EHSH
-t-
PA6ES 9 TO IB.
T "t- r - .
SUM'S YOUNG KING.
x.
1-m. 1 1 i i -
A Yisit to the Magnificent House of
This Absolute Monarch and,
HIS ONE HUNDRED PRETTY WIYES.
v
Life in the Harem and the Inmates1 Dress
and Amusements.
SAYAGE SACEED WHITE ELEPHAXTS
lEOSS&SFOXDESd OF TBI DISFATCH.1
BAIT GEO K,
Siaji, March 10.
I bare just re
turned Trom a visit
to the palaces of
the King of Siam.
I have gone by the
golden elephants at
the portals, have
walked past the
black soldiers at
the gate and have
stood upon tih e
Brass IdiL throne of his royal
majesty himself. I have penetrated the re
ception rooms and the various audience
chambers, have taken a look at tlje bushes
and trees of gold and silver, which are sent
to him from his provinces, have almost
handled the royal jewels, and have, with
my practical American eyes, looked at the
cartloads of bric-'a-brac gathered from the
four corners of the earfh. I have visited
the stables of his white elephants, have
given the ugly beasts a taste of heathen
grass, have trod with my patent leathers
the floors of the holiest temples, and have
with unwinking eyes looked at the
grandeur of the little emerald idol. My
letters from Washington gave me
access to the foreign minister, and
one of the English-speaking nobles con
nected isith the State Department, a bright,
copper-colored, black-mustached young
fellow in a dress half Siamese and half
European, acted as my guide. He showed
me the outside of the great buildings ot the
harem, but I have failed to meet any one of
His Majesty's 100 wives, and His Eoyal
Highness himself had left the capital for a
six weeks' trip into the interior of his realm
three days before my arrival. I have been
Supreme Sing of Siam.
so fortunate, however."as to meet many men
connected with his court, who are well
posted upon him and his kingdom. The
talks with these and with old residents of
the country have given me almost as good a
knowledge of his personality as though I
had met him myself, and, as I write this
letter, his last photograph taken by the
court photographer lies on the table before
me.
A Handsome King.
It represents a bright-eyed, slender young
man of 36, dressed in the gorgeous uniform
of Siamese royalty. Small in stature, his
head is crowned with a golden Vyramid of
jewels, rising in circular tiers, diminishing
as they go upward until they'end in a long,
pencil-like point, which extends nearly two
feet above the forehead of its kingly owner.
His body is clad in gorgeous coat and vest,
heavily embroidered in gold and jewels,
and in place of pantaloons he ha he rich
brocaded 6urong of the Siamese about his
loins and waist. It comes down below his
knees at the front and it looks here not un
like a pair of fancy knickerbockers. Below
these a pair of shapely calves in white silk
stockings are thrust into jeweled-covered,
heelless slippers, pointed like the
shoe of the Turk, and the whole
makes a costume brilliant and
grand. His majesty sits on a foreign arm
chair and his sword lies on a table at bis
side. He is a pleasant-looking feljow and
his olive brown face is plump and un
wrinkled. He has beautiful liquid black
eyes, a broad, high and rather full forehead
and short, straight, black hair. Under his
rather short and half-flat nose there is a
silky black mustache, and below this the
lips are rather thick, and the chin plump
and well rounded. His hands and feet are
well, made, and he is, all told, as good a
specimen of Siamese beauty as I have seen.
He is the ninth son of OIaha,Mongkut, the
last King of Siam, and he was picked out
of a family of 81 children to be placed upon
the Siamese throne. He has 34 half
brothers, and 49 half-sisters, and he liked
one of his half-sisters so well that he mar
ried her and made her his Queen.
A Real Nice Position.
Looking at him it is hard to imagine that
he is the sacred ruler of from 6.000,000 to
.10,000,000 of people and it is hard for an
American prince to appreciate his absolute
power and his holy dignity. The people of
the country are his slaves. He has the
right to call them into his service either
with or without pay and all men -in Siam
are forced to give him either the whole or a
part of their services during the y.ear. His
word can throw a msn into chains or put
iim to deatb; can deprive him of his prop
erty or rob him of his daughter. All the
women of Siam are supposed to belong to
the King and no one is forbidden to him
except his mother. He is supposed to take
one of his sisters as his Queen, and the
nobles of the country offer him their daugh
ters by the scores. His court is one of
intrigue and plotting, and the nobles are
glad to have their daughters in the harem,
'n that they may thus the better attain the
King's friendship and powerful offices. He
taxes the people as he pleases and these
taxes are so heavy that at times some men
have to sell their wives and children as
slaves to enable them to pay him. Still his.
vaults are full of treasure. Siam has no
national debt and he has an income of more
than $10,000,000 a year. He can spend tens
of thousands of dollars in cremating a dead
wife or in establishing a petty navy, which
would be of no more good than so many
boy's toy boats against the war ships of the
great nations.
A l'rogrcusiye Monarch.
Still this King of Siam is the most pro-
Ipreiiivethe country has ever had. He is
afar.In advance ot his people and he is doing
-AE? deal to civiliie then. Before his
5a f
second coronation -in 1873 all natives who
approached the King had to do so on all
fours. They had to raise their hands in
adoration to him and bump their heads on
the mats before him. This King did away
with all this and he has introduced the
American hand-shake into his reception
of foreigners. He gives receptions to -foreigners
and he speaks the English tongne,
though he never does this when noted
foreign visitors have an audience with
him. He considers it beneath his dignity
at such times to speak in anyother language
than the Siamese and he has an inter
preter who translates the English words
into Siamese and the Siamese woras into
English. He has brought the telegraph
and the telephone into Bangkok, has estab
lished a streetcar line and lights his harem
with the electric light. Just at present he
is considering the subject of railways, and
he has given 5100,000 to have a survey made
of a railway which shall run from BangKok
out into his kingaom and shall connect with
juanaaiay ana ijurmah. The engineers
started out to survey this railroad a few
days ago and it may be that a decade hence
we will be able to travel all over this coun
try by rail. He has established a custom
house and a very polite, dark-skinned o:
ficial met me on my arrival in Bangkok and
askedme if my trunks contained any con
traband goods. I replied they did not and
he then wanted to know if I was bringing
any diamonds into the country, or if I had
any packages of dynamite about my clothes.
