Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Reviews.
REVIEWS .
All Books intended for Eeview should be addressed to the Editor of The Freemason ' s Chronicle , 67 Barbican , E . C . ~ ? Mg Circular Notes . Extracts from Journals , Letters sent Home , Geological , aud other Notes , written while travelling westwards round tho World , from 6 th July 1871 , to 6 th Jul y 1875 . By J . P . CAMPBELL , Author of "Frost and Fire . " In two volumes . London : Macmillau and Co . 1876 .
THERE IS no class of literature so universally popular , so . fascinating , as that which treats of foreign peoples and tho countries they inhabit . Individually , we may be regular stay-at-homes , too lazy , or too incurious to learn , by personal experience , the habits and customs of other nations , and the scenic beauties or wonders for which the lands they dwell in are notorious . Yet , none tho less do we care to
gain oar information second hand . Tho records of travel are a never failing source of delight .. They toll us what other people-are like , what . they do , what , are their peculiar customs , what tho country they live in is like and what it produces , and what is their previous history . Henoo it is that , nowadays , we are almost overwhelmed with narratives of journeys to this-or that country . Many even of
those who mostly spend their holiday abroad , consider their task incomplete if they do not take the whole world into their confidence . They suffer from cacoethes scribendi , and recount their doings with a minuteness that is simply painful . And as the facilities for travel increase , as countries less easily accessible aro brought , so to speak , nearer to us , it is probable the number of these bookmakers ,, who
can tell ns little we do not know already , will increase likewise . Mr . Campbell ' s "Circular Notes , " however , are a book of quite another character . True , he set out to spend a year ' s holiday in journeying round the world . True , he visited countries which are not entirely new to Britons , and , of necessity , saw much which other Britons had seen before : but ho saw and noted much that is new
and interesting , much that the ordinary traveller for pleasure would never have troubled himself about . Tho result is that My Circular Notes are most entertaining . There is hardly a page in which does not occur somo useful piece of information , and the style of the narrative is , from beginning to end , tho most charming it is possible to conceive . The notes are composed partly of letters to relations
and friends , partly of a log or journal , and to supplement the whole is a very valuable Geological paper on the " Period of Polar Glaciation , " in tho writing aud revision of which Mr . Campbell spared no pains . At the very outset , afc pp . 10 and 11 , on board tho Batavia , enroute for tho United States , we get a wrinkle . Says Mr . Campbell , " he
( the Captain of the Batavia ) holds thafc weather prognostics might be made by telegraphs from Boston and Newfoundland ; together with tho logs of steamers running westwards , telegraphed from Queenstowu to head quarters . In America , they telegraph western weather to the east coast , and find that tracts of weather move northwards and eastwards . That is reasonable and probable . It is
true experimentally . Our system is to tell people what tho weather was ; which does not help to prepare them for the morrow . " The journey across the Atlantic passes without adventure of any kind , but Mr . Campbell enjoys it , and carefully notes , in his quaint way , whatever is amusing and demands observation . Tho story of an artichoke , as told him by a "jolly old man , " is worth repeating .
