PARIS TO GENEVA
From Ireland with its woes, Ireland with its oppressions, through
England, the world's oppressor, to Paris, and from Paris to
Switzerland--that was the route our party took; not so much because it
was consecutive or in order, but because the whim so to do seized us. We
were out to see, and to us all countries that were to be seen were alike
of interest. We spent a few more days in Paris--everybody wants to spend
a few more days in Paris--and then turned our reluctant faces southward.
A dismal, gloomy night; the fine, penetrating rain, cold and
disagreeable, that chills the very marrow, half hides the dimly burning
gas-lights, and makes the streets utterly forlorn. The belated
pedestrian bends his head to the blast and hurries along, eager to reach
the cozy room where the gloom that pervades everything out of doors
cannot penetrate. The cabs roll along the stony pavements with a dead,
metallic sound that adds to the general dreariness.
Everything and everybody is depressed.
So it was when the train drew out of the dimly lighted station in Paris,
and plunged into the unfathomable gloom and darkness of the country
beyond.
Wonderful invention--this railroad! and never so wonderful as at night.
The mariner has his compass to guide him--the engine-driver has the
rail. You go to sleep, or try to, in Paris; you wake in Switzerland. It
makes reality of the magic carpet in the "Arabian Night's Tales."
Though the coarse, stuffy compartment afforded no pleasure, the dull
roar of the train as it sped on through the driving storm lulled the
senses, gave our memory full sway; gradually
[Illustration: COMPARTMENT IN A FRENCH CAR.]
[Sidenote: A NIGHT ON THE RAIL.]
the rain ceased its pattering against the window pane, the sky broke
into a rosy blue, the brilliant sunlight streamed out in the night over
the beautiful white city, and Paris, the frivolous empress of the world,
held out to the mind its multitudinous attractions and unlimited
pleasures. We saw again, reflected in the memory of the last six weeks,
the long, wide boulevards, with their cheerful cafés filled with
beautifully dressed women and leisure-loving men. There was the
constant, ever-changing streams of humanity surging on to some end,
each in his own way. There were the lights, the flowers, the gaities of
the beautiful city, where the attainment of happiness and pleasure seems
to be the chief aim of existence. The Louvre with its infinity of
beauties, the Palais Royal with its bewildering jewels, the Place de
Concorde with its historic memories, the Champ Elysées dazzling bright,
with its arch-crowned vista of brilliant equipages, the Bois du Boulogne
with its flower-lined walls and flower-lined lakes. There was rare
relief, ever present to us, in all its glory, all its pleasure, all its
gaiety. Days passed into weeks, and weeks into months, of perfect
enjoyment that came to an end only when the guard in gruff tones hustled
us out of the car at Macon, to change for the train going to Geneva. The
transition was sudden and decidedly unpleasant.
There were eight of us in the compartment all that night--a Frenchman
and four small daughters, on their way to Geneva, Tibbitts and
ourselves. Tibbitts, who could not speak a word of French, except "_Der
bock_," which means in English "two beers," and "_Combien?_" which is
"how much," entered into a cheerful conversation with the Frenchman, who
could not speak a word of English. It was vastly entertaining. Tibbitts
would make a beautiful remark in English, to which the Frenchman would
reply, "Oui, Monsieur." Then the Frenchman would make an elaborate
observation on something or other in French, to which Tibbitts would
reply, "Oui, Monsieur," and so on all night.
It was not pleasant for those trying to sleep, but it seemed to amuse
the two participants.
At Macon, in the morning, the Frenchman followed Tibbitts around the
platform, attempting by gesture and a volley of Parisian French, to make
something known to him.
Tibbitts came to me alarmed.
"What is 'Oui Monsieur' in English?"
"It means simply 'Yes, sir,' or 'Certainly, sir.'"
"Did you know what that Frenchman was saying last night?"
"Not a word."
"I said 'Oui, Monsieur' to everything he said. Suppose he asked me to
lend him a hundred francs! I am in a fix about it. I can't go back on my
word, and if he asked me that I certainly promised to do it, and if I
have to do it I shall have to borrow it of you."