I again replied no and he chalk-marked my
baggage without looking into it.
Siamese Justice.
This King of Siam is a Buddhist, and he
was for some time a Buddhist priest, as is
the custom with all men in Siam. Every-""
one is expected at some time to enter the
priesthood, and this royal monarch witn his
millions of treasures, his scores of wives
and his ten millions a year, once shaved his
head and nominally gave up his crown and
his harem to wear a -yellow cotton scarf
about his waist and eo to fastincr and unty
ing. He is a liberal Buddhist now, and he
gives, I am told, all facilities to the mission
aries and treats them well. One of the
missionaries is at the head of the. royal
school here, and the King has given some
thing to the mission fund. Siam has now
an embassy at certain of the mnrt nf
"Europe.and I think the Minister to London
nas also the United States in his jurisdic
tion. There is a Siamese Consul in New
York, and here at Bangkok his Majesty has
his Foreign Department, his Interior De
partment and his Royal Mint.
A new court of justice hps just been built
and the white ot its exterior is probably
more pure than will be the proceedings with
in. As far as I can learn the native Siamese
courts are founded more on the caprice of
the judges than upon the law. There is no
jury, and tortures similar to those of China
are practiced to make witnesses testify. One
is the twisting of bamboo withes tighter and
tighter abont the head until the prisoner
confesses, and another is the whipping with
the bamboo of the man stretched out at full
length, and his skin pulled taut by men at
his head, and heels. The prisons of Siam
are horrible dungeons, some of them hang
ing over the water, and the forcing of con
victs to work in heavy chains is so common
that you meet them constantly on the street,
and this not alone of men but of women as
wellv
A Pretty Pagan Qneen.
His Majesty's name is perhaps the longest
of any monarch in the world. It contains 67
letters, and he is called Chulalangkorn for
short. He has ten different names in addi
tion to this, and the full names of the royal
family, would, I doubt not, fill a column of.
this newspaper. The Queen is not far from
20 years of age; she rules the harem, and she I
is a very pretty Siamese girl. Her" complex
ion is a light brown, and her oily black hair,
about, two inches long, stands straight up
and is combed backward from a fair open
forehead. She has beautiful eyes, wears
diamond earrings and a diamond pendant at
her neck, and her fingers are covered with
precious stones. She smokes cigarettes, as
does also the Kins, and she chews th fcptl
nut making her teeth as black as jet, and-
ucriiiBHics out. xne Siamese say that
any dog can have white teeth, but that it is
only those who are rich enough to afford the
betel nut who can have black ones. Black
teeth are a sign of beauty here, and all the
ladies oCthe harem chew and smoke.
I visited yesterday the storehouse of the
purveyor to-ihe King. It is an English
establishment, but its business is to sell the
Siamese Gentleman and Lady.
palace and the harem all the articles they
need. It has hundreds of balls and play
things, which are brought from Europe lor
the royal babjes, and the clerk tells me
that there is not a fancy French plaything
or amusement of any sort that is not sold to
the palace.- I was shown about a hundred
dozen little china spittoons about the size of
a shaving mug. These were beautifully
decorated, and some of the pictures were by
native Siamese artists sent to England to be
painted upon them. I bought one decorat
ed with a picture "by a Siamese Prince, and
I was told that these spittoons are used by
the ladies of the harem to spit in while
chewing this disgusting preparation of the
spongy betel nut mixed with rose-tinted
lime and finecut tobacco.
, Life to the Harem.
I talked with tie dressmaker as to the
fashions affected by the King's wives, and
was told that the ladies of the harem prefer
Siamese dress and that their "favorite cos
tume is the suro'ne or waist cloth, to which
they add a loose jacket trimmed with Swiss
embroidery and covered with bo ws of ribbon
set on in rows. Commonly they wear neither
shoes nor stockings, and the chief leg deco
ration is an .anklet of gold. They have
some foreign costumes, which they put on
when the court photographer takes their
portraits, but their common attire is more
that of jewelry and bracelets than of silks
or of satins. These ladies of the harem are
the most noble ladles of Siam. The last
Kin; had wives from China and India, and
he was anxious to add a well-bred English
girl to his gallery of beauties. He had, it
is said, chances to secure one or two French
maidens, but he had had so much trouble
with the French that he declined to receive
hem.
Once in the herein, it is impossible for a
woman to get out, and in the case of flirta
tions the offending woman is in danger ot
being put to death. Many of the girls gam
bit and some of them do fine embroidery
ana lancy work. Some become jewelers and
others mke articles and sneak them out of
the palace to be sold. The women are not
kept ia separate palacevind each does not
- mm II5K
have an establishment of her own as in Ja
pan. .After the age of 24, if they have had
no children, the older women become the
waiting-maids of the younger, and the stock
is . replenished continually. The present
King shows no inclination to come down to
the American one wife principle, and dur
ing his present visit to the interior he has
taken a couple of score of his favorite women
along with him. The Amazons have, I amJ
toia, Deen none away with at the palace.
The last King had them, but though I
looked through the best of pebbleV glasses
for them during my visit to the palace I saw
not one.
The Roml Palace.
The palace of the King at Bangkok was
built only a few years ago. It looks much
like one bf the great palaces of Europe. It
has several stories, and under the bright
rays of this Siamese sun, it appears to be
made of marble. A closer inspection shows
that the marble is stucco, and the golden
elephants, each about half life-sire, which
guard the entrance, change as you come
near them from massive gold to Iron gilded.