" Me and Joe , and my wife and his , was dining in Paris ; and Joe , he ordered an artichoke . ' What ' s that ? ' I said . ' It's an artichoke , ' said he , ' will you take some ? ' ' No , ' says I , ' Mother told me to be sure to eat . artichokes ; I'll have ono for myself . ' So when it came , we looked at each other , for we was green . . We didn't know which end of the animal to attack . So first wo began at the hard
end , and that . pricked our mouths ; and we didn't think much of artichokes . 'That can't , bo right , ' says Joe . So ; we began afc tho other end , and scraped out the middle and ate that . ' My , ' said the wife , ' I was that ill , that 1 . had to leave tho table . It ' s all prickles and hairs , and they stuck in my throat . ' Well , we did not think anything at all of artichokes that time , but next time , we got a man
thafc knew how to fix ifc , and then we liked them well enough , I , guess . Yes , Sir , that's so !" Our traveller lauds afc Boston , finds the heat excessive , goes to a spiritual seance , and is puzzled whether the lady medium is crazy or a rogue , and soon after sets out by rail for Niagara . Tho drawing room car in which he travels is described as " a long lofty room , set
on lour pairs of wheels , of which two pair aro on a bogy at each end , consequently the long beams take off all jar and rattle . All down tho sides aro velvet-covered chairs , with spring seats , each on a bronze pillar turning any way . Tho sash windows are large plate glass affairs , into which , when open , an attendant nigger iiis wire blinds to keep out the dust . Green sun blinds draw down , so there we sit at
ease , eaeli in his own arm chair , and . look at the country sis we whir along at great speed . " Then " tho .-e who want lo smoke iind a c . ibin in the lure part of the car , those who want to driuk Hud iced water , and those who want to wasli their dusty faces ami ' slick their liarr down , ' can do that to their hearts content . " Well may Mr . Campbell remark , "Truly the Yankees know how to travel by rail . " Lauded at
his hotel , tho writer indulges in a variety of reflections ou waiters . He mentions an Irishman who , when left to himself , always brought potatoes ; even when asked once for a soup , "ho brought me goose and potatoes . " As to the niggers , "the olive-greeu ones sell books and papers , the relined men wait at table , tho blackest black boots
and brush coats , and bear burdens . But no amount of dilution seems to make a black white enoug h to keep an hotel , or own a shop , or do anything that an Aryan does . I am quite sure that no Africaryan will ever run an Emma mine , or an Erie ling . But the potato man may in time , for he has brains to be educated , while darky ' s head is like that of the Neander . thal man who was like a monkey . " The
Reviews.
Niagara Falls have been often enough described , but the following is so excellent that we make no apology for transcribing it . " Nothing can give tho faintest idea of tho beauty ot these falls . The water is a sort of Prussian-bine emerald green colour where it is clear of air bubbles , and deep . Where it comes over the Horseshoe it is like nothing else in the world . It is a groat green waving water
curtain , edged with dark purple , where the red rock edgo ia seen through falling water four or five feet deep at least . Nearer and thinner and more broken , a promontory of falling water tells warm purple against the green Horseshoe gulf . Great stones below glimmer through the spray , and change from black to pnrple , and pale blue , and vanish as the clouds of spray go and come . Dark green and warm
purple waves below fade into the cloud like tho stones . The white Canadian fall shines white through the cloud-like silver gauze , while the cloud itself changes like a dim rainbow of purple and green , and bine and yellow . Last night the setting sun lit up a great orange cloud behind the dark bank of trees in Canada , and the contrast made tho falls like liquid jewels . I sketched , but Turner could not have
imitated this . I defy all painters to copy Niagara . ' Then he seta out-for Chicago , travelling the greater part of the way in a Pullman ' s car , the comforts of which are fully described . The seats and roof are so constructed , as to form comfortable beds for the passengers to ' aleep in . A capital dinner is to be had aboard , and as the cars are long and springy , and because they are-exceedingly well
made , the motion is utterlyUnlike railway motion in England . There is no side-long rattle and roll , no jar and little noise . With an easy swinging , see-saw movement " on I went , feet foremost , sleeping as if I wero afc home in my own bed . " At Chicago Mr . Campbell becomes reflective again ^ and passes sundry comments on emigrants , and tho several varieties of the genus Eepublican , among the latter of which the
