■nf^A /fff'^' ^ --=-^' "^^^'^'^^-^ A^^^^ ' ^'"''ti^ '§?,^ i » \7r:^-4^^ ( ^HC^i.:k^& ■■■.•^v.iW«^^^ ■" '^yms^ ii ^ n -<_ The Earth Girdled The World as Seen To- Day BY A Rev. T. DeWitt Talmage, D. D. T ni^ .t^^' Dr. Talmage's description of his journey to THE SANDWICH ISLANDS THE SAMOAN GROUP NEW ZEALAND AUSTRALIA. hNDIA CEYLON, EGYPT BIBLICAL ISLES OF THE MEDITERRANEAN RUSSIA, ENGLAND SCOTLAND, IRELAND ♦■ ,*-, ..^M^^^^ Embracing SCENES AND EXPERIENCES AMONG SEMI-CIVILIZED AS WELL AS CULTURED PEO- PLES OF THE WORLD. MAGNIFICENTLY ILLUSTRATED WITH 4OO PHOTOGRAPHIC VIEWS And Eight Plates in the new Photographic Color Process, representing every feature of Dr. Talmage's Tour. Sold by Subscription Only. BUTLER & ALGER, NEW HAVEN, CONN. , ■.»„ -. •* Entered^ according to Act of Congress, in the year 1896, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. AU, RIGHTS RSSBRVKD. THIS ENGRAVINGS in this volume- were made from origitial photogrnphs, and are specially protected by Copyright, and notice-is hereby given that any ptrrson or persons guilty of reproducing, or infringing the Copyright in any way, will be dealt witb according to law. v>ll 71 J At ♦.hor's Preface PUBLISHER'S PREFACE. The popularity of Dr. Talniage— His pastorate in Brooklyn— The tabernacles which he has built — The immense amount of -nork he does— His decision to visit foreign lands — His friends determine to celebrate the twentj'-fifth year of his Brooklyn pastorate — A wonderful silver jubilee — Description of the ceremonies— An international commemoration of the event— Distinguished participants from other countries— Speeches by the Doctor — Telegrams and cablegrams of felicitation— Destruction by fire of the great Talmage Tabernacle — A dreadful conflagration — An amazing record of fiery visitations — An interview with Dr. Talmage 35-54 CHAPTER I. TRANSCONTINENTAL. Departure of Dr. Talmage upon his tour of the world — Retrospection and war memories — A visit to Mammoth Cave — .\cross America to the wonderlands of Yosemite — The Yellowstone Park — Marvels of the Grand Canon - Some beautiful descriptions, 55-6? CHAPTER II. FOLLOWING THE SUN. An accident — Mount of the Hoh' Cross — Bethels of Nature -Some queer names that approach irreverence — At the California Fair — Opening oration — Campaign of the wilderness — An incident in a sleeping car — An old lady's mistake, 68-73 CHAPTER III. PARADISE OF THE PACIFIC. All aboard for the South Sea — A grizzled captain of the Pacific — A stay on the Sandwich Islands — Some important facts — The question of annexation— Hawaiian progress Arrival at Honolulu — Cannibalism — OflBcial courtesies — A sermon in the church at Honolulu -A veritable land of flowers — Wonders and beauties of Nature — The world's greatest volcano — A convention of fiery mountains — Coronation of Kilauea, 74-79 CHAPTER IV. PRESIDENT AND QUEEN. A visit to Queen Lilliokoulani— Interviewing dusky royalty — Reception by President Dole— Establishing a new government — Both sides of Hawaiian aiTairs— A most instructive catechism and interlocution — The Royalist view — The Republican side of the case — A rational conclusion, 80-83 VI CONTENTS. CHAPTER V. AN ISLAND OF LEPERS. page. The world's heroes and heroines— Joseph Damien, the noble priest— A tribute to his godliness and self- sacrifice— Molokoi, the pest island— Regime among the lepers— Cheerful, though doomed— Story of William Ragsdale, leper — Leprosy diagnosed — Progress of the disease — Parting of the lepers from their friends— Moral lepers, 86-94 CHAPTER VI. BATTLE AND SHIPWRECK. A cyclone on the Pacific — Vision of the Samoan Islands — Among the warring factions of Samoa — Queen of the islands -Hell of the Pacific— Trade, gin and kava— How the latter is made — Malietoa, King of Samoa— Labors of the missionaries— Tattooing and ocean chromatics— Martyrdom of fashion — Inhabitants of the oceans — The voice of many waters— An apostrophe to the sea — A swocp of tornado 95-103 CHAPTER VII. UNDER THE SOUTHERN CROSS. Four stellar evangelists— A tribute to the missionaries— Some pathetic stories of self-denial and suffering- Customs of the Tahitans — Significance of the Southern Cross 104-106 CHAPTER VIH. ANTIPODEAN EXPERIENCES. Balaklava on a dining table — Reception at Auckland, New Zealand — Dashed with a bucket of water — Early voyagers— Churches and female suffrage in New Zealand— A new interpretation of the story of Adam and Eve — Reminiscences of war and peace in New Zealand — Intercontinental commerce — Charge of the Light Brigade, explanation of the blunder 107-1 12 CH.APTER IX. THE BRIGHT SIDE OF THINGS. Dr. Talmage's lecture at the Auckland Opera House— Perfections of nature— Harmonies that smother all discords— The blessings of amiability — The fault-finder— Two ways to read the same letter— The deaf man's enthusiasm— An angel in a hospital — How to distinguish a gentleman or lady— Many apt illustrations— Tittle-tattles -A bear in society— Senator Gruff and Speaker Kindly— Around the hearthstone— The "eddicated" legislator — An interesting portrait gallery— The gloomy Sunday- Habits diagnosed— Board-fence literature— The religion of wholesome exercise— Illustrative anecdotes and metaphor I I3~I34 CHAPTER X. MURDER AS A PASTIME. The aborigines of New Zealand— Massacres and cannibalism— Murder as a fine art— Experiences of early missionaries— Horrible customs — An opportunity for lecturers I35~I3° CHAPTER XI. WOMEN IN NEW ZEALAND. Women's rights ascendant— A great scarcity of women— The mountains of New Zealand— Wonderful natural terraces— Incomparable beauties wrought by eruptions— A burning mountain— A nushty cataclysm— The animal life of New Zealand— The giant Moa bird— An aviary of wondrous curiosity — A land of surprises, I39"I44 CHAPTER XII. OCEAN GATE OF AUSTRALIA. A rough sea experience— The glorious prospect of Sidney— .A remarkable harbor— In the streets of an Australian city— Sheep raising and agriculture - A post-office with chimes, I45-I50 CONTENTS. rii CHAPTER XIII. GOLD, GOLD, GOLD. page, A descent into the golden caverns of Australia — Some interesting facts about mining — Fabulous dividends — Observations on the world's money — Reckless speculations — Dr. Talmage's interests in Australia, . 151-157 CHAPTER XIV. A BAKED MISSIONARY. Among the Fiji Islanders — Harrowing experiences of a missionary — Strange customs of the island savages — Banqueting cannibals — Story of the Haggard brothers — Dramatic close of a fraternal tragedy — The hot blast of a scandal — Savagery in civilization — Gridirons of persecution 15S-163 CHAPTER XV. SHEEP BEFORE THE SHEARERS. Introduction of sheep into Australia — Some astonishing statistics — Sheep shearing by machinery — Tangled up with an adder — Capital and labor — How strikes are avoided — The lamb of sacrifice — The shepherds of Australia 164-170 CHAPTER XVI. CHAINS AND EXILE. A history of Botany Bay — Deportation of criminals — Horrors of prison life — Man's inhumanity to man — A blasted parentage — The evolution of honor — From crime to eminent respectabilitj-— Good citizens and noble manhood in Australia — The flower fields and rich vegetation of the island continent — A stroll on the beach of Botany Bay, 17I-176 CHAPTER XVII. ZOOLOGICAL WONDERS. One nugget of gold worth $50,000 — Australian cities — Metropolitan rivalries — Land of the kangaroo — Marvelous contrarieties — Birds of wondrovis habits — The laughing jackass — A pest of rabbits — A word about the bushrangers — Highwaymen of fame and how they were extirpated, I77-l8l CHAPTER XVIII. SOME B:S BLUNDERS. Reception at Melbourne — A lectiu^e before an immense audience — A dreadfulh- mixed advertisement — The University of Hard Knocks— How fortunes have been made — Varietj-of occupations — Anah-sisof pro- fessional mountebanks — Encouragement for the persistent — Concentration of effort — Amusements — Home ties — Philosoph}- in the household — Domestic economics — Strength in a wife's fidelity— Secret of contentment — A striking debit account — Mesmerism and credulity — A happy night in the country — The old-fashioned fireplace — Progress, progress— Storj- of the old engineer, 1S2-198 CHAPTER XIX. GATE OF DEPARTURE. How Dr. Talmage paid the expenses of his tour — Preaching in the Town Hall of Melbourne — A panic barely averted— Some prominent persons the Doctor met in Australia — The siege of Lucknow explained by a participant— Something about Sir Henry Parkes — Renewing old acquaintances — Good-bye to Australia 199-205 CH.\PTER XX. THE ISLE OF PALMS. The voyage to Ceylon — A land of delight to the sportsman — Nature in a profusion of both animal and vegetable life — First sight of Ceylon's emerald shores — The harbor of Colombo — Visit to a Buddhist college — The noisy ceremony in a Buddhist temple — Dr. Talmage addresses a group of natives in the street — Pillar of light and colossus of gloom, 206-2II viii CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXI. RELIGIONS, GOOD AND BAD. ' PAGE. A solemn procession - Education in Ce)-lon — The devil-worshipers — Superstition taking the part of phy- sician— Buried cities of Ceylon — Comparison between churches militant— Story of creation — Different sects among Christians confusing to Hindoos — Zoroaster, Buddha, Mahomet and Christ, 212-219 CHAPTER XXII. THE CINGALESE. Busy scenes in the streets of Colombo — Male and female natives of Ceylon — Queer people and strange customs — Cities of the past — Wonderful ruins uncovered by archjeologists — Wild animals howling through deserted halls— Sacred relics of Buddha — A gigantic tooth — Pearl fishers of Ceylon — The largest ruby in the world, 220-226 CHAPTER XXIII. ISLE OF IVORV. Munificence of Ceylon — Animal life of the Island — Flying fo.xes intoxicated — Land of the elephant — A grand hunt by royalty — JIan killed by an elephant — How a war elephant captured a city — The deadly cobra — Sacredness of the poi.sonous reptile — .^n implacable enemy — Fight between a cobra and mon- goose — Valuable trees of Ceylon, 227-233 CHAPTER XXIV. THE ENTRANCE TO INDIA. Ascent of the Hooghh- River — Interesting sights along the shores — Suspicious of the kodak — Provisions for the hot climate of India — Adaptation to changed conditions — .\ pen sketch of Calcutta -The land of idols — An interview with a fakir— Adroitness of the priest — Headquarters of Christian missions, . 234-243 CHAPTER XXV. BURNING OF THE DEAD. The capital of Hindooism — The holy city of Benares — Preparation of dead bodies for cremation — Corpses committed to the Ganges — Sacrilegious customs — Marriage in India — Treatment of wives — Manufac- ture of Hindoo gods— Condition of women in India — The ghatsof Benares — The Golden and Monkey Temples — Wonder worship of the fakirs — Devils acting as attendants to Siva — Sacred monkeys — Sumptuous marriage of two monkeys— Activity of the missionaries — Their hard work and self-denial, 244-252 CHAPTER XXVI. GREAT SNAKES! Dreadful mortality from snake-bites — A natural enemy of the cobra — Description of a battle witnessed by Dr. Talmage — How a mongoose fought and killed a cobra — A state of nervous expectancy — Reptiles make repulsive bedfellows — Worship of snakes — Snake charmers — Some chilly experiences — Uncanny things of the household, 253-258 CHAPTER XXVn. THE TRAGEDY OF LUCKNOW. A story of cruelty, heroism and horror — The Sepoy rebellion— Causes which led to the mutiny — Siege of the Residency — Dr. Tahnage's visit to the place of slaughter - Description of a battle— Braver)' of Sir Henry Lawrence — Heroic death of the General— Pathetic incidents— Horrible massacre of women and children — Instances of wonderful devotion — "The Campbells are Coming " — Life out of death, . 259-267 CHAPTER XXVIII. ANOTHER WOE IS PAST. An Iliad of woes — A mutilated and groaning procession — Death of Havelock— Life of a Christian general ^A speech that fired a regiment — The charge at Lucknow— War to the death — Story of the survivors— Atrocious customs of Hindoo,s — How the English are regarded by the natives — A suggestion to the Home Government — A banquet with heroes of the India wars — An epigrammatic order, 268-273 CONTENTS. ix CHAPTER XXIX. THE CITY OF BLOOD. ^^^^ Story of the Cawnpore massacre — Nana Sahib the monster — Something of his personaHty — Extract from a famous document — Refuge place of the hunted Christians— A brave defence — The dance of death — Alhired to destruction— Inscriptions of hope on prison walls— Nana Sahib's treachery— Twenty-eight boat loads of wonien and children butchered— The climax of diabolism— A story that makes strong hearts bleed — Punishment of the butchers— A visit to Memorial Well— The end of Nana Sahib -The lost ruby, 274-281 CHAPTER XXX. MAGNIFICENCE OF THE TAJ MAHAL. The most sumptuous structure in the world — A sublimation of all architecture— Dr. Talmage's visit to the Taj Mahal— Rapture of garden, and ecstasy of marble — A bewilderment of splendors— Description of the marvelous mausoleum— A building that cost sixty millions of dollars — Architectural miracle of all ages, 282-286 CHAPTER XXXI. DELHI, THE ANCIENT CAPITAL. Antiquity of Delhi — A rage of malignant fevers — A menagerie in a glass of water— How the natives butter toast — Provisions for India travel — A dramatic story of flight and murder — Heroism of the Wagen- treibers - Siege of Delhi— John Nicholson, hero Description of the fight at Cashmere Gate — Palace of the Moguls— The Peacock Throne, which cost one hundred and fifty millions of dollars — A coronet em- blazoned with the Kohinoor diamond — Floors reddened with slaughter — Mosque of Jumma Musjid — Relic? of Mahomet— Wonders wrought at the order of Shah Jehan — A dream of the past 2S7-299 CHAPTER XXXII. CITY OF ELEPHANTS. A visit to Jevpore — Description of the city Street scenes — The king's herd of elephants — Invasion of the sand — Temple of the Sun — Zoological and botanical gardens — Palace of the Maharaja — The Prince Jey Singh — Magnificence heaped with splendors — The deserted city of Amber — Dr. Talmage describes his ride on an elephant's back — Dazzling beauties, 300-306 CHAPTER XXXIH. THE FIRE WORSHIPERS— RELIGION OF THE PARSEES. Something about the Zend Avesta— Beliefs and superstitions — An interview with a Parsee priest — A lovely garden — The Tower of Silence — Disposition of the dead — Vultures at the feast — A Parsee priest defends the custom of exposing corpses — Democracy of the tomb — A Parsee wedding ceremony — Condition of women in India — Christianity contrasted with Hindooism 307-314 CHAPTER XXXIV. UNDERSIDE OF INDIA. A visit to the Elephants Caves — Profusion of vine and flower — A cobra by the way — A temple of porphyry Colossal statues of the Hindoo gods— Hindoo mythology— A great congress of Gods — Work of the missionaries, 315-3I& CHAPTER XXXV. THE PYRAMID. A stroll through Cairo— Strange emotions — Ascent of the pyramid — A view from the apex — Description of this wonder of centuries — The uses it serves— Some reflections — Who was Cheops? — The ravages of time — The voice of God, 319-330 X CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXXVI. THE ARTERY OF EGYPT. page. Wonderful ancient river — Efforts to discover its source — A fulfillment of prophec)' — A trip up the Nile — Relics of mightiness — Alexandria of the past — Death of Hypatia — Destruction of the city — Spoiling the Egyptians — Bible records along the Nile — A land of graves — A stop at the ruins of Memphis — Temple of the Sun — Hundred gated Thebes — Testimony of the dead city — War about a book — Mar- velous Karuac - Dust to Dust, 331-341 CHAPTER XXXVII. THE BRICK-KILNS OF EGYPT. The mother of nations — Observance of old customs — Brutalities of Egyptian ta.skmasters — Tears and blood — Pharaoh's works — Taxation and slavery — Joseph the prime minister — Moses a saviour — God works in mysterious ways— Deification of the Nile — Journey of the Israelites — The Red Sea Cataclysm — Mohammedanism in Egypt— Sarcophagi of monarchs — Pharaohs of the present, 342-351 CHAPTER XXXVIII. THE ARCHIPELAGO. The Sphinx — Something grander than the pyramids— Good-bye to Eg5'pt — Among islands of the New Testament— In a harbor of Cyprus— Resurrected treasures — Wonderful history of Cyprus — Threading the islands of the Grecian cluster — Island of Rhodes — The great statue of Apollo — Following St. Paul — Isle of Patmos— Scene of the apocalyptic vision — Miserable loneliness of St. John — Panorama of the cavern — The broken seals 352-358 CHAPTER XXXIX. EPHESUS. The martyrdom of Polycarp — Bible porphecy fulfilled — St. Paul and the mob — The wonderful Stadium — St. Paul before the lions — The magnificence of ancient Ephesus — Temple of Diana — Wonder upon wonder — Architecture that dazzles all ages — Description of the grandest statue ever set up — Worship of Diana — Grave of the holy mother — The magic arts — A treasure house of nations — Decline of Ephesus — Altars, temples and gymnasiums, 359-368 CHAPTER XL. THE CROWN OF GREECE. Arrival at Athens — City of culture and beauty — A walk through the streets — The Stadium at Athens -A slaughter of wild beasts — Description of the Acropolis — Victor}- without wings — Marvelous Pantheon — Oh, wonderful works of men — St. Paul on Mars Hill — A splendid comparison — Resurrection and judgment — An astounding scene — Voice of Mars Hill — Vanished glories— Reminiscences, 369-379 CHAPTER XLI. POMPEII. Volcanic illumination— The mysteries of Vesuvius — At the corpse of a dead city — Description of Pompeii — Temples of the buried city — Pomp and beauty overwhelmed in a night — Review of Pompeii in its glory — The last day — Vesuvius in awful eruption — Avalanche of ashes and fiery cinders — A scene of unparalleled fury — Resurrection of the buried city — Reading the story of the ruins— Disentombment of galleries, rare specimens and bodies — The sins of a city — Verification of the prophecies— America for God, 380-387 CHAPTER XLII. THE COLOSSEUM. A visit to the eternal city — In the footsteps of Paul — The Mamertine dungeon — A miracle of architecture — Description of the Colosseum — Gladiatorial combats — Bloody beasts and dj-ing men — Horror upon liorror — Heroism of Telemachus — Savagery of modern civilization— Evils of present day politics — Cruelties and oppressions — Solitude of the ruined Colosseum — Monarchs arraigned before judgment -Mercy 38S-396 CONTENTS. xi CHAPTER XLIII. MY RECEPTION IN THE RUSSIAN PALACE. page. Misconceptions of Russians - Slanders and vituperation —Cause of this malignant falsification— The cholera incubus— Sample falsehoods— A plain question — Russia no worse than other nations — An optimistic picture— Right ideas about Russia— How that great country has ever been America's best friend — Meaning of Russian fleets in American waters— Importance of cultivating Russia's friendship— Calum- nies about the Emperor— Some apt comparisons— Emancipation of the serfs— Merciful disposition of Alexander II- The devil of persecution— Falsehoods about Siberia and the convicts— Trial by jury — Charitable organizations— A charity that challenges all history — Invited to meet the Emperor— An interview in the palace of Peterhof — Emperor Alexander's cordial hospitality— Description of Alex- ander III— The Empress and her children— A visit to Moscow— Surprising things in that ancient city -Accession of Nicholas the Second, 397-430 CHAPTER XLIV. GOSPEL OF BREAD. The famine in Russia -Dr. Talmage takes a ship-load of flour to St. Petersburg— His reception by the Mayor — Food for the stars-iug— Presentation of a superb tea-set 431-432 CHAPTER XLV. GREAT BRITAIN. Painting in cheerful colors— Good words about England— A generous welcome— Samples of English weather— A criticism on growlers— Disagreeable persons are everywhere— Muscle and digestion — Down in a coal mine — Something about men who delve in the earth— Ruins of Kirkstall Abbey — Spirits of the past— A tragic romance— An interview with Gladstone— A ramble with the grand old man through Hawarden forest— Story of a wounded soldier— Discussion on home rule— John Ruskin — An accidental meeting with the great author — Influence of his writings 433-450 CHAPTER XLVI. SCOTLAND. Charming scenerv-— Baptism of a Scotch baby— Robert McCheyne, the great preacher— Remarks about the Scotch character— John Bright— Our exports to the British Isles— The Highland show— A sail on the River Tay — Wishart and the assassin — Heroes of the past — Ruins of famous castles — False opin- ions about aristocracy — Interesting facts about famous persons— The midnight charities of London — Lord Kintore among the poor— A visit to Wales— Land of unpronounceable names— Literature of the Welsh— In a car with a maniac— An hour of terror— Some diff'erences between America and Eng- land—English homes and resorts— A tribute to the Rev. Robertson— The Isle of Wight— Famous places of England — Ruins of Uvicanium— Wonderful recoveries — A queer story about Peverel and the devil— A trip to Ireland— The magnetic eloquence of O'Connell — Ireland of to-day compared with Ireland of the last century— Tom Galvin, the hangman— Tiger Roche's career— A better time com- ing—Belfast and Londonderry— The giant's amphitheatre and Dunkerry cave— Traditions and description of the Giant's Causeway 451-485 CHAPTER XLVII. ON THE HOME STRETCH. Life on the ocean wave— The discomforts of traveling— Some thanks for hardships endured— A pajan of the sea— Impressions of the journey— Troubles that beset us— Tales of travelers- America the land of blessings— Labor in America compared with that in other countries— Republic America contrasted with Monarchical Europe— Princely salaries to sinecures -The Thanksgiving table being set in Amer- j<^a— Tlie civic and the military, the political and the religious— Ecstatic sight of native land— New York harbor— Conclusion of the journey— An apostrophe to home 486-503 My Palanquin and Bearers frontispiece. Royal Elephant Carriage Used by Dr. Tahnage iij India, . . xii Carved Representation of Heathen Deity, . . . xvi Carving in Balcony, Kyaung, at Mgingydn, East idia Id 34 Celebration of the Silver Anniversary of Dr. Tal- niage's Brooklyn Pastorate, .... 37 Mv Traveling Companion, Frank DeWitt Talniage, 48 The Tabernacle Before the Fire, 49 Grand Caiion of the Colorado 52 Photograph of Dr. Tahnage, 55 Lookout Mountain, 57 River St3-x, Mannnoth Cave, 59 Main Street, Salt Lake Cit}-, 60 Mount of the Holy Cross 61 Denver, from the Capitol, 63 Broadmoor Casino, Colorado Springs, .... 64 Pulpit Rock, Utah 65 Grand Caiion of the Colorado, 66 The Devil's Slide, Utah 67 The Breaking Railroad Bridge, 68 ClitT House, and Seal Rocks 70 Chinatown, San Francisco 71 Captain Morse, of the "Alameda," 74 The " Alameda " Passing the Golden Gate, . . 75 Dr. Tahnage on the " Alameda," 76 Harbor of Honolulu 77 Night Scene in the Crater of Kilauea 78 Ex-Queen Lilliokoulani 80 S. P. Dole, President of Hawaii, 81 National Palace, Honolulu, 82 Main Street, Honolulu, 84 Hawaiian Girls, 85 Princess Napilonius' Residence, ... .... 87 Remains of King Kalakanu L3'ing in State, ... 88 Statue of Kaniehameha I., 89 Kaufohe Park, Honolulu, 90 Captain Cook's Monument, gr Rice Cultivation, Hawaii, 92 A Native Feast, Hawaii 94 An Aspirant to the Throne of Samoa, ..... 96 Samoan Residence, 98 King and Queen of Samoa, 99 Burmese Mother and Son, Showing Sample of Tat- tooing .Smong Uncivilized Races, 100 Samoan Girls Making Kava lor Samoan Girls Playing Cards 102 Samoan Country Residence 103 A Maori Chief, New Zealand, 104 A Maori Dwelling 105 Rhinoceros Hunters, , loS PAGE. Maori Couple, New Zealand no Suburbs of Auckland, in Maori Widows, .... 114 Fijian Houses, 116 Milford Sound, New Zealand, iiS A Lady of the .-Archipelago, 1 20 Banana Grove, Fiji, 122 New Zealand Scenery, 124 Shipping an Elephant 126 Public Buildings, Sidney, Australia 130 Sidney Tram Car, ... 134 Dr. Tahnage Among South Sea Savages 138 A Beautiful Woman of the East, 140 Mount Camamera in Eruption 141 The Pink Terraces, 143 Australian Aborigines, 146 Tattooed Girl of bceanica, 147 Barron River Native, 148 Sidney Head, Sidney Harbor, . 149 Dr. Tahnage Preparing to Go Down ii to a Gold Mine, 151 Loddon Falls, New South Wales, 153 Cascade, Loddon River, 155 Tasman's Arch, 156 Corabboree Dance, Australia, 159 Singalese Beggar, i6l Work in the Shearing House 165 Shearing Sheep, 167 Sheep Range, Australia, 169 Old Penal Colony of Australia, . . . . 172 A Blind Hindoo Boy Reading with His Fingers, . 173 Sidney Gardens, Australia, ... 175 Sidney Harbor 177 Kangaroos, . . . •. 178 Laughing Jackass, 179 Town Hall Organ, Melbourne, 183 General Post-ofEce, Sidney 1S5 Town Hall, Sidney 187 Native Sailors of the South Seas 189 Jenolan Caves, India 191 Burmese Puray, Danced Before Prince Albert Vic- tor, at Mandalay, 193 A Princess of Burmah in Court Costume 195 David Jamal, Dr. Talmage's Dragoman, .... 197 The Elephant Bath, ". 198 Sir Henr^' Parkes, 200 The Relief of Lucknow 201 Dr. Talmage on Deck of Ceylon Steamer. .... 203 Amulets Taken from the Body of Tippo Sahib, . . 204 Commander-in-chief of the Burmese Army, . . . 205 Weighing the Emperor, . 207 Modern Crucifixion of Criminals in India, .... 208 (xiii) XIV ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE. Colossal Idol of Buddha 209 The Wonderful Iron Pillar 213 An Incident of Railroading in India 215 Famine Scene in an Indian Cit_v 217 Slate Horse of India, 218 A Brahmin Wedding, . . 221 Serpent Pagoda 223 The Worshipful Tooth of Buddha 224 Worship at Sunset on the Saanii Rock 225 Return to the llonastery of Burmese Priests After Begging Their Daily Food, 226 The 'War'Elephant, . . . 229 Lower Flight of Stone Steps, Mihinteale, .... 230 Shrine on the Summit of Adonis Peak, 232 Group of Hindoo Girls at their Toilet, 233 A Devotee Enduring the Fire 234 Shipping in the River Hooghly 235 Bishop Heber's Statue, Calcutta, 236 Nepalese Ladies in Costume, 237 Site of the Black Hole, 23S Group of Devotees in a Temple 239 A Burmese Cart, . . . 240 The Three Cars of Juggernaut 241 Carved Images of Dagon, 242 Corpse in the Ganges and Cremation on the Bank, 244 Our Camel Carriages, . . . . ... 245 Preparation for the Immolation of a Widow, . . . 246 Monkey Temple, Benares, 247 Brahma as the Four-faced Buddha, 24S Golden Temple, Benares 249 Gosain Temple, Benares. . . 251 The King of Nepaul and Commanding Generals, . 252 The Mongoose 253 Festival of the Serpents, 254 Indian Conjuring Trick, 255 A Hindoo Juggler, . 256 Fakir of the Immovable Foot, 257 Fakir of the Long Nails, 257 Fakir Hanging to a Limb, 257 Hindoo Stone Carvers, 258 Lieutenants Havelock and Fuselien, ... ... 260 Relief of Lucknow 261 General Havelock Greeted by Those He Saved, . 262 Signatures of the Heroes of Lucknow, 263 Prayer by the Wayside 264 Hindoo Priest at His Devotions 265 Nepalese Generals and Chinese Embass}-, .... 267 Sir Henry Havelock 26S The Viceroy's Elephants, 269 Sir Colin Campbell, 271 A Hindoo Girls' School 272 Hindoos Telling Their Beads 273 Nana Sahib 275 Scene of the Cawnpore Massacre, 277 Memorial Well, Cawnpore, 280 On the Banks of the Ganges, 281 The Taj Mahal 282 Gateway to Garden of the Taj, 2S4 Tomb of the Queen in the Taj, 2S5 The Fort at Agra, ... 289 Akbar's Palace, the Throne Room 290 Rebel Sepoys at Delhi, 291 Shooting Prisoners from a Gun 292 Through the Streets of Cawnpore, . . 293 Chamber of Blood, Cawnpore, . 295 Audience Room, or Peacock Throne Chamber, . . 297 Buddhist Sacred Cave and Carved Figure of Gau- daura 299 Shira's Bull, Mysore 300 Dr. Talmage and Son on an Elephant, 301 The Prince of Wales Starting on a Hunt 302 Burmese Cart 304 PAGE. Sir J. Fayrer, 306 Par-see Tower of Silence, Bombay 307 Plan of a Tower of Silence, 309 Car of Juggernaut 310 A Parsee Wedding 312 Colonnade at Mahableshwar 313 Inspection Day at an East India Penitentiary . . . 314 Entrance to the Elephanta Caves 315 A Wall Inside the Elephanta Caves, 316 Black Marble Elephant, 317 Suez Canal and Suez Town, , 319 The Port of I.smailia, 320 Great Pyramid and Sphinx, .... 321 Pompey's Pillar, Alexandria, 322 City of Alexandria, Place of the Consuls, .... 523 Caravan on the Waj- to Mecca, 324 Dr. Talmage on the Summit of the Pyramid, . . 325 Great Pyramid of Cheops 326 Cake Vendors of Cairo, 327 Interior of the Temple of Denderah, 32S Temples of Luxor 329 Shadorf, for Raising Water from the Nile, .... 332 Moorish Ladies' Apartment 333 A Dahabeah, or Nile Boat, 334 Natives of the Upper Nile at Prayer, 335 Barrage, or Wingdam, on the Nile, 336 Rameseum and Tombs of the Kings, Thebes, . . . 337 Obelisk and Propylon of the Temple of Luxor, . 338 Goddesses Crowning Pharaoh, 339 The Colossi of Thebes, 340 General View of Luxor, 342 Island of Philae, 343 Propylon of the Temple Denderah, 344 Pharaoh's Bed, Philae 345 Mummy of Raineses III 346 View of the Ruins at Philae, 346 Tombs of the Caliphs. Cairo, 347 Avenue of Sphinxes. Karnak, 348 Deck Scene on a Dahabeah, 349 Great Hall of Columns, Karnak 35a Propylon, of the Temple of Isis, Philae, 351 Greek Ceremony of Washing the Feet 353 Church of San Georgio Maggiore, Venice, . . . 355 Venice, Pearl of the Adriatic, 357 Ephesus Restored, . . 360 Theatre of Dionv'sius, Ephesus 361 Statue of Diana in the Ephesian Temple, .... 363 Whirling Dervishes of Con.stantinople, 365 Ruins of the Gymnasium, Ephesus, 366 Ancient Corinth, Restored, 367 Paul Exhorting Felix, 370 General View of Athens, 371 View of the Acropolis, 372 Paul Discoursing with Aquila and Priscilla 373 Ancient Athens, Restored, 375 Facade of the Parthenon, 376 Prison of Socrates, Athens 377 Theatre of Bacchus 37S Eruption of Vesuvius, . 381 Street of the Tombs, Pompeii, 382 Cast of a Human Body, from Pompeii, 383 Crater of Vesuvius 385 Interior of the Museum, Pompeii 386 Ruins of the Colosseum, Rome, 389 Temple of Miner\'a, Rome, 390 Altar to the T'nkuown God, Rome, ... 391 Interior of the Chapel Where Peter Was Crucified, 392 General View of Rome, 393 Excavations of the Forum, Rome, 394 The Vatican, Rome, 395 House of the Romanoflfs. Moscow 397 Louis Klopsch, Editor Christian Herald 398 ILLUSTRATIONS. XV PAGE. The Imperial Famih', 399 Dowager Empress and Her Daughter, 400 A Winter Day in St. Petersburg, 401 Prefect of St. Petersburg, 402 Arch of Triumph, Moscow, 403 Dr. Talmage Leaving the City Hall, 404 Russian Military Types, 405 Fortress of Sts. Peter and Paul, 406 Public INIuseum, Moscow, 407 The Way I Was Received at St. Petersburg, . . . 408 A Frienily Talk with the Czar 409 Convoy of Condemned, Russia 410 My Reception and Interview with the Czar, . ... 411 Winter Palace, St. Petersburg 412 The Baths, Peterhof, 413 St. Isaac's Cathedral, St, Petersburg, 414 Basin of Neptune, Peterhof, 415 Jew Merchants 416 Nicholas II., ICmperor of Russia, 417 Tower of Souk areff, Moscow, 41S Scenes of Dr. Talmage's Reception, 419 House of Peter the Great, 420 Fountain in the Garden, Peterhof, 421 General View of the Kremlin, Moscow, 422 The Great Bell, Moscow 423 Great Votive Church, Moscow, 424 Palace and Treasury, Moscow 425 Gold Enameled Tea Service, 426 Temple of Our Saviour, Moscow 427 Autographs of the Emperor and Empress, .... 42S Cathedral of Ostaukino, Moscow, . . .... 429 Dr. Talmage Responding to Speech of Welcome, . 431 Buckingham Palace, Front View, 433 Buckingham Palace, Side View, 434 Buckingham Palace, Throne Room, 435 Marlborough House, London, 436 A Corner in the House of Commons 438 St. Paul's Cathedral, from Bankside, 440 Front View of St. Paul's Cathedral 441 Fleet Street and St. Paul's, London, 443 Hawarden Castle, 444 Gladstone in Hawarden Wood 445 Rc. Hon. Wm. E. Gladstone 447 PAGE. John Ruskin, As I Saw Him 449 House of John Knox, Edinburgh 452 Knox Church, where I Preached 453 Balmoral Castle 454 The Queen's Cameron Highlanders, 455 Ross Castle 456 Holyrood Castle, 457 Robert Burns' Cottage 458 Downe Castle and Gallows Tree, 459 Melrose Abbev, 460 The Old Curiosity Shop, 461 Victoria Embankment, London, 463 Westminster Abbey, London, . . 464 W'estniinster Bridge and Clock Tower 465 Coronation Chair, Westminster 467 The Beach at Brighton, 469 Tower of London, 470 London Bridge 471 Tower Bridge, London, 473 Victoria Embankment Gardens 475 Piccadilly Circus, London, 476 Queenstown Harbor, Ireland, 477 View of Lake Killarney, 478 Blarney Castle, Showing Blarney Stone, 479 Fingal's Cave, Staffa, Ireland, 480 Eton College 481 Stoke Pogis Chiirch and Churchj-ard, 483 North Front Windsor Castle 484 Balliol College, Oxford 486 Bank of England 487 Crystal Palace 488 Law Courts, London, .... 489 Dr. Talmage's Farewell Meeting at Hyde Park, . 491 Conway Castle, North Wales, 492 St. James' Palace, London 493 Nelson's Monument, Trafalgar Square, 494 Room in which Shakespeare W'as Born 495 Open Air Services Before John Wesley Church, . . 497 Spurgeon's Tabernacle, 498 New York Bay and Castle Garden 499 Drawing Room in Dr. Talmage's House, 501 Sleeping Room in Dr. Talmage's House 502 EIGHT PflOTOGRflPflS IN COLORS. 1. My Palanquin and Bearers. 2. Tea Gatherers. 3. Mohammedan Rajah and Court Officers. 4. Burmese Country Carriage. 5. King Thebaw's Prima Donna. 6. Children of the Orient, 7. Golden Pagoda. 8. Palace of an Indian Queen. Choice Initial Letters. Presentation Plate. AuTHO-R'S Preface. nHE preface is something that must be done. A book without a preface is a house without a knob on the door, and without front steps. A book cannot look )-ou full in the face until it is in*"roduced by such a prefix. But in the millennium there will be no prefaces. The}' belong to the imperfect ages. If a book be good it needs no preface, and if it be useless or bad no amount of literary genu- flexions at the start can save it. Reside that, if the author tells in a preface what he is going to do in the subsequent pages, he robs them of novelty. If \'ou want to know what this booK is, read it. Suffice it to say that it is an account of one journey around the world, with here and there a scene from my previous journeys to complete the links of the story. //-..^t^ 7' Washington, D. C, March 2, iSg6. (33) RBC Nrll T^ublisher's l^reface ..eoncerning... Dr. Talmage's American Celebration and "Reception Before Starting on His Eartin-Girdling Tour. OHERE are heroes of peace greater, because more glorious in their usefulness, than demi-gods of war. He who builds is better than he who destroys ; that one who binds up a wound is nobler than he who strikes down. The truly- illustrious, the lordly, the blessed, are they who add to the joys of life, whose lives are at once song, fragrance, sunshine and example. It is infinitely better to endure for all time in the hearts of men, than to rest under the most splendid monument that pride can rear to genius, for one speaketh continually while the other becomes dumb and forgotten under the rust of age. A man's reputation should be measured not only by the esteem of his contemporaries, but also by his deeds and works for mankind, which will live after him. By such an appraisement of man's value, the Rev. T. De Witt Talmage must be regarded as a conspicuous example of worldly benefice as well as an instrument in God's hands for infinite good. His life is like a benediction, for he makes every man his brother ; he scatters kindness as the sower scatters seed ; he is a Samaritan among the need}-, a defender of the weak, a Samson that gives battle to the lions of evil. People often ask, " To what denomination does Dr. Talmage belong ? " The answer must be given that while he is a member of one church he is a clergyman of all churches that teach Christ. Not one who prepares the way as did the Baptist, nor as one who establishes churches as did Paul, but he is a disciple and evangelist ; a teacher not of doctrines, but of brotherhood ; who talks to the human heart, and who dispenses joy and love to all people, whose taber- nacle is the heavens above, and the world his congregation. For twenty-five years Dr. Talmage ministered to a charge in the city of Brooklyn, New York. He went to that place a stranger, and lie began preaching there to small audiences, but his friends multiplied, his hearers rapidly increased in numbers, his popularity grew apace, and very soon the church in which he discoursed was found to be too small to accommodate all who came to hear him. A larger one was erected, but in a few years it too became inadequate, both in size and convenience. A fire destroyed it, without loss of life, and then a larger tabernacle was built, but his congregation increased so rapidly that, large as the structure was, it could not contain all that would hear him. A second time the tongue of flame touched and consumed his church edifice, but fire purifieth, and with unruffled resolution, unquenchable and unconquerable spirit, Dr. Talmage took upon himself the burden of raising a sum of money with which to build the largest tabernacle in America ; a temple of worship that would give opportunity to thousands who had been denied the privilege of listening to his eloquence ; large enough not onlv to receive his regular congregation, but sufficiently ample to also hold the great number of (35) 30 THE EARTH GH^DLED. strangers who, \isiting New York, sought the chance of hearing the most famous divine of the century. In this work of designing, and of raising funds. Dr. Tahnage contributed all the energies of his tongue, pen and means. He preached, lectured, wrote and appealed ; every day of the week his efforts were e.xerted in this splendid enterprise. No other man gave so liberally as he, both of work and money, toward carrying his conception of a colossal, grand, triumphant tabernacle to success. At last the great edifice was completed ; the most glorious hour of his life was when the oratorio of dedication resounded through its spacious naves, and the world accepted the Brooklyn Tabernacle as a monument to the indefatigable energies and wide-reachi::g influence of Dr. Tahnage, as well as a magnificent temple for the worship of God, the doors of which were thrown wide open to people of every faith, and in which charit\' and brotherliood had an nnalterable abiding place. Dr. Tahnage has always been an immense worker; who that has read his sermons, has read his contributions to the press, has read the books which pour from his pen, has seen, or can understand, the numerous duties which devolve upon him as pastor of the largest congregation in America ; the lectures which he delivers, the traveling that he is forced to do, the entertainments which his position requires him to attend, the correspondence which occupies so much of his time ; who that considers all this, will fail to wonder how he manages to do so much, and above all how human mind can accomplish what he does so well. But there is a limit even to his marvelous spirit and endurance, though his genius seems to rise above all physical limitations. He felt not the heavy hand of years so much as the burdens of manifold exactions and increasing requirements. When, tlierefore, the twenty- fiftli year of his pastorate in Brooklyn was about to close — twenty-five years of unremitting laboi that would have crushed any man of less resolution — Dr. Tahnage, through the urgings of his own congregation as much as by reason of an appreciation of his own physical needs, resolved to take an outing. He cannot endure rest, but he longed for recreation, for a change from tlie exhausting duties which had enslaved him for many years, and for the freshness of God's mornings in the wide pastures of the world. So, his determination having been made to take a vacation, he resolved to make a tour of the globe ; not as a tourist, but rather as a pastor who visits his communicants, for as Dr. Tahnage has for a long while preached through the newspapers to more than twenty--five millions of persons every week, and in nearly all the languages of civilization, wherever he might tra\-el he would be certain to find many^ who are regular readers of his sermons. Wlien the purpose of Dr. Tahnage became known, it was immediately proposed by man>- prominent citizens of Brooklyn to fittingly celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of his pastorate in that city. The suggestion was hailed with such universal approval that the movement spread all over the country, and thence to Europe, and to all Christendom, until, to satisfy the demand, the demonstration took the fonn of a national and international reception, which was to be given in the Great Tabernacle on the tenth and eleventh of May, 1894, three days before the day he had appointed for starting upon a circumnavi- gation of the earth. For this magnificent jubilee commemoration, which was at once ovation and pa;an, the great church building was splendidly and elaborately decorated with banners and flags. On the front of the great organ was a large portrait of Dr. Tahnage surrounded by a cluster of American and flags of other nations. Underneath these was the inscription: " The Taber- nacle his pulpit ; the world his audience." The back of the platform was hung with crimson plush, embroidered with gold. In the centre stood an enormous bouquet of lilies and roses. The front of the galleries was draped with bUie plush, heavily embroidered in gold, and 37) 38 THE EARTH GIRDLED. everywhere were the Stars and Stripes, draping the cornices and windows, twined about pillars and outlined against the otlier hangings, so that the American flag dominated the building, and the occasion. And how grandly appropriate were these embellislinients, for next to his allegiance to Christ Dr. Talmage acknowledges with loyal pride his loving fealty to his country. Eight o'clock was the hour appointed for the beginning of the celebrative services in the Tabernacle, but long before that time a tremendous crowd had gathered about the building completely blocking, with a jam of eager humanity, several squares. By seven o'clock, before the front doors were opened, the immense edifice, capable of seating comfortably 5000 persons, was filled to its utmost limit, save the platform, which had been reserved for special guests and those having in charge the commemorative exercises. When the hour of eight arrived services Tvere opened by the organist, Henry Eyre Brown, rendering a brilliant composition of his own for the occasion, entitled " The Talmage Sih'er Anniversary ]\Iarch," which was received with a great applause. When the last note of the organ died away, and expectation was on tip-toe, a distinguished company of participants, headed by the ]Mayor of Brookhn (Mr. Schieren), filed out of the pastor's room and onto the platform, followed by Dr. Talmage himself, whose face was radiant with goodwill and gratitude. The exercises of celebration began by the entire audience singing the doxology, after which the Rev. James M. Farrar offered a prayer, then followed the introduction by Air. Dimon, one of the trustees, of Mayor Schieren, who had been chosen to preside. The first night of the commemoration was a distinctively Brooklyn celebration, and nearly all the speakers were notables of that city, among the number being distinguished Catholics, Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians and representatives of other denominations, besides the most prominent officials and citizens of Brooklyn. Mayor vSchieren welcomed the vast audience in a speech of much warmth and congratulation, wherein he paid a splendid tribute to Dr. Talmage and to his congregation ; other eloquent speakers delivered encomiums on the genius and work of the great preacher, which were received with the heartiest acclamations from the delighted gathering. Those who thus addressed the vast audience on the first night of the celebration were : Hon. Charles A. Schieren, Editor Bernard Peters, Rev. Father Sylvester ]\Ialone, Rev. Dr. John F. Carson, ex-Mayor David A. Boody, Rev. Dr. Gregg, Rabbi F. De Sol. Mendes, Rev. Dr. Louis A. Banks, Hon. John Winslow, Rev. Spencer F. Roche, Rev. A. C. Dixon. At the reception, Thursday evening. Rev. Dr. Gregg, among other things, said : "There is only one Dr. Talmage. There is more or less Talmage in every minister, but he is all Talmage. He lives among us unique. There is but one man in the American pulpit that can di-aw, and hold, and thrill, twice every Sabbath the }ear round, an audience of 8000. There is but one man on the globe that preaches the gospel every week through the press to 25,000,000. There is only one man living who, in taking a trip around the world, can sav : ' I am simply out for a season of pastoral calls. I am taking a walk among the people of my congregation.' [Laughter and applause.] There is only one Dr. Talmage. With this fact before my mind I come to this great meeting to-night to congratulate our municipality that Dr. Talmage is a citizen of Brooklyn ; to congratulate this vast church that Dr. Talmage is still the pastor of the Brookhn Tabernacle, and to congratulate my brethren in the ministry that Dr. Talmage is still a member of the Brooklyn Presbytery in good and regular standing. [Laughter.] As his nearest Presbyterian neighbor, and as one of the delegates of the Brooklyn Presbytery apjDointed to stand on this platform, I bring to THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 39 Dr. Talmage and his great flock the goodwill and the pra)-ers and the Godspeed of the Presbyterian comnuinity in this city of churches. I have come to this meeting to-night for another reason. It is a reason whicli all the ministers here have for coming. I come, as m\- brethren here come, to demonstrate to the public the freedom from jealousy which characterizes the men of the American pulpit. [Applause.] We heartily rejoice in the success of every true man of God, and we are glad of the opportunity to pay to every such man the tribute which he has lawfully earned. While I disclaim all jealousy and to-night willingly pay the tribute of praise to my beloved brother who rounds out a quarter of a century of multitudinous and successful labors in this tabernacle, I am honest enough to confess that I should like to be able to preach with a power that could set all these flags afloat and at full mast. The man who can do that is entitled to be circled round and round and to be saluted by these flags as Dr. Talmage is on this occasion. [Applause.] As I have seen Dr. Talmage from the pew I consider him the greatest word painter on any continent of earth. He paints for Christ. He thinks in pictures, and he who thinks in pictures thinks vividl\-. He paints with a large brush, with colors that burn and glow, and nations gather around his pictures and feel an uplift and a holy thrill. There is one thing which Dr. Talmage is able to use beyond any man I have ever heard speak, and that is the rhetorical pause. He makes his sermons vivid and impressive with the flash of a golden silence. Having rounded his period and finished his point he stops until the hush of heaven fills the house and until the audience has felt the power of God's truth.'" Among other things Rev. Dr. Banks said : "I am very glad, Mr. Chairman, of the opportunity of bringing my handful of wild flowers from the Oregon hillsides where I first came to know and admire Dr. Talmage (and where I never dreamed that I should ever live to see him in the flesh, much less take him by the hand), and add them to the garland we are weaving for the head of the most widely- known chieftain of the American pulpit — indeed, I doubt not, the most universally read of all preachers now living in the world. I am glad to do this for several reasons. First, because Dr. Talmage has, in my judgment, done more to revolutionize preaching in respect to its being made entertaining and interesting, than any other man now among us. "It is equall}' true to say that no other minister of our time has done so much to give consecrated individuality the right of way. I believe that in no other way has humanity lost so much as in the repression of individuality. Against the tendency to cut all ministers off" of the same piece of cloth, make them up in the same style and hold them to a sort of sanctified dudeism, midway between a corpse-like dignity and pious imbecility, Dr. Talmage has stood as a pulpit Gibraltar, and thousands of young ministers, encouraged by his example and inspired by his independence, have been brave enough to be themselves and live their own lives and do their own work in their own way'." At the close of the meeting Dr. Talmage was called for, and as he came forward the audience hailed him with such applause that it was several minutes before qniet could be restored sufficiently for him to speak. His response to this ovation was as follows : " Dear Mr. Mayor and friends before me, and friends behind me, and friends all around me, and friends hovering over me, and friends in this room and the adjoining rooms, and friends indoors and outdoors — forever photographed upon my mind and heart is this scene of May lo, 1894. The lights, the flags, the decorations, the flowers, the music, the illumined faces will remain with me while earthly life lasts, and be a cause of thanksgiving after I have passed into the great beyond. Two feelings dominate me to-night — gratitude and unworthiness ; gratitude, first to God, and next to all you who have complimented me by 40 THE EARTH GIRDLED. your presence or your speech, or who have by letter or telegram or cablegram sent salutations • and unworthiness — for who would dare to take to himself one-half of the applaudatory things here to-night uttered ? While our magnetic and eloquent friends were speaking it seemed that they must mean some other man than myself, someone with more gifts and holier life and higher achievements. What a commingling of all religions ! Surely upon no platform since the world stood have there been gathered so many different styles of belief. This is a section of the millennium let down. The lamb and the lion here lie down together, and you cannot tell who is the lion and who the lamb. The same spirit reigns here that the Quaker expressed to George Whitfield, when Whitfield in his clerical gown Avas disposed to criticise the broad-brimmed hat of the Quaker, and the latter said: 'George, I am as thou art. I am for bringing all men to the hope of the gospel ; therefore, if thou wilt not quarrel with me about my broad brim, I will not quarrel with thee about thy black gown. George, give ine th}' hand.' God bless the mayor, the ministers, the lawyers, the doctors, the merchants, the citizens, the splendid men and the magnificent women of Brooklyn. I am not surprised at what a policeman told me on the Brooklyn bridge a few days ago, when he said that he would rather be hung in Brooklyn than die a natural death in any other city. I cannot quite adopt that sentiment, but I do believe that Brooklyn is a lovely place for residence. There are three classes of people whom I especially admire : Men, women and children. All this scene to-night confirms me in the idea I long ago adopted, that this is the brightest and best world I ever got into. The fact is, I can stand as much kindness as any man I e\'er knew. My twenty-five years in Brooklyn have been hapjay years. Hard work of course. This is the fourth church in which I have preached since coming to Brooklyn, and how much of the difficult work of clnirch building that implies you can appreciate. This church iiad its mother and its grandmother and its great-grandmother. I could not tell the story of disasters without telling the story of heroes and heroines, and around me in all these years have stood men and women of whom the world was not worthy. But for the most part the twentj'-five years have been to me a great happiness. With all good people here present the wonder is, although they may not express it, ' What will be the effect upon the pastor of this church of all this scene?' Only one effect, I assure you, and that an inspiration for better work for God and humanity. And the question is already absorbing my entire nature, 'What can I do to repay Brookhn for this great uprising?' Here is my hand and heart for a campaign of harder work for God and righteousness than I have ever yet accomplished. I have been told that sometimes in the Alps there are great avalanches called down b\' a shepherd's voice. The pure white snows pile up higher and higher like a great white throne, mountains of snow on mountains of snow, and all is so delicately and evenl -• poised that the touch of a hand or the vibration of air caused by the human voice will send down the avalanche into the valleys with all encompassing and overAvhelming power. Well, to-night I think that the heavens above us are full of pure white blessings, mountains of mercy on mountains of mercy, and it will not take much to bring down the avalanche of benediction, and so I put up my right hand to reach it, and lift my voice to start it. And now let the avalanche of blessing come upon your bodies, your minds, your souls, your homes, your churches and your city. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting, and let the whole earth be filled with His glory ! Amen and amen ! " At the conclusion of Dr. Talmage's remarks and thankofferings the audience applauded most heartily and then further manifested their feelings of loving appreciation and endear- ment by singing " God be with jou till we meet again." THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 41 The services of the first clay of celebration were concluded b>- the organist playing the inarch from "The Queen of Sheba," but it was not until after midnight that the gathering dispersed, so delightful had been the entertainment, in correspondence with the warmth of their affectionate esteem for the universally beloved pastor. SECOND DAY OF THE CELEBRATION. The evening of ^May 10, 1S94, will ever be a memorable anniversary for the people of Brooklvn, for upon that date, it will long be remembered, was given to Dr. Talmage such an ovation as few if any other civilians have ever received at the hands of their friends. The celebration of the conclusion of his twenty-five years of active ministerial labor in that citv was made an event not oiil\- municipal, not only national, but international as well. The first evening of the services of commemoration was largely devoted to an expression of the loving regard in which Dr. Talmage is held by the people of his own city, but all Christendom wanted a voice in this service of celebration, approbation and admiration, and the occasion was therefore at hand upon which to express it. The second evening was accordingly made an international observance of the silver anniversary, and the participants, bv presence, speech and letters, were from all parts of the world ; great men and distinguished women, thankful for the opportunity to offer their tributes to the preacher who ever\- week sermonizes to people of every civilized land. The exercises of the second evening of celebration were opened with praxer b\- the eloquent Dr. Milburn, chaplain of the United States Senate, followed by the rendering of the " Talmage Silver Anniversary March " by the organist. Hon. B. F. Tracy, ex-Secretary of the Navy, was chosen to preside during the evening, and in accepting the position spoke as follows : SPEECH OF GENER.^L TRACY. '■^Ladies and Gentlemen — Among the great cities of the Union Brookhn has many claims to distinction, and not the least of these is to be found in the learning, ability and patriotic zeal of its clergy. I speak onlv the simple truth when I say that the fame of Brooklyn rests largely upon the flime of its great preachers. It will, I think, be admitted by all that the people of Brooklyn are able to recognize a great preacher when they hear him, and when they call him to one of their churches they take him as a man takes the partner of his life, for better or wor.se so long as they both shall live. No really great preacher once settled in Brooklyn has ever left it to take up his field of labor elsewhere. Brooklyn is not a commercial city in the sense that is true of New York, Chicago, Boston or San Francisco. It is a city of homes and there is something in the strength and purity of its home influence and in the love of its people for a home life that has contributed largely to the marked success of its great public teachers. It has been called the Cit>- of Churches, not so much I apprehend because the proportion of churches to the population exceeds that of other cities as because of the deeper hold of the churches themselves upon the life of the people as well as the exceptional ability and devotion of the ministers that have filled their pulpits. Brooklyn does not postpone the just recognition of the services of its great religious teachers until after they are gone, but assists and co-operates with them in their good work by extending to them in their lifetime words of praise and encouragement. Such is the object and purpose of this celebration of the twent\--fifth anniversary of the pastorate of Dr. Talmage in Brooklvn. Last evening Brooklsn honored itself by a celebration, local in character, but this evening the celebration takes a wider scope. It becomes national and 42 THE EARTH GIRDLED. even international in its character. And it is fitting that it should be so. While Dr. Tahnage for the last twenty-five years has been heard in Brooklyn, his sermons delivered here have been read the world over. No preacher of to-day, or of anv day, or of any time, has been so generally heard and so widely read as Dr. Talmage. His sermons are published every week in more than three thousand different newspapers, each of which reaches thousands upon thousands of readers. There is scarcely a city or village in the United States from Maine to Texas, or from New York to San Francisco, in which the sermons delivered in this Tabernacle are not regularly published in full every week. The same is true of Great Britain. They are also published in Australia, New Zealand and in India, and they have been translated into more than half a dozen different European languages. It is believed that the sermons of Dr. Talmage enter week by week more than five millions of homes and are placed within the reach of more than twenty millions of people. And this has been so now for many years. No minister of the gospel in the world's history ever commanded in his lifetime so great an audience, and no stronger proof could be given that this man teaches what the world needs to hear, that he truly ministers to the souls of men. This is the secret of the influence which our friend has exerted, that in bearing his message he speaks a language that finds a response in every human heart. The breadth and depth and strength of that influence are attested by the warm and kindly greetings that we shall hear to-night from men of worth not only in this country, but throughout the world, men whose esteem and friendship are a valued possession to all who have been fortunate enough to win them. Many such men have come here to do him honor. Others, who could not come in person, take part in this celebration by sending their earnest congratulations. Among them are Senatprs of the United States, Governors of States, clergymen of distinction all over the world, the bishops of other churches and ptrblic men of foreign lands, and foremost among these last is that prominent statesman and scholar, only recently retired full of \'ears and of honors. I mean the late prime minister of Great Britain, William E. Gladstone. Upon such men has the influence of the teachings of Dr. Talmage made itself felt. It has been diffused over all lands and among all classes and conditions of humanity. It has reached the furthest boundaries of the civilized world. It has touched those who guide and direct the affairs of nations as well as the humblest citizen. Such an influence is a powerful instrument for good. It is a common boast in this country that there is no connection between church and State, and in the sense that the State seeks not to control the church or the convictions of its members the boast is justified. But there is a broader meaning than this to the relation of church and State, which lies in the influence for good by the membership of the church upon the State and those who direct its affairs. And by the church I mean no sect or denomination, but tlic whole body of Christian believers. In this sense the connection cannot be too close, and it is far from being as close as it ought to be to-day. The church should exact the same standard of right in tiie conduct of public affairs that it exacts in the private lives of its members. It should tolerate no divergence from the straight path of public integrity. It should not palter with wickedness, even when the wickedness is sought to be excused on the ground that the offence is political rather than personal in its character. It should teach and should enforce the same code of morals and honesty in public life as in private life. It should crush out the theory which has been the root of much evil in our political system, that there is one code of morals in affairs of the State and another code of morals in the conduct of private relations. A man cannot be honest in streaks or in spots. An honest man must be an honest man throughout. A man who is not honest may simulate honesty for \-ears, though his heart is rotten all the THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 43 while. It is ouh- the temptation and the opportunity that are wanting to show him in his true character. A man with such a character, raised to eminent public office, engaged in the administration of public affairs, may work incalculable mi.schief both to the morals of the connnunity and to the welfare of the State ; but so long as his dishonesty is against the State it is too often condoned and forgotten. To correct this error is one of the foremost duties of Christian citizenship in this age and in this country, and it is, I believe, in recognition of this fact and to do honor to one fearless in the discharge of his dut>- as a Christian teacher, in public as well as in private affairs, that we are assembled here to-night." General Trac}- was followed by the Hon. William ]\I. Evarts, who spoke in a similarly eulogistic strain, after which . Hon. Patrick Walsh, United States Senator from Georgia, delivered a most eloquent tribute which brought forth repeated applause. Hon. Joseph- C. Hendrix, Congressman from Brooklyn, delighted the immense audience with many witty references, and also with unstinted praise for Dr. Talmage, at the conclusion of which letters, telegrams and cablegrams were read from hundreds of persons, all expressive of great admiration for the subject of this grand and fitting international reception. Among those who thus participated in spirit in the celebration were Mr. Gladstone, the Arch- Deacon of London, Canon Wilberforce, Professor Simpson of Edinburgh, Thain Davidson, the Bishop of London, the Governor-General of Canada, Count Andre Bobrinskoy, of St. Petersburg, ex-President Harrison, Senator John Sherman, Governor McKinley, and in fact Governors of nearh- all the States, many members of the United States Senate, prominent ministers of various denominations, members of the Supreme Court, General Schofield, commander of the armies of the United States, and from distinguished persons in the various walks of life. Among the hundred or more letters and cablegrams containing congratulations that were read, were the following : Letter from Herbert Gladstone, Dollis Hill, N. W. : Mr. Gladstone, being somewhat out of health, has to restrict his correspondence as much as possible, but he desires me to say for him that Dr. Talmage always has his best wishes, and that he remembers with much interest the occasions when he has had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Talmage. Herbert Gladstone. Cablegram from London : Cordial congratulations ; grateful acknowledgment of splendid services in ministry during last twenty-five years. Warm wishes for future prosperity. Archde.\con of London, Canon Wilberforce, Thain Davidson, Professor Simpson, John Lobb, Bishop of London. Letter from Earl of Aberdeen, Governor-General of Canada, Ottawa : I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the twenty-third of April, inviting me t* be present at the reception to be tendered to the Rev. Dr. Talmage on the eleventh. I regret that, owing to engagements here, I am compelled to decline the courteous invitation thus extended to me, but I beg to offer good wishes in relation to this demonstration of esteem and goodwill toward Dr. Talmage. 44 THE EARTH GIRDLED. Russian cablef^raiii from Count Andre Uolninsko)', vSt. Petersburg, Rtissia : Heartfelt coiigratiilntidiis from gratefully reinemberiiig Russian friends. Letter from I'nited States Senator John Sherman : Your kind invitation in Ijeiialf of your committee that I attend the reception to be tendered to Rev. T. DeWitt Talmage, D.D., LL.I)., on the completion of the twenty-fifth year of his pastorate in Brooklyn is received. There is no one for whom I would more cheerfully express my sincere regard and my hearty appreciation of his wonderful ability than Mr. Talmage. I have heard him and heard of him for so many years, and have read so many of his .sermons that I hold him in my estimation as the greatest preacher of our time. All this and much more I could say for him if I were at liberty to attend, but I feel that my official duties here will not permit me to leave at a time when so many interests are involved in the legislation of Congress. . Thanking you for your kind invitation, I am, Ver\' trulv yours. Letter from William Walter Phelps, ex-Minister to Germany, Hot Springs, Va. : I .shall not be well enough to accept the invitation, of which I would gladly avail myself, to testify that an acquaintance of a score of years, renewed at home and abroad, in public and private, has only increased my admiration for the amount of patriotic, social and religious work which that impetuous, unselfish and gifted man, Dr. Talmage, has done. Letter from Cjovernor McRinley : I feel honored Ijy the invitation you have sent me to take part in the reception to be tendered to the Rev. Dr. Talmage in celebration of the twenty-fifth year of his pastorate at the Brooklyn Tabernacle. While it is impossible for me to be present, I take occasion to give expres.sion to the great respect and esteem in which I hold Dr. Talmage. The American people, irrespective of denominational differences, have a pride in the ability and public services of Dr. Talmage. His influence for good, in the direction of public sentiment, extend; far beyond his own church and his own congregation ; it is felt all over our country, and even beyond the seai Please convey to the Doctor my regards and congratulations. Very truly yours. The Governor of Virginia, Hon. Chas. T. O'Ferrall, wrote: .\niong the clergv of .-Xmerica he is the foremost man of the age, and his influence is felt at almost every Christian fireside, while his scholarly abilit}' and eloquence have won him a world-wide reputation. The compli- ment to be conferred upon him is a well-merited one, and is, after all, but another laurel added to the honors of a long and useful life. The Governor of Wyoming, Hon. John E. Osborn, wrote : No name stands higher in the galaxy of great American nanies than that of Dr. Talmage. No man has done more for the lasting benefit of the race than he. and no one has done more for the dissemination of the doctrine of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, the beautiful religion of the Carpenter of Nazareth than he, and there is, I think, no true American citizen but feels a wave of admiration and love .swell in his breas', at the mention of the great teacher of the Brooklyn Tabernacle. THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 45 Letter from Josepli Parker : I have so often expressed my appreciation of Dr. Talmage that I feel it to be quite needless to add one word of eulogy, even ir. view of the impending celebration of his twenty-fifth pastoral anniversary. I Lave been asked to join others in sending a telegram of congratulation, but I do not wish to be one of a number in recognizing an event which is so intensely personal. In the realm of religious imagination, power, fertility, and ardour of fancy. Dr. Talmage stands in my esteem absolutely without a rival in the Christian pulpit of to-- his hands and blessed b}' his benediction. The subject of his discourse was " A Cheerful Church," and his text was from Solomon's Song, " Behold thou art fair, m)* love,'' which he treated in a most eloquent manner, concluding with such feeling words as to his going away that tears glistened in ever}' eye. At the conclusion of the sennon Dr. Talmage invited every one forward that they might have a farewell international handshake, which nearly all persons in the vast audience accepted, then the benediction was pronounced and while the organist played the Talmage Jubilee March the great gathering was dismissed. 4S THE EARTH GIRDLED. choked with luniian l^eines ! God's providence was perhaps never more distinctly manifested than on this occasion, for when less than twenty persons were still in tlie Tabernacle, lingering to speak a last word with their pastor, Mrs. Talmage discovered a tongne of flame leaping from the top of the organ upon which Prof Brown was still pla\ing his " Silver Jubilee March." Siippo.se the fire had broken ont a few minntes sooner, when the vast anditorinm was Hearts are sickened by the very thought. When Dr. Talmage was appealed to by his friends to run for his life, he showed no excitement, but turned into his study to get his hat just as several of the large false pipes of the great organ fell with a mighty crash upon the very spot where he had a moment before been standing. By another door he rejoined his family, at the sight of whom he exclaimed, " Thank God all are saved, but the cluirch is certainly lost." But he was still reluctant to leave the Tabernacle, esteeming that he might be of service to a.ssist some one who had not yet escaped, though, thanks be to God, the now fier\- temple contained no lingering one. During this iuter\al the flaming demons were working a swift de- struction, and spreading with inconceivable rapidity. They caught the silver jubi- lee bunting and whirled it aloft as if it had been made of tissue paper. They fast- ened their teeth of flame tipon the ceiling so richly decorated and substantial looking, but which, made of papier mache, was as inflammable as if it had been saturated with kerosene. A cloud of smoke, black as the wrath of the god.s, collected about the great and beautiful dome and slowly descended to the floor, masking the glorious cathedral windows, shutting out the sunlight which had for the last time lit up the cheerful interior of this almost cathedral church, and choking those who were still inside. And then with a sudden burst of venom, and with the jingle, far from merry, of broken glass, it burst its way out through roof and window and sent a black and noisome column MY TRAVELING COMPANION IN THE JOURNEY ROUND THE WORLD. REV. FRANK DE WITT TALMAGE. THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 49 far up into the blue-topped sky, and following fast upon the smoke came licking flames, and after them a rosy fury. The alarm was prompt!