A YEAR IN EUROPE.
[Illustration: WESTMINSTER ABBEY--JERUSALEM CHAMBER TO THE RIGHT.]
A YEAR IN EUROPE.
_By_
WALTER W. MOORE, D. D., LL. D.
President of Union Theological Seminary in Virginia
THIRD EDITION
[Illustration]
RICHMOND, VIRGINIA
The Presbyterian Committee of Publication
1905
COPYRIGHTED
BY
WALTER W. MOORE,
1904.
PRINTED BY
WHITTET & SHEPPERSON,
RICHMOND, VA.
TO
My Traveling Companions
THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED
AS A MEMENTO
OF HAPPY DAYS IN THE OLD WORLD.
FOREWORD.
The only excuse I have to offer for the publication of these desultory
and chatty letters in this more permanent form is that a number of my
friends have requested it. Many of the letters have already appeared in
the columns of _The Children's Friend_, for which they were originally
written, at the instance of the Presbyterian Committee of Publication;
but I have included in the volume several letters which were written
for other periodicals, and a considerable number which have not been
published anywhere till now. Some of them were written hastily, and, as
it were, on the wing, others with more deliberation and care. Some were
intended for young readers, others for older people. This will account
for the differences of style and subject matter which will strike every
one, and which will be particularly noticeable when the letters are
read consecutively.
In some cases I have drawn the materials, in part, from other sources
besides my own observations, the main object at times being not
originality, but accuracy and fullness of information. In such cases I
have endeavored to make full acknowledgment of my indebtedness to other
writers.
As most of the letters were written for a denominational paper, they
naturally contain a good many references to notable events in the
history of the Presbyterian Church, and to some of the differences
between that church and others in matters of doctrine, polity and forms
of worship. But I trust that in no case have I felt or expressed a
spirit of uncharitable sectarianism. If any reader should receive the
impression that I have done so in one or two instances, I request him
to suspend judgment till he has read all the references to such matters
contained in the letters. It will then be seen that if I have had
occasion to make some strictures upon the Anglican and Roman Catholic
Churches, I have not hesitated to make them upon my own church also,
when I have observed, in her worship or work, things which seemed to
argue that she was untrue in any measure to her principles; and that
if I have criticised the Anglo-Catholic and Roman Catholic systems as
erroneous, I have recognized thankfully the great evangelical truths
embedded in the heart of Anglican, and even Romish theology, though
so sadly overlaid, and have rejoiced to pay my tribute of praise to
the saintly characters that have been developed within those bodies in
spite of their errors.
RICHMOND, VA., _June 1, 1904_.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
A COLD SUMMER VOYAGE.
A Pleasant Memory.--A Depressing Start.--Discomforts at
Sea.--Life on a German Steamship.--The Unification of
the World.--All's Well that Ends Well.--Arrival at Southampton, 9
CHAPTER II.
A VISIT TO THE TOWN OF DR. ISAAC WATTS.
A Sheltered Harbor with Double Tides.--Historical Interest
of Southampton: Canute, William the Conqueror, William Rufus,
Richard Lion Heart, the Pilgrim Fathers.--The Chief Distinction of
the Town.--Statue of Dr. Watts.--Sketch of the great hymn writer, 16
CHAPTER III.
SALISBURY, SARUM, AND STONEHENGE.
A Fascinating Cathedral Town.--Rural Scenery in Southern
England.--Impressiveness of Stonehenge.--Other Things of Interest
About Salisbury.--What the Bishop Said About the Presbyterian Form
of the Early Church, 21
CHAPTER IV.
WINCHESTER WORTHIES: ALFRED THE GREAT, IZAAK WALTON, THOMAS KEN.
Memorials of Kings Good and Bad.--Memorial of the Gentle
Fisherman.--Wit in Winchester College.--A Lovely Churchman.--Ken's
Defiance of James II., 28
CHAPTER V.
THE UGLINESS AND THE CHARM OF LONDON.
A Vast and Dingy Metropolis.--The Æsthetic Value of Soot.--Brick
versus Stone.--Scotch Cities' Stately, but Gloomy.--Brightness of
Paris.--Immensity and Multitude.--The Body is More than Raiment, 34
CHAPTER VI.
THE ENGLISH VIEW OF THE FOURTH OF JULY.
