten ! Where the tyrant's brawn
Sows ashes and makes vassals of the free.
Where from a bloody ditch her patriot son
The Tagal mother drags — Oh. Liberty!
The heart is kindled with a benison.
And lifts a cup of gratitude to thee !
* Three weeks later the torch was relighted.
334 SOME HECENT POEMS.
THE EPHESIAN DOME.*
Ho ! Watchman on the walls afar !
Again the tigers rove ;
Hate's fiery star is fierce Avith Avar
The peaceful earth above;
Now haste ! the gates of Janus bar
With bolts of triple love !
In puny wrath the infant cries
Beside the island sea,
And as its angry wails arise
And all unheeded be,
It to the world the torch applies
And calls it being free !
No war for any greed of gain
Is worth a widowed wife.
Or child bereft, or father slain,
Or, stretched in l)loody strife
Along a single battle })lain,
A single human life.
No creed e'er cradled in the heart
Is worth the hellish mood
That makes Tasmanian devils start
And pour a fiery flood
O'er vale and mountain, moor and mart,
And dnmcli the earth with blood.
The cross and cri^sceut. li(M-ee in fight —
Who calls tbe battle blest?
The flag wbose IJight is Itanded might,
Witb Peace upon its crest,
* Written duiinn- tiie war wliu-ii Uieeee iiiado on Turkey
SOME RECENT POEMS. 335
All gleaming white in morning light —
That banner is the best !
Ho ! Watchman on the walls afar !
Again the tigers rove ;
Chain up the Furies' fiery car,
Lest brutal Ares move —
The gates of Janus lock and bar
With bolts of triple love !
THE CORONATION.
Let Britain's, glories ring !
Come, let us crown the King !
The great republic chants his praise
And weaves for him its martial ba3'S ;
The viol's song and trumpet's blare
With adulation stir the air ;
We crouch before his mighty throne.
In his exalted presence prone.
glorious Edward, see,
We humbly kneel to thee!
Yea, sire ! Alas, we know
Our fathers did not so.
They brought not to thy grandsire's shrine
The incense of his royal line;
They did not show the high respect
And honor due the liege-elect.
But, laying delicacy by.
They madly smote him hip and thigh.
And drove him from the land —
Him and his Hessian band.
336 SOME RECENT POEMS.
Oh, Edward, Lord and King !
Thy radiant channs we sing.
Forgive, forgive our erring sires,
Their haughty ways and wild desires.
Their reclvless wishes to be free
That made them rebels unto thee —
To-day we lift repentant eyes —
Oh, Edward, we apologize !
Obedient to command
We kiss thy royal hand !
Oh, heir of George the Third !
Lamenting Avhat occurred,
Agreeing, wheresoe'er the land,
Like thee to lay a blighting hand
On all republics as they rise
To soil with hope imperial skies.
We haste to help thee mount the throne
And hail thee as our very own !
We pray, King, that we
May thy poor flunkeys be.
To thy proud feet, King !
Our flatteries we bring.
We deck ourselves like knights of old
In purjDle pomp and j^lumes of gold,
In panoply of rich array
And harness that outshines the day.
We hail thee, gracious Liege, but tlcign
To smile on us and ease our ]iain !
Oh, sovereign! Hear our cry!
Smile on us or we die !
SOME RECENT POEMS.
SAINT PETER'S MISTAKE.
Saint Peter stood at the golden gate
One Sunday morning — a recent date —
And said to Gabriel, lounging near,
" How fearfully few the arrivals here !
How sadly seldom a ticket is seen !
In thirty days I've 2)unched fifteen !
How screeches the gate as it inward swings !
The keys are a bunch of old rusty things;
If 't isn't used, the neglected road
To the realm of bliss will have to be mowed.
In fact, unless more travelers stop
I fear we may have to shut up shop."
Now Gabriel knew what the matter was;
And, thinking he'd better explain the cause,
Remarked " Let me have a word. I beg."
Then changed his weight to the other leg.
And laid one wing on the picket fence,
And said " Fact is. that a residence
On earth is made so attractive now,
And cheap, and easy, as not to allow
Of any temptation to visit Heaven —
Such novel joys to mortals are given.
They fly over earth on wings of fire.
And under the sea they talk on a wire.
And old Broadway is lighter they say.
Than the radiant loft Avhere our harpers play;
They have no slaves — declare 't is wrong —
I don't see how they can get along;
They have one wife — that's overdone.
For 3'Ou and I wouldn't have ary a one ;
For the very smallest of coin. I'm told.
The poor folks v\1q in chariots of gold ;
338 SOME EECENT POEMS.
Their phonograph bottled the voice, hist year,
Of a parson that last week got up here;
Their commerce measures the jilanet's girth
And fetches fruit from the ends of the earth;
While here — no improvement — method the same
As years gone by, when you and I came —
The same old grass, the same old gates,
The same old croon of the same old mates.
The same old speech to the folks sent down.
The same old halo, the same old crown,
The same old sermons, the same old prayers,
The same old hymns up the same old stairs ;
All things exactly as they were then.
And will be Avorld without end. Amen!
The worst of it, Peter, is this — you knoAV
That all the inventors have gone Below.
And taken their traps, tools, jiggers, and things.
Their dynamos, wheels, and sprockets and rings,
Their graphs and ineters and scopes and phones,
For measuring molecules, spectra, tones.
And that with these, and machines in accord,
The lost ones seek their simple reward.
Machines that swift as lightning run;
Machines that paint with the brush of the sun;
Machines that fi'y with splendid cars;
Machines that measure and weigh the stars ;
Machines that laugh, and talk, and sing;
Machines tbat ai'f \\\) to excrything —
With these to instruct, assist, beguile.