}- sounded, hut the fire so quickly obtained mastery that human power could not save the great Tabernacle nor could the valorous brigade of fighters keep the long fingers of flame from grasping adjoining buildings. " Doomed, doomed," was the cry ; and so it proved. When the Tabernacle had, within ten minutes' time, become an inextinguishable furnace, the magnificent Hotel Regent, filled with guests, became an accession to the pyre and with this increase the holocaust was intensified till the fiends of fire crackled with glee and whelmed the whole city with lambent ire. It was the most extensive conflagration that ever visited Brooklyn, the losses being as follows : The Tabernacle . $450,000 Reijent Hotel, 700,000 Private houses, 72,000 Suiiinierfield Church 4,000 Total $1,227,350 Rut while the loss of property was im- mense, thanks be to God it was not accom- panied by any destruction of life, nor serious injur\' to any one, though narrow escapes were numerous. Dr. Talmage has been peculiarh' unfor- tunate in respect to his churches, for he has been both pursued and persecuted by the fu- ries of fire, as the follow- ing brief record of his losses will show : In 1S69 Dr. Tal- mage received, while a pastor in Philadelphia, ^^^, a "call" from three churches, one in San Francisco, another in Chicago and the third in Brookhn. After due consideration he selected Brooklyn as his future field of labor. At that time the Brooklyn Tabernacle congregation was composed of but a few worshipers — a mere handful. The neighborhood, however, was thickly settled. The )-oung clergyman began work with his whole heart, and before a year had passed the barnlike edifice in which lie and his people met was much too small for the crowds that wished to enter it. Accordinglv, in 1871, a new Tabernacle of corrugated sheet iron was erected, and that, too, was packed every Sunday. All the seats were free, and the work was supported by voluntary contributions, which were enormous. On Sunday morning, December 22, 1872, this building was burned to the ground. When the pastor arrived at the usual hour for beginning service he found his great con- gregation watching the conflagration. But, like the Rev. Robert Collyer at the ruins of Unit>- Church in the Chicago fire, he was animated with new vigor, and there by the 4 THE GREAT BROOKLYN TABERNACLE BEFORE THE FIRE. 50 THE EARTH GIRDLED. blazing timbers, he told his friends that the church just burned had never been large enough, and that, by'God's providence, they would at once erect another on the ruins. Plans were inimediatel)- drawn for another, which, when completed, proved to be what at that time was one of the largest Protestant edifices in America. It was a splendid, spacious Gothic pile — cathedral-like above and theatre-like in the uiain body, with a seating capacity of from 5000 to 6000, according to the packed condition of the aisles and space around the pulpit, where extra seats accommodated 1000 more on special jubilee occasions. This new church, which soon had world-wide fame, was dedicated on January 22, 1874. It soon became one of the chief churches of the country, and the centre of evangelical activity in Brooklyn. Copies of the sermons delivered in it were sent out broadcast by a special syndicate arrangement, and translated into French, German, Italian, Swedish and Russian. But this great cliurch, like its predecessor, was doomed to burn. It went up in smoke and ashes on October 13, 1889. Again the fire broke out on a Sunday morning. Only four blackened walls greeted the sorrowing congregation. All was lost — the grand organ, the collection of choice music and the big library. From his bed-room window Dr. Talmage saw the wild spectacle, " the destruction of the temple of his heart and soul, wherein all his earthly hopes were centred." But, as he said in speaking of it, neither he nor his people were dismayed at this new and still greater calamity. Once again skillful architects were asked to prepare plans for a new Tabernacle, larger and more magnificent than either of the other churches. On the morning of October 28, 1890, ground was broken at the northeast corner of Clinton and Greene avenues, Brooklyn. Work was pushed with a will, and by the following spring the building was ready for worshipers. It was formally opened by Dr. Talmage on his return from his famous journey to tlie Holy Land, in May of that year, 1891. The architects were J. B. Snook & Sons, of Brooklyn, who were credited with accomplishing the remarkable task of completing the vast edifice on time. It was this church that burned May 13, 1894. It was considered the largest Protestant church in America, and would seat 5000 persons comfortably. Ou extra occasions, by throwing open the doors leading into the Sunday-school annex, 2000 more could find seats in full view and within hearing of the preacher. It was called the most imposing church structure in Brookh-n, and it cost $350,000. The st}le of architecture was Norman, solid, massive and imposing, of rich, dark, umber-colored granite, with facings of Lake Superior hrownstone. The striking cliaracter- istics of the exterior were a high tower at the corner and two gables on each facade, with small towers at the extreme ends of each facade. The corner tower went \\p 160 feet high from the ground to the finials. The church's general form was .square, but over the two principal entrances was a rounded projection which was carried up two stories. The interior was in the form of an amphitheatre. There were two galleries, and on the Waverly avenue side a commodious lecture-room and reading-room. On each side of the main auditorium were Bible and class-rooms, separated from the main room by sliding doors that could be pushed aside on special occasions, making one great room. There were also two large reception-rooms near the lobbies, for the exclusive use of strangers and visitors. The lobbies and passageways were spacious — none less than eight feet wide. There were no winding staircases. The idea was to have the church easy of entrance and egress. It has been specially arranged to prevent "choking" in case of a panic by fire, or accidents of any kind. Electric lights were used in ever}' part of the structure. The windows were of cathedral glass, richly stained, and the much-praised rose window was considered particularly THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 51 fine. Of the interior it was written that the upholstery in the pews was " in warm, cheerful colors, and the prevailing effect (in harmony with the fine roof timbers in their natural colors) of orange and subdued tints." In every respect it was a magnificent building, original in design and a very model of adaptation to congregational uses. But it too was a shining mark for the demons of pyrotechny, who, despite its consecration, dev'oured the sacred edifice, and again left Dr. Talmage churchless. It is consolement to know, as a New York newspaper said the day following the fire : " Flames have destroyed the Tabernacle of Dr. Talmage, but fire can never destroy the splendor of his career." Dr. Talmage was interviewed in the afternoon of the day of the fire, and his indomitable spirit, profound and unswerving faith in God, and unchangeable cheerfulness of heart are manifest in his answers. Said he : " It is a great disaster, a great disaster, but the mercy of God overtowers the disaster." " You wish for my version of the catastrophe ? " he said. " Here it is : At the close of the church service this morning I was shaking hands with a great nuiltitude of people at the foot of the pulpit platform. I was about through, and went down the body of the church to speak to my wife, who was standing there. She immediately called my attention to a fire that was spouting from the top of the altar. When I saw it was under full headway, my first impulse was to look around and see who was there in the church. To my delight there were but about twenty. I said to myself, there are twenty people and twenty-five doors, and every one will escape. I then went over the shoulder of the burning platform and entered my study. Then I thought, 'Is it manly to run? 'and continued walking up and down the study. I had just made up my mind to walk out and see if every one had escaped, when a New York friend rushed in and said : ' Get out ! Get out ! ]\Ir. Talmage, you must leave at once ! ' We went out through the Greene avenue door and walked around to the front entrance, from which place I could see the fire blazing, and knew that the church was doomed." In spite of his calm manner, Dr. Talmage was deeplv affected, and tears came into his eyes at the recollection of that last moment in the monument he had reared. " Yes," he repeated, " the mercy of God overtowers the disaster. If this had occurred half an hour before it did there would have been the calamity of the centur\'. There were at least 6000 persons packed into the church and lecture-room, and in the panic which must needs have ensued many would have been trampled under foot. If it had occurred during the Sunday-school hours God knows what horrors would have ensued. While the calamity has been infinite, the mercy has likewise been infinite. " Personally, I feel not one iota disheartened. I never had more faith in God, or a brighter hope for the future. As nearly as I can find out, the church officers feel the same way. It is a long procession of church disasters that is inexplicable. It may be likened to a family in which four or five children die of scarlet fever. You can't explain, and you just accept the facts. It's the same with the church. The matter is a mystery which I adjourn to the next world. I do not try to explain, but just bow submissively to the mercy of the Lord. " As far as I can learn, there were no fatal accidents. However, two of our trustees, Thomas Pitbladdo and T. G. Matthews, had ver\' narrow escapes from death. They, with other trustees, were in a room in the turret, and their first intimation of danger was from smoke that filled the room. Their escape was providential. " I believe also that Elder Lawrence crawled out through the smoke on his hands and knees." 52 THE EARTH GIRDLED. When asked liis theory as to the cause of the fire, Dr. Tahiiage said : " Electricity beyond a doubt. That is somethinjj that is only partly harnessed, and even when liridled breaks its harness. I am confident there was a misarrangement of wires. Electricity destroyed our other church, and I am confident it did this one. ''What is the meaning of the three fires which have destroyed Brooklyn Tabernacle? As I leave, people in many lands are discussing that question, for telegrams from across the Atlantic, as well as from many parts of this country, show that the fiery news had leaped every whither. Three vast structures dedicated to God and the work of trying to make the world better, gone down, and all this within a few years. They were well built as to permanence and durability-. All the talk about these buildings as mere fire-traps is the usual cant, for there is as much secular cant as religious cant. Have \ou heard in the last (;rand canon of tke coi.oRAno. forty years of any church, or any hall, or any theatre which, after destruction, was not called a fire-trap? That charge alwa}-s makes a lively opening for any description of a fire. There have been no better structures, secular or religious, put up in the last twent\-fi\-e years than the three Brooklyn Tabernacles, and the modes of egress from them so ample that the thousands of worshipers assembled in any of them could be put safely on the street inside of five minutes. The fact is that there is nothing in this world incombustible. When the great Chicago and Boston fires took place they burned up stone and iron. The human race will go on building inconsumable churches, and inconsumable banks, and inconsumable storehouses, and inconsumable cities, and then all will be consumed in the world's last fire. " Builders, who had large experience and established reputation, pronounced the Brookh-n Tabernacles perfect structures. But what is the meaning of the three fires ? THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 53 Tliere iiia\- be a hundred different lessons learned by a hundred different people and legiti- mate lessons. As for myself, I adjourn most of the meaning to tlie next world. We will learn there in two minutes more than we can find out here in fifty years. With that antici- pation, mysteries do not often bother me. "One reason for these consecutive disasters may be that the patience of the best people in the world, the members of Brooklyn Tabernacle, was to be perfected. ' Purified by fire.' ;\Iighty discipline for one of the Lord's hosts. Whether I e\-er meet them on earth or not, it will be a theme of hea\enly reminiscence. We shall talk it all over, tlie story of the three fires. "Another reason why the last church went down may have been that some of us were idoliz- ing the building, and the Lord will not allow idolatry. The house was such a Midsummer Night's Dream of beaut\'. Enchantment lifted in galleries and sprung in arches and glori- fied in the light which came through windows touching it with their deftest fingers. The acoustics so rare that thousands of ears were in easy reach of common accentuation. An organ which was a hallelujah set up in pipes and banked in keys, waiting for a musician's manipulation, that would lead the congregational song as an archangel might lead heaven. Glorious organ ! When it died down into the ashes of that fire, perhaps its soul went up where Handel and Haydn began to pla)- on it. The most superb audience-room that I ever gazed on or ever expect to see, until I enter the Temple of the Sun. On one memorial wall of that building, a stone which I had rolled down from Mount Calvary, where our Lord died, and two tables of stone that were sawed off from ^Nlount Sinai, and brought on camels across the desert by my arrangement, and a part of Paul's pulpit, which the Queen of Greece allowed me, from Mars Hill. Architecture so chaste, so grand, so appropriate, so suggestive, so stupendous ! One of the doxologies of heaven alighted. W^ell, perhaps we thought too much of it. When we think too much of our children, the Lord takes them, and when we think too much of our church, the Lord summarily removes it. "I suppose another reason for the departure of that house was that it had done its work. Church buildings, like individuals, accomplish what they were built for and then go. One person lives ninety years, another fortv ^ ears, another three }ears, and when God takes an individual, whether at ninetv, or fort\-, or three years, his mission is ended. This last church stood three years, and any person who knows what multitudes have there assembled, and what transactions for eternity have there taken place, will admit that it was well to build it, even if we had known at the start that it would only last from 1891 to 1894. "Another reason wh\- I think this last church went down was to keep me humble. The Lord had widened my work through Christendom, and with two receptions the week before the conflagration, the one a cit\' reception presided over b\' our mayor, and the other a national and international reception presided over bv one of the chief men of the nation, who had recently stepped from the Presidential cabinet, and the occasion honored by addresses and letters and cablegrams from men of world-wide fame in Church and State, and the whole scene brilliant beyond description and in compliment to myself, who was brought up a farmer's boy, there was danger that I might become puffed up and my soul weakened for future work. I did not yet feel any stirrings of that sort, and had only felt an humble gratitude for what had been said and done by friends, transatlantic and cisatlantic, but I had ordered full reports of the meeting laid aside for future perusal, and I had engaged the fleetest stenographer I know of to take down every word, from the opening doxology of the first reception to the benediction of the last reception, and sometime, when less bu.sy, I would take in all the eloquence and kindness and splendor of that memorable 54 THE EARTH GIRDLED. week. What might have been the result upon myself I know not. I have seen upon others the withering effect of human praise. A cold chill of the world's neglect is no more destructive than the sunstroke from too much heat of popular approval. The disaster may have been needed, and it came so close upon the adulation that it acted as an e\-er- lasting prevention. In the light of that awful blaze of that Sabbath in ]\Iay, 1894, no self- sufficiency could stand a second. "Another reason for the fires I think is that somehow, and in a way that I know not, m\- opportunities are to widen. After each of the other fires new doors were open. I prayer- fullv expect that such will be the sequence of the last conflagration. "Will the Brooklyn Tabernacle be rebuilt ? I know not. What or when or where shall be my work I cannot even guess, nor have I the least anxiety. Nothing but an inspired utterance of the Bible could bear such repetition as I have for the last twelve days given to the words of the Psalmist : " The Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice." No lamentations nor discouraging wails escaped the lips of this most optimistic of men ; like Job, he submitted to whatever it was the will of God to send ; that as rain falls alike upon the just and the imjust, so does adversity know no distinction in its visits, and he who loveth the Lord should therefore accept whatsoever it seemeth good to Him to send. Sometimes the rod that chasteneth buds forth with blessings ; sometimes the heavy yoke becomes a crown ; sometimes the burden is a cross. And in this divine spirit of resignation Dr. Talmage watched the great Tabernacle, built with so much effort, dedicated with so much reverence, sustained by so much good, beautiful with so much promise, crumble into ashes, dissolve forever in a fiery embrace of the red wraith whose breath is destruction. " The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away ; blessed be the name of the Lord." The Earth Girdled. CHAPTER I. TRANSCONTINENTAL. 'T half past nine o'clock, on the night of May 14, 1894, I descend the front steps of my home in Brook- lyn, New York. The sen- sation of leaving for a journey around the world is not all made up of bright anticipation. The miles to be traveled are so numerous, the seas to be crossed are so treacher- ous, the peradventures are so great, that the solemni- ties outnumbered the ex- pectations. My family accompany me to the rail- way train ; — will we all meet again ? The cli- matic changes, the ships, the shoals, the hurricanes, the bridges, the cars, the epidemics, the possibili- ties, hinder any positive- ness of prophec>-. I come down the front steps of my home ; will I ever again ascend them ? The remark made by Honor- able William M. Evarts a few evening's before, at the public reception on the conclusion of my twenty-fifth year of Brooklyn pastorate, though uttered in facetiousness, was consolatory. He said : " Dr. Talmage ought to realize that if he goes around the world, he will come (55) T.\KEN ON HIS JOURNEY AROUND THE WORLD, JUI.V 27, 1S94, AT SYDNEY, .\USTRALIA. 56 THE EARTH GIRDLED. out at the same place from which lie started." May tlie God who holds the winds in one fist, and the ocean in the hollow of the other hand, protect ns. I leave home while the timbers of our destroyed church are still smoking-. Three great churches have been consumed. Why this series of huge calamities, I know not. Had I not made all the arrangements for departure, and been assured by the trustees of m)- church that they would take all the responsibilities upon themselves, I would have postponed my intended tour, or adjourned it forever ; but all whom I have consulted tell me now is the time to go, and so I turn my face toward the Golden Gate. I do not leave America because there are not wonders enough to look at between the Atlantic and Pacific. Before any one leaves this country for a tour around the world he otight to see the Yosemite, Yellowstone Park, Alammoth Cave of Kentucky and Lookout ^Mountain. On \our way across the continent sweep round by this last wonder of the planet. I took a carriage and wound up Lookout Mountain. Up, up, up ! Standing there on the tip-top rock I saw five States of the Union. Scene stupendous and overwhelming! One almost is disposed to take off his hat in the presence of what seems to be the grandest prospect on this continent. There is Missionary Ridge, the beach against which the red billows of Federal and Confederate courage surged and broke. There are the Blue ^Mountains of North and South Carolina. With strain of vision, there is Kentucky, there is Virginia. At our foot, Chattanooga and Chickamauga, the pronunciation of which proper names will thrill ages to come with thoughts of valor and desperation and agony. Looking each way and any way from the top of that mountain, earthworks, earthworks — the beautiful Tennessee winding through the valley, curling and coiling around, making letter " S " after letter " S," as if that letter stood for shame, that brothers should have gone into massacre with each other, while God and nations looked on. I have stood on ]\Iount Washington, and on the Sierra Nevadas, and on the Alps ; but I never saw so far as from the top of Lookout Mountain. I looked back thirty-one \-ears, and I saw rolling up the side of that mountain the smoke of Hooker's storming part\" while the foundations of eternal rock quaked with the cannonade. Four years of internecine strife seemed to come back, and without any chronological order I saw the events : Norfolk Nav\' Yard on fire ; Fort Sumter on fire ; Charleston on fire ; Chambersburg on fire ; Columbia, South Carolina, on fire ; Richmond on fire. And I saw Ellsworth fall, and Lyon fall, and McPherson fall, and Bishop Polk fall, and Stonewall Jackson fall. And I saw hundreds of grave trenches afterward cut into two great gashes across the land, the one for the dead men of the North, the other for the dead men of the South. And ni\' ear as well as nn- e\e was quickened, and I heard the tramp of enlisting armies, and I heard the explosion of mines and gunpowder magazines, and the crash of fortification walls, and the '' swamp angel," and the groan of dying hosts falling across the puLseless heart of other dying hosts. And I saw still further out, and I saw on the banks of the Penobscot and the Oregon and the Ohio and the Hudson and the Roanoke and the Yazoo and the Alabama, widowhood and orphanage and childlessness — some exhausted in grief and others stark and mad, and I said, " Enough, enough have I seen into the past from the top of Lookout Mountain. O God ! show me the future." And standing there, it was revealed to me. And I looked out and I saw great populations from the North moving South, and great populations from the South moving North, and I found that their footsteps obliterated the hoof-mark of the war chargers. And I saw the Angel of the Lord of hosts standing in the national cemeteries, trumpet in hand, as much as to say, " I will wake these soldiers from their long encampment." And I looked and I saw such sno\v\' harvests of cotton and such golden harvests of corn as I had 58 THE EARTH GIRDLED. never imagined, and I found that the earthworks were down, and the gun-carriages down, and the war barracks were all down, and I saw the river winding through the valley, making letter " S " after letter " S " — no more " S " for shame, but " S " for salvation. And as I saw that all the weapons of war were turned into agricultural implements I was alarmed, and I said, " Is this safe ? " And standing there on the tip-top rock of Lookout Mountain, I was so near heaven that I heard two voices which some way slipped from the gate, and the\- sang, " Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." And I recognized the two voices. They were the voices of two Christian soldiers who fell at Shiloh ; the one a Federal, the other a Confederate. And they were brothers ! After you have visited that historical place }-ou had better come up by the Mammoth Cave. With lanterns and torches and a guide, we went down into that cave. You may walk fourteen miles and see no sunlight. It is a wonderful place. Some parts the roof of the cave a hundred feet high. The grottos filled with weird echoes, cascades falling from invisible height to invisible depth. Stalagmites rising up from the floor of the cave — stalactites descending from the roof of the cave, joining each other, and making pillars of the Almighty's sculpturing. There are rosettes of amethyst in halls of gypsum. As the guide carries his lantern ahead of you, the shadows have an appearance supernatural and spectral. The darkness is fearful. Two people, getting lost from their guide only for a few^ hours, years ago, were demented, and for years sat in their insanity. You feel like holding your breath as a'ou walk across the bridges that seem to span the bottomless abyss. The guide throws his calcium light down into the caverns, and the light rolls and tosses from rock to rock, and from depth to depth, making at every plunge a new revelation of the awful power that could have made such a place as that. A sense of suffocation comes iipon you as you think that yon are two hundred and fifty feet in a straight line from the sunlit surface of the earth. The guide, after a while, takes you into what is called the " Star Chamber," and then he says to you: "Sit here," and then he takes the lantern and goes down under the rocks, and it gets darker and darker, until the night is so thick that the hand an inch from the eye is tmobservable. And then, by kindling one of the lanterns, and placing it in a cliff of the rock, there is a reflection cast on the dome of the cave, and there are stars coming out in constellations — a brilliant night heavens — and you involuntarily exclaim : " Beautiful ! beautiful ! " Then he takes the lantern down in other depths of the cavern, and wanders on, and wanders off, until he comes up from behind the rocks gradually, and it seems like the dawn of the morning and it gets brighter and brighter. The guide is a skilled ventriloquist, and he imitates the voices of the morning, and soon the gloom is all gone, and you stand congratulating yourself o\'er the weird and enchanting spectacle. Before taking steamer at the Pacific coast, }'ou ought certainly to visit the two National Parks — Yosemite and Yellowstone Park. Who that has seen Yosemite and the adjoining Californian regions can think of them without having his blood tingle? Trees now standing there that were old when Christ lived ! These monarchs of foliage reigned before Csesar or Alexander, and the next thousand years will not shatter their sceptre! They are the masts of the continent, their canvas spread on the winds, while the old ship bears on its way through the ages ! That valley of the Yosemite is eight miles long and a half-mile wide and three thousand feet deep. It seems as if it had been the meaning of Omnipotence to crowd into as small a place as possible some of the most stupendous scenery of the world. Some of those cliffs you do not stop to measiue by feet, for they are literally a mile high. Steep so 6o THE EARTH GIRDLED. that neither foot of man nor beast ever scaled them, they stand in everlasting defiance. If Jehovah has a throne on earth, these are its white pillars ! Standing down in this great chasm of the valle>', yon look up, and j-onder is Cathedral Rock, vast, gloomy minster built for the silent worship of the mountains! Yonder is Sentinel Rock, 3270 feet high, bold, solitary, standing guard among the ages, its top seldom touched, until a bride, one Fourth of July, mounted it and planted there the national standard, and the people down in the valley looked up and saw the head of the mountain turbaned with Stars and Stripes ! Yonder are the Three Brothers, 4000 feet high ; Cloud's Rest, North and South Dome, and the heights never captured save by the fiery bayonets of the thunder-storm ! No pause for the eye ; no stopping-place for the mind. Mountains hurled on mountains. ]^Ionntains in the wake of mountains. Mountains flanked by mountains. Mountains split. Mountains ground. Mountains fallen. Mountains triumphant. As though Mont Blanc and the Adirondacks and IMount Washington were here uttering themselves in one magnificent MATS" •^TRHIT ^\I.T I \Ki; CITY. WHFRl' TITH CITIKFS nV MORMnXT^At CAME TO MEFT MK. chorus of rock and precipice and waterfall. Sifting and dashing through the rocks, the water comes down. The Bridal Veil Fall .so thin you can see the face of the mountain behind it. Yonder is Yosemite Fall, dropping 2634 feet, sixteen times greater descent than that of Niagara. These waters dashed to death on the rocks, so that the white spirit of the slain waters ascending in robe of mist seeks the heavens. Yonder is Nevada Fall, plunging 700 feet, the v/ater in arrows, the water in rockets, the water in pearls, the water in amethysts, the water in diamonds. That cascade flings down the rocks enough jewels to array all the earth in beauty, and rushes on until it drops into a very hell of waters, the smoke of their torment ascending forever and ever. But the most wonderful part of this American continent is the Yellowstone Park. My visit there made upon me an impression that will last forever. .A.fter all poetry has exhausted itself, and all the iMorans and Bierstadts and the other enchanting artists a •^ ca* 3 (6i) 62 THE EARTH GIRDLED. have completed their canvas, there will be other revelations to make, and other stories of its beanty and wrath, splendor and agony, to be recited. The Yellowstone Park is the geologist's paradise. By cheapening of travel may it become the nation's playgronnd ! In some portions of it there seems to be the anarchy of the elements. Fire and water, and the vapor born of that marriage terrific. Geyser cones or hills of crystal that have been over five thousand years growing ! In places the earth, throbbing, sobbing, groaning, quaking with aqueous paroxysm. At the expiration of every sixty-five minutes one of the geysers tossing its boiling water 185 feet in the air and then descending into swinging rainbows. Caverns of pictured walls large enough for tiie sepulchre of the liuman race. Formations of stone in shape and color of calla lily, of heliotrope, of rose, of cowslip, of sunflower, and of gladiolus. Sulphur and arsenic and oxide of iron, with their delicate pencils, turning the hills into a Luxembourg or a Vatican picture-gallery. The so-called Thanatopsis Geyser, exquisite as the Brj-ant poem it was named after, and Evangeline Geyser, lovely as the Longfellow heroine it commemorates. Wide reaches of stone of intermingled colors, blue as the sky, green as the foliage, crimson as the dahlia, white as the snow, spotted as the leopard, tawny as the lion, grizzly as the bear, in circles, in angles, in stars, in coronets, in stalactites, in stalagmites. Here and there are petrified growths, or the dead trees and vegetation of other ages, kept through a process of natural embalmment. In some places waters as innocent and smiling as a child making a first attempt to walk from its mother's lap, and not far off" as foaming and frenzied and ungovernable as a maniac in struggle with his keepers. But after you have wandered along the geyserite enchantment for days, and begin to feel that there can be nothing more of interest to see, you suddenly come upon the peroration of all majesty and grandeur, the Grand Canon. It is here that it seems to me — and I speak it with reverence — Jehovah seems to have surpassed Himself. It seems a great gulch let down into the eternities. Here, hung up and let down, and spread abroad are all the colors of land and sea and sky. Upholstering of the Lord God Almighty. Best work of the Architect of worlds. Sculpturing by the Infinite. Masonry by an omnipotent trowel. Yellow! \^ou never saw yellow unless you saw it there. Red! Y'ou never saw red unless you saw it there. Violet ! Y'ou never saw violet unless you saw it there. Triumphant banners of color. In a cathedral of basalt. Sunrise and Sunset married by the setting of rainbow ring. Gothic arches, Corinthian capitals, and Egyptian basilicas built before human architecture was born. Huge fortifications of granite constructed before war forged its first cannon. Gibraltars and Sebastopols that never can be taken. Alhambras, where kings of strength and queens of beauty reigned long before the first earthly crown was empearled. Thrones on which no one but the King of heaven and earth ever sat. Fount of waters at which the hills are baptized, while the giant cliffs stand round as sponsors. For thousands of years before that scene was unveiled to human sight, the elements were busy, and the geysers were hewing away with their hot chi.sel, arid glaciers were pounding with their cold hammers, and hurricanes were cleaving with their lightning strokes, and hailstones giving the finishing touches, and after all these forces of nature had done their best, in our century the curtain dropped, and the world had a new and divinely inspired revelation. The Old Testament written on papyrus, the New Testament written on parchment, and this last Testament written on the rocks. Hanging over one of the cliffs, I looked off" until I could not get my breath ; then retreating to a less exposed place I looked down again. Down there is a pillar of rock that & 64 THE EARTH GIRDLED. ill certain conditions of the atmosphere looks like a pillar of blood. Yonder are fifty feet of emerald on a base of five hundred feet of opal. Wall of chalk restinj^ on pedestals of beryl. Turrets of light tumbling on floors of darkness. The brown brightening into o-olden. Snow of crvstal melting into fire of carbuncle. Flaming red cooling into russet. Cold blue warming into saffron. Dull gray kindling into solferino. Morning twilight flushing; midnight shadows. Auroras crouching among rocks. Yonder is an eagle's nest on a shaft of basalt. Through an eye-glass we see among it the young eagles, but the stoutest arm of our group cannot hurl a stone near enough to disturb the feathered domesticity. Yonder are heights that would be chilled with horror but for the warm robe of forest foliage with which they are enwrapped. Altars of worship at which nations might kneel. Domes of chalcedony on temples of porphyry. See all this carnage of color up and down the cliffs ; it must have been the battlefield of the war of the EROAIIMOOR CASINO AND CHEVINNI. MiHxlAlN. i i 1 1.. .1; \ l " i -I KINGS. elements ! Here are all the colors of the wall of heaven ; neither the .sapphire, nor the chrysolite, nor the topaz, nor the jacinth, nor the amethyst, nor the jasper, nor the twelve gates of twelve pearls, wanting. If spirits bound from earth to heaven could pass up by way of this canon, the dash of heavenly beauty would not be so overpowering. It would onlv be from glory to glory. Ascent through such earthly scenery, in wliich the crystal is so bright, would be fit preparation for the ".sea of glass mingled with fire." Standing there in the Grand Caiion of the Yellowstone Park, for the most part we held our peace, but after a while it flashed upon me with such power I could not help but .say to my comrades: "What a Hall this would be for the la.st Judgment! See tliat mighty cascade with the rainbows at the foot of it ! Those waters congealed and transfixed with the agitations of that day, what a place they would make for the shining feet of tlie Judge of quick and dead ! And those rainbows look now like the crowns to be cast at His feet. At the bottom of this great canon is a floor on which the nations of the earth might 66 THE EARTH GIRDLED. 4 stand, and all up and down these galleries of rock the nations of heaven might sit. And what reverberation of archangels' trumpet there -would be through all these gorges and from all these caverns and over all these heights. Why should not the greatest of all the days the world shall ever see close amid the grandest scener\- Omnipotence ever built? Oh, the sweep of the American continent ! Sailing up Puget Sound, I said, " This is the Mediterranean of America." Visiting Portland and Tacoma and Seattle and Victoria and Fort Townsend and \'ancouver, and other cities of the northwest region, I thought to myself: These are the Bostons, New Yorks, Charlestons and Savannahs of the Pacific coast. But after all, I found that I had seen only a part of the American continent, for GRAND CAMJX 01' Tllli COI.UKADO. Alaska is as far west of San Francisco as the coast of Maine is east of it, so that the central city of the American continent is San Francisco. Six times before this have I crossed the American Continent, and I have seen the sun rise from the golden cradle of the eastern sky and seen him buried beneath the pomp of the western horizon. Three girths have been put around the American Continent ; the Northern Pacific, the Union Pacific and the Southern Pacific. All these girths have been tightened, and the buckles are moving from one puncture to another until the continent is less and less in circumference. When I first crossed it, it took fully seven days. Instead of the elegant dining cars of to-day, we stopped at restaurants with table covers indescribable, for they had on them layers of other strata of breakfasts insulting in appearance. The first time I ever saw Judge Field, of the United States Supreme Court, was at cue of these tables on the Rocky Mountains. DEVIL'S SLIDE. WEBER CANON, UTAH. A misnamed place, for Satan never had anything to do with such grandeur. (67) CHAPTER II. ACROSS THE CONTINENT. OUR journey across the continent was prosperous. One day, however, was bounded on one side by a broken bridge and on the other by an avalanche of rocks. Before rising in the morning the Pulhnan sleeper gave a Iialf dozen angr}- jerks, showing that we were derailed, or that the track was deranged. The train halted, and it was found that a bridge had been washed loose by a mountain torrent, and the track was crooked and uneven and ready to fall. But it held us until we got over. We all stood and looked at the broken bridge and felt thankful to have crossed without damage. Indeed that broken bridge attracted more of our attention THE BREAKING RAII^ROAD BRIDGE THAT WE PASSED OVER. than the hundreds of faithful bridges that had put us across the chasms, and those few crooked rails, than the two thousand miles of track that had kept straight while we passed over it. So it is in all kinds of life, one crooked man excites more attention than a hundred thousand who preserve their integrity or maintain their usefulness, and one man who breaks down imder the heavy pressure of .life is more remarked upon than whole communities of men who stand firm and true, though long trains of disaster roll (68) THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 69 over them. Thousands of homes moving on quietly and happily make not so much excitement as one family derailed by infelicity, or gone down the divorce embankment. Tens of thousands of banks, of insurance companies, of monetary institutions day by day causing no remark, but one absconding cashier converges all the pens and all the types and all the eyes of a nation upon the one recalcitrant. Thousands of consecrated men are preaching the Gospel and doing their work year after year, and nothing especial is said of them, but some man in canonicals gets off the track about who wrote the Pentateuch or about the miracles, or about immortality, and all Christendom is shaken. The theological professors who, during the last fifteen years, have become famous would never have been heard of, if they had not got off the track. It was not an excess of brain or consecration that made the disturbance, but the big jolt they gave the churches. A sudden wash-out loosened the pier of one of the bridges. The day in Colorado of which I spoke as opened with a disrupted bridge, closed with a descent of rocks directly across our iron way. After several hours of attempt by the railroad men to remove the obstruction the moinitains roared with an explosion. What lever and wedge and crowbar failed to do, powder accomplished, and the rocks which had rolled down from one side the gorge, rolled over to the other. The saying that the age of miracles is passed is an untrue saying. Every mile of tlie great transcontinental railroad is a miracle, }ea twice a miracle, a miracle of Divine power that heaved up the mountains, and a miracle of human engineering by which they were gashed and tunneled. But do you know what in some respects is the most remarkable thing between the Atlantic and Pacific ? It is the figure of a cross on a mountain in Colorado. It is called the " ]\Iount of the Hol\' Cross." A horizontal crevice filled with perpetual snow, and a perpendicular crevice filled with snow, but both the horizontal line and the perpendicular line so marked, so bold, so significant, so unmistakable that all who pass in the da\time within many miles are compelled to see it. There are some figures, some contours, some mountain appearances that you gradually make out after your attention is called to them. So a man's face on the rocks in the White Mountains. vSo a maiden's form cut in the granite of the Adirondacks. So a city in the morning clouds. Yet you have to look under the pointing of your friend or guide for some time before you can see the similarit\-. But the first instant \'ou glance at this side of the mountain in Colorado you cry out " A cross ! A cross ! " Do >'ou say that this geological inscription just happens so? No! nothing in this world just happens so. That cross on the Colorado Mountain is not a h.uman device, or an accident of nature, or the freak of an earthquake. The hand of God cut it there and set it up for the nation to look at. Whether set up there in rock before the cross of wood was set up on the bluff back of Jerusalem, or set at some time since that a.s.sassination, I believe the Creator meant it to suggest the most notable event in all the history of this planet, and He hung it there over the heart of this continent to indicate that the only hope for this nation is in the Cross on which our Innnanuel died. The clouds were vocal at our Sa\'iour's birth, the rocks rent at His martyrdom, why not the walls of Colorado bear the record of the crucifi.xion ? I take it that this engraving on one of the most conspicuous places of the American continent means that this country belongs to Christ, and that He will }-et take possession of all of it. Human device has baptized with Satanic nomenclature much of the scenery between the Atlantic and Pacific, and some of the rocks are called the "Devil's Pulpit," and the "Devil's Saw Mill," and the "Devil's Spinning Wheel," and the " Devil's Slide," and is it not high time that the world finds out that the Devil is as poor now as when on the top of the Temple, and not owning an acre of real estate, he offered Christ the kingdoms of this world, and that instead of the human and (1^) THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 71 blasphemous assigning of this or tliat part of the continent to Diabolus, we take this high-up and stupendous sign on tiie Mount of the Holy Cross in Colorado as t}'pical of the fact that to Christ belongs this continent ? I closed this journey across the continent at the gates of the International Fair at San Francisco. Last autumn Mr. De Young, a great leader in California affairs, was seated in a room in Chicago, and a foreigner said he would like to make another exhibit of his country's fabrics before leaving America. Mr. De Young retired to his room and with his pencil began to calculate the possibility of making a success of a Midwinter Fair in San Francisco. Believing that it could be done he called together some prominent Californians, and a large subscription of mone}' was made, and the maniuioth undertaking was set on foot. Considering the short time that was allowed for the arrangements, and that no Congressional aid was voted, it is the most wonderful Fair ever held on this continent. The CHINATOWN, SAN FRANCISCO, AS SHOWN ME EV THE CITY AUTHORITIKS. architecture, the fountains, the statuary, the fruits for size and abundance and lusciousness unparalleled, and the immensity of the Fair makes it one of the great poems of the century. The day I visited it was the National Memorial Day, commemorative of those fallen in the battles of our civil war, and at the same time it was a holiday. I had been invited by the officers of tlie Fair to deliver the oration, and so after a banquet given to me by the Director-General, I confronted an audience crowded almost beyond endurance with the story of the prowess and the self-sacrifice of those who died for the countr>-, and concluded by saying : The greatest dav I ever saw was when some of j'ou were present, the day when the armies, returned from our civil war, passed in review at Washington. I care not whether you were a Northern man or a Southern man, you could not have looked on without tears. God knew that the day was stupendous, and He cleared the heavens of cloud and mist and 72 THE EARTH GIRDLED. chill, and sprung the blue sky as a triumphal arch for the returning warriors to pass under. From Arlington Heights the spring foliage shook out its welcome as the hosts came over the hills, and the sparkling waters of the Potomac tossed their gold to the feet of the battalions, as they came to the Long Bridge and in almost interminable line passed over. The Capitol, for whose defence these men had fought, never seemed so majestic as that morning, snow}' white, looking down upon the tides of men that came surging on, billow after billow. Darius and Xerxes saw no such hosts as those that marched in our three great armies of Potomac, Tennessee and Georgia. Those ancient rulers fought for fame ; these were the heroes of the Union. Passing in silence, yet I heard in every step the thunder of conflicts through which they had waded, and seemed to see dripping from their smoke- blackened flags the blood of our country's martyrs. For the best part of two days we sat and watched the filing on of what seemed endless ranks ; brigade after lirigade ; division after division ; host after host ; rank beyond rank ; ever moving, ever passing, marching, marching ! Tramp ! Tramp ! Tramp ! These fought in the Wilderness. Those rode in lightning stirrups behind cavalry Sheridan. These men were at Chattanooga. Those stood on Lookout Mountain. These followed their captain from Atlanta to the sea, holding the same flag, lifting the same sword, marching, marching. Tramp ! Tramp ! Tramp ! Thousands after thousands ; battery front ; arms shouldered ; columns solid ; shoulder to shoulder ; wheel to wheel ; charger to charger ; nostril to nostril ; commanders on horses with mane entwined with roses and necks enchained with garlands ; fractious at the shouts that ran along the line, increasing from the clapping of children clothed in white, standing on the steps of the Capitol, to the tumultuous vociferations of two hundred thousand of enraptured people crying Huzza ! Huzza ! Gleaming muskets ; thundering parks of artillery ; rumbling pontoon wagons ; ambulances from whose wheels seemed to sound out the groan of the crushed and the dying whom thev had carried. These men came from balmy Minnesota. Those from Illinois prairie. These were often hummed to sleep by the pines of Oregon. Those were New England lumbermen. These came from the Golden Gate of the Pacific. Those came out of the coal shafts of Pennsylvania. Side by side, in one great cause consecrated, througli fire and storm and darkness, brothers in peril on their way home from Chancellorsville and Kenesaw Mountain and Fredericksburg. In lines that seemed infinite, they pass on. We gazed and wept and wondered, lifting up our eyes to see if the end had come. But no ! looking from one end of that long a\-enue to the other we see them yet in solid column ; battery front ; host beside host ; wheel to wheel ; charger to charger ; nostril to nostril ; coming as it were from under the Capitol. Forward ! Forward ! their bayonets, caught in the sun, glimmer and flash and blaze till they seem like one long river of silver, ever and anon changed into a river of fire. No end to the procession, no rest for the eyes. We avert our head from the scene, unable longer to look. We feel disposed to stop our ears ; but still we hear it. Marching, marching. Tramp ! Tramp ! Tramp ! But Imsh ! uncover every head. Here the\' pass, the remnant of ten men of a once full regiment. Silence ! Widowhood and orphanage look on and wring their hands. Uncover every head ! But wheel into the ranks all ye people, North, South, East, West, all decades, all centuries, all millenniums. Forward the whole line ! Huzza ! Huzza ! I have safely arrived on the Pacific Coast. A startling question was a.sked me just before I reached here. I was in deep slumber in a section of a sleeping car when the curtain was pushed back and a venerable lady seized hold of me and shrieked out : " Who are you, and what are }-ou doing here ? " It was a sudden calling of the roll of passengers, and I did not feel like answering to my name. The question was repeated in more earnest- THE WORLD AS vSEEN TO-DAY. 73 ness and with louder voice. I could not at first understand why the interrogation as to my identit}-, but after gathering my senses together I mildly suggested that perhaps she had taken my place for her own. This was no doubt the case, and she made a quick retreat. The fact is that the sections and berths of a sleeping car are very much alike. The new mode of hanging the number of the berth in large figures on the outside of the drapery of the. sleeping place is a great improvement; but midnight perambulation, even under the best of circumstances, is more or less confusing. The mistake that the venerable lady made is a mistake that thousands of people make, for they think some one else has their place. Most of the struggle in the world is in tr}ing to get some one else's berth. Better go back contented and take the place assigned you. In trving to get some one else's place, we may lose our own without getting his. I cannot jeer at the old lady's mistake, for that night on the Southern Pacific Railroad I bethought myself that there are, during every Presidential campaign, at least one hundred thousand people trying to get the berths of the one hundred thousand present occupants. Good bye, my friends all over! On the other side of the world I will think of those who have put me under obligation, and the first hour I have passed the latitude and longitude farthest away from home, and begin to return, I will count the weeks and days that stand between me and the lowest step of the front door from which, on the evening of May 14, I departed. W^^"*^^ "^"^ CHAPTER III. PARADISE OF THE PACIFIC. IT was two o'clock in the afternoon when at San Francisco I stepped aboard the Alameda, of the Oceanic Steamship Company, our Captain Morse, one of the most genial, popular and able commanders who ever sailed the seas. He and the Pacific r)cean are old acquaintances. He has been in seventeen hurricanes and safely out-rode them. Profusion of flowers were sent up the gang-plank and the masses of people on the wharf who had come to see their friends off, waved handkerchiefs and threw kisses and cried and laughed as is usual when an ocean steamer is about to start. The gong sounded for the leaving of all those from the ship's deck who did not expect to accompany us. The whistle blew for loosening from the wharf and the screw began to whirl and the ship moved out toward the Golden Gate. The Pacific Ocean met us with waves high enough to send many to their berths, and to arouse in the rest of us the question why so rough a sea should be called the Pacific. And for two days the roll, the jerk, the rise, the fall, the lunge, the tremor, the quake spoiled the appetite and hid from sight the ma- jority of the passengers. But after the third day the ocean and the ship ceased their wrestling, and Peace smoothed the waves and hushed the winds, for the same Lord who took a short walk upon rough Galilee takes a longer walk upon Pacific seas. Different from most voyages, there seemed no dis- agreeables on board. Enough pas- sengers to avoid loneliness ; not so many as to be crowded. What difference between a sea-voyage now, with all comforts afforded and the table containing all the luxuries CAPTAIN MORSE, OF THE ALAMEDA. (74) THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 75 that can allure a weak appetite, and those days when the missionaries crossed to Honolulu in vessels greasy and rude, and with food rancid or stale, and with sail full of whims, now full-curved, and now limp and idle. Politics have never done much for the Sandwich Islands. If a man have no expecta- tions for these gems of the Pacific except that which comes from human legislation, I would think he would be as despairful as was Kamehameha III., King of Sandwich Islands, when on his dying bed, he said, " What is to become of my poor country ? There is uo one to follow me. Queen Emma I do not trust ; Sunalilo is a drunkard, and Kalakaua is a fool." All that has been done for the Hawaiian Islands has been done by our gracious God and the missionaries. A foreign ship brought to these islands the mosquitoes. The foreign sailors brought them the leprosy. American politics brought them the devil. Had it not been for the Gospel, those islands would still have been putting to death women for eating bananas when forbidden to do so, bowing to a disgusting idolatry, and in al-1 of the islands would have been a midnight ot cruelty and abomi- nation. THE AXXEX.\TION QUESTION. But the mission- aries came, and in eight years 12,000 people gathered into the churches, and 26,000 ch i 1- dren into schools proposing a Chris- tian civilization, which now holds a beautiful suprem- acy over the Sandwich Islands. There are two great parties in the Hawaiian Islands : royal- ists, who want the Queen, and annexationists, who want to come under our Eagle's wing. Neither of them will triumph. The final result will be a republic by itself, of which the present government is an antepast. The Hawaiian nation is strong enough to stand alone. Because a nation is not gigantic is no more reason why it should not have self- control than a man with limited resources of physical or financial strength should be denied independence. If God had intended Honolulu to belong to the United States, He would have planted it hundreds of miles nearer our American coast. The United States Government is not so hungry for more land that it needs to be fed on a few chunks of island brought from 1800 miles away. No danger that some other foreign nation shall take possession of the island, and give us trouble when we want to run into Honolulu for the coaling and watering of our ships. With some ironsides from our new navy and the THE .\I,.\MEDA PASSING THE GOLDEN GATE. Just as it looked that day of our departure. 76 THE EARTH GIRDLED. aid of our friends on the island, we would knock into smithereens such foreign impertinence. Beside that, if we become as a nation a great maritime power, and we will, none of the islands of the Pacific would decline ns sheltering harbor or supply for our ships. What thouoh the\' belonged to other nations, they would sell us all we want. It is not necessary to own a store in order to purchase goods from it. HAW.\IIAN PROGRESS. These are venerable islands. Those who can translate the language of the rocks and the language of human bones say that these islands have been inhabited 1400 years at least. When found in 1778, they were old places of human habitation. The most unique illustration in all the world of what pure and simple Christianity can do is here. Before this supernatural force began, infanticide was com- mon, and not b}- mildest form of assassination, but buried alive. Demented people were mur- dered ; old people were allowed to die of neglect. Polygamy in its worst form reigned ; and it was as easy for a man to throw away his wife as to pitch an apple core into the sea. Superstitions blackened the earth and the heavens. Christianity found the Sandwich Islands a hell, and turned them into a semi-heaven. As in all the other re- I ^^ % gions where Christianity triumphed, it was ma- ligned by those who came from other lands to practice their iniquities. Loose foreigners were angered because they were hindered in their disso- luteness by a new element they had never before confronted. " There is Honolulu," cried many voices this morning from the deck of the Alameda. These islands, called by many an archipelago, I call the " Constellation of the Pacific," for they seem not so much to have grown up, as alighted from the heavens. The bright, the redolent, the umbra- geous, the floralized, the orcharded, the forested, the picturesque Hawaiian Islands! They came in upon us as much as we came in upon them in the morning. Captain Cook no more discovered them in 1778 than we discovered them to-day. He saw them for the first time for himself, and we see them for the first time this morning for ounselves. IMore fortunate are we than Captain Cook. He looked out upon them from a filthy boat, and wound up his experiences by furnishing his body as the chops and steaks of a savage's breakfast. We from a graceful ship alight amid herbage and arborescence, and shall depart with the good wishes and prayers from all the islanders. HIGH OFFICI.^L COURTESIES. As you approach the harbor there is in sight a long line of surf rolling over reefs of coral. High mountains, hurricane-cleft and lightning-split, but their wounds bandaged DR. TALMAGE ON STEAMER ALAMEDA CROSSING THE PACIFIC. THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 77 with the green of perennial foliage. In a few minutes after landing a chamberlain of the e.x-Oueen called to invite us to her mansion, and Chief Justice Judd called with a delegation to ask me to preach that afternoon. I accepted the invitation brought by the chamberlain and was beautifully entertained by the Queen. With President Dole, of the Provisional Government, and Chief Justice Judd, I went to the Executive Buildings, which were formerly the Palace. The Council of the President were already assembled in what was originally the Throne Room, and taking the chair on the platform he called for order and then rose, and all the Councillors arose with him and he led them in prayer, saying, as near as I can remember : " O Lord, God of Nations ! we ask Thy direction in the matters that shall come before us. Give us wisdom, and prudence, and fidelity in the discharge of oiir duties and Thou shalt have all the praise, world without end, Amen." I have not been told HAkHilK 111' HllMll.L'l.l'. whether most of the Presidents of the United States have opened their cabinet meetings in that way, but it certainly is a good way. At three o'clock that afternoon the Congregational Church was packed to overflowing with a multitude, about one-half native Hawaiians and the other half people of many lands. It was amazing to me that with such a short notice of a few hours such a throng could be gathered. But the Honolulu papers have been publishing my sermons for years and it was really a gathering of old friends. An interpreter stood beside me in the pulpit and with marvelous ease translated what I said into the Hawaiian language. It was such a scene as I never before witnessed, and I shall never see it repeated. After shaking hands with tl'.ousands of people I went out in the most delicious atmosphere and sat down under the 78 THE £ARTH GIRDLED. palm trees. What a bewitcliinent of scenery ! Wliat heartiness of hospitality ! The Hawaiians have no superiors for geniality and kindness in all the world. In physical presence they are wondrous specimens of good health and stalwartness. One Hawaiian could wrestle down two of our nation. A LAND OF FLOWERS. Banks of flowers white as snow, or blue as skies, or 3-ellow as sunsets, or starry as November nights, or red as battlefields. A heaven of flowers. Flowers entwined in maidens' hair, and twisted round hats, and hung on necks, and embroidered on capes and sacks. Tuberoses, gardenias, magnolias, passifloras, trumpet-creepers, oleanders, geraniums, MGUr SCENE IN THE CRATER OF THE VOLCANO OF KII.AUEA, HAWAII. fuchsias, convolvuli and hibiscus red as fire. Jessamine, which we in America carefully coax to climb the wall just once, here running up and down and jumping over to the other side and coming back again to jump down this side. Night-blooming cereus, so rare in our northern latitude we call in our neighbors to see it, and they must come right away or never see it at all, here in these islands scattering its opulence of perfume on all the nights ; and, not able to expend enough in the darkness, also flooding the day. Struggling to surpass each other all kinds of trees, whether of fruit or of rich garniture, mango, and orange, and bamboo, and alligator pear, and umbrella trees, and bread fruit, and algabora, and tamarind, and all the South Sea exotics. Rough cheek of pineapple against smooth cheek of melon. The tropics burning incense of aromatics to the high heavens. # THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 79 THE world's greatest VOLCANO. These islands are volcanic resnlts. The volcanoes are giants living in the cellars of the earth and warming themselves by .-^nbterraneons fires, and when they come out to play thev toss islands, and sometimes in their sport the\' sprinkle the sea with the Society Islands and then the}- toss up the Navigator Islands and then the Fiji Islands and then the Hawaiian Islands. They are Titans, and when they play quoits they pitch islands. When the earth finally goes, as go it will, while it will be a very serious matter to us, it will be only the work of volcanoes which in their sport are apt to be careless with fire. While volcanoes are assigned to the destructive agencies we see here what they can do as archi- tects. See here what they have builded. All up and down these islands are dead volcanoes. Rocked in cradle of earthquake, they grew up to an active life, and came to their last breath, and the mounds under which they sleep are decorated with tropical blooms. But the greatest living volcano of all the earth is Hawaiian, and named Kilauea. What a hissing, bellowing, tumbling, soaring, thundering force is Kilauea ! Lake of unquenchable fire : Convolutions and paroxysms of flame : Elements of nature in torture : Torridity and luridity : Congregation of dreads : Molten horrors : Sulphurous abysms : Swirling mystery of all time : Infinite turbulence : Chimney of perdition : Wallowing terrors : Fifteen acres of threat : Glooms insufferable and Dantesque : Caldron stirred by the champion witch of pandemonium : Camp-fire of the armies of Diabolus : Wrath of the mountains in full bloom: Shimmering incandescence : Pyrotechnics of the planet : Furnace- blast of the ages — Kilauea ! Once upon a time all the geysers, and boiling springs, and volcanoes of the earth held a convention to elect a king ; and Etna was there, and Hecla was there, and Stromboli was there, and Vesuvius was there, and Fusiyama was there, and Mauna Loa was there. The discussion in this convention of volcanoes was heated. They all spouted impassioned sentiment. vSome were candidates for the throne and crown because of one pre-eminence and others for other superiorities. But when it was put to vote, by unanimous acclamation Kilauea was elected to be king of volcanoes. All the active forces of the earth, all the vapors, all the earthquakes, all the hills, all the con- tinents voted aye ! And that night was the coronation. The throne was lava. The sceptre was of smoke. The coronet was of fire. And all the sublimities and grandeurs and solemnities of the earth kneeling at the foot of the burning throne, cried out, " Long live Kilauea of the Havvaiians !" And a voice from heaven added mightiness to the scene as it declared, " He toucheth the hills and they smoke." CHAPTER IV. PRESIDENT AND QUEEN. GHE chamberlain, come to invite us to the residence of the ex-Queen, had suggested eleven o'clock that morning as the best hour for our visit. We approached the wide-open doors through a \ard of palm trees and bananas and cocoanut, and amid flowers that dyed the yard with all the colors that a tropical sun can paint. We were ushered into the royal lady's reception-room, where, surrounded by a group of distinguished persons, she arose to meet us with a cordial grasp of the hand. The pictures of her hardly convey an accurate idea of her dignit)' of bearing. She has all the ease of one born to high position. Her political misfortunes seem in no wise to have saddened her. She spoke freely of the brightness of life to any one disposed to meet all obligations, and at my suggestion that we found in life chiefly what we look for, and if we look for flowers we find flowers, and if we look for thorns we find thorns, she remarked, " I have fomid in the path of life chiefly the flowers. I do not see how any one surrounded bv as many blessings as man}' of us pos- sess could be so ungrateful as to complain." She said it was some- thing to be remembered thank- fully that for fifty years there was no revolution in the islands. She has full faith that the provisional government is only a temporarv affair, and that she will again oc- cupy the throne. She asked her servant to show me, as something I had not seen before, a royal adornment made up from the small bii'd with a large name, the Melithreptes Pacifica. This bird, I had read, had under its wing a single feather of very exquisite color. The Queen cor- rected my information by sa\ing that it was not a single feather, but a tuft of feathers, from under the wing of the bird from which the ux-yuEEN LiLuoKouLANi, AS SHE RECKivKD U.S. adommeut was fashioned into a ■Sol THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. Si chain of beauty for the neck. She spoke of her visit to New York, but said that pro- longed illness hindered her from seeing much of the city. She talked freely and intelli- gently on many subjects pertaining to the present and the future. I was delighted with her appearance and manner, and do not believe one word of the wretched stuff that has been written concerning her immoralities. Defamation is so easy, and there is so much cvnicism abroad which would rather believe evil than eood, that it is not to be thought strange that this Queen, like all the other rulers of the earth, has been beaten with storms of obloquy and misrepresentation. George Washington was called by Tom Paine a lying impostor. Thomas Jefferson was styled an infidel ; and since those times we are said to have had in the United States presidency a blood-thirsty- man, a drunkard, and at least two liber- tines ; and if anybody in prominent place and effective work has escaped, " let him speak, for him have I offended." After an exchange of autographs on that day in Honolulu, we parted. PRESIDENT DOLE GREET.S HIS GUE.STS. At one o'clock Chief Justice Judd came to the hotel with his carriage to take us to the mansion of Mr. Dole, the coming Presi- dent. It was onh- a minute after our en- trance when Mr. Dole and his accom- plished and brilliant lady appeared with a cordiality of welcome that made us feel much at home. IMr. Dole is a pronounced Christian man, deeply interested in all re- ligious affairs, as well as secular ; his pri- vate life beyond criticism ; honored by both political parties ; talented, urbane, attrac- tive, strong, and fit for any position where conscientiousness and culture and down- right earnestness are requisites. It was to me a matter of surprise that at a time when politics are red-hot in the Hawaiian Islands, and Mr. Dole is very positive in his opinions on all subjects, I heard not one word of bitterness spoken against him. Hawaiian and foreigner are alike his eulogists. When I referred to the tremendous questions he and his associates had on hand, he said it was remarkable how many of the busy men of tliese islands were willing to give so much of their time, free of all charge, to the business of the new government, and from what he believed to be patriotic and Christian motives. Mr. Dole is a graduate of Williams College, Massachusetts, and when I asked him if his opinion of President Hopkins, of that college, was as elevated as that of President Garfield, he replied, " Yes ! I think, as Garfield did, that to sit on one end of a log with President Hopkins on the other and talk with him on literary matters would be something like a liberal education," 6 SANDFORD P. iC".':. PRHSIDKNT OF THE REPUBLIC OF HAWAII. 82 THE EARTH GIRDLED. The wife of the coining President is a cliarni of loveliness, and is an artist withal. Her walls are partly decorated with her pencil. And thongh nnder her protest, as though the room was nnworthy of a visit, Chief Justice Judd took me to her studio, where she passes much of her time in sketching and painting. The ride I took afterward with the coming President and Chief Justice Judd allowed me still other opportunity of forming an elevated opinion of the present head of the Hawaiian Government. The cordiality with which we had been received by the present ruler and the former Queen interested us more and more in the present condition and the future happiness of the Sandwich Islands. HE.IRINO BOTH SIDES ON HAWAII.\N AFFAIR.S. Aware of the different ways of looking at things and of putting things, I resolved to get the story of Hawaiian affairs from opposite sides. We have always taken it for granted that two and two make four. And yet two and two may be so placed as to make twenty- two. The figure 9 is only the figure 6 turned upside down. There are not many things like the figure 8, the same which- ever side is up. The different ac- counts I here pre- sent are reports from different stand- points. I had opportu- nity of earnest and prolonged conversa- tion with a royalist, educated, truthful, NATIONAf. PALACE, HONOLDLU. ^f J^^gJ^ ^^^^^.