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 A SUMMER'S OUTING 
 
 AND 
 
 THE OLD MAN'S STORY 
 
 BY 
 
 CARTER H. HARRISON. 
 
 CHICAGO : 
 
 DIBBLE PUBLISHING CO. 
 1891.
 
 COPYRIGHTED BY 
 
 DIBBLE PUBLISHING CO 
 
 1891 
 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 
 
 G. M. D. LIBBY 
 
 PRINTER AND ELECTROTYPER 
 CHICAGO
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 " A Summer's Outing " comprises letters has- 
 tily written while the writer was on the wing. 
 Being printed in the CHICAGO TRIBUNE they 
 weie favorably received by many friends, who 
 have urged their being published in book form, 
 as a thing now needed by would-be tourists to 
 the Yellowstone National Park and to Alaska. 
 To this end they were revised and somewhat 
 enlarged. If the little book be of little value, 
 the apology is offered that it will be, too, of little 
 cost. 
 
 " The Old Man's Story " is thrown in as fill- 
 ing between two covers, and need not be read 
 except by those who find an idle hour hard to 
 
 dispose of. 
 
 CARTER H. HARRISON. 
 
 231 Ashland Boulevard, 
 
 Chicago, May 6th, 1891.
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The Writer Indulges in Fancies 9 
 
 LETTER I. 
 
 A Run Through Pretty Wisconsin and Minnesota 
 Beautiful St. Paul Jealousy Between Twin Cities 
 An Indignant St. Paul Democrat and a Careless 
 Seattle Man Dakota and the Dirty Missouri River 
 A Dissertation on Waste of Land and Destruc- 
 tion of Trees The Bad Lands The Yellowstone 
 River Gateway to National Park and its Guar- 
 dian Eagle 15 
 
 LETTER II. 
 
 The National Park, " The Wonderland of the Globe" 
 The Home of the Evil One Steam Vents Geys- 
 ersThe Grotto The Giant The Bee- Hive 
 The Castle and Old Faithful in the Upper Geyser 
 Basin 27 
 
 LETTER III. 
 
 Mammoth Hot Springs A Wonderful Formation The 
 White Elephant A Theory Accounting for the 
 Hot Springs and Geysers Mud Geysers Marvel- 
 ous Colorings of Some Pools 45 
 
 5
 
 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 LETTER IV. 
 
 How to do the Park Hotels and Vehicles My Inno- 
 cents Charming Scenery Natural Meadows Wild 
 Animals Beautiful Flowers Debts to the Devil 
 Camp Life and Fishing Wonderful Canyon 
 Painted Rocks Glorious Waterfalls Nature Gro- 
 tesque and Beautiful 59 
 
 LETTER V. 
 
 We Leave the Park Satisfied Helena Its Gold Bear- 
 ing Foundations Broadwater A Magnificent Nat- 
 atorium A Wild Ride Through Town Crossing 
 the Rockies Spokane A Busy Town Midnight 
 Picnic Fine Agricultural Country Sage Bush a 
 Blessing Picturesque Run Over the Cascades 
 Acres of Malt Liquors Tacoma A Startling- 
 Vision of Mt. Renier (Tacoma) Washington, a 
 Great State 82 
 
 LETTER VI. 
 
 Thriving and Picturesque Seattle Two Curious Meet- 
 ings Victoria and its Flowers Esquimault and the 
 Warspite Two Broken Hearted Girls Charming 
 Sail on the Island Sea Picturesque Mountains 
 Growth of Alaska Whales and their Sports Na- 
 tive Alaskans Their Homes, Habits, Food, Feasts 
 and Wild Music Baskets and Blankets Salmon 
 Fisheries Mines and Dogs 102
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 7 
 
 LETTER VII. 
 
 Steaming up the Ice-Packed Fiords and Channels of the 
 Arctic Country owned by Uncle Sam Salmon Can- 
 neries Canoe Building by Natives Ascent of the 
 " Muir " Glacier, an Ice Cliff 300 Feet High Fan- 
 tastic Ice Formations at Takou Summer and Win- 
 ter Climates Impudent Crows and Oratorical 
 Ravens 134 
 
 LETTER VIII. 
 
 Vancouver A Picturesque, Growing City A Run over 
 the Canadian Pacific Magnificent Scenery met with 
 from the Start A Glorious Ride Fraser River 
 Glutted with Salmon A Never-Tiring View from 
 Glacier House, Four Thousand Feet above the Sea 
 Rugged, Precipitous Grandeur of the Selkirks and 
 Rockies Natural Beauties of Banff Reflections at 
 the " Soo.'' 162 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 The St. Mary's River Charming Scenery The Locality 
 for Summer Homes An Episode Mackinaw 
 Grand Rapids, a Beautiful City .- 196 
 
 PART II. 
 
 "THE OLD MAN'S STORY." 
 The Secret of the Big Rock ....203
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 CARTER H. HARRISON, (Frontispiece.) 
 
 TERRACE, MAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS Page 16 
 
 THE GIANT, UPPER GEYSER BASIN " 32 
 
 JUPITER TERRACE, MAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS.... " 48 
 
 MAP ILLUSTRATING GEYSER ACTIONS " 54 
 
 THE GROTTO, UPPER GEYSER BASIN " 64 
 
 THE BISCUIT BOWL, UPPER BASIN " 80 
 
 OLD FAITHFUL " 90 
 
 GRAND CANYON... " 112 
 
 8
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 THE WRITER INDULGES IN FANCIES. 
 
 The summer outing is a fad a necessity of 
 fashion. Reigning beauty bares its brow on 
 ocean waves and climbs mountain heig'hts, court- 
 ing sun-kisses. Jaunty sailor hats and narrow 
 visored caps are donned, that 1;he amber burning 
 of the summer's excursion may be displayed at 
 early assemblies of heraldic Four Hundred. 
 Anglo-mania has taught at least one good les- 
 son that the russet cheek of romping health is 
 more kiss-tempting than the rose-in -cream of 
 beauty lolling on downy cushions. Elite closes 
 its massive doors and draws down front window 
 shades ; Paterfamilias sweats in his struggle to 
 force a balance to the credit side, and mothers 
 and daughters sit at back windows in glare of 
 sunlight, wooing sun-beams, while notices of 
 u Out of town" are already placarded on front 
 stoops. 
 
 The summer outing is urged by honest doc- 
 tors, with the admission that change of air and 
 scene is oftentimes worth more than all the nos- 
 trums doled out over apothecaries' counters. 
 Motion is nature's first inexorable law. A tiny 
 drop of water is pressed between two plates of 
 glass, apparently rendering the slightest motion 
 impossible. The microscope fills it with scores
 
 10 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 or hundreds of beings full of life and energy, 
 disporting in pleasure or waging deadly battle. 
 Around us and about us nothing is still. The 
 grasses grow in refreshing green and spring be- 
 neath the feet, but ere the wane of day, wither 
 and crackle under the tread. Flowers bloom in 
 beauty and within the hour fade in ugliness. 
 The rock ribs of earth expand and contract 
 under tidal commands of sun and moon, and 
 continents lift from, or are sinking beneath 
 briny oceans. 
 
 The gleaming sun, so rounded in glowing 
 calmness as he gently circles across the vaulted 
 sky, is a raging mass of countless millions boil- 
 ing, dashing, burning jets, in anyone of which 
 fiery Vesuvius would be lost as a dim spark. 
 Myriads of starry spheres flecking the midnight 
 sky, are mighty suns tortured by inconceivable 
 convulsions. Far off beyond them the telescopic 
 lens dips up from limitless space countless suns, 
 all boiling, roaring and raging in unending, 
 monstrous motion. 
 
 Motion evolves change. Change goes on 
 everywhere, declares science! Change, cries 
 orthodoxy, is universal save in One the ever- 
 lasting, unchangeable maker of all things! 
 Orthodoxy tells us that man man the soul 
 , was made in God's image and was by him 
 pronounced good. The "good" in God's eye must
 
 INTRODUCTION. II 
 
 be perfect. We know that man the soul man 
 grows the perfect therefore grows and perfection 
 becomes more perfect. A Paradox ! So is that 
 mathematical truth that two parallel lines drawn 
 towards infinity, meet. 
 
 The deathless soul emanates from God. 
 Is the question irreverent? May not the 
 Eternal who started then and keeps all things 
 moving and growing may not He grow in per- 
 fection ? May not the Omnipotent become more 
 potent, the Omniscient wiser? Being given to 
 digression, I give this in advance to save the 
 reader one later on. 
 
 In obedience to fashion's and nature's law, I 
 would put myself in motion and would seek 
 change. I will take an " outing " in this sum- 
 mer of A, D. 1890. 
 
 My daughter, a school girl, will go with me. 
 The old and those growing old, should attach to 
 themselves the young. Old tree trunks in 
 tropical climes wrap themselves in thrifty grow- 
 ing vines. The green mantle wards off the sun's 
 hot rays, and prevents to some extent too rapid 
 evaporation. Gray-haired grandfathers often- 
 times delight to promenade with toddling grand- 
 children. This is good for momentary divertise- 
 ment, but for steady regimen it is a mistake. 
 Callow childhood furnishes not to the old, proper 
 companionship. The unfledged but intense vi-
 
 12 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 tality of the one may sap the slow-running cur- 
 rent of the other, and reduce it to the lower 
 level to second childhood. Age should tie to 
 itself ripening youth. Then heart and spring- 
 tide is absorbed by the older, and ripe experience 
 given to the younger in exchange. 
 
 We resolve to do the Yellowstone National 
 Park, by way of the Northern Pacific Railroad, 
 thence onward to Puget Sound and Alaska to re- 
 turn by the Canadian Pacific. We hope for 
 health, pleasure and brain food. I shall write 
 of our goings and comings, that my friends at 
 home may through our eyes feel that they are 
 voyaging with us. 
 
 A beautiful or grand scene is doubly enjoyed 
 when one feels he may through a letter have 
 hundreds see what he sees and as he sees. They 
 become his companions and hold sweet com- 
 munion with him, though thousands of miles 
 may lie between them. This is sympathy, and 
 sympathy makes the joy of life. The tete-a-tete 
 between lovers ''beneath the milk-white thorn 
 that scents the evening gale," is delicious. But not 
 more sweet than the communion between the 
 orator and the mighty audience which he sways 
 and bends at will. He holds a tete-a tete with 
 each of his listeners. 
 
 Byron swore he " loved not the world, nor the 
 world him." The bard was self-deceived. He
 
 INTRODUCTION. 13 
 
 wrote that he might win the sympathy of mil- 
 lions. Bayard Taylor told the writer once that he 
 wrote from an irresistible impulse. His warm, 
 generous nature yearned for the sympathy of a 
 reading world. I shall write that a few hundred 
 may see through niy eyes may feel when my 
 heart beats, and for a few brief hours may be in 
 sympathy with me. Some one possibly may 
 sneer "Cacoethes Scribendi." Catch the retort, 
 u Honi soit qui Mal-y-peuse."
 
 LETTER I. 
 
 A RUN THROUGH PRETTV WISCONSIN AND MINNE- 
 SOTA. BEAUTIFUL ST. PAUL. JEALOUSY BE- 
 TWEEN TWIN CITIES. AN INDIGNANT ST. 
 PAUL DEMOCRAT AND A CARELESS SEATTLE 
 MAN. DAKOTA AND THE DIRTY MISSOURI 
 RIVER. A DISSERTATION ON WASTE OF LAND 
 AND DESTRUCTION OF TREES. THE BAD 
 LANDS. THE YELLOWSTONE RIVER. GATE- 
 WAY TO NATIONAL PARK AND ITS GUARDIAN 
 EAGLE. 
 
 MAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS, July 17, 1890. 
 We left Chicago by the Wisconsin Central 
 Railroad for St. Paul. From the beginning the 
 run was interesting, especially to one who re- 
 members what the country was thirty-five years 
 ago an almost flat prairie of tangled grass, in 
 which the water was held as in a morass, prom- 
 ising but little to the ambitious earth-tiller. I 
 recall a remark of Senator Douglas when the 
 future of our flat prairies was being discussed in 
 my presence thirty-five years ago : " People do 
 not realize that the drainage problem is. being 
 now daily solved. The leader of a herd of cattle 
 browsing the prairies, is an engineer, and his 
 followers faithful laborers in making ditches. 
 When going to and from their grazing grounds, 
 they march in line and tread down paths which
 
 16 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 make no mean drains. The cattle of Illinois are 
 annually lifting millions of acres out of the 
 swamp into good arable lands." 
 
 As soon as the Des Plaines was crossed, good 
 farms began, and comfortable farm houses were 
 always in sight ; oats bent and waved in light 
 green, and corn stood sturdy in emerald, where 
 a third of a century ago, even in July, a pedes- 
 trian was compelled to step from ant-hill to 
 ant-hill to keep his ankles dry. Copses of 
 young wood relieved the monotony of too much 
 flatness, and in a few hours after our start, pretty 
 lakes shimmered in the sinking sun light, and 
 sweetly homelike villas were ever in view. We 
 crossed the Wisconsin line, and hill and vale or 
 gentle undulations with wooded heights and 
 flowing streams, and villages and saw mills en- 
 livened the journey. 
 
 In the distant future when population shall 
 become abundant, and tasteful homesteads shall 
 replace somewhat speculative shanties, few coun- 
 tries of the world will be more pleasingly rural 
 than southern and middle Wisconsin. 
 
 Books should be carried by the tourist in his 
 trunk, and newspapers should be religiously dis- 
 carded throughout the run to St. Paul. The 
 country traversed opens many a pleasing page 
 during the summer months, and glowing pic- 
 tures are spread before him on nature's living
 
 MAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS. 17 
 
 canvass. He unfortunately loses much when 
 the curtain of night is drawn over God's own 
 impartial book : the book which never misleads 
 if carefully read and studiously digested. 
 
 At St. Paul we had some hours to ride about 
 the pretty town, before boarding the Northern 
 Pacific railroad for our long journey to Puget's 
 Sound. This great road has the singular char- 
 acteristic of having double termini at each end, 
 and between each of the twins there exists a 
 feud rarely found except between cities engaged 
 in actual war with each other. 
 
 Athens and Sparta hated each other not as do 
 St. Paul and Minneapolis. Just now, owing to 
 the taking of the census, there is blood in the 
 eye of every St. Paulite. An elderly gentleman 
 introduced himself to me the other day at the 
 
 station. After a while he said: " It is a 
 
 shame the way the United States is treating St. 
 Paul. I am a Democrat, sir, and can stand a 
 little stuffing of the ballot-box, but I draw the 
 line there. I can't stand the stuffing of the cen- 
 sus. We are willing to concede to Minneapolis 
 10,000 more population than we have, but Har- 
 rison ought to be turned out of office for running 
 it up to 40,000. It is a fraud, sir a miserable 
 Republican fraud. We will be revenged, sir, 
 and will show our teeth next fall and don't you 
 forget it." I sympathized with him and felt like
 
 i8 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 marching to Washington at once to send my 
 cousin Ben back to Hoosierdom. 
 
 In -the National Park I saw at four different 
 hotels the names of Mr. - - Mrs. - - and two 
 little blanks. There was a bracket after the 
 names, but the writer had evidently forgotten to 
 write in the address. The name preceding his 
 on the first book was from Boston. At the next 
 place the preceding person was from New York, 
 and again from some other city. The fourth 
 day at dinner I was introduced to the head of 
 the family. He was from Seattle. I asked him 
 why it was he had not put in his address, declar- 
 ing I would tell it on him at Tacoma. " Good 
 Heavens ! " he exclaimed, " have I done that?" 
 He rushed back to the register and wrote 
 " Seattle " as big as a John Hancock. The next 
 time we met in a crowd, I twitted him about the 
 thing. He then declared he must have left out 
 the address instinctively from a natural aversion 
 to being known to come from any spot so close 
 to Tacoma. Considerable jealousy of St. Paul 
 on the part of her twin city is natural, for it is a 
 beautiful town. Its residences on the hills are 
 very fine, and their locations lovely beyond 
 those of all but few cities. The entire town was 
 very clean, and in the hill portion bright and 
 cheerful. The residences are generally sur- 
 rounded by considerable grounds, filled with
 
 MAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS. 19 
 
 trees and shrubbery, in much variety and in 
 luxuriant growth. The young girl with me fell 
 so completely in love with the clean, pretty 
 place, that she declared, if she ever got married 
 it would be to a St. Paul man. 
 
 The run through Minnesota is as if through 
 a great park. Everything is green and bright. 
 Copse, meadow and field are as fresh as a May 
 morning. The natural location of frequent 
 wooded clumps, of prairie openings and of lakes, 
 could hardly be improved by a landscape engi- 
 neer. We passed the great wheat fields of Da- 
 kota at night, but I thought there was far less 
 of barren plain and alkali patches as we ap- 
 proached the Missouri river, than I saw there 
 seven years ago. 
 
 How different the feelings with which we ap- 
 proached the Missouri from those experienced as 
 we drew near the Mississippi ! One cannot get 
 up a feeling of respect for the tortuous, treach- 
 erous, muddy, long and snake-like ditch. One 
 takes off his hat to the Father of Waters, but 
 feels like kicking, if he had a place to kick, this 
 lengthy, nasty thing. No one can see any real 
 use for it, except as a tributary to and feeder of 
 the Mississippi. It has not and never had a 
 placid infancy. Several of its upper feeders are 
 beautiful, clear, rapid, purling streams. But 
 some of them apparently without rhyme or
 
 20 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 reason suddenly become flowing mud. One 
 dashes on a train along one and wishes he could 
 alight to cast a fly for a speckled beauty. The 
 road takes a turn around a mountain spur, and 
 lo! the crystal stream has become liquid mud, to 
 prepare itself, I suppose, for the mucky thing it 
 will soon join. Possibly and probably, these 
 transformations are owing to a miner's camp and 
 a placer washing on the other side of the spur. 
 
 North Dakota has not become settled along 
 the railroad, after quitting the great wheat belt, 
 as I expected. Farms are very scattered, and 
 when seen are small and wear an air of neglect. 
 Yet the native plains are cheerful looking and 
 roll off in green undulations. The Forest 
 Commissioners, if there be any, must find some 
 more hardy species of trees than those now used 
 to enable them to grow brakes for warding off 
 the winds and blizzards. The railroad people 
 have planted many trees, but they do not thrive. 
 They seem alive about the roots, but dead after 
 reaching one or two feet. Possibly a blanket of 
 snow lies about the roots in winter and protects 
 them ; but the alternation of cold and hot winds 
 apparently kills the sap as it rises higher up. 
 Government should inaugurate a thorough 
 system of arboriculture, inviting and encouraging 
 a real science. 
 
 The Socialists say the Nation should own the 
 land. To a certain degree the Socialists are
 
 MAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS. 21 
 
 right. The fountain of land ownership is in the 
 Government. It should maintain such owner- 
 ship to a certain extent throughout all time. 
 "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness there- 
 of." Government is and should be the lord of 
 the domain, and should never part with such con- 
 trol as may prevent private owners from destroy- 
 ing the land which is to be the heritage of the 
 people to the latest generation. It should forbid 
 and prevent a waste of land. To this end it 
 should force the husbanding of all resources for 
 the improvement of that which is to support the 
 people for all time. No private owner should be 
 allowed to destroy wantonly that which comes 
 from mother earth. What comes from the bosom 
 of the land, and is not essential to feed and 
 maintain the cultivator, should be given back to 
 it. A man should be fined who burns manure. 
 Man should not cut timber to such an extent as 
 to reduce a necessary rainfall. Commissioners 
 should determine from scientific data, how much 
 of forest is necessary in fixed districts of the 
 country, and when so determined no one should 
 be permitted to cut a tree without replacing it 
 by a young one. In the Old World millions of 
 acres are now worthless which once supported 
 teeming populations; all because they have been 
 denuded of trees. Nearly all European countries 
 as well as India are now, and have been for some
 
 22 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 years, earnestly endeavoring to check this evil. 
 Commissioners of Forestry, earnest and educated 
 men, have been appointed. Schools of Forestry 
 are fostered by the state. The betterment has 
 been so marked, that the ordinary pleasure seek- 
 ing traveler sees a wonderful change between 
 visits separated by twenty or thirty years. 
 America has countless millions of acres scarcely 
 capable of supporting a human being, which 
 could be made to wave in cereals or grow fat in 
 edible roots, if only trees were grown to induce 
 a somewhat regular rainfall. 
 
 The arid plains of the Great West have the 
 richest of known soils, if a little human sweat 
 mixed with water in sufficient quantity could 
 be kneaded into it. Government as the lord 
 paramount of its domain, should force the grow- 
 ing of trees and should prevent the destruction 
 of timber wherever the same is necessary to keep 
 up or improve the land. It has parted with the 
 title to the soil, but still retains the power to use 
 it for its own support. It levies and collects 
 taxes from lands as the paramount owner. The 
 same power exists to prevent the waste of that 
 from which its taxes spring or through which its 
 people may live. 
 
 " No one is a man," says the Arab maxim, 
 u until he has planted a tree, dug a well, and 
 grown a boy." The nation is an aggregation of
 
 MAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS. 23 
 
 men and should follow the maxim. The states- 
 man who devises a good system of taxation is 
 entitled to the praises of all men, but he is but 
 a pigmy to the man who turns sterile deserts 
 into places of plenty, or who make many blades 
 of grass grow where now only one springs up. 
 I am ready to bow down before the man who will 
 maintain and improve the soil of our Eastern 
 States, or will shower over the West a copious 
 rainfall. 
 
 Bismark was disappointing. It has not im- 
 proved as could have been expected since we 
 helped to lay the corner-stone of its Capitol 
 seven years ago. 
 
 BAD LANDS OR " MAUVAISES TERRES." 
 
 The " bad lands " are as God-forsaken in ap- 
 pearance as they were years since. There the 
 very earth has been burned and the Evil One 
 seems to have set his foot-print on every rod. 
 Men do live in them, but more blessed is he who 
 dies in genial surroundings ! What a hold 
 upon us has the love of life ! So short and such 
 a bauble ! How worthless when robbed, as it 
 must be in this bleak tract, of every concomitant 
 of the joyful ! Only the All-powerful can re- 
 claim the soil of the u bad lands," and not until a 
 cataclysm has carried it 1,000 fathoms beneath 
 the sea, will it be fitted for sunlight and ready to
 
 24 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 support life. It has been burned up with the 
 coals and lignites which underlaid the surface. 
 After striking the Yellowstone Valley the ride 
 westward becomes pretty. The mountains are 
 bold, with fine outlines, often lifting in pictur- 
 esque precipices from the water's edge. Great 
 strata of coal are frequently seen stretching in 
 level parallel lines for considerable distances. 
 Snow appears in seams and gorges on the 
 loftiest heights. While not offering as grand 
 displays as are seen in one or two points of 
 other across-the-continent roads, the Northern 
 Pacific presents more varied scenery, and far 
 more that is pleasing and restful to the eye, than 
 any other except the Canadian Pacific. 
 
 To most travelers much of the scenery of the 
 Northern Pacific until Helena is reached is mo- 
 notonous. But to one disposed to be a student 
 of nature and a lover of its varied forms, many 
 instructive lessons can be conned from the car 
 window, and many pleasing pictures hastily en- 
 joyed. The Yellowstone, along whose banks 
 the road runs for three hundred and fifty miles, 
 is a cheerful stream. When first reached it is 
 muddy, but after the mouths of one or two large 
 affluents have been passed it becomes clear and 
 limpid. Its flow is almost constantly rapid and 
 turbulent. But few still reaches are seen, and 
 these are rarely over a mile or so in length. On
 
 MAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS. 25 
 
 one or the other bank considerable mountains 
 lift from the water's edge, in loft}'-, clea.-cut 
 precipices. The upper slopes have but few 
 trees and rarely any clumps or masses, but of- 
 fer much variety in earth coloring. Light 
 brown, sometimes deepening into chocolate, is 
 the dominant tone. There are frequent stretches 
 of yellow, here and there flecked with patches or 
 bands of Venetian red. This latter sometimes 
 takes a tint so bright as to merit being called 
 vermilion. 
 
 At Livingston, a thousand and odd miles from 
 St. Paul, we left the Northern Pacific, and by a 
 narrow-gauge road continued up the Yellow- 
 stone, fifty-one miles to Cinnabar; thence by 
 Park coaches, wagonettes and surreys, eight 
 miles along the wildly rushing Gardner river, 
 and through a narrow defile hemmed in by 
 lofty precipices beneath frowning crags the 
 gateway to the park to the " Mammoth Hot 
 Springs." Near the gateway on a lofty pinnacled 
 rock, so slender as at first to be mistaken for 
 the trunk of a huge tree, sat an eagle upon its 
 eyrie, keeping watch and ward over the entrance 
 to the people's pleasure ground. The bird's 
 nest is built of loose sticks laid upon the rocky 
 point, which is not broader than a good-sized 
 tree stump. How it withstands the dash of 
 storms, which often rage through the narrow
 
 26 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 pass, is a marvel. Yet it has been there for 
 many years, and each year sends forth it young 
 brood. I regret to say this eagle is not the gen- 
 uine American screamer, which so grandly 
 spreads its wings upon the daddy's dollar, but is 
 the great white-headed fish-hawk. He is easily 
 mistaken for the bald eagle, but is smaller and a 
 somewhat sociable bird, building his home near 
 by those of others of his species. The true eagle is 
 sullen and solitary, and chooses his eyrie many 
 miles removed from his fellows. Indeed he 
 spurns all fellowship with his kind. 
 
 All tourists delight to look at the "Devils 
 Slide" in the Gardner canyon. It is from five 
 to six hundred feet high, a few feet broad, be- 
 tween thin slate dykes, and as smooth as a tobog- 
 gan way. As there is no record that the father 
 of lies was acquainted with sand paper, there is 
 a peculiar pleasure in imagining the grinding 
 away of the seat of his trousers, while he was 
 polishing down his coaching slide. In spite of 
 what the preachers say, there is no doubt that 
 man, woman and child hate the devil, and are 
 delighted by any evidence of annoyance to him.
 
 LETTER II. 
 
 THE NATIONAL PARK, "THE WONDERLAND OF 
 THE GLOBE." THE HOME OF THE EVIL ONE. 
 STEAM VENTS. GEYSERS. THE GROTTO. 
 THE GIANT. THE BEE HIVE. THE CASTLE 
 AND OLD FAITHFUL IN THE UPPER GEYSER 
 BASIN. 
 
 GRAND CANYON, 
 YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, July 22. 
 
 American dudes of both sexes wandering 
 about the world have been sorely perplexed be- 
 cause Uncle Sam has had no huge ships of war 
 with which to display his grandeur in foreign 
 ports, and no embassadorial residences in which 
 Yankee heels may air themselves to advantage. 
 When foreigners have made allusion to our 
 poverty in this regard, and their own wealth of 
 splendor, we have been forced to fall back upon 
 the Yankee's retort, "Yes; but you hain't got 
 no Niagary." Luckily but few of those who 
 taunted us were aware that Niagara was simply 
 located in the United States but did not belong 
 to it. But now we can throw back at the 
 effete denizens of other lands " the wonderland 
 of the globe," The Yellowstone National Park 
 in which there is more of the marvelous sports 
 of nature than exists in the entire outer world 
 besides. We can tell them of these wonders, and 
 
 27
 
 28 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 can then say that these marvels are the Nation's, 
 and that this park of over 3,500 square miles is 
 maintained by the Nation for the people, for 
 their amusement and recreation. It is to be re- 
 gretted that more of the surplus which has been 
 lying idle in the treasury vaults has not been ex- 
 pended to enable the people to better enjoy their 
 wealth of wonders. The people may read of 
 their treasures ; they may see folios of illustra- 
 tions, but no one can comprehend them without 
 seeing them ; no pen pictures can bring them 
 before the eye of one who has not been here ; no 
 photograph can display their forms and then dye 
 them in their wondrous colors ; no painter can 
 spread them upon canvas, for he would at once 
 be put down as an artistic liar. The simple 
 truth is an exaggeration, and a precise copy is a 
 distortion of nature's molds. 
 
 THE EVIL SPIRIT'S ABODE. 
 
 No wonder the Indians have given this sec- 
 tion of the country a wide berth, for well might 
 they believe it the home of the evil spirit. One of 
 them straying here might wander for days and 
 never mount an elevated point without being 
 able to count scores of columns of white steam 
 lifting above the trees from different points of 
 the forest, telling him of the wigwams of the 
 evil one. If he stole along the valleys, he
 
 YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 29 
 
 would come upon pools of water of crystal clear- 
 ness tempting in appearance to the thirsty ; some 
 of them not larger than the blanket which cov- 
 ered his shoulders, others so large that the 
 tepees of half his tribe would not cover their 
 area ; some mere jagged holes in the rock, oth- 
 ers with rims a foot or so in height, and as reg- 
 ular as his pipe of peace. Here are some a few 
 inches or a few feet in depth, with bottoms and 
 sides painted in rainbow tints ; there are others 
 with deep sunken walls embossed and tufted, and 
 dyed with the colors of the setting sun, and with 
 dark throats so deep that they seeni to be 
 yawning from fathomless depths. Here they 
 are as placid as the eye of the papoose 
 hanging at the squaw mother's back. Our 
 Indian pauses at the painted brink of one, 
 dips his hand into the tempting fluid - 
 jerks it back quickly, but perhaps not before 
 it is scalded. There they boil up one, two, three 
 or more feet and appear as though they would 
 pour out a flood from below, but not a drop 
 passes over the rim of the pool. The boiling 
 motion is from volumes of steam working its 
 way through the waters from the bowels of the 
 earth and spreading upon the breeze. Boiling 
 water elsewhere wastes itself away, but these pools 
 boil and boil from year to year, and scarcely 
 vary perceptibly in height. Our untutored
 
 30 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 tourist turns his eye upon the mountain border- 
 ing the valley, whose sides are so encrusted with 
 geyserite deposit that it appears to have 
 been formed of this material, and to have been 
 erected by boiling springs ; along its whitened 
 side and far up on its crest are springs 
 or vents, from which arise columns of lifting 
 steam and the mountain seems to roar ; startled, 
 he hears close to his feet, a gurgling sound such 
 as comes from an animal whose throat is newly 
 cut. His eye seeks the spot whence comes this 
 sound of death. He sees an orifice in the ground 
 not large enough to take in his body, but from 
 it comes the death rattle a hundred times louder 
 than the largest buffalo could make when 
 pierced about its heart. The Evil Spirit is slay- 
 ing an animal so huge that if he were on the 
 ground its tread would shake the earth. 
 
 A WONDERFUL PLATEAU. 
 
 He climbs over a mountain spur and sees 
 spread before him a white plateau of several 
 hundred acres. Jets of steam are pouring from 
 a thousand points of its surface, some rising only 
 a few feet, others lifting 500 feet into the air ; 
 here from fountains boiling merely, or spouting 
 up to one, two, or more feet ; there from simple 
 vent holes in the nearly level surface of the 
 plain. Some pour from fantastic forms great
 
 YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 31 
 
 stumps of trees with one side torn away ; from 
 piles of downy cushions ; from great platters of 
 biscuit, a part as white as dough, others crisp 
 and brown ; from ruined castles ; from orifices 
 bordered by mighty, parted, Ethiopian lips of 
 whitish gray tone or painted red and brown. 
 One is fashioned like an old time conical straw 
 bee-hive. So well is the model copied, that no 
 great stretch of imagination would be required 
 to enable one to hear the buzz of busy 
 honey makers swarming about it. Another 
 is a rude cabin chimney with steam lifting 
 from its top, in lieu of smoke curling 
 from a woodman's fire. 
 
 He approaches one which might once have 
 been a grotto, with stalagmites and stalactites 
 forming its ribs and roof, but the super- 
 incumbent earth having been removed, the 
 stony skeleton is laid bare, partly a dozen 
 or more feet above the ground and partly 
 sunken below. From its hollow pit comes a 
 roaring sound not unlike the growl of a lion, 
 when feeding, only of a king of beasts many 
 fold enlarged. He hears close by it a noise he 
 takes to be the call of a familiar bird. There is 
 no bird in sight, but near his feet in the rocky 
 platform is a small vent he could close with his 
 thumb ; it is breathing, but its breath is high 
 heated steam ; its inspiration is a gentle gurgle, 
 its expiration is the blue jay's call.
 
 32 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 Its breath comes from deep below, from the 
 lungs of the monster whose stertorous breathing 
 is an indication that he is turning over in his 
 hidden lair ; and as he turns he belches forth a 
 mouthful of steam and water through the 
 grotto. He has evidently eaten something dis- 
 agreeable and is sick in the regions of the maw, 
 for up comes another and a larger mouthful ; 
 and then another and more, until he pours out 
 his very insides in tons of boiling water. 
 Through every opening of the grotto's frame, 
 water and steam rush forth in mighty volume. 
 Thousands of gallons to the minute lift in jets 
 ten to thirty feet through each opening, and run 
 in great streams to the crystal river a little way 
 below. The monster bellows, the vents about 
 the grotto's base whistle, the water splashes, and 
 the steam rushes, scalding hot. After a while 
 perhaps in twenty or thirty minutes all flow- 
 ing ceases, and a column of steam pours out for 
 perhaps an hour and lifts several hundred feet 
 into the air. 
 
 "THE GIANT" IN ACTION. 
 
 While this strange action is being seen, close 
 by, a rumbling noise is heard in the depths of 
 " The Giant," 200 or 300 yards away. The 
 noise increases, not unlike that of an approach-
 
 YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 33 
 
 ing railroad train, and is soon accompanied by a 
 discharge of water three or more feet in diameter 
 at the geyser nozzle, lifted in an almost vertical 
 column 150 to 200 feet high, all enveloped in a 
 veil of steam. This pours through the top of a 
 geyserite formation some ten feet high, and a 
 dozen or fifteen from out to out a monster 
 stump, broken and jagged as if a monarch of 
 the forest had been snapped of? by a mighty 
 storm blast. 
 
 The flood drops all about in spray, veiling 
 the lifted column, and is of such quantity that 
 the river nearly seventy-five feet wide, is doubled 
 in depth when the monster is in action. 
 
 Our accidental red tourist has lost his 
 Indian stoicism, and wishes to see something 
 more of the Devil's doings. The "Giant" having 
 become silent, he steals along the white forma- 
 tion a few hundred yards, when, from a small 
 hole in the ground, without any warning, up 
 shoots a beautiful little geyser about twenty feet 
 high, a perfect spreading jet d'eau, accompanied 
 by no steam and lasting only perhaps a quarter 
 of a minute. The action of this little jet over, 
 every drop of its lifted water flows back into its 
 mouth and disappears down its throat ; but not 
 for long, for it again shoots up in four minutes, 
 and is so regular in its action, that it has been 
 christened "Young Faithful."
 
 34 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 The plateau here spokenof "The upper geyser 
 basin" is two or more miles long and of irregular 
 width, probably averaging a third of a mile. It 
 is all white with encrusted geyserite deposit 
 often giving out a hollow sound to the tread. 
 This deposit varies in thickness from a few 
 inches to several feet. It is grayish \vhite, 
 resembling tarnished frozen snow. 
 
 THE SPLENDID 200 FEET HIGH. 
 
 But see that noble column spouting 260 feet 
 high in a somewhat slanting stream not far 
 from a quarter of a mile away. Close by a smaller 
 jet shoots obliquely, mingling its spray with the 
 larger one. The tourist is too far removed to 
 see the brilliant rainbow formed in the ming- 
 ling spray. But let him wait some hours and he 
 may visit it again to witness another active erup- 
 tion from the "Splendid Geyser," which pours 
 four times a day from a simple hole in the rock, 
 and has as yet builded himself no geyserite 
 nozzle. A short walk brings one to the 
 "Devil's Punch Bowl," where the old Fiend 
 takes his nocturnal nip, from a basin a few feet 
 in diameter, inclosed by an embossed rim a foot 
 high and as regular as the raised edge of a 
 Dresden punch bowl, and always boiling and 
 seething to keep the tipple hot and ready.
 
 YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 35 
 
 In this plateau are hundreds of pools of exquis- 
 ite colorings, and scores of geysers lifting more or 
 less regularly and at shorter or longer intervals; 
 some of the intervals being of hours, others of 
 days and others still measured only by minutes. 
 The geysers are all named in accordance with 
 a supposed resemblance of their formation to 
 some known thing, or to the character, size or 
 quality of their eruptions ; "The Queen," "The 
 King," "The Bee-hive," "The Castle," "The 
 Princess," "Old Faithful," "The Excelsior," 
 "The Splendid" and so on. The pools take their 
 names generally from the colorings of their rims 
 or sides, or of the water held in them, as "The 
 "Emerald," "The Amethyst," "The Sunset," 
 "The Rainbow" and "The Morning Glory." 
 Some of the pools are named from the nature of 
 their boilings, others from the rock formation in 
 their throats and about their sides ; "The 
 Biscuit Bowl," "The Snow-ball," "The Spouter." 
 Many of the names are by no means far fetched. 
 The "Biscuit Bowl," for example, resembles a 
 mass of well formed monster breakfast rolls, 
 some in whitened dough, others in all stages of 
 brown from the half done to the well baked. 
 
 The tourist approaches a flattened cone, with a 
 base 600 or 800 feet in circumference, and fifty feet 
 high, surmounted by the ruins of an old castle. 
 The owuerof the' ' Castle" has been growlingall day
 
 36 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 and emiting an unsual amount of steam. He is 
 evidently preparing to erupt, which he does at 
 intervals of several days. His terrific growlings 
 increase as the day wears on, and angry spurts 
 of boiling water accompanied by steam show he 
 is getting his temper up to white heat. He has 
 been quiet for an unusual time of late and when 
 aroused, like Othello, he will be fearfully moved. 
 He makes a few angry premonitory belches and 
 bellows. The noise is accompanied by a tremb- 
 ling of the earth for hundreds of yards. A mass 
 of water is then ejected from 50 to 100 feet up, 
 mixed with steam in dense mass. The flow of 
 water is of short duration; but is of thousands of 
 tons, and is followed by an emission of steam 
 large enough to run an ocean steamer. This 
 steam escape can be heard for a mile or more, and 
 sounds like the roar made by a Long Island Sound 
 steamer blowing salt from its boilers. The noise 
 is continuous for an hour ; it gradually lessens, 
 however, until it ceases entirely. Steam is then 
 lazily emitted continuously, and a loud gurgling 
 noise is constant deep down in the Geyser throat. 
 This is more or less the case with nearly all of 
 the geysers. A few, however, become so quiet, 
 that very close attention is necessary to catch 
 any boiling noise. The "Castle" geyser blows 
 off for hours before his steam generators are 
 cleaned.
 
 YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 37 
 
 IT vSCARES THE WHITE MAN. 
 
 Our red cheeked tourist has stoicism, but he 
 cannot stay over this Devil's kitchen long enough 
 to see half of the mighty vents in action. One, 
 which but rarely plays, shakes the very earth. 
 A good white man, who flatters himself that he 
 is a child of God and believes in sovereign reign- 
 ing grace, is struck by it with awe akin to terror. 
 
 But there is one geyser which becomes famil- 
 iar to the civilized tourist and seems to win from 
 him a sort of affection, because of his consci- 
 entious behavior. His very regularity, however, 
 would strike the more terror into the heart of 
 the untutored red man. He has built his home 
 under a mound 300 yards in circumference and 
 twenty or so feet high at its apex, upon which he 
 has cast a geyserite chimney ten to fifteen feet 
 high and six or eight in diameter. This chimney 
 he has ornamented within and without with 
 huge tufted beads, and painted those within 
 with rose and white, orange and brown, red and 
 grey. These adjuncts, however, do not compare 
 to those of many others, for some of them seem 
 to have wrapped their throats in great pillows, 
 hard as gypsum, but looking as soft and tufty 
 as if made of swans down, while others have 
 painted their inside linings with all the tints of 
 the rainbow; and their crystal clear water seems 
 to have caught the cerulean blue from the heav- 
 ens and are holding it in solution.
 
 38 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 But to return to this geyser; for nearly an hour 
 he has been as quiet as a lamb, just enough of 
 steam arising from his throat to show he is gent- 
 ly breathing. The steam breath gradually 
 grows and is exhaled with more vigor. Present- 
 ly he belches up a barrel or so of water which 
 falls back into his throat. Then in a minute 
 come two or three such little spasms, when up 
 lifts a rounded column two or three feet in diam- 
 eter, rising higher and higher in exact perpen- 
 dicularity 150 feet high. The jet breaks more 
 or less as it rises into pointed sprays, which, 
 when there is no wind blowing, fall with almost 
 precise regularity about the up going column. 
 
 WATCHES ARE SET BY IT. 
 
 Ill about five minutes the jet of water ceases, 
 but is followed by considerable steam emis- 
 sions for a quarter of an hour, when one can 
 look down into his throat and see the crystal 
 water ten to fifteen feet below the apex, and all 
 quiet and still. So regular is the action of this 
 geyser that one could, by watching it, almost 
 dispense with a watch. He never plays in less 
 than sixty-three minutes, and never delays ac- 
 tion longer than seventy. Indeed, some of his 
 most constant admirers declare these variations 
 are the fault of watches, not of " Old Faithful." 
 Thus he is named, and as such is known far
 
 YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 39 
 
 and near. There are several of these geyser- 
 basins scattered over the park from ten to twenty- 
 five miles apart, the principal ones being the "Nor- 
 ris," the " Lower Geyser Basin " and the " Up- 
 per Geyser Basin." These are reached in suc- 
 cession on the tourist road from " Mammoth 
 Hot Springs." 
 
 The regular tourist, starting from Mammoth 
 Hotel, dines at the " Norris " and sleeps at the 
 u Lower Basin." The next day, if he prefers to 
 go on with his coach, he passes the" Bxcelsior," 
 which is the hugest of all the geysers, and has 
 been for two or three years nearly quiet, but 
 this year is in tolerable eruption. It is a vast 
 pool, possibly over two hundred feet in diameter. 
 When quiet, water about twenty feet below the 
 pool rim boils, seethes and tosses in horrible mo- 
 tion. It erupted just as our party reached it, 
 but not in one of its grand actions. A mass of 
 water possibly many feet in diameter was lifted 
 fifty or more feet in the air. It is said that when 
 in full eruption the height of the column is from 
 two to three hundred feet. This I doubt. The 
 mass of steam enveloping the jet is so great that 
 the water column is entirely hidden, and has 
 given rise to exaggeration on the part of those 
 who have seen it at its best. The basin of the 
 Excelsior is called " Hell's half acre," and it is 
 by no means a misnomer, for the earth trembles,
 
 40 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 and the roar 1 when the geyser is in action is that 
 of an earthquake, while great stones are scattered 
 about for several hundred feet. Close by.it are 
 the " Prismatic Springs " and the " Turquoise." 
 The first is two or more hundred feet in diame- 
 ter and is a placid mass of scalding water. It 
 has various depths ; in the center where very 
 deep, it is of an indigo blue which shades off 
 into a bluish green ; then where very shallow, 
 it runs off into yellow, orange, red and brown, 
 while some circles are white. It is a marvel of 
 beauty. The color of the Turquoise is precisely 
 described by its name. 
 
 The whole park plateau is filled with hot 
 springs, which are building up elevations 
 with their deposit and mounting them as they 
 build. The water is all clear as crystal, but 
 holds in solution lime, iron, sulphur and other 
 minerals, which it deposits sufficiently fast to 
 encrust a key, horseshoe, or other piece of metal 
 in three or four days with a solid enamel say 
 the sixteenth of an inch in thickness and of 
 the appearance of second-class white sugar. 
 
 The geysers eject, when in action, large 
 quantities of water, but the springs, though 
 boiling and spouting, and appearing to be lifting 
 much water, flow over their rims in very small 
 streams. As they flow they build up their mar- 
 gins, which are thus made almost exactly level.
 
 YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 41 
 
 This gentle flow runs off in wavy ripples gener- 
 ally ; not in little rivulets, but in thin sheets, de- 
 positing the solid matter they have held in solu- 
 tion while below, which is freed by the action of 
 the atmosphere. In this way the springs lift 
 themselves, and build lofty hills. The deposit 
 when fresh is hard, but when dry becomes gen- 
 erally friable, though there are cases where it 
 maintains great hardness. These deposits often 
 times wear beautiful colors, and nearly always 
 do so when being made or while under water. 
 Some of the quiet pools are over 100 feet in di- 
 ameter. The outer edges when shallow are of a 
 deep brown, followed by a lighter brown or red, 
 then blending into a yellow and followed by a 
 yellow olive, and deepening as they sink into 
 dark olive, while in the deep throats they are al- 
 most black. The water before it makes the 
 deepest point, in some is of emerald greenness, 
 in others of exquisite blue ; along the steep slop- 
 ing walls assuming a rich amethyst or tinted in 
 exquisite sapphire. 
 
 All deposits take either a wavy or a tufted 
 form, whether on gentle slopes or on perpendic- 
 ular walls. Some steep walls are not unlike 
 slightly tufted fleeces of wool. The tufts are of 
 all sizes, from that of an orange up to others as 
 large as a bushel basket. One can scarcely 
 realize that these tufts are hard. They appear
 
 42 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 beneath the water to be as light and soft as 
 newly fallen snow upon an evergreen bush. 
 Some of them are creamy white, others yellow, 
 orange and all shades of brown. In one of the 
 Geyser basins is a large pool actually used by 
 the hotel people as a laundry tub. If you will 
 promise not to mention it I will confess two evi- 
 dences on my part of weakness. I always shed 
 tears at the theatres, and I washed some hand- 
 kerchiefs in this boiling pool and they came 
 out nicely white. 
 