Wide stairways lead by marble steps
through these into a great vestibule, the
ceiling of which is about 4f feet highland
the walls of which are hung with old
Siamese armor. At the right of this is the
King's audience hall. His throne is a bed,
and. he lies on his arm or sits Siamese
fashion, a la Turk, while he receives his
royal council and discusses the matters of
his kingdom. The ministers and nnfclrti nit
on leather cushioned benches, and the por
traits of Siamese heroes, in oil, by Euro
pean artists, look down upon them from the
walla.. JustTaackof the King there is a
portrait nf n ctiavad-haoArl ..maVa.!
mouthed, pale-faced, half-nakei Buddhist
priest It is the high priesfbf the king
dom, and thus the proceedings go on under
the very shadow of Buddha himself. The
priests, by the way, claim that the royal
family are lineal descendants of Buddha.
A Grand Reception Chnmber.
On the other side of the vestibule is a
grand reception room fully as wide and
nearly as long as the East Boom of the
WhUe House at Washington. This is paved
with'marble mosaic and its high ceiling,
twice as high as that of the East Boom, is
gorgeously decorated with carvings of gold.
Brilliant chandeliers hang down from it
and about the walls are oil paintings of the
royal family, and the only woman's face
among them is that of the present Queen,
whose sweet face looks down besidi those of
the King's brothers and has the best light
and the place of honor of, thejiwhole room.
The furniture of this room is European and
the treasures of Europe have been ran
sacked to fill it. There are rare
vases from Dresden, filligree work
from Yenice and ricnly carved gold
from . Siam. Through this room
and on into a third grand reception room
we went with the Siamese noble. Here the
King received, the day before he left, the
Austrian Prince, whom I have met during
my stay and who has been sent here as
Minister to China, Japan and Siam. This
room is full ot beautiful things. Two ot
the largest elephant's tusks, wonderfully
carved, stand beside the mantel, and an
album on alittle stand at the back of the
room has a medallion portrait of the King
painted on porcelain and set in the richest
of diamonds. The corners of the room con
tain large cabinets filled with curious works
in-gold from card cases up to betel boxes,
and I noticed a Una portrait of Frederick,
the late Emperor of Germany, among the
many oil paintings on the wall.
A Golden Grove.
The audience chamber, or rather the
throne room of the king,- is a grand hall
with a ceilinz made of many colored niivpa
of glass and producing the same effect as the
glass wall which Tiffany built between the
vestibule and the long corridor of our
White House. The light shining through
this makes it look as though it was made of
jewels and the room is lighted from the top.
This ceiling is, I judge. 60 feet from the
uoor. xi is vanned ana tne wans oelow are
frescoed in gold. Three immense glass
chandeliers like those of the East Boom ot
-the Whits House hang down from this ceil
ing and these were made for the palace of
the Emperor of Austria, but were bought by
the King of Siam. The floor is of marble
mosaic and the King sits on a great chair on
a rostrum at the back. Five steps lead to it
and beside him are the kingly umbrellas
and over him a nine-story, pagoda like
crow,n of white and gold. Around the room
there are gold trees and 'gold bushes, and
the leaves of these are of pure gold, while
their trunks are heavily plated. There
were perhaps a dozen of these on each side
of the room and they ranged from the size
of a Christmas, tree down to that of a small
currant bush." These are the offerings of
the rulers of the various provinces under
the King. They make these presents of
gold trees every'year and some of them are
worth fortunes. Not a few were of silver
and the silver trees were placed on one side
of the room, while those of gold were placed
on the other.
The Sacred White Elephant.
Siam is known as the land of the white
elephant The elephant is the imperial
animal of the country and you see his pict
ure upon all of the flags. The old coins of
the realm have an elephant upon one side of'
them and the white elephant is here sacred.
He is supposed to be the embodied spirit of
some king or hero, and the people formerly
worshipped him'and they do so to some ex
tent now. Before going to see the palace I
had read a glowing description of the white
elephant of Siam. I expected to see his
tusks bound with gold, to find golden chains
about his neck and a superb velvet coat of
purple', fringed with scarlet and gold, over
his snow white body. What I did find was
four wild-eyed, scraggy looking elephants
with long, tusks and with skins not
much whiter than those yon see in
the American circus. The only white
part about them was their long flapping
ears, wnicn seemea to ne amictea with the
leprosy. The remainder ol their skins had
the w'hiteness only of disease, and I was
told, as a rule, the white elephants of Siam
are mad elephants. These beasts were in
dirty stables and they were chained by the
feet to great wooden posts. They had dirty
keepers and there was no sign of royalty
about them. Their keepers fed them some
grass while we were present and they per'
formed some ordinary circus tricks for' us.
The glory" of the white elephant, has in all
probability departed, and the elephants of
the interior of Siam are made to work quite
as hard as their brothers all over the world.
One of the punishments of Siam is the
making convicts cut the grass for these
royal elephants. One of them killed his
keeper the other day,, and this same holy
beast made a snap at me with his trunk
when I entered histahle.
Fban k G. Cabpenteb.
' IEELAND'S EMBLE'&L
. .
The Shamrock a Plant Not Unlike the
, American Clover.
Scottish. American.
Clover in Ireland is always regarded .as
'distinct from the shamrock plant. Nor is
this a distinction without a difference.
Clover, as commonly understood, has a
pale shading on the front of the leaf; and
on this lignt coiorea section there, is a
growth of short hair like protuberances.
The genuine shamrock.on the other hand,
is a rich dark green, like a maiden hair
fern. Possibly it is a variety of clover; it
is certainly not produced from ordinary
clover seeds, and grows more like a weed
than a classified grass.
Clover has been seen masquerading as
shamrock for. sale at Coyent Garden; but
the man or woman who wore a spray of
clover in the streets of an Irish town on the,
17th qf. March would be an object of popu-i
yi
PITTSBUKG, "SIICTDAT,
HIE HAILS WITH JOT
An Invitation From an Alpine Club
to-Climb Mountains and
TO SEARCH FOR THE NORTH POLE.
