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Rh beach, the young warrior suddenly came rushing up the hill and into the yard. He was flushed and out of breath, and Bucephalus was going at a hand gallop. Right before the door he reined in his horse with a sudden jerk, so that he made a deep gash in the sand; and swinging his sword, he shouted, "They're coming, they're coming!"

"Who are coming?" asked Rebecca.

"Snorting black chargers and three war chariots full of men-at-arms."

"Rubbish, my boy!" said his father sternly.

"Three phaetons are coming with townspeople in them," said Ansgarius, and dismounted with an abashed air.

"Let us go in, Rebecca," said the pastor, turning.

But at the same moment the foremost horses came at a quick pace over the brow of the hill. They were not exactly snorting chargers; yet it was a pretty sight as carriage after carriage came into view in the sunshine, full of merry faces and lively colours. Rebecca could not help stopping.

On the back seat of the foremost carriage sat an elderly gentleman and a buxom lady. On the front seat she saw a young lady; and just as they entered the yard, a gentleman who sat at her side stood up, and, with a word of apology to the lady on the back seat, turned and looked forward past the driver. Rebecca gazed at him without knowing what she was doing.

"How lovely it is here!" cried the young man.

For the Parsonage lay on the outermost slope

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26 towards the sea, so that the vast blue horizon suddenly burst upon you as you entered the yard.

The gentleman on the back seat leaned a little forward. "Yes, it's very pretty here," he said; "I'm glad that you appreciate our peculiar scenery, Mr. Lintzow."

At the same moment the young man's glance met Rebecca's, and she instantly lowered her eyes. But he stopped the driver, and cried, "Let us remain here!"

"Hush!" said the older lady, with a low laugh. "This won't do, Mr. Lintzow; this is the Parsonage."

"It doesn't matter," cried the young man, merrily, as he jumped out of the carriage. "I say," he shouted backward towards the other carriages, "sha'n't we rest here?"

"Yes, yes," came the answer in chorus; and the merry party began at once to alight.

But now the gentleman on the back seat rose, and said, seriously: "No, no, my friends! this really won't do! It's out of the question for us to descend upon the clergyman, whom we don't know at all. It's only ten minutes' drive to the district judge's, and there they are in the habit of receiving strangers."

He was on the point of giving orders to drive on, when the Pastor appeared in the door-way, with a friendly bow. He knew Consul Hartvig by sight—the leading man of the town.

"If your party will make the best of things here,

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Rh it will be a great pleasure to me; and I think I may say that, so far as the view goes—"

"Oh no, my dear Pastor, you're altogether too kind; it's out of the question for us to accept your kind invitation, and I must really beg you to excuse these young madcaps," said Mrs. Hartvig, half in despair when she saw her youngest son, who had been seated in the last carriage, already deep in a confidential chat with Ansgarius.

"But I assure you, Mrs. Hartvig," answered the Pastor, smiling, "that so pleasant an interruption of our solitude would be most welcome both to my daughter and myself."

Mr. Lintzow opened the carriage-door with a formal bow, Consul Hartvig looked at his wife and she at him, the Pastor advanced and renewed his invitation, and the end was that, with half-laughing reluctance, they alighted and suffered the Pastor to usher them into the spacious garden-room.

Then came renewed excuses and introductions. The party consisted of Consul Hartvig's children and some young friends of theirs, the picnic having been arranged in honour of Max Lintzow, a friend of the eldest son of the house, who was spending some days as the Consul's guest.

"My daughter Rebecca," said the Pastor, presenting her, "who will do the best our humble house-keeping permits."

"No, no, I protest, my dear Pastor," the lively Mrs. Hartvig interrupted him eagerly, "this is

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 A GOOD CONSCIENCE.

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elegant little carriage, with two sleek and well-fed horses, drew up at Advocate Abel's garden gate.

Neither silver nor any other metal was visible in the harness; everything was a dull black, and all the buckles were leather-covered. In the lacquering of the carriage there was a trace of dark-green; the cushions were of a subdued dust-colour; and only on close inspection could you perceive that the coverings were of the richest silk. The coach-man looked like an English clergyman, in his close buttoned black coat, with a little stand-up collar and stiff white necktie.

Mrs. Warden, who sat alone in the carriage, bent forward and laid her hand upon the ivory door handle; then she slowly alighted, drew her long train after her, and carefully closed the carriage door.

You might have wondered that the coachman did not dismount to help her; the fat horses certainly did not look as though they would play any tricks if he dropped the reins.

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28 going too far! Even if this incorrigible Mr. Lintzow and my crazy sons have succeeded in storming your house and home, I won't resign the last remnants of my authority. The entertainment shall most certainly be my affair. Off you go, young men," she said, turning to her sons, "and unpack the carriages. And you, my dear child, must by all means go and amuse yourself with the young people; just leave the catering to me; I know all about that."

And the kind-hearted woman looked with her honest grey eyes at her host's pretty daughter, and patted her on the cheek.

How nice that felt! There was a peculiar coziness in the touch of the comfortable old lady's soft hand. The tears almost rose to Rebecca's eyes; she stood as if she expected that the strange lady would put her arms round her neck and whisper to her something she had long waited to hear.

But the conversation glided on. The young people, with ever-increasing glee, brought all sorts of strange parcels out of the Carriages. Mrs. Hartvig threw her cloak upon a chair and set about arranging things as best she could. But the young people, always with Mr. Lintzow at their head, seemed determined to make as much confusion as possible. Even the Pastor was infected by their merriment, and to Rebecca's unspeakable astonishment she saw her own father, in complicity with Mr. Lintzow, hiding a big paper parcel under Mrs. Hartvig's cloak.

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Rh At last the racket became too much for the old lady. "My dear Miss Rebecca," she exclaimed, "have you not any show-place to exhibit in the neighbourhood—the farther off the better—so that I might get these crazy beings off my hands for a little while?"

"There's a lovely view from the King's Knoll; and then there's the beach and the sea."

"Yes, let's go down to the sea!" cried Max Lintzow.

"That's just what I want," said the old lady. "If you can relieve me of him I shall be all right, for he is the worst of them all."

"If Miss Rebecca will lead the way, I will follow wherever she pleases," said the young man, with a bow.

Rebecca blushed. Nothing of that sort had ever been said to her before. The handsome young man made her a low bow, and his words had such a ring of sincerity. But there was no time to dwell upon this impression; the whole merry troop were soon out of the house, through the garden, and, with Rebecca and Lintzow at their head, making their way up to the little height which was called the King's Knoll.

Many years ago a number of antiquities had been dug up on the top of the Knoll, and one of the Pastor's predecessors in the parish had planted some hardy trees upon the slopes. With the exception of a rowan-tree, and a walnut-avenue in the Parsonage garden, these were the only trees to be

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Rh pleasant or cheerful thoughts. They wore their own hair, but their eyes were like balls of stone. Their features bore the sad traces of deep and unavailing regret. They talked with each other in low, muttering whispers; and I saw that each one carried a heavy roll of lead, some greater, some less, across his shoulders.

At length the Doctor spoke.

'You have asked me, Ubertus, who these people are, and why they are here? My answer is, I do not know who they are, and I can only guess why they are here. It is not for us to judge them, but the same Voice which told us not to judge lest we should be judged, told us also, "By their fruits ye shall know them." These people whom you see wonderful as it may appear, are not real people of flesh and blood, but only shadows. If you hear them speak and tell their adventures, that fact you may refer back to your own imagination, and your knowledge of the past. But they shadow forth what punishments may be in store, in the dreadful future, for those worldly and unprincipled men who make the grandeur, the glory the riches, the power and the pleasures of this world the sole objects of the their desire and ambition. We are told that there is eternal fire for those who will not worship, or acknowledge, God. Here there is no appearance of fire except the lamps in the streets; but the fires burn, nevertheless, in the hearts of these shadows—fires of sorrow and remorse for the priceless time which they wasted and lost in their insatiable grovelling for earth's glittering treasures; fires of pain and anguish when they find themselves shut out from the presence of God and His holy angels. And I tell you that it would be well for some millions of human beings if they could annihilate themselves entirely from the bosom of the universe. How many among us have thought that by laying violent hands on ourselves in our despair we could escape from the power


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30 found for miles round on the windy slopes facing the open sea. In spite of storms and sand-drifts, they had, in the course of time, reached something like the height of a man, and, turning their bare and gnarled stems to the north wind, like a bent back, they stretched forth their long, yearning arms towards the south. Rebecca's mother had planted some violets among them.

"Oh, how fortunate!" cried the eldest Miss Hartvig; "here are violets! Oh, Mr. Lintzow, do pick me a bouquet of them for this evening!"

The young man, who had been exerting himself to hit upon the right tone in which to converse with Rebecca, fancied that the girl started at Miss Frederica's words.

"You are very fond of the violets?" he said, softly. She looked up at him in surprise; how could he possibly know that?

"Don't you think, Miss Hartvig, that it would be better to pick the flowers just as we are starting, so that they may keep fresher?"

"As you please," she answered shortly.

"Let's hope shell forget all about it by that time," said Max Lintzow to himself, under his breath.

But Rebecca heard, and wondered what pleasure he could find in protecting her violets, instead of picking them for that handsome girl.

After they had spent some time in admiring the limitless prospect, the party left the Knoll and took a foot-path downward towards the beach.

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172 and the wrath of the Almighty! What fools, what madmen they were to rush with their eyes open, and all their sense about them, into that mysterious Presence!'

