Part 12 (2/2)

I visited Verulamium and St. Alban's Abbey, not then ”restored,” and other beautiful places. It all seemed like a fairy-tale, for the charm of my early reading came over me like enchantment. One night Hunt and I went into a little wayside inn. There were a.s.sembled a number of peasants--hedgers and ditchers, or such like. We treated them to ale, and they sang many strange old songs. Then I was called on, and I sang ”Sir Patrick Spens,” which was well received.

I returned to London, and found, to my dismay, that I had not enough money to take me home! I had received a bill of exchange on a merchant in London, and, in my innocence, never dreamed that it const.i.tuted no claim on him whatever for a further supply. I called at his office, saw his son, who naturally informed me that they could advance me no more money, but referred me to his father. The old gentleman seemed to be amused, and questioned me all about myself. When he found that his Philadelphia correspondent was very well known to my father, and that the son of the correspondent was a fellow-student of mine at Heidelberg and Paris, he asked me how much I wanted. When I replied, ”Only enough to pay my pa.s.sage,” he replied, ”Is that all?” and at once gave me the money. Then he questioned me as to my friends in London, and said, ”You have seen something of the aristocracy, I would like you to see some of the business people.” So he invited me to a dinner at the Reform Club, to meet a few friends. Among these was a Mr. Birch, son of the celebrated Alderman Birch. He had directed the dinner, being a famous _gourmet_, and Soyer had cooked it. That dinner cost my host far more than he had made out of me. We had six kinds of choicest wines, which impressed me _then_.

Mr. Birch was a man of literary culture, and we went deeply into books.

The next day he sent me a charming work which he had written on the religious belief of Shakespeare, in which it was fairly proved that the immortal bard had none. And I was so well pleased with England, that I liked it better than any country I had ever visited.

In 1870, when I came to London, and found my character of ”Hans Breitmann” on three stages at once, I received, of course, a great deal of attention. Somebody said to me, ”Oh, of course; you come here well known, and are made a great deal of.” I replied, ”Twenty years ago I came to London without a single letter of introduction, and had only two or three student friends, and received just as much kind hospitality.” I think that like generally finds its like, so long as it is honest and can pay its bills.

I left Portsmouth for New York in a sailing-vessel or packet. I could have returned by steamer, but preferred the latter, as I should now, if there were any packets crossing the ocean. In old times travel was a pleasure or an art; now it is the science of getting from place to place in the shortest time possible. Hence, with all our patent Pullman cars and their dentist's chairs, Procrustean sofas, and headlong pa.s.sages, we do _not_ enjoy ourselves as we did when the coach went on the road so slowly as to allow us to see the country, when we halted often and long, many a time in curious old villages. But ”the idea of dragging along in that way!” Well, and what, O tourist, dost thou travel _for_?

There was on the vessel in which I sailed, among the few pa.s.sengers, Mrs.

and Mr. John Gilbert, a well-known dramatic couple, who were extremely agreeable and genial, the husband abounding in droll reminiscences of the stage; a merry little German musician named Kreutzer, son of the great composer; and a young Englishwoman with a younger brother. I rather doubted the ”solidity” of this young lady. By-and-bye it was developed that the captain was in love with her. Out of this, I have heard, came a dreadful tragedy; for the love drove him mad, the insanity developing itself on the return voyage. The captain had to be imprisoned in his own state-room, where he committed suicide in a terrible manner by tearing his throat open with the point of a candlestick or sconce. The second mate, who was as coa.r.s.e a brute as a common sailor could be, took command, and as he at once got drunk, and kept so, the pa.s.sengers rose, confined him, and gave the command to the third, who was very young.

”Thus woman is the cause of fearful deeds.”

However, I freely admit that this incident resulted from a long voyage, for we were thirty-five days in going from port to port. In only a week, with three or four days' preliminary sea-sickness, there is hardly time for ”flirtation and its consequences.” Nor was it so much a stormy trip as one with long sunny calms. Then we hauled up Gulf-weed with little crabs--saw Portuguese men-of-war or sea-anemones sailing along like Cleopatra's barges with purple sails, or counted flying-fish. Apropos of this last I have something to say. During my last trip I once devoted an afternoon to closely observing these bird-like creatures, and very distinctly saw two cases in which the fish turned and flew against the wind or tacked--a fact which has been denied.

One day I saw a few rudder-fish playing about the stern. They weigh perhaps some six or seven pounds; so, standing on velvet cus.h.i.+ons in the cabin, I fished out of the stern-window. Then came a bite, and in a second I had my fish flapping about on the carpet under the table, to the great amazement of the steward, who had probably never had a live fish jump so promptly before into his hands. And we had it for dinner. One day a s.h.i.+p made to us a signal of distress, and sent a boat, saying that they were completely out of fuel; also that their pa.s.sengers consisted entirely of the celebrated Ravel troupe of acrobats and actors. It would have been an experience to have crossed in that packet with their chief, Gabriel!

