Paris in America.: a machine-readable transcription.

Preface 5 iii

TEANSLATOE'S PEEFACE. At a time when it is the fashion of a faction among us to carp at American institutions and greatness ; to declare that de- mocracy is a failure ; that the masses are incompetent to govern themselves ; that the titled inequality of Europe is better than the glorious equality which proclaims us all sovereigns, and pre- destines no one to the humiliation of being obliged to bow his head at home or abroad, and acknowledge another his superior ; and to ape this inequality by striving to raise up factitious social distinctions at such a time, the appearance of a wort like the present cannot fail to be of marked utility. A profound, saga- cious and acute student of the United States, bringing to the research an appreciation and love of liberty and democracy, as «mbodied in tho ideal of our Eepublio, M. Laboulaye, well styled in Paris le plus américain de tous les Français, and whose know- ledge of America is perhaps greater than that of any other man in Europe, was admirably calculated to draw a parallel between the practical workings of these principles in America, and the effects of monarchism in Europe, which may lead us as a na- tion to set a higher value on the blessings within our grasp, and more fully to realize the picture which our friend has drawn of III

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IV TBANSLATOE S PREFACE. us. Nor is this picture wholly eulogistic. On looking closely the reader will discover many a pungent satire on our absurdi- ties, follies and shortcomings, which we would do well not to pass by unheeded. Perhaps some brief note of the author him- self may not be an ill-timed introduction to the work. Edouard Bene Lofebvre Laboulaye was born in Paris in 1811, where he studied law, and first became known through a " His- tory of the Law of Real Estate, from Constantine to the Present Times," published in 1839, and crowned by the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres. This was followed, in 1842, by a life of the celebrated German jurist Frederick Charles de Savigny. In the same year, he became advocate in the Royal Court of Paris. In 1843 he published " Researches on the Civil and Political Condition of Woman from the Romans to the Pre- sent Times" a work crowned by the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences, and in 1845 an " Essay on the Criminal Law of the Romans, respecting the Responsibility of Magistrates," which was also crowned by the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres. In 1849 he was chosen a member of the latter aca- demy, and in the same year Professor of Comparative Legis- lation in the College de France. Among his other writings may be quoted, " The Political History of the United States, A.D. 1620-1783," the first volume only of which has yet appeared (1855) ; " Contemporary Studies on Germany and the Slavic Nations," (1855), and on " Religious Liberty," (1856) ; " Souve- nirs of a Traveller," (1857) ; " Studies on Literary Property in Franee and England," (1858) ; an Arabic novel, " Abdallah," (1859), and "Moral and Political Studies," (1861). He has also made numerous translations: ""Walter's History of Civil Proceedings among the Romans," (1845) ; " The Social "Works

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TRANSLATOR S PREFACE. T of Channing," preceded by an "Essay on His Life and Doctrines," (1854) ; " Channing's Slavery," preceded by a " Preface," and " Study on Slavery in the United States," (1855), etc. He has also edited various legal works, and contributed largely to to the Revue de législation et jurisprudence ; is one of the directors of the Remue historique de droit français et ét- ranger, and collaborateur of the Journal des Débats, Revue ger- manique, Revue nationale, etc. His lectures this season in the College de France on the American Revolution have attracted especial attention and applause. In a recent lecture, after commenting on the intense sympa- thy which existed twenty or thirty years ago between Ameri- cans and Frenchmen, when all seemed inspired with the friend- ship of Lafayette and Washington, M. Laboulaye asked : " Why is it that this friendship has cooled ? Why is it that the name of American is not so dear to us as it was in those days ? It is due to slavery. "We had always hoped that something would be done to put an end to an institution which was regarded by the founders of the Constitution as fraught with peril to the country; but, instead of this, the partisans of slavery having ob- tained the ascendant, have continually been engaged in efforts to perpetuate it and extend its limits, so that we have ceased to feel the same interest in Americans." He concluded the same lecture with the words: "America is the future of civilization ; America is the future of liberty. When her territory shall be- come as populous as that of France, 200,000,000 freemen will occupy it, with a system of government which will, with irre- sistible force, draw all the world to follow the example. It is for this that I am so interested in American progress ; it is for this that I wish to direct your attention toward it. Ton,

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vi translator's PREFACE. young men, particularly ; for it is to you that the world looks for advancement." The appearance of Paris en Amérique has excited marked attention in France, where, although it is somewhat wounding to the self-love of the French nation, it passed in two weeks to a third edition. While it exhibits so intimate a knowledge of American peculiarities, that Americans in Paris refuse to believe that the author has never visited this country, which however is the case. That our nation may justify the wishes and faith of its enthu- siastic champion ; that it may achieve the great work which it has undertaken ; that it may continue the standard-bearer of liberty and, the blessings of peace once regained, resume its on- ward course as a truly free nation, glorying in its republican in- stitutions, and esteeming the sovereign title of American citi- zen above that of all nobility, as the lord is above his follower, let him rank as high as he may with these earnest wishes, I submit this volume to the perusal of my countrymen. Maky. L. Booth. New Yoke, May 1, 1863.

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TO THE READER. Fbiendly reader, I offer thee this little book, written for thy pleasure and mine. I dedicate it neither to fortune nor glory ; fortune is a damsel that, for six thousand years, has pursued after the young ; glory is a vivandière that takes delight only in soldiers. I am old, I have killed no one, therefore I have no longer any wish but to seek the truth in my own guise, and to tell it in my own fashion. If I have not all the gravity of an ox, a goose, or a (choose whatever name you like), forgive me ; the first acts of life make us weep enough to justify us in laugh- ing before the curtain falls. When one has lost his illusions of twenty, he takes neither the comedy nor the comedians in earnest. If this little book please thee, it is well ; if it scandalize thee, it is better ; if thou castest it aside, thou art wrong ; if thou comprehendest it, thou hast known it longer than Machiavel. Make it the breviary of thy wasted hours ; thou wilt not regret it : Non est hie piscis omnium. The paradoxes of the eve are the truths of the morrow. A word to the wise is sufficient. One day, perhaps, by the light of my lamp, thou wilt see all the deformity of the idols which thou adorest to-day; perhaps, too, beyond the decreasing shadows, thou wilt peroeive, in all TiS

10 viii

vin to the reader. the charm of her immortal smile, Liberty, the daughter of the Gospel, the sister of justice and pity, the mother of equality, abundance and peace. On that day, friendly reader, do not suffer the flame which I confide to thee to die out ; enlighten, enlighten that youth which already presses on our footsteps and urges us forward, while asking us the path of the future. That it may be madder than its fathers, but in a different way, is mjr prayer and hope, Upon which, I pray God to preserve thee from ignorant men and fools. As to the wicked, it is thy own affair ; life is a mêlée : thon art born a soldier, defend thyself ; or still better, take back from the Americans the old motto of France, For. ward ! always and everywhere, forward ! Adieu, friend, René Lhfebvee. New Liberty (Virginia), July i, 1862.

Chapter I An American Medium 11 0009

PARIS IN AMERICA. jEOKI SOMNIA. CHAPTER I. AN AMERICAN MEDIUM. "You are respectfully invited to attend the psychical and medianimic soirée of Mr. Jonathan Dream, spiritual and trans- cendental medium of Salem (Mass.), to be given next Tuesday, April 1st, at his residence, No. 33 rue de la Lune. " Somnambulism, trance, vision, prevision, prophecy, second sight, distant sight, divination, penetration, abstraction of thought, evocations; preternatural conversation, poetry and chirography ; thoughts from beyond the tomb, arcana of the future life unveiled, etc. etc. " Doors closed at eight o"1 clock precisely /" " Pardieu /" thought I, again reading the letter, " I shall not be sorry to make acquaintance -with an Ameri- can medium, a brother in experimental and positive pneumatology ; for I too am a medium. I am not only a simple citizen of Paris ; I have already, as well as others, evoked Caesar, Napoleon, Voltaire, Madame de Pompadour, Ninon, etc ; and even, if it must be told, whatever it may cost my modesty, these illustrious per- sonages have not eclipsed me by their genius ; all have

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10 PARIS IN AMERICA. answered me as if I had whispered them. Let us see whether Mr. Jonathan Dream, with his American pre- tensions, has more spirit or more spirits than your servant, Daniel Lefebvre, D.M.P., the pupil in spiritism of M. Hornung of Berlin, M. de Reichenbach, and Baron de Guldenstubbe. The medium will find more than his match." In a fine suit of rooms, at the bottom of a drawing- room, hermetically closed, but blazing with light (which is not usually the case in our spiritual meetings), I found Mr. Jonathan Dream seated before a round table. He had the melancholy gaze and inspired countenance of sibyls. Opposite him sat half-a-dozen adepts, with s meditative air nervous people, women not understood, majors or widows on the retired list the audience is always the same. Each one was writing on a slip of paper the names of the dead whom he wished to inter- rogate ; I did like the rest. The names were jumbled together in a hat, and the first that was drawn was that of Joseph de Maistre. Jonathan meditated a moment, put his hand to his ear to listen to the voice which whispered to him, and wrote rapidly as follows : "There is no sterile knowledge; all knowledge is like that spoken of in the Bible Adam knew Eve, and she brought forth. " No creed, no credit." " Ah, ah !" thought I, " these paradoxes sound well, they have all the swaggering of their father; only it seems to me that I have seen them somewhere else in Baader, if I am not mistaken. After all, perhaps there is no literary property on high, and, for the sake of dis-

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AN AMERICAN MEDIUM. 11 traction, it is possible that one amuses himself there by pilfering ideas." Hippocrates came next ; he had the kindness to speak French, and his shadow wrote as followsj " The man who thinks most is the one who digests least ; other things being equal, he who thinks least is he who digests best." " Alas !" said a little woman, with a thin face buried beneath waves of grey hair, " this is a doctor's answer, a coarse answer, made by men and for men. It is not the thought which preys upon the heart, it is"------ And she sighed. Nostradamus was summoned, and his opinion asked on the future of Poland, France and Italy. This is the answer of the great diviner, a sublime genius who always left to others the care of understanding what he said : " En France, Italie et Pologne, Beaucoup d'esprit, peu de vergogne ; En France, Pologne, Italie, On est sage après la folie ; En Italia, Pologne et France, Moins de bonheur que d'espérance." * We were forced to content ourselves with this oracle, too profound, to be clear. It was Kosciusko's turn. This evening, the Polish Washington was in a bad * In France, Italy and Poland, Much wit, little shame ; In France, Poland and Italy, One is wise according to folly ; In Italy, Poland and France, Less happiness than hope.

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12 PARIS IN AMERICA. humor; nothing could be obtained from him but the Latin motto, '¦'¦In servitute dolor, in libertate laborf In servitude suffering, in liberty labor. Three times he was questioned, three times he made this sullen reply, and flung it in our face as a reproach that we had even ceased to feel. The last slip of paper demanded that Don Quixote, Tom Jones, Robinson Crusoe or Werther should be questioned ; which made the coenaculum laugh, although, to tell the truth, it had little wish to do so. The aa* thor of this piece of impertinence, I am ashamed to confess, was myself. I had been so long wearied both of the dead and the living, that I should have been delighted to know what entered the brain of men who had never existed. Jonathan Dream flung the unlucky billet into the fire, announced that the sitting was over, and accompanied us to the door with many bows. As I was about to go, lie laid his hand on my shoulder, and entreated me to remain. Once alone "It was you, brother," said he with a peculiar smile, " that addressed to me a demand which these profane beings deem indiscreet ; perhaps even you are of their opinion. Blind man, who hast never fathomed the arcana of eternal truth ! Do you fancy that Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, Robinson Crusoe and Friday, Tom Jones and Sophie never lived ? What! man cannot create an atom of matter, yet you suppose that he can create entire souls who will never perish. Do you not believe in Do» Quixote more than in all the Artaxerxes? Is not Robinson Crusoe more living to you than the Drakes and Magellans ?" " What 1 the ingenious Don Quixote has lived ? And

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AN AMERICAN MEDIUM. 13 I can talk with the wise governor of the island of Bara- taria?" " Doubtless. Know then, what is a poet. He is a seer, a prophet, who mounts to the invisible world ; there, among the millions of beings who once lived and whose remembrance is lost here below, he chooses those whom he wishes to revive in the memory of mankind. He evokes them, he listens to them, he writes under their dictation. What foolish humanity takes for an invention of the artist is only a confession of the unknown dead ; but you, a medium, or pretending to be such, how is it that you do not yourself recognize a preternatural voice ? How is it that you suffer your- self to be deceived like the crowd ? Are you so little advanced then in the ways of mediumship ?" While speaking thus, Jonathan Dream threw his head backwards, and waving his arms and opening and shut- ting his hands, advanced towards me as if to drown me with his fluid. " Brother," said I, " you are, I see, a man of wit, although a medium ; I have no doubt that you could write us a little speech in the style of Don Quixote, or some new proverbs worthy of Sancho Panza. But we are alone, and both of us are augurs ; we have the right to look each other in the face, and even to laugh while looking. Stop where you are, and believe that I wish you a happy success. In France, the thing is easy ; the people who believes itself the most spirituel in the world, is naturally the easiest to lead by the nose. Ask the women of Paris." " Stop !" cried my magician in a furious tone. " Am I mistaken ? Are you a false brother ? Do you take me for a charlatan, a mystifier, a mountebank ? Know

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là PARIS IN AMERICA. that Jonathan Dream never spoke a word that was not true. Ah ! you doubt my power, my little gentleman. What proof of it do you wish ? Shall I take away all your ideas, which would not be difficult ; shall I put you to sleep, make you pass through cold, heat, wind and rain; shall I?"------ " No magnetism," said I, " I know that there is in it a natural phenomenon, as yet imperfectly known, of which you take advantage. If you wish to convince me, do not begin by putting me to sleep. We are not at the Academy." " Well !" said he, fixing his glittering eyes upon me. " What would you say if I transported you to America?" "I? I must see it to believe it." " Yes, you," he exclaimed, " and not only you, lint your wife, your children, your neighbors, your house, your street, and, if you say the word, all Paris. Yes," added he, with feverish agitation, " yes, if I will it, to-morrow morning, Paris will be in Massachusetts; there will be no longer on the shores of the Seine-but an inhabited plain." "My dear sir, you should sell your secret to the prefect of the Seine ; it would perhaps save us many millions. In the absence of the Parisians, there might be made for them a wholly new, regular and monotonous Paris like New York ; a Paris without past, without monuments, without memories ; all our architects and administrators would be ready to die with joy." " You jest," said Jonathan, " you are afraid. I repeat it to you, to-morrow, if I wish, Paris will be in Massa- chusetts and Versailles with it. Do you accept the chal- lenge?" " Yes, certainly, I accept it," answered I, laughing.

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AN AMERICAN MEDIUM. 15 Nevertheless, the assurance of this devil of a fellow troubled me. I was no stranger to gasconade ; I read twenty journals a day, and I have heard more than one minister on the rostrum ; but this voice of one of the illuminati awed me despite myself. " Take this box," said the magician in an imperious tone ; " open it ; there are two pills, one for you and the other for me ; take which you like and ask me no ques- tions." I had gone too far to draw back. I swallowed one of the globules, Jonathan Dream took the other, and bade me adieu, saying in a sepulchral voice, " till to-morrow, on the other side of the ocean." Once in the street, I found myself in a singular state. I felt brisker, lighter and more elastic than ever was human being ; it seemed as if with a bound I could touch the horns of the moon, just rising above the horizon. All my senses were of incredible acuteness. From the Place de la Concorde, I saw the carriages turning the corner of the Arc de l'JStoile, I heard the ticking of the hand that marked the hour on the clock of the Tuileries. The blood coursed through my veins with unheard-of warmth and velocity. I asked myself whether some invisible hand had not already borne me beyond the Atlantic. To reassure myself, I looked at the pale cres- cent slowly mounting in the sky ; sure of not having changed latitude, I returned to my house, ashamed of my credulity, and fell asleep, laughing at Jonathan Dream and his absurd threats.

Chapter III Sambo 21 0019

SAMBO. 19 CHAPTER HI. SAMBO. When I again came to myself, it was daylight. My son was singing the Miserere from Trovatore at the top of his voice ; my daughter, a pupil of Thalberg, was playing with incomparable brio the variations of Sturm on a varied air of Donner. In the distance, my wife was quarreling with the nurse, who answered her in a shrill tone. Nothing was changed in my peaceful abode ; the pangs of the night were only an idle dream ; freed from these chimerical terrors, I might, according to my tranquil habit, dream with open eyes whilo awaiting the hour of breakfast. At seven o'clock, according to custom, the servant entered my room and brought me the journal. He opened the window and put aside the blinds ; the bright- ness of the sun and sharpness of the air affected me most agreeably. I turned my head towards the light ; horror ! My hair stood on end, I had not even strength to cry out. In front of me, smiling and dancing, was a negro, with teeth like piano keys, and two enormous red lips over- shadowing his nose and chin. Dressed wholly in white, as if afraid of not appearing black enough, the animal approached me, shaking his woolly head and rolling his great eyes. " Massa slept well," sung he, " Sambo very glad." I closed my eyes to drive away this nightmare ; my

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20 PARIS TN AMERICA. heart beat almost to bursting ; when I ventured to look up, I was alone. To spring from the bed, run to the win- dow, and feel my hands and head was the work of an instant. Opposite me was a row of small houses, ranged like pasteboard monks, three printing establishments, six newspaper offices, placards everywhere, wasted water overflowing the gutters. In the street were busy, silent men, hastening along, with their hands in their pockets, doubtless to hide revolvers there no noise, no cries, no loungers, no cigars, no coffee-houses, and, as far as my eye could reach, not a sergent de ville, not a gendarme. It was all over with me ; I was in America, unknown, alone, in a country without government, without armies, without police, in the midst of a savage, violent and cupiditous people. I was lost ! More forsaken, more desolate than Crusoe after his shipwreck, I let myself fall into an easy chair, which immediately began to dance beneath me. I sprang up, trembling. I looked in the glass. Alas ! I no longer recognized myself. In front of me was a lank man, with a bald forehead, sprinkled with a few red hairs, and a freckled face, framed with flaming whiskers, which flut- tered upon the shoulders. See what the malice of fate had made a Parisian of the Chaussée-d'Antin ! I was pale ; my teeth chattered ; the cold chilled the very mar- row of my bones. " Be a man !" exclaimed I to myself. " I have a family, and the French name to maintain. I must regain over my senses the empire that is escaping me. Adversity makes heroes !" I wished to call; there was no bell. I perceived a brass knob, which I pressed by chance. Suddenly, Sambo appeared, like one of those devils which spring from a box, bowing and thrusting out their tongue.

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SAMBO. 21 " Fire !" I exclaimed, " bring me fire. I want a large fire in the fire-place." " Hasn't Massa any matches ?" said Sambo, pointing to a box on the mantel. " Can't Massa stoop down ?" added he, in an ironical tone. Then, turning a screw at the bottom of the fire-place, and putting a match to the brass log, a thousand tongues of fire spouted forth. " Oh dear !" exclaimed, he, on going out, " must a poor negro be disturbed in this way when he is sunning him- self?" "A savage people," thought I, approaching the fire and reanimating myself by its soft and equal heat " a savage people, that has neither shovel, nor tongs, nor bellows, nor charcoal, nor smoke; a barbarous people, that does not even know the pleasure of stirring the fire! To turn a screw to kindle, extinguish, or regulate one's fire is truly the work of a race without poetry, that leaves nothing to the unforeseen, and that is afraid of losing a moment, because time is money." Once warmed, I thought of my toilette. I had before me a mahogany table, overloaded with copper swans' heads, and other ornaments in bad taste, but furnished with that English china which delights the eye by its richness of color and design. There were upon this table, and in profusion, brushes, sponges, soaps, vinegars, pomatums, etc., but not a drop of water. I again pressed the knob, and Sambo reentered, more sulky than at his departure. " Hot and cold water for my toilette ; quick, I am in haste !" " This is too much !" cried Sambo. " Massa can't turn the hot and cold water faucets there in the corner ? Upon my word, it is enough to make one give warning. I can't

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22 PARIS IN AMERICA. stay with a master that doesn't know how to see." And he went out, slamming the door in my face. " Hot and cold water at any moment, and everywhere! This is convenient," thought I ; " but it is the invention of a people that thinks only of its comfort. Thank God, we have not come to this ! Centuries will pass before glorious France will stoop to this search for luxury, this effeminate cleanliness." Nothing refreshes the ideas so much as shaving. Having trimmed my beard, I found myself quite another inan,. I even began to be reconciled with my long vis- age and front teeth. " If I were to take a bath," thought I, " I would be perfectly composed. I could brave with more courage the sight of my wife and children. Per- haps, alas ! they are no less changed than I !" I rang. Sambo appeared, with cast down looks. " My good fellow, where is there a bathing establish- ment in the city ? Show me the way." " A bathing establishment, Massa ! For what ?" I shrugged my shoulders. " Blockhead, to bathe in, it would seem." " Massa wants to take a bath," said Sambo, gazing at me with mingled surprise and affright. " And it was for this that Massa disturbed me ?" " Of course." " This is too much !" cried the negro, tearing out a handful of hair. " What ! There is a bath-room by the side of every bedchamber, and Massa makes Sambo come up stairs to ask him, ' Where shall I bathe ?' An Ameri- can isn't to be made a fool of in this way." And pushing open a little door concealed beneath the hangings, the negro made me enter an elegant closet, in which was a marble bath-tub.