Ked variety is not spoken of in tho warmest terms . Thence he sets out for Cheyenne , on his road to San Francisco . Afc the Missouri ho sees his first Indians ; at Fremont , again Indians , and again at Grand Island , where he sees their camp and manages to make a sketch of one of them . He is advised by a fellow traveller not to stop at Cheyenne , " all tho men are murderers and thieves ; you will have
your throat cut and lose your money . " Ho stops all the same , and has neither his throat nor pnrso cut . At Colorado Springs , a difficulty occurs between two rival drivers , of whom one is " slender and vicious , " the other " a big , bluff , bull-headed , prize fighting sort of man in boots and shirt sleeves , who had been a captain . " The former is full of pluck , but gets his knob in chancery and his claret tapped , aud has his face reduced " to the condition of a beef-Steak well beaten . "
The fight was a fair stand-up one , though the smaller man yelled for a knife . At Salt Lake City he meets with people of every nationality . " Boots is from Yorkshire , another is from Nottingham . Half the wives are from Wales . The master has three , and Brigham Young has fifty . " Ho is introduced to a Professor Barfoot , who came to Salt Lake City and turned geologist and " bug collector , " or naturalist and chemist . Mr . Campbell thus describes him and his geological views , and his collection of curios : —
" According to him the geology of tho country has not been ascertained , but these rocks aro lower carboniferous . Their dip has nothing to do with the lake basin . He has failed to discover bromino or iodino in Salt Lake . Ho finds I ' D by weight of chloride of sodium ( common salt ) . He does not believe tho lake to be part of an old sea , and attributes the saltness to beds of rock-salt to the south . He
has specimens very pure and compact . Bufc whore did these beds come from unless they came from an old sea ? Ho has bones and teeth of Falconer ' s Elcphas Americanus from drift . He has samples of ore from Emma , Comstock , and other famous lodes . From much talk with him and with others , I gathered that many people here know that the Emma mine could not possibly stand the price paid for it in
England . He has malachite with gold in the green . The green mines of England have been more successfully worked by the ' cute tribes of this mining region . He has large garnets , and a few coal formation fossils : - He has a live " prairie dog , a little owl , arid a couple of rattlesnakes , tribes who dwell together jh social communities , eat and are eaten . He has a scorpion iu a seidlitz powder box , Tarantulas
and their nest . Even thq Tarantulas , fear . the enmity of a certain dragon-fly which preys on them so , they mako a house with a hinged door and holds for their claws . When the enemy comes to the castle , they shut the door and hold oh by the lock . He has Indian gear , a scalp or two , which indicate the habits of modern warfare ,
some crania , some parrots , photographs , and petrifactions from springs . These he calls ' Tuffa . ' He has deposits on wood , wood half turned to silica , the rest still combustible , and wood-opal entirely petrified He is a learned man , and I was glad to give him a letter to the British Musenm . "
Further west , travelling can hardly be very agreeable , certainly not in the estimation of those who must have help everywhere . "Everyone for himself , " we are told , "is he rule of life ; men will not answer questions or lend a hand to anybody . " They work hard : nd well , and earn dollars , " bub any sign of decent civility I havo ¦ iot sort off the cars for a long time , unless I happen on a poor I ' addv . "
The traveller , however , will meet with not a few novelties . Thus , " as we steamed into Virginia City , the passengers amused themselves by tiring revolvers at the telegraph posts . Ifc was a hot fire for a mile . " Mr . Campbell did not care about staying here , so he moved on by rail to Carson City . The lino of rail he describes as a wonderful work ; " ifc curls and winds about tho hill sides , in and out of
V-shaped hollows , which show the geological structure . As I sat , the engine and train curled before me liko a snake , and wriggled to balance itself . Sometimes tho engine disappeared round a corner , and all the way it was dangerous to look at . As emblem of place and people , I drew a boy , n-ho sat in the brake of the gold train , like a
mast-headed midshipman , while another bold reckless being sat on the buffsr of the engine , swinging his legs over the edge of the track in front of the wheels . That is young America going ahead in the far west . Energetic , heedless , reckless . " At Summit , our traveller is ueauly sold . He reads on a sheet of sacking , hung over a cage , "A MAMMO ' I ' II KED BAT ! ! CAPTURED AFTER A THREE DAYS' SIEGE ,, IN
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Reviews.