Fate of a Man Who Tried to Jump a lawn
ins Chasm asli Yawned.
WHAT'S THE MATTEfi Wife TESUTITS?
TOITIS FOB TETB DISPATCH.
" I HAVE the
honor to hereby ac
knowledge the re
ceipt of the follow
ing communica
tion: Obegon Ampins
Club, Pobtxand,
Oee., Starch 15,
1SS9.
Edgar "W. Nye:
Deab Sib I havo
the honor to inform
you that at a regular
meeting of the Oregon Alpine Clnb, held Toes
day eyening,March 12. you was unanimously
elected an honorary member.
Very respectfully,
W. B. STEEL, Cor. Sec
It is almost superfluous for me to say that
I accept with pleasure the honorary mem
bership thus conferred by an aspiring and
deserving organization upon one of our
most phenomenal literary deposits.
The objects of the club, as I gather from
the-constitution and bylaws inclosed with
the notification are, first to utilize the large
smooth mountains of Washington and
Oregon for climbing pnrposes. Also to
monkey with the flora and fauna of that
region.
I have accepted with ill concealed joy
that I am, and may continue through life
to be, an honorary member, therefore, of
the Oregon Alpine Club. I shall also take
occasion at an early date to-accompany the
-club, by means of a horse and wagon, to the
summit ot mount iiooa or .Mount xacoma.
Later on I hope to become so robust that I
can walk.
THE X.UXUBT OP TBAVEJJ.
Once I could walk a great deal. At one
time I went by this means quite a distance,
taking views of water-tanks and side-tracks
along my route, using great care to get off
the track as the trains went by. In this
way I saved enough in one summer to en
able me to make the same trip on the follow
ing summer But in later years wealth has
engendered a love of ease and a slight
tendency toward luxurious dishonesty and
repose of manner, which at first would con
vey the idea of refinement.
I now hail with much joy this opportunity
to climb a few of our most desirable moun
tains. Which one shall we tackle first?
How are your glaciers this spring? Have
you got a good iforseless glacier with re
mains in it? Haw did the flora and fauna
stand the winter, and will ther be qn hand
this season when we get ready to go?
I notice also by the preamble which
juts out a few inches from -the consti
tution that one of the objects for which
Hye Taking Views on a Side Track.
the club was organized, was to "make
known to the world that, as a center for vis
itors to radiate from, J?ortland possesses un
surpassed advantages." I will cheerfully
join you in this especially. Certainly, I
have never radiated from a city which gave
better satisfaction than Portland has. If I
did not believe that, I would not thus pub
licly EQstate, over my own brief, but wide
spread signature. Portland, as a visitor's
radiator is, and must ever remain unsur
passed. A 'WOBTHY ASPIBATIOIT.
You also aim to make the club a high
authority on mountains' and their habits,
mountains in their home lives, half hours
with mountains, mouAains as bedfellows,
together with suggestions as to what to do
for their cold feet and throbbing brows, so
cial habits of the mountain and its hesita
tion in calling upon Mohammed, although
the mountain was there first, mountains as
parents, mountains as forefathers, moun
tains as mouse breeders, etc., etc., ad finitum,
as the papers put it.
All these objects coincide with my views,
and though I see that the club has taken
the precaution to give me no vote whatever
on these matters, I cannot be prevented from'
entering heart and soul into this glorious
work. As soon as the weather is suitable
you will see me start up Mount Hood with
an Alpenstock and a theatrical trunk con
taining all that one need possibly want, and
want to possibly need, on such a trip. I
have already purchased an Alpenstock in
Omaha. If belonged to the estate of a man
who climbed the golden stair, via the Mat
terhorn, three years ago. The Alpen
stock has quite a lot of notches already cut
in it, which give? Tne a good start. He
was never recovered, it is said. He tried
to jump across a yawning chasm just
as it was in the act of yawning and so
lacked about nine teit of crettinc across.
The following September this Alpenstock
was found by the yerge of the yawning
chasm. Several hundred feet below a yul-1
ture was seen eating the lining from an old
pocketbook. Still farther down a venture
some champis "hunter, with a rope tied
around his waist, discovered the marks of a
man's front teeth on the trees, as he evi
dently blazed his way along down while
passing hutriedly in a perpendicular direc
tion toward the bottom. Farther down, he
discovered a broken pelvis and the main
spring of a Waterbury watch, which had
crawled out of the case, and entirely filled
the bottom of the chasm to a height ot 9
feet.
The man himself was'dead.
' AIT'IMPOBTAKT QUESTION.
One thing I wanted to ask about the club
was tlfis: Do honorary members bring their
dinners, or willlsome- way be provided
whereby they will not have to do so? I can
bring some things to eat with me, if desired,
but would prefer to do otherwise if not put
ting you out. We Jive well at home, and
yet one tires oi tne same iooa year in and
year out. Whatever you decide on in that
way will be satisfactory to me. Food
should be, foe such a trip, nutritions, well
pionicu tuu . ficuo. i k. .a uimuu uu. lb ill
the hind part of my wagon, along with my
Alpenstock, if thought oest.
I would.be glad to meet personally the
geologist, the mineralogist, the ethnologist,
the ornithologist, the ichthyologist, the bot
anist, the microseppist, the entomologist and
tho conchologist of the club. When not too
busy-1 would be glad tojiid them sot far as
u3a
14, J889.
possible in their researches. I shall take
with .me on .those trips a large scrap book,
containing press notices and autumn leaves.
I can read from this tome to the club the
kind things said of me by the American
press, wherein it has been staged that I have
called, or that I was seen, on onr streets,
and other encomiums which I can read to
the clnb as you pause to wip'e the perspira
tion from the'brow of the mountain or while
I tie a nosebag over my.horse's head and
sock a few much-needed oats into him. Then
the book can be afterward used lor squatting
ferns and other fauna so that we may carry
them home with us and think about them
next winter.