Mr. Tibbitts' fears were unfounded. A hotel-porter who could master a
trifle of English, came between them, and found that the Frenchman had
been so impressed with the urbanity of my Oshkosh friend as to ask him
in the night to take care of his four children to Geneva, that he might
return by the next train to Paris, and Tibbitts had said "Oui, Monsieur"
to the proposition, and he had the babies on his hands all the way.
[Illustration: THEY WERE LIVELY CHILDREN.]
They were lively children, and made the poor fellow much trouble, and
Tibbitts heaved a prodigious sigh of relief when he turned them over to
their waiting guardian at Geneva. He immediately asked for the French
word for "No," and vowed solemnly to ever after use that word when in
conversation with Frenchmen on railroads or elsewhere.
[Sidenote: ON THE WAY TO GENEVA]
The day broke dull and cheerless, but as soon as the sun came up the
clouds were driven away, and the whole country was bright and
beautiful. The road passes through some of the best wine districts of
France, and nearly all of the little towns through which the train
whirls with only a long shriek of the whistle, are devoted to the
handling of wine, although in most of them there is a church or two and
some monuments, just enough to make it a show place.
A town on this side of the water is no town at all if it does not have
at least two or three places that were either old or historical, or
both. Thus at Tournus, a little town of six thousand inhabitants, there
is an Abbey church that was begun in 960, and not completed until late
in the twelfth century. It isn't much of a church, but it attracts
visitors to the town, and so adds to its revenue. It pays to have show
places.
From Macon to Culoz the line passes through lovely vineyards that lie
spread out almost as far as the eye can reach, over gently undulating
hills and dales that are watered by pretty little streams, clear and
pure, having their source way off in the mountains, dimly discernible in
the distance. Soon after passing Culoz the country assumes a more
picturesque appearance, the vine-clad hills giving way to rugged
mountains that tower high above the fertile valley, through which the
train has been rushing for the past two or three hours. Swift, deep
streams, fed by mountain springs, come tumbling down the sides of the
high cliffs and lose themselves in the mass of foliage that skirts the
base of the range, which hourly grows more and more imposing. We are
whirled through long tunnels, over high bridges, and are treated to
magnificent prospects. Green mountain sides crowned with the ruins of
old castles that in days long gone by had been the terror of the
neighborhood, picturesque towns nestling in cozy nooks flit by as the
train speeds rapidly on, until, early in the forenoon, we arrive at
Geneva, the Mecca of all strangers who contemplate an Alpine or Swiss
tour.
The day was perfect. A cool breeze from lovely Lake Leman tempered the
heat that otherwise would have been oppressive; the sky was without a
cloud and as the pure air was gratefully inhaled by long delightful
breaths, there was a sense of joyousness and happiness that was
heavenly. Near at hand a long range of high mountains stretched out into
the country and lost itself in the range that skirts the shores of the
long irregular lake. Far off in the distance, between the dimly outlined
peaks of another range, Mont Blanc rears its grand white head high among
the clouds, its aged covering of pure white, glistening and glinting in
the sunlight. It is an impressive scene, full of strange fascinating
beauty.
[Illustration: THE LAKE AND CITY OF GENEVA.]
[Sidenote: GENEVA.]
Grandly the view changes. A light fleecy cloud floats languidly past the
summit, casting a weird shadow on the spotless white. That delicate
lace-like cloud, beautiful in form and color, is followed by another,
darker and more threatening. Another and another comes, each darker and
more forbidding, until suddenly the whole is overcast. Mont Blanc is
enveloped in a sable mantle from which, presently, issues a low rumbling
noise that foretells in unmistakable language what is to come. Now long
jagged flashes of lightning rend the gloomy masses of fast scudding
clouds, that turned the bright day into darkness, the wind sweeps down
from the mountain with a wail half human; the rain comes down in
torrents, not in fitful gusts but in a steady, angry stream. The placid
waters of the lake, only a moment before laughing in the bright
sunlight, are lashed to a fury, as the storm increases in violence.