REVIEWS .
All Books intended for Eeview should be addressed to the Editor of The Freemason ' s Chronicle , 67 Barbican , E . C . ~ ? Mg Circular Notes . Extracts from Journals , Letters sent Home , Geological , aud other Notes , written while travelling westwards round tho World , from 6 th July 1871 , to 6 th Jul y 1875 . By J . P . CAMPBELL , Author of "Frost and Fire . " In two volumes . London : Macmillau and Co . 1876 .
THERE IS no class of literature so universally popular , so . fascinating , as that which treats of foreign peoples and tho countries they inhabit . Individually , we may be regular stay-at-homes , too lazy , or too incurious to learn , by personal experience , the habits and customs of other nations , and the scenic beauties or wonders for which the lands they dwell in are notorious . Yet , none tho less do we care to
gain oar information second hand . Tho records of travel are a never failing source of delight .. They toll us what other people-are like , what . they do , what , are their peculiar customs , what tho country they live in is like and what it produces , and what is their previous history . Henoo it is that , nowadays , we are almost overwhelmed with narratives of journeys to this-or that country . Many even of
those who mostly spend their holiday abroad , consider their task incomplete if they do not take the whole world into their confidence . They suffer from cacoethes scribendi , and recount their doings with a minuteness that is simply painful . And as the facilities for travel increase , as countries less easily accessible aro brought , so to speak , nearer to us , it is probable the number of these bookmakers ,, who
can tell ns little we do not know already , will increase likewise . Mr . Campbell ' s "Circular Notes , " however , are a book of quite another character . True , he set out to spend a year ' s holiday in journeying round the world . True , he visited countries which are not entirely new to Britons , and , of necessity , saw much which other Britons had seen before : but ho saw and noted much that is new
and interesting , much that the ordinary traveller for pleasure would never have troubled himself about . Tho result is that My Circular Notes are most entertaining . There is hardly a page in which does not occur somo useful piece of information , and the style of the narrative is , from beginning to end , tho most charming it is possible to conceive . The notes are composed partly of letters to relations
and friends , partly of a log or journal , and to supplement the whole is a very valuable Geological paper on the " Period of Polar Glaciation , " in tho writing aud revision of which Mr . Campbell spared no pains . At the very outset , afc pp . 10 and 11 , on board tho Batavia , enroute for tho United States , we get a wrinkle . Says Mr . Campbell , " he
( the Captain of the Batavia ) holds thafc weather prognostics might be made by telegraphs from Boston and Newfoundland ; together with tho logs of steamers running westwards , telegraphed from Queenstowu to head quarters . In America , they telegraph western weather to the east coast , and find that tracts of weather move northwards and eastwards . That is reasonable and probable . It is
true experimentally . Our system is to tell people what tho weather was ; which does not help to prepare them for the morrow . " The journey across the Atlantic passes without adventure of any kind , but Mr . Campbell enjoys it , and carefully notes , in his quaint way , whatever is amusing and demands observation . Tho story of an artichoke , as told him by a "jolly old man , " is worth repeating .