They've fixed up hell in hrst-rate style."
" lio ! ho ! " said Peter, " my friend, I guess
II' worst comes to M-orst. that we can ]n'0gress;
If these inventors sucli miracli's do.
Wliat hind(Ts our having mafbiiu'ry. too?
For you rem;>mlier. Fve often said
'I'liat competition's the life of trade.
SOME RECENT POEMS. 339
They've stuffed and fooled you, though, about
The sun as an artist — that I doubt;
And he that tells of talk on a wire —
I venture to guess that man's a liar.
But we might try with possible gain
The anesthetics that conquer pain,
A carpet-sweeper in place of the broom,
A sewing-machine, and a patent loom.
Electric cars with velvet seats.
A sweeping-machine for the golden streets,
A gas retort for our light and fire.
And an organ back of the harpers' choir.
ril change my plans and stop to-day
The first contraption that comes this way."
A space was Gateman Gabriel mute.
Then shifted his weight to his other foot,
And, shading his eyes with his dexter wing,
Said : " Up the road is coming a thing — •
On a single leg 't is hopping along,
Without a bridle or bit or thong;
With a double head and a crooked neck.
And some one adrift on the upper deck —
Some one, I say — whether woman or man.
Perhaps you can tell — I'm hanged if I can."
That moment the stranger, silent as fate,
Dismounted in front of the goldeii gate.
He said, " Good morning," and wiped his brow,
And added, " I'm almost sorry now —
You way is so narrow, crooked, and hard —
T didn't take a spin on the boulevard.
I hear that all the way down and back
They've got a lovely asphaltum track."
"Morning!" said Peter. "Is thrt a mill
Or a curious beast you rode up hill ? "
340 SOME RECENT POEMS.
The visitor answered : " The forge's birth,
A bicycle, jDopular on the earth."
"Aha!" good Peter replied. "That's queer;
We're introducing improvements here.
This horse is something that ought to be tried ;
'F you like, 111 take him and go inside."
" You do me proud," said the tourist grim.
As he thought : " This makes me solid with him.'
And Peter seized on the handle straight,
Dragged the thing in, and closed the gate.
They waited and chatted, the two outside.
And wished they could see the novice ride.
They heard approving applause, and then
Encouraging cries of " Try it again ! "
They heard the yells of the joyous throng,
The harps that twanged uncommonly strong,
The choir, whose mournful psalms and slow
Went skipping to lively and allegro ;
But heard naught else, for an hour or so,
When the gate of gold was open swung.
And to that hapless bicycle clung
A Ijattered angel, who gave it a shove,
But seemed so lame ho could liarflly move.
Two teeth were gone, he had bruised his b.cad,
One ear just hung l)y a crimson thread;
His wings were mussed, his knees were bare
As a piper's, and there was grass in his hair.
He shed one tear, be heaved one sigh,
TluMi cast on the stranger a rueful (\ve.
And merely said, witb surrowl'id mien.
"You CO to hell with vour old niacliine!"
SOME EECENT POEMS. 341
THE WAIL OF THE UNSATISFIED.
A pensive iiiaiden gently moaned, " Ah, me !
It can not, can not be
That no Heaven is where recompense is wrought,
Where time is lost in one eternal span,
Where Hope finds fruitage in the perfect plan,
Where wickedness is stayed and wisdom taught —
For justice then were nought."
A youth his glance upon a mirror cast
And sighed, " Such grace will last.
I see the truth of what the preachers say :
I am a noble, splendid, perfect thing,
Quite godlike and not made for perishing —
These charms must shine in Heaven's immortal ray,
Through one eternal day ! "
A dying man I saw and heard him groan,
" The next life shall atone !
This pain shall be forgot in yonder skies;
The wrong that harries and torments us here
Shall perish in God's luminous atmosphere;
Justice shall triumph when this soul shall rise
And soar to Paradise ! "
I heard a heavy-laden dray-horse say,
" Alack ! alack-a-day !
Some Heaven there is as every horse agrees,
\Miere, all uncuml^ered of life's weary load.
And spared the cruel bit, the lash, the goad,
We shall be free to wander where we please
Through clover-beds of ease ! "
3i2 SOME EECEXT POEMS.
I heard a vivisected fox-hoiind cry
"Ah ! wliat a martyr I !
But just beyond the grave tliere is a place
Where mortals shall be spared life's bitter cup,
And pain and pleasure shall be evened up —
Where foxes shall ))e furnished for the chase
In one eternal race ! "
I saw a fox, Avounded unto the death,
That whined, with latest breath,
" To Eeynard Heaven, beyond the veil, I go
Where hounds, to Hades banished, chase us not,
Where horns of hateful huntsmen are forgot.
Where homes of fowls nor locks nor palings know,
And chickens roost them low ! "
I heard a hen cluck with her dying voice,
" Though tortured, I rejoice !
I fly unto celestial meadows fair,
Where murderous foxes never come to slay
Xor ax announces dread Thanksgiving Day,
And Ijugs are savory and tender there
And nice Avorms everywhere ! ''
I heard ten tliousand maple buds coini)lain.
Torn by the April rain,
" That this is final death can never be !
The ' law of Nature ' we sul)limely scorn
That hath for us no resurrection morn —
What mockery, if some other l)ud than we
Shall rear the perfect tree! "
And tlii'ii 1 heard a sage: '" Our lowly birth
Was redolent oi" earth —
On I' cDiiseiousness may end as it began :
\A'lio has assun^l us we shall live again
Till pleasure shall b\- uieasure eiiual iiain?
SOME EECENT POEMS. 343
Why should we dream that Nature keeps for man
Some reimbursement phm?