 NATURE'S PAINT-POTS. 
 
 To many, the paint-pots at the " Lower 
 Basin " are the most curious things seen in the 
 park. Imagine somewhat rounded pits of all 
 sizes from those a few inches in diameter to 
 others of forty and even sixty feet across, filled 
 with fine white mud or mortar, such as plaster- 
 ers call putty, and used by them for hard finish. 
 This is boiling and plopping (I coin this word) 
 like mush in huge pots, or thick soap in mighty 
 caldrons. In boiling, the big bubbles lazily lift 
 several inches high, and more lazily burst with 
 a mufHed noise, and sputter dabs of thick paste 
 several feet into the air. Falling upon the rim 
 of the pool, these erect a wall now smooth as a 
 plastered wall and then in rough grotesque 
 finish. No mortar made up for a first-class plas-
 
 YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 43 
 
 ter finish was ever tempered as is this natural 
 paste. When dry and pulverized it is an almost 
 impalpable powder. The paste is sometimes 
 white, but more often is of a pale scotch gray. 
 One large pool is half white or whitish grey, 
 the other half of a delicate peach blow. In one 
 pot the putty was a pretty pink salmon. Put- 
 ting these three colors on a cardboard to dry, I 
 found that much of the coloring disappeared 
 after exposure to the atmosphere. At one basin 
 between the Yellowstone canyon and the great 
 Yellowstone Lake, the mortar is of dark mud, 
 pure and simple, and is lifted many feet in the 
 air, and falling, is sucked back into a monster 
 throat with horrible gurgling sound. Go to a 
 slaughter house to see a stuck pig breathing his 
 last. Multiply his agonizing throes several hun- 
 dred fold and a good idea can be had of the 
 struggle of these hidden monsters. One of the 
 mud geysers is said at times to be so violent in 
 its action, that the earth trembles for a very 
 considerable distance, when the monster is in 
 full eruption. Curiously there will sometimes 
 be found a pool of crystal pure water boiling or 
 spouting not many feet away, and in one in- 
 stance, close to a mud boiling pool is a large 
 spring of pure cold water. One is tempted tq 
 wish to turn one of these into the mouth of the 
 mud geyser to wash down its throat and ease its
 
 44 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 agony. Neither the mud nor the white mortar in 
 these craters overflow, but bubble, sputter, 
 and plop year after year. The particles are as 
 impalpable as the fine ground paint upon an 
 artist's easel. 
 
 All kinds of pools, geysers and paint-pots are 
 heated more or less highly, all of them nearly 
 up to, and some much above boiling point. The 
 heating is not from the visible water being near 
 to any fire or heated surface, but from super- 
 heated steam, generated far below, being forced 
 through the surface water. Sometimes only 
 .steam escapes through the surface orifices. 
 These are called vents. The steam coming 
 from some of these is so hot that the skin would 
 be taken from the hand by a single instant- 
 aneous application. They seem to be a sort of 
 safety valves from the great steam generators in 
 the bowels of the earth. No wonder the Indian 
 gives this country a clear berth, or that a good 
 schoolmarm tourist constantly had on her lips 
 Hades! Hades!! Hades!!! To be candid, I 
 think she used the old fashioned word.
 
 LETTER III. 
 
 MAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS. A WONDERFUL FOR- 
 MATION. THE WHITE ELEPHANT. A THEORY 
 ACCOUNTING 'FOR THE HOT SPRINGS AND 
 GEYSERS. MUD GEYSERS. MARVELOUS COL- 
 ORINGS OF SOME POOLS. 
 
 The tourist entering the National Park by 
 way of Livingston through the Gardner Canyon, 
 and rocky Gateway, at about sixty miles reaches 
 the "Mammoth Hot Springs". Here he sees a 
 surprising formation. Before him rises in ter- 
 races each from twenty to thirty feet high, a 
 great white cataract looking mass, several hun- 
 dred feet high, bulging out into the valley. The 
 center projects with rounded contour far beyond 
 the wings, which recede on either side, and to be 
 seen must be skirted. The entire bent crest is 
 not far from three miles in length. When first 
 approached, it strikes the eye as a succession 
 of water falls tumbling from terrace to ter- 
 race. To a second glance it appears a system 
 of falls one above the other hardened into 
 dirty ice. To one who has visited lofty snow clad 
 mountains, an act of deliberation is required to 
 prevent him believing that the terraces are a 
 part of a glacier of more or less purity. 
 
 The crests of the different terraces are almost 
 level some of them apparently exactly so. They 
 are built by water, and, water here levels as it 
 
 45
 
 46 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 builds, for if there be a depression it .seeks it, 
 and depositing the solid matter held in solution, 
 levels it up with the rest. From the crest of the 
 upper terrace runs back a plateau of silicious 
 incrustation covering 300 to 400 acres. Scat- 
 tered over this, are shallow pools of hot water of 
 a bluish white tinge. About their shallow sides 
 these pools have concentric, tinted borders, some 
 a few inches wide, others of one or two feet. 
 These are bent to conform to the irregular shape 
 of the pools, one within the other, and are several 
 deep. The borders differ from each other in 
 color, being red, orange, yellow and brown and 
 of intermediate shades. 
 
 Near the front bulge of the upper terrace, lifts 
 the principal spring or pool on its individual 
 terrace, high above the main plateau. It looks 
 like a turret when seen from below. Flowing in 
 thin sheets over the margin, sometimes a simple 
 ooze, the water from each pool makes a deposit 
 as it spreads over the surrounding surface. At 
 the foot and in front of the great precipice, stand 
 two isolated slender pillars of geyserite, one of 
 them about forty feet high. They are hollow 
 and are the cones or nozzles of extinct geysers. 
 One is called the "Liberty Cap" the other the 
 "Devil's Thumb." They lift sheer up from the 
 level in front of the great formation, and are a 
 sort of sentinels keeping watch and ward over
 
 YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 47 
 
 the wonderful picture. A large part of the pre- 
 cipitous projection of each terrace is moist from 
 slowly trickling water. 
 
 At the rear of the great plateau half hidden 
 among scattered trees, is a long fissure in the 
 solid rock foundation of the mountain slope. 
 Through this has poured up hot water from 
 below, building, as it flowed, a huge white forma- 
 tion two to three hundred feet long, ten to fifteen 
 feet high, and about as broad, rounded and 
 smooth on its crest. This is supposed to resemble 
 an elephant in recumbent position and has been 
 aptly named "The White Elephant." If one 
 pauses to listen, he will hear a gurgling of run- 
 ning water down in the leviathan's inside, not 
 unlike that made when its living namesake 
 pours a draught of water from his trunk down 
 into his throat. Here, as everywhere else in 
 active spring formations, the sound of running 
 water can be heard beneath the surface incrus- 
 tation. In some instances the ear must be bent 
 down to catch a gentle rippling ; in others it 
 deepens into a hoarse gurgle. 
 
 The. silicious crest of all of the plateaux 
 on which a person walks, gives out so hollow 
 a sound, that one is apt to feel somewhat 
 anxious lest it break beneath his weight. I sus- 
 pect, however, if it should do so, the bottom 
 would be found generally at only a few inches,
 
 48 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 and a crimped shoe would be the most injurious 
 result. Occasionally, however, the crest may 
 cover a deep pool, but not often. When a pool 
 is very still a film of solid matter spreads over 
 its margin as grease does over cool water. This 
 attaches itself to the edge and spreads towards 
 the center. Gentle ripples then overflow this but 
 do not break it down, but thicken it by further 
 deposits. Sometimes one sees these edges pro- 
 jecting well over a cjeep pool, and strong enough 
 to bear up the weight of several men ; some of 
 these may at some time be the cause of very 
 scalding accidents. The principal danger, how- 
 ever, to a moderately prudent tourist is to his 
 shoe leather. One frequently steps into a little 
 puddle after a geyser ceases to act, or walks into 
 a thin sheet to see more closely the coloring of a 
 pool. Either of such imprudences may cost a 
 pair of good shoes. The safest course is to wear 
 old ones for a ramble and to keep a good dry 
 pair at the hotel. 
 
 THEORIES ABOUT THE FORMATIONS. 
 
 It may not be amiss to suggest some solution 
 of the problems under which the silicious in- 
 crustations are produced and the active geysers 
 act. 
 
 The entire Yellowstone Park is an elevated 
 plateau thrown up by volcanic eruption, or more
 
 YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 49 
 
 probably was left when the plains sank beneath 
 the ocean, leaving the crumpled back bone of 
 the continent pushed far above. The rocky ribs 
 of earth were pitched here into a more or less 
 vertical position, leaving seams and fissures run- 
 ning deep down into the bowels of the earth in 
 the neighborhood of intense internal fires. Vol- 
 canic forces have left their marks throughout 
 the Park. The hot springs and geysers are 
 their feeble remnants. 
 
 On the mountain heights, melting snows and 
 rains fill great lakes and copious flowing rivers. 
 These send veins more or less large, or percolate 
 down into the earth crust, supplying the intensely 
 heated rocks with moisture for a vast volume of 
 super-heated steam. The steam seeks an outlet 
 through fissures made in the plutonic rocks by 
 volcanic forces and through seams in the upper 
 crumpled and pitched stratified formations. Pass- 
 ing through these latter this intensively heated 
 steam erodes the softer rocks into throats, re- 
 cesses and pockets, and taking up minerals in 
 chemicals solution bears them upward, meeting 
 the cooler crust and mingling with percolations 
 from melting snows and rains, it becomes more 
 or less condensed and pours out in small springs. 
 These as they flow, deposit the silicious and 
 other mineral matter held in solution, building 
 up the lower side of the spring, until the rim is
 
 50 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 level. Thus the spring becomes a more or less 
 rounded pool. 
 
 The over flow now becomes very gentle 
 and even over the entire rim. The atmos- 
 phere reaches the whole of the overflow as 
 it spreads over the surface of the ground and 
 causes rapid precipitation. The constant out- 
 pour causes a constant lifting of the pool and of 
 the incrustations about it. This spreading crust 
 is in laminae or thin sheets. As the pool rim 
 lifts, the weight of the column of water forces 
 some of it between the sheets and carries it hot 
 and rich in mineral and earthy solid matter to 
 the outer edges of the formation, where it escapes 
 to spread the incrustation wider and wider. 
 The streams beneath the crust gradually wear 
 away their channels leaving open spaces above 
 them, which give out a hollow sound when one 
 walks over them, and in them the rippling or 
 gurgling of flowing water is to be heard more or 
 less, beneath the crust. 
 
 When such underflowing streams cut a 
 large enough channel, they frequently build 
 up new small pools more or less removed 
 from the parent spring. In other words one 
 vein of hot water coming from below may 
 be the source of several pools. Yet there 
 are many only a few yards apart, which have 
 sources far removed from each other, or at least
 
 YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 51 
 
 the steam which supplies them with their heat 
 and solid matter in solution, has passed through 
 widely different and distant rock formations. 
 This is shown by the different and distinct min- 
 erals which color the water and the formations 
 deposited by them. 
 
 The water in one pool will be compara- 
 tively pure, while close by, is that of an- 
 other strongly impregnated with sulphur, depos- 
 iting great tufts in yellow and brown, and still 
 another with red borders and olive throat full of 
 oxide of iron. Here will be a pool beautifully 
 green, with exquisitely tinted formations, prov- 
 ing that copper or arsenic are held in solution ; 
 and then within a half stone's throw is still an- 
 other of intense cerulean blue and a third of 
 most delicate sapphire. 
 
 In one of the paint pots, in the "Lower basin" 
 not over forty feet in diameter, about half of the 
 putty is pearl gray, while the other half is a 
 rich peach blow. I said that the overflow of the 
 pools was generally small. I recall several small 
 ones and a few fully thirty or more feet in dia- 
 meter, from which the overflow in a calm day 
 was almost uniform from the entire veins, and 
 nowhere thicker than a very thin sheet of glass. 
 And in some instances the out put was so thin as 
 to be a simple ooze. And yet in many of such 
 pools the boiling action in the centre was great
 
 52 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 enough to lift bubbles and turbulations many 
 inches high. In one pool called the "Spouter" 
 there are constant large jets lifting from a few 
 inches up to three or more feet, a wild fearful 
 boiling and still only a small stream ran from it. 
 And still others which boiled furiously but had no 
 outflow at all. It is not improbable that from 
 these latter there are water exists below the 
 crusts, which have been lifted up as rims or pool 
 margins. The bubbles and turbulations are not 
 strictly speaking from boiling hot water, but 
 from steam rushing up and striving to escape. 
 
 MARVELOUS COLORINGS. 
 
 No ordinary stretch of imagination will enable 
 one who has not seen them to realize the variety 
 and exquisiteness of the tints and colorings of 
 many of the pools. The caves of Capri near 
 Naples, furnish not a more wondrous blue, and 
 the grottoes of tropical seas do not afford such 
 variety. The tints are partly derived from the 
 minerals held in solution by the water, but are 
 probably owing more to the reflected tones of the 
 geyserite formation surrounding the throats, 
 walls and margins. 
 
 One can easily understand the solution of 
 the problem resulting in the formation and 
 actions of the pools, and of the building of 
 the encrustations of the plateaux, which
 
 YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 53 
 
 extend over hundreds of acres. But the actions 
 of geysers are so weird and strange that 
 science has probably not fully explained them. 
 I confess myself too much of a tyro to fully 
 comprehend the more scientific elucidation, 
 which explains the action on chemical prin- 
 ciples. I can, however, comprehend the more 
 practical but possibly less scientific theory, 
 which is sufficient for me and will probably also 
 be so for the majority of my readers. The pools 
 and hot springs are formed at all elevations in 
 the valleys and on mountain slopes. 
 
 THEORIES AS TO GEYSER ACTION. 
 
 The Geysers are always in the valleys and 
 generally contiguous to the lowest points. When 
 lifted up they are probably so raised by their 
 own energies as builders. 
 
 On the following page is a cut showing a sec- 
 tion of the earth crust, running across a valley 
 and up the mountain side. Along its lowest 
 point flows rapidly a stream of cold clear water 
 fed by melting snows and dews on mountains 
 towering above and more or less distant. 
 
 "G" is a geyser cone. Below is the geyser 
 throat or well sinking down to " IV\ 
 
 "5" is a shaft more or less vertical opening 
 into the geyser well and running far down into 
 the softer rocks to U (T" a somewhat horizontal
 
 I
 
 YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 55 
 
 continuation leading into "Z?" a recess or pocket 
 in the softer upper rocks of sufficient capacity 
 in some cases to hold hundreds or thousands of 
 tons of water. 
 
 "/"' is another recess opening into "Z?" near 
 its apex. These recesses or pockets have been 
 scooped out by superheated steam pouring up 
 from far below through plutonic rocks contiguous 
 to living central fires. Such steam is generated 
 from veins and percolations of water always 
 sinking from the earth's surface and from 
 moisture believed to exist in or about all rocks. 
 
 "/)" U Z7' and "Z2" are reservoirs on the sur- 
 face of the earth or beneath it high up on the 
 mountains, perennially supplied by rains and 
 melting snows. 
 
 " F" u F" " F" are veins through which water 
 flows from reservoirs <4 Z?" "Z?" "Z?" into recess 
 "Z?" at "X". These veins are also fed by per- 
 colations throughout the formations through 
 which they run. "Z 7 " "Z 7 " are fissures or seams 
 in the upper rocks running into and extending 
 deep down in the primative or igneus rocks 
 below, along which highly heated steam gen- 
 erated near the internal fires underlying earth's 
 solid crust, rushes upward into recess or pocket 
 "Z 5 ". We will assume that there are no veins 
 conveying cold water into this latter recess or 
 pocket.
 
 56 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 Now we assume also that at a given moment 
 recesses "/?" and "P and shaft "5" and its 
 continuation "C" are free or nearly free of water. 
 Steam, however, is rushing from them and out 
 of geyser "G" in hot, roaring volume. In recess 
 "A 7 " it is encountering cold water flowing .in at 
 U J^" and rapidly loses its high temperature and 
 is being condensed. As such condensation goes 
 on, the horizontal continuation "C" is being 
 filled. As it fills the escape of steam at "(^"les- 
 sens rapidly, until continuation "C ]< becoming 
 full of water, it ceases entirely or only a small 
 amount lifts lazily up from the hot shaft "6*". 
 The inflow at "X " and condensation fills recess 
 "-/?" with water more or less cool. The steam 
 coming up through "T 7 ", " J / 7 " no longer having 
 an escape, heats the Water in "./?" until it reaches 
 a line "Z," in recess ",/?," where it becomes 
 so hot as no longer to condense steam or does it 
 to a very small extent. The pressure of the 
 high heated steam now stops a further inflow at 
 "X " and forces the water upward into shaft ">S" 
 and is capable of sustaining the column at the 
 geyser throat " W" and the column in veins 
 "K" at a like height. Condensation having 
 ceased the steam in "/?" above U Z" and in "T 5 " 
 becomes superheated and acquires enormous ex- 
 pansive power. Finally its energy is so vast 
 that a sudden expansion or explosion takes
 
 YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 57 
 
 place. The water at "Z" is pressed enormously 
 downward and the contents of recess "./?" are 
 forced upward through shaft ">S" into the geyser 
 well and then through the contracted nozzle at 
 "6"" in a mighty jet high into the open air. The 
 action of suddenly expanded or exploded steam 
 is spasmodic and. immediate. All of the water in 
 recess "/?"is therefore rapidly thrown out at "". 
 The water gone, fearfully hot steam follows it 
 through "(7" until its spasmodic energy ceases 
 almost if not quite as suddenly as it was at first 
 aroused. Immediately the steam, now coming 
 from recess "/?" begins to go through the cooling 
 process before described, until again the shaft is 
 closed at "C" and again a repetition of the erup- 
 tion is brought about. 
 
 This series of actions is more or less regular in 
 all geysers. In old "Faithful" the round is com- 
 pleted in about sixty-three minutes. The recesses 
 or pockets are of various sizes in different geysers 
 requiring different periods of time to be filled. 
 The time taken to empty them, and in some meas- 
 ure the height of the jets depend probably very 
 largely upon the size of the throat and of the noz- 
 zle of the geysers. "Old Faithful" has a compara- 
 tively small nozzle. His jet continues for several 
 minutes and mounts to a great height. The 
 same is true of the "Splendid." The Castle 
 spurts up a very much larger volume of water;
 
 58 
 
 but not nearly so high, from a huge throat and 
 in very much less time. The "Excelsior" has a 
 throat many feet in diameter, and ejects a 
 column proportionately large. Its actions are 
 not regular and indeed it is rather a water vol- 
 cano than a geyser, throwing up large stones 
 and gravel. 
 
 "Young Faithful" emits no steam. It is 
 probably only a sort of adjunct of some of the 
 violently boiling pools near by. Steam, which 
 in some of these cause violent turbulations 
 at regular intervals, forces water through 
 lateral shafts up through this little gem. Its 
 throat is very small. A considerable body of 
 water passing from behind with only a moderate 
 force, yet finding only the small throat, makes 
 a jet of considerable height. Jets resembling it 
 are frequently seen on low rocky cliffs on the 
 sea shore, caused by the ocean swell passing into 
 grottoes and caverns and forcing water up along 
 small fissures through the overhanging rock, 
 called "puffing holes". The foregoing theory 
 of geyser action may not bear the test of close 
 criticism, but it is probable that such criticism 
 may be answered by hypotheses not here alluded 
 to. At all events it may be sufficiently satisfac- 
 tory for the ordinary mind.
 
 LETTER IV. 
 
 HOW TO DO THE PARK. HOTELS AND VEHICLES. 
 MY INNOCENTS. CHARMING SCENERY. NAT- 
 URAL MEADOWS. WILD ANIMALS. BEAUTI- 
 FUL FLOWERS. DEBTS TO THE DEVIL. CAMP 
 LIFE AND FISHING. WONDERFUL CANYON. 
 PAINTED ROCKS. GLORIOUS WATERFALLS. 
 NATURE GROTESQUE AND BEAUTIFUL. 
 
 GRAND CANYON, 
 YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, July 24, 1890. 
 
 I will say at the beginning of this letter, a 
 few words as to how the Park's wonders can be 
 seen. There are associations under leases from 
 the Government and supposed to be under its 
 control, which regulate the movements of reg- 
 ular tourists, in and through the park ; one for 
 transportation alone, and the other for feeding 
 and housing. 
 
 The latter has five hotels, two of them com- 
 pleted two others sufficiently so to house their 
 guests. The completed houses are, one at 
 " Mammoth Hot Springs," the other at " Grand 
 Canyon." These are fairly appointed hotels 
 and each is capable of nicely accommodating 
 several hundred guests. Aside from these there 
 are two where a tourist can live in comfort, pro- 
 vided he be not over fastidious. The largest and 
 best hotel is at " Mammoth Hot Springs," at an 
 
 59
 
 60 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 elevation of 6,200 feet. The next best and 
 next largest one is at " Grand Canyon," 7,500 
 feet up. Several other hotels are partially finished. 
 The transportation company has some sev- 
 enty five vehicles, two-thirds, if not three-fourths 
 of them Concord stages and wagonettes car- 
 rying six to seven passengers, but capable of 
 carrying three or four more by placing three on 
 a seat ; the other vehicles are four-passenger sur- 
 reys. The coaches and wagonettes each have 
 four horses, the surreys two. The tourist pur- 
 chases tickets for the round trip. Forty dollars 
 carries one from Livingston on the railroad to 
 Mammoth Hot Springs and then around the 
 park, occupying five and a quarter days. This 
 includes hotel expenses. One thus sees every- 
 thing in the grand tour, but somewhat hur- 
 riedly. However, quite a number stop over at 
 the " Upper Geyser Basin " and at " Grand Can- 
 yon;" the stop-overs thys making room for those 
 who had halted the day before. There are at 
 this time tourists enough to start out each day 
 from Mammoth Hot Springs about five coaches 
 and several surreys all leaving at a fixed hour 
 and reaching points of interests or other hotels 
 close together, each vehicle maintaining its po- 
 sition in the line throughout the tour. Thus 
 racing is prevented. A great mistake is made 
 in keeping the vehicles in line too close together.
 
 YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 6 1 
 
 For at times the dust on some of the roads is 
 very deep, causing passengers in some of the 
 vehicles to be choked and rendered very un- 
 comfortable. It rains frequently throughout 
 the park ; but for this the tour would be almost 
 unbearable. Our party was in this respect very 
 fortunate 
 
 The management very foolishly discour- 
 ages individual stop-overs, but suggests a 
 stage or surrey party to hold over the vehicle. 
 This is expensive and parties are not always of 
 one mind. I stopped and now stop over, taking 
 my chances for a vacancy in a coach. This 
 should be encouraged by the management, for a 
 person can spend several days of pleasure and 
 instruction at two, three or more points. 
 
 " Grand Canyon " from which this letter is 
 started, would make a charming resort for parties 
 for days, or even weeks, and two orthree days should 
 be taken to study the " Upper Geyser Basin." But 
 the entire management is yet in an embryo 
 state, and too great an endeavor is made to make 
 both ends meet, with a profitable balance at the 
 end of the season. Some travelers complain bit- 
 terly of the accommodations furnished at the 
 hotels. They are, however, I suspect, of those 
 who expect the comforts of home, or the luxuries 
 of first-class city hotels where ever they go. 
 Those who are prepared to make the most of
 
 62 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 life, and to pick up pleasure wherever to be 
 found, can spend several weeks in the Park, 
 without loss of flesh and with instruction regard- 
 ing the sports and freaks of nature to be found 
 no where else. The wonders are unique and 
 the marvels unequaled elsewhere in the world. 
 
 Some tourists are so unfortunate as to arrive 
 at the park when very large excursion parties 
 from the East make their entr}^. Then the 
 hotels become necessarily crowded. No prudent 
 provision can make preparation for an extra 
 hundred pouring in on top of the regular travel. 
 At such times one is compelled to take a bed in 
 a room with several others and may even be 
 forced to crowd two in a bed. That happened 
 once to our party. But none of the travelers 
 had the small pox or itch, so no great harm re- 
 sulted. By hugging the outer rail of a bed, in- 
 stead of the bed fellow, the necessity of tumbling 
 two in a bed is not altogether a catastrophe. 
 
 Besides those who make the regular tours, there 
 are many who hire carriages and wagons at Cin- 
 nabar for a leisurely excursion, which may be 
 longer or shorter to suit disposable time and the 
 fullness of purses. Parties too, besides hiring 
 carriages and horses, frequently take tents and 
 enjoy a regular roughing life. We encountered 
 many of these. Some were of a man and his 
 family, others of two or three young men, and
 
 YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 63 
 
 still others of men and ladies by the dozen or 
 two, and in one instance thirty or forty were in 
 the party. The large parties have a number of 
 attendants who generally go ahead to prepare 
 the camps for the night, while the tourists loiter 
 along the way to inspect the marvels or to bota- 
 nize. The small parties we saw, pitched their 
 tents when practicable, near a trout stream, sev- 
 eral of which furnished fine sport. Throughout 
 the Park we noticed that at and about localities 
 usually chosen for camping ground, warnings 
 were nailed upon the trees, " Put out the fires." 
 Destructive forest fires have resulted from care- 
 lessness of campers. Soldiers in pairs ride along 
 several of the roads daily to see that these regu- 
 lations are observed, and to prevent injurious 
 results from non-observance. Twice we saw 
 blue coats extinguishing smouldering fires left 
 by reckless people. 
 
 My personal stage party up to this point, has 
 been my daughter and some intelligent school- 
 marms from New York, one of them, however^ 
 resenting the appellation of " schoolmarm." She 
 is a principal. Woman-like, they seemed glad 
 when I assumed command of the party. Queer, 
 how even the brightest and most independent 
 woman takes to a sort of master. Show me one 
 who will not submit to the yoke, and ten to one 
 she is one few men desire to boss. I call my
 
 64 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 party, " my Innocents," and all move with alac- 
 rity when I cry out, " Come girls !" 
 
 Between us, it has been several years since the 
 youngest of them wore short dresses. I mean 
 this in good part, for girls just getting into long 
 skirts are very like the rinsing fluid into which 
 the wash-woman dips her clean laundry, and 
 called " blue water " rather thin ! 
 
 All my Innocents are good, but can stand a 
 straight shot in sensible English. One quotes 
 with a sigh the remark of a friend, who when in 
 the park, had but one word the word translated 
 "sheol" in the revised version. Quotation marks 
 are convenient when one wishes to say some- 
 thing a little naughty. The Rev. Thomas 
 Beecher, who is one of our daily party, but not 
 in our coach, and who by the way is something 
 of a wag, and is not averse to having a learned 
 theological discussion with one who, like him- 
 self, was intended for an Evangelist, speaking of 
 the huge amount of solid matter brought here 
 above ground, declares he must look up Bob 
 Ingersoll to tell him the Devil is making some 
 mighty big holos down below. For my part if 
 the Devil is doing all this, I shall begin to 
 cultivate high respect for him as an artist, and 
 would only ask him not to let the bottom drop 
 out until my friends to the third and fourth 
 generation may come and see. After them it
 
 YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 65 
 
 matters not. Let the deluge come. It is evident 
 from the names given to many points about the 
 park that the Devil's friends have done much of 
 the christening in this region. 
 
 Now, having to some extent touched upon the 
 marvelous antics of Nature in Uncle Sam's 
 domain, I will say something of those things 
 nearly as interesting, and which make this tour 
 charming as a simple road excursion. The park 
 is full of beauties. The drives are often through 
 delightful pine forests. The trees are small, but 
 straight as arrows, tall and lading the air with 
 delicious perfumes. Many hundred, or rather 
 hundreds of thousands of acres are dead : Some 
 from forest fires, but in many cases apparently 
 from a species of blight, possibly from a failure 
 of nourishment in the thin soil on the mountain 
 slopes for the trees after they have attained any 
 size. Tracks of fierce mountain storms are fre- 
 quently seen ; miles upon miles of forests are 
 thrown down, the trees all lying in one direction, 
 showing that the devastation was done by 
 straight running winds, and not by tornadoes. 
 
 There are noble mountains constantly towering 
 above us, although we are ourselves sometimes 
 nearly nine thousand feet above the sea, and 
 never after leaving Mammoth Hot Springs, 
 under 7000. Many of the mountains have bands 
 of snow stretching far below their pinnacles, and
 
 66 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 some of them are properly entitled, snow-capped. 
 The mountains and slopes are fairly well treed ; 
 and the small plains or plateaux show beautiful 
 downs bordered with forest and cut by copses. 
 These downs are green and so smooth in the 
 distance that it is difficult to realize that man 
 has had nothing to do with laying them out. 
 Several level valleys are very pretty and when 
 seen from eminences remind -one of valleys over 
 which people go -into ecstasies in foreign lands. 
 If there were here a church spire, and there a 
 mill and a sprinkling of hamlets, they would be 
 as happy valleys as the vaunted ones abroad. 
 
 The utter absence of habitations on the long 
 drives is a striking peculiarity. The roads being 
 tolerably good and entirely artificial, makes one 
 expect to see hamlets, and he involuntarily finds 
 himself looking fora farm house, when the coach 
 emerges from a forest, and comes upon a broad 
 stretch of clean looking well grassed native 
 meadow land. A turn of a mountain spur along 
 a crystal stream, which has deepened into a pool, 
 suggests a mill-pond, and that a water wheel 
 will soon .come into view. A grassy plain all 
 sun-lighted causes one to look for a herd of cattle 
 lazily lying in a wooded copse on its margin. 
 But no habitation othei than the regular hotels, 
 are to be found within the wonderland.
 
 YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 67 
 
 The park is comparatively a free and safe 
 home for many varieties of wild animals. Guns 
 and pistols are forb'^en, except to the soldiers 
 and to the scouts who are a sort of a police corps, 
 whose duty is to see that trespassers do not enter 
 upon the Government preserve. Elk, deer, 
 mountain sheep, bear black and cinnamon, buf- 
 falo and other animals indigenous to the Rocky 
 mountains, range freely over the hills without 
 molestation ; and beaver build their dams close 
 by the hotels. How many buffalo are yet 
 denizens of the park, I could not definitely learn, 
 but was told that there are from fifty to a hun- 
 dred. Squirrels and chipmunks are very numerous 
 in several varieties, and very gentle. The bear 
 are becoming too numerous for the safety of such 
 animals as they prey upon. On this account the 
 scouts are destroying many of them. 
 
 I said there are no domestic animals, except 
 a few about the hotels. The result is, the 
 grasses are fine and the flowers in great pro- 
 fusion and very beautiful patches of larkspur 
 as blue as indigo, acres of lupin of various 
 tints, generally blue and lilac with eyes of 
 white; gentians so rich and purple that one 
 feels that they have been dipped in Tyrian 
 dyes ; sunflowers and buttercups, making acres 
 look as if the}'- had been sprinkled with gold ; 
 and many other beautiful flowers, whose names
 
 68 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 I know not. But one thistle I must not forget 
 to mention. It is short and heavy from the 
 ground, not unlike the edible thistle of Japan, 
 with leaves and stalks of flesh colored pink, 
 bleached into a sort of mixture of white, green 
 and rose, with clustered flowers in compact head 
 of exquisite rose and pink. It is a rarely beau- 
 tiful flower. One flower of delicate lavender, 
 thickly strewn along branching spikes, was 
 wholly unknown to all of our party and is 
 acknowledged of great beauty. Its leaf and 
 small flowers lead me to think it a wild holly- 
 hock. 
 
 STUPENDOUS SOUNDS OF FALLING FLOODS. 
 
 As I sit at my window the roar of the glorious 
 Yellowstone falls filling my ear, I look out across 
 the deep river canyon, to an upper plateau of 
 several thousands of acres of beautiful meadow, 
 some miles away, with here and there a copse of 
 young pines, and all fringed by rich forest, and 
 feel I should see a herd of fallow deer wandering 
 over some ancient, lordly park. It is true that 
 my glass shows that much of the velvety softness 
 of the down is from green sagebush, which is so 
 softened down by the distance that from here it 
 resembles well cut grass. It is very beautiful. 
 
 Guide books tell us not to drink the water. I 
 think their writers were in collusion with the
 
 YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 69 
 
 hotel management to force guests to buy lager 
 and apollinaris at 50 cents a bottle. By the way, 
 there is on the first days drive an apollinaris 
 spring. It seems to me the simon pure thing. 
 \Ye drank freely of it at the spring and after- 
 wards from bottles carried for several hours. One 
 of the bottles was tightly corked, and, when 
 opened, popped as if well charged. At another 
 spring a little thing immediately on the edge 
 of the road on the Beaver river and in the cool 
 and beautiful Beaver canyon, we had soda water 
 flavoured with lime juice. At least, it reminded 
 me very distinctly of soda water with which the 
 juice of the lime had been mingled in Ceylon. 
 The bar-tenders in the "Flowery Isle" call it 
 "lemon squoze." It was our favorite beverage 
 in hot Colombo. Both of these springs are small, 
 but from them could be bottled many cases a 
 day. A gentleman in the party who has drank 
 only Apollinaris since he came into the Park, 
 tasted from my bottle and declared it quite equal 
 to the pure stuff. Feeling the need of an altera- 
 tive, I twice drank several glasses from a hot 
 spring with decided benefits ; and have partaken 
 freely throughout the tour of the springs (except 
 those whose brilliant green showed them largely, 
 impregnated with arsenic or copper,) and with 
 no perceptible injurious effects. The hotel people 
 are inclined to disparage the w r aters of the springs
 
 7o A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 generally, and discourage their use, thereby and 
 possibly for that purpose, largely increasing the 
 consumption of lager and bottled waters, which 
 sell at fifty cents a bottle. The enormous 
 number of empty bottles along the road sides and 
 at the hotels testify to the thirst and timidity of 
 the traveling public. The coach drivers call the 
 empty bottles along the road "dead soldiers." 
 The "peg" i. e. whisky soda is the bane, of the 
 European in India. The disposition to make 
 "dead soldiers" in the National Park very pro- 
 bably does more harm to the tourist than the 
 native waters would if judiciously used. 
 
 When the government does its duty makes 
 abundant roads and bridges about its marvelous 
 domain here, and analyzes thoroughly its hot 
 springs I doubt not there will be found many 
 of them of great hygienic value, and sanitariums 
 will be established to make the park a blessing 
 to the afflicted of the country. 
 
 One good housewife whom I met frequently at 
 the different halting-places, sighed deeply at the 
 enormous waste of hot water, declaring there 
 was enough here to laundry all America, and to 
 wash the poor of all our big cities. The good 
 people tell us everything was made for man. I 
 doubt it. He is not worth the good things lavished 
 upon him. He is a part of the mighty plan and 
 will be followed after the next cataclysm by
 
 YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 71 
 
 beings as much above him as he is above the 
 chimpanzee. But if the good people be correct, 
 Congress ought to take immediate steps to enable 
 the people more fully to utilize the mighty 
 Hygea located within the bounds of this park. 
 
 Surrounded by bare and bleak mountains and 
 hot and arid plains, here at this elevation rains 
 are abundant, and dews are sufficient; trees clothe 
 mountain top and slope; grass is green and fat- 
 tening, and flowers deck the open downs and 
 shade the forest land. And yet the air is dry 
 and beneficial to all except those whose lungs 
 require an atmosphere less light. We have seen 
 several consumptives who have come here for 
 their health. The rarified atmosphere makes 
 their breathing very laborious and painful. Pos- 
 bly in the early stages of the disease, benefits 
 may be derived from a sojourn here, but in its 
 later stages, the poor victims suffer fearfully. 
 The majority of those whom we have seen here 
 for health, are camping out and seem to be 
 having a good time. They have their horses, 
 and spend their time fishing and riding. 
 
 On the road from the lower Geyser basin to 
 Grand Canyon we halted at a little rivulet to 
 water our stock. The stream cut its way deep 
 down in a grassy plain, and was so narrow that 
 one could easily jump over it. A small camp- 
 ing party had just pitched its tents close by.
 
 72 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 While the tent lines were being stretched, the 
 gentleman of the party came to the rivulet near 
 us to angle for his supper. He cast his fly a 
 few times, when there was a u rise " to it not 
 twenty feet from our coach, and a two pound 
 beauty, speckled and plump was landed. I en- 
 vied the camper. 
 
 In some localities in the Yellowstone, and es- 
 pecially in and about the great lake, parasites so 
 infest the fish as to unfit them for the table. 
 The infected fish, however, are easily known and 
 may be discarded, while the good are retained. 
 A gentleman who has fished throughout the 
 park informed me, that as a rule, the fish were 
 good. Like the trout in all the Rocky moun- 
 tains and Pacific regions, the fish caught here 
 lack the delicate flavour of the brook trout taken 
 in the Adirondacks and throughout the New 
 England States. 
 
 We regret we could not visit the Great Yellow- 
 stone Lake. The hotels there being unfinished, 
 the regular stage route does not yet take it in. 
 It is at an altitude of 7700 feet, and is over 
 twenty miles long from the North-west to the 
 South-east and fifteen from North-east to South- 
 west, covering an area of 150 or more square 
 miles. It is very irregular in its form and said 
 to be a beautiful sheet. Excepting the lake in 
 the Andes it is much the largest lake in the
 
 YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 73 
 
 world at so great elevation. A large hotel is 
 being erected on its margin. When finished it 
 will make a very attractive addition to the Park 
 tour, and will furnish a stop over for days or 
 weeks to those who have time at their command. 
 
 One is surprised to find how quickly he be- 
 comes fatigued by a short climb, until his lungs 
 become accustomed to the rare medium he is 
 taking in. One old man, I need not name, 
 stepped jauntily by the side of a pretty school- 
 marm and swore he was 32, but the climb of a 
 mile made him, with blushes which tinged the 
 cuticle of his bald head, acknowledge he was 
 past 65. He was somewhat relieved, when he 
 saw how the sweet innocent was panting at his 
 side. 
 
 There is here what I am told exists nowhere 
 else in the world a mountain of glass vol- 
 canic obsidian monster masses resembling the 
 molten opaque blocks left by the Chicago great 
 fire in the ruins of a glass warehouse. We 
 drove along a road of shivered glass. The en- 
 gineers built fires over great obsidian bowlders, 
 and then threw cold water from the stream close 
 by over the heated mass, breaking it into glass 
 gravel. Chipmunks of several varieties, gray 
 pine squirrels, hop about barking within a few 
 feet of one ; robins are almost as gentle as spar- 
 rows, and bears come down near to one of the
 
 74 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 hotels nightly to be fed for the amusement of 
 the tourists. Beavers have their dams close by 
 our hotel and can at dusk be seen swimming 
 about and feeding. A small herd of buffalos, 
 since we have been here, rushed across the road 
 just in front of an excursion party, giving the 
 stage horses a fright and nearly creating a 
 panic. No gun is allowed in the park, except 
 to the military and scouts, and no one can kill 
 an animal, except when driven to it for want of 
 necessary food. Two companies of soldiers 
 patrol the regular routes to enforce the regula- 
 tions and to serve as voluntary guides for the 
 ladies of the daily parties. They forbid the 
 smallest specimen to be carried off. I had even 
 to hide the little dabs of mud I took from a 
 paint-pot. Uncle Sam is cultivating good nature 
 among men and beasts within this, his unique 
 domain. Even the devil may grow good-na- 
 tured, and may cut up his didos and antics after 
 a while only for the people's amusement. 
 
 THE CLIMAX OF GRANDEUR AND BEAUTY. 
 
 Having told you of the freaks and sports of 
 nature which make the more striking marvels 
 of this wonderland ; and having spoken of the 
 softer and sweeter characteristics of the Park, I 
 now come to what the majority of the travelers 
 consider its geni.
 
 YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 75 
 
 A Soudanese wise man is said to have swal- 
 lowed the tale of Jonah and the whale without 
 making a wry face, but grew fighting mad when 
 asked to believe the story of snow and ice in 
 northern lands. The genii might easily send 
 a man through a whale's belly, but Allah him- 
 telf could not make water hard and dry. So it is 
 easy to tell of the monstrosities of the park, and 
 hope for credence. They are simply montrosi- 
 ties* the work of demoniac power, and are cred 
 ible. But who can make another believe that 
 huge precipices, one and two thousand feet high, 
 have been painted with all the colors of the set- 
 ting sun ; that the rainbow has settled upon 
 miles of rocks and left its sweet tints upon their 
 rugged sides? And yet this and these are true 
 of the Yellowstone canyon. 
 
 We approached it from the South on a road run- 
 ning near the river. On a pretty grassy bank we 
 rode along the stream, here over a hundred yards 
 wide, rolling swiftly yet smoothly along in green 
 depths, preparing to make its two plunges into the 
 chasm bek>w. Swift and swifter it hurried on- 
 ward in quickened dignity. Presently the rock 
 walls on either side grew contracted to a hun- 
 dred or so feet, and then the green stream rushed 
 in smooth slope to a gateway of eighty feet in 
 width, through which, with parabolic swoop, it 
 leaps 112 feet with such depth on its brink, that
 
 76 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 the deep-emerald green is not lost till it strikes 
 a ledge at the bottom, where a large part of the 
 falling sheet is shot off at an angle into the air, 
 half as high up as the fall itself. The two sides 
 of the river at the brink of the fall rush against 
 precipitous walls and are bent and curled up- 
 wards into a veil six or eight feet high over the 
 green center a veil of countless millions of 
 crystal drops over the main stream of emerald 
 more than half hidden in a mighty shower of 
 diamonds. Standing immediately on the edge, 
 one can imagine how Niagara's Horseshoe would 
 look if one could get within a few feet of it. 
 This fall is not very lofty nor wide, but is one of 
 the most beautiful in the world. The river after the 
 first fall rushes in foamy swirl a half mile further, 
 between cliffs which on either side lift 1,500 feet 
 high, and growing higher and higher, and then 
 with one wild leap plunges 300 feet into the rocky 
 gorge below. 
 
 As it drops the emerald and the diamond 
 struggle for supremacy, but the brighter crystal 
 gains the ascendency before all is lost in the 
 lace-like mist which envelopes the depths. The 
 whole when seen from a little distance looks as 
 light as a gem-decked veil of lace, but so vast is 
 the body of the water which makes the leap, and 
 so great the fall, that to one standing a mile 
 away, with a point of land intervening between
 
 YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 77 
 
 him and the fall, shutting off the noise of the 
 splashing water, there comes a deep and mellow 
 bass, richer than any I ever heard before 
 made by a water fall. It is not an angry tone 
 like Niagara's roar, but is as deep and mellow as 
 distant rolling thunder when heard in a moun- 
 tain gorge. 
 
 These falls are beautiful in the extreme, but 
 the beholder soon forgets them in wonder of 
 the canyon which bends between the towering 
 cliffs for four miles. Far under him, at least 
 1500 feet down, the river leaps and tears, now in 
 green, and then in snowy foam, between pre. 
 cipices at whose feet no human foot ever did or 
 can safely tread. The rocks lift on either side 
 in mighty buttresses like giant cathedral walls. 
 Standing out before the walls are towers and 
 pointed spires of most artistic form, all painted 
 in exquisite tints. The upper walls are of 
 yellow and orange hue, with here and there 
 towers and bulwarks of chalky white or of black 
 lava over which is a film of Venetian red. The 
 upper yellow walls, sink and contract between 
 the lifting buttresses, which at their base are of 
 lava black, running first into dark umber, and 
 then into chocolate bordered with black and 
 stained with red, often so bright as to be vermil- 
 lion. In some places the main walls are broken 
 down, where some long-ago slide has carried
 
 78 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 their steepness into the river below, but with 
 slopes far too steep for human tread. Some of 
 these slopes are orange and yellow as if coated 
 with sulphur; others are painted in vertical bands 
 of brown and red, with between them narrow 
 stripes of pearl gray and yellow, and of orange 
 stretching for hundreds of feet, and at one 
 point for a half mile in extent; one of these 
 slopes look as if a banner with these several 
 colors, had been spread over it, and then being 
 removed, the colors of the drapery had been 
 left upon the soft velvety rock. The buttresses 
 and spires lift now fifteen to a hundred feet apart, 
 and then they are spread so that the golden wall 
 between shows 150 to 200 feet. All of the colors 
 except the yellow seem to be in and of the rock. 
 The yellow looks as if made by blowing thous- 
 ands of tons of flowers of sulphur upon the walls, 
 the flowers having clung when the wall had some 
 incline, but having dropped off from the vertical 
 rock. 
 
 These painted rocks extend along the canyon 
 for about four miles ; then the gorge grows more 
 somber and dark, and so continues some twenty 
 miles. This lower part seems to be of a harder 
 rock. It was cut through myriads of ages ago 
 and has grown darkly gray, while the painted 
 part is of a much later period and is of soft rocks 
 so soft that they seem to be composed of
 
 YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 79 
 
 somewhat indurated volcanic ash, sulphur being 
 the predominating mass. The red coloring is from 
 oxide of iron. These blending together make 
 other tints. Burnt Umber, often deepened into 
 a rich chocolate is the dominating one. The 
 buttresses are of a harder yet still a rather soft 
 lava, of a yellowish brown tint near the summits, 
 red and brown below, and finally towards their 
 bases almost black. Sometimes there are slopes 
 of white lime and several towers, nearly 2, coo 
 feet high sheer up from the river, are so white 
 that one could think them chalk. Half way down 
 the heights are great points, like the sharpened 
 spires of a cathedral, colored as if a mighty pot 
 of Venetian red had been empted over them and 
 had run in streaks down the rocky sides. Had 
 an artist tried to sell me a picture of these cliffs, 
 before I had seen them, in no way exaggerated 
 in coloring, I would have called him a fraud, 
 and would have thought he had taken me for a 
 fool. I have seen now and then pictures which 
 I considered daubs, which I now know did not in 
 the least overdo Nature in its freak of rock-paint- 
 ing. I quit the park glad that I came, but feel 
 that the rush and labor of going through it would 
 hardly repay a second hasty visit, at least for 
 several years. Yet I can recall no excursion of 
 the same length in any part of the world half 
 so full of surprises. Could we have made it
 
 8o A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 leisurely, our enjoyment would have been 
 greatly enhanced. We have met some tour- 
 ists who think the labor and annoyance of 
 the thing over-ba-lance the profit and pleasure. 
 Burns says " Man was made to mourn." In my 
 weary round, I have frequently been convinced 
 that about half of the travelers of the world were 
 made to growl, or at least half think they fail to 
 show their "raisin 1 ' unless they do growl. 
 