" Me and Joe , and my wife and his , was dining in Paris ; and Joe , he ordered an artichoke . ' What ' s that ? ' I said . ' It's an artichoke , ' said he , ' will you take some ? ' ' No , ' says I , ' Mother told me to be sure to eat . artichokes ; I'll have ono for myself . ' So when it came , we looked at each other , for we was green . . We didn't know which end of the animal to attack . So first wo began at the hard
end , and that . pricked our mouths ; and we didn't think much of artichokes . 'That can't , bo right , ' says Joe . So ; we began afc tho other end , and scraped out the middle and ate that . ' My , ' said the wife , ' I was that ill , that 1 . had to leave tho table . It ' s all prickles and hairs , and they stuck in my throat . ' Well , we did not think anything at all of artichokes that time , but next time , we got a man
thafc knew how to fix ifc , and then we liked them well enough , I , guess . Yes , Sir , that's so !" Our traveller lauds afc Boston , finds the heat excessive , goes to a spiritual seance , and is puzzled whether the lady medium is crazy or a rogue , and soon after sets out by rail for Niagara . Tho drawing room car in which he travels is described as " a long lofty room , set
on lour pairs of wheels , of which two pair aro on a bogy at each end , consequently the long beams take off all jar and rattle . All down tho sides aro velvet-covered chairs , with spring seats , each on a bronze pillar turning any way . Tho sash windows are large plate glass affairs , into which , when open , an attendant nigger iiis wire blinds to keep out the dust . Green sun blinds draw down , so there we sit at
ease , eaeli in his own arm chair , and . look at the country sis we whir along at great speed . " Then " tho .-e who want lo smoke iind a c . ibin in the lure part of the car , those who want to driuk Hud iced water , and those who want to wasli their dusty faces ami ' slick their liarr down , ' can do that to their hearts content . " Well may Mr . Campbell remark , "Truly the Yankees know how to travel by rail . " Lauded at
his hotel , tho writer indulges in a variety of reflections ou waiters . He mentions an Irishman who , when left to himself , always brought potatoes ; even when asked once for a soup , "ho brought me goose and potatoes . " As to the niggers , "the olive-greeu ones sell books and papers , the relined men wait at table , tho blackest black boots
and brush coats , and bear burdens . But no amount of dilution seems to make a black white enoug h to keep an hotel , or own a shop , or do anything that an Aryan does . I am quite sure that no Africaryan will ever run an Emma mine , or an Erie ling . But the potato man may in time , for he has brains to be educated , while darky ' s head is like that of the Neander . thal man who was like a monkey . " The
Reviews.
Niagara Falls have been often enough described , but the following is so excellent that we make no apology for transcribing it . " Nothing can give tho faintest idea of tho beauty ot these falls . The water is a sort of Prussian-bine emerald green colour where it is clear of air bubbles , and deep . Where it comes over the Horseshoe it is like nothing else in the world . It is a groat green waving water
curtain , edged with dark purple , where the red rock edgo ia seen through falling water four or five feet deep at least . Nearer and thinner and more broken , a promontory of falling water tells warm purple against the green Horseshoe gulf . Great stones below glimmer through the spray , and change from black to pnrple , and pale blue , and vanish as the clouds of spray go and come . Dark green and warm
purple waves below fade into the cloud like tho stones . The white Canadian fall shines white through the cloud-like silver gauze , while the cloud itself changes like a dim rainbow of purple and green , and bine and yellow . Last night the setting sun lit up a great orange cloud behind the dark bank of trees in Canada , and the contrast made tho falls like liquid jewels . I sketched , but Turner could not have
imitated this . I defy all painters to copy Niagara . ' Then he seta out-for Chicago , travelling the greater part of the way in a Pullman ' s car , the comforts of which are fully described . The seats and roof are so constructed , as to form comfortable beds for the passengers to ' aleep in . A capital dinner is to be had aboard , and as the cars are long and springy , and because they are-exceedingly well
made , the motion is utterlyUnlike railway motion in England . There is no side-long rattle and roll , no jar and little noise . With an easy swinging , see-saw movement " on I went , feet foremost , sleeping as if I wero afc home in my own bed . " At Chicago Mr . Campbell becomes reflective again ^ and passes sundry comments on emigrants , and tho several varieties of the genus Eepublican , among the latter of which the