At that moment a grand building, which I was told was a bank doing an immense business, suddenly fell with a tremendous crash, burying thousands of the unhappy people in its ruins. The scramble on all sides was terrific; the surrounding houses were crushed, and many of the large edifices at a distance trembled visibly. My companion did not seem to be much affected by this awful calamity. He merely chirruped his horses, and observed that such things were to be expected with houses built of lead.

Then he quietly resumed his former conversation. 'I am of opinion that the man who deprives himself of the life which God gave him is, for the time being, helplessly insane. Whether his madness be brought on by his own folly or wickedness, or by the folly and wickedness of others, he is mad.'

'You are right, I think, Doctor,' I answered; 'it is a charitable view to take, and I take it with all my heart. The Divine Author of our existence is doubtless a merciful Being, if we do not provoke His indignation beyond the possibility of forgiveness. Even when these people, whether shadow or substance, are suffering a punishment like this, they must in truth acknowledge that they deserve it. They were commanded, lovingly entreated, solemnly warned, yet they persevered in their own way, and at last they died in their sins. Was it not so?'

'You speak truly and wisely; these men whom you see around us were misers, worshippers of silver and gold, of wealth in all its seductive forms of worldly splendour, worshippers of a little brief authority and power, and tyrants over their fellow-creatures. Proud, haughty, arrogant, and unapproachable, many of them were: worshippers of


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Rh On the smooth, firm sand, at the very verge of the sea, the young people strolled along, conversing gaily. Rebecca was at first quite confused. It seemed as though these merry towns-people spoke a language she did not understand. Sometimes she thought they laughed at nothing: and, on the other hand, she herself often could not help laughing at their cries of astonishment and their questions about everything they saw.

But gradually she began to feel at her ease among these good-natured, kindly people; the youngest Miss Hartvig even put her arm around her waist as they walked. And then Rebecca, too, thawed; she joined in their laughter, and said what she had to say as easily and freely as any of the others. It never occurred to her to notice that the young men, and especially Mr. Lintzow, were chiefly taken up with her; and the little pointed speeches which this circumstance called forth from time to time were as meaningless for her as much of the rest of the conversation.

They amused themselves for some time with running down the shelving beach every time the wave receded, and then rushing up again when the next wave came. And great was the glee when one of the young men was overtaken, or when a larger wave than usual sent its fringe of foam right over the slope, and forced the merry party to beat a precipitate retreat.

"Look! Mamma's afraid that we shall be too

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32 late for the ball," cried Miss Hartvig, suddenly; and they now discovered that the Consul and Mrs. Hartvig and the Pastor were standing like three windmills on the Parsonage hill, waving with pocket-handkerchiefs and napkins.

They turned their faces homeward. Rebecca took them by a short cut over the morass, not reflecting that the ladies from the town could not jump from tuft to tuft as she could. Miss Frederica, in her tight skirt, jumped short, and stumbled into a muddy hole. She shrieked and cried piteously for help, with her eyes fixed upon Lintzow.

"Look alive, Henrik!" cried Max to Hartvig junior, who was nearer at hand; "why don't you help your sister?"

Miss Frederica extricated herself without help, and the party proceeded.

The table was laid in the garden, along the wall of the house; and although the spring was so young, it was warm enough in the sunshine. When they had all found seats, Mrs. Hartvig east a searching glance over the table.

"Why—why—surely there's something wanting! I'm convinced I saw the house-keeper wrapping up a black grouse this morning. Frederica, my dear, don't you remember it?"

"Excuse me, mother, you know that house keeping is not at all in my department."

Rebecca looked at her father, and so did

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Rh and their wealth, they drank to the dregs the cup offered to them by their god, the mammon of the world. Look at them now, and look at their dwellings; but here we are at our destination.'

Leaden walls with huge gates surrounded a great palace, standing in a garden in which were small offices and arbours, and statues of lead and black marble. The gates opened and admitted us into a courtyard, and several officers and servants dressed in mourning came forward. They seemed to know the Doctor, for they saluted him respectfully, but at me they stared in vacant surprise, while some of them, with strange significance, placed their hands upon their necks.

The Doctor told the principal officer that he wished to see his Majesty and his Eminence, and to introduce a distinguished visitor, if permitted so to do. The officer sent a subordinate to inquire the pleasure of these great personages, who returned in a short time with an invitation for us to enter the palace.

We were shown in by the grand entrance, and found ourselves in a large hall; then we passed through a vestibule, and into a corridor that led us into a picture-gallery, from which we emerged into what appeared to be a chapel, with a great organ, and some hundreds of kneeing figures. Communicating with this was an antechamber, also crowded with people, who were not kneeling. The gentlemen-in-waiting bowed to the Doctor, and looked suspiciously on me. One knocked at a large door, which he, on a signal from within, opened wide, and we entered the apartment.

It was a tolerably large one, surrounded with book-cases, but as the light was defective I could not see whether there were books on the shelves or not. At one end of a long table covered with papers and parchments sat an


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Rh ; the worthy Pastor pulled a face upon which even Ansgarius could read a confession of crime.

"I can't possibly believe," began Mrs. Hartvig, "that you, Pastor, have been conspiring with—" And then he could not help laughing and making a clean breast of it, amid great merriment, while the boys in triumph produced the parcel with the game. Every one was in the best possible humour. Consul Hartvig was delighted to find that their clerical host could join in a joke, and the Pastor himself was in higher spirits than he had been in for many a year.

In the course of the conversation some one happened to remark that although the arrangements might be countrified enough, the viands were too town-like; "No country meal is complete without thick milk."

Rebecca at once rose and demanded leave to bring a basin of milk; and, paying no attention to Mrs. Hartvig's protests, she left the table.

"Let me help you, Miss Rebecca," cried Max, and ran after her.

"That is a lively young man," said the Pastor.

"Yes, isn't he," answered the Consul, "and a deuced good business man into the bargain. He has spent several years abroad, and now his father has taken him into partnership."

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174 elderly gentleman, on whose shoulders hung negligently a scarlet robe. His face was quite yellow, his hair white, and his eyes were heavy and leaden gray. He rose from his seat when the Doctor was announced and extended his hand. The Doctor treated him with great respect, and introduced me thus:

'Permit me to introduce my friend, Mr. Oliver Ubertus, to your Eminence—Ubertus, His Eminence Cardinal——'

I bowed low, and started back in astonishment—Cardinal!

'Who is Mr. Oliver Ubertus, sir? To whom have I the honour of being introduced?' inquired the Cardinal in a soft and mellow voice.

The Doctor gave him my history briefly, as I had given it to him in a previous interview.

The Cardinal was then pleased to say that he was himself glad to see us, but if Dr. Julius wished to introduce Mr. Ubertus to the King, he was not in a position to inform us whether his Majesty would grant us an interview. His Majesty was holding his Court of Justice just then, and was in a very peculiar humour indeed. 'However,' he added, 'I will myself go and inquire: be seated, gentlemen!'

He retired by a small door, which opened silently into a dark passage, and after an absence of about ten minutes returned saying that his Majesty, although slightly unwell, would graciously condescend to receive us. We followed his Eminence through dark and tortuous passages, which red to lead to the secret dungeons of the grave, and entered, in a blaze of light, into the magnificent throne-room of the King, who sat in state on his leaden throne, surrounded by lords, great officers, halberdiers, buffetiers, leaden sticks-in-waiting, and secretaries.

There was no mistaking that formidable monarch. The frown on his brow, and the fierce glare of his bloodshot


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34 "He's perhaps a little unstable," said Mrs. Hartvig, doubtfully.

"Yes, he is indeed," sighed Miss Frederica.

The young man followed Rebecca through the suite of rooms that led to the dairy. At bottom, she did not like this, although the dairy was her pride; but he joked and laughed so merrily that she could not help joining in the laughter.

She chose a basin of milk upon the upper shelf, and stretched out her arms to reach it.

"No, no, Miss Rebecca, it's too high for you!" cried Max; "let me hand it down to you." And as he said so he laid his hand upon hers.

Rebecca hastily drew back her hand. She knew that her face had flushed, and she almost felt as if she must burst into tears.

Then he said softly and earnestly, lowering his eyes, "Pray, pardon me, Miss Rebecca. I feel that my behaviour must seem far too light and frivolous to such a woman as you; but I should be sorry that you should think of me as nothing but the empty coxcomb I appear to be. Merriment, to many people, is merely a cloak for their sufferings, and there are some who laugh only that they may not weep."