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SAMBO. 23 " Come, Sambo," sung he, in a furious but comical tone, " turn the faucet for Massa ; the cold-water faucet, the hot-water faucet ; get the bath ready; put the linen to warm by the register ; play the nurse, Sambo ; Massa does not know how to use his hands !" I had nothing to do but to be silent. I let Sambo exhaust his rage, and endeavored not to see that he thrust out his tongue at me. But I execrated to myself these horrible American houses ; unsocial abodes ; true prisons, from which one cannot go out, since he finds ready at hand all that at Paris we have the pleasure of going in quest of outside our houses, at a dear rate, it is true, but at a great distance.

Chapter IV At Home 26 0024

24 PARIS IN AMERICA. CHAPTER IV. AT HOME. Quitting the bath without having found composure there, I pensively descended the little staircase which led to the ground floor. What had been done with my house ? Under what mask was I about to find my fara. ily? I entered the dining-room, no one was there; I went into the parlor, there was no one. Meanwhile, I looked about the two apartments, to accustom myself to the appearance of my new dwelling. In the dining-room, which was furnished with a car- pet, the only ornament was a heavy old mahogany chest, loaded with china cups, and britannia tea-urns brighter than silver. In front of the buffet, were three indifferent engravings ; in the middle, Penn treating with the Indians under the Shakamaxon elm; on the right, the portrait of Washington, standing, with his horse and negro ; on the left, the image of the sovereign, pro tempore, Honest Old Abe in other words, the honorable Abraham Lincoln, once rail-splitter, now president of the United States. " These, then," I cried, " are the protecting genii of my new fireside mine, a Frenchman, reared in the wor- ship of strength and success. A pacific Quaker ; a gen- eral who, having it in his power to be emperor of the New World, humbled himself so far as to remain the first magistrate of a free people ; a workingman, become law- yer by dint of labor, and president of his country by

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at home. 25 chance such are the heroes of America ! In this half savage land, the code of morals of the great men is also that of the citizens. What can be expected from a nation with such prejudices ? It will never give a Czesar to the world ! " In the parlor was a rosewood piano, a desk loaded with papers, and a book-case filled with books. Three or four Bibles figured therein, among the works of Francis Quarles, Bunyan, Jeremy Taylor, Law, Jonathan Edwards and Channing; great men, doubtless, but whose names I read for the first time. I stopped there, having little taste for theology, even on the nights when I cannot sleep. Next came a few historians or moralists Franklin, Emerson, Marshall, Washington Irving, Lo- throp Motley, and Ticknor ; then a few didactic novels, and a host of English, American, German, and even Spanish poets. And France where was she ? Alas ! to represent my country, I found nothing but a Têlê- maque, with the pronunciation figured, or rather dis- figured, in English. And to think that perhaps some time, to celebrate her father's birthday, my daughter, my dear Susan, would recite to me, with her rosy lips, Calepso ne povait se counsolère diou départe d'Ioulis ! In spite I threw down the book, and went into the garden a little corner of ground, shut in by four walls, ornamented with ivy and honeysuckle ; everywhere were lilacs, roses, and new flowers ; at the bottom was a little green-house and a Chinese kiosk, a convenient shelter to take tea, smoke a cigar, or gaze at the stars. No one was in the garden but Sambo, stretched on a white marble slab like a bronze statue. His face turned to- wards the sun and covered with flies, the negro, snoring, was resting from the cruel cares which I had caused 2

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26 PARIS IN AMERICA. him. The dog took advantage of being in my service to do nothing and sleep at full liberty. This solitary promenade in the habitation of the Sleep- ing Beauty in the Woods began to perplex me strangely. I was about to awaken Sambo, were it only for the pleasure of quarreling with a Christian, when I heard voices issuing from the sub-soil of the house, or, as the French-Americans say in their dialect, the basement, a word which, I hope, will long "be wanting in the diction- ary of the Academy. Having descended a few steps, I spied, at length, in a large kitchen, two women so much occupied that they did not hear the sound of my steps. The one whose back was turned towards me, but whom I immediately recognized by her voice, was my dear Jenny, the mother of my children ; the other, whom I was ere long to appreciate, was an enormous blonde, five feet eight inches high, who had rather the air of a Scotch grenadier than of one of the daughters of Eve. This was Martha the cook, a Pennsylvanian by birth, a Tunker by religion something like a Quaker an excellent person, who scolded constantly, and who had but one fault, that of treating as a publican and sinner whoever wore a button on the dress or coat. To her exalted soul, the symbol of Christianity was not the cross, but a clasp. Judging from the earnestness of both wojnen, and the words which they were eagerly exchanging, a great culi- nary work was being accomplished, at this moment. Jenny (was this indeed Madame Lefebvre?) was tying a shapeless njass of dough in a napkin, which she carefully deposited in a pot full of water. In her turn, Martha placed this precious vessel in an iron furnace, which occupied the whole length of the kitchen. This was a

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AT HOME. 27 monumental structure, with stories like a house, and I know not how many drawers and cupboards, from which the smoke was escaping. Ovens for baking and roasting, laundry, stove, hot water, hot air, everything was found in this monster furnace, which bore the inscription, like a triumphal arch G. Chilson's Cooking Range, Boston. I doubt whether Satan himself, with all the resources at his disposal, ever invented a better heated furnace. When all was in place, and an army of pots and pans had been moved and ranged in line, my wife turned round, and uttered a cry of joy on seeing me. " Good morning, my love," said she ; *'I hope that you have slept well. You are looking at our prepara- tions ; it is a pudding, like the one you thought good the other day. I have just made it myself; I know your taste better than Martha. You will be pleased with me, I hope, and will reward me for all the trouble, or rather pleasure, which I take in serving you." Saying this, she approached me and offered me her forehead. Strange ! It ~was my wife, and yet it was not she. There was the same face, the same features, as in the Old Worldj except that the end of the nose was somewhat reddened, but at the same time an indescriba- ble calmness and limpidity in the glance, gentleness in the speech, and affection in the gesture, which I had never remarked in our household in ancient Paris. I felt myself loved and cared for, and it delighted my heart. Without troubling myself, therefore, about Mar- tha and our twenty years' marriage, I tenderly embraced Madame Lefebvre I mean, Mrs. Smith. Pardon me, Parisian husbands, I was in America !

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28 PARIS IN AMERICA. " Martha," said my wife, taking off a kitchen apron and letting down her dress, which was tucked up and fastened behind, " Martha, go to Mr. Green's. His last coffee was not good ; it was Brazilian ; my husband likes none but Mauritius. Get a small, round kernel ; I will burn it myself. I have seen early cherries in market; buy enough to fill one of those nice pies which you make so well, and which my husband and children liked so much last summer. Tell Hoffman, the florist, that there are pinks everywhere except in our garden, and that my husband is waiting for the three new varieties he prom- ised me. Don't forget the lily which I selected for Susan, and the geraniums which I ordered for Henry. Finally, take from the library Dr. Bellows' last speech on the state of the nation; it is an eloquent and patriotic work, and my husband, who reads so well, will read it to us this evening. My children and I will enjoy it so much." Weak hearts that we are ! I felt myself attracted and charmed by this new music, in which my name and my children's recurred at every measure. In Paris, in Franoe, I heard quite a different strain. My wife had all the virtues, but her extreme modesty rendered life somewhat hard to me. To do like other people was the motto of Madame Lefebvre ; God knows what it cost me not to distinguish ourselves. To be lodged like other people, we lived in a suit of rooms a hundred and ten steps high, in a princely hotel, it is true, and whose porter, who laughed at me, had a man servant and a floor rubber. To be waited on like other people, we had a great rascal of a lacquey, a drunkard and liar, a mag- nificent dog in plush breeches and red waistcoat, who cost me dear, served me at cross purposes, and who permitted me neither to dress, nor eat, nor drink, in my

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AT HOME. 29 own fashion. To be attired like other people, my wife and daughter must have dresses at an insane price, and crinolines, each of which filled a whole carriage. Lastly, to go where other people went, I was forced to run after invitations, and to smile on men whom at the bottom of my heart I despised with sovereign contempt. It was the custom. The fashionable world wished that fortune should be adored and men should ruin themselves to appear in it. I had taken care not to separate myself from good society ; this would have been originality, a vice in the worst possible taste, which France leaves to the English. Thanks to my wife and her wise counsels, we played a difficult part, I think, with propriety ; those who saw us every day, at a fixed hour, at the Bois, must render us this justice. I venture to say that we main- tained our position at Paris, and that we led with honor the most busy life that can be imagined ; we paid twenty visits every morning, and never missed a soirée. AU this was good ; but, must it be confessed ? in a savage country my grosser nature gained the ascendancy ; I was glad to hear nothing more of other people; it pleased me that my wife, occupied herself only with me, and saw nothing beyond her husband, children, and house. I felt myself king in my habitation, and I was so well satisfied with my subjects and their obedience, that, in ascending the staircase, I passed my arm around Jenny's waist, and embraced my wife a second time, which made her blush prodigiously. " For shame, Mr. Smith !" murmured she, in a tone which made me believe that both she and I had grown twenty years younger.

Chapter V No Dowry 32 0030

30 PARIS IN AMERICA. CHAPTER V. NO DOWRY. While Sambo fatigued himself with sleeping, and my wife and Martha laid the table and served breakfast, I set about reading the Paris Telegraph, an enormous cheap journal, which bore as its motto, " The world is governed too much." The coarse tone of this sheet dis- pleased me. Thank God ! we are given a better educa- tion. We are not suffered to acquire the odious habit of calling a cat a cat, and Mollet a rascal. Who would believe, for instance, that the Paris Telegraph dared brand with the name of robber, and even of assassin, an honest millionaire who, by a mistake excusable without doubt, had furnished to the Northern army sixty thousand pairs of shoes with pasteboard soles, which had illy resisted the dampness of the camps ? Do business in a country where so little respect is paid to great speculations ! All the journal was in this deplorable tone. Nothing escaped the invectives of this miserable gazetteer. Such a law was abominable, because it encroached on the free action of the citizens ; such a magistrate was a Jeffries or Laubardemont, because he set an innocent snare for the knave who was confided to justice ; such a mayor was an ignoramus or a Verres, because he granted to right-minded stockholders a monopoly advantageous to all, as monopolies always are. Must one take the trou- ble to govern men, daily to encounter such abuse? " Wretched pamphleteer I" I exclaimed, " if thou hadst

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NO DOWRY. 31 the honor of living among the most amiable and enlight- ened people on earth, thou wouldst know from thy birth that to criticise the law, the judge, or the office-holder, is a crime of social treason ! The first dogma of a civilized people is the infallibility of authority. Accursed be the inventor of the newspaper, and above all, of the cheap, free newspaper ! The press is like gas a light which burns your eyes and poisons you at the same time." " Why do we not breakfast ?" asked I of my wife ab- ruptly, to shake off unpleasant thoughts. " Where are the children ? Why do they not come down ?" " They have gone out, my dear, but will soon return. Henry is to make his first speech this evening before the Academy of Young Readers ; he wished to try his voice in the hall before speaking in public." "And on what subject will our Cicero of sixteen declaim ?" " Here is the rough draught of his speech," said Jenny, handing me with a mother's pride a paper full of words underlined, interjections, pauses and exclamations. The title, written in large characters, appeared to me more respectable than clear : " On the Moral Education of Women, considered as the Instructresses of the Human Mace." " Hang thyself, Cherubim !" exclaimed I, " the world will end by dint of virtue ! At sixteen, if we thought of anything, it was not certainly, like my son, of the moral "------ " My dear," said Jenny. Her tone stopped me short, and so opportunely that I bit off the word in the middle, and blushed in spite of myself.

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32 PARIS IN AMERICA. " My dear," continued my wife, who did not perceive my confusion, " I think that a change is about to take place in Henry's condition. He repeats to me eveiy day that he wishes to choose an occupation, that he has too long been a burden on us, that the governor must be tired of it"------ " Who is the governor ?" " You know, it is the familiar name which our children give their father ; in short, Henry wishes to choose a profession." " Patience, Mrs. Smith, we have time enough ; this is my care." " My dear," resumed Jenny, " our son is already six- teen ; all his comrades have a profession ; he must make his way in life. Talk with him about it ; no one can guide him better than you." I began to pace up and down the room, while my wife looked out of the window to see whether our children were coming. " Oh, my son," thought I, " it is my business to settle thee in life. I have long since arranged everything for thy success. It was not in vain that, sixteen years ago, I chose for thy godfather my friend Regelman, then sub-chief, now Chief of Bureau in the Ministry of the Finances, Section of Customs. Yes, my son, already, without knowing it, thou art candidate in aspiration,^ the supernumerary force of the Ministry of the Finances. In two years thou wilt be bachelor ; in three years, if thou passest successfully three or four competitions, tu Marcel- lus eris. I see thee already, at thirty-five, sub-chief, with a salary of twenty-four hundred francs, and decorated like thy godfather ; I see thee, like thy model, gentle, humble, polite and complaisant towards thy superiors;

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NO DOWRY. 33 severe, rigid and majestic towards thy inferiors; and rising, step by step, to the direction of the corps, I see thee become the hope and terror of ten thousand green coats. What fortune, and what a future !" " There is Henry," cried my wife from the window. " He is talking with Mr. Green ; I am sure that he is asking him for good advice, better perhaps than this." " What do you say, my dear ? Green, the grocer ! What need has my son to talk with such obscure people ?" " Obscure people !" returned my wife, with an air of surprise. " Mr. Green is an honest man, a good Christ- ian, universally respected. He is worth three hundred thousand dollars, and makes the best use of the fortune, which he owes to labor." " Well, well !" exclaimed I. " Happy country, where grocers are millionaires, and give counsel like lawyers, if not places like ministers ! Let my son then solicit His Excellency the Lord of Prunes and Molasses. But call Susan; I presume that she expects nothing from the Honorable Mr. Green." " Susan is at her lesson in hygiene and anatomy." " Anatomy ! Good God ! My daughter at nineteen learning anatomy t She is dissecting, perhaps ?" " What is the matter with you, my dear ?" returned my wife, with a calmness which brought me back to realities. " Susan will some day have children. Do you wish her to bring them up and attend to them blindly, without knowing anything of their constitution ? Have you not said a hundred times in her presence that the study of the human body is a necessary part of a good education ?"

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34 PARIS IN AMERICA. " And who is the physician to whose prudence is con. fided the care of teaching young girls anatomy ?" " It is Mrs. Hope, one of our medical celebrities." " Women physicians ! Molière, where art thou ? What ! in this country, where everything is the opposite of all others, men do not have the care of our wives, mothers and daughters? Women, perhaps, attend at the accouchement of ladies of good society ? This is done nowhere; it is indecent, Mrs. Smith, it is inde- cent !" "I thought the contrary, my dear; but you know more about it than I. Then, if ever our daughter should have one of those indispositions, whether serious or not, which a woman in her modesty scarcely dares confess to herself, you had rather that I should call in a male physician ?" " By no means ; you misunderstand me, my dear. I only meant to say to you that there are ancient usages which are respectable like all ancient errors. That is to say no, I will explain all this to you some other day. Who accompanied Susan to this lesson in anatomy ?" "No one." " What ! no one ? At nineteen, and as beautiful as an angel, my daughter is running about the streets alone, without a chaperon ?" " Why should she do differently from her companions? What danger does she run ? Do you imagine that there is a man criminal enough or mad enough in America to be wanting in the respect which he owes to youth and innocence ? Fathers, mothers, husbands, sons, every hand would be raised to strike down the wretch but such an indignity has never been seen in this noble

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NO DOWRY. 35 country. These infamies and vices we leave to the Old World. "Besides," added my wife with her sweet smile, "I think that Susan is well protected. Alfred, Mr. Rose's youngest son, has returned from the East Indies, I saw him walking yesterday with his father and eight brothers. I cannot get it out of my head that Susan and he have been engaged for a long time." " Engaged ! my daughter in love with the ninth son of an apothecary ! And her mother eoolly announces to me a piece of news of this kind!"' " Why should she not marry the one she loves ?" an- swered Jenny, fixing her beautiful blue eyes on me. " My dear, is it not what I did ? am I sorry for it ? do you regret it ?" "But what profession, what fortune has this young man ?" " Be easy, my dear ; Alfred is a worthy man ; he will not marry Susan until he has a position to offer her. Susan will wait ten years if need be." " And the dowry, Mrs. Smith, have you thought of the dowry ? Do you know what this young gallant wants, do you know what we can do, and what part of our little property we must sacrifice ?" " I do not understand you, Daniel. Are we selling our child ? Must we bribe a young man, a lover, to de- cide to accept for a companion a charming girl, the sight of whom rejoices the eyes, and who is as good as she is beautiful ? Where did you get these strange ideas, which I hear for the first time ?" " No dowry !" I exclaimed, " in a country where from morning to night all are kneeling before the dollar !" " In America, my dear, people love, they marry because

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36 PARIS IN AMERICA. they love, and they are happy all their lives in repeating to each other that they have chosen each other through love. Each one brings his heart as a dowry, and I hope that in a free, young, generous nation like ours, we shall never know any other dowry than this." "No dowry!" thought I, " no dowry ! Harpagon was in the right ; this changes matters greatly. Marriage is no longer a business. Rich or poor, the bride is sure of being loved ; the father who tremblingly gives away his daughter does not fear at least that he is yielding her to some unworthy speculator. No dowry ! Barbarous peo- ple have sometimes, without knowing it, instincts of deli- cacy which would do honor to our civilization." " Here is Susan," cried my wife, who had resumed her post of observation. " Alfred is with her ; I guessed it." I ran to the door. My daughter, my dear Susan she was more beautiful than ever ! Her luxuriant, fair hair, falling in ringlets on her shoulders, her smiling glance, her confident air, her selfpossessed bearing gave her a new charm. It was the innocence of the child and the grace of the woman. She flung herself on my neck like a mad-cap, I pressed her to my heart with transport and carried her in my arms to the dining-room. There only I perceived that Susan had not entered the house alone. He was by her side, the monster who came to snatch from me my happiness and joy ; Susan took him by the hand and presented him to me in the most natural manner imaginable. "Mr. Alfred Rose, dear papa, don't you recognize him?" I recognized him only too well ; he was charming, the wretch I I sighed, and shook hands with this future son- in-law who was pleased to dome the honor to choose me

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NO DOWRY. 37 as father-in-law without taking the trouble to consult me on the subject. No dowry ! this was sufficient for him to think that he had a right to marry the woman he loved. Talk of propriety to brutes who always go straight ahead !