Terrific peals of thunder that seem to shake the earth, break directly
overhead and then go rolling and rumbling away up the valley, until they
exhaust themselves and die away with one final crash. All the elements
seem to combine to produce a grand spectacle that strikes the beholder
with awe-tempered admiration.
As quickly as it came the storm died away, and in a short time all
nature smiled again and seemed to feel better after the display of its
ability in getting up grand sights on short notice. The sun came out
with renewed splendor and tinged Mont Blanc forty miles away, with a
rosy hue, that lasted all the afternoon, long until the other and less
pretentious peaks had become mere outlines in the twilight that presaged
the coming night. And then even the King of Peaks began to fade.
Gradually but constantly the pink tints turned lighter until it was
ashen. Then it became darker and darker until at length its massive
proportions faded entirely away and were lost in the darkness that had
come so gradually that its presence was hardly felt.
Geneva is a curious old city, one of the links that connect the dead
past with the terribly active and quite distinct present. Its memories
are of monks and opposers of monks; its present is of watches and music
boxes. However, the Genevan has been shrewd enough to carefully preserve
the dust of the past, out of which, combined with its delightful
situation, it gathers many shekels from the horde of tourists who sweep
over Europe every year. Everybody must and does see Geneva. It is the
capital of the smallest canton in Switzerland but one, the entire
territory being but fifteen miles long by as many square, a large
portion of this being taken up by the lake. Its population is less than
fifty thousand, but, nevertheless, it is the largest city in
Switzerland, and one which has the most of historical interest attached
to it.
The land is so nearly perpendicular in Switzerland that large cities are
impossible.
So small was the canton of Geneva that Voltaire said of it: "When I
shake my wig, I powder the whole Republic," and when some commotion
occurred in the little Republic the Emperor Paul said of it: "It is a
tempest in a glass of water."
But, small as it is, it has played its part, and a very important one it
has been, in the history of the world. Here lived John Calvin, or Jean
Caulvin, who originated that cheerful form of religious faith known as
Calvinism. As he preached, and, to the credit of his powers of
endurance be it said, practiced, it made a good heaven necessary in the
next world, to compensate somewhat for what his disciples had to endure
in this. He eliminated from life everything that was pleasant,
everything that was cheerful, everything that was pleasurable, and
brought mankind into a sort of religious straight-jacket, that made any
swerving from a straight line impossible.
Daring Calvin's reign, for his rule was almost absolute, Geneva was a
safe place to live in (if you believed with Calvin, or pretended to
believe hard enough), but it would hardly suit a Parisian. Theaters were
considered the especially wide gateways to perdition, and everything
that savored of amusement was strictly prohibited. As his was a stern
and gloomy religion, which made the business of this life a constant
preparation for the next, and the reward for all this sort of penance a
continuance of the same in the next, his doctrines found more ardent
support in Scotland than in France.
In opposing the Catholic Church, as the Catholic Church was in that day,
Calvin, with Luther, did a great work, but Calvin, after all, simply
wanted the people to exchange one form of spiritual despotism for
another. The chief benefit arising to the world was that, in moving the
people out of Romanism he taught them that they _could_ move, and, so
instructed, they lost but little time in moving out from the perpetual
thunder-cloud he put over them.
For many years he was supreme in Geneva in temporal as well as spiritual
matters. As a Liberal who hates authority invariably becomes in time the
worst bigot, so Calvin, who commenced as a champion of liberty of
conscience, came to executing and banishing all who differed with him on
points of religious belief. He wanted everybody to believe as their
conscience taught them, provided it taught them his belief. Castellio,
one of his oldest supporters, differed with him on the doctrine of
predestination, and Calvin promptly banished him. Servetus, a Spaniard,
wrote a treatise on the doctrine of the Trinity. He was arrested by
Calvin in 1553, and was promptly tried, found guilty of not believing as
the great reformer did, and was condemned to the stake, and was burned,
Calvin standing by to make it impressive.