At the last words he looked up. There was something so mournful, and at the same time so reverential, in his glance, that Rebecca all of a sudden felt as if she had been unkind to him. She was accustomed to reach things down from the

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Rh has a nasty disposition; but she is true to me; of that I feel sure.'—'The Cabinet takes its pass-word from the Socialists.'—'In the long run, the petits-chevaux are a bore. However, there remains baccara.'—'The workmen would be fools not to do as they please: the government always gives in to them.'—'I will bet you that Epingle-d'Or will beat Ranavalo.'—'What I personally cannot make out is why there is not some General to sweep away all those blackguards.'—'What can you expect? France has been sold to England and Germany by the Jews.' This is what I shall hear to-morrow. Here you have the social and political ideas of my friends, the great-grandsons of the bourgeois of July, princes of the factory and foundry, kings of the mine, who knew the way of mastering and enslaving the forces of the Revolution. My friends do not seem to me capable of preserving for any lengthy period the industrial empire and the political power bequeathed to them by their ancestors. My friends do not shine by their intelligence. They have not indulged in too much brainwork. No more have I. So far, I have not done much in this life. Like them, I am both idle and ignorant. I do not feel myself capable of achieving anything, and if I do not possess their vanity, if my brain is not stored with all the foolish ideas encumbering theirs; if, like them, I do not feel a hatred for and a fear of

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188 ideas, it is due to a peculiar circumstance of my life. My father, a big manufacturer and Conservative deputy, gave me, when I was seventeen, a young and timid "coach," who spoke little, and who looked like a girl. While preparing me for my bachelorship, he was organising the social revolution in Europe. His gentleness was something refreshing. He has often been put in prison, and is now a deputy. I used to copy his addresses to the international proletariat. He made me read the whole Socialistic library. He taught me things all of which were not to be credited, but he opened my eyes to what was going on about me; he demonstrated to me that everything our society honours is contemptible, and that all that it despises is worthy of esteem. He led me into the paths of rebellion. In spite of his demonstrations, I came to the conclusion that falsehood should be respected and hypocrisy venerated as the two surest supports of the public order. I remained a Conservative, but my soul became saturated with disgust.

"As I am falling asleep, a few almost imperceptible phrases of Mozart still reach my ears now and then, and make me dream of temples of marble standing amid a blue foliage.

"It was broad daylight when I awoke. I dressed myself much more quickly than it is my wont. Unconscious of the cause for this haste, I found

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Rh in the street without knowing how I had got there. What I now saw about me was to me the cause of a surprise which suspended all my faculties of reflection; and it is owing to this impossibility to reflect that my surprise did not increase, but remained stationary and calm. It would doubtless soon have become immoderate, and would have changed to stupor and terror, had I retained the use of my mind, so greatly was the scene which I was witnessing different from what it should be. Everything about me was to me new, unknown, and foreign. The trees and the lawns which I was in the habit of seeing daily had vanished. Where, on the day before, the tall grey buildings of the avenue stood out against the sky, there now stretched a fanciful line of brick cottages surrounded by gardens. I dared not look round to ascertain whether my own house still existed, and so I went straight towards the Porte Dauphine. I found it not. I took a street which was, so it seemed to me, the old road to Suresnes. The houses flanking it, of strange style and new form, too small to be occupied by rich people, were nevertheless embellished with pictures, sculptures, and brilliant potteries. A covered terrace surmounted them. I followed this rural road, whose curves produced enchanting perspectives. It was crossed obliquely by other sinuous ways. Neither trains, nor automobiles,

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190 nor vehicles of any kind went by. Shadows flitted over the soil. I looked upwards and saw masses of huge birds and enormous fishes glide rapidly through the upper amosphereatmosphere [sic], which seemed to be a combination of heaven and ocean. Near the Seine, the course of which was altered, I came across a crowd of men clad in short blouses knotted at the waist, and wearing long gaiters. To all appearance they were in their working clothes. But their gait was lighter and more elegant than that of our workmen. I noticed women among them. What had heretofore prevented my recognising them as such was that they were dressed like the men, that they had long and straight legs, and, so it seemed to me, the narrow hips of American women. Although these folk did not present a savage appearance, I looked at them with fright. They presented to my gaze a more foreign appearance than any of the numerous strangers I had so far met upon the earth. In order to avoid seeing another human face, I turned down a deserted lane. Very soon I came to a circus planted with masts from which flew crimson oriflammes bearing in letters of gold the words:. Placards in large frames ornamented with emblems of peace hung at the foot of the masts. They embodied announcements regarding popular festivals, legal injunctions, and works of public interest. In addition to balloon time-tables was a

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Rh chart of the atmospheric currents drawn on the 28th of June of the year 220 of the Federation of Nations. All these texts were printed in characters new to me, and in a language of which I did not understand all the words. The while I was attempting to decipher them, the shadows of the countless machines cleaving the air flitted across my vision. Once more did I gaze upwards, and in this sky altered beyond recognition, more densely populated than the earth, cloven by rudders and threshed by screws, towards which a circle of smoke rose from the horizon, I perceived the sun. I felt like crying on seeing it. It was the only familiar figure which I had come across since morning. From its altitude I judged that it was about ten o'clock of the forenoon. Of a sudden I was surrounded by a second crowd of men and women, similar in appearance and in costume to the first. I was confirmed in the impression that the women, although some of them were very plump, others very skinny, and many beggared description, were on the whole androginous in appearance. The crowd went its way. The open space once more was desert, just as our suburban quarters, which only come to life on the exodus from the workshops. I remained behind in front of the placards and read once more the date—the 28th of June of the year 220 of the European Federation. What did it mean! A proclamation by the Federal Committee, on

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192 the occasion of the festival of the Earth, furnished me with timely and useful data for comprehension of that date. This is what I read: 'Comrades, you are aware how, in the last year of the twentieth century, the old order collapsed in a fearful cataclysm, and how, after fifty years of anarchy, the federation of the peoples of Europe was organised...." The year 220 of the federation of peoples was therefore the year 2270 of the Christian Era; this was certainly a fact which remained to be explained. How came it that of a sudden I found myself transported to the year 2270?

"I mused over the circumstance as I strolled at haphazard.

"'I have not, as far as I know,' I said to myself, 'been preserved for so many years in the mummy state, like Colonel Fougas. I have not driven the machine with which Mr. H. G. Wells explores time. And if, following the example of William Morris, I have, while asleep, skipped three and a half centuries, I am unaware of the fact, since, when dreaming, one does not know that one is doing so. I am utterly convinced that I am not asleep.'

"While indulging in these musings and others not worth recording, I was following a long street bordered with railings behind which pink-hued houses of various styles, but all equally small, smilingly peeped through the foliage. At times I

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Rh perceived huge circuses of steel standing out in the landscape, and crowned with flames and smoke. Terror planed over these regions to which no name can be given, while the vibrating rush of air caused by the rapid flight of the machines resounded painfully through my brain. The street led to a meadow studded with clumps of trees and intersected by rivulets. Cows were pasturing in it. Just as my eyes were feasting upon the freshness of the scene I fancied I saw in front of me shadows flitting along a smooth and straight road. The whirlwind engendered by them, as they passed me, fanned my cheeks. I saw that they were trams and automobiles, real transparencies in their rapidity.

"I crossed the road by a foot-bridge, and for a long time I sauntered through small meadows and woodlands. I thought I was in the open country, when I discovered an extensive frontage of resplendent houses bordering on the park. Soon, I found myself opposite a palace of an airy style of architecture. A sculptured and painted frieze, representing a largely attended feast, stretched across the vast façade. I perceived, through the panes of the bay-windows, men and women seated in a large and bright room around long marble tables, laden with prettily painted potteries. I entered, under the impression that this was a restaurant. I was not hungry, but weary, and the coolness of the room,

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194 artistically hung with garlands of fruit, appeared to me delicious. A man who stood by the door asked me for my voucher, and, as I showed embarrassment, he remarked:

"'I see, comrade, that you are not of these parts. How is it that you are travelling without vouchers! Very sorry, but it is impossible for me to admit you. Go and seek the delegate who hires journeymen; or, if you are too weak to work, address yourself to the delegate who attends to those who need succour.'

"I informed him that I was nowise unfit for work, and drew away. A stout fellow, who was picking his teeth, said to me obligingly:

"'Comrade, you need not go to the delegate who engages journeymen. I am the delegate attached to the bakery of the section. We are one comrade short. Come along with me. You shall be put to work at once.'

"I thanked the corpulent comrade, assured him of my willingness, pointing out, however, that I was not a baker.

"He looked at me with some surprise, and told me that he could see I enjoyed a joke.

"I followed him. We stopped in front of an immense cast-iron building having a monumental gateway, on the pediment of which a couple of bronze giants were resting on their elbows—the Sower and the Reaper. Their bodies expressed

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Rh strength unstrained. A calm pride irradiated their faces, and they carried high their heads; in this, greatly dissimilar to the fierce-looking workers of the Flemish Constantin Meunier. We entered a room forty mètres in height, wherein, amid clouds of a light whitish dust, machinery was working with a sonorous and calm hum. Under the metallic dome, bags tendered themselves spontaneously to the knife which disembowelled them; the flour which escaped from them dropped into troughs where powerful hands of steel kneaded it into dough which flowed into moulds, which when full hastened to put themselves of their own accord into an oven as capacious and deep as a tunnel. Five or six men at most, motionless amid all this motion, supervised the labour of the machinery.

" '' Tis an old bakery,' said my companion. 'It hardly produces more than eighty thousand loaves a day, and its too weak machines employ too many hands. It matters little. Come up to the place where the goods arrive.'

"I did not have the time to ask for a more explicit command. A lift had deposited me on the platform. Hardly had I reached it, when a kind of flying whale alighted close to me and unloaded a number of sacks. No human being was aboard this machine. Other flying whales brought more sacks which they unloaded, and which offered themselves

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196 up in succession to the knife which ripped them open. The screws revolved, and the rudder did its work. There was no one at the helm, nobody aboard the machine. I could hear in the distance the slight hum of a wasp flying, and then the thing grew with astounding rapidity. It seemed quite sure of itself, but my ignorance as to what would happen, should it perchance go wrong, caused me to shudder. I was several times tempted to ask to be allowed to go down again. A false shame prevented me. I stood my ground. The sun was disappearing on the horizon, and it was about five o'clock when the lift came up for me. The day's work was over. I was given a voucher for board and lodging.