Chapter VI We Make Mr. Alfred Rose's Acquaintance 40 0038

38 PARIS IN AMERICA. CHAPTER VI. tN WHICH WE MAKE ACQUAINTANCE WITH ME. ALFRED ROSE AND NEIGHBOR GREEN. While we stood face to face, Alfred and I, both silent and gazing at each other, the two women were whisper- ing together with the utmost eagerness, the mother smiling, the daughter with supplicating eyes. " My love," said Jenny, taking the young people by the hand, " here are two children who, with the help of God, wish to found a Christian family; they ask your blessing." My blessing ! I had seen Pius IX. bless Rome and the world, with that gentle majesty which brought unbelievers to their knees; I had seen pious bishops bless the innocence and fervor of a first communion ; it was beautiful and imposing, it was the overflowing of sanctity. But I, a sinner, I did not feel the right to bless even my children. I embraced Susan, I embraced Alfred ; I joined their hands in mine, and wept. They were 60 happy, the ingrates, that they did not see my tears; they escaped from my arms to run to Jenny, who received them, raising her voice : "May the God of Abraham and Sarah," said |he, "may the God of Isaac and Rebecca, of Jacob and Rachael, bless you, my children, and give you a Chris- tian life !' " Amen !" responded a voice, whose gravity made me

41 0039

WE MAKE ME. ALFRED ROSE S ACQUAINTANCE. 39 start. It was Martha, who approached with the look and gesture of a prophet. " Man," said she, " thee takes this woman before God; woman, thee takes this man before God; for better or worse, in sickness and health, in life and death ; do not forget it, the Eternal will remember." " No, indeed ; I will never forget it," cried Alfred, raising his hand, " I call God to witness." Shall I confess it, to my shame? despite the excel- lent education which I had received in France, and although I had been accustomed from childhood to treat nothing but jests in earnest, I felt moved to the heart by the solemnity of this engagement. It seemed to me that my hearth had become sacred like that of Abra- ham, and that the invisible and present God descended upon it to bless the union of my children. The entrance of Sambo chased away these grave thoughts. He had despoiled the garden and conserva- tory to offer an enormous bouquet to the bride; he accompanied this present with such grotesque grimaces and compliments, that I laughed despite myself. "When is the wedding, young massa?" asked he; "to-morrow, the next day, next week? Sambo will sing, Sambo will dance." " Susan !" exclaimed I, looking at my daughter, " the day is not fixed ?" " Dear papa, we await your pleasure," answered my daughter, with a feigned modesty which made me sigh. " And this is all we wait for," said Alfred. " I have hired and furnished a house near here, on the corner of Fourteenth Avenue. Everything is ready to receive her who does me the honor to share my name and fortune." "My son," said I to Alfred, (the name of son strangled

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40 PARIS IN AMERICA. me, by the way), "Susan has chosen you; we adopt you with our eyes shut ; but forgive the legitimate curiosity and anxiety of a father. How long have you loved my daughter ? and, since you speak of fortune, what will be the condition of both of you in this household, whose happiness concerns us so closely ?" " To tell you how long I have loved Susan would be difficult," replied the young man. " It seems to me that I have loved her from her birth. Indeed, I loved her already when we went to the oommon school together, running all the way, she quite a child and I almost a young man. Since this time, we played, talked, and prayed so much together, I Saw her so often, gay, good and amiable, we oonversed with open hearts so many times, I saw so many times all the beauty of her soul, that the day came when I felt that Susan was the wife whom God, in his goodness, had chosen for me. When Susan was sixteen, I asked her to accept me for her husband ; we were engaged. This is the whole story of our love." " Then," said I, sighing, " it was esteem and friend- ship which led you to what you call love. Nothing overpowering, nothing sudden, no passion ?" "I am twenty-four years old," said the young man; " I love Susan ; I have never loved, and shall never love, any other than she ; I esteem her more than any one on earth ; I cherish her more than myself. Is this wisdom ? is it passion ? I know not ; but I hope that Susan will ask no more of me, and will permit me to love her in the same manner to my dying day." "Very well, my son, you are a sage; you will be happy, as you deserve, and have many children. Now, let us talk of money."

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WE MAKE MR. ALFRED ROSE'S ACQUAINTANCE. 41 " I had no fortune," said Alfred. " This retarded many of our plans. I was twenty-one years old, and I resolved to make my way in life speedily; I had no doubt of success." " You doubtless had powerful protectors the promise of some good place under government or perhaps your father had obliged the cousin of a lady-cousin of a sena- tor?" " I had my head and hands," replied Alfred, " and the motto of every true Yankee : ' Go ahead ; never mind; help yourself? These were worth more than the sup- port of strangers. In a country which grows as fast as ours, every man who is not a fool, and who has the will, always ends by striking a lucky vein. Employed as a chemist by a rich indigo merchant, I often heard my patron complain that the vessels sent to the East Indies were never more than half laden. To find a new article of freight was the one fixed idea of our shipping mer- chants. I discovered one which nobody had thought of, and the sale of which was sure. It was ice. It is impossible ever to supply the East Indies with as much as they can consume. The difficulty was to preserve it on the way ; this was a problem to be resolved. Thanks to my father, I had been brought up in a laboratory ; physics and chemistry had been my earliest amusements. It was necessary to find a body which should be a bad conductor of caloric, to isolate my ice. I tried sawdust, which is worthless among us. The discovery was made. Nothing was lacking but capital. " To find money to put a good idea in execution is easy in America. I thought of Mr. Green, who does a large business in rice, coffee, spices, and indigo. He had confidence in me, and risked a shipment. I set out for

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42 PARIS IN AMERICA. Calcutta with my cargo, which did not melt on the way. I sold my ice in such a way as to make the outward and homeward freight, and returned after having secured advantageous markets for twenty years. On my arrival, I had eight thousand dollars for my share ; and here I am at the head of the firm, Green, Rose & Co. Success is certain. I could raise money on it to-day if I liked. Ten or twelve thousand dollars a year is what I can offer Mrs. Rose while awaiting something better." " Sixty thousand francs a year !" I cried. " What a fine thing is commerce, when it is successful !" I looked at my son-in-law more closely, and detected in him an air of genius. In the forehead and lower part of the face he had something of Napoleon. I had wholly forgotten his father's shop, when Sambo announced Mr. Rose, who had come to share in the com- mon joy. However estimable was this excellent man, an apothecary was by no means the father-in-law I had dreamed of for my daughter. I had aspired to a sub- prefect ; but what was to be done in a baok country, des- titute as yet of that centralization which Europe envies us? With Mr. Rose entered Mr. Green, followed by Henry. I recognized the apothecary by that medical air which he never lost ; but the grocer, in a black coat and white cravat, was to me an unknown monster. His language and manners were no less strange than his costume. Green, the seller of oil and coffee, talked with the autho- rity and self-possession of a man that moves millions. " Neighbor," said he to me, with affectionate good- nature, " here I am, something like one of your family, through this young man, your son-in-law, and my part- ner. We will not stop here. Henry has been to see me.

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WE MAKE ME. ALFRED ROSE'S ACQUAINTANCE. 43 He is an intelligent boy, and I like him. I have found him a position. Alfred is going to settle down. A man hardly marries to rove about the world ; but we must have, notwithstanding, a reliable man at Calcutta. I have thought of Henry, in spite of his youth. One never gets a taste of business too early. Three years' stay in the East Indies will form him. We will give him a share, which, if he works, will amount to four or five thou- sand dollars a year. You entrust me with a child, in three years I will give you back a man ! What do you say of my plan ? Does it suit you as well as it does Henry?" " Oh, my son," thought I, " I had dreamed of a differ- ent future for thee ! Perhaps this suits thee better ; per- haps thou hast neither the political genius nor the neces- sary suppleness to rise to the rank of Chief of Bureau. Fate has decreed it ! Thou wilt be nothing but a mil- lionaire." I thanked Green, who whispered to me : " Neighbor, we will not stop here. You know Marga- ret, my twelfth child, a charming little girl, ten years old, with a figure already as plump as a doll's. I have an idea that in six or seven years we will make her Mrs. Henry Smith. From this time we will have an eye on this young man and his fortunes. D%pend on me." It was too much. I, Doctor Lefebvre ; I, a scholar and citizen in my own country, to become the relation and protégé of a grocer ! Certainly I love equality. I am a Frenchman, and have for my gospel the principles of 1789. Let this equality be proclaimed and placarded everywhere, I demand it ; let it even be put in our laws, I consent, the laws are scarcely ever applied ; but that this equality be brought down into our oustoms,

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44 PARIS IN AMERICA. never ! The man who does nothing will always be more than he who soils his hands by working. I was about to break the charm, and refuse this per- fidious fortune, when, by my wife's invitation, each of our neighbors accepted a slice of ham and cup of tea. " Daniel," said Jenny, " we are all at the table, say the blessing." " My dear, I am so much agitated that I no longer know what I am doing. Take my place and speak for me." " 0 God," said Jenny, " bless this house, and all who are found in it ! Bless, above all, those who are depart ing from it ; and mayst thou, O Lord, find among them only pure and obedient hearts !" Each one replied " Amen" in so sincere a tone that it overthrew the whole course of my ideas. I looked at my friends, my children, my wife ; Green, who with so much simplicity made the fortune of my family ; Henry, who at sixteen, with the resolution of a man and the ardor of a child, resolved, by dint of labor, to conquer for himself a rank in the world, and recoiled neither before danger nor exile ; Susan and Alfred, who loved each other with so pure and tender a love ; lastly, my wife, my good Jenny, who thought only of others ; attentive and de- voted, the life and»soul of the house, the queen of this hive whence the swarm was taking flight. And I, useless drone, who knew only how to murmur ; I said to myself that I was about to be left alone by this hearth, lately animated by the joy of Susan and Henry. Rose had nine children, Green had twelve. God blesses large families, and when we wish to be wiser than he, he confounds our false prudence, and condemns us to the isolation which we have sought.

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WE MAKE ME. ALFRED ROSE S ACQUAINTANCE. 45 And I looked at my wife, still young and fresh, with a graceful embonpoint, and said to myself I know no longer what I was saying, when Sambo, pushing open the door, entered with a frightened air, crying, "The bell ! the bell ! Hark ! it is fire !"

Chapter VII The Fire 48 0046

46 PARIS IN AMERICA. CHAPTER VII. THE FIRE. At the first cry of Sambo, the apothecary ran to the window, then turning to Green : " Lieutenant," said he, " it is for us, the fire is in Twelfth Avenue." " Sergeant, I am ready," said the grocer, rising. " Doc- tor," added he, striking me on the shoulder, "make haste, the carriage will not wait !" " Good !" thought I, on seeing them go out, accompa- nied by Alfred and Henry, " see them playing the Na- tional Guard ! The National Guard is a gift sent us from America by Lafayette and by which we have profited finely ! Run to this useless parade, my dear friends, and much good may it do you ; for my part, I shall stay at home. What is this carriage that Green speaks of? Does he imagine that I shall run like an idler to see a conflagration in a country where fires, they say, occur every day ?" I approached the window ; whirlwinds of smoke were rising in the sky and throwing out fiery sparks ; the fire was gaining ground. " Quick, sir, quick, the carriage is coming," said Martha, all at once. I turned round ; before me was Sambo, a hatchet in his hand and a helmet of varnished leather on his head ; Martha was holding a jacket of black cloth and a broad gymnastic belt ; it was my uniform, I was a fireman!

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THE FTEE. 47 A fireman ! I ! I sought to protest against this new in- sult of fate ; but Martha had taken possession of me. In the twinkling of an eye I was dressed, strapped, helmeted and hoisted on an immense carriage. Two magnificent black horses drew on a gallop the engine and firemen. " Fear nothing, Daniel !" cried Martha, her hand up- raised, "thee is going to serve God; the Most High will bring thee back from the midst of the flames as he rescued his servants, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego." This Biblical benediotion made me shudder, it savored of singeing. " A singular idea," I exclaimed, " to risk one's own skin for strangers, when firemen might be hired !" " What are you saying,* doctor ?" interrupted a shrill voice by which I recognized my neighbor Reynard in Attorney Fox. " Citizens," added he, reciting some old speech, " if you would be free, be yourselves your police and army. To give yourselves guardians is to give your- selves masters. My dear friend," continued he, in a na- tural tone, " where did you get these old world ideas, are you not a friend of liberty ?" "Liberty before everything," I hastened to reply, a little ashamed of my weakness. " To fly to the assistance of our fellow citizens is a duty and pleasure which I leave to no one ; I am proud of being a fireman !" " Not so much so as Green," replied the sharp-visaged man. " He is the one that likes so well to go to fires ! He is devilish smart !" whispered he in my ear; " devil- ish smart," he repeated four times, winking and making signs with his nose and chin. He opened his snuff box, sighed, and took two pinches of snuff, slowly. " Our captain, the gallant Colonel St. John, is about to resign," said he, " Green is lieutenant,

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48 PARIS IN AMERICA. and ambitious. He wishes to become captain, in order to rise higher. He is devilish smart ; but he has hid his cards in vain ; I read his hand." Fox had not ended his insidious confidences when we arrived at the spot. There was no police, no precaution taken ; a crowd of curious people was gathered on the sidewalks, fortunately leaving free the middle of the street. In a moment, the engine was put in place, the water was everywhere. While the lieutenant ascertained the principal seat of the fire and gave orders, I set to work to pump with my amiable neighbor. In front of us was a house on fire. The flames had broken the windows, and were bursting out on every side. All at once, piercing shrieks were heard from the second story ; a white figure passed like a shadow ; a woman's voice called for 4»elp. Green quickly placed a ' ladder along the wall, mounted, and was lost amidst the smoke. " Devilish smart !" said Fox, with a satanic grim- ace, " devilish smart ! He plays well, the ambitious dog!" "Pump, boys, pump!" cried Rose, wholly occupied with drowning the flames. I bore with all my might upon the lever, but I could not detach my eyes from the window which Green had entered. My heart beat; I was breathless with anxiety. Suddenly Green reappeared, a woman in his arms, and descended, amid the huzzas of the crowd. Scarcely had the woman touched the ground when she sprang to her feet. " My child !" cried she, " where is my child?" Her limbs shook; she wept; she raised her hands towards the burning windows, and wished to fling her-

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THE FIRE. 49 self into the furnace. In vain we sought to restrain her ; she escaped from our hands, rushed to the house, and, driven back by the flames, recoiled, uttering heart-rend- ing shrieks, and tearing her hair. All looked at each other. The flames were roaring like a tempest. The burning roof was about to fall in : the child was lost ! At this moment I felt an indescriba- ble sensation. The sight of this poor mother, the words of Martha, the example of Green, the idea that I was a Frenchman I know not what a sort of intoxication mounted to my brain. I ran to the ladder, and was at the top before I knew what I was doing. Rose sought to stop me. " I am a father," I exclaimed. " I will not let this child die." Once in the room, ï was filled with terror. The flame whistled round me ; the wainscot crackled ; the glasses snapped the sounds were sinister. Stifled by the heat and blinded by the smoke, I called, there was no answer ; I cried, no echo. I was in despair, when a tongue of the red flame, piercing the darkness, showed me opposite a closed door. To break the lock by a* stroke of the hatchet, enter the chamber, rush to the cradle where an infant was crying, and possess myself of the treasure, was the work of an instant. What joy, but how short ! Surrounded with smoke, almost asphyxi- ated, I knew no longer where I was. My heart beat, my head turned, I was lost. " This way, doctor, this way, Daniel," cried the voice of Rose. " Come on, but step aside. Take care !" The advice was wise. I had hardly turned when a vigorous jet of water, directed by the skillful hand of the apothecary, inundated me from head to foot, at the risk of throwing me down. Thanks to this strategic diver- 3

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50 PARIS IN AMERICA. sion, which for an instant arrested the flame and dissi- pated the smoke, I saw the window, ran to it, and, be- striding the ladder, glided to the ground, black and smoking like a drenched firebrand. An instant after the roof fell with a horrible crash. Martha was right : God had treated me like Abednego. To tell the joy of the poor mother would be useless. The happiest person was myself. I had saved a child, and maintained the honor of the French name. It had cost me something. I had the whole side of my hair singed, an ear flayed, and the left arm burned from the wrist to the elbow ; but what was this to what I had gained ? An hour at most after these events, we returned to our district, leaving to the last comers the care of extinguish- ing the smoking ruins. I clambered briskly, with head erect, upon the carriage which I had mounted in the morning with such ill grace. Fox was there, winking as if he were blind of one eye. " Green is smart," said he, pushing his elbow against my burned arm, and making me wince ; " but you are devilishly smarter than he. Hurrah for Captain Smith !" added he, rubbing his hands. I did not answer him. I was wholly occupied by a new spectacle. Along the sidewalks was ranged an immense crowd in incredible order. Almost all the men held a paper in their hand, which they waved as we passed. " Hurrah for the brave lieutenant ! Hurrah for Green !" cried the crowd. " Hurrah for Smith ! Hurrah for the gallant fireman !" " Here they are !" exclaimed some one, pointing us out! Hats were raised, handkerchiefs fluttered ; women

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THE FIEE. 51 showed us to their children^ who waved their little hands as if to bless us. By what mystery did the whole city already know my name and deed ? I was ignorant, and did not ask. We quickly become accustomed to glory ; but emotion over- powered me, and I vainly endeavored to gaze at the crowd with the modesty and calmness of a hero. When I approached my dwelling, I was in tears. The people surrounded Jenny, my daughter, Martha, who was preach- ing, and Sambo, who was dancing like a child. I threw myself into their arms, and, despite my chimney-sweep- er's face, God knows how heartily I embraced them all. I grimed everybody, I believe, even to Sambo. Before entering the house, Jenny smilingly showed me the newspaper-office opposite us, that of the Paris Telegraph, that seditious journal. An immense placard was hoisted above the house, and half a league off might have been read the following description : FIFTH EDITION. PARIS TELEGRAPH. HOERIBLE CONFLAGRATION! The brame Lieutenant Gkeen! The gallant Fireman Smith!! Sublime Motto: " lama father; I will not let this child die!" 60,000 copies sold. Sixth Edition in press. This was the temple whence the glory was dispensed ; there was wherewith to cure vanity. With what pleasure I hastened to the bath-room to plunge into the water, wash my face, and refresh my

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52 PARIS IN AMERICA. burned arm ! This time, I found the invention admira- ble which placed hot water at every moment in my dwelling. As to Sambo, he would not quit me, pretend- ing that Massa needed his services, and could not do without him. The rascal needed to make me talk to give himself importance in the neighborhood. My glory was his ; he had entered the flames, by proxy. When I descended to the parlor, the office of the Paris Telegraph, still orowded with buyers, could not satisfy the demand ; the crowd pressed beneath our windows to try to obtain a glimpse of me. With my arm in a sling, my scarred cheek and burned hair, I might well believe myself a hero. Ere long, that nothing might be wanting to the joy of this happy day, the fireman's band came to give me a serenade, and the whole company, with Green for its spokesman, made me an address. In this well-turned speech, the grocer, with touching modesty, forgot him- self to speak only of the courage which I had shown; and, in the name of the company, he entreated me to ac- cept the post of captain. " Comrades ! friends !" exclaimed I, " I am confused by your kindness, but God forbid that I forget the ex- ample set me by Lieutenant Green, and the aid lent me by Rose, the brave sergeant ! To the first, I owe the honor of a good action ; to the second, my life. Permit me, therefore, not to forget the debt of gratitude, and always to regard as my superiors the excellent Green and the generous Rose. I will remain with you, com- rades; like you, a simple fireman in a free country. Proud of your friendship and heroism, I would not ex- change our modest uniform for the gilded dress of a cap- tain-general. Hurrah for America and liberty !"