I see that under the provisions of Section
2, of Article V of page 7, 6"f the revised
statutes of jour association, under the title
of membership, that "no person shall be
come an active member, after the organiza
tion 'is complete, who has not climbed at
least one snow mountain to its summit,''
NYE -WIM, PBOCEED SLOWLY.
This harsh ruling will for some time yet
prevent me from becoming an active mem
ber, though if you could relax this rule'so
as to let in a man who had been gently
toyed with by a cyclone and lifted by that
agency to where he could look over into Ga
briel's watermelon patch, I might get in at
an early date.
I would like to climb some of your more
obdurate mountains, however, in the near
future and take my share of the suffering.
Some day I would also like to join an Arctic
expedition and do some more suffering in
the higher latitudes. I think I wou'.d suc
ceed there first rate, as I am used to sub
sisting on my friends when very, very hun
gry. My idea would be to join the club, first as
an honorary member, then gradually be
coming an active member, walking" long
distances and climbing haystacks by means
of my Alpenstock, until I became very ath
letic and strong; then climb a tall frapped
mountain,freezing both ears till they swelled
up on my return like a pair of baked apples,
then I would go abroad in search of the coy
and prudish North Pole. Finding
the Pole. X would ent mv nnmA
in the hark, eat a few com-
Attending ,a Mountain Peak.
rades, and with these, picked men concealed
about my person, I would return, full of in
formation and blubber, to lecture on the
Solid North.
I am naturally of a roving disposition,
and dearly love to seek out new dangers
which I can defy by mail.
Ton also have an extinct volcano near you
which I would be glad to pry into, and see
what it is that causes the nausea which in
variably seems to accompany this phenome
non. Some scientist ought to go down into
the crater of an extinct. volcano and see why
it is that lava always seems to lie so heavy
on4he stomach of Vesuvius', for instance..
bome thins: I ivotua oe a good man, and
perhaps I would, I could get a very1 good
petition asking me to do so, but I hate to go
down into the bowels of the earth, not know
ing how I will be received. I am brave,
but at the same time keenly sensitive. I
would hate to find after it was too late that
my presence rather exaggerated the nausea
which seems to be the curse of a volcano's
very existence.',
HE THANKS THE CLUB.
Addressing the Oregon Alpine Club
through its Corresponding Secretary, I wish
ttjus publicly, in all candor and sincerity,
to thank the club for the honorary member-'
ship thus so worthily conferred, asking only .
the ireenom oi some oi your most praise
worthy mountains, with the right to climb
them at such time as I may elect, hut not
before that time. In that way I shall be
honored and shall endeavor to avoid, so far
as possible, in any way disgracing your or
ganization farther than to accompany you
by means of a livery team mostly, on your
ascents.
Socially, you will find me a great acquisi
tion. I am full of small talk and science,
literature, art, political economy, .travel and
the common school branches. I can be
earnest or playful, as the mood changes,
like sunlight chasing the summer shadows
across the glorious mead. I can provoke
the listener to merriment with my pathos or
jerk loose the scalding tear by means of my
sunny humor. So that in selecting me your
club has made no mistake.
When is thai first annual dinner of the
club?
If you will let me know, I will put my
Alpenstock in a shawl Btrap and come on.
Remember me to the conchologist, and
tell the entomologist that I have found
something at a "Teaoreggs?" Hotel which
would interest him, I' know. It looks like
an early dwarf terrapin and smells .like a
case of fermented oblivion. So no more at
present Ironryour true friend,
Bill Nye.
BNAKE AND SPABE0W.
A Courag-eoni Little Bird Captures
nd
Carrie ATf ay a Reptile.
Springfield (O.) KepnMlc.l '
A curious incident was witnessed Saturday
in the "High street entrance of the Lagonda
House. There are massive pillars in front,
capped by designs in scroll workl In this
scroll work the house sparrows build their
pests by. dozens, and multiply faster than a
calculating machine.
Saturday a sparrow flew up to its nest
above the east -pillar, proudly bearing in its
beak an eight-inch snake it had captured
somewhere. It was a tough tussle for the
blrd to land the little reptile, for the snake
was auuut as neavy as tne sparrow, xne lasn:
was finally accomplished, however, and
about half of the snake's lensrth rotten into
the nest The Test of the body hungout and
writhed and twisted angrily.' Just then a
larger spairow perceived the snake for the
first time and swooped down upon it, caught
itskilitullyjust back of the head and. flew
away with it. Tlje entire drama was watched
by many spectators with deep Interest.
A FIGUBE PUZZLE.
A Moit Amntinc and Mystifying Use of Ar
ithmetical Number.
Philadelphia Times.: -
Following is a very curious puzzle. Try
it, all of you: y
Open a book at random and select a word
within the first ten lines, and within the
tenth word from the end of the line. Mark
the wor,d. Now double the number of the
page and multiply the sum bv five.
Then add 20.
Then add the number of the line you have
selected.
Then add 5.
Multiply the sum by 10.
' Add the number of the word jn the line.
From this.sum subtract 250 and the remain
der will indicate in the unit column the
number of the word; in the ten column the
number of the line, and the remaining
figures the an'mfcer of the page.
APRIL
EAST AND WEST.
V
A Tale of a. Century Ago.
WBlXTEir POB THE DISPATCH
BY EIW.AIU EVEBKTT HA3CJ3.
SYNOPSIS OF PRECEDING CHAPTERS.
The story opens in old Salem 100 yeariSigo
with an account of a sleighride party and
dance to which the heroine, Sarah Parris, is es
corted by Harry Curwen, who was somewhat
of a spoiled darling. Sarah, who is an orphan
living with her uncle and aunt, determines to
join a party of settlers going to Ohio. When
the news becomes known Harry Curen offers
his heart and hand to Sarah, but is told that he
must first show that he has been of some ser
vice to his country.
CHAPTER IH.
A SHIP OF IHE PBATBTB.