^^ ^J^^^. acter, born in these islands, and of great observation and experience. The following conversation took place between us. Question : " Do you think the ex-Oueen a good woman ? " Answer : " I have seen the Queen very often. I have been one of her advisers, and my wife has been with her much of the time from childhood, and has seen her morning, noon and night, and under all circumstances, and neither of us has ever witnessed anything compromising in her character. She has made mistakes, as all make them, but she is fully up to the moral standard of the world's rulers. She is the impersonation of kindness, and neither m\- wife nor myself, nor any one else has ever heard her say a word against any one. In that excellence she is pre-eminent. In proof of her good character I have to state the fact that there is not a household in Honolulu that did not feel honored by her presence. If she had been such a corrupt character as some correspondents have THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 83 represented her, I do not think that the best men and women of the Hawaiian Islands wonld have songht her for guest and associate." Qius/ioit : " Do vou think siie has been unjustly treated?" Answer: "I do. She has been most infamously treated. While our island was at peace, and with no excuse for interference, the United vStates troops were landed. A group of men backed up by the United States Minister and troops formed a cabinet and chose a President, and sent a committee to the palace and told the Queen to leave the place. It was another case of Naboth's vineyard. The simple fact is that there were men who wanted the palace and the offices and the salaries. From affluent position she was reduced in estate until she had to mortgage the little left her to pay commissioners to go to Washington and present her side of the case. As I said, she made mistakes, but she was willing to correct them, and in a public manifesto declared she was willing to retrace her steps in the matter of the ' New Constitution.' She had as much right to her throne as any ruler on earth has a right to a throne ; but by sharp practice when she was unsuspecting, the United States troops drove her from the palace, took possession of the armament, and inaugurated a new government." THE ROYALIST VIEW. Question : " If the choice o. royalt}- or annexation were put to the vote of the people, what do you think would be the decision ? " Ansiver : "The Queen's restoration b>- a majority of at least ten to one. We wdio are royalists are without exception in favor of leaving these matters to a ballot-box. In the United States the majority govern^ and the majority of the people of the Hawaiian Islands ought to have the same privilege of governing." Question : " Are the Hawaiians property -holders or nomads ? " Anszcer: " They are property-holders. They have their homes. They have a practical interest in public affairs. Moreover they are for the most part intelligent. You can hardly find a Hawaiian born .since 1840 who cannot read and write." Question: "What do you think is the most provoking item in the condition of your country ? " Answer: "It is that a professed friendh- power has robbed us of our government. All the nations of the earth consider that your nation has done us a wrong." Question : " Taking conditions as they now are what do 30U think had better be done, or is that a hemispheric conundrum ? " Answer : " It is a hemispheric conundrum. Our Queen is dethroned, and her palace and her military forces are in the possession of her enemies. While I cannot see any way in which the wrong can be righted, she has such faith in the final triumph of justice that she expects to resume her throne. Her estate as well as her crown taken from her, she deserves the sympathy of the whole world. I believe in republics for some lands, and monarchies for others. One style of government will not do for all styles of people. A republic is best for the United States, a monarchy for the Hawaiian Islands." Thus ended my conversation with the royalist. THE REPUBLICAN SIDE OF THE CASE. But I also had the opportunity of learning the other side of this question from a spirited, patriotic and honest annexationist, and I asked much the same questions that I had asked the rovalist. \ 84 THE EARTH GIRDLED. The following conversation between the annexationist and myself took place : Question : " Do you think the Queen is fit to reign ? " Aiiszt'cr : "No! By her signing the Opium License and the bill for the Louisiana Lottery, and by other acts, she has proved herself unfit to govern." Question: " Do you think that the present controvers\- would be relieved, if the ques- tion in dispute were left to the votes of all the people on the island?" A)isuet with a mirth bubbling and resonant. The fact is we must DOWAGER XAPILONIUS, AT KING KALAKANU'S COFFIN, HONOLrLU. all die, and yet we manage to keep cheerful, and why not those struck b}' leprous fatality have sunshine in their countenance and talk. The mercy of the Hawaiians has made this colony of doomed inliabitants more tolerable than in most lands. I have seen in the suburbs of Jerusalem and Damascus scores of those cast out for this disease and inhabiting caverns and tombs. Beaten of the elements, living on the coin which passers-by may fling to them, while day by day they are rotting alive. Let us thank God that those smitten with incurable sores, in the Sand- wich Islands, have homes, and schools, and churches, and food, and nurses, and alleviations, and parterres of sweetest flowei's under arches of bluest skies. THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 89 ^ % ""& ' — ' "" |pS . I^^HPK^fiv^hw ^^ K \ ^M ^H i^M ^jgol H 1^^^ THE STORY OF WILLIAM RAGSDALE, LEPER. No respecter of persons is this ph>sical calamity. William Ragsdale, a popular lawyer, was sent there. He was eloquent both in Hawaiian and English, and could make his audience weep and laugh and shiver and resolve. He had the satire of a Junius and the impassioned abandon of an O'Connell. No one suspected he was a le^Der before the day when he sent a letter to the authorities surrendering himself, and saying that on the morrow he would go aboard the steamer for Molokai. He spent the morning of the day of his departure in riding around to say good-bye to his friends, and just before the hour of sailing came down to the boat, his neck adorned with gardenia, and turned around and made a farewell address, closing with the words : " Aloka ! May God bless you, my brothers ! " Hundreds of the people and a glee club accompanied him to the boat, and they rent the air with lamenta- tions as the boat swung off from its moorings. He took a Bible and some law books with him into his dreadful exile, and the prayers of churches were offered that he might ha\f courage and peace in tin- remaining days of his eartli- I5' tarrying. Queen Emma's cousin, Honorable Mr. Kaco, was also sent to Molokai ; and there was no power in his royal connection to keep him outside of that island. statt-r of kameuameha r., hon-ot.ui.ti. Mrs. Napela, of high social circle, had her cottage of enforced exile on that island of sepulchres. A legislator of the Hawaiian Islands is there closing his life. He was probably a good legislator in the da}-s of his health, but I cannot help thinking what a good thing it would be if all the leprous legislators of the earth could be put on som' island by themselves. Such a banishment would be a mighty thinning out at Albany Harrisburg and Washington, legislatures State and national. The United States Gov- ernment could afford to provide such a ]\Iolokai, and the moral lepers sent there could have their legislature and congress and board of aldermen and army and navy all of KjMS?' 4^' M sn';i]Ni]ii==~ THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 9^ the same blotch. But while the Hawaiian legislator could be found out and sent to the so-called " Isle of Precipices," the moral leper is not so easily designated, because he has the blotch not so much on his fore' .1 as on his heart. What every State and nation now needs is a Molokai, or Isle of Lepers. LEPROSY DIAGNOSED. Conversation about leprosy with a former member of the Board of Health for the Hawaiian Islands revealed to me the following facts : Qncslion : "In what part of the system does leprosy begin its work?" Ansccer : " It attacks the nerve-centres." Question : " I thought it was a disease of the blood ? " Ansu'cr : " No. It begins with the nerves, and just as the girdling of the trunk of a tiee first shows its withering results in the tip end of the long branch of the tree, so CAPTAIN COOK'S MONUMENT, HAWAII. leprosy is apt to first show itself in the paralysis or doubling up of the little finger, or in the toe, or in the lobe of the ear. Sometimes there appears upon the body a shining surface, and it is unimpressible. Prick it with a pin, and there is no sting. All the rest of the patient's body may be in perspiration, but that spot remains dry. Sometimes all the signs of physical disorder disappear, and the disease seems gone. Then there will come a leprous fever, and that will throw out a blush or efflorescence that more emphatically announces the progress of the disease. Then all signs of skin disturbance disappear, but THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 93 after the following leprous fever the case is worse than before. .So each retreat of the disease is followed by a more decided advance." Qitcslion : " Is it painful ? " Anszccr: "No. That is one of the mercies. From the first as.sault of the plague to the hour of death there is an absence of physical suffering." Qiu's/ioii : " But is there no mental depression?" Anszcrr: "Oh, yes. At the first acquaintance of the fact that the disea.se is on him, a horrid gloom settles upon the patient. But after a while a slight hope of recover\- is born, and the incipient leper tries all forms of cure, and no form is so absurd that it will not recommend itself as worthy of experiment. And then all the time the patient thinks it may be something besides leprosy." Question : " When a victim of the disease is first charged with having the plague, I should think he would resent it." Answer : " Yes, and the English law makes it a libelous case for the courts, if a man is unjustly charged with being a leper. Boards of Health have to be very careful in the work of segregation." Question : " Are there any cases of cure ? " Ansiver : "The only cases I recall are those mentioned in the Bible. Naaman, the Svrian hero, and the ten cases whom Christ cured, nine of them too mean to acknowledge the divine medicament." Question : "What in ordinary cases is the velocity of the disease, and how long before it completes its work ? " Anszver : " Well, I have known one case last sixteen years. I think the usual durance is fi\'e or six years." Question: "Has the leprosy different modes in demonstrating itself?" Ansiver: " It has. The tuberculous and the anesthetic. The former is more repulsive, it swells and bloats and distorts the face. The last sign of humanity is blotted from the counte- nance. There are cases of this kind called ' leonine,' for the reason that the face is so widened and enlarged and made severe that the countenance looks like a lion. The anesthetic form is a withering, a thinning out, a wasting away, a depletion, a skeletonizing process." Question : " Is it contagious ? " Answer: "There are different opinions about that. I have seen in married life the husband or wife a leper for years, and the partner in life always in good' health. I have known a leprous parent to have a healthy child. I was talking on this subject with an eminent physician who said to me, ' Do you see those two children playing together ? The one is a leper and the other my own child, and I have no fear about contamination.' " Question : " How many patients are there in Molokai at the present time ? " Anszcer: " x\bout one thousand." Here ended my conversation with the former member of the Board of Health of the Sandwich Islands. Up to date the woe goes on. Only two weeks ago, a ship took twenty- five more lepers to Molokai. The scene of parting is said to be so heart-rending that but few people go to the wharf to witness it. The wailing and the howling at the parting of families, as the filial, and fraternal, and paternal, and maternal bonds are broken, is something that haunts the memory. Not long ago a young man, sentenced to the leper island, declared he would not be taken alive. He shot three of those who were attempting to segregate him, and then hid in a hut until a cannon on a neighboring hill bombarded the hut into a wreck. Then a relative went td the hut and found the young man dead. 94 THE EARTH GIRDLED. I But do not let lis give up discouraged. Leprosy as well as cancer and all the other now unconquered ailments will yet be cured. I do not know where the cradle now holding the coming doctor is being rocked, whether at Molokai, or in Honolulu, or on the banks of the Thames, or the Rhine, or the Tiber, or the Ural, or the Hudson, or the Savannah. Nor do I know from what college he will unroll his diploma, nor in what laboratory he will make his experiments, nor in what decade he will give proclamation of the world's emancipation from diseases as yet incurable, but he will go through the same persecutions that Doctor Jenner did because of his discovery of a way to halt small-pox, and as Doctor Keeley has endured because of his almost supernatural cure of alcoholism, and the new A NATIVK FKAST, HAWAII. discoverer will run the gauntlet of caricature, and expulsion from medical societies, and will, like the most illustrious Being of all ages, become the target for expectoration, but the discoverer will give leprosv the command " Thus far shalt thou go, and no farther," and that disease will wriggle and crawl and slink out of the world, and after the medical emancipator is dead, the nations will build a monument so high to his memory, that the granite shaft will dispute with the skies the right of possession, and in the epitaph thereon the clicking chisel will tv}' to atone for the slanderous tongue, and the world that held back from the discoverer the bread of honest praise will give him a stone of post-mortem commemoration. Forward the whole column of surgeons and physicians for the conquest of leprosy and cancer. CHAPTER VI. BATTLE AND SHIPWRECK. HUNDRED and sixty dead men in the angry waters ; one ship snnk out of sight so that not so much as a plank or rope has since appeared ; of our three great American warships lying in the harbor, the "Leipsic" beached, the "Trenton " and " Vandalia" demolished ; of the three great German men-of-war, the " Eber " and "Olga" gone completely under ; the "Adler" rolled over on its side and cracked apart amid- ships; out of all the vessels in harbor only one .saved, and that because it had steam up and could sail out into the sea ; three days of wreckage and fright and horror which shook the island, and by report of next steamer transfixed all nations ; all this a brief putting of what an Antipodean hurricane did for this harbor in March, 1889. While all up and down the beach of this island are pieces of the wreckage of that unparalleled tempest only one skeleton of the ship remains, the "Adler," sufficiently distinct to represent that scene of cyclonic infernization. It is rather unfortunate that Samoa in the popular mind of all nations stands as a synonym of shipwreck, for the place is as fine a specimen of foliage and fruitage as the world holds. Indeed, its harbor is the sea captain's anxiety. For though a wide harbor it has only a small entrance, and rocks in all directions toss the white foam. The captain told us that we need not think we were left if we saw him sailing out to sea, for he would do so if a squall came up, but he would return and take us. After more than seven da>s of ocean rolling, without sight of ship or land, the Samoan Islands greet you like a beatific vision. As we came on deck this morning the waters were covered with small boats of natives bringing specimens of coral and all manner ot flowers and fruits, ready to sell these and transport to shore all the passengers who chose to go. A boat belonging to the German Legation with four stout oarsmen, took us three- quarters of a mile to the beach. From thence we went to King Malietoa's residence. But it is a time of war. The King had fled to the forest. A few nights before he was thought to be at a village house, and it was surrounded and shot into, and the King would have been slain if he had been there. The whole island is in turmoil. We were shown the King's rooms and his pictures and bric-a-brac. The walls suggested fondness for German and English royalty, but I found not a face of any American President or general. We saw the Queen and at the invitation of the warriors went into the guard's tent. About fifteen dusky soldiers, each reclining on a pillow of round wood upheld by two small supports. A more uncomfortable jdIIIow it would seem to me than that in Bethel, from the foot of which Jacob saw the angelics. Each of the warriors had a gun within reach. At their invitation we sat down on a mat beside those who were sitting, and in scant vocabular}' talked over the Samoan troubles. We saw one soldier who had been shot in the foot, and he was limping along leaning on an assistant. Four men were killed last night in a skirmish and another skinnish is to take place to-night. There are natives wdio do not want to pay their taxes and their various grievances have been summed up, and a young warrior wants to get the throne and intro- duce the millennium. A long-continued struggle is opening. Meanwhile a German and English man-of-war is in the harbor and an American man-of-war is expected soon. W'hat (95) 96 THE EARTH GIRDLED. will !)c the result no one can prophesy. But this is certain, this island and all the group of islands are suffering from foreign interference. It is a common saying among the natives that first comes tlie missionary, then comes the merchant, then comes the consul, then comes the man-of-war, then oh, my ! Why should three great nations like the English, German and American stoop to such small business as to be watching with anxious and expensive vigilance these islands, for fear that this or that foreign government should get a little advantage? Better call home your warships and leave all to the missionaries. They will do more for the civilization of Samoa, than all the guns that ever spoke from the sides of the world's navies. The captain of our steamer, in an interesting address a few evenings ago concerning the islands of the Pacific, declared that the only move- ment toward civilization that amounted to anything in these islands had been made by the church. Gospel, not gun- powder. Life, not death. Bibles, not bullets. The only movement that at this time has full swing in Samoa is " trade gin." That maddens and embrutes and has given to Samoa the unsavory and unjust title of the " Hell of the Pacific." The foreign gin is helped in its work by a domestic drink called "kava." It is prepared in the following delicious way. There is a plant called Piper Methisti- cum, from the root of which the kava is made. A young Samoan woman moved to one of the Fiji Islands, but got tired and resolved to return to her native islands. Before starting home- wards she saw a rat, which seemed weak and thin, eat the root of this plant, when the rat soon after became strong and vigorous, and she concluded that the best thing she could do for her native land was to take this root to her people, that it might make them strong and vigorous too. So it was transplanted. As the root of it made the rat strong and vigor- ous, why not the same result be produced in the human race? So she cultivated in Samoa the Piper Methisticum, from which the kava is made. Girls, and old men wlio have nothing else to do, prepare this kava by the following process : They take the root and chew it until the juice fills their mouth, then they discharge it from the month into a bowl, more root is put into the mouth and the liquid disposed of in the .same way. It has become a popular drink. It is ordered on all occasions ; at the opening and closing of all socialities, before and after all styles of business, it is kava here and kava there and kava everj'where. And it is cleaner than most of the drinks of other countries and has in it no logwood, strych- nine or nux vomica, but ^Jure and simple expectoration. I consider it as an improvement AN ASPIRANT TO THE THRONE OF SAMOA. I THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 97 on most strong drinks. It is said to be a most delicions drink. Almost all visitors try this kava and see what it tastes like and what are its effects, but as I have great faith in the testimony of others, I did not taste it, believing all they said about the pungent and grateful flavor of this beverage of refined and delectated spit. The kava not only appeals to the taste, but it is said to beautify the cup or bowl from which it is quaffed. The bowl is not washed, but retains the settlings of this beverage, which harden and come to look like exquisite enameling, which submits to a high polish. Not only is the cup enameled, but the stomach of the one who takes it, becomes also an enameling so elaborate that I am informed that one who was in such condition, by sneezing violently, cracked the enamel and died. Instead of the burning out of the vitals by the brandy and whiskey and wines would it not be more sesthetic to carry around a whole art gallery of enameled insides ? Tell all the ^lethodists Malietoa is a Wesleyan and a consistent follower of the three worthies of Epworth, Susannah, Charles and John. Though his every drop of inherited blood is warlike, this king is a man of peace. One of his ancestors fought back an enemy from Samoa, and did it so well that the defeated troops, as they got back into their boats, cheered the Samoan king, shouting, "Well done, fighting cock." But the present king might better be symbolized by a dove rather than a chanticleer. As in America we never had but one man who declined being President of the United States when he knew that he could get the office, so Malietoa is the only man that I know of who declined to be king, when the honor fell to him. Again and again he preferred another for the throne, and accepted royalty only when circumstances compelled him to do so. There have been deeds of blood since he took the sceptre, but war is barbarism whether under Samoan, or American, or English flag. Nearly all the great generals of our American wars have been good members of Presbyterian, or Episcopalian, or Methodist, or Baptist, or Congregational, or Catholic churches. Do not therefore sneer when I write that Malietoa is a Wesleyan. The flag that floats o\-er his house is a one-starred flag contrived b\- a missionarj'. Indeed, the good work of the missionaries is found wherever we go on this island. The Bible is the chief book. There are churches and schools. One of the group of islands has a college of fifty-five students in preparation for the ministry. Nearly all the inhabitants of these islands can read and write. There are no doubt enough bad people. Three ships of war lying for the most time in the harbor keep the natives familiar with the vices of more civilized nations. The beach-combers, as they are called at Samoa — that is, the men who combine the work of wrecker, pirate, thief, desperado, and agent for the slums — are found here ; but every city that I know of has its beach-combers, and the poor swindled immigrants find them more numerous at Boston, New York and Liverpool than the voyagers of the Pacific find them at Samoa. These islands are more thorough Sabbath-keepers than you will find in almost any land of all the earth. From early morning until late at night on Sabbath, the whole town, with few exceptions, is given up to devotion. At half-past six on Sabbath morning the church bells ring, and the people put on their best attire and assemble for worship. Again, in mid-afternoon, the church bells ring, and the people gather. Far on into the Sunday night the Christian songs may be heard, caught up and sounded back from home to home, and from mountain to beach. There is far more Sabbath kept in Samoa than in any town or city in America of the same size. But this was not always so. From what cruelty Christian civilization has lifted it ! In olden time when they conquered an enemy they broke his spine. To add to the humiliation of the defeated, some of them were 7 THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 99 roasted and eaten. When a woman was candidate for marriage to some chief, she was seated in the market-place for the public to decide whether she were fit for such marriage. If they decided in the negative, she was clubbed to death. They worshiped the dog, or the eel, or the turtle, or the lizard, or the shark. " Rack!" cried the Christian religion to such monstrosities of behavior, and all things changed. TATTOOING -AND OCE.AX CHROM.\TICS. The Samoans have not much use for clothes. I saw no fashion-plates in the windows. A tailor would starve to death in Samoa. Lack of complete physical investiture comes not from undue economy, not from pauperism, not from immorality, but originally from the fact that, on these islands, the climate is so mild the year round that ne- cessity does not make inexor- able demand upon weavers and clothiers. But gradually calicoes and nankeens and alpacas are com- ing into demand. The Samoan somewhat substitutes tattooing, which in some cases appears quite like a suit of clothes. In the boat crossing from wharf to steamer I put my hand on the knee of a Samoan, and said, "You are tattooed." He re- plied, " Yes ; that me clothes." I said, " When do you have that tattooing done ?" He answered, '•' Twenty years of age." I said, "Does it hurt?" He replied, " Oh, yes ! Hurt ! Swell up !" I asked, " How long does it take to have that tattooing done ?" He answered, " Two months." Indeed, all the men I noticed had been tattooed. It is a badge of manhood. A man is not re- spected unless tattooed. He would be thrust out of society or not admitted. The most profitable business is that of tattooing. The artist retires to the bush with a few candidates for two or three months. Every day, as the patient can endure it, the pricking in of tlv paint by needles and sharp-tooth combs, the process goes on. The suffering is more or less great, but one must be in the fashion ; yet I suppose in this there is no more pain than that which men and women suflfer in the martyrdom of fashion through which some people go in the higher civilized life. What tight boots with KING AND QUEEN OF SAMOA. In such attire the Oueeu smiled on us. lOO THE EARTPI GIRDLED. agony of corns ! What piercing of the ear lobes for diamond rings ! What crncifixion of stout waists to make them of more moderate size ! The tattooing is onl\- another form of worship at tlie altar of fasliion — no flinciiing on the part of the tattooed, no backing out. The work done, he who went into the bush a bo\- comes out a man. As we passed along the main street of the island, we had a crowd after us with something to sell. To buy a flower or a shell was greatly to reinforce the number of the es- corting party. The men are muscu- lar and well formed. The children are beautiful. As to the women, ever)- nation has its type of female beauty, and no one of another nation is competent to judge concerning it. But there goes the whistle of the " Alameda." It has to sound three times, and then off for New Zealand. We wait for the second whistle and then start. Over the rolling billows to the ladder of the steamer, and up to our old place on the good ship, to which we again trtist our lives. What a mystery it must be to all the innumerable creatures of the deep. We discuss some flying fish, or see once in a voyage a spouting whale, but we never realize that we are be- ing discussed by the inhabitants of an element filled with so much life that our captain says when a whale is wounded by its captors, it requires two men to keep off the sharks while the captive is being drawn in. What, suppose you, the inhabitants of Oceana think of this ship floating above them, of the bow plowing through, of the screw stirring the wave, of the passengers bending over the railing? Ex-ers' moment, as we pass on by day and night, there are thousands of ichthyological inquiries of " What's that?" What do the seagulls flying hundreds of miles from shore think of us? What do the sharks think? What do the whales think? What does the octopus think? We are as great mysteries to them as they are to us. And now we come back to study that which has been to me one of the great wonders in my voyages across the Atlantic, and is now as fascinating in my first vo^'age over the Pacific, and will, I suppose, be to me as great a BURMKSE MOTHER AND SON, SHOWING SAMPLE OF TATTOOING AMONG UNCIVILIZED RACES. THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. lOI wonder until the last push of the steamer after I have entered New York harbor. I mean the architecture and adornment of an ocean wave. What mathematics could contrive its curve, or what compass execute it ? Its gracefulness, its ease, its perfection, its suggestive- ness of more curves if it desired to make them. Then the lace-work of foam hung on it, all its threads woven by the finger of God, and looped up, and unrolled and folded and put back on shelves of crystal. Then the top of the wave, as it makes up its mind to recoil or drop on the other side or mount higher. Now the white melting into the blue, like snowy clouds dissolving into the blue of skies. Then two waves, each garnitured with surf, rising to meet each other, and married into one bliss of opalescence and emerald and firt-. < 'li ! SAMOAN GIRLS MAKING KAVA. the rise, the rush, the arch, the fall, the voice, the splendor, the convolution, the miracle, the coronation, the Divinity in an ocean billow. All the harmonies of heaven did not make St. John forget the " voice of many waters." But there is the illumined wave, or the one that glows as it is struck through with light from the other side, or the wave that takes on the colors of hovering cloud, and is saffron or orange or solferino or beryl or amber or tlie shifting of all the colors from the centre of the wave's curve to the coronal and the base. Oh, the living wave, tlie inspired wave, the pictured wave, the wave just born, or the wave just dying. The complexion of the wave is ever changing: florescent, rubescent, iridescent. Now phosphorescence decorates it with a flash, or the night sinks into it a silver anchorage of star, or the morning l» '^i (I. .2 THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 103 puts upon its brow a coronet. Blanched into wliite or blushed into carmine. Now black as a raven's wing ; now roseate as the flamingo's plumage. From russet to ultramarine, and thence to malachite, then incarnadined as if wounded, into vermilion or magenta. I celebrate not the ocean. It is too big. I celebrate only one ocean wave. But there are times when it is hushed to sleep, on the great bosom of its mother which never ceases to Iieave ; for though the billow may slumber, the ocean keeps its everlasting swell. The child may sleep while the mother rests not. But he who has only studied the wave asleep, or the wave aroll, does not fully know it. The wave has moods. It sometimes passes from the calm to the irate, from the beautiful to the awful, from the pleasant to the terrific, from the slumberous to the paroxysmal, from aesthetics to demoniacs, and though now it may play with the zephyr, it may after- ward wrestle with Caribbean whirl- wind or jMediterra- nean en roc 1yd on. Nothing can stand before it when com- manded to destro}'. It rallies from the abysms a semi-om- nipotence. From all sides under the strength of the winds it rolls toward the shore or bom- bards the ship. It was one wave that consummated al- most every ship- wreck. The preliminary waves, the preparatory forces, the introductory furies may have done their work, but the final stroke was left for one climacteric force, and that gathered and rolled up and surged forward, black with wrath, and charged upon the palaces of the deep, submerging them, or moved into the unsheltered harbor with the twisted bolts, and the split beams of ocean conquerors. The capsized "Adler" of the German navy l}'ing on its side, rusted and ri\-en and parted amidships, shows what a wave, once blue-eyed, and rocked in the lap of a bright day, and lullabied of soft winds, may grow up to be when, with demoniac yell and crushing vengeance, and all-conquering might, it swears the doom of everything between the coral reefs and the beach of the harbor of Samoa. The ocean sentenced to death in the Book which says " There shall be no more sea," seems detennined to demonstrate, before it is slain, what one wave can do, in lighting up the world with the beautiful, or blackening it under the swoop of a tornado. >AMOAN RESIDENCE IN THE COUNTRY AS I SAW IT. CHAPTER VII. UNDER THE SOUTHERN CROSS. OHERE are some things in the mind year after year remaining undefined. Tlic time for explanation does not seem to come. We had for years seen allusions to the Southern Cross. We knew not what it meant. We supposed it to be an appearance in the heavens at certain latitude and longitude, yet we knew not exactly what that appearance was. But seated a few nights ago on the deck of this ship in our voyage around the world a gentleman bent over me and said, " The Southern Cross is visible. L,et us go and see it." Going to the opposite side of the ship I looked up and beheld it in all its suggestiveness looking down upon us and looking down upon the sea. The Southern Cross ! It is made up of four bright stars. One star standing at the top of the perpendicular piece of the cross, and another star standing for the foot of it. One star standing for the right liand end of the horizontal piece of the cross, and another star for the left hand end of it. So clear, so resplendent, so charged with significance, so sublimely marking off the heavens that neither man nor woman nor child nor angel nor devil can doubt it. The Southern Cross ! To make it God put those four worlds in their places. The tender and tremendous emblem of our religion nailed against the heavens with silver nails of star. Four are enough. God wastes no worlds. He will not encourage stupidity. If you cannot see the Southern Cross in the four stars, forty stars will not make you see it. Up yonder they stand, the four stellar evangelists upholding the cross. What a Gospel of the firmament ! The cross that Constantine saw in the .sky with the words " By this conquer," was an evanescent cross and for one night, but this Southern Cross is for all nights, and to last while creation lasts. So every night of this vo>-age among the islands of the Pacific I am reminded by this celestial crucifix of the only influence that has turned the islands from their cruelty, and shamelessness, and horror, the influence of the Cross. Excepting the throne of the Deity I think there will be no higher thrones in heaven than those occupied by the missionaries. Others have lived and died for their own (104) MAORI 0HII:F, new ZK.M.AXn. Brought bv the author. THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. f05 country'. These lived and died for the natives of other countries. Many of the mission- aries were the graduates of Yale, or Princeton, or New Brunswick, or Oxford, or Cambridge, or Edinburgh, and were qualified for pulpits, for editorial chairs, for medical achieve- ment, for great words and deeds in court rooms, for commercial successes that would have brought all honors and all luxuries to their feet. IManv of the women of this foreign mission cause were brought up in refined associations, could play well on musical instru- ments, were the charm of best society, had attractiveness that fitted them for any circle of ease or opulence. Such men and women took whale-ships for foreign lands, lived on fare that only coarsest digestive organs could manage, were tossed for months on rough seas, landed amid naked savages, abode in grass huts, spent their life amid the squalor and the stench, and the vermin and the epidemics and the low vices of those whom they had come to rescue. Of a roll of a hundred and eighty names of such men and women not more than four or five of them were ever heard of outside of their own kindred or the circles of barbarians among whom they lived. The story of the Christian heroes and heroines who came to these islands of the Pacific in the brig " Thad- deus," the " Leland," the " Benjamin Bush," the " Av- erich," and the "Mary Frazier" under Captain Charles Sumner, can never be fully told. All the tal- ents, all the scholarship, all the nerve and muscle and brain, all the spiritual ener- gies of these Christly men and women put forth on be- half of people whom they had never seen, and whose names they had never heard pronounced until the day of arrival on these islands. Some of these messengers of light were cut to pieces and devoured by cannibals. Some of them toiled to save the besotted savages while profligates of Christian countries landed from merchantman or war- vessel or whaling ship were trj'ing to destroy them. The daughter of one of the missionary families describes her mother as toiling until the skin was blistered off her arms and says that while her father was about to preach, a group of drunken sailors broke the windows and brandished a knife about his face, saying, "Here he is; I have got him! Come on!" These missionaries sent their little children to America and Europe becaitse they could not be properly brought up amid heathenism, and what heart-rending partings took place as fathers and mothers surrendered their children for the voyage across the seas, in many cases those parents never seeing their children again. Xo regular postal arrangements, letters were sometimes not received until eighteen months or two years old. The ship-captain, Charles Sumner, for the first part of the voyage to the Pacific with his group of missionaries scoffed at Christianity, but he was converted under the influence of their example, and became their champion. He said about A MAORI DWELLING. io6 THE EARTH GIRDLED. one of these Pacific islands, " I have been here before and I see the difference. Formerly as soon as my anchor was down my ship was surrounded by dissolute men and women swimming out from shore and trying to come aboard. How different now ! Christianity has made the change." And when some one traduced the missionaries he said, " Oh, you need not tell me these stories. I have lived four months with these dreadful people and know them well. I know the natives, too, as they were many years ago and I am fully convinced that the change I see is from the influence of the religion of the Bible." One boy was the means of the civilization and evangelization of the Sandwich Islands. His father and mother were killed and he ran away with his bab}- brother on his back. The infant was slain by a spear. The heroic boy got on a ship for New England. He was found weeping on the steps of Yale College, Connecticut. He told the story of his native island. That story aroused the Christian world. "A little child shall lead them." The Tahitian Islands have felt the same supernal power. They had been in the habit of slaying aged parents, and when there were too many children in a family they were put out of the way. Cannibalism was a part of the diet. There was no law of morality for unmarried women. One of their religious sacrifices was a man and a pig roasted together. In the Fiji Islands parents were buried alive, and wives were captured as buffalo are lassoed. Incantation was common and snake worship prevailed. Among the Marquesans poh'andry, or the custom of having many husbands, was considered right. An iron needle was worn in the nostril. The lower lip by force of torture was driven out to utmost distortion. There was a canonization of filth and obscenity and massacre. The Friendly Islands and the Society Islands were at the lowest depths in morals and cruelt\-. All these islands have been illumined, and the most of the abominations have sped away, not because of the threat of foreign guns or as a result of national or international politics, but by the influ- ence of that which yonder mighty crucifix in the night sk}' typifies. Let no ship captain ever see it from a deck on the Pacific, or passenger whether for pleasure or profit sailing amid these islands behold it, without remembering what the Southern Cross has done for the besotted savages, bounded on all sides by these vast wildernesses of water. Oh, that Southern Cross ! Were ever four worlds better placed than those which com- pose it ? Though they were uninhabited, and built only for this significance, they were worthily built. Shine on until all the people of this hemisphere who see thee shall bethink themselves of the sacrifice thou dost depict ! A cross not made out of darkness, but out of light. A cross strong enough for all nations who see it to hang their hopes upon. One night while I watched this celestial crucifix, the clouds gathered, and the top of the cross was gone, and the foot of it was gone, and the outspread arms were gone. No more of it to be seen than if it had never been hoisted. Had the clouds conquered the stars? No. After a while the clouds parted and rolled back and off, and there it stood with the same old emblazonment — the Southern Cross. So the hostilities of earth and hell may roll up and seem to destro}- the hope of communities and of nations, but in God's good time the antagonisms will fall back, and all obscurations will be dispelled, and all the earth shall see it, the Southern cross for the South, the Northern cross for the North, the Eastern cross for the East, the Western cross for the West, but all four of the crosses found at last in the new astronomy of the gospel to be one and the same cross, that which was set up 1900 years ago, and of wdiich I have found either a prophecy or a reminiscence in that uplifted splendor, seen night by night while pacing the deck of a steamer on the Pacific. CHAPTER VIII. ANTIPODEAN EXPERIENCES AND BALAKLAVA ON A DINING-TABLE OHE Angels of Night were descending from the evening skies, and ascending from the waves of the Pacific, and riding down in black cliariot of shadow from the mountains of New Zealand as we approached the harbor of Auckland, and the lighthouse on the rocks held up its great torch to keep us off the reefs and to show us the way to safe wharfage, seeming to say, " Yonder is a path of waves ! Ride into peace ! Accept the welcome of this island continent !" It was half-past seven o'clock when the great screw of our steamer ceased to swirl the waters, and the gang-plank was lowered and we descended to the firm land, our name called as we heard it spoken by a multitude who were there to greet us. Strange sensation was it, 10,000 miles from home, to hear our name pronounced by those whose faces we had never seen before, and whose faces could be only dimly seen now by the lanterns on the docks and the lights of our ship, just halted after a long voyage. What made the night to me more memorable, was that I was suddenly informed that at eight o'clock I was to lecture in their hall, and thirty minutes was short time to allow a poor sailor like my.self to get phvsical and mental equipoise, after twenty-one days' pitching. But at eight o'clock I was ready and confronted a throng of people, cordial and genial as any one ever saluted from platform or pulpit. I told how for many days I had been looking off upon a great ocean of ipecac, but that I had not wanted, as many say under such circumstances, to be thrown overboard, and that I did not think any one ever did want to be thrown overboard, and reminded them of the sea-sick voyager, who said he wished to be thrown into the sea, and the captain had a sailor dash on him a pail full of cold ocean water, and when the soaked and shivering man protested and asked what the captain meant by such an insult, the captain replied, " You wanted to be thrown overboard, and I thought I would let }"ou try how }-ou liked a bucket of the water before you took the whole ocean." Never so glad were we to stand on firm land as the night of our arrival at Auckland. Wondrous New Zealand ! Few people realize how it was discovered. The}- tell us of Captain Cook and of Dutch navigators, but all the islands of the South Sea, as well as this immense New Zealand, were discovered as a result of the effort to watch the transit of Venus over the sun's disk from the South Seas. The Royal Societ)- of Great Britain sent out ships for this purpose, and Captain Cook, and the astronomers and the botanists who accompanied him on his voyage, were only the agents of science. How the interests of this world are linked with the behavior of other worlds, and how the fact mentioned suggests that most of the valuable things known in this world have been found out while looking for something else, and what sublimity all this gives to the work of the explorer ; the transit of Venus, an island of light, resulting in the transit of nuany islands from the unknown into the well known. But the prowess of such men can never be fully appreciated. The sea captain who puts out in this day of charts and navigating apparatus with a ship of 10,000 tons for another hemisphere, daring typhoons and cyclones, strange currents and hidden (107) THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 109 rocks, must be a brave man ; but who can uieasure the courage of Cabot, or Marco Polo, or Captain Cook, sailing out into unknown seas, across wildernesses of water that have never been mapped, in ships of 200 tons, discovering rocks only by running upon them, and met on shore by savages ready to scalp or roast them. These challengers of tempest and cannibalism and oceanic horror must have had nerve and valor beyond that of any other heroes. Such men set New Zealand as a gem into the crown of the world's geography. To me, and to most people who come here. New Zealand is a splendid surprise. We have all read so much about the superstitions and outrageous cruelties of this land in other times that we are startled on arriving here to find more churches in New Zealand than in America in proportion to the number of the population. In one village that I visited since coming here I find eight churches to a population of 3000 people. There are too many churches in many places in New Zealand and they jostle each other, and contend for right of possession, hindering each other and half starving many of their ministers, as is sure to be the case when there are too many churches and consequenth- not enough support for every one of them. Another surprise to me is that female suffrage is in full blast. I found elegant ladies telling of their experience at the ballot box, and I hereby report to the .\merican ladies now moving for the right of female suffrage that New Zealand is clear ahead of them, and that the experiment has been made here successful!}'. Instead of the ballot box degrading woman, woman is here elevating the ballot box, and why in New Zealand, or America, or anywhere else, should man be so afraid to let women have a vote, as though man himself had made such a grand use of it. Look at the illiterates and the incompetents who have been elected to office, and see how poorly the masculines have exercised the right of suf- frage. Look at the o-overnments of nine-tenths of the American cities and see what work the ballot box has done in the possession of man. Man at the ballot box is a failure; give woman a chance. I am not clear that governmental affairs will be made an}- better by the change, but they cannot be any worse. New Zealand has tried it, let England and America try it. It is often said in .\merica that if women had the right to vote they would not exercise it. For the refutation of that theory I put the fact that in the last election in New Zealand, of 109,000 women who registered 90,000 have voted, while of the 193,000 men who registered only 129,000 have voted. This ratio shows that women are more an.xious to vote than men. Perhaps woman will yet save politics. I know the charge that she is responsible for the ruin of the race, since she first ate the forbidden fruit in Paradise, but I think there is a chapter in that matter of Edenic fruit not written. I think that Adam, when he saw Eve eating that apple, asked for a bite, and, getting it into his posses- sion, ate the most of it, and that he immediately shook the tree for more apples and has been eating ever since. If woman did first transgress I cannot forget that she intro- duced into the world the only Being who has ever done much toward saving it. Woman has started for suffrage and she is a determined and persevering creature, and she will keep on until she gets it. She may yet decide the elections in England, and elect Presi- dents for the United States, as already she is busy in the political affairs of New Zealand. I was surprised also in these regions to find how warrah' loyal they are to old England. I had heard that they had become somewhat impatient of their governmental mother. But this is not so. They practically have things their own way, electing their own Parliament, and all governors sent out from the old country are such men as are agreeable, and the people are required to pay no tax to the British crown, and they are in good humor with the British flag. no THE EARTH GIRDLED. I addressed an audience last night, on my right hand the United States flag, on my left hand the English flag, and you ought to have heard them shout when, at the beginning of my address I said, " When in my church at liome I pray for the President of the United States I am very apt to add God save the Queen." Many of the streets of New Zealand cities are called after the generals and the prime ministers of Great Britain ; Wellington and Palmerston and Gladstone are the names of great thoroughfares. New Zealand fe els the finan- cial dej^ression very much, as the whole world at this time seems suffering an epi- demic. Indeed, the world is now '■^ a compressed and interlocked affair. Out of the hold of our ship a r- r i \- i n g i n New Zealand were lift- ed rakes, plows, and various agri- cultural imple- ments of Ameri- can manufacture. To-day all New Zealand is rejoic- ing that the A m e r i c a n Con- g r e s s has put wool on the free list, and the value of the sheep on all these hillsides is augmented. MAORI WOMEN .SAI.L:'n.NG, NEW ZEALAND. AuiOUO- OUr most interesting hours in New Zealand were those spent at the Bishop's house in Auck- land. Lord Bishop Cowie is a man of marvelous attractiveness, and his home is an enchantment, adorned with many curios which he brought from India when he served as chaplain during that war which interests and appalls the world with its tales of mutiny. THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. Ill While chaplain, he rode with Sir Colin Campbell and his historical host for the capture of Lucknow — that city whose name will stand in the literature of all ages as the synonym for Sepoy atrocities, and womanly fortitude and Christian heroics. He told us most graphically how the women waiting for death at Lucknow tore up their underclothes to make bandages for the wounds of the soldiers, and that when at last these women were rescued they appeared in the brilliant dress of the ball-room — these dresses formerly worn b}' the convivial having been suddenly come upon, and when the wives and daughters of missionaries and Christian merchants had nothing else to wear. Lord Bishop Cowie also had on his walls pictures of some of the most stirring scenes of the Russian war with which the military friends of the Bishop had been cognizant. IN THE SIBIKKS OH AUCKLAND. Here is a pictured scene where there was no retreat for the English, and yet their standing firm seemed certain destruction, and their general cried out : " Men ! there is no retreat from this place ; you will die here !" and the men replied : " Aye, aye ; we are ready to do that !" And yonder another pictured scene of Balaklava, after the famous charge of the Six Hundred, and the commander said to the few men who had got back from the awful charge: "Men, it was a mad-brained trick," and they replied, "Never mind, General ; we would do it again." The Bishop's walls in other places were made interesting by swords, belts and torn insignia of battle from the fields of India, all the more interesting because we expect, in our journev around the world, to visit Lucknow, and Cawnpore, and Delhi, and many of the chief places made immortal by the struggle between British valor and 112 THE EARTH GIRDLED. Sepoy infamy. And here, from the Bishop's own words, I got a satisfactory answer to a question that I have asked many times, but for wliich I never received a satisfactory' answer. I said, " Your Lordship knew the chief men of Balaklava, and will you please explain to me what I have never been able to find out, and to which Tennyson makes reference in his ' Charge of the Light Brigade,' and in that line where he says, ' Some one had blundered.' Do von know, and will you tell me, exactly what that blunder was ?" He said, " I can, and will." Then the Bishop illustrated with knives and forks and napkin rings on the dining S table the position of the English guns, the Russian guns, and the troops. He demonstrated }, to me plainly what the military bltmder was that caused the dash and havoc of that cavalry |, regiment whose click of spurs, and clatter of hoofs, and jingle of bits, and spurts of blood you hear in the Poet Laureate's battle hymn. Here was the line of the English guns, not very well defended, and yonder was the line of Russian guns, backed by the whole Russian army. The order was given to the cavalry regiment to take care of those English guns and keep them from being taken bv the Russians, and tlie command was, "Take care of those English guns !" But the words were misunderstood, and it was supposed that the order was to capture the Russian artillery. Instead of the command, " Take care of those English guns !" it was thought the command was, " Take those Russian guns !" For that ghastly and horrible assault of the impossible, the riders plunged their spurs and headed their horses into certain death. At last I had positive information as to what the blunder at Balaklava was. At Edinburgh, Scotland, years ago, I asked one of the soldiers who rode in that charge the .same question, but even he, a participant in the scenes of that fiery day, could not tell me just what the blunder was. Now I have it at last not only told in the stirring words of a natural orator and magnetic talker, but on the dining table of the Lord Bishop of Auckland I had it set out before the e^•e, dramatized and demonstrated by the cutlery on the white tablecloth ; but instead of the steel bayonets, the silver forks of a beautiful repast ; and instead of the sharp swords of death, knives for bread-cutting; and instead of the belching guns of destn;ction, the napkin rings of a hospitality the memory of wliich shall be bright and fresh as long as I remember this visit to New Zealand. CHAPTER IX. LECTURE AT AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND. — " THE BRIGHT SIDE OF THINGS." OHE probable time of our arrival at Auckland, New Zealand, had been heralded before, by letters to friends, as well as by press announcements, but I was surprised upon landing to find the crowd in waiting so large, especially as the ship was nearly twelve hours behind the time of her expected coming, and darkness had begun to settle upon the harbor. A vast sea of faces and a shout of welcome greeted us from the dock, and as quickly as the vessel could be boarded from the wharf I was cordially received by representatives from the Ministers' and the Young Men's Christian Association, and hurried to the Opera House. There was no time allowed for any formal ceremonies, which usually make receptions tedious, for when I left the ship it was half past seven o'clock or within half an hour of the time that the committee had made arrangements for me to lecture to the people. But the crowd had first gathered at the wharf, and promptly repaired to the Opera House which was soon filled to its utmost and though my physical condition was very far from excellent, I had not the heart to disappoint the people, so I lectured to them on "The Bright Side of Things," as follows: IvADiES AND Gentlemen : — It is eight o'clock now, and just a half hour ago I stepped ashore after a voyage of twenty-two days from San Francisco to New Zealand. But I hope to gain equilibrium enough to address you. If we leave to the evolutionists to guess where we came from, and to the theologians to prophesy where we are going to, we still have left for consideration the fact that we are here. And we are here under most interesting circumstances. Of all the centuries this is the best century, and of all the decades of the centur\- this is the best decade, and of all the years of the decade this is the best year, and of all the months of the year this is the best month, and of all the nights of the month this is the best night. We are at the very acme of histor\-. It took all the ages to make this minute possible. I am very thankful for this heart\- reception, and the only return I can make for )-our kindness is to ask you to come and see us. Come to New York, come to Brooklyn, come to my house, but do not all come at once. This is a very pleasant world to live in. If you and I had been consulted as to which of all the stars we would choose to walk upon, we could not have done a wiser thing than to select this. I have always been glad that I got aboard this planet. The best color that I can think of for the sky is blue, for the foliage is green, for the water is crystalline flash. The mountains are just high enough, the flowers sufiiciently aromatic, the earth just right for solidity and curve. The human face is admirably adapted for its work ! Sunshine in its smile: Tempest in its frown. Two eyes, one more than absolutely necessary, so that if one is put out, we still can look upon the sunrise and the faces of our friends. One nose, which is quite sufficient for those who walk among so many nuisances, being an organ of two stops and adding dignitv to the human face whether it have the graceful arch of the Roman, or turn up toward the heavens with celestial aspirations, or wavering up and down, now as if it would aspire, and now as if it would descend, until suddenly it shies off" into an unexpected direction, illustrating the proverb that "it is a long lane which has no turn." 8 ("3) 114 THE EARTH GIRDLED. Standing before any specimen of sculpture or painting or architecture, a dozen different men will have a dozen different sentiments and opinions. That is all right. We cannot all think alike. But where is the blasphemer of his God who would criticise the arch of the sky, or the crest of a wave, or the flock of snow-white fleecy clouds driven by the shepherd of the wind across the hilly pastures of the heavens ; or tiie curve of a snow bank, or the burning cities of the sunset, or the fern-leaf pencilings of the frost on a window pane? Where there is one discord there are a thousand harmonies. A sky full of robins to one owl croaking. Whole acres of meadow land to one place cleft of the grave digger's spade. To one mile of rapidswhere the river writhes among the rocks it has hundreds of miles of gentle flow — water lilies anchored, hills coming down to bathe their feet, stars laying their reflections to sleep in its bosom, boat- man's oar dropping on it necklaces of diamond. How strange that in such a very agreeable world there should be any disagreeable people. I am very certain there are none of that kind here to-night. I can tell by your looks that none of you belong to the class that I shall hold up for ob- servation. These husbands, for instance, are all what they ought to be ; good na- tured, as a May morning, and when the wife asks for a little spending money, the good man of the house says : " All right, my dear, here's my pocketbook, take as much as you want, and come soon again." And these wives always greet their husbands home with a smile, aud say : " ^ly dear, your slippers are ready, and the mufhns warm. Put }'our feet ujd on this cushion ! bless the dear man ! " These brothers prefer the companionship of their own sisters to that of anxbody else's sisters, and take them out almost ever}- night to lectures and concerts, and I suppose that in no other building to-night in all the world is a more mild, affable or genial collection of people than ourselves. But lest in the attritions of life we should lose our present amiability, MAORI WIDOWS. THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 115 it may be well for us to walk a little while in the Rogues' Gallery of disagreeable people, — the people who make themselves disagreeable by always seeing the dark side of things — and then, by reaction of soul we will come to the opposite habit and indulge in the finest of all the fine arts, the art of looking on the bright side of things. Let me say at this point in nn- lecture that my ideas of a literary lecture are very much changed from what they used to be. I used to think that a literar>- lecture ought to be something profound, very profound. I had three or four lectures of that kind. They were awfully profound. But I have not delivered them for sonre time, for there were always two difficulties about those very profound lectures : the one was the audience did not know what I was talking about, and the other was I did not know nnself. And I made up my mind that a lecture ought to be something genial, something helpful, something full of good cheer, for if you can put your shoulder under my burden, )'ou are my friend, and if I can put my shoulder under your burden I will prove myself your friend. Let me also say that my ideas of religion are a little different from some people's. My religion is sunshine, and the difference between earth and heaven is that the sunshine of earth sometimes gets beclouded, while heaven is everlasting sunshine. Now, in all the album of photographs that I want to put before you to-night, there is no face more decidedly characteristic than that of the fault-finder. The world has a great manv delightful people who are easily pleased. I am every day surprised to find so many real clever people. They have a faculty of finding out that which is most attractive. They never attended a concert, but they heard at least one voice that pleased them and wondered how in one throat God could have put such exhaustless fountains of harmony. Thev like the spring, for it is so full of bird and bloom, and like a priestess, stands swing- ing her censer of perfume before God's altar ; and the summer is just the thing for them, for they love to hear the sound of mowing machines and whole battalions of thunderbolts grounding arms among the mountains. And autumn is just the thing for them, for the orchards are golden with fruit, and the forests march with banners dipped in sunsets, and blood-red with the conflict of frost and storm. And they like the winter, whose snow showers make Parthenons and St. Mark's Cathedrals out of an old pigeon coop, and turn the wood-shed into a royal tower filled with crown jewels. Thus there are persons pleased with all circumstances. If you are a merchant, they are the people you like to have for customers ; if }-ou are a lawyer, they are the people you like for clients and jurors ; if you are a phvsician, they are the people you like for patients ; but you don't often get them, for they can generally cure themselves by a bottle of laughter tc be taken three or four times a day, and well shaken up. Now, in contrast with such, how repelling is a fault- finder ! Some evening, resolving to be especially gracious, he starts with his family to a place of amusement. He scolds most of the way. He cannot afford the time or the money, and does not believe it will be much, anyhow. The music begins. The audience are thrilled. The orchestra with polished instruments warble, and weep, and thunder, and pray, and all the sweet sounds of the world flowering upon the strings of the bass viol, and wreathing the flageolets, and breathing through the lips of the cornet, and shaking their flower bells upon the tinkling tambourine. He sits emotionless and disgusted. He goes home saying, " Did you see that fat musician that got so red in the face blowing on that French horn ? Did you ever hear such a voice as that lady had? Why, it was a perfect squawk. The evening was wasted." And his companion said, "Why, my dear, you shouldn't" — "Oh," he says, "you be still. That's the trouble with yoii. You are always pleased with every- thing." He goes to church. Perhaps the sermon is didactic and argumentative. He ii6 THE EARTH GIRDLED. yawns, he twists himself in the pew and pretends he is asleep, and says, " I couldn't keep awake. Did you ever hear anything so dead? Can these dry bones live?" The next Sunday he enters a church where the minister is given to illustration. He is still more displeased. He sa\-s, " How dare that man bring such everyday things into the pulpit ? lie ouo-ht to have brought his illustrations from the cedar of Lebanon, and the fir tree, instead of the hickory and the sassafras. He ought to have spoken of the Euphrates and the Jordan, and not of the Kenne- bec and the Schuylkill. He ought to have mentioned j\lount Gerizim instead of the Catskills. Why, he ought to be disciplined." Perhaps, after a while he joins the church, and then the church has its hands full. He growls and groans and whines all the way up toward the gate of heaven. He wishes that the choir would sing differ- ently, that the minister FIJIAN HOUSES. would preach differently, that the elders would pray differently. They painted the church. He didn't like the color. They carpeted the aisle, he didn't like the figure. They put in a new furnace, he didn't like the patent. He wriggles, and squirms, and frets, and stews and stings himself He is like a horse that, prancing and uneasy to the bit, worries himself into a lather of foam, while the horse hitched beside him just pulls straight ahead, makes no fuss, and comes to his oats in peace. Like a hedgehog, he is all quills. Like a crab that you know always goes the other way, and moves backward THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 117 in order to go forward, and turns in four directions all at once, and the first you know of his whereabouts you have missed him, and when he is completely lost, he has you by the heel, so that the first thing you know, you don't know anything, and while you expected to catch the crab, the crab catches you. So some men are all crabbed, hard-shell obstinacy and opposition. I don't see how such a one is to get into heaven unless he goes in back- ward, and then there will be danger that at the gate he will tr>- to pick a quarrel with St. Peter. Once in, I fear he will not like the music, and the services will be too long, and that he will spend the first two or three years in trying to find out whether the wall of heaven is exactly plumb. Let us stand off from such tendencies. We can take almost anvthing in life and read it until it is bright, or read it until it is dark. More depends upon ourselves than upon our surroundings. The heart right, all is right. The heart wrong, all is wrong. A blacksmith received a letter from his son at college. He, the father, being unable to read writing, with the wife went down to the butcher to get the letter read. The butcher was a rough man, and he took up this letter written by the son at college to his father, the blacksmith, and read it in hard, rough voice : " Dear Father : I am very sick. Send me some money. " Your son. John." The father said, " If he writes that way to his father he shan't have a cent." The wife said, " Hans, the butcher, is a rough man, and don't know how to read it. Let us go down to the baker and get the letter read. He is a mild man, and he will know how to read it." So they went down to the baker, who was indeed a very mild man, and he took tip this letter and read it in soft, smooth, gentle, tender voice : " Dear F.\ther : I am very sick. Send me some money. " Your son, John." The father said, "Ah, if he writes that way to his father, he shall have all he wants." It is the way you read it. You can take almost anything in life and read it until it is bright, or read it until it is dark. Listen for sweet notes rather than for discord, picking tip marigolds and harebells in preference to thistles and coloquintida, culturing thyme and .anemones rather than nightshade, hanging our window blinds so we can hoist thein to let the light in ; and in a world where God hath put exquisite tinge upon the shell washed in the surf, and planted a paradise of bloom in a little child's cheek, and adorned the pillars ■of the rock by hanging tapestry of morning mist, the lark saying, " I will sing soprano," and the cascade replying, " I will carry the bass," let us leave the owl to hoot, and the frog to •croak, and the bear to growl, and the fault-finder to complain. I would rather have a man go to the opposite extreme than to that. Many years ago I had a friend attending a large meeting in New York in honor of a foreign patriot, who had just come to the country. It was a noisy meeting and the speakers did not speak ver\- distinctly. My friend sat far back at the door and could not hear a word. A man just in front of him seemed to hear •everything, and every few moments would get up with great enthusiasm and wave his hand- kerchief and shout, " Hurrah, hurrah !" l\Iy friend thought to himself, " That man must have a great deal better hearing than I have, for I can't hear a word." After a while there was something said on the platform that seemed particularly to please the audience, and the gentleman in front of ni\ friend, with more enthu.siasm than ever, got up and waved his handkerchief and shouted, " Hurrah, hurrah !" My friend leaned over to him, and said, " I did not quite catch that last thing that was said ; what was it?" The gentle- man looked back, and said, " I don't know what it was, but hurrah." He had come there (llSj THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 119 to be pleased an\ how. You tell me that is one extreme. I know it, but I had rather be on that extreme than upon the other and never be pleased with anything. Pass a little further in this portrait gallery, and you come to the man of bad manners, chiefly showing his bad manners in the fact that he finds the deficit in everything and the dark side of everything. Now, I have no liking for Beau Brummells or Lord Chesterfields. I have no retaining fee from any millinery or clothing establishment. Indeed, all the fine clothes that a tailor's goose ever hatched out cannot make a gentleman. One day a company of mechanics met together and resolved that they would manufacture a gentleman. The bootmaker said, " I will make a gentleman's foot," and the hatter said, " I will make a gentleman's head," and the clothier said, " I will make a gentleman's body." The work was done and the man went out, but before night he did something so perfectly contempti- ble that everybody saw that after all he was not a gentleman. The next morning these mechanics were met together, and they were talking over their failure in this matter, and a neighbor came in and said, " Sirs, you cannot make a gentleman. God only can make that large-hearted, magnanimous being which we call a gentleman." A very little thing will show you whether a man is a gentleman or not. You do not have to see him in a variet}' of experiences before you make up your mind in regard to him, and you make it up right. Just as a little conversation between a man and his wife revealed all their domestic history. They had quarreled a good deal, and the husband had been in the habit of beating his wife a great deal, and he was about to leave the world, and he thought before he left the world he had better say something plea.sant to his wife, and he said, " My dear, I am now going to leave the world, and I am going to heaven." " Pshaw !" she said. " You go to heaven ! You would look pretty stuck up in heaven !" " Well," he responded, " Bridget, bring me the broom, and I'll give her another walloping before I go." And you have in that little colloquy all their domestic history as well as if you had it in a half a dozen volumes. And so I have sometimes seen a man in one flash of conversation or behavior reveal all his history. You know him in five miuTites as well as if you knew him fifty years. You say he is a gentleman, and he is ; or he is not, and he is not. Neither can all the arts of a dressmaker and perfumer make a lady, while without any embellishment yoii sometimes find her. I saw her bend over the dying soldier. Her dress was very much faded, and she came out from an humble home with a little basket full of delicacies on her arm. She had a boy in the army who, after the battle of Gettysburg, was missing. She wanted to do something for others. She could do nothing for him. As she walked through the wards of the hospital with a cheerful smile, the sick straightened the bed covers to look as well as possible as she passed, and coughed just to make her look that way. She cheered up a fevered young man who was homesick, and feared that he would never again see familiar faces. She wrote letters for him, put ice on his shattered arm, turned his liot pillow, offered a silent prayer, and said, " God do so to me and my soldier boy that is missing if I neglect to care for these poor wounded fellows," and as she passed down the ward, a man, hearing the whisper of others, shoves up the bandage that covers his eyes which had been powder-blasted, and said, " God bless her! "Slay she get back the soldier boy that is missing." And a great tall captain, wounded in the foot, whispered over to a lieu- tenant, wounded in the head, and said, " No sham about that ; she's a lady." That vision of kindness lingers in this soldier's dream, and that night he thinks he is home again beyond the prairies. Cattle coming down the lane. The cherry trees in front of the house in all their shaking leaves bidding him a welcome. Arms of affection about his neck. Children bringing out the tovs for him to look at. His little boy strutting the floor with I20 THE EARTH GIRDLED. his father's knapsack on. All the household work stopped to hear of his adventures. And they shall meet again in heaven. Compare such a lady with a woman I saw on a street car in Philadelphia. A soldier came in and sat near where she was. With great indignation she got up and went to the opposite side of the car, and said, " Oh, the dirty fellow ! " I thought to mvself, "There is probably more patriotism in the poorest patch on that soldier's back than in all the elegant regalia of that woman from the top rose in her hat to the toe of her shoe." She was not a lady-^never will be. Aye, when in the street, or hospital, or church, or lecture hall, wherever you are, you can tell the lady. Two rough boys were riding down hill on a sled on a cold day. They could not guide the sled just as they wanted to. A lady was passing by. The sled ran against hei and tore her dress very much. The boys were rough fellows, and stood back expecting a volley of scolding, but the lady looked at her dress and then she looked at the boys, and said, "Ah, boys, you have torn my dress very much." Then she said, " Never mind ; I see 3'ou did not mean to do it. Go on with your fun." The boys being rough fellows, one ofthemsaidto theother, ''Jim, my eyes! Ain't she a beauty ? " So you instantly detect the gen- tleman from one who is not. I sat in a car on a cold day coming from Philadelphia to New York. A man had a window up. By putting an extra shawl around me I kept quite com- fortable, but there was a sick lady in the back part of the car who seemed ver>' much disturbed by the open window. I thought I would go over and ask the man to put it down. I took on all possible suavity. My best friends would not have known me. I said, "My dear sir, will A I.AIiV ul- THK ARCIIIl-I.I.Ai THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 12 r you please to lower that window ? It is disquieting a sick lady back here ver>^ much."' He turned around and said, " No." I do not know who the man was, or who imported his patent leathers, or how bright the diamonds may have flashed in his cravat ; he was not a gentleman — never will be. You cannot make them out of such stuff. So I was in a boat going from Brooklyn to New York. A boy came in with almanacs for sale. With one hand he offered the almanacs. His other hand was all bound up and bandaged. It looked as if a surgeon had bound it up. A man seated ne.xt to me said, " Boy, what is the matter with your hand ?" The boy said, " I got it crushed, and the doctor bound it up." The man said, " Let me see it." The boy went to work and unwound it. It was an awful looking hand. Nobody would want to see it unless he could do it some good. After he got it all unwound, the man seated next to me said, " Now wind it up, wind it up ; I have nothing for such fellows as you." I could not restrain my indignation. I said to him, " Sir, that boy is engaged in a legitimate business. He is selling almanacs for a living, and you have no right to accost him in that way." I felt in my pockets for the loose change, and all the people in the boat seemed to hear the conversation, and thev felt in their pockets for the loose change, and I think from the looks the boy carried off two or three dollars. I do not know who that man was ; he was far better dressed than I ; but this I do know in regard to him, he was not a gentleman — never will be. He was one of those mean kind of men you sometimes find — mean all the way down, and all the way up, and all the way through, forward and backward, backward and forward. Mean as the man who was asked by his friend if he would not take a drink. He said, " No, I never drink ; but I'll take a cigar and three cents." A man of good manners has a faculty of always making you feel good. Some day you have been soured by meanness on the part of a customer, or yon have met with a business loss, or you have heard that hard things have been said about you. You feel irritated. You feel as if }ou could snap at the first man that speaks to you. In a word, you are unhappy. One of your bright-faced, generous friends comes in, and says, "Good morning," in a pleasant tone. You respond in gruffest, "Good morning." He says, " I hear good news about you. I hear you are prospering in business. I came in more to congratulate you than anything else. I haven't any especial business, but must be going. Give my regards to your wife. Good morning." You respond in blandest tones, " Good morning." He was there only half a minute, but he has left you saturated with, good humor. In other words, you have felt the generous touch of a generous nature. In other words, he is a gentleman. Again you felt just the opposite. You got up with the sun, sang at the breakfast table, whistled all the way to business, when an ill-mannered acquaintance comes in. He says, "Are you at all embarrassed in business?" You sav, "No, why do you ask that?" " Oh," he says, " nothing, nothing." " But," you say, " there must have been some reason for asking that, or you wouldn't have asked it." " Well," he says, " if you will have it, I heard on the street that you are going to burst up. How is that ? " You go down the street vexed and enraged, to lash this man with your tongue, and question that, until you are worked up into a fury, and the pickpocket who stole your purse was more of a gentleman than this man who stole vour good humor. You sometimes find a person in a community without any particular attribute of wit or humor, yet by kindliness of spirit, genial behavior, looking on the bright side of things, trying to get others to look on the bright side of things, keeping a whole drawing-room, aye, a Avhole neighborhood in good cheer. Just as in early spring you go into the garden and you say, " Where is that flower? " " Oh, here it is, a violet ! " considering itself no doubt a very insignificant flower, yet filling the whole yard 122 THE EARTH GIRDLED. with fragrance ; so there are persons who consider themselves perfectly insignificant, yet by the aroma of a Christian character and geniality of behavior keep all their surroundings happy. There is no more winsome art than that of saying pleasant things in a pleasant way, and no more distasteful and offensive character than that which always has something nettlesome to mention. One spring morning I was on my way to the cars, going through the New York market, and was in a good deal of a hurry, but I heard one boy say to another, "Joe, you will lose on them green peas." Although I was in a hurry I had to stop. I said to him, " How do you know he will lose on them green peas ? From the looks of the boy and the looks of the peas I don't think he is going to lose on them." Now, my I BANANA GROVE IN FIJI ISLAND. friends, if that boy was going to lose on " them green peas," would he not find it out soon enough? I never would take the responsibility of telling any man or any boy that he was going to lose "on them green peas." The fact is, .some people are miserable themselves, and they want to make everybody else miserable. Indeed, there are some people who are not happy unless they are miserable ! They have a kind of miserable happiness, or a happy miserableness. I do not exactly know what it is. If there is one lank sheep in the pasture field all the crows within ten miles know it, and are ready to sit \r\ post-mortem examination when the carcase drops. And there are some men who have a faculty for finding out everything that is weak in character, and are watching to see if it will not become carrion. THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 123 They say unpleasant tilings about >our walk, about }-our clothes, about \our friends, about your church, about your club-rooui. If they find a half dozen people engaged in pleasant chat they are sure to break in upon them with some disagreeable subject. If )-our father was so unfortunate as to have been hung, they will persist in discussing with you capital punishment, or go dragging a long rope through the room. If you failed in business, they will make cutting remarks about bankruptcy lawf and two-thirds enactments. They have always heard something unpleasant about you, and feel it their duty just to let you know all about it. They go through the world fulfilling what the Good Book sa\s when it calls them " whisperers." They go all through community whispering and whispering, and that is all they are good for. They always have suspicions about your health, and sometimes when you feel a little weary, they accost you with, " Why, how bad you do look ! " I had a brother who was going through one of the back streets of Brooklyn one day, when a man came up to him and said, " Are vou the man on this street that is dying with consumption ? " My brother said, " Xo, I guess there is nothing the matter with me." "Well," said the man, *' I was looking for a man on this street who is dying with consumption, and I thought from your looks that vou must be the man." " No," said my brother, " I am a minister and I stay in the house a good deal, and I suppose it makes me look a little pale, and I have been a minister for about fifteen years, and I suppose that during that time I have buried about fifty fat-looking fellows just like you." Sometimes it is not so much in words that they offend as in their way of doing things. For a good, hearty, natural eccentricity we have no dislike. What a stupid world this would be if all the people were alike. God never repeats Himself, and He never intended two men to be alike, or two women to be alike, or two children to be alike. Our peculiarities are the cogs of the wheel showing where we are to play in the great divine mechanism. God makes us all differently, but society comes along with its conventionalities and tries to make us all alike, and in proportion as it makes us all alike, makes us useless. Everybody excused Horace Greeley's peculiar garb, and Rev. Dr. IMcClellan, of the Reformed Church, one of the mightiest men of this centun,-, who used to put his shoes under the pulpit sofa, and then preach in his stocking feet. Once while I was riding with him, my father having sent me down to bring the doctor to the village to preach, and I was the boy driving, and we had a very lazy horse, and I was losing all my patience on the lazy horse, instead of sympathizing with me, the doctor would get up in the back part of the wagon and quote Greek epigrams, and then cry out at the top of his voice, " A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse ! " Now, I like to hear Shakespeare quoted as well as anybody, but not under such embarrassing circumstances. Still I excused him. I said, that is a little peculiar, that is all. Men often have harmless eccentricities, but there are oddities that are criminal, for the reason that they make inroads upon the happiness of others. If duty demand that we go straight across the wishes of others, then we must go straight across them. We despise a man who always waits to hear what other people say before he sa>'S anything. But the most vigorous and energetic means may often be conducted with gentleness. Luther's energy would have been mightily helped by Melanchthon's suavity. A June morning wnll bring out more flowers than all the blustering Januarys ever created. Society will bear anything sooner than a bear. In a former pastoral charge there was in attendance upon my ministry a ver>- good man who had one or two offensive peculiarities. When the church was particularly silent and solemn, he would give one of those awful sneezes that you sometimes may have heard that seem as if the very foundations of the earth were being ripped out. Now, man has certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and the privilege of sneezing when he feels like it. Indeed, when 124 THE EARTH GIRDLED. one feels a peculiar irritation in the inner membrane of the nose that disposes him to a convulsive ejection of air through the nose, I consider it his positive and bounden duty to sneeze ; but I set it down to the score of bad manners that the man of whom I speak would so often in the most solemn parts of the discourse take out his handkerchief, make up a peculiar face and sneeze. Oh, how important it is that parents should educate their children in good manners. How much chagrin they would save themselves and their children. General Scott was visiting at a friend's house in New York. The gentleman of the house wanted his son to be acquainted with General Scott. He said, " Here, George, this is General Scott." George was one of those saucy, uncontrollable sort of boys you sometimes find, and he came up and said, " Are you General Scott?" " Yes, I am General NEW ZEALAND SCENERY. Scott." " Are you the General Scott that was at Lundy's Lane ? " " Yes, I was at Lundy's Lane." "Are you the General Scott that was in Mexico?" " Yes, I was in Mexico." " Are you the General Scott that ran for the Presidency, and got licked?" " Yes," said he,, " I ran for the Presidenc\-, but did not get in." " Are you the General Scott that they call ' Old Fuss and Feathers ? ' " Then the father said, " Get out of the room, George, I will not have General Scott insulted in that way." You and I have seen the same thing on a smaller scale many and many a time. No one is well behaved who has no regard for times and circumstances. While we have no respect for one of those obsequious mortals whom we call the fop or the dandy — all curls and watch-chain jingle and squirm and strut and pocket handkerchief and ah's and oh's and he-he-he's, and wriggle and namby-pamb>-ism THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 125 — we have just as little regard for him who through recklessuess of demeanor breaks through all the proprieties of life as a drove of swine break through a blossoming hedge that surrounds a flower garden. Let two young men go out into the world, one with $20,000 of capital to start with, but bad manners, and the other with no capital at all but good manners, and the latter will surpass the former in all the great struggles of life. Every- man that has come to any years knows that is so, yet the general impression is, if a man be urbane and courteous he is weak. They say he is very polite, but he is soft. I had a friend who many years ago was visiting in the city of Washington. He was in the ofEce of a Senator distinguished for great statesmanship, but for no politeness. The young man who had come to Washington and wanted to see the distinguished men of the day, knocked at the Senator's door. The Senator in a gruff voice shouted, " Come in." The young man entered, and as he had not any especial errand, but only wished to see the distinguished o-entleman, he felt a little awkward and did not know what to do with his hands. The Senator said to him, " What do yon want, sir ? " He said, " Well, — I— well, — I don't know — nothing." The Senator then said, " Then get out of the room. Why do you come here to bother me, if you don't want anything ? " My friend was afterward in the room of Heur>- Clay, and a young man, who had come to Washington and wanted to see the distinguished men of the day, knocked at Mr. Clay's door. Mr. Clay said, " Come in." The young man entered. Mr. Clay by one flash of gentlemanly instinct, knew what the young man wanted, advanced and gave him his hand and said, " Good morning, sir. I am very glad to see you. Walk in. I am very busy now with these papers, but here are some books and pictures and curiosities, and I hope you will make yourself very much at home." My friend said the young man seemed as much at home as though he were in his father's house. And vet it was no evidence of weakness or effeminacy on the part of that man, for when a Speaker of the House of Representatives — that difficult position, held successfully only by three or four men since the foundation of the American government, and where the most vigorous pounding of the gavel on the desk could not keep order — it w-as said that when Mr. Clay was presiding and there was any uproar in the House, he never pounded with the gavel at all, but would take a penknife from his pocket and tap upon the desk. Those who were talking hushed up. Those who were standing sat down. Onl\- a penknife, but it sounded like a thunderbolt. So you see that politeness and suavity are no indication of weakness or effeminacy on the part of a man. A man may be courteous and urbane and yet strong for the great battle of life. Hear it, young man, hear it. We pass on in this gallery of disagreeable people to see the lounger — the man who always comes at the wrong time, and stays until you are exhausted. We say of such a one, " He is a perfect bore." You have all, in your different occupations and professions, been disturbed by this class of persons. I know of no greater joy in life than that of entertaining our friends when they come to see us. We rush out into the hall to meet them. .