 Equanimity of temper is the most valuable of 
 all human characteristics for happiness. It is 
 absolutely necessary to the traveler, who desires 
 to learn much, and to enjoy what he sees. A 
 plain traveling suit on one's back, a resolution 
 to make the most of every thing in one's mind, 
 and the least possible luggage to carry, are the 
 three indispensables for a good traveler. The 
 park people may not do all they should for the 
 public; indeed, I fear they have many short-com- 
 ings, but I for one, am very glad they are here, 
 and that they do as much as they do. 
 
 The hotels at Mammoth Hot Springs and at 
 Yellowstone canyon are large, each capable of 
 housing two or three hundred guests. The beds 
 are clean and soft, the table fair and the attend- 
 ance quite good. I have only one complaint to 
 make. At the first named hotel they will insist 
 on a brass band's tooting a good part of the time. 
 The noise it made was execrable. There is no
 
 YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 8 1 
 
 such thing as bad music, it is either music or it 
 is noise. At Norris, the hotel is poor and the 
 managers impolite. At the Lower and at the 
 Upper Geyser Basin, the houses are unfinished, 
 and the rooms not sufficient in number, but the 
 people do their best to please. This endeavor 
 should cover a multitude of sins.
 
 LETTER V. 
 
 WE LEAVE THE PARK SATISFIED. HELENA. ITS 
 GOLD BEARING FOUNDATIONS. BROADWATER. 
 A MAGNIFICENT NATATORIUM. A WILD RIDE 
 THROUGH TOWN. CROSSING THE ROCKIES. 
 SPOKANE. A BUSY TOWN. MIDNIGHT PIC- 
 NIC. FINE AGRICULTURAL COUNTRY. SAGE 
 
 BUSH A BLESSING: PICTURESQUE RUN OVER 
 THE CASCADES. ACRES OF MALT LIQUORS. 
 TACOMA. A STARTLING VISION OF MT. 
 RENIER (TACOMA). WASHINGTON, A GREAT 
 STATE. 
 
 TACOMA, WASHINGTON, July 31, 1890. 
 
 Familiarity is said to breed contempt ; cer- 
 tainly it robs strange things of much that at 
 first seems marvelous. On our return from the 
 excursion around the Park, the formation at 
 Mammoth Hot Springs had lost much of that 
 which on our first visit struck us as so wonder- 
 ful and charming. We had seen other things 
 greatly more wonderful with which to compare 
 them. The encrustations seemed not so white 
 and the colorings of the water had lost some of 
 their prismatic variety and perfection. 
 
 The impressions made upon the mind by Ni- 
 agara grow on succeeding visits. A storm at 
 sea arouses no less awe because several have been 
 before passed through. Niagara and the ocean 
 
 82
 
 TACOMA. 83 
 
 are iti eternal motion. Motion irresistabty sug- 
 gests change, and change precludes monotony. 
 One does not lose his feeling of awe, after look- 
 ing for many times upon the towering heights of 
 the Yungfrau or of Kinchinjinga. Their inacces 
 sible peaks and eternal snows repel every dispo- 
 sition to close communion. I doubt not, however, 
 if a safe railroad could be run up to mighty Ever- 
 est's loftiest pinnacle, that tourists would snap 
 their fingers at the world's monarch when stand- 
 ing in warm furs 29,000 feet above the sea. 
 
 The still and apparently unchangeable incrus- 
 tations at Mammoth Hot Springs, were looked 
 upon on our final visit without awe or surprise. 
 A large party of us left the hotel for Cinnabar 
 closely packed in the coaches and surreys on a 
 bright sunny afternoon, glad we had seen the 
 wonderland, but quite satisfied to leave our labors 
 behind us. As we dashed down the defile near 
 the park line, we doffed our hats and bade adieu 
 to the eagle sitting on its eyrie as we had seen 
 him on our entrance. The downward ride was 
 quite rapid, and some of us who had been drawn 
 into somewhat close communion during the past 
 week were almost sorry when we so soon reached 
 Livingston some to go eastward and others 
 westward, all to part most probably forever. 
 
 From Livingston to Helena the run was made 
 at night. We found the latter a bustling place
 
 84 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 and well worth a visit. There is an air about a 
 mining camp which can be seen in no old coun- 
 try, and Helena though now full of city airs yet 
 has many of the characteristics of the camp. Its 
 foundations rest upon gold bearing earth, and 
 even now in digging cellars, quite in the town, 
 pay dirt is found. Nearly the entire site of the 
 city has been dug over by the miner. It was in 
 one of its gulches, now a street, that a prospector 
 wearied out by unsuccessful tramps and reduced 
 to his last dollar, stuck in his pick to try for a 
 u last chance." He had no expectation of reward, 
 but dug down in sheer desperation before going 
 off a pauper. The result was "The last chance 
 mine," one of the richest ever discovered. 
 
 We stopped at the Helena hotel and found it 
 quite equal to any in large eastern cities. 
 
 The Broadwater Hotel, however, some three 
 to four miles out of town, is now the lion of the 
 place. It is a cottage-built house, with 200 fine 
 rooms, all finished in hardwoods and elegantly 
 furnished. Its bathrooms, with huge porcelain 
 tubs and large dressing-rooms attached to each, 
 are especially fine and the baths are said to be 
 medicinally good. 
 
 THE SWIMMING BATH OF THE WORLD. 
 
 But these dwindle when compared with its 
 huge swimming bath. The natatorium building
 
 TACOMA. 85 
 
 is about 350 feet long by 150, with a roof 100 
 feet high, supported by light arches in single 
 spans. The tank is 300 feet by 100; at one end 
 about four feet deep, and running to ten or more 
 at the other. Natural hot and cold waters pour 
 over a precipice of cyclopean masses of granite 
 at one end, about fifty feet wide and forty high. 
 This precipice is pierced by three large openings 
 over which the water pours in great sheets, and 
 so artistically that one would easily believe it 
 a series of natural falls. The flow is so large 
 that the tank is replenished several times a day. 
 The temperature was to me rather high about 
 80 degrees. A swim in its deep waters, however, 
 was very fine. The whole is lighted by day 
 through windows high up, of cathedral glass in 
 different tints, terra cotta predominating. The 
 hotel, with its 200 rooms, and the tank-house 
 and grounds are illuminated at night by incan- 
 descent lights. We saw it only by day, but 
 could easily imagine how beautiful it must look 
 and how gay a scene it must offer when 300 or 
 400 people are in at night men and gay ladies. 
 Very decorous bathing suits are furnished to 
 bathers, and those bringing their own, are com- 
 pelled to have them of conventional modesty. 
 I was told that 300 bathers of an evening 
 is not an unusual number, and that it is 
 largely frequented during nine months of the
 
 86 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 year and by the very best people of the city. 
 The charge is fifty cents for an entrance, so 
 as to keep out the riff-raff. Col. Broadwater 
 has expended half a million on the house and 
 grounds, bringing his hot water from a min- 
 eral hot spring some four miles up a gorge, 
 and a large supply of cold pure water also from 
 the hills. The hotel was full. We took lunch 
 with the Colonel and some friends, and found it 
 like everything else, first class. A steam and an 
 electric motor road leads from the city to the 
 h'otel. By the way, why do the street car people 
 not put in electrical motors in Chicago? At St. 
 Paul, Helena and Spokane we have ridden upon 
 them and were delighted. A car looks as if it 
 were out fishing with a fishing rod springing 
 from its top, bent just as if it were playing a 
 gamy fish. 
 
 The hospitalities of the Broadwater very 
 nearly cost us our connection at the railroad. 
 We gave ourselves but little time, expecting to 
 find a carriage ordered to be in waiting at the 
 electric road city terminus. It was not there 
 and we walked to our hotel to find we had but 
 eleven minutes to get our luggage on a carriage 
 and to reach the railroad station a mile and a 
 half away. The porter said it was impossible to 
 reach it in time. We ordered our traps brought 
 down and rushed to our rooms for our small
 
 TACOMA. 87 
 
 pieces. At the office were a crowd of newly 
 arrived travelers. I called to the clerk saying 
 I had no time to pay hotel bills. He smiled. 
 Taking advantage of his good humor we mounted 
 the carnage telling the driver to make the train 
 or die. He said he would land us on the train or 
 in naming a rather hot place. He tore through 
 the town at a full gallop. People in shop 
 doors looked at us and smiled. Possibly they 
 suspected an old gray beard was getting away 
 with a young girl. The Jehu and his horses 
 were plucky. The station house as we drove 
 up hid the train from us, and hid us from 
 it. We turned the building, the train was 
 well in motion, the engineer checked up but 
 the train continued to move. We jumped down ; 
 the driver threw our trunk into the baggage 
 car; I landed my valise on the platform of 
 the next car; my daughter got her satchel on the 
 next and she climbed up on the third. I caught 
 on and climbed the fourth and threw the fare to 
 the driver. Quite a crowd of people about the 
 station admired our pluck, and when our driver 
 yelled out "Hurrah for Chicago" a generous 
 response went up from a score or more of throats. 
 Success is admired everywhere, but out west it 
 is the cure all. Every man at that station would 
 at that moment have voted for me for pound 
 master. Shortly after leaving Helena the climb
 
 88 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 is commenced in scaling the real Rocky Moun- 
 tains. The road bends and winds over many 
 magnificent curves and loops, rapidly climbing 
 upward. Now we look far above us, at a locomo- 
 tive slowly creeping along the mountain side, 
 and we look down upon the road we had a few 
 moments before puffed along, but already hun- 
 dreds of feet immediately under us. The moun- 
 tains towered above us, covered by great black 
 precipices, and mighty detached rocks standing 
 alone or in groups. This is the true backbone 
 of the continent, and the black scattered rocks 
 might be vertebrae pushing through the worn 
 cuticle. We could understand here why these 
 are called the rocky mountains. Rough towers 
 and jagged turrets black with the weather wear 
 of ages are the salient features of the heights 
 and slopes. Here they are in great groups, 
 there isolated. Now they are compacted into 
 massive precipices, frowning and repellent, and 
 then scattered as if dropped by icebergs. They 
 are, however, not mighty loose boulders, but are 
 moored to and are a part of the mountain's 
 foundation rocks. 
 
 We crossed some lofty trestle bridges and 
 looked down upon a stream thick with mud from 
 a gold washing camp near by. At length we 
 reached the summit. Our extra locomotive was 
 side tracked and we breathed an atmosphere
 
 TACOMA. 89 
 
 perceptibly different from that we had left on the 
 eastern side of the range. We were now upon 
 the Pacific slope. 
 
 We halted for a few minutes at Missoula. The 
 fine valley was bathed in the glowing red of sun- 
 set. We lost at night much beautiful wooded 
 scenery which I once before enjoyed so much. 
 To one simply going to Puget Sound it is worth 
 while to stop over at Missoula and then to run 
 down Clark's Fork by day. But we wished to 
 have a full day at our next stopping place. 
 
 Of all the cities we have seen, the busiest was 
 Spokane pronounced as if there were no "e" 
 at the end and the "a" quite broad. Seven 
 years ago I was there. Then it had but 800 
 dwellers. Now there are in the neighborhood of 
 25,000. There are several streets with elegant 
 business blocks, finished or being completed, of 
 four, five, and six stories in height, comparing 
 favorably with those of any Eastern city in arch- 
 itectural design and finish. The heart of the 
 city reminds one of Chicago the spring after the 
 great fire, and the people seem to have the same 
 pluck, and energy, and confidence that so marked 
 our people at that time. Some of the private 
 houses on the steep, hugely-bowldered slope of a 
 high hill on one side of the city are models of 
 elegance. We visited two which were real chefs 
 d'oeuvres of architectural design one a Swiss
 
 90 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 chalet, the other Mooresque in design. Every- 
 thing was after the original models, even to 
 much of the furniture. I have never seen ex- 
 cept in some model houses abroad such complete 
 specimens. The outside of several others which 
 we did not visit are quite as fine. Mrs. Cutter, 
 the proud mother of the architect, exhibited her 
 house with great hospitality, and Mrs. Moore 
 seemed to feel that she had no right to hide her 
 gem of a residence. 
 
 At evening we were invited to a fete cham- 
 petre on a fine lake some forty miles north of 
 the city and 800 feet elevated above it. About 
 300 of the elite of the town went out by rail, 
 danced, and had supper, returning to town by 
 i o'clock in the morning. The young girl with 
 me enjoyed it greatly. A severe cold just caught 
 forbade my appreciating anything but the sweet, 
 sincere hospitality shown us. Judge Kinnaird, 
 the sou of one of the friends of my early Ken- 
 tucky boyhood, got us the entree of Spokane's 
 "four hundred." This is destined to continue a 
 thriving city, but lots at $1,000, four miles from 
 the heart of the city, will burn badly some real 
 estate speculators. It is said a mining trade of 
 nearly $50,000 a day naturally belongs to the 
 town. I fear, however, there will be a bursting 
 of a bubble when the burnt district shall be re- 
 stored. A large trade will be necessary to support
 
 OLD FAITHFUL, AT UPPER GEYSER BASIN. (SEE PAGE 36.)
 
 TACOMA. 91 
 
 the great number of mechanics and laborers 
 now lifting the town from its ashes. Hotel 
 Spokane is a very large and good house. 
 
 Very fine crops are grown in the Spokane 
 Valley. The crops of oats and wheat sown for 
 hay was being harvested and proved a very 
 heavy yield. Washington claims she will har- 
 vest over 20,000,000 bushels of wheat this year. 
 I was surprised to see fine fields of grain on the 
 rolling plains in the great bend of the Columbia 
 river. I remember speaking of the richness of 
 this soil in the "Race with the Sun," but thought 
 artificial irrigation would be necessary to make 
 it yield. This year there are fine crops where 
 only nature's watering can ever be availed of. 
 One of the stations, quite removed from any 
 water course, has grown into a thriving town, 
 showing that the country around is prosperous. 
 
 I suspect that a fair rainfall cannot be relied 
 upon from year to year. It will, however, be- 
 come more and more reliable, for it has been the 
 rule throughout the world and probably through 
 all ages, that rains follow cultivation, and man's 
 presence and industry calls down Heaven's aid. 
 The answer of Hercules to the cartman would 
 be the reply of Ceres as well to the prayers of 
 her votaries. 
 
 The ash colored sage bush was thought by 
 the early men of the great plains to be poison to
 
 92 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 the land. It however was one of God's bounties 
 to man. It prevented the soil from being blown 
 away and where it grew the most lavishly, is 
 now found to be the best of soils. Sage bush' 
 not only keeps the winds away, but when dead 
 and rotten fills up sand pockets with material 
 rich for all of the small grains. The people of 
 the Yakima valley on the eastern slope of the 
 Cascade mountains, boast that theirs is the gar- 
 den spot of the Pacific country. They certainly 
 do produce fine fruits, melons and garden vege- 
 tables, but I have not been struck favorably with 
 the outlook of the locality in either of my trips 
 through the land. 
 
 The run from Blleusburg over the Cascades is 
 a magnificent ride. The enormous mass of for- 
 est, prevents many extended views, but those 
 seen are very fine. Every break in the forests 
 would reveal lofty mountains slopes clothed 
 in forests of marvelous richness, and now and 
 then snowy heights would tower aloft. Once a 
 fine view of Renier is caught, the monarch of 
 the grand range. Robed in his snowy ermine 
 he stands out a sceptered hermit wrapped in his 
 isolation. Seen from the sound he is one of the 
 most picturesque peaked mountains of the 
 world, and from all inland points of view he is 
 a grand towering mass of ever living snow and 
 ice.
 
 TACOMA. 93 
 
 ARKANSAS HOT SPRINGS, RIVALED. 
 
 Having done considerable hard work on the 
 trip so far, we resolved to take a rest at the hot 
 springs, three and-a-half hours from Tacoma, on 
 Green River. Three years ago my boys and I 
 fished here pleasantly for several days. The 
 place is unpretentious, but the waters possess 
 apparently the same properties as those of the 
 Arkansas hot springs. The place is some four- 
 teen hundred and fifty feet above Tacoma. Dur- 
 ing our present three days stop, an overcoat has 
 been comfortable in the evenings, and we sleep 
 under three blankets. A cold batch of air drops 
 down the valley from Mount Reniers (Tacoma 
 calls him Mount Tacoma; Renier is his name), 
 14,400 feet of snowy peak, driving away all sum- 
 mer sultriness. A bath in the medicinal waters 
 of seven minutes and then a pack causes the 
 perspiration to flow from one quite as heavily as 
 the same course would do in Arkansas. Before 
 leaving home I had a large and painful carbun- 
 cle on the back of my neck. The sign of the 
 cross was cut deeply into it, and as it healed it 
 proved a nest-egg for several smaller jewels near 
 by. These I cauterized with pure carbolic in 
 the park, but still they annoyed me much. Four 
 baths here have at least temporarily dried them 
 up. Men who came here three or four weeks
 
 94 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 ago on crutches from rheumatism, are walking 
 about freely and feel themselves able to buckle 
 down to work. 
 
 A WONDERFUL GROWTH OF TIMBER. 
 
 A sight of the magnificent cedar and fir for- 
 ests here would amply repay an Easterner for a 
 day's stop-over. I have been among them before 
 several times, yet at each visit they surprise me 
 as they did at first. Fifty thousand shingles are 
 made from a single cedar. I counted twenty-one 
 firs on a space considerably less than a quarter 
 of an acre. The owner, a sawyer, assured me 
 they would cut over five thousand feet of board 
 each. He owns a quarter of a section about his 
 mill and expects to market 15,000,000 feet of 
 lumber from his land. He said the railroad com- 
 pany had cut 30,000,000 feet from its right of 
 way of 400 feet by ten miles in this locality. I 
 saw on a quarter of an acre a cluster of twenty 
 odd trees from four and-a-half feet to over six in 
 diameter and 300 high. They ran up about 150 
 feet before reaching a limb. Mighty logs lie 
 upon the ground so thickly that even a good 
 woodsman can walk but little over a mile an 
 hour. Cedar logs, moss-covered and sodden, 
 stretch 100 feet in the tangled undergrowth, and 
 have lain there so long that one often sees a fir 
 tree, growing with its roots straddled over them 
 50 to 100 years old.
 
 TACOMA. 95 
 
 We were pleased to find among the guests of 
 the springs one of Chicago's fairest daughters, 
 now living at Tacoma, whose pulled-candy tresses 
 three years ago out-glistened the fiber of her 
 bridal veil, and whose eyes are bluer than the 
 turquoise in her talismanic ring. I like little 
 unpretentious Green River, Hot Springs, even if 
 its table is not of the Delmonico order. 
 
 MALT LIQUORS IN THE ORIGINAL PACKAGE. 
 
 A pretty drop of fourteen hundred and odd 
 feet through wild rocky gorges and thickly 
 treed glades, along the rapid green waters of the 
 river, in which trout abound, between lofty 
 heights, brought us to the world-famous hop 
 yards of the Puyallup Valley. What masses of 
 green lift upon the closely-set hop-poles ! I in- 
 voluntarily cried " Prosit und Gesundheit " as 
 we whizzed through them. Twenty-three or four 
 years ago, the first hop root was planted in the 
 soil of this marvelous valley. Now in this val- 
 ley and others in this locality, two hundred and 
 fifty thousand acres are giving forth each year 
 "rops unknown in any other hop land. Two 
 .housand pounds to the acre are not unusual, 
 and some yields have been nearly if not quite 
 double that. Thousands of barrels of malt 
 liquors were green about us in original pack- 
 ages.
 
 96 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 When we alighted at Tacoma, from which I 
 date this letter, I was most agreeably surprised 
 to find that Mr. Winston and his two fair daugh- 
 ters were on the same train. They had intended 
 going with us into the Yellowstone Park, but 
 were iinavoidably detained. They have done 
 the Park more rapidly than w^e did and here 
 overtook us. To-morrow we will be fellow-pas- 
 sengers for Uncle Sam's ice-bound Eldorado, 
 Alaska. Tacoma ha3 been and is growing with 
 great rapidity. A great suburb covers a wide 
 slope on the upper end of the town, which at 
 night, when I was here three years ago, had the 
 appearance of a Titanic camp-fire. Fires gleamed 
 along great logs ; fires burnt on sides and tops 
 of lofty stumps, and fires belched forth from 
 burning trees fifty and more feet from the 
 ground. Diagonal auger holes had been bored 
 near the root into the heart of a tree. Two 
 holes meet at the heart thus causing a draught. 
 Fire was put in, igniting the inflammable pitch, 
 always richest near the ground. It then bored 
 its way up the heart to break out as from a flue, 
 often a hundred feet from the roots. 
 
 Tacoma was a cluster of shanties with a small 
 population, barely among the thousands, seven 
 years ago. It was a dusty, scattered, ungainly 
 big village of 12,000 three years ago. Now the 
 census gives it about 40,000 population. The
 
 TACOMA. 97 
 
 Northern Pacific company is filling the five-mile 
 flat marsh along the Pnyallup River which emp- 
 ties into the bay, in front of the town. A large 
 part of this belongs to the Indian Reservation, 
 and is covered by several feet of water during 
 the high tides, which come up the Sound. The 
 filling is being done by a powerful pumping 
 dredge, which pours each day a vast quantity of 
 sand and silt from the deeper part of the river 
 upon the flats to be filled. My friends Christy 
 and Wise of the Illinois Club, Chicago, are part 
 owners of the powerful dredge, and I suspect are 
 making a big thing of it. The reclaimed land 
 will, when high and dry, be worth millions, and 
 will be the seat of the best business portion of 
 the future city. The generous way in which 
 this great railroad company has taken possession 
 of and is appropriating the fat of this place re- 
 minds one forcibly of what is or may be going 
 on in a city between this and the Atlantic. Co- 
 lumbian World's Fair Commissioners, Directors, 
 and City Councils may possibly be sometimes 
 just a little too generous, as Congresses are and 
 have been. The people may sometimes permit 
 their patriotic fervor to make them somewhat 
 unobservant of the wide reach and tenacious 
 grasp of monopoly. Corporations are said to 
 have no souls. Railroad corporations are as 
 voracious as their iron horses and have con- 
 sciences as cold as their iron rails.
 
 98 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 The big hotel here is now crowded with trav- 
 elers, the most of them just returned from or 
 about to sail for Alaska. Cots are doubled up 
 in many rooms. The wide veranda, overlooking 
 the sound, last night was full of gay promc- 
 naders from many quarters of the Union ; they 
 enjoyed very fair music from the house band, 
 while they watched with delight the unique 
 spectacle of what appeared to be a new moon 
 arising in the east with its crescent bent down- 
 ward instead of upward. Fair Luna arose to us 
 immediately over the sharp rounded pinnacle of 
 lofty Mount Tacoma. She presented a narrow 
 silver crescent a mere thread at first, but wax- 
 ing by a rapid crescendo movement, she showed 
 her first, her second, and her third quarter, and 
 then her full rounded self in all of her cold glory 
 many degrees up in the sky. The proud moun- 
 tain having played his short role of eclipsing a 
 planet at once sank into gray nothingness. It 
 seemed a pity the moon's movement was so rapid. 
 She is a cold, frickle jade and is said to be 
 from rim to core hard in eternal frost. It was 
 but fitting she should rest awhile on yonder 
 pinnacled home of eternal ice and snow. 
 
 During the afternoon of yesterday after our 
 arrival, all of the mountain's lower mass, more 
 than two-thirds of its height, was absolutely in- 
 visible, veiled in translucent, unclouded haze.
 
 TACOMA. 99 
 
 No one could have guessed a mountain was 
 there, but high up some four to five thousand 
 feet of his ice-locked lofty summit hung like a 
 gigantic balloon, thinly silvered and delicately 
 burnished, floating on airy nothingness some ten 
 degrees above the horizon. To those who have 
 never seen this effect of a snow-clad mountain, 
 the picture was startling and to all was weird in 
 the extreme. Few mountain chiefs in the world 
 are seen to such advantage as Tacoma from this 
 point on a clear day. The beholder standing on 
 a level of the sea sees the whole of the cone in 
 all of the majesty of fourteen thousand four 
 hundred and odd feet, over 6,000 feet of this be- 
 ing clothed in eternal snow. We were lucky in 
 seeing the floating summit yesterday, for a 
 change of wind has since then brought the 
 smoke from forest fires down into the valley to- 
 day, and a compass is necessary to fix the great 
 mountain's exact location. He may keep him- 
 self impenetrably veiled for several weeks. If I 
 be not mistaken, I was told he was invisible last 
 year for nearly if not quite three months. 
 
 Air. Clint Snowden, the Secretary of the Board 
 of Trade, has been our cicerone, as the board 
 was our host, in showing us about the city to- 
 day. Its growth one could scarcely comprehend 
 from the information as the increase of popula- 
 tion. Seeing has shown the naked truth. The
 
 ioo A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 great kindness to me in the past of friends in 
 Seattle has made me rather a Seattler. But I 
 tremble lest it may not be able to keep pace with 
 its pushing rival. Will the country be able to 
 support two big cities ? I have great faith in 
 the country. Three years ago I said there would 
 be a mighty empire along the Pacific slope that 
 is, a mighty part of the great Nation of the 
 continent. Bach visit here more and more im- 
 presses me that my prophecy will be fulfilled. 
 I recalled the fact that we once thought it an 
 outrage that " the Father of his country " should 
 have his state-namesake off in an out of the 
 way corner of the country, and that corner a 
 mountainous mass of worthless land; but now 
 one can realize that Washington will be the 
 most picturesque state in the Union, and when 
 America becomes densely populated, it will be 
 one of the richest. The yield of all kinds ; lum- 
 ber, coal, hops, wheat and oats, fish and fruits 
 will this year equal that of many of the eastern 
 states. The state will ere many years have gone 
 by, prove a magnificent namesake of the Father 
 of his country. 
 
 Dust is one of the most serious impedimenta 
 of the Pacific slope ; for three months of the 
 year it makes one's throat and lungs a sort of 
 mortar bed, but the soil which so easily turns to 
 impalable powder and in such quantities as to be
 
 TACOMA. 101 
 
 almost solid along some of the roads, is of mar- 
 velous richness. The trees are nearly as impos- 
 ing monarchs as are the mountains ; the flowers 
 are as beautiful as the rivers are clear and 
 pearly ; the fruits are glorious and the climate 
 is delicious. Though the noon-day sun is so 
 hot as to make a broad-brimmed hat or an um- 
 brella a necessity, yet the nights are so cold that 
 one gets chilled under less than three blankets. 
 Speaking of fruits, we must say that excepting 
 in the Caucasus the world has no equal for the 
 cherries of this locality so pulpy and so big. 
 A peddler selling some, captured his purchaser 
 when he cried out: "But, then, sir; them's 
 cherries, not apples." While writing this the 
 sun marches deeply into the West. We must 
 soon board the steamer which sails before day to- 
 morrow.
 
 LETTER VI. 
 
 THRIVING AND PICTURESQUE SEATTLE. TWO 
 CURIOUS MEETINGS. VICTORIA AND ITS 
 FLOWERS. ESQUIMAULT AND THE WARSPITE. 
 TWO BROKEN HEARTED GIRLS. CHARMING 
 SAIL ON THE INLAND SEA. PICTURESQUE 
 MOUNTAINS. GROWTH OF ALASKA. WHALES 
 AND THEIR SPORTS. NATIVE ALASKANS. 
 THEIR HOMES, HABITS, FOOD, FEASTS AND 
 WILD MUSIC. BASKETS AND BLANKETS. SAL- 
 MON FISHERIES. MINES AND DOGS. 
 
 STEAMER QUEEN, Aug. 10, 1890. 
 
 I wrote voluminously from the Yellowstone 
 National Park, quite at large on the run on the 
 Northern Pacific railroad, and expected to make 
 a big letter on the Alaskan excursion. But I 
 am discouraged. If all the pencils seen making 
 copious notes and extracting from route and 
 other books on this steamer were preparing let- 
 ters, and if a like proportion on the other regular 
 steamers do the same, then the thing will be 
 written into the ground during this season alone. 
 I will, however, commence a short letter; the 
 humor of my pen may make it a long one. 
 
 We boarded the "Queen" at Tacoma the night 
 of the 3ist of July. Before morning we cleared 
 the port, and at six landed at Seattle for a two 
 hours stop. It was too early for us to see any of 
 
 102
 
 NORTHERN PACIFIC OCEAN. 103 
 
 our friends, but giving us time to mark the won- 
 derful growth of the last three years. In my 
 last, the possibility of Tacoma taking the lead of 
 Seattle was expressed. When one sees the ele- 
 gant houses going up or gone up here since the 
 fire of a year ago ; looks over the hills which 
 were three years since clothed with forests but 
 now are covered with beautiful residences ; drives 
 over paved streets where he so short a time since 
 was choked by dust ; and glides in cable and 
 electric cars smoothly up grades which make a 
 walk laborious and caused the horses in his car- 
 riage to pant and blow when one sees all these 
 things and recalls the pluck of these people when 
 they let the world know they wanted no help 
 from outside when their city lay in ashes, then 
 he feels Tacoma will have a mighty sfcruggleeven 
 with the Northern Pacific's help to catch and 
 lead Seattle. 
 
 The Tacoma people claim that the United 
 States census gives them the larger population. 
 This the Seattleite denies, and I suspect with 
 justice. He claims his city will have over 
 43,000 population, all within the compact boun- 
 daries of the town, and several thousands in the 
 suburbs. Many may be there helping to build 
 the place up out of its ashes. The greater pro- 
 portion of them will probably remain perma- 
 nently, for Seattle has a great trade. Before the
 
 IO4 A SUMMERS OUTING. 
 
 fire a year ago it was rather over crowded. The 
 large warehouses and hotels now gone up, are 
 not in advance of the demand. I was, the day 
 before while driving about Tacoma, almost a 
 Tacoma man. But as our ship bent out of her 
 rival's harbor, I was again a Seattler. 
 
 The view of the city perched upon its terraced 
 hills is very imposing from the bay, and recalls 
 a long ago prospect from the sea at Genoa. 
 While the Queen was steaming out of the bay 
 into the open sound, I mounted to the hurricane 
 deck for a parting view of the picturesque place. 
 At the foot of the upper gang way I paused to 
 let a gentleman and lady pass me on their de- 
 scent from above. The gentleman held out his 
 hand saying " Mr. Harrison, I think ; we never 
 met but once before. We were vis-a-vis at the 
 dinner table in Colombo, Ceylon. My wife and I 
 had just landed from the " Rome " on our way 
 from Australia. You were about to embark on 
 her for Suez." Indeed if I be not mistaken I 
 got the state room he had vacated. Mr. Sargent 
 and his wife, had a few days ago arrived at San 
 Francisco from Japan and were then on their 
 way to Alaska before going to their home in 
 New Haven, from which they had been absent 
 for several years. This meeting made a singu- 
 lar co-incidence with another of the day before 
 at Tacoma. As I was crossing the rotunda of
 
 NORTHERN PACIFIC OCEAN. 105 
 
 the Tacoma hotel, a stranger accosted me, and 
 at the same time held out his hand, saying 
 "This is Mr. Harrison^of Chicago, is it not?" I 
 replied "Yes 1 '. "We never met but once Mr. 
 Harrison, and that was at the supper table at 
 Agra, India. We sat side by side and talked of 
 the Taj." This gentleman was from New York 
 and was too, on his way to Alaska. He had just 
 come from the East and had expected to sail on 
 the Queen, but not being able to secure a berth, 
 was about to go aboard the George W. Elder, 
 which had been crippled on a rock the week 
 before, and sailed from Tacoma the evening of 
 the 3 1 st. It was pleasant thus to meet these 
 people utter strangers to each other, whom I 
 had encountered on the other side of the world. 
 It is remarkable how often such chance meetings 
 come to voyagers in distant regions. It shows 
 how the love of travel grows upon one. Seeing 
 begets a desire for seeing. A large number of 
 our fellow passengers on this excursion have 
 been world wanderers. 
 
 We tied to the pier at Port Townsend for a 
 couple of hours. We had time for a hasty run over 
 the town and to measure the march of its improve- 
 ment during the past three years. It has grown 
 very considerably and improved much. Its people 
 make huge calculations as toits future, but have no 
 expectation of their town being a rival of the other
 
 io6 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 two cities. It has been the port of entry for the 
 Sound, which has given it considerable advan- 
 tages. This exclusive privilege it will hereafter 
 have to share with one or both of the others. 
 Back of it lies the unexplored Olympian moun- 
 tains, in which many think rich gold mines will 
 be found. If this should be the case, then Port 
 Townsend will forge ahead. 
 
 Our far northern excursion is now coming to 
 a close. We have done Alaska and are again 
 sailing through British waters. Vancouver Isle 
 stretches to our right. We can easily imagine 
 that a turn of a headland may reveal the War- 
 spite, with her guns, throwing 3<3o-pound shot, 
 ready to knock us into pi should our Yankee in- 
 clinations tempt us to give a too short twist on 
 the lion's tail. By the way, the ironclad bearer 
 of the Admiral's broad pennant, is a ferocious 
 looking monster. 
 
 Having three hours at our command before 
 dark on our arrival at Victoria the first of 
 the month, we drove about the staid and 
 orderly town, drinking in air laden with the 
 breath of honeysuckle embowering lattice and 
 cottage ; exclaiming in delight at sight of roses 
 hanging in mighty clusters and festooning 
 porches and verandas, or lifting their faces six 
 inches from out to out on strong stems in the 
 gardens ; and having our eyes refreshed by par-
 
 NORTHERN PACIFIC OCEAN. 107 
 
 terres of dahlias, nasturtiums, feverfews, and 
 many delicate flowers in white or of every tint. 
 This town was evidently settled directly from 
 England. The love evinced for cottage adorn- 
 ment would have been lost in a passage through 
 the Canuck settlements of the East. The sweet 
 embowered cottage is an English institution, 
 as thoroughly as is "rnagna charta." Wherever 
 either exists we know it to be a heritage from 
 the seagirt isle. 
 
 THE FAIRY-LIKE HARBOR OF THE BRITISH 
 FLEET. 
 
 Our drive brought us about six o'clock to Es- 
 quimault, the fairy-like harbor of the British 
 fleet of the North Pacific. What a little gem it 
 is ! A rounded patch of sea, a few hundred 
 yards in diameter, lifted up and dropped thirty 
 fathoms deep among well-wooded, sloping hills 
 and connected by a short, deep channel less than 
 a hundred feet wide, with the mighty ocean. 
 This channel is in fact a gateway with smooth 
 granite buttresses, of bowlder-like surface, lift- 
 ing a few feet above high tide. These buttres- 
 ses were built by no human hand, but were born 
 of the molten mass poured up from the earth's 
 fiery center. The very globe shook and reeled 
 in volcanic spasms at their birth. Here, in this 
 quiet little harbor, thoroughly protected from
 
 io8 
 
 the outer sea, lay the fearful man of war War- 
 spite, a sleeping Titan, surrounded by several 
 others less formidable, but yet of ugly dimen- 
 sions. Close by the entrance of the harbor is a 
 great dry dock, in which American vessels have 
 been courteously repaired. Near this is a little 
 hamlet where one can get a fair meal and can 
 take rowing boat to visit the great ships. 
 
 The drive from town to the harbor is very 
 charming; through pretty woods, on good roads, 
 overlooking green arms of the sea which run 
 back into the hills, in crystal clearness. One 
 can well say these sea-creeks run back into the 
 hills, for the incoming tides send currents up 
 them of great strength. Pretty villas are built 
 along the well kept roads, and acres of wild roses 
 scent the air, while the red barked Arbutis leans 
 over the cool streams with knarled bronze like 
 arms and branches. The excursion steamers all 
 anchor at Victoria long enough to permit tour- 
 ists to take this and other drives. 
 
 When we reached the neighborhood of the 
 man-of-war, it was so late that we had no expec- 
 tation of going aboard, but our hackman desirous 
 of putting in as much time as possible, and a 
 boatsman in want of a job assured us we would 
 be received aboard the Warspite. A large num- 
 ber of her 600 complement were leaning over
 
 NORTHERN PACIFIC OCEAN. 109 
 
 the bulwarks, and gold lace and brass buttons 
 shone upon the eyes of our two young girls. 
 Their little hearts fluttered as no glacier of the 
 Arctic zone could have made them do. Ah! 
 what a wondrous spell the glitter on the shoul- 
 ders of soldier or sailor works upon the female 
 heart! Even the married woman of our party 
 had a heightened color as we approached the 
 gangway of the mighty ship. Fancy the two 
 broken hearts of the girls and the composed, sad 
 face of the matron when a sailor came down the 
 gangway to inform us the hour for visitors was 
 past, that no one was received after five' o'clock. 
 One of the men of our party told him the next 
 time we came we would board his ship from the 
 deck of the "Chicago." He laughed. There is 
 no taint of a quarrel between the brave tars of 
 an English and an American man-of-war. We 
 rowed slowly away. The music from the band 
 poured down upon us from the decks and was 
 caught in sweet echo by the hills around. How 
 I pitied the girls ! They are just on the edge of 
 society, and what tales they could have told their 
 schoolmates ! Chicago's late representative at 
 the Court of the Shah of Persia smiled as only 
 one who had been at a court could smile. But 
 the girls uttered sighs which smote the writer's 
 too sympathetic soul.
 
 no A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 WHEN WE GOBBLE UP CANADA. 
 
 The Warspite lies at Esquimault (up here 
 called Squimal) ready to shake the icebergs of 
 Behring Sea. A word to President Harrison and 
 Secretary Elaine : Don't tell England that onr 
 blood is np to fighting heat, until we are ready 
 to gobble down Canada and the Canadian Pacific 
 railway at a mouthful. It can be done and not 
 at the expense of a very wry face. Then let 
 England roam about the oceans to her hearts 
 content, while we Yankees will play base-ball 
 with a continent for our grounds, with basemen 
 and shortstops between the two oceans, and out- 
 fielders on the Gulf of Mexico and the Arctic 
 seas. 
 
 SAILING THROUGH THE ISLES OF THE PACIFIC. 
 
 We are now on our tenth day from Tacoma. 
 The ship will reach her home Tuesday, the 
 twelfth day, having sailed over 2,100 miles ; 
 some ten hours of this was in the open Pacific, 
 from Glacier Bay to Sitka, and then from that 
 port south to Clarence Strait. The remainder 
 of the distance was in the interior channels, and 
 across perhaps a half-dozen short openings into 
 the sea. The several channels have fixed names 
 and are of various breadths, from 200 or 300 
 yards to four or five miles. Sometimes we were 
 next the broad continent, but often small islands
 
 NORTHERN PACIFIC OCEAN. Ill 
 
 lay between the straits and the mainland, with 
 large islands or smaller ones several deep, to- 
 wards the sea. The sailing along the watery 
 road was plain and easy except in two narrow 
 straits, where the ship had to slow up frequently, 
 while she bent in and out to avoid rocks. These 
 are taken partly as cut-offs and partly for the 
 beauty of the scenery. The islands are all 
 mountains lifted from the water ; all are more or 
 less tree-clad, with peaks on the tallest, rocky, 
 jagged, and oftentimes with streamers of snow 
 stretching downward in their npper gorges. 
 
 Vancouver Island is 300 miles long, covered 
 by a broad, lofty range of mountains in pile be- 
 hind pile, broken and in some instances with 
 heads wrapped in perpetual snow. North of 
 this along the way are four irregularly shaped 
 long islands, around each of which a good 
 steamer would require nearly a day to sail. 
 These, too, are a mass of rugged, jagged, sharply 
 pointed and peaked mountains in very confused 
 mass, with no valleys, but with narrow gorges 
 and small flats, along many of which pour pel- 
 lucid streams from snowy heights. Seen from 
 the south, the mountains are green up to a 
 height of two or more thousand feet, with rocky 
 summits flecked with snow or banded in the 
 long downward gorges. Viewed from the north, 
 the snow often lies in broad fields and always is
 
 ii2 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 in greater profusion then when seen from other 
 points of the compass. The smaller island 
 mountains are not so lofty, but are beyond the 
 dignity of hills, being from 1,500 to 2,000 and 
 some of them 3,000 feet high. 
 
 AWE-INSPIRING MOUNTAINS. 
 
 To the eastward the mainland presents one 
 continuous mass of mountains ; never in even 
 ranges, but all broken, toothed and needled, with 
 foothills next the water green and rounded. 
 The loftier masses behind shoot their rocky 
 height into the blue sky from 3,000 to nearly 
 5,000 feet above the sea. Flecks and bands of 
 snow are never absent from these, and often the 
 smooth upper heights are wrapped in pure man- 
 tles of white. 
 
 Into the mainland enter many crooked, deep 
 inlets antlered in form, the counterparts of the 
 fiords of Norway with this difference, those of 
 Norway have generally lofty precipices lifting 
 directly from the water ; here there are fewer 
 precipices. The mountains, however, lift up 
 very steep, with wooded slopes, but permitting 
 their pinnacles to be seen. Some prospectors 
 abroad told us that the scenery on these fiords 
 was majestic in the extreme. And well it may 
 be, for nearly all of the inlets are flanked by 
 notched and peaked mountains, shooting into
 
 NORTHERN PACIFIC OCEAN. 113 
 
 i 
 
 the sky with shoulders and necks wrapped in 
 eternal frosts. When our great Republic shall 
 have its boundary lines marked only by oceans 
 and seas, then these bold highlands should be 
 set apart as a continental park for the free peo- 
 ple of the Western hemisphere. 
 
 The mountains of both mainland and islands 
 are thoroughly picturesque, with rugged upper 
 members topped out in sharp points and rocky 
 pinnacles, such as are seen nowhere in the old 
 states of our country and but rarely in the new 
 ones or in any of the old Territories. There are 
 no deciduous or hardwood trees, and but few 
 hardwood shrubs. Firs, balsams, and hemlocks 
 cover the mountain sides, and cedars sometimes 
 are seen in the small flats next the sea or up the 
 gullies. The forests on mountains slopes are of 
 small trees, and no track of the fire fiend is ever 
 seen. The air is so humid along the entire outer 
 sea coast from the mouth of the Columbia to 
 Bearing Strait that one cannot avail himself of 
 forest fires to help clear the land. Should the 
 trees be deadened and fall, they would lie sodden 
 and wet until destroyed by sluggish rot, while 
 tangled undergrowth and young forests would 
 spring up in almost impenetrable maze. On 
 many mountain slopes more than half of the 
 trees are dead but still standing, while often are 
 seen great belts of bare, dead trunks, with not a
 
 ii4 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 single live one, but a green carpet of fresh after- 
 growth spreading over the ground. The soil is 
 so thin upon the rocky mass of the mountain 
 that sustenance is not afforded for any but young 
 and vigorous forests. After a few years' growth 
 the living die to make a soil for larger ones to 
 come. Thus ever do the young feed upon the 
 old. A man works, accumulates and dies, for 
 his children to feed upon his hoarded fat, per- 
 haps to squander it in riotous living. One fre- 
 quently sees here the footprints of avalanches 
 which have swept the accumulations of long 
 years, trees and soil, into the sea or gorges, leav- 
 ing the rock bare as it was in its primal up- 
 heaval. So, too, misfortunes and unavoidable 
 shocks sweep away the heritage of worthy sous 
 from worthy sires. 
 
 THE RUINS OF MIGHTY FORESTS. 
 
 On the more gentle slopes and in the small 
 valleys of Alaska, fallen timber builds up a rich 
 soil. The trees, however, lie for many years 
 piled one upon another, the newer upon the 
 older, and all heavily covered with moss and 
 yielding to slow decay. When decayed, they 
 make a soil so uneven in surface that a walk 
 over it is an arduous task. When a tree falls it 
 lies and moulders for long years ; heavy, rich 
 moss wraps it as in thick blankets. In this way
 
 NORTHERN PACIFIC OCEAN. 115 
 
 the ground becomes covered by hummocks sev- 
 eral feet high. These hummocks are as thick 
 as graves in an old cemetery. We saw an up- 
 turned tree back of Sitka ten to twelve feet in 
 diameter some distance from its roots. Saplings 
 ten inches in diameter were growing among its 
 upturned roots fifteen feet from the ground. 
 Moss six inches thick lay like a winding sheet 
 about the trunk. Half of the lower trunk had 
 been slabbed off, I suspect by natives for ma- 
 terial for their carved wood work, for it was 
 perfectly sound. ' 
 
 Another large tree lay prone at great length. 
 A fir over three feet in diameter was sitting 
 astride it, sending its roots down to the 
 ground on either side. A trail running across 
 it made it necessary to cut down into the old 
 trunk. The wood left at the bottom was per- 
 fectly sound. Again I saw a large tree perched 
 some feet up upon an old stump, its roots 
 having found the ground down in the hollow. 
 The majority of the large trees on the flats 
 have grotesque trunks for several feet from 
 the ground, showing that they had been dis- 
 torted by old trunks, in whose moss-covered 
 sides the seed from which they sprang had ger- 
 minated. The air is so full of moisture that 
 moss soon covers a fallen tree and furnishes the 
 best bed for sprouting the delicate seed of
 
 n6 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 coniferae. The expense of clearing such land as 
 might be fitted for cultivation will retard for 
 a longtime any agricultural pursuits in Alaska. 
 A well-posted man assured me it would cost $600 
 per acre. 
 