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THE FIRE. 53 My reply was successful, especially the .end, which meant nothing. Green threw himself into my arms, Rose did the same, and Fox, taking me aside, whispered to me : " You are devilish smart, comrade, you look high ; but all the same, I read you." And he winked with both eyes at once a mysterious language, the scope of which escaped me. On a signal from Green, the serenade again com- menced. At the same moment, I saw a canvas ascend the whole length of the newspaper office, like the main- sail of a ship. Upon this transparency, lighted by colored lanterns, was read the following inscription, in letters a foot high : EIGHTH EDITION. PARIS TELEGRAPH. HORRIBLE CONFLAGRATION! The gallant fireman Smith, the new Cincinnatus ! ! ! How America rewards virtue. 100,000 copies sold. Ninth Edition in press. " What does this mean ?" I exclaimed. " Sambo, go bring the paper ; there is some bad joke under this." The paper brought, I read in it, to my great surprise, Green's speech and my answer. I had been steno- graphed, and printed forthwith. My refusal had won for me the title of Cincinnatus. Why, I never knew ; but the word looked well on the placard. It is some- thing for a man to be called the new Cincinnatus. Beneath my speech, under the absurd heading, " How

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54 PARIS IN AMERICA. America rewards virtue," were the two following letters : SWAN FIEE INSUBANOE COMPANY. No. 10 Acacia St. (Joint Stock capital, $10,000,000. A share in the profits secured to the parties insured.) "Sib: " The courage displayed by you in this morning's fire has attracted the attention of the Directors of the Company. " The position of consulting physician, to verify the wounds and accidents resulting from fire, is at this moment vacant. " "We hope that you will do us the honor to accept it. The emoluments are $400. «X. X------ "Director of the Company. "Dr. Daniel Smith, Ffreman of Company YLT." THE PBOVTDENOE CHILD'S HOSPITAL. Supported by private subscriptions, at $10 per annum. No. 25 Walnut St. "Sir: "The physician who uttered the noble words: Tama father, I will not let this child die, is naturally fitted, by his devotion and talent, for the care of young children. " The place of physician in chief in our hospital is vacant; we hope that it may suit you to accept it. " Attendance daily, from 6 to 8, a.m. Salary, $2,000. "B------ "T " Governors of the Hospital. "Dr. Daniel Smith, Fireman of Company VIT." " Sambo," a^ked I, " have these letters been brought me, then ?"

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THE ETRE. 55 " No, Massa, the postman has not come yet." " It is impossible, unless there be some mystification in this journal." " There is a knock, Massa," said Sambo ; " one, two, three it is the postman. I am coming !" The negro brought me forty letters a mountain of paper. Some patients asked my office hours, others en- treated me to visit them as soon as possible ; four phy- sicians called me in consultation; six druggists offered me a partnership ; and lastly, strange to say, two letters, carefully sealed, announced to me confidentially what the Paris Telegraph had already published with an indiscre- tion which at heart I pardoned it. I was celebrated! my fortune was beginning! A day, an hour of courage had given me a name, and done more for me in America than twenty years of labor had done on the old continent ! " But," thought I, aiid this thought restored to me the humility of which I had great need, " without this garrulous journal, without this trum- pet, which has flung my name to all the echoes of the New World, would I have succeeded ?" My first idea, nevertheless, was to thank the journalist, be this as it might. It was too late ; the office was closed, the pic- ture extinguished, my glory vanished. I postponed my visit till the next day. I passed the evening with my old friends, my wife and children. They made me repeat the smallest details of the terrible and glorious event. Jenny grew pale when I spoke of my dangers ; her cheeks glowed when I told the joy of the mother on regaining her child. Susan clasped my hand and looked at Alfred. The conversation, I think, would have lasted all night, if Martha had not placed on the table an enormous

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56 PARIS IN AMERICA. Bible, bound in shagreen and fastened by large copper clasps. " Read," said she to me, " and calm thy vanity. Do not forget the story of Haman, son of Hammedatha, of8 the race of Agag ; and remember that there is a Mordecai here who will not bend the knee before thee." " Be easy, Martha," answered I, laughing. " There is no gallows fifty cubits high at my gate, and I wish to hang no one." Jenny opened the Bible, and read us the third chapter of Daniel, which delighted the Quakeress, pleased Sambo no less, and made me seriously reflect on the goodness of God in my behalf. The evening was far advanced when we separated after so well filled a day. I threw myself on my bed, weary and suffering somewhat, hut content with myself, and dreamed all night of serenades, placards, huzzas and speeches.

Chapter VIII Truth, Humburg & Co. 59 0057

TRUTH, HUMBUG & CO. 57 CHAPTER VIII. TRUTH, HUMBUG & CO. Scarcely awakened, I ran to the window ; I wished to enjoy my new-born celebrity, and once more to contem- plate my name proclaimed above the house-tops. The canvas was in its place ; all the passers were casting their eyes on it ; but, oh vanity of human glory ! behold what was read there : ARRIVAL OF THE PERSIA. GREAT NEWS FROM EUROPE. London. Consols 92|. Liveepool. Rise in Cotton, 20 per cent. Salt pork (Cleveland), demand for 4000 bbls. at $14. A EAEE CHANCE FOR FARMERS ! 1 ! ! Four beautiful Italian Asses, first class stallions. Apply to Ginocchio Bros., N~o. 70 William Street. " Shopkeeping people," exclaimed I, shaking my fist at the passers, " gross race which carries on pell mell, and at the same pace, business, sentiments, cotton and ideas, I thank God for not belonging to thee ! Long live France, the country of the ideal, that is always carried away with a high-sounding word, France that, thank God ! never thinks of her own interests except when it is too late ! Our folly is better than the wisdom of these Yankees ; our poverty is nobler than their riches. Four 3*

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58 PARIS IN AMERICA. Italian asses and the price of pork, this is the great news from Europe to these ignorant farmers ! And of France, the new fashions, the Court ball, the last novel, the last vaudeville, not a word ! Pale Vandals, I have for you naught but contempt !" While giving free vent to my just anger, I wished none the less to thank the journalist who had spoken of me the night before. Whatever might be this pamphleteer, it was fitting that I should not remain his debtor ; to honor him with a visit was already to acquit myself of the obligation. I entered a house of insignificant appearance, which had no other sign than a brass plate, nailed to the wall, on which was read, Paris Telegraph, Truth, Humbug & Co., Editors and Proprietors. A green serge door was before me ; I pushed it open and found myself in the presence of a little man, dressed in black, and buttoned to the throat it was Mr. Truth. Seated before a ma- hogany desk, he held in his hand an enormous pair of scissors*, with which he was cutting long strips from an English journal and throwing them into a kind of letter box which communicated with the press room. It was cheap editing. " What do you want, sir !" asked he, without raising his head or interrupting his work. " Sir," said I in a grave and deliberate voice, " I am Dr. Daniel Smith, fireman of Company VII., the same whom you had the kindness to praise in your last even- ing's paper." "Well," said the journalist, continuing his cutting, " what do you want ?" " To thank you, sir ; to pay my debt of gratitude." He looked at me with an air of surprise.

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TRUTH, HUMBUG & CO. 59 "You owe me nothing, doctor. In publishing your noble action, I was following my trade, and you were worth to me yesterday more than two hundred dollars. You are therefore under no obligations to me." Upon which he resumed his labor, without even invit- ing me to be seated. " Mr. Truth," said I in a dry and dignified tone, " I care nothing about the motives from which you acted yesterday; you have rendered me a service, and I am and remain your debtor." I was about to depart when he raised his head, and fixed on me a pair of large black eyes whose suffering expression struck me. " Doctor," said he in a panting voice, " if you abso- lutely insist on acquitting yourself of an imaginary debt, here is the opportunity. Tell me in all sincerity from what disease I am suffering, and how much longer I have to live." He rose, laid his hand on his heart, and suddenly stopped short. A violent asthma oppressed him. I felt his pulse, listened to his respiration, and auscultated him; there were symptoms which permitted of no mistake. "Doctor," said he, "I ask you to tell me the truth. When a man is in the habit, like me, of telling it to every- body, he has the strength to hear it on his own account. I need to know my situation." "You have," answered I, "a disease of the heart, which is far from being incurable. Stramonium cigaret- tes will relieve you. But if you wish to be cured, you must have pure air, a tranquil life and repose of soul and body ; all things which are not found in a newspaper office." "Thank you, doctor," said he, "your advice is the same

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60 PARIS IN AMERICA. which my physician gave me this morning. I must re- nounce the fatigues of my profession ; so be it, the sooner the better. A Yankee never looks back. Doctor, buy my journal. I will sell you my share for twenty thousand dollars ; in six months you will have made it. Is it done?" " Whew !" cried I ; " how you get on ! la journalist! That is an honor I never thought of!" " Think of it, then. To a good man, it is the first of callings. Is there anything more glorious than to guide one's brethren in the way of justice and truth ?" Journalism is a profession which is little esteemed at a distance, but which near by, I know not why, every one wishes to handle. Journalists are of the same family as comedians ; they are disdained, yet envied. These Bo- hemians have wit ; in coming in contact with them, one feels himself less plebeian. There is not a beautiful lady that is not happy to approach noted coquettes ; there is not a statesman that at some moment does not flatter pamphleteers, even if he do not modestly enrol himself among the makers of journals. Despite myself, the proposition of Mr. Truth tickled my vanity ; the idea of leading public opinion pleased me. A man like me has so many things to teach that ignorant and stupid mass, called the public ! The sentiment of my dignity alone hindered me from yielding to this folly. " To direct a journal," said I to my patient, " is too difficult a thing for one not born in the profession." " No, nothing is simpler. Sit down here, by my side; remain two hours, and you will have the secret of the trade. At the bottom, everything may be reduced to a simple rule of action to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth."

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TRUTH, HUMBUG & CO. 61 Curiosity prevailed. I threw myself into a large easy chair of yellow leather, placed my cane between my legs, and rested my wounded arm on the elbow of the chair. Once installed, I opened a forgotten snuff-box on the table, and, looking at Mr. Truth : " My dear Aristides," said I, " your device is a fine one, but, between ourselves, is it not too fine ? In point of journalism, I thought that falsehood was the rule and truth the exception." "Where have you seen this, Machiavellian doctor? In Old Europe, perhaps ? In Spain, in Russia, in Tur- key, wherever the press is a monopoly in the hands of the government, the poor journalists have permision to say nothing for six days, on condition of lying officially on the seventh ; but jn a country of liberty, where every one can think as he likeB and print what he thinks, where would be the use of lying ? Truth is our merchandise, with which we buy the public. To lie is to lose our credit, and ruin ourselves disgracefully. We may have all the vices, a single one excepted. See the London Times. It is inconstant, abusive, violent; but lying never ! Surprised in the very act of falsehood, its pro- prietors would lose an income of a hundred thousand dollars. A man is not vicious at this cost ; he is vera- cious through calculation, and virtuous through inter- est." This American virtue dazzled me little ; I was seeking an answer, when I perceived a weasel's paw on the latch of the door. It was my honorable brother-in-arms and neighbor, Lawyer Fox, who approached, gliding over the floor, and took us affectionately by the hand. " Good morning, my dear Truth," said he to the jour- nalist, smiling. "I come in behalf of Mr. Little, the

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02 PARIS IN AMERICA. banker, to talk with you about a large job. There are two thousand dollars to make for the journal two thousand dollars," repeated he, emphasizing each syl- lable. " Very well," replied the journalist coldly. " This is my partner's business." He rang. A small door opened, and there emerged from it, not without difficulty, a fat man, whose enor- mous body, bald head, large ears, and projecting teeth, gave him the air of a dressed elephant. " Good morning, Dr. Smith," cried he, bursting into laughter, " good morning ; I recognise you by your arm in a sling. What do you say to my last night's bulletin, my dear Cincinnatus? It was not worth as much as to-day's. Truth, the four asses are sold; Ginocchio writes us to withdraw the advertisement. Good morn- ing, Fox ; you are so thin, that I took you for the doc- tor's shadow. You lawyers have such tender consciences that you grow thin by your scruples. What have you brought us ?" " This is~the point in question," answered Fox, little flattered by the graciousness of Mr. Humbug. "The firm Little is making a small Mexican loan ten million dollars to begin with. The shares are two hundred dol- lars each, issued at one hundred and sixty, and redeema- ble at par by annual drawing. Ten per cent, interest, twenty per cent, profit on the capital it is a fine thing." "For Little," said Humbug, laughing; "and you want to advertise, lMundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur! Be easy, Fox ; we will give you a nice little place in the journal. Between Holloway's ointment and Morrison's pills, your Mexican loan will do wonders."

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TEUTH, HUMBUG & CO. 63 "I oame to agree with you about the price," said Fox. "Do you want to know the rate of advertising? A cent a word, a dollar a hundred words. In this com- mon forest, all humbug at a fixed price, as you well know." "Pardon me, my dear Humbug," returned Fox, -wink- ing, " you don't understand me. When I spoke of the price, I was not thinking of the rate of advertising. Little would like to have the plan of this useful and patriotic subscription inserted in the body of the journal, so that it may not look like an advertisement. We will pay whatever is necessary. Do you understand me ?" " I am afraid I do, Master Fox," replied the fat man, without ceasing to laugh. " But, as old Plautus says : ' Stultitia est venatum ducere invitos canes? You rose too late, my good Fox. On this side the water, simple- tons are not caught in so gross a snare ; it will do for the innocents of the Old World. Besides, if my advertise- ments are not in question, address yourself to my part- ner. Do you understand what we are asked to do, my dear Truth ? " " Perfectly," replied Truth, in an abrupt voice. " Mr. Little has need of our house to place his loan ; he sends to ask at what price I will sell myself." " Truth, my dear fellow, you take things wrongly," said Fox, in a wheedling tone. " We ask nothing of you but what other journals have promised us ; the Lynx, the Sun, and the Tribune, will recommend our loan ; I hope so, at least ; we are negotiating." "Since you have these journals," resumed Truth, "why do you come here? What need have you of me?"

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64 PARIS IN AMERICA, "For a simple reason, my excellent friend," said Fox, in a honied voice. " There is little confidence on 'Change in anything but the Paris Telegraph; it is quite natural that we should endeavor to have you on our side. We will make any sacrifices for it." "Mr. Fox," exclaimed the journalist, pale with emo- tion, " there is the door." " I am your servant, Mr. Truth," said the lawyer, dis- appearing. " I am not yours," replied my patient. " To-morrow, I will know what this loan is, and will publish it." " My dear sir," said I, with the authority of my pro- fession, " you will make yourself worse ; you will dis- abuse no one, and will make yourself mortal enemies." " Enemies are our glory ; we are soldiers ; our place is in the fire." As he said this, he put both hands to his breast, and fell back into his easy chair. " Doctor," cried Humbug, " help him ; he is suffocat- ing. How can a man excite himself in this way, for this human rabble ? Truth, you selfish dog, you are killing yourself expressly to destroy me me, your old friend. Come ! look at me." Truth stretched him his hand, smiling sadly. Despite myself, I felt a sort of pity for this poor Bohemian, who was sacrificing his life to the most chimerical and deplor- able of pursuits.

Chapter IX Truth Finds His Match 67 0065

TRUTH FENDS HIS MATCH. 65. CHAPTER IX. IN WHICH TRUTH FINDS HIS MATCH. When the crisis had passed and the sick man had regained his breath, Humbug leaned both elbows on the table, and said in a tone which he strove to render gay, without succeeding "My dear Truth, no longer resist your true voca- tion ; turn preacher. Vices are tough ; they suffer them- selves to be maltreated without answering back. We castigate them vigorously every Sunday over the shoul- ders of our neighbor, after which we breakfast in peace and dine in the same way. But these bipeds who believe themselves men only because they walk on two paws, these wolves in round hats, these foxes in specta- cles, these apes in neck ties, these geese in black coats we are only to approach them to laugh at their cruelty, their avarice, their cowardice and their stupidity. Who- ever takes them in earnest dies of a broken heart." " Here is my successor," says Truth, taking me by the hand, " my dear Humbug, the doctor will make you a good partner." "The doctor," returned Humbug, "impossible! he looks like a deer." " Of what kind of animal then," exclaimed I, " are journalists made?" "To make a good journalist," said Humbug, with comical gravity, " needs the face of a dog, the scent of a dog, the impudence of a dog, the courage of a dog,

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66 PARIS IN AMERICA. and the fidelity of a dog. The face of a dog to intimi- date knaves, the scent of a dog to smell them from afar, the impudence of a dog to bark at them in spite of their threats and grimaces, the courage of a dog to take them by the throat, the fidelity of a dog to start, stop and return at the first call of truth." " Mr. Superintendent of advertisements," said I, with impatience, " I did not suspect that you had so lively and disinterested a passion for truth." " Why so, wise Esculapius ?" returned he, in a ban- tering tone. " Do you think that I do not know that two and two make four ? What regulates the price of advertisements ? The number of readers. What brings readers ? Public opinion. Do we gain them by deceiv- ing public opinion? Truth is the body of the journal; the advertisements are only its crinoline, a ridiculous costume, furnished by falsehood and vanity. Lésinât in piscem mulier formosa superne. Whose is the fault? The spirit and good taste of the public." " Sir," said I, turning over the snuff-box in my hands to give weight to my words, " all truths are not to ho spoken. There are those which disturb and break up society." " Yes, my dear doctor, truth is revolutionary." " At length," I exclaimed, " you confess it." " Doubtless. See the Reformation ; at what a cost did it free the human conscience ?" "That is so! that is so!" said I, rapping with my cane. "And the Gospel," resumed Humbug, "what sub- version ! A system of civilization destroyed, Jupiter dethroned, the Caesars despised and overthrown ! How happy it would have been to have stifled in its beginning

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TRUTH FINDS HIS MATCH. 67 this truth which slew a world and brought forth a new one ! Ah, my dear Hippocrates, you are silent. And the French Revolution ?" " Sir," exclaimed I, " let us not touch sacred things ! It was the resistance of the privileged classes that did all the harm. Acknowledge, at length, that there are truths which appal "------ " Yes ; as the light appals thieves." " There are truths which are odious to those who hear them." "Yes; when they disturb drunkenness, or awaken remorse." " There are truths which are dangerous to those who speak them." "Yes; when they have the heart of a slave or a footman." I turned my back on this shameless sophist, who did not fear to attack wise prejudices and to shake the pil- low on which the world has been sleeping for two thou- sand years, and addressed myself to Truth, who had resumed his cutting, and seemed not to hear us. " What are you thinking of, my dear patient ?" said I. " Our conversation wearies you, perhaps ?" " Doctor," replied he, smiling, " forgive the imperti- nence of my fancy, I was thinking of Pilate. I heard this grave ruler saying to Christ, ' What is the truth f and going out without attending to the answer. In the time of Tiberius Csesar, you would have made an excel- lent governor of Judea. " What !" added he, becoming animated, " do you not feel that to us men, truth is life and falsehood death ? Seek around you the prosperous, enlightened, upright, charitable countries ; are they not those where every one

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68 PARIS IN AMERICA. has a right to tell the truth, the whole truth, without distinction of persons, without respect to prejudices, pri» vileges and abuses? Seek the miserable, ignorant, im- moral countries ; are they not those where, under every form, official falsehood rules? Contemplate the great- ness of England, the growth of America, the rising for- tune of Australia. In eighty years, what power has raised our United States from three million to thirty-one million men? Do not deceive yourself, it is truth. Leave politicians to build up systems and combine forms of government ; see what are the living institutions of free peoples. Schools, associations, the rostrum, the press what are all these, if not so many instruments to propagate truth and to win all hearts to it ? Count the journals of a people, and you will have its rank in the scale of civilization it is a thermometer which never errs. Why? Because truth is, under another name, only the law which governs the moral world ; because there are natural relations between men, as between things. To recognize and respect these relations is to recognize and. respect the truth, or rather, God himself, present in the world by his almighty truth." " Dear Mr. Truth," replied I, a little moved by this flow of words, "Humbug is right, you were born to preach. But experience has long since taught me that practice is the opposite of theory. How many truths, admirable at a distance, fail on being put to the test! Every day I hear it repeated that men are brethren, that woman is the equal of man, that governments are made for the people "------ " Do you doubt it ?" said Truth. " No, I do not doubt it theoretically ; but try to put these fine maxims in practice, and what will come of it?"