Ambassador Choate's Reception.--Increasing Friendliness Between
America and England.--How the English Now View the American
Revolution.--A Fair Statement of the Question and the
Conflict.--What England Learned from Fighting Against Her Own
Principles.--The Monument of Washington in St. Paul's
Cathedral.--The Possible Union of Canada and the United States, 41
CHAPTER VII.
HOW THE ENGLISH REGARD THE AMERICANS.
Former Prejudices Passing Away.--The English Admit that America
Holds the Future.--English Candor and English Inconsistency.--A
Sectarian Measure in Parliament.--What Scotchmen Think of the
Education Bill.--Passive Resistance of the Nonconformists, 49
CHAPTER VIII.
THE BRITISH REPUBLIC AND THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.
The Real Ruler of the British Empire.--The House of
Parliament.--Getting into the Lower House.--The Debate and the
Debaters.--Harcourt, Bryce, Campbell-Bannerman, Lloyd-George, John
Dillon, Arthur Balfour.--The Incongruity of a Presbyterian Prime
Minister.--English and American Oratory, 55
CHAPTER IX.
CAMBRIDGE AND HER SCHOOLS.
The Cathedral Route.--The Two University Towns.--Cambridge More
Progressive than Oxford.--The Presbyterian Element.--The Two
Most Learned Women in the World.--Westminster College.--The Same
Difficulties About Candidates for the Ministry, 63
CHAPTER X.
FROM ENGLAND TO SCOTLAND--THE EASTERN ROUTE.
The Land of the Mountain and the Flood.--Melrose, Abbotsford,
and Dryburgh.--The Wizard of the North.--Edinburgh.--Temporary
Residence in Auld Reekie.--Public Worship in Scotland.--Organ,
Choir, and Congregation.--Bibles in the Churches, 68
CHAPTER XI.
SOME ENGLISH AND SCOTCH PREACHERS.
Dean Farrar in Westminster Abbey.--Mr. Haweis and Dr.
Wace.--Spurgeon, Parker, and Hughes.--Moravian Mission
House.--General Booth.--Scottish Mind and Scottish Heart.--Dr.
Marcus Dods.--Dr. George Matheson.--Dr. Whyte and Mr.
Black.--Interview with Professor Sayce.--The Inevitable Subject, 75
CHAPTER XII.
ECHOES OF A SPICY BOOK ON SCOTLAND.
A Unique Prayer for Prince Charlie.--Church-Going in
Edinburgh.--The Bibles, the Sermons, the Prayers, the Music.--Jenny
Geddes and her Stool.--The Disruption in 1843.--A Sermon-Taster
with a Nippy Tongue.--Scottish and American Repartee, 87
CHAPTER XIII.
IS THE SCOTTISH CHARACTER DEGENERATING?
"Mine Own Romantic Town."--The Seamy Side of Edinburgh.--The
Cause of Her Wretchedness.--Not Lack of Native Ability, nor
Disregard of the Sabbath, but the Curse of Strong Drink.--Appalling
Statistics.--A Lesser Menace, 100
CHAPTER XIV.
STIRLING, THE LAKES, AND GLASGOW.
The Wallace Monument.--Memorials of the Martyrs.--Margaret
Wilson.--The Covenanters.--The Author of "The Men of the
Moss Hags."--Aberfoyle, The Trossachs, Loch Katrine, Loch
Lomond.--Lord Overtoun's Garden Party.--Rev. John McNeill.--Scotch
Humor.--Glasgow.--The Cathedral.--Lord Kelvin, 107
CHAPTER XV.
OBAN, IONA, AND STAFFA.
Rude Seas off the West Coast.--A Difficult Landing.--The Presbyter
Abbot, Columba.--The Evangelization of Scotland from Iona.--The
Burial Place of the Scottish Kings.--The Basaltic Columns of
Staffa.--Fingal's Cave.--Nature's Cathedral.--The Caledonian
Canal, 119
CHAPTER XVI.
INVERNESS AND MEMORIES OF FLORA MACDONALD.
A Clean and Comely City.--The Statue of Flora Macdonald.--The
Career of a Royal Adventurer.--A Fugitive in the Hebrides.--A
Woman to the Rescue.--Feminine Courage and Resource.--Flora
Macdonald as Prisoner.--Her Marriage.--She Entertains Dr. Johnson
and Boswell.--Moves to North Carolina.--Misfortunes in the New
World.--Her Return to Scotland and her Last Days, 124
CHAPTER XVII.