[Sidenote: AN AFFECTING ANECDOTE.]
Tibbitts told an old Boston story of a confirmed joker who was dying. A
friend called upon him one morning, and finding his feet warm sought to
encourage him.
"Barnes, you ain't going to die. No man ever died with warm feet."
"One did."
"Who?"
"John Rogers!"
Servetus died with warm feet, and his ashes were scattered to the four
winds. He and Calvin differed about the exact meaning of some passages
of scripture and as it had not been revised at that date, Calvin made
himself the authority. As he had supreme power and could do as he
pleased he succeeded in having a tolerable degree of unanimity. After
the burning of Servetus there were but few who desired to argue with
Calvin.
I have observed that burning and otherwise killing for the up-building
of the kingdom of the Prince of Peace has been common in all ages, and
that the sect that does the most of it is always the one that happens to
be in power. The Jesuits have published a sort of Catholic "Fox's Book
of Martyrs," which sets forth with ghastly wood engravings the histories
of the persecutions of Catholics by Protestants. The burning of Servetus
by Calvin is the subject of one of the illustrations, though the editor
carefully omits the fact that Servetus was not a Catholic at all.
Rosseau, the great Socialist, was born here, and here he wrote the works
that have consigned his memory to infamy or glory, according as the
reader believes. He was a man of wonderful genius, one of the foremost
writers of the world, but he was as fantastic as any other Frenchman,
and his doctrines were based upon a condition of things which only a
dreamy poet could imagine as possible. He was a Socialist, a
latitudinarian, and one of the kind of "world reformers" who hold that
everything that is, is wrong, and that to destroy anything is to better
the condition of the world.
It is a curious commentary upon French morals that after he had been the
lover, (with all that the word implies) of a dozen or more of French
titled women who affected men of letters, and while living openly with
his cook, who bore him five illegitimate children, a French college
invited him to write a treatise upon the "Effect of Science and Art Upon
Morals," which invitation he most cheerfully accepted. He was the
reverse of Calvin, but like Calvin, he left his impress upon the thought
of the little city.
Geneva is a pleasant place to come to, and, but for the extortionate
hotels, would be a place that one would be loth to leave. Swiss hotel
keepers have got swindling down to so fine a point that further progress
in that direction is impossible. There is a legend afloat that hotel
keepers from all over Europe come to Geneva to learn the business, and
that lectures on the art of swindling travelers are given regularly by
the managers of Geneva hotels; in short, that Geneva is a sort of hotel
college, but I don't know as to its truth. Any hotel keeper here,
however, is competent to fill a professorship--in such an institution.
You are charged for candles, a franc each. You never use a candle,
except during the minute necessary to disrobe for your bed, but you are
charged a franc for it just the same. The more conscientious hotel
manager wants to satisfy you with a new candle every night, and so he
has a little machine, something like a pencil sharpener, with which he
tapers off the top of the burned candle, making it look as though it had
never been lighted, and charges you right over again for it.
Tibbitts exasperated his landlord by putting his candle in his pocket
every morning, and from the front of the hotel giving it to the first
poor person who passed. But the landlord smiled grimly, in French, when
he saw the little trick, and promptly instructed his clerk to charge
Monsieur Tibbitts two francs a day for broken glass.
[Sidenote: THE CHAMBERMAID'S TRICK.]
You are to depart to-morrow morning, and you charge the clerk with great
distinctness to have your bill made out before you retire. You want to
go over the items and see that everything is correct. The clerk, with
great suavity, assures you that it shall be done, but it isn't. You come
for it and find the office closed. The next morning you arise betimes
and make the same request; you say you want your bill immediately, to
which the same answer is given with an apology for its not having been
done the night before. You get through your breakfast--it is not yet
done. Minutes fly, the carriage is at the door to take you to your
train, and just as the last minute possible to catch the train is on
you, it comes--as long as your arm, written in French, which you can't
understand if you had time to, but which now is utterly impossible. You
glance at the grand total--it is a grand total--and you pay it,
objurgating because it is a trifle over twice what it should be.