\ pain strikes us to the heart when they lea\-e us. We give them the best arm- chair in our parlor. We give them the softest bed in our house. We deny ourselves many luxuries when we are alone that when they come we may have more wherewith to make them comfortable and happy. We always live better when we have company. Yet there are persons who are always apologizing when you are at their table— apologizing for the bread and the butter and the tea, and trying to give you the idea that they always have it better than just at that time when you happen to be there. Now, what is the use of lying ? Perhaps it is winter, and one of our old school-mates or college-mates has come. We pull up our chairs around the stove or register, and in true American style put our feet up higher (IJhl THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 127 than our heads so that all the sensibilities and excellencies of our entire physical nature seem, by the greater elevation of our feet, to flow back into the heart and the brain. We talk over old times, sleigh rides, skatings under moonlight, romantic rambles tlirough the woods on a summer day with some fair, rosy-cheeked, laughing-eyed — second cousin. We talk it all over. The fire burns and the midnight hovers. You talk over the past, and laugh and cry until you are startled as the clock strikes, " One — two," and you go to bed humming to yourself, " Should auld acquaintance be forgot .\nd never brought to tnin' ? Should auld acquaintance be forgot, And days of auld lang syne ?" But are there no persons in this community who have pestered ^-ou, as follows? They have nothing to do, and suppose that you have not. They come and sit all around the room. They have nothing to say, but expect you to entertain them. They take out their watch and say, "Well, I guess I must go." You, out of politeness, say, "You need not be in a hurry," when, to your horror, they sag back for another two hours' heat. They discuss the weather. They tell you some old story in a very feeble way and expect you to laugh. They sit, and you look at your watch hoping they will take the hint ; but they sit. You go and take another chair, hoping to break up the monotony ; but they sit. You keep drumming your fingers nervously on the table, or tapping your foot on the floor, trying to fill up the time ; but they sit. You get desperate, and feel as if you could fly. They do not observe it. When your time is utterly exhausted, and the idea you wanted to put upon paper has flown, and it is too late to do the work you proposed, he gets up slowly, takes a great while to button his coat, moves out of the room at a snail's pace, keeps you standing at the front door long enough to take a bad cold, and then goes down the road to practice his outrages upon somebody else. Compared with such annoyance, bles.sed is seasickness, blessed is gout, blessed is the influenza, blessed are mosquitoes and fleas and bumblebees and grandfather-long-legs, blessed all cutaneous irritations, blessed the hot nights when you cannot sleep — blessed everything. When I see one of those bores coming down the street, I cross over or go clear around the block. I think one of the greatest bores in all the world is the speaking bore — the man who, at the Sunday-school meeting, or the church meeting, or the educational meeting, or the political meeting, always has the floor. He must speak or burst. He has an example ; he has a precedent for speaking. Balaam's traveling companion spoke, so he must speak. One of this sort arose in a legislature where some educational question was before the Hon.se, and said, " ]\Ir. Chairman, I go in for eddication. In the words of the eminent Shakespeare, as he fell mortally wounded at the battle of Waterloo, ' Ignorance is played out. E pluribus unum ! Hie, haec, hoc ! Suavter in modo.' Mr. Chairman, I am sorry to see }ou smile at that word ' E pluribus unum,' for that was the sacred name of George W^ashington's mother. If it hadn't been for Providence, eddication and two or three other gentlemen, I should have been as ignorant as you are !" How many meetings have been talked to death by the speaking bore. I have seen Sunday Schools go right down under the process. They hardly ever breathed again. We pass on in this portrait gallery and stand before the man perpetually despondent and lachrymose, or, to use the common phrase, the man who always has the blues, always sees the dark side of things. There is no exemption from misfortune. The great and wise all had their share. Samuel Boyse, the accomplished author, was found famished with a pen in his hand. Richard Savage died in a prison for a debt of eight poimds. The poet 128 THE EARTH GIRDLED. Crabbe walked all night on Westminster Bridge, because too poor to pay for a lodging. Homer, it is said, had his mouth oftener filled with verses than with bread. Fielding, who tickled the world's fancy with the story of Tom Jones, was buried among paupers at Lisbon without a stone to mark his grave. Butler, after throwing the world into fits of laughter with Hudibras, starved to death for lack of a crust. Tasso, in a sonnet, begs the light of a cat's eye that he may see to write, because he cannot afford a candle. The greatest of Italian comedians is refused admittance into the hospital, that in better days he had built with mone}- from his own pocket. John Wesley got pelted with stones. Milton was blind. Young's "Night Thoughts" were the cypress that grew on the grave of his darling child. And there is not in all this house an eye that has never wept, or a heart that has never been broken. But there are alleviations in every trouble, and paradoxical as it jnay seem, I think that the people who have had the most trouble are the happiest. The vast majority of those who go howling on their way, have comparatively little to vex them. We excuse a man for occasional depression just as we endure a rainy day. With •overshoes and umbrella v/e go cheerfully through the storm, because we know that soon the heavens will shatter into sunshine. But who could endure three hundred and sixty-five •days of cold drizzle ? Yet there are men who are without cessation, sombre and charged with evil prognostications. They do not realize their position. They are like the snake that the Irishman killed. He killed the snake, but it would keep on wagging its tail until the sun went down. So he kept on killing it, and a neighbor came up and said, " Patrick, ■what do }ou keep killing that snake for? It has been dead ever so long." Patrick answered, " Yes, I know it is dead, but the crayther isn't sinsible of it." We may be born with a foreboding and melancholy temperament, but that is no excuse why we should yield to it any more than a man born with a revengeful spirit should yield to that. We often hear people sa}', " Oh, I have a bad temper naturally, and I am not responsible." You are responsible. By the grace of God, you can have your temper changed. There is a way of shuffling the burden from shoulder to shoulder. In the lottery of life there are more prizes •drawn than blanks. Whole orchards of " fall pippins" to one tree of crab apples. But •one unfortunate pair of Siamese twins to millions of people happily born. To one misfor- tune fifty advantages. How important it is that parents who would have their children -come up good and Christian, should teach them that religion itself instead of being a gloomy, doleful thing, is really the brightest, the most radiant, the most jubilant, the most triumphant thing that ever came down from heaven. Sunday morning comes in a house- hold. The father comes from his room to the room in which the children are, and he ■says, " Hush ! Throw out those flowers. Close that melodeon. The children will get down ' Owen on Spiritual Mindedness,' and ' Edwards' on the Affections,' and ' Boston's Four- fold State,' and we will have an awful time. It is Sunday !" Sunday comes in another household, and the father comes from his room to the room where his children are, and he says, "Come, children, this is the best day and the happiest day of all the week. Throw back the shutters and let the sun in. Jennie will sit down at the melodeon or the piano, and get ready to play, while the other children get down the hymn-books, and prepare to sing ' Shining Shore,' and ' Rest for the Weary,' and ' Hallelujah, 'tis done,' as soon as I have read this Psalm of David, ' Praise the Lord, mountains and all hills, fruitful trees and all cedars, beasts and all cattle, creeping things and flying fowl, let everything that hath breath praise the Lord.' " "The Hill of Zion yields, A thousand sacred sweets, Before we reach the heavenly fields Or walk the golden streets." THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 129 " Sing! while I beat time for you." And let me say that a man who can sing and won't sing deserves to be sent to Sing-sing. Despondency is the most unprofitable feeling a man can have. Hyacinth is the only flower that I know of that will start best in a dark cellar. Ten raw cloud)- days may pass along a garden without winning a smile from a single flower ; but no sooner does the sun look out than hundreds of carnation roses put up their lips to be kissed, and blush clear down to their shoulders. Good cheer divides our burdens and carries three-fourths of them. We all cry enough, God knows. We all cr>' enough and have enough to cry about, and if we could not sometimes be let up from the struggle of life, I do not know what would become of us. One good hearty laugh is a bombshell exploding in the right place, while spleen and discontent are a gun that kicks over the man that shoots it off. There is hardly anything impossible to the man who expects to succeed. Lack of acquaintance with the laws of health often results in depression of spirits. I have known people who for years have not experienced buoyancy of feeling, simply because they always take a late supper. Tell me what a man eats, when he eats, and how long it takes him to eat, and I will tell you his disposition, and out of a thousand cases I will not make one mistake. A man will go to the store in the morning and find business matters all complicated. He cannot see how he is going to raise the money to meet those notes, and fears that everything is going to ruin. He feels like the man who was going up Broadway, New York, in the midst of the financial panic of 1857. He had a note in the bank, and no money to meet the note. It was five minutes of three o'clock, and the bank to close at three. All absorbed about that note in the bank and no money to pay it, in his haste he ran against a man, and the man cried out, " Who are you running against? Do that again, and I will knock yon into the middle of next week." He replied, " I wish you would. That's just where I want to be with my note." So everything in the case I am speaking of may seem to be foreboding, when the fact is that business matters are not at all desperate. What is the matter? Has some evil spirit during the night entered the store and robbed the safe, and changed the figures in the account book, and stirred everything into disorder? No. This is the secret. Last night at eleven o'clock, at a friend's hou.se, he took lobsters. He didn't get his usual refreshment in sleep. In his dream he saw his grandmother and two or three great-aunts in coal-scuttle bonnets. The nightmare first balked and then ran away with him. Lack of exercise is a source of depression. Without exercise, the fluids of the bod>- cannot be rightly prepared nor the solids become strong and firm. There is an idea abroad that exercise is important only for the student. That is a mistake. The merchant needs it ; the mechanic needs it ; the housewife needs it. You may work day after day to perfect fatigue, but that is not exercise. You need a change from the routine of life. The amount of money and time expended in reasonable recreation would be a profitable investment. You would add ten years to your life, and in business you would in the course of the year sell more goods, make more garments, fashion more chairs, build more houses, make more boots, roof more buildings, shoe more horses, grind more corn. The attention of the world is being drawn to this subject. Gymnasiums have been established in all our towns and cities. I am glad to know that this institution is becoming better understood. The gymnasium was formerly looked upon as a place where pugilists went to get muscle — a college to graduate Heenans. Now, in all our gymnasiums you find the first merchants, physicians, mechanics, clergymen. Men of science swinging dumb-bells. Millionaires turning somersaults. Lawyers upside down hanging by one foot from the rung of a ladder. The doctor of divinity with coat off striking 9 PUDI.IC liril.UIN(,S IN SVDNl-;\ WHICH bl. l;l KIM 1' i.^ WllH Till. IK Airi;\i (130) THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 131 out from the shoulder against a "punching bag," imagining how it would be if it were a controversial fight, and the bag getting punched were an opposing bishop. Rheumatics and neuralgias and kindred diseases hung up until dead on " parallel bars " like two rows of anny deserters. Dyspepsia climbing out of sight on a rope ladder. Old age dancing itself young again on a "spring-board." Gout, erysipelas, dropsies and consumptions on a " wooden horse," riding out of remembrance. As a preventive and corrective of disease and the consequent mental depression, I recommend the gymnasium in many cases as better than all" Plantation Bitters," and pain-killers, and elixirs, and panaceas, and cataplasms, and S. T. X.'s, and U. Y. G.'s and all the other board fence literature of the country. But those who can get into the country and have the time and the means, will find the open air the best of all gymnasiums. God built it and hoisted into its dome more glor^- than can be crowded into a thousand St. Peters. The steep hillside is the best ladder to run up. Forests tossing in the wind are the best boxing school. Do you own a horse ? Have him well groomed until every hair glistens and the long mane ripples over his neck, and from nostrils down over the haunches unto the fetlock ; be he bay, black, dun, chestnut or sorrel, there is nothing wanting. Have him brought out. Put the bucket to his mouth and hear the water rattle down his throat in great swallows. Give him a gentle patting on the shoulder, call him by a pet name, and then putting your left foot into the stirrup, vault into the saddle. Now, sail ahead. Let him leap, and prance, and champ his bit, and snort with pride as he careers along the highway. Your blood will tingle. You will feel as if you were flying. Health will come with every bounce. Let him trot, amble, gallop and his hoofs strike fire. Keep a stiff rein, pass everything on the turnpike, and with the keenest appetite you ever had come to supper. There is something wrong in that man's heart who does not admire a horse. William HL, Charles II., George I. found their chief amusement in his companionship, and the man who will abuse a horse — I say it deliber- ately — a man who will abuse a horse deserves to be kicked by a mule. Do vou own a pair of skates? Wrap yourself warm, start for the pond, sit down on the bank, strap on the skates so that they can't turn, and then strike out. Carve all the hieroglyphics of sport with your heel on the ice. W^heel round and round, now on one foot, now on the other, backward, forward, like a swallow skimming a brook, like a deer chased across the snow by tlie Laplander, swift as the hare with lugs flat back on Marlborough Downs, as an antelope over the plain, voices calling, pond resounding, steel skates ringing, hands clapping, hills echoing. Sportfulness is a queen, who often sits in a palace of ice, with sceptre of icicle and orchestra in which northern blasts sound their horn, and such come nearest her throne who approach with skater's tippet and sandals of clattering steel. But I do not know any army of horrors that can withstand an attack from a regiment with balls and bats. From the ball that the boy of four years rolls across the carpet until his mother catches it, to that which is flung up by the muscular arm of the sportsman in the sight of five thousand people come out in the suburbs to see the carnival, there is something bewitching about its bounce and flight. Every Roman villa had its place for this exercise. France had houses built especially for ball playing. Henry VII. and Maximilian engaged in this sport. German professors, weary of making dictionaries, come out to join in it, and we all at school iised to take the bat, put spittle on one side of it, and then throw it up to see who should have the first stroke, and we had many a sharp sting from the ball that struck us before we got to the hunk. People who have spent fortunes at Saratoga and Sulphur Springs and Baden-Baden to get away from bodily disease, and came home unbenefited, have found out afterward 132 THE EARTH GIRDLED. that their aihneuts were unable to keep up with them in their swift turns at cricket, and the invalids in attempting to catch the ball have actually taken their lost health "on the fly." About the amusement of hunting and fishing, let me say that you have no right to kill any game that you do not expect to make practical use of, and he who shoots a flock of singing birds just to see them fall, or hooks up from the stream a fish just for the pleasure of seeing it flop on the grass, is a barbarian. But rightly carried on it is a just and invigorating recreation. The best men have found health and exuberance in it. Izaak Walton reveled in the sport. And I suppose that .some of you have started off" with pockets full of flies, v/orms and grasshoppers to the river, flung out the line, sat down on a bridge ^vith vour feet hanging over, and for whole hours earnestly and patiently waited and watched, motionless and with your whole soul in your face,for some shy, obstinate and pro- voking fish to bite, and then as the cork began to wriggle, you got up, took firm hold of the tackle, and jerked it out, to find that you had caught a lamper eel or snapping turtle. One of the excellencies of this sport is that for the time it takes your attention away from the cares of life. Once I went out with some gentlemen to encamp for summer recreation among the Alleghany mountains. While we were there encamped on Saturday morning the clergyman from the village at the foot of the mountain came up and said I should have to preach for him the next day. So Saturday afternoon I went out to catch trout and to catch a sermon at the same time. Well, I succeeded. That is, I caught the sermon, but I did not catch the trout, although I came four or five times very near it. In other words, you cannot catch trout and do anything else at the same time, and in that very thing consists the excellency of the recreation. So of hunting. I have seen men who went out with colorless cheek and heavy heart, come home in a perfect glow, bringing a brood of grouse, or a wisp of snipe, or a covey of partridges. Dash and Towser, wet and panting with tongue out from answering of hunter's halloo, now sprawling themselves on the doorstep. But I have no time to particularize. For mental depression I commend exercise out of doors, if possible, if not, then in doors. Whether boat or skate or vehicle or saddle or hook or gun or gymnasium, let your sports be hearty, free from dissipation, conscientious and Christian, for this is a subject we will have to meet in all our churches >et. We keep telling our young folks, " You must not do this, and >ou must not do that, and you must not do the other thing." We shall after a while have to tell them something they may do. A religion of " Don't " is a verv poor religion. The only way we will ever drive bad amusements out of this world is by introducing good ones. And you will come back to shop and counting room and studio and pulpit better prepared to bargain, to construct, to pra>-, to sing, to preach. Remember that there is no stock that pays larger dividend than a cheerful spirit, and that in all the gallery of disagreeable people there is no face more repulsive than that of him who always has the blues. Remember that despondency very often degenerates into peevishness, and people become waspish, or to use the more familiar word, " touclu'." My father once got cheated in a bargain, and had thrown on his hands one ot the most outrageous horses that I ever saw. We called her " Killposy." She was perfectly gentle with the exception that she would balk and bite and kick and run away. If her hair had not all stood straight up, and her hip bones could have been sunk about half a foot, she would have been handsome. Now that horse never appreciated the kind ofllices of a groom. We, the bo>-s in the country, would take a long stick and fasten it to the end of a curry comb and then go to work upon her obstinate hide. She never appreciated it. All you had to do was just to open the door and make a motion at her and she would kick. My father after a while gave her away. It was the only time he ever cheated anybody. In THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 133 other words, she was " touch>-," and a symbol of tliat class of persons, who, having sunk down from despondenc}- into peevishness, cannot be approached without calling forth demonstrations of irritability and displeasure. Every little while I see some one in the community about whom I say, " There goes a ' Killposy.' " In this large class of despondent persons I must place all political h)-pochondriacs whether in my countr}- or in yours. They are not peculiar to any part>-, but are to be found in all parties. 1 mean the men who think everything is going to ruin. They always have thought so, think so now, always will think so. If my country is going to ruin it goes very slowl}-. Without treading on any man's political affinities I could in a few minutes show the folly of ever having the blues about your country or mine. Our future is not dependent upon the success of this or that partisan organization, but upon the Almighty Arm of God that will clear the way before us. We want no bigotr}- in Church or State. When the time comes in my countrv that free discussion is prohibited I want to move to Kamtchatka or the Kingdom of Dahomey. I am willing to acknowledge a man of any party a patriot provided he loves his country and strives for its welfare, be he Republican, Democrat, Freemason, Native American, Fenian, or Brooklyn lecturer. We should have a little more suavity and politeness in political discussion. How seldom it is you find two people talking politics, but they get mad. I do not know why a man cainiot be as polite on the subject of politics as any other subject. A man was driving a cow along the road and the cow turned up the wrong lane, and he saw a man coming down the lane and he thought he would just have him stop the cow. So he shouted, " Head that cow." The man answered, " She's got a head." " Well," said the other, "turn her." The man replied, "She's right side out now." "Well, speak to her." The man answered, "Good-morning, ma'am." Polite, even to a cow. So I like to see a man always polite to his cow, to his horse, to his dog, and especially to his fellow- man, and more especially if that man happens to know as much as you do. There never has been any reason why you or I should have the blues about our beloved lands, and there are no reasons now. By the throne of the eternal God I assert it that truth and liberty and justice shall yet be triumphant over all their foes. Many years ago I gazed upon a scene, which for calamity and grandeur, one seldom sees equaled. I mean the burning of the Smitl> sonian Institute of the United States at Washington. You have all heard of the architectural grandeur of that structure. It was the pride of my country. In it art had gathered rarest specimens from all lauds and countries. It was one of those buildings which seize you with enchantment as }'ou enter and all the rest of your life holds you with the charm. I happened to see the first glow of the fires which on that cold day looked out from the costly pile. I saw the angry elements rear and rave. The shout of affrighted workmen, and the assault of fire engines only seemed to madden the red monsters that rose up to devour all that came within reach of their chain. Up along the walls and through the towers were stretched fiery hands, that snatched down all they could reach and hurled them into the abyss of flame beneath. The windows of the tower would light up for a minute with a wild glare, and then darken, as though fiends with streaming locks of fire had come to gaze out in laughing mockery at all human attempts, and then sank again into their native darkness. W^ith crackle and roar and crash the floors tumbled. The roof began here and there to blossom in wreaths and vines of flame. Up and down the pillars ran serpents of fire. Out from the windows great arms and fingers of flame were extended, as though destroyed spirits were begging for deliverance. The tower put on a coronet of flame and staggered and fell, the sparks flying, the firemen escaping, the terror accumulating. Books, 134 THE EARTH GIRDLED. maps, rare correspondence, autographs of kings, costly diagrams burned to cinder, or scattered for many a rood upon the wild wind, to be picked up by the excited multitude. Oh ! it seemed like some great funeral pile, in which the wealth and glory of the land had leaped to burn with its consuming treasures. The heavens were blackened with whirl- winds of smoke through which shot the long red shafts of calamity. Destruction waved its fiery banner from the remaining towers, and in the thunder of falling beams and in the roaring surge of billowing fire, I heard the spirits of ruin and desolation and woe clapping their hands and shouting, "Aha, aha !" I turned and looked upon the white dome of the Capitol, which rose through the frosty air, as imposing as though all the white marble of the earth had come to resurrection, and stood before us, and reminding one of the great White Throne of heaven. There it stood unmoved by the terrors which that day had been kindled before it. No tremor in its majestic columns. No frown on its magnificent sculp- ture. No flush of excitement in its veins of marble. Column and capitol and dome, built to endure until the world itself shatters in the convulsions of the last earthquake. Oh, what a contrast b e- tween that smoking ruin on the one hand, and that gorgeous dream o f architecture on the other. Well, the day speeds on when the grandest achievement of man shall be consumed and the world shall blaze. Down will go galler- ies of art and thrones of roy- alty, and the hurricanes of God's power will scatter even the ashes of consumed greatness and glory. Not one tower left. Not one city unconsumed. Not one scene of grandeur to relieve the desolation. Forests dismasted. Seas licked up. Continents sunk. Hemispheres annihilated. Oh, the roar and thundering crash of that last conflagra- tion ! But from that ruin of a blazing earth we shall look up to see the Temple of Liberty and Justice rising through the ages white and pure and grand, unscarred and unshaken. Founded on the eternal rock and swelling into domes of infinitude and glory in which the hallelujahs of heaven have their reverberation. No flame of human hate shall blacken its walls. No thunder of infernal wrath shall rock its foundation. By the upheld torches of burning worlds we shall read it, on column and architrave and throne of eternal dominion : " Heaven and earth shall pass away, but truth and liberty and justice shall never pass away." SYDNEY TRAM-CAR ON WHICH WE HAD THE PLEASURE OF RIDING. SI' CHAPTER X. THE NOBLE MAORIS; OR, MURDER AS A PASTIME. "HAT the Indians are to America, the Maoris are to New Zealand. These aborigines are dying out very rapidly, but you see them in all the upper portions of New Zealand. All this country was once theirs, and they would have kept it, but from whaling ships the foreigners alighted to furnish enough rum and vices of all sorts to kill the Maoris. They are said to be a superior race of savages, but the nobility of them I fail to see. Their faces are plowed up, not with age, but by a tattooing which they suppose pictorializes and beautifies. Sharp shells scooped out these furrows of the countenance. Their greatest fun was massacre. When some of them adopted Christianity, they received the Old Testament but rejected the New Testament. They liked the war scenes of the Old, but not the peace of the New. On occasions they made cartridges of the New Testament. When they could not eat all their enemies, they preserved them in tin cans and sent them as delicate presents to their friends. The ship " Boyd," bound for England, put in at one of the New Zealand harbors, and all on board were slain and eaten e.xcept a woman and three children, who hid away, the only survivors to tell the story. Of course, all ships knew that if they were wrecked on these shores they would become a part of the diet of the people. Two of their chiefs taken to London in 1820 aroused much interest, and they were loaded with presents of all sorts ; but before starting for home these recipients exchanged the presents for muskets, with which they drove back and destroyed the neighboring tribes who could not afford muskets. Some of these savages went so far as to lend clubs and powder and knives to their enemies, that lively fighting might be kept up. On one occasion they refused to capture the trains carrying food and ammunition to the opposing forces, and when the chief of the Maoris was asked the cause of this, he replied, "Why, you fool, if we had captured their ammu- nition and food how could they have fought !" One of the missionaries says that he held a religious service at a place between two fighting tribes, and from both tribes the audience was made up on Sunday, but on Monday they resinned their old fight. If they had had plainly put to them the first question of the Catechism, " What is the chief end of man ?" their reply, if frankly made, would have been, " The chief end of man is to make an end of him." De Quincy wrote an essay on " IVIurder as a Fine Art," but to the ]\Iaoris murder was pastime. Assassination was for ages their gladdest recreation. IMassacre was their sport. It was to them what the tennis court and croquet ground and baseball are to many moderns. No hunter ever more enjoyed shooting reed birds or fetching down a roebuck ; no fisherman better liked throwing a fly and watching a spotted trout rise to snap it, than did these Maoris the slaughter of a man. Give beef or mutton to others, but the appetite of the Maori wanted something human in the bill of fare. Many of the Maoris may be good, and kind, and noble, but their ancestors were without nobility of nature, unless laziness and heartlessness and revenge and malevolence be noble. What an appetite they must have had for soup of human bones ! for white man on toast ! and for spare rib of missionary ! We search New Zealand in vain from top of North Island to foot of South Island to find among the Maoris anything moie noble than seen in the American Indian seated by a (135) 136 THE EARTH ■ GIRDLED. bridlepath of the Rocky Mountains, wrapped in filthy blanket, hair combed once in forty years, waiting for a cowboy to toss him a rusty cent. These Maoris were the impersona- tion of cruelty and diabolism. It was to them rare sport when they could take an enemy and scalp the skin from the bottom of the feet^if you can apply to the lower extremities the word usually applied to the upper extremities — and make the victim walk on a rough place, and the shriek of pain would make these noble savages laugh till you could hear them half a mile away. Sometimes they would, in order to have fresh meat, cut the flesh from their victim just as they needed it by nice tid-bits and day after da}-. Back of Gisborne, New Zealand, to make a fine peroration of their accomplishments, thev killed all the men, women and children, so that the authors might not be charged with lack of thoroughness. They tell the most . enormous stories of the bravery of their ancestors. These ancestors, they say, killed the tvv'o great warriors of Waterloo, Wellington and Napoleon, and the tribe believe it too. Within a few days one of their chiefs was buried amid wild scenes of lamentation, and after the body was put in the ground, the chief's hat and blanket and umbrella were thrown in after him, and then many of the tribe leaped upon the grave with howls and screams and dancing. Not satisfied with deeds of cruelty while living, these noble Maoris in olden time expected their wives to strangle themselves, and while twisting the flax for the rope, the sister of the dead chief is reported by a recent writer as looking up to the moon and saying : " It is well with thee, O moon ! You return froni death, Spreading your light on the little waves. Jlen saj-, ' Behold the moon re-appears ;' But the dead of this world return no more. Grief and pain spring up in my heart as from a fountain. I hasten to death for relief Oh ! that all might eat those numerous soothsayers. Who could not foretell his death. Oh ! that I might eat the governor ; For his was the war !" One of tlie most terrible things in all the country ot the Maoris is their law of Tapu. If any one breaks that he must die. When a thing is said to be tapu, no one must use or employ it. For instance, a man gave a slave a knife, forthwith that knife became tapu, yet some one dared with that knife to cut the bread for a chief's mother, and the man who used the knife for that purpose was butchered. That whimsicality of tapu has left its victims all up and down New Zealand. The fact is that barbarisms are so repulsive in every form that there is nothing admirable about them, and the only thing to do, is by the influence of Christian civilization to extirpate them, and they are going, and for the most part have already gone. Cannibalism in New Zealand is dead. The funeral pyres in India have been extinguished. The Juggernaut has been put aside as a curiosity for travelers to look at. Instead of the cruelties that once cursed these lands I find our glorious Christianity dominant. All over New Zealand, the highest culture, the grandest churches, the best schools, and a citizenship than which the world holds nothing nobler. I hereby report to the American lecturers that New Zealand is a grand place for their useful work. Only two or three English and one American lecturer have ever trod these platforms. But the opportunity here is illimitable. Not in all the round earth are there more alert, responsive, or electric audiences. They are quicker than American or European assemblages to take everything said on platform or in pulpit. They call out all there is in THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. • 137 a speaker of instruction or entertainment. And the Church and the world have yet to find out that audiences for the most part decide whether sermons or lectures shall be good or poor. Stolid or unresponsive audiences make stolid and stupid speakers. Wendell Phillips, one of the monarchs of the platform, told me something very remarkable con- cerning himself, while we were standing in a Boston book-store, and he was chiding me for not appearing at Ann Arbor, Michigan, from which place he had just returned, and where I had tried to get a few days before, but was hindered by snow banks, and my offer of two hundred and fifty dollars for the use of a locomotive had been declined. Mr. Phillips said that the audience in one of the Eastern States nearly killed him. He said, " I stood for nearly an hour without seeing or hearing anything by which I could judge of the effect of what I had said. If they had only hissed or applauded, I did not care which, I could have got on with some comfort." . . . Mr. Phillips surprised me by this statement as to the effect wrought upon him by a phlegmatic assemblage. The audience decides the fate of sermons or lectures. A half dozen men might, if they wished to engage in so mean a business, take a contract to break down any speaker, if they would sit right before him, gape, take out their watches, and cough with mouth wide open, and then seemingly go sound asleep. An eloquent American preacher, standing before me in a former pulpit delivered the first half of his sermon with great power, and his words had wings and his countenance was aflame with holy enthusiasm, when suddenly his wings of thought and utterance dropped, and he stammered on his way, and got entangled in metaphor, and lost his thread of discourse, and failed to prove that which he said at the start he would prove, and then sat down. While the congregation were singing the last hymn he said, "Who is that distinguished-looking gentleman right in front of the pulpit? The sight of his somnolency and lack of interest completely upset me." " Oh ! " I said, " that is the Honorable Mr. so and so, one of the ablest men of the nation, and he was deeply interested in all you said. He is not asleep, but is suffering from weak eyes, and is com- pelled to keep them shut while listening." The uninteresting appearance of the auditor had overthrown a " Master of Assemblies." I say to the men who preach and lecture, come to New Zealand. But should ministers ever lecture? Ought they not always preach? My answer is that the intelligent lecture hall is half way to the church, and I notice that men who have been hating the church and all sacred things, if they come and hear one lecture, are sure to come and hear him preach. Beside that there are important things to be said, and things that must be said, which are more appropriate to lecture hall than to pulpit. The three mightiest agencies for making the world better are the Pulpit, Printing Press and Platform. Side by side may they always stand in the battle for righteousness. But for them the Indians' war-whoop would yet be sounding in America and on the Atlantic coast, the morning meal of human flesh would still be going on in New Zealand, and the Ganges would still be horrible with infanticide. Let all nations reconstruct their notions of New Zealand. I write this at Dunedin, imposing in its architecture, picturesque in its surroundings, unbounded in its hospitality, and another Edinburgh, after which I understand it is named Dun — Ediu being the Gaelic for the Northern capital of intelligence. The vScotch founded it and what the Scotch do they do well. They believe in some- thing, and it is almost always something good that they believe in. High-toned morality characterizes everything that they do or touch ; solidity, breadth, massiveness and religiosity are the types of the men and cities and nations they build. No country is well started that has not felt the influence of the Scotch, with their brawny arms and high cheek bones. 138 THE EARTH GIRDLED. The seaport of this place is called Chalmers Port, named after, I have no doubt, Thomas Chalmers, the greatest of Scotchmen, unless it were John Knox ; and the largest church in this place, where I preached last night, is Knox Church, called, I have no doubt, after the man who at Holyrood made a queen tremble. Here I am in the mid-winter of this colony, for July here corresponds with our Ameri- can Januar)' ; but there are no such severi- ties of frost or snow as we are familiar with in our New York latitudes. The grass is at this moment a bright emerald, the gar- dens are in glorious flower, the miles of hedgerows that line the roads and part the fields are banks of gold because of their blossoming gorse. From the top of the North Island of New Zealand to the foot of the South Island, the colony is a be- witchment of interest. For 120 miles ever and anon geysers send up their steam curl- ing on the air. The glaciers, the romantic lakes, the drives, the wooded summits, the mountain peaks, the escarpment of the hills, the fertile fields, the falling waters, the hot springs and the cold springs, the flora with its infinitude of camelias, and its small heaven of ferns, the sunrises and sun- sets, and above all the people with a cordi- ality and heartiness independent of all weather and all circumstances, make New Zealand 1300 miles of invitation to the in- habitants of other zones to come here whether for health or pleasure, or liveli- hood or worship. What uplifted altars of basalt ! What blue domes of sky ! What bright lavers of river ! What baptism of gentle shower ! What incense of morning mist ! What doxology of sea on both beaches ! What a temple of beauty, and glory, and joy, and divine ascription is New Zealand ! '^. .' -; 'v^^'V-'^^^^^^^l By •!^^Hpi||^H| LimI 1 ■ ^^^^™ ^^'^.-^ DR. XALMAGIi A.MUXG S.WAGES SEAS. UI- TUli SOUTH CHAPTER XL WOMAN IN NEW ZEALAND AND THE FALL OF THE TERRACES. eXCELLENT and superb as are the women of New Zealand, more good women are needed in this colony. In most places where I have lived or traveled women are in blessed majority, and it seems that the Lord likes them better than men, because he has made more of them. There is in most places a surplus of good womanhood, and they therefore do not get full appreciation. But New Zealand is an exception. In this colony there are fifty thousand less women than men. This will by circumstances be adjusted. There ought certainly to be as many women as men in every land, for every man is entitled to a good wife and e\'ery woman is entitled to a good hus- band. The difficulty is that w-ar and rum kill so many men that the man intended for the woman's lifetime partnershii? is apt to lie in the soldier's grave trench or in the drunkard's ditch. In tlie Paradisiacal and perfect state the womanhood equaled the manhood, for there was one of each kind. The women in New Zealand have already done well, for while in the United States and Europe the women are discussing in parlors and on the platforms how they shall get their rights at the ballot-box, that castle has already been stormed and taken by the women here. After a while the brave sisterhoods in the LTnited States and Great Britain will band together, and from the crowded parlors where so many languish in inanition and inoccupation, they will make a crusade to these parts of the earth, where their presence would be hailed and their opportunities augmented. The theory that men must go into new countries alone and establish themselves in mines, in mechanism or merchandise, and then send for their families to join them, is an overdone theory. The wives and daughters and sisters had better come along with their husbands, fathers, and brothers. Instead of there being a surplus of men in the colonies there ought to be a sur- plus of women, out of which to get the supply of maiden aunts — those guardian angels of the community who are at home in the whole circle of kindred, the confidant of the young and the comfort of the old, and the benediction of all. Not only is there room in New Zealand for more good womanhood, but there is room for more artists and naturalists. Here are mountains 9000, 10,000, 11,000, 12,000 feet high, waiting for some one to take their photographs ; and while most of the mountains of the earth stand stolid and statuesque and without varieties of posture, some of these change their shape and altitude under volcanic suggestion, as the man in the photographic gallery, at the artist's suggestion, changes from side face to full face, or from frown to smile, and one day in this region a mountain turns clear round, or from standing posture sits down with heavy plunge ; or a crevice opens between the cheeks of the hill — a wide-open mouth full of laughter or threat. The changes in the mountain ranges are enough to set a geologist wild with interest or send him running up and downi these altitudes with crowbar to dig, or hammer to strike or tape line to measure. On a night in June, 1886, the mountains of Tarawera and Rotomahana, New Zealand, had a grand frolic. For many years tourists had gone to visit the " Terraces," as they were called — ancient forms of volcanic eruption. They were stairs of pictured stones, step above step of pumice and lava, reaching from earth toward heaven, but some of the steps of the stairs 50 and 100 feet high ; not so much a (139^ 140 THE EARTH GIRDLED. Jacob's Ladder as an Omnipotent stairway up and down which walked all the splendors and majesties, and grandeurs and radiancies of day and night, and sunshine and tempest, of summer and winter, of decades and centuries and ages. These steps seemed to be made out of pearls, prisms, petrified hyacinth, lily and violet, and all laid out as with a divine geometry. Such curves, such bosses of exquisiteness, such ascents and descents bewilder- ing with almost super- natural glories ! smoothed by Masonry invisible trowels ; walls regulated by invisible plumb-lines ; colors put on by in\'isible pencils ; sculpture cut by invisible chisels. On the night of June 9, 1886, the moon was passing into the second quarter when, ten minutes after two o'clock, the earth shook and the mountains erupted. Standing ten, twelve, fourteen miles off the people felt the shock and saw the ascent of the steam column, and the red- hot rocks, and the volcanic ash, and the scoria ; and the smoke looking like a vast pine tree, according to the statements of the poetic, but like an um- brella or mushroom accord- ing to the description of the rustic. Those who lived near the base of the hills did not survive to tell the tale of the catastrophe. The detonations were heard 250 miles away. That was a cannonading in which the batteries were touched off by hidden dynamics. Such a combination of wrath and splendor were never before seen in New Zealand. It seemed as if all the hyenas of rage were snarling at. all the flamingoes of beauty. The lake hissed as with ten thousand serpents when the hot bombs of the mountain dropped into it. The malodors of burning iron oxides and magnesia, and chlorine, A BE.^UTIFUI, WOMAN OF THE EAST. and alumina, and sulphur filled all the approximate with suffocation, (141) 142 THE EARTH GIRDLED. strangulation and asphyxia. Sixty miles felt the upheaval ; and from Auckland, more than 130 miles away, a ship put out for the rescue of a vessel supposed to be burning at sea — the mistaken fire being that of this burning mountain. In the house of Mr. Hazard, a devout Christian man, as the ashes and trees and stones began to drop heavily on the roof, a Christian daughter, believing that they must die, sat down at a cabinet organ to play a piece of sacred music, and the whole of the family joined in the hymn. And all save one •of the famil)- perished. At the hotel a Mr. Bainbridge, who was on a journey round the ■world, called the inmates of the hotel together for prayer, and he told them they had only a few more minutes to live, and as he was passing out from the hotel the veranda fell upon him and crushed him to death. We talk about the dumb elements, but it is hard for me to believe that they are dumb ; and that the fire does not feel the warmth flowing in its own veins ; and that the sighing winds have no sorrow ; and that playing fountains experience no exhilaration ; and that the light does not enjoy illumining the world ; and that the sensitive-plant does not feel your touch ; and that the rose, with all its incense, does not worship. It seems that in these paroxysms of the mountains nature must suffer. That night nine miles of the mountain changed. "The Terraces," which had been the pride of the Colonies, sank out of existence. No one but the Infinite and the Almighty could afford the obliteration of such resources of beauty and glory. The casting down of such altars and the annihilation of such temples, would have been an iconoclasm that would have affronted the universe but for the fact that the Lord who made Tarawera and Rotomahana has a right to do what He will with His own, and The Terraces, already beginning to re-form, may be richer colored and loftier and more resplendent than their predecessors. The loss to New Zealand of these white and pink terraces is what would be the loss of the Giant's Causeway to Ireland, or the loss of the P\ramids to Egypt, or the loss of Niagara Falls to America. The exact physical causes of this up-setting and down- tearing and mountain-splitting I leave to geologists to guess about. Translating their scientific accounts into easier language it seems that the mountains were stiff in their joints from long standing and went into play. For a great while they had enjoyed no fireworks, and that night they illumined New Zealand with rockets and wheels of fire. The hills went into games of leapfrog, and ball playing, and flying kites, and boxing, and general romp. They were exhilarated with a mixture of gases, sulphuric, phosphoric and carbonic, and forgot all the proprieties that mountains iisually observe. But it was not a comedy. It was a tragedy of the mountains, and all the King Lears, and the Macbeths, and the Hamlets, and the Meg Merrilies of derangement and horror were that night on the stage, of which the belching fires were the footlights, and flames hundreds of feet high were the gorgeous upholstery. Tornadoes of ashes. Furnaces, seven times heated, in which walked the Deity. Grand March of God sounded by the avalanches. The earth bom- barding the heavens. Maniac elements tearing the clouds into tatters and grinding rocks under their heels. That night of June 9th, that awful night in New Zealand, when the native settlements went down under the a.shes of bursting Tarawera as completely as Pompeii and Herculaneum under the burial of Vesuvius, seemed to play an accompaniment to the words of the old Book, as much revered in New Zealand as in America ; an accom- paniment in full diapason, an earthquake with its foot on the pedal : " The perpet- ual hills did bow," " The mountains skipped like rams," " The hills melted like wax," " The foundations of the earth were shaken," " He looketh on the earth and it trembleth." THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 143 That downfall of the New Zealand Terraces was only a conspicnous circumstance in the history of the world. Mountains are mortal, and they write their autobiographies on leaves of stone. All the mountains of New Zealand were nursed in cradle of earthquake by a parentage of rock and glacier, and they will have their descendants. You cannot bury mountains unokserved. There must be a black pall of smoke, and Dead March sounded by orchestra of elements, and thunders tolling at the passing funeral of hills, and spade of fire to dig their grave, and the discharge of all heaven's artiller}- at their burial, and the solemn and overwhelming Litany sounded : " Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust." You see it will be well for geologists to come to New Zealand. Ornithologists ought also to come. Last evening, although it is here midwinter — New Zealand's Jul}' corre- THE PINK TERRACE, NEW ZEALAND, sponding with America's January, although far from being as cold — I was standing near a clump of trees which still kept all their foliage, and there were bird voices absolutely bewildering *for numbers and sweetness. If the notes of the music there rendered by the winged choir had been written on each leaf, the rendering could not have been more dulcet and resonant. It would take more room and time than I possess to describe the ornitholog- ical riches of New Zealand. First of all its extinct IMoa, whose skeleton stands in the museum at Christchurch — a wingless bird, or only apologies for wings, but 10 feet 7 inches high, neck like a giraffe, and foot as wide as a camel's. This Moa, the largest bird whose skeleton has ever been reticulated, its eggs the size of a small bandbox. What the mastodon was among quadrupeds, and the ichthyosaurus was among fishes, the Moa was among birds. But among the living birds in New Zealand's aviary are the whale bird, black on the back 144 THE EARTH GIRDLED. and white on the breast, morning rising from the night ; the huia, a sacred bird of the aborigines, but all birds ought to be sacred ; the parson bird, so-called because the white feathers round its neck give it the appearance of a "white choker ;" the bell bird, with voice like a chime from the tower ; the New Zealand pigeon, three times as large as the American pigeon, and more beautiful only because it has more expanse of wing and feathers on which to be beautiful ; the kea, that wars on the sheep, fastening itself on the back of the live sheep and not relaxing, but pecking its way through the wool and the flesh until the sheep is dead and the beak reaches the fat around the kidneys, for which this bird has a special appetite, a habit learned probably by pecking at the butchered sheep around the door of the shepherd's hut ; the storm petrel, like a flake of the midnight ; the crested penguin ; the paradise duck, its name taken from the fact that its richness of color suggests the Edenic, and birds with all wealth of feather, and curiosity of beak, and eccentricity of habit, and defence of claw, and audacity of flight, and bearing all colors — the white running into crimson like snow melting into the fire ; the blue, as if in some higher flight it had brushed against the heavens ; or yellow, as if it had nested amongst cowslips and buttercups, or spotted and fringed and ribboned and aflame until there are no more fountains of radiance into which they can possibly dip their wings. Oh! for some scientific gimner to do for New Zealand what Audubon did for America. But, what I never knew before, the native birds are dying out before the foreign birds that have been introduced, and the native flowers are dying out before the foreign flowers. Although now New Zealand is so abundant in all styles of quadruped, it had not, when discovered, a single quadruped except the rat, and a foreign rat having been introduced the aboriginal rat has nearly disappeared. The English grass brought here has killed the native grass. The birds of America, Europe and Asia, imported here, have killed the birds of New Zealand. All the earth has been ransacked, and all the botanical and ichthyological and ornitholog- ical and zoological worlds have been called upon to make up the present and the future of New Zealand. Yea, come to this " Wonderland " all who want to see enterprise and advancement. Daily newspapers with scholarly men in editorial chairs, and reporters capable of pumping interviews from the most reticent and cautious, and make a Sphinx speak. Two thousand miles of railroad. Over 1600 schools with compulsory education, building up intelligence for the present and affording no opportunity for ignorance in the next century. Baths, thermal and chemical, miles long and capable of putting an end to rheumatisms and sciaticas and invalidisms that have defied the mineral hydropathics of the continents. Luke Taupo, so deep that no plummet has ever touched bottom, and occup3'ing the hollow of an extinct volcano, as a bright child might fall to sleep in the bed previously occupied by a grim giant. Yea, come to New Zealand, the naturalists, the artists, and the students of men and things, and come quickly, for nothing remains here as it originally was, except the mountains ; and even the mountains, as on the night of June 9, 1886, when the walls of " The Terraces " fell down at the blowing of the trumpets of terror, proved themselves no longer to be the " everlasting hills." CHILDREN OF THE ORIENT. CHAPTER Xir. OCEAN GATE OF AUSTRALIA. y^'^V ITCHED, shaken, twisted, flung, sickened, bruised, dismayed, alarmed, are some *"^ I of the words which describe our feelings whilst crossing from New Zealand to f<^^ Australia. We heard that the passage was like crossing the channel of Calais « ^ from France to England but that instead of the hour and a half it would be four da\s and a half. It was worse than we expected and worse than usual. We had nearly six days of it. The only alleviation of the voyage was the Captain, who was jolly at the time to be jollv, serious at the time to be serious, and deeply religious at all times. Converted in a Presbyterian Church in New Zealand, he has become a flaming evangel, preaching on board his steamer once or twice every Sabbath. Our rough sea experience prepared us for full appreciation of one of the brightest panoramas of land and sky that e\-er nnroUed before mortal vision. Captain Neville said to us " We will soon be in sight of the Australian coast, and when we approach the harbor of Svdnev come up on my bridge, and I will point out to you the objects of interest." " Thank vou," was our reply to the unusual invitation, for sea captains do not ordinarily like to have company on the steamer's bridge. In a few moments we climbed to the side of the Captain. Great walls of rock built by the eternal God reached along the coast, and stopped only wide enough apart to allow ships to enter and to keep the boisterous ocean out. " Yonder," said the Captain, " is the retreat in the rocks which in the twilight deceived the Captain of the ' Duncan Dunbar' to mistake it for the harbor and to aim for it, crashing into destruction. All on board perished save one man who was picked up after he had floated down on to the shelving." Safelv we rode in between the two great brown pillars of Hawkesbury sandstone, and then began the revelation of a harbor such as nowhere else in the wide world is to be found. The whole scene is an Odyssey, a " Divina Comedia," an Old Testament and a New Testament of grandeur and loveliness. You cannot for a moment relax your energy of watching without missing something which you cannot see again. The white palaces of the merchant princes of Sydney shine through the foliage of the trees. Dipping to the bay are gardens abloom in winter, and lawns with an emerald like unto the fourth layer of the wall of Heaven. Tropical plants and tropical flowers stand side by side with the growths of more rigorous climates. Vineyards and orange groves, pomegranates and guavas, and pine- apples growing in a revelry of luxuriance. Norfolk pines, palm, Moreton Bay fig and Eucah'ptus trees stretch their sceptres over the scene. Complete bewitchment of landscape. " Steady ! " cried the Captain to the man at the wheel, " steady ! " But no observer can keep ver\- steady while watching this ever-changing, ever-inspiring, ever-enchanting scene. " Yonder is the !\Ionasterv : vonder, just coming in sight, is the Admiral's house. Yonder is the University. Yonder are the Houses of Parliament. Yonder are the old prisons. There is the Governor's residence." Here, sweeping up close to our steamer, are launches with excursionists. Yonder are sailing boats, so small they suggest a fluttering seagull, lo (145) 146 THE EARTH GIRDLED. .>:'««i^ While the area of the harbor is said to be nine square miles, the water line of it, if followed up and down all its inlets, would be twelve hundred miles. The rippling waters kiss the beach, and the beach embraces the bay. At the next turn of our steamer's wheel more garniture of island and arbor and inlet and promontory. Oh ! how the marine loveliness plays " hide and seek " amidst the islands. Five grim batteries pointing their Armstrong guns at us, but only in play. " Yonder," says the Captain, " is a French steamer ; yonder an American, and yonder an Englishman." Sydne)' harbor is so broad and honest that no pilot was needed to come on board. Room here for all the navies of the earth to ride in and secrete themselves so that they could not be found without much search. Room for the "Great Easterns " of the past and the " Campanias " of the present to wheel without ' _ • peril. Room to welcome all the centuries ; and generations and ages which are yet to drop anchor in its clear depths. He only belittles and bedwarfs and bemeans Sydney harbor who compares it to the Bay of Na- ])les or the entrance to Rio Janeiro. God works by no model, and this har- bor was of divine origination. He works with rocks and waters and skies as easily as architects work with pencil and rule and compass ; and He intended this harbor not to be a repetition of anything that had ever been done, and to make it impossible for any human engineering or landscape gar- dening or hydraulics to imitate. It is a winding splendor, an unfolding glory, a transcendent illustration of what omnipo- tence can do in the architecture of an ocean gate. The day we entered it, clouds of all hues were looking down into its mirror ; beauties of all styles were walking its opa- line pavement ; grandeurs of all chariots were rolling across its crystalline highway. On the captain's bridge we stood until near enough to the wharf to see the deputa- tion of clergymen and prominent citizens who were waiting to come aboard to greet us, and when they thronged the cabin of the steamer, and addressed us in welcoming words, we were compelled, by onr own feelings, to reply " Brethren and friends ! after sailing against headwinds and over very rough seas, it is most delightful to get into this beautiful harbor of Sydney, and into the still more beautiful harbor of Christian fellowship." But I was up before daybreak next morning looking at the harbor. The window of my room in the Australian hotel takes in the enchantment, and I watched the coming of the day into that harbor. The whole sky first took on a pallor, not sickly, but healthful, as thoueh there were white wines from the other side shining through. Then there came coruscations, and deep indigoes, and irradiations, and sadnesses of color, and unrolling scrolls prophetic of more light, and sombres and holy gleams, and rhapsodies of advancing day ; AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAI,, AS I SAW HIM. THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 147 and then, banners of victory over tlie darkness. Then in this wall of Heaven the gates began to swing open. It was no sndden swinging back of the panels of fire. There was no grinding of the gates on the amethystine hinges ; there was no clang of bolts hnrled back from the imperial portals, bnt a slow and gradual and over-powering movement that made me feel there was more to come, and I wondered if I could endure the expanding vision. As I looked into the gate I saw, what I described to my son afterward as a sceptre, a sceptre of great length and brilliance. Such a sceptre as no earthly emperor ever had in his throne room. The handle of the sceptre had all the colors of the prism. The edges of it were translucent, the point of it was tipped with a waving light all the time changing. Yet what a sceptre ! What king would dare to handle it? What monarch would dare to lift it? But while I wondered, the question was answered: the king of day, the rising sun, took hold of it, and the sceptre which I had seen a few seconds before lying on the shelf of Heaven, was first hoisted as though to command the hidden glories of the skies to come down, and then it was pointed to the harbor as the place of their destination, and on that sapphire of the waves, both the sceptre that I had seen, and the crown of the king who took it, were put down ; and from green island to green island, and from beach to beach, and all up and down the promontories, and from sky to water, and from water to sky, it was morn- ing in Sydney harbor. Have you ever realized that there is only one Being in the universe who can scoop out and mould and buttress and build a harbor. At Napier, New Zealand, where we sailed in and stayed only long enough for an hour and a half's address, hundreds of thousands of dollars were expended in building a break- water, and so at Gisborne, and at different points on the Australian coast, harbors have been constructed by human hands, but the storms looked at these defiant ramparts and in a night tumbled the costly works into the Pacific. Harbor building is the reserved right of the Heavens. Gates of palaces and gates of fortresses may be turned out from earthly foundries, or pounded together by hammers of human mechanism, but an ocean gate like that near which I am now seated needs onmipotence and omniscience and infinity to plan and construct it. No one but the Eternal knows where such a gate is needed. He sees the history of a continent before it is populated, and he only can decide where its front door ought to be hoisted and swung. Beside that the gate must correspond with the size and greatness of the main building. The door of the Madeleine Church would be absurd at the front of a Quaker !\Ieeting House. Bronze and gold wovild make an inappropriate entrance to a rookery. Such an entrance to Australia as Sydney harbor w^ould be something for all time and eternit\' to jeer at, if the conntrv thus entered were not something innneasurable for wealth, resource and grand opportunity. Had I known nothing of the history of Australia what I saw between the door-posts of this harbor and the wharf of our disembarkation would have convinced me of the present and coming opulence of this fifth continent of the tatooed girl of oceanica. 