" The fanciful equation is beyond
Great Reason's pledge and bond.
I have had more of life than was my meed.
And kept some sweet babe tarrying for me ;
iVll pardon crave I for delinquency^
And wave farewell — bidding the child, indeed,
Good-morrow and good-speed ! "
FEOM OUR MIXISTER-IN-CHINA.
Dear lowans : Friends and Fellows :
I'm at home among the Yellows,
In the oriental inner
Sanctuary of the sinner.
I their confidence have got
(And some other things I wot —
We arc Christians, and should I)e then
Quick to prey and " spoil the heathen.")
Cordially I greet you — very —
Minister and missionary.
Conger, Plenipotentiary,
Envoy Extraordinary.
I'm at home. I have completely
Played the "brother" racket neatly;
With a gospel text I reach them.
What is theirs is mine, 1 teach them.
We need help ? Oh. no ! For we
Always help ourselves, you see !
We have Faith at the legation
And take thiuQ-s — with resi.<ination !
344 SOME KECENT POEMS.
Fellow patriots ! I am merry —
Blithe and browner than a berry —
Minister and missionary,
Conger, Plenipotentiary !
Envoy Extraordinary !
We have busted Dagon's temples.
Of the loot we send some samples :
Chinese gods from private houses —
(How our wrath the sight arouses!)
Tigers, griffins manifold,
Conger eels in bronze and gold,
Household treasures of such beauty
That to swipe them seemed a duty,
Altar for the Presbytery
Erom a Buhhhist sanctuary.
Cannon from the adversary.
Silver peacocks, millinery.
Pictures, screens and statuary,
Pekin punch and Tartar sherry,
I'm my own apothecary.
Minister and missionary,
Conger, Plenipotentiary,
Envoy Extraordinary !
THE WAY THAT FUXSTOX FOUGHT.
Last night 1 met great Washington
Amid tlic Jersey snow.
As timidly and tlioughtfully
He faced lb(> Hessian foe,
He said " TIum'c must be otlicr ways ;
This fighting is too slow.
SOME RECENT POEMS. 345
" We have advanced and fallen back
Full many a weary mile;
My men are brave, and I am sly ;
I'll do a deed of guile :
They say I cannot tell a lie — •
Why, Martha ! I should smile !
" Courage is very well, young man,
But cunning I prefer;
And when I sit me down to j^lot
Against the enemy, sir.
Some funny things, as like as not.
Are liable to occur.
" Lord Howe at Bugby's Tavern rests —
He and a hundred Dutch —
I'll march in the disguise of friend
And get him in my clutch,
By exercise of forgery
And perjury and such."
He sat him down and bit his quill,
And wrote as he had planned :
" My lord, I come in loyal faith
To clasp your good right hand.
And bring a thousand British troops
To strengthen your command.
" Instruct your scouts and sentinels
To hail us with acclaim.''
Great Washington ! 0, villain deed
Of perfidy and shame !
Without a blush he to the screed
Signed Benedict Arnold's name.
To Howe the friendly note was sent.
'' Though critic tono'ues should wau\''
34:6 SOME KECEXT POEMS.
Said Washington, " all fraud is right
Such lofty game to bag —
We '11 march in British uniforms
Beneath a British flag."
So said, so done. In masquerade
They gaily took the track
That unto Bugby's Tavern led,
Disguised for the attack —
A thousand red-coats all in line
Beneath the Union Jack.
The days Avere bleak ; the way was hard ;
The destined end remote;
The food was gone; when Washington
Sat calmly down and wrote
To Howe — 0, Ananias, hear I —
Another friendly note.
" My lord," it ran, " no food remains
For my heroic band ;
We starve, and in King George's name
We crave thy helping hand —
Send succor, quick and ample, or
We |)erish where we stand."
He laughed, tlie Continentals say.
When he laid down his pen —
The only time he ever laughed.
As testified ; and then
He iinurislu'd undci'iicnl li the prayer
B. ArnoldV name again.
Lord Howe res]innded witli su])])lies —
A ton, as all agree;
A thousand rel)el red-coats gorged
Witlinut or rav or fee.
SOME TiECEXT POEMS. 347
And Washington, — spectators say
He ate enough for three.
And when the column had its hll,
He nuide a little speech :
" Now, boys,"' he said, '' the battle-held
Ain't any place to preach;
We 're going now to grab the man
Who 's saved the life of each.
" Load up with ball and cartridge, l)oys ;
Lord Howe shall make amends;
We "11 surely kill or capture him
Before this hard day ends.
We '11 take him l)y surprise, because
Y\e come to him as friends.
" Now, forward, by the right flank, march !
We surely can't be beat ;
I am ' B. x4rnold ' — that's a trick
Which I think very neat.
I 'd always rather forge than fight,
And rather lie than eat."
They marched. The Brisish liag they bore
Upon the air to fling.
The rebels in their scarlet coats
Passed down with pompous swing,
And all the brass bands' brazen throats
Sang out " God save the King ! "
I shuddered at the things I saw
But scarcely understood.
I heard a voice " The moral law
Admits of turpitude ;
There is no right Init strenuous might
And fraud alraio is p'ood."'
548 SOME RECENT POEMS.
The breath was stifled in my throat
My fright was so extreme;
An ogre sat upon my breast,
But in the morning's beam
I shook it off and woke. It was
A vile disgusting dream.
CABLE FROM KITCHENER.
Hi exceedingly regret
That I ham obliged to state
That the barbarous De Wet
'As got through the mountain gate.
But the Yorkshires, though their mission
Hended swiftly in defeat,
Eound no serious hopposition
To an 'urdle-race retreat.