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TRUTH FINDS HIS MATCH. 69 " The kingdom of Jesus Christ," replied the journalist, with singular gravity. " If you have no more noble ideal," added he, " if you have nothing to put in its place, do not play the sad rôle of Mephistopheles. Humanity needs to hope and believe." " Come, charming doctor, you who do not believe in theory," exclaimed Humbug, with an impertinent laugh, " when you speak, do you know what you are saying ? when you give a remedy to your patients, do you know what you are doing ? Do not be angry ; if you know, you are only putting theory in practice ; if you do not know, what right have you to be so proud of not rea- soning ?" I sunk into my easy chair, crossed my arms and legs, and, looking Humbug full in the face : " Six," said I, " listen to me seriously, if you are capa- ble of anything serious. In theory, once more, I love truth, and I love it as much as you can do ; but the press is not truth. It is a mingling of passions, insults and falsehoods which excite the indignation of a sensitive heart. The savage liberty which rules in this country is not to my taste ; I have long reflected on the subject, and I will tell you, if you will deign to listen to me, how it is possible to organize the press, wisely administer the truth, abolish the license of evil, and leave nothing but the liberty of good." " Hinder dogs from barking !" cried Humbug, burst- ing into laughter ; " the quadrature of the circle is found." " I suppose," continued I, without replying to this jest, " I suppose an enlightened, moral, paternal government, thinking only of the good of its subjects." " Doctor, this is theory 1"

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70 PARIS IN AMERICA. "No, sir, this is observation. In this government there are intelligent ministers "------ " I understand," said the insupportable mocker ; " en- lightened, moral, paternal ministers, thinking only of the good of those under their administration." "Yes, sir; and these ministers have under their com- mand thousands of agents "------ " All enlightened, moral, paternal, etc. ; in a word, a legion of angels in black coats." " In Heaven's name, Humbug, be silent," cried Truth, " Let him finish his fairy tale. I fancy I hear a Frenchman who imagines that he reasons because he strings paradoxes together and sews words one upon another." " Mr. Truth," answered I, drily, " reason and experi- ence are speaking through my lips ; listen to me. To the hands of this wise government, which knows every- thing, sees everything, and listens to everything to its hands, I say, I would confide the deposit of truth not that I would be willing to give it the monopoly of it ; I am the friend of liberty, but regulated, limited, moral- ized ! I would therefore reduce the number of printers, in such a manner as to make a prudent and discreet cen- sorship of typography, a conservative priesthood ; then I would limit the number of journals ; veritable pulpits, where naught but decency and moderation would be suf- fered to speak. Journalists would be like priests ; that is, ministers of the truth, who would receive from the government their type and character. If, despite the wise direction of the state, some insolent gazetteer, for- getting the gravity of his duties, should be wanting in the respect which he owed to the sovereign power, the- personification of justice and truth, I would not have re-

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TRUTH FINDS HIS MATCH. 71 course to the jury, which has a heavy hand and lets more than one doubtful innocent slip through its fingers ; it is to the administration, always powerful and protec- tive, that I would leave the holy mission of blighting falsehood and, if need were, arresting it even before it was born. The administration, always prudent, enlightened and disinterested, and knowing better than any one what suited it or fettered its plans the administration would chastise audacity and ignorance ; it would stifle opposition in the bud, as Hercules strangled serpents in his cradle. Thanks to this ingenious hygiene, the jour- nals would be innocent food, an antidote instead of a poison ; the press would be a torch in the hands of the ruling power, we would no longer stand in fear of conflagration. Useful prejudices, salutary errors would be treated with circumspection ; truth would be gradu- ated to the necessities of the state and the strength of the people; and if any new doctrine appeared in for- eign countries, we would wait until it had made the fortune of the country of its birth before uselessly disturb- ing tranquil souls with it that sighed only for repose. This is my theory, Mr. Humbug, what do you say toit?" "Damned rascal !" exclaimed he, letting fly a blow of the fist at my shoulder, which might have knocked down an ox. " When a man is happy enough to have wit, he always has some foolish thing to say. With his solemn air, this cunning dog mystified, for a moment, an old Yankee like me." " Mr. Humbug," said I, rubbing my shoulder, " these brutal arguments are not to my taste. To knock down is not to answer." "No more is to strangle," cried the journalist, laugh-

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72 PARIS IN AMERICA. ing. " Go on, doctor ; you are more amusing than you think ! Verba placent et vox. But good-bye ; the hour has come to make up the paper ; time is money ; you are ruining me !" Left alone with Mr. Truth, I asked him if he had not been struck, like me, with the profundity of the system which I set forth ; if he could place the turbulence and disorder of the American press in comparison with this compact mechanism, which in little time must bridle the most ardent nation on earth, and give it the habit of moderation and the taste for innocent freedom. " Doctor," said he, mildly, " I am of Humbug's opinion, You are laughing at our simplicity. I have long known this doctrine, which you present to us as a new inven- tion. It is the dogma of the Inquisition. Truth becomes an official instrument, inslrumentum regni, monopolized by the church and the state. Three centuries ago, Luther annihilated these dangerous chimeras, and replaced every Christian in possession of his conscience and rights. In the earliest days of the world, truth flew out of Pandora's box, with so many other blessings, which also are evils in unskillful hands. To seek for truth is the work of all, to take exclusive possession of it belongs to no one. Do not be satisfied with words. Government, ministers, functionaries what are all these, if not men, neither more infallible nor more learned than we? To make them the dispensers of truth is a dream. Truth belongs to all, like the air and the light ; the only thing possible is to stifle it, is to hinder men not from thinking but from speaking. Who would profit by so detestable an inven- tion ? The ruling power ? It would be the first victim. It would be deceived unceasingly. A handful of in- triguers would suffice to lead the most honest magistrate

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TRUTH FINDS HIS MATCH. 73 into the maddest adventures. Do you not see, moreover, that you give your government full power to act wrong- ly, provided it takes care to reason wrongly ? Would the citizens gain by it ? On the day when public affairs are no longer their affairs, you take away from them what is noblest, most beautiful, greatest in life the love of country and the passion of liberty. Take away the agitation of the rostrum and newspapers, and society is no longer but a stagnant pool, whence arises corrup- tion and death. Would you secure at least material prosperity, the only bait which tempts the crowd ? Quite the contrary ; wealth is the fruit of liberty. There is no security either of finances, or commerce, or indus- try, except in the countries which swarm with those journals whose voice importunes you. Silence is the triumph of fools ; darkness is not the kingdom of honest men ; leave us light, noise, and life. Remember that at Rome, likewise, there was an outcry against the loquacity of the rostrums ; that one day Sylla silenced them, to the great joy of the witlings, and that thence- forth commenced the decline from which Christianity even could not upraise the universe." " I beg your pardon," replied I, astonished at the turn which the discussion was taking ; " I do not pretend to have found the philosopher's stone in politics. Every system has its abuses; it is a question of proportion. Admit that the language of your journals is frightful, and that there is no more terrible evil than their unbri- dled license." " Doctor, you know what the Gospel says : JBy their fruits ye shall know them. Find me a country where there is more enlightenment, more charity, more mate- rial prosperity, than in America."

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74 PARIS IN AMERICA. " I see nothing but scandal everywhere," answered I. " The very foundations of society are giving way in that quicksand which you call democracy. What do you respect ? Religion ? Well, let a pastor be wanting in his duty let his conduct be light directly twenty jour, nais begin to laugh at him, like the unworthy son of Noah, instead of hiding from all eyes a weakness, the shame of which is reflected upon the church." "The shame," said Truth, "is to the church which espouses the cause of the criminal, not to the one which casts out of it a corrupt member." " Do you spare justice ? Yesterday even, your journal attacked, with cynical bitterness, a judge who had spo- ken roughly to some knave in a moment of ill humor, How do you expect the judge to be respected, if he is not infallible?" " Justice," said Truth, " is made for the accused, and not the aocused for justice." "Let a subaltern exceed his powers," I continued; "let him forget the law by chance, and arrest by mis- take an innocent person ; directly ten journals will howl at the tyranny, like dogs barking at the moon. They will set the country in a blaze for the cause of the vilest of wretches, for a beggar or a thief, thrown in prison without the forms having been observed." "They will do right," said Truth. "The liberty of the vilest of wretches is the concern of all. As soon as legal forms are violated, as soon as a citizen is unjustly attacked, all are menaced. Whoever does not feel this, does not know what is liberty." " Is it not sometimes necessary to veil the statue of the law, and to save the country iu spite of a falsa legality ?"

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TRUTH FINDS HIS MATCH. 75 " Doctor, you have a weakness for Pilate. He likewise was not checked by a false legality ; he chose rather to condemn an innocent man than to risk his place. He was a man of ability ; I know not why the world is so severe with him." " What has come of it ?" continued I, more and more irritated by the coldness of Truth. " Twelve or fifteen newspapers these are the masters of public opinion and the republic." " Fifteen newspapers !" said Truth, astonished ; " what do you mean by that ? We have three hundred, which is very little for sixteen hundred thousand souls. Boston has a hundred for less than two hundred thousand inhab- itants. It is true that in Boston, a Puritan city, liberty and civilization are understood otherwise than at Paris." "Three hundred newspapers!" exclaimed I, surprised at this formidable number. " Who, then, directs and governs public opinion ? The first comer can, without a mission, set himself up as a prophet and legislator ; the first dreamer can say what he will, and impose his opin- ions on the crowd. It is an atrocious despotism ! " "My good friend," said Truth, lowering his voice to bring me back to a less noisy pitch, "do not again begin your jests ; they amuse Humbug, but hurt me. Where all the world can speak, there is neither mission nor prophet, nor first comer. There is a right which belongs to every citizen, and which every citizen uses for his private interest, or for the interest of the whole. Among a free people, who ever dreams of directing and governing public opinion ? Certainly not a Yankee, who lays down for himself his own rule of action, and ohooses his party and colors with full kno'wledge of the case. The press is an echo which

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76 PARIS IN AMERICA. repeats the ideas of all the world, nothing more. These innumerable newspapers have but one object to accu- mulate facts, information, and ideas to increase and dif- fuse enlightenment ! The more of these there are, the more opportunity has each citizen to read, reflect, and judge for himself. To place the truth within the reach of all this is our ambition. This pretended newspaper despotism exists only in your imagination. At most it would be possible only where an ill-advised government, making of journalism a monopoly against itself, would permit only ten or fifteen sheets, and would thus oblige parties to coalesce against it, which, by their nature, tend to disperse. But in America, where there are eight or nine hundred newspapers, where new ones spring up every day, the number of tyrants has killed the tyranny, " So be it. It is a system not foreseen by Aristotle a paper democracy. In this happy country, everything is government, except the government itself. You jour- nalists (and everybody here is a journalist), you are more than the Church, more than the law, more than the State. What are you then ?" " The answer is too easy," said Truth. " We are so- ciety." " But if society if the people govern, who then are the governed ?" " Doctor," answered the journalist, smiling, " whenyoa conduct yourself into the street, who then is conducted? Through love of a word, must you have leading strings? When you govern your passions (which you do not always do), who then is governed ? There is an age of maturity for peoples as for individuals. Let China grow old in an eternal infancy, I pity her ; but we Christians, we citizens of a great country, we are not a people of

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TRUTH FINDS HIS MATCH. 77 idiots and outlaws. We have long since escaped from tutelage, and managed our own affairs. What is this popular sovereignty which we have placarded for seventy years at the head of our constitutions, if not a declara- tion of majority ?" " Comparisons prove nothing," returned I, drily " What is true of an individual is not true of a nation." " Still words, doctor. A nation is a collection of indi- viduals. What is true of ten, twenty, a thousand per- sons, is also true of a million. At what number then does incapacity begin ?" " No," said I, " it is not true that a nation is a sim- ple collection of individuals. It is quite a different thing." " That is to say, the total of a column of figures is a different thing from the sum of all the units." "Wrong!" I exclaimed, wearied of arguing with a narrow mind. " The difference here stares one in the face. To rid themselves of private interests, what is the magical word invoked by all statesmen ? The general interest. When it is wished to annul rights and peti- tions which incommode the government, what is alleged ? A superior interest, the social interest. Public utility is the negation of individual rights ; such, at least, is the manner of reasoning and acting in all civilized countries. If it were enough to listen to the will of the majority, and to sum up interests and wishes, let me just ask you what politics would be ? A grocer's trade, a rôle within the reach of the first honest comer. Picture to yourself a Caesar, a Richelieu, a Cromwell, a Louis XIV., listening to the voice of a peasant, or taking the votes of a few thousand citizens! What would become of the combi- nations, the alliances, the wars, the conquests ? all those

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78 PARIS IN AMERICA. brilliant strokes, all those freaks of fortune by which heroes triumph ? To drag a nation to victory and glory, to impose on the popular masses ideas which are not their own, to make them serve an ambition and projects which in no wise concern them this is the work of genius ! This is what the people love. They adore those who trample them under foot. Leave these poor men to themselves they will plant their cabbages ; their annals will be contained in two lines, like the moral of fairy- tales, They lived long, were happy, and had many chil- dren. With this fine system, what would history he? and wherewith would we teach rhetoric to our chil- dren ?" I was eloquent ; I felt it. Truth, confounded, gazed at me with a peculiar air. " Doctor," said he, " I do not like sophisms ; but of all these witticisms, there are none more odious to me than the paradoxes of former times falsehoods long since dead. They produce the effect on me of an old courtesan who has forgotten to be buried, and who walks among the youth disgusted with her paint, false curls, and wrinkles. Washington has taught the world what an honest man is, governing a free people. The thing has been proved. The age of political egotism is passed; there is no longer room except for patriotism. Whoever does not comprehend this ; whoever does not hear the voice of new generations ; whoever does not feel that industry, peace, and liberty are the sovereigns of the moral world is only a dreamer and a madman. It is not to glory that he goes, but to ridicule." " No more of that, sir !" said I, rising ; and, despite my- self, I carried my hand to the hilt of my absent sword. If I had had on my uniform of surgeon of the National

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TRUTH FIND8 HIS MATCH. 79 Guard, I would have forced this insolent wretch to draw his weapon, and, by making him bite the dust, would have proved to him beyond reply that America under- stands nothing of civilization, and that a Frenchman is never in the wrong.

Chapter X The Infernal Kitchen 82 0080

8Q PARIS IN AMERICA. CHAPTER X. THE INFERNAL KITCHEN. While Truth, surprised at my transport of rage, cast on me uneasy glances, Humbug entered, carrying a bun- dle of proofs, which he placed on the desk. " Quick !" cried he in his gruff voice, " the task begins. Nunc animis opus, ^Enea, nunc pectore firmo. Doctor, help us ; your right arm is at liberty ; take this paper and prepare the bulletin." "Write, Defeat of the Federal Troops. This will fill all our first column." And he threw a proof into the letter-box. " Defeat !" said I, " are you going to announce to the country that it is beaten ? Put, Strategic retreat ! Adroit manoeuvre ! otherwise your imprudence will spread anxiety and dismay everywhere." " Doctor, you are incorrigible," resumed Truth, " once more, the whole truth is due the country. Do you think that the Yankees are cast down by a reverse, and that, like children, they suffer themselves to be led by for- tune? A victory would find us indifferent; a defeat ' would be equivalent to a redoubling of energy, soldiers and money. How many men are killed ?" " 3,000 killed," said Humbug, " 6,000 wounded, 2,400 missing." Give the figures," returned Truth ; " doctor, do not forget them on the bulletin. Now, what has been done in Congress ?"

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THE INFERNAL KITCHEN. 81 " In the Senate," said Humbug, " a long discussion on slavery. Mr. Sumner has effected the abolition of slavery in the Federal district of Columbia. It is a first step. Doctor, write, Admirable speech of the elo- quent senator from Massachusetts. Here is our first page filled ; we come to the next. Nothing of interest in the House of Representatives ; three calls to order and time wasted in quarrels with the Speaker." " According to custom," said Truth ; " go on. Here is the political article ; write, doctor, Return to Law and Liberty, the Habeas Corpus reestablished." " What !" said I, astonished, " at the moment of a defeat, when it is necessary to concentrate authority and to govern manu militari, you reestablish civil liberty with all its dangers ! Know by experience that it is the moment to suspend all rights. Nothing reassures a people like feeling itself entirely in the hands of the ruling power. Truly, you understand nothing of politics." "Despotism is not strength," replied Truth, "the freer a people is, the more it is gentle, obedient and resigned to sacrifices. If you wish it to sustain you, confide yourself to it. Let us proceed. Exposure to the nation of Thefts in the Navy. Write, doctor, and underline the words, that they may appear in relief on the bulletin." " This is too great boldness," I exclaimed ; " think of the interests which you will injure, of the complaints which you will call forth." " Let the thieves complain," said Truth, " I am ready for them, I have proofs !" "Proofs ! who has furnished them to you ?" " Wherever there is a rostrum," replied Truth, " there 4*

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82 PARIS IN AMERICA. is some one to speak. Among a people on whom silence is imposed, the thieves act and the plundered are silent; among a people where every citizen is an active member of the nation and has a right to prosecute in the name of the country, the thieves hide and the plundered cry out and act. In Russia, twenty millions given to the police will not hinder thousands of millions from being stolen, the police will be bought cheaply; among us, where the police is the whole nation, one does not steal a penny without trembling. The suppression of swin- dling on a large scale is not the least advantage of liberty. Let us proceed to the foreign news." " Here," said Humbug, " are the three correspond- ences from London." " Why three correspondences ?" asked I, surprised at this useless extravagance. " There are three parties in England," replied Hum- bug ; " we need, therefore, three echoes to repeat all the tones. First correspondence, colors of Old Pam : ' War against America justice is a fine thing, but cotton is better let us burn the world, to warm England.' Sec- ond correspondence, colors of Earl Derby : * Old Pam trifles with the public ; he cries, to arms ! pockets fortifi- cations and iron-plated ships, plays soldier, and desires but two things to keep the peace and his place ; give us the ministry ; we will be as patriotic, and will cost less.' Third correspondence, colors of Bright and Cob- den : ' John Bull, my friend, your government is fooliDg you ; it is tickling your vanity to wheedle you out of the last shilling ; be a man, imitate your cousin Jonathan, and attend to your own business ; when people no longer suffer themselves to be taken care of by those ruinous charlatans styled diplomatists and great politicians, they

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THE INFERNAL KITCHEN. 83 will live like brothers ; they will have peace and cheap living.' " " I hope," said I to Humbug, " that in giving these three correspondences to the public, you append to them your opinion." " Not at all," replied Humbug ; " Jonathan is in the habit of forming his own opinions ; he has too good eyes to use our spectacles.'* The door opened abruptly. Three women, young and elegantly dressed, approached us ; the oldest, who was under twenty-five, addressed us in a tone at once modest and self-reliant : " Sir," said she to Humbug, " we are deputed by the lady coat-makers, to ask you to advertise that we are on a strike, and that wô shall hold a meeting next Monday, to seek the means of shaking off the oppression from which we suffer; we wish to regain and secure our rights." " The tailors are rich," said Humbug ; " before bring- ing them to terms, you will eat up all your savings; have you a million to draw from ?" "Sir," said the youngest, with a stubborn air, "a hundred dollars' worth of advertisements will do the work for us. We will teach these gentlemen tailors, and the whole world, what five hundred women can do, who have taken it into their heads not to yield. It is a lesson which will do good to monopolizers and tyrants , a lesson which will make the despots of the Old World turn pale on their thrones. Oblige us only by inserting in to-morrow's paper the address to the public, drawn up and resolved on by our committee." Upon this, our Amazon handed to the journalist a paper folded twice. Humbug read aloud this imperti-

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84 PARIS IN AMERICA. nent pleasantry, a memorable monument of feminine perversity and folly, in a country where the women themselves believe in liberty : TO TEE PARISIANS OF MASSACHUSETTS. LADY OOAT-MAXEES. " To avenge our slighted rights and obtain justice, we, the lady coat-makers of the city of Paris (Mass.), have struck for wages ; in eight days either our tyrants will yield, or we shall be out of employment. Who will give us work ? "We do not wish to Jfcand with our hands folded, but we are determinedt not to work for nothing, for the profit of men who are able to pay. Who is in want of a helping hand ? We know how to make hats, coats, puddings, cakes, and pies ; we know how to sew, embroider, knit, wash, and boil; we know how to milk cows, make butter and cheese, tend poultry, and take care of the garden ; we know how to clean the kitchen, sweep the par- lor, make beds, split wood, kindle fires, wash and iron, and moreover we adore babies. In a word, every one of us would make an accomplished housekeeper. As to our wit and intelli- gence, inquire of our former employers. Speak quickly, gentle- men. Who wants black eyes, fine foreheads, wavy and curling hair, the charms and youth of Hebe, the voice of a seraph, the smile of an angel ? Old gentlemen who are in need of a good housekeeper, handsome young men who are in search of an active and devoted wife, speak; the way is open. Going, going gone ! Who ia the happy mortal ? " Apply to the Committee of Lady Coat-Makers, " No. 20 Poplar Street." "Very well, ladies," said Humbug, "the advertise- ment will appear this evening in the paper, and we will put on the bulletin: Tailoresses' Strike/ that no one may be ignorant of it."