Then comes the long array of servants, the chambermaid, the boots, the
elevator boy, the head waiter, the table waiter, and so on, all of whom
expect and plumply demand recognition, and you think you are done. But
you are not.
Just as you are getting into the carriage, a chambermaid, not the one
who had charge of your room, but her sister, appears with one of your
silk handkerchiefs.
"Monsieur forgot the handkerchief."
She extends the handkerchief with one hand, holding out the other for a
franc. You give it to her of course, knowing all the time that your own
chambermaid abstracted it and gave it to her for the purpose of wringing
the last possible drop of blood out of you, and that this wretch has
done the same kind office for your chambermaid, to be practised upon
another victim who leaves to-morrow.
I presume the landlord compels a division of these swindles, for as they
all lay awake nights to devise ways and means to wrench money from
tourists it is not likely they would let so easy a source of revenue
escape them.
Here everybody takes gratuities, even excelling the English in the
practice.
There is a story which comes in here by way of illustration. An old lady
had a case in court which was going slowly. She desired more speed, and
asked an old man, who was supposed to know everything, how she could
accelerate the matter.
"Give your lawyer twenty francs."
"What! will the grave and great man take twenty francs? Would he not
throw the money in my face and feel so insulted that he would throw up
my case?"
"He might, but I can tell you how to know whether he will take the
gratuity or not. When you come into his presence observe his mouth. If
it runs up and down his face don't offer it to him, for he would not
take it. But if his mouth runs across his face offer it with confidence.
Every man in Switzerland whose mouth is cut crosswise the face will
accept a gratuity."
It so happened that in sailing up the lake the question of piracy came
up,--it grew out of a discussion of the charges at the various
hotels--when Tibbitts broke in with that calm confidence that
distinguishes the young man:--
"I have been giving the matter of piracy most serious consideration, its
rise, decline and fall. Formerly piracy was everywhere on the high seas.
Adventurous spirits manned vessels which were built, armed and sent out
by wealthy corporations, their business being to capture merchant
vessels, cut the throats of the male passengers and crew and confiscate
the property. In those halcyon days money was gold and silver, and the
pirates after capturing a rich prize sailed their vessels to some point
on the Spanish main, where there was a convenient cove, captured a
Spanish village, murdered the men, and made such love to the women that
they very soon preferred the picturesque villains to their virtuous but
common-place and insipid (because honest) husbands. And there they
lived; gaily dancing fandangos and boleros, under the shade of palms, to
the soft pleasings of the lute, till the money was spent (by the way I
never could see how they spent money in such places after they had
killed all the shop-keepers and saloon men) and then they sailed sweetly
out to be a scourge of the seas once more.
"It was a pleasant thing to be a pirate in those days.
"The first blow this industry received was the invention of sight draft,
by which money could be transmitted. The pirate who seized drafts
couldn't forge the names necessary to their collection, to say nothing
of the risk of presenting himself at a bank in London to collect them.
[Sidenote: PIRACY ON LAKE ERIE.]
"The second and severest blow was the introduction and general use of
dollar jewelry. Dollar jewelry has done more for the suppression of
piracy than the Christian religion. Imagine a pirate captain parading
the crew of a captured ship to despoil their persons before inviting
them to walk the plank, the hungry sharks about the vessel in
joyful--not jawful--anticipation. Imagine his disgust at tearing out a
pair of ear-drops from a lady's ears of the size of hickory nuts, that
ought to be worth thousands, and finding them Parisian imitation stones
set in oroide gold. Such experiences were heart-breaking. Who would cut
a throat for oroide gold with imitation stones?