Hi regret to be compelled
To report from Rietfontein
Our position wasn't eld
Because several men was slain.
With lO.UOO Boers for foemen.
You perceive at once, hof course
Our 300,000 3-eomen
You Avill "ave to re-enforce.
Make the mulish Boers atone
For the war they brought about —
Burn the women's 'ouses down !
Hunt the chiMrciiI Starve 'em bout!
Wring the '(Mi'ts of fathers, brothers.
Sons and l()\ers. night and day;
Take the food from babes and mothers
Teach 'cm that 's the British wav!
SOME TtECENT POEMS. 349
With amazin' iiimbleness,
And with courage hall aglow,
We 'ave "ad immense success
In escapin' from the foe.
'T is by hevery uum conceded
That we 're ready to be shot
In the last ditch — hif it's needed —
But distinctly rawther not.
Hi am proud to testify
To the gallantry of heach
British soldier; they will die,
If required to, in the breach;
Oh, their port and pluck are splendid !
But, as hi remarked before
You may 'ave before its bended,
To send 20,000 more !
BULLEE TO BULL.
" The escape of Dundonald's cavahy from the Boers is des-
cribed in the one cablegram received from Bnller to-day as a
'successful retreat.'" — London dispatch, January 29.
We yesterday frightened the foe;
A thing I shall never regret.
But I must let Chamberlain know
We ain't relieved Ladysmith yet.
Our harmy, w'icli never knew fear,
Performed a miraculous feat —
In spite of the lioers in the I'car,
It made a successful retreat !
And Dundonald's 'orsemen, I 'ear.
Although they was mounted. Avas fleet —
In spite of the Boers in the rear,
They made a successful retreat !
350 SOME PiECENT POEMS.
We seen they had set us a trap
And baited it round and about,
And so to avoid a mishap,
We 'urried himniejiately out.
Our fire they hendeavored to draw.
But we cunningly scorned to attack —
'T would done your heyes good if you *d saw
The courage with w'ich we marched back.
Dundonald, 'e cared not a straw;
Of bravery showed 'e no lack.
'T would done your heyes good if you 'd saw
The courage with w'ich 'e marched back !
I 'm crossing the river un'urt ;
We 've captured the bridge where we came.
W'ich 'ero 'as greatest desert
Hit might be hinvijus to name.
The Boers are behind in their ways —
Behind the Turk, Spaniard, and Euss,
And maybe behind the Malays —
But certainly close behind us.
They're slow and behind in their ways;
Behind the Hun, Dago, and Kuss,
And nuiybe behind the Malays —
But certainly close behind us !
J0H:X BULL'S EXCUSE.
" In reference to my tele,L:,T;un of liie 2P,d. llio frin'Iit fever is so
railed only from i(s jiroiliicini;- ]iliysical symploins of fear. It
does not necessarily alfect tlie courage of tiiose attacked, tliougli
it temporarily incapacitates them." — Modder Eiver special in
T.oiKloii Post.
My soldiers at the Cape bar sick an" ailin" ;
No remedies, thev sav is to lie "ad ;
SOME EECENT POEMS. 351
The beastly fit haceounts fer all their failin' —
They 've got the new fright-fever — got it bad !
My barmy is a standin' bon the quiet,
The billness 'as disabled hevery lad ;
It hain't the plague, nor yet it hain't the diet —
They 've got the new fright-fever — got it bad !
Xo fright, not fight. Hi would not be mistaken.
Their fightin' fever's lessened, let me add —
They wish to come back 'ome — they feel forsaken —
They 've got the new fright-fever — got it bad !
At Spion Kop, Dundee, and Modder Eiver.
In khaki-puttee uniform or plaid,
Our'eroes is a shakin' in a shiver —
They 've got the new fright-fever — got it bad !
It hain't at hall their courage that is lackin' ;
They 're braver than a lion when it 's mad ;
It "s this disease that makes 'em keep a backin' —
They 've got the new fright-fever — got it bad !
Just like that nawsty mesmerism — horrid I —
It fills 'em full of feelm's that is sad —
Disables heavry squad from trekin' forred--
They 've got the new fright-fever — got it bad !
It hain't the doctors needed, nor the nurses,
Xir yet the quinine pill or liver-pad.
This malady haceounts for hall reverses — •
They 've got the new fright-fever — got it bad !
352 SOME EECEXT POEMS.
LIBERTY.
Sung at the Pro-Boer Mass-Meetings. Air: "America."
Thrice-glorious Liberty —
Thou mak'st the nations free —
To thee we sing.
Where'er thy martyr dies
'Neath Afric's sunny skies.
Once more, arise ! arise !
Thy succor bring.
Thy twin republics bless;
0;, solace their distress !
Be thou their stay.
Where, o'er the shining sands.
With outstretched, bloody hands.
Assassin England stands
Above her prey.
Keep Kruger's hero band ;
Keep all his chosen land
Along the Yaal :
Walk by the widow's side.
Be thou the orphans' guide;
May they in faith abide —
0, keep them all !
Watch thou with Joubert's soul,
Nor (loul)t the final goal;
"Ring loud the kucll
Of tyranny and wrong ;
Make Farmer Botlia strong,
And sing thy joyful song
In Cronje's cell !
SOME RECENT POEMS. 353
IK THE TEANSVAAL.
Fighting for th}^ harried land,
Oom Paul!
Leader of a patriot band,
Oom Paul!
Fearless we behold thee stand
Where the crowned assassin's hand
Crimsons all thy peaceful strand,
Oom Paul ! Oom Paul !
Freedom's cause is ours and thine,
Oom Paul !
Ecce signum ! 'T is the sign !
Oom Paul !