FROM SCOTLAND TO ENGLAND--WESTERN ROUTE.
In and Around Perth.--Quhele, Shoe Heel and Maxton.--Crieff and
Drumtochty.--Loch Leven.--Ayr and Robert Burns.--Dumfries,
Keswick, Skiddaw.--The English Lakes.--Chester.--Lichfield and Dr.
Samuel Johnson.--The Shakespeare Country.--The American Window at
Stratford.--The English Language as Spoken in the Birthplace of
Shakespeare and Elsewhere, 133
CHAPTER XVIII.
A VISIT TO RUGBY AND A TRAMP TO THE WHITE HORSE HILL.
Tom Brown's School Days at Rugby.--The Rugby of To-day.--Our
Expedition to Tom Brown's Birthplace.--The Highest Horse we
Ever Mounted.--The Roman Camp.--King Alfred's Defeat of the
Danes.--The Manger and the Dragon's Hill.--The Blowing Stone.--The
effect upon our Appetites.--The Tea we did not Drink.--Return to
Oxford.--London Once More, 142
CHAPTER XIX.
THE MOST INTERESTING BUILDING IN THE WORLD.
The Birthplace of the Shorter Catechism.--The Coronation
Postponed.--Westminster Abbey Still Closed.--The Assembly
of Divines.--The Two Places of Meeting.--The Two Types of
Worship.--Interior of the Jerusalem Chamber.--Exterior
of the Jerusalem Chamber.--Connection of Henry IV., Sir
Thomas More, Joseph Addison, and Sir Isaac Newton with the
Jerusalem Chamber.--Architectural Glory of Westminster
Abbey.--Its Historical Interest.--Coronations.--The Stone of
Scone.--Burials.--Monuments.--Pagan Sculptures in a Christian
Church, 151
CHAPTER XX.
THE ROYAL CHAPELS IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY.
A Hard-Hearted Verger.--A Courteous Sub-Dean.--The Wax
Effigies.--Mutilated Monuments.--Monuments Denied to Notable
Persons.--The Objection to Milton.--General Meigs and President
Davis.--The Vindication of Cromwell.--Treatment of his Dead
Body.--History of his Head.--His Statue at Westminster, 168
CHAPTER XXI.
THE CATHEDRALS VERSUS THE GOSPEL.
Original Significance of the Cathedrals.--Their Æsthetic
Influence.--Their Romanizing Tendency.--Their Charm for the
Greatest of the Puritans.--A Half-Reformed Church.--Relics of
Romanism.--Effect of Cathedrals on Presbyterian Worship.--Superior
Impressiveness of Protestant Simplicity, 177
CHAPTER XXII.
SOME THINGS FOR HIGH CHURCHMEN TO THINK ABOUT.
The Use of Written Prayers.--The Huguenot Presbyterians in
Canterbury Cathedral.--Scuffle Between the Archbishops of
Canterbury and York.--The Concomitants of Anglican Worship.--The
Intoning.--Canon Henson at St. Margaret's.--His Remarks on Anglican
Narrowness.--What he Could See in Virginia.--Decreasing Attendance
in the Anglican Churches in London.--An Episcopalian Estimate of
Presbyterian Preaching, 186
CHAPTER XXIII.
PARIS AND MEMORIES OF THE HUGUENOTS.
The English Channel as a Health Resort.--The External Beauty of
the French Capital.--What we Did Not Like About Paris.--The Louvre
and its Treasures.--The Boer Generals.--The Huguenot Name and the
Huguenot Character.--Palissy the Potter.--Other Huguenot Heroes
and Heroines.--A Roman Catholic's Condemnation of Roman Catholic
Persecutions.--France's Loss the World's Gain.--What we Owe to the
Huguenots.--The Huguenot Strain in Virginia.--The Present Huguenot
Revival in France.--Brussels and Waterloo, 199
CHAPTER XXIV.
THE MAKING OF HOLLAND.
Unique Interest of Holland.--A Land Below Sea-Level.--Water as
an Enemy.--Dykes as Protectors.--How Dykes are Made.--Sand
Dunes.--Canals.--Wind-Mills.--Polders.--Entering Holland.--The
Scenery and the Scenes.--Rotterdam and Erasmus.--Delft and
William the Silent.--The Hague.--Rembrandt's "School of
Anatomy."--A Presbyterian Queen.--A Presbyterian Preacher as Prime
Minister.--Unpresbyterian Church Buildings.--Would the Destruction
of all the Cathedrals have been a Loss or a Gain? 212
CHAPTER XXV.