Gabriel Ravel--it is one of my brother's published tales--was a good boxer as well as a marvellous acrobat, and he could _look_ like what he pleased. One morning a muscular and vain New York swell saw in a gymnasium one whom he supposed to be a very verdant New Jersey rustic gaping about. The swell exhibited with great pride his skill on the parallel bars, horizontal pole, _et cetera_, and seeing the countryman absolutely dumbfounded with astonishment, proposed to the latter to put on the gloves. ”Jersey” hardly seemed to know what gloves were, but with much trouble he was got into form and set to milling. But though he was as awkward as a blind cow, the swell pugilist could not for a very long time get in a blow. Jersey dodged every hit ”somehow” in a manner which seemed to be miraculous. At last one told on his chest, and it appeared to be a stunner, for it knocked him into the air, where he turned a double somersault, and then fell on his feet. And it seemed as if, during this flight, he had been suddenly inspired with a knowledge of the manly art, for on descending, he went at the swell and knocked him from time. It was Gabriel Ravel.

We saw an iceberg far away, and lay off on the Grand Banks (where our steerage pa.s.sengers caught cod-fish), and beheld a water-spout--I once saw two at a time in the Mediterranean--and whales, which were far commoner then than now, it being rumoured that the one, and no more, which is regularly seen by pa.s.sengers now is a tame one belonging to the White Star or some other line, which keeps him moored in a certain place on exhibition; also that what Gulf-weed there is left is grown near New York and scattered by night from certain boats. It may be so--this is an artificial age. All that remains is to learn that the flying-fish are No. 3 salt mackerel set with springs, and I am not sure that I should doubt even _that_.

IV. THE RETURN TO AMERICA. 1848-1862.

Home--Studying law with John Cadwallader--Philadelphia as I found it--Richard B. Kimball--”Fusang”--Literal reporting in German--First experiences in magazines and newspapers--Father Matthew--Dr. Rufus Griswold--Engaged to be married--A journey North--Colonel Cotl and pistol-practice with him--Alfred Jaell--Editor of Barnum's _Ill.u.s.trated News_--Dr. Griswold and his MS.--Bixby's--Mr. Barnum--My first books--New York society in the early Fifties--Alice and Phoebe Carey--Was.h.i.+ngton Irving--Bayard Taylor--N. P. Willis--J. G. Saxe--H.

C. Carey--Emily Schaumberg--I become a.s.sistant-editor of the _Bulletin_--George H. Boker--Cremation--Editorial life--Paternal enterprise--My father renews his fortune--I am married--The Republican Convention--First great dissension with the South--Translating Heine--The lady in the burning hotel--The writing of ”Hans Breitmann's Barty”--Change to New York--Appletons' _Cyclopaedia_--G. W. Ripley and Charles A. Dana--Foreign editing of _New York Times_--”Vanity Fair”--The Bohemians--Artemus Ward--Lincoln's election--The Civil War--My political work in the _Knickerbocker_--Emanc.i.p.ation--I become sole editor of the _Continental Magazine_--What I did in 1862 and 1863 in aid of the Union cause.

So we arrived in New York, and within an hour or two after my arrival I was in the train _en route_ for Philadelphia. On the way, I intrusted a newsboy with an English s.h.i.+lling to go and get me change. I still await that change. And in Philadelphia the hackman who drove me to my father's house, as soon as the trunks were removed, departed suddenly, carrying away with him a small hand-bag containing several valuable objects, which I never recovered. I began to think that if the object of travel be to learn to keep one's eyes open and avoid being swindled, that I had better have remained at home.

My father had removed to another house in Walnut Street, below Twelfth Street. After this he only changed dwellings once more before his death.

This constant change from one rented house to another, like the changes from school to school, is very unfortunate, as I have before said, for any family. It destroys all the feeling and unity of character which grow up in a settled _home_.

I pa.s.s over the joy of again seeing my parents, the dear sisters, and brother Henry. I was soon settled down, soon visiting friends, going to evening parties, making morning or afternoon calls, and after a little while was entered as a law-student in the office of John Cadwallader in Fourth Street.