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THE INFERNAL KITCHEN. 85 Saying this, he made a profound bow, and showed out these silly jades with as much politeness as if a prefect had been in question. " Is it possible," exclaimed I, " that in America women have the right to do as they please ? Is not this to give the lie to experience and common sense ? Meetings of tailoresses, unions of washerwomen, a strike of midwives ! Revolution in coats is odious ; revolution in petticoats is ridiculous." " What is ridiculous," replid Truth, with his ordinary phlegm, "is that the coats ascribe to themselves the right to oppress the petticoats ?" " It is well," I answered. " Fill these foolish heads with the intoxication of liberty; you will see who will be the first victims." " Doctor, you are dismal," said Truth ; " at the least shock to your old-fashioned prejudices, you cry out that the world is going to end. Women, my dear sir, are one half the human race ; this is a profound truth, veri- fied by Aristotle, but for two thousand years no one has understood the philosopher except the Americans. If our women did not share our hopes and fears, they would make us share their weaknesses and caprices. We need wives, daughters and mothers who love liberty passionately, that the husbands, fathers and sons may never lose this holy love. These tailoresses appear ridiculous to you ; for my part, I admire them, while laughing at their advertisement ; I love generous souls that have faith in justice and defend their rights. It is *from souls like these that a great nation is made ; herein is the superiority of our beautiful country." "Let us finish the paper," said Humbug; "here are the markets. Cotton, wool, coal, iron, wheat, grain,

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86 PARIS IN AMERICA. pork, mutton, beef, hay, leather, sugar, coffee. There is nothing special, except concerning wheat; choice brands are selling two per cent higher than common brands." "What brands?" said Truth, taking up the list. " Colfax, Stevens, Pennington these names must he underlined and printed in large type ; you laugh, doctor, this is no trifling matter. Individual responsibility is the strength and life of republics. It is necessary that every one therein should bear inscribed on his forehead what he is or what he has done. To join to honesty reputation and fortune, to attach to rascality infamy and ruin, is the secret of morals and government it is a problem of which no legislator has found the solution, and which the press resolves every day." " A fine tirade concerning a barrel of flour !" "And the application of which you will see in an instant ; look here Pork market, twenty barrels dam- aged, of the brands Thomas and Williams. To under- line these two dishonest names is to drive them from the market." " You will not do it," cried I ; " you have not the right. Is it not enough for you to be the government, do you wish also to be the police ?" "You have said it, worthy doctor," .returned Hum- bug; "we are the police, and still more we are the public conscience. It is we that give honor and fortune, Honestus rumor alterum patrimonium est. Open your eyes wide if it amuses you, and make an outcry if it gives you pleasure. But, indeed, if you speak seriously,* you must have been changed at nurse ; you are not an American." " You do not know," murmured I, " you do not know,

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THE INFERNAL KITCHEN. 87 ignoramus, how near you arc right ; you do not suspect to what extent I despise a Don Quixote mad enough to take in hand the interest of others, the interest of the first comer, and this without mission or pay. See what a country is without functionaries! Every one there must meddle even with his own business. It is ridi- ouloust In France, an intelligent and compact admin- istration frees me from all care. I am a king; I am. waited on ; I enjoy in peace a prosperity and greatness which costs me nothing but my money. It is the tri- umph of civilization, or I do not know myself." " Here is the money article," said a young man, enter- ing, out of breath from running. " Anything new ?" asked Humbug. " Nothing but the Mexican loan." " What do they say of it, Eugene ?" said Mr. Truth. " A complete fiasco, a swindle of old Little's." " What ! a swindle ?" said I, reading the stock list ; "the loan has risen a dollar above the rate of emission." " Little has bought with one hand and sold with the other," said Truth ; " it is an old trick, but it will never succeed with us. We are not such sheep. Mr. Rose," added he, addressing the new comer, "make me an article for to-morrow on this matter; see the stock agents and learn the whole truth." "It will be ready this evening, Mr. Truth. I shall have more information than I need." " Sir," said I to the young man, whose name an- nounced him as a son of the apothecary, and, alas! a brother of my future son-in-law, " transactions must be very difficult to effect, with this fashion of throwing them open for the public benefit." " Sir," replied Eugene, quite astonished, " transactions

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88 PARIS IN AMERICA. are the easier, the better they are known. On 'Change, falsehood is ruinous, truth is wealth." " Good !" thought I ; " they all repeat the same non- sense. At Paris, the centre of intellect, the capital of wit, every one knows that the transactions to which the public rush are always those of which it understands nothing. What can a known transaction give ? Five or six per cent at most, while the unknown promises fifteen or twenty per cent therein is the secret of the banker. Here, value is truckled for value a miserable trade ; at Paris, one buys hope it is the poetry of play, it is the oharm of the lottery. What matters it to a Frenchman if he lose his money ; this is prose. To feast on wealth in thought, to satisfy passions, caprices, am- bition in dreams, this is the ideal ; one pays for it, it is true, but can he pay too dearly for illusion ?" " Friend Humbug," said a squeaking voice, " here are two advertisements which I should like to have inserted in the body of thy journal; thee must throw off consi- derable, the times are hard.'1- The speaker was a little man in a long overcoat, with an immense hat ; his face, gesture and costume said to every one " Look at me, I am a Quaker." Humbug took the two advertisements, and burst out laughing. " They are droll," said he ; " but I do not understand them." He read as follows : "Montmoeenot Villa. Seth Doolittle, proprietor of the Rose Hotel at Montmorency, has the honor to inform the pub- lic that, during the summer season, lovers who visit his house Will be charged but half price." " Why this exception ?" asked I.

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THE INFERNAL KITCHEN. Oi) " Friend," answered the little man, crossing his hands on his abdomen and raising his eyes to heaven, " nothing is more beautiful or worthy of respect than love. Put a young man opposite a white dress and black curls flut- tering in the wind, and he feels so celestial, so ethereal, that all the week he will never stoop to touch roast beef. It is nothing but robbery to make these angels of hea- ven, who never examine a bill, pay the common price ; my conscience will not suffer this iniquity." " The scruple does you honor," said Humbug, biting his lips. " Let us proceed to the next insertion." " Feiendlt Counsel. Dinah D. L. You art entreated not to return. Tour mother is in excellent health ; nothing can be arranged ; and your whole family has been much better since you quitted it." " This is a family secret," said I, smiling. " There's no explanation." " To the public, no ; to thee, Dr. Smith, yes," returned the Quaker. " It concerns a sister, a giddy brain, whom, for her own sake and that of her family, and through care for the public morality, we have sent to California as a schoolmistress. There is reason to fear that the un- happy girl may stop on the way and wish to return to her evil ways. We, therefore, warn her charitably and in covert language, that she will do better to continue her journey ; there is no room for her at home." "This is admirable charity, Mr. Seth," returned I, shrugging my shoulders. " I regret not having sooner recognized so worthy a man." " Thee would have had some difficulty in recognizing me," answered Seth, casting down his eyes ; " thee has never seen me; but Martha has desoribed her master

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90 PARIS IN AMERICA. and the terrible accident of yesterday to me with such fidelity, that I guessed who thee was at the first glance." The virtuous hotel-keeper pronounced the name of Martha with a strange unction, which later recurred to my memory ; I should have paid more attention to it had not a man, with a flushed face, entered the room ab- ruptly, crying, " Great news, Mr. Truth ; great news, Mr. Humbug : the mayor of the city has just been con- demned. He was surprised in criminal conversation with an actress of the Lyceum, and has been sentenced to pay the husband ten thousand dollars' damages." " Doctor," said Humbug, " take the pen and finish our bulletin ; our paper is well filled, the sale is sure.» Let us see : Defeat of the Federal Troops. 3,000 killed, 6,000 wounded. Admirable Speech of the eloquent Senator from, Massachusetts. RETURN TO LAW AND LIBERTY. Exposure to the nation of Thefts in the Navy. TAILORESSES' STRIKE. CRIMINAL CONVICTION OF THE MAYOR OF THE CITY. "Come," continued he, "this is a good day's work; we have barked well at the knaves. To press !" he ex- claimed. " Work, boys, and in a quarter of an hour put up the bulletin."

Chapter XI Private Life Should Be Immured 93 0091

PRIVATE LDTE SHOULD BE IMMURED. 91 CHAPTER XL on the conservative maxim : Private Life should be immured. I sunk into my easy-chair, reflecting aside on the sad spectacle which I had before my eyes. Devouring anar- chy, general espionage, universal commotion, the govern- ment in the hands of everybody such was this so much vaunted press ! How form a people into an army with such an enemy in your rear I "Well, my dear doctor," said Truth, in a soothing voice, " you know now how a newspaper is made. Are you tempted? Are you to be my successor in the paper ?" " Never ! never !" replied I, drawing back my chair by an involuntary gesture. " What I see terrifies me ; you play with all that I have been taught to regard as respectable and sacred. Let a minister or his deputies be attacked, it matters little, I am accustomed to it; from all time, ministers have served as a butt to pam- phleteers ; the most celebrated journalist is he who has overthrown the most. If there are countries and peo- ples whom this destruction amuses, much good may it do them ! I wish them two or three revolutions to cure them of it. But private life, sir, should be immured ; do you hear, sir, hermetically immured." " Who says so ?" asked Humbug, with a sly air, which only proved his ignoranoe. " Mr. Humbug," replied I, " it is M. Royer Collard, a

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92 PARIS IN AMERICA. great metaphysician, who has never had any ideas of his own, but who has cast in bronze and engraved on brass the ideas of others. It is he, this illustrious sage, who has uttered this golden speech, which should be posted up in every newspaper office ' Private life should be im- mured.' " " Your great metaphysician talks nonsense," answered Humbug. " Can a man be cut in two ? Is a man a knave in private life and a Fabricius in public life? What is private life ? Where does it begin, where end ? Is the ciy of mad dog an attack on private or publio life? If our navy is plundered by impudent contractors, do we attack private life when we denounce the thief? If the Honorable Mr. Little, enriched by the millions of others, wishes once more to despoil simpletons in behalf of his insatiable cupidity, is to tell Mr. Little that he is a cheat to attack his private life ?" " Sir," said I to this impudent fellow, " you have no idea of all that I could reply to you ; a word will suffice. Here is the mayor of Paris, who has yielded to an un- happy weakness. Perhaps he has fallen into the snare spread by some siren of low degree ; most certainly, he has not committed this fault in the capacity of municipal magistrate. What is the use of this noise, this scandal, this defamation of a man whose error, after all, does not concern you ?" " What is the use ?" said Truth, with a frigidity worthy of Robespierre, " to make him resign. Do you wish us to preach respect for the conjugal bond and abhorrence of vice in our families in the face of adultery throned in the City Hall ? This cannot be. It is the honor of pri- vate life which answers to us for public virtue ; other- wise, politics are a comedy, in which each one wears a

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PRIVATE LIFE SHOULD BE IMMURED. 93 mask, plays a part, and amuses himself by talking of conscience, rights, and duties, without believing a word of what he says. Let childish peoples take delight in these dangerous farces, which always end badly this may be ; but in America, everything is in earnest. Let our debauchees go, if it seems good to them, to ruin their health and squander their fortune on the other side of the Atlantic ; among us it is necessary to be respectable to be respected." " Here is a letter from the mayor," said a clerk, " giv- ing in his resignation." " Mr. Truth," exclaimed I, " there is still time ; stop the printing of the paper, strike out a condemnation which no longer concerns but a simple citizen, a sen- tence which is about to cause the dishonor of a man and the wretchedness of a family. Efface from your bulletin those odious words which brand with a new stigma which the law has not foreseen, a fault, doubtless excus- able. Are there then only Catos in America ? and, since you constantly quote the Gospel, is there none among you that has read the story of the woman taken in adul- tery? In Heaven's name, be humane !" " I am neither humane nor cruel," replied Truth, with his icy tone ; " I am not a person, I am a journal ; that is to say, an echo, a photograph. The bulletin will remain as it is ; I am sorry for the culprit, but I too have a mission to fulfill, I do not compound with the truth. "But this mission," cried I, indignant, "you assume yourself !" " Is it therefore the less holy ?" returned the journal- ist. " Understand the part which I fill. In a commu- nity wholly occupied with its business and interests, and which, notwithstanding, governs itself, how is liberty

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94 PARIS IN AMERICA. maintained ? how are generous ideas maintained and developed ? how is right respected by all, virtue es- teemed, services rewarded? Thanks to the press, an invention still more admirable than steam and electricity. We journalists, we are the echo of society a formidable echo, a sounding trumpet, which swells every report, spreads it to the ends of the land, and goes to awaken the most torpid conscienpe. Good or evil, everything serves us the good to make all hearts beat with joy and emu- lation, the evil to arouse them to indignation and disgust. Yesterday you accomplished a heroic act. In Russia or Spain, who would have known it ? A few friends, a few neighbors, a city. Here, thanks to us, thirty-one million men are about to repeat the name of Dr. Smith ; three million youth will envy your courage and resolve to imitate it. This is the work of these pamphleteers for whom you seem to have little esteem. To-day there is a scandal made, a fault committed by a magistrate. The law has condemned the man, the press condemns the crime, and makes it hated and detested by the whole nation. The greater the fall, the stronger the lesson, Our harshness will grieve a family and wound a few timid souls ; it will save from a like weakness millions of men who would be emboldened by impunity. Doubtless, our rigor will cost us mortal enmity. What does it mat» ter? Shall we weigh our duty against our interest? Doctor, be less severe on us. How many statesmen would be able to fill the qualities demanded by the voca- tion of journalists ? how many would resolutely accept our dangers and obscurity ?" " Bravo, Truth !" cried Humbug ; " you talk like a book, my good friend, and like a book which tells the truth i rara avis in terris, nigroque simiUima cycno."

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PRIVATE LIFE SHOULD BE IMMURED. 95 " There is such a thing as hidden ambition," returned I, furious both against Truth and myself (the words of the sophist had shaken me). " Some men believe them- selves virtuous in making a show of severity, who, at the bottom, without knowing it, are the dupes of their own interest, and pursue after fortune." " Fortune," said Humbug, " is not made for journalists. Doctor, my friend, the world is a stage, on which three sorts of persons figure spectators, actors, and authors. The spectators are you, Green, Rose, all those good peo- ple who have neither vices nor virtues, and live in the shade of their own vine and fig-tree. The actors are a jealous set, resembling all troupes of comedians. The ambitious man, the fine talker, the miser, the poltroon, the tyrant, the valet, play their part in the farce, to the great pleasure of the public, who often applaud, some- times hiss, and always pay them. Their chief singers must have fine clothes, palaces, gold, plenty of gold. They know the whim of the crowd and take advantage of it. As to the authors as to the poet who has created the saying of the day, written the air in vogue, inspired the tirade, they throw him a crust of bread and pass him by in disdain. What is the idea to the shrewd ? Nothing but a cockade : the thing is to use it at the right time. Cry for twenty years that liberty is the salvation of peo- ples you are nothing but an echo, odious to those who rule, importunate to those who serve. Let the day come when the wearied people wishes to shake off the burden which crushes it the first rash man who dares inscribe on a banner the motto which you have repeated twenty years will be the chosen of the crowd honor, money, power, all will be his. An hour will make the fortune of this first actor; but he will not find contempt enough

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96 PARIS IN AMERICA. for the obscure journalist, who, by twenty years of suf- ferings and dangers, had paved the way for his triumph. The people will judge like the actor. Do you wish a moral to my tale ? Paris is about to choose a mayor ; be sure that every one else will be thought of except the only man who would do honor to the office ; namely, Truth. On the day that he perishes, if I am not there, there will not be two lines of eulogy in his own journal. This is the way that civic virtue is recompensed in America! Yet we are the first people on earth. Ab uno dim omnes. Judge now of our ambition !" " Humbug, my friend," said Truth, " do you count as nothing the honor of being loved and praised by you ?" " The door opened, and, for the second time, a weasel's paw was seen extended, which could belong only to Mr, Fox. It was he, more smiling than ever. " Mr. Truth," said he, in his softest voice, " will you have the kindness to announce, in your excellent paper, that the Honorable Mr. Little has just given ten thou- sand dollars to the Child's Hospital, five thousand dollars to the poor of the city, and five thousand dollars to the oity library ?" "The Mexican loan is doing well," said Humbug. "Little is a pious Jew, who pays his tenth to the Lord." " The Mexican loan is abandoned," replied Fox. "Mr. Little has satisfied himself that the guarantees offered by the Mexican government are not secure." "Whence comes this suspicious generosity?" asked Humbug. " There is some fearful speculation under this. Here are twenty thousand dollars which will cost us dear." " Always suspicious," interrupted I ; " and why ?"

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PRIVATE LIFE SHOULD BE IMMURED. 97 "Because I am an old journalist," replied Humbug. " I believe in the virtue of bankers as in the simplicity of Quakers." "We will convert you, old sinner," returned Fox, laughing. " Great news on 'Change ! " said Eugene Rose, enter- ing. "The Mexican loan is withdrawn," answered Hum- bug ; " we know it." "But you do not know that the mayor has resigned, and that Mr. Little is a candidate for his place." " Really," said Fox, " it is impossible. Mr. Little has not said a word to me about it ; I doubt even whether, with his multiplicity of business, he could accept this important office." "Excellent Fox!" exclaimed Humbug; "he is as innocent as a lamb ! You will see, honest attorney, that Mr. Little will make up his mind to this great sacrifice." " But we are modest people," said Truth ; " and, on our part, will not impose on him so heavy a burden ; we will oppose his election." "And why?" exclaimed Fox. "That," said Humbug, "is the secret of the play; you are not to ask it." " So, then," resumed Fox, " we always find you against us, virtuous Puritans, proud and unsociable race; but, damn me, if I do not some day burn out your nest, you useless hornets, who know how to do nothing but tire our ears with your detestable buzzing." "Fox, my friend," said Humbug, "do not put my patience and hands to the test, or I shall throw you out of the window." Fox did not await a threat, the execution of which 5

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98 PARIS IN AMERICA. was certain. For my part, I left, moved and troubled by all I had heard. Reason and education told me that the press is a weapon aimed at power and society; twenty times the wisest ministers had inoculated me with this precious truth. But, on the other hand, I was struck with what was great and generous in the conduct of Truth, brave and decided in the character of Humbug. To take in hand the cause of honest men against all the knaves with which the world is overflowing, to be daily on the chase, and unrelaxingly to pursue theft, injustice, and falsehood, is something, notwithstanding. A people that numbers such men is not a common people. " Bah !" said I to myself, driving away vain scruples, " this is an exception. The wisest course would be to suppress the journals. It is said that this is to suppress the remedy and not the disease ; but, when the disease is without remedy, we resign ourselves to it, and if we die, at least die without complaining. It is a great advantage to the physicians." I had arrived thus far in my reflections, when a voice called me from the middle of the street the voice of Susan. She was approaching in a two-wheeled gig, driven by Martha. The horse was sure-footed, and Martha was a prudent woman, who used the rein more freely than the whip; but, at the corner of the rut Taitbout and rue Helder I am wrong at the corner of Seventh and Eighth Avenues, there was a terrible little paving-stone, laid down, I suppose, by some inter- ested veterinary ; for, during ten years, a day had not passed that horses had not stumbled on it. Martha's courser was predestined ; on nearing me, the poor ani- mal suddenly fell on his knees ; Martha was flung over the horse's head, while Susan fell into my arms, throw-

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PRIVATE LTFE SHOULD BE IMMURED. 99 ing me down by the shock, and rolled on the ground with me I rose, furious, and covered with dust ; Susan's face was scratched ; Martha was bleeding. " Are you hurt, Martha ?" I exclaimed. " No, sir ; it is nothing," said she ; " the right hand of the Eternal sustained me ; nothing was hit but the end of my nose." We both busied ourselves with ungirding and raising thé horse. When the animal was harnessed, " Good heavens !" I exclaimed, "it is a shame that the city government should suffer for ten years such a break-neck trap at my door, in the most frequented street of the city." And I re-entered the newspaper office in a rage. "Doctor, what is the matter?" said Humbug, still laughing. " Have you already commenced the electoral struggle with Fox ? Judging from your coat, you have not had the best of it." " The matter is," said I, " that it is abominable that a pavement should have been left for ten years in such a condition ; that my horse has just fallen ; that my daugh- ter's face is hurt; that my cook has been nearly killed. I t am in a rage ; I wish to make complaint ; I demand justice. We are in Paris in America, I shall obtain it. Publicity will bring every one on my side. Give me a pen and ink ; I wish to address a severe letter to you, in which I shall treat the administration as it deserves." " Here is what you desire," said Humbug ; " and here besides is a dollar." " A dollar 1 For what ?" "We always pay a dollar to whoever brings us an item. Don't be nice, doctor ; keep it, and frame it, with

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100 PARIS IN AMERICA. the date. It will remind you that the press is the voice of all, and that you comprehended this great truth on the day that you yourself suffered." "Humbug," said I, "these words, which you throw to the winds with your usual lightness, have more scope than you think ; I will not forget them. On reading my morning's paper, each complaint will recall to me a suf- fering which to-morrow, perhaps, will be mine, an evil which I can succor or prevent by joining in the publie outcry." "Bravo, doctor; you are a great philosopher. When your eyes are opened, you cry, Et lux facta est. No matter ; you will ere long perceive a no less important truth ; namely, that in the end the liberty of the press is of little profit to any but honest men. This will suffice to teach us what are its enemies."