LEYDEN'S UNIVERSITY, HAARLEM'S FLOWERS, AND AMSTERDAM'S COMMERCE.
The Great Siege.--A University as a Reward of Valor.--John
Robinson and the Pilgrim Fathers.--Horse Flesh as Food.--Haarlem
and the Flower Boom.--Amsterdam's Islands and Canals.--A City
Built on Stakes.--Business of Amsterdam.--President Kruger
at Utrecht.--Queer Customs in Holland.--The Dutch Mania for
Cleanliness.--Mr. Edward Bok on "The Mother of America," 222
CHAPTER XXVI.
UP THE RHINE AND OVER THE ALPS.
Cologne and Coblentz.--The Vintage of the Rhine Valley.--Wiesbaden
and the German Woods.--The Luther Monument at Worms.--Wintry
Weather at Heidelberg.--Strasburg's Cathedral and
Clock.--Switzerland in Winter-time.--The Lion of Lucerne.--A Cold
Day on the Lake.--Over the Alps.--Snow in Italy.--Milan, 238
CHAPTER XXVII.
VENICE, BOLOGNA, FLORENCE, AND PISA.
The Queen of the Adriatic.--The Fallen Campanile.--Fra Paolo
Sarpi, the Greatest of the Venetians.--Busy Bologna.--The Leaning
Towers.--The Colonnades.--The Oldest University.--Galvani and his
Frog.--The Flower of Fair Cities.--Art Treasures of Florence.--The
Reformer Before the Reformation.--Martyrdom of Savonarola.--Pisa's
Four Monuments, 245
CHAPTER XXVIII.
SOME LITTLE ADVENTURES BY THE WAY.
Letter-Writing Under Difficulties.--An Exemplary Traveller.--A
Mild Sensation in Leyden.--A German Baby-Cart out of its
Element.--Something New in Venice.--No Place for Wheels.--Gondolas
and Gondoliers.--Wonderful Dexterity with a Single Oar.--A
Scattering of Baggage on the Streets of Cologne.--Disastrous
Descent of a Baby-Cart from the Top of an Omnibus.--Extortion and
Fraud in Sacred Places, 254
CHAPTER XXIX.
RELICS IN GENERAL AND THE IRON CROWN OF LOMBARDY IN PARTICULAR.
Mark Twain's Animadversions.--The Palladium of Venice.--The Gift
of Leo XIII. to London.--The Blood of St. Januarius.--The House of
the Virgin at Loretto.--The Wonder-Working Bones of St. Anne in
Canada.--The Iron Crown of Lombardy.--A Winter Trip to Monza.--The
Treasury of the Cathedral.--The Chapel of the Great Relic.--Why
the Crown is so Sacred.--How it was used by Charlemagne and
Napoleon.--Rome Caps the Climax.--Do American Roman Catholics
Believe in the Relics? 259
CHAPTER XXX.
ROMAN CATHOLIC RELICS AT ROME.
The Miraculous Snow in Summertime.--The Holy Cradle.--The Little
Doll that Owns a Large Carriage.--The Wealth and Power of the
Miraculous Bambino.--The Communion Table Used by Christ.--The
Holy Stairs from Pilate's Palace.--The Man who Crawled Up
and Walked Down.--The Miraculous Portrait and the Shoes of
Christ.--The Inscription on the Cross and the Finger of Thomas.--A
Bottle of the Blood of Christ.--Exclusion of Women from Holy
Places.--The Hardness of St. Peter's Knees.--The Hardness of St.
Peter's Head.--What the Head of St. Paul Did.--St. Paul's Use
of Plautilla's Veil.--The Footprints of Christ in Stone.--The
Chains of St. Peter.--The Column Against which Christ Leaned in
the Temple.--The Chair of St. Peter.--The Lance that Pierced the
Saviour's Side.--The Napkin of St. Veronica with the Miraculous
Impression of our Lord's Face.--The Head of the Apostle Andrew, 273
CHAPTER XXXI.
THE LEGENDS, THE POPES, AND THE PASQUINADES.