"The rotund comrade remarked to me:

"'You must be hungry. You may, if you wish, take your evening meal at the public table. If you prefer eating by yourself in your own room, you may likewise do so. If you prefer supping at my place, together with a few comrades, say so at once. I am going to telephone to the culinary workshop that your rations be sent to you. I am telling you all this in order to set you at ease, for you seem like a fish out of water. You have no doubt come from afar. You do not look as if you could take care of yourself. To-day, your task has been an easy one. Do not, however, imagine that one's livelihood is earned every day as cheaply as that. If the Z-rays which directed the balloons had worked

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Rh badly, as will sometimes happen, your task would not have been so easy. What is your particular line, and where do you come from?'

"These questions embarrassed me greatly. I could not tell him the truth. I could not inform him that I was a bourgeois, and that I had come from the twentieth century. He would have thought me crazy. I replied in a vague and embarrassed manner that I had no trade, and that I came from far, from very far.

"He smiled, and said:

"'I understand. You dare not admit it. You come from the United States of Africa. You are not the only European who has thus given us the slip. But nearly all these deserters end by coming back to us.'

"I answered not a word, and my silence led him to believe that he had guessed aright. He renewed his invitation to supper, and asked me my name. I informed him that I was known as Hippolyte Dufresne. He seemed surprised at my having two names.

"'My name is Michel,' he said.

"Then, after a minute inspection of my straw hat, my jacket, my shoes, and the rest of my costume, which was no doubt somewhat dusty, but of a good cut, for after all I do not have my clothes made by a tailor who acts as hall-porter in the Rue des Acacias, he continued:

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198 "'Hippolyte, I see whence you have come. You have lived in the black provinces. Nowadays there are only Zulus and Basutos to weave cloth so badly, to give so grotesque a shape to a suit, to make such ill-shapen footgear, and to stiffen linen with starch. It is only among them that you can have learnt to shave off your beard, while preserving on your face a moustache, and two little whiskers. This custom of scissoring the hair of the face, so as to form figures and ornaments, is the last word of tattooing, nowadays in vogue only among the Basutos and Zulus. These black provinces of the United States of Africa are wallowing in a state of barbarism resembling in many aspects the state of France three or four hundred years ago.'

"I accepted Michel's invitation.

"'I live quite close to here, in Sologne,' he said. 'My aeroplane scuds along fairly well. We shall soon be there.'

"He made me take a seat under the belly of a huge mechanical bird, and we were soon cleaving the air so rapidly that I lost breath. The aspect of the countryside was vastly different from the one known to me. All the roads were bordered with houses; countless canals intersected the fields with their silvery lines. As I sat wrapt in admiration, Michel remarked to me:

"'The land is fairly well exploited, and

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Rh is "intense," as they say, since chemists are themselves agriculturists. One has tried one's best, and one has worked hard for the past three hundred years. The fact is that to make collectivism a reality it has been necessary to compel the soil to return four or five times more than it returned in the days of capitalistic anarchy. You, who have lived among the Zulus and Basutos, are aware that the necessaries of life are so scarce with them that were they to be divided among all it would amount to sharing poverty and not wealth. The superabundant production which we have attained to is more especially due to the progress made by science. The almost total suppression of the urban classes has also been of great advantage to agriculture. The shopkeepers and the clerks have gone, some to the factory, others to the field.'

"'What!' I exclaimed. 'You have suppressed the cities! What has become of Paris?'

"'Hardly any one lives there now,' replied Michel. 'The greater part of those hideous and insanitary five-storied houses, wherein dwelt the citizens of the closed era, have fallen in ruins, and have been suffered to remain in that condition. House-building was very poor in the twentieth century of that unhappy era. We have preserved some of the older and better constructed buildings and converted them into museums. We possess a

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200 large number of museums and libraries: it is there we seek instruction. We have also kept a portion of the remains of the Hôtel de Ville. It was an ugly and fragile building, but great things were carried out within its precincts. As we no longer have tribunals, commerce, and armies, we no longer have cities, so to speak. Nevertheless, the density of the population is much greater on certain points than on others, and in spite of the rapidity of means of communication, the mining and metallurgic centres are densely peopled.'

"'What is that you say?' I asked him. 'You have done away with the courts of law? Have you then suppressed crime and misdemeanour?'

"'Crime will last as long as old and gloomy humanity. But, the number of criminals has diminished with the number of the wretched. The suburbs of the great cities were the feeding-grounds of crime; we no longer have big cities. The wireless telephone makes the highways safe day and night. We are all provided with electric means of defence. As to misdemeanours, they were rather the result of the scruples of the judges than of the perversity of the accused. Now that we no longer possess lawyers and judges, and that justice is administered by citizens summoned in rotation, many misdemeanours have disappeared, doubtless because it is impossible to recognise them as such.'

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Rh "In this fashion did Michel discourse while steering his aeroplane. I am recording the meaning of his words as exactly as I can. I regret my inability, owing to a lack of memory, and also from fear of not making myself understood, to reproduce his language in all its expressiveness and its movement. The baker and his contemporaries spoke a language astonishing me at first by the novelty of its vocabulary and syntax, and especially by its pithy and flowing construction.

"Michel came to ground on the terrace of a modest but pleasing dwelling.

"'We have arrived,' he said; '' tis here that I live. You will sup with comrades who, like myself, take an interest in statistics.'

"'What! You a statistician! I thought you were a baker.

"'I am a baker, six hours of the day. This is the duration of the day's work as determined for nearly a century by the Federal Committee. The rest of the time I give up to statistical labours. It is the science which has stepped into history's shoes. The historians of old related the brilliant deeds of the few. Ours register all that is produced and consumed?'

"After having conducted me to a hydrotherapic closet established on the roof, Michel led me downstairs to the dining-room lit up by electricity,

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202 entirely white, and ornamented only with a sculptured frieze of strawberry plants in bloom. A table in painted pottery was covered with dishes with a metallic glaze. Three persons sat at it. Michel named them to me.

"'Morin, Perceval, Chéron.'

These three individuals were all clad alike in rough-spun jackets, velvet breeches, and grey stockings. Morin wore a long white beard; Chéron's and Perceval's faces were callow. Their short hair and more especially the frankness of their looks gave them the appearance of young lads. Yet I felt sure that they were women. Perceval seemed to me rather pretty, although she was no longer very young. I thought Chéron altogether charming. Michel introduced me:

"'I have brought comrade Hippolyte, who also calls himself Dufresne, to meet you; he has lived among the half-breeds, in the black provinces of the United States of Africa. He could not get any dinner at eleven o'clock, and so he must have an appetite.'

"I was indeed hungry. They helped me to tiny bits of food cut into squares, which were not unpleasant to the taste, however new to me. A variety of cheeses were on the table. Morin poured me out a glass of light beer, and informed me that I could drink to my heart's content, as it did not contain any alcohol.

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 considered to be the right thing; cathedral bodies vied with each other in restoration, and were enthusiastic in the cause; there were few if any dissenting voices; and in regard to the interiors of the cathedrals which were in modern use as places of worship, much that he did really required to be done to put them into decent condition. His churches have ceased to be interesting now, as is usually the case with copied architecture; but when they were built they were exactly what every one wanted and was asking for. And he produced at all events one original work which is a great deal better than it is now the fashion to think—the Albert Memorial. It is injured by the statue, for which the commission went to the wrong sculptor; but Scott’s idea of producing, as he phrased it, “a shrine on a great scale,” was really a fine one, and finely carried out. The most important objection to it is one which popular criticism does not recognize, viz. that the vault is tied by concealed iron ties, and would hardly be safe without them. But apart from that it is a fine conception, and Scott was right in regarding it as his best work.

G. E. Street, who was a pupil of Scott, was a greater enthusiast for medieval architecture (which, with him, as with Pugin, included medieval religion) than even Scott, and an architect of greater force and individuality. He was especially devoted to the early Transitional type of Gothic, and in all his buildings there is apparent the feeling for the solidity and monumental character, and the reticence in the use of ornament, which is characteristic of the Transitional period. His churches are noteworthy for their monumental character; and he had a remarkable faculty for giving an appearance of scale and dignity to the interiors of comparatively small churches. Hence his modern-medieval churches retain their interest more than Scott’s, but in respect of secular architecture his taste was hopelessly medievalized, and his great building, the law courts in London, can only be regarded as a costly failure; it is not even beautiful except in regard to some good detail; it is badly planned; and the one fine interior feature, the great vaulted hall, is rendered useless by not being on the same floor with the courts, so that instead of being a salle des pas perdus it is a desert. Street’s career is a warning how real architectural talent and vigour may be stultified by a sentimental adherence to a past phase of architecture. No modern architect had more fully penetrated the spirit of Gothic architecture, and his nave of Bristol cathedral is as good as genuine medieval work, and might pass for such when time-worn; but that is rather archaeology than architecture.