Though the powers of hell comlDine,
In that blessed cause divine
Draw the sword and fire the mine,
Oom Paul ! Oom Paul !
For ourselves, we plead to thee,
Oom Paul !
To no tyrant bend the knee,
Oom Paul !
Every blow for liberty,
By the far-off southern sea
Helps to make the nations free,
Oom Paul ! Oom Paul !
By the sword thy fathers drew,
Oom Paul !
By the hireling hordes they slew,
Oom" Paul !
As the freedom-loving few
Spurned the despot's myriad crew,
354 SOME EECENT POEMS.
To their oaths and hojDes be true,
Oom Paul ! Oom Paul !
Sing the battle-hymn of yore,
Oom Paul !
Kiss the flag thy fathers bore,
Oom Paul!
Chase the butchers to the shore;
Bathe thy falchion in their gore.
Bury them where breakers roar,
Oom Paul ! Oom Paul !
WITH CLAEK.
The songs of June were in the sky,
Its fragrance on the winds, when I
Started one morn from home on my
Midsummer lark.
Three months old Europe's air to try —
I went with Clark.
O'er ISTeptune's realm, through Erin's strand.
Across St. Andrew's moistened land,
To where St. George the vista spanned
With mead and Park,
Moved on our ha])])y tourist band —
We went with Clark.
Paris — its grandeur and its glee —
The A1])S that made tlie Switzer free —
Fair Venice, lifting o'er tlie sea
The domes of Mark.
Naples, its crater and its flea
AVe saw with Clark.
SOME EECENT POEMS. 355
All generous nature seemed to smile —
Erom mountain peak and grassy isle —
As day by day and mile by mile
From dawn to dark.
O'er Ehine, Po, Tiber, Jordan, Nile,
We strayed with Clark.
wondrous tour ! golden da3's
That set our feet in ancient ways !
How much the happy hour allays
Of care and cark
And turns the genial heart to praise —
We Avent with Clark.
A"^ guide, philosopher and friend ! "
May some such helpful soul attend
And Fate such gracious service send
When I embark
With Charon at my journey's end.
As when with Clark.
WITH GEL AT.*
Friendly word in starting
From the shrine we're at;
Here's our hand at parting,
Boniface Gelat.
Admirable tal)le.
Wine and fruit galore,
Camels in the stable,
Donkeys at the door.
Spacious rooms and airy.
Order without fuss.
On leavine; the liotel in Jerusalem for liome.
356 SOME EECENT POEMS.
Clean white beds with nary
Occupant but us.
Eefuge from abomi-
Nable fluid stuff,
Sweet rain filtered from a
Tank upon the roof.
Drop the inventory ;
Meagre 'tis, I " guess,"
One word tells the story —
Comfortableness.
Comfort so impeding.
We, at end of sta}^,
Find it most exceeding
Hard to get away.
Brief the blest embargo;
Till we see 3'our hat
(Fez) in fair Chicago,
Au revoir, Gelat !
SAEATOGA'S FOUNTAIN OF LIFE.
Dear Bob, come here ! Drop everything
And turn your face the river up ;
Come here and quaff at Hathorn spring —
Come here and stir your liv(M- up!
Come tipple at the Indian lank
Wliere all your conversation ])oints
To the laf^t bumper that you drank
And ends in exclamation points.
SOME EECENT POEMS. 357
Now Bob, don't dawdle ! Hurry ujd !
Jump right aboard the night express.
And haste to sip the nectar cup
Whose merits I can't quite express,
A cup that cheers the langiud soul
Of visitor or denizen
And makes him oft renew the bowl
Of Nature's choicest benison.
Yes, brother, yes ! As you have heard,
You drink three Hathorn serial.
And feel like flying like a bird
Around the dome ethereal.
It cures dysjaepsia, headache, gout,
Insomnia and anxiety.
And turns your gizzard inside out
And fits you for society.
It braces up the fluttering heart;
It banishes torpidity;
It makes the peristalsis start,
And sweetens your acidity;
For jDutting tonics in the blood
It beats the pharmacopeia.
Come share with me the joyous flood
And I shall have some hope o' you !
Fair Hygeia brews the draught divine
And Esculapius blesses it;
Come haste and sip the heavenly Avine
As Vulcan upward presses it ;
For when the Hathorn fountain laughs.
In spite of doubting Thomases
It fills with joy whoever quafl^s
And always keeps its promises.
358 SOME EECENT POEMS.
IN 1899.
The Hebrides are off old Scotia's strand ;
Tlie "' blue Symplegades " that Byron sung,
And Sporades and Cyclades are fanned
By gentler gales, the Isles of Greece among.
" Eename me now ! " we hear free Cuba cry —
" Call me Cantharides — the Spanish fly ! "
NOTHING NEW UNDER THE SUN.
When Gutenberg and Faust arrayed
Their symbol types in line,
John Chinaman spoke up and said :
" The art has long been mine ;
My ancestors arranged them so
Some 20,000 years ago.'"
Yet minus books, in primal dark,
John sprawls his scrawl and makes his mark.
When Watt had Aveddod steel to steam
And made the bol)l)ins sing,
John Chinaman remarked : '" I deem
That trick an ancient thing;
The Flowery Land had such a show
Some 20,000 years ago."
And yet the whole Celestial band
Still spin, as Hagar did, by hand.
When Stcjilienson and Fulton tied
The ])iston to a wheel.
And round the cnrtli bade Commerce ride
With wings upon its heel,
SOME KECENT POEMS. 359
John said : " My people traveled so
Some 20,000 years ago.''
Yet still, as when the race began,
They ahvays tote the old sedan.
When Thought first learned the way to fly
On Morse's telegraph.