148 THE EARTH GIRDLED. world. With sucli an ocean gate, I am not surprised that Australia is fourteen times as large as France and thirty-three times as large as England, vScotland and Wales. It has been estimated as capable of supporting one hundred millions of people. All wealth of mining and agriculture and commerce and art and scenery are here. Caves larger than the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky. Lakes like Como, Lucerne and Geneva. A botany so rich in flowers that Captain Cook called one of the entrances " Botany Bay." Whole Pennsyl- vanias of coal mines, discovered by a shipwrecked sailor in 1797, but now defying the crowbars of the earth to take one-half of their treasures, and having enough material to warm a continent and keep aglow the steamship furnaces of an ocean. Enough sheep pasture in the vales and on the hills to clothe with their wool whole nations. These sheep killed and frozen in refrigerators here, are transferred in carts which are refrigerators, into ships wliich are refrigerators and car- ried across the seas to the refrigerators of Europe and Asia, so that while I write this letter, almost within sound of the bleating flocks of this sheep-raising country, the legs of Australian nnittoii hang in London markets, and the inhabitants of India are breakfasting on lamb chops brought from the banks of Sydney harbor. One sheep paddock of nearly two hundred miles square. So much of these colonies is in the tropics that they will have a capacit},-, when fully developed, to yield enough sugar to sweeten the beverages of the earth, and raise enough tea to soothe the nerves and stimulate the conversation of the social groups of all zones, and produce enough cotton to clothe hemispheres. Enough iron to be brought up from the cellar of these colonies to rail-track the planet. Copper and lead, silver and gold waiting for resur- rection. Sapphires and rubies, topaz and chn,'Soberyls read}- to flash and burn on the bosom of the world's beauty. Cope's Creek yielded in one year twenty-five thousand diamonds. Do you say that vast regions are not arable but a desert? Yes, but boring underneath the sand and rock discovered water which is only waiting to be called up to irrigate the surfaces. What irrigation has done for Egypt and China, and is doing for the American desert, will be done for the idle acreage of Australia. It has been demonstrated again and again that better than the rainfall it is to have waters gathered into reservoirs; and so droughts and freshets are avoided, and when you want water you turn it on, and when yon want it to stop, you turn it off". If you say there are not enough hills in Australia to pour down the water upon the lands I reply by asking where is the power of machinery? Science and enterprise will invent a pump that could spout up the subterraneous and hidden rivers, lakes and oceans of Australia. Irrigation will yet abolish the American De.sert, the Arabian BARRON RIVER NATIVE. — AUSTRALIA. THE WORLD AS vSEEN TO-DAY. 149 I Desert, the great Sahara Desert, and the Australian Desert. All hail to the agriculture, and mining, and merchandise, and manufacture, and art, and opulence, and religion of the coming generations of Australia. After a while America, the focus of emigration from all lands, will be occupied, and then, if not before, Australia will call the millions of the earth who want more room and better chance and easier livelihood, to pass through the same ocean gate that opened for us a few days ago, and to feel the welcome blooming from the same skies and reaching out from the same Hawkesbury sandstone, and breathing in the same balsamic atmosphere, and flasliing from the depths of the same matchless harbor. SYDNEY HEAD. — ENTRANCE TO SYDNEY HARBOR AS I REMEMBER IT. While dictating this letter to a stenographer in Sydney, and looking off ujDon its harbor, I hear the chimes of the bells from the tower of the post-office. It is the only post-office that I have ever known to be graced by such a charm of harmonies. But how appropriate ! for the post-office of every city rings out more music, or tolls more sadne.ss than any other building. There are the piles of letters with joyful tidings and hilarious surprises and marriage announcements ; and every post-office ought to have a chime of wedding bells. But every post-office has piles of letters with stories of sadness and bereavement, and loss and death, and burial, and, therefore, such a building ought to have bells to sound the knell and bells to toll the grief Riug on ye bells of Sidney post-office and sound over yonder harbor your merriment or sadness. Four times every hour that tower showers its I50 THE EARTH GIRDLED. chimes ; at each quarter hour the air is stirred with its melodies, but at the close of each full hour the effect is very peculiar. Tiukle and clasli, and jingle and roll, go the sweet metallic voices, as much as to say " Be cheery while the moments go by ! Move as briskly as you can, and let the passing moments keep step with the sounding joy." But while you are listening, suddenly there comes in the mighty stroke of the post-office clock in deepest and most reverberating tone, letting you know that one more hour of time is forever past, and it sounds solemn and tremendous as though at every stroke it said of the hour just departed " Gone ! Gone ! Gone ! " The deep bass of that last sound overpowering the merry sopranos that preceded it. So the gladnesses and solemnities connningle. But perhaps I may have misinterpreted the utterances of that heavy and mighty clock in the post-office tower. It seemed like the death knell of the hour, and seemed to say. Gone ! Gone ! but now that I think it over, that bell might have been in a different mood from what I thought, for bells have moods, and they weep and they laugh, and they dance, and they groan. It may be that the resounding and overpowering stroke in that tower might have been one of invitation, and that because this harbor is the ocean gate of an almost infinitude of opportunity, and the mines are waiting for more crowbars, and the pasturage is waiting for more flocks, and the hillsides are waiting for more cities, and the picturesque is waiting for more artists, and the fields are waiting for more ploughs, and the printing presses are waiting for more authors, and the flora is waiting for more botanists, and the skies are waiting for more astronomers, and the churches are waiting for more worshipers, and these lands are waiting for more occupants, and this harbor is waiting for more merchantmen, that the bell of the post-office tower is really .sending forth a welcoming word to the people of all lands, and the voyagers on all seas, saying, " Come ! Come ! Come ! " (I5II (n CHAPTER XIII. GOLD ! GOLD! GOLD I 'OULD you like to go down into one of our gold mines?" inquired of me a gentleman of Australia. " Y-e-s," was my answer, slow and strewn all along the beach of doubt and uncertainty. The fact was I had remembrances of descent into a coal mine of England some fifteen j'cars ago, and my memory of interrupted respiration, of the shock of the sudden plunge, and of the unpleasantness of both descent and ascent, hindered me from a prompt and decisive affirmative. But arrangements were made. Clergymen and prominent citizens accompanied us to the gold mine. A dingy suit that had often been worn in subterranean exploit was offered us, and we enveloped ourselves from head to toe in a dress appropriate but unhandsome. We looked like a group of mountain bandits, so that when a photograph of us was taken at the mouth of the shaft, I asked the artist if he were not afraid we would steal his camera. The nide and rough elevator, called lift or cage, run by steam, was ready for us. There were no sides to the cage, but there was a central bar, and two of us on each side clinging to it. Cautioned by the manager of the mine to hold our shoulders in and hold fast, the machine began to descend. It was so dark we could not see the face opposite to us, though only six inches away. Down through layers of rock. Down under the foundations of the hills. Down past rocks heavy enough to crush a city. Down a hundred feet, two hundred feet, three hundred feet, four hundred feet, seven hundred and fifty feet. But we started and stopped so genth- that there was neither jolt nor scare. After waiting until other machines brought down our remain- ing comrades, a candle was put in the hand of each of us. With this light we started, single file, through the layers of rock cut through panels of eternal darkness, under arches whose rafters were set when the world was made, and walls bearing the marks of chisel and crow- bar and powder blast of many workmen, on and on, until we came to the foot of an iron ladder and hand over hand and foot over foot we climbed it, all the time cautioned to keep a firm hold, and not depend too much on the foot, for a mis-step might otherwise land one into an abyss from which he could not be lifted until the earth itself splits open. Then another iron ladder, and that ascended, still another ladder. By this time we came to a plank walk which we followed until we heard voices and the click of instruments, and the dim light in our hands is responded to by the flash of the miners' torches. Up in the gallery of rock are workmen with torches hunting for veins of gold, and striking into the hardness with all their might demanding the surrender of the riches. Down under those depths I asked the manager, " How long do you sometimes work without any good result?" " Years and years," was the answer. " How many hours a day do these men work ?" " Eight hours." " Is it healthy work, I would think the particles of dust and stone would destroy their lungs ?" " We have old men working here who have been most of their lives in the mines and they are still in good health." (152) THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 153 After staying as long as we wislied, we descended the ladders, finding it more difficult to crawl down than crawl up. But candles above us and candles beneath us show the way. We cautiously follow the manager until we reach the elevator, and four of us in each machine we mount. We are glad to rise, for no one w'ants to be buried alive even though the sttw under ground be tolerable. As we reach the light we step out into it with S}-mpath}' tor, those who have to earn their livelihood mider the flicker of the torch instead of the steady radiance which rules the dav. The gold mines have made Australia, and the probabilit}' is that most of the hidden treasure is yet to be brought to the smelters. In thirt\-seven years from .\ustralia and New Zealand mines, have been brought up one billion six hundred aiVl LODDON FALLS, NfeW SOUTH WALKS. fifty million dollars. The Mount Morgan 'Mine has declared about fifteen million dollars of dividend. The curious fact about this mine is that a poor farmer had been trying to make a living by cultivating the ground, and when the Morgan Brothers offered him $3200 for it, he gladlv accepted, but the farmer went insane when, sometime after, he found that the land that he had sold for $3200 was sold for forty million dollars. There are now more than eighty gold fields in Australia and this morning I read of new fields dis- covered. Ever and anon the laying bare of these mineral resources will start wild excitement, and, as someone has expressed it, " there will be multitudes drunk with gold." 154 THE EARTH GIRDLED. Other products of Anstrallau mines do not receive just attention. The coal beds of 24,000 square miles, worked at twelve points, and one year turning out 265,000 tons, make but little impression. The iron in all parts make it probable that Australia will yet have its Shef- fields and Birminghanis of manufactory, but it is the gold of i\ustralia that makes the most emphatic impression upon the world. The fact is that gold belongs to the aristocracy of the hills and is the king of metals and minerals. The Iron says, " Hear me ! I make the rail tracks and compose the wheels and own the largest parts of the world's machinery." But the Gold replies, " I form the companies that command the railroads, and the iron of all the foundries and of all the mills is my servant." The Coal says, " Hear me ! I heat the blast furnaces of the factories that tumble and roar and click with the enterprise of nations, and with my warm pulsation in the heart of steamers I trample oceans, and weave continents together." The Gold replies, " I own the factories and the steamships and the continents they marry." The Silver says, " Hear me ! I flash in the cutlery at the banquets. I pile up on the counters of the world's commerce. I stir Congresses and Parliaments and Reichstags into discussion of my value." "But," sa}s the Gold, "my worth is beyond discus.sion. Banks and exchanges and governments put me first in their estimate. The click of my heel on the floor of the Bourse and on the pavement of Lombard and Wall streets wakens instant attention. I make the crowns of kings and queens, emperors and empresses, czars and czarinas. I am the only metal that will be able to join the precious stones in realms celestial. According to Apocalyptic anthem ' I pave the streets of Heaven. I am the king of metals. Down at my feet all other values, all other bullions, all the mines of Australia and America ! " As we stepped out of the shaft of the mine I said to one of the gentlemen, " I suppose there is more money spent in working these mines than is ever taken out of them?" "Oh, yes!" was the reply. Then I bethought myself, it is so in the gold regions of Colorado, it is so in the silver mines of Nevada. Where one man makes his fortune a hundred men lose all they have. Finding a chunk of gold sends a thousand men into insanity. There is more probability that you will be struck with lightning than that you will ever make anything out of a gold mine, and there is more probability that you will pick up a diamond off the pavement of your city. In most cases the practical use of a gold mine is to give day laborers a chance for wages and to distribute the surplus wealth of capitalists among those who make the machinery and build the approximate villages, — the bakers, the plasterers, the carpenters, the masons, the boarding- houses and the hotels. The sight of a speck of gold in a ledge of rocks calls up all the evil spirits of gambling. Men rush in and buy tlie shares, and large dividends of expecta- tion and disappointment are for the most part the only di\idends declared and delivered. If widows and orphans and administrators and trustees of estates knew the average number of strokes necessary to find a piece of gold as big as the head of a small pin, there would be fewer bankruptcies and fewer instances of turned brain. In most countries the worst mine from which to pick up gold is a gold mine.' More of it is turned up by farmer's plow, or stnick out by mason's trowel, or bored out by carpenter's bit, or found near the brass head of the merchant's counter, or turned out by accountant's pen, or flashes out with the sparks of the blacksmith's anvil, or blazes from the paragraph of a wit's coruscations. There is some- thing about the sight of gold metal which fascinates and deranges and dements. Fortunate thing it is that so much of the world's exchange is in paper bills, in drafts and in checks. Many prosperous people see not a particle of gold from year's end to year's end. Paper money, copper mone\-, silver monev work not such moral devastation as gold money. It is well that these substitutes keep the world from the dazzling eye of the more precious metal. THE CASCADE, LODDON RIVER, AUSTRALIA. fi55) '56 THE EARTH GIRDLED. A dementia born of the gold mine is evident to all who have struck the regions auriferous. The gambling spirit sweeps like a cyclone over such places. In some places in Australia, after the discovery of gold, it seemed almost necessary to declare martial law. People drop their occupations and professions and make a mad rush for the enchanted grounds. Who is going to work for ordinary wages when gold diggers in Australia receive in wages about $1900 a year? Who can be content with investments that yield six or ten per cent when one nugget of gold was sold at Sidney for $5780 and a native Australian picks up, on Dr. Kerr's Station, a lump of gold worth $22,500? A man playing euchre with his friend lost all his money, and then put up his shares in an Australian mine. The successful player also won them. This new owner of the mine went up with a friend to see the "■'. „.. mine. On the wa}- back both ___ were taken ill, and the friend ,-^-_„3»^ (jjg(j_- 'pjjg successful man at euchre got well after careful nursing, and he felt so obliga- ted to the man who had nursed him during the illness, that he gave him a check for $75,000,, that being half the value of the shares the convalescent owned in the mine, namely $150,000. Tlie recklessness of those who made their money by big chunks,, and the glitter of the stuff, and the disappointment of those who paid fabulous prices for shares in mines which would not yield the worth of a pin if worked a thousand years, put multitudes into a mood more adapted to the madliouse than to freedom in the open air. Geologists came to settle things. They were used to turning leaves of rock, and it was thought they could easily determine the home of the precious metal. But said one of the stockholders yes- terday to me : " We would have been better off up here if we had never seen a geologist, they mislead those who trusted in them." From what tliis man told me I was persuaded that the most ignorant miner's crowbar was more apt to find the gold than the most educated geologist's hammer. While the scientist was asking where the gold ought to be found, and at the shaft of the mine addressing the stockholders about Silurian bedrock, and " oldest drift," and " copper drift," and " recent drift," and " trachvtic lava," and " agglomerites," the mining companies were losing their all, and their dupes had taken the money out of the safe banks of deposit and put it into holes eight hundi'ed and nine hundred feet deep, for TASMAN S ARCH. THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. i57 ever to stay there. It did not make much difference to those who lost their investments whether the gold drift the geologists were looking for belonged to the Pliocene or the Miocene period. One has only to stand where I stood to-day to scatter the notion that gold is easilv picked up in the gold regions. Into m\- hand a wedge of rock was placed with a light vein running through a part of it. The vein was gold. But the rock must be crushed, the small particles must be separated from the nine hundred and ninety-nine parts which are not gold. The gold must be smelted. It must be assayed. It must be transported. It nuist be put through the mint. The machinists, the mills, the miners, the carters, the smelters, the assayers, the clerks, the rents, the taxes, all suggest expenditure, and when that vast expenditure is subtracted from the few bright grains embodied in this wedge, which the manager has placed in my hands, there will not be much left, perhaps there will be nothing left. The woe of Australia is the speculative spirit. Australians will find out after awhile that the mine of gold in these lands is not a thousand feet down, but no deeper than a foot from the surface. It will be found in the potato hill, under the plow's furrow, and under the peach tree, and under the orange grove, and in the apple orchard, and in the head of wheat, and dripping from the sugar-cane, and under the snow-bank of bursting cotton pod. Agriculture will )-et turn Australia into as rich a farm field as we have seen since the gates of Paradise shut out the original occupants. Never have I seen richer ground for agriculture. The greatest need of Australia to-day is more population. I have been riding for two days over lands which would have all the fertility of Westchester farms of New York, or Lancaster farms of Pennsylvania, or the Somerset farms of New Jersev, and vet the occupants of most of these Australian lands might be accommodated in the one rail train in which I have been riding. My own absorbing interest in the future welfare of this land is easily understood when I tell vou that all these colonies have been in my pastorate for many )-ears. Deputations of ministers at every place we went and people crowding to the windows at the railway stations tell me that my sermons have been read in the cabins and the bushes and the mines as well as the villages and the cities. Enough encouragement have I received during this Australian journey to last me the rest of my life. A man who sits near me while I write tells me that he is an Anglican, or what we call an Episcopalian, and that for many years he has read my sermons to crowded congregations who have assembled for worship on the Sabbath and that he has ridden two days on horseback and one day by rail train to attend my service to-morrow. Night after night I confront audiences made up of people who crowd the churches, and halls, and academies of music, and blockade the streets, to which outsiders I speak before and after the indoor meeting. Hour by hour things are said in the way of thanks and concerning cases of comfort and reformation and destiny which I would not dare to repeat either by tongue or pen lest I be misunderstood, but no one can stand in the relation I have stood to these colonies for more than twenty years without feeling a profound interest in their welfare — domestic, social, moral and spiritual. I have been in two months of hearty salutation, and, from what I hear, it will continue until, on the twenty-ninth of the month, I step aboard the steamer at Adelaide, my last place of Australian visit, and beg the Southern and Indian Oceans to let me pass safely to what are called in the Missionary hymn " Ceylon's isle " and " India's coral strand," wdien I will have accomplished at least one-half of my journey around the globe. CHAPTER XIV. A BAKED MISSIONARY. '■ > y ^ E had just got off the locomotive of the rail train where we had been riding for Mm T many miles in conversation with the engineer and had re-entered the carriage ■ i I of the train, when a clergyman got into the same car with us. He had been a ^'^^'^^ missionary among the Fijis, and the following conversation took place between us. Question : How long were you in the Fiji Islands? Anszvcr : Fifteen years. Question : Did you have any experience with the cannibals ? Answer: Yes, I was appointed to fill the place of a minister who had been killed and then baked and then eaten. Having knocked him on the head they tied his arms around his knees and put him in an oven. When I arrived in the Island I was greeted by a message from some of the Fijis saying " Tell him to come up and we will eat him." Question : Did you go alone to the Fiji Station? Answer: No; I was married just before leaving England, and I took my young wife with me. Question : How did your wife like the idea of such a honeymoon ? Answer : She did not like much to go to the Fijis, but she went. Question : Did you have any narrow escapes from the cannibals ? Answer : Yes, plans were laid for my taking off during the night, as I was to preach in one of the settlements during the evening. But I saw ominous signs. There were whisperings and looks askance, and going to and fro, that made me feel I was in peril. So I told the chief that I could not wait until night but must preach immediately in the afternoon. I therefore conducted service and before night departed. I found afterward that all arrangements had been made for killing me that night, and when I passed by another tribe they expressed surprise at seeing me, saying " You were to be killed and eaten to-night." Question : Was it an especial fondness for the taste of human flesh that led them to devour a human being ? Answer : Not that alone, but revenge also. They had that way for expressing their contempt and hatred for an enemy. The most triumphant boast a Fiji could make was to say to anyone " I ate your father." Question : I suppose missionary life among the Fijis was a sacrifice? Anszver : Yes, among the greatest trials was that we had to be physicians for our own families. The Fiji treatment of sickness was cruel and senseless. Wherever there was a pain they felt they must stick something sharp into it from the outside. Although we had had no medical training we had to attend our families in the most serious crises. Vl\ first child was lost and she could have been saved by a doctor. Question: Did the Fijis know anything about kindness? Answer : Oh, yes ! They could not do enough for you in the way of kindness. They would entertain you beautifully often in the early part of the very night when they were for some good reason, as they thought, to jsut you to death. Question : Were they affectionate ? (158) THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. ^59 Answer: Yes, when I left the island they came out at three o'clock in the morning to see me off, and they bewailed and lamented and howled at my going until I asked them to suppress their crying, as the noise would wake up the passengers on the ship. Question: Wh}- did they kill, and bake, and eat your predecessor? Atisiver : Because he went to a tribe without a proper introduction by the chief of another tribe. The chief felt that he was ignored and sent word to the tribe to which the missionary had gone that he must be killed for this offence. CORABBOREE, OR NATIVE DA^•CE, AUSTRALIA. The Australian and Tasmanian aborigrJnes execute a dance called the corahhotee, in which they imitate the frog and kangaroo, both leaping animals. In this dance the party, composed of men entirely, form themselves in a circle and in a stooping posture, with hands upon each other's hips ; they move by a succession of leaps, accompanying their movements with grunts and gruff exclamations. Question : Is there any cannibalism practiced now in the Fiji Islands? Anszcer : No, all such things have ceased. Even,' evil custom has been abolished. The people are civilized and Christianized. There is no place in the world where our religion is more thorougly triumphant. When in conversation I looked at this returned missionary, I said within myself. That is a hero worthy of coronation. What prowess, what self-sacrifice must have been required for such missionary life ! And can any appreciation for such men be too great, any monu- ment for theni be too lofty, any epitaph be too eulogistic, or any throne in heaven be too resplendent ? Now this ston,- of baked missionary might excite astonishment in civilized lands, but things just as bad as this are transpiring in England and America, in the matter of unjust and cruel treatment of good men. " ^lay I speak to you," said an elderly gentleman, as I i6o THE EARTH GIRDLED. stood in the Australian hotel with Colonel Bell, our American Consul, who has thrilled these colonies with one of the most remarkable and eloquent speeches ever delivered on either side the equator. I said to the stranger addres.sing me, " You may speak with me a minute, but an especial boat is under sail to take Colonel Bell and myself for further revela- tion of the beauties of Sydney harbor, and I can speak with you only a minute." But the conversation proposed took a good deal more time than a minute, for it was the revelation of a tragedy in an American minister's life, as dramatic as anything I have ever heard. For good reasons I substitute fictitious proper names for the names he gave me. He said in substance : " You must have heard of an American clergymen, over thirty years ago, arrested for murder, and imprisoned and tried and cleared." I said, "I don't remember such a case." Then in substance he went on to say, " I was pastor of a large church which was thronged with people, and this excited the jealousy always aroused against one who has an audience unusual for size. There were two brothers in the county by the names of John and Henry Haggard. John was an elder in my church. Henry had a deadly hatred against John because in the distribution of their father's propert\-, John had received what he considered a more valuable portion, a village afterward being built on his part of the estate. The prosperity of John Haggard and my prosperity as his pastor, set Henry to work to destroy me. My wife, a splendid woman, after three years of illness and dementia, committed suicide. " Three months passed and Henry Haggard, in a railroad train, said to his friends that I had murdered my wife. He published a leaflet with the same purpose, and under the advice of friends I brought a libel suit against him. Going into the printing office of a neighboring town I confronted Henry Haggard and called him by name. He said he did not know me. I said, ' I know you,' and turning to the printer I asked, ' Can you tell me who employed you to publish this leaflet?' 'I can tell you.' ' Who employed you?'! asked, and he replied, pointing to Henry Haggard, ' He did ! ' My evidence of his authorship was thus complete. Henry Haggard then went home and without any author- ization employed a doctor by the name of Hildebrand, from a distant city, to exhume my wife's bod>- and examine it. This physician reported that she had died not by suicide but by strangulation effected by other than her own hands. This physician said he had taken with him for evidence both her lungs. I was arrested and imprisoned until I could get bail. I then had, unknown to outsiders, my wife's body exhumed and examined by three of the most eminent physicians of America. They found that the aforesaid physician who had made the exhumation, and said that he had taken the two lungs had removed only one lung, and that the lung left gave positive evidence that there had been no strangulation. The trial came on. Tlie doctor who first exhumed the body of my wife was put on the witness stand. He testified that he had both lungs in his possession and that they showed ])ositive evidence of strangulation. Then my attorne\-, who was afterward a Senator of the United States, undertook the cross-examination and said, ' Doctor, did you examine both lungs of the deceased and find evidence of strangulation?' The witness answered 'Yes.' 'Did you take both lungs with you?' 'I did.' 'You are sure 30U took away both lungs?' 'Yes.' 'You swear to that?' 'I do.' 'Now,' said my attorney, rising to his feet, livid with rage and thundering at the witness, ' do you not know that three of the most eminent physicians of the land went to that woman's grave and exhumed the body and found that you left one lung and that that lung shows positive evidence that strangula- tion did not take place and that we have that lung in the court-room and that here it is ? ' *••. ^ ii siNCALU-Si:. uiA.cxK.—J-'iviu a Photogi aph. (i60 i62 THE EARTH GIRDLED. The witness was overwhelmed. The court wah indignant. The three eminent doctors were present to give testimony that the charge against me was ontrageons and damnable, and the Judge said, 'I dismiss the case. In all the annals of jurisprudence I never knew anything so nefarious as the persecution of this minister of the gospel. Adjourn the court!' I resumed my pulpit, my congregation unanimously standing by me. To meet the expenses of the law-suit and the trial, John Haggard paid $21,000 out of his own pocket. I was triumphant, and all good f)eople everywhere rejoiced with me. But the strain on my nerves had been too great. The eminent Rev. Dr. Brainard invited me to take a church in Phila- delphia, thinking that change of scene would recuperate me. I assumed the Philadelphia charge, but my health was too much broken to keep it. Then the Rev. Albert Barnes, the world-renowned commentator, advised me to take for recuperation a long sea voyage. I took it. I am here in Australia living a quiet life, unable to do work of any kind, but I have some means left and so I will stay here and spend the rest of my days." So ended the strange story ! I stood amazed and aghast, looking at the narrator. My sympathies for the man were wrung out. He wanted no help, but just the relief of telling the stor\-. A splendid man blasted by scandalization ! A victim on the holocaust of revenge ! A deed of barbarism encouraged in a Christian coirntry ! A diabolism worthy of perdition ! An exile from home and country to live and die among strangers ! What better is that ministerial sacrifice than the one I have just told about baked missionary. The Fiji oven was more merciful than the furnace of spite into which this American clergyanan was thrown and fastened. How many lives have been ruined by devilish perse- cution? Ovens for baking such victims, clerical and lay, are always heated! The fires in them are always stirred ! The fuel for kindling them is always at hand. Baked missionaries! Baked pastors! Baked officials! Baked merchants! Baked mechanics! Baked farmers ! Australia has more men with graphic and startling history than any land with the same number of people. Many strong natures despairing of any peace in their own land, and tired of the injustices of the world, have retreated to this land and have here found that quiet and freedom from pursuit which they never could have found in their own land. The fact is that many good men have always been misunderstood and always will be misunderstood, and some of them have been wise enough to give up the work of useless explanation, and have taken themselves to " the uttermost parts of the earth." I admire them for that they had the courage and the perseverance and the intelligence to cross the seas, and among strangers begin anew under other auspices. God help the voluntary exiles all the world over ! They may be far from the cradles in which they were rocked for their earlv slumbers, and from the graves where their parents repose in the last slumber, but the unloosed and winged spirits of their ancestors will hover over them whether on this or the other side of the Pacific, whether north or south of the Indian Ocean. Wliy do not some of my readers who are hemmed in and crowded by circumstances and buffetted with enemies who are all the time heading you off, pick up your valuables, tell your wife to go up and kiss the old folks "Good-bye," and take your ticket for some of these regions where you can have five hundred acres at less expense than you can have a city back-yard, and turn your children among the lambs, and live in a climate where the winter is so mild it kills neither the grass nor the flowers ? In all these Australian latitudes I find men who were so strong as to take such a decisive step and their heroism has already been rewarded. But many cannot leave their native land, and exchange the scene of persecution and strife for antipodean release, as in the case of the self-expatriated minister whom I have mentioned. Antagonisms are almost I THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. ibi always aroused by jealousies. Some one has more mone}' or more power or more social position or more office than we have. We must get even with him somehow. If we cannot get the office he occupies we will make him uncomfortable while he occupies it. If we cannot get as much money as he gets we will at any rate start the suspicion that he obtained it dishonestly. If we cannot climb as high as he, we will anxiously wait till he starts down hill and then we will help him in the precipitation. If he be too strong to grapple with, we will at any rate have the satisfaction of making mouths at his sister. In contrast with the wrongs and injustices inflicted in Christian lan'"1s by the world's jealousies cannabilism seems less reprehensible. The tortures of barbarism were less severe than the tortures of civilization. Rather than endure the scalding waters and red-hot gridirons of persecution which I have seen many innocent and lovely men and women in America suffer, I would prefer the fate of some of those excellent men who, gone among the Fiji Islanders to benefit and save them, ha\'e been knocked on the head, and fastened, and with their arms bound round their knees, take the fate of the cue described at the opening of this letter, and become a Baked Missionar\-. CROSSING THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. CHAPTER XV, THE SHEEP BEFORE HER SHEARER. OHE most beautiful, tender and suggestive industry of Australia is sheep raising. Only tweut\'-nine sheep were landed from the ship of the first expedition that came up S>'dne}- harbor, and now there are about a hundred million in Australia. The climate, the herbage, the absence of wild beasts, make this countr}- the best sheep home in all the world. In 1890 when there were forty-two million sheep in America there were one hundred and sixteen million in Australia. In 1889 Australia produced three hundred and forty million pounds of wool. What a contribution the sheep make to the warmth and comfort and luxury of the world ! What other creature of God gives so much for the little it receives. For the grass it nibbles, most of it wild grass, paying in mutton and lamb chops, and clothing material, which keeps the factories ahum and enable the human race to be defiant of the cold. If sheep ever think at all what an idea thev must have of the meanness of the human race to take the covering from the back of sheephood and put it upon the back of manhood. And }-et we all have something that ought to be given to somebody else. The fact is that the most of what we have we eet from others. From others all srood influences under which we started life, others construct our houses, others build our rail tracks and control our rail trains, others organize the go\-ernment under which we live, others execute the laws that give us safety-, others rock our cradle, others will dig our grave. We sit down at our table for ordinary food, and workers of the mine furnish us our salt, and workers of the potter\- furnish us our cups, and workers in the refiner>- furnish us our sugar, and workers in the fields of Java or China furnish us our coffee and tea, and the poulterer furnishes us the chicken, and the butcher furnishes us the beef, and the olive vineyard the oil, and the reaper of the wheat field the bread, and the rice swamps of Carolina the pudding, and the orchards the fruits. It takes the whole world to furnish us with a breakfast or a supper. Come to think of it a sheep does no more by yielding its wool than we do. We yield for others our strength, or our thought, or our help. We ha\-e all been sheared for others. Are we as patient as these sheep of Australia inider the shearer, or do we kick and bleat, and resist and struggle? One of the great sheep-raisers of Australia told me he had 30,000 sheep on 40,000 acres, while others own 100,000 sheep. His place is for sale, and now is your chance. This man told me that the taking of the tariff off the wool a few days ago by the American Congress increased the value of the wool here a cent a pound. We are now in the midst of sheep shearing in parts of Australia. But what a different process it is from that which many of us boys found in America. In those days first came the washing of the sheep in the river, and the struggle as to who ought to go under the water — ourselves or the sheep. And then thirty or forty sheep all sheared by slow process. Now here it is done b\' machinery, and tens of thousands pass under the machine. The poor creature is flung upon its back, and its head taken between the knees of the operator. The shearing apparatus is hung overhead, and by an air pressure through a tube of gutta percha acts upon a comb through which a cutter passes back and forth four thousand times a minute, and this instrument running along the sheep-skin remo\-es the wool with great speed. At first the machine (164) (i65) i66 THE EARTH GIRDLED. lacerated the sheep, but now it works with a precision and efficiency and harnilessness wonderful. The poor animal lies quietly under the process, not a struggle, or even a sound of hard breathing. The sheep before her shearers is dumb. The sharp but safe instrument finds its wav through the rich fleece which rolls back and off and down. Fold after fold until the spoils of the flock are piled up into great mounds for cartage and transportation, and the animal robbed of its wardrobe goes forth to grow upon its back another harvest for its owner. There is to me a pathos in such scenes, and I wonder not that some shepherds are the tenderest and best of men. We have celebrated the victories of the sword. It is high time some one celebrated the victories of the shears. They put their captured wealth at the feet of nations. The sound of their grinding blades is heard in the grand march of the world's progress. May the shears of Australia have more and more conquests ! And God speed them as they go forth on their mission to clothe and adorn and beautify the world ! The Australian pastoralists' or sheep-raisers' life is not all poetic. This man of whom I speak told me that a few days ago he was passing through a room of his house and his foot got tangled in what he supposed to be a garment of his child. After awhile he got his foot out and what he supposed to be his child's garment he found was a death adder. He then stamped on it and the adder stuck its fangs into his shoe, but it did not reach the flesh or he would have died in a few minutes. The fact is there are more snakes in .\ustralia than seem to be necessary-. The curator of a museum reports that just outside one of the Australian cities he found in the woods nineteen different species of snakes — a fact that might be very interesting for the naturalist but not pleasant to the tourist. South Australia has fifteen species of snakes, Victoria has twelve. New South Wales thirty-one, Queensland forty-one, and any one who likes snakes, or desires to study their habits, will find entertainment here. But I know men who, in America, after too prolonged and intense conviviality, have seen forty snakes without crossing the Pacific seas to find them. The adder which the sheep-raiser ran his foot against has led me into this paragraph about snakedom. Now while I write, the newspapers are full of sheep-shearing strikes. The shearers have stopped work all up and down Australia because of the controversy between the pastoralists and the shearers. Combined em plo>-ers versus combined laborers ! As usual the strikers are getting the worst of it, because the pastoralists have means and can fall back upon old resources while the shearers have no aforetime accumulations. Why this fight not only in Australia but all around the world ? Because capital and labor do not understand the principle recognized by a manufacturer whom I met in Canada seven or eight years ago when there were many strikes throughout Canada and the United .States. I knew he had thousands of men in his manufacturing establishments and I said to him " Have you had any strikes in your factories ? " He said " I never had any strikes, nor will I have any," I asked "How do yon avoid them?" He .said "When I find my income decreasing and there is no such demand for my goods as previously, and I am losing money, I call my men together. I have a room in the factory for that purpose. I .say to them, ' Men, I have called vou together for consultation. You know I have my money in these factories. I don't of course do business for fun. I ought to have a certain income from these factories. Now I have so much money invested. I pay out for machinery so much, I pay for taxes so much, I pay for wages so much. You see here the aggregate. Now I am receiving so much. You see there is a deficit. I am losing money or getting so little it doesn't seem worth my going on. What shall I do? Shall I run these factories on half time, or shall I stop altogether, or shall I go on losing money? You are common sense men i68 THE EARTH GIRDLED. and I ask for your advice.' Then I wait for a few moments while there is a dead halt. Then there is a whispering among the men. After awhile one of them rises and says, ' Boys, you see how the matter stands. It would be a bad thing to have the business stopped or even run on half time. I move that we throw off ten per cent from our wages. What do you think ? ' ' Aye ! Aye ! ' shout all the voices, and thev wind up by sa^'ing, ' three cheers for the boss ! ' Time passes on, and there is an increased demand for my goods and I am making money rapidly. I call my employes together in the aforesaid room and I say to them, ' Men I have good news for you. Business has revived, and I am making money. As you were kind enough to throw off ten per cent from your wages when things were down I have called you together to say that I do not need that reduction any longer. I will give }ou the old time pay. Do you think you can stand it ? ' and they say ' Yes ! )'es ! three cheers and a tiger for the boss. ' " The Canadian manufacturer is not a Christian man, and is so far from that, that I understand he uses language objuratory, but he consults his men in that way from purely worldly policy. That theory carried out would put an end to all strikes. The trouble is that employers are reticent and mysterious, and their laborers think the capitalists are making fabulous sums of money when they are making little or nothing. Let all employers take their employes into their confidence and the world will soon attend the funeral of the last strike. There is something so human about the sheep I cannot help being interested in them. It is soothing and helpful to walk among these flocks. Though the pastoralists pulled back the wool of the sheep and showed me a fleece at least twelve inches long, the advantage I gained was not so many pennies a pound, but in sentiment and moralization and suggestive- ness. Then the pharmacy of the sheepfold is very much like the pharmacy of the Inunan family. The diseases of the sheep are about the same as those that affect our race, and they have asthma, and pleurisy, and erysipelas, and sore throat, and rheumatism, and peritonitis, and bronchitis, and paralysis, and apoplexy, and nervous prostration. Sheepology is a very interesting study. I am not surprised that in ancient sacrifices it was used as typical, or that musical instruments were made out of ranis' horns, or that the lamb has always been a symbol of gentleness, or that among the pictures of the domain celestial there is a " Lamb in the midst of the Throne." Although the old time shepherd is not needed here, as a wire fence sweeps round for miles, enclosing the sheep in what is called a paddock, yet these sheep-raisers necessarily pass most of their daj's under the open skies and face to face with the natural world. About the men who own these flocks of sheep I have to say that for the most part they are a stalwart race. Indeed that is for the most part characteristic of the Australians descended from those who came out here in the early days. Not only are the present pastoralists and farmers stout and strong by the healthy life they are compelled to live in the open air, but they have inherited the brawn and muscle of those who dared the seas for six or nine months in order to reach these colonies from England, Scotland and other European lands. The grandfathers and grandmothers of these occupants of the soil were heroes and heroines of endurance, and the descendants of such men and women partake of the strength of their ancestry. After a country has long been .settled houses become too warm, and luxuries become too abundant, and dissipations become too rampant, and the race is apt to be enervated. But the present men and women of Australia have the advan- tage of the compelled struggle of the past, and are not yet far enough down in the ancestral line to have been submerged with the weaknesses of refined civilization. It is an advantage to every family at some time in its histor\- to have had a long chapter of outdoor life, such I 170 THE EARTH GIRDLED. as that which the Australian pastoraUsts and farmers liave been compelled to endure. Oaks are not born in hot -houses. David's life as a shepherd helped to fit him for the life of the palace. Our world itself was rocked into its present beauty b\- a cradle of earthquake. Continued health I wish to these men of outdoor life in .\ustralia. May their flocks increase, and the droughts which sometimes slay millions of sheep in a season be arrested in their consuming power, and every lonely watcher of the Australian flocks have the companionship of Him who inspired the watcher of sheep to write, thousands of years ago, " The Lord is my Shepherd," and realize in each hardship of pastoral life the protection of Him whom the dramatist describes as " tempering the wind to the shorn lamb," and possess the patience under all the trials of colonial life of Him of whom it was said, " As a sheep before her shearers is dumb so he opened not his mouth ! " >H»£\^0^ \ \\'I7 ^- £%/ CHAPTER XVI. CHAINS AND EXILE. y^-^^ UTTING his foot amid acacias, and honeysuckle, and lilies, and waratahs, and *"^ ■ ferns, and aniaryillis, and orchids, as he landed, Captain Cook called this place ^s^^ Botany Bay because it would be a good region for botanists to study the flora. « ^ What a shame that it should, in the minds of nations, be associated with crime 1 To be sentenced to Botany Bay from England was considered like being sentenced to Drv Torturas from the United States. It meant exiled villainy. The fact is, that though this place had the reputation of a penal colony, the convicts of England were not sent here at all, but to places approximate. But while the world stands, Botany Bay will mean the ter- minus of criminal transportation. No one can visit Australia without thinking of the times when the chains clanked as pri.soners disembarked for lifetime banishment. Misery and mercy fought for supremacy in this colony from 1788, when Australia became the place of punishment for unfortunate Englishmen, until 1840, when such transportation was pro- hibited. But after fifty-two years mercy triumphed, and happy homes and literary institu- tions now stand on the places where for half a century tragedies of suffering and outrage were enacted. For the most trivial offences, for misappropriation of a chicken, for breaking of a window glass, for abstraction of a loaf of bread by a hungry man, for a defamatory word spoken, for the slightest stumble in morals, men were sent from England to Australia, never to return. If a man had enemies, they would conspire and for little dereliction, or no dereliction at all, get him shipped for these "ends of the earth." The convict ships were floating prisons, many of them commanded by fiends, and the asphyxiation from lack of fresh air, and the whip or shackle or bludgeon blow given for the slightest protest, and the sicknesses that ravaged the rough bunks, made the ocean voyage an agony that shocked the heavens. The albatrosses and seagulls heard such groans as must have made them halt on their wings. Sixteen inches of room for a man. One hundred and seventy-eight men in a space of fifty feet ! Landed in Australia in pens, hunger and effluvia, and cursing and stinging cold, or sweltering heat and despair their portion. Many of them drowning them- selves because life was unbearable. Many of them turned into maniacs through the maltreat- ment. Irons eating to the bone, or the men working up to their knees standing in the mire. Charles Anderson chained to a rock for two \ears only a specimen of the cruelties. Men committing murder that the\- might be hung and so escape the wretchedness of exile. Rev. Dr. Ullathorne put upon the witness stand before a committee appointed to examine into the Australian outrages, testified in the following words : "As I mentioned the names of those men who were to die, they, one after another, as their names were pronounced, dropped on their knees and thanked God that they were to be delivered from that horrible place, whilst the others remained standing unite and weeping. It was the most horrible scene I have ever witnessed." The fact is that few men can be trusted with unlimited and unwatched power. Australia was then five times further off from England than it is now, and captains of convict ships, and constables, and jailers, and turnkeys, abusing their power, were so far oflf (171) 172 THE EARTH GH^DLED. from reprehension, and their tj'rannies were so slowly reported — if reported at all — that it seemed safe to manl and beat and starve the helpless exiles. The government at home would never have allowed such atrocities if they had realized that such diabolism was being jjracticed. As soon as, through investigation, the abomina- tions were pro\-en, the British lion put his foot tipon them, and Australia was forever freed from this disembarkation of unfortunates. At one point dnriuir the course of years 70,000 convicts were landed. One hundred and twent\' thousand con\-icts left ship for these shores. What has been the result? From such a blasted parentage, you would have sup- posed a most degraded state of society in Australia. Btit here comes an offset to many of our elaborate theories about heredity. Indeed, we have all seen in our own countries so many of the demonstrated tendencies of a corrupt pedigree, that we have probably said things UI.I) ri'iXAl. Ldl.uNV PRISON OF AUSTRALIA, STILI. STANDING. USED FIHTV YEARS AGO. too discouraging for those who were born wrong. But liere opens a wide door of mighty hope to all those come of bad ancestors. The simple fact is that the majority of the crimi- nals in Australia were not the children of convicts. An authorized statement before me shows that in 18S6 there were 32,011 persons arraigned for crime, and that about oulv one-third of tlieni were born in Australia ; the other two-thirds having been born in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. In that colony of Australia to which the largest number of convicts were banished, the per- centage of crime is now less than in any of the other colonies. How shall we account for this ? We need not surrender our theories about the depraved tendency of bad parentage. But it seems as if Providence intended in Australia to demonstrate to all people of all climes, that however unfortunate the cradle in which one is rocked he can mount into respectability and honor. The vast majority of the cliildren of the 120,000 of tho.se condemned to *\ (•73) 174 THE EARTH GIRDLED. Australia must have turued out houest and virtuous. Some of the children and grand- children of those expatriated ones are now in the most important and honorable positions of Australian life. They are physicians having on them all the responsibilities of the sick-room. They are attorneys pleading causes involving immense value of property and life itself. They are executors of estates. They are members of boards of trade and manage counuerce. They are fathers and mothers of the best households. They are officers of religion, and carry the sacramental cup through the aisles of the holy communion. The mother of one who is now an arch-deacon, and who has been speaker of the House of Assembly, was e.xiled from England to Australia for stealing a horse, in order that she might ride away to see her lover. The mother of one of the chief justices of these colonies was deported for her turpitude. By righteous Act of Parliament man\- of the public records of transportation for offences have been destroyed. But better than that, many men and women by their exemplary career have abolished the stigma of their sad heredity. What an encouragement and a cheer for the millions of people all round the earth who had vicious or dissolute ancestors, to start anew and open another chapter of family record, to beat back the waves of depressing reminiscence, and to be as honored for their exaltation of character as their predecessors were dishonored for their malevolence or fraud or dissipation. We need to attach enough importance to family blood to impress parents with the overmastering thought of their responsibility in all matters of conscience and behavior, but we must avoid making so much of heredity as to discourage those who would like to escape from under the curse of ancestral obliquity. Some one might say that these excellent descendants of profligate forefathers may have been helped to go right by the punishment the offenders received. Well, that might have worked salutary results in many cases but not in all. Another large percentage of good descendants may be accounted for by the fact that many of the convicts were really innocent and why should not their offspring be innocent? But after all the reasons given for the fact that the regions once occupied by convicts are now as moral, if not more moral, than those settled by avowedly good people, are insufficient reasons, and I account for it by the fact that the world needed an illustration on a con- spicuous and mighty scale that a family wrecked upon the breakers of crime may be got safely off and sail away on a prosperous voyage carrying whole generations. And that is right. It would be sad, indeed, if because a great-grandfather had committed assault and battery, or put the saddle on the wrong horse before taking a midnight ride, or unduly practiced someone else's chirography at the foot of a promissory note, or meddled with poultry in a roost not belonging to him, that therefore all the children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren should have to suffer from the malignmeut. According to Sacred History there is one unhappy incident in the family line of all of us that should make us lenient, and that is the story of the two fruit thieves in the Garden on the Euphrates. I simply state the impression I have fonued that whatever may have occurred in the past, the world has no finer citizenship than that now to be found in the Australian colonies. As I am not a detective, I have not sought out the undesirable things which might be found everywhere, but I avow that the churches, and merciful institutions, the art galleries, the schools, the colleges, the Christian homes, the throngs of good men and good women here to be found, are something for all the earth and all the heavens to rejoice over. But is it not high time that this place called Botany Bay be freed from the derision so long attached to it, and be used as Captain Cook, the discoverer, on his arrival here intended it, to sug- gest flowers, for the manner in which many parts of Australia are crimsoned and purpled THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 175 and whitened and flecked and fringed and starred and eniparadised with flora is enough to enchant all botanists. I have in these colonies ridden throuo-h hundreds of miles of wattle, a glorious flower with a poor name. The wattles grow on high bushes and have the yellow of fallen sunsets. From the car window, hour after hour, you look out until your vision is dazed and bewildered with the unending opulence. Unfenced gardens of vast acreage laid out and planted by the hand of Eternal Beauty. Valleys of it, hills of it, lengths and breadths of it ! We rode through one lane of wattles five hundred miles long. But there are in Australia over 9000 species of flowers already disco\-ered and by the botanists cliristened with names under the baptism of dew. To the aboriginal plants have been added an immigration of Polynesian and Indian families of flowers. Plants brought from S'i-DN'EY GARDENS, AUSTRALIA, As I walked through day after day. otiier lands change their habits to suit the seasons here and their environment. Such flowers may have been Europeans, or Asiatics, or Americans, but as soon as they make their home here they become Australians. Blooming in other lands only once a vear, in this winterless clime they bloom again and again and are perennial. Here is osage-orange from America, cabbage trees from New Zealand, fig trees from Ceylon, erythrines from the West Indies, the maiden hair from Japan and cacti from everywhere. Oh, what a land of pictorialized leaves! What cups of amber and silver and gold and amethyst set on an emerald table of the fields for the bee and the butterfly to drink out of to the health of the 176 THE EARTH GH^DLED. morning! What pillars of divinely shaped stamen! What miracles of calyx! WHiat poems in letters of camellia ! What banners of lichen and moss unfurled on the rocks ! What trembling harp of ferns played on by the west wind ! What honeysuckle bleeding with deep color all up and down the hills ! What inverted firmaments of gentian ! What blue-bells tolling their sweetness on the air ! What morning-glories worshiping the rising sun ! As mythology tells us that wherever the tears of a maiden fell there afterward sprung up sweet and beautiful flowers, who knows but that where\'er the tears of the innocent and wrong-sufferers of penal convict da}-s soaked the ground, there may now come up silver-tipped lilies, and that where the drops of blood fell from the shoulders of exiles unrighteously whipped, there now come up red roses full blown ? As Captain Cook sug- gested by the name given to this ba)- the opportunit\- of great things in the science of botany, I wish to suggest that botany may be an everlasting study in the world to come. Other sciences will for the most part be extinct. Astronomy ma}- be of little use then, for the worlds will have dropped like blasted figs. Geology may be of little use, for the rocks will have crumbled, granite and basalt as easily as sandstone. Chemistry may be of little use, for our world itself gone, we shall have but little interest in what were its component parts. Who will want to spend his time in discussing a defunct planet? Who will want to invest much in a bankrupt world? But botany will cross into the supernal paradise. Trees certainly and flowers I think. The river of life will make the place fertile, and there will be plenty of sunshine in that nightless realm, and water and sunshine mean flow'ers. In that land the trees bear twelve manner of fruit, and there must be blossoms to herald its coming. So that earthly botany here will be only the preface to celestial botany. This much I know that the Rose of Sharon will bloom on the eternal hills and the Lily of the Valley will make redolent the Imperial Gardens. This stroll to-day on the beach of Botany Bay has led me to think of the enthronement and coronation of that beautiful science which on earth and in heaven will be a subject of absorbing and rapturous con- sideration : the science of botany which we study here by pulling sepal from sepal and petal from petal, and with our knife cutting the delicate fibres, will in that land be studied while we are twisting the garlands for those who are *' more than conquerors." I CHAPTER XVII. ZOOLOGICAL WONDERS. *^^ E who has not seen thi.s metropolis of Victoria, this city of gardens and miaseums, w ^k colleges and churches, university and observatory, huge banks and brilliant M. [ hotels, palaces of merchandise, vast auditoriums and arboreal streets, has missed ^^^ a vision of brightness. It stands on the banks of the River Yarra, which is to it what the Delaware is to Philadelphia, the Ohio is to Cincinnati or the Hudson is to New York. Melbourne is surrounded by country seats and health resorts, St. Kilda and Brighton and Sandringham and Williamstown. The shepherd who, in 1848, discovered the S\'DNEY HARBOR, ArSTRALIA. gold near by, hid his secret for two years while deciding how he could make the n;ost out of it. But falling sick and expecting to die he told the secret of the finding, and in 1851 all the world knew of it, and the finding of one nugget of gold called the " Welcome Stranger ; " that one chunk worth $50,000, attracted the attention of all nations. We must be careful and not make comparison between Australian cities, esiJecially between Melbourne 1^ (177) I7S THE EARTH GIRDLED. and Sydney. Indeed the only thing I find to dislike in these cities is their wholesale depreciation of each other. Ask a citizen of Sydney what he thinks of Melbourne and he will tell you " It is a nuishrooni growth, situated in a flat country and had a sudden prosperity that depended upon gold fields which have run out." Ask a citizen of j\Ielbourne what he thinks of S>'dney, and he will say, " It was so long a penal colony that it has never gotten over it. " Melbourne and Sydney love each other about as much as Minneapolis loves St. Paul, and Seattle lo\es Tacoma, and New York loves Chicago. Al- most ever}' city of America or England has a rival city up or down the river, whose existence is an exaspera- tion. For the sin of tn,'- ing to set themselves up higher than others, angels were flung oiit of heaven as they deserved to be. For- ever silenced be all the mean rivalries among cities. They do no good, but in- jure and belittle. Individ- uals, churches, cities, na- tions, never advanced themselves by abuse of others. Subtraction from one is not addition to another. During my stay in Australia, in conversa- tion and on platform, and in letter, I have carefully avoided invidious compari- sons. It is characteristic of the large cities of Australia that they ha\-e great pub- lic gardens, statuetted and fountained and arbored KANGAROO. where the populations saunter and play. Benedictions eternal upon all those who planned for this garlanding of the cities ! Melbourne and Sydney, and Adelaide too, each one for itself, each a chorus of colors and aromatics. Alongside of it you will find a zoological collection. This land is the native home of the kangaroo. When good kangaroos die they only go to another part of Australia. Strange, nervous nondescripts are the kangaroos. They almost make us believe in evolution, for they seem to be incomplete, and on the way to something else. They seem as if nature had become frightened when they were only partly THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 179 done, and left them to scramble for themselves. But evolution will have to slow up on the hind quarters, and quicken its work on the fore quarters to make this animal a success, either human or quadrupedal. It will require two or three Darwins to fix him up into anything admirable. If it took a million \ears to develop a tadpole into a man, it will take at least half that time to develop the kangaroo into a shape at all plausible. The kangaroos have to fall down in order to walk. The last half of them seems to have been first made, and the first half only just begun ; superfluity of hind feet and paucity- of fore feet. Kangaroos have the appearance of being on the edge of a fit. When they walk they jump. When they lie down they are standing up. The kangaroo is the impersonation of ungainliness. It is the consummation of awkwardness. It is the anticlimax of nature. It is the burlesque of the animal kingdom. It seems to be in a state of wonderment as to who you are, and with the fore feet beckon you to come, or bid you depart, and you cannot tell which. At one time they were the pests of the colonies. On one, station $4000 were paid for their extirpation. But the>- are now. so nearly driven out that they are kept in zoological museums ^ as curiosities. You ought to hear the parrots of Australia talk, for there are sixty species of them ; and you ought to see the glance of the falcons, for there are twenty-six kinds of them; and to see the "lyre-birds" with plumes in shape of a thrummed musical instrument ; and the " bower-birds," so called because they build arbors and adorn them with shells for them- selves and their mates to live amidst ; and owls that look the solemnest when they are meditating the crudest things, and when they are about to prey i:pon the chicken, seem by their looks to say, " Let us prey ! " But the strangest creature we saw in the zoological gardens of Australia w^as what is commonly called here " the laughing jackass." It is a bird endowed with such a voice as was never poured laughing jackass. forth by any other creature of the forest. It has a wise look and a crown of feathers on its head as though it had been coronetted for its \'ocal qualities. Its beak looks like two tablespoons, the top spoon inverted. Suddenly it opened its beak and began with sounds which were a combination of hoot and yell and bray and cackle, startling for compass and weirdness, and volume that would throw any woods into a pandemonium. The bray of an American donkey is harmony itself compared with the vociferation of this Australian bird. We had seen and heard laughing jackasses before in America and England, that is those who laughed at nothing and laughed very loudly, and laughed at the wrong time, and laughed at the misfortunes of others ; but the laughing jackasses of Australia surpa.ss them all. They are not to blame, for they do the best they can, and are to be encouraged from that fact that if they please no one else they please themselves, and that is commendable ; for there are many people in the world who neither please others nor please themselves. i8o THE EARTH GIRDLED. While writing of the fauna of this country, I must mention that the rabbits are so hated in Australia that they are not kept as curiosities. They have nearly eaten up some ot the colonies. Large rewards have been offered for the killing of them. Two Scotchmen, vears ago, coming to Australia brought their pet rabbits with them so as to have something to remind them of home ; and that Adam and Eve of haredom have raised a family that have become one of the greatest scourges of the colonies, not the first nor the last time that people's pets have become a nuisance to the neighborhood, although never perhaps a nuisance on so illimitable scale. I could not at first understand why Australians had such a hatred for rabbits ; for I remembered well that in m>' bo\-hood if the track of a rabbit were seen some morning on the new fallen snow it set us all wild with glee, and the old gun that had not been shot off for a long while and was never shot off without danger of its bursting, was taken down from its place among the rafters, and the rusty gun-lock was picked, and all hands with halloo and swinging caps were on the track of that poor rabbit, and if after a half day's chase we brought in the prey, it was hung up with pride, and all the neighbors came in to feel the fur, and see where the shot entered the neck ; and that one of the bo\s who had successfully pulled the trigger was honored as a mighty Nimrod far and near. But a rabbit in Australia is a s\nouym for disgust. In mv journe\- through New Zealand and Australia, the fauna and the flora and the botanical and zoological gardens have been to me a fascination and a charm. What an education for a city are such places ! Would that all our American and English towns and cities had such adjuncts. It would be a good thing if some of the wealthy men, who leave larger bequests to their children than is good for them, demonstrated in their last will and testament some public spirit. Not, however, of the absurd kind shown by the man who bequeathed that, after death, he be skinned, and his skin given to Agassiz and Oliver Wendell Holmes to be made up into two drumheads, on one of which should be written " Pope's Universal Pra^-er," and on the other the Declaration of American Independence, the latter drumhead to be beaten the seventeenth day of June at the foot of Bunker Hill. We do not like that testator's mode of showing his public spirit. But many of our wealthy men could leave enough monev to their children to spoil them and yet have enough to open botanical and zooloeical eardens that would bless whole towns and cities for all time to come. I will be asked when I get home if in any part of Australia I saw anything of the Bushrangers, the desperadoes who aforetime swooped down with pistol and dirk upon the settlements of the helpless ones in the Bush. No ! We might express surprise that the bushrangers were at work in Australia as late as ten or fifteen years ago, but Australians might e.xpress surprise that within a few \ears we have had in America, the Dalton and James Brothers, and banks blown up by dynamite, and masked horsemen, and rail train robbers. Every nation at some time has had to contend with this evil : Ruffianism in stir- rups ; romance of villainy; glorified assas,sination ; murder on the wing; infamy stuffed with braggadocia ; pride of dirk ; highwaymen in triumph ; death in full glee ; recalci- trancy mounted ; brigandage crowned. E\-ery generation has had its Jack Sheppards, and Dick Turpins. But Australia has put down the wickedness. With the "Kelly Gang" scattered and hung about fifteen years ago the chief violence halted. To see how deter- mined Australian authorities were in the extermination of the Bushrangers, you have only to notice the rewards offered for their arrest : $5000 for the arrest of Daniel Morgan ; $5000 for Benjamin Hall ; $5000 for Thomas Clark ; $5000 for John Gilbert ; $40,000 for the " Kellv Gang " before mentioned. A costly and imposing monument stands on the main street of Mansfield, Australia, in honor of the three policemen who lost their lives in THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. i8i contending with the Kelly bushrangers. Why not monuments to brave policemen who in any country die in the interests of law and order. Certainly it requires as much courage, alone and single-handed, to confront a blood-thirst>- villain, as to go into a battle where out of a thousand men in a regiment there is no probability that more than twenty per cent will be slain. Monuments for soldiers by all means, but monuments for heroic constabular\-, just as important. Bushranging in Australia is a matter of history, although you may to-morrow read of a man butchered in an .\ustralian bush, as in the same paper you ma)- read of the passengers on a Rocky Mountain rail train urgently invited to hold up their arms so as to make access to their pockets the more easy. More than anything else, I have been impressed with the people of Australia, their independence, self-reliance, and freedom from conventionality. Under God these people made themselves. Why will men sta\' in countries where their environments are hindering, when there is so much room elsewhere ? In all these colonies are men largely successful in merchandise and law and medicine and theology, who would never have gotten on if they had stayed in the old countries. Some mistake made before they left home would have kept them crippled, or their fellow-citizens had gotten in the habit of talking against them, or tiieir social surroundings were depressing. They would have always been under- lings had they stayed at home, but they struck out, and ever since they have been free with any amount of possibilities open before them. Just now things in .Australia are depressed as they are depressed everywhere, but the embarrassment cannot last. There is but One Being in the universe who knows of the immensity of the resources of Australia, and He is the God who made it. People talk of the law of the pendulum as though it were the law of man. No ! It is the law of God. Now we all know that if the pendulum swing out in one direction, you have onh- to watch it to see it swing out just as far in the opposite direction. Finance in Australia, as well as in America, for the last three years has been swinging out toward loss, toward discourage- ment, toward bankruptcy, toward ruin ; but the law of God will yet make it swing just as far in the opposite direction toward prosperity, toward success, toward opulence. And this is gloriously true on a still larger scale, planetar}' as well as national. The silver pendulum of this world began to swing in the wrong direction about 5894 years ago, as near as I can calculate. No adequate effort to swing it back was made until about 1894 years ago. Be not surprised that 1894 years have not swung it in the right direction as far as the previous 4000 years swung it in the wrong. During 4000 years, it curved out toward barbarism, toward cruelty, toward darkness, toward sin, toward perdition. But it is beginning to swing toward Christianity, toward civilization, toward goodness, toward heaven, and will continue to swing that way until it has gone as far right as it went far wrong. What then? Will not the same law make it swing back again ? No ! The world will then have accomplished its niisssion, and the pendulum will be unhooked from the clock of the ages, and shall cease to swing at all, for time shall be no longer. What would be the use of the pendulum when there is no time. CHAPTER XVIII. AT MELBOURNE.