The competition for the law courts was one of the great architectural events of the middle of the century, and made or raised the reputation even of some of the unsuccessful competitors. Edward Barry (the son of Sir Charles) gained the first place for “plan,” which the advisers of the government had foolishly separated from “design” (as if the plan of a building could be considered apart from the architectural conception!), giving first marks for plan, and second for design. E. Barry therefore had really gained the competition, “design,” which was awarded to Street, counting second; but Street managed to push him out, and it is a nemesis on him for this by no means loyal proceeding that the building he contrived to get entirely into his own hands has served to injure rather than benefit his reputation. William Burges (1827–1881), an ardent devotee of French early Gothic, produced a design in that style, which, though quite unsuitable practically, is a greater evidence of architectural power than is furnished by any of his executed buildings. J. P. Seddon (1828–1906), an old adherent of Rossetti and the pre-Raphaelite brotherhood, an architect of genius who never got his opportunity, produced a design which was wildly picturesque in appearance but in reality more practical than might be thought at first sight, and his proposal for a great Record tower for housing official records was a really fine and original idea.

Among the ecclesiastical buildings of the Gothic revival those of William Butterfield (1814–1900), much less numerous than those of Scott and Street, have a special interest as the work of a revival architect who was something more than a mere archaeologist. All Saints, Margaret Street (1859), is the production of an architectural artist using medieval materials to carry out a conception of his own, and hence, like Babbacombe church and others by the same hand, it has an interest for the present day which Scott’s churches have not. His Keble College chapel rather failed from an exaggeration of the use of polychromatic materials, which in some of his other churches he had used with moderation and with good effect. J. L. Pearson was another distinguished architect of the later period of the Gothic revival who was able to put something of his own into modern Gothic churches. No one was more learned in medieval architecture than he was; and as of Street’s nave of Bristol, so we may say of Pearson’s nave of Truro, that it is as good as medieval Gothic; indeed Truro nave is finer in character than some of the ancient cathedral naves, and represents pure Gothic at its best. But in the exteriors of his churches, as at Truro and in the churches of Kilburn and Red Lion Square, Pearson evolved a Gothic of his own which is Pearsonesque and not merely archaeological. James Brooks (1825–1901) also deserves an honoured place in the chronicle of the Gothic revival for being the first to show how large town churches might be erected in brick (fig. 93), in which largeness of scale and a certain grandeur of effect could be obtained without extravagant cost, and in which it was practically demonstrated that architecture in the true Gothic spirit could be produced without depending on ornament.

Alfred Waterhouse began his remarkable career as an adherent of the Gothic revival, and merits separate mention inasmuch as he was the only one of the Gothic revivalists who from the first set himself to adapt Gothic to secular uses and to make out of it a modern Gothic manner of his own. His first success was made with the Manchester law courts, a design more purely Gothic than his later works, and an admirably planned building (the only good point in the national law courts plan, the access to the public galleries, is taken from it); his special style was more developed in the Manchester town hall, a building typical both of the defects and merits of his secular Gothic style. This style of his received the compliment, for a good many years, of an immense amount of imitation; in fact, during that earlier period of his work it may be said to have influenced every secular building that was erected in the medieval style all over England. His Gothic detail was, however, not very refined, and he has been subject to the same kind of retrospective injustice which has fallen on Scott, critics in both instances forgetting that what they do not like now was what every one liked then, and could not have enough of. Waterhouse was a master of plan, and a man of immense business and administrative ability, without which he could not have carried out the

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Rh "'That's right,' I said. 'I am glad to see that you pay attention to the evils of alcohol.'

"'They have almost ceased to exist,' answered Morin. 'We succeeded in suppressing alcoholism before the end of the closed era. It would have otherwise been impossible to establish the new régime. An alcoholic proletariat is incapable of emancipation.'

"'Have you not also,' I inquired, while tasting a strangely carved bit of food—'have you not also perfected food?'

"'Comrade,' replied Perceval, 'you doubtless refer to chemical alimentation. So far, it has not made any great strides. 'Tis in vain that we send our chemists as delegates into the kitchen.... Their tabloids are of no good. With the exception that we know how to compound properly caloric and nutritious foods, we feed almost as coarsely as the men of the closed era, and we enjoy it just as much.'

"'Our scientists,' remarked Michel, 'are seeking to establish a rational system of food.'

"'That's childishness,' said the young female Chéron. 'No good result will be reached, as long as the big intestine, a useless and harmful organ, and the seat of microbian infection, has not been removed.... This will come in time.'

"'In what way?' I asked.

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204 "'Simply by ablation. And this suppression, the result, in the first place, of an operation upon a sufficient number of individuals, will tend to establish itself by heredity, and will later on be common to the whole race.'

"These people treated me humanely and conversed obligingly with me. But it was difficult for me to chime in with their manners and their ideas, while I noticed that I nowise interested them, and that they felt an absolute indifference towards my modes of thought. The more I showed them courtesies, the more I alienated their sympathies. Following upon my addressing a few compliments, albeit discreet and sincere, to Chéron, she no longer even deigned to look at me.

"The meal over, addressing myself to Morin, who seemed to me intelligent and gentle, I said to him with a sincerity which indeed stirred me deeply:

"'Monsieur Morin, I am ignorant of all things, and I am suffering cruelly because of my lack of knowledge. I repeat to you that I come from far, from very far. Tell me, I entreat you, how the European Federation came into existence, and explain to me the present social system.'

"Old Morin protested:

"'You are asking me for the history of three centuries. It would take me weeks, nay months.

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Rh Moreover, there are many things I could not teach you, as I do not know them myself.'

"I thereupon entreated him to lay before me a very concise summary, as is done in the case of school children.

"Morin, flinging himself back in his arm-chair, began:

"'To ascertain how the present society was constituted, it is necessary to go back far into the past.

"'The crowning achievement of the twentieth century was the extinction of war.

"'The arbitration Congress of The Hague, instituted in the middle of barbarism, did not to any degree contribute towards the maintenance of peace. But another more efficacious institution came into existence at that time. Groups of deputies were formed in the various Parliaments, who entered into communication with one another, and who in course of time came to deliberate in common on international questions. Giving expression as they did to the peaceful aspirations of a growing crowd of electors, their resolutions carried great weight, and supplied food for reflection to the governments, the most absolute of which, if one sets aside Russia, had at that time learnt to reckon with popular sentiment. What surprises us nowadays is that no one discerned in those meetings of deputies come

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206 together from all countries the first attempt at an international parliament.

"'But then the party of violence was still powerful in the several empires, and even in the French Republic. And if the danger of the old-time dynastic and diplomatic wars determined upon at a green-baized table for the purpose of maintaining what was known as the European equilibrium was averted for all time, it was still to be dreaded, considering the unsatisfactory industrial condition affecting Europe, that the conflicting industrial interests might bring about some terrible conflagration.

"'The imperfectly organised proletariat, as yet without the consciousness of its strength, did not put an end to armed struggles between nations, but it limited their frequency and duration.

"'The last wars were the outcome of that mad fury of the old world known as the colonial policy. English, Russians, Germans, French, and Americans joined in rabid competition, in Asia and Africa, for the possession of zones of influence, as they said, wherein they could, on the basis of pillage and massacres, establish economic relations with the aborigines. They destroyed everything they could destroy in those two countries. Then followed the inevitable. The impoverished colonies which were expensive were retained and the prosperous ones lost. But mankind had to reckon, in Asia, with

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Rh a small heroic nation, taught by Europe, which made itself respected by her. By so doing, Japan, in barbarous times, rendered a great service to humanity.

"'When at last that detestable period of colonisation came to an end, no further was there any war. Still the States continued keeping up armies.

"'Having so far explained matters, I shall proceed to lay before you, pursuant to your request, the origins of present-day society. It issued from the one preceding it. In moral just as in individual life forms generate one another. Capitalistic naturally enough produced collectivist society. At the commencement of the twentieth century of the closed era, a memorable industrial evolution took place. The slender production of small artisans whose all were their tools was followed by a great production financially supported by a new agent of marvellous power—capital. Here was a great social progress.'

"'What was a great social step in advance?' I asked.

'"The capitalistic régime,' replied Morin. 'It brought humanity an untold source of wealth. By grouping the workers in considerable masses and multiplying their numbers it created the proletariat. By making the workers an immense State within the State it paved the way for their emancipation, and

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208 furnished them with the means of conquering power.

"'This régime, however, which was to be productive of such happy results in the future, was execrated by the workers, in whose ranks it made countless victims.

"'There exists no social benefit which has not been purchased at the cost of blood and tears. Moreover, this régime which had enriched the whole world came within an ace of ruining it. After having increased production to a considerable extent, it failed in its endeavours to regulate it, and struggled hopelessly in the toils of inextricable difficulties.

"'You are not totally ignorant, comrade, of the economic disturbances which filled the twentieth century. During the last hundred years of the capitalistic domination, the disorder of production and the delirium of competition piled up disasters high. The capitalists and the masters vainly attempted, by means of gigantic combinations, to regulate production and to annihilate competition. Their ill-conceived undertakings were engulfed in an abyss of gigantic catastrophes. During those anarchical days, the fight between classes was blind and terrible. The proletariat, overwhelmed in the same ratio by its victories and its defeats, overwhelmed by the ruins of the edifice which it was pulling down on its own head, torn by fearful internal struggles, casting

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six years ago I asked Mr. H. Y. L. Brown, who was then engaged in making a geological survey of part of the Colony of West Australia, to procure for me some of the weapons of the natives of the west and north-west coast of Australia; and he was good enough to send me a very valuable collection, which I have used in preparing this brief account of some of the more important implements employed by the blacks in this part of the continent. In order that accurate descriptions of them might be given, I applied to the Honorable Fred. Barlee, the Colonial Secretary at Perth, to supply information respecting some of them; and with his usual kindness, and with an alacrity in the promotion of scientific investigations not always found in gentlemen occupying similar exalted positions, he furnished valuable notes, made by himself, from statements communicated to him by an intelligent native.