John shook his pigtail in reply.
Observing with a laugh :
" This thing to China made ko-tow
Some 20,000 years ago;
But talkee — talkee all about —
It was a bore ; we drove it out."
When Edison from Nature stole
Her secrets, one by one,
To Matter gave a tongue and soul.
To Night a blazing sun,
John said : " Our fathers used to know,
Some 20,000 years ago.
These miracles, but, useless quite.
We let them vanish out of sight."
When our big cannon sent a shell
Through miles a half a score,
John said : " That's tolerably well
For modern rifle bore;
But we made powder, don't you know.
Some 20,000 years ago ! "
Yet cross-bows China strung once more
To crush Japan in '9-1.
When Queen Chicago rose and spent
Her millions — royal sight !
To show the world the continent
Columbus brought to light,
360 SOME EECENT POEMS.
John said : " When we were out to row
Some 20,000 years ago.
We ran against Fu Sang one clay;
' No good ' we found, and skipped away.
Say, John, 0, claimant, almond-eyed !
There's one thing older far
Than Faustus' type and Morse's pride
And Fulton's magic car.
Than Taj Mahal and China's wall-
Yea, older, older far than all ;
They name this canting, shamming, sly
And hoary-headed thing — a Lie.
THE WOELD POWEE— A SOEEY 'UN.
A crocodile upon the Nile
Lay dreaming in the sun,
And monstrous fat and strong he gat,
And life was jolly fun.
For he was king from hank to hank,
And little 'gators ate and drank
And wiggled round Avith many a prank.
Because he held the conqueror's rank
And was afraid of none.
He winked an eye and heaved a sigh
And murmured " Wo is me !
I long for more ! I'll go ashore !
'Tis Destiny's decree.
Old jieaceful Nilus 1 command.
But I would hoss it on the huid —
I shall 1)0 sad till I expand.
And swipe what over conies id hand —
A World Power 1 will be ! "
SOME EECENT POEMS. 361
A fragile boat he saw afloat,
And swallowed it straightway,
And said " I will climb up the hill
And hunt some nobler prey;
I'll kill the wild behemoth yet!
I would I had a dragon met ! "
Then up the bank he tried to get
To where the panting donkeys sweat
And starving camels lay.
He said "That Ijoat, I beg to note,
Was difficult to munch.
Though such a bit of food as it
I hesitate to crunch,
The Saurian's burden I must bear;
'Tis Providential I am here.
E'en though my diet be severe.
And r perhaps have had a mere
Torpedo for my lunch."
" Torpedo ! " Yes ; Ah, fatal guess !
What grief was on his brow !
For dynamite Avas in its tail,
And powder in its bow !
He felt a fearsome stomach-ache;
He felt his mortal being shake ;
He felt his jaws and wish-1)one l)reak,
As he exj^loded with a quake,
And all his debris filled the Xile—
Where is that Saurian now?
3(52 SOME EECENT POEMS.
DECIUS.
Deeds like years go round and round.
Ere the mighty Caesars came
Lo ! the hero's blood aflame,
And his brow with glory crowned!
Decius wrought a deed, they say,
Like this deed of yesterday.
" Decius ! " came the Sibyl's call.
" Thou must gave a life for Eome
And the holy shrines of home ;
Heed the summons, one for all !
Noble Decius. thou must die,
Ere the host of Pyrrhus fly ! "'
Decius heard and laughed with glee
At the oracle divine ;
Drank the consecrated wine.
Cried " Ye Powers, accept of me ! "
Then, as loud the trumpets rang,
Down the battle's crater sprang.
How the host of Pyrrhus fled
As the autumn leaves amain
Scatter in the hurricane !
Plow the gods, by Victory led,
Bore across the bloody field
Decius on a conqueror's shield !
Ages to oblivion float.
When the Sil)yl calls lo-day
Off the Antillean bay
"Who will choke the harbor's throat?"
Eings voung Decius' quick replv
" I will do It ere I die ! "
SOME EECENT POEMS. 3C;^
Plunges down the flaming hell ;
Drinks the battle's fiery breath;
Calmly from the chasm of death
Comes the greeting, " All is well ! "
So we know, on sea or shore,
Decius lives for evermore.
THE FLOATING HEAESE.
The New York papers of Se]). 14, 1903, report the army trans-
port Kilpatrick arrived from the Philippines, 340 officers and men
of the United States Fiftli Infantry and twentj-six women on
her deck and 303 soldiers dead under the hatches. "' The voyage
was a merry one, for all had agreed to dismiss sorrow the day
they sailed for home. They stocked up with liquors at Singapore
and indulged in a ' Dutch dinner,' which would not bear repeti-
tion. There were two bands. They had suppers, dances, and
balls, punctuated with varied revelry, and tlie last Thursday
night got up a masquerade which surpassed the fondest expecta-
tions of its promoters."
She dipjDed her flag to the farewell gun
In the shade of the mango trees
And turned her prow to the setting sun
On the swell of the eastern seas,
And faces paled as she westward drove
In the light of the afterglow —
Three hundred stalking the deck above
And three hundred dead below.
" Xow let's 1)0 merry ! '' the ca})tain said ;
" We laugh at the skipper's curse —
The living must live though the dead lie dead.
So here's to the floating hearse !
And here's to the dying that huddle in crowds
AVhere pestilent breezes blow.
364 SOME EECENT POEMS.
And here's to the ghosts that grin in the shrouds,
And here's to the hoys helow !
'^ Of course we are sorry for those beneath —
No mourners sadder than we —
But say what right has the tyrant Death
To stifle the shouts of glee?