-"SOME BIG BLUNDERS." OUR reception at Melbourne, Australia, was as cordial and hearty as that accorded us by the people of Auckland, and in some respects the enthusiasm was greater. On the evening of August 17, I delivered, in the Town Hall, the followmg lecture on " Big Blunders," to an audience that tested the cajaacity of the building. The man who never made a blunder has not yet been born. If he had been, he would have died right away. The first blunder was born in Paradise and it has had a large family of children. Agricultural blunders, commercial blunders, literary blunders, mechanical blunders, artistic blunders, ecclesiastical blunders, moral blunders, and blunders of all sorts ; but an ordinary blunder will not attract my attention. It must be large at the g;irth and great in stature. In other words, it must be a big blunder. Let me premise that my ideas of human life are very practical. I have not much patience with those people who talk of human life as something you could pass on stilts. You cannot. Such a man as that is sure to he tripped up. I heard of a large religions meeting where people were giving their ex- perience. A man of great pomposit}- arose and said, " I am on board the old ship Zion, and I am sailing hea\"enward, and I am going at the rate of seventeen knots an hour, and I shall soon on this ship sail up the harbor of heaven." Another man with still more pom- posity, got up and said, " I too am on board the old ship Zion, and I am sailing heavenward, and I am going at the rate of forty knots an hour, and I shall soon on this ship sail up "^he harbor of the blessed." And he sat down. Another man with still more pomposity, arose and said, " I too am on board the old ship Zion, but the ship I am on is a steamship, and it is a steamship of 400 horse-power, and I shall soon on this steamship sail up the harbor of the blessed." And he sat down. When an old-fashioned woman arose and said, " I have been going heavenward for seventy years, and I have been going a-foot, and from the looks of things I shall have to go a-foot all the way, and if some of you people that are going by steam don't look out you'll bust )our bilers." The most of us will have to go a-foot, and if anybody can point out to us the right path we will be everlastingly obligated to him. I am glad that you understand my subject. It is important to have it accurately announced. Some years ago I was to deliver a lecture in one of our cities, and on my way to the lecture hall I saw on a board fence the advertisement of my lecture. It had been partially covered up by other announcements, partially mutilated and mixed up with other advertise- ments, until the announcement on the board fence read something like this : " Rev. T. DeWitt Talmage will, to-morrow night, at Wietiug's Hall, hold the fifth annual fireman's ball, will walk 100 consecutive hours without food or sleep, will welcome to the city Heenan, the champion of pugilists, will run a sorrel horse against any other for a purse of $500 ! " I never had such an embarrassing amount of work to do in one night in all my life. You have no such extravagant anticipations, but are only to listen while I speak to you about big blunders. Blunder the first : Multiplicity of occupations. I have a friend who is a very good painter, and a very good poet, and a very good speaker, and he can do a half dozen things (182) THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 183 well, but he is the exception. The general rule is that a man can do only one thing well. Perhaps there are two things to do. First, find your sphere ; secondly, keep it. The general rule is, masons, stick to your trowel ; carpenters, stick to }'our plane ; lawyers, stick to )our brief; ministers, stick to your pulpit, and don't go off lecturing. Fireman, if you please, one locomotive at a time ; navigator, one ship ; professor, one department. The mighty men of all professions were men of one occupation. Thorwaldsen at sculpture, Irving at literature, Rothschild at banking, Forrest at acting, Brunei at engineering, Ross at navigation, Punch at joking. Sometimes a man is prepared by Providence through a variety of occupations for some great mission. Hugh Miller must climb up to his high work through the quarries of Cromarty. And sometimes a man gets prepared for his work through sheer trouble. He goes from misfortune to misfortune, and from disaster to disaster, and from persecution to persecution, until he is ready to graduate from the Fniversity of Hard Knocks. I know the old poets used to say that a man got inspiration by sleeping on Mount Parnas- sus. That is absurd. That is not the way men get in- spiration. It is not the man on the mountain, but the mountain on the man, and the effort to throw it off that brings men to. the position for which God inten''ed them. But the general rule is that by the time thirty years of age is reached the occupation is thoroughly de- cided, and there will be siic- cess in that direction if it be thoroughly followed. It does not make much differ- ence what you do, so far as the mere item of success is concerned, if you only do it. Brandreth can make a for- tune at pills, Adams by expressage, Cooper by manufacturing glue, Genin by selling hats, contractors by manufacturing shodd}", merchants by putting sand in sugar, beet juice in vinegar, chicory in coffee, and lard in butter. One of the costliest dwellings in Phila- delphia was built out of eggs. Palaces have been built out of spools, out of toothache drops, out of hides, out of pigs' feet, out of pickles, out of tooth-brushes, out of hose, h-o-s-e and h-o-e-s, out of fine-tooth combs, out of ice, out of water, out of birds, out of bones, out of shells, out of steam, out of thunder and lightning. The difference between conditions in life is not so much a difference in the fruitfulness of occupations as it is a difference in the endowment of men with that great and magnificent attribute of stick-to-itiveness. I\Ir. Plod-on was doing a flourishing business at selling banties, but he wanted to do all kinds of huckstering, and his nice little property took wings of ducks and turkeys and shanghais and flew away. Mr. Loomdriver had an excellent factory on the Merrimac, and made beautiful carpets, but he concluded to put up TOWN HALT. ORGAN, FIFTH LARGEST IN THE WORLD. :MELB0URNE, AUSTRALIA. i84 THE EARTH GIRDLED. another kind of factory for the making of shawls, and one day there was a nice little quarrel between the two factories, and the carpets ate up the shawls, and the shawls ate up the carpets, and having succeeded so well in swallowing each other, they turned around and gulped down ]\Ir. Loonidriver. Blackstone Large-Practice was the best lawyer in town. He could make the most plausible argument and had the largest retainer, and some of the young men of the profes- sion were proud to wear their hair just as he did, and to have just as big a shirt collar. But he concluded to go into politics. He entered that paradise which men call a caucus. He was voted up and he was voted down. He came within three votes of getting it. He never got any nearer than three votes. He got on the Chicago platform, but a plank broke and he slipped through. He got on the St. Louis platform, but it rocked like an earthquake, and a plank broke and he slipped through. Theu, as a circus rider with one foot on each horse whirls round the ring, he put oue foot on the Chicago platform and another foot on the St. Louis platforui, and he slipped between, and landing in a ditch of political obloquy, he coucluded he had enough of politics. And he came back to his law office and as he entered covered with the mire, all the briefs from the pigeon hole rustled with gladness, and Kent's Commentaries, and Livingston's Law Register broke forth in the exclamation, " Welcome home. Honorable Blackstone Large-Practice, jack of all trades is master of none." Dr. Bone-Setter was a master in the healing profession. No man was more welcome in anybody's house than this same Dr. Bone-Setter, and the people loved to see him pass and thought there was in his old gig a kind of religious rattle. 'When he entered the drug store all the medicines knew him, and the pills would toss about like a rattle box, and the quinine would shake as though it had the chills, and the great strengthening plasters unroll, and the soda fountain fizz, as much as to say, "Will you take vanilla or strawberry?" Riding along in his gig one day he fell into a thoughtful mood, and concluded to enter the ministry. He mounted the pulpit and the pulpit mounted him, and it was a long while before it was known who was of the most importance. The young people said the preach- ing was dry, and the merchant could not keep from making financial calculations in the back part of the psalm-book, and the church thinned out and everything went wrong. Well, one Monday morning Messrs. Plod-on, Loonidriver, Blackstone Large-Practice and Dr. Bone-Setter met at one corner of the street, and all felt so low-spirited that one of them proposed to sing a song for the purpose of getting their spirits up. I have forgotten all but the chorus, but you would have been amused to hear how, at the end of all the verses, the voices came in, "Jack of all trades is master of none." A man from the country districts came to be President of the United States, and some one asked a farmer from that region what sort of a President Mr. So-and-so would make. The reply was, " He's a good deal of a man in our little town, but I think if you spread him out over all the United States he will be mighty thin." So there are men admirable in one occupation or profession, but spread out their energies over a dozen things to do and they are dead failures. Young man, concentrate all your energies in one direction. Be not afraid to be called a man of one idea. Better have one great idea than five hundred little bits of ones. Are >ou merchants, you will find abundant sweep for your intellect in a business which absorbed the energ\- of a Lenox, a Stewart, and a Grinnell. Are you lawyers, you will in your grand profession find heights and depths of attaiinnent which tasked a Marshall, and a McLean, and a Story, and a Kent. Are you plnsicians, you can afford to waste but little time outside of a profession which was the pride of a Rush, a Hervey, a Cooper, and a '^vdenham. THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 185 Every man is made to fit into some occupation or profession, just as a tune is made to fit a metre. Make up }our mind wliat \ou ought to be. Get your call straight from the throne of God. We talk about ministers getting a call to preach. So they must. But every man gets a call straight from the throne of God to do some one thing — that call written in his physical or mental or spiritual constitution — the call saying, " You be a merchant, you be a manufacturer, >ou be a mechanic, you be an artist, you be a reformer, }0U be this, }ou be that, you be the other thing." And all our success and happiness depend upon our being that which God commands us to be. Remember there is no other person in the world that can do your work. Out of the sixteen hundred millions of the race, GENERAL I'D.sT-cri'IL'I., S\JiM.\. a: STRAI.IA. not one can do your work. You do your work and it is done forever. You neglect vour work and it is neglected forever. The man who has the smallest mission has a magnificent mission. God .sends no man on a fool's errand. Getting vour call straight from the throne of God, and making up your mind what you ought to do, gather together all your opportunities (and you v/ill be surprised how many there are of them), gather them into companies, into regiments, into brigades, a whole army of them, and then ride along the line and give the word of command, " Forward, march ! " and no power on earth or in hell can stand before you. I care not what your education is, elaborate or nothing, wdiat \our mental calibre, great or small, that man who concentrates all his energies of body, mind and soul in one direction is a tremendous man. 186 THE EARTH GIRDLED. Blunder the next : induii^ence in temper. Good humor will sell the most goods, plead the best argument, effect the best cure, preach the best sermon, build the best wall, weave the best carpet. The poorest business firm in town is "Growl, Spitfire &. Brothers." They blow their clerks. They insult their customers. They quarrel with the draymen. They write impudent duns. They kick the beggars. The children shy off as they pass the street and the dogs with wild yelp clear the path as they come. Acrid, waspish, fretful, explosive, saturnine, suddenly the money market will be astounded with the defalcation of Growl, Spitfire & Brothers. Merryman & Warmgrasp were poor boys when they came from the countrs'. The)- brought all their possessions in one little pack slung over their shoulder. Two socks, two collars, one jacknife, a paper of pins and a hunk of gingerbread which their mother gave them when she kissed them good-bye, and told them to be good boys and mind the boss. They smiled and laughed and bowed and worked themselves up higher and higher in the estimation of their employers. They soon had a store on the corner. They were obliging men, and people from the country left their carpet bags in that store when they came to town. Henceforth when the farmers want hardware or clothing or books they went to buy it at the place where their carpet bags had been treated so kindly. The firm had a way of holding up a yard of cloth and shining on it so that plain cassimere would look almost as well as French broadcloth, and an earthen pitcher would glisten like porcelain. Not by the force of capital, but by having money drawer and counting desk and counter and shelves all full of good temper, they rose in society until to-day Merryman & Warmgrasp have one of the largest stores and the most elegant show windows and the finest carriages and the prettiest wives in all the town of Shuttleford. A melancholy musician may compose a " Dead March," and make harp weep and organ wail ; but will not master a battle march, or with that grand old instrument, the organ, storm the castles of the soul as with the fl>ing artillery of light and love and joy until the organ pipes seem filled with a thousand clapping hosannas. A melancholy poet may write a Dante's Inferno until out of his hot brain there come steaming up barking Cerebus and wan sprite, but not the chime of Moore's melodies or the roll of Pope's Dunciad, or the trumpet call of Scott's Don Roderick, or the archaugelic blast of Milton's Paradise Lost. A melancholy painter may with Salvator sketch death and gloom and monstrosity. But he cannot reach the tremor of silvery leaf, or the shining of sun through mountain pine, or the light of morning struck through a foam wreath, or the rising sun leaping on the sapphire battlements with banners of flame, or the gorgeous " Heart of the Andes," as though all the bright colors of earth and heaven had fought a great battle and left their blood on the leaves. Blunder the next : E.xcessive amusement. I say nothing against amusement. Persons of your temperament and mine, could hardly live without it. I have noticed that a child who has no vivacity of spirit, in after life produces no fruitfulness of moral character. A tree that has no blossoms in the spring will have no apples in the fall. A good game at ball is great sport. The sky is clear. The ground is just right for fast running. The club put off their coats and put on their caps. The ball is round and hard and stuffed with illimit- able bounce. Get ready tlie bats and take your positions. Now, give us a ball. Too low. Don't strike. Too high. Don't .strike. There it comes like lightning. Strike ! Away it soars higher, higher. Run ! Another base. Faster. Faster. Good ! All around at one stroke. All hail to the man or the big boy who invented ball playing. After tea open the checker board. Now, look out, or your bo\- Bob will beat you. With what masterly skill he moves up his men. Look out now, or he will jump you. Sure enough, two of your men gone from the board and a king for Bob. With what cruel pleasure he sweeps the THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 187 board. What ! Only two more men left ? Re careful now. Only one more move possi- ble. Cornered sure as fate ! and Bob bends over, and looks you in the face with a most provoking banter, and says, " Pop, why don't you move?" Call up the dogs. Tray, Blanchard and Sweetheart. A good day for hunting. Get down, Tray, with your dirty feet ! Put on powder flask and shoulder tlie gun. Over the hill and through the wood. Boys, don't make such a racket you'll scare the game. There's a rabbit. Squat. Take good aim. Bang ! Missed him. Yonder he goes. Sic 'em, sic 'em. See the fur fly. Got him at last. Here, Tray, here. Tray ! John, get up the bays. All read)-. See how the btickles glisten, and how the horses prance, and the spokes flash in tlie sun. Now open the gate. Away we go. Let the gravel fly, and tlie tires rattle over TOWN UAI.L, SYDNKV. the pavement, and the horses' hoofs clatter and ring. Good roads now, and let them fly. Crack the wliip. G'long ! Nimble horses with smooth roads, in a pleasant day, and no toll gates — clatter, clatter, clatter. I never see a man go out with a fishing rod to sport but I silently say, " May yon have a good time, and the right kind of bait, and a basketful of catfisli and flounders." I never see a party taking a pleasant ride but I wish them a joyous round, and say, " Ma\- the horse not cast a shoe, nor the trace break, and may the horse's thirst not compel them to stop at too many taverns." In a world where God lets His lambs frisk, and His trees toss, and His brooks leap, and His stars twinkle, and His flowers make love to each other, I know He intended men at times to laugh and sing and sport. The i88 THE EARTH GIRDLED. whole world is full of music if we oul)' had ears acute enough to hear it. Silence itself is only music asleep. Out upon the fashion that lets a man smile, but pronounces him vulgar if he makes great demonstration of hilarity. Out upon a style of Christianity that would make a man's face the counter upon which to measure religion by the yard. "All work and no play makes Jack a dull bo\-," is as true as preaching, and more true than some preaching. " Better wear out than rust out," is a poor maxim. They are both sins. You have no more right to do the one than the other. Recreation is re-creation. But while all this is so, every thinking man and woman will acknowledge that too much devo- tion to amusement is ruinous. Many of the clergy of the last century lost their theology in a fox chase. Many a splendid business has had its brains kicked out by fast horses. Many a man has smoked up his prospects in Havanas of the best brand. There are battles in life that cannot be fought with sportsman's gim. There are things to be caught that you can- not draw up with a fishing tackle. Even Christopher North, that magnificent Scotchman, dropped a great deal of usefulness out of his sporting jacket. Through excessive amuse- ment manv clergymen, farmers, lawyers, physicians, mechanics, artists have committed the big blunder of their lives. I offer this as a principle : those amusements are harmless which do not interfere with home duties and enjoyments. Those are ruinous which give one distaste for domestic pleasure and recreation. When a man likes any place on earth better than his own home, look out ! Yet how manv men seem to have no appreciation of what a good home is. It is only a few years ago that the twain stood at the marriage altar and promised fidelity till death did them part. Now, at midnight, he is staggering on his way to the home, and as the door opens, I see on the face inside the door the shadow of sorrows that are passed, and the shadow of sorrows- that are to come. Or, I see her going along the road at midnight to the place where he was ruined, and opening the door and swinging out from imder a faded shawl a shriveled arm, crying out in almost supernatural eloquence, " Give him back to me, him of the noble brow and the great heart. Give him back to me 1 " And the miserable wretches seated around the table of the restaurant, one of them will come forward, and with bloated hand wiping the intoxicant from the lip, will say, " Put her out ! " Then I see her going out on the abutment of the bridge, and looking off upon the river, glassy in the moonlight, and wondering if somewhere under the glassy surface of that river there is not a place of rest for a broken heart. Woe to the man that despoils his home. Better that he had never been born. I offer home as a preventive, as an inspiration, as a restraint. Floating off from that, beware ! Blunder the next : the formation of unwise domestic relation. And now I nuist be verv careful. It is so with both sexes. Some of the loveliest women have been married to the meanest men. That is not poetry, that is prose. The queerest man in the Bible was Nabal, but he was the husband of beautiful Abigail. We are prodigal with our compassion when a noble woman is joined to a husband of besotted habits, but in thousands of the homes of our country, belonging to men too stingy to be dissipated, you may find female excellencies which have no opportunity for development. If a man be cross and grudgeful and unobliging and censorious in his household, he is more of a pest than if he were dead drunk, for then he could be managed. It is a sober fact which every one has noticed that thousands of men of good business capabilities have been entirely defeated in life because their domestic relations were not of the right kind. This thought has its most practical bearing on the \-oung who yet have the world before them and where to choose. There is probably no one in this house who has been unfortunate in the forming of the relation I have mentioned ; but if you should happen to meet with any NATIVE SAII.IIRS nv THE SOUTH SKA. I90 THE EARTH GIRDLED. married man in such an unfortunate predicament as I have mentioned, tell him I have no advice to give except to tell him to keep his courage up, and whistle most of the time, and put into practice what the old lady said. She said she had had a great deal of trouble in her time, but she had always been consoled by that beautiful passage of Scripture, the thirteenth verse of the fourteenth chapter of the book of Nicodemus : " Grin and bear it." Socrates had remarkable philosophy in bearing tlie ills of an unfortunate alliance. Xantippe, having scolded him without any evident effect, threw upon him a pail of water. All he did was to exxlaim : " I thought that after so nuicli thunder we would be apt to have some rain." It is hardly possible that a business man should be thriftless if he have a companion always ready to encourage and assist him — ready to make sacrifices until his affairs may allow more opportunity for luxuries. If during the day a man has been harassed and disappointed, hard chased of notes and defrauded, and he find in his home that evening a cheerful sympathy, he will go back next day to his place of business with his courage up, fearless of protests, and able, from ten to three o'clock, to look any bank full in the face. During the financial panic of 1S57 there was many a man who went through unabashed because while down in the business uiarts he knew that although all around him they were thinking only of themselves, there was one sympathetic heart thinking of him all day long, and willing, if the worst should come, to go with him to an humble home on an unfashionable street, without murmuring, on a sewing machine to play, "The Song of the Shirt." Hundreds of fortunes that have been ascribed to the industry of men bear upon them the mark of a wife's hand. Bergham, the artist, was as lazy as he was talented. His studio was over the room where his wife sat. Every few minutes, all day long, to keep her husband from idleness, Mrs. Bergham would take a stick and thump up against the ceiling, and her husband would answer by stamping on the floor, the signal that he was wide awake and busy. One-half of the industry and punctuality that you witness every day in places of business is merely the result of Mrs. Bergham's stick thumping against the ceiling. But woe to the man who has an experience anything like the afflicted parson, who said that he had during his life three wives : the first was very rich, the second very handsome, and the third an outrageous temper : " So," says he, " I have had 'the world, the flesh and the devil.' " Want of domestic economy has ruined many a fine business. I have known a delicate woman strong enough to carry off her husband's store on her back and not half try. I have known men running the gauntlet between angry creditors while the wife was declaring large and unprecedented dividends among milliners' and confectioners' shops. I have known men, as the phrase goes, " With their nose to the grindstone," and the wife most vigorously turning the crank. Solomon says : " A good wife is from the Lord," but took it for granted that we might easily guess where the other kind comes from. There is no excuse for a man's picking up a rough flint like that and placing it so near his heart, when the world is so full of polished jewels. And let me say, there never was a time since the world stood when there were so many good and noble women as there are now. And I have come to estimate a man's character somewhat by his appreciation of womanly character. If a man have a depressed idea cf womanly character he is a bad man, and there is no exception to the rule. But there have been men who at the marriage altar thought they were annexing something more valuable than Cuba, who have found otrt that after all they have got only an album, a fashion plate and a medicine chest. Many a man reeling under the blow of misfortune has been held up by a wife's arm, a wife's prayer, a wife's decision, and has blessed God that one was sent from heaven thus to THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 191 strengthen him ; while many a man in comfortable circumstances has had his lilV pestered out of him by a shrew, who met him at the door at night, with biscuit that the servant let fall in the fire, and dragging out the children to whom she had promised a flogging as soon as the "old man " came home, to the scene of domestic felicity. And what a case that was^ where a husband and wife sat at the opposite ends of the tea table, and a bitter controversy came np between them, and the wife picked np a tea cup and Imrled it at her husband'> head, and it glanced past and broke all to pieces a beautiful motto on the wall enti t leil " God bless our happy home ! " There are thousands of women who are the joy and the adorn- ment of our American homes, combining with elegant tastes in the arts and every accom- plishment which our best sem- inaries and the highest style of literature can bestow upon them, an industr}- and practi- cality which always insure do- mestic happiness and pros- perity. Mark you, I do not say the}' will insure a large number of dollars. A large number of dollars are not ne- cessary for happiness. I have seen a house with thirty rooms in it and they were the vesti- bule of perdition, and I have seen a home with two rooms in it, and they were the vestibule of heav^en. You cannot tell by the size of a man's hotise the size of his happiness. As Alexander the Great with pride showed the Persian princesses garments made by his own mother, so the women of whom I have been speaking can show you the triumphs of their adroit womanly fingers. They are as expert in the kitchen as the\- are graceful in the parlor, if need be, they go there. And let me sa}* that that is my idea of a lady, one who will accommodate herself to any circumstances in which she may be placed. If the wheel of fortune turn in the right direction, then she will be prepared for that position. If the wheel of fortune turn in the wrong direction (as it is almost sure to do at least JFNOLAN CAVES, INDIA. 192 THE EARTH GIRDLED. once in every man's llfej then she is just as happy, and though all the hired help should that morning make a strike for higher wages, they will have a good dinner, anyhow. They know without asking the house-keeper the difference between a wash tub and a filter. They never sew on to a coat a liquorice drop for a black button. They never mistake a bread-tray for a cradle. They never administer Kellinger's horse liniment for the baby's croup. Their accomplishments are not like honeysuckles at your door, hung on to a light frame easily swayed in the wind, but like unto the flowers planted in the solid earth which have rock under them. These are the women who make happy homes and compel a husband into thriftiness. Boarding schools are necessities of society. In very small villages and in regions entirely rural it is sometimes impossible to afford seminaries for the higher branches of learning. Hence, in our larger places we must have these institutions, and they are turning out upon the world tens of thousands of young women splendidly qualified for their positions. But there are, I am sorr\- to say, exceptional seminaries for young ladies which, instead of sending their students back to their homes with good sense as well as diplomas, despatch them with manners and behavior far from civilized. With the promptness of a police officer they arraign their old-fashioned grandfather for murdering the King's English. Staggering down late to breakfast they excuse themselves in French phrase. The young men who were her friends when she left the farm house for the city school, come to greet her home again, and shock her with a hard hand that has been on the plough handle, or with a broad English which does not properly sound the r or mince the s. " Things are so awkward, folks so impolite, Thej-'re elegantly pained from morn 'till night." Once she could run at her father's heel in the cool furrow on the summer day, or with bronzed cheek chase through the meadows gathering the wild flowers which fell at the stroke of the harvesters, while the strong men with their sleeves rolled up looked down at her not knowing which most to admire, the daisies in her hair or the roses in her cheeks, and saying: "Bless me! Isn't that Ruth gleaning after the reapers?" Coming home with health gone, her father paid the tuition bill, but Madame Nature sent in an account something like this : Miss Ophelia Angelina to Madame Nature, Dr. To one years' neglect of exercise 15 chills. To twenty nights' of late retiring 75 twitches of the nerves. To several months' of improper diet A lifetime of dysoepsia. Added up making in all an exhausted system, chronic neuralgia and a couple of fits. Call in Dr. Pillsbury and uncork the camphor bottle; but it is too late. What an adornment such a one will be to the house of some }oung merchant, or lawyer, or mechanic, or farmer. That man will be a drudge while he lives, and he will be a drudge when he dies. Blunder the next : Attempting life without a spirit of enthusiasm and enterprise. Over caution on one side, and reckless speculation on the other side must be avoided ; but a determined and enthirsiastic progi'ess must always characterize the man of thrift. I think there is no such man in all the world as he who is descended from a New England Yankee on the one side, and a New York Dutchman on the other. That is ro^-al blood, and will almost invariably give a man prosperity, the Yankee in his nature saying : "Go ahead," and the Dutch, in his blood, saying: " Be prudent while you do go ahead." The 194 THE EARTH GIRDLED. main characteristics of the Yankee are invention and enterprise. The main characteristics of the Dutchman are prudence and firmness, for when he says " Yaw," he means " Yaw," and you no cliange him. It is sometimes said that Americans are short-lived, and they run themselves to pieces; We deny this. An American lives a great deal in a little while — twenty-four hours in ten minutes. In the Revolutionary war American enterprise was discovered by somebody who, describing the capture of Lord Cornwallis, put in his mouth these words : " I thought five thousand men or less Through all these States might safely pass. My error now I see too late, Here I'm confined within this State. Yes, in this little spot of ground. Enclosed by Yankees all around. In Europe ne'er let it be known, Nor publish it in Askelon, Lest the uncircunicieed rejoice, And distant nations join their voice. What would my friends in Britain say, I wrote them I had gained the day. Some things now strike me with surprise, First, I believe the Tory lies. What also brought me to this plight I thought the Ypnkees would not fight. My error now I see too late. Here I'm confined within this State. Yes, in this little spot of ground. Enclosed by Yankees all around. Where I'm so cramped and hemmed about, The devil himself could not get out." From that time American enterprise has continued developing, sometimes toward the right and sometimes toward the wrong. Men walk faster, think faster, drive faster, lie faster, and swear faster. New sciences have sprung up and carried off the hearts of the people. Phrenology, a science which I believe will yet be developed to a thorough consistency, in its incomplete stage puts its hand on your head, as a musician on a piano, and plays out the entire tune of your character, whether it be a grand march or a jig ; sometimes by mistake announcing that there are in the head benevolence, music, and sublimity, when there is about the same amount of intellect under the hair of the subject's head as in an ordinarj^ hair trunk ; sometimes forgeting that wickedness and crime are chargeable, not so much to bumps on the head as to bumps on the heart. Mesmerism, an old science, has been revived in our day. This system was started from the fact that in ancient times the devotees of Esculapixts were put to sleep in his temple, a mesmeric feat sometimes performed on modern worshipers. Incurable diseases are said to slink away before the dawn of this science like ghosts at cock-crowing, and a man under its influence may have a tooth extracted or his head amputated without discovering the important fact until he comes to his sen.ses. The operator will compel a sick person in clair\'oyant state to tell whether his own liver or heart is diseased, when if his subject were awake he would not be wise enough to know a heart from a liver. If you have had property stolen, on the payment of one dollar — mind that — they ■will tell you where it is, and who stole it, and even if they do not make the matter perfectly plain, they have bettered it ; it does not all remain a mystery ; you know where the dollar went. There are aged men and women here who have lived through marvelous changes. The world is a very different place from what it was when you were boys and girls. The world's THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 195 enterprise has accomplished wonders in \ our age. The broad -brimmed hat of olden times was an illustration of the broad-bottomed character of the father, and the modern hat. risine high up as the pipe of a steam engine, illustrates the locomotive in modern character. In those da>-s of powdered hair and silver shoe buckles, the coat extended over an immense area and would have been unpardonably long had it not been for the fact that when the old gentleman doffed the gar- ment it furnished the whole [' i * ^^3f;.'5'-- family of boys with a Sun- day wardrobe. Grandfather on rainy daj's shelled corn or broke flax in the barn, and in the evening with grandmother went round to visit a neighbor where the men sit smoking their pipes by the jambs of the broad fire-place, telling of a fox chase, or heats at mowing without once getting bushed, and gazing upon the flames as they sissed and simmered around the great back log. and leaped up through the light wood to lick off the moss, and shrugging their shoulders satisfactorily as the wild night wind screamed round the gable, and clat- tered the shutters, and clicked the icicles from the eaves, and Tom brought in a blue-edged dish of great "Fall pippins," and " Dair- claushes" and "Henry Sweets," and "Granny- winkles," and the nuts all lose their hearts sooner than if the squirrels were there, and the grandmothers talk- ing and knitting, talking and knitting, until John in tow pants, or Mary in linsey- woolsey, by shaking the old lady's arm for just one more " Grannywinkle," makes her most provokingly drop a stitch, and forthwith the youngsters are despatched to bed by the star- light that drips through the thatched garret chinks. Where is now the old-fashioned fire-place where the andirons in a thrilling duet sang " Home, Sweet Home," while the hook and trammels beat time ? Great solemn stoves 196 THE EARTH GIRDLED. have taken tlieir place, where dim fires, like pale ghosts, look out of the isinglass, and from which comes the gassy, breath of coal, instead of the breath of mountain oak and sassafras. One icicle frozen to each chair and sofa is called a sociable, and the milk of human kind- ness is congealed into society — that modern freezer warranted to do it in five minutes. You iiave also witnessed a change in matters of religion. I think there is more religion now in ■fthe world than there ever was, but people sometimes have a queer wa)- of showing it. For instance, in the matter of church music. The musical octave was once an eight-rung ladder, •on which our old fathers could climb up to heaven from their church pew. Now, the minstrels are robbed every Sunday. The pious old tunes which our fathers sang have gone nvith them to glory. This old psalm on brotherly love was once magnificently chanted : "" It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard, that went down to the skirts of h's garment." Now, it is sung to a fugue tune, and the different voices come in as follows : " True love is like that precious oil, That ran down his beard and o'er his head, His head ran down his beard. \ And o'er his head his beard ran down, His down, his down, its moisture shed. Ran down his beard, ran down his shed. Ran down, ran down, ran down, ran down. Ran down, ran down, ran down, ran down. His shed ran down his beard. And o'er Ins shed his beard ran down. Ran down, ran down, ran down, ran down." The plain English of which I take to be that Aaron, the priest, had an awful time with his whiskers. On one occasion after this fugue was executed, a spectator expressed the fear that after Aaron the priest had gone through such a process as that he could not have had a hair left. That was advancement in the wrong direction. But, oh, what progress in the right direction. There goes the old stage-coach hung on leather suspenders. Swing and bounce. Swing and bounce. Old grey balky, and sorrel lame. Wheel fast in the rut, " All together, yo heave !" On the morning air you heard the stroke of the reaper's rifle on the scythe getting ready to fight its way through the swaths of thick set meadow grass. Now, we do nearly all these things by machinery. A man went all the way from New York to Buffalo on an express train, and went so rapidly that he said in all the distance he saw but two objects. Two haystacks, and they were going the other way. The small par- ticles of iron are taken from their bed and melted into liquid, and run out into bars, and spread into sheets, and turned into screws, and the boiler begins to groan, and the valves to open, and the shafts to fly, and the steamboat going, " Tschoo ! Tschoo ! Tschoo !" shoots across the Atlantic, making it a ferry, and all the world one neighborhood. In olden times they put out a fire by buckets of water, or rather did not put it out. Now, in nearly all our cities we put out a fire by steam. But where they haven't come to this, there still has been great improvement. Hark ! There is a cry in the street : " Fire ! Fire !'' The fire- men are coming, and they front the building, and they hoist the ladders, and they run up with the hose, and the orders are given, and the engines begin to work, and beat down the flames that smote the heavens. And the hook and ladder compan}- with long arms of wood and fingers of iron begin to feel on the top of the hot wall and begin to pull. She moves ! She rocks ! vStand from under ! vShe falls ! flat as the walls of Jericho at the blast of the ram's horns, and the excited populous clap their hands, and wave their caps, shouting " Hurrah, hurrah !" THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 197 Now, in an age like this, what will become of a man if in every nerve and muscle and bone he does not have the spirit of enthusiasm and enterprise? Why, he will drop down and be forgotten, as he ought to be. He who cannot swim in tliis current will drown. Young man, make up your mind what you ought to be, and then start out. And let me say, there has never been so good a time to start as just now. I care not which way you look, the world seems brightening. Open the map of the world, close your eyes, swing your finger over the map of the world, let your finger drop accidentally, and I am almost sure it will drop on a part of the world that is brightening. You open the map of the world, close your eyes, swing your finger over the map, it drops accidentally. Spain ! Coming to a better form of government. What is that light breaking over the top of the P)renees? " The morning cometh ! " You open the map of the world again, close your eyes, and swing your finger over the map. It drops accidentally. Italy ! The truth going on from conquest to conquest. What is that light breaking over the top of the Alps? " The morning cometh ! "' You open the map of the world again, you close your eyes, and swing your finger over the map, and your finger drops accidentally. India ! Juggernauts of cruelty broken to pieces by the chariot of the Gospel. What is that light break- ing over the tops of Himalaya ? " The morn- ing cometh ! " The army of Civilization and Christianity is made up of two wings, the English wing and the American wing. The American wing of the army of Civilization and Christianity will march across this continent. On, over the Rocky Mountains, on over the Sierra Nevada, on to the beach of tlie Pacific, and then right through, dry shod, to the Asiatic shore. And on across Asia, and on, and on, until it comes to the Holy Land and halts. The English wing of the anny of Civilization and Christianity will move across Europe, on and on, until it comes to the Holy Land and halts. And when these two wings of the army of Civilization and Christianity shall confront each other, having encircled the world, there will go up such a shout as the world heard never : " Hallelujah, for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth ! " People who have not seen the tides rise at the beach do not understand them. Some man who has never before visited the seashore comes down as the tide is rising. The wave comes to a certain point and then retreats, and he says : " The tide is going out, the sea is going down." No, the tide is rising, for the next wave comes to a higher point and then recoils. He says : " Certainly, the tide is going out, and the sea is going down." No, the tide is rising, for the ne.xt wave comes to a higher point and then recoils, and to a higher, DAVID JAMAL, OUR DRAGOMAN. 198 THE EARTH GIRDLED. and liiolier and liigher point nntil it is fnll tide. So, with the advance of civilization and Christianit)- in the world. In one decade the wave comes to a certain point and then recoils for ten or fifteen years, and people say the world is getting worse, and the tides of civilization and Christianit}- are going down. No, the tide is rising, for the ne.xt time the wave reaches to a still higher point and recoils, and to a still liigher point and recoils, and to a higher and a higher and a higher point nntil it shall be full tide, and the " Earth shall be full of the knowledge of God as the waters fill the sea." At such a time you start out. There is some especial work for you to do. I was very nnich tlirilled, as I suppose \-ou were, with the stor\' of the old engineer on his locomotive crossing the Western prairie day after da>- and month after month. A little child would come out in front of her fatlier's cabin and wave to the old engineer and he would wave back again. It became one of the joys of the old engineer's life, this little child coming out and waving to him and he waving back. But one da\- the train was belated and night came on, and by the flash of tlie head-liglit of the locomotive the old engineer saw tliat child on the track. She knew not her peril. She had come out to look for the old engineer. When the engineer saw the child on tlie track a great horror froze his soul, and he reversed the engine and leaped over on the cow-catcher, and though the train was slowing up, and slowing up, it seemed to the old engineer as if it were gaining in velocit}-. But, standing there on the cow-catcher, he waited for his opportunity, and with almost supernatural clutch he seized lier and fell back upon the cow-catcher. The train halted, the passengers came around to see what was the matter, and there lay the old engineer on the cow-catcher, fainted dead away, the little child in his arms all unhurt. He saved her. Grand thing, you say, for the old engineer to do. Yes, just as grand a thing foi you to do. There are long trains of disaster coming on toward that soul. Yonder are long trains of disaster coming on toward another soul. You go out in the strength of the Eternal God and with supernatural clutch save some one, some man, some woman, some child. You can do it. 1;.\TH. CHAPTER XIX. GATE OF DEPARTURE. S we entered Australia at the Sapphire Gate of Sydney, we are about to leave through the golden gate of a bright morning in Adelaide. Near the end of my preaching and lecturing tour of Australia am I. It might be asked why should one in my profession not always preach and never lecture. Answer — A journey around the world properh- accompanied is a very expensive journe}-, and I lectured to meet that expense. Beside that, the building of three immense churches in America, all of them destroyed by fire, cost much personal sacrifice. The $16,000 I paid in cash toward those buildings and five years preaching practicalh- without salary, and an evangelistic tour in Europe two years ago whicli cost me personally, $5000, will suggest to most people the use which might be made of the moneys received for lecturing. But I have preached in all the great cities of New Zealand and Australia. Other clergymen traveling generally have their way paid by benevolent persons or societies, I pa}' my own expenses. If my preaching services in Australia and New Zealand are ever described, others, for the most part, will describe them. My Sabbath at Melbourne was a type of all the Sabbaths. Passing along the great Town Hall, the largest auditorium of the city — although the preaching service was not to begin until three o'clock in the afternoon — at ten o'clock in the morning, I saw the audience gathering, ladies spreading their shawls on the stone steps to sit there until the doors were opened. When I approached the Town Hall, a little before three o'clock, I could make no progress through the streets except by the aid of the police, and it was a struggle every step of the way. Finding it impossible to get any further than the outside steps, I preached a short sermon there. By a reinforcement we finally got to the door and entered. The ^Moderator of the General Assembh- who was to have presided did not get in at all. The service went on until nearly the close, when the mayor of the city came upon the platform to utter some words of thanks, and those who had charge of the doors opened them to let the people out, but the tide from without rushed in, and a panic would have taken place had not the organist begun to play the Doxology. This quieted everything. The mayor, however, had promised that I would preach again from the balcony, and so about a half hour afterward I spoke to the people still crowding the streets. And so it went on Sabbath after Sabbath, and I hope some good was done, but the Great Future will reveal. ^s the Antipodean section of my journey is about to close, I am disposed to recall the faces of some of the more pronounced and eminent people whom I have met. Among the strong personalities of these Australian experiences is Sir Henr}- Norman, now Governor of Queensland, but his name is associated with the horrors of Lucknow, into which he rode with Havelock, Outram and Peel, for the rescue of the women and children imprisoned and waiting for massacre. I said to him, " Sir Henn,', you are the first person I have seen who was at Lucknow. Please tell us about it." He pointed out to me on a picture in his drawing-room the meeting of the generals in India, forgetting to point himself out, until I asked which figure in the engraving was himself. As a few days after he sat before me, with his family and his suite in a great assemblage, I was almost diverted from what I was (199) 200 THE EARTH GIRDLED. saying to the memory of the scene through which that Scottish hero had passed. But instead of riding in full gallop, with torn epaulet and face covered with powder and blood, now he sits with countenance radiant with peace and Christian kindness. No wonder he was recently appointed by the English Government as Viceroy of India, at a salary of $125,000 a year — the highest office in the gift of the Queen — instead of the $25,000 he is now receiving. But after accepting the appointment and being all packed up for India — as His Ladyship told us — his boxes at the door — he withdrew his acceptance on conditions of health. No man can pass through that which he has passed through without having it tell upon his physical endurance. Great is the rejoicing all through Australia that he remains in the Go\'ernor's chair. There is no more popular Governor in all these colonies than the genial, talented, heroic, immortal and Christian, Sir Henry Norman. Among those who have passed a lifetime in Australia, the most marked character, the most warmly admired by many and the most bitterl}- hated by some, is Sir Henrv Parkes. Coming to Australia a poor baker's bo)-, he after- ward learned the printer's trade and soon pub- lished a newspaper of his own, setting up his own type and carrying the forms to the press on his own shoulder. He rose in influence and power until he could and did show me on the walls of his house, pictures of the men who had made up the five different governments of his fashioning. What Bismarck has been to Germany, and Glad- stone to England, and Sir George Grey to New Zealand, Sir Henry Parkes has been to New South Wales. Though eighty-two years of age, he led us briskly up and down stairs in his own house on the outskirts of Sydney, showing us as many objects of interest as I ever saw in the same length of time. He unrolled to us from his autograph books, full, hearty and sympathetic letters from the Prince of Wales, and Thomas Carlyle, and Tennyson, and Cobden, and Jolm Bright, and John Stuart Mill, and President Grant, and Cyrus W. Field, and eminent men in all departments and all nations. Notwithstanding he is a little bent with age, and snow on his long beard would not make it any whiter, he looks as though he had years of work and command before him. He has a vivid remembrance of the honors bestowed upon him in New York by the commercial and literary magnates of America, Hon. Whitelaw Reid presiding, and the national escort afforded him across our continent from ocean to ocean. He is out of office now, but his enemies are trembling every time he takes his pen in hand, or walks up the steps of the government building. He is the kind of man nothing can keep down except his own sepulcher. Rugged, bluff, positive, assertive, defiant, volcanic, reckless of what others say or do. Had he been a soldier, he would have belonged to the cavalry and rode ahead of some "light brigade." Had he been a sailor, he would have been a Captain Cook and found some other Australia, had there been another to find. His eye, his shaggy brow, his lion-like face, his wit, two-edged, his raillery, his confidence in himself to do all that ought to be done, is something that impresses you at the time, and keeps you SIR IIii.Ni; 111. MjW AITliARS. (20ll 202 THE EARTH GIRDLED. impressed whenever you think of him. He gives himself up to his guests, until one feels he has no right to so much of the time of a busy and absorbed man. His enemies have extinguished him times without number, and still he goes on, and his opinion on everything is more sought after than the opinion of any man in Australia, whether that opinion be liked or reprehended. His name will go down in history and be associated with all the great movements connected with the welfare of these colonies. At a banquet recently given him on the eighty-second anniversary of his birthday, he uttered this beautiful sentiment about his remaining days : " Two things I know, first that the road is short, and next that it leads to unbroken rest." And now, as I am about to depart, I meet with the two men most honored in this colony of South Australia. The one is Chief Justice Way, the Lieutenant Governor. He is the most popular man in all the colonies, and is widely known in America, which he visited in 1892, as a delegate to the great Methodist Council at Washington. He presided with grace at my first meeting in Adelaide, and at his house he had assembled to meet me a group of gentlemen, clerical and lay, affable and talented. His house is in the midst of a garden to which nothing could be added in wealth of flowers and rare trees, and it has in the rear a fernery with rocks ingeniously scarjjed ; and a very Minne-ha-ha of falling waters, and an ornithological collection with an infinity of chirp and carol, and chatter and song. But after we had heard his birds sing and breathed the fragrance of his garden, and looked at the pictures, and walked through his palace of a home, we bethought ourselves that after all the grandest attraction of the place is himself. He has achieved his own fortune. The son of a Primitive Methodist minister, he had nothing to start with but the good example and instruction of a consecrated parentage ; but he went right on and up in the legal profession to the top until there is nothing higher for him to win in these colonies. On the side of all that is elevating and good he is the pride and boast of all who know him. One such man in a nation is a conscious or unconscious lifting of the whole nation. If South Australia should by its own suffrage, or by the consent of England, become an independent nation, he would be its first president. If by federation of all the colonies there should be a union of all in one, he would be the first president of that. Long live Chief Justice Way, and may the world and the church have many more just like him! Another vivid personage I met at this departing gate of the sea was the Earl of Kintore, Governor of South Australia. His invitation, calling me to the Executive mansion, did not remain long unanswered. One cannot help being impressed with his six feet three inches in height, straight as a Parthenon column, and with brawn of arm and blush of health resultant from fondness for outdoor sports, for the hounds love to follow him, and the steeplechase is apt to find him in stirrups or at the goal, where the lathered horses come in to be blanketed. Among my first questions when I got into the Governor's mansion, was, "Have you a picture of your father?" The Governor, without rising from where he sat, reached for a photograph and said, " That is father." Sure enough, just as I saw the late Earl of Kintore in 1879 when he presided at three of my meetings in England ; one in a church, one at a philanthropic institution, and the other at Exeter Hall, on that memorable day when the body of the Prince Imperial of France was being taken through London, on its way from Portsmouth, where it had arrived by ship the day before, to Chiselhurst for burial beside his father, the Emperor Napoleon. As on that day the Earl of Kintore was introducing me to the people, in that historical auditorium, Exeter Hall, the minute-guns began to throb for the dead Prince, and the Earl impressively remarked : " We are assembled to-day to hear a lecture on ' Bright and Happy Homes,' DR. TALMAGE ON THE DECK OF THE STEAMTt!? CRnsSlNG FROM CEYLON TO INDIA. (20.-i) 204 THE EARTH GIRDLED. but that niiuute-gnn reniiiuls \\s of a once bright and happy home now desolate. Our sympathies are stirred for that )-oung Prince Napoleon, who died in the service of the British Empire. God comfort his broken-hearted mother, the ex-Empress." You see, the present Earl of Kintore, now Governor of this colony, descends not from one who had nothing except the accident of birth, but from one of the noblest men Scotland ever produced. After parting from the late Earl on the streets of London in 1879, on a Monday i^ „ .. _ ■ having taken me that night through the darkest parts of Eondon to show me the midnight charities of which he was a patron, I said to my wife at the hotel, " You will never see Lord Kintore again, he is too good for this world. He will soon be taken." That was a September night, and in the following July he was lifted to the bright world into which he had helped so manv by his benefi- cence and example. He was one of the dearest friends I ever had, and, except my own father, the best man I ever knew. His words at midnight in the streets of London were, " When you get to America send me a stick (meaning a cane) and let it be of American wood, and I will send you a stick from my grounds in Scotland." After my arrival in Brooklyn I received a shepherd's crook, cut from the Earl's estate, but before the cane I bought for him had arrived in Scotland the good Earl had gone to his rest. What a man he was ! On week- days serving his country in the House of Lords, and on Sundays, though not a clergyman, preaching in the churches, not onlv the Presbyterian, the denomination to which be belonged, but in the e.s- tablished churches. I heard a rector of the Church of England chide him for not coming to speak in his cathedral the Sabbath before. What a strange sensation I experienced when I re- ceived from the good Earl a message, months after his death, not by spiritualistic convey- ance, but through an American clergyman, who was in Scotland when the Earl gave him the message and did not return to America until some time afterward. It will be easily understood why I should be interested in the present Earl of Kintore, and why he received me with so much cordialit\' at his Sontli Australian gubernatorial residence. The present Earl, whom I accompanied to the cathedral on Sabbath night, and with whom I afterward dined, is as stout an English churchman as his father was a stout Presb\-terian ; but, as Archbishop Leighton, tlie Anglican prelate, and John Knox, the reformer, are probably spending the Sabbath together in heaven, it ought not to startle us that the present Earl of Kintore is a devout worshiper SUPERSTITIONS OF THl! HINDOOS — AMULETS TAKEN FROM THE BODY OF TIPPOO SAHIB. THE WORLD AS vSEEN TO-DAY. 205 under the forms and ceremonies at which Jeannie Geddies hurled tlie foot-stool when they were read in her hearing. And ::ow, I turn my face toward the sea. Indeed the steamship IMassilia, of the " Peninsular and Oriental Line," is now panting in the open roadstead of Adelaide, waiting for passengers. For two months I have had an unmingled delight with the audiences of New Zealand and Australia. I have waded through kindness, chin deep. If one-half the " God bless yous " are answered, I will be the happiest man on earth. Ever\- night, except when traveling, I spoke from an hour and a half to two hours, and generalh' addressed the clergy of the different cities Monday mornings. I have been encouraged, solemnized, helped,, and rejoiced more than I can tell. 'Slay the richest blessings of God abide on all these colonies, whether they come into grand confederation as man)- expect, or stand alone, each one fulfilling its mission. I hear the clang of the opening doors of prosperity such as the most sanguine political prophets have never yet foretold. With a heart full of gratitude to these people who are seeing me off, and a prayer to Him who walks the sea, and holds the wind in his fist, I step aboard the ocean steamer. A long, last, affectionate, and prayerful good-bye to Austral in. COMM.\NDER-IN-CHIEK OF THE BURMHSE \EMY IN COl'RT DRESS. CHAPTER XX. THE ISLE OF PALMS. OHE Indian Ocean spread out both palms of its hands to pass us over from Australia to Ceylon. For the first two or three days it jolted us up and down like a rough nurse, to hint what it could do if it liked. But soon it became a quiet swing that put us under everlasting obligation, our ship running a new furrow across a new field blue as violets, that furrow soon to disappear as did all the other furrows of the ■deep. This international chariot moves along the streets of sapphire, but leaves no rut, and "the horses of steam-power trample the royal pavement, leaving no sign of hoof during tlie long voyage of two weeks. We put out under the direction of a little finger in a compass box, and for fourteen days and nights the Titan engine, and the revolving screw, and the lives on board of a ship of nearly 5000 tons, obey the movement of that little finger. Straight as an arrow from shore to shore. We had on board a good bishop of the Church of England on the w-ay to his new bishopric ; a distinguished general of the English army who is returning from a furlough ; merchants who, having made all the money they can make in Australia, or lost until they have no more to lose, are going home, that home in Europe or America. The captain, the ofiicers, the crew, did their best to make everything agreeable. This Peninsular and Oriental Navigation Company leave nothing undone for the safetv and comfort of the passengers. Musical instruments ; electric lights ; healthful bill of fare ; competent libraries ; cleanliness ; prompt service, abolished as far as possible the tedium of the sea voyage. The fire-bell has rung twice during the voyage, and there has been a rush of the crew, some with the fire hose, and some with pails of water, and others with boxes containing food for the life-boats. But it was only an appointed drill of the service, and there was no fire at all. This alarm, though a little startling at the time, gave new assurance of the safety of the passengers when we found that ever\- emergency was provided for. But what a long voyage it was ! No one who has not undertaken a journey around the world can appreciate how far it is. The two distances which most impress us in this globe- encircling journey are from San Francisco to Auckland, and from Australia to Ceylon. And then a feeling of home-sickness comes on, — that strange sensation that no one can describe ; and the farther from home, the more intense and desolating. " I wonder what the}* are doing now at home?" " I wonder if any of them are sick?" "I wonder if we will all meet again in the familiar place ?" "I wonder if they will be on the docks to greet us?" " flow peculiar that we have not heard from them ! " "I wonder how those letters happened to get astray ? " " How strange that they do not write ! " "I wish it were all over ! " "With so nnich of absorbing interest yet to see, the place that I most want to see — home, with the home faces ! " But we brush away all such sentiments, for we are soon to enter the island of Ce\lon. With what spirit shall we enter it ? Some step ashore as hunters. The boxes carried ashore by the coolies are full of guns, traps, tents, ropes, cups and platters for extemporized breakfasts, weapons by which to take elephants, deer, bears and tigers. I can hear the tree branches crackle, and the tramping of wild beasts of the forest, and the splash into the lakes of the roebuck with the hounds close after it. I can see the trees at the door of the mountain hut hung with the dressed-meat quarters. I can see the struggle between leopard (2o6l THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 10-] and sportsman, now the prospect that the sportsman will slay the leopard, and now the probability that tlie leopard will slay the sportsman. Nights with stars looking down into lakes that have never been stirred of an oar, and jungles through which firearms have never resoimded. Sound asleep with panther hide for a pillow. Early morning with richly-scented balsams, and violets, and foxgloves, and harebells, and cinnamon ga-rdens, and wild nutmeg ; and awakened by the voices of chattering squirrel, and the buzz of enough insects to confound entomology, and a heaven full of aviaries. Then after a morning repast, with appetite sharpened by excursions of many days through trackless woods, the hunter starts for the kennel to find all the hounds straining to get loose, spinning round and round in vortex of delight. Down, Tray ! Back with >ou, Sweetheart ! Hush, Blanchard I Now, all out ! Burying their noses in the moss of the bank ; then the pack WEIGHING THE EMPEROR IN THE DEWAN KHASS, INDIA. Before the conquest of ludia by the ^Mohammedans, it was the custom to weigh the Emperor annually in the Hall of Audience, or throne room, in the palace at Delhi. His weight was counterbalanced by gold, silver, precious' stones and perfumed woods, which were afterward distributed as charities among his deserving subjects. in full cry, their clangor sounding through the dark aisle of the forest. Oh, there must be health in such sport ! and I congratulate all who land in Ceylon as hunters. But others will go as naturalists. The sun with its intensification of heat, and the air with its superabundance of moisture, producing in Ceylon more life, and on a larger scale, than any other region I know of. Life e\ery where, winged life, scaly life, tusked life, finny life, reptilian life, insectile life. Warmth is life, and cold is death ; and the colder it is the more death, and the warmer it is the more life. Life in herds ; life in flocks ; life in shells ; life in clouds ; throbbing, glittering, burning, crouching, hissing, singing, roaring life. I congratulate entomologists, ichthyologists, ornithologists, conchologists, zoologists landing in Ceylon. Others will land in this island as lovers of human kind, as moralists and religionists. 2oS THE EARTH GIRDLED. I gave niy pennies in bo}hood toward the evangelization of Ceylon. The fidelity and self- sacrifice of the men and women who here have told the Christly story for the last sixty years, is a matter of thrilling history and of celebrative anthem in the high places angelic. There are two things I want most to see on this island : a heathen temple witli its devotees in idolatrons worship, and an audience of Cingalese addressed by a Christian missionary. Tlie entomologist may have his capture of brilliant insects ; and the sportsman his tent adorned witli antler of red deer and tooth of wild boar ; and the painter his port- folio of gorge three thousand feet down, and of days dying on evening pillows of purple cloud etched with fire ; and the botanist his camp full of orchids, and crowfoots, and gentians, and valerian, and lotus. MODERN CRUCIFIXION OF CRI1IIN.\1,S IN INDIA. I want most to find out the moral and religious triumphs, — liow many wounds have been healed ; how many sorrows comforted ; how many entombed nations resurrected. Sir William Baker, the famous explorer and geographer, did well for Ce}'lon after his eight years' residence in this island, and Professor Ernst Heckel, the professor from Jena, did well w'hen he swept these waters, and rummaged these hills, and took home for future inspection the insects of this tropical air. And forever honored be such work : but let all tliat is sweet in rhythm, and graphic on canvas, and imposing in monument, and immortal in memory be brought to tell the deeds of those who were heroes and heroines for Clirist's sake. But we must not anticipate. Here we are ! Land, ho ! What is it? Ceylon. Along a low rifge of shore it rises out of the sea, with here and there a light-house growing dim COLOSSAL IDOL f'l* ]:ri>PIIA. Ki:AR KAMAKLTtA, JAPAX. The largest bronze idol in the world is the one shown in the photo^jraph, which represents Buddha, a gigantic image twenty miles from Yokohama, in Japan. The figure itself, though in a sitting posture, is 44 feet high, and including the terrace is 65 feet iiigh. It is made of bronze plates nicely joined together, and the head is covered with an imitation of snail shells to protect it froiu the sun. This monstrous idol was set up about 600 years ago, but though exposed to the weather for so luany centuries it still stands unharmed by time. 14 (209) 2IO THE EARTH GIRDLED. under the rising "low of the greater liglit-honse of the skj-. At ever^- stir of the screw the shores become more prominent, springing into hills, rolling into more height, and into mountains breaking off into precipices. Hovering over the island are clouds thick and black as the superstitions which have hovered here for centuries ; but the morning sun breaking through like the Gospel light which is to scatter the last cloud of moral gloom. The sea lay along the coast calm as the eternal pur]ioses of God toward all islands and con- tinents. We swing into the harbor of Colombo, which is made by a break-water built at vast expense. As we floated into it the water is black with boats of all sizes, and manned by people of all colors, but chiefly Tamils and Cingalese. There were at least ten boats for each passenger that wanted to go ashore. It did not take long for us to get aboard a craft with five men to row and one to manage the rudder, and all determined to persuade us that we had chosen the right boat, and that if we wanted any other service during the day they were the only persons to whom we could safely entrust ourselves. The firsL thing was a place to find clothing appropriate to the climate. We had come from the winter of Australia, and here we were in the land of perpetual summer. We doffed the black and put on the white, and submerged ourselves under a hat higher and broader than we had ever seen, one of those edifices built in defiance of the tropical sun. Yet, after the heat of the day had passed, we started out in as new a world as would be to us Saturn, or Mars, or Jupiter, or Mercury. Among the first places visited was a Buddhist college, about one hundred men studying to become priests gathered around the teachers. Stepping into the building where the high- priest was instructing the class, we took on an apologetic air and told him we were Ameri- cans, and would like to see his mode of teaching if he had no objections ; whereupon he began, doubled up as he was on a lounge with his right hand playing with his toes. In his left hand he held a package of bamboo lea\-es on which were written the words of the lesson, each student holding a similar package of bamboo leaves. The high-priest first read and then one of his students read. A group of as finely-formed young men as I ever saw surrounded the venerable instructor. The last word of each sentence was intoned. There was in the whole scene an earnestness which impressed me. Not able to understand a word of what was said, there is a look of language and intonation that is the same among all races. That the Buddhists have full faith in their religion no one can doubt. That is, in their opinion, the wav to heaven. What Mohammed is to the Mohannnedan, and what Christ is to the Christian, Buddlia is to the Buddhist. We waited for a pause in the recitation, and then, expressing our thanks, retired. Near by is a Buddhist temple, on the altar of which, before the image of Buddha, are offerings of flowers. As night was coming on we came up to a Hindoo temple. First we were prohibited going farther than the outside steps, but we gradually advanced until we could see all that was going on inside. The worshipers were making obeisance. The tom-toms were wildly beaten, and shrill pipes were blown, and several other instruments were in full bang and blare, and there was an indescribable hubbub, and the most laborious style of worship I had ever seen or heard. The dim lights, and the jargon, and the gloom, and the flitting figures mingled for eye and ear a horror which it is difficult to shake off". All this was onlv suggestive of what would there transpire after the toilers of the day had ceased work and had time to appear at the temple. That such things should be supposed to please the Lord, or have any power to console or help the worshipers, is only another mystery in this world of mysteries. But we came away saddened with the spectacle, a THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 211 sadness which did not leave ns until we arrived at a place where a Christian missionary was preaching in the street to a group of natives. I had that morning expressed a wish to witness such a scene, and here it was. Stand- ing on an elevation the good man was addressing the crowd. All was attention, and silence, and reverence. A religion of relief and joy was being commended, and the dusky faces were illumined with the sentiments of pacification and reinforcement. It was the rose of Sharon after walking among nettles. It was the morning light after a thick darkness. It was the Gospel after Hinduism. Asked to speak, my address was rendered into two languages by interpreters, first into Cingalese and then into Tamil. Sentence by sentence, each sentence three times uttered. Strange, weird and solemn occasion. Going back to our hotel, we waited there until nearly eight o'clock, when we were taken to the preaching ser\'ices to the old historical church, once the Reformed Dutch Church when the Hollanders held Ceylon, but now a Presbyterian Church, presided over by a minister from Scotland. The church was built in the year 1749, and is now, as then, a graceful and majestic structure ; an imposing cruciform ; on its walls entablatures to the Dutch Governors who used there to worship, and until the time when the English took possession. The Dutch Governors are buried beneath the floor of this church. To my surprise, the great church was thronged, although our steamer did not arrive until ten o'clock that morning and the service was not announced until after twelve. How startled I was on opening the Psalm Book that night at the beginning of the service to find the words, " Reformed Dutch Church ; " for that was the name of the church in which I was baptized and received into membership, and ordained into the ministry. So they stand side by side : Church of Christ, and Temple of P.uddha. Pillar of light, and colossus of gloom. The one proposing to cheer in this world and then give transportation to a world of radiant explanation, to go no more out forever, and the other a transfonnation from creature to creature, and a revolving wheel, and a passing on until personal existence is swallowed up as a drop of water is swallowed up of the sea — side by side those religions stand in Ceylon ; midnoon and midnight ! CHAPTER XXI. RELIGIONS GOOD AND BAD. OWO processions I saw in this city within one hour, the first led by a Hindu priest, a liuge pot of flowers on his head, his face disfigured with holy lacerations, and his unwashed followers beating as many discords from what are supposed to be musical instruments as at one time can be induced to enter the human ear. Tlie procession halted at the door of the huts. The occupants came out and made obeisance and presented small contributions. In return therefor, the priest sprinkled ashes upon the children who came forward ; this evidently a form of benediction. Then the procession, led on by the priest, started again ; more noise, more ashes, more genuflexion. However keen one's sense of the ludicrous, he could find nothing to excite even a smile in tlie move- ments of such a procession. Meaningless, oppressive, squalid, filthy, sad. Returning to our carriage, we rode on for a few moments, and we came on another pro- cession — a kindly lady leading groups of native children, all clean, bright, happy, laughing. They were a Christian school out for exercise. There seemed as much intelligence, refine- ment and happiness in that regiment of young Cingalese as you would find in the ranks of anv young ladies' seminary being chaperoned on their afternoon walk through Central Park, New York, or Hyde Park, London. The Hindu procession illustrated on a small scale something of what Hinduism can do for the world. The Christian procession illustrated on a small scale something of what Christianity can do for the world. But those two processions were only fragments of the two greater processions ever marching across our world. The procession blasted of superstition and the procession blessed of Gospel light. I saw them to-day in Ceylon. They are to be seen in all nations. Nothing is of more thrilliug interest than the Christian achievements in this island. The Episcopal Churcli was here the national church, but disestablishment has taken place, and since ]\Ir. Glad- stone's accomplishment of that fact in 1880, all denominations are on equal platform, and all are doing mighty work. America is second to no other nation in what has been done for Cevlon. vSince 1816 she has had her religious agents in the Jaffna Peninsula of Ceylon. The Spauldings, the Howlands, the Doctors Poor, the Saunders and others just as good and strong have been fighting back monsters of superstition and cruelt}- greater than any mon- sters that ever swung the tusk or roared in the jungles. An assistant master in the Royal College has taken the trouble to write out for me authenticated statistics which are not dull figures, but resounding anthems. The American missionaries have given especial attention to medical institutions, and are doing wonders in the driving back of the horrors of heathen surger>\ Cases of suffering were fonnerly given over to the devil-worshipers and such tortures inflicted as may not be described. In cases of accouchement, for three days the poor woman was kept suspended by ropes reaching to the roof, so that gravitation might do the work of relief. This failing, the patient was trampled by the feet of the attendants. The crisis past, tlie patient was laid on the floor and pails of cold water were dashed upon the sufferer, and it is only of God's mercy that there is a living mother in Ceylon. Oh, how much Ceylon wants doctors and the native (212) This is one of the wonders of India, a shTft of mixed metal resembling bronze, sixteen inches in diameter and rising to a height of JO feet above ground. Archxolo.