In a thousand discussions, renewed morn
ing, evening and night, about the proba
bilities and the possibilities of Sarah
Parris journey, the conversation turned
most often to what sort of woman Mrs.
Titcomb was most likely to be. To this un
decided problem Aunt Huldah and Mrs.
General Thomas and the girls returned two
or three times a day, while the preparations
went forward.
"But, Aunt Huldah," said the laughing
Sarah, as she laid out in the sun a pile of
clothing which she was marking, "yondid
not wonder half so much what sort of man
the mate of Bobert's ship was to be. Now
Bobert was to be under the mate for three
years, but I shall only be under Mrs.
Titcomb for three months or Madam Tit
comb; perhaps she is Madam Titcomb," the
girl added, with a mock courtesy.
"You will not be under her a minute and
a half," replied her admiring aunt, with a
fond look upon the girl, which meant, "you
were never under anybody in your life, and
are not apt to be. But I tell you, it is one
thing to sleep at one end of a ship "
"In a comfortable forecastle," laughed
the girl. -"
"To sleep in one end of the ship, whether
it is. comfortable or uncomfortable," thus
persisted Aunt Huldah, "and to know that
the mate is sleeping at the other end. Now
that is one thing. Half the time you da
not see your first mate, and half the time
you forget there is any. Bnt jour Mrs.
Titcomb you see her every minute, and
like enough hear her, when you get up and
when you lie down, as the Scripture says,
when you go out and when yon come in."
"And von will hear her." groaned elegant
Mrs. General Thomas, "with her 'I be' and
'I vum,' and Be ye goin' to. do this, Sa
rey? and 'Be ye goin' to do that?' "
All of them laughed, hut the irrepressi
ble Sarah laughed most of all. Mrs.
Titcomb should not be abused in advance,
she said. She did not doubt that she was a
Frenoh lady, a maid of honor of Marie
Antoinette. She knew all (the ways of
court. Probably Mr. Titcomb had carried
a load bf codfish" to Versailles and sold it,
and Miss Adele had fallen in love with
him and eloped with him. "She shall
teach me French, dear Aunt Huldah, and I
will teach her pure Yankee, with the true
Essex county aocent."
Such rattle as this gave a special inter
est to the fatal moment at Anoover. when
r the eleeaafeLtortege which accompanied
'Sarah Parris birher first stage from Salem
arrived there. General Thomas took the
girl in his own chaise,
Other carriages fol-
lowed, in which were the various boxes,
bags and other luggage which, as was
hoped, Mr. and Mrs. 'Titcomb would re
ceive in their wagon. More than one of the
girls who had danced in the Valentine's
Day party had come to say good-bye. And
as they stood by the side door of the great
stage house" In Andover, and Sarah bade
one and another good-bye, it was clear that
they would have made of themselves a very
pretty colony if only they would ' all perse
vere to the newhume. ,
At last Silas Oilman came running on to
announce that the wagons were in sight.
And sure enough, a train of four or five
canvas-topped "ships of the prairie," as
they were afterward called, filed by on the
main road below them. One of these de
tached itself from the caravan and came,
slowly up the hill.
Two spirited boys, each on horseback,
rode up in advance. They swung them
selves off their horses, and, a little shyly,
approached the curious group who stood on
the piazza. These were Moses Titcomb and
his younger brother Cephas, with whom, as
the year went on, Sarah Parris had much
to do. The elder boy introduced himself to
General Thomas, who stood a little in ad
vance, and explained that it was his father's
wtrgon which was coming up the hill. A
minute more and General Thomas was as
sisting Mrs. Titcomb to alight, with the-
same courtesy, as saran could not out ob
serve, even in that critical moment, witb
which he would have given his hand to the
Queen of France, who was at that moment
the idol of all Young America. And then,
a little confused, good Mrs. Titcomb
turned and looked around among the
bevy of girls to see which was
to be her partner for the next three months.
For there had been quite as much discus
sion in the Titcomb camp as there had been
in that of the house of Parris. Sarah
stepped forward, and the sensible, good
natnred, shy, motherly woman took the girl
to her arms at once. She looked at her with
admiration, and then, as if she broke the
bonds of her native reserve, kissed her eag
erly. "My dear girl," she said, "I shall
not be afraid of vou a minute now." And
they both laughed heartily, and the critical
introduction was over. Aunt uuiaan came
forward, and shook hands heartily with
Mrs. Titcomb, and with her husband, who
had now appeared from the heads of his
horses. Then began the negotiations as to
where Sarah's baskets and boxes could be
swung and packed away this one beneath
an axletfee which had been reserved for it,
that one from a crossbar in the top of the
wagon, this and that parcel under the feet
of Miriam and of Polly, and so on, and so
on. Clearly enough Sarah had a friend at
court in Mrs. Titcomb, and she would not
hear no, not of a pin being left behind.
Sarah had in her mind divided her luggage,
as skillful travelers will, into themustbe
and tha may-bev sections; but with good
Mother Titcomb everything was must-be.
And she said that if they left behind them
the bag of beans for the horses, everything
of Sarah's should go till he last inch ot the
journey. This was a good beginning, and.
it was a oeginmns waicn was not too orignt
a dawn for the 90 days, which followed.
Beaders of this degenerate age, if they are
east of the Allegbenies, have, I am afraid,
never Been a "ship of the prairie." If they
have the good lnck to live west of the Mis
souri river, they know what was the vessel
in which our pretty heroine was embarked.