The Manufacture of St. Philomena.--The Canonization of Buddha.--The
Courteous Spaniard.--The Miracles of St. Dominic.--Miracles
Wrought by Other Saints and Images.--How the Papal Treasury was
Filled, and How it was Emptied.--Some Ugly Passages in Papal
History.--Pasquino's View of the Pope.--What the Italians Now
Think About it.--Few Men and Many Women at the Confessional.--Lord
Macaulay, Charles Dickens, Mr. Gladstone, Mr. McCarthy and
Nathaniel Hawthorne on the Influence of Romanism.--The New Pope a
Good Man, 293
CHAPTER XXXII.
THE OLD FORCES AND THE NEW IN THE ETERNAL CITY.
An Audience with the Pope.--"Long Live the Pope-King!" The
Pope's Last Jubilee in St. Peter's.--Our Quarters on the Pincian
Hill.--The Sweep of History Seen from the Janiculum.--The Colosseum
and the Baths of Caracalla.--The Papal Passion for Terrestrial
Immortality.--The Building Boom Under the New Government.--Can the
New Government Maintain Itself Against the Priests? 315
CHAPTER XXXIII.
THE TWO TYPES OF RELIGION IN ROME.
The Cappucin Cemetery.--Some Differences Between America and
Italy.--The Playful Inquisition.--The Relative Rank of the Deities
Worshipped in Rome.--The Fee of the Visitor More Important than
the Soul of the Worshipper.--Sensuality versus Spirituality
in Art.--The Kind of Character Produced.--The Other Type.--An
Apostolic Preacher in Rome.--A Wise and Loving Pastor, 328
CHAPTER XXXIV.
THE INEXHAUSTIBLENESS OF ROME.
The Most Interesting City in the World.--The Embarrassment of
Riches.--Boundless Wealth of Materials.--The Appian Way, the
Catacombs, the Ecclesiastical Statues.--The Remains of Classical
Rome: The Arches, the Columns, the Tombs, the Statues.--The
Masterpieces of Sculpture and the Masterpieces of Painting in
Rome.--The Best Books About Rome.--Lord Mahon and Professor
Lanciani on the Last of the Stuarts.--Ave Roma Immortalis, 341
CHAPTER XXXV.
NAPLES, CAPRI, VESUVIUS, AMALFI, AND POMPEII.
Beauty and Filth.--Danger and Indifference.--Street Scenes in
Naples.--The Blue Grotto of Capri.--The Ascent of Vesuvius.--A
Stream of Liquid Fire.--Hard Climbing Through Cinders.--Driven Back
from the Crater by Sulphur Fumes.--The Most Beautiful Drive in the
World.--The Loveliness of Amalfi.--The Ruins of Pompeii.--Story of
the Catastrophe.--The Work of Exhumation.--The Return Voyage by
Gibraltar and the Azores.--There is no Place Like Home, 346
ILLUSTRATIONS.
Westminster Abbey and Jerusalem Chamber, _Frontispiece._
The House of Parliament, London, 56
Clare College and King's Chapel, Cambridge, 62
Sir Walter Scott's Seat in Melrose Abbey, 69
Drill of Highlanders, Edinburgh Castle, 88
Princes Street, Edinburgh, 101
Monument to Margaret Wilson, Stirling, 108
Statue of Flora Macdonald, Inverness, 125
Magdalen College, Oxford, 150
Poets Corner, Westminster Abbey, 164
A Stranger in Leyden, 223
The Lion of Lucerne, 242
The Doge's Palace, Venice, 247
The Bambino, 276
Scala Santa, Rome, 279
Kings of England and Italy in Rome, 319
Panorama of Naples, 346
A Windy Day on Mount Vesuvius, 350
On the Road to Amalfi, 352
Colonnade of Hotel Cappuccini, 354
Pompeii, 357
A YEAR IN EUROPE.
CHAPTER I.
A COLD SUMMER VOYAGE.
SOUTHAMPTON, ENGLAND, _June 28, 1902_.
[Sidenote: A Pleasant Memory.]
An American traveller says that a sea voyage, compared with land
travel, is a good deal like matrimony compared with single blessedness:
either decidedly better or decidedly worse. With me, on my first voyage
to Europe a few years ago, it was, like my own venture in matrimony,
decidedly better. We sailed from New York on a brilliant day, and
nearly all the way over the weather was bright, bracing, buoyant, with
blue sky above, blue sea beneath, and just enough motion of the water
to give it all the fascination of changing beauty. Only once or twice
did even our least seasoned passengers need "some visible means of
support," on account of the rolling of the ship, and when we struck
the Gulf Stream, deep blue and warm, it was pleasant on deck even
without wraps, and I remember the captain's telling me he had seen the
temperature of the water change thirty-one degrees in two minutes,
when he would pass from the Gulf Stream into a colder current, though
we ourselves had no such experience then. Day after day we lounged on
deck restfully, or walked about comfortably, taking deep and leisurely
inhalations of the pure ocean air, and having frequent opportunity
to learn the meaning of "Cat's Paw" as applied to winds, when, under
the gentle dips of air, the placid ocean took on a pitted appearance
exactly like the tracks made by cats' feet in soft snow.