^ists have tried to find its base, but though they excavated to a depth of 2>' feet the foundation was not reached. It is known to have stood in silent mystery for more than 1500 years, and yet the iuscriptions and metal are as bright as though new. The Hindoos say it was the club that Bheema wielded, and the Buddhists declare that it pierces the entire depth of the earth and rests upon the head ol Vasuki. the gigantic snake that supports the world. It is regarded as the j alladium of Hindoo dominion. (213) 214 THE EARTH GIRDLED. classes of medical students such as were established here by Samuel Fish Green, providing the alleviations, and kindly ministries, and scientific acumen that can be found in American and Englisli hospitals. In Cej-lon 132 American schools; 213 Churcli of England schools; 234 Wesleyan schools ; 234 Roman Catholic schools. Ah ! the schools decide most everything. Churches here, and almost everywhere, are making prolonged effort to do in ten, or twenty, or foity years that which the school might have done in a week, if it had begun in time. How suggestive the incident that came to me this morning. In a school under the care of the Episcopal Church two boys were converted to Ciirist, and were to be baptized. An intelli- gent Buddhist boy said in the school that all the boys on Buddha's side were to come to this side of the room, and all the boys on Christ's side to go to the other side of the room. All the boys except two went on Buddha's side, and when the two boys who were to be baptized, were scoffed at and derided, one of them yielded and returned to Buddha's side. But after a while that boy was sorry that he had yielded to the persecution and when the day of baptism came, stood up beside the boy who remained firm. Some one said to the boy who had vacillated in his choice between Christ and Buddha : " You are a coward and not fit for either side." But he replied, " I was overcome of temptation, but I repent and believe." Then both boys were baptized, and from that time the Anglican mission moved on more and more vigorously. We express no preference for the work of any of the great denominations. They have all done a work that will last forever. The Wesleyans have been gloriously busy in all parts of Ceylon, building altars and saving the people. The native churches, self-supporting now, stand where stood the missions once entirely depen- dent upon England. The Episcopal Church has had here some of its most talented and consecrated bishops, and her sublime liturgies sound now in places where nothing more elevating was heard than the groan of besotted idolatries. Here Reverend William Oakley toiled in Ceylon INIission fifty-three years without once going home to his native England. The Baptist Church has preceded all other Protestant missions in this island, and dipped her candidates into these lakes and rivers in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost. According to the document put in my hand in this city, there are now in Ceylon : Christians 267.977 Buddhists 1,698,070 Hindus 593.63° Mohammedans 197.775 Others 2,286 Making 2,759 738 These figures suggest the magnitude of the work accomplished, and the greater magnitude of the work yet to be done. More than anything else it impresses me with the fact that if the Christian religion is not a supernatural religion it will never conquer this world. The Buddhists are in vast majority. The Hindus in vast majority. They were intrenched long ages before Christ was born. They have the advantage of being advocated bv some of the most brilliant and learned men of all time. Take up a book of their proverbs, and see that we have to contend not against imbeciles, but against principalities and powers. Read also some of the sentiments of their religion, and find that they equal Christianity in excellence. Buddhism has received reinforcement in recent times from Theosophv, the religion of moonshine, tlie religion of cranks, a religion advocated by those who can find but little to admire in the religion of Christ which purifies the life, and f2I5) 2i6 THE EARTH GIRDLED. establishes home, and advances civilization, and the wiseacres have plunged through the jnngles of two tlionsand years to find their favorite god amid the buried cities of Ceylon. Some representatives of the British Government have also helped a revival of Buddhism. The priests of that religion are more honored here in Ceylon on grand religions occasions than the representatives of an\- other religion. And, more than all, the birthday of Buddha is now made a public holiday, as much as Christmas celebrates the birth of our Saviour, and this luider the flag of the best Christian Queen among the nations. Ye .spirits of the uien and women who, born mider the shadow of the kirk of Scotland, or within sound of the English cathedral rolling its doxology heavenward, or who, baptized in the waters of the Hudson, or Ohio, or the Savannah, came here to toil, and suffer, and die for Christ's sake, tell us from your thrones, what think you of this ? At near the close of the nineteen centuries which have passed since the meteoric finger pointed to the straw pillow in Bethlehem, we have to confront the fact that while there are in the island of Ce)-lon 267,000 Christians, there are 2,489,000 Buddhists, Hindus and Moham- medans. Nothing but the supernatural in the Christian religion can ever overcome that fearful odds. Behold, then, the responsibility of those critics of our time who would eliminate the supernatural and make the Christian religion a human affair, to be advanced only by human thought, and dependent upon human machinery ! We are, in the attempt to evangelize Ceylon, engaged in attempting an impossibility, unless we have the help of the One who can divide the sea, and make the sun and moon stand still, and cause a shadow to go back on the dial, and set up a pillar of fire over the wilderness. But the victory is coming. The most of our artillery is in the heavens, and in due time it will be unlimbered. We must do our part and God will do His part. I believe the Mosaic account of the creation, and the geological account. It took millions of }ears to get out the timber for building this world, and hauling it to the right spot, but it took only six days to put on it the finishing touch to make it the fit residence for the bride and groom of Paradise. So the material for the reconstruction of our destroyed world may be a long while in gathering, and centuries of Christian and missionary effort may be requisite, but when the right time comes, it will require only a few years, and perhaps only a few days, to make it a fit residence for our Lord when He comes to take by the hand the Church which is the Lamb's wife. In the meanwhile, what an amazement the Christian world must be to Buddhists and Hindus. One of them said to the captain of our ship : " India is a great big country, and 500,000,000 inhabitants, but we have only two religions. England is an island with less than 100,000,000, and you have so many religions I cannot count them." No doubt that Buddhist merely stated a mystery that must fill the minds •of manv of the natives of Ceylon and India. Presbyterians come here to Colombo and tell the natives that as soon as they are converted they must be baptized by sprinkling. The Baptists tell them that as soon as they are converted they ought to be immersed. The Weslevans tell them that in the churches they may approach God in any reverential and spontaneous, and unpremeditated way they choose. The Anglicans tell them they onght to confine themselves in public worship to the prayer-book and such forms as the Church of England decrees. The Roman Catholic Church comes in with its imposing rituals and proclaims the head of the Cluirch is at Rome, and you must cross yourself with holy water, and let her lead yonr worship in Latin. From so much original and diverse advice I have no doubt many of them fall back upon the old religion and say: "Buddha's religion we understand, and it tells us just how to do, and it tells just the same thing, and to Buddha iiereafter we will repair." FAMINB SCENES IX AS EAST INDIAN CITY. (217) 2lS THE EARTH GIRDLED. There are only two things certain : the one is that the patient is ver}- sick, and the other is tliat there are ten or eleven doctors in the room, each one with a diiTerent prescrip- tion. Who knows bnt that nnder some especial baptism of power from on Iiigh, which shall reach all beliefs and all organizations, there may be fonnd for missionary purposes a com- bination of all the present hundred sects, and taking the hint of apostolic times, each church shall take the name of the locality where it works, and as in Pauline, Peterine and Johannian times it was "Church of Smyrna," or "Church of Thyatira," or "Church of Ephesus," or " Church of Philadelphia," it shall be the Church of Ceylon, the Church of India, the Church of China, the Church of Sumatra, the Church of Borneo? That church shall be in its worship both liturgical and spontaneous ; part of the service read so as best A MAllv HOKbt. Ul- l.NDl.i. to express the feelings of those who prefer that mode, and part extemporaneous to express the feelings arou.sed by the peculiar circumstances of that day, and there .shall be on one side of the pulpit a font, and on the other a baptistery ; a stone cup for those who would consecrate themselves to God under the falling of the morning dew, and a brazen sea for those who wish in most emphatic mode to have signalized that all their sins are washed away. In those days there will be such a complete submergence from generous, and holy, and self-sacrificing influence, that the mere teclinicalities of religion will dwindle into the infinitesimal, until it will take the most powerful microscope of the double-dyed bigot to see them at all. And Zoroaster, and P.uddha, and Mahomet will be honored for the good they accomplished, and pitied for the evil they inaugurated. But Christ shall be all in all. THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 219 Events and dates that are now perhaps uncelebrated and perhaps not noticed at all, will loom up into their deserved importance; such as, 1749, A. D., the Wolvendal Presbyterian Church erected here at Colombo, and the New Testament translated into Tamil; 1796, the Pentateuch translated into Tamil; 1812, Auxiliary Bible Society instituted, a Baptist Mission commenced in Ceylon ; 1814, Wesleyan Mission commenced ; 1815, first Sunday- school opened by the Weselyan missionaries ; 1816, American Mission commenced in Ceylon; 1818, Episcopal missionaries arrived; 1833, Cotta translation of the Bible in Cingalese; 1845, Ceylon constituted an Episcopal See; 1869, the Presbyter}' of Ceylon established b\' the ministers of the Church of Scotland ; 1874, a religious conference of Protestants held in Colombo, which led to the establishment of the Ceylon Christian Alliance and the formation of the Sunday-School Union. Surel)- such events are worthy of commemoration, and the time will come when they will make more impression on the mind and heart of the world than the number of pounds of tea and chips of cinnamon shipped from Ceylon annually. But there is at present a great set-back to the Christianization and moralization of Ceylon, and that is in the liquor traffic. Buddhists, according to their religion, must not take strong drink, but multitudes of th.2m do take it, and the presence of so many foreigners who are perpetually under sdmnlants is so debasing that it is luicertain whether foreign nations are doing most for civilization or the destruction of Ceylon. One million three hundred thousand rupees are spent annually by Government and by foreign and local organizations for educational and classical purposes in Ceylon; 1,300,000 rupees are spent annualh- in Ce\-lon for strong drink ; 1,300,000 rupees for gospelization ; 1,300,000 rupees for individual, social and H£,tioi!.al degradation. £t;: our hope is in the God who made the Cingalese as well as the American, and He car. as easily manage them in the mass as He can individually ; and if God can lift the tides at Liverpool Docks twenty feet with the slender silver thread of the moonbeam, surely He can lift all nations by the omnipotence of His love ! The long, bright, dazzling flash of the lightning on the summer sky may be only the pulling of the sword a little from His scabbard as if in preparation for the time when He will entirely unsheathe it and stri^ie for the setting of all nations free. And the thunder that rolls from these July heavens may be the rumble of the chariot of the Almighty as His harnessed purposes are being fastened to it for His descent along the sapphire steeps when He shall come forth conquering and to conquer. CHAPTER XXII. THE CINGALESE. ONOTONOUS is an adjective of no nse in this island. The scene chanp;es every niinnte. Tlie busiest hour on Broadway, New York, or the Strand of London, is not more lively and spirited than the chief streets here. First of all, the most s-^ — ^ ^ - A interesting study is that of the people themselves. Brown as the coffee they raise are the Cingalese. Tlie man's hair is worn long and coiled on the top of his head. Conspicu- ously on the sides and the back of his head is a comb. It is made of the shell of the tortoise. The tortoise is hung over a fire until his shell falls off. Obtained in this cruel way the shells are said to be of superior quality. The man must wear this comb, though for reasons it may be covered up. I said to my barber on shipboard: "Are yon a Cingalese?" He replied : "Yes." Then I said to him : "Where is }ourcomb?" He said : " It is covered." The woman fastens her hair with pins. To an American the men and women of Ceylon look very much alike. Embarrassing mistakes are sometimes made by an Englishman or American, supposing he is waited vipon by a man-servant when the attendant is a maid- servant ; or by a lady of other lands supposing she is waited on by a maid-servant when the attendant is a man-servant. The faces of the masculine Cingalese are for the most part not only effeminate, but delicately beautiful. The smile has its home on almost every face. Thev are a cheery race, and do more of the business of happiness on a small capital than any other people I ever saw. The streets are thronged with these frisking, skipping, ruiniing, gleeful folk. I\Iany of them have lips blood-red Avith betel-nut which they chew incessantly and without an}- reference to the cleanly or picturesque. Into the betel leaf is wrapped frequently the areca nut and a sprinkle of lime, and then it is vigorously chewed. The compound thus chewed is said to be good for the teeth. I am glad it is good for something. Universal expectoration. They all have something to sell ; or they will sing for you a song ; or the}' will perfonn a dance ; or they will astound you with some sleight-of-hand; or they will open your carriage-door; or they will help you out, or help vou in ; all of them voluble with the superiority of their own services lo that of any other service. But all up and down the streets you find the Tamils, whose ancestors came over from India. Their heads are shaven and always covered with a turban in the presence of their superior. The Tamils are a swarthier race than the Cingalese. They look as if they could do more work and that is their reported characteristic. But passing up and down the streets of Ceylon }-ou find all styles of people within five minutes : Afghans, Kaffirs, Portuguese, Moormen, Dutch, English, Scotch, Irish, American ; all classes, all dialects, all manners and customs, all styles of salaam. The most interesting thing on earth is the human race, and specimens of all branches of it confront you in Ceylon. The island of the present is a quiet and inconspicuous affair compared with what it once was. The dead cities of Ceylon were larger and more imposing than are the living cities. On this island are dead New Yorks, and dead Pekins, and dead Edinburghs, and dead Londons. Ever and anon at the stroke of the archaeologist's hammer the tomb of some great numicipality flies open, and there are other buried cities that will yet respond to (220) BRAHMIN WEDDING. (221) 222 THE EARTH GIRDLED. the explorer's pick-axe. Tl:e Pompeii and Herculaneuin underneath Italy are small com- pared with the Pompeiis and Herculaneums underneath Ceylon. Yonder is an exhumed city which was founded five hundred years before Christ, standing in Pompeiian splendor for twelve hundred \ears. Stairways up which fifty men might pass side by side. Cai-ved pillars, some of them fallen, some of them a-slant, some of them erect. Phidiases and Christopher Wrens never heard of, here performed the marvels of sculpture and architecture. Aisles through which royal processions marched. Arches under which kings were carried. Citv with reservoir twenty miles in circumference. Extemporized lakes that did their cooling and refreshing for twelve centuries. Ruins more suggestive than Melrose and Kenilworth. Ceylonian Karnaks and Luxors. Ruins retaining much of grandeur, though wars bombarded them and Time put his chisel on every block, and, more than all, vegeta- tion thrust its fingers, and pries, and wrenches into all the crevices. Dagobas, or places where relics of saints or deities are kept. Dagobas four hundred feet high, and their fallen material burying precious things for the sight of which modern curiosity has digged and blasted in vain. Procession of elephants in imitation, wrought into lustrous marble. Troops of horses in full run. Shrines, chapels, cathedrals wrecked on the mountain-side. Stairs of moonstone. Exquisite scrolls rolling up more mysteries than will ever be unrolled. Over sixteen square miles, the ruins of one city strewn. Throne rooms on which sat 165 kings, reigning in authority they inherited. Walls that witnessed coronations, assassinations, subjugations, triumphs. Altars at which millions bowed ages before the orchestras celestial woke the shepherds with midnight overture. When Lieutenant Skinner, in 1S32, discovered the site of some of these cities, he found congregated in them undisturbed assemblages of leopards, porcupines, flamingoes and pelicans ; reptiles sunning themselves on the altars ; prima donnas rendering ornithological chant from deserted music halls. One king restored much of the grandeur ; rebuilt 1500 residences ; but ruin soon resumed its sceptre. Now all is down ; the spires down ; the pillars down ; the tablets down ; the glory of splendid arches down. What killed those cities? Who slew the New York and London of the year 500 B. C. ? Was it unhealthed with a host of plagues? Was it foreign armies laying siege? Was it whole generations weakened by their own vices ? Mystery sits amid the monoliths and brick dust, finger on lip in eternal silence while the centuries guess and guess in vain. We simply know that genius planned those cities, and immense populations inhabited them. An eminent writer estimates that a pile of bricks in one ruin would be enough to build a wall ten feet high from Edinburgh to London. Sixteen hundred pillars with carved capitals are standing sentinel for ten miles. You can estimate somewhat of the size of the cities by the resen.'oirs that were required to slake their thirst ; judging the size of the city from the size of the cup out of which it drank. Cities crowded with inhabitants : not like American or English cities, but packed together as only barbaric tribes can pack them. But their knell was sounded ; their light went out. Giant trees are the only royal family now occupying those palaces. The growl of wild beasts, where once the guffaw of wassail ascended. Anurad- hapura Pollonarna will never be rebuilded. Let all the living cities of the earth take warning. Cities are human, having a time to be born and a time to die. No more certainly have they a cradle than a grave. A last judgment is appointed for individuals, but cities have their last judgment in this world. They bless ; the>- curse ; they worship ; they blaspheme ; they suffer ; they are rewarded; they are overthrown. Some of these cities were associated chiefly with .some relic of Lord Buddha, who the most of the Buddhists say was only a man, but they all worship him as a god. One temple SERPENT PAGODA. 223 224 THE EARTH GIRDLED. contains his jaw-bone. Another was taken from his thorax. Another has .simply a tooth; althongli imitations of that tooth are in several of the temples. I infer from the size of the tooth Buddha must have been Cyclopean, Sam.sonian, Titanian. What he ever did with a tooth like that I cannot understand. How he worked a whole mouthful of them is to me a mystery. No human being I ever saw could afford to sport such an ivory. The sailors talk a great deal about the teeth of the wind, and I can imagine from the way that the tempests sometimes chew up a city that the teeth of the wind may be monstrous teeth, but Buddha was supposed to be peaceable, and what use a peaceable being could make of such an instrument I cannot see. But there it hangs — the sacred tooth of Buddha. Thousands of people come thousands of miles to see it. If it were a wisdom tooth, he must have been very wise. If it were what is called a " sweet tooth," it must have taken an enormous quan- tity of the sac- charine to satisfy him. I would like to see the for- ceps that could draw a tooth like that. What capa- fe city itwould have p had to ache if once it had begun to grumble ! That ■ tooth is at least two inches long. The temple is built at Kandy in honor of this tooth, but in a temple at Co- lombo you see a copy of the tooth. The fact is that the original sacred tooth is not now in existence, but the substitute does very well for the original. One king was said to have offered in sacrifice one hundred million blos.soms in one day in honor of this sacred tooth. Most people have to be satisfied with looking at the case that incloses it, but the Prince of Wales was allowed to see the thing itself A golden wire suspends a cr>stal case holding the tooth. Even the case containing the tooth is not always in sight. It is put away with all possible ceremonv. Lock after lock, case within case ; jewels above it, and beneath it, and all around it. Emeralds, garnets, lotus leaves wrought in gold, and silken brocades, and barbaric splendors amid which it is wrapt and set. Oh, what a tooth ! Was ever such a fuss made over a molar, and that not genuine? Other nations have sent embassadors to buy it. The Governor of Siam offered for it $250,000, but could not get it. Not getting it, that government sent an embassy to have the sacred tooth dipped in oil and a few drops THE WORSHIPFUI, TOOTH. When Gautama, known as the Buddha, died at the age of So (543 D. C), his body was burned with great ceremony, and from the ashes eight relics were obtained, one of which was a tooth. This tooth has been sacredly preserved ever since in the Buddhist temple, at Kandy, Ceylon, which is exhibited with great pomp once each year before vast crowds that come to worship it. THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 225 of the oil allowed them ; and so it was done. There are shrines in other lands with reputed teeth of Buddha ; indeed, more teeth than lie could have found convenient during his liletime, for 1 imagine it would be as much a trouble to have too many teeth as to have not enough teeth. Yet, let us not have our own teeth too much set on edge by the story of Buddha's teeth, for the fact is, that every tooth is sacred. Thanks to modern dentistry, tliat fact is becoming better known. This important factor of the human body de- cides mastication ; and masti- cation decides digestion ; and digestion decides the disposi- tion ; and the disposition de- cides the destiny of nations. Thomas Carlyle thought every thingwasgoingtoruin because of a si.xty-year attack of dys- pepsia. How many battles have been lost or won ; how many sermons have been po- tent or a failure ; how many chapters of the world's destiny have been decided by the con- dition of the tooth ! More and more let it be guarded. All prosperity to the efforts made for its health ! Very sa- cred let the tooth be kept, thougli we cannot lift it like Buddha into worship. We suspect that almost every error is only a trutli exaggerated. Adoration where there ought to be nothing stronger than admiration. Among the most absorb- ing chapters of Ceylonian •events is that connected with the pearl fisheries. I am glad to find, since coming here, that Sir William Baker's prophecies concerning them have been a failure. An in- telligent Cingalese told me yesterday that the coming season he thought would be one of the most profitable in the Ceylon pearl fisheries. Although for years the oysters were gone, taking their jewels with them, the year 1891 flung a necklace that astonished the world. How much was the value of the pearls yielded I know not, but the share of the English Government that one year was $4,818,000. Yet the beautiful pearl in hilt, 15 THE SAAMI ROCK AT TRIXCOMALKE (WORSHIP AT SUNSET). The Saami Rock of Triiicomalee is believed by devout Cingalese to be a fragment of the holy Mount Meru, which was hurled from heaven during a celestial battle, on ■which account it is deeply venerated. Upon its summit a chapel was built and dedi- cated to Siva, which is best known as the Shrine of the Thousand Columns. 226 THE EARTH GIRDLED. or necklace, or crown gives no suggestion of the process through which it came ashore. But for a large and efficient army of police, the pearl fisheries of Ceylon would produce a plague. Tiiink of the tons of oysters brought to the bank by ten or fifteen thousand fisher- men, and all of those oysters left to spoil in the sun, except the small pearl taken from here and there one, and all this goes on for about three hot months. There is also the scramble for the pearls which would, but for the coustabulan,' force, be so easily stolen. It is interesting, also, to know that the island of Ceylon vies with the main coast in the production of jewels. The chrysolite is here. The garnet is here. The emerald is liere. The amethyst is here. The moonstone is here. The sapphire is here. The ruby is here. Five hundred years ago the greatest ruby in the world was owned by the Emperor of Ceylon. It was about six inches long, and as thick as your arm. The Buddhist temple at Kandy is a conflagration of precious stones. The Indian Rajahs array themselves in the jewels from Ceylon. An English syndicate has been formed for gem-digging in this island. Ceylon itself is a gem in the world's coronet. In many a home of Europe and America are pearls brought from the pearl banks of Ceylon. They have been handed down from generation to generation, and the fact forgotten that they were by the diving Cingalese, at the peril of their life, brought up from depths just ofi" these Ceylon coasts. Sixty thousand people under government license gather on these banks, and at the sound of a gun push out and plunge for pearls. The statistician fleetest in figures could not tell how much has been added to the world's wealth by these pearl fisheries. But one season an English Governor of Ceylon, Sir W. Horton, distinguished himself by nearly destroying the fisheries. As he approached the close of his term of office he had all the oysters taken from the depths and examined for pearls and the shells thrown away. He hoped by one mighty haul of pearls to show what a wonderful Governor he was, and imperiled the largest and richest incomes of this island. For a long while nothing seemed left of that great industry. The Government house that was built fell into ruins, and the eighteen-pounder that used to fire the signal for the boats to launch was rusted and unwheeled, and filled with sand. Nothing but gloom and thorny bush, and barrenness remained on that once favored beach, up which men carried the jewels that flashed in hilts of swords, and on the necks of beauty, and in the coronets of emperors, the jewel that seems to be the divine favorite, because it was used in sacred classics as a symbol of Him who is the Pearl of Great Price, and the twelve shining Gates of Heaven are made out of it. KETL'RN To THK .MUNAMERV OF BURMKM-: I'KIKSTS Al-ihR HKC.GING THEIR DAll.V FOOD. CHAPTER XXIir. ISLE OF IVORY. ^-■"^f AID a gentleman to me before I left Australia, " Yon will die in Ceylon." Some- ^^^^^^^ what startled at such prognostication, I asked, "Why do you say that?" He k "^ replied, " You may go home, but you will be so charmed by what you see in J^*-—^ Ce\lon you will return and make it your home for life." Indeed, all ingenuity of figure and phrase have been employed to describe the charms of this island. As Lake Galilee by its loveliness has won three names, so Ceylon has been crowned by multiform nomenclature. Adam and Eve adjourned to this place after Paradise was confiscated — at least so think the ]\Iohammedans. It does look like an Edenic annex. In Solomon's time it was called Tarshish, and the Land of Ophir. The Romans called it Taprobane. Sinbad the Sailor called it Serendib. John ]\IiUon called it Golden Chersonese. Moderns have called it the Isle of Palms, and the Isle of Flowers; the "Pearl-drop on the Brow of India ;" the " Island of Jewels ;" the " Island of Spice ;" the " Show-place of the Universe ;" the "Land of Hyacinth and Ruby." Bishop Heber made it famous writing about it: " Where every prospect pleases, and only man is vile ;" a version somewhat changed by the speculator in coffee who lost his all in Ceylon, and wrote of it : " Every prospect pleases, but no man makes a pile." Considering the coffee and tea this island has yielded, it might be appropriately called the Coffee or the Tea Caddy of the world. It is a mixture of Yose- mite and Yellowstone Park. Among the curious fauna of Ceylon are the flying-foxes. Tliese creatures are like foxes with the exception that they have wings. They are fond of palm wine, and are often found intoxicated. The Cingalese put bowls under the cocoanut to catch the sap as it distills and the flying-foxes sometimes take too much of it. They are found drunk in the morning on the scene of tlieir wassail, no one having been able to carry tliem home. Overcome by this inebriation, it in no wise injures them among other fl\ing-foxes, for they are all guilty of it. They belong to the brute creation, and ought not to be blamed for taking too mucli, and there are no temperance societies for the reformation of intemperate flying-foxes. Tlie simple fact is that these flying-foxes are too fond of their cups. The word fox means "cunning," but there are in all realms instances of wiiere those most cun- ning have become the victims of wine. Alas for these unfortunate subjects, whether they walk or fly ! Ceylon is the greatest place on earth for elephants. The sportsmen liave driven these mountains of flesh back farther and farther until most people when they come to Ceylon see not a single tusk, and so far from beholding an elephant's trunk, if they do not keep a sharp look-out for their baggage tliey lose their own trunk. But the elephants afforded great sport to Gordon Cumming and Tom Spinner and Samuel W. Baker. Well on to three thousand of these monsters have been transported to other lands, while thousands without number have been hunted down, their carcasses left for the jackals after the tu.sks had been removed. But it is no easy thing to hunt elephants. I had an opportunitv of undertaking it, but two reasons hindered me : First, it would not be just the thing for a man who preaches (227) 2:28 THE EARTH GIRDLED. the gospel of peace to be out killing elephants ; and, secondly, when I went out to hunt the elephants the elephants might come out to hunt me, and I do not think the result would be complimentary to myself. What an international joke was the imperial elephant hunt a few years ago in Ceylon. The sons of the Prince of Wales, Albert Victor and George, were coming here, and five hundred "beaters," as they are called, were out for a month " beating " elephants from the wide expanse of the forest into closer quarters where the royal boys might have the rare sport of killing them. But the affair was a failure. The ship in due time landed the boys in Colombo, but the " beaters " could not control the elephants. When the princes arrived in the evening on the appro.ximate grounds, they were told that there were two herds of elephants only a mile off": one herd of fifteen, and the other of seven, and the next day the hunt was to begin, and the capture to be made. Not much sleep that night, I warrant, because of the great things to be done the next day. But the elephants did not enter into the spirit of the occasion. That night they broke through the guards and went crushing down the trees and disappeared among the jungles. Wide and arduous , attempt was made to re-assemble them where they could be noosed and tied up and reviewed by the members of the royal family. The kraal, or strong enclosure, made out of trunks of trees was completed.' A grand-stand had been erected. A place had been arranged for the tame elephants ; a place also for the wild elephants. Strong ropes were ready. The hunter's cry had resounded through the mountains : " Hari-hari-hari-hari- hari-hari-ho-ho ! " Expectation was at the height. The auditorium of the forest was ready. The audience was ready. The stage of the theatre was ready — but no actors. As when a bill of operatic or dramatic entertainment has for \\ eeks been published, and the uight comes, and Patti's throat is out of order, or the tragedian fails to come because of an accident on the rail train : so this elephantine failure to appear put everything into confu- sion. Prince Albert had arrived walking with the Governor. Prince George had rode in on a proud steed that leaped a stream without at all disconcerting his rider. The telegraphic apparatus and the cable had begun to click restlessly while waiting for news to be swung under the sea from Ceylon to the throne of England that the two grandsons had either cap- tured, or been present at the capture, of twenty-two wild elephants. Once or twice, to fill up the time, there had been a false alarm, .shouting, and screaming, and snapping of tree branches, and cries of, "The herd! They come! The herd!" which brought out the expectants, flushed and pale, upon the grand-stand ; but a vigorously resounding " Oh, pshaw ! " finished that part of the entertainment. The time had arrived when Prince Albert must take the train for Colombo, and he and most of the illustrious party left the scene. But Prince George remained with his tutor, the Reverend J. A. Dalton. I suppose the minister as well as George wanted to see the elephant. On the following day something was accomplished. A man got near enough to an elephant to be hurt, and was killed, and an elephant came to grief, the tail of the elephant carried off" to Prince George as a trophy, a slight souvenir, a memento. But all were disappointed, and the Governor blamed Saunders, and Saunders blamed Dawson, and Ekreligoda, the old chief who had been busy with the five hundred " beaters" in gathering fifteen of the tuskers, blamed Iddomalgoda, the old chief who had gathered the seven tuskers, and the chagrined spectators blamed Ceylon. The fact was, nobody was to blame. The elephants simply declined to take part in the mountain drama. They are a wily, intelligent and aff"ectionate race. Again and again a group of them have been seen standing in silence about the stretched-out carcass of some one of their familv. The wrathiest THK WAR i;i.i;rilANT al- india. (229) 230 THE EARTH GIRDLED. elephantine stroke ever given is at him who dares wound her yonng. Harnessed and put in shafts, there liave been instances where they have droi^iDed dead under the humiliation. But the strength and uncoutliness of these creatures diverted the world from their gentler quali- ties. They must have ears very impressionable. If one be accompanied by an elephant-char- mer a wliole herd will do no damage. Such a charmer has but to hum the words, " (Jm-ani- ari-navi-saringliam-saravaye," and the whole herd fall back terrified and rush back into the jungle, — under what spell, beastly or demoniac, no one surmises. How the old monster has come swinging down the centuries ! In ancient battle the elephants swung their tusks to the slaying of the opposing hosts. After all other means of carrying beseiged gates have failed, they have been taken by elephants. One of these ancient cities of Cej'- lon stood up defiant month after month against all assault Tlien Kadol, a famous war elephant, was sent to charge the gate. Against it he hurled himself, a living battering-ram. Red-hot lead poured on him from the heights, he retreated. Then he was encased in metal plates and started for another charge, and hurling himself again, and again, and again against the gate, it burst open and the fortress was taken. Vast, mysterious, affectionate, gentle, over-powering monster ! For centuries he held possession of these forests, and he still washes in these lakes, and trumpets to the mountain hurricane. If prac- tical use can be made of him, let t1ie hunters come on with their fire-arms, or their traps ; but if it be merely to find sport that they lacerate, and wound, and slay, let them take less noble game. Of one other creature of Cey- lon I make mention, and that is tlie most dreadful thing that glides the earth, — the col:)ra. Its bite is death, and thousands have expired under its fang. It was a nnstery to me that the people of Ceylon and India did not rise for its extirpation, but the fact is the cobra is considered sacred, and to have divine power, and therefore the most celebrated descendant of that old serpent, the devil, lives on, coils up in the hall-way, attacks the bare feet of the coolie, strikes at the FLIGHT OF ROCK STEPS AT MIHINTAI.E. Mihiiitale is a rocky inoiintaiii looo feet high, to which King Deweiiipiatissa was enticed by the god Mahiiido in the form of a deer, and there converted to Bnddhism, on which account it is deeply venerated. The summit is reached by a iiight of 1S40 steps of gneiss rock, some of which are 20 feet long. The sight of numerous priests in yellow robes, and multitudes of devotees ascending and de- scending is one not easily forgotten. hunter, and is as potent now to destroy as when it stung into fatal paroxysm the children of the first missionaries. THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 231 The cobra is a genuine disciple of Bnddlia. In his temple you find a statue of its founder hovered over h\ the hood of the cobra, as in cathedrals there is a halo of light around the Madonna. To kill the cobra is to offend Deity. To save its life the native will coax the cobra into a basket of leaves and float him duwn the river. In many cases the cobra has been domesticated, and defends the house like a watch-dog, and crawls up into the lap of the matron, or licks the milk from the saucer of the children. How beautiful it must be to have one of them coiled around your pillow ! The dear pets ! There is a story among these people of Ceylon that two snakes, the cobra and ticprolonga, at a well met a child and asked from her a drink. She said she would give them a drink if they would not hurt her. They promised. The cobra kept his promise, but the ticprolonga stung the child to death. Hence the ticprolonga is hated, but the cobra is honored and worshiped. But the cobra has an enemy which, though small, is capable of grappling with it, and that is the mongoose, which grows to about the size of a small cat. When not called the mongoose, it is called the ichneumon. It feeds on an herb which is an antidote to the cobra's poison. The cobra trembles and cowers before it. The mode of battle sometimes chosen b) the mongoose is to bite off the head of the cobra. This radical style of battle leaves nothing much to be done. After the cobra has lost his head he cannot again rally his forces. The mongoose has been taken into other lands for exterminating purposes ; to Australia to kill rabbits, and to the West Indies to kill the rats. I suppose in all depart- ments of life that when there is a pest, there is an exterminator ; where there is an evil, there is a cure ; where there is a cobra, there is a mongoose. Down with this leligion of snakes ! But this reminds me that it is supposed by vast multitudes that Ceylon was the original Garden of Eden, where the snake first appeared on reptilian mission. There are reasons for belief that this was the .site where the first homestead was opened and destro^'ed. It is so near the equator that there are not more than 12° of Fahrenheit difference all the year round. Perpetual foliage, perpetual fruit, and all st>'les of animal life prosper. As far as warmth is concerned, no clothes are needed, and the fig-leaves would still be appropriate fashion if circumstances had not abolished the Edenese patterns. What luxuriance, and abundance, and superabundance of life ! What styles of plumage do not the birds sport ! What styles of scale do not the fishes reveal ! What styles of song do not the groves have in their libretto I Here on the roadside and clear out on the beach of the sea stands the cocoanut tree, saying : " Take my leaves for shade. Take the juice of my fruit for delectable drink. Take my saccharine for sugar. Take my fibre for the cordage of your ships. Take my oil to kindle your lamps ! Take my wood to fashion your cups and pitchers. Take my leaves to thatch your roofs. Take my smooth surface on which to print your books. Take my 30,000,000 trees covering 500,000 acres, and with the exportation enrich the world. I will wave in your fans, and spread abroad in ^-our umbrellas. I will vibrate in your musical instruments. I will be the scrubbing-brushes of your floors." Here also stands the palmyra tree, saying : " I am at your disposal with these arms. I fed your ancestors one hundred and fifty years ago, and with the same arms I will feed your descendants one hundred and fifty years from now. I defy the centuries ! " Here also stands the nutmeg tree, saying : " I am ready to spice your beverages, and enrich ^ our puddings and with my sweet dust make insipid things palatable." He- ■ also stands the coffee plant, saying : " With the liquid boiled from my berry I stimul ^e the nations morning by morning." 232 THE EARTH GH^DLED. Here stands the tea plant, saying : " With the liquid boiled from my leaf I soothe the world's nerves and stimulate the world's conversation evening by evening." Here stands the cinchona, saying : " I am the foe of malaria. In all climates my bitter- ness is the slaughter of fevers." What miracles of productiveness are these islands. Enough stigar to sweeten all the world's beverages ; enough bananas to fill all the world's fniit- baskets ; enough rice to mi.x all the world's puddings ; enough cocoanuts to powder all the world's cakes ; enough flowers to garland all the world's beauty. But this evening, riding through a cinnamon grove, I first tasted the leaves and bark of that condiment so valuable and delicate that transported on ships its aroma is dispelled if placed near a rival bark. Of such great value is the cinnamon shrub that years ago those who injured it in Ceylon were put to death. But that which once was a jungle SHRIN1-: (IN- THK SrMMIT OF .\DAM S PEAK AND THE SH\l"i\V iil llli: 11, Ai. There is much disputing about this sacred footprint ; some Christians declare it was made by the Apostle Thomas ; the Hindoos say it is an impression lelt by Siva's foot ; the Buddhists maintain that it was left by their Great Master, while the Mohammedans assert that the print was produced by Adam when he was cast out of Paradise and while he stood on one foot as a penance for his sins. of cinnamon is this evening a park of gentlemen's residences. The long, white dwelling- houses are bounded Vv'ith this shrub and all other styles of growth congregated here, making it a botanic garden. Doves called cinnamon doves hop among the branches, and crows, more poetically styled ravens, which never could sing, but think they can, fly across the road giving full test to their vocables, Birds which learned their chanting under the very eaves of Heaven overpower all with their " Grand March" of the tropics. The hibiscus dapples the scene with its scarlet clusters. All shades of brown, and emerald, and saffron and flamboyance, melons, limes, mangosteens, custard-apples, guavas, jsine-apples, jessamine so laden with aroma they have to hold fast to the wall, and begonias, gloriosas on fire, and orchids so delicate other lands must keep them under conservatory, but here defiant of all weather, and flowers more or less akin to the azaleas, and honeysuckles, and phloxes, and fuchsias, and chrysanthemums, and rhododendrons, and fox-gloves, and pansies, which dye LU 3' z < z: < J < 2. THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 233 the plains and mountains of Ceylon with Heaven. The evening hour burns incense of all styles of aromatics. The convolvulus, blue as though the skj' had fallen, and butterflies spangling the air, and arms of trees sleeved with blossoms, and rocks upholstered of moss, commingling sounds, and sights, and odors until eye, and ear, and nostril, vie with each other as to which sense shall open the door to the most enchantment. A struggle between music, and perfume, and iridescence. Oleanders reeling in intoxication of color. Great banyan trees that have been changing their mind for centuries, each centur\- carrying out a new plan of growth, attract our attention, and see us pass in this year of 1894, as they saw pass the generations of 1794, and 1694. Colombo is so thoroughly embowered in foliage that if you go into one of its towers and look down upon the city of 130,000 people you cannot see a house. Oh, the trees of Ceylon ! I\Iay you live to behold the morning climb- ing down through their branches, or the evening tipping their leaves with amber and gold ! I forgive the Buddhist for the worship of trees until they know of the God who made the trees. I wonder not that there are some trees in Ceylon called sacred. To me all trees are sacred. I wonder not that before one of them the inhabitants burn camphor flowers, and hang lamps around its branches, and a hundred thousand people each year make pilgrimage to that tree. Worship something man nnist, and until he hear of the only Being worthy of worship, what so elevating as a tree ! "What glory enthroned amid its foliage ! What a majestic doxology spreads out in its branches ! What a voice when the tempests pass through it ! How it looks down upon the cradle and the grave of centuries ! As the fruit of one tree unlawfully eaten struck the race with woe, and the uplifting of another tree brings peace to the soul, let the woodman spare the tree, and all nations honor it, if, through higher teaching, we do not. Tike the Ceylonese, worship it ! How consolatory that when we no more walk tmder the tree branches on earth we may see the " Tree of life which bears twelve manner of fruit, and yields her fruit every mouth, and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations ! " ■ .. *: .%&■■ GROUP OF HINDOO GIRLS AT THKIR TOILET. CHAPTER XXIV. ENTRANCE TO INDIA. OHE Bengal Bay, notwithstanding its reputation for cyclones, smiled on ns all the way until the color of its water changed, by reason of the large contribution of mud which the river Hooghly, one of the mouths of the Ganges, makes to it. Up this river we must go one hundred miles before we reach that for which we are longing — a sight of the city of Calcutta. We have taken on a pilot, and yet must anchor for the night outside, as the river Hooghly is constantly changing its habits, and sud- denly deposits sand-bars, which capsize ships, putting them all under except the top of the masts. One of the islands in this river is called the James and Mary, because there, in 1694, a royal ship by that name went to pieces. The entrance to Calcutta excels all other approaches in uncertainty and peril. Just before we disembarked, a lad\- said to me, " I am surprised at >ou. I saw you calmly writing while we were passing the most dangerous places in this river." The fact was, I did not know enough to be anxious or alarmed. Two other ships, one from China, and the other from England, arrived at the mouth of the river about the same time that we arrived, and such windings up the great stream, turning this way and that way without any seeming reason ; now by this bank, and now by the opposite bank, and now equidistant from the cocoanut palms on either side ; and then slowing up until motion was almost imperceptible, suggested the necessity of skillful pilotage. Indeed, tlie pilots here receive larger compensation tlian the pilots of any other harbor, and they soon become rich men, if they do not make a mis- take and go down with all hands on board. This Hooghly river evidently intended you shall not come too suddenly upon the great capital of India. You must wait. You must have your anticipations aroused. The lights must be turned on gradually. You must not have your nerves struck by instantaneous appearance. You walk from starboard to larboard, and from larboard to starboard, wondering from what quarter the first dome will bubble on your vision. At last the towers, the minarets, the pillars appear. The wharves are lined with people in color and dress foreign to those with which we have for a lifetime been most familiar. The great ship is slowly and laboriously pushed and drawn to the wharf. The gang-plank is lowered, and we descend into a world as new to us as though it had been on the other side of the uni\erse. We had no trouble with the custom-house officials about any of our baggage except a kodak, the DEVOTEE ENDURING FIRE. THE WORLD AS vSEEN TO-DAY. 235 small instrument for takin*; photographs. The officer had never seen one. He asked what it was, handling it very cautiously. He put it down and took it up, looking as closely as he dared at the opening, and then went away to consider. He, after a while, returned and said that this mvsterious machine would have to go to the custom-house — he would not take the responsibility of letting it pass. He evidently took the kodak as a deadly instru- ment. He suspected it might be an infernal machine and had apprehension that we might intend with it to blow up the governmental buildings. In vain we assured him that innocent people in America were accustomed to use it ; that it never imperiled life, and we proposed to partially open it and let him see. But this proposal Slliri'ixr. IN TTIE RIVER HOOGHLV. seemed to increase his fear, and he retreated to the door of the cabin ready to jump over- board in case the ship should be blown up bv this deadly kodak. All the rest of our lug- gage he chalked as safe to pass, but sent a servant, whose life the custom-house officer esti- mated at less value than his own, to remove the kodak. On the following day, after long explanation and the payment of high dut\- for the privilege of bringing into India this, instrument of terror, the kodak, we got possession of our property. We warn Americans traveling in foreign lands to keep their kodak out of sight as far as possible. It is wrong to shake the nervous system of public officials, and you may get yourself arrested where release is difficult. Our kodak has taken many things since we left 236 THE EARTH GIRDLED. home, but this is the only time our kodak itself was taken. We bade farewell to the passengers, very few in number, because this is early for travel in India. A most delightful acquaintance we had formed with General Lance, brigadier-general com- manding the fort, whose guns look down at us from the parapets. The General had been to Australia for summer recupera- tion ; a soldier in every move m cut, and a gentleman whose rare qualities entranced us from the time we formed his acquaintance on ship-board until the day we left him at his door in the fort with a groujj of dis- tinguished people whom he had invited tu meet us at lunch- eon. His appearance was that of the late General W. T. Sher- man. I saw this En- glish officer twenty times a day on my way from Australia to India, and always said within myself: " Here comes Gen- eral Sherman." The English officer has long been in the army in India ; has been in battle ; and maintains h i g h Christian character, though far away from the land of his nativity, which can- not be said of all rep- resentatives in mili- tarj' and civil service many strangers in the course of my busy but General Lance will alwavs remain lilSHUi- HJ-I.JK > MAitii, i^ALi^LllA CATHEDRAL. when they get from home influence. I meet so life that many go into indenniteness of memory in my mind the unique, cultivated, obliging, talented, attractive and splendid Christian gentleman. 237 238 THE EARTH GIRDLED. That evening at the Great Eastern Hotel we planned the particulars of our Indian jour- ney. There are many things we want to see, but there are many things we must see. Our first surprise is the weather. We were told again and again, especially by English gentlemen, that we must not go to India .in September, but we must go then or not go at all. We thought of India in this month as a sort of Nebuchadnezzar's furnace, if not seven times, at least three times heated, and sympa- thized with Shad- rach, IMeshach and Abednego. We fear- ed being cremated in the first day or two. The fact is that we have often found it hotter in Brooklyn and New York than in Calcutta. First of all, we are clothed in white, and in thinnest fab- ric. Then, in our sitting and sleeping rooms, as well as in the dining-room, the fan, called the pmika, reaching from wall to wall, is ever on the swing, pulled by some one outside the door. I wonder that all lands afflicted with hot weather have not adopted the punka. It makes the differ- ence between de- lectation and suffo- cation. It would be more expensive in our lands than here, where waoes are four f 1 Ij; OF THE BLACK HOLE, CALCUTTA. cents a day and a man finds himself. All that is asked for the punka swung all da\' and all night, employing four different persons, is twenty-five cents. But though American and English wages would make the swinging of the punka more expensive, how much nerve, and muscle, and brain, and health, and life it would save, and in the end it would be an economy. THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 239 I preached under a punka in tliis cit\-, in a room wliere four punkas were going, and I kept cool. Whv not have them in our American churches? City audiences then in July and August would be almost as large as in the month of May. The punka is not an Indian institution. The English introduced it. Formerly coolies with a small fan stood all night long over the sweltering European or American. Our winters in New York and London are well combated by steam pipe and furnace register, but we need the punka transported to battle the summers. Instead of being used only in our northern latitudes for the making of restaurants tolerable, it might be made a matter of national health and Christianization. The cit\- has put in bronze and marble its appreciation of the men who have made India what it is. Good and great Bishop Heber stands in the Cathedral, sculptor's chisel having perpetuated a forehead on which genius was enthroned, and a face in which kindness took possession of every lineament. You can almost hear his gown rustle, and see his »^;^.' ■»»Ji»*''i f0^"^3^' M V^W"^ GROUP OF DEVOTEES IN A TEMPLE. fingers tremble with exquisite hymnology, as he writes " From Greenland's icy mountains ; From India's coral strand." But the men of statesmanship and war confront you in the open spaces of the city : Sir John Lawrence and General Outram, of Lucknow fame, reining in a charger, and Sir William Peel, of the Naval Brigade, and Lord Hardinge, and Earl of Mayo. But the men of the past do not monopolize the attention of this city. I have no doubt there are persons walking up and down these streets every day who have as noble ch.arac- teristics as belong to any of those departed heroes on the parks wrapped in robes of stone, or mounted on horses of stone, or looking off with eyes of stone. The Calcutta of to-day is greater than the Calcutta of the past. A great city of nearly 900,000 inhabitants. It excites the wonder of every visitor. Its architecture, its gardens, its humane intitutions, its thronged streets, its equipages moving out in the cool of the day, its colleges, its university, 240 THE EARTH GIRDLED. its esplanade, its magnificent hospitals, its Christian missionaries are a fascination. The Viceroy at this season is in the Himalayas, and much of the life of the city is awa)-, but the place is merry and wide-awake. Polo games, football, fine oarsmanship, and groups bound on recreation are here and now to be seen by those who enjoy them, while religious work is in Rill blast and ready to absorb the attention of those who are hoping for the redemption of India. Nothing can hide the fact that idolatry and superstition are yet dominant in Calcutta. Brahma, and Vishnu, and Siva have more worshipers than the God of heaven. For the first time I had the opportiuiity of talking with a fakir, or a man who has renounced the world and lives on alms. He sat under a rough covering on a BDKMESR CART. platform of brick. He was covered with the ashes of the dead, and was at the time I saw him rubbing more of those ashes upon his arms and legs. He understood and spoke English. I .said to him : " How long have you been .seated here?" He replied : " Fifteen years." " Have these idols which I see any power of themselves to help or destroy ? " He said : " No ; the\- only represent God. There is but one God." Question: "When people die where do thev go to?" Ansivcr : "That depends upon what they have been doing. If they have been doing good, to heaven ; if they have been doing evil, to hell." Qitcstioii : "But do you not believe in the tran.smigration of .souls, and that after death we go into birds or animals of some sort?" THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 241 Answer: ''Yes; the last creature a man is thinking of wliile dying is the one into which he will go. If he is thinking of a bird he will go into a bird, and if he is thinking of a cow he will go into a cow." Question : " I thought you said that at death the soul goes to heaven or hell ? " Anszver : " He goes there by a gradual process. It may take him years and years." Question: "Can any one become a Hindoo? Could I become a Hindoo?" Answer: "Yes; you could." Question : " How could I become a Hindoo ? " Anszver: "By doing as the Hindoos do." But as I looked upon the poor, filthy wretch, bedaubing himself with the ashes of the dead, I thought the last thing on earth I would want to become would be a Hindoo. HINDU DEVOTEES — CARS OF JUGGERN.\UT. I had to-day the pleasure of visiting the DuflF College and of addressing some three hundred or four hundred young students. All of them save four or five were Hindoos, Parsees or Mohammedans. They understood English, and it was a pleasure to address an audience so alert and inquisitive. Dr. Duff raised the money for this college in his own land, and pictures and statuettes in different rooms of the college bring to mind that wonderful personage. How well I remember him on the platform of Broadway Tabernacle, New York, pleading the cause of India at the anniversary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. His vehemence was something terrific. His manner was a defiance of all elocutionary laws. How he wept, and thundered, and satirized, and prayed, and threatened, and enraptured that great assemblage ! In Dr. Duff's day this college at Calcutta was entirely controlled by the evangelical spirit. I hope it is so now, for if these hundreds of young men are educated only as to the head, and go forth with a developed acumen and 16 242 THE EARTH GIRDLED. augmented power, not to conunend Clirist, bnt to preach Hindooisni and Alohammedanism, the advantage to tlie world would be infinitesnial. Calcutta is the headquarters of Bishop Tliobnrn's work, and what Bishop Heber did in his day Bishop Thoburn is now doing lor the gospelization (jf India. I saw some of his schools and preached to many of his people, and got iacts in regard to what is being done here and throughout India by consecrated men and women, enough to thrill all Christendom with gladness. About twenty-five thousand converts in India every year under the Metho- dist missions, and about twent\--fi\'e thousand converts under the Baptist missions, and at least seventy-five thousand converts under all the missions every year. But more than that, Christianity is undermining heathenism, and not a city, or town, or neighborhood of India but directly or indirectly feels the influence, and the day speeds on when Hindooism will go down with a crash. There are wdiole villages which have given up their gods, and where not an idol is left. The serfdom of womanhood is being loosened, and the iron grip of caste is being relaxed. Human sacrifices have ceased, and the last spark of the last funeral pyre has been extinguished, and the wheel of the Juggernaut has ceased to crush. All India will be taken for Christ. If any one has any disheartenments let him keep them as his own private property — he is welcome to all of them. But if any man has any encourage- ments to utter, let him utter them. What we want is less croaking owls of the night, and more morning larks with spread wing, ready to meet the advancing day. Fold up now Naomi and Windham, and give us Ariel, or Mt. Pisgah, or Coronation ! Glad am I that the last thing I did in Calcutta was to preach that gospel which is to save India, and to save the world. Witli what interest I looked over the pulpit into the dark faces of these natives, and saw them illumined with heavenly anticipation. Wliile )et they were seated I took my departure for a railroad train. A swift carriage brought me to the station not more than half a minute before starting. I came nearer to mi.'^sing the train than I hope any one of us will come to missing hea\-en. L \K\ !■ II IMAI.l'..^ Ill IMi .u.\. CHAPTER XXV. BURNING OF THE DEAD. GOW I "V'ill take you to the very headquavters of heathendom, to the very capital of Hindooisni ; for what ^Nlecca is to the ]\Iohaininedan, and what Jerusalem is to the Christian, Benares, India, is to the Hindoo. We arrived there in the evening, and the next morning we started out earh', among other things to see the burning of the dead. We saw it, cremation, not as many good people in America and England are now advocating it, namely, the burning of the dead in clean, and orderly, and refined crematory, the hot furnace soon reducing the human form to a powder to be carefully preserved in an urn ; but cremation as the Hindoos practice it. We got into a boat and were rowed down the river Ganges until we came opposite to where five dead bodies lay, four of them women wr^nped in red garments, and a man wrapped in white. Our boat fast- ened, we waited and waiched. High piles of wood were on the bank, and this wood is care- fully weighed on large scales, according as the friends of the deceased can afford to pay for it. In manv cases onlv a few sticks can be afforded, and the dead body is burned only a little, and then thrown into the Ganges. But where the relatives of the deceased are well- to-do, an abundance of wood in pieces four or five feet long is purchased. Two or three layers of sticks are then put on the ground to receive the dead fomi. Small pieces of san- dal-wood are inserted to produce fragrance. The deceased is lifted from the resting-place and put upon this wood. Then the cover is removed from the face of the corpse and it is bathed with the water of the Ganges. Then several more layers of wood are put upon the body, and other sticks are placed on both sides of it, but the head and feet are left exposed. Then a quantity of grease sufficient to make everything inflammable is put on the wood, and into the mouth of the dead. Then one of the richest men in Benares, his fortune made in this way, furnishes the fire, and, after the priest has mumbled a few words, the eldest son walks three times around the sacred pile, and then applies the torch, and the fire blazes up, and in a short time the body has become the ashes which the relatives throw into the Ganges. We saw floating past us on the Ganges the body of a child which had been only partly burned, because the parents could not afford enough wood. While we watched the floating form of the child a crow alighted upon it. In the mean time hundreds of Hindoos were bathing in the river, dipping their heads, filling their mouths, supplying their brass cups, muttering words of so-called prayer. Such a mingling of superstition, and loathsomeness, and inhumanity I had never before seen. The Ganges is to the Hindoo the best river of all the earth, but to me it is the vilest stream that ever rolled its stench in horror to the sea. I looked all along the banks for the mourners for the dead. I saw in two of the cities nine cremations, but in no case a sad look or a tear. I said to friends: "How is this? Have the living no grief for the dead?" I found that the women do not come forth on such occasions, but that does not account for the absence of all signs of grief. There is another reason more potent. ^len do not see the faces of their wives until after marriage. They take them on recommendation. Marriages thus formed, of course, have not much affection (243) 244 THE EARTH GIRDLED. in them. Women are married at seven and ten years of age, and are grandmothers at thirty. Such unwisely-formed family associations do not imply much ardor of love. The family so jDoorly put together — who wonders that it is easily taken apart ? And so I account for the absence of all signs of grief at the cremation of the Hindoos. Benares is the capital of Hindooisni and Buddhism, but Hindooism has trampled out Buddhism, the hoof of the one monster on the grizzly neck of the other monster. It is also the capital of filth, and the capital of malodors, and the capital of indecency. The Hin- doos say they have 300,000,000 gods. Benares being the headquarters of these deities, )on will not be surprised to find that the making of gods is a profitable business. Here there CORPSE IN GANGES AND CREMATION ON THE BANK. are carpenters making wooden gods, and brass workers making brass gods, and sculptors making stone gods, and potters making clay gods. I cannot think of the abominations practiced here without a recoil of stomach and a need of cologne. Although much is said about the carvings on the temples of this city, everything is so vile that there is not nnich room left for the resthetic. The devotees enter the temples nineteen-twentieths unclothed, and depart begging. All that Hindooism can do for a man or woman it does here. Not- withstanding all that may have been said in its favor at the Parliament of Religions in Chicago, it makes man a brute, and woman the lowest type of slave. I would rather be a horse or a cow or a dog in India than be a woman. The greatest disaster that can happen to a Hindoo is that he was born at all. (245) 246 THE EARTH GIRDLED. Benares is imposino; in the distance as you look at it from the other side of the Ganges. Tlie fortv-seveii gliats, or fliglits of stone steps, reaching from the water's edge to the build- ings high up on the banks, mark a place for the ascent and descent of the sublimities. The eye is lost in the bewilderment of tombs, shrines, minarets, palaces and temples. It is the glorification of steps, the triumph of stairways. But looked at close by, the temples, though large and expensive, are anything but attractive. The seeming gold in man\- cases turns out to be brass. • The precious stones in the wall turn out to be paint. The marble is stucco. The slippery and disgusting steps lead you to images of horrible visage, and the flowers put upon the altar have their fragrance submerged by that which is the opposite of aromatics. After you have seen the ghats, the two great things in Benares that you must see are the PRKPARINr. FOR THE IMMOLATION OF A HINDOO wmOW, Golden and Monkev Temples. About the vast Golden Temple there is not as much gold as would make an English sovereign. The air itself is asphyxiated. Here we see men making gods out of mud and then putting their hands together in worship of that which themselves have made. vSacred cows walk up and down the temple. Here stood a Fakir with a right arm uplifted, and for so long a time that he could not take it down, and the nails of the hand had grown until they looked like serpents winding in and around the palm. The god of the Golden Temple is Siva, or the poison god. Devils wait upon him. He is the god of war, of famine, of pestilence. He is the destroyer. He has around his neck a string of skulls. Before him bow men whose hair never knew a comb. They eat carrion and that which is worse. Bells and drums here set up a racket. Pilgrims come from 1-47 2 48 THE EARTH GIRDLED. hundreds of miles away, spending their last piece of money and exhausting their last atom of strength in order to reach this Golden Teuii^le, glad to die in or near it, and have the ashes of their bodies thrown into the Ganges. We took a carriage and went still further on to see the INIonkey Temple, so-called because in and around the building monkeys abound and are kept as sacred. All evolution- ists should visit this temple devoted to the family from which their ancestors came. These monkeys chatter, and wink, and climb, and look wise, and look silly, and have full posses- sion of the place. We were asked at the entrance of the Monkey Temple to take off our shoes because of the sacredness of the place, but a small contribution placed in the hands of an attendant resulted m a -•- *s£>~i^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ~ permission to enter with ''-',~j'>'"?iS\»^^^^^ffi^B^^^^^^^^ our shoes on. As the •' - r< - , ii'- posed to be a supernatural Xantippe ; hence to her are brought flowers and rice, and here and there the flowers are spattered with the blood of goats slain in sacrifice. As we walk to-day through this Monkey Temple we must not hit, or tease, or hurt oue of them. Two Engl isii men years ago lost their lives by the maltreatment of a monkey. Passing along one of these Indian streets, a monkey did not soon enough get out of the way, and one of the Englishmen struck it with his cane. Immediately the people and the priests gathered around these strangers, and the public wrath increased until the two Englishmen were pounded to death for having struck a monkey. No land in all the world so reveres the monkey as India, as no other land has a temple called after it. One of the Rajahs of India spent 100,000 rupees in the marriage of two monkeys. A nuptial proces- sion was formed, in which moved camels, elephants, tigers, cattle, and palanquins of richly- dressed people. Bands of music sounded the wedding march. Dancing parties kept the night sleepless. It was twelve days before the monkey and monkeyess were free from their IIRAHMA AS THR FOl-R-FACED BUDDHA. '** >*, '» ii •'' ,:: .