No one but a person who has engaged in such labors as have occupied me for many years knows how difficult it is to ascertain the facts respecting even the commoner implements and utensils used by the natives. I have had the most positive statements respecting the use of one kind of spear absolutely contradicted by other statements apparently equally trustworthy; and in all such cases it has been necessary to apply to the blacks themselves for an explanation. A spear of a peculiar form is employed in one locality almost exclusively as a weapon of war; in another it is commonly used for striking fish; and in a district not far distant perhaps it is altogether unknown.

With such difficulties to encounter, it was with peculiar satisfaction that I was able to avail myself of the aid of gentlemen of culture and experience in procuring some few data for this necessarily imperfect description of the West Australian weapons and utensils.

Perhaps the most interesting of all the offensive weapons used by the natives of the western part of the continent is the Kylie or boomerang. It is essentially the same as that found in the southern and eastern colonies, but it is somewhat different in form, and is exceedingly thin and leaf-like. Some of those in my possession are scarcely three-tenths of an inch in thickness in the thickest parts, and they have knife-like edges. The weight of the heaviest is four and three-quarter ounces and the lightest a little under four ounces. The extreme length varies from twenty inches to twenty-three inches, and the breadth is from one and three-quarters to two inches. At first sight they appear to be quite flat; but a close examination shows that there is a slight

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bags, the baskets, the wooden vessels for holding water, and the tools used by the natives, are few in number, but they are sufficient for their wants.

They have made good use of the raw materials within their reach; and, whether dealing with wood or bark, or with the bones, skins, or sinews of animals, they have exhibited ingenuity, and produced work as excellent as it possibly could be uuderunder [sic] the circumstances in which they labored.

In the descriptions which follow, the reader will discover much information quite new even to those who have lived amongst the Aborigines for many years, and who are well acquainted with their furniture and utensils. I have not relied on my own observations. I have sought to gain information from settlers in various parts of Australia; and though I have used all means available to me in collecting facts for this very interesting branch of my work, I cannot believe that I have secured everything that is known respecting the implements of the natives.

The tool with which weapons are carved—Leange-walert—was discovered by accident; and I know not how many other tools of the like kind, or dissimilar, may be in use amongst the tribes in the interior.

That the natives were ready at all times to devise sure means for the capture of animals, and for cooking them, and for entrapping their enemies or killing them, may be accepted as proofs that they are not deficient in invention or energy. The skill exhibited in their works is imperfectly shown in the figures and descriptions in this work.

It was not known until lately that the natives were in the habit of communicating with far-distant friends by means of message-sticks, on which are carved figures and marks sufficiently clear to convey information relative to important occurrences. The picture-writing in use amongst this people, rude as it is, is of the highest interest, and all that relates to it will be studied by ethnologists perhaps more carefully than anything else in this work.

I was glad to receive from the Honorable Mr. Barlee, the Colonial Secretary in Western Australia, sticks on which messages are written—thus confirming other statements made respecting this method of transmitting intelligence.

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stone implements used by uncivilized races are necessarily regarded by archæologists and geologists with great interest. In many parts of Europe there are no traces of the ancient race that once occupied soil now the sites of luxurious cities but such as can be gathered from the stone axes and flint flakes which explorations from time to time discover.

The archæologist, by comparing these implements with others found in neighbouring lands, where they are associated with remains more perishable, but which happily have not altogether gone to decay, gains hints for his guidance in the endeavour to discern something of the life and habits and character of the men who made and used them. And he gains help too by comparing the celts with the instruments now used by savages.

The geologist finds that he has not embraced all that comes within the scope of his labors if he omits to give a distinct place in his system to those drifts where occur chips and flakes of flint and stones bearing the marks of an art which civilized men cannot practise with success. "Indeed," as Professor Steenstrup well says, "these flakes are the result of such a small number of blows, they are so simple in appearance, that the art shown in their manufacture has generally been much underrated. Any one, however, who will try to make some for himself, while he will probably be very unsuccessful, will at least learn a valuable lesson in the appreciation of flint implements."—Pre-Historic Times (Lubbock), p. 193.

"Many of the stone weapons and implements made by the Australian Aborigines are far superior in construction to the rude flint implements found in the European drift. The spear-heads in particular of some of the tribes are beautifully-finished articles, and conclusively prove that those who made them must have possessed an almost marvellous manual dexterity. In Captain King's account of his visit to Hanover Bay, he says:—'What chiefly attracted our attention was a small bundle of bark, tied up with more than usual care; and upon opening it we found it contained several spear-heads, most ingeniously and curiously made of stone; they were about six inches in length, and were terminated by a very sharp point. Both sides were serrated in a most surprising way. The serrature was evidently made by a sharp stroke with some instrument; but it was effected without leaving the least mark of the blow. The stone was covered with red pigment, and appeared to be a flinty slate. These spear-heads were ready for fixing; and the careful manner in which they were preserved plainly showed their value; for each was separated by slips of bark, and the sharp edges protected by a covering of fur. Their hatchets were also made of the same stone, the edges of which were so sharp that a few blows served to chop off the branches of a tree.'"—Australian Discovery and Colonization, by Samuel Bennett, p. 280.

Whether regarded as objects which, if studied with care, may throw light on the condition of the ancient races who once peopled Europe and Asia long prior to the dawn of civilization, or as helping the geologist to a clearer view of the history of the earth's crust during the most recent period—in his eyes, as compared with former periods, but the records of yesterday's changes; in the

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natives used hooks and nets as well as the spear in catching fish. William Buckley makes the following statement in his Life and Adventures:—"They used to take me out on calm evenings to teach me how to spear salmon, bream, &c. Their manner is to get some very dry sticks, cut them into lengths of ten or twelve feet, tie several of them together into a kind of faggot, and then light the thickest end; with this torch blazing in one hand and a spear in the other they go into the water, and the fish, seeing the flame, crowd round and are easily taken."

The Jardines saw, at Maramie Creek, "two parties of blacks fishing on the river. . . . . They used reed-spears, pointed with four jagged prongs, and also hooks and lines. Their hooks are made of wood, barbed with bone, and the lines of twisted Currejong bark." The same writers say that "considerable nicety is shown in the making of fishing lines and hooks. The former are made from the fibres of a species of climber, very neatly twisted. The fish-hooks are made of tortoise-shell, or nails procured from wreck-timber. They are without barbs, and our fish-hooks are eagerly sought for in place of them."

In catching eels, Buckley observed that though they spear them frequently, "they generally use lines—the bait being a large earth-worm. Having these worms ready, they get a piece of elastic bark and some long grass, on which they string them; this is tied to a rod, and as the eel, after biting, holds on tenaciously, he is thrown or rather jerked upon the bank."

At the mouths of some of the creeks in the western parts of Victoria, and in the channels through which the lakes overflow, the natives take eels in large quantities. They are so numerous as to embarrass them, and vast quantities are thrown aside and left to decay.

Whether using the spear, the net, or the hook, the native is almost always a more successful sportsman than the European. He knows the habits of the fish, the places where they are to be found, and the food which they prefer; and patient in waiting, quick in seizing an advantage, and with a perfect command of the implement he is using—spear, net, or hook—he is never, or very rarely, disappointed with the results of his labors.

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 Aborigines of the southern parts of Victoria obtain fire in the manner shown in Fig. 231. A flat piece of wood, ten inches in length, and one inch and a half in width, is placed on the ground and held firmly in a horizontal position by the toes of each foot of the operator. In his hands the man holds upright, and with one end of it fixed in a slight depression previously made in the flat piece of wood, a stick about half an inch in diameter and two feet in length, which he twirls by a rapid motion of his hands. The stick held between the palms of the hands is rubbed rapidly to and fro, and some pressure is exerted downwards. When the hands nearly touch the flat piece of wood, they are suddenly raised almost to the top of the vertical stick, but so skilfully as to keep the stick in its place (and this is a movement not easy to Europeans), and then again the twirl and downward pressure follow, and the movements are repeated until the charcoal-dust ignites. Fig. 232 shows the form of the sticks employed. When the sticks are dry, smoke and fire soon arise in the hole in the flat piece of wood. The native, having previously reduced to powder some dry leaves of the eucalyptus, which easily ignite, turns or tilts the flat piece of wood towards the powdered leaves at the moment when

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 The Aborigines of Victoria Dingbat.png

canoes used by the natives of Victoria are usually made of the bark of some species of gum-tree. The bark of the red gum-tree (Eucalyptus rostrata) is generally preferred; but in many districts the bark of other trees is taken, not because it is the best, but because it is easily obtainable of the sizes required. The Koor-ron or canoe is not made unless there be immediate occasion for its use. When it is necessary to cross a stream, a lake, or an arm of the sea, the natives assemble near the point of departure, and earnestly discuss questions relating to the means of transport. Some may be able to swim well and swiftly, and these would take to the water at once, if it were not for the goods they must carry—their shields, their weapons, and their cloaks.

When it is finally settled that the water must be crossed, the oldest and wisest of the tribe have devolved on them the duty of making a suitable canoe. If the numbers be large, the canoe must be large—so as to carry as many as possible at one time; and all the trees in the neighbourhood are examined until one is found whose bark is suitable. It must be a large tree; and it must lean and be curved, so as to admit of a piece of bark being taken off in such a form as not to need much manipulation. Labor is disliked by the Aborigines; and unnecessary labor is to them simply impossible. A gum-tree growing somewhat in the manner shown in Fig. 236 is selected; and the bark is cut at the points x x, and along the line shown by dots; and by pressing the wooden handle of the tomahawk and a pole between the bark and the wood, the sheet is gradually and carefully removed.