 Live stock would thrive here if lands could 
 be opened. Grasses are rich and luxuriant, 
 and the few horses and cows seen were sleek 
 and fat. But I do not think from what 
 we saw and heard that either as an agricul- 
 tural or as a grazing country Alaska ever will 
 or can be a success. Cauliflowers, lettuce, pota- 
 toes, and several other garden vegetables looked 
 well at Sitka and Fort Wrangel but in small 
 patches. A few beds of poppies and daisies were 
 very fine, and several other flowers were 
 brightly yellow in the little gardens. 
 
 " THERE SHE BLOWS ! " 
 
 We have had charming weather the Captain 
 says the best trip of the season. Several of our 
 passengers give your correspondent credit for 
 being the mascot of the party a compliment 
 very complacently accepted. The good, sunny 
 days have not only enabled us to enjoy hugely 
 the beautiful and often sublime scenery, but 
 have given us many opportunities for studying 
 some of the mannerisms of the leviathans of the 
 deep. We have seen many whales, several
 
 NORTHERN PACIFIC OCEAN. 117 
 
 times ten to twenty at once, and at close range. 
 They rolled themselves in grand dignity up out 
 of the water a few hundred yards from us, and, 
 slowly bending, threw their flukes several feet 
 into the air. Then they would spurt great geys- 
 ers ten or more feet high, making a noise not un- 
 like that made by elephants when blowing dust 
 over themselves, but far louder. Indeed, when 
 some blew a hundred yards away from us, it 
 sounded like a somewhat continuous emission 
 from a steam stack. 
 
 To-day several fine fellows were very near 
 us, and one apparently young one threw him- 
 self several feet entirely into the air. He 
 seemed from twelve to eighteen feet long. 
 The passengers thought it a baby whale sport- 
 ing for the amusement of its dam. But a glass 
 happening to catch him on the fly it was discov- 
 ered he had a decided snout. Some of us then 
 decided it to be a Greenland shark, which has 
 an under] aw provided with very sharp, rather 
 protruding teeth, with which it scoops out of a 
 whale great chunks of blubber. Close by where 
 it leaped a large whale lifted its fluke almost 
 perpendicularly out of the water and thrashed it 
 into foam. This was kept up for several hun- 
 dred yards till we got too far away to see it well. 
 This we are told is sometimes done in a kind of 
 wanton sport, but I suspect in this instance the
 
 n8 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 monster was trying to defend itself from one of 
 its inveterate enemies. At any rate our passen- 
 gers were afforded a very unusual sight. 
 
 THE NATIVE ALASKANS. 
 
 Of the animated nature, however, exhibited 
 for our amusement and study, the native Alas- 
 kans were the most interesting part. They are 
 very improperly called Indians, being of a dis- 
 tinct race from the American red men. I went 
 into several shacks or native houses. They are 
 built by the natives, and under no outside advice 
 or architectural interference. I saw the manner 
 of arrangement of their little stock of furniture. 
 I saw them preparing their food and eating their 
 meals ; heard them talk, and watched the play 
 of their features when trading and when having 
 some sport. I thought I saw cropping out 
 everywhere decided Japanese characteristics. It 
 is difficult to name or enumerate the points of 
 resemblance. But they exist, and are to me far 
 more marked than any resemblance between the 
 Japanese and the Chinese, who are supposed by 
 most ethnologists to be of cognate families. These 
 people are to me degraded descendants of the 
 land of the rising sun who entered America 
 through the Aleutian Isles. 
 
 The Alaskan shacks are generally located 
 near the water, in somewhat orderly rows, one
 
 NORTHERN PACIFIC OCEAN. 1 19 
 
 behind the other. They usually, as far as I 
 could see, consist of a single room occupying the 
 entire house. At or near the center of the build- 
 ing is a square, covered with dirt when the 
 house is raised up, or if the house be low down, 
 then on the ground, whereon the fire burns. 
 Around this square is a somewhat raised 
 platform, as in a Japanese house; on this, the 
 different members of the family, or the several 
 families have their separate locations, with their 
 boxes, beds and other individual property. Fre- 
 quently the room is thirty to forty feet square, 
 and houses ten, twenty, and often forty or more 
 people. These are members of a large family or 
 of a sub-tribe. By the way a woman is fre- 
 quently chief of a tribe, and one reads, over the 
 door in large letters the name of "Blank (a 
 woman) chief." The Indians seem to evince a 
 sort of boastful ness in the numberings on their 
 houses, which at Sitka run from 3,000 or 4,000 
 up to five and six. It is barely possible this may 
 be a part of a sj^stem of enumeration running 
 through several colonies or tribes, and through- 
 out the land wherever such tribes live. But a 
 white man living in the territory told us it arose 
 from the native desire to look big and to appear 
 as one of a great multitude. 
 
 The individual possessions of the different 
 members of a family, are kept in boxes and piled
 
 i2o A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 upon them. I looked into several of these boxes. 
 Every thing was thrown in pell-mell shoes, 
 skins, scarfs, tools, pails and even iron pots and 
 axes. The packing of a box looked as if it had 
 been done in a hurry. The women and children 
 when indoors were found, except at meal time, 
 squatted about the several platforms. When at 
 meals they were huddled on their haunches on 
 the earthen square about the open fire. There 
 are no chimneys to the houses. The fire being 
 built in the center of the squares, the smoke goes 
 out as in Japan through openings in the center 
 of the roof, and to a considerable extent through 
 the doors. About and above the openings in the 
 roof are a sort of screen which may be shifted ac- 
 cording to the direction of the wind. 
 
 In several small shacks at Juneau, old fash- 
 ioned iron stoves were seen, with stove pipes 
 leading above the roof. The inside of a shack is 
 an omnium gatherum, not only of people of both 
 sexes and of all ages, but of fishing nets, axes 
 and saws, boat paddles, and blocks on which 
 wooden work was being done. Dried fish and 
 pelts stretched are on the walls and hanging 
 from the roof poles. 
 
 The natives are very dark and swarthy, and 
 have rather a yellow tinge in their complexions 
 than red; have large heads and huge, broad, 
 flat, stolid faces, long bodies, short, ill-shaped
 
 NORTHERN PACIFIC OCEAN. 121 
 
 legs, and ungainly gaits. The habit of squat- 
 ting when a.t rest, and when propelling their 
 canoes and fishing, has developed unduly the 
 upper body at the great expense of the lower 
 limbs. They obtain their livelihood from the 
 sea, and spend much more than half of their 
 waking hours in their dugouts. They have no 
 thwarts in their canoes to sit upon, but squat 
 down upon the bottom, or bend on their knees. 
 This causes the legs to dwindle when young and 
 to become decidedly crooked. This, too, is the 
 cause of their decidedly shambling gait when 
 walking. They do not look bright, but are 
 skilled in all things they understand, and learn 
 with great rapidity, not by imitation as the Chi- 
 nese do, but from inborn aptitude like that of the 
 Japanese. Their blankets, made of the wool of 
 the mountain goat, are marvels of .closely woven 
 fabrics, and their baskets of a kind of tough 
 grass are as close as the finest Panama hats and 
 very harmoniously colored. They carve fairly in 
 wood, their totems, and small ware being quite 
 artistic. In silver ornamentation they excel. 
 Blankets are the medium of exchange ; not the 
 native ornamental blankets, but those introduced 
 by the Hudson Bay people. The old traders 
 bought furs, and pelts, paying for them in 
 woolen blankets. A pile of furs was worth so 
 many blankets. From what I can learn the skill
 
 122 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 of a native trader has always been in his ability 
 to demand a large number of blankets for his 
 goods, and then to maintain as long as possible 
 the stolidity of his countenance, during the hig- 
 gling necessary to meet the views of the shrewd 
 Hudson Bay fellow. About the places we visited 
 only silver coin is taken in trade, and a native 
 man or woman rarely drops a peg from the price 
 first demanded. 
 
 THE HOME AT SITKA. 
 
 At a school, " The Home," in Sitka, under the 
 control of a church organization in the States, 
 are a large number of girls and boys of all sizes. 
 They are neat, intelligent in feature, recite 
 fluently and feelingly simple speeches and 
 verses, and sing sweetly and as if they felt not 
 only the sense but the harmony of their hymns. 
 A band of twenty youths plays brass instru- 
 ments well and with great precision in time. 
 They have all pleasant low voices and the girls 
 exceedingly sweet ones. I noticed the same 
 characteristics among some wholely uneducated 
 and semi-savage women when singing to a wild 
 uncouth dance of the men. 
 
 A party of about sixty of a certain family re- 
 turned in canoes from berrying while we were in 
 Sitka. They went through uncouth motions 
 while in the boats and then danced in savage
 
 NORTHERN PACIFIC OCEAN. 123 
 
 grotesqueness on the shore, where they were re- 
 ceived by the men and women of other families 
 in wild glee. It was a berry " potlach " or feast. 
 The women's voices could be heard singing in 
 low, weird but sweet monotone. After dancing 
 aaid distributing pieces of calico among certain 
 of the berrying people, a party of over a hun- 
 dred entered a large shack, closing the door to 
 us white outsiders. There they went through 
 some long ceremonies. I managed to get inside 
 and for a few minutes was not disturbed. All 
 were squatted around the great room, in the 
 center of which was a fire, the smoke going out 
 of an aperature in the roof. When I entered all 
 were singing in so low a tone that it could al- 
 most be termed crooning. The whole thing was 
 weird and wild, but the singing was not lacking 
 in untutored melody. Some other tourists see- 
 ing me get in also entered, opening the door so 
 widely that the wind drove the smoke back into 
 the room. A sort of head man who was next 
 the fire leading the song, got angry gave the 
 word, when all got up hurriedly, and each tak- 
 ing a large basket or bowl full of berries went 
 off to their respective homes. 
 
 From what I could learn, a whole sub-tribe 
 takes boats and visits some locality possibly a 
 day or more's sail away, where the berry crop is 
 known to be good. They remain until their
 
 124 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 canoes are well filled. When they return some 
 of the men stand up in the canoes arrayed in 
 showy colored calico or other bright .stuff and 
 shout and sing and wildly gesticulate. By this, 
 those in the village at once understand whether 
 or not the excursion has been successful, in 
 accordance therewith the returning party is met 
 on the landing. If unsuccessful with dirges and 
 lamentations. If successful with a "potlatch," 
 a species of joyous fete. 
 
 The party we saw were in high feather. Be- 
 dizened fellows stood in the prows of the boats, 
 going through gesticulations and contortions 
 which, had they been white men, would have 
 overturned the treacherous dugouts. They 
 shouted and chanted in wild glee. Their songs 
 were returned from the shore. There were forty 
 to sixty in the returning party. As soon as 
 their keels touched the strand, they poured out, 
 a few in uncouth antics, but the bulk of them in 
 solemn decorousness. When landed one two or 
 more sang in wild weird tones, the women join- 
 ing in the chorus. After going through certain 
 formalities, presents were given to members of 
 the returning party, of coin, and of strips or 
 pieces one or more yards long of calico in red or 
 other bright colors. Then the singing was con- 
 tinued, and the berries were removed from the 
 canoes and carried into a large shack where
 
 NORTHERN PACIFIC OCEAN. 125 
 
 other ceremonies were gone through. No white 
 people were allowed to enter. A couple of na- 
 tives stood guard at the door, and grufly if not 
 angrily turned off all who attempted to gain in- 
 gress. The ceremonies were continued within 
 for two or three hours. It was at the later end 
 of this that I gained admission, as above stated, 
 while the attention of the guards" was removed. 
 
 The whole thing seemed very ridiculous, es- 
 pecially when one remembered that at best only 
 a few bushels of huckleberries were the occasion 
 of the rejoicing. Our Grecco-maniacs, however, 
 should not deem the thing small. For accord- 
 ing to Homer, the immediate success of the dem- 
 igods of Greece the heroes who gyrated in that 
 wonderful tempest-in-a-tea-pot, the Trojan war, 
 did quite as silly things over just as pitiful suc- 
 cesses. After all, too, it is not the size of a 
 thing which makes it valuable, but the size the 
 possessor thinks it possesses. A bushel of huck- 
 leberries to an Alaskan is quite as large, as a 
 schooner load of wheat would be to old Hutch, 
 or a dozen car load of pigs would be to P. D. A. 
 
 THE DELICACIES OF THE TABLE. 
 
 I went into a house at Juneau ; a woman and 
 several children with one man were squatted 
 around the fire taking their dinners. This con- 
 sisted of a large dried salmon. A woman held
 
 126 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 it in her hand before the hot fire, screening her 
 hand by a fold of the fish. When it was cooked 
 on one side enough to burn her hand, she turned 
 another fold and when satisfied with her culi- 
 nary art, tore it apart in a large wooden bowl. 
 The fish was in fact scarcely at all cooked, but 
 was simply made very hot. This, however, 
 seemed satisfactory to the feasters. Each mem- 
 ber of the family tore a piece off with fingers or 
 teeth. The hands of the young girls were soaked 
 with the oil exuding from the hot and fat sal- 
 mon. They wiped them clean several times 
 during the meal upon their luxuriant tresses, 
 which hung down their backs in massive braids. 
 I think I must have a good-natured face, for I 
 have never in any land offended when making 
 such domiciliary visits. In this instance the 
 woman wished me to join them in their feast, as- 
 suring me it was good. At least I so took the 
 words with the expressions of face used. They 
 had no bread of any sort. After they had suffic- 
 iently filled themselves, each took a long draught 
 of water, from a native wooden pail. 
 
 Salmon is the staple article of food, and hangs 
 drying by the scores and hundreds on racks in 
 front of each shack or house and upon the walls 
 within. The fish on the racks seemed small, 
 possibly such are reserved for home consump 
 tion, while the larger ones had been sold to the
 
 NORTHERN PACIFIC OCEAN. 12 7 
 
 canneries. The Alaskan salmon, however, is 
 not a large one. It must be fattening food, for 
 men and women are generally plump and the 
 children as rounded as well-fed pigs. The little 
 ones are as frisky and happy as in Japan, which 
 I thought the paradise of babies. I was struck 
 by the full rounded paunches of the little ones. 
 This, too, is remarkable among their little 
 cousins in the land of the rising sun ; possibly 
 a result of fish diet. During the summer season 
 the Indians consume large quantities of berries 
 blue or huckleberries and salmon berries. 
 The English call the latter, cloud berry in Nor- 
 way. I saw a basket full of % white clustered 
 root in front of a shack ; a sort of bunch of 
 small seed like bulbs compacted into a single 
 bulb, very white, not unlike a mass of snow- 
 drops glued together into a ball walnut-sized. 
 I asked a woman who was washing them if they 
 were good. She grinned and put a handful into 
 her mouth as answer, at the same time handing 
 me some. They tasted like a starchy paste 
 made from impalpable flour. I asked the name. 
 She replied " Chinook (Indian) lice." They 
 cannot pronounce the " r," but Chinese-like 
 substitute " 1 " for it. 
 
 Another delicacy is a kind of very small fish 
 egg, deposited by a sort of herring on fine twigs 
 of hemlock placed by the natives in certain
 
 ia8 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 places in the sea for the purpose. The eggs are 
 clustered on the twigs until they are as big as 
 one's thumb, thousands upon thousands, upon a 
 small branched limb. The branches are hung 
 up to dry. When used they are soaked in fresh 
 water and the eggs stripped off by the hand. 
 The eggs when soaked swell till they seem per- 
 fectly fresh. I asked the woman I saw soaking 
 them if they were good. A smile from ear to 
 ear illumined her face ; she offered me some and 
 then opened her capacious mouth into which she 
 threw a handful which she crushed with evident 
 delight. Though of an enquiring mind, I ab- 
 stained heroically from accepting the proffered 
 hospitality. Had the eggs been fried I doubt 
 not they would have made a good dish. The 
 dry ones were shriveled and as dead looking as 
 the roe in a smoked herring, yet when soaked 
 they seemed as plump and fresh as if just taken 
 from the mother fish. 
 
 GUM-CHEWING AMONG THE NATIVES. 
 
 When selling berries to the ship passengers 
 the women are either all the while eating of 
 their goods or are chewing some kind of gum, 
 generally the latter. Why should not Alaska's 
 400 chew gum as well as our own. One of their 
 fashions is very grotesque. We saw several 
 women with their faces, necks, arms and hands
 
 NORTHERN PACIFIC OCEAN. 1 29 
 
 stained almost black. Whether this was done 
 for ornamentation, or as a sort of mourning 
 badge, I could not definitely learn. Both solu- 
 tions were given us by people residing among 
 them. If the latter, it furnished another evi- 
 dence of Japanese origin. A Japanese married 
 woman blackens her teeth, and plucks her eye 
 brows and lashes to make herself unattractive, 
 as a proof of her love for her lord. These 
 women carry out the same idea when in sorrow. 
 Their grief is certainly much more economical 
 than in politer lands where, robes de deul are 
 both nobby and costly. 
 
 At each town visited by us lines of women 
 with some men were crouched down on their 
 haunches, with their wares for sale ; dressed 
 skins, carved wood, spoons, totems, and uncouth 
 images of animals ; baskets beautifully woven of 
 a kind of grass, very close, very strong, and 
 decorated in 'bold, natural colors. They have 
 what so many untutored but somewhat self- 
 cultured half savage people have, a thorough 
 conception of harmony of color. At first, 
 to our cultivated estheticism, the coloring 
 used by them is too glaring, but when toned 
 down by time, or when seen at a little distance, 
 no civilized people can surpass them. 
 
 The baskets made by the people of a sort of 
 strong grass probably mixed with some kind of
 
 130 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 bark, are very strong and so closely woven, that 
 they will hold water. They can be folded 
 tightly without breaking the fiber. I had consid- 
 erable difficulty in getting a native to part with an 
 old one. It would seem they recognize the soft- 
 ness lent by age. I offered several women two 
 or three times as much for old ones, which they 
 had in use, as they asked for new ones. The 
 one I succeeded in getting was from a woman who 
 had no new ones for sale. It probably had held 
 rather unsavory messes, but its coloring is ex- 
 quisitely soft and mellow. A passenger asked 
 what I wanted with the dirty thing. Its soft 
 tone being pointed out, she spent over an hour 
 going from shack to shack fruitlessly endeavor- 
 ing to obtain one. 
 
 The same difference is observable between old 
 and new Turkish rugs. Their beauty is not in 
 the texture or weight but in the harmony of 
 color, which no European has yet been able to 
 surpass, if equal. The high art of France has 
 not yet learned to create in large ungraceful 
 figures the result found in rugs laboriously 
 made by the half civilized people of Eastern 
 Turkey and of the Caucasus. The French attain 
 it only by grouping small figures of graceful de- 
 sign. The Thlinkt'ts are the most numerous of 
 the native tribes, and are the ones which so re- 
 semble the Japanese. A Thlinket when playing
 
 NORTHERN PACIFIC OCEAN. 131 
 
 merchant to the tourist visitors offers his wares 
 with an utter indifference and apparently never 
 drops a tittle from his first price. If you pur- 
 chase he or she seems pleased ; if you decline his 
 air'is of one utterly indifferent. We saw a large 
 number at work about the Treadwell mines in 
 different capacities, and in drilling and quarry- 
 ing the quartz. They seem to work as well as 
 the average white man. 
 
 By the way, the Treadwell mine is an extraor- 
 dinary thing. Gold-bearing quartz is quarried like 
 common stone. The vein, if it can be so termed, 
 is 500 feet wide, open upon the surface and extend- 
 ing to an unknown depth. It is of low grade ore, 
 yielding only from four to eight dollars per ton, but 
 is soeasily reached and worked with such cheapness 
 that many think it the most valuable mine in the 
 world. The mine runs 240 stamps, being the 
 largest number in existence under one roof. It 
 is controlled by so close a corporation that the 
 yield is never divulged and its value is a secret. 
 It is said, however, that an offer of $15,000,000 
 to $20,000,000 has been refused. Its machinery 
 is almost if not entirely run by water power fur- 
 nished by a mountain stream tumbling from a 
 lofty height immediately behind and over the 
 mine. It is on Douglas Island, which is separ- 
 ated from the main land at Juneau by a channel 
 about a mile in width.
 
 132 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 Other paying mines are being worked about 
 Juneau, and promising claims have been located 
 in many parts of the Territory. The seal produce 
 of the land is too well known to need any com- 
 ment, but it will probably surprise the majority 
 of our people when they learn that the salmon 
 crop of last year was of about 750,000 cases. 
 Bach case I believe, holds two dozen cans. When 
 one considers the fact that the waste of fish at 
 the great packing canneries is enormous, not 
 more than half of an eight pound sock-eye sal- 
 mon the best of all being used, and then con- 
 siders the number caught by the natives for 
 themselves and for their dogs, we can easily 
 marvel at the vast schools which frequent these 
 Northern waters. The waste spoken of is not 
 because more cannot be saved, but because the 
 middle part of the fish cans best and is saved 
 with a minimum of labor. The back with its 
 fin is removed by one stroke of the knife, then 
 the same is done with the belly. The head and 
 tail is then cut so deep into the body that only 
 four pounds of an eight-pounder is left. This 
 is divided into four equal parts. One part is 
 then rolled and pressed by the hand into a can. 
 The cans are closed and placed in great vats, 
 where they are boiled. When about done they 
 are taken out and pricked to let the air out, and 
 again soldered. They go again into vats to be
 
 NORTHERN PACIFIC OCEAN. 133 
 
 boiled an hour and a half. This long cooking in 
 air-tight cans causes the bones to be absorbed 
 without wasting the juices and flavor of the fish. 
 When this is done, each can is again examined 
 and any one at all puffed up is again pricked to 
 let all air escape and is again boiled. They are 
 then cooled for boxing. Some canneries on the 
 Pacific pack from forty all the way up to a hun- 
 dred thousand fish a day. 
 
 I spoke of dogs. There are a great many in 
 the Indian villages. They are all more or less 
 mixed of Esquimaux breed. They exceed the 
 number of'children, are all wolf-like, and are on 
 the best of terms with the people. It is amusing 
 to set one of them to barking, especially if the 
 bark be of the howl kind, for immediately it is 
 caught up by his nearest neighbor and carried 
 on until every dog in the camp is squatting on 
 his haunches and lifting his voice to its highest 
 pitch. The medley of sounds, from the pup's 
 quaver through the whole gamut of different 
 ages to the sober howls of the grandfather, is 
 very droll, especially when the hearer sees the 
 performers in their dead earnestness. They lift 
 their heads and look so solemn, and howl in so 
 lugubrious a key, that one feels that in this 
 dogish art at least they are unequaled by the 
 canines of any other part of the world.
 
 LETTER VII. 
 
 STEAMING UP THE ICE-PACKED FIORDS AND 
 CHANNELS OF THE ARCTIC COUNTRY OWNED 
 BY UNCLE SAM. SALMON CANNERIES. CANOE 
 BUILDING BY NATIVES. ASCENT OF THE 
 " MUIR " GLACIER, 3 CO FEET ABOVE WATER. 
 FANTASTIC ICE FORMATIONS AT TAKOU. 
 SUMMER AND WINTER CLIMATES. IMPUDENT 
 CROWS AND ORATORICAL RAVENS. 
 
 STEAMER QUEEN, 
 GULF OF GEORGIA, Aug. 10. 
 The salmon canneries of Alaska are not all in 
 the neighborhood of the towns at which the ex- 
 cursion steamer calls, but are at or near every 
 considerable stream which flows into the straits, 
 channels and inlets. The instinct of the fish 
 send them at regular seasons into fresh water, 
 where and near which, they are caught in vast 
 numbers. Other steamers, some of them carrying 
 passengers and requiring a week longer to make 
 the trip, call at stated times at several places, to 
 which the Queen does not go, to take on and 
 unload freight. The natives are the principal fish- 
 ermen using, both nets and hooks from their trim 
 canoes. These are dug out from a single log, 
 some barely holding a man, others carrying with 
 safety fifty or more. A log of two feet diameter 
 will make a canoe nearly twice as large at its 
 
 134
 
 ALASKAN CANOES. 135 
 
 waist. When dug out to a thin shell almost as 
 light as birch bark, the frame is filled with water, 
 into which hot stones are thrown until the 
 wooden walls are thoroughly steamed, hot and 
 pliable. Sticks of different lengths, the longest 
 at the canoe waist, are then set into the frame, 
 which is spread out into a fine, cutter-shaped 
 keel. A high prow and somewhat raised stern 
 are cut out of the log or set into it. Some of 
 the crafts present finely modeled keels. The 
 shell of a canoe holding over sixty people, is 
 often less than a half inch thick, and so light 
 that two people can easily pull it high on dry 
 land. The native squats in the bottom of his 
 canoe and paddles it with great speed. 
 
 We saw a boat not twenty feet long, the whole 
 filled to the top with light firewood. On this were 
 perched two men, three women, a dog, a small 
 tent, and the cooking utensils of the family. 
 They were sailing from Juneau to another vil- 
 lage several miles away. A native gets into his 
 canoe as lightly and carefully as if he were 
 treading on eggs. In this instance, the boat 
 sank until its upper line was not four inches out 
 of water. We expected to see it swamped, for 
 there was a light wind and a few white caps. 
 We watched it with our glasses until safely 
 landed at a village several miles away. The 
 natives, of villages quite distant from the towns
 
 136 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 at which the steamers call, bring their wives, 
 dogs, and household utensils, together with what 
 they may have to sell in the curio line to these 
 places on the day the steamers are due. They 
 pitch their tents on the shore not far from the 
 steamboat pier, draw their canoes upon the 
 strand above high water mark, and seem as 
 much at home as if regularly domiciled. They 
 remain as long as they see a chance for trade 
 and then fold their tents and silently seal 
 away. They require only a few minutes to get 
 themselves and their worldly possessions aboard 
 their little dugouts. At Juneau there were sev- 
 eral of these temporary inhabitants. They all 
 embarked after sundown, and with the long twi- 
 light were able to reach their permanent abodes 
 before well-set dark. 
 
 The people catch fish at or near their respec- 
 tive villages. The canneries each have a small 
 steambarge, which is sent to several villages 
 daily to pick up the catch. In this way the sal- 
 mon are landed at the packing-places when per- 
 fectly fresh. The Alaskan salmon is as a rule 
 small, averaging only about six pounds, while 
 " sock eye " of the Frazer River run evenly at 
 eight pounds, and the Columbia River furnishes 
 an average of nearly twenty pounds. Large 
 fish, however, were brought to our steward, also 
 magnificent halibut, which the passengers
 
 A THRIFTY WOMAN. 137 
 
 enj oyed greatly. One soon becomes satiated with 
 salmon on the Pacific Coast. It is as thoroughly 
 an every day food, as is the hog and hominy on 
 a southern plantation. Except to the Indian, it 
 does not seem to be as good for a steady diet as 
 the southerner's homely fare. Several other 
 varieties of salt water fish furnish a less surfeit- 
 ing every day food than this famous beauty. 
 We hailed with pleasure, the change to halibut 
 given us by our steward when we reached 
 Alaska. No where is this solid denizen of the 
 sea, found in better kelter than up here. 
 
 A PICTURE OF SITKA. 
 
 Our ship on the excursion stops at Seattle and 
 Port-Townsend, in Washington ; Victoria and 
 Nanaimo, on Vancouver's Island ; and at Fort 
 Wrangle, Juneau, and Sitka, in Alaska ; at each 
 long enough to afford passengers full time to 
 satisfy themselves. Juneau is the largest place 
 owing to the rich mines in the vicinity. All 
 have large canneries near by, which employ 
 natives, many of whom have acquired considera- 
 ble property. A native woman, widow to a white 
 trader, and her daughter were passengers from 
 Juneau to Chilkat. She is a sort of Merchant, 
 continuing the business of her defunct husband. 
 She bore herself most decorously in her half 
 mourning, and seemed quite able to steer her
 
 138 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 own bark through the remaining voyage of life. 
 She is reputed to be worth several thousand dol- 
 lars, and manages her affairs shrewdly. Her 
 eligibility was suggested to the late friend of 
 Persia's shah. His eyes rested more fondly 
 upon her plump daughter, who displayed much 
 agility and a trim ankle when she descended the 
 gangway in a high sea out side of Chilkat. 
 
 Sitka has one of the prettiest sites and harbors 
 in the world, and its climate just now is simply 
 delicious. It is built on slightly rising ground 
 on a bay running some miles from the sea, with 
 beautiful little islands, clustered in large num- 
 ber in front of the town. These lift with rounded 
 rocky foundations naked and water-washed at 
 low tide, but are clothed in rich green shrubbery 
 above high water mark. They would make an 
 exquisite water park for a large city. Over one 
 edge of this park lifts a few miles away, Mount 
 Edgecumbe, a perfect volcanic cone about 3,000 
 feet high. Its lower two thirds are clothed in 
 green. Its upper third, beneath its broad ex- 
 tinct crater, is of rich red rock. Long points of 
 the red run down into the green, while points of 
 the green run up into the red. It reminds one 
 much of famous Fuji-yama in Japan. The god- 
 mouiitain of Japan is over four times as high, 
 but Bdgecumbe is seen so close that the contrast 
 does not entirely belittle it.
 
 FINE SCENERY. 139 
 
 Around and behind Sitka are lofty foot 
 hills clothed in forests, making a perfect amphi- 
 theater, while behind them rear pointed, rocky 
 mountains more or less snow flecked. The 
 town is on the great island of Baranoff, which 
 is a mass of pinnacled mountains, the northern 
 slopes of which are always white with sheets 
 of snow. When we sailed, a few days before, 
 northward through Prince Frederick Sound, 
 these mountains formed a wonderfully beau- 
 tiful background. Prince Frederick Sound is 
 about twenty by thirty odd miles. All around 
 it lie grand mountains of exceeding ruggedness 
 on their highest peaks, but green' below, with 
 stripes, bands and patches of white. Through a 
 break to the south the sound stretches some 
 miles further, backed by the Baranoff range, 
 rising in innumerable sharply pointed pinnacles, 
 and about their shoulders as purely white as 
 loftiest Alpine heights. All the mountains are 
 comparatively uncovered when seen on their 
 southern, western, and eastern exposures, while 
 those seen from the north although not more 
 lofty, are clothed in blankets of white, as if to 
 protect them from the northern blasts. 
 
 The entire Alaskan trip presents a constant 
 succession of gorgeous scenery, and if the 
 weather be fine, it is worth the time taken and the 
 cost in money to one who loves the picturesque
 
 140 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 and enjoys the rugged grandeur of nature, 
 even if they were no grand glaciers. The time is 
 not far distant, when commodious hotels will be 
 maintained in these northern possessions as 
 summer resorts. Many people will then spend 
 weeks in them, and with the aid of small excur- 
 sion barges will find health and delights. 
 
 An intelligent man who has resided for several 
 years in Sitka, assured me he much preferred 
 its winter climate to that of southern Ohio, 
 where he had grown up to mature manhood. 
 The average winter climate is rather milder than 
 that of Washington, but with no extreme of 
 cold. The frequent rainy days during the sum- 
 mer are a great draw back to the pleasure of ex- 
 cursion tourists. The chances are decidedly 
 that he will find everything wet when he ar- 
 rives. Our party was one of the lucky ones. 
 The air was clear and balmy. The sun made a 
 parasol agreeable to the ladies. I lolled for an 
 hour on the stoop of a deserted house, with my 
 head in shade, but my body and lower limbs 
 warmed by a delicious sun bath, while my eyes 
 feasted upon the glorious picture spread before 
 me of mountain peak and green slopes, and 
 gently rippling water as the tide slowly crept 
 up the soft beach of the little bay behind the town. 
 
 Except when sailing across four entrances or 
 broad straits running out to the open sea, the
 
 MIRROR-LIKE SEA. 141 
 
 entire voyage to and from Alaska, usually is and 
 always may be through straits, canals, and fiords 
 so thoroughly protected from the ocean's angry 
 waters that the smallest steamer can hardly feel 
 a toss. On this excursion of ours, the briny 
 depths below us were often as smooth as glass, 
 reflecting the mountains, as from a mirror. As 
 the swell from our steamer would roll off in 
 smooth, rounded and diverging lines, they would 
 weave fantastic forms, upon their mirror like 
 surface, of green forest, rugged rocks, or snow 
 caps. Towards the land beyond the effect of the 
 swell, the mountains would often be so perfectly 
 delineated upon the mirror, that a photograph of 
 them would show them as distinctly below as 
 above. The picture could be turned upside 
 down with but little detriment to the view. Near 
 the steamer the rounded crest of the swell would 
 reflect long weird lines of forest, which would 
 spread out behind us as the swell sank to a lower 
 level. 
 
 At night millions of small fish, probably 
 herrings, would be disturbed in their schools, 
 and fluttering and hurrying from the ship's 
 prow would make the water blaze in brilliant 
 phosphorescence. Now and then a large fish 
 would dart through these schools, leaving behind 
 him a bright wake of flame. As he dashed 
 through them, the herrings would scatter their
 
 142 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 flame work into myriads of sparkling diamonds. 
 When our ship would push into the school, the 
 alarm seemed to be given to quite a distance 
 in the mass. The dense pack of little fellows 
 forward the ship's bow, would break the sea into 
 chaotic burning mass, as they sped in haste be- 
 fore the great monster chasing them. The line 
 to the right and left then bent aft, weaving 
 the sea into a waving network of fire. Farther 
 off the brightness was toned down to a glis- 
 tening shimmer, and then was lost in the 
 distance. The schools we saw were moving in 
 great lines in the direction we were sailing. 
 They were composed of millions of little finny 
 flutterers. 
 
 PANORAMA ON LAND AND WATER. 
 
 Frequently as we sailed over the placid sea, 
 little diving ducks would flap the waters in a 
 race from the ship's hull, and when a hundred 
 feet off would dive for a score or more feet, per- 
 fectly satisfied that by their dive they had hidden 
 their tracks from the mighty monster. Droves 
 of porpoise rolled about us, and now and 
 then one would race with us for a mile or so and 
 seem really to understand and enjoy the contest. 
 Asiatic crows cawed around us when we were 
 ashore most familiarly, and with the cute impu- 
 dence, so characteristic of his brethern in Eastern
 
 CROWS AND RAVENS. 143 
 
 Asia. When we landed at Muir Glacier, a 
 young school marm and I wandered along the 
 shore then bare from the receding tide, up to the 
 icy precipice. A couple of crows espied us and 
 flew about us cawing, and finally perched on a 
 rock close by. I told the fair one that these 
 birds instinctively saw that we were to be caught 
 by the incoming tide or under an ice fall, and 
 were awaiting a feast. Their cawing was so con- 
 stant, that she become superstitious, and de- 
 clared she could not stand it. I had to shy a 
 pebble at them to allay her timidity. The crow 
 is a familiar bird up here, but the raven is an 
 Alaskan institution. If I be not mistaken he is 
 held by the natives in a sort of veneration. He 
 is twice or more as large as our crow ; has a 
 huge ronian nosed beak, which occasionally 
 snaps with a report nearly as loud as the snaps 
 of a pelican's bill. His coat is of shiny, 
 burnished bottle green black, and his eye has 
 an expression queerly mixed of vacuous imbecil- 
 ity, and cunning impudent rascality. He is a 
 genuine stump speaker, and as fond of his own 
 orations as a famous eastern after dinner talker 
 is of his pretty speeches. 
 
 When we strolled in the deep shade of the 
 dense forest behind Sitka, some of these impu- 
 dent fellows settled in adjoining trees and held 
 dialogues and debates, possibly upon our human
 
 144 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 characteristics. They would harange and then 
 seem to crack coarse jokes, when one of them 
 would almost laugh in low gutturals, not unlike 
 the gurgling of water running from a two gal- 
 lon jug. A wag among us declared they were 
 making ward stump-speeches, and was willing to 
 wager that if ravens language could be under- 
 stood, we should find that some of the jokes 
 were utterly unfit for polite ears. Those we saw 
 were rather jolly good fellows, and were not of 
 the family of which one appeared to Edgar Poe 
 in his hashish dreams. 
 
 I said that the simple, beautiful scenery pre- 
 sented by the Alaskan excursion, well repays 
 the loss of time and money expended upon it. 
 Many of the mountain-flanked channels are 
 wonderfully beautiful. The Linn or Chilkat 
 Canal is surpassed by nothing of the sort we 
 have ever seen. It is about four miles wide and 
 probably 30 long. On either side tower moun- 
 tains, say 3,000 feet high, rising from the water 
 like great receding buttresses, clothed thickly 
 in forest below, with scattered copses toward the 
 upper slopes, and flecked with openings of low 
 shrubbery in pale green, artistically contrasting 
 with the dark tone of firs and spruce. All are 
 topped by rocks, those near us gray, and the 
 most distant ones of an undertone of purple, 
 while in the far distance, the mountains on
 
 TAKOU GLACIERS. 145 
 
 either shore become first blue-gray, and then 
 blend off into sweet opalescent tints. Over and 
 above all, towered at no great distance mighty 
 snow fields and glaciered heights. Crillon, Fair- 
 weather, and La Peronse to the west cut the 
 clear blue sky with their points 15,000 and 
 nearly 16,000 feet above us; mantels of clouds 
 here and there fell about their titantic shoulders, 
 and light veils of mist wound and unwound 
 about them just under their snowy pinnacles. 
 Into this glorious fiord we steamed to its head at 
 Chilkat, and then back to enter Glacier Bay, the 
 acme of Alaska's wonderful exhibitions. 
 
 Fully nine Alaskan tourists out of ten go 
 for its glaciers, which are seen in a magnitude 
 ;md grandeur inducing one to pass as scarcely 
 worthy of notice, the best of any other country 
 which is possible of approach. They are seen 
 in icy hardness on distant summits shortly after 
 passing the boundary of British Columbia. 
 They increase in frequency as one goes further 
 north, until on a clear and cloudless day one is 
 scarcely ever out of sight. The first visited by us 
 was that at the head of Takou inlet south of 
 Juiieau. It is comparatively small, less than a 
 mile wide at its foot, but running back several 
 miles. Its foot presents a perpendicular wall of 
 ice 150 to 200 feet high, rising out of water sev- 
 eral hundred feet deep. Its face is irregular;
 
 146 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 here supported by icy buttresses, and there sink- 
 ing back into icy recesses ; now with irregular 
 pilasters and projections of soft snowy appear- 
 ance and then with broken columns, recesses, 
 and caves of every tint of blue from the flitting 
 opalescent to transparent ultra-marine and deep 
 indigo. 
 
 FANTASTIC GRANDEUR OF THE GLACIERS. 
 
 Now is seen a mass of closely welded crystals 
 of diamond whiteness glistening under the kiss 
 of the sun, like monster piles of precious gems; 
 then a huge broken and fissured wall compactly 
 studded with turquoise and amethysts and gems 
 so green as to be almost emeralds forming the icy 
 cliffs. Loud reports as of rifle guns would fill 
 the ear, coming from the cracking behind of the 
 solid moving mass as it pushed onward in its 
 descent. Hark ! A rattle of musketry ! You 
 look and see a mere hat full of snowy ice tumb- 
 ling from the upper edge. As it falls it becomes 
 a cart full, a house full, and then with a report 
 as loud as that of a heavy cannon, a section of 
 the wall's face separates from the mass behind 
 and tumbles into the deep water with a splash 
 which scatters spray one or two hundred feet 
 around, and the air is filled as with the bellow- 
 ing of thunder echoed from projecting ice walls 
 and from the lofty mountains hemming in the
 
 DIVING ICE. 147 
 
 narrow inlet. The fallen mass disappears below 
 the surface. But look ! See that monster lifting 
 from the water a half hundred feet away from 
 where the tumbling ice fell ! It is a dome-like 
 pinnacle of ice. Up it rises slowly, revealing 
 the most exquisite tints as its shoulders broaden ; 
 ten feet, twenty, fifty, aye, nearly a hundred 
 feet ! For a moment it poses a solidified mass 
 of ultramarine. Sparkling waters pour in cas- 
 cades from its uplifted dome. But see ! It leans 
 a little ; it leans a little more ; and tumbles with 
 a mighty noise and sends geysers up to the 
 brink of the icy precipice and wide around for 
 several hundred feet. As its upper member or 
 crest topples over, a huge section many times 
 more bulky than the part we had seen above 
 water, lifts, and then lies stretched three or 
 more hundred feet, and exposed above the sur- 
 face nearly thirty feet. The huge mass of pos- 
 sibly a hundred thousand tons weight came only 
 to a small extent from the icy wall standing be- 
 fore and above us ; but the fissure above ex- 
 tended three or more hundred feet down into 
 the glacier below water, and rested on the 
 ground. For one end was covered with mud 
 and for many feet was deeply stained. 
 
 An officer of the ship declared this was the 
 finest exhibition of the sort he had ever seen, 
 and that the iceberg thus made and now slowly
 
 148 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 floated out by the receding tide weighed far more 
 than a hundred thousand tons. Our ship was 
 lying with its bow toward the glacier not a 
 thousand feet away. The vessel rocked and 
 reeled from stem to stern as the great waves 
 made by the glacier avalanche rolled under her. 
 We lay there two hours listening to constant re- 
 ports and seeing a succession of ice slides. 
 While so resting for the enjoyment of passen- 
 gers, the captain was laying in ice enough for 
 his next round trip. Icebergs of all sizes, from 
 those weighing only a ton up to others half as 
 big as the steamer, were floating all about us. 
 Some of crystal whiteness and as clear as the 
 lens of a telescope. Others were of every tone of 
 blue, deepening sometimes into translucent 
 olive. The most of the bergs were of delicious 
 purity, but a few were full of mud brought from 
 the bed hundreds of feet under water. In some 
 were seen good sized cobble stones ; in one a 
 boulder weighing probably a quarter of a ton. 
 Sailors in a boat picked from these masses 
 chunks of perfect clearness, passed grappling 
 ropes under them, and then hoisted them by the 
 steam derrick upon the main deck. Sometimes 
 the piece seen above water was not larger than 
 a barrel, but when lifted into full view it 
 weighed one, two or more tons. For every foot 
 of ice seen in an iceberg above water eight lie
 
 OUR ICE SUPPLY. 149 
 
 below. Thus when a berg floated close to us 
 showing thirty feet above water, it had, if of 
 even form, 240 feet below. 
 
 CLIMBING THE FAMOUS " MUIR." 
 
 Some of the passengers felt uneasy, fearing 
 another mighty tumble might occur immediately 
 in .front of us, and that the mass might shoot 
 outward below water, and might come up be- 
 neath, or uncomfortably close to us. The cap- 
 tain, however, stood upon the bridge ready to 
 send his ship rapidly backward should anything 
 look untoward. The engines were kept in 
 gentle motion holding our bow steadily toward 
 the glacier precipice. The captain, by the way, 
 thinks the Takou the most interesting of the ap- 
 proachable glaciers. The ice gathered was of 
 great solidity. It did not break under an ice pick 
 in straight cleavage, but irregularly, showing its 
 peculiar characteristic of being formed, not from 
 water simply freezing, but from snow compacted 
 under irresistible pressure. Two chunks of per- 
 haps each two tons weight lay between decks 
 supplying the entire ship's wants for four or five 
 days. It may have been imagination, but I 
 thought this ice more agreeable for eating than 
 that made by ordinary process. It was more fri- 
 able and broke and crumbled in the mouth in 
 shorter pieces and not in long spiculae as ordi- 
 nary ice does.
 
 150 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 We passed on our run close to several other 
 huge glaciers, some of them running quite down 
 to the water ; among them the " Stephens " 
 which though very large, reaches the sea in a 
 slope and not with a perpendicular precipice. 
 We, however, stopped only at the celebrated 
 " Muir." We lay in front of it from 6 a. in. to 
 2 p. m. a half hour in rather dangerous prox- 
 imity, and then anchored a mile off for pas- 
 sengers to land and climb its banks. The Muir 
 presents a precipice to the head of the inlet 
 nearly 300 feet high and over a mile long. Two 
 years ago it bent outward with a very decided 
 convex front ; last year it was nearly straight. 
 Now it is a very open horseshoe. We took 
 soundings when the Queen lay a thousand feet 
 from the front and found under us 720 feet. It 
 possibly shallows considerably close to the wall, 
 say to 400 feet. The glacier is certainly over 
 200 feet high ; this makes, with what is under 
 water, 600 feet. But give it the low estimate of 
 an average across the inlet of 400 feet. It 
 moves steadily downward forty feet a day, and 
 gradually recedes. Thus it will be found that 
 it tumbles into the sea a mass of ice, 40x5 28ox 
 400 feet, or of at least 84,000,000 cubic feet a 
 day. 
 