"A score of daring spirits once organized a piratical party for a
steamer on Lake Erie. We proposed to take passage Sundays, when there
were excursions; to murder the excursionists, and throw their bodies
over to the catfish, the nearest approach we have to sharks on the
lakes. Our first attempt was our last. There was an excursion from
Indiana, the party numbering eight hundred. We had a contract with a
gentleman named Moses for their clothes, so much a dozen for stockings,
shirts, and so on, as they run; and the money and jewelry we proposed to
divide among the party, each one disposing of his share of the plunder
as he pleased.
"It was a disgusting failure. We discovered that the passengers had
spent all their money in purchasing round tickets for the excursion,
they had brought their lunches with them in baskets, and there wasn't a
single piece of anything but dollar jewelry among them; and as for their
clothes--Mr. Moses was on board, and he looked over the lot and begged
us not to inaugurate our slaughter, as "'selp him, he vouldn't gif
tventy-fife tollar for all as it stood." We stood idly by, endured the
excursion ourselves, and were even reduced to the ineffable chagrin of
paying for our own dinners and refreshments. The dashing captain
actually begged his dinner of an old lady in spectacles.
"That was the last effort at piracy on the lakes, and it is about the
same on the high seas. Drafts and dollar jewelry have tamed the
adventurous spirit of the buccaneer, and driven them all into keeping
hotels in Switzerland, the captains as proprietors, the second officers
as head-porters, and the crew as waiters, chambermaids, etc. They are
doing as well, probably, as before, and by similar methods, though
piracy has lost its picturesqueness. Your pirate, instead of wearing a
broad hat and a picturesque sash, and all that, is clad in sober
broadcloth, with a white necktie; his cutlass is transformed into a pen,
the deck of his vessel is the floor of the corridor of his hotel. But he
preys upon mankind the same as of old. It is the method only that is
changed. Dollar jewelry don't affect them, except in cases where the
landlord has to seize baggage for his bill. Sometimes he comes to grief
then, but not often."
[Illustration: "YOUR HOTEL IS A SWINDLE, SIR!"]
One of the most amusing things connected with the hotels is the final
talk that ensues when the traveler has paid his bill, and is buttoning
up his coat for departure.
"Your hotel is a swindle, sir, and I will never darken its doors again.
I will take especial pains to inform my friends, sir. This bill is an
outrage, sir, an outrage! and my friends shall know of it!"
"_Oui_, Monsieur," says the landlord, bowing gracefully and grimacing as
expressively as a monkey.
[Sidenote: THE IRATE GUEST.]
The plundered guest tells everybody not to go to the National, but by
all means go to the Beau Rivage, not knowing, poor soul, that the very
minute he was abusing, justly abusing, the proprietor of the National,
another man just like him was abusing the proprietor of the Beau
Rivage, and that, while he is sending guests to the Beau Rivage, the
swindled Beau Rivager is sending his friends to the National.
"Ze zentleman ees offend," smirkingly remarked the landlord of the
National, after one of these scenes; "vera goot. He sents all hees
frients to ze Beau Rivage. The proprietor of ze Beau Rivage ees my
frère--vat yoo call 'im, eh?--bruzzer. Ve ees in partnersheep."
And so it is. All the hotel men are in partnership, and, besides this
powerful leverage, they know that so many come every year, anyhow; that
those flayed at the National this year will go to be fleeced at the Beau
Rivage next, and so on around.
Despite this modified piracy, Geneva is a pleasant and hospitable place
to visit, and one difficult to leave. It is a thoroughly enjoyable old
city, and life there was very full. There is just enough quaintness in
its queer, rambling streets to make one wish to be constantly exploring
them, hoping, yet fearing, that he would get lost. It was an especial
delight to go across the river and prowl among the steep, narrow streets
that end finally against a dead wall; to scale high hills, with old
fashioned houses forming alleys so narrow that two people could scarcely
pass. We loved to plunge into dark, forbidding passages, groping our way
along under houses, until, when least expected, we found ourselves in a
bright, well-paved street in another portion of the town.
And then the long rambles on the lake shore, especially at night, when,
far off in the distance could be seen the twinkling lights of the city
on both sides of the lake, connected by a tiny belt of light across the
bridge that connected the old with the new.