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Rh many creeks and very large swamps. Moreover, the county of Mornington has an extensive and varied coast-line where fish and molluscs are plentiful and easily procurable. These things must he borne in mind when the physical character of the colony is attentively viewed and its capability for the support of a wandering people more carefully shown. It is necessary to describe first those parts of the colony which could not of themselves support throughout the year any tribe or family of Aborigines, and some of which, if the blacks resorted to them at all, would be used by them as occasional hunting grounds only. Other parts, it is well known, would never be penetrated by them. The thick scrub, the want of water, and the fear of these untravelled wilds, would keep them as effectual barriers, separating tribes from tribes.

In the north-western parts of Victoria there is a vast tract of sands and clay-pans of Recent and Tertiary age, which is covered with Eucalyptus dumosa and E. oleosa, the nature of which none but those who have endeavoured to penetrate it can have an accurate idea. Its area is not less than 14,000 square miles. The Richardson River, the Yarriambiack Creek, and the River Wimmera flow northwards through it towards the River Murray; but the waters of those streams are lost in the sands. The lakes are large and the swamps are numerous in the southern and central parts; but the tract is hot in summer and cold in winter, and much of it cannot be regarded but as "back-country" for the tribes bordering on it, to be used only at certain times during each season, when the productions which it affords might tempt the Aboriginals to penetrate several parts of it. This great, dense eucalyptus thicket is somewhat in the form of a triangle as it appears on the map of Victoria. Its base extends from the confluence of the River Lindsay and the River Murray on the north to Mount Arapiles on the south; and its southern boundary reaches from Mount Arapiles in a north-easterly direction and in a broken line with numerous outlying patches of dense scrub to Inglewood; and other unconnected belts of Mallee are found between Inglewood and the junction of the River Murray with the River Loddon. Dense scrub again is found southwards covering the plains.

The mountain ranges, also, are not fitted to maintain an uncivilized people during all seasons of the year. The climate of the higher parts of the Cordillera, however agreeable in summer, is bitterly cold in winter. The flanks of the mountains which extend from Forest Hill to the Pyrenees are clothed with dense forests, and in places there are masses of scrub, some of which even yet have never been penetrated by man. These thickets cannot be passed by the colonists without great labor and much expense. They have to cut a track with the axe; water and provisions must be carried to the working party; and if the party is not strong in numbers, the attempt is relinquished. Aboriginals could never have searched but the margins of these areas. The mountain fastnesses, in winter covered with snow, and at times, in all seasons, shrouded in thick mists, were regarded with awe by the natives. Like the dark forests west of Mount Blackwood, they were held to be the abodes of evil spirits or of creatures—scarcely less to be dreaded—having the forms of men and the habits of beasts. It is certain that the blacks in the proper season occasionally visited the glens and ravines on both sides of the chain, but they did not live

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34 there. They visited them for the purpose of obtaining woods suitable for making weapons, feathers for ornament, birds and beasts for food, and for the tree-fern, the heart of which is good to eat, and for other vegetable productions.

The wide, treeless, basaltic plains which stretch from the River Wannon on the west to the River Moorabool on the east, and from Mount Cole on the north to the southern shores of Lake Korangamite on the south—an area of 8,000 square miles—were occupied by numerous small tribes. The banks of all the lakes, rivers, and creeks were frequented by them; and the ancient mirrn-yong heaps and the low walls of stone erected for shelter or other purposes are still to be seen in many parts. The plains were the resort of the emu, the wild turkey, and the native companion, and the lakes and swamps were covered with wild-fowl.

The southern parts of the counties of Heytesbury and Polwarth, now known as the Cape Otway Forest, were for the most part probably unknown to the tribes who called the Colac and Korangamite country theirs. The labor attendant on a march through this densely-wooded district would not have been undertaken but in the pursuit of enemies; and it would never have been chosen by any savage people as a permanent abode. The rains of winter and the thick fogs of autumn and spring would have been fatal to the younger members of the tribes. Whether or not any families inhabited the river basins entirely separated from the tribes who had homes on the lands lying to the north and on the coast is not known. That the Coast tribes could and did penetrate many parts of this area is not denied, but it is scarcely probable that any tribe would live in the denser parts from year to year.

It is proper then, in estimating the area available to this people for permanent settlement, to eliminate those tracts which could not of themselves support throughout the year a single tribe, also those thickly-wooded and scrubby mountain ranges which the means at the command of the natives would not allow them to penetrate, and the result is that no more than 30,000,000 acres can be considered as open to them for ordinary uses. When, further, we regard their laws, which forbid unnecessary encroachment on the lands held by their neighbours (and all the lands peculiarly their own were set out and known by landmarks), and note the localities rich in stone fit for making hatchets (common to numerous widely-separated tribes), and the debatable grounds which year after year would be the scene of conflicts, we must again make a large deduction from the above estimate.

All that is known of the original condition of the natives of Victoria points to this: that the rivers were their homes. The River Murray from Albury to the River Lindsay was well peopled; the Rivers Mitta Mitta, Ovens, Goulburn, Campaspe, Loddon, Avoca, Avon, Richardson, Glenelg, and Wimmera gave refuge to many tribes; in the lake country and on the coast and in Gippsland the tribes were numerous and strong; but as regards the rest of the land included within the boundaries of Victoria, it was either unknown or but frequented for short periods in certain seasons.

It would appear therefore that Sir Thomas Mitchell's estimate of the number of Aborigines, based on calculations made after traversing a country

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100 “An’ I s’ll earn eight shillings a week,” he said.

She did not answer, but Went on with her work. At last she said:

“That William promised me, when he went to London, as he’d give me a pound a month. He has given me ten shillings—twice; and now I know he hasn’t a farthing if I asked him. Not that I want it. Only just now you’d think he might be able to help with this ticket, which I’d never expected.”

“He earns a lot,” said Paul.

“He earns a hundred and thirty pounds. But they’re all alike. They’re large in promises, but it’s precious little fulfilment you get.”

“He spends over fifty shillings a week on himself,” said Paul.

“And I keep this house on less than thirty,” she replied; “and am supposed to find money for extras. But they don’t care about helping you, once they’ve gone. He’d rather spend it on that dressed-up creature.”

“She should have her own money if she’s so grand,” said Paul.

“She should, but she hasn’t. I asked him. And I know he doesn’t buy her a gold bangle for nothing. I wonder whoever bought me a gold bangle.”

William was succeeding with his “Gipsy,” as he called her. He asked the girl—her name was Louisa Lily Denys Western—for a photograph to send to his mother. The photo came—a handsome brunette, taken in profile, smirking slightly—and, it might be, quite naked, for on the photograph not a scrap of clothing was to be seen, only a naked bust.

“Yes,” wrote Mrs. Morel to her son, “the photograph of Louie is very striking, and I can see she must be attractive. But do you think, my boy, it was very good taste of a girl to give her young man that photo to send to his mother—the first? Certainly the shoulders are beautiful, as you say. But I hardly expected to see so much of them at the first view.”

Morel found the photograph standing on the chiffonier in the parlour. He came out with it between his thick thumb and finger.

“Who dost reckon this is?” he asked of his wife.

“It’s the girl our William is going with,” replied Mrs. Morel.

“H’m! ’Er’s a bright spark, from th’ look on ’er, an’ one as wunna do him owermuch good neither. Who is she?”


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Beach, Thomas Miller


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Beal, Samuel


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Rh “Her name is Louisa Lily Denys Western.”

“An’ come again to-morrer!” exclaimed the miner. “An’ is ’er an actress?”

“She is not. She’s supposed to be a lady.”

“I’ll bet!” he exclaimed, still staring at the photo. “A lady, is she? An’ how much does she reckon ter keep up this sort o’ game on?”

“On nothing. She lives with an old aunt, whom she hates, and takes what bit of money’s given her.”

“H’m!” said Morel, laying down the photograph. “Then he’s a fool to ha’ ta’en up wi’ such a one as that.”

“Dear Mater,” William replied. “I’m sorry you didn’t like the photograph. It never occurred to me when I sent it, that you mightn’t think it decent. However, I told Gyp that it didn’t quite suit your prim and proper notions, so she’s going to send you another, that I hope will please you better. She’s always being photographed; in fact, the photographers ask her if they may take her for nothing.”

Presently the new photograph came, with a little silly note from the girl. This time the young lady was seen in a black satin evening bodice, cut square, with little puff sleeves, and black lace hanging down her beautiful arms.

“I wonder if she ever wears anything except evening clothes,” said Mrs. Morel sarcastically. “I’m sure I ought to be impressed.”

“You are disagreeable, mother,” said Paul. “I think the first one with bare shoulders is lovely.”

“Do you?” answered his mother. “Well, I don’t.”

On the Monday morning the boy got up at six to start work. He had the season-ticket, which had cost such bitterness, in his waistcoat-pocket. He loved it with its bars of yellow across. His mother packed his dinner in a small, shut-up basket, and he set off at a quarter to seven to catch the 7.15 train. Mrs. Morel came to the entry-end to see him off.