^lifl H (249; 250 THE EARTH GIRDLED. round of _^ay attentions. In no place l:>ut India conld such a carnival have occurred. Bui after all, while we cannot approve of the ]\Ionke\' Temple, the monkey is sacred to hilarity. I defy an}' one to watch a monkey one minitte without lau,L;hter. Why was this creature made? For the world's amusement. The mission of some animals is left doubtful and we cannot see the use of this or that quadruped, or this or that insect, but the mission of the ape is certain ; all around the earth it entertains. Whether seated at the top of this temple in India, or cutting up its antics on the top of a hand-organ, it stirs the sense of the ludi- crous ; tickles the diaphragm into cachinnation ; topples gravity into play, and accomplishes that for which it was created. The eagle, and the lion, and the gazelle, and the robin no more certainly have their mission than has the monkey. But it implies a low form of Hindooism when this embodied mimicry of the human race is lifted into worship. There are, however, alleviations for Benares. I attended worship in one of the Christian missions. The sermon, though delivered in Hindoostanee, of which I could not understand a word, thrilled me with its earnestness and tenderness of tone, especially when the missionar\' told me at the close of the service that he recently baptized a man who was converted through reading one of my sermons among the hills of India. The songs of the two Christian assemblages I visited in this city, although the tunes were new, and the senti- ments not translated, were uplifting and inspiring to the last degree. There was also a school of 600 native girls, an institution established by a Rajah of generosity and wealth, a graduate of Madras University. But more than all, the missionaries are busy, some of them preaching on the ghats, some of them in churches, in chapels, and bazaars. The London Missionary Society has here its college for young men, and its schools for children, and its houses of worship for all. The Church Missionary Society has its eight schools, all filled with learners. The evangelizing work of the Wesleyans and the Baptists are felt in all parts of Benares. In its mightiest stronghold Hindooism is being assaulted. And now as to the industrious malignment of missionaries : It has been said by some travelers after their return to America or England that the missionaries are leading a life full of indolence and luxury. That is a falsehood that I would say is as high as heaven if it did not go down in the opposite direction. When strangers come into these tropical climates, the missionaries do their best to entertain them, making sacrifices for that purpose. In the city of Benares a missionary told me that a gentleman coming from England into one of the mission stations of India, the missionaries banded together to entertain him. Among other things, they had a ham boiled, prepared and beautifully decorated, and the same ham was passed around from house to house as this stranger appeared, and in other respects a conspiracy of kindness was effected. The visitor went home to England and wrote and spoke of the luxury in which the missionaries of India were living. Americans and Englishmen come to these tropical regions and find a missionary living under palms and with different styles of fruits on his table, and forget that palms are here as cheap as hickory or pine in America, and rich fruits as cheap as plain apples. They find here missionaries sleep- ing under punkas, these fans swung day and night by coolies, and forget that four cents a day is good wages here, and the man finds himself Four cents a day for a coachman ; a missionary can afford to ride. There have been missionaries who have come to these hot climates resoh'ing to live as the natives live, and one or two years have finished their work, their chief use on missionary ground being that of furnishing for a large funeral the chief object of interest. So far from living in idleness, no men on earth work so hard as the missionaries in the foreign field. Against fearful odds, and with three millions of Christians opposed to two hundred and fifty millions of Hindoos, Mohammedans and other false religions, these GOSAIN TEMPLE, BENARES. (25") 252 THE EARTH GIRDLED. missionaries are trying to take India for God. Let the good people of America, and Eng- land, and Scotland, and of all Christendom add ninety-nine and three-quarters per cent to their appreciation of the fidelity and consecration of foreign missionaries. Far away from home, in an exhausting climate, and compelled to send their children to England, Scotland or America so as to escape the corrupt conversation and behavior of the natives, these men and women of God toil on until they drop into their graves. But they will get their chief appreciation when their work is over and the day is won, as it will be won. No place in heaven will be too good for them. Some of the ministers at home who live on salaries of #4000 to $5000 a year, preaching the gospel of Him who had not where to lay His head, will enter heaven and be welcomed, and while looking for a place to sit down, they will be told : " Yonder in that lower line of thrones you will take your places. Not on the thrones nearest the King ; they are reserved for the missionaries ! " THK KING OF NEPAUI, AND COMMANDING GENERALS. (n CHAPTER XXVI. GREAT SNAKES HAT a suggestive word is the word " snakes ! " You cannot pronounce it without two hisses. Well, the snake question in India is an absorbing question. In Bengal, i. e., the region approximate to Calcutta, in 1892 there were 9190 deaths caused by the bite of serpents, and last year 10,747 deaths. On an average, 20,000 people die of snake-bite in India every year. No wonder the government has offered a reward for the killing of snakes, and 117,120 have been slain! In a former chapter I stated that the natural enemy of the serpent was the mongoose, the latter living on herbs that are an antidote to the poison, but since then I have seen a contest between a cobra and a mongoose, and have from my own observation to correct some things that were told me about them. They were in the possession of a snake- charmer. The mongoose is about the color and size of our American squirrel, and one would think it unable to cope with the cobra, but the quadruped can master the reptile. As the snake-charmer put forth the cobra and the mongoose, they seemed unwilling to touch each other, the cobra avoiding the mongoose and the mongoose avoiding the cobra. But the owner of the two was determined to bring on battle, and he succeeded. The mongoose coming too near the cobra, it lifted its head, widened it into the shape of a hood and struck its fangs at the mongoose. The mongoose bit back at the assailant, and the cobra gave a second stroke. Then the ire of the mongoose was up, and it went furioush' at the reptile. They seized each other in the fray, in which it was evident one or both must die. The mongoose took the cobra by the brain and held on with a prolonged bite, accompanied by the wagging of its head as if in emphasis of rage, and the cobra wound its thick folds about the mongoose, round and round, until the quadruped was hidden beneath the ringlets of the serpent. The teeth of the quadruped sank into the brain of the reptile, and the folds of the snake coiled about the neck and body of the mongoose. Matters had gone so far there could be no truce, no let-up, no halting. Tighter and tighter the coil of the one ; deeper and deeper the teeth of the other. Now it would seem that the cobra would gain the day, and now the mongoose. I l:now not which of the contestants enlisted the sympathies of the other by-standers, but my sympathies were with the mongoose. The result could not be (253) MONGOOSE. 254 THE EARTH GIRDLED. much longer postponed. One more terrible writhing and struggle and all was still. Then out from the foam, and blood, and dust, and fury of the fray walked the mongoose, the cobra giving no sign. It had given its last hiss. It had bitten the last child. It had lifted its horrid crest for the last time. This reptilian curse is everywhere in India. Taking a walk in one of the cities, nine o'clock in the evening, one of these creatures wiigglcd across the pavement. The ne.xt f Mpf' i 'W'ii^t ' i^'i«'B ' i|i morning, walking out, a cobra pre- !;a' ^ ' r| sented itself for the assault of my . friends. A missionary here told me that he saw a large cobra which j^ had been caged and petted by a native man and woman, and they let it crawl awa}-, and as it went into a hole the man and woman said, " Good cobra ; dear cobra ; salaam ; salaam." We were in several places where on rising in the morning I was careful to examine mv shoes to see if they were occupied by a snake, for they love to coil up in shoes. Occasionally they crawl into the bed, and more than once I was told not to let the shawl on the bed cover hang to the floor, for sometimes snakes ascended to co- partnership in slumber. When I objected to two lizards in the room they were pronounced of no im- portance, and I could get no one to expel them. Every native and every European has some nice snake story with which he is ready to entertain you. That crawling creature, for which we have such an aversion, excites no such feel- ings in the natives of India. One of the cities is named after it — Nagmore, or The City of the Snake. Temples have been dedi- cated to it. The shadow of the reptile falling on any one is considered a sure promise of good luck. A day in July is set apart for special homage to it. Its worshipers draw a serpentine figure on a house and then clasp the hands in prayer before it. On that especial Sabbath of the year they sit down by caves, or near holes in the earth, waiting for reptiles to appear, and if they appear fruits are offered. Snakedom is a strong dominion in India. The bite of the cobra is never cured. Nitrate of silver, and arsenic, and ammonia, and snake-stone have been FESTIVAL OF THE SEKPENTS. THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 255 used in vain. The patient ninst die. It is only a matter of a few hours. The snake- charmers who play with these creatures have, I imagine, in most cases previously extracted the fangs. A Hindoo boA-, mentioned by the daughter of Sir Bartle Frere, could with his voice charm these creatures. Tliey would come out of the fields, and from among tiie rocks, and play around him and do as he commanded. So great was the power of this young charmer that people came from far and near to see him, and many to worship him. At last he sported with these products of the jungle once too often. Under some provocation one of them struck him and he died. It was entertaining to see a lad in jugglery with snakes in front of our hotel. He would take a blanket and shake it out in our presence, and no snake was in sight. Afterwards he would wrap the blanket around him and then drop it, and around his neck was coiled a long reptile. He would blow a noisy musical instrument, and all the snakes in the basket would lift up their heads and the snake on the ground would begin to dance. Did ever orchestra entertain such an audi- ence ? These snakes prefer cool places and a gentleman told me that one morning in one of these large cities he found a cobra peacefully and hap- pib; resting itself in his bath-room. When property is deeded it is quite usual to mention the snakes as deeded with it. Walking through a public garden a gentleman said to me : " Be a little careful and watch where you tread ; for there are a good many snakes in this region." Returning from the walk to our carriage we found a monstrous snake close by. It was dead. Some yotnig men had killed it and would, as a joke, have put it in our carriage, but the driver said he had protested. Passsing along a street my son said : " Did you notice what was on the side of you ? " I said, " No." Then he drew my attention to the fact that we had passed near several large baskets of cobras — of course, under the care of their keepers. Bishop Heber, known as a good authority in missionary hyinnology, is not so well known as an authority on great snakes, but in a chapter of his diary written on the Ganges, he gives this experience : INDIAN CONTtTRING TRICK. ^56 THE EARTH GIRDLED. " This morning as I was at breakfast the alarm was given of a great snake in the after cabin, wliich had fonnd its way into a basket containing two caps, presents for my wife and myself from Dccca. The reptile was innnediately and without examination prononnced to be a cobra, and caused great alarm among my ser\'ants. However, on dislodging it from its retreat, it pro\x'd to be only a water-snake. It appeared to have been coiled np ver}' neatly aronnd the fnr of a cap, and thongh its bite wonld not have been venomous, it certainly would have inflicted a severe wound on anybody who had incautiously opened the basket. I had once or twice fancied I heard a gentle hissing, but the idea of a snake in the boat seemed so impossible that I attributed the noise to different causes, or to fancy. Much wonder was expressed at finding it in such a place, but as I have seen one of the same kind climb a tree, it is probable that it had ascended one of the ropes b}- which the boat is moored, and so got among us. I have heard of one English lady at Patna who once lay a whole night with a cobra under her pillow. She repeatedly thought during the night that something moved, and in the morning when sli-^ snatched the pillow away she found the thick, black throat, the square head and green, diamond-like eye advanced within two inches of her neck. The snake, fortunately, was without malice. His hood was uninflated, and he was merely enjoying the wannth of his nest. But, alas for her if she had during the night pressed the reptile a little too roughly ! " So wrote the good Bishop. I wish he had gone on and given us his opinion why the snake was created at all. It may be that, before its ApoUyonic possession, its streaks, and spots, and variegation of color may have been attractive and it was a study of the beautiful. It may be that the world needed the reptile as a perpetual symbol of the sly and the poisonous. It may be that the human race required admoni- tion of the fact that under the loveliest and sweetest things lurks peril. Perhaps it was to make one more addition to the world of mystery, the realm of the unknown always vaster than the realm of the known. z\fter we have carried the torch of exploration into some cathedral of mystery and are congratulating ourselves that we have found out e\'erything, we look around and discover that for the one open door we have entered there are twenty doors yet unopened. T^arger than all the combined libraries of what the world knows would be the library of what the world does not know. Come now, thou wise-acre ! Explain the cobra di capello. As for myself, I adjourn the attempt at explanation. What a dull place heaven would be if we knew everything here ! Universal knowledge now would stupefy the eternities. In our northern latitudes, where we so seldom see the sly and venomous reptile, we can hardly appreciate why such prominence is given in Oriental literature, and especially in the Holy Scriptures, to metaphors connected with the reptile. The sufferings of Christ and His >' fff| A HINDOO JUGGLER. THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. -57 final victory are set forth b)- a serpentine figure, where it is said of the descendant of woman and the descendant of the serpent, "It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." The painful laceration of the foot by a serpent fang suggestive of the sorrows of Christ, and the stamping on a snake's head until it is slain suggestive of our Lord's triumph : " It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." In Paradisaical times the Devil took the form of a snake, and there is the satanic look in ever\^ reptile that I have ever seen, whether in India or the United States. Solo- mon says the work of rum is serpentine, adderine ; but people do not realize that he is describing delirium tremens when he says, " It biteth like a serpent and stingeth like adder." When people have delirium tremens they alway see snakes. David, speaking of the influence of bad men, says : " Their poison is like the poison of serpents." The THE FAKIR OF THE IMMOVABLE FOOT. ..,.-, , strong snnilarity oi the eel and the serpent is mentioned in the Bible, when speaking of a father and his son, it says : " If he a.sk meat will he give him a serpent?" Christ said to the hypocritical Phari- sees : " Ye generation of an ^fyt. ,^- , ••£... if Vipers I " FAKIR HANGING TO A LIMB. But the snake will have to leave India, and leave the world. If St. Patrick drove these crea- tures out of Ireland, as many suppose, he is worthy of all the St. Patrick din- ners spread in his memon,'. Genesis, the first book in the Bible, describes the entrance of the serpent ; Revelation, the last book of the Bible, describes its extirpa- tion, where St. John speaks of the destruction of " that old serpent, called the Devil." That I take both literally and figurativelv. While we congratulate ourselves that our Christian lands are comparatively free from reptiles, there are as man}- cobras in England and America as in India. They crawl through libraries and sting the soul of the FAKIR OF THE LONG NAILS. yo""g "i'^^" ^^1° "P^^s a bad book. Thcy ciawl through (The growth ofthe nails shows how long the parlors and liiss in the gossiping conver.sation. They hand has been held in this one position.) .^. , ,-, . ii-.i j Wind in and out among the decanters, and ale pitchers, and demijohns of those who are becoming the victims of intoxicants. They slyly put their fangs out from between the lids of the infidel essay. They coil around the legs of the 17 258 THE EARTH GIRDLED. gaming-table. They lift their heads among the orange blossoms of unwise marriages. They crawl under the sea with the length of a submarine cable. The\- arch the heavens with international malevolence. They wind the throat of every cannon. They snuggle in the hilt of ever\- sword. They are in the black links of every chain. Cobras! Away with them! The gospel balm is the only antidote to the poison. The thunders of the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the only things that can destroy them. HINDOO STONE CAKVERS, CHAPTER XXVII. THE TRAGEDY OF LUCKNOW. 'S onr train glided into the dimly-lighted station, I asked the giiard, " Is this Lncknow ? " and he answered, " Lucknow," at the prommciation of which proper name emotions rnshed through bodv, mind and sonl. The word is a synonym of suffering, of cruelty, of heroism, of horror such as is suggested by hardly any other word. We have for thirty-five jears been reading of the agonies there endured and the daring deeds there witnessed. It was my great desire to have some one who had witnessed the scenes transacted in Lucknow in 1857 conduct us over the place. We found just the man. He was a young soldier at the time the greatest mutiny of the ages broke out, and he was put with others inside of the Residenc\-, which was a cluster of buildings making a fortress in which the representatives of the English Government lived, and which was to be the scene of an endurance and a bombardment, the stor\- of which, poetr}" and painting and history, and secular and sacred eloquence have been trying to depict. Our escort not onl\- had a good memory of what had happened, but had talent enough to rehearse the tragedy. In the early part of 1857 all over India the natives were ready to break out in rebellion against all foreigners, and especially against the civil and military representatives of the English Government. A half dozen causes are mentioned for the feeling of discontent and insurrection that was evidenced throughout India. The most of these causes were mere pretexts. Greased cartridges were no doubt an exasperation. The grease ordered by the English Government to be used on these cartridges was taken from cows or pigs, and grease to the Hindoos is unclean, and to bite these cartridges at the loading of the guns would be an offence to the Hindoos' religion. The leaders of the Hindoos said that these greased cartridges were only part of an attempt by the English Government to make the natives give up their religion ; hence unbounded indignation was aroused. Another cause of the mutiny was that another large province of India had been annexed to the British Empire, and thousands of officials in the employ of the king of that province were thrown out of position, and they were all ready for trouble-making. Another cause was said to be the bad government exercised by some English officials in India. The simple fact was that the natives of India were a conquered race, and the English were the conquerors. For one hundred years the British sceptre waved over India, and the Indians wanted to break that sceptre. There never had been any love or sympath)- between the natives of India and the Europeans ; there is none now. Before the time of the great mutiny the English Government risked much power in the hands of the natives. Too many of them manned the forts. Too many of them were in governmental employ. And now the time had come for a wide outbreak. The natives had persuaded themselves that they could send the English Government flving, and to accomplish it, dagger, and sword, and fireanns, and mutilation, and slaughter must do their worst. (259) 26o THE EARTH GIRDLED. It was evident in Lncknow that the natives were about to rise and put to death all the Europeans they could lay their hands on, and into the Residency the Christian population of Lucknow hastened for defence from the tigers in human form which were growling for their victims. The occupants of the Residency, or fort, were military and non-combatants, men, women and children, in number about 1692. I suggest in one sentence some of the chief woes to which they were subjected, when I say that these people were in the Residency five months without a single change of clothing ; some of the time the heat at 120 and 130 degrees ; the place black with flies, and all asquirm with vermin ; firing of the enemy upon them ceasing neither day nor night ; the hospital crowded with the dying ; smallpox, scurvy, cholera, adding their work to that of shot and shell ; women brought up in all comfort and never having known want, crowded and sacrificed in a cellar where nine children were born ; I.IHI'TFN\NTS TIAVKT.OCK ANP FrSKI.TKN. less and less food ; no water except that which was brought from a well under the enemy's fire, so that the water obtained was at the price of blood ; the stench of the dead horses added to the effluvia of corpses, and all the sufferers waiting for the moment when the army of 60,000 shrieking Hindoo devils should break in upon the garrison of the Residency ; now reduced bv wounds and sickness and death to 976 men, women and children. "Call me early," I said, "to-morrow morning, and let us be at the Residency before the sun becomes too hot." At seven o'clock in the morning we left our hotel in Lucknow, and I said to our obliging, gentlemanly escort, " Please take us along the road by whicli Have- lock and Outran! came to the relief of the Residency." That was the way v.-e went. There was a solemn stillness as we approached the gate of the Residencv. Battered and torn is the masonrv of the entrance. Signature of shot, and punctuation of cannon ball, all up RUI.IKF U1-- I.rCKNIlW, ■1261) 262 THE EARTH GIRDLED. and down and t_'\er\\vhere. "Here to the left," said our escort, "are the remains of a building, the first floor of which in other da\s had been used as a banqueting hall, but then was used as a hospital. At this part the amputations took place, and all such patients died. The heat was so great and the food so insulificient that the poor fellows could not recover from the loss of blood ; they all died. Amputations were performed without chloroform. All the anaesthetics were exhausted. A fracture that in other climates and imder other circum- stances would have come to easy convalescence, here proved fatal. Yonder was Dr. Fayrer's house, who was surgeon of the place, and is now Queen Victoria's doctor. This upper room was the officers' room, and there Sir Henry Lawrence, our dear commander, was wounded. While he sat there a shell struck the room, and some one suggested that he had -■:^ GENERAL HAVEI.OCK'S GREETING BV THE CHRISTIANS WHOM HE SAVED. better leave the room, but he smiled and said, 'Lightning never strikes twice in the same place.' Hardly had he said this when another .shell tore off his thigh, and he was carried dying into Dr. Fayrer's house on the other side of the road. Sir Henr\- Lawrence had been in poor health for a long time before the mutiny. He had been in the Indian service for years, and he had started for England to recover his health, but getting as far as Bombay, the English Government requested him to remain at least a while, for he could not be spared in such dangerous times. He came here to Lucknow, and foreseeing the siege of this Residency had filled many of the rooms with grain, without which the Residency would have been obliged to surrender. There were also taken by him into this Residency rice, and sugar, and charcoal, and fodder for the oxen, and hay for the horses. But now, at the time when all the people were looking to him for wisdom and courage, Sir Henry is THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 263 dying." Our escort describes the scene, unique, tender, beautiful and overpowering, and while I stood on the very spot where the sighs and groans of the besieged, and lacerated, and broken-hearted met the whiz of bullets, and the demoniac hiss of bursting shell, and the roar of batteries, my escort gave me the particulars. " As soon as Sir Henry was told that he had not uiany hours to live he asked the chaplain to administer to him the holy communion. He felt particularly anxious for the safety of the women in the Residency who, at any moment, miglit be subjected to the sav- ages who howled around the Resideuc\', their breaking in onh' a matter of time, unless reinforcements should come. He would frequently say to those who surrounded his death couch, ' Save the ladies. God help the poor women and chil- dren ! ' He gave directions for the desperate defence of the place. He asked forgiveness of all those whom he might unintentionally have neglected or offended. He left a message for all his friends. He forgot not to give direction for tlie care of his favorite horse. He charged the officers, saying, ' By no means surrender. Make no treaty or compromise with the desperadoes. Die fighting.' He took charge of the asylum he had established for the He gave THE SIGNATURES OF THE FOUR GRE.\T LIVING HEROES OF LUCKNOW. I obtained these signatures at the table of General Sir Heury M. Havelock, in the United Sen'ice Club, London, where he had invited these Generals to meet me. children of soldiers, directions for his burial, say- ing, ' No nonsense, no fuss. Let me be buried with the men.' He dictated his own epitaph, which I read above his tomb . ' Here lies Henry Lawrence, who tried to do his duty. l\La>- the Lord have mercy on his soul.' He said, ' I would like to have a passage of vScripture added to the words on my grave, such as: "To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against him " — isn't it from Daniel?' So as brave a man as England or India ever saw expired. The soldiers lifted the cover from his face and kissed him before they carried him out. The chaplain offered a prayer. Then they removed the great hero amid the rattling hail of the 264 THE EARTH GIRDLED. guns and put hiin down anions^' other soldiers buried at the same time. " All of which I state for the Ijenefit of those who would have us believe that the Christian religion is fit only for women in the eighties and children under seven. There was glor\- enough in that departure to halo Christendom. "There," said our escort, "'Bob the Nailer' did the work." "Who was 'Bob the Nailer? ' " " Oh, he was the African who sat at that point, and when an\'one of our men ventured across the road he would drop him by a rifle ball. Bob was a sure marksman. The only way to get across the road for water from the well was to wait until his gun flashed and then instantly cross before he had time to load. The only way we could get rid of him was by digging a mine under the house wdiere he was hidden. When the house was blown up ' r>nb the .Vailcr' went with it " 1 said to him, " Had ynn made up your minds what I \ nil WW SHU you and the other sufferers would do in case the fiends actually broke in ? " " Oh, yes," said my escort, " we had it all planned, for the probability was every hour for nearly five months that they would break in. You must remember it was 1600 against 60,000, and for the latter part of the time it was 900 against 60,000, and the Residency and the earthworks around it were not put up for such an attack. It was only from the mercy of God that we were not massacred soon after the besiegement. We were resolved not to allow ourselves to get into the hands of those desperadoes. You must remember that we and all the women had heai'd of the butchery at Cawnpore, and we knew what defeat meant. If unable to hold out any longer we would have blown ourselves up, and all gone out of life together." " Show me," I said, " the rooms wdiere the women and children staid during those awful months." Then we crossed over and went down into the cellar of the Residency. THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY, 265 With a shudder of horror indescribable I entered the cellars where 622 women and children had been crowded until the whole floor was full. I know the exact number, for I counted their names on the roll. As one of the ladies wrote in her diary — speaking of these women, she said : " They lay upon the floor fitting into each other like bits in a puzzle." Wives had obtained from their husbands the promise that the liusbands would shoot them rather than let them fall into the hands of these desperadoes. The women within the Residency were kept on the smallest allowance that would maintain life. No opportunity of privacy. The death-angel and the birth-angel touched wings as they passed. Flies, mosquitoes, ver- min in full posses- sion of the place, and these women in momentary expecta- tion that the en- raged savages would rush upon them, in a violence of which club, and sword, and torch, and throat- ctitting would be the milder forms. Our escort told us again and again of the bravery of these women. They did not despair. They encouraged the soldiery. They waited on the wounded and dying in the ■ hospital. They gave up their stockings for hold- ers of the grape- shot. They solaced each other when their children died. When a husband or father fell such prayers of sympathj- were offered as only women can offer. They endured without complaint. They prepared their own children for burial. They were inspiration for the men who stood at their posts fighting until they dropped. Our escort told us that again and again news had come that Havelock and Outram were on the wav to fetch these besieged ones out of their wretchedness. They had received a letter from Havelock rolled up in a quill and carried in the mouth of a disguised messenger, telling them he was on the way, but the next news was that Havelock had been compelled to retreat. It was constant vacillation between hope and despair. But one day they heard HINDOO PRIEST AT HIS HKVOTIOXS. 266 THE EARTH GIRDLED. the guns of relief sounding nearer and nearer. Yet all the houses of Lucknow were fortresses filled with armed miscreants, and every step of Havelock and his army was con- tested, — firing from housetops ; firing from windows ; firing from doorways. I asked our friend if he thought that the world-famous story of a Scotch lass in her delirium hearing the Scotch bagpipes advancing with the Scotch regiment, was a true story. He said he did not know but that it was true. Without this man's telling me I knew from my own observation that delirium sometimes quickens some of the faculties, and I rather think the Scotch lass in her delirium was the first to hear the bagpipes. I decline to believe that class of people who would like to kill all the poetry of the world and banish all the fine sentiment. They tell us that Whittier's poem about Barbara Freitchie was founded on a delusion, and that L,ongfellow's poems immortalized things that never occurred. The Scotch lass did hear the slogan. I almost heard it myself as I stood inside the Residency while m}' escort told of the coming on of the Seventy-eighth Highland Regiment. " Were you present when Havelock came in?" Tasked, for I could suppress the question no longer. His answer came : " I was not at the moment present, but with some other young fellows I saw soldiers dancing while two Highland pipers played, and I said, ' WHiat is all this excite- ment about? ' Then we came up and saw that Havelock was in, and Outram was in, and the regiments were pouring in." " Show ns where they came in ! " I exxlaimed, for I knew that they did not enter through the gate of the Residency, that being banked up inside to keep the murderers out. " Here it is," answered my escort. " Here it is — the embrasure through which they came." We walked up to the spot. It is now a broken-down pile of bricks a dozen yards from the gate. Long grass now, but then a blood-spattered, bullet-scarred opening in the wall. As we stood there, although the scene was thirty-seven years ago, I saw them come in ; Havelock, pale and sick, but triumphant; and Outram, whom all the equestrian statues in Calcutta and Europe cannot too grandh- present. "What then happened?" I said to my escort. " Oh," he said, " that is impossible to tell. The earth was removed from the gate and soon all the arm\' of relief entered, and some of us laughed, and some cried, and some prayed, and some danced. Highlanders so dust-covered and enough blood and wounds on their faces to make them unrecognizable, snatched the babes out of their mothers' arms and kissed them, and passed the babies along for other soldiers to kiss, and the w'ounded men crawled out of the hospital to join in tlie cheering, and it was wild jubilee, until, the first excitement passed, the story of how many of the advancing army had been slain on the way began to have tearful effect, and the story of suffering that had been endured inside the fort, and the announcement to children tliat they were fatherless, and to wives that they were widows, submerged the shouts of joy with wailing of agony." " But were \-ou not embarrassed by the arrival of Havelock and 1400 men who brought no food with them ? " He answered, " Of course, we were put on smaller rations innnedi- ately in order that thev might share with us, but we knew that the coming of this reinforce- meirt would help us to hold the place until further relief should come. Had not this first relief arrived as it did, in a day or two at most, and perhaps in any hour, the besiegers would have broken in, and our end would have come. The Sepoys had dug six mines under the Residency and would soon have exploded all." After we had obtained a few bullets that had been picked out of the wall, and a piece of a bomb-shell, we walked around the eloquent ruins, and put our hands into the scars of the shattered masonry, and explored the cemetery inside the fort, where hundreds of the THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. ^67 dead soldiers await the coming of the Lord of Hosts at the Last Day, and we could endure no more. My nerves were all a-trenible, and my emotions were wrung out, and I said, " Let us go." I had seen the Residency at Lucknow the day before with a beloved mission- arv, and he told me man\- interesting facts concerning the besiegement of that place, but this morning I had seen it in company with one who in tliat awful 1857 of the Indian .Mutinv with his own fire had fought the besiegers, and with his own ears had heard the Nell of the miscreants as they tried to storm the walls, and with his own eyes had witnessed a scene of pang, and sacrifice, and endurance, and bereavement, and prowess and rescue which has made all this Lucknow fortress and its surroundings the Mount Calvary of the nineteenth century. NEPALESE GENERALS AND CHINESE EMBASSY. CHAPTER XXVIII. ANOTHER WOE IS PAST. •^ — • E who visits the Residency in this city and then departs has not seen Lncknow, 1/'"^^ nor learned more than half of its Iliad of woes. Havelock and Outrani went into I W the Residency September 21, bnt it was not nntil the morrow that the wounded ^^- v» of their army started to make entrance. There were a host of broken arms, and amputated limbs, and fractured jaws in Havelock's army to be looked after. Forty doolies, or litters, containing as many officers were being carried. The order was given that some one who knew the locality well should lead the mutilated and groaning procession. A Mr. Thornhill thought he knew, and offered his service, but he made a mistake, and, instead of leading the hospital procession where it would be comparatively safe, he led it into the very jaws of destruction. The men who carried the doolies were themselves wounded or fright- ened, and dropped their burden and fled, and the Sepoys came in with bayonets, and knives, and clubs and cut, and stabbed, and dashed to death the helpless European soldiers, save the man in the front dooly, who was rushed through in safety. He was Lieutenant Havelock, the son of the great commander. These viounded men begged their comrades to shoot them before they fell into the hands of the Sepoys. Some of the guard who were taking these men to the Residency performed deeds of daring such as have not been eclipsed in any war since the first sword was brandished. Three or four men in a I'oom would keep at bay hour after hour as many hundred Sepoys. It was all the way a track of blood and a burst of intrepidity. We pass along this road of immortal achievements and come to the place where Havelock died, after attempt- ing to do what no one else ever tried to do, and accom- plishing it, namely, with 1400 men fighting his way through 100,000 infuriated brutes. It was too much for his physical endurance, after all that he had gone through in his experience of many wars, and the hero lay dying in a tent, his wounded son reading to him the consolatory Scriptures. The telegraph wires told all nations that Havelock was dying. He had received a message of congratulation from the Queen, and had been knighted, and such a reception as England never gave to any man since Wellington came back from Waterloo, awaited his return. But he will never again see his native land. He has led on his last army, and planned his last battle, but he is to gain another victory. He declared it when in his last hours he said to General Outram, " I die happy and contented. I have for forty years so ruled my life that when death came I might face it without fear. ' To die is gain.' " He said to his .sons, " My sons, see how a Christian can die." Indeed, this was no new sentiment (268) SIR HENRV H.WELOCK. THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 269 with liiui. He once stated that in bo\ hood with four companions he was accustomed to seek the sechision of one of the dormitories for purposes of devotion, though certain in this of being branded as Methodists and canting hypocrites. He had been immersed in a Baptist church. He acknowledged God in every victory, and says in one of his dispatches that he owes it " to the power of tlie Enfield rifle in British hands, to British pluck, and to the blessing of Almighty God on a most righteous cause." He was accustomed when on the march to take two hours for pra\er and reading of the Scriptures every morning. If he started at si.x o'clock, he rose at four ; if he started at seven, he rose at five for his devotions. THE VICEROY'S ELEPHANTS. Tlie India Home Government is vested in a Secretary of State, who is a member of the English Cabinet, but the executive liiiwer resides in a Viceroy, or Governor-General, appointed by the Crown, acting Under Secretary, whose term is six years. He m.iintains a court of no little magnificence, one of his allowances being a herd of elephants, which is used on state occasions, at iVhich time they appear in very rich caparisons, as shown in the photograph. We rode out to see his grave, about three miles from Lucknow. A jjlain monument marks the place, but the epitaph is as beautiful and comprehensive as anything I have ever seen, and I copied it then and there. It is as follows : " Here rests the mortal remains of Henry Havelock,"Major-General in the British Armv, and Knight Commander of the Bath, who died at Dilkhoosha, Lucknow, of dysentery, pro- duced by the hardships of a campaign in which he achieved an immortal fame, on the 24th of November, 1857. He was born on the 5th of April, 1795, at Bishopwearmouth, County Durham, England. Entered the army 1815. Came to India 1823, and served there with little interruption till his death. He bore an honorable part in the wars of Burmah, 270 THE EARTH GIRDLED. Afghanistan, tlie .Mahratta campaign of 1.S43, and the Sntleg of 1845-6. Retarded by adverse circnnistances in a subordinate position, it was the aim of his life to show that the profession of a Christian is consistent with the fullest discharge of the duties of a soldier. " He commanded a division in the Persian expedition of 1S57. In the terrible convulsion of tliat year his genius and character were at length fully developed and known to the world. Saved from shipwreck on the Ceylon coast by that Providence which designed him for greater things, he was nominated to be the Commander of the column destined to relieve the brave garrison of Lucknow. This object, after almost superhuman exertion, he by the blessing of God accomplished. But he was not spared to receive on earth the reward so truly earned. The Divine Master whom he served saw fit to remove him from the sphere of his labor in the moment of his greatest triumph. He departed to his rest in humble but confident expectation of far greater rewards and honors which a grateful country was anxious to bestow. In him the skill of a commander, the courage and devotion of a soldier, the learning of a scholar, the grace of a highly bred gentleman, and all the social and domestic virtues of a husband, father and friend were blended together and strengthened, harmonized and adorned by the spirit of a true Christian, the result of the influence of the Holy Spirit on his heart, and of a humble reliance on the merits of a crucified Saviour. 2 Timothy iv. 7th and 8th \erses : ' I have fought a good fight, 1 have finished my course, I have kept the iaith : Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day : and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.' This monument is erected by his sorrowing widow and family." But I said to-da}-, while standing at Havelock's grave, " \Vh\- does not England take his dust to herself, and in Westminster Abbey make him a pillow? " In all her history of wars there is no name more magnetic, yet she has expressed nothing on this man's tomb. His widow reared this monument. Do you say, " Let him sleep in the region where he did his pluckiest deeds?" The same reason would have buried Wellington in Belgimn, and Von Moltke at Versailles, and Grant at Vicksburg, and Stonewall Jack.son far away from his beloved Lexington, \'irginia. Take him home to England — the rescuer of the men, women and children of Lucknow. Though his ear now dulled could not hear the roll of the organ when it sounds through the \-enerable Abbey the national anthem, it would hear the .same trumpet that brings tip from among those sacred walls the form of Outram, his fellow-hero in the overthrow of the Indian mutiny. Let Parliament make appropriation from the National Treasury, and some great warship, under some fa\'orite admiral, sail across the Mediterranean and Arabian seas, and wait at Bomba\- harbor for the coming of the dust of this conqueror of conquerors, and then let it be saluted by the shipping of all free nations. Let him come under the arches and along the aisles where have been carried the mightiest dead of many centuries. W!:at a speech that was which Havelock made to his soldiers as he started for Cawnpore : " Over two hundred of our friends are still alive in Cawnpore. With God's help we will save them. I am tr\ing you severeh-, my men, but I know what you are made of." " Hands up for Lucknow ! " cried Havelock to his soldiers. Then he said, " It is too dark for me to see your hands." Then the soldiers gave a cheer, and he replied, " .\h, you are what I thought von were, Britons!" The enthusiasm of his men was well suggested by the soldier who had been lying asleep, and, Havelock riding along, his horse stumbled on the soldier and awoke him, and the soldier recognizing him, cried out cheerily : " Make room for the General ! God bless the General." THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 271 Before 1 go back to the Liickiiow hotel to-day we must take a ride of about four miles and see the summer garden called Secuuder Bagh, the place where the Hindoo and Moham- medan wretches made a stand against Sir Colin Campbell, who was coming for the second relief of Lucknow, for the relief of Havelock and Outram, as well as the imprisoned garrison. Two thousand of the Indians were enclosed within the garden, with a wall some twenty feet high. Sir Colin Campbell, after his men had made an opening in the wall, said, " Do \ou think tliat opening is large enough ? " and a private by the name of Lee, the very man who was telling me about it, his sa\ing having gone into the records, cried out: "Sir Colin, let us charge upon them, and if the hole in the wall is not large enough, we will make it large enough with our bayonets." And Sir Colin commanded, " Charge ! " The Europeans made the charge and the two thousand fiends were then and there put to death. With a revolving pistol one Englishman shot ten Sepo^'s. The scoundrels, finding they were surrounded, threw away their arms, and, lifting their hands, pra>ed for mercy. Those attempting to escape \vere overtaken and slain. I have heard Sir Colin and his men severely criticised for this wholesale slaughter, and I have heard others praise it. There can be no doubt, however, that that awful annihilation broke the back of the mutiny. The Lidiaus found that the Europeans could play at the same game of slaughter which the Asiatics had started. The plot was organized for the murder of all the Europeans in India. The work had been begun in all directions on an appalling scale, and the commanders of the English anny made up their minds that this was the best way to stop it. The fact is, that war, in all circumstances, is barbarism. It is murder nationalized. Woe be to those who start it I A mild and gentle war with the Sepoys was most certainly an impossibility. The natives of India are cruel and bloodthirsty. They ever and anon demonstrate it. The Black Hole of Calcutta was only the natural predecessor of Lucknow atroci- ties. I stood a few days ago on the very spot in Calcutta where the natives of India in 1756 enacted that scen^ which no other people on earth could have enacted. The Black Hole prison has been torn down, but a stone pave- ment, twenty feet by twenty, indicates the ground covered by the prison. The building had two small windows and was intended for two or three persons. These natives of India crowded into that one room of twent\' feet b\' twent>' feet, one hundred and forty-six Europeans. The midsummer heat, the stench, the suffocation, the trampling of one upon another, the going insane by some, the groaning, and shrieking, and begging, and praying of all, are matters of historv. The Sepovs in the meanwhile held lights to the small windows and mocked the sufferers. Then all the sounds ceased. That night of June 20, 1756, passed, and one Inmdred and twenty-three corpses were taken out. C^nly twent\-three people out of the one hundred and forty-six were alive, and they had to be pulled out from under the corpses. IVIrs. Carey, who .survived, was taken b\- an Indian nabob into his harem and kept a prisoner for si.x years. Lucknow in 1857 was only an echo of Calcutta in 1756. During the mutinv c-f which I have been writing, natives who had been in the service of Europeans, and well treated by them, and with no cause of offence, would, at the call of the mutineers, and without compunction, stab to death the father and mother of the household and dash out the SIK COLIN C.\MPBELI-. 272 THE EARTH GIRDLED. brains of the children. This cruelty is a natural result of cruel customs for centuries. The throwing of children to the crocodiles in the Ganges, the leaping of widows on the funeral pyre of husbands (this coming from the fact that widows were supposed in many cases to liav^e poisoned their husbands, and hence to lessen that evil the funeral pyre upon which the woman must by custom burn would be a hindrance to her commission of the crime), the swinging of devotees on iron hooks, the self-tortures of the Fakirs, the rolling of the gory Juggernaut over its victims, the brutal treatment of females, among other things allowing the husband, if he had not a male descendant, to cast off one wife and take another ; and the law of caste, which is a cast-iron law — all these things going on for thousands of years have made the native population of India so unfeeling and hard, that nothing can be harder. That A HTTJDOO GIRLS' SCHOOI,. Natives of India are not so besotted with fanaticism as they were fifty years ago, and their progress is very rapid. Education of the people may be said to have really begun in 1.S54, when Sir Charles Wood established a system which required a diffusiou of European knowledge through the languages understood by the masses. Normal schools for the training of teachers have been established, aud great atteution is now being paid to the education of females, which was whol.y neglected before, though fullest toleration in matters of faith is enjoyed. any of these fires have been extinguished, or any of these knives dulled, or any of these wheels halted, is not to be ascribed to any accession of kindness in the hearts of these natives ; but, under God, to the English Government. These natives are at peace now, but give them a chance and they will re-enact the scenes of 1756 and 1857. They look upon the English as conquerors and themselves as conquered. The mutiny of 1857 occurred because the Briti.sh Government was too lenient, aud put in places of trust and in command THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. ^73 of forts too many of the nati\-es. I call upon England to stop the present attempt to pla- cate the natives by allowing them to command forts and hold authority. Just as certainly as it is continued there will be more trouble. I am no alarmist, but the only way that these Asiatics can be kept from another mutiny is to put them out of power. Unless the policy of the British Government in India is changed, the Lucknow, and Cawnpore, and Delhi martyrdoms, over which the hemispheres have wept, will be eclipsed by the Lucknow, and Cawnpore, and Delhi martydoms yet to be enacted. I speak from w-hat I have seen and heard. I give the opinion of even*- intelligent Eng- lishman, and Irishman, and Scotchman, and American I have met in India. Prevention is better than cure. I do not say it is better that England rule India. I say nothing against the right of India to rule herself. But I do say that the moment the native population of this land think there is a possibility of driving back Europeans from India, they will make the attempt, and that they have enough cruelties for the time suppressed which, if let loose, would submerge with carnage everything from Calcutta to Bombay, and from the Himalayas to the coast of Coromandel. * When I arrived in London on my return homeward. General Sir Henr\- M. Havelock, the son of the Lucknow commander, invited me to meet at a banquet at the United Service Club, the three greatest of the remaining heroes of the war in India, General Dodgson, General Sir William Olpherts and General Sir McLeod Innes. What a time of reminis- cence it was to hear those four heroes talk over the incidents of the bloodiest struggle in all histor\- ! Sir Henr\' Havelock said to me : " My father knew not what fear was. He would say to me as he came out of his tent in the morning : ' Harry, have }ou read the Book?' 'Yes.' ' Have you said \"our pravers ?' 'Yes.' ' Have you had your breakfast ? ' ' Yes.' ' Come, then, and let us mount, and go out to be shot at, and die like gentlemen. ' " HINDOOS TELLING THEIR Bl'ADS. I8 CHAPTER XXIX. CITY OF BLOOD. OWO hours and ten minutes after its occurrence, Joseph Lee, of the Shropshire Regiment of Foot, rode in upon the Cawnpore massacre. I wanted to hear the story from some one who had been there in 1857, and with his own eyes gazed upon the slaughtered heaps of humanit}-. I could hardly wait until the horses were put to the carriage, and Mr. Lee, seated with us, started for the scene, the storj- of which makes tame in contrast all Modoc and Choctaw butcheries. It seems that all the worst passions of the century were to be impersonated by one man, and he, Nana Sahib, and our escort at Cawnpore, Joseph Lee, knew the man personally. Unfortunately, there is no correct picture of Xana Sahib in existence. The pictures of him published in the books of Europe and America, and familiar to us all, are an amusing mistake. This is the fact in regard to them : A lawyer of England was called to India for the purpose of defending the case of a native who had been charged with fraud. The attorney came and so skillfully managed the case of his client that the client paid him enormously for his services, and he went back to England, taking with him a picture of his Indian client. After a while the mutiny in India broke out, and Xana Sahib was mentioned as the champion villain of the wdiole affair, and the newspapers of England wanted a pic- ture of him, and to interview some one on Indian affairs who had recently been in India. Among others, the journalists called upon this lawyer, recently returned. The only picture he had brought from India was a picture of his client, the man charged with fraud. The attorney gave this picture to the journalists as a specimen of the way the Hindoos dress, and forthwith that picture was used, either by mistake or intentionally, for Nana Sahib. The English lawyer said that he li\-ed in dread that his client would some da\' see the use made of his picture, and it was not until the death of his Hindoo client that the lawyer divulged the facts. Perhaps it was never intended that the face of such a demon should be preserved among human records. I said to our escort : " Mr. Lee, was there any peculiarity in Nana Sahib's appearance?" The reply was: "Nothing very peculiar; he was a dull, lazy, cowardly, sensual man, brought up to do nothing, and wanted to continue on the same scale to do nothing." From what Mr. Lee told me, and from all I could learn in India, Nana Sahib ordered the massacre in that city from sheer re\-enge. His father abdicated the throne, and the English paid him aniuialh- a pension of $400,000. When the father died the English Government declined to pay the same pension to the son, Nana Sahib, but the poor fellow was not in any suffering from lack of funds. His father left him $80,000 in gold ornaments ; $500,000 in jewels ; $800,000 in bonds, and otlier resources amounting to at least $1,500,000. But the poor \oung man was not satisfied, and the Cawnpore massacre was his revenge. General Wheeler, the Englishman who had connnand of this cit\', although often warned, could not see that the Sepoys were planning for his destruction and that of all his regiments and all the Europeans in Cawnpore. (274) NANA SAHIB (275) 276 THE EARTH GIRDLED. Mr. Lee explained all this to me by the fact that General Wheeler had married a native, and he naturally took her story and thought there was no peril. But the time for the proc- lamation of Nana Sahib had come, and such a document went forth as never before had seen the light of day. I give only an extract : " As by the kindness of God and the good fortune of the Emperor, all the Christians who were at Delhi, Poonah, Sattara, and other places, and even those 5000 European soldiers who went in disguise into the former city and were discovered and sent to hell by the pious and sagacious troops, who are firm to their religion, and as they have all been conquered by the present government, and as no trace of them is left in these places, it is the dut\- of all the subjects and servants of the government to rejoice at the delightful intelligence and carry on their respective work with comfort and ease. As by the bounty of the glorious Almighty and the enemy-destroying fortune of the Emperor, the yellow-faced and narrow- minded people have been sent to hell, and Cawnpore has been conquered, it is necessary that all the subjects and land-owners, and government servants should be as obedient to the present government as they have been to the former one ; that it is the incumbent duty of all the peasants and landed proprietors of every district to rejoice at the thought that the Chris- tians have been sent to hell, and both the Hindoo and Mohammedan religions have been confirmed, and that they should, as usual, be obedient to the authorities of the government, and never suffer any complaint against themselves to reach the ears of the higher authorit>-." " Mr. Lee, what is this ? " I said to our escort as the carriage halted by an embankment. " Here," he said, " is the intrenchment where the Christians of Cawnpore took refuge." It is the remains of a wall which, at the time of the mutiny, was only four feet high, behind which, with no shelter from the sun, the heat at 130 degrees, four hundred and forty men and five hundred and sixty women and children dwelt nearly a month. A handful of flour and split peas was the daily ration, and only two wells nearby, the one in which they buried their dead, because they had no time to bury them in the earth, and the other well, the focus on which the artillery of the enemy played, so that it was a choice between death by thirst and death by bullet or shell. Ten thousand yelling Hindoos outside this frail wall, and 1000 suffering, dying people inside. In addition to the army of the Hindoos and Moslems, an invisible army of sickness swooped upon them. Some went raving mad under exposure; others dropped under apoplexy. A starving, mutilated, fevered, sunstruck, ghastly group, waiting to die. Why did not the heathen dash down those mud walls and the 10,000 annihilate the now less than 1000? It was because they seemed supernaturally defended." Nana Sahib resolved to celebrate an anniversary. The twenty-third of June, 1857, would be one hundred years since the battle of Plassy, when, under Lord Clive, India surrendered to England. That day the last European in Cawnpore was to be slaughtered. Other anni- versaries have been celebrated with wine, this was to be celebrated with blood. Other anni- versaries have been adorned with garlands ; this with drawn swords. Others have been kept with songs ; this with execrations. Others with the dance of the gay ; this with the dance of death. The infantry and cavalry and artillery of Nana Sahib made on that day one grand assault, but the few guns of the English and Scotch put to flight these Hindoo tigers. The courage of fiends broke against that mud wall as the waves of the sea against a light- house. The cavalry horses returned full run, without their riders. The Lord looked out from the heavens, and on that anniversary day gave the victory to his people. Therefore Nana Sahib must try some other plan. Standing in a field nor far from the intrenchment of the English was a native Christian woman, Jacobee by name, holding high (277) 278 THE EARTH GIRDLED. up in her hand a letter. It was evidently a cunnnnnicalion from the eneni}-, and General Wheeler ordered the woman bronght in. She handed him a proposed treatv. If General Wheeler and his men wonld give tip their weapons, Nana Sahib wonld condnct them into safety ; they could march ont unmolested, the men, women, and children ; they could go down to-morrow to the Ganges, v.diere they would find boats to take them in peace to Allahabad. There was some opposition to signing this treaty, but {General Wheeler's wife told him he could trust the natives and so he signed the treat^■. There was great joy in the intrench- ment that night. Without molestation they went out and got plenty of water to drink, and water for a good wash. The hunger and thirst and exposure from the consmning sun, with the thermometer from 120 to 140, would cease. Mothers rejoiced at the prospect of saving their children. The young ladies of the intrenchment would escape the wild beasts in human form. On the morrow, true to the promise, carts were read}' to transport those who were too much exhausted to walk. "Get in the carriage," said Mr. Lee, "and we will ride to the banks of the Ganges, for which the liberated combatants and non-combatants started from this place." On our wav 'Sir. Lee pointed out a monument over the burial place which was opened for General Wheeler's intrenchment, and the well into which ever}' night the dead had been dropped. Around it is a curious memorial. There are five cros.ses, one at each corner of the garden, and one at the centre. Riding on, we came to the Memorial Church built to the memory of those fallen in Cawnpore. The walls are covered with tablets and epitaphs. I copied two or three of the inscriptions. " These are they who came out of great tribulation ; " also, " The dead shall be raised incorruptible ; " also, " In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world;" also, "The Lord gave ; the Lord hath taken away ;" also, " Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden." " Get into the carriage," said ^Ir. Lee, and we rode on to the Ganges, and got otit at a Hindoo temple standing on the banks. " Now," said Mr. Lee, " here is the place to which General Wheeler and his people came under the escort of Nana Sahib." I went down the steps to the margin of the river. Down these steps went General Wheeler and the men, women, and children under his care. They stood on the side of the steps, and Nana Sahib and his staff stood on the other side. As the women were getting into the boats Nana Sahib objected that only the aged and infirm women and children should go on board the boats. The young and attractive women were kept out. Twenty-eight boats were filled with men, women, and children and floated out into the river. Each boat contained ten armed natives. Then three boats fastened together were brought up, and General Wheeler and his staff got in. .Although orders were given to start, the three boats were somehow detained. At this juncture a boy twelve years of age hoisted on the top of the Hindoo temple on the banks two flags, at which signal the boatmen and armed natives jumped from the boats and swam for the shore ; and from inmnnerable guns the natives on the bank fired on the boats, and masked batteries above and below roared with destruction, and the boats sank with their precious cargo, and all went down save three strong swinnners, who got to the opposite shore. Those who .struggled out nearby were dashed to death. Nana Sahib and his stafl with their swords slashed to pieces C^eneral Wheeler and his staff", who had not got well away from the shore. I said that the }'oung and attractive women were not allowed to get ir.lo tlie boats. These were marched away under the guard of the SepoNS. THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 2-/9 " Wliich way ? " I inquired. '' I will show you," said Mr. Lee. Again we took seats in the carriage and started for the climax of desperation and diabolism. NOw we are on the wav to a summer house called the Assembly Rooms, which had been built for recreation and pleasure. It had two rooms, each twenty by ten feet, and some windowless closets, and here were enclosed two hundred and six helpless people. It was to become the prison of these women and children. Some of the Sepoys got permission of Nana Sahib to take one or more of these ladies to their own place, on the promise they should be brought back to the summer garden next morning. A daughter of General Wheeler was .so taken and did not return. She afterward married the Mohammedan who had taken her to his tent. Some of the Sepoys amused themselves by thrusting children through with bayonets and holding them up before their mothers in the summer house. All the doors closed and the Sepovs standing guard, the crowded women and children awaited their doom for eighteen davs and nights amid sickness, and flies, and stench, and starvation. Then Nana Sahib heard that Havelock was coming, and his name was a terror to the Sepovs. Lest the women and children imprisoned in the summer house, or Assembly Rooms, should be liberated, he ordered that their throats should be cut. The officers were commanded to do the work and attempted it, but failed because the law of caste would not allow the Hindoo to hold the victims while they were being .slain. Then one hundred men were ordered to fire through the windows, but the\- fired over the heads of the imprisoned ones, and only a few were killed. Then Nana Sahib was in a rage, and ordered professional butchers from among the lowest of the gypsies to go at the work. Five of them with hatchets and swords and knives began the work, but three of them collapsed and fainted under the ghastliness, and it was left to two butchers to complete the slaughter. The struggle, the sharp cut, the blinding blow, the cleaving through scalp and skull, the begging for life, the death agony of hour after hour, the tangled limbs of the corpses, the piled-up dead — only God and those who were inside the summer house can ever know. The butchers came out exhausted, thinking they had done their work, and the doors were closed. But when they were again opened, three women and three boys were still alive. All these were soon dispatched, and not a Christian or a European was left in Cawnpore. The murderers were paid fifty cents for each lady slain. The IMohammedan assassins dragged bv the hair the dead bodies out of the summer house and threw them into a well, by which I stood with such feelings as you cannot imagine. But after the mutilated bodies had been thrown into the well, the record of the scene remained in hieroglyphics of crimson on the floor and wall of the slaughter-house. An eye-witness says that, as he walked in, the blood was shoe deep, and on this blood were tufts of hair, pieces of muslin, broken combs, frag- ments of pinafores, children's straw hats, a card-case containing a curl with the inscription, " Ned's hair, with love ; " a few leaves of an Episcopal prayer-book, also a book entitled, " Preparation for Death ; " a Bible, on the fly-leaf of which was written, " For darling mamma, from her affectionate daughter, Isabella Blair" — both the one who presented it and the one to whom it was presented, departed forever. I said : " I\Ir. Lee, I have heard that indelicate things were foinid written on the wall bv the inmates." He answered: "No; but these poor creatures wrote in charcoal and scratched on the wall the story of the brutalities they had suffered." When the English and Scotch troops came upon the scene, their wrath was so great that General Neill had the butchers arrested, and before being shot, compelled them towipj up part of the floor of this place of massacre, this being the worst of their punishment, for there is nothing that a Hindoo so hates as to touch blood. When Havelock came upon the 28o THE EARTH GIRDLED. scene he had tliis order annulled. The well was now not only full of human bodies, but corpses piled on the outside. The soldiers were for many hours engaged in covering the dead. It was about five o'clock in the evening when I came upon this place in Cawnpore. The building in which the massacre took place has been torn down and a garden of exquisite and fragrant flowers surrounds the scene. Mr. Lee pointed out to us some seventy mounds containing bodies or portions of bodies of those not thrown into the well. A soldier stands on guard to keep the foliage and flowers from being ruthlessly pulled. I asked a soldier if I might take a rose as a memento, and he handed me a cluster of roses, red and white, both colors suggestive to me ; the red typical of the carnage there enacted, and the white for the purity of those who from that spot ascended. But of course the most absorbing interest concentrated at the well, into which hundreds of women and children were flung or lowered. A circular wall of white marble encloses this well. The wall is about twenty feet high. Inside this wall there is a marble pave- ment. I paced it, and found it fifty-seven paces around. In the centre of this enclosure, and im- mediately above the well of the dead, is a sculptured angel of res- urrection, with illumined face ; and two palm branches, mean- ing victory. This angel is look- ing down toward the slumberers beneath, but the two wings sug- gest the rising of the last day. Mighty consolation in marble ! They went down under the hatch- ets of the Sepoys ; they shall come up under the trumpet that .shall wake the dead. I felt weak and all a-tremble as I stood reading these words on the stone that covers the well : " Sacred to the perpetual memory of a great company of Christian people, chiefly women and children, cruelly massacred near this spot by the rebel, Nana Sahib, and thrown, the dying with the dead, into the well beneath, on the 15th day of July, 1857." On the arch of the mausoleum were cut the words : " These are they who came out of great tribulation." The sun was sinking beneath the horizon as I came down the seven or eight steps of that palace of a sepulchre, and I bethought myself, " No emperor, unless it was Napoleon, ever had more glories around his pillow of dust, and no queen, unless it were the one of Taj Mahal, had reared for her grander cenotaph than crowns the resting places of the martyrs at Cawnpore. But where rest the bones of the Herod of the nineteenth centur}', Nana Sahib ? No one can tell. Two men sent out to find the whereabouts of the daughter of General Wheeler tracked Nana Sahib during a week's ride into the wilderness, and they MEMORIAI, WELL AT CAWNPORE. < < a. f- < < O < a. z: LU Q _1 O O THE WORLD AS SEEN TO-DAY. 281 were told that for a while after the mutiny Nana Sahib set up a little pomp in the jungles. Among a few thousand Hindoos and Mohammedans he took for himself the only two tents the neighborhood had, while they lived in the rain and mud. Nana Sahib, with one .servant carrying an umbrella, would go every day to bathe, and people would go and stare. For some reason, after a while he forsook even that small attention and disappeared among the ravines of the Himalayan mountains. He took with him in his flight that which he always took with him — a ruby of vast value. He wore it as some wear an amulet. He wore it as some wear a life-preserver. He wore it on his bosom. The Hindoo priest told him as long as he wore that ruby his fortunes would be good, but both the ruby and the prince who wore it have vanished. Not a treasure on the oiitside of the bosom, but a treasure inside the heart, is the best protection. Solomon, who had rubies in the hilt of swords, and rubies in his crown, declared that which Nana Sahib did not find out in his time : " wisdom is better than rubies." When the forests of India are cleared by the axes of another civiliza- tion, the lost ruby of this Cawnpore monster may be picked up, and be brought back again to blaze among the world's jewels. But who shall reclaim for decent sepulture the remains of Nana Sahib ? Ask the vultures. Ask the reptiles. Ask the jackals. Ask the mid- night Himalavas. ON THE BANKS OF THE GANGES (2S.) CHAPTER XXX. THE TAJ. IN a journey around the world it may not be easy to tell tlie exact point which divides the pilgrimage into halves. But there was one structure toward wliich we were all the time traveling, and having seen that we felt that if we saw nothing more, our expedition would be a success. That one object was the Taj of India. It is the crown of the whole earth. The spirits of architecture met to enthrone a king, and the spirit of the Parthenon at Athens was there ; and the spirit of St. Sophia of Constanti- nople was there ; and the spirit of vSt. Isaac of St. Petersburg was there; and the spirit of the Baptistery of Pisa was there ; and the spirit of the Great Pyramid and of the Luxor obelisk, and of the Porcelain tower of Nankin, and of St. Mark's of Venice, and the spirits of all the great towers, great cathedrals, great mausoleums, great sarcophagi, great capitols for the living, and of great necropolises for the dead, were there. And the presiding genius of the throng, with gavel of Parian marble smote the table of Russian malachite, and called the throng of spirits to order, and called for a vote as to which spirit should wear the chief crown, and mount the chief throne, and wave the chief sceptre, and by unanimous acclaim the cry was : " Long live the spirit of the Taj, king of all the spirits of architecture ! Thine is the Taj Mahal of India ! " The building is about six miles from Agra, and as we rode out in the early dawn we heard nothing but the hoofs and wheels that pulled and turned us along th.c road, at every yard of which our expectation rose until we had some thought that we might be disappointed at the first glimpse, as some say they were disappointed. But how anyone can be disappointed with the Taj is almost as great a wonder to me as the Taj itself. There are some people always disappointed, and who knows but that having entered heaven they may criticise the architecture of the Temple, and the cut of the white robes, and say that the River of Life is not quite up to their expectations, and that the white horses on which the conquerors ride seem a little springhalt, or spavined ? My son said, " There it is ! " I said, " Where? " For that which he saw to be the building seemed to me to be more like the morning cloud blushing under the stare of the rising sun. It seemed not so much built up from earth as let down from heaven. For- tunately you stop at an elaborated gatewav of red sandstone one-eighth of a mile from the Taj, an entrance so high, so arched, so graceful, so four-domed, so painted, and chisled, and scrolled that you come very gradually upon the Taj, which structure is enough to intoxicate the eye, and stun the imagination, an