 After wandering for several hours over the 
 surface of the glacier, along a sort of granite
 
 CLIMBING A GLACIER. 151 
 
 road way varying in depth from a few inches up 
 to very many feet thick lying upon it ; among 
 blocks of granite weighing tons brought down 
 upon the solid frozen river ; across narrow cre- 
 vices, into whose depths we could look a hun- 
 dred feet down, into pure ice of all tints of blue 
 from the pearl blue of a southern sky to ultra- 
 marine and indigo tints so beautiful that one 
 involuntarily groaned in pleased admiration ; 
 along chasms where our iron-pointed alpenstocks 
 were necessary to prevent a slip, which would 
 have sent us down into glacial graves; looking 
 over pinnacles, domes and valleys of ice in con- 
 fused profusion; over grotesque forms, over which 
 no one person could safely go, but a dozen 
 attached to each other by ropes, with shoes iron- 
 nailed, might with hazard venture. Then up 
 and before us spread the mighty glacier, 25 
 miles by 30, fed by many smaller ones. Morains 
 of rock lifted above the surface in long even 
 lines running back for miles, showing the edge 
 of each of the frozen rivers, which have united to 
 make the mighty single one. 
 
 The theory explaining the medial moraines of 
 glaciers, is that two or more glaciers come down 
 the gorges and upper valleys of the mountain. 
 Each of these gather up broken rock and moun- 
 tain debris on their two sides. When two such 
 glaciers meet and run into and form one, then
 
 152 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 the inner lateral moraines unite and are borne 
 along by the enlarged glacier. As it flows these 
 two morains, now become " medial," are appar- 
 ently pressed upward to and upon the surface. 
 This, however, is probably only apparent, for the 
 ice melting under the summer sun's heat, simply 
 leaves the rock debris on the surface. 
 
 The Muir is the result of several upper feed- 
 ing glaciers. Each two uniting formed from 
 their inner lateral moraines, one medial. Sev- 
 eral medial ones are observable on the surface 
 of the great glacier, some of them uniting lower 
 down, when the bed of the icy stream becomes 
 contracted where the valley becomes narrow. 
 Several medial moraines retain their individual 
 line until the great precipice is reached. The 
 mass of the debris forming a moraine is of com- 
 paratively small broken granite ; not broken and 
 rounded by glacial action, but simply irregular 
 pieces thrown off from granite precipices high 
 in the mountains by frost forces. Now and then 
 a few rounded pebbles, and small boulders are 
 seen, worn on the under surface of upper glacier 
 streams. Quite a number of very large masses 
 of granite are being borne down by the Muir 
 moraines. One I estimated to weigh several 
 tons. Its cleavage sides and edges were fresh 
 and sharp as if it were just broken from its par- 
 ent rock.
 
 STRANDED ICEBERGS. 153 
 
 The medial morains on some of the glaciers 
 seen at a distance, have a singular effect. They 
 can be seen in long apparently parallel lines and 
 seemingly close enough together, to be the walls 
 of a long smooth ro'ad. A wag declared that one 
 of them was the road from an Indian village to 
 the little red school house in an upper valley. 
 
 After exploring the surface of the glacier, we 
 found that the tide having reached its ebb, we 
 could approach the foot of the ice-precipice. 
 Three of us had approached it somewhat nearly 
 before when the tide was but half out. We 
 walked up the shingly shore through stranded 
 icebergs of all sizes, and hundreds in number. 
 Some were not larger than a barrel, others 
 larger than a railroad car, and of all intermediate 
 sizes. Now we threaded our way through a cor- 
 don of huge blocks as clear as crystal, from 
 which we chipped with the spikes of our alpen- 
 stocks, chunks delicious to eat. Then we were 
 among others of various tints, colored by the 
 earthy matter caught by them when flowing 
 near to or upon the valley bed. One mass 
 weighing probably a thousand tons was resting 
 upon a point so small as to be a mere pivot. I 
 cut from it a smooth rounded cobble stone for a 
 paper weight, and w r as glad when my task was 
 finished, for I was somewhat uneasy lest the 
 slight hammering might topple over the bulky 
 mass.
 
 154 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 We reached the foot of the glacier. Here the 
 picture was wonderfully fine. The ice-precipice 
 from which so many newly broken bergs had 
 tumbled, was far more beautiful than when seen 
 from several hundred yards away. We looked 
 into grottoes many yards recessed into the frozen 
 cliff. Here in one was every shade of blue ; all 
 tints of green were resplendent in another ; and 
 then the sun would discolor these shades, and 
 weave them into the sweet tones which paint an 
 opal's cheek. Now an upper member of a newly 
 broken recess under the sun rays sparkled as 
 with million diamonds, and then another looked 
 like a mass of crystalized olive tints. From out 
 of a deep grotto at the base of the cliff flowed a 
 strong river, which had been pent within its icy 
 house, and now reaching the free air bounded 
 and rushed to join the mighty sea. 
 
 Since our arrival in the morning the tide had 
 fallen fully twenty feet, taking away considerable 
 support from the hanging mass, so that the fall 
 of icebergs was almost continuous. The thun- 
 der while so close to a tumbling mass was ter- 
 rific and sublime. The inlet was full of bergs, 
 so that the ship in turning out had to pick its 
 way carefully. How exquisitely beautiful they 
 were as they glistened in the sun's rays, dis- 
 playing their iridescent crystals! As we steamed 
 out of the inlet among a scattered ice floe we
 
 MONSTER ICEBERGS. 155 
 
 thought we had seen all that a grand glacier 
 could present. Imagine our surprise when we 
 had gone about ten miles to find ourselves at the 
 entrance to another inlet which was packed al- 
 most solidly with icebergs. With our glasses we 
 could see the huge "Pacific glacier," about thirty 
 miles away, with a precipice of ice 600 to 800 
 feet high and five miles long. Although it was 
 quite three times as far from us as the "Muir", 
 yet its icy front showed to us higher out of 
 water. The inlet running up to it was literally 
 packed w r ith ice, into which no steamer, unless 
 armored for Arctic seas, would dare to venture. 
 A passenger lately taken on, who had spent a 
 season prospecting in this immediate neighbor- 
 hood, assured us that the fall of ice from this 
 glacier was absolutely continuous, and that 
 masses would tumble a half mile long. He had 
 seen one floating three miles long. He admitted 
 he had no means of measuring it, and gave us 
 the result of a rather hasty guess. He said 
 it stranded at each low tide, but would be lifted 
 at each flood and was by degrees broken up suf- 
 ficiently to get out of the inlet. " Why," said 
 this passenger, " the Muir is a baby by the side 
 of the Pacific. For every iceberg coming 
 from the one five hundred come from the other." 
 The statement was credible, for while just above 
 this inlet the strait had only scattered bergs,
 
 156 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 below it was almost a pack of ice. The majority 
 of the icebergs, which had fallen from the Muir, 
 were melted away before reaching the mouth of 
 the Pacific inlet. Looking up this, the icebergs 
 seemed almost in solid mass; of all sizes from a 
 few feet broad, to others covering a quarter of 
 an acre ; and from a few feet in height up to 
 twenty, thirty and forty. Out side of the inlet 
 and below its mouth, monster masses were all 
 about us, some of them hundreds of feet across 
 and several fully fifty feet above water. 
 
 The George W. Elder, which sailed from Ta- 
 coma the night \e did, reached the Muir while 
 we were there and sailed out with us. We thus 
 had a genuine Arctic picture. The two ships 
 picked their way slowly, less than a mile apart. 
 The Elder was frequently hidden from us en- 
 tirely by mighty icebergs. For miles we stole 
 our way through the floe, delighted with the 
 novel scene. Two fine ships in this icy sea gave 
 us a realization of the pictures we had seen of 
 the Thetis and her comrade in the frozen pack 
 beyond the Arctic circle. Mighty Crillon, Fair- 
 weather, and La Perouse the sources of the great 
 fields of frozen snow around us here pour their 
 icy floods into the sea. The last is 14,000 feet 
 high ; the other respectively 15,900 and 15,500. 
 They present the same amount of white above 
 the snow line as does Mount Everest. That is
 
 IMMENSE GLACIERS. 157 
 
 about 12,000 feet on its southern slope. In 
 Alaska the snow line toward the south is 
 reached at 3,000 feet, while in the Himalayas the 
 tree line mounts to 17,000 feet. 
 
 When I looked upon these great icebergs 
 which had tumbled from the huge ice-cliffs we 
 had lately seen, and then recalled the fact that 
 they were but snow balls when compared to 
 some which have been sighted in far northern 
 and in southern seas some which were from 
 two to three miles square and seven to eight 
 hundred feet high above water, and nearly if not 
 quite a mile deep below the water line when I 
 recalled these facts I was lost in trying to specu- 
 late upon the vastness of the glaciers existing in 
 Greenland and in Antarctic continents. Judg- 
 ing from what we know of those about us, we 
 have to suppose there are glaciers in the world 
 two or three aye six or seven miles high above 
 water, sinking miles below the surface, and 
 stretching in awful grandeur their frozen cliffs 
 for many miles along the sea. 
 
 The Pacific glacier is from six to eight hun- 
 dred feet high at its brink, and five miles long, 
 yet among the bergs we saw and the captain 
 said he had never seen a finer display in the lo- 
 cality there were none w T hich were a half acre 
 in size and none over sixty feet high. Icebergs 
 are said to have been seen covering an area of
 
 158 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 from 2,500 to 4,000 acres, and twelve times as 
 high as the highest about us. The glacier from 
 which such monsters fell, was to the " Muir " as 
 Niagara is to a mill dam. Are the mighty snow 
 and ice mountains of the far south growing, or 
 are they melting and breaking away from their 
 moorings? If growing, when will they tumble 
 through the crust of the earth, and send a raging 
 sea over the habitable part of the globe? A guar- 
 anteed ticket for a berth in the coming Noah's 
 ark may be a handy thing to have about the 
 house. With one, the possessor could be quite 
 content to let the other fellow do the swimming. 
 
 What a grand mind picture is presented to us, 
 when we realize that glaciers once covered the 
 northern half of this continent glaciers whose 
 sources were about Baffins Bay and within the 
 Arctic circle, and whose feet stretched from the 
 Alleghanies to the Rocky mountains from 
 Pennsylvania to Colorado ! glaciers so vast that 
 they built up moraines over a thousand feet deep! 
 It is these thoughts which show us man's little- 
 ness and his vanity in boasting himself fashioned 
 in God's image. 
 
 A good clergyman we met in the National 
 Park, in all seriousness expressed a fear that the 
 enormous sky scrapers our people are erecting 
 in Chicago might destroy the equilibrium of the 
 earth, and cause it to oscillate eccentricaly upon
 
 A STIFF PARTY. 159 
 
 its axis. A conscientious Chicagoan informed 
 his reverence, that we were building our city of 
 such weight that it would counterbalance the 
 undue growth of ice mountains about the south- 
 ern pole. 
 
 CLIMATE OF THE FROZEN REGION. 
 
 We have a pleasant company aboard several 
 being from Chicago. There is less of stiffness 
 than is generally found on ocean steamers. 
 There is an amusing party of over twenty from 
 the city of brotherly love. They are all nice 
 very nice, and evidently have made a vow to hold 
 themselves aloof from all others. They sit on 
 deck in rows four deep, and follow the lead of 
 one lady as a sort of bell-wether. When she 
 smiles all laugh ; when she feels a cold in her 
 head all sneeze. 
 
 Perhaps I should say something further about 
 the climate of our frozen territory. Few things 
 are less understood. The Sitka winters are not 
 unlike those of Norfolk, Va., rarely getting 
 much below freezing. The nights there are very 
 long, as the days are in summer. The suu was 
 hot while we were there, but the shades were de- 
 licious. Three blankets were quite comfortable 
 at night. In the straits and inlets the weather 
 is not quite so mild as on the open seashore, but 
 nowhere are there severe winters until the coast
 
 160 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 mountain range is crossed. There the sun in the 
 summer days is piercing hot and mosquitoes are 
 so thick that they are almost unbearable. There 
 the long winters lock everything up in thick 
 ribbed ice. 
 
 We know that nothing can be more delight- 
 ful than what w^ found for summer. How- 
 ever, we have been fortunate. The rainfall 
 is great and rains and fogs frequent. We have 
 escaped both. Warm clothing, umbrellas, water- 
 proofs, and water-tight shoes are recommended 
 by those who advise how to go to Alaska. We 
 have needed neither except the shoes when 
 climbing the glacier. We have worn overcoats 
 aboard ship when the wind was against us, for 
 a slight breeze and the wind made by the speed 
 of the ship causes a decided chilliness when on 
 deck. When the ship is lying still we have re- 
 quired no extra clothing. 
 
 We expect to reach Nanaimo early to-morrow 
 morning where the ship will coal. I hope we 
 will be in early enough for myself and daughter 
 to catch the little steamer running to Vancouver. 
 
 Before closing, however, permit me to give 
 one of the most valuable points in the art of 
 traveling. When you leave home drop its cares 
 entirely and trustfully. Let your friends write 
 nothing 'about your business unless it be such as 
 they know should hurry you back and for that
 
 GOOD ADVICE. l6l 
 
 intended. Look on the bright side of everything 
 before you, and do not complain because you 
 have not the comforts of your home. Profitable 
 travel is often laborious, and like all well ap- 
 plied labor, pays. As a young man I spent two 
 years abroad and heard not a word as to my affairs. 
 Since then I have made three trips to Europe 
 and a long one around the world. Not a word 
 on either of them did I hear of my business. 
 Once a month during a Globe Circuit we received 
 a cablegram telling us of the health of the loved 
 ones at home. 
 
 To this policy I have ascribed the happiness 
 and much of the benefits received. People we 
 met in various quarters of the world looked 
 regularly for and got advices on their affairs 
 and were often uneasy and miserable, but 
 were powerless to correct anything going wrong. 
 Passengers on this ship are fretting about letters 
 they expect to get at Victoria. I have heard 
 nothing for a month and expect nothing until I 
 wire home. If one keeps himself hopeful he 
 can adopt as his traveling motto, " No news is 
 good news." Try this and you will confess you 
 owe me a good fee for sound advice.
 
 LETTER VIII. 
 
 VANCOUVER. A PICTURESQUE, GROWING CITY. 
 A RUN OVER THE CANADIAN PACIFIC. MAG- 
 NIFICENT SCENERY MET WITH FROM THE 
 START. A GLORIOUS RIDE. FRASER RIVER 
 GLUTTED WITH SALMON. A NEVER-TIRING 
 VIEW FROM GLACIER HOUSE, FOUR THOUSAND 
 FEET ABOVE THE SEA. RUGGED, PRECIPITOUS 
 GRANDEUR OF THE SELKIRKS AND ROCKIES. 
 
 NATURAL BEAUTIES OF BANFF. REFLECTIONS 
 AT THE " SOO." 
 
 CANADIAN PACIFIC STEAMER ALBERTA, 
 AT SAULT STE. MARIE, Aug. 23, '90. 
 
 Three years ago I wrote quite largely on a 
 trip over the Canadian Pacific Railway, running 
 from east to west. Perhaps by now writing of it 
 beginning at the western terminus, an appear- 
 ance of plagiarism upon myself may be avoided. 
 It is so grand a road, however, and the magnifi- 
 cence and variety of scenery offered by it to the 
 traveler are so great, that considerable repetition 
 may be permissible, especially as the probabili- 
 ties are that only a few ever read or now remem- 
 bers what I said before. 
 
 My Alaskan letter was ended at Nanaimo. A 
 sail of three hours on a little steamer owned in 
 New Zealand and lately brought from Bombay 
 brought us to Vancouver. It seemed some- 
 
 162
 
 WRECK OF THE BEAVER. 163 
 
 what singular that we should be voyaging on a 
 short local run in North-west America on a small 
 steamer owned and lately doing service in a land 
 so far away, and that land, too, one which we are 
 prone to regard as our ultima thule, whose in- 
 habitants are but one degree removed from the 
 ragged edge of savagery. The world has so rap- 
 idly progressed since many of us studied geogra- 
 phy, that we have scarcely been able to keep 
 pace with its strides. We have to pause and 
 think to be able to realize that New Zealand is 
 no longer the land of savages, but is populated 
 by a highly cultivated and energetic people, and 
 abounds in splendid cities. 
 
 Before reaching Vancouver we saw high on 
 the rocks the hull of the old steamer " Beaver". 
 It was the first steamer to cross the broad Pacific 
 brought here long ago by the Hudson Bay com- 
 pany from Bombay. It was wrecked only last 
 year, but is already in this humid climate green 
 with moss and ocean weed. 
 
 Vancouver has grown marvelously. Five years 
 since its site was covered by a forest of enormous 
 cedars and firs. Three years ago when I visited 
 there, it had only seven or eight hundred popu- 
 lation. Now it boasts having about 15,000. It 
 has well graded streets, a few of them paved and 
 several well planked ; fine water brought in from 
 a distance ; blocks of handsome stone houses
 
 164 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 and office buildings ; commodious and elegant 
 hotels, and many handsome residences. If I be 
 not mistaken I suggested it three years ago as 
 a good place for safe speculation. Had it not 
 been for the long voyage then before me I should 
 have dropped a thousand or two into its lots, 
 and would have been considerably richer by the 
 venture. 
 
 High mountains of picturesque contours al- 
 most surround the city. It is a sad fact that at 
 this season of the year a dense shroud of smoke 
 usually envelopes the bulk of the uplands. 
 Fortunately a copious rain cleared up the at- 
 mosphere just before our arrival. We passed 
 through the town three years ago twice, and af- 
 terwards lay at its pier three days, while our 
 ship was getting ready to sail for Japan ; and all 
 the while supposed the place was a great forest 
 plain, until the morning of our departure, when 
 a rain washed down the smoke and revealed 
 magnificent mountain scenery close about us. 
 
 To one taking the train at Vancouver for the 
 East, fine scenery faces him as he emerges from 
 the station and then continues to greet the eye, 
 varying and growing for the next 600 miles, 
 never once tame, often beautiful or grand and 
 sublime, and frequently terrible. It changes 
 rapidly and as unexpectedly as the pictures 
 presented by a revolving kaleidoscope. Lofty
 
 FRASER RIVER. 165 
 
 mountains, lifted up in rounded forms of granite, 
 gneiss and other igneous rocks, massive and 
 grand, like mighty boulders welded together, 
 with monster trees in the valley below, and tall 
 and straight ones high above wherever a ledge 
 or a fissure affords their hardy roots chance to 
 take hold, flank the road for the first ninety 
 miles. On the north side of the Frazer River, 
 whose broad white stream is soon reached, and 
 which for the first 90 miles runs from East to 
 West, these mountains arise immediately from 
 the road. Across the river to the south more or 
 less removed, from one to several miles, they 
 show themselves in all their solid grandeur. 
 
 Rounded boulder shaped mountains of granite 
 or igneous rocks are to me far more impressive 
 than much taller ones of other formations. One 
 feels that they are solid, and are welded to the 
 central foundations of earth ; that they were the 
 offsprings of primal overpowering heat, while 
 the others are made up of tiny particles of dis- 
 integrated igneous stone, loosely thrown together 
 by glacial moraines or dropped at ocean's bot- 
 tom, and after eons of time compressed into 
 hardness. Their walls were uplifted by the pres- 
 sure from below of belching granite, or were 
 crumbled together by the cramped earth, and 
 their points, pinnacles, and needless were fash- 
 ioned by rains and slow chemical processes.
 
 i66 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 
 
 They are the offspring of other than their own 
 power and are shaped by puny causes acting 
 through untold ages. The rounded granite moun- 
 tains, however, lifted themselves and rushed 
 forth from the seat of earth's central fires, 
 moved by their own inherent forces. 
 
 One feels that mountains of secondary rocks are 
 a mass of tiny things thrown aloft as the creation 
 of other than their own powers. They may tower 
 far above the snow line, and may pierce the vaulted 
 sky with their sharp needles and tooth like pin- 
 nacles in the silent regions of eternal ice ; but 
 we know that their loftiest horns once lay be- 
 neath the ocean's wave, and after being hoisted 
 as an impotent mass, have been cut and fash- 
 ioned into sharpness by the gnawing tooth of 
 frost. We know that they were borne up upon 
 the breast of boiling, seething primitive rocks, 
 and that they now rest upon the shoulders of 
 granite titans. We know that they are crumb- 
 ling day by day, and are being borne away upon 
 pigmy streams into ocean depths. They are 
 perishable and are perishing. 
 
 But yonder rounded form whose smooth head 
 barely reaches the clouds, has its foundations 
 welded by inconceivably fierce fires ; fires kin- 
 dled when this earth was rounded by the will of 
 God from a formless void welded to the very 
 base and heart of the globe. It rose upon the
 
 A GRAND CANYON. 167 
 
 crest of a molten sea, rending and tearing away 
 everything its way, and now in adamantine cold- 
 ness, seems the fit emblem of eternal duration. 
 
 One may be terrified by the pinnacled mon- 
 ster, but I am awed by the rounded giant. 
 
 The Canadian Pacific road furnishes observation 
 cars through its grand mountain scenery, from 
 a point some sixty miles from Vancouver to and 
 into the plains east of the Rockies or for six 
 hundred miles. This thoughtful provision 
 should be imitated by all railroads traversing 
 fine scenery. 
 
 A GRAND CANYON. 
 
 About ninety miles from Vancouver the milky 
 Fraser rushes from the canyon which has held 
 it in a close embrace for a hundred miles ; from 
 a chasm where the mountains have been split 
 asunder, and now tower two or more thousand 
 feet high, their feet washed in the turbulent 
 stream, their heads cutting the sky in pictur- 
 esque lines. The mountains along the canyon 
 are all of inetainorphic rock, splintered and 
 shivered by too rapid cooling. In the course of 
 some millions of years they have been washed 
 down, so that what were once perpendicular 
 walls have become precipitous heights, with 
 every ledge and projection and all slopes which 
 can hold soil, covered by dark green conifirae,
 
 i68 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 and now and then by light green patches of de- 
 ciduous shrubbery and small hardwood trees. 
 Down toward the water the rocks are harder, 
 and through it the river cuts its way between 
 walls fiom fifty to one or more hundred feet 
 high. These walls have defied the flood, and 
 the river bends and winds through narrow fis- 
 sures fifty to eighty feet wide, along which 
 the white fluid rushes, almost with cascade force. 
 Many of the projecting points and buttresses 
 are grotesque and picturesque in the extreme. 
 
 For many miles along the canyon an old 
 government stage road hangs on escarped walls 
 or dips down to the waters. At one point, 
 at a height of a thousand feet, it almost hangs 
 over the gorge, serving now but one purpose, to 
 make lady tourists exclaim upon the cruelty of 
 making even gold seekers so risk themselves as 
 did the passengers of stage coaches a score or so 
 years ago. I said the old road almost hangs 
 over the gorge. In fact it does frequently en- 
 tirely hang. For it was timbered out so that 
 while one wheel might be over solid rock, the 
 other would be upon wooden sills from which a 
 pebble could be dropped a hundred feet or more 
 below. The stage road cost a vast sum, and is 
 now among the many exhibitions of the destruc- 
 tiveness of capital as it works out new improve- 
 ments. Every valuable creation of capital
 
 A RIVER FULL OF SALMON. 169 
 
 wrecks all others whose place it takes. The older 
 ones have performed their tasks, and now be- 
 come comparatively useless. 
 
 A RIVER BLACK WITH FISH. 
 
 We had remarkably visible evidences of the 
 strange and irresistible instinct of the salmon to 
 climb steep waters from the sea. For many 
 miles the Fraser runs or rather rushes with 
 great speed. Below every projecting rock there 
 is an eddy more or less large. In these eddies 
 salmon were congregated by the thousands, 
 showing their black backs and fins an inch or 
 two above the surface. These little swirling 
 pools are generally many feet deep, and the finny 
 voyagers must have been piled several deep one 
 on the other. Over one crystal stream running 
 into the river the road passes on a short bridge. 
 In a pool in this creek, say twenty by fifty feet, 
 the fish were so thickly packed that a man could 
 almost have walked dry shod across the stream 
 on salmon backs. In the ascent of the fish they 
 fail often to overcome the rapid current and stop 
 to rest in the eddies. I do not think I exagger- 
 ate in saying we saw hundreds of thousands, 
 possibly millions, in a part of our run not ex- 
 ceeding thirty or forty miles. The fish looked 
 small to us, for only a few inches of their backs 
 could be seen. A fellow passenger, however,
 
 170 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 assured us that such as we saw ran from six to 
 nine pounds. They were the sock-eye salmon, 
 the fattest and best variety for canning. We saw 
 no Indians fishing as there were three years ago. 
 Their stock is already laid in and stored away 
 in caches built upon high posts or up among the 
 branches of spreading trees. 
 
 A hundred and eighty thousand fish averaging 
 about eight pounds weight were caught in one 
 day last week at New Westminster. A gentle- 
 man of the locality told us that now was but the 
 beginning of the running season, and in three 
 weeks there would be a hundred thousand where 
 there was one now. A scientist was probably 
 not mistaken when he asserted that the water of 
 the world could produce more food for man, acre 
 for acre, than the land. I fear the canneries are 
 causing too many to be killed now. 
 
 An unitiated person would have thought that 
 great sport could be had just now on the Fraser 
 with rod and line. In this, had he made the ex- 
 periment, he would have been grievously mis- 
 taken. The salmon when on the run never rise 
 to the fly or takes any food. They start from 
 the ocean very fat and live on their fat until the 
 spawning season is over, by which time they be- 
 come so lean as to be scarcely edible. Indeed, 
 the great bulk of them die of injuries suffered 
 on their upward run or of starvation. Thousands
 
 NATURE'S QUEER WAYS. 171 
 
 are seen floating later in the season down 
 the upper streams, bruised, torn and emaciated. 
 The people out here have the impression that a 
 salmon never feeds again after leaving the sea 
 in its spawning journey, and that none of the 
 vast millions which commence the voyage ever 
 return. They spawn and die. This fish will 
 spawn in a few weeks in the clear brooks and 
 streams high up among the mountains. The 
 eggs lie dormant until the warmth of next 
 years' sun hatches them out. The small fry 
 has then the clear water to commence its life in. 
 It feeds, grows and runs down to the sea there- 
 after to do and die as its progenitors have been 
 doing since the race began. 
 
 Nature's ways are very queer, and it seems to 
 permit more inconceivable things to be done by 
 its creatures beneath the water than upon the 
 land. A fish disporting itself in a limpid 
 stream or gently propelling itself deep down in 
 the transparent sea, appears to be absolutely en- 
 joying existence to be reveling in his "dolce far 
 niente," and yet it would seem that the whole 
 finny family is spawned to bear the whips and 
 spurs of most cruel fate. From the instant a 
 little fellow emerges from the egg up to his ful- 
 lest growth, he is always on the ragged edge of 
 some bigger fish's maw. He climbs with inten- 
 sest labor the rushing stream from the instinct
 
 172 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 of procreation, and then begins to die from slow 
 inanition the cruelest of deaths. Experiment 
 has shown that the fish learns nothing by study 
 everything is from instinct ; that he has no 
 sense whatever. Lucky fish : for surely to him 
 ignorance is bliss. 
 
 TWO HUNDRED MILES ON A COWCATCHER. 
 
 Three }^ears ago I rode along a part of Thomp- 
 son Canyon and down the whole of Fraser into 
 Vancouver, some 200 miles, on the cowcatcher. 
 It is the most delightful of all railroad running. 
 We are ahead of the train. We seem not to be 
 on wheels, but simply to be gliding along the 
 iron way, propelled by an invisible impulse. 
 There is no jar, no dust nor cinders. Over 
 trestles a hundred feet high of frail and creak- 
 ing timbers we rush without the least uneasiness 
 or anxiety, for the machine and train being be- 
 hind us and unseen we do not realize that hun- 
 dreds of tons are being whirled over the frail 
 bridge-work, and forget that there is anything 
 heavier upon them than our own weight ; onward 
 we slide ; a turn brings us face to face with a 
 mighty precipice; we are rushing headlong 
 against the rocky barrier when a sudden bend 
 around a jutting point, reveals before us a hole 
 in the rocky mass; into it we are shot into 
 the dark ; a roar is- heard behind us as if a thousand
 
 MOUNTAINS AND TUNNELS. 173 
 
 demons are after us in full chase; a glimmer 
 of light steals along the iron ribbons before 
 us, and then we burst into the broad day with a 
 new and beautiful scene pictured for our delight; 
 down below us rushes the river through deep 
 fissures between the rocky walls ; high above us 
 lift mountains cutting the sky with bands of 
 snow along the upper heights ; past Indian ham- 
 lets, near which sits a squaw or two and lounges 
 a lazy buck, while their children look at us as 
 we fly along in indolent carelessness. Tunnel 
 after tunnel, about thirty in all, swallow and 
 then throw us forth. Once on the Thompson, 
 the iron ribbons ahead rest one on the ground, 
 the other on timbers projecting over a precipice. 
 Over it we glide. Fifteen hundred feet below 
 runs the silvery stream, so nearly under us that 
 we think we could pitch a penny into it. But 
 so lightly do we skim along that we feel no 
 tremor. Ah ! mine was a beautiful ride. It was 
 three years ago, but as I looked at the same road 
 as we passed along it a few days ago, the whole 
 picture came back to me, and I feel sure the 
 memory of it wiH live with me while I live. 
 
 Up the Thompson we came now, and saw 
 some beautiful valley farms early at daybreak, 
 with bright wheat fields, cozy homes, and sleek- 
 looking stock. The mountains above were 
 mighty uplifted long mounds, not rocky, broken
 
 174 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 nor peaked. Pines were scattered over them as 
 if they were planted in upland parks isolated 
 trees, just enough to make parks bright, while 
 over the ground was spread a carpet of velvet 
 of a brownish drab. This effect was from the 
 low bunch grass, now dried into hay. This grass 
 is short, but sustains all winter through cattle 
 in oily fat. The Thompson finally came up to 
 a level with us, and was a clear and dignified 
 river, making the meadows green. After a 
 while it broadened into a great lake the 
 " Shuswap " along whose pebbly shore, under 
 great sloping mountains, we ran for over a third 
 of a hundred miles. The Shuswap is an irreg- 
 ular sheet with long arms. No where is it 
 much if any over a mile wide. High mountains 
 lift from the water and mount upward in gentle 
 slopes, well wooded. In a few places there are 
 tiny plains at their feet. On these are the wig- 
 wams of the Shuswap tribe of Indians. 
 
 Leaving this beautiful sheet we entered a 
 range of mountains lofty and grand, with now 
 and then a shoulder mantled with snow. Three 
 years ago this range was all green with noble 
 trees ; now, as far as we could see, the fire fiend 
 has done its work, leaving forests of tall trunks 
 in gray, with a fresh undergrowth beginning to 
 spring. Even yet, however, the Gold Mountains 
 are a noble range.
 
 A PICTURE OF MOUNTAIN SCENERY. 175 
 
 It would seem we had seen enough of the 
 grand. But wait. We reach a broad flowing 
 river coming from the north. It is white with 
 detritus ground from the eternal ribs of earth by 
 the irresistible march of glaciers. It is our 
 own Columbia, which has been paying hei 
 Majesty's American land a short visit before it 
 sweeps with majesty towards the Pacific. We 
 cross this and enter upon a wealth of mountain 
 scenery, which belittles what we have passed 
 through, though we thought it so fine. High to 
 the right lifts a monarch capped with snow. 
 High to our left is a huge pair of twins, the 
 double head of a monster. 
 
 Our iron horse pants along a rushing river cut- 
 ting with foaming torrent through chasms so nar- 
 row that the father of our land could have leaped 
 across them in the spring-tide of his manhood. Up, 
 up we climb, twenty-eight hundred feet in less than 
 fifty miles. The river along which we climb is 
 always lashing itself into creamy foam ; now in 
 rushing rapids, then in a succession of leaps one 
 after the other, as if in mad frolic ; now almost 
 throwing its spray into our faces ; then two or 
 three hundred feet down in rocky canyons, and at 
 one place through a notched and jagged cleft in 
 the rock, over two hundred feet deep, and only 
 twenty-five feet wide at the top. This is the 
 Albert Canyon. Mountains tower over us, pile
 
 176 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 upon pile, thickly tree clad below, but to a larger 
 extent gray with lofty trunks all dead and bare 
 from forest fires. I do not know but these fires 
 have been a friend to the tourist. For his vision 
 is widened. 
 
 When I was there three years since, there 
 had been in the Selkirks but few destruct- 
 ive fires. The forests were so dense that we 
 often lost fine bits of view, which are now free 
 to us. We look aloft and see great snow-fields, 
 glimmering through openings between the 
 mountains nearest us. We put our glasses up 
 and catch the green tints in furrowed snow 
 masses which tell us we are looking at glaciers. 
 Up ! up ! The mountains become higher and 
 the precipices bolder and the torrent at our feet 
 more fierce and foaming. We halt for a moment 
 at Illecillewact, said to be a rich mining camp. 
 Far over us thousands feet, on the side of the 
 mountain, so steep that it seems to us a sheer 
 precipice, we see what looks like a mere burrow 
 for a wild animal. Men are delving through it 
 in quest of silver ore. 
 
 After a while we see what appears to be an- 
 other railroad coming down the mountain side 
 parallel to ours, and a couple of hundred feet 
 above us. A wise one smiles and tells us it is 
 our own road which here makes a letter " S " a 
 loop almost doubling upon itself, and a large
 
 A CROOKED ROAD. 177 
 
 part of it on winding trestles. The trestles 
 creak and groan beneath us, but we bend around 
 and back upon them, and soon our whistle 
 screams. A quick turn around a spur reveals a 
 frozen stream bending over a lofty mountain 
 brow, like a curtain of white with irregular 
 streaks of pale green, and sending its foot almost 
 down to our level. But bend your head back. 
 Far up over us is Sir Donald piercing the sky ; 
 a sharp pointed three-faced rock lifting over 
 11,500 feet, under whose shadow we will halt at 
 Glacier House, over 4,000 feet, above the sea, 
 while the pointed peak above us, all rock, stands 
 about a mile and a half higher and so close that 
 one would think a man on its pinnacle could al- 
 most throw a stone to the platform on which 
 stands the pretty hotel. 
 
 We stop a day here. I spent three or four 
 days there three years ago and would never pass 
 it without a few hours' pause. Few spots on 
 earth afford a sublimer picture than is seen from 
 Glacier House in the Selkirks. It is a vast aud- 
 itorium; stage and audience-hall, not a half mile 
 wide, with lofty mountains stretching along either 
 side six or seven miles all covered by noble 
 trees below and snow sheeted above. Sir Donald 
 cold and rocky, is on one side, glaciered heights 
 on the other.
 
 178 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 HEMMED IN BY ROCKY HEIGHTS. 
 
 A mighty glacier hangs down like a snowy 
 drop curtain over the rear of the auditorium, 
 while a straight line of mountain heights en- 
 closes the stage. This line is jagged and toothed 
 on its crest, with lofty glaciers glistening under 
 the pinnacles. Sitting on the platform in front 
 of the pretty station hotel just before sunset, 
 watching the sunlight climb the rocky heights 
 eastward, while those to the west were sinking into 
 grayness, and then a little later as the daylight 
 dodges into twilight and all becomes first a 
 mellow gray, cold and repellent, except over the 
 snow, which seems to emit a light all its own 
 sitting thus one sees a picture equaled in few 
 spots of the world. 
 
 The entire scene is enclosed by mountains, as 
 in a great oblong pit with corners rounded off, 
 no outlet being apparent. The mountains seem 
 to close in upon the glorious picture. It should 
 be seen j list before and after sunset and until the 
 lessening twilight is swallowed up, and then in 
 the morning, when the grayness high above seems 
 crystallized. The very light encircling the peaks 
 seem frozen until a sun ray kisses Sir Donald's 
 peak. The cold rocks then catch a yellow glow 
 and the snows below ere long are tinted with pink. 
 Three years ago I looked at it morning and evening
 
 SELKIRKS AND ROCKIES. 179 
 
 for three or four days, and on this trip one morn- 
 ing and evening. 
 
 A short run brings the Eastward bound trav- 
 eler to Rogers pass, one of the ruggedest ever 
 traversed by railroad. Lofty rocky mountains are 
 all around with cold glaciers hanging near their 
 crests. 
 
 The drop down to the eastward from the sum- 
 mit of the Selkirk Mountains to the western edge 
 of the Rockies is all the way grand. We again 
 cross the Columbia, which runs north skirt- 
 ing the Selkirk range, and flows again south- 
 ward past the point crossed by us two days be- 
 fore and seventy miles back but a hundred and 
 twenty five around. Then for some miles we 
 look upon these two mighty ranges, one on our 
 right and the other on our left. Both are lofty, 
 broken, and pinnacled, and snow clothes many 
 summits of each, yet they are strangely unlike 
 each other as much so as if belonging to widely 
 distant regions. 
 
 As we ran up the Columbia the day grew hot, un- 
 til at Golden it was absolutely sweltering. We had 
 felt nothing like it for nearly a month. We were 
 glad to quit the Columbia and enter a mighty gorge 
 cooled by the sprays from the Kicking Horse, a 
 wildly rushing river coming down from the sum- 
 mit of the Rockies. Up this foaming torrent, 
 between lofty mountains, along gorges barely wide
 
 180 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 enough to permit the river to leap between, the 
 road cuts its way in galleries of rocks ; through 
 tunnels now on one side of the river, then on the 
 other, and enters and winds high up a broad 
 valley between great mountains stretching north 
 and south. It would seem the climb was ended, 
 but not so. We have to take some fifteen or 
 more miles among the loftiest mountains of the 
 great backbone of the continent, looking up ever 
 at gray rocks piercing the sky 6,000 to 8,000 feet 
 almost sheer over us ; looking down into narrow 
 valleys or rather gorges 1,000 and 2,000 feet 
 below us. Almost overwhelmed by nature's 
 grandeur, we climb, while a great engine puffs 
 and groans before us, and another pants and 
 wheezes pushing behind. Even with these two 
 great iron horses, tugging behind and before, 
 we make not much more speed than a rapid pe- 
 destrian could walk were he on the level. We 
 are climbing a grade of about 200 feet in the 
 mile. 
 
 SILVER LADEN MT. STEPHEN. 
 
 But see that line of timbering hugging the face 
 of Mt. Stephen. A prospector from across the 
 mighty gorge saw with his glass a quartz vein on 
 Stephen. By perilous climbing along ledges he 
 visited it, to find a rich ledge of silver ore. Yon- 
 der long gallery carved out of the rock's face is
 
 SILVER MINES. l8l 
 
 for miners to go to the vein to bore into the 
 mountain's heart or wherever the vein leads 
 them. They would tunnel through the fiery 
 walls of Hades if pure free silver were floating 
 on the top of the Devil's soup boiler. 
 
 I wonder if those fellows up in yonder gallery 
 ever pause to take in the grandeur of the scenery 
 thrown about them. The mighty Giver of Good 
 heaped up those piles of grandeur and beauty. 
 The preachers intimate that the imp of darkness 
 tempts us poor mortals with gold and silver. Be- 
 lieving as they do in the existence of a personal 
 devil outside of man's nature, they should bow 
 down and beg him to be good natured until their 
 race be safe. They are powerless to hurt him. 
 Luther'sbible hitempty air; to abuse the devilonly 
 makes one's throat sore, and some people really 
 grow savage in their denunciation of Old Nick. 
 I once met a really good, pious woman who 
 hated bad words, but did not disdain to utter 
 real cuss words when denouncing his Satanic 
 Majesty. The Arab tribe call Satan the name- 
 less one. Some preachers should follow suit. 
 Abusing the devil has been done for countless 
 ages, and to all appearances the old knave has 
 as much power as when he poured sweet poison 
 into Mother Eve's too willing ears. Poor thing ! 
 She was not used to apples, and a golden pippin 
 was tempting. In these latter days it takes
 
 182 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 apples of real gold to win a woman, at least among 
 the " four hundred." But my eye ! a shower of 
 such fruit can twine her plump arms about the 
 devil's neck even when blue blazes are pouring 
 from his benzine distilling lungs. But, pshaw ! 
 What a disposition a pious man has to preach. 
 I must quit it. 
 
 It is hard to determine which affords the 
 grandest scenery, the Selkirks or the Rockies. 
 On a first run on this road probably nine out of 
 ten would say the former, but the second or the 
 third trip would put the latter fully up. They 
 are of as different types as if separated by a 
 continent. Both are broken, notched and peaked, 
 yet they affect the beholder differently. The 
 Selkirks are grand and terrible, the Rockies 
 majestic and gloomy. 
 
 The Illiclliwact (Indian for rapid water) and 
 the Kicking Horse, the two rivers which rush 
 from the two ranges westward the former 
 into the Columbia at Revelstoke, the other 
 into the same river a hundred and odd 
 miles above at Golden are somewhat different 
 types of torrent rivers. The Kicking Horse on 
 the summit at Hector, springs from a deep, dark, 
 but calm lake a mile above the sea. A mile or 
 so eastward, and a half a dozen feet higher at 
 the actual summit, is a shallow little lake, or 
 rather a system of short, deep morasses. A
 
 BANFF. 183 
 
 mild wind from the west would take their waters 
 into the Bow River, which flows into the Sas- 
 katchewan, then through Lake Winnipeg and 
 on to Hudson Bay, while a breeze from the East 
 carries a part of their currents into the grand 
 Columbia and then into the mighty Pacific. 
 
 How like the fate of men ! A shower or a cloud 
 of dust sent a mighty one to pine on a bleak isle 
 in a far-off sea, and made another moderate man 
 the idol of a nation and its chosen Nestor. An 
 invisible line with a name separated the birth- 
 places of two men, and this simple separation 
 made one of them the leader of a lost cause but 
 the idol of millions, and the other the victorious 
 hero whom history may call the savior of a na- 
 tion. In our every-day life in modest places, we 
 see the most trivial circumstances, mere straws, 
 turning the fortunes of nearly all whom we have 
 known intimately. It would probably amaze 
 most people to find how small the thing was 
 which sent them to high fortune, or led their feet 
 into paths of mediocrity or on the road to adver- 
 sity. 
 
 A run from nine to ten hours from Glacier, 
 always through grand and majestic scenery and 
 often among terrible and gloomy heights and 
 gorges, brought us to Banff, near the western 
 slope of the Rockies. Shortly after leaving 
 Vancouver, we had mounted the observation car,
 
 184 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 and continued on one of them except at night, until 
 well into the great plains east of the mountains. 
 This system adds greatly to the pleasure of pass- 
 ing through fine scenery. 
 
 PANORAMIC BEAUTIES OF BANFF. 
 
 Banff is by many considered the gem of this 
 great road, because of its beautiful location and 
 also because of its warm and hot mineral springs. 
 The Canadian Pacific company has erected here 
 the most elegant and best appointed hotel which 
 can be found in a wild mountainous region prob- 
 ably in the world. Indeed it will compare favor- 
 ably with the best hostelries in the neighbor- 
 hood of large cities. 
 
 Here in a wild basin of the mighty backbone of 
 the continent, 2,300 miles from Montreal, nearly 
 1,000 from Winnipeg, and 6co from Vancouver, 
 with no populous or productive lands contiguous, 
 but surrounded by nature's boldest and roughest 
 works, in which are the haunts of wild beasts 
 here one finds all the elegances and comforts of 
 a city's suburbs; all of the delicacies and luxuries 
 of a city hotel, coupled with the hygiene of a sani- 
 tarium, the ozone and bracing atmosphere of a 
 lofty altitude, and the glorious scenery of a 
 mountain fastness. The house is architecturally 
 very fine and all its appointments are first class. 
 It has a French Chef presiding over the kitchen,
 
 PICTURESQUE SCENERY. 185 
 
 who sends to the table dishes to satisfy an epi- 
 cure. The house and grounds are lighted by 
 electricity which adds greatly to the beauty of 
 the place at night. In the drawing rooms, sur- 
 rounded by costly furniture, one can listen to 
 music from a superb piano, and in the dining 
 saloon can satisfy the most voracious or the most 
 epicurean taste. 
 
 One can loiter lazily around the broad piazzas 
 girdling the great hotel, and let vision lose itself 
 among lofty, rocky, grotesque mountains, or sit 
 in graceful Kiosk observatories overlooking a 
 bold river tumbling near by in a furious cascade. 
 One can watch the limpid, green waters of a 
 large mountain stream meeting and unwillingly 
 mingling with those of a milk-white, glacier-fed 
 river, just below the vortex under the cascade. 
 One can wander in pretty pine woods on gentle 
 slopes; can drive or ride along well-graveled 
 roads through the National Park, now along 
 limpid streams, then on winding curves or 
 mounting by zig-zag bold rocky heights; can 
 bathe in porcelain tubs filled by hot mineral 
 waters just from plutonic laboratories far below 
 the mountain's foundations, and then sweat in 
 soft blankets almost as white as snow, or can by 
 a tunnel through lava rocks reach a grotto or. 
 cave scooped out by agencies of hot water a 
 veritable gothic room in the rock, lighted dimly
 
 186 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 from a small aperture in the apex. Here in this 
 gem of a natatorium one can swim in water above 
 blood heat, five feet deep and twenty-five from 
 rirn to rim. When satiated with his warm bath 
 in this glorious pool, he can mount a great sta- 
 lagmite on one side a stalagmite resembling a 
 huge mushroom and a shower of cool water 
 from a natural spring tumbles from above upon 
 him, or he can stand waist deep in the warm em- 
 brace of the fluid while the cool sprays fall upon 
 his head and shoulders. 
 
 If one prefers an outdoor swim he can splash in 
 asulphur spring forty feet across, of Nature's fash- 
 ioning, while bubbling through sands at his feet 
 water heated to 95 degrees rises and lures him to 
 swimming depth. If he prefer a real genuine swim 
 he finds it near thebackdoorof the hotel in a tank a 
 hundred feet long, in fresh cold water with the 
 air barely taken off. In his room he has a soft 
 bed to sleep upon, surrounded by tasty furni- 
 ture, and eats in a large dining room attended by 
 silent waiters, and provided with fruits, wines 
 and viands fit to satisfy the most fastidious. 
 