Ked variety is not spoken of in tho warmest terms . Thence he sets out for Cheyenne , on his road to San Francisco . Afc the Missouri ho sees his first Indians ; at Fremont , again Indians , and again at Grand Island , where he sees their camp and manages to make a sketch of one of them . He is advised by a fellow traveller not to stop at Cheyenne , " all tho men are murderers and thieves ; you will have
your throat cut and lose your money . " Ho stops all the same , and has neither his throat nor pnrso cut . At Colorado Springs , a difficulty occurs between two rival drivers , of whom one is " slender and vicious , " the other " a big , bluff , bull-headed , prize fighting sort of man in boots and shirt sleeves , who had been a captain . " The former is full of pluck , but gets his knob in chancery and his claret tapped , aud has his face reduced " to the condition of a beef-Steak well beaten . "
The fight was a fair stand-up one , though the smaller man yelled for a knife . At Salt Lake City he meets with people of every nationality . " Boots is from Yorkshire , another is from Nottingham . Half the wives are from Wales . The master has three , and Brigham Young has fifty . " Ho is introduced to a Professor Barfoot , who came to Salt Lake City and turned geologist and " bug collector , " or naturalist and chemist . Mr . Campbell thus describes him and his geological views , and his collection of curios : —
" According to him the geology of tho country has not been ascertained , but these rocks aro lower carboniferous . Their dip has nothing to do with the lake basin . He has failed to discover bromino or iodino in Salt Lake . Ho finds I ' D by weight of chloride of sodium ( common salt ) . He does not believe tho lake to be part of an old sea , and attributes the saltness to beds of rock-salt to the south . He
has specimens very pure and compact . Bufc whore did these beds come from unless they came from an old sea ? Ho has bones and teeth of Falconer ' s Elcphas Americanus from drift . He has samples of ore from Emma , Comstock , and other famous lodes . From much talk with him and with others , I gathered that many people here know that the Emma mine could not possibly stand the price paid for it in
England . He has malachite with gold in the green . The green mines of England have been more successfully worked by the ' cute tribes of this mining region . He has large garnets , and a few coal formation fossils : - He has a live " prairie dog , a little owl , arid a couple of rattlesnakes , tribes who dwell together jh social communities , eat and are eaten . He has a scorpion iu a seidlitz powder box , Tarantulas
and their nest . Even thq Tarantulas , fear . the enmity of a certain dragon-fly which preys on them so , they mako a house with a hinged door and holds for their claws . When the enemy comes to the castle , they shut the door and hold oh by the lock . He has Indian gear , a scalp or two , which indicate the habits of modern warfare ,
some crania , some parrots , photographs , and petrifactions from springs . These he calls ' Tuffa . ' He has deposits on wood , wood half turned to silica , the rest still combustible , and wood-opal entirely petrified He is a learned man , and I was glad to give him a letter to the British Musenm . "
Further west , travelling can hardly be very agreeable , certainly not in the estimation of those who must have help everywhere . "Everyone for himself , " we are told , "is he rule of life ; men will not answer questions or lend a hand to anybody . " They work hard : nd well , and earn dollars , " bub any sign of decent civility I havo ¦ iot sort off the cars for a long time , unless I happen on a poor I ' addv . "
The traveller , however , will meet with not a few novelties . Thus , " as we steamed into Virginia City , the passengers amused themselves by tiring revolvers at the telegraph posts . Ifc was a hot fire for a mile . " Mr . Campbell did not care about staying here , so he moved on by rail to Carson City . The lino of rail he describes as a wonderful work ; " ifc curls and winds about tho hill sides , in and out of
V-shaped hollows , which show the geological structure . As I sat , the engine and train curled before me liko a snake , and wriggled to balance itself . Sometimes tho engine disappeared round a corner , and all the way it was dangerous to look at . As emblem of place and people , I drew a boy , n-ho sat in the brake of the gold train , like a
mast-headed midshipman , while another bold reckless being sat on the buffsr of the engine , swinging his legs over the edge of the track in front of the wheels . That is young America going ahead in the far west . Energetic , heedless , reckless . " At Summit , our traveller is ueauly sold . He reads on a sheet of sacking , hung over a cage , "A MAMMO ' I ' II KED BAT ! ! CAPTURED AFTER A THREE DAYS' SIEGE ,, IN