Then bring forth beer and the Pomery sec
And the tipple of ancient Crow,
And drink to the fellows awake on deck
And the fellows asleep below ! "
They hear the brazen band rejoice
As the veterans homeward come —
And piccolo's pipe and cornet's voice
And flute and fiddle and drum —
They sing of treachery, torture, love,
And 2)lunder and raid and woe,
And a wild shriek comes from the spars above.
And a wail from the hold below.
"Now form quadrille!" is the merry call;
They sway as the prompter liids ;
" Now swing your partners — l)alance all ! "
Just over the coffin lids.
The shrouded listen beneath their feet
And whisper "■ A masquer's show ! "
And groans from above the dancers greet
And a lau2;h from the dead below.
J
SOME EECENT POEMS.
365
A BUSHEL OF HOENETS.
Brigadier-General Allen. Chief af tlie American Constabulary
in the Philippines, in his annual report to the War Department,
declares that peace there is a long way off and that the 18,000
soldiers there in 1904 should be retained.
I shouted " Hello ! " to the farmer man.
And " Hello, stranger ! '' he yelled to me.
His hair was long and his face was tan^
And through the thicket he wildly ran
And seemed to be chasinsr a bumble bee.
" Hey, there ! " I cried ; " Hold up. I say ! "
His nose was swelled, his eyes were sore;
" Can't stop ! Must gather a pint to-day ! "
He struck the air as in frenzied fray,
And gaily shouted, " I've got one more ! "
He halted a space and wiped his brow.
" What is it," I said, " that you so much prize ? "
" Hornets," he answered. " I'm keepin' a vow ! —
I see one — yip ! he's stung me now —
Condemn ! Goldern it ! Confound my eyes ! "
He stanched those orbs with his blue coat-tail
i\.nd swore in a faint and wheedling way.
And muttered aloud as he swung his pail,
'' They sting like fire, but I must not fail
To gather at least a pint to-day."
The stars on his breast were broAvn with rust;
The stripes on his legs were soiled full sore;
His long gray beard was a pouch of dust.
I said : " Old man, 3'ou are sane, I trust.
But why do you catch 'em, and why want more ? "
366 SOME EECEXT POEMS.
He pulled a barbed sting out of his nose,
And his face turned red as he answered me,
" Kind Providence sent me to deal with those,
And so they've got to be caught, I s'pose —
The sacredest sort of duty," said he.
" But what," asked I, " are you trying to do ? "
He answered and wij)ed his bloodshot eye,
" Give liberty, stranger, tried and true.
To the barbarous hordes that I piirsue —
I'm bound to give 'em their freedom or die ! "
" They'd find it," I said, " if you'd depart."
" It wouldn't be the genuine thing," said he ;
" My duty is to teach 'em the art
Of making honey, to sell in the mart
And furnish vittles for them and me."
"Can you do that, farmer man?"
" I thought so, stranger, a year ago,
But now, I swun, don't know as I can.
These yellow divils opposin' the plan.
Each swingin' a red-hot poker, you know.
" There's some — right there ! " and he brushed his ear,
And he slapped his thigh where the hornets strayed.
And madly cried, " I'd hike out of here
Ef T wan"t sen red of the terrible fear
'Ut somebody'd say ' Uncle Sam's afraid ! "
"I ain't afraid. l»ut. as you say.
A costlier business can't be found ;
It's all outgo without any pay —
I sweat and woi'ry and fiiiiu> all day
A-chasin' these ])esky critters around.
"I don't Avant them ; they don't want me;
Tliey keep a-findin' out where I'm at ;
SOME RECENT POEMS. 367
A bushel of hornets, as all agree,
Ain't worth as much as a single bee;
But folks might laugh — I can't stand that ! "
He waved his flag and he wiped his nose,
And his face was flushed as he turned to me,
" Kind Providence sent me to capture those,
No matter how much they may sting, I s'pose —
We're sort of catchin' each other ! " said he.
The stars on his breast were brown with rust;
The stripes on his legs were stained full sore ;
tlis long gray beard was a pouch of dust ;
I said : " Old man, 3'ou are sane, I trust,
But why do you catch 'em, and why want more ? "
THE OLD SCHOOLHOITSE.
The old red schoolhouse on the hill —
I see it wheresoe'er I go —
The forge, the brook, the singing mill
The lot where apple-blossoms blow, —
I smell their fragrance 3^et, although
New visions flit, as visions will.
Old Memory plays such tricks Avith me !
Beyond the pomp of lettered men
And arrogance of art. I see
That teacher tall who comes again
With smile and kindly voice as when
I learned my letters at his knee.
"lAliene'er the smile his face forsook.
And loud he summoned to his side
568 SOME EECEXT POEMS.
An urchin with neglected book.
Abundant love still conquered pride —
The lightness of his arm belied
The awful sternness of his look I
Above the turmoil of the chase,
The victim's groan, the victor's cheer,
The clang of Mammon's maddening race.
And Pleasure's laugh and Sorrow's tear,
Once more his gentle word I hear —
Once more I see his j^atient face.
New visions flit, as phantoms will :
The Parthenon and Hadrian's hall,
King David's tower, Siloam's rill,
And Memnon's lips and Karnac's wall ;
I see, behind and through them all,
The old red schoolhouse on the hill.
Beneath that hill the twilight hour
Fell on the smithv dark and low.
Where, syml)ol of mysterious power.
Our rustic Vulcan, blow on ])low.
Still wrought, his fiery arm aglow —
His hammer in a starry shower !
The old red schoolhouse ! — 'round about,
A listening field of daisies Avhite
'\'^niose hearts responded to the shout
That told of jocund spirits light.
And thrilled with sweet regret at night
^Yheu earth was still and sclionl was out!