 Close under the hotel an angler now and then 
 catches a trout of over a pound weight, and in a 
 lake a few miles off in the park is rewarded with 
 speckled fellows of fine size, and with lake trout 
 not infrequently running up to forty pounds. I 
 met at Glacier Mr. E. S. P., of Chicago, with his
 
 MOUNTAIN PALACES. 187 
 
 family going west. He caught a fine lot of fish 
 in Devil's Lake near Banff, one a lake trout 
 weighing thirty-six pounds. There are few 
 mountain resorts offering so many natural at- 
 tractions as this Rocky Mountain hot spring. 
 
 The mountains around are nearly all built of 
 horizontal stratified rocks. Some of them present 
 curious resemblances. One is a mighty palace of 
 several stories each upper one recedingbackfrom 
 the one below. It reminds me much of old orien- 
 tal palaces visited when we were making our race 
 with the sun. This palace-like appearance is, 
 however, lost upon the majority of tourists, be- 
 cause one end of the mountain presents the like- 
 ness of a huge templar warrior reclining in 
 miles of stature. This picture is so grotesque, 
 that the other passes unobserved. 
 
 I cannot recall anywhere else in the world, a 
 group of mountains, whose rocks are so distinctly 
 horizontal in their beds, as those in this part of the 
 Rockies. They look as if there had once been a 
 vast upland plateau, which had been partly 
 abraded and washed away, leaving lofty moun- 
 tains more or less snow covered throughout the 
 year, and many of them always clothed* in 
 mantles of white. The wear of countless eons 
 of rains and frosts have made deep valleys and 
 gorges and the beds of beautiful rivers, and 
 rushing torrents, leaving the slopes of the
 
 i88 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 mountains generally not too steep to afford foot- 
 ing for thick forests or for bands and copses of 
 firs and pines. Now and then the mountains 
 are so broken down as to present mighty preci- 
 pices clean cut cleavages, as if a single moun- 
 tain had been split and sundered in two. 
 
 NORTHWESTERN PLAINS FRUITFUL. 
 
 My friend, the late visitor from Chicago to the 
 Shah of Persia, whom we left, with his daugh- 
 ters, aboard ship at Nanaimo, overtook us at 
 Banff, where we spent two days. He rarely 
 enthuses over scenery and has little love of 
 Nature or its beauties. Switzerland is to him 
 worth one visit, but no more, and Tyrol is a 
 bore. He loves travel, but to travel among the 
 haunts of men and women, not of Nature. Ber- 
 lin and London are pleasant places, but Paris is 
 his paradise. He had been filled with ennui on 
 the whole Alaskan journey, and had uttered but 
 once an exclamation of pleasure, and that was 
 when we sailed out of Glacier Bay. He then 
 cried out, " Thank heaven our ship is turned 
 homeward." Even he is really somewhat enthu- 
 siastic over the beauties of the Canadian road 
 and is charmed by Banff. I suspect, however, 
 all because of getting through quickly. He 
 could enjoy the rush through towering moun- 
 tains, because he was getting where he could 
 revel in rising stocks,
 
 BUFFALO WALLOWS. 189 
 
 The plains east of the mountains on this road 
 are beautiful. Great sweeps of land in more or 
 less lifting benches stretch north and south as 
 far as the eye can reach ; not bleak or parched 
 or covered with the dead ash color of sage brush, as 
 the same plains are south of our boundary, but 
 fairly green and restful to the eye. We tried 
 to go back in fancy to long ago years, when 
 countless thousands buffalo inarched in single 
 file along the trails which they cut down into the 
 hard soil, and which are yet seen crossing our 
 road nearly north and south. We tried to count 
 the deep buffalo wallows, bored by horns and 
 scooped out by -hoofs, where the shaggy bulls 
 tossed the dust and sent up clouds which made 
 the air thick for many a mile around. We saw 
 in fancy the heavy maned bulls and heard their 
 bellowings, which won the gaze and admiration 
 of the mild eyed cows. We recalled how these 
 thousands of wallows would be filled by the next 
 rains, and how succeeding herds would bathe in 
 the mud, and then march onward a moving mass 
 of thick mortar. Thousands of these wallows 
 are seen, and for several hundred miles the fur- 
 rowed trails are rarely out of sight for many 
 miles. They generally run in nearly parallel 
 lines from north to south ; now and then de- 
 flected to get around an Alkali lake or pool : or 
 where old leaders had scented pure water ahead
 
 190 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 and bent their way toward it, and all of the 
 mighty hosts following the lead. What count- 
 less thousands there must have been ! The In- 
 dians killed them, but killed them for food or 
 for raiment. The white man came ; he who was 
 fashioned in the image of his God ; he who 
 claims to-be a follower of Him who taught 
 charity to all things and gentleness of spirit 
 he came in his boasted civilization born of 
 families whose pedigrees run back a thousand 
 years and killed and slew in the mere love of 
 killing killed and slew simply because he 
 could kill and slay. One of the crudest wars 
 ever waged, was the insane crusade against the 
 bison of the plains. Now these plains will know 
 no more forever their old tenants. 
 
 Occasionally troops of horses and herds of 
 cattle are seen, but for nearly a day's ride there 
 are only scattered farms, and they are as yet not 
 prosperous ; but in Eastern Assiniboia and in 
 Manitoba farms became more frequent and crops 
 looked well, until finally in the latter province 
 broad fields of fine wheat and oats and farm- 
 houses covered the prairie as far as we could see. 
 The improvement in the prairie land, running 
 some 200 miles on our line, has wonderfully 
 grown since I was there three years ago. The 
 breadth of grain standing or being harvested is 
 great. I am told there will be a yield this year
 
 GOOD FISHING. 
 
 of twenty million bushels. These people boast 
 that their hard-shell wheat is decidedly superior 
 to that of Dakota and Minnesota. It is now 
 very cold and frosts are feared. The wheat is 
 largely out of danger, but oats need some two or 
 more weeks of good weather yet. Root crops 
 seem good on the plains where wheat is not yet 
 a success. The plains are in Assiniboia, the 
 prairies in Manitoba. 
 
 At Winnipeg my friends went south. I con- 
 tinued on the rail to Port Arthur. There is not 
 much worth seeing east of Winnipeg. Thin 
 pine land of small trees are seen, generally flat, 
 with rounded rising ground back from the road ; 
 all more or less covered with bowlders of granite, 
 many of great size. Lakes and lakelets abound. 
 My daughter remarked that in Yellowstone Park 
 there was a fearful waste of hot water, in Alaska 
 of ice, and here of gray granite. The country 
 back of Port Arthur is said to be rich in mines. 
 I can believe it. Nothing is made in vain, and 
 this county is evidently fit for nothing else ex- 
 cept mines. The public rooms of the hotels 
 seem to be frequented by only two classes of 
 men miners and fishers. Here a knot talked 
 of minerals and claims, there of three or four and 
 six pounders. The Nipigon, near by, is said to 
 be the finest of trout streams. Mr. Higin- 
 botham, of Chicago, and sons left the day before
 
 192 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 our arrival after having made fine catches. The 
 people seemed much amused at their anxiety to 
 save a pailful. They chartered a steamer to 
 take them and their fry, quickly to Duluth. 
 
 PORT ARTHUR AND LAKE SUPERIOR. 
 
 Port Arthur has a beautiful site on a gentle 
 slope, with an elevated bench behind for resi- 
 dences. If it were in the States it would be 
 boomed. It is Canada's only port on Lake 
 Superior, and in Thunder Bay has a grand 
 harbor. The weather is so cool, throughout the 
 summer, that evening fires are rarely dispensed 
 with. This should be considered a terminus for 
 the C. P. R. R., at least for all heavy freights 
 and grain. The road has now two or three 
 1,200,000 bushel capacity elevators, and I am 
 informed intends immediately to build several 
 more. These will enable it to move the grain 
 from Manitoba, and hold it during the winter 
 and until the opening of navigation. 
 
 We had intended continuing by rail to Sud- 
 bury, north of Lake Huron, but finding that we 
 should pass all the interesting country by night 
 we halted a day and then boarded the Alberta, 
 the Canadian Pacific railroad steamer, a Clyde- 
 built vessel of some 2,000 tonnage, with clean 
 and comfortable rooms, polite officers and ser- 
 vants, and in every way first-class. The break
 
 RAILROAD COURTESIKS. 
 
 on the great run from ocean to ocean on this 
 longest of the world's trunk lines, by taking 
 steamer between Owen Sound on Georgian Bay 
 and Port Arthur, is a most agreeable one. 
 
 It is charming to sail on a good ship on this 
 the mightiest of fresh-water seas, and to lose 
 sight of land while skimming over its dark 
 green depths. We have had a smooth sea and 
 delicious bracing air, and find nothing to com- 
 plain of and much to commend. Before closing 
 I wish to say something of the remarkable civil- 
 ity of the officers and employes of this great 
 road. The managers evidently know the value 
 of politeness on the part of those who cater to 
 the traveling community, the hardest and most 
 difficult to satisfy of all others. Four out of five 
 of them pack their trunks for a trip and expect 
 to find the comforts of their home while on the 
 go, and find fault at every turn. This Van 
 Home seems to know, and has so drilled his 
 people, from the highest to the lowest, that cour- 
 tesy, the cheapest of valuable commodities, is 
 never lacking. 
 
 I am finishing this letter while our ship lies 
 in the great lock at the "Soo." We are again 
 under the protection of the Stars and Stripes. 
 The rush of waters of the great "Sault" fills the 
 air with its roar. This was a few moments since 
 deadened by the greater turmoil from some
 
 194 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 twenty dynamite blasts in the hard rock through 
 which Uncle Sam is cutting for the huge lock, 
 which is to aid the present one in passing to and 
 fro the mighty traffic of our great system of 
 fresh-water seas. The present lock is wholly 
 inadequate, and steamers often wait for five hours 
 for their turn, and that, too, although it admits 
 several vessels at a time. Over beyond the cas- 
 cade the Dominion is erecting a vast system of 
 locks on its own ground. The near future will 
 need them all. 
 
 A PLEA FOR RECIPROCITY. 
 
 We look across the foamy river and see a 
 beautiful little town, the "Canadian Soo." Be- 
 hind it lifts a gently rising land, all clothed in 
 sweet verdure and making an exquisite picture. 
 There, for thousands of miles east and west 
 and extending several hundreds of miles to the 
 north, are a people in every way our kinsmen. 
 We wander among them and feel that we are 
 among friends of our own clan, and yet I cannot 
 take my satchel ashore without submitting it to 
 the inspection of our custom-house officers. How 
 long will this thing last? Why should two 
 people so closely united by every bond except 
 that of so-called nationality, submit to this ham- 
 pering of their kindly relations? When will 
 the bars be thrown down so that the Canuck and
 
 AT THE " SOO." 195 
 
 the Yankee cau trade as brothers and friends? I 
 may not be a statesman, but what little of state- 
 craft I possess, tells me there should be absolute 
 reciprocity between Americans from the Gulf of 
 Mexico to the frozen seas ; reciprocity at least 
 for all productions of the respective countries. 
 
 I look out of my window ; the ship is sinking 
 down between the massive walls of the lock. In 
 a few moments we will be on a level with Lake 
 Huron, and just below the lock we will land in 
 Michigan. So now we bid adieu to the hospitali- 
 ties of President Van Home, and will commend 
 his iron highway to all who love nature and its 
 grand works, and who delight in its sublimest 
 displays.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE ST. MARY'S RIVER. CHARMING SCENERY. 
 THE LOCALITY FOR SUMMER HOMES. AN 
 EPISODE. MACKINAW. GRAND RAPIDS, A 
 BEAUTIFUL CITY. 
 
 At Sault Ste. Marie, we took steamer for 
 Mackinaw. The steamer was comfortable, and 
 the trip a charming one. 
 
 The run down the Ste. Marie into Lake 
 Huron, has few equals in sweet, gentle, and at 
 times picturesque scenery. Low lying hills lie 
 on both banks of the river, some of them lifting 
 from the water. Now and then, a promentory or 
 an island point lifts the general quiet tone into 
 something of boldness. These are washed and 
 laved by waters of pallucid purity. The hills, 
 both however, generally lie back from the river on 
 banks with pretty plains under them ; here, wide 
 enough for a small field, or garden ; there, giving 
 space for a pretty farm. The uplands rise from 
 the small bottoms in easy flowing slopes, green 
 in fresh growth. There are on both slopes oc- 
 casional farms and small hamlets, affording life 
 and movement to the pretty picture. 
 
 When this continent shall become a single 
 nation one grand Republic ; the frozen arms of 
 an Arctic ice-floe enfolding its northern boun- 
 dary ; the warm breath of the Gulf of Mexico 
 
 196
 
 GEORGIAN BAY. 197 
 
 reddening the cheek of the orange and covering 
 Magnolia groves with snowy bloom along its 
 southern shores ; the mighty Pacific pouring its 
 sonorous swell on its western confines from Beh- 
 ring's sea to the Tropic of Cancer, and the storm 
 breeding Atlantic roaring along its shores, from 
 Lincoln Sea to Key West ; when brothers shall 
 clasp hands across the deep waters of the lakes 
 without the espionage of a custom collector, 
 then these low-lying hills and sweet plains at 
 their feet these pretty islands and rugged pro- 
 mentories, will become the summer homes of the 
 rich of the mighty land, and the green waters 
 will reflect the villas and cottages of the wealthy 
 and the well to do, along the entire river ; and 
 the world will know no more beautiful and 
 sweetly rural locality. 
 
 I was leaning on the taffrail of our boat, enjoy- 
 ing the sweet prospect the long reach of 
 Georgian Bay, lying to the east and some bold 
 points lifting about us, when I heard a gentle- 
 man call the attention of a lad by his side, to a 
 rock they could see in the distance through their 
 glasses.* 
 
 "At the foot of that rock, I caught twenty 
 black bass in an hour," said the gentleman. 
 
 A deep groan close by my side caught my ear. 
 I turned to find a gray headed old man, also 
 
 *The reader may take all reference to this gentleman as fact or 
 fiction, as his own fancy suggests.
 
 198 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 leaning on the rail, whose glass was turned in 
 the same direction as those of the gentleman and 
 lad. The man of the groan, was evidently 
 seventy odd years old, with a gentle face, but 
 now in deep and painful thought ; tears were 
 coursing down his cheeks, and when he lowered 
 his glasses, showed eyes red with weeping. His 
 face looked so wan that I feared he was sick. I 
 spoke to him gently. 
 
 He answered me kindly, and then said: I was 
 watching through my glass a spot in the dis- 
 tance beyond the rock adverted to by the gentle- 
 man to that boy, and when he spoke of catching 
 fish at its base, a long ago past was weighing on 
 my mind. His words brought up the groan you 
 heard and not any illness of my own a past 
 connected with a big rock near the spot I was 
 looking at, and of a tragedy which deeply dis- 
 tressed me, and changed the course of my 
 life." 
 
 I very naturally asked: "Are the matters you 
 refer to, such that you cannot speak of them ?'' 
 I handed him, at the same time, my card. He 
 looked up saying "Ah, yes! I know of you. A 
 few days since I read some letters of yours in 
 the Chicago Tribune, from the National Park. 
 They made me half resolve to go there next 
 year." He asked me if I intended publishing 
 them in book form ; that he thought such a
 
 MACKINAW. 199 
 
 book, just now, would be acceptable ; that he 
 had preserved my letters for use, should he 
 make the excursion. A man who has published 
 any thing, is as easily captured by a kindly 
 word for his bantling, as ever mother was by 
 praise for her first baby. I told him that my 
 letters, even if enlarged as I might see fit, would 
 hardly make a book of fit size for publication. 
 
 The elderly gentlemen landed at Mackinaw 
 with us. After wandering over this pretty old 
 island, visiting its places of interest which well 
 repay avisit after listening to a few dozen promi- 
 nent lawyers, judges, merchants and physicians 
 talking through their noses all of them victims 
 of hay-fever I was lazily resting on the hotel 
 piazza, awaiting the hour for taking the ferry boat 
 to reach the train for home, when my new made 
 friend of the boat came to me and said : " Mr. 
 Harrison, you say your letters are not enough to 
 make a book of publishing size. I spoke to you 
 of a tragedy, which changed the course of my 
 life. I have at home, but will send it to you, a 
 manuscript, touching that sad affair, which would 
 not be inappropriate in a letter touching a trip 
 from the Soo to Chicago. The manuscript is a 
 plain and faithful story of the events narrated ; 
 you can, however, supply fictitious names, and 
 alter certain immaterial points and touch up the 
 whole. I thanked him, and assured him I would
 
 200 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 probably gladly use his material. He afterward 
 sent tome " The Secret of the Big Rock," which 
 will be found following this letter. 
 
 A night's run brought us to Grand Rapids. 
 Its people ought to be proud of it. It is not only 
 a thriving, busy town, growing with great rapid- 
 ity, but is one of the prettiest cities in America. 
 Its business quarters are fine and wear a metro- 
 politan air, but its residence portion is very 
 pretty. The streets are lined with trees, which 
 grow with such luxuriance park commissioners 
 might envy. 
 
 We spent a half day in the charming place 
 and in a few hours reached home, having enjoyed 
 a glorious " outing," which I freely recommend 
 every one who can, to make, and as early as pos- 
 sible. If I had to choose between a trip to 
 Europe of two or three months, and the excur- 
 sion we have just made, and were compelled to 
 forego one or the other, I would forego the Euro- 
 pean one.
 
 PART II.
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE SECRET OF THE BIG ROCK. 
 
 In the spring of 185- I was head bookkeeper 
 and confidential clerk of a Cincinnati firm, hav- 
 ing a large trade with the Cotton States. I had 
 an adored wife, and two fine children, who were 
 our pride and our delight. Not ambitious for 
 wealth, I was perfectly satisfied if my endeavors 
 conduced to the prosperity of my employers. My 
 salary was sufficient for our wants. None of us 
 had ever been sick and the family physician was 
 rather a friend than an adviser. The firm was 
 prosperous ; my employers, always kind and 
 considerate ; my modest home was cheerful,' and 
 I believed myself the happiest of men. 
 
 Cholera was that year prevalent, and toward 
 the first of June, threatened to become epidemic 
 in our city. My employers hurried with their 
 families to the country, leaving me in full 
 charge of the house. Continuous immunity 
 from sickness, made my wife and myself so con- 
 fident, that had we been able to strike the sign 
 of the passover on our door posts, we would 
 scarcely have thought the precaution necessary. 
 Even the dread scourge, cholera, had few terrors 
 for us. 
 
 203
 
 204 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 Going home one Saturday afternoon, I read 
 on the Bulletin Board of a newspaper office, that 
 the physicians believed Cincinnati had passed 
 the crisis ; that no epidemic need be feared. 
 I had a habit, when walking alone, of whist- 
 ling softly. Near my house a neighbor smiled, 
 as he said, "he was glad to see my mouth in so 
 fine a pucker, for it spoke well of the day. 
 My wife met me at the door, as usual, but told 
 me she felt quite sick ; seeing my face become 
 clouded, she assured me it was not much, and 
 laughingly repeated a witty speech of our little 
 girl. Hardly had she finished, when she almost 
 screamed with pain. In twenty-four hours, she 
 was a corpse; and Monday, at noon, I was wife- 
 less and childless. 
 
 I did not pray to die, believing that God knew 
 and did what was best for his children ; but I 
 would have greeted with a smile the grim mon- 
 ster, had he reached out his hand for me. 
 
 In two days I was at my desk, for there were 
 important matters to be attended to. The neces- 
 sity for work, kept me from falling by the way- 
 side. My mother had taught me, "that man's 
 highest duty is, to do his duty." This saying 
 had been adopted as my motto. 
 
 The next week, my employers returned to 
 town, and ordered me to Fort Mackinaw for a 
 couple of mouths' vacation, presenting me
 
 THE OLD MAN'S STORY. 205 
 
 with a thousand dollar check, to cover my expen- 
 ses. Two months between the Island and the Soo 
 were passed in fishing, with snch benefits result- 
 ing, that the excursion has been renewed when- 
 ever an absolute necessity for a change has been 
 felt. 
 
 My employers on .my return, seeing the good 
 effects upon me, of the water and the rod, pre- 
 sented me with a nice skiff, telling me to take 
 every Thursday afternoon for a holiday, and to 
 keep them supplied with fish for Friday ; at the 
 same time, kindly informing me, that a plate 
 would always be at one or the other of their tables 
 for me to help enjoy my catch. 
 
 Being a man of almost machine like habits of 
 regularity, my boat was always seen on the 
 proper afternoon, rain or shine, during the fish- 
 ing seasons for several years. 
 
 It was in '58 that I accidentally threw my line 
 in a deep pool or hole, in the Licking river, a 
 mile or two from the Ohio, and almost immedi- 
 ately struck a fine gaspergou perch, or as the 
 people in Kentucky called it, a "New Light." 
 This fish was first seen in the state, when the 
 forerunners of the present Cambellite, or Chris- 
 tian church, the "New Lights," were creating 
 much enthusiasm in the Kentucky religious 
 world.
 
 2o6 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 The catch was followed by several others, 
 when a terrible splashing was made close to my 
 hook by an out-rigger rowed by a stalwart 
 negro. The Ethiopian scowled upon me as he 
 shot by. In a few moments he returned and 
 caught a crab, letting an oar back water about 
 the same place on his run. down stream. The 
 disturbance drove all the fish from the locality ; 
 at least I had no more bites. 
 
 The two following Thursdays, I tried the 
 same pool, but my darkey was again rowing 
 about the ground, and no fish were to be had. 
 
 About a month later, there was a press of 
 business at the store. At the request of our 
 senior to forego my usual holiday, I worked all 
 Thursday afternoon, with the understanding I 
 was to take the next day and bring in my fish 
 for Friday's supper. I started early and rowed 
 some distance up the Licking, to what were con- 
 sidered good fishing grounds. In passing the 
 spot where my sport had been twice disturbed, 
 I saw the outrigger handled by the sable oars- 
 man, while a handsome young man in the stern 
 drew up a fine black bass. The negro again 
 scowled at me. 
 
 I reached my ground, and was having but in- 
 different success, when almost without a ripple 
 the outrigger drew up close to my side.
 
 THE OLD MAN'S STORY. 207 
 
 "What luck?" demanded the gentleman, in a 
 clear, sweetly modulated voice, which made me 
 for a minute forget the colored man's evident ill 
 will. 
 
 "Rather poor ; nothing to what I was enjoy- 
 ing four weeks ago, before your boat drove all 
 the fish away from the hole where I saw you an 
 hour ago. I have a notion your man had a 
 method in his madness." 
 
 The gentleman laughed a laugh so breezy 
 and cheery, that it drew me at once to him. 
 
 "Yes, Jim told me of his exploit, and we have 
 come up to invite you back to " our hole " as he 
 calls it." 
 
 I could not refuse an offer so cordially extended. 
 
 The gentleman as we gently floated down the 
 stream informed me, that Jim had selected " our 
 hole" as one little likely to attract Cincinnati 
 Waltons, and regularly every Friday left in it a 
 fine feed for fish ; that Jim was almost amphibi- 
 ous and seemed to know how to draw the finny 
 denizens of the river to whatever spot he selected 
 and at fixed times ; that he was surprised to 
 learn I had found fish in the place on Thursday, 
 when there should have been none until Friday ; 
 that the sable conjuror was not so much put out, 
 because I had found the spot, as because the fish 
 had lost their reckoning and were a day ahead 
 of time.
 
 208 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 u I am supposed to be Jim's boss," he smilingly 
 went on, " but in fact, on the water, am governed 
 by Jim ; his rod is one of iron." 
 
 At " our hole " we lay too, and in an hour had 
 a fine mess of bass and new lights as many as 
 we needed. 
 
 Felden, was the name my new acquaintance 
 gave me as his "Jack Felden " he said, " and 
 this coon is Jim Madison." 
 
 Jim grinned and was the very personification 
 of the free and easy, yet servile southern " body 
 servant." 
 
 Mr. Felden said, " I make it a rule, Mr. Jami- 
 son, never to kill a single fish I can not consume 
 either myself or through a few friends, to whom 
 I now and then send a mess. The poor things 
 have a right to their pursuit of life, health and 
 happiness, and should not be killed in wanton 
 love of killing. As one of the dominant animals 
 of this earth, I claim the right to take fish for 
 my uses. I enjoy the sport of angling ; but 
 when enough are caught the sport ends, and I 
 reel in my line, and silently steal away." 
 
 " You are a sportsman of my own kidney," I 
 rejoined " we have enough." 
 
 Jim then emptied a pail of fish feed into the 
 river, saying : 
 
 " Dey'll guzzle all dat afore dark, and termor- 
 rer dey'll come here and find nuthin', and dey'll
 
 THE OLD MAN'S STORY. 209 
 
 go away, but shuah as death and 'ligeou dey'll be 
 back here nex' Friday. Dis niggah skeert em 
 de las' fo' weeks, a Thursdays." 
 
 Jim grinned in my face as he said this, and I 
 was forced to commend his prudence, though it 
 had been at my cost. 
 
 The following Thursday, I tried the hole, but 
 Jim was right ; no fish took my bait ; he was 
 seen, however, scudding along in Feldeu's out- 
 rigger. He grinned at me and asked, '' how is 
 de hole?" 
 
 The following week, to my gratification, I 
 found Mr. Felden on the river. We fished at 
 " our hole " with some success : Jim then fed the 
 fish, while his master informed me that he had 
 concluded to go shares with me. Hereafter, he 
 would meet me on Thursday, so as to enable me 
 to gratify the Catholic appetites of my employ- 
 ers. Thus he would have the pleasure of bet- 
 tering our acquaintance. He paid me the com- 
 pliment of saying that he had circled the globe, 
 associating with men in all lands, and felt we 
 ought to be friends. 
 
 Our friendship grew into intimacy, before the 
 season was over. He invited me to his den. It 
 was a plain cottage, externally ; but within 
 sumptuous ; skins of lions, tigers, leopards of 
 every variety of spots, and of other animals 
 covering the floors of hard wood at that time
 
 210 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 rarely seen. Several of the pelts, he said, were 
 the trophies of his own skill with the rifle. The 
 walls were tapestried with rare draperies, and 
 rugs, all of them valuable souvenirs of Eastern 
 lands. One room was given up to cabinets, in 
 which curios and objects de vertu sparkled in ori- 
 ental beauty. All was arranged with rare taste. 
 I hinted to uiy host, that his house was a temp- 
 tation to the burglar. He went to the door and 
 whistled gently. In rushed two fine dogs ; no- 
 ble specimens of monster mastiffs. 
 
 " These are niy guardians. Woe to the thief 
 that gets into this house ; if he escapes Jim and 
 me, these fellows would tear him into fish bait. 
 Wouldn't you my Mogul?" One of the huge 
 mastiffs sprang up with a growl that startled me. 
 
 "Now Akbar ! you and Queen salute this* 
 gentleman. He is my friend and must be yours." 
 
 The two dogs came \ip to me, smelt all about 
 me, then one of them laid a great paw in my 
 lap, while the other put both feet on my should- 
 ers, yawning mightly in my face showed fangs 
 long enough and strong enough to give the 
 king of the forest no mean battle. 
 
 I spent a charming evening with my new 
 friend, and found him one I could gladly call 
 such. 
 
 During the following winter, I dined with 
 Jack I had accepted his request to address him
 
 THE OLD MAN'S STORY. 211 
 
 thus familiarly at least one day in each week. 
 His dinners were at the then unusual hour of 
 seven, a habit acquired as he informed me in 
 India. Jim was butler, and Dinah, his wife was 
 cook. She was an artist of a kind to be found 
 nowhere in the world, outside of old southern 
 plantation halls. The table service was of pure 
 china and cut glass. The menu was never ex- 
 tensive, thereby not conducing to over-indul- 
 gence, but everything was perfect of its kind, and 
 cooked absolutely to a " T ". A single bottle of 
 wine was always served for us two, either of 
 Rhine or one of the best clarets. My host and 
 I never emptied more than two glasses each. 
 At the end of each meal, Dinah and Jim came in 
 as the table was being cleared off, and drank to 
 our healths in glasses of the same set, and from 
 the same wine used by the master. 
 
 Mr. Felden never smoked cigars at table, but 
 we each had a jasmine Turkish pipe and 
 puffed delicious Ladikiyah, received by him 
 from Beyrout in hermetically sealed cans. 
 
 One evening when we were lolling back on 
 softest chairs and enjoying to our full the frag- 
 rant weed, Jack said to me, " Paul," (this was 
 the fiust and almost the only time, he thus 
 called me, " you have told me the sad, sweet 
 story of your life. I propose, if you wish, to 
 give you mine."
 
 212 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 " I am very glad of it, and have been hoping 
 you would." 
 
 For some minutes he was silent, and his noble 
 face was lighted with what seemed an illumina- 
 tion from within, wholly different from that laid 
 upon it by the mellow glow from the candelabra. 
 
 " I am thirty years old ; have light auburn 
 and very curly hair." I started, for his hair 
 and beard were dark brown, almost black, and 
 without even a wave. Without noticing my 
 surprise, he continued, " My complexion is florid 
 and my face without a scar." 
 
 " My goodness, Jack, you are making sport of 
 me," I cried, for the man before me had a com- 
 plexion of richest olive, and a terrible scar had 
 been cut across his cheek, as he once laughingly 
 intimated, by a tiger's claw. 
 
 " No, I am telling you simple facts. I am the 
 
 son of a rich planter in ," he did not 
 
 name the state; "my father and my uncle 
 owned adjoining estates of great value, and were 
 as proud as they were rich. I was an only child. 
 My uncle had but one, and that a daughter. Our 
 parents inherited their fortunes from my grand- 
 father, and at an early date they determined to 
 unite the family wealth again by a marriage be- 
 tween my cousin Belle and myself. She was a 
 pure blonde, one year my senior, very stately, 
 very cold, and intensely proud. We grew up
 
 THE OLD MAN'S STORY. 213 
 
 to consider ourselves as indissoliibly betrothed. 
 Belle treated it as calmly as if we had been mar- 
 ried for years. This she did as soon as she was 
 out of the school room. She never seemed to 
 doubt the propriety of our engagement. She 
 loved 'Clifton' and 'Brandon' I will thus call 
 the two plantations she loved the two estates 
 next to her father. Him she worshipped. These 
 two loves filled her soul, and left no room for 
 any other genuine affection. Yes ; she loved 
 herself, our name, our lineage, and her pride." 
 
 For awhile he was silent, and his soul seemed 
 to be working in his face ; then, with a sigh of 
 pain, he continued : 
 
 " I graduated from one of the best colleges in 
 the land at twenty, and at once with a learned 
 tutor, was sent abroad. We traveled in conti- 
 nental Europe for a few months and I was in- 
 tensely happy. Before the first year had half 
 ran out, we were summoned home. My father 
 was ill, and would probably not live to see me. 
 This was my first great pain, for my mother had 
 died at my birth. We hurried to New York by 
 the first steamer, then by rail and coach we flew 
 southward without having heard a word from 
 home. We were too late ; my poor father had 
 been dead nearly a fortnight. I had loved him 
 with intense devotion.
 
 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 My uncle having died three years before, Belle 
 had been living since then with my father at Clif- 
 ton. She met me at the door, enveloped in black, 
 and looking the very embodiment of decorous grief. 
 She kissed me on the forehead, and when within 
 told me in a voice as calm as ice of my poor father's 
 last illness, of his death, and of the immensely at- 
 tended funeral. She opened her writing desk, 
 read letter after letter of condolence, and with a 
 fitting sigh spoke of the gratification we should 
 feel, ' that dear uncle had so many admirers 
 among the best people of the south.' Her well- 
 poised calmness nearly stifled me. Yearning for 
 love and sympathy, all I received from the only 
 relative I had on earth, at least of near degree, 
 were congratulations that my father had found 
 in death the cold esteem of friends. 
 
 " As soon as I could decently leave the house, 
 I hurried to the negro quarters to see my foster 
 mother, Dinah, and her husband, Jim. There I 
 found loving hearts, and for many minutes was 
 clasped in the arms of her who had nursed me 
 on her bosom through my babyhood. I lay 
 upon a settee, given Dinah by myself as a 
 Christmas present years before, and with my 
 head on the old negress' lap, let her comb the 
 hair over my aching brow. Soothed and rested 
 by the kind, homely sympathy, 1 lay with closed 
 eyes, when the cabin became redolent of that pe-
 
 THE OLD MAN'S STORY. 215 
 
 culiar odor given out by genuine crepe, and 
 Belle walked in. In calm, cold words she said 
 she was sorry John could not find some one at 
 the house to brush his head. 
 
 " The next day my cousin handed me a letter, 
 'the last,' she said ' Uncle had ever written.' It 
 told me where I would find his will ; that every- 
 thing he possessed was left to me, and asked, as 
 a dying request, that I should marry my cousin 
 the day I became twenty-one. He told me how 
 all the love he had borne my mother had been 
 centered upon me; gave me a few words of ad- 
 vice, but said he felt advice unnecessary, as he 
 knew how good his only son was. 
 
 " When I had finished reading I handed the 
 letter to Belle, saying there was something in it 
 concerning her. I watched her through my fingers 
 and saw that her reading was simply perfunc- 
 tory ; she had evidently read it before. She 
 sighed, came to my seat, put her arms about my 
 neck called me her dear John, and kissed me 
 on the lips. I felt like one fettered and power- 
 less. My heart was filled with a sort of numb- 
 ness despair. Two facts were as clear to me 
 as daylight: that I did not love my cousin, that 
 she did not love me ; she was incapable of real 
 passion. I turned to her and said : 
 
 " ' Belle you have read my father's letter, 
 what do you suggest ? '
 
 2i6 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 " ' Why, of course, John, we will be married 
 on the 2Oth day of February. We have a month 
 to get ready, besides we need not much prepara- 
 tion, for we will at once go to Europe for a year, 
 until the sad events of the past few weeks shall 
 have been obliterated from our minds.' 
 
 "Good God! she could speculate on the death 
 of grief. I hated her. But I would as soon 
 have thought of exhuming my father's body and 
 scattering it to the four winds of heaven, as to 
 think of not obeying his wishes. 
 
 " Well, we were married, and at once went 
 abroad. I tried to and did respect my wife. She 
 attracted great attention, for she was superbly 
 beautiful queenly. But there was never a mo- 
 ment when I felt like pressing her stately form 
 to my breast ; never had the slightest inclination 
 to kiss her lips ; never once felt I could look 
 into her great blue eyes, and breathe out my 
 life on her bosom. 
 
 u A marble statue would as quickly have 
 aroused a feeling of passion in my heart. She 
 was cold and did not seem to realize that I was 
 not a model husband, for I was her attentive 
 and watchful companion. She seemed thorough- 
 ly satisfied, while my heart was hardening into 
 stone. 
 
 In July we visited a flower show in Regent's 
 Park, accompanied by two English ladies, both
 
 THE OLD MAN'S STORY. 217 
 
 married, romantic and full of sentiment. In our 
 rounds, we met a lady in company with a gentle- 
 man and a little boy. She was about eighteen 
 years old, with dark melting eyes under a per- 
 fectly arched brow, and a broad low forehead, 
 over which her black hair was banded in massive 
 silken waves. Her complexion was so deeply 
 brunette as to be almost olive. The blood was 
 rich and flowing in her cheeks, and her lips 
 were two full ripe riven cherries, when she spoke 
 parting over large pearly teeth. Her hand was 
 exquisitely poised on shoulders of superb mould, 
 and her form and gait queenly. We were on 
 the opposite side of a wonderful erica admiring 
 its masses of pink flowers. Our eyes met. I 
 stood as if spell bound. I had never before seen 
 a perfect beauty and all of my own chosen type. 
 She was exactly niy opposite, I, high florid ; she 
 intensely brunette. 
 
 The color came into her cheek and mounted 
 to her very hair when she caught my fixed gaze. 
 One of our English friends noticed this. After- 
 wards in our walks, we met again and again the 
 lady in the brown shawl for so our friends 
 called her. Whenever we met, my eyes in- 
 stinctively sought those of the unknown, and 
 always caught her glance in return, and at every 
 such encounter her face crimsoned. This was 
 remarked by our two lady friends and caused
 
 2i8 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 them to banter me. They told my wife to be on 
 her guard ; that if I were not already married, 
 they would say I had certainly met my fate. 
 
 " Ah ! little did they dream they were speak- 
 ing truth that this. girl was my fate for weal or 
 for woe ! I heard the unknown's voice several 
 times without catching her words. It sank into, 
 my very soul. I became absent minded through- 
 out the remainder of the day. Belle joined the 
 ladies in declaring that the " brown shawl " had 
 bewitched me. 
 
 Mr. Jamison, I have a very decided theory of 
 true marriage. The Bible is a mass of oriental 
 rubbish ! Forgive me, I do not mean to offend. 
 I reverence the bible, but not every word of it. 
 It is made up of ingots of gold covered and al- 
 most hidden within masses of sand grains of 
 truth and Godly wisdom, in bulks of chaff. It 
 is made up of God's wisdom and oriental fable 
 legend and poetry. You reverence the gold, the 
 grains the sands and the chaff. I wash out the 
 sand, and pick out the gold ; winnow away the 
 chaff, and gather up the rich grains. 
 
 Nothing to me in the book of Genesis, reveals 
 more deep knowledge of human nature, than the 
 account of the creation of Adam ; he was made 
 from the dust of the ground, and his soul was 
 breathed into him by the breath of God. When 
 a man dies, his body returns to the dust, his soul
 
 THE OLD MAN'S STORY. 219 
 
 goes back to its maker. God created man! male 
 and female, created he them ! They were then 
 good. He afterward separated the female from 
 the male. Each thus became imperfect- each 
 became a part and not a whole. There is a 
 constant yearning in them for reunion. When 
 the true Eve unites with her Adam, they become 
 one, and their union is bliss. When so united, 
 no man shall put them asunder. The union is 
 founded directly on natural and, not on moral or 
 religious laws. The natural laws speak within, 
 and draw irresistibly two hearts to be mated. 
 Whoever obeys the impulse find a Heaven on 
 earth. Others, falsely-mated, may not find ab- 
 solute misery, but, it is equally certain, true 
 happiness is never theirs. Men and women are 
 made for each other ; not one man for one cer- 
 tain woman, but in classes. A man finds his 
 physicial mate in one of a certain class. If her 
 moral qualities be not fitted by education, he 
 should wait with a well grounded hope of find- 
 ing another in the same class, whose bringing 
 up will have better fitted her for him. 
 
 Now, the woman in the brown shawl was my 
 mate, that is one of the proper class. I could 
 not get her out of my mind, and my wife's cold- 
 ness, constantly made me yearn for her. Travel 
 was distasteful to Belle, so that before the fall 
 had set in, we were again at home. I did not
 
 220 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 love my wife, she did not love me. She was 
 fully satisfied to live with me in the proud dig- 
 nity given us by our vast estates. 
 
 Besides his plantation, negroes and stock, my 
 father had left me largely over a hundred thous- 
 and dollars in money and convertible bonds and 
 mortgages. I resolved to turn all of these into 
 cash, and to abandon wife and country. I got all 
 in readiness ; executed and left with my lawyers 
 papers conveying every thing else to Belle ; 
 went to New York on some pretended business 
 and sailed for Europe, writing home that I 
 would never return. I sought the American 
 colonies and hotels in every country, in a sort of 
 vague hope that I could find the woman in the 
 brown shawl. She was my fate. I was mad with 
 the one idea. I was no libertine, Mr. Jamison. 
 I simply yearned for her, not asking what the 
 result would be should she be found. I drifted 
 into the East and wandered through Russia, 
 Turkey, Greece, Palestine and Egypt. I did 
 not meet her ; and could get no tidings of her.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 I resolved to lose myself in the far Hast. I 
 went to India ; hunted in the jungles, reckless 
 of life and danger. I was successful in overcom- 
 ing the monsters of the wilds ; and escaped 
 dreadful fevers because I seemed to bear a 
 charmed life. It was worthless to me, and a 
 bad penny could not be lost. 
 
 In India I met with a cunning native, who 
 changed my locks from light to their present 
 color, curly to straight ; my complexion from 
 florid to its olive hue. He taught me how to put 
 a scar on my cheek that would deceive the eyes 
 of a surgeon, but from which I could at any time 
 free myself in a single night, and renew at will. 
 So perfectly was my disguise, that my Indian 
 servant, who had been with me for a year, failed 
 to recognize me. He never knew me again. 
 With my skin I changed my name. I was a 
 stranger even when in my most frequented 
 haunts, and as you see, am still disguised. I 
 visited Siam, Burmah, China and Borneo. I 
 wandered five years in the far East, and returned 
 to America by the Pacific and Panama, and thence 
 to New Orleans. 
 
 In that city, I went to a Mardi-Gras ball. On 
 entering the brilliant assembly room, I was al- 
 
 221
 
 222 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 most stunned by the sight of my wife, standing 
 close by my side. She looked at me without re- 
 cognition. She was the same cold, queenly 
 woman. I was presented and talked to her of her 
 husband, whom I had met in the far East. She 
 seemed considerably interested in me, but did 
 not evince the slightest emotion when I spoke of 
 her husband and told her I had heard of his 
 death in India. She said in chilling tones she 
 felt sure it was a false rumor. Had she shown 
 any feeling, I think I would have tried to get 
 her into my heart. 
 
 I went to my old home, and pretending to be 
 shooting and belated, went to Jim Madison's 
 cabin about sun-down and talked to him and 
 Dinah. Neither of them recognized me, but when 
 her back was to me I spoke ; she started, for my 
 voice reached her memory. They were both true 
 to Mars John, whom I told them I had known at 
 college. Dinah shed bitter tears, because she 
 could never see him again, and Jim would be 
 like Simeon of old, if his eyes could rest upon 
 him once more. They were to be trusted. 
 
 I went to the cabin door and finding there was 
 no one in the neighborhood, I drew my hat over 
 my face and said in my natural voice: "Jim, 
 Dinah, don't you know me?" 
 
 They sprang to me at once, with a cry, " Oh 
 bress de Lord, it's him, it's him it's Mars
 
 THE OLD MAX'S STORY. 223 
 
 John" and for minutes I was pressed in their 
 arms, while they shed tears and gave thanks to 
 the good God. The two lowly hearts were true as 
 steel to me, and would be willing to follow me to 
 the ends of the earth. Jim was a teamster and 
 had to draw a load of cotton to the nearest steam 
 boat landing on the following day. 
 
 In my boyhood his aquatic qualities won my 
 admiration and were the wonder of the negroes 
 for many miles around. To my inquiry as to his 
 ability in that line now, he proudly stated that 
 " he was a duck a-top the water, an' a musrat 
 under it." I then told him to be on the lookout, 
 when on the wharf boat the next day ; that I 
 would be there ; would manage to tumble into 
 the river ; he was to rescue me, and out of grati- 
 tude I would purchase him and Dinah, and take 
 them north to freedom. 
 
 We performed our comedy admirably. Water 
 could scarcely drown me, for from childhood, I 
 had been a water-dog, and when Jim made his 
 wonderful dive, and brought me from the bot- 
 tom, to which I had conveniently sunken the 
 third time, I acted the drowned man so well, 
 that the negroes around nearly killed me by 
 rolling me on a barrel to get the water out of my 
 stomach. I managed to be properly resusci- 
 tated, and in three days Jim and Dinah, paid for, 
 were on their way north. They had no children,
 
 224 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 and left no ties behind. Jim says, " he is a 
 bigger slave than ever, for I am always on his 
 mind." 
 
 We reached Cincinnati last spring, and I feel 
 certain my identity can never be discovered. I 
 have my two oldest earthly friends with me, and 
 now my newest, and almost only other one. I am 
 trying to recover a part of my fortune, for I had 
 but little left when I reached this city. I came 
 here because, the only words I ever distinctly 
 caught from my brown shawled mate and her 
 companions were, when the boy said, " but Cin- 
 cinnati, you know " that was all. I am 
 
 here making a little money speculating in grain; 
 using Jim's rheumatism to inform me as to 
 weather probabilities and if prices will go up or 
 down and keeping my eyes always open for the 
 only woman I have ever seen whom I can love. 
 
 " And now fill up your chilbouque and let us 
 have a glass of beer." He rang a bell and told 
 Jim to open a couple of bottles of ale. 
 
 I was deeply impressed by the story more 
 so, than I cared my friend to see. To open up a 
 light vein of conversation I asked : 
 
 " What was that you said abou Jim's rheuma- 
 tism?" 
 
 " I spoke in earnest;" answered Jack, "last 
 summer and fall I used Jim's ankles to tell me 
 if the weather would be favorable for crops. He
 
 THE OLD MAN'S STORY. 225 
 
 believes implicitly in his rheumatic prognostica- 
 tions. To humor lwm I follow his advice, and 
 so far have never failed to make a good deal by 
 so doing. 
 
 I thanked Felden for his story, and went home 
 pondering upon his notions and pluck. It was 
 strange to see a man who evidently so enjoyed 
 lavish luxury, living as he did, when a beautiful 
 wife, a vast fortune and high position were wait- 
 ing for him, whenever he should acknowledge 
 his proud name. 
 
 Toward the end of the winter, a messenger 
 brought me, from Mr. Felden a request for the 
 address of a first class physician, and telling me 
 Dinah was much indisposed. The next evening 
 I dropped in at his house, but he begged to be 
 excused. The message brought to the door by 
 Jim, made me feel my visits were not desired for 
 the time being. Ten days elapsed without any 
 news from him, when I met Dr. J. and inquired 
 as to the condition of his dusky patient. 
 