It was a strongly built wagon, not very dif
ferent from any other large four-wheeled car
in its "hull," but attracting the notice of
all eyesTiy its long, broad, white canvas
cover, which was indeed a tent stretched on
large ash hoops, fastened to the sides of the
wagon. The country butcher's wagon of our
day is a miniature emigrant's wagon, but
that the top should swell out on each side,
and project over the driver's seat in front,
and far back beyond the rear of the cart it
self. It will easily be seen that such pro
jections gave additional shelter from the
sun and irom the rain. Under the seats of
this roomy wagon every sort of store was
crowded. There must be something- from
day to day for the horses who drew the ma- f
chine, and for those which were ridden by j
the boys, for they might come to places
where there would be neither grazing nor
corn nor grain to be bought. For the rest,
every essential which the experience of the
earlier settlers had suggested, which would
oe needed in the building up of the new
home on the Muskingum, was packed away
somewhere. ,
Of these stores Cephas Titcomb, the
father, was the nominal steward, but in fact
dear Mrs. Titcomb knew better than he did
where this or that could be found, from a
horseshoe round to a Bible, if there should
be. a sudden demand. The wheels were
quite high, and space was thus given under
the wagon for slinging several boxes or
trunks from the axletrees. Rifles and shot
guns, with one or two pistols and Cephas
Titcomb's old cavalry saber, hnng from
hooks on the right and left, above the heads
of the women as they sat in the wagon. At
night, by simple enough processes, the body
of the wagon became a bed. on which the
"women folk" slept, arranging their places
acpording to size or other convenience. For
the men, they spread bearskins or wolfskins,
having the shelter of the wagon to creep
under if" the night should be rainy, or, as
sometimes happened as they crossed the
higher ridges, if the snow were falling.
When morning came, the frying-pan and
teakettle were lifted down from the hooks
on which they hung, and tHe fire in the
open air made by the earliest boy, was
ready to prepare "the hot water for the
invariable cup of tea and the coals
for the invariable salt pork. If
by good luck there were eggs, why, there
were eggs, and Mrs. Titcomb and Sarah vied
with each other in showing in how many
ways eggs could be cooked. As they went
onj indeed, their skill in using their scanty
kitchen equipage, tinder the nindrances of
open air life, became greater and irreater.
They arranged with each other to take turns, J
fILAJHP
JJli",l-fi mi
;L3s2 cS) -. ZZA Ml j M Jl s r I -
Z.s SABET TJLEK3 WITff tVASHlKOT03r.
day in and out. as cooks for the day. and
I the boys soon loyally ranged themselves
under Sarah's banner, in a determination
that her days should be not inferior to those
directed By the world-renowned skill of
their mother. Foragers before and behind
would bring in a squirrel, or possibly a
partridge, and once and again wild turkey.
If these failed, there was the infallible salt
pork, and on Sundays as they did not travel,
with the regularity of the recurrence of the
sacred seventh day, there was a pot of beans.
For, however one place or another place in
this world may be rated for its loyalty or
disloyalty to that article of food, Essex
county, which these travelers were leaving
forever, will always be the central shrine of
its most sacred worship.
No, Emma, no, Lilly, this story canbot
last forever, like a Chinese comedy, as you
and I would like to have it. So that if you
want to know where they washed their
hands every morning, when they walked
and when they rode, when the side-saddle
was fitted for Sarah, or when she and the
boys tramped on far in advance over muddy
roadways, you must call up some spirit by
the hands 'of a successful medium, or you
must.burrojr in the old chest, where are left
the diaries and letters of a generation now,
forgotten. We must hurry on and bring'
them to, their destiny; for I will confess to
you here that tbev were not drowned as they
I crossed the Hudson, they were not murdered
P,.l .Taiftt.. thA.. 4fd nAt Ate. t ....1.1 f
.uumo(.. tut; u.u uu. u.Q v. Branch ICVCr
in Bethlehem, they were not poisoned at
Allenstown, they were not caught under a
Inowdrift and frozen to death on the crest of
tne Alleghenies, and they did not die of
despair when they came to the Westejn wa
ters and found them too low for navigation.
Here is just one little scrap from a letter of
Sarah's to her Aunt Huldah, which you
may read first, Emma, and then you may
pass it over to Lilly, and that shall be all
the detail of the long journey.
Sarah Parris to Huldah Whitman.
AI7 Dear Annt Huldah:
I would write at the head of my letter, in
the true epistolatory style where I am, if I
only knew. But all I do know is that we
have crossed what they call the water-shed,
and are well on the western side of the
famous Allegheny Mountains. And I know
this that last night the boys were talking
Dutch with the children of a Dutchman
who lives at a place which is called Still
ings. But what his name is, dear aunt, I
do not know. So now you are as wise as I
am. We have had a funny adventure with
the Dutchman's dog, and I will tell you
this first of all, though-it is not very im
portant. He had this pretty little dog,
which be was very tond of. 1 need not say
that my boys, who are dear boys, were very
fond of it, too. They plavfcd with it last
night, and fed it, and made it lap milk.
For you must know that we have as good
milk as you have. Our two cows have not
given out at all since we started. There
was one night when they could not keep up
with us, but excepting that we have had
milk all the time. Well, this morning, I
do not know how, somebody took the little
dog and put him under the seat of the
wagon, and there he went to sleep, and we
did not find him until we bad gone a good
many miles. Then Cephas had to ride all
the way back with him, for fear they should
think we had stolen him. Somehow Cephas
missed the Dutchman's son, and he has just
now brought us a, very funny letter, written
in tfie worst English I ever did see, ex
pressing his surprise at our ingratitude.
But Cephas will be back soon to tell us that
he has saved our reputation, though we
have lost our little dog.
Now, I will begin my story. All the
way through the Bay people ran out to see
us, and our wagon, which was such a
strange thing to them; and in Connecticut,
too, we we're quite famous; but after we
came into Jersey, people did not mind us
any more than you mind Parson Bentley's
chaise. For there were, a great many
wagons going forward, and we fell in with
some almost every day for we go faster
than roost f them do, having such good
horses. Of course, we go faster than the
oxen, and I .must confess also that we go
faster than, those who have yokes of cows,
as one man had whom we passed yesterday
One day. I do the cooking, and one day my
r
dear Miriam does; for, do yon know, I have
learned to call Mrs. Titcomb Miriam, and,
we have not been afraid of each other sines
that very first minuta when I left you at
Andover. And, my dear Aunt Huldah,
vou will be proud of your own little girl,
for I really believe that I am almost as good
a tentkeeper as you are a housekeeper. It
is not for nothing that you have taegbt ma
how to keep pots and kettles clean. Miriam
is not ashamed of me at all, and I am not
at all ashamed of my breakfasts or my din
ners. We are not getting on as fast as Mr.