Chapter XII A Nomination In America 103 0101

AN AMERICAN NOMINATION. 101 CHAPTER XH. A NOMINATION IN AMERICA. All these discussions had disturbed me. Of course, I had not the weakness to deny the political faith which the masters of niy infanoy had given me I abhor rene- gades. When one is born in error, if conscience com- mands him to depart from it, honor commands him to re- main in it ; and a Frenchman always listens to honor. I would have been hewn in pieces rather than acknowledge publicly that these Yankees were not wrong. But in my soul I felt that I had lost my first innocence ; I had made use of the press, and I had no longer the strength to blush at it. Dissatisfied with myself, I slept a restless sleep ; when I awakened, it was still dark. The soph- isms of Truth and Humbug had entered into my spirit like arrows into the flesh. I was seeking in my bed replies which I hardly found, when all at once, in tho midst of the obscurity and silence, I heard a voice in the street calling me. It was my daughter's voice ; a father cannot be mistaken. To throw on my dressing gown and run to the win- dow was the work of an instant. I leaned forward to look into the darkness, when my head encountered some strange obstacle which gave way. Directly a splendid sun dazzled my eyes ; joyful shouts greeted my appear- ance. The street was filled with people, an immense placard covered the whole house, and my head wedged in a gigantic 0, presented a ridiculous, spectacle to the

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102 PARIS IN AMERICA. passers. " Papa, stay there," cried Susan, dancing up and down and clapping her hands, " all Paris will read the placard." " Green for ever!" repeated the Yan- kees, as they ran. " A very good trick," added they, laughing and showing their great teeth. I dressed myself hastily and went down into the street ; Paris was no longer but an immense placard ; candidates of all colors, blue, red, white, yellow, green and pink, displayed on the walls their vices and virtues. My house was devoted to green. The name of Green was lengthened out in capitals three feet high ; opposite me, the printing office had raised to the sky an immense placard, on which was read : CITIZENS OF THE FIRST CITY OF THE WORLD. No bankers ! No lawyers! No tricksters ! ELECT THE SON OF HIS WORKS. The generous patriot ! The adventurous merchant ! The good father ! The child of Paris I ELECT THE HONEST AND VIRTUOUS GREEN 1 This democratic farce amused Susan ; Alfred Rose was by her side with the venerable apothecary and his other eight sons. Henry danced for joy like a child enchanted by the uproar. For my part, I have little

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AN AMERICAN NOMINATION. 103 taste for popular orgies, they may be summed up in one sentence a great noise for nothing. " Neighbor," said the druggist, " here is our captain going to battle ; I hope you will lend a helping hand ; the cabal is powerful, and we shall overcome it only by dint of words and action." " My dear Mr. Rose," answered I, " with your per- mission, I shall stay at home. In all this I have no interest. I am a nobleman with numerous stewards to manage my affairs, whom I pay without even having the trouble of choosing them ; what happens among my men does not concern me. What is a mayor of Paris ? A gentleman in an embroidered coat who marries old maids and inconsolable widows, and who twice a year goes in state to call on the prefect and dine at the Hotel de Ville, These are great honors, they cannot be too dearly bought ; but in what do they concern me me a simple citizen, that has no other privilege than that of paying expenses which I do not vote ? I do not know who a mayor represents, but assuredly it is not those under his administration. Choose whom you like ; I am a physician and never trouble myself about anything." For his sole answer, Mr. Rose took my hand and felt my pulse. " Terrible doctor," said he, " you make me shudder with your everlasting jests ; I should think your brain disordered. The citizen of a free country, do you need to be told that our most important interests are to-day at stake ? Is not the mayor the first person- age of the city, the representative of our ideas and desires ? Police, markets, streets, schools does not the mayor, assisted by our councilmen, regulate everything by the sovereign authority conferred upon him by our

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104 PARIS IN AMERICA. vote ? If he have superiors in the State, has he. any in the city ? Does he receive orders from any one ? Is he not our right hand, our organ, our minister ; is it not to us alone that he is answerable for his actions and expen- diture ? Yet you wish that such an election should find us indifferent ? For my part, I trouble myself little enough about what is done at Washington by the fine talkers of the West and South; but Paris is my property, my fact, the tomb of my father, the cradle of my child- ren. I lo\e everything in Paris, even to its blots and excrescences. I love its old streets where I have played in my childhood ; I love its new avenues, broad arteries of civilization ; I love its Gothic churches, which tell me of the past ; I love its railroads and schools, which tell me of the future. For me, forty generations have enriched this comer of the globe ; here is a heritage which I have received from my fathers, and which I wish to transmit to my children after having embellished it. I do not mean that a stone or an institution of my be- loved city, of my true oountry, shall be touched without my consent. I am a Parisian, Paris is mine !" " Rose, my friend !" exclaimed I, " you are the Cicero of apothecaries ; but eloquence is privileged to say the opposite of truth. You do not surely speak in earnest of entrusting to one of ourselves, to a simple citizen, the police of such a pandemonium. This needs a firm and independent hand which rules us despite ourselves." " Papa," said Susan, " why do you tease good Mr. Rose ? You know veiy well that it is the mayor who chooses the policemen ; you yourself secured the appoint- ment of the one that guards our street." "Perhaps also," added I with an air of pity, "your city taxes are voted by those who pay them ?"

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AN AMERICAN NOMINATION. 105 " Doubtless," said Rose, " who has the right to vote for an expense if not he who bears it ?" " You will have a pretty budget ! This is a fine way of calling in millions ! And when you open new streets, you consult the inhabitants perhaps, in order to conjure up against you the selfishness of private interests ?" " Whom should we consult ?" asked the innocent apo- thecary ; " these streets are made for us, I presume, and our private interests summed up are the general in- terest." " Perfect ! perfect !" exclaimed I, laughing ; " they have all suoked the milk of the same ass ! Good God ! that it should be necessary to hammer into these narrow brains the great ideas of civilization ! Could they see the miracles of centralization, they would comprehend at length that our business is never better done than when it is committed, without our consent, to the hands of those who have no interest in it ! And the schools," added I, " perhaps it is also the fathers of families who vote the tax and fix the amount of expenditure ? I would like to see the total." " The expense of the schools," said Alfred, eager to make a display of his wit; "is voted by the whole people ; education is the common debt ; each one glories in contributing to it. The day before yesterday, the tax was fixed for 1862 ; it is two dollars per head for every inhabitant, without counting what is given by the State." " Sixteen million francs voted by the sixteen hundred thousand inhabitants of Paris for the schools of this great city," exclaimed I ; " such a thing never has been, and never will be seen ; it is impossible." " Papa," returned Susan, sharply, " since Alfred says it, it is true." 5*

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106 PARIS IN AMERICA. "Come, my dear friends,'' said I in my turn, wwe must howl with the wolves. If our affairs be really our affairs ; if Paris be ours and not the State's ; if we vote and spend our money ourselves, all things incredible, enormous, and contrary to experience anigood sense, I yield to the common madness ! A Parisian who is not a stranger to Paris, a Parisian who has a voice in the municipal chapter, a Parisian who speaks and is listened to, is a phcenix which is seen only in America. Let us go vote. Hurrah for Green, mayor of Paris in Mas- sachusetts !" " Hurrah for Green !" cried all the company, directing their steps towards the shop of the grocer. "Papa," said Susan, "kiss me before you go. Ton know," added she in a whisper, " that your name is on the list." " What list, my child ?" " The list of municipal officers. The Nominating Committee proposes you in the Paris Telegraph, as inspector of streets and roads, by the side of Mr. Hum- bug, whom they wish to make justice of the peace, Look, papa !" and Miss drew the paper from her apron pocket. What a country, where a girl in love reads the newspapers and is interested in elections ! I took the Paris Telegraph ; my name, printed in large characters, and accompanied with a fitting eulogy, figured at the head of the list. It had a strange effect on me. To criticise the ruling power, do as it may, is to me a matter of course ; I am a Parisian. To blame and make songs on our masters is the only part of liberty which the great monarch himself was not able to wrest from us ; it is the vengeance and consolation of our poli- tical leisure. But to administer and command, to act

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AN AMERICAN NOMINATION. 107 instead of complaining, to emerge from the opposition to encounter it before one's self and to reduce it to silence by dint pf zeal and success, was to me an unknown and charming prospect already ambition glided into my heart. I reflected that on the night before I had been harsh with Humbug (a journal is an influence !) and that perhaps I had spoken too rudely to Rose and his child- ren there were ten voters ! I hastily embraced Susan, therefore, and running after the apothecary, entered into a confidential conversation with him on some admirable pills of my invention pills destined to revolutionize prac- tice no less than to make the fortune of the physician who had invented them, and the druggist who should sell them. A concentrated extract of camomile is a heroic remedy which cures in a week the incurable and painful malady of men of intellect dyspepsia. I had been keeping the first fruits of this marvelous dis- covery for the Academy of Medicine ; my memoir had been commenced six years before; but when ambition seizes us, adieu to prudence ! The academic glory ceased to dazzle me ; the inspection of the streets opened to me a political career. I was a candidate.

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108 PARIS ÏN AMERICA. CHAPTER XIII. CANVASSING. Were you ever in love, dear reader ? do you remem- ber, in those happy days, how light was your heart, how ardent your glance, how buoyant your life ? You know then what it is. to be a candidate. Fifty paces off, des- pite my bad sight, I recognized voters whom I had never seen ; I found stored away in my brain the history of a host of people with whom I had never spoken ; and not only their history, but that of their wives, children, fathers, grandfathers and distant cousins. Right and left, I flung promises and shakes of the hand. Familiar with the small and modest with the great, I would redress all the wrongs and repave all the streets. Cioero, im- ploring the consulship, was surely neither more eloquent, nor generous, nor affable than I. Green joined our train ; he was, believe me, a poor enough candidate. The Committee that had put him forward had been unfortunate; without going out of their street, they might have easily made a much better choice. A grocer does not receive that high social edu- cation which permits him to play with men and things. No flattery to the crowd, none of those promises which remain at the bottom of the ballot-box, none of those pleasing falsehoods whioh are the necessary fireworks of all elections. Green was cold and timorous as a mer- chant transacting business and weighing every pledge.

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CANVASSING. 109 When he had shaken hands with a voter and said to him, 111 will do my best" or " It is a difficult position" or " Vote for Mr. Little if you think him more capable" it seemed to him that he had done his part. To the kindly xeproaches which I addressed to him, he replied, in a frigid tone, " My conscience forbids me to do more ; I cannot promise more than I shall fulfill." Conscience in a candidate ! it was a grocer's scruple. When a man is seeking to make his fortune, he draws a double bolt on his conscience the day before election, and does not always remember to withdraw it on the morrow. In France, every one knows this. I should have died of ennui in this electoral procession, if the enormous, merry Humbug, had not accompanied us. Always on the alert, always ready with repartee, his trace was marked by the roars of laughter which he left after him. The welcome which he received was not always gracious ; in his hatreds, as in his friendships, the Saxon carries a rude fiankness; American salt is not Attic salt. But Humbug was an admirable tennis player ; there was not a jest that he did not receive and send back in first-rate style. Once hit by him, the attack was scarcely repeated. " Green a candidate ! it is a shame," said a stock- broker, with pale face and distorted features. " Imagine the grocer in the city council ! When the bell rings, he will answer, ' Look sharp there ! make yourself useful? Let him go to h , he and all his crew." " To h ?" said Humbug. " What shall we tell your father, the bankrupt that you have had three failures and are expecting the fourth ?" " Green a candidate 1" repeated a dry-goods' clerk, a dandy in varnished boots, who cleft the air at every

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110 PARIS IN AMERICA. word with his harmless whip; "Green, a shopkeeper, who doesn't know a horse from a donkey." " Don't be afraid, my boy," said Humbug ; " he would know you among a thousand." " A fine answer, and worthy of a man who lives on his wits." " If you had no other capital to live on, my boy, you would be thinner than I am," replied Humbug, continu- ing his route amidst the laughter of the crowd. We entered the Union Hotel ; the proprietor had been pointed out to us as one of the most influential voters of the city. But if the honest man held the reins in the household, it was his wife that guided them. At Green's first word, the irascible matron cut him short. " Down with politics !" said she. "Down with hotels!" answered Green, making the lady a profound bow. " Joseph !" exclaimed the imperious Juno, " your wife is insulted, you are outraged, and you stand there like a stick. Are you so chicken-hearted ?" At this terrible voice, Joseph stopped short, opening his eyes wide. I believe that in the street the honest hotel-keeper would have gladly shaken hands with us ; his broad face, hanging lip and big belly did not indicate a thunder-clap ; but, under the eye of his wife, he deemed it prudent to fly in a rage. To carry the war outside was the means of keeping peace at home. " Let this fine candidate come on," cried he, in a coarse voice which he vainly strove to render surly; "I have a halter ready to hang him." " Many thanks, my good friend," said Humbug, in an affectedly soft voice, " we have scruples about depriving you of a family piece of furniture."

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CANVASSING. Ill Laughing heartily, we were about to flee the cave of Polyphemus, when behold ! the retreat was cut off. On the threshold of the door, the lady, erect as a sentinel under arms, stopped Humbug, and, trembling with anger, said : " Do you know who I am ?" "Who does not know and admire you?" returned he, bridling up with a rakish air ; " you are a charm- ing child that has not yet reached the age of discre- tion." Upon this, he bowed, leaving the worthy matron more mute and confounded than Lot's wife on her trans- formation. These were merely skirmishes ; there were public meetings where the claims of the candidates were dis- cussed; there the battle was waged and the victory- decided. The moment had come for us to separate ; it was necessary that each one should show himself in these. The Lyceum was assigned to me. I entered the im- mense hall, where a restless crowd was waving to and fro. I was recognized and called for, all eyes were fixed on me; I was seized with a sudden panic, and would have gladly renounced this fatal nomination, which delivered me over to the public. Alas ! it was too late. In front of me, a man, mounted on a stage, was speak- ing and gesticulating with the greatest eagerness ; the crowd listened in silence, then suddenly burst into ter- rible huzzas and groans the way they applaud and hiss among the Saxons. This popular orator, who aroused at his will the passions of the crowd, was the lawyer of Banker Little it was our enemy, Fox. While exeorating the rascal, I was forced to recognize

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112 PARIS IN AMERICA. in him a certain talent which he abused. By turns seri- ous and mocking, he had a way of praising his adversaries so as to render them ridiculous, and of jesting on his candidates so as to raise them in all eyes. He ended by a rapid enumeration of the wealth which the banker would diffuse in Anieiàca. Little became a Jupiter, fall- ing in showers of gold into the lap of a new Danes. At the voice of the lawyer, railroads, canals and steamboats ranged around the banker in an electoral cortège, while, with a disdainful gesture, the haranguer showed us the grocer drowned in his molasses, or swallowed up in the account of his herrings and sardines. " Friends of peace !" exclaimed he, in closing, " will you choose for the head of the city this manufacturer of lucifer matches, whose merchandise is at the bottom of every conflagration ? Friends of liberty ! will you elect this dealer in salt cod, who feeds the slaves of the South, and who would become bankrupt to-morrow if his cus- tomers, freed by our money, should leave his corrupt merchandise on his hands ? No, never will you descend to this shame. For my part, a pure-blooded Yankee, a friend of the country, proud of all our glories, rather than give my vote to this man, I would cast it for" he paused, winking his eye and lowering his voice "for him whom, in their universal pity, our women call a, poor fallen angel I will not utter his name." A thunder of applause greeted the orator. He de- scended from the platform, showered with compliments and promises. In every assembly there is always a flock of simpletons that bleat after the last speaker. His suc- cess was not sufficient for the traitor ; he came straight to me, extended me a hand which I dared not refuse, and said, in a voice which resounded through the hall:

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CANVASSING. 113 " Dr. Smith, it is your turn now ; fair play for all is the motto of a Yankee." I rose in a cold sweat. The cry rung from every part of the hall, " Hear ! hear !" The noise, the eyes fixed on me, the S'lence which ensued, all turned my brain ; a red cloud passed before my eyes, my voice stuck in my throat, and my whole body shook from the throbbing of my heart. What would I not have given to have pur- chased the loquacity of this wretch ! I had nobler ideas than his a more sincere patriotism ; but the lawyer had the habit, the trade ; and I, the citizen of a free country, had not even been taught to speak. I was van- quished, and vanquished without a struggle. I was about to swoon with anger and shame, when suddenly my son Henry, who had seen me turn pale, leaped on the platform and made a sign that he wished to speak. His body upright, head erect, feet square, and left hand buried in his buttoned coat, he gracefully waved his right hand, and waited till the tumult should sub- side. "His son! his son!" the murmur ran on all sides. "Hear! hear!" Every one looked at the child with curiosity. There was a profound silence; one might have heard a fly buzz. " Citizens and friends," said he, in a clear and piercing voice, " I do not come to fight the terrible Goliath of Banker Little. Not that I lack stones : the Philistine has thrown only too many into our garden ; but I have nothing of David but his youth. I have not strength to cope with this too practised, adversary ; all that I shall attempt is to defend my father and my party ; and I am sure that there is not one among you, noble-hearted men but will say, ' This young man is right.' "

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114 PARIS IN AMERICA. "Hear! hear!" the shouts rung on all sides; "he speaks well." " The honorable lawyer," continued my son, emphasiz- ing the first word, " does not like the grocery business. This surprises me. He spends so much for coarse salt that we would be glad to have his custom. If he will give it us, we will supply him, into the bargain, with the sugar which he lacks. Sugar allays the bile ; without it, a man looks on things with a jaundiced eye, and is unjust to his friends and companions in arms." I know not where my son found this low cast of elo- quence, but it suited the taste of the ignorant crowd : they laughed, they applauded, the women waved their handkerchiefs. Henry replied by a smile ; the assembly was his. " I shall not speak ill of the bankers," continued my orator of sixteen. " Bankers are like dentists we must not make «nemies of them ; who knows whether we may not need them to-morrow ? But is it into their hands that we are to commit the interests of the city ? I re- member that my grandmother, a sainted woman of Con- necticut, a grand-daughter of our pilgrim fathers, often used to repeat to me, that she had heard her virtuous sires say that the banker sustains the State as the cord sustains the thief by strangling it." " Three groans for the bankers !" cried a shrill voice the voice of some stray debtor in the crowd. The cry was echoed; the hall shook with these howls, which tickled my paternal ear as if they had been a sonata of Beethoven. " My grandmother," continued the child, excited by these huzzas, " used to set us riddles to amuse us winter evenings in the chimney corner. ' If a banker, a lawyer,