 " Oh ! ho ! Then I owe to you this new patient ! 
 
 I stated the circumstances. 
 
 " Well, Mr. Jamison, I thank you, for I have 
 had a revelation at that bedside, for which I 
 would not take a thousand dollars." 
 
 I expressed gratification and some surprise. 
 
 "You know," the genial doctor continued, 
 " you know that I am an old time abolitionist, 
 and one of the straightest kind."
 
 226 A SUMMER'S OUTING. . 
 
 I replied, I had often regretted the fact. 
 Scarcely noticing my remark he went on : 
 
 " I have received a revelation, Mr. Jamison, 
 and one that God willing ! will make me a more 
 charitable a braver, perhaps a better man. 
 Think of it sir : I went to see this black woman, 
 expecting to find her in charge of some other ig- 
 norant woman of her color. But instead of that, 
 there was an elegant gentleman sitting at her 
 bed side ; his hand was upon her hot forehead, 
 and every now and then he whispered, u Don't 
 be afraid Mammy, little John is by you, and he 
 will take care of you." The poor creature was 
 delirious. She thought herself on a southern 
 plantation, and that some one was trying to do 
 her bodily harm. 
 
 "When I stepped forward, he motioned me to 
 be still. I am generally an autocrat in a sick 
 room, but that man's look and gesture made me 
 a regular sucking babe." 
 
 I laughed at the thought. 
 
 " You needn't laugh, sir. I am telling God's 
 truth. Well ! when he had quieted her, he took 
 me into an adjoining room, and gave me his di- 
 agnosis of the case. It was the opinion of a man 
 of science, absolutely correct. I left my prescrip- 
 tion, promising to be on hand as early as pos- 
 sible the next morning. Would you believe it, 
 sir, I was there before day-light? I wanted to
 
 THE OLD MAN'S STORY. 227 
 
 see that man. I found him seated as he had been 
 the night before, and learned he had been there 
 ever since I left. She was still out of her 
 head. 
 
 Something she said caused the gentleman to 
 say, "She must be saved. She and her husband 
 are all that are left to me of a great plantation 
 and five hundred negroes." 
 
 "Instead of feeling disgust for the owner of 
 five hundred human beings, I felt they had lost 
 a friend when they lost their master. For a 
 whole week, that man never took off his clothes, 
 and as far as I could see, never left that lowly 
 bed side. I never saw such devotion. It pulled 
 her through ; my drugs were a humbug, sir. 
 That Christian gentleman saved her life." 
 
 The doctor took off his hat and mopped his 
 brow. It was wet from the energy of his 
 speech. 
 
 " It was a revelation to me, sir. Think of it ! 
 A man can own human beings, and still be a 
 Christian. If our Saviour has a true follower on 
 this earth, that born slave owner is of his chosen 
 ones." 
 
 I told this to Felden a few days later. He 
 smiled and said, "I thank the good doctor. 
 Don't tell him I am a worshipper of the one un- 
 known, and unknownable God. I reverence Jesus 
 of Nazareth I reverence Sidartha, the Buddh
 
 228 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 I reverence Zoroaster. They were the greatest 
 of men, whom long meditation sublimated and 
 lifted above their kind. But there is only one 
 God. No one of woman born, ever could, or can 
 conceive his form. 
 
 The best and purest Christian I ever met was 
 a Hindoo, not only in race, but in religion. Yet, 
 he was a Christian in the true sense of the word. 
 He lived and acted the life inculcated by Jesus. 
 The next best was a Parsee worshipper of the 
 sun. He did unto his kind as he would they 
 should do unto him. He clothed the naked, fed 
 the hungry and healed the sick ; yet he gave the 
 body of his beautiful and idolized daughter to 
 be devoured by vultures on the Tower of Silence. 
 One of the genuine Christians I have met, was a 
 Chinaman, who worshipped Joss, and daily knelt 
 at a shrine erected to him in the back of his shop. 
 He washed the wounds of a stranger, and nursed 
 him for weeks, though his house was shunned 
 as the home of pestilence. 
 
 "Forgive them Father, they know not what 
 they do," might be offered up in behalf of fully 
 one half of the good people of this Christian land. 
 They wrap themselves up in their egotism and 
 their bigotry. They follow the blind lead of nar- 
 row minded preachers and make the pulpit their 
 fetich. Bah ! how I hate cant and hypocricy ! 
 Poor Dinah is as black as the ace of spades, but
 
 THE OLD MAN'S STORY. 2 29 
 
 under her dusky breast is as white a soul as 
 ever came from the breath of God ; and I am 
 supposed to be a good man, simply because I did 
 not leave her to die like a crippled dog." 
 
 " No, Mr. Jamison, I am no better than I ought 
 to be. Dinah nursed me on her breast and fed 
 me from her life's blood, when I was helpless. I 
 was only a man when I nursed her through this 
 illness. I came to tell you she is nearly well 
 again, and Jim wishes you to eat a dinner of his 
 cooking to-morrow evening. Good day." And 
 with that he showed me his straight back and 
 massive shoulders as he walked with swinging 
 strides from the store. 
 
 We commenced fishing in March and spent 
 many a pleasant hour together, on the water by 
 day, and in his den at evening. Early in May, 
 I went as per agreement to dine with him. Jim 
 handed me a note. It read, "Dear Jamison, go 
 in and make the most of the dinner. I am off 
 for how long, I know not. I met to-day, my fate 
 of the brown shawl. I follow wherever it may 
 lead me, never tc stop until my doom be 
 found. 
 
 Yours, in the height of folly, 
 
 JACK." 
 
 Jim informed me his master had come in a 
 half hour before ; after hurriedly filling a valise 
 and satchel, he had jumped into the carriage,
 
 230 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 which brought him home, saying " Goodbye old 
 folks, take care of the dogs, and expect me 
 home, when you see me." 
 
 Jim added, " He's all right up here sah," 
 touching his head, " but his heart's sort'er crazy." 
 
 I could scarcely taste the food, for I felt that 
 there was over Jack, and thus over me, an im- 
 pending disaster. I had become deeply attached 
 to him. One knowing the intense nature of 
 the man could not but fear he was following 
 an ignis fatuus to his doom. Here was a 
 married man, who had schooled his heart and 
 reason to the belief he was not wedded that his 
 marriage was a fiction of the law, and not bind- 
 ing on his conscience. I was a religious man, 
 and shudderd lest my friend with his marvel- 
 ous fascinations, and goaded by a mad passion, 
 might do some act abhorrent to my notions of 
 right. 
 
 Days and weeks of uneasiness on my own 
 part, and apparently of distress on the part of 
 the two colored servants passed by, without a 
 word from the absent one. At first I went to 
 his house repeatedly to rest and to think of him, 
 but finally satisfied myself with inquiries at the 
 door. 
 
 About two months after his disappearance, it 
 became necessary for me to make a journey to a 
 distant state in the interest of our house. I was
 
 THE OLD MAN'S STORY. 231 
 
 absent over a fortnight. Immediately upon my 
 return, I visited the den (I had learned to call it 
 thus). A white woman met me at the door with 
 the information that she was the present tenant. 
 She knew nothing of the late occupants, but re- 
 ferred me to a real estate firm as her landlords. 
 I went to them. They knew nothing of the late 
 tenants of the cottage, farther than, that Mr. 
 Jack Felden had sent them the keys, and the 
 rent to the end of the term. They found the 
 premises in fine condition, but nothing to indi- 
 cate where the people had gone. 
 
 It was evident that Felden had, what he con- 
 sidered good reasons for not communicating 
 with me. I was sure he sincerely liked me, and 
 would not thus act, unless he desired to cover 
 his tracks. I respected his wishes and did not 
 afterwards refer to him. Desiring to work off 
 my anxiety I went to the river for a hard trial at 
 rowing. The man in charge of my boat handed 
 me a note written he said, by himself at Jim's 
 dictation. It simply said, " Mars Jack axes you 
 to take his canoe for yersef. He won't want it 
 no more. Good bye, sah, may de Lord be good 
 to you, for Mars Jack loved you. 
 
 his 
 
 Jim X Madison 
 mark"
 
 232 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 I soon learned to scull the outrigger called by 
 Jim, canoe, and used it for years, but its late 
 owner was seen by me no more in Cincinnati. 
 By degrees I ceased to expect him again. I 
 often thought of him, and a prayer for his hap- 
 piness, became a part of my nightly supplica- 
 tion, before the throne of grace.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Nearly a year after Felden's disappearance, I 
 was surprised by the following letter from him : 
 "Dear old Jamison : 
 
 I know you thought and think me a scape 
 grace, but when you read what I shall write, you 
 will forgive me as a simple madcap. To get you 
 into a proper state of mind, I will at once pro- 
 ceed a tale to unfold. 
 
 The day of my departure from Cincinnati, I 
 went tp the Burnett to discuss a business venture 
 with a guest of the house. He was in the din- 
 ing-room at 5 o'clock dinner. I sat by his side 
 discussing our business, when I was startled by 
 the tones of a voice near by. I sought it. 
 There just opposite to me the "brown shawl'' 
 was being seated. An elderly lady accompanied 
 her. 
 
 My vis-a-vis, was a young girl, not over eigh- 
 teen, but in every respect the woman I met in 
 '50, at the flower-show in Regent's Park. There 
 was one difference it is true in her coiffure ; as 
 I took it, the result of change of fashion. So 
 vividly was the photograph of years ago im- 
 pressed on my memory, and so exactly was it 
 copied, that the incongruity of time and added 
 years never crossed my brain. I was dazed by 
 
 233
 
 234 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 the sudden apparation of my dream. No thought 
 entered my mind that it was contrary to the laws 
 of nature, that a woman of 18 in '50 was still 
 only 18 now ; nor did the idea occur to me that 
 I was laboring under an hallucination, or was 
 the victim of mistaken identity. The woman I 
 had worshipped for long years was there before 
 me, in every feature the same as memory 
 pictured her. She was no older, and was altered 
 only as change of fashion had altered her. I 
 did not reason on the subject. 
 
 I overheard that the two ladies were on their 
 way to Boston ; and were to leave on the 7:30 
 train, going Bast. They examined a time table, 
 and speculated as to their stops for meals before 
 reaching their destination. The elder was ad- 
 dressed as "Auntie," the younger one as "Rita." 
 
 In an hour I was at the station with my lug- 
 gage. I saw them enter the cars, and knew 
 whenever they left it at eating stations. At Bos- 
 ton I made my cab driver follow their carriage 
 and took the number of the dwelling and the 
 name of the street. The next day I watched 
 the house. At noon Rita with a lady, both in 
 calling costume took a carriage at the door, and 
 Rita, for so I already called her in my thoughts 
 threw a kiss to a child who had followed them 
 from the house.
 
 THE OLD MAN'S STORY. 235 
 
 I determined this was her home, and felt no 
 longer any necessity for constant watching. To- 
 wards sundown I was was walking in the Com- 
 mon, where she and I met face to face. She 
 looked at me, but as one to her an indifferent 
 stranger. A girl, probably of five years was her 
 companion. While the latter sailed a toy boat 
 on the pond, the young lady sat on a seat not 
 far away. 
 
 The little girl dropped her hat in the water, 
 and called out, " Oh, Aunt Rita ! I've lost my 
 hat." They tried to reach it with her parasol. 
 I ran to a man raking grass, took his rake and 
 rescued the hat. When I put it on the child's 
 head, the aunt thanked me, with a smile that 
 was a ray of sunshine. Her voice, modulated to 
 express thanks, was simply music. 
 
 Resolved to take advantage of any and every 
 opportunity to make her acquaintance, I took 
 off my hat saying, "Pardon me, but we have met 
 before. It was in London, in 1850." 
 
 She replied, with a smile, "Your memory must 
 be wonderful, for at that time,I was let me see 
 and she counted the years on her fingers, "I was 
 then nine years old, and very small for my age." 
 I was dumbfounded, for as yet I had not thought 
 of the anachronism I had been guilty of. I said, 
 " it is strange' 1 my voice sounded hollow to my- 
 self "but a young lady, your very image, I met
 
 236 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 a dozen times, and what is stranger still, she wore 
 the self same brown shawl which covered your 
 shoulders at the Burnett house, a few days since." 
 She did not notice my allusion to the Burnett 
 house but burst out in a hearty laugh and clapped 
 her hands so loudly, that the little girl ran to her. 
 
 " I see it all," she cried ; " Minnie, my sister, 
 was in London that year, and wore that shawl. 
 Her picture was taken in it about the same time, 
 and when I grew up I was so wonderfully like 
 her, that she gave it to me ; when I fix my hair 
 as hers was, and put on that wrap, every one de- 
 clares the picture to be the very image of my- 
 self. 
 
 I had broken the ice rather unconventionally, 
 and was determined not to recede. I said "But 
 she was with her father and a little boy." I felt 
 I was treading on thin ice, but if it were not her 
 father, I would manage in some way to get out 
 of my mistake. 
 
 "Yes !" she replied. "Yes ! my poor dear 
 father and dear little Ralph were with her. I 
 was at school at home. Poor papa poor Ralph." 
 Her eyes became suffused. "Papa and Minnie 
 went abroad for brother Ralph's health. Poor 
 boy, he did not live to get home, and papa died 
 the next year." 
 
 It was not right, but I could not resist it. I 
 knew that grief admits a friend more readily
 
 THE OLD MAN'S STORY. 237 
 
 than gaiety, so I said: " Yes ! Ralph looked 
 very frail, but your father was the picture of 
 health. I was abroad after that for several 
 years and lost sight of them." 
 
 She paused a while, and then continued, 
 "dear papa was never sick, but his troubles broke 
 his heart and killed him. You know it was a 
 terrible thing to be cheated of all he possessed 
 by the man he thought his best friend." 
 
 I saw she had an idea, -I had known her father 
 and of his affairs. I was villian enough not to 
 undeceive her. What is more, I felt I had a 
 right to be free with this girl. I had worshipped 
 her sister for years, and in every land. She and 
 her sister were now become as one, and that one 
 was designed by nature for me. 
 
 The child ran up and pulled her hand. "Lets 
 go home, aunt Rita, I am hungry." 
 
 She arose, and nodding me a polite good even- 
 ing, said: 
 
 " I suppose you will come to see Minnie. 
 
 Her house is No. . My aunt and I are 
 
 visiting her." 
 
 I promised to do so, and passed a sleepless 
 night, racking my brain to discover some way 
 
 of getting into No. without taking advantage 
 
 of this sweet girl's unconventional innocence. 
 Could I tell a lie ? Would it be a lie to excuse 
 myself on the plea of having a slight acquaint-
 
 238 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 ance with the dead father? I lived a lie ; was 
 indeed a living lie, but I had as yet to my recol- 
 lection never uttered a direct one. 
 
 On the next day I called, asking for the la- 
 dies. I sent in a card with an assumed name 
 and wrote under it, "An acquaintance of years 
 ago." Rita and Mrs. Wilton, her sister, came in 
 together. I stood for several minutes speech- 
 less. There were the two sisters. Apparently 
 there was ten years difference in their ages, and 
 the disparity was patent. Yet I looked from 
 one to the other, and for a while was hardly able 
 to determine that it was the elder I had pre- 
 viously met. I hid my confusion. They seemed 
 never to question my having been a friend of 
 their father. Neither evinced the slightest emo- 
 tion when our eyes met. I had while abroad, the 
 entre of many noble houses. I used this fact as 
 a sort of credential and succeeded so well that 
 Mr. Wilton called at my hotel and invited me to 
 dine with his family. 
 
 The visit was repeated ; and I was well re- 
 ceived. I honored the wife but loved the young 
 sister. It seemed to me it was she I had been 
 carrying all of these years in my heart ; and I 
 did not stop to think what all this might lead to. 
 When I changed my skin in India I became the 
 man I pretended to be. I was the homeless Jack 
 Felden. I was madly infatuated, and what may
 
 THE OLD MAN'S STORY. 239 
 
 seem strange, while I trembled when I looked at 
 or touched the younger sister, I felt not a single 
 tremor, when the elder walked to a concert at 
 night with her hand on my arm ; not an emo- 
 tion, when she looked me in the face. I loved 
 her years ago, I loved her sister now because 
 she and her sister had become one, and that one 
 was the younger. 
 
 I watched Rita and could not find that I 
 aroused one single feeling of reciprocation in her 
 breast. I grew mad at the thought, and at uight 
 cried aloud in agony. Was it true could it be 
 true, that after all, I was nothing to this woman 
 who, I believed, was made for me? 
 
 I spoke one day of the episode at the flower 
 show, intimating nothing which could connect 
 them with it. Minnie told how she, too, once had 
 fallen in love the same way ; suddenly she 
 started and fixed her eyes on my black hair and 
 olive hue. The look seemed to recall her; she 
 had no suspicion. 
 
 I pondered on the thing. Years ago my 
 glance sent the blood crimson to her brow. The 
 sister now affected me as she had formerly done, 
 but I seemed to be nothing to her. I spent 
 sleepless nights trying to account for this. I 
 reached the conclusion at last that love passion- 
 ate love, was a physicial as well as a spiritual
 
 240 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 emotion ; that I was wearing a mask covering 
 niy true self, and to win Rita I must unmask. 
 
 I have told you I could remove and replace 
 my scar in a day, but to change the color of my 
 hair or complexion requires from four to six 
 months. I learned that Rita, with her aunt, 
 whom I did not meet, would return to their home 
 in Tennessee within a month, and she would 
 then be a village fixture for perhaps a year. I 
 grew madly jealous lest some one should love 
 and win her before I could appear properly be- 
 fore her. 
 
 I swore to have her, and when won, I felt sure 
 she would never change, but would wait and 
 wait until she could be mine. I bade the sisters 
 goodbye with a heavy heart all the heavier, 
 because on their part leave-taking was only 
 kindly. 
 
 I hurried to Cincinnati ; avoided places where 
 I could meet you ; gathered together my guns 
 and fishing-tackle, my cosmetics and wardrobe 
 sufficient for several months absence; arranged 
 my bank account and went to Chicago, where I 
 thought the Ethiopian might change his skin 
 without observation. Jim being able to read my 
 writing when in plain characters, was directed 
 to pack up all my valuables and to hold himself 
 in readiness to come to me at once on receipt of 
 a letter.
 
 THE OLD MAN'S STORY. 241 
 
 He and his wife finally joined me. I sent 
 him to Tennessee to learn the lay of the land in 
 the town in which Rita'a aunt resided. To escape 
 any difficulties a Northern negro might encounter 
 in a small Southern town, he went as a boat 
 hand on a steamer running from St. Louis ; 
 
 managed to get sick when was reached, 
 
 and was necessarily put ashore. In a month he 
 returned full of the information I desired. 
 
 I learned that the father of the two sisters, 
 Mr. Dixon, had been a wealthy merchant in one 
 of the large southern cities. He was an English- 
 man by birth and had lost his wife, a high-born 
 Spanish lady, when Rita was a small child. 
 They had no relations in America, except the 
 aunt, under whose care the youngest daughter 
 was living and upon whom she was dependent. 
 When the family was in England for Ralph's 
 health in '50, the partner of Mr. Dixon contrived 
 to raise a very large sum of money and de- 
 camped. Mr. Dixon reached home to find him- 
 self an absolute pauper. The blow prostrated 
 him, and in a few months he was laid beside his 
 wife. Rita had only a village education, but 
 was a great reader and a good musician. Her 
 aunt, Mrs. Allen, had been governess in a noble- 
 man's house in England, was literary and de- 
 cidedly uppish and withal intensely avaricious.
 
 242 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 Mr. Wilton was the Boston correspondent of 
 the ruined firm, and in the course of settling with 
 it met and won Minnie. Rita's aunt, or rather, 
 aunt-in-law, the widow of her father's only 
 brother, took charge of her and made her home 
 an unhappy one, not by direct unkindness, but 
 by her querulous, carping and sarcastic disposi- 
 tion and manner. She would long since have 
 gone .to her sister but for a dislike of Wilton, 
 who, though most kind to his wife, was a selfish 
 man, and had given his young sister-in-law some 
 great offense for which the Spanish blood, so hot 
 in her veins, forbade forgiveness. 
 
 I do not remember ever to have told you that 
 Jim Madison, the obedient servant and devoted 
 slave of his once master, is a man of great 
 native intellect. When a boy, I taught him to 
 read a little and in Cincinnati spent much time 
 trying to educate him. He was wonderfully apt 
 and occasionally with strangers uses good Eng- 
 lish, but with me and my intimates prefers to be 
 the negro servant and to use plantation language. 
 He is intensely loving, absolutely honest, and at 
 times startles me by an almost savage dignity 
 inherited through a short line from his African 
 forefathers. Reared among a thousand negroes, 
 for Clifton and Brandon people mingled almost 
 as if of one plantation jolly and light in his 
 heart, he courted popularity among his kind and
 
 THE OLD MAN'S STORY. 243 
 
 became one of the most astute diplomats. I 
 love him as my servant and honor him as a 
 true and honest man ; respect, and if he were 
 not my friend, would almost fear him as a shrewd, 
 self poised, ever alert diplomatist. I had known 
 his qualities before, yet the thoroughness of his 
 
 information brought me from amazed me. 
 
 He managed to get a job of sawing a load of fire- 
 wood and packing it in the aunt's yard, and from 
 that he became domiciled in a room over the 
 kitchen. With his open but shrewd honesty, he 
 became almost a confident of Miss Rita. 
 
 You who have never lived in the South cannot 
 understand how closely drawn together are kind 
 masters and mistresses and humble but faithful 
 servants. 
 
 The cunning Hindoo who gave me my raven 
 locks and olive complexion, gave me also in- 
 gredients to restore my original appearance more 
 rapidly than nature, unassisted, would do, and 
 at the same time, cosmetics, which would enable 
 me to conceal the change while going on. The 
 effects of the cosmetics were entirely temporary, 
 and easily removable. 
 
 When Jim returned, I was ready to reassume 
 my skin. When emerging from my bath one 
 morning, I was no longer Jack Felden, but John 
 
 of Clifton, . Jim and Dinah shed 
 
 tears of joy, crying together " Bress de Lord! oh
 
 244 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 brass de Lord its Mars John its liisself 
 shuah"; and they hugged me again and again. 
 
 Dinah sat down in a rocking chair and said, 
 " Come to Mammy, honey ; jes let Mammy nnss 
 her baby boy one more time, and I'se ready to go 
 to glory. 
 
 I lay my head on the loving creature's lap, 
 while she combed out niy hair and tried to curl 
 it around her fingers. The curls of my youth, 
 however, were gone forever. 
 
 When I looked into the glass, and saw my 
 changed appearance, a sudden revulsion of feel- 
 ing came over me. I was John : I was 
 
 the unhappy husband of my cold cousin. A 
 gulf arose between Rita and myself. How dare 
 I think of winning the love of that pure girl ! 
 I, who was bound by the law of man to another, 
 even though my reason and my heart told me, I 
 was free. So thoroughly had I ^identified my- 
 self with the character of Jack Felden, while 
 wearing his hair and complexion, that the recol- 
 lection of my real name and position was blurred. 
 It is true, my unfortunate marriage was never 
 entirely forgotten, but I felt myself a new man, 
 with new lights and different possibilities. The 
 husband of Belle had become an unreal shadow 
 the figment of a disordered imagination. The life 
 I had been living for years began in the Bengalee 
 village, when the cunning Hindoo made me a
 
 THE OLD MAN'S STORY. 245 
 
 stranger to my servant all before that was a 
 drearn. Now having laid aside my mask, I was 
 the dead man come back to life, with all his 
 memories -and his hated ties. 
 
 I took long walks at night out into the open 
 country. I fought the demon of memory ; I 
 fought the commands of conscience. But con- 
 science would not down. The blood spot would 
 not out. Despair filled me. 
 
 Aided by my temporary cosmetics, I again be- 
 came Jack Felden, but the change was only par- 
 tial. My glass told me I was he, my conscience 
 
 whispered, I was John . Mine was a dual 
 
 being. The hopes of the masquerader were de- 
 pressed by the fears of the real man. I decided 
 to send Jim to Clifton to learn something of Belle, 
 resolved if she were still clinging to her pride, 
 to speculate boldly to win a fortune and give 
 it to Rita as a restitution coming from her 
 father's swindler. 
 
 You know something of my success in Cin- 
 cinnati. Jim had been my lucky stone ; his 
 rheumatic limbs were my barometer, telling 
 me what the season would be from week to week, 
 and though I did not believe in it, I had specu- 
 lated on what his joints foretold and was now 
 the possessor of a fair competency I would 
 risk my all, court fortune's smile to make or 
 break. If fortune should favor me, all would be
 
 246 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 Rita's ; I would avoid her forever ; if the fickle 
 jade failed me, Jim and I could gain a livelihood 
 in new endeavors. 
 
 While shedding my skin, I had made several 
 small successful ventures in corn and wheat. 
 Jim and I put our heads together (or rather, I 
 put my head to his shins) and we arrived at con- 
 clusions, which should lead to wealth, or to pov- 
 erty. I put aside a couple of thousands for Jim 
 and Dinah, staking all the rest of my fortune 
 in margins. I won from the first. I pushed 
 my luck with reckless daring, turning my profits 
 into margins and new ventures. At the end of 
 two weeks, my means were doubled. 
 
 I was eating my dinner one of the best Dinah 
 ever prepared when Akbor and Queen watch- 
 ing me close by my chair, suddenly sprang up, 
 and rushed to the door whining and uttering 
 low barks. Jim entered, to be overthrown by 
 the delighted animals. Gathering himself up 
 quickly, he held out his hand to me, an unusual 
 familiarity, for Jim is my friend, yet my slavish 
 servant, and rarely loses the demeanor of the 
 servant. 
 
 " Bress de Lord, Mars Jack ; shout glory hal- 
 lelujer Dineh, you black niggar ! We'se free ! 
 and created equal as shuah as Torn Jeffersom 
 printed de declaratium !"
 
 THE OLD MAN'S STORY. 247 
 
 I made him sit down and tell his story. He 
 told me all he thought of interest regarding the 
 dear home of my childhood. 
 
 I tried to get him to the point on which I 
 most desired information, but he could not be 
 induced to alter the thread of his narration in the 
 least detail. Finally I learned that Belle, who 
 had gone abroad twelve months before, was to be 
 married in a month to an Italian Lord. 
 
 "Jess think of it Dineh git it through yo' 
 wool, ole gal. over dah dey calls men lords. I 
 don't wonnah dat Sodum and Gomorrah was 
 guv up to fire and brimstone. I specks dar 
 was lords in dem days. The reel Lord will make 
 Miss Belle a piller of salt shuah ! stick dat in 
 yo' craw, Dineh dar is one Lord, and he tells 
 us in de book, dat he am a jellus God." 
 
 Jim then spread before me a newspaper printed 
 
 in It announced, as a most important 
 
 event "That the beautiful and queenly Mrs. 
 
 Belle whose husband, Mr. John 
 
 had mysteriously disappeared in 185-, supposed 
 to have died of cholera in India, had become a 
 Catholic and was about to be married to the 
 
 Marquis of in Rome. Mrs. 
 
 had with hopeful love for her husband, for all 
 these years refused to credit the report of his 
 death ; even now, she was unwilling to act on in- 
 formation she had gained at great expense, from
 
 248 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 India ; information which every one else thought 
 thoroughly reliable. She had therefore applied 
 to the Pope for a dispensation ; that as soon as 
 the formalities necessary at the Vatican were 
 completed, she would at once become the Mar- 
 
 chionness of . The marriage was to 
 
 occur on the day Just one month from 
 
 the day of the publication of this paper." 
 
 Oh Jamison, old fellow, that was a happy 
 hour for me. I had that day closed very success- 
 ful deals. I was almost rich and could win and 
 wear Rita. I did not for a moment doubt she 
 would be mine, for I honestly believed her my 
 mate. All impatience to fly to her, I made an 
 arrangement to travel south for a Chicago firm, 
 to be paid out of commission alone. Jim in- 
 formed me that Rita's aunt sometimes rented 
 her front parlor and a bed-room attached, to 
 traveling men with samples; that it was a source 
 of much mortification to the niece, for the el- 
 derly lady was rich and had no children, rent- 
 ing the room out of pure avarice. I resolved to 
 lease it, for it would bring me close to Rita and 
 would arouse her animosity, out of which I would 
 snatch victory. 
 
 I washed every vestige of Jack Felden from 
 my hair and skin, but put a scar on my cheek, 
 which with a full beard and straight hair, I 
 thought would insure me against all recognition,
 
 THE OLD MAN'S STORY. 249 
 
 should chance bring me in contact with some 
 one I had known in early manhood. On reach- 
 ing , leaving my luggage and sample boxes 
 
 at the wharf, I went at once to the home of the 
 aunt; secured the rooms and agreed to pay a 
 large price for my breakfast and supper in the 
 house. Thus the best of treatment was secured, 
 for the avaricious old lady would try to keep me 
 as long as possible. 
 
 My first meal in the house, was supper. 
 When Rita came to the table, she scarcely 
 deigned to notice me. She disliked me for taking 
 the parlor. 
 
 Mrs. Allen, the aunt, was a screw, but she was 
 an epicure. Her old cook was an artist. Like 
 all genuine gourmets, the old lady was a table 
 talker, and a good one. I resolved to return 
 Miss Rita's disdain, by ignoring her presence, 
 and if possible to arouse her interest in me, 
 against her will. 
 
 When the aunt served me with tea, she said: 
 
 "Mr. Felden, there is a cup which I am sure 
 you cannot equal in Chicago. New made people 
 can soon become good judges of coffee, but a 
 connoiseur in tea must have blue blood in his 
 veins." 
 
 "I do not boast a long line of ancestry," I re- 
 joined, "but my palate must be the heritage of 
 good blood, for I enjoy the Chinese drink
 
 250 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 greatly, and am very particular as to the brand. 
 There is only one country in the world where 
 good tea is almost universal. A bad cup in Rus- 
 sia, I found the exception." 
 
 "Ah," she said, "but it is in England, that it 
 is always above the average." 
 
 "Yes," I acknowledged, "as a food, not as a 
 beverage. English tea is good to eat that is to 
 mix with, and wash down your muffins. In 
 Russia tea is a drink, and is even jealous of a 
 thing so coarse as sugar. I learned there to put 
 into my cup only a soupcon of sweet." 
 
 "You have been in the land of the Czar then, 
 have you?" 
 
 "I spent some time within his dominions," I 
 replied. 
 
 "You have been a traveler, then I suppose. 
 What other countries have you visited ? Pardon 
 my seeming impertinence, but I have found it a 
 good beginning to an acquaintance, to learn 
 where each has been. I have myself, wandered 
 considerably, but only in Europe." 
 
 "I have visited nearly every European land;" 
 I said, for I was determined to please her and at 
 the same time to win the attention of the niece, 
 who so far, had only noticed me by casual 
 glances, " have hunted the tiger in Indian jun- 
 gles and laved my limbs in holy Ganges among 
 its devotees."
 
 THE OLD MAN'S vSTORY. 25! 
 
 " Oh, how charming ! " the good lady ex- 
 claimed. " I thought I was getting only a lib- 
 eral lodger and I find I may be entertaining a 
 savant." 
 
 " To get myself on the best footing, dear 
 Madam," I rejoined," I will say I have straddled 
 the equator, and have used the Arctic Circle for 
 a trapeze." 
 
 She clapped her hands, saying, " That's capi- 
 tal, is it not, Rita ? What else, and where else, 
 Mr. Traveler ? " 
 
 " In Burmah I have ogled beauties with huge 
 cigars piercing the lobes of their ears, and have 
 worshipped Soudanise ladies closely veiled on the 
 upper Nile, awakening from my dream of adora- 
 tion to find the Yashmac of my divinities cover- 
 ing ebony coloured features." 
 
 " Go on, dear sir, go on, f am wrapt in pro- 
 found attention," and the old wizened eyes 
 sparkled with pleasure. 
 
 " I have been in ," I glanced at Rita, she 
 
 was listening with intense interest ; I grew 
 ashamed of the game and paused. But knowing 
 how a woman's nature clothes the mysterious 
 man in brightest garments, and is ready to find 
 the prince in beggar's raiment, I resolved to 
 show her a despised drummer, who had been in 
 all lands, and even an actor in wild and danger- 
 ous adventures.
 
 252 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 " I have crossed the dark teak forests of Siain, 
 where jungle fever kills its victims in a single 
 day, and escaped its venom by swallowing qui- 
 nine by the handful and by sleeping in the 
 houdah on my elephant's back. A single night 
 on the ground would have been death." 
 
 Rita changed her seat to become my vis-a-vis 
 and from then never removed her eyes from my 
 face. 
 
 I continued : " In Cambodia I lived a week in 
 a grand palace, surrounded by huge temples of 
 fine architectural beauty ; temples and palaces 
 covering a mile square; and excepting my ser- 
 vants, I was the only tenant of a magnificent lost 
 city. Trees were rooting on the friezes of noble 
 porticos and splitting their marble members 
 asunder. 
 
 " I was once caged-in a small cave near old Gol- 
 conda, and my guard of honor was a huge tiger, 
 who lay across the entrance to the den, and 
 strove to tear down the barricade I had erected 
 to keep him out. His fierce growls as he wildly 
 scratched against the granite wall, curdled the 
 blood in niy veins and his breath came hot upon 
 my face, the winding crevices in the barricade 
 permitting this, while not allowing me to shoot 
 through them. I sat rifle in hand, expecting 
 every minute that my protection would give way, 
 and then barely hoping that I might send a
 
 THE OLD MAN'S STORY. 253 
 
 bullet into the monster's brain. Finally the wall 
 toppled he crouched for the fatal spring, when 
 a shell from my faithful gun pierced his heart, 
 and I sank in a swoon from long excitement, and 
 physical exhaustion." 
 
 A sweet voice of intense emotion came across 
 the table. 
 
 "And and please tell me how long did you 
 lie in the swoon ?" 
 
 Ah, how I did long to press to my bosom that 
 dear, sympathetic heart ! 
 
 I replied, " I do not know, but when I came 
 to, I felt I was dying from thirst. I crept 
 through the opening and with the tiger's blood 
 not yet cold, moistened my parching tongue. I 
 lapped it in a sort of revenge." 
 
 " That was grand ! Oh, why am I not a man ?" 
 she exclaimed. 
 
 I leaned towards her, my heart spoke in tones 
 she did not mistake. " Thank God ! thank God ! 
 you are not." 
 
 She started, her eyes met mine, every drop of 
 blood seemed to leave her cheek, she was so pale ; 
 our eyes looked into our eyes. Her faqe crim 
 soned, and she rushed out of the room. 
 
 Mrs. Allen apolegetically " do not mind that 
 child, Mr. Felden, she's an idiot," and then, her 
 face became nearly malignant, " Yes, she's an 
 idiot, a plague and a nuisance."
 
 254 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 How I hated her ! How I gloated over the 
 idea, that I would take the plague from her, 
 resolved never to ask her consent. For several 
 days the young lady's manner was constrained 
 but not haughty. I wa.s differential but reserved. 
 Indeed I felt a sort of timidity when she was 
 present. I avoided every appearance of throw- 
 ing myself into her company. 
 
 I spent some time in the business quarter of 
 town and soon secured some capital orders for 
 my employers. This gave me real pleasure. 
 You, old Jamison, who are so true to your firm, 
 understand this feeling. I made excursions to 
 other towns where I was somewhat successful. 
 
 The fourth Sunday was a glorious sunny day, 
 just the one for a long ramble in the country. 
 
 At breakfast I asked Rita to join me in a con- 
 stitutional. The aunt spoke up, " Of course 
 she will, I would go myself, but my lame foot 
 forbids it." 
 
 I proposed going to the hotel to get a lunch. 
 
 " No ! No ! " the old lady said. " No ! I will 
 put you up a nice basket. In a few days you 
 will take me out for a long promenade a voiture." 
 I consented by a nod. 
 
 With basket in hand, we left the house 
 early. My companion wore a charming but 
 plain walking habit ; a boy's straw hat sat jaunt- 
 ily on her head. I was sure I had never seen
 
 THE OLD MAN'S STORY. 255 
 
 anything half so beautiful, as was this dark, yet 
 fair young girl. Rita was a glorious walker. 
 Hers was not the gliding swimming motion 
 which in America and especially in the South, 
 has been regarded as the ne plus ultra of female 
 grace ; but the light springing movement, with 
 which fair Eve tripped over Eden's bloom be- 
 spangled glens, when she gathered flowers of 
 every sweet odor and of every native tint to deck 
 her bridal bed ; when she tripped over nature's 
 parterres and scarcely brushed away the dews 
 sparkling on their wealth of fragrant bloom. 
 
 We walked and gaily chatted. She lost all 
 the reserve, which since I became an inmate of 
 her auntie's home had more or less marked her 
 demeanor. She was the young village maiden, 
 who had in artless innocence, at Bostoirs old 
 frog pond, laughingly talked with the respectful 
 stranger. But when our eyes met, her soul 
 spoke unconsciously through them, telling me 
 that she read my heart and was full of sym- 
 pathy. 
 
 We reached a high tree-clad bluff, which over- 
 looked a wide river bend. The sun was warm, 
 but sent upon us no burning rays ; rather shim- 
 mering his light through the leafy shade. 
 Across the stream, a broad bottom lay, waving 
 in grass and grain, and bright here and there 
 with opening cotton bloom. We sat side by side
 
 256 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 on a fallen tree, and drank in the beauty of a 
 picture painted from colors worked upon nature's 
 pallette. 
 
 We descended toward the river bank to a pretty 
 little spring which Rita had before oftentimes 
 visited. We partook of the lunch Mrs. Allen 
 had put up for us, or as Rita said, " for her gold 
 paying lodger, who was a traveled savant." 
 
 She made the welkin ring with her merry 
 laugh, as she took the wrapping paper from a 
 dusty bottle of claret. 
 
 " Oh ! my generous aunty ! see, here is genu- 
 ine Chateau Lafitte ! I knew she had it, but I 
 have seen a bottle of it but once on her table, 
 and that was when President Polk dined with 
 us, a good while ago. Poor aunty ! You have 
 surely bewitched her, Mr. Felden." 
 
 The lunch was delicious, and we did it ample 
 justice. " See, Mr. Felden, here is real spring 
 chicken broiled to a " T." Poor aunt; strangely 
 inconsistent aunty. A lavish miser ! a generous 
 lover of self ! A born epicure." 
 
 We wandered among little gorges : she was 
 happy, for she was a joyous young girl, set free 
 in nature's haunts. I was happy because by my 
 side was my own my Heaven given mate, the 
 rib taken from my long ago progenitor, and now 
 given back to me. Grown somewhat tired, we 
 sat upon the grass covered root of an upturned
 
 THE OLD MAN'S STORY. 257 
 
 tree. I said something, I remember not what, 
 my companion started ; I noticed and adverted to 
 to it. 
 
 u Mr. Felden, do you know you frequently 
 startle ine. I seem to hear in your voice a tone 
 I have heard before, or have listened to in my 
 dreams." I felt the hour had come. 
 
 " Miss Rita. I owe to you a confession. I am 
 not what I am." I spoke with all the pathos 
 practice among wild and dangerous people had 
 made me master of. 
 
 " Listen to me, Rita, pardon my familiarity: 
 but you will forgive me when I have finished." 
 
 I rapidily gave her the story of my life, and 
 dwelt upon the meeting with her sister at the 
 flower show, and the hold it took upon me. 
 Again she started, and was about to speak, when 
 with a motion, I stilled her tongue. I spoke 
 of my long wanderings, and then of my seeing 
 her at the Burnett and thinking her the lady of 
 the flower show. 
 
 I told her of my visit to Boston. The color 
 left her face, and she faltered out " I knew it 
 I see it now, you are Mr. Ford," and crimsoned 
 from neck to the roots of her glossy hair. 
 
 " Yes, Rita, I am John - . I am Jack Ford; 
 
 and now Jack Felden tells you that he loves you 
 
 he worships you and would make you his 
 
 wife and would be happy, would make you his
 
 258 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 wife, his Queen and would, too, make you 
 happy." 
 
 I paused and grasped her hand she did not 
 withdraw it. For a moment she was silent, and 
 then raising her dark confiding eyes to mine, 
 she said in low tones: 
 
 " Thank God, Jack, I have not dreamed and 
 prayed in vain. I will be your wife I will cling 
 to you through life, and will rest by your side 
 in death." 
 
 I drew her unresisting form to my heart, I 
 kissed her lips in one long kiss, and saw, within 
 the gates ajar, the paradise awaiting me. 
 
 We arose, and hand in hand, silent, but with 
 heart speaking to heart, walked slowly home- 
 ward. We scarcely spoke. Speech was un- 
 necessary. There was a silent communion of 
 souls, still, yet eloquent. We w r ere one. We 
 were as Adam, when first created, male and 
 female ; our simple reunion was bliss. 
 
 We are to start together next week for Bos- 
 ton, to be married in the presence of Minnie. 
 Mrs. Allen is glad to be freed from the expense 
 of Rita's outfit. She regrets that " a great 
 traveler, who ought to be wiser, can tie himself 
 down to a chit of a girl." I go to Chicago to- 
 morrow to close up my affairs, and to bring Jim 
 and his wife here. This climate will suit them 
 better than that of Chicago. We will halt in
 
 THE OLD MAN'S STORY. 259 
 
 Cincinnati long enough to see you, old fellow, 
 and when married we will go abroad for a year. 
 
 Congratulate me, dear Jamison, for I am the 
 happiest of men. Yours, never again to perpet- 
 uate a folly. JACK. 
 
 I, too, was happy, for I loved Felden as I had 
 loved no one since my wife and little ones went 
 to Heaven. 
 
 Imagine my astonishment, my terror, when 
 some weeks later, I received a short letter mailed 
 at St. Louis. 
 
 " Dear Jamison, my true and honest friend: 
 
 " Forget me forever ! Do not try to look me 
 up ; never inquire for me ; never again mention 
 my name. Henceforth I am dead to the world. 
 
 Your friend, JACK." 
 
 I did not try to understand these terrible lines. 
 I honored my friend and felt sure he had good 
 reasons for his request. I complied with his 
 demands, except one, I could not forget.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Years passed by, but brought no tidings from 
 Jack Felden. I made no inquiries for him; his 
 last request came to me as from the grave and 
 was sacred. Had we met on the street, I would 
 have passed him unheeded, unless the first ad- 
 vance had come from him. 
 
 I said no tidings came from him; that is, no 
 direct or positive tidings. 
 
 On the first of May following his letter, a case 
 of Chateau Lafitte, a jasmine turkish pipe and 
 six sealed cans of Ladikiyek tobacco came to my 
 room. Tacked to the box was an envelope con- 
 taining this message: " On the first day of May 
 and November of every year, drink to the health 
 of a lost friend who loved you. May the cares 
 of life lift from your heart as lightly as the 
 smoke curls from your chibouque." Regularly 
 after that, on November istand May ist, a case 
 of finest claret and a half dozen cans of Turkish 
 tobacco sent from a great wine house in New 
 York, was placed in my room by an express 
 messenger, and never after that did I fail to drink 
 in silence to my friend. Whoever sent the wine 
 and tobacco evidently kept note of my life, for 
 my residence was changed three times, once to a 
 distant city ; the messenger found me wherever 
 I was domiciled. 
 
 260
 
 THE OLD MAN'S STORY. 261 
 
 Not long after Felden's disappearance, the 
 troubles which had been brewing between the 
 North and the South broke out into open war. 
 Our house was among the first to close its busi- 
 ness as it was wholly dependent on Southern 
 trade. We paid up every dollar we owed and 
 both heads of the firm retired to the country. 
 Service was offered me under another firm, but 
 as I had become a part of the machinery of the 
 old house, I felt such a change would prove un- 
 congenial. 
 
 I volunteered in answer to Mr. Lincoln's first 
 call for troops and was sent into camp in Ken- 
 tucky. In a month I was sick and ordered dis- 
 charged by the surgeon. A complaint, hitherto 
 unknown to me, forbade active and hard work, 
 but the consolation was offered me that with 
 light, healthful exercise, generous food and 
 abstinence from any nervous strain, I might live 
 to old age. I was given a clerkship in the com- 
 missary department, and in '62 was transferred 
 to Washington city. When the war was over I 
 was retained in my position. Close confinement 
 affected my health. 
 
 One of my pleasantest memories was of a 
 summer spent in fishing and boating in the 
 neighborhood of Mackinaw. Something im- 
 pelled me to renew my old friendship with the 
 well-remembered scenes. After a brief stay on 
 
 o
 
 262 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 the island I became a denizen of a lumber camp 
 located a few miles from the rock which brought 
 me to your acquaintance. Alone in a light row- 
 boat which I had purchased at Buffalo on my 
 way up the lakes, a large part of each day was 
 spent on the water. 
 
 One bright day I anchored my boat near the 
 " Rock " I mentioned to you, on the boat coin- 
 ing from the Soo, and wandered in the woods 
 stretching behind it. The forest was of small 
 trees, with here and there an old timer spared by 
 the loggers. Every thing about me was wild, 
 and excepting stumps and upper members of 
 trees from which saw-logs had been removed, 
 there was nothing to indicate fellowship with 
 men. Emerging from a small ravine I came 
 upon an opening in the wood on the edge of 
 which was a cluster of three tents, one appar- 
 ently for the occupancy of a luxurious owner ; a 
 plainer one for servant or servants and a third 
 for a kitchen with a stove pipe projecting through 
 its apex. In front of the principal tent was a soi t 
 of porch or shed covered with light boards to 
 keep out the rain, and over-topped with boughs 
 giving it a sylvan character. 
 