Titcomb expected we should, but, as I say,
we are getting on faster than -ftnost
of them do, and, for my part, I
like the life. I walk every day-three-quarters
of the way; I have often,
walked 15 miles. Then the boys are very
eager that I shall ride, and some days I have
ridden all the way. We have a Side saddle
for me and for Miriam, but she rather pre
fers what she calls the luxury of the wagon.
We make a long halt in the middle of tho
day, for the sun is beginning to be hat. and
it is better for the beasts. This gives a
chance for the cows to come up, and for ths
boys to go on lor tneir snooting.. In fact,
both my boys are away now; I hear every
now and then the crack "of their guns, so I
shall be quite ashamed of them if they do
not bring us in a rabbit or two for supper.
We have a good deal of time for our read
ing, and it will quite surprise you to know
how learned we are beginning to be. Do you
know, dear aunt, that your dear Mr.Cowper
can be quite as jolly, as he can be sorry?
Miriam has brought with her a newspaper,
in which there is the funniest song, or sort
of ballad, rather, that you ever did see. It is
about the adventures of a man who went out
on a frolic with his wife, and never came
near her from the minute they started from
his house in London, because his horse ran
away with him. She will give me a copy of
it, and I will send it to you when we come
to the Muskingum. When that will be, I
will not
. And here the reader must give up this
little day-by-day gossip for, alas, the' long
yellow page has given way herebymuch
folding backwards and forwards, as differ
ent loving descendants have read the story,
and so we are not able to print the auto
graph of Sarah Parris, in the nineteenth
year of her age, as we should be glad to do.
But a good geographer who chooses to
plot on the map of Pennsylvania the route)
which they were fallowing, from such hints
as he can get from the diaries of other emi
grants, and from this story about the Butch- "
man, will see that they were nearly at their
land journey's end. It was not many days
after Sarah had written this letter before
they came out on the Monongahela river
the same which, in her grandfathers days,
had been made famous when a certain
George Washington covered the retreat of
the troops of a certain General Braddock.
Our friends, however, were not to march
downto the bottom land on the aide of tha
Monongahela, but were to build for them
selves here an "ark of safety" which was to
float them the rest of the way. Herefhere
fore, a camp was made, while 3Ir. Titcomb,
and one or two of the men who went with
him, with some other pioneers from Old
Newbury men, all of them, skillful
in woodcraft, indeed, in ship build
ing, should frame and build tho
boat which took its name from Noah's, in
which they were to complete their voyage.
For the women and children, this fortnight
in. July, spent under canvas inardelicious
climate, was rest after the fatigue of travel
ing, and rest with a sort of feeling that they
were back in the shepherd life again. Our
modern life knows no such harbors in the
midst of our daily storms; but the men and
women of a hundred years ago were nona
the worse that they lay land-locked some
times for two or three weeks at a time.
CHAPTER IV.
WASHLVOTOS' AT A BECEPTKHT.
In the whole mass of letters there "is not
one line from Sarah Parris to Harry Cur
wen, nor one word written by him tocher.
Bat on removing the faded goatskin cover
which some prudent hand had sewed on the x
Bible which the girl carried from Salem to
the Muskingum there was found a little
note billet, it was called in those days in
which he asked her" to accept a farewell
present.. The present was a basket fitted
with knives and forks and spoons, which ha
had carried more than once when they went
on a picnic together.
In all the little familiar tea parties which
Salem sadly made by way of bidding good
by to Miss Parris, Mr. Curwen never ap
peared. "He had gone to New York, it wai
said, and though Salem was apt to know
the business of everybody in Salem, rather
better than he knew himself, Salem did not
known why he had gone. No letters came
from him, or, if tbey 4id, the postmaster
had not recognized the handwriting. So
was it that, excepting for the picnic basket,
and-forthat little billet which was acci
dentally preserved, Sarah Parris had no
goodby from Harry Curwen.
A hundred years have lifted some
mysteries, so that there is no reason why I
should not tell both ot you, dear Lily and
dear Emma, what Mr. Harry Curwen had
done withhimself.
First of all, he had written the little billet,
and had sent off the basket, with the silver
spoons and knives and forks, to the yonng
lady. Second, he had gone to Boston, and
had spent two or three days there, in eon.
ference with his father's oldmilitary friends.
He. had obtained from them letters of Intro- ,
duttion to General Knox, in New York.
Then he took the stage to Providence, and
from Providence, with a north-east wind,
he took -the packet Lady Washington, and
sailed for the City of New York. Three
days after, he found himself at Francis'
Hotel in that city. It was then the seat of
government of the United States. ,
Harry Curwen dressed himself in his best,
and called upon, his old friend, Colonel
Timothy Pickering, to whom he told his
plans. The Colonel advised him, as men
of 40 sometimes will advise men of 20 that
is, he advised him to change all his plans
and go home. But by this advice Harry
Cnrwin was not moved. He asked Colonel
Picketing, also, to give an Introduction to
General Knox, which h could not refuse. "
Now, General Knox was at this time the
"Secretary of War to the new-born nation.
And so soon as Colonel Pickering had writ
ten the note, to General Knox Harry Cur
wen repaired. f
The General was most kind. There Tuil
f teen no need, he said, that our friend Harrv
Luuuiu uuug uiui tellers. ArcQeriQ KUTt
wsin's' son needed no introduction to him. '
He went back to old days when tha .young,
man's-father was in college. 'Anct after
tnose aajs, jay aear young raan, he weald
I 111
M
1
i
4
4
4
e$Mm&t ,.. t -tsiTt -i . - k .