I cannot pa.s.s over the fact, for it greatly influenced my after life, that though everybody was very kind to me, and I was even in a small way a kind of lion, the change from my late life was very hard to bear. I have read a wonderful story of a boy who while at a severe school had a marvellous dream. It seemed to last for years, and while it lasted, he went to the University, graduated, pa.s.sed into diplomatic life, was a great man and beloved; when all at once he awoke and found himself at school again and birchable. After the freedom of student life in Heidelberg and Munich and Paris, and having been among the few who had carried out a great revolution, and much familiarity with the most cosmopolite type of characters in Europe, and existing in literature and art, I was settled down to live, move, and have all being henceforth and perhaps for ever in Philadelphia! Of which city, at that time, there was not one in the world of which so little evil could be said, or so much good, yet of which so few ever spoke with enthusiasm. Its inhabitants were all well-bathed, well-clad, well-behaved; all with exactly the same ideas and the same ideals. A decided degree of refinement was everywhere perceptible, and they were so fond of flowers that I once ascertained by careful inquiry that in most respectable families there was annually much more money expended for bouquets than for books. When a Philadelphian gave a dinner or supper, his great care was to see that everything _on the table_ was as good or perfect as possible. I had been accustomed to first considering what should be placed _around_ it on the chairs as the main item. The lines of demarcation in ”society” were as strongly drawn as in Europe, or more so, with the enormous difference, however, that there was not the slightest perceptible shade of difference in the intellects, culture, or character of the people on either side of the line, any more than there is among the school-boys on either side of the mark drawn for a game. Very trifling points of difference, not perceptible to an outsider, made the whole difference between the exclusives and the excluded; just as the witch-mark no larger than a needle-point indicates to the judge the difference between the saved and the d.a.m.ned.

I had not been long engaged in studying law when I made the acquaintance of Richard B. Kimball, a lawyer of New York, who had written a few novels which were very popular, and are still reprinted by Tauchnitz. He knew everybody, and took a great interest in me, and opened the door for me to the _Knickerbocker Magazine_. To this I had contributed articles while at Princeton. I now sent it my translation of Professor Neumann's ”Chinese in Mexico in the Fifth Century.” I forget whether this was in 1849 or 1850. In after years I expanded it to a book, of which a certain Professor said, firstly in a paper read before the American Asiatic Society, and secondly in a pamphlet, that there was nothing of any importance in it which had not already appeared in Bancroft's work on the Pacific. I wrote to him, pointing out the fact that Bancroft's work did not appear till many years after my article in the _Knickerbocker_. To which the Sinologist replied very suavely and apologetically indeed that he was ”very sorry,” but had never seen the article in the _Knickerbocker_, &c. But he did not _publish_ the correction, as he should have done. For which reason I now vindicate myself from the insinuated accusation that I borrowed from Bancroft. I had, indeed, almost forgotten this work, ”Fusang,” when, in 1890, Prince Roland Bonaparte, at a dinner given by him to the Congres des Traditions Populaires, startled me by recurring to it and speaking of it with great praise. For it vindicates the claim of the French that Desguignes first discovered the fact that the Chinese were the first to discover America.

If any one doubts this, let him read the truly great work of Vinton on the whole. Prince Roland had been in China and earnestly studied the subject. Von Eichthal had endorsed my views, and wrote to me on Fusang.

I have been for many years well acquainted with his nephew, Baron von Eichthal, and his remarkably accomplished wife, who is expert in all the minor arts.

My father's resources became about this time limited, and I, in fact, realised that he had taxed himself more than I had supposed to maintain me abroad. His Congress Hall property did not pay much rent. For my position in the world, friends, studies, and society, I found myself very much and very often in great need of money. As at that time we were supposed to be much richer than we really were, this was an additional source of trial. I began to see clearly that in the law, as in all business or professions, I should have to wait for years ere I could make a living. For the instances are very few and far between in which a young man, who has not inherited or grown up to a practice, can make one himself at once.

More than this, I was not fitted for law at all. From my birth I had absolutely one of those peculiar temperaments which really disqualify men for ”business.” If I had entered a law-office in which there was much office-work or practice, I might have acquired a practical interest in the profession, but of this there was in ours literally none whatever. I had a great fondness for copying deeds, &c., but Mr. Cadwallader, though he very much admired my quaint round hand, being the very soul of honour, observing that I was eager for such work, would not give me much of it though it would have been to his profit, because, as he said, ”students who paid should not be employed as clerks only, much less as copying machines.” As it had always been deeply impressed on my mind by every American friend that I had ”no business capacity,” and, moreover, as I greatly dreaded speaking in court, I had from the beginning a great fear that I could never live by the law. I mention this because there are many thousands of young men who suffer terribly from such apprehension, and often ruin life by it. A few months' practice in a mercantile college will go far to relieve the first apprehension, while as regards _stage fright_, it can be easily educated out of anybody, as I have since those days educated it out of myself, so that rising to debate or speak inspires in me a _gaudium certaminis_, which increases with the certainty of being attacked. Let the aspirant begin by reading papers before, let us say, a family or school, and continue to do so frequently and at as short intervals as possible before such societies or lyceums as will listen to him. Then let him speak from memory or improvise and debate.

This should form a part of all education whatever, and it should be _thorough_. It is specially needed for lawyers and divines, yet a great proportion of both are most insufficiently trained in it; and while I was studying law it was never mentioned to me. I was never so much as once taken into court or _practically_ employed in any manner whatever.

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