 I walked toward the tent when a huge old 
 mastiff, fat and unwieldly, sprang toward me 
 with a bark and growl which brought me to a 
 sudden halt. The beast rushed toward me
 
 THE OLD MAN'S STORY. 263 
 
 angrily, but all at once paused and smelt about 
 me with his bristles erect. These, however 
 soon smoothed down and the dog whined as if I 
 was not unknown to him. A gentleman and 
 lady stepped from the large tent. Imagine my 
 intense surprise when I recognized before me 
 the stately form of Jack Felden. I repressed all 
 evidences of recognition and with a bow and low 
 apology was about to turn away, when Jack in 
 his old cheery tone, cried out : 
 
 " Don't go, Paul, chance has brought you to 
 me ; why old Akbar recognized you and wishes 
 you to stop ; come back ! " His words were 
 kindly and his tone almost loving. I ran to him 
 and for a moment our arms were about each others 
 shoulders and our eyes were moistened by tears. 
 The lady came forward, saying: 
 
 " It is Mr. Jamison, Jack, is it not? But I 
 need not ask, for no man, but you Mr. Jamison, 
 would be thus met by my husband." 
 
 We were soon seated before that tent in that 
 sweet intercourse which arises only between gen- 
 uine friends. It was difficult to realize that 
 years had elapsed since I had last seen Jack. He 
 was the same open hearted, genial and dignified 
 man. Shortly afterward, the dog got up lazily, 
 and trotting toward the little ravine, met a gray 
 bearded negro the Jim Madison who so dis- 
 turbed me on the lacking river. His pleasure
 
 264 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 at seeing me seated with Felden and his wife, 
 seemed unbounded. When I repeated to him 
 what I had told his master of my location in the 
 logging camp, he said, in a tone that showed the 
 thing was a matter of course : 
 
 " Well! Mars Jack, I'll jes' take de boat an' go 
 to de camp an' fotch Mr. Jamison's things over." 
 
 Jack laughed, a Yes, Jim, your hospitality has 
 only run ahead of mine. Jamison must come 
 and make his home with us in 'Big Rock Camp.' ' 
 
 Before night I was in possession of Jim's tent 
 and he had fixed his cot in a corner of the 
 kitchen. We spent the next few days fishing, 
 walking and talking. The late afternoons and 
 evenings were delightful. Jack sang gloriously 
 to the guitar, and his wife could discourse 
 charming music from that most inharmious of 
 instruments, the banjo. She had a rich con- 
 tralto voice and sang with what is higher than 
 all art exquisite tenderness and deep feeling. 
 
 Jack was usually as gay as I had ever known 
 him, but occasionally his face had a tinge of in- 
 tense sadness, which he evidently struggled to 
 suppress. This expression was never shown in 
 his wife's sight. With her he was a rolicking, 
 joyous man, and every act and word showed him 
 a loving, an idolatrous husband. But when her 
 back was turned he occasionally regarded her 
 with a look of such pain that my heart went out 
 toward him and ached for him.
 
 THE OLD MAN'S STORY. 265 
 
 About a week after my arrival Jack and I were 
 fishing at some distance from the camp, our low 
 conversation had nagged, when he suddenly said : 
 " Mr. Jamison, you must have thought me a 
 brute all of these years." 
 
 I quickly responded, u No, Jack ! I never 
 doubted you had good reasons for your silence, 
 and nothing would have tempted me here had I 
 dreamed I would meet you." 
 
 a I am so glad you came ! I have wanted to 
 see you more than you can think." His voice 
 was exquisitely modulated while saying this. 
 
 " I wish now to tell you every thing. Rita 
 wishes me to do so. Your great discretion will 
 teach you how far you must hereafter be reticent 
 in her presence. The one great object of my 
 life is to save her pain to make her happy." 
 
 " When I wrote you my long letter I was 
 about to be married and was to call to see you 
 on our way to Boston; am I not right?" I 
 nodded. 
 
 " Well, in a week Rita received a letter from 
 her sister saying she was not well, and suggest- 
 ing that it would be better we should be married 
 in Tennessee. This letter altered our plans. A 
 few days later a dispatch came from Wilton, 
 telling us, that poor Minnie had died suddenly, 
 she and her baby at the same time. Mrs. Allen 
 was a great stickler for what she called the pro-
 
 266 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 prieties of life, and though she had not in her 
 heart a spark of affection for her nieces, she in- 
 sisted our marriage should be postponed for at 
 least three months. 
 
 Rita had been in her care since childhood ; it 
 is true the care was of no gentle kind, but she 
 was grateful and did not wish to displease her 
 Aunt. I went to Chicago to get my affairs into 
 shape. Before the time I was to have returned, 
 my darling wrote me that her shrewd worldly- 
 wise Aunt had become suddenly alarmed by the 
 shape political matters were rapidly taking ; had 
 determined to convert all she owned into money 
 and to go to her relatives in England for the 
 remainder of her days. The dear girl begged 
 me to come to her as soon as possible. Her wish 
 was my law. I started the next day ; for I had 
 acquired the habit of being always ready for a 
 change of base. 
 
 Reaching I found the shrewish old wo- 
 man up to her eyes in affairs. I lent her all the 
 assistance possible, and in one month she was 
 ready for her departure. With her and another 
 for witnesses, Rita and I were made one. She 
 dowered her niece with five thousand dollars, 
 kissing her most decorously on the forehead. In 
 a half hour after the ceremony she started north, 
 and we west. Her last words were, "Adieu ! 
 Don't write to me. If I ever care to hear from
 
 THE OLD MAN'S STORY. 267 
 
 you I will Vrite." She thus passed out of our 
 lives and we know not whether she be alive or 
 dead. 
 
 My bride and I went to Memphis and thence 
 to St. Louis. We were absolutely happy. The 
 world was bright and rosy to us both. My wife 
 was, as fully as I, imbued with the belief that 
 we were mated, dovetailed together ; were as 
 thorough!}' one as Adam or Shiva were one, be- 
 fore Eve or Parvati were taken from them. 
 
 Possessed as we were of perfect health, physi- 
 cally we might have been models to an artist for 
 robust, untainted manhood and womanhood. 
 Not a cloud necked our sky not a shadow, we 
 thought, could possibly lurk beneath the hori- 
 zon. At St. Louis, the day after our arrival, we 
 had been out for a walk and on returning I went 
 to the hotel reading room, while Rita gaily 
 tripped up stairs toward our room, kissing her 
 hand to me from the upper landing. I picked 
 up a paper, chance-dropped by some traveller, 
 published in the town near my home ; the same 
 which Jim had brought me with the announce- 
 ment of Belle's marriage. Almost the first 
 thing I saw was an editorial statement that " the 
 
 marriage between the beautiful Mrs. Belle 
 
 and the Marquis of in Rome had been 
 
 positively and permanently abandoned." My 
 eyes were riveted to the horrible column. It
 
 268 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 continued : " The proud uncrowned Queen of 
 - discovered before it was too late, the titled 
 groom desired the gems and gold in the bride's 
 strong box, far more than the jewels and pure 
 metal so effulgently shining in her form and 
 rich in her character, etc., etc." I was stunned 
 my blood stood still in my heart. I leaned over 
 upon a table and was blind from intense agony. 
 I thought of my own misery, but Great God ! 
 what would become of my poor wife ! My limbs 
 seemed powerless ; I did not move until a light 
 hand rested upon my head. 
 
 My wife had come down to find me. " Oh, 
 darling, what is it, what is it? 1 ' I took her 
 hand and slowly staggered to our room. I knelt 
 at her feet. I prayed her to forgive me. I hid 
 my face in her lap and sobbed as a broken 
 hearted child. She smoothed my hair and for 
 some minutes with sweetest of all sympathy let 
 my grief flow. Then she lifted my head. 
 " Tell me what it is, my husband." 
 I looked into her dear pale face and cried, " I 
 cannot I cannot break your heart, my poor 
 wife." 
 
 " Break my heart, darling ! It can never 
 break while it has yours to dwell in." 
 " But," I gasped, "we must part." 
 " Part 1 part ! Oh, God! Jack ! what is it 
 you say? part! no, no! Never, never!" She
 
 THE OLD MAN'S STORY. 269 
 
 was as colorless as the lace about her neck. I 
 then told her all. 
 
 When I had finished, she laid her arm around 
 my neck, drew my cheek to hers, and said in a 
 firm, brave voice, " No, Jack, my darling, we 
 will not part. I am your wife, wedded in Hea- 
 ven. God was witness to our betrothal under 
 the open sky. God w.as sponsor to our marriage. 
 We are man and wife and no man or woman can 
 ever separate us. I am your Eve darling and 
 with vou would live in Eden, but if driven out, 
 
 ^ / 
 
 I will be by your side and wherever we go, there 
 will be my paradise. You have not offended the 
 law. You thought yourself free and no one can 
 blame you." 
 
 I pressed her to my heart and cried, " My 
 Rita, my noble Rita ! " 
 
 " No, no ! Jack, I am your Rita, but not your 
 noble Rita. I am simply a woman ; I am your 
 wife and do no more or no less than any loving 
 woman should do." 
 
 We resolved to go to Chicago, to live in seclu- 
 sion while I should do all I could to increase my 
 fortune, and then we would go off to some far off 
 land, where there could be no possibility of hav- 
 ing scandal's finger pointed at us. I then wrote 
 you to forget me. 
 
 I again became Jack Felden, and my wife 
 learned to like my olive hue and my dark hair
 
 270 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 better than my natural complexion. Chicago 
 became our home. I courted fortune on change. 
 For a while I was but indifferently successful. 
 One year on almost the last day of August, Jim 
 hurriedly entered my office saying: 
 
 " Mars Jack, your time is come. My ole 
 ankles tells me thar will be a killing frost dis 
 night; the corn will be cotched. I knows what 
 I tells you. I run all way down town to tell you. 
 Go out now, dis very minit, an' buy all de 
 corn you can carry ; put your las' dollar up and 
 make a fortune. You'll win, Mars Jack ; if you 
 fails, you kin sell me fora ole grinnin possum." 
 
 The honest face of my old friend was ashy 
 from excitement. With one word "Jim I'll do 
 it," I went on the board and before night nearly 
 every dollar I owned on earth was up in margins 
 oil corn. That night there was a frost, corn 
 went up several cents ; this gave me additional 
 margins, and I risked all. One month later I 
 had cleared a handsome fortune. 
 
 The next year Rita and I went abroad to re- 
 main for two years. A boy was born to us in 
 Egypt. We wanted Jim and Dinah to see him. 
 For though they were our servants, we loved 
 them as our best friends. I knew how Dinah 
 would yearn to hold little Jack on her bosom ; to 
 live over in her deep loving fancy the days when 
 her baby John drew his life from her breast.
 
 THE OLD MAN'S STORY. 271 
 
 She had prayed that Miss Rita would let her 
 nuss Mars John's Baby. She never saw him. In 
 London he was exhaled as a dew drop. It was 
 a sad blow ; but my wife did not grieve as I 
 feared she would. 
 
 She said " it is best Jack. He would have been 
 nameless in the eyes of the law. We will live 
 for each other." It would have been better had 
 she shed more tears ; for there are times when 
 her very fortitude alarms me. 
 
 We returned to Chicago. Rita was quietly 
 happy in her little secluded home. I am always 
 happy, when her face is unclouded. 
 
 My disguise as Jack Felden precludes any 
 ambition either social or otherwise. Our little 
 family lives for each other, and is perfectly 
 satisfied to know only a few necessary acquaint- 
 ances. We go to theatres and concerts and keep 
 ourselves abreast of progress and of life. We 
 are school teachers, Jim being our pupil. His 
 life is inwoven with ours. We are both fond of 
 books. People we often meet at places of amuse- 
 ment and on our drives look at us inquiringly, 
 and occasionally some have tried to break into 
 our seclusion. We have met the kindly ad- 
 vances courteously, but continue to live within 
 ourselves. Our city being made up of people 
 new to each other, makes this easy.
 
 272 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 Once in New York at the opera I saw Belle ; 
 she was the admired occupant of a box. Her 
 opera glass was bent upon us several times. I 
 think she recognized her acquaintance of the 
 New Orleans ball-room. She was still queenly, 
 cold, and I could see selfishness had laid its mark 
 upon more than one of her perfectly modeled 
 features. She was still the proud rich widow. 
 
 Rita looked at her through her glass, and said 
 to me "Jack dear, look at that magnificent 
 blonde ; she is perfect in form, and her features 
 are faultless, but she could never be a follower 
 of the Buddh ; she could tread the life out of 
 living beings, and care not if she only did not 
 soil her skirts." With that she turned so as not 
 to see her again. I kept my counsels. Belle 
 was not again referred to. 
 
 Last spring Rita lost a little girl at its birth; 
 she did not recuperate. The Doctor advised a 
 tent life for the summer. Dinah was not well 
 enough to accompany us. If Rita be not fully 
 recovered by the middle of autumn, we will go 
 to the upper Nile. I have an idea its climate 
 must prove beneficial to her. 
 
 As I said, we keep to ourselves ; at first, feeling 
 it necessary because we were over a social vol- 
 cano, but lately from choice. I cannot help 
 thinking that Belle will some day grow weary 
 of her widowed life and will make me free ; she
 
 THE OLD MAN'S STORY. 273 
 
 can get a decree of divorce, I cannot. I would 
 not commit a fraud to win one, and she would 
 not permit me to obtain it otherwise. Now 
 Jamison, you know why I have so long neglected 
 you." 
 
 ' Yes, Jack, I not only know, but fully ap- 
 preciate your feelings, and though I try to be a 
 religious man, I cannot blame you for your 
 course." -With that he pressed my hand in 
 warm and grateful affection." 
 
 Felden seemed to have told all he wished to 
 tell at that time. That there was something 
 still untold, I suspected.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 That night, never to be forgotten by me, we 
 were kept entirely within doors, by a deluging 
 rain. The winds shrieked through the groan- 
 ing trees. The thunder rolled in constant and 
 awe inspiring reverberations. The lightning 
 kept the tent in a continuous blaze. Thoroughly 
 protected, we were silenced by the awful voice of 
 the tempest. A storm is never so grand as to 
 the occupants of a tent in a wild forest, one 
 seems then so close to Him who rides the winds 
 and speaks in the roar of the thunder. 
 
 Just as nature seemed wearied of the intense 
 exertion, the old mastiff sprang up with a growl 
 and rushed toward the tightly closed tent door. 
 
 The curtain was drawn aside, when he sprang 
 out into the night, and was soon in pursuit of 
 some wild animal, evidently of considerable size, 
 for we heard its flying tread in the darkness. 
 When the storm abated, Jim reported that a 
 fine mess of bass we had caught just before dark 
 had been stolen. Mrs. Felden expressed regret, 
 for several of the fish had been taken by her. 
 Jack laughingly offered to go down to the Rock 
 at day break, and bring back a mess in time for 
 breakfast at seven. 
 
 When I awoke, the next morning the sun 
 was quite high in the heavens. Mrs. Felden 
 
 274
 
 THE OLD MAN'S STORY. 2/5 
 
 and Jim were already out, and evinced some im- 
 patience, because Jack had not returned with the 
 promised breakfast. When seven o'clock came, 
 the wife sent the old man to call her husband 
 home, fish or no fish. 
 
 "Tell him," said she, "that the storm has 
 made us ravenous." 
 
 When Jim also failed to return in due time, 
 Mrs. Felden became alarmed and asked me to 
 follow him. I set out, and although the ground 
 was sopping wet, she joined me, in spite of my 
 gentle remonstrances. We soon met Jim hurry- 
 ing towards us. His face was of an ashen hue. 
 
 "Where is Jack, Jim Oh where is my hus- 
 band?" shrieked the mistress, as she rushed past 
 the negro toward the water. 
 
 The man caught her arm, "Stop Miss Rita, 
 stop Miss Rita, fer de Lord sake stop. I'll tell 
 you, Miss Rita, please stop." 
 
 She tried to tear herself from his grasp. "Oh 
 my God, he's dead my husband is dead. Tell 
 me Jim, where is my husband?" 
 
 The negro forced her down on a boulder, and 
 catching her hand covered it with tears and 
 kisses. "Miss Rita, my dear Misses, be good 
 an' I'll tell you all." She attempted in vain to 
 arise, for a powerful arm held her firmly, but 
 gently back.
 
 276 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 I sat by her side, and lay my hand soothingly 
 on her shoulder, saying "Tell her, Jim, she is 
 a brave woman and can bear the Lord's will. 
 Tell her all." 
 
 The negro's face showed oniy too plainly that 
 her worst fears were true. "Miss Rita I'll tell 
 you all. Be a good chile Miss Rita; jess be 
 Mars Jack's wife, Miss Rita, an' I'll keep nothin' 
 back." 
 
 "I will Jim tell me the worst;" she uttered 
 between choking sobs. 
 
 In a voice of intense grief and solemnity, Jim 
 then said, "Be a good chile, Miss Rita; be de wife 
 of de grandes' man what ever lived; Jim Madi- 
 son never tole his marster an' mistis a lie. God 
 is good, Miss Rita; his ways is unscrubable; he 
 knows whats bes', for his chilluns. He wanted 
 Mars Jack hisself ; he done took him to his side. 
 Mars Jack's drownded." 
 
 A wild shriek rang through the woods a 
 shriek of agony which caused the blood to run 
 cold in my veins. The bereaved woman stared 
 into vacancy, as though seeking her husband's 
 form. She arose from her seat almost rigid, and 
 without a word, fell in a dead swoon at our feet. 
 So still did she lie and so long, that I feared she 
 had passed away. 
 
 After a quarter of an hour, as it seemed to us, 
 Mrs. Felden recovered a semi-consciousness
 
 THE OLD MAN'S STORY. 277 
 
 staring first at one of us and then at the other 
 with piteously questioning eyes. When the 
 horrible reality again dawned upon her awaken- 
 ing mind, the forest was filled with heart rend- 
 ing cries, silence only coming when she once 
 more fainted away. I chafed her hands while Jim 
 ran to the tents for camphor and brandy. We 
 bathed her face and neck; fanned her; poured 
 brandy between her parted lips did all that 
 suggested itself to our terrified minds. The 
 swoon lasted so long that we had almost aban- 
 doned hope, when she breathed and opened her 
 eyes they were vacant. 
 
 She wept no more, but in low sweet tones 
 murmured "Jack darling, don't be lonesome; I 
 will come to you! Yes, Jack, I'll come." 
 
 These were repeated again and again, as we 
 bore her to the tents and laid her on her bed. 
 She immediately fell into a sleep lasting for 
 hours, and only interrupted by sobs and moans. 
 I watched by her bedside while Jim went off 
 saying he had work on hand which must be 
 done at once. When the poor lady awoke and 
 looked into my face, I thanked the Giver of all, 
 that she was herself again in mind, though her 
 strength seemed quite broken. 
 
 Upon Jim's return she said in tones so calm, 
 so gentle and so full of deep suffering, that they
 
 278 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 pained me almost as much as had her more ac- 
 tive grief : 
 
 "Sit down Jim and tell me all about it. You 
 said you would tell me all. You see I am calm. 
 You see I can bear anything everything 
 bravely." 
 
 He replied in his simple caressing manner, 
 "not ter day, my chile, you jes eat an' sleep an' 
 git strong; ter morrer I'll tell you everything. 
 You'se weak now, Miss Rita, wait till ter 
 morrer." 
 
 "I will Jim." She hardly spoke again during 
 the day or following night. 
 
 When he brought her supper, she tried like 
 an obedient child to eat all he urged upon her, 
 saying in answer to his words of encouragement, 
 "Yes, Jim; I must eat and be strong. I need all 
 my strength." 
 
 When at dark, she seemed to sink into sleep 
 the negro and I sat outside the tent so that we 
 could watch within, but far enough off we 
 thought, to prevent our conversation reaching 
 her ears. 
 
 He then told me that on going to the rock in 
 the morning he saw that a large part of it weigh- 
 ing a ton or more, had fallen since the day before 
 into the deep water at the precipice's base ; there 
 had been a thin crevice or fissure running through 
 the rock, in which a few vines and small bushes
 
 THE OLD MAN'S STORY. 279 
 
 had taken root. Into this crack the heavy rain 
 of the night had swept, eating away the last 
 puny tie which held the two parts together. 
 Jack's weight in the morning was too much 
 for it. 
 
 Jim found his rod floating at the base, the 
 hook having caught on a small bush growing 
 nigh. About half way down a part of his coat 
 sleeve was hanging to a rough corner of the 
 jagged rock. As the falling man went down on 
 the broken mass, he had evidently clutched at 
 the projection; had wrapped his arm about it, 
 but had in some way been caught and forced 
 downward tearing the sleeve from the arm. 
 
 Jim who was a keen observer, understood at 
 once that his master was down below among the 
 ruins of the fallen mass. He threw off his 
 clothes and dived to the bottom. In the second 
 dive he discovered what he sought. He found 
 his master's body lying on its back, held and 
 pinioned by a massive stone weighing tons. Af- 
 ter making this discovery, he had returned to 
 meet us. But while his mistress slept in the af- 
 ternoon, leaving me to watch by her side, he had 
 again visited the Rock. He wore heavy flannels 
 to protect himself as much as possible from the 
 chilly water. 
 
 He found the body above the knees was free. 
 He tried to draw it out, only to learn to his
 
 280 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 sorrow, that it could not be removed except by 
 rending it from the lower limbs. The bottom 
 was of gravel so compacted as to be nearly as 
 hard as stone. The dead man had been caught 
 below the knees in a recess or depression in the 
 falling rock. Jim expressed great joy that this 
 depression while holding his master's limbs as 
 in a vise, had protected them from being 
 crushed. 
 
 "We'll cut up de wings of de kitchen tent an' 
 sew 'em tergedder three or fo' thick wid twine, 
 and spread 'em over Mar's Jack an' den I'll put 
 rocks on de canvas, an' down thar under de 
 clean water it '11 stay till de blessed Jesus calls 
 his chilluns home." 
 
 I expressed great gratification that he had 
 thought of this, and suggested that he could 
 send for some loggers to give us aid. 
 
 He quickly stopped me. " No ! No ! Mr. Jam- 
 ison ! Mars Jack's been wearin' masks all dese 
 long years. He's been hidin' from men. No 
 man must' know his las' restin' place. No man 
 but you an' me." 
 
 I honored this tender solicitude for his master's 
 secret and at once acquiesced, telling him that, 
 when Mrs. Felden's condition would admit of 
 our both leaving her, I would aid him in his 
 pious endeavors.
 
 THE OLD MAN'S STORY. 28 1 
 
 " Dat's right Mr. Jamison, me an' you must 
 nuss dat darlin' chile you an' me an' her an' 
 Dinah knows his secrut. You an' me an' her an' 
 Dinah mus' keep his secrut to our graves. If 
 eny body helps us here, de officers and de news- 
 papers '11 be sticking dar oar in. I'd ruther see 
 you an' Miss Rita down dar along side 'er Mars 
 Jack, dan anybody should meddle in his matters." 
 
 He said this in subdued tones, but there was 
 on his face a gleam of almost savage determina- 
 tion. 
 
 The next day Mrs. Felden was perfectly calm ; 
 her mind apparently clear, but there was a far 
 away expression in her eyes that gave me un- 
 easiness. 
 
 When Jim had removed the little breakfast 
 table from her bedside, she said, " I am strong 
 to-day, Jim ; see how calm I am. I can hear and 
 bear everything, as my husband's wife should 
 do." 
 
 He told her all he had discovered, to the min- 
 utest detail. He controlled his voice and man- 
 ner so as not to show the deep emotion with 
 which his loving heart was almost breaking. 
 His voice was low, sweet, and sympathetic. 
 Having finished his account, he said, " Now 
 chile, be a brave good ornan. 'Member what a 
 great big man Mars Jack was, an' how he loved 
 his wife mor'n hisself. He's up thar, Miss Rita;
 
 282 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 his eyes is clar, for Jesus is by his side and 
 makes him see everything ; he sees you dis 
 minit, an' knows you'll soon be beside 'im. 
 Don't let him see you misejr.ble." 
 
 Mrs. Felden's calmness astonished me. She 
 listened in silence ; tears rolled down her cheeks ; 
 her breast heaved with low deep sighs, but there 
 was a strange light in her eyes, which looked 
 afar off, and seemed to see her husband as the 
 man described him. When the faithful negro 
 had finished, he had her hand in his. For long 
 minutes she uttered not a word. Her spirit was 
 in that far off land beyond the skies or more 
 probably at the foot of the rock. We watched 
 her in silence. 
 
 At last she said, "Jim is right, Mr. Jamison. 
 If my husband could speak to us now, he would 
 bid us keep his secret." Her keenly atuned 
 ears had evidently overheard Jim when he so 
 urgently insisted that no one should help us. 
 
 " No one must know what has happened no 
 one but ourselves ; we must do all. I will help 
 for I am strong now. A few loggers have 
 passed our camp, if they come again and make 
 any inquiries, they must be made to believe my 
 husband has gone away, and that he is coming 
 back. No human being must ever know our 
 grave " she quickly added," " where he sleeps."
 
 THE OLD MAN'S STORY. 283 
 
 She paused, her face brightened with unnatu- 
 ral light, and with a voice of exquisite sweetness, 
 she whispered, " sleep well Jack ! sleep well my 
 husband, your wife will soon be with you." 
 
 Jim at once proceeded to his task. He asked 
 me to row to the nearest store, for some sea- 
 grass cord, and all the chains I could buy, with- 
 out arousing suspicion. 
 
 I found no difficulty in completing my share 
 of the preparations. Jim, in the meanwhile, 
 made two sheets eight to nine feet square, 
 and of four thicknesses of strong canvas, 
 cutting up the wings of the tents for the pur- 
 pose. We carried in the large boat, several 
 hundred weight of boulders, as heavy as we 
 could handle, to the shore near where poor 
 Felden lay. These were to anchor down, for all 
 time his last winding sheet. Two log chains 
 were fastened securely around the edges of the 
 canvas sheets ; a mass of strong boughs were 
 made ready for anchoring over and around the 
 watery grave, so that accretions of sand and 
 gravel collected and held by them, would guard 
 Jack's body securely and well.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 We determined that as soon as these last ser- 
 vices to the dead should be concluded, we would 
 at once strike the camp and return to Chicago. 
 When the labors required the strength of both 
 Jim and myself, Mrs. Felden accompanied us. 
 I was unwilling to leave her alone. Her calm- 
 ness rather alarmed than assured me. It was 
 the calmness, not of resignation, but of despair. 
 When all was as I thought, in readiness, Jim 
 asked me to get several bags of shot; I remem- 
 bered afterwards, he did not state for what pur- 
 pose they were needed. 
 
 On my return before night, I noticed him and 
 his mistress talking apart from me more than 
 usual. She had, too, strangely altered. Instead 
 of the look of agonized calmness worn by her 
 face for the past few days, her appearance was 
 almost cheerful. I could not help wondering, 
 if after all this woman, apparently so passionate 
 and intense, was of the shallow ones of her sex. 
 She seemed to enjoy her dinner which was late, 
 and ate more heartily than I had known her 
 ever to eat before. 
 
 She retired early. Jim and I sat up rather 
 late ; he seemed loth for me to gp to bed. When 
 he retired, I lay awake for hours pondering over 
 
 284
 
 THE OLD MAN'S STORY. 285 
 
 the change in Mrs. Felden. Wearied at last, 
 a profound slumber overcame me. 
 
 I awoke in the morning to see the sun already 
 several hours high. Jim was engaged in setting 
 breakfast. I took a short walk. He soon blew 
 the whistle it was the call to meals. Mrs. 
 Felden did not come out of her tent. There 
 was only one plate on the table. To my enquir- 
 ies, if she were not coming, he simply answered 
 that I would eat alone. I had slept so well 
 during the night that my appetite was good, and 
 I did full justice to the meal. In. answer to my 
 question whether Mrs. Felden would not like 
 something, the negro seated himself before me, 
 the first time I had ever known him to do so of 
 his own volition, and said, " Mr. Jamison, Miss 
 Rita '11 eat no more. She lies by Mars Jack in 
 the deep water. Her soul is wid his at de foot 
 of de Throne of Grace ; de blessed Jesus I be- 
 lieve has brushed away her las' sin, if it wur a 
 sin de las' and almos' only one she ever done." 
 
 The truth flashed across my mind at once. I 
 sprang to my feet, and in angry horrified tones 
 demanded "Jim, has Mrs. Felden drowned her- 
 self, and you have done nothing to prevent her 
 mad act ?" 
 
 " Yes, Mr. Jamison, Miss Rita my mistress, 
 who I loved nex' toniy maister, is gone ter God, 
 an' I seen her go, an' ain't lifted a finger or said
 
 286 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 a word fer ter stop 'er an' inore'n that I lielpt 
 her. 
 
 "Jim Madison, yon are a murderer ! " I cried 
 in anger. The negro arose. His eyes dilated 
 and his form seemed to expand. His demeanor 
 lost every vestige of the servant. He stood be- 
 fore me a man, black, but of over-powering dig- 
 nity. His face was stern, but not angry. From 
 his six feet, he seemed to look down upon me ; 
 he spoke to me ungrammatically, but in words 
 almost free from negroism, save in the intonation 
 of his voice. He was my equal, and seemed to 
 feel himself my superior. The servant had de- 
 parted, and in his place was a man, a man 
 whose every look and gesture bespoke virile 
 power and self-confidence. 
 
 " Mr. Jamison, your words an' indignation 
 ain't uncalled for. In your eyes I am a aider in 
 murder. In my eyes what I done wus right. 
 You try to be a Christian gentleman, Mr. Jami- 
 son, an' I ain't ever seen a single act to make 
 me doubt your goodness. I've professed Christ, 
 and I want to walk in the paths He laid for me, 
 an' as far as a sinful man can, to be a follower 
 of Jesus. If the Saviour '11 forgive my old sins, 
 I ain't got no fear he will hole me to account for 
 what I done, an' seen done to-day. 
 
 "Mr. Felden told me the day before he died, 
 that you k no wed everything about him but one
 
 THE OLD MAN'S STORY. 287 
 
 fact. If the Lord could 'er spared him he'd 'er 
 told you all. 
 
 " The las' day he lived he couldn't help feelin' 
 that some great misfortune was comin'. He told 
 me that if anythin' happened to him to get you 
 to be a frien' to his wife ; if anything happened 
 to 'em both, that you an' me was to be friens in 
 all things. He didn't tell you he feared his wife's 
 mind hung on a hinge, an' it might be easy 
 broken ; that fear made him so keerful of her. 
 He's been afeared ever since little Jack died in 
 Lun tmii, les' some sudden shock might drive her 
 out her head. He said if he los' her he had 
 some duties to perform for the colored race which 
 gave him his two trues' friens, an' if him an' 
 Miss Rita both died I was to do it. If it wasn't 
 that- I knowed I ought to carry out his plans, 
 I'd wish I was by his side at the bottom of the 
 lake. 
 
 "When Miss Rita found whar her husban' 
 laid, she wanted to go to his side. You 'member 
 how calm she got. It was 'cause she made up 
 her min' and was at peace. She tole me what 
 she wanted. I knowed she'd carry it out. To 
 her mine it wus right. Her mind you'll say 
 wusn't balanced. But who can prove it ? I'd 
 er killed any man who tried to steal her liberty, 
 and to lock her up."
 
 a88 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 His eyes gleamed as if the blood of his savage 
 African ancestors was surging in his heart. "She 
 asked me to help 'er ; what could I do ? If I 
 refused, she'd go alone. If we used force here to 
 prevent her, she'd come back, an' then she 
 couldn't reach him to clasp him in her arms in 
 death, as she promised she'd do when he told 
 her their marriage wasn't legal. I sa_ys to myself, 
 I can't prevent her, ain't it best for me to help 
 her ? It was self-destruction, but my conscience 
 didn't make a single objection. When you went 
 fur the shot, I helped her make a canvas gown, 
 which covered all her body 'cept her arms. The 
 shot you brought I run in pockets all about the 
 dress, I rowed her to the rock in the canoe. I 
 held the boat to the right place. 
 
 "Just before she dropt out, she cried, '-I'm 
 comin' my husban', I'm comin' ! ' After she 
 sunk, I jumped in an' follered her. She laid by 
 her husban's side, with her breas' on his, an' 
 her cheek close 'gainst his face. One arm was 
 on his shoulder. I bent it roun' his neck. I 
 told her I would. I expect she held her breath 
 an' kep' her will till she was ready, an' then she 
 died. She was Mars Jack's brave wife. I helpt 
 her before she went down, and I helpt her 
 down thar. I had to dive down five times afore 
 I got it all right. The water was cold, but I 
 didn't feel it."
 
 THE OLD MAN'S STORY. 289 
 
 He paused a few minutes and then continued : 
 " Mr. Jamison, the man who could 'er resisted 
 Miss Rita's pleadin' when she begged me to help 
 her, would 'er been hard hearteder than me. I 
 I done it, an' I thank God I done it good. 
 
 "Mars John when he was a school boy tole me 
 an Dineli about a good man before Christ come 
 to save us sinners. That man took some sort 
 'er tea" "Was it hemlock?" I interjected. 
 " Yes, that wus it ; he took hemlock tea, kaze the 
 city ordered it. Mars John said that nobody 
 ever 'cused that good man of suicide. He told 
 us of a great many good men a long while ago 
 who killed thar selves an' nobody called it sui- 
 cide. He tole us of one great man running on 
 a sword held out by his servant an' nobody ain't 
 'cused that servant of murder. Miss Rita done 
 what the good man done a long while ago. She 
 didn't drown herself; she went to her husband 
 kaze she heard him callin' her. I didn't commit 
 murder. I held the sword as 'er faithful servant 
 oughter do." 
 
 "Now Mr. Jamison, is it better she'd be alive, 
 the widow of a unmarried-bed; married in 
 Heaven, but her marriage not by the law ; the 
 widow of no lawful husban'; to be pinted at by 
 the finger of scorn? Would it be better fur her 
 to be here, with madness peraps in her mine 
 maybe in a lunatic sylum, or by her husban's 
 side, down thar in the bottom of the lake?"
 
 290 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 "Men will be judged, Jim, I believe according 
 to their lights," I answered. 
 
 With a sigh he returned, "I'm willin' to be 
 judged ! Now, sir, we must finish our task." 
 
 We labored four days. Jim dived down and 
 anchored long poles to guide our work. By 
 means of these and by diving he spread the can- 
 vas sheets over the bodies. He anchored them 
 safely with the chains and boulders. We let the 
 heavy stones down by cords gently to prevent 
 them from falling upon the- bodies. The Big 
 Rock arises in a small land locked cove, thor- 
 oughly protected from outer-waves, and almost 
 hidden from view lake-ward. But for this we 
 could not have performed our task. We strewed 
 the boughs over the canvas, securing them in 
 turn so as to catch the sands and gravels over the 
 last resting place of our loved ones. Chilled 
 though he was to the very bones, the determined 
 negro would not desist from his labours, until 
 thoroughly satisfied. 
 
 When all was finished, with uncovered head 
 the negro threw a handful of dirt into the water, 
 saying, his voice broken with sobs: "Dust to 
 dust ! Dust to dust !" 
 
 We sang a hymn while tears streamed down 
 our faces, and left the dear dead to Him who cre- 
 ated them, and to Him who died that man might 
 be redeemed.
 
 THE OLD MAN'S STORY. 291 
 
 It was dusk on Saturday, the fourth day, when 
 our work was ended. When we reached the 
 camp old Akbar who had been sick since the 
 night of the rain, lay dead before the tent. We 
 buried him that night near the rock. 
 
 Never was Sabbath rest more needed, than by 
 us the next day. For days we had labored under 
 intense excitement. The strain removed, we 
 were limp and nerveless. Jim advised hot drinks, 
 very warm clothing and wraps and absolute 
 rest. 
 
 He covered himself head and all, sleeping 
 heavily for nearly twenty-four hours. Monday 
 morning found him rested but " stiff in der 
 jints." 
 
 When we were about to abandon the camp, I 
 intimated that it was necessary for me to go to 
 Chicago, to see to winding up my friend's estate. 
 The negro said with great dignity, "No! Mr. 
 Jamison it is not necessary, but I want you to 
 go. Mr. Felden lef a paper that makes every- 
 thing mine. Thar wur three copies of it. One 
 is in the safe in Chicago. Miss Rita had one in 
 a belt on her waist and the other is in a rubber 
 bag here." 
 
 He pointed to his waist. 
 
 "Bf Miss Rita had er lived every thing would 
 er been hers, excep a good livin for Dineh and 
 me. But now I must take every thing to make
 
 292 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 good poor colored people happy. The paper tells 
 me how to do it. We don't have to go to the 
 court. Mr. Felden didn't want nobody to know 
 that his wife did not have his lawful name, and 
 fixed it so I can take every thing." 
 
 Fora few moments he was silent and then con- 
 tinued, "Mr. Felden the day before he died told 
 me a honester man never lived than Mr. Paul 
 Jamison, and ef any thing happened to him he 
 wanted you to be a friend to his wife. Now Mr. 
 Jamison I am rich, but I am a steward an' must 
 use every dollar jis like my marster said I must. 
 Ef you will help me, I will give you a good sa- 
 lary and you kin carry out a noble purpose. 
 
 I reflected a few moments and said, "Jim, I 
 accept your proposition, and will devote all of 
 my energies to the cause Mr. Felden had at 
 heart. It is a noble one; one which at this junc- 
 ture is as worthy as any other on earth. I will, 
 however, take of the salary you offer only what 
 I need for a comfortable life." 
 
 He seemed greatly pleased, saying: "I need 
 you Mr. Jamison. In Cincinnati an' in Chicago 
 my master began to educate me. I studied 
 hard, and it was hard work, but I've liked best 
 when I was a servant, to be a humble negro. 
 But now I must be a man, with grave sponser- 
 bilities, and must forgit what I was, in what I 
 am. When I ac' the part of a negro servant, I
 
 THE OLD MAN'S STORY. 293 
 
 talk like a servant. It conies natral to me an' I 
 likes it. But now I am a servant no more, an' I 
 spose I can change my speech onbeknownst jess 
 like Mars Jack. When he wus rosy and light 
 
 haired he was John , when he wus dark 
 
 an' black headed, he was Jack Felden. 
 
 My granfather was brung from Africy a boy. 
 He allers claimed he wus a great chief a king. 
 My young master John used to call me "King 
 Jim." He said the Africin heathen cropped out 
 'er me. I've studied, but I'm ignorant. I know 
 nothing of the world but what he learned me. I 
 learned to read, so I could read his letters. I 
 learned how to talk to fit me to do business for 
 Mr. Felden. My learnin' ain't much, an' that's 
 what I want you for, to help me do my work." 
 
 We reached Chicago in due time. Dinah was 
 almost inconsolable when her husband told of 
 the double tragedy. She began to droop and pine 
 away. We rapidly arranged our affairs, finding 
 no difficulty in doing so, for nearly everything was 
 in good stocks and bonds. The bank settled with 
 Madison as per written orders from Mr. Felden, 
 found in his safe; making no inquiries except 
 kindly ones as to his health. These Madison 
 evaded adroitly. 
 
 When all was finished, we took Dinah to a 
 warmer climate. Madison needed the change al- 
 most as much as she, His natural predisposition
 
 294 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 to rheumatism had been greatly aggravated by 
 his exposure to the chilly water at the foot of 
 the Rock. ludeed he suffered for many years 
 greatly from that cause. Change of climate did 
 him good, but poor Dinah's complaint, no 
 human agency or climatic influence could reach. 
 One evening about four months after the sad 
 event at the camp, she went out as a burning 
 candle a flicker, and all was over. Her hus- 
 band said "She didn't die, she jess went to 
 Jesus an' to her foster-chile." 
 
 We earnestly set to work to carry out Mr. 
 Felden's wishes, greatly, I think to the benefits 
 of a down trodden race. We kept only enough 
 to support ourselves economically through the 
 remainder of life. The old negro never per- 
 mitted anyone to know whence benefits sprang, 
 or who gave out charities. He said, "Mr. John 
 
 died long ago in India ; Mr. Jack Felden 
 
 an' his wife sleep, in their unknown grave ; no 
 one but us knows who he wus, nor what he did, 
 in fact, you don't know his real name ; no body 
 except me knows that ; and no body but us mus 
 know what he is doing now he's dead. If lie 
 looks down on us an' sees what we are doin' 
 with what he lef, his spirit rejoices that we don't 
 ask no thanks for him, but are doin' our best to 
 make some sufferin' black folks happy.
 
 THE OLD MAN'S STORY. 295 
 
 A short while before I met you, Madison 
 and I went from Mackinaw to pay what would 
 most probably be our last visit to the scenes 
 hallowed by so many sad, yet endearing memo- 
 ries. We stopped at and rowed to the 
 
 Big Rock a few miles away. It lifted from the 
 water dark and frowning as it appeared to us a 
 score of years before. Lichens and moss parti- 
 ally covered the space from which the mass fell 
 when Felden was carried to his death. The 
 fresher cleavage was to us a tablet memorial of 
 the sad event. 
 
 With a long pole to which he had attached an 
 iron hook, Jim probed the secrets of. the deep. 
 His gratification was unbounded when he dis- 
 covered that not only were the boulders holding 
 down the canvas winding sheets entirely under 
 sand and gravel, but the accumulations nearly 
 covered the boughs and brush placed over the 
 grave. 
 
 Madison's aged head whitened by eighty-two 
 winters was lifted erect upon his broad should- 
 ers ; and a mild August breeze coming in from 
 the lake and gently circling around the little 
 cove, bore upon its wings his sweetly modulated 
 thanks ' to the Almighty God for his many 
 mercies.' 
 
 For a while we sat silent in deep thought, and 
 then he said, "Let's go now, Mr. Jamison. I
 
 296 A SUMMER'S OUTING. 
 
 feels secure that Mr. Jack Felden and his wife 
 down thar under the sand and water, will sleep 
 undisturbed. 
 
 I rowed out of the cove, the old negro keeping 
 his sad eyes rivited upon the fatal rock. We 
 turned the point which hid it from the lake ; he 
 seized an oar and working manfully, uttered not 
 a word until we drew up under the village. 
 
 The mental and bodily strain, however, had 
 been too much for the old man. I was compelled 
 to call for aid to support his tottering steps to 
 our room. He staggered and fell upon his bed ; 
 his massive form gave way, like a glass shattered 
 by a blow. 
 
 His mind and speech remained unimpaired. 
 He positively refused to have a physician called, 
 declaring if it was the Lord's will he should 
 go, he would obey the will of the Lord. He lay 
 for several days without a murmur or a com- 
 plaint. One night I was awakened by a deep 
 groan; hurrying to his bedside, a single glance 
 told me his end was nearly come. For several 
 hours he lay in a dull stupor, his labored breath- 
 ing alone showing that life was still in his 
 breast. His breathing grew fainter and fainter, 
 until just as the rising sun poured through the 
 window, it seemed to die away. I hastened to 
 his side to close the tired faithful eyes in their 
 last long sleep, when the wan lips opened to
 
 THE OLD MAN'S STORY. 297 
 
 whisper, "Good-bye Mr. Jamison, good-bye"! 
 and then as if by mere will power he sat erect 
 on his bed and cried in a loud voice " Bress de 
 Lord ! I see Mars John ! Diner ! Jim's gwine 
 home;" and then he died. 
 
 Two Finns, fresh immigrants in the land, 
 rowed me with the body to the cove. There on 
 the shore in a spot shadowed at evening by the 
 Big Rock we buried him. The sun hovering 
 above the whispering maples lighted the last sad 
 rites to the end. The waves from the lake 
 stealing into the cove in mild ripples, sang with 
 mysterious cadence a sweet, loving requiem. 
 The dying day, the whispering breeze, the sigh- 
 ing wavelets and the solitude seemed to my 
 over-wrought senses to promise a fulfillment of 
 the negro's prophecy "; that the sleepers below 
 would rest undisturbed until summoned on the 
 last and final call ; that until then u The Big 
 Rock would keep its sad secret." 
 
 In giving this story to the world, I feel guilt- 
 less of violating any pledge of secrecy. There 
 is nothing in the names mentioned to enable any 
 one to probe the mystery of John - - . The 
 terrible events of the war about his old home, 
 scattered its residents, and to-day the places that 
 knew them know them no more.
 
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 This work is a choice collection of the best selections that can 
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 The LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LITERATURE is monumental. 
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 The LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LITERATURE is a mammoth 
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 CONTENTS. 
 
 Vol. i. EARLY COLONIAL LITERATURE, 1607-1675. 
 Vol. 2. LATER COLONIAL LITERATURE, 1676-1764. 
 Vol. 3. LITERATURE OF THE REVOLUTION, 1765-1787. 
 
 , T , 1 LITERATURE OF THE REPUBLIC, Constitutional 
 
 Vol. 4- / Period, 1788-1820. 
 
 Vol. 5. LITERATURE OF THE REPUBLIC, 1821-1834. 
 
 Vol. 6. ) 
 
 Vol. 7. I LITERATURE OF THE REPUBLIC, 1835-1860. 
 
 Vol. 8. j 
 
 Vol. 9- ) LITERATURE OF THE REPUBLIC, 1861-1890. Fully 
 representing writers that have arisen since the be- 
 
 Vol. 10. ) ginning of the civil war. 
 
 Vol. n. LITERATURE OF THE REPUBLIC. BIOGRAPHICAL NO- 
 TICES of all authors quoted, selections from recent 
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