It was a perfect morning. From the ash-tree the slender green fruits that the children call “pigeons” were twinkling gaily down on a little breeze, into the front gardens of the houses. The valley was full of a lustrous dark haze, through which the ripe corn shimmered, and in which the steam from Minton pit melted swiftly. Puffs of wind came. Paul looked over the high woods of Aldersley, where the country gleamed, and home had never pulled at him so powerfully.

“Good-morning, mother,” he said, smiling, but feeling very unhappy.


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 number of great building schemes which fell into his hands, and he had much more of the qualities of a great architect than are to be found in the works of some of his latter-day critics. His later works, one or two of which will be referred to, do not come under the head of the Gothic revival.

In France, the Gothic revival, which so strongly affected the whole school of English architecture for thirty or forty years, took little hold. Its most remarkable monument is the church of Ste Clotilde at Paris, built about the middle of the century from the designs of Ballu. In size it equals a second-class cathedral, and is a fine monument, though it does not show that complete knowledge of medieval Gothic which we find in the churches of Scott, Street, Pearson and G. F. Bodley. But as with the Classic, so with the Gothic revival—the leading French architects of the period had too much personal architectural feeling to be carried along in the wake of a “movement.” Two very important Paris churches, built just after the middle of the century, illustrate well this independence of spirit. The one is the domed church of St Augustin in the Boulevard Malesherbes (Plate XII., fig. 122), designed by Victor Baltard (1805–1874). It may be called a Classic church treated in a quasi-Byzantine manner. A remarkable point about it is that, standing between the divergence of two streets at an acute angle, the outer walls of the nave follow the line of the two streets, the church thus expanding towards the centre; internally the colonnades are parallel, the chapels outside of them increasing in depth from the entrance of the nave towards the centre—a very clever device for reconciling exterior and interior effect. The other church referred to, built about the same time, is La Trinité (Plate XII., fig. 123) by Théodore Ballu (1817–1885)—a church which is Renaissance in detail and yet distinctly Gothic in its general effect and in the multiplicity of its detail, somewhat recalling in this sense Barry’s Halifax tower before referred to. The sense in which there has really been a general movement in church architecture in France has been in the direction of a kind of modernized Byzantine, of which one of the earliest and best examples is the church of St Pierre de Montrouge, by Joseph Auguste E. Vaudremer (Plate XII., fig. 124). A later and more important example is the cathedral of Marseilles, by Léon Vaudoyer (1803–1872) and Henry Espérandieu (1829–1874), a mingling of Romanesque and Byzantine, and in many respects a fine building (Plate XIII., fig. 126). This modern feeling in favour of a Byzantine type of church architecture culminated in the great church of the Sacré Coeur on Montmartre, at Paris, begun in the early ’eighties from the designs of Paul Abadie (1812–1884). This grand building stands on a most effective site, and is of a monumental solidity seldom met with in modern architecture; it is more pure and consistent in style than many of the smaller churches of the same school of architecture. These latter are not for the most part very attractive; they represent in general a kind of Frenchified Byzantine detail which exhibits neither Byzantine spirit nor French grace and finish; and on the whole it may be said that church architecture is the field in which the French architects of the 19th century were least successful.

As regards secular buildings, on the other hand, the Paris of the middle portion of the 19th century can show some of the most unquestionable architectural successes of the period. The modern portions of the Palais de Justice by Louis Joseph Duc (1802–1879)—not Viollet-le-Duc, as is often mistakenly asserted in guide-books—and of the École des Beaux-Arts, by Jacques Félix Duban (1797–1870), are among the best examples of the application of classic forms of architecture to modern buildings; and the Bibliothèque Ste Geneviève (Plate XIII., fig. 128), by Henri Labrouste (1801–1875), was in its day (about 1850) a new creation in applied classic architecture; a building in which the exterior design was entirely subservient to and expressive of the requirements of a library, a large portion of the wall being left unpierced for the storage of books, windows being only inserted where they did not interfere with this object; and the manner in which these walls are treated so as to produce a decorative architectural effect without having recourse to sham colonnades and sham window openings, was entirely new at the time in modern work. It is instructive to compare this design with that of the Bank of England, as examples of the right and the wrong way of treating buildings in which much blank wall space was required. The new buildings of the Louvre (Plate XIV., fig. 129), built under Napoleon III. from the designs of Louis Tullius Joachim Visconti (1791–1853), are not to be passed over, though they have too much of the showy and flaunting character which belonged to both the society and the art of the Second Empire; a fault which also destroys some of the value of the Grand Opera house, a remarkable work by a remarkable architect (Jean Louis Charles Garnier), and typical, more than any other structure, of the epoch in which it was built. Some of its effect it owes to the admirable painting and sculpture with which it is decorated, but the grand staircase is a fine architectural conception (see ).

In England and in the United States, the last quarter of the 19th century was a period of unusual interest and activity in architectural development. While other nations have been content to carry on their architecture, for the most part, on the old scholastic lines which had been prevalent since the Renaissance, in the two countries named there has been manifest a spirit of unrest, of critical inquiry into the basis and objects of architecture; an aspiration to make new and original creations in or applications of the art, without example in any other period in the modern history of architecture. In England, the “note”—heard with increasing shrillness of crescendo towards the very last year of the century—was the cry for originality, for throwing off the trammels of the past, for rendering architecture more truly a direct expression of the conditions of practical requirement and of structure. This was no doubt to some extent the effect of a reaction. During the greater part of the century architectural strength, as has been already shown, had been spent in revivals of past styles. Churches indeed, up to the close of the century, continued to be built, for the most part, in revived Gothic; but this was owing to special clerical influence, which saw in Gothic a style specially consecrated to church architecture, and would be satisfied, as a rule, with nothing else. Efforts have been made by architects to modify the medieval church plan into something more practically suited to modern congregational worship, by a system of reducing the side aisles to mere narrow passages for access to the seats, thus retaining the architectural effect of the arcade, while keeping it out of the way of the seated congregation; and there have been occasional reversions to the ancient Christian basilica type of plan, or sometimes, as in the church in Davies Street, London, attempts to treat a church in a manner entirely independent of architectural precedent; but in the main, Gothic has continued to rule for churches. Apart from this special class of building, however, revived Gothic began to droop during the ’seventies. All had been copied that could be copied, and the result, to the architectural mind, was not satisfaction but satiety. Gothic began to be regarded as “played out.” The immediate result, however, was not an organized attempt to think for ourselves, and make our own style, but a recourse to another class of precedent, represented in the type of early 18th-century building which became known as “Queen Anne,” and which, like Gothic before it, was now to be recommended as “essentially English,” as in fact it is. It can hardly, however, be called an architectural style; it would have no right to figure in any work illustrating the great architectural styles of the world. It was, in fact, the last dying phase of the English Renaissance; the architecture of the classic order reduced to a threadbare condition, treated very simply and in plain materials, in many cases shorn of its columnar features, and reflecting faithfully enough the prim rationalistic taste in literature and art of the England of the 18th century. Though not to be dignified as a style, it was, however, a recognizable and consistent manner in building; it made extensive use of brick, a material inexpensive and at the same time very well suited to the English climate and atmosphere; and it was generally carried out in very solid proportions, and with very good workmanship. To a generation tired of imitating a great style at second hand, this unpretending and simple model was a welcome relief, and led to the erection of a considerable number of modern buildings, dwelling-houses especially, the obvious aim of which was to look as like 18th-century buildings as possible. A typical example is the large London house by Norman Shaw, at the corner of Queen’s Gate and Imperial Institute Road The Chelsea town hall (fig. 94), by J. M. Brydon (1840–1901), is a good example of a public building in the revived Queen Anne style.

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102 “Good-morning,” she replied cheerfully and tenderly.

She stood in her white apron on the open road, watching him as he crossed the field. He had a small, compact body that looked full of life. She felt, as she saw him trudging over the field, that where he determined to go he would get. She thought of William. He would have leaped the fence instead of going round to the stile. He was away in London, doing well. Paul would be working in Nottingham. Now she had two sons in the world. She could think of two places, great centres of industry, and feel that she had put a man into each of them, that these men would work out what she wanted; they were derived from her, they were of her, and their works also would be hers. All the morning long she thought of Paul.

At eight o’clock he climbed the dismal stairs of Jordan’s Surgical Appliance Factory, and stood helplessly against the first great parcel-rack, waiting for somebody to pick him up. The place was still not awake. Over the counters were great dust sheets. Two men only had arrived, and were heard talking in a corner, as they took off their coats and rolled up their shirt-sleeves. It was ten past eight. Evidently there was no rush of punctuality. Paul listened to the voices of the two clerks. Then he heard someone cough, and saw in the office at the end of the room an old, decaying clerk, in a round smoking-cap of black velvet embroidered with red and green, opening letters. He waited and waited. One of the junior clerks went to the old man, greeted him cheerily and loudly. Evidently the old “chief” was deaf. Then the young fellow came striding importantly down to his counter. He spied Paul.

“Hello!” he said. “You the new lad?”

“Yes,” said Paul.

“H’m! What’s your name?”

“Paul Morel.”

“Paul Morel? All right, you come on round here.”

Paul followed him round the rectangle of counters. The room was second storey. It had a great hole in the middle of the floor, fenced as with a wall of counters, and down this wide shaft the lifts went, and the light for the bottom storey. Also there was a corresponding big, oblong hole in the ceiling, and one could see above, over the fence of the top floor, some machinery; and right away overhead was the glass roof, and all light for the three storeys came downwards, getting dimmer, so that it was always night on the ground