In liiirrying throngs I often see
That master Avbom I idly praise —
(I learned my letters at his knee — )
SOME RECENT TOEMS. 369
And catch a glimpse in crowded ways
Of them who in the far-oft' da3^s
Sat on the lowest bench with me.
And one was there whose sacred kiss,
Seal of a sister's loving heart,
My yonng step led from aught amiss —
Fair child of Nature's artless art,
Now sleeping in the field apart —
Sweet acre of the Silences.
So Fancy plays her tricks with me !
While that old schoolhouse on the hill
Forever anchored seems to be,
New visions fade as phantoms will.
And that friend, kind and patient — still
I learn my lessons at his knee.
THE OLD HOME DAYS.
Old stone door-step ! Blessings on you ! You have suf-
fered no " repair."
Greetings! Blessings! I'd have known you if I'd met
you anywhere !
Sixty years and more have faded since you anchored by
the door
Where the Avide back porch was shaded by the ancient
sycamore
Waving soft through memory's haze,
In the dear home days.
Old stone door-step, I recall you ! Father found you on
the hill.
And he said, " By George ! I'll haul you where a'ou'II
make a noble sill.
70 SOME EECEXT POEMS.
Summat rough, but might be rougher; 'nough sight
smoother 'n me I guess,
All of us that toil and suffer, must be wrinkled more or
less."
That was just like father's ways
In the old home days.
So he hitched the oxen to you in the path the water wore,
Slowly slew you 'round and drew you to the ojoen kitchen
door.
Where the crowbar made you worry, and the heavy iron
mace —
And I laughed to see you hurry as you wriggled into place.
And he said, " I'll bet it stays ! ""
In the old home days !
And 3^ou stayed, 0, stair of granite, of our home and life
a part ;
Not a throne upon the planet touches so the truant heart.
As fond memory backward glances through the lal)yrintli
of 3'ears,
'Bound thee troop the pictured fancies mid the laughter
and the tears.
And we thread the tangled maze
To the old home days !
0, the orchard and the garden, and the elms arrayed in
state ;
Still one giant, lilce a warden, towers l)esi(le the ojien gate!
How he captured us and swung us — 0. the mad and inerry
wight —
Through the tangled liranches flung us till avc shouted
wilh delight f
tltc joyance of the i)lays.
In tlie long houie days!
Peaceful hours ! The twilight shadows of the harvest
evening gray
SOME KECENT POEMS. 371
Brought the blossoms of the meadows in the odors of the
ha}',
And the cows from out the clover tinkled that the day was
done.
And the bees went droning over with their golden armor
on —
Through the sunset's fading rays
In the sweet home days !
Hung above you on the trellis were the concords in the
dew,
Growing sweeter for the chalice as the jocund summer flew,
And you heard the water tumble where the river breaks in
twain,
And the rumble and the gruml)le of the grinding of the
grain.
And you watched each changing phase
Of the old home days !
Dear old door-step ! the j^rances of the children on the
grass.
And the gambols and the dances of the laughing lad and
lass,
And the songs we sung and chanted as the hours of even-
ing sped !
0, the sacred spot is haunted with the faces of the dead,
And the echoes of the lays
Sung in old home days.
Memories throng. The heart is SAvelling till the pain has
found relief;
Holy Sorrow's pearls are welling from the blessed fount of
grief.
For tlie music hushed and banished, for the voices round
the door
And the footprints that have vanished from the path for-
evermore.
As through blinding mists we gaze.
Toward the old home davs !
WRITINGS OF W. A. CROFFUT, PH. D.
History of Connecticut
During the Rebellion.
891 pages ; 58 illustra-
tions. Price $5. Led-
yard Bill, New York,
publisher, 1869.
Helping Hand eor Ameri-
can Homes. Introduc-
tion by Horace Greeley.
821 pages; 117 illustra-
tions. Price $4. Wil-
staoli & Co., Cincinnati,
publishers, 1870.
Bourbon Ballads ; Humor-
ous Political Songs.
100 pages. N. Y. Trib-
une, 1881. Second edi-
tion. 20 cents.
Deseret, or a Saint's Af-
flictions. An opera.
Music by Dudley Buck.
First produced in Brook-
lyn and New York, 1880.
A Midsummer Lark (verse). Henry Holt & Co., publishers,
1883. (Leisure Hour Series, No. 150.) Pp. 270. Price $1.25.
The Vanderbilts and the Story of Their Fortune. Belford,
Clarke & Co., publishers. New York and Chicago. Pp. 325.
Price $1.50.
The Prophecy, and Other Poems. Lovell Bros., New York,
publishers. Pp. 180. Price 50 cents.
The Lord's Day — Or Man's? A public discussion of ^the Sunday
question with Rev. Byron Sunderland, D. D. Introduc-
tion by Col. Robertt G. Ingersoll. The Truth Seeker, New
York, publisher, 1897. Pp. 152. Price 25 cents.
The Open Gate of Dreamland. A treatise on hypnotism. North
American Review, 1888.
Pamphlets: St. Peter's Mistake; Religion in Our Colonies;
A Sea-Gull ; Remarkable Funeral Service ; Gods and Other
Ghosts; Faith and Fraud — ^the Holy Sepulchre; The Crimes
of Johovah ; What in Place of Religion ; An Apology for
Allegories; Messiah, Man or Myth? The Truth Seeker,
New York City, publisher.
Fifty Years in Camp and Field. From the diary of Major
General Ethan Allen Hiitchcock, through three iwars. Pp.
690. In press. $3.
Folks Next Door. With recent topical poems. Washington,
1905. $2.
Labor's Riddle Guessed At. A dialogue. In press.
A Historical Novel. In press.
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