[Sidenote: A Depressing Start.]
Our present voyage has been very different, and I fear that some of
the young people with me, who are familiar with my impressions of
the former passage, have felt some disappointment with the ocean.
The circumstances of our start were depressing, notwithstanding the
animation of the scene at the North German Lloyd Pier, with its throng
of carriages, baggage wagons, trucks, trunks, tourists' agents,
passengers, and friends who had come to see them off, and who waved
their handkerchiefs and shouted farewells and sang German songs, while
the band on the _Bremen_ played inspiring airs, and her own hoarse
whistles capped the climax of the din, as the tugs pulled the great
ship out into the river, and turned her prow towards the ocean, and her
ponderous engines began to throb. It was all in vain. Nothing could
make it seem cheerful. The rain was pouring steadily and heavily from
leaden skies, and just outside the harbor we ran into an opaque fog
that shrouded all the beauty of the sea, and made it necessary for the
fog horn to sound its prolonged, mournful, ominous, and nerve-racking
blast every minute through the rest of the day and night, to avoid
collision with other vessels groping through the deep. It was a comfort
to recall the hymn we had used in the family circle the morning we
started from home--
"Let the sweet hope that thou art mine
My life and death attend,
Thy presence through my journey shine
And crown my journey's end"--
and to commit ourselves to the care of him who hath measured the waters
in the hollow of his hand, and to whom the darkness and the light are
both alike, and to whom the night shineth as the day.
[Sidenote: Discomforts at Sea.]
For several days the sea was "a gray and melancholy waste," and, when
at length the weather cleared, a cold wind--very cold and cutting
and persistent--blew hard from the northwest, making our side of
the deck intolerable, even with our heaviest winter clothing and a
great profusion of wraps, so that it was hardly a surprise to us,
when about half way over, to see in the distance what we took to be
an iceberg glistening cold against the horizon--very interesting, of
course, as compared with the steamships, sailing vessels, and schools
of porpoises, which are the usual variations of the monotony of the
waterscape--but also very uncomfortable. Moreover, the wind made the
sea so rough at times that the tables in the dining saloon were more
than once quite "sparsely settled," not a few people "wanted the
earth," and longed for _terra firma_--less terror and more firmer, as
a friend of mine once put it. One or two even of our own party, who,
though good "tar heels," are not equally good "tars," paid reluctant
tribute to Neptune. Reluctant, did I say? Yet it was done eagerly, as
though the persons in question "could not contain themselves" for joy,
or novelty, or some other emotion. I find it difficult to write of this
curious little malady, which baffles the skill of all physicians, with
sufficient plainness, and, at the same time, with sufficient reserve.
The most delicate reference to it on record was that of a Frenchman,
who, pale and miserable, was greeted by a blooming Englishman with
"Good morning, monsieur, have you breakfasted?" and replied, "No,
monsieur, I have not breakfasted. On the contrary." Three or four of
our immediate party, however, did not miss a meal on the whole voyage,
but "held their own" throughout, and were able to "navigate" every
day. Moreover, while the rude seas robbed us of the exhilaration
which I had always heretofore associated with an ocean voyage, we
had on board many bright and attractive things which went far to
counterbalance the effect of the chilly and depressing weather.
[Sidenote: Life on a German Steamship.]