And the concerts at the Jardin du Lac, a pleasant garden with trees and
flowers and fountains, on the south bank of the lake, where a fine
orchestra furnishes exquisite music during the soft, balmy Summer
evenings. Ah! those were indeed days and nights of rare enjoyment.
Geneva is divided into two sections; one as distinct from the other as
an Indiana cabin is from the cathedral at Cologne. On the one side of
the river, it is the same as the freshly built and lively looking
streets of a new American city. You see the modern cornice on the roofs
and over the windows, the elegant plate glass fronts to the shops, the
massive buildings for the factories, the orthodox basement dwellings in
the main part of the city, and the modern villas with ample grounds
farther out.
This is the new part, the part created by the latter day Swiss, who were
compelled by the reconstruction of Paris to modernize and wipe out the
old to make room for the new. There is less of reverence in a dollar
than in anything else in the world. The owner of a historical old
rookery didn't care a straw for the associations connected with his
premises; what he wanted was rent, and so the quaint old piles were
demolished and new buildings, modeled after the new Paris, went up in
their stead. The uncomfortable old streets were widened into something
like boulevards, the beautifully smooth and clean asphalt pavement took
the place of the wretched old bowlders, and everything that was old, no
matter whether its savor was of the Puritanic Calvin, or the antedating
monk, was bundled out of the way with as little reverence as a
Cromwellian soldier displayed in cleaning out an English or Irish
monastery.
But the other side of the river has escaped the hand of the vandal, and
whoever hungers for the uncomfortable past can find all he wants of it.
The streets are as wretched as the most exacting could desire, and the
houses run up as many stories as you choose, and the old notion of a
building being so high that you have to look twice to get to the top of
it, is well nigh realized. Very like the conductor who was boasting of
the speed of his train:
"Thunder," says he, "we passed Millgrove so fast that the station master
had to call out the telegraph operator to help him ketch a glance at
us."
There are passages so tortuous and cavernous, built for no earthly
purpose that any one can divine now-a-days, buildings like small Alps,
with the quaintest windows, the most absurd staircases, and the most
inconvenient arrangements, shops in passages so dark as to require
artificial light in mid-day, and human habitations in these underground
burrows.
[Sidenote: TOO MUCH MUSIC.]
Old Geneva, like Old Paris, has a musty smell and ancient flavor that is
delightful, if you do not have to live in it.
On the other side you are oppressed with watches and music boxes, the
manufacture of which support the city. In the matter of watches Geneva
is not so absolute as she was, for the inventive Yankee makes a better
watch than the Genevan hand-worker. We do not make so many kinds or so
curious specimens of horology, but for substantial wear and constant
use, the American watch is conceded even by the Genevan to be the best.
But in music boxes and every species of musical machinery, Geneva has no
rival. At your hotel the doors of some of the grand halls reel off
snatches of opera as they swing upon their hinges, the caraffe from
which you pour your water at table sings an air as the water gurgles
from its mouth, and you shall see beautiful trees with gorgeous birds
hopping from limb to limb, and all singing deliciously and naturally.
Snuff boxes, tobacco boxes, cigar cases, everything of the kind has a
musical attachment, that discusses sweet melody whenever opened. In
short, there is such a wealth of melody, and it comes to you from such
unexpected quarters, that one gets rather tired of it, and wishes he
could go somewhere to get out from under it.
A perpetual concert is rather too much of a good thing. And they get
prices for these goods, too. My friend, the faro bankeress, who has
about as much of an idea of music as a pig has of the Greek Testament,
paid five thousand dollars for a tree with singing birds, because, I
presume, the price was five thousand dollars. Had it been fifty dollars
I doubt if she would have taken it.
It didn't matter to her. Her husband's establishment could win that
amount any night, and it pleased her to astonish the manufacturers of
these airy nothings, with her profuseness of expenditure. I saw a
duplicate sold to a man who knew something about these things for one
thousand dollars. These sellers of whims know their customers at sight.