The _Bremen_ is a staunch and comfortable ship; not one of the Atlantic
greyhounds, which are built slender and comparatively light in order
to great speed--but all the better for that, as her vast bulk and
heavy cargo give her a degree of steadiness unknown to the express
steamers, and her appointments are in every way equal to those of
the fastest ships afloat. She takes nine days for the trip from New
York to Southampton, and in ordinary weather that is none too long
for the average passenger. It was no fault of hers that our journey
was not a comfortable one throughout. It could not have been so in
any ship with such weather as we had the misfortune to encounter. Of
course, everything on board is German. The stewards can speak enough
English for all necessary purposes, though one of them, when asked a
question by a member of our party, made the naive reply, "I do not
hear well in English." One is soon initiated into the mysteries of
marks and pfennigs, and begins to pick up sundry guttural German words
and phrases. Being German, of course the ship has plenty of music, a
cornet band discoursing lively airs on deck about the middle of every
forenoon, and a string band playing during the dinner hour in the
saloon, while the passengers munch in unison. The catering department
is organized on the assumption that the chief occupation of people
on shipboard is eating, sandwiches and hot beef tea being served on
deck in the forenoon, and tea and biscuits of various kinds in the
afternoon, in addition to the three very elaborate set meals in the
saloon, the lavish abundance of which is provoking to the squeamish
passenger. A Teutonic bugler, with fully developed lungs, gives the
signals for the meals. On Sunday morning the passengers are wakened by
the strains of Luther's "Ein feste burg ist unser Gott." The management
of the ship throughout is characterized by German thoroughness, and the
organization and discipline are perfect.
Shuffle board, ring pitching, and other deck games, and letter-writing,
chess, and other amusements indoors, more or less innocent, serve to
while away part of the time. Ordinarily, reading is my main resource
in this way, but the cold weather and searching draughts, making it
impossible to find a reasonably comfortable spot to sit down in with a
book, reduced my reading on this trip to a minimum.
[Sidenote: The Unification of the World.]
Various nationalities were represented in our ship's company, the
Anglo-Saxon predominating. This reminds me of the fact that the
ocean has played no small part in the unification of the world as
thus far accomplished. Nothing, perhaps, distinguishes the modern
world more sharply from the ancient than its views of the ocean. To
the ancients the sea was a mystery and a terror; it was a barrier,
it separated men. To the moderns the sea is a highway, a means of
communication, it unites men. The nearest approach to a unification of
the race in ancient times was effected by the law of the Roman and the
language of the Greek. The unifying force to-day is the Anglo-Saxon,
who to the genius of the Roman for conquest and government, and to
the genius of the Greek for letters and art, has added the genius
of the Ph[oe]nician for commerce and the genius of the Hebrew for
religion. Here we touch the secret of his ascendancy. The Anglo-Saxon
civilization is _Christian_. His language is becoming the universal
language. His institutions are becoming the universal institutions.
His ships carry the passengers and produce of the world. His capital
dominates commerce. London is the clearing-house of the world. Will
this unification continue? Will it endure? It will if the religion to
which the Anglo-Saxon owes his preëminence remains preëminent in his
civilization. The brotherhood of man--how else shall it ever be fully
and permanently brought about, except through men's knowledge of the
Fatherhood of God? And how can the Fatherhood of God ever be known
except through him who taught us to say, "Our Father," and of whom the
Father said, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Hear
ye him?" It is no accident that the nations which have most reverently
heeded this divine command, the nations which are most truly Christian,
are the nations which have hitherto stood in the forefront of the
foremost civilizations of mankind, and are the nations which now hold
the future.
"Jesus shall reign where'er the sun
Does his successive journeys run,
His kingdom stretch from shore to shore
Till moons shall wax and wane no more."
The force which will bind all men in a real and permanent union is no
mere knowledge of navigation, nor is it Anglo-Saxon commerce, laws, or
language; it is the Christian religion.
[Sidenote: All's Well That Ends Well.]
The latter part of our voyage was less trying than the earlier, and the
days were generally brighter, though still cold. Yet all were glad when
one night, about nine o'clock, the intermittent gleam of the lighthouse
on the Scilly Islands came into view, assuring us that the voyage would
soon be ended. Next morning we were steaming along the picturesque
south coast of England, with the white chalk cliffs and velvety green
downs in plain view through the tender blue haze, the water was quieter
and the weather warmer, and in a few hours more we entered The Solent,
passing on our right, almost within a stone's throw, "The Needles,"
three white, pointed rocks of chalk, at the western extremity of the
Isle of Wight, which rest on dark colored bases and spring abruptly
from the sea to a height of a hundred feet, and which are in striking
contrast with the vertically striped cliffs of red, yellow, green, and
grey sandstone behind them.
At last the great engines cease their throbbing for the first time in
nine days, the tender comes alongside for the passengers bound for
Great Britain, and in another half hour we set foot on the soil of
England, in the ancient city of Southampton.