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CANVASSING. 115 and a tailor be put into the same bag,' said she, ' and one drawn at random, which will surely come out ?' " "A thief !" repeated the audience, delighted to recog- nize a memory of childhood. Henry approached the edge of the platform, laid his finger on his lip, and said, in a low tone : " That is the word which grandmother used, but to-day we say, ' A successful millionaire.' " " Indeed," added he, " I have no spite against fortune ; I hope to make my way as well as others." " And you will go far, my little giant," cried a coarse voice, which stirred the assembly. " Show me," added my son, animated by this suffrage, " show me a fortune honorably acquired ; ships sent to the East Indies, Newfoundland, and the Moluccas. I will greet in the person of Green twenty years of labor, calcu- lation and economy ; but these ohance riches, these mil- lions gained at play in a day, do not tell me of them ; they are the property of others passed into the pocket of a more adroit trickster. A fortune without labor is a for- tune without honor ! (Hear, hear !) " And besides, my dear fellow citizens, is it fortune that you reward ? Is it not courage and devotion ? Was not Green the noble captain who entered a burning house to save your wife or daughter, perhaps ? Have you not all adopted the child that my father snatched yesterday from the flames ? Oh ye, our conscience, ye stars of our souls, mothers, wives, daughters, sisters! speak, ladies ! for whom are we to vote ? (Hear, hear !) " I love brave men, who are not afraid to enter the flames," continued my young Gracchus, " I have no taste for those who live in them eternally. Let the nameless gentleman of whom my opponent speaks have

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116 PARIS IN AMERICA. all the sympathies of our adversaries, I am not surprised at it. It is natural that Mr. Fox should choose his repre- sentative from his family or friends. We, who have less illustrious connections what we wish at the head of our affairs is an honest man. This man's name we have not to hide : it is the son of his works, it is the child of the city, it is Green !" " Hurrah for Green ! hurrah for Smith !" cried all the crowd, carried away by emotion. The victory was ours. In the midst of this uproar, Henry sought my eye. He was about to escape from his rising glory when a robust Kentucky hunter, one of those giants who boast of being half horse, half alligator, carried off my son by force in his arms, and made the round of the hall. The thunder of applause that ensued well nigh brought down the walls. All the men shook the young prodigy by the hand, all the women embraced him. I wished to cry, "I am his father!" but a second time fear choked my words, and I sighed, saying in a whisper, " Alas, that I am not my son 1"

Chapter XIV Vanitas Vanitatum 119 0117

VANITAS VANITATUM. 117 CHAPTER XIV. VANITAS VANITATUM. When the crowd had dispersed, bearing afar the glory and name of the future Webster, I embraced the orator at leisure, and we set out for home together. Ashamed of the mute part to which my timidity had condemned me, I could not resist the wish to tease the Cicero in embryo. " Come, you dog," said I, " where did you get this facility of chattering, and this assurance which is dis- turbed at nothing? To improvise, declaim, wed the gesture to the word where has this art, lost since the ancients, been taught you ? " "At school," replied Henry. "You must know, papa you, who have so many times made me recite my ¦Enfield.* Did I stand erect ? Did I not carry my arm above my head ? Are you satisfied with me ?" " And do all your comrades chatter like yourself?" " Of course, papa. A nation of mutes would be fine oitizens ! To speak and gesticulate is as necessary to us as to read and write. There is not one among us that will not be something in society, the county, the state. * " Enfield's Speaker" is a collection of the finest pieces of poetry and eloquence in the English language, and is used in American schools to teach children to recite by heart, or rather to declaim. The work is preceded by a treatise on mimicry and gesture, with plates, giving the position of the body, head, and hands, for each passion to be expressed.

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118 PARIS IN AMERICA. Members of a meeting or an association, voters, candi- dates, magistrates, senators we will all find it necessary to address the publio ; we are, therefore, accustomed to it at school. To improvise is not difficult, and is very amusing. It is our delight, in our play hours, to argue; I have already made a hundred speeches to my future voters. But my forte is gesture. ' Action ! ' says' Demosthenes, in my Enfield, 'action! actionV Look at me, papa." And behold ! my scamp strode up and down, declaim- ing some speech of Lord Chatham against the American war. He advanced, paused, raised his eyes to heaven, clasped his hands, clenched his fist, placed his hand on his heart, and ended by leaping on my neck with shouts of laughter ; while I, his father, incapable of saying a word or lifting a finger, stood confounded before this exhibition of a precocious perversity, the fruit of an unhealthy education. My spn was not a prodigy, he was only a Yankee, too skillfully trained. " Unhappy child," said I ; " since you are going to the East Indies, of what use will this histrionio art he to you ? It would do, if you were a lawyer." " I shall be, some day, papa," answered Henry. "Let me earn ten thousand dollars there ; on my return I shall study, and enter into partnership with an experienced master." "And then?" asked I, dismayed at this youthful ambition. " Then, papa, I shall get myself chosen representative for the State of Massachusetts, and afterwards senator.' "And then?" " Then, papa, I shall be sent to Congress,, and later, made United States senator."

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VANITAS VANITATUM. 119 "And then?" " Then, papa, I shall be Secretary of State, like Mr. Seward ; or, if I cannot succeed in that, President, like Mr. Lincoln." "And then," exclaimed I, "you will doubtless take the place of Lucifer; for you have the ambition and pride of a demon !" " Papa," returned the child, troubled at my vivacity, " all my companions do the same. Our masters have always told us that we are the hope of the country, and that the republic stands in need of us. To enter the political career is not ambition, but a duty. The citizen who advances furthest in it is the one who best serves his country." " Oh, the heathen ! the heathen !" I exclaimed; "behold us returned to the scandals of Athens and Rome ! The first duty of a Christian, sir, is to remain in his humility, to shun politics, and never to meddle with the affairs of his country, unless compelled to do so by the sovereign power." " Papa, this is not what is taught us from the pulpit. Last Sunday, a Pope Pius VIL, I believe was cited to us, who ssid when he was only a bishop, it is true '¦Be good Christians, and you will be good republicans? All our liberties come from the Gospel. It is repeated to us without ceasing, that the morality of Christ leads to democracy ; that is, to fraternal equality, and respect of the most obscure individual. Love each other. What does this mean, if not that the stronger should aid the weaker, with his fortune, counsels, and devotion ?" I seized Henry's arm : "Poor child, blinded by the folly of thy masters, see," said I, " whither the democracy is going I"

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120 PARIS IN AMERICA. Before us walked, with measured steps, a man encased in a wooden frame. On this ambulating placard was written, in large characters : THE LYNX. The Journal of the Democracy. CITIZENS ! * BEWARE OF INTRIGUERS AND FOOLSl GREEN, 1 SMITH, > or the ridiculous trio unmasked. HUMBUG, ) "Give me the Lynx" said I to a newspaper vender, " Here it is, sir," said the man in a jeering tone ; "but, if you want to laugh, I advise you to take the Sun and the Tribune. There you will see the trio lashed in fine style." The Lynx was enough for me. I opened the execra- ble sheet. Green was keenly satirized; coarse truths were told of Humbug ; but I ! great God ! how was I treated ? What falsehood ! what abuse ! what abomina- tion! I crumpled the wretched paper, ana was about to throw it into the gutter, its true place, when, at the threshold of my door, I met the jovial and impertinent smile of Humbug. " You are triumphing, Mr. Journalist," said I, thrust- ing the Lynx in his face. " Elections are your festivals; they are the saturnalias of calumny 1" " Calumny," said the fat man, shrugging his shoulders,

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VANITAS VANITATUM. 121 "is like the small pox; when it comes out, we are cured; when it strikes in, we die." " It is only in your democracies that such infamous things are printed." "I believe it," replied the sophist, happy to seize a new paradox on the wing. " In the monarchies of the Old World, men take care not to print calumny they whisper it ; it is a more perfidious and surer way. They do not attack men in the face, lest they might defend themselves; they stab them in the back. There, intrigue and falsehood rule without diffusion ; and there the prince is the first victim of that poison, whose exhalation he prevents. Summa petit livor. Calumny, doctor, is the scourge and chastisement of despotism ; in a free coun- try, it is like the sting of a wasp it is forgotten on the morrow." " Mr. Philosopher," said I, drily, " read this journal ; you are in question in it." " Another reason for not reading it. It is always the same theme, with six or eight substantives, pretentious epithets, to vary the chorus. Have you the audacity not to follow the docile sheep whioh are drawn along by adroit leaders? dare you have an opinion and will of your own ? you are a proud visionary and an ambiti- ous fanatic. Do you tell the truth to your fellow citizens, do you seek to enlighten them on the conditions of liberty, to warn them against the dangers of anarchy ? you are an infamous aristocrat, a servile admirer of perfidious Albion. In other words, to open the eyes of the people, is to ruin the trade of the leaders of the blind, and to throw out of employment honest men, who are far from pardoning it. Do you speak frankly and call by their name abuses and those who live by them ?

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122 PARIS IN AMERICA. you are a flatterer of the crowd and a cowardly dema- gogue. Ironical eulogies if your nomination be defeated, gross and stale abuse if it succeed such is the eternal song of journals and journalists without self-respect. We are made in this like street organs. It is the pleasure of the envious, of gossips, of good people with a false ear, We must be indulgent to the petty miseries of hu- manity." " Read the article," returned I, impatiently ; " we will see how far your placidity will go." Once entered into the parlor, where happily we were alone, Humbug burst into laughter at the insulting di& tribe, while Henry ran to learn the news. " Green has no cause to complain," said the fat jour- nalist, laughing. " From the rough manner in which he is treated, it is evident that his stock is rising. Mine i| not bad. The shameless Falstaff, is fine ; the tipsy &k nus, who does not even lack his ass when the doctor « by, is from a mythology which does honor to the erudi- tion of the writer. All this is the telum imbelle, sine icto, of a party at bay." "Why are these wretches not hindered from speak- ing?" " Doctor, have you found the philosopher's stone? To know in advance whafr people will say is a which is still sought ; the only way to avoid the which terrifies you is to gag the whole world a remedy, which kills men to prevent them from leading an ill life. Is this the medicine which you practise? These scoundrels, you say, are paid to carry on an igno- ble trade; they abuse liberty, they prostitute it; I grant it you, but this abuse preserves us the use of offl rights. There are women who abuse the right of walk-

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VANITAS VANITATUM. 123 ing the streets ; shall we shut up our wives in a harem? There are people who kill themselves by gluttony and drunkenness ; shall we put ourselves on the diet of San- oho Panza in the island of Barataria? Through fear of a conflagration, would you forbid tinder-boxes and matches ? Through fear of an assassin, would you take from us one of the first rights of a free people, the right to have arms ? Every liberty involves in its train a pos- sible abuse ; every power and every instrument does the same. To suppress liberty in order to prevent abuses, to prevent good in order to prevent evil, is to arraign God himself and to prove to him that he understood nothing at Creation." " If you cannot prevent calumny," exclaimed I, " pun- ish it ; invent fearful tortures ; chastise him who takes away my honor as you would him who takes away my life!" " The courts are open to you," answered Humbug ; "but contempt is a speedier and surer justice. Is it certain, moreover, that we are calumniated ? For my part, I do not feel hurt." " I do not know what you have in your veins," said I, snatching the paper from his hand. " Hear how an anonymous coward dares treat a man of my rank and age ; I will show you then how to punish such infa- mies." And in a voice trembling with rage I read as follows : " The doctor is a triple fool. He is a fool by birth ; thirty years' study have rendered him still more foolish; and he lacked nothing but a grain of ambition to lose the little sense which labor had left him. We all know the folly of the simple- ton, who sees no further than the end of his nose. The stupid admirer of the past, Old Europe is his ideal ; he sees nothing to

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124 PARIS IN AMERICA. admire outside those decrepit societies where Roman tradition, where the despotism of the administration stifles all independ- ence and vitality. The learned Smith, the glory of twenty unknown academies, is one of the tremblers who would ha?e cried on the day of creation, ' O God, stop ! you will disturb Chaos!' He is like the railroad conductors, who turn their backs on the train which carries them along. He sees nothing, he admires nothing but what is fleeing and disappearing in the shadow of the past; he does not feel that behind him is rising « new sun and world the reign of the individual, the triumph of liberty. Let such a mummy remain in his museum and receive the adoration of idlers ; we will not go thither to disturb him; but what would these dim eyes, these mute lips, this powerless aim do in the broad daylight of public life ? What our young and glorious republic needs are men of our times bankers, to advance civilization by daily creating new enterprises and stocks; orators, to guide us towards the magnificent destinies which the future has in store for us. Leave the dead to bury their deadf ours are hearts open to all the great social aspirations, head» alive to the palpitating questions of the present moment. Let simpletons and poltroons vote for their old fetiches ; our candi- dates are men whom Europe envies us ; the able and generous banker, Little, the eloquent and celebrated lawyer, Fox ! " To-morrow, the voice of the people, issuing from the bal- lot-box like the thunder from the cloud, will proclaim through all America the victory of the chosen of the Democracy. Hurrah for Little ! Hurrah for Fox !" "Bravo," said Humbug ; "doctor, you are hit. This is a pretty article nothing that attacks your character;» pleasantries somewhat strong, it is true, but at the same time spicy, spirited, ingenious and observant, to say no- thing of their fine style. The fellow who wrote this tirade is no fool," " Come with me to the office of the Lynx?* said I, in my turn, " and you shall see how a triple fool boxes the

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VANITAS VANITATUM. 125 ears of a witty fellow ; the gentleman is in need of the lesson." " Are you mad ?" cried the burly journalist, springing from his seat. "If any other than I heard you, you would be made to give bail for ten thousand dollars, or be sent to the penitentiary. Do you take us for red- skins? Are you a Christian? It is in the wilds of Arkansas that men argue with fists and revolvers ; in Massachusetts, there is no vengeance but that of the law. Among a civilized people, men talk much and quarrel sharply ; but they do not assassinate a rival no more do they fight him.'' " Savages !" exclaimed I, " who do not even know a point of honor." "Savage, yourself," answered Humbug, laughing. "Really, doctor, the bleeding renders you ferocious. In what oan it avail the cause of justice and reason, to kill men or he killed by them ? A duel profits no one but the physician or grave-digger." "What do you do, then, sir, when you are meanly insulted by a pamphleteer ?" " My dear doctor," replied the tame-spirited candi- date, " I repeat to myself or aloud a Turkish proverb, the profound wisdom of which I commend to you: '¦He who stops to throw stones at all the dogs that bark at him, will never reach the end of his journey' upon which, I go to look after my election and yours ; do the same on your side, and you will soon forget the Lynx and its rhetoric. lTu ne cede mails, sed contra audentior ito? Adieu."

Chapter XV A Souvenir Of The Absent Country 128 0126

126 PARIS IN AMERICA. CHAPTER XV. A SOUVENIR OF THE ABSENT COUNTRY. The arrival of my wife and children softened my DI humor; the news was good. Alfred and Henry had been through all the meetings, and had received cheer- ings and promises everywhere ; Jenny and Susan had seen all their female friends. Two hundred ladies, the most important in the city, were wearing my photograph in a medallion on their neck ; the election was certain, The gaiety of our modest dinner completed the cure of my wounds. We were all of one heart and soul. My Jenny was more animated than at the baptism of her first born. I have always remarked that women are naturally ambitious; a young and handsome husband, who is nothing, will never have the art to please them long ; an old husband will receive their sweetest smile, should fame or fortune crown his white hairs. When love is joined to this legitimate ambition, the wife then becomes our veritable half, in all the beauty of the word, We see, we think, we dream double ; it is perfect happi- ness on earth ; a happiness almost unknown in France, where the fashion interdicts to women serious tastes aud generous passions; a happiness common in the United States, where publio opinion invites women to take part in them. Susan was still more ardent than her mother- it was my blood ! She talked of nothing but my elec- tion. It is true, that she had made Alfred one of my

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A SOUVENIR OF THE ABSENT COUNTRY. 127 principal supporters ; to occupy herself with me, was to occupy herself with him. In the evening there was a new demonstration. All the firemen, in full dress, and each carrying a torch in his hand, defiled under our windows, with musio at their head. The young men of the city, dressed in uniforms and varied costumes, accompanied them with long poles, surmounted by Chinese lanterns. In the midst of the procession an immense banner, with a lighted transpar- ency, showed to the amazed crowd two species of black devils, emerging from the flames, with white bundles in their arms. The names Green and Smith, written under these figures, gave a human meaning to this infer- nal scene, which was applauded as it passed. The woman and child whom we had rescued were drawn in an open carriage by four white horses, the whole adorned with lanterns and inscriptions. It was a triumphal march a procession worthy the palmy days of Eleusis. Shouts and cheers burst forth on every side, and sometimes also a few groans, which were quickly drowned by huzzas. The opposition was conquered and put to flight by the beauty of our inventions. It was difficult for Little to rival our marvels. What could he parade through the streets ? Ruined stockholders? A people is not allured by this daily spectacle. At ten o'clock, Jenny read the Bible to us. We left off at the fifth chapter of Daniel ; that is, the story of King Belshazzar and the avenging hand which wrote on the wall the death sentence, Mené, Tékel, Vpharsin. It was a fine opportunity for Martha to prophesy ; she did not miss it. Whether I would or no, she compared me to Nebuchadnezzar, and condemned me to remain with the wild asses and eat the grass of the field like an ox, if

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128 PARIS IN AMERICA. ever I should forget that the Most High has a sovereign power over men, and that he sets on the throne whom he pleases. The lesson seemed to me a little emphatic for a future street inspector ; but perhaps it is not necessary to be a king, to have the pride and insolence of Nebu- chadnezzar. Who knows whether the Assyrian clerks were not already more impertinent than their magnifi- cent sovereign ? I laughed at the sibyl ; nevertheless I was excited by this nomination, and too much excited to find sleep. On going to my room, I filled a pipe with excellent Virginia tobacco and, seating myself by the window, endeawred to soothe my agitated senses. The street was deserted ; the moon, illuminating with its pale light the mute and closed houses, added to the mystery and calm of the night. All was sleeping in the distance ; all, was silent. The only sound that disturbed this universal silence, or rather that made itself felt, was the ticking of a wooden clock at the foot of my bed. Lulled by this monotonous sound, and stupefied by the fumes of the tobacco, I gave full rein #to my reveries, when suddenly the clock became animated. A grating of wheels and groaning of cords and pulleys announced that the hour was about to strike. I rose to admire this masterpiece of German clockmaking. On reaching it, a cock of painted wood, perched on the top of the clock, flapped his wings and uttered three shrill cries. A door opened abruptly below the cock, and showed me Paris, the Seine, and the Hotel de Ville in 1830. Lafayette, in a blond peruke, blue coat, and white pantaloons, was embracing at the same time a foot soldier, a gendarme, and a tricolored flag, on which was written, in letters of gold, Liberty and Public Order. Eleven times the

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A SOUVENIR OF THE ABSENT COUNTRY. 129 clock struck, eleven times the brave Lafayette shook his head and waved his flag ; then the door closed, the Gallic cock flapped his wings and crowed more shrilly than ever, and the vision disappeared. This lost souvenir, this motto, long since forgotten, awakened the golden dreams of my ohildhood. How our hearts beat in 1830 ! Poor, ignorant beings ! We did not know then that liberty, like all mistresses, ruins and betrays those who love her. Liberty and public order! terrible words the Mené, Tekel, Jlpharsin of modern times ! This is the enigma which, every fifteen years, the Sphinx of revolutions proposes to France, always ready to devour the dipus that does not divine it. Liberty and public order! One might style them two immortal enemies who, by turn, conquering and conquered, wage against each other an endless combat, of which we are the stake. One day liberty prevails the sky resounds with joy and hope ; but, lo ! under the mask of this serene divinity, anarchy triumphs, drawing after it civil war, attacking all rights, menacing all inte- rests, making a frightened people recoil in horror. The next day public order is installed, sabre in hand, giving peace, imposing silence ; ere long breaking all barriers, and, by its own weight, gliding into that abyss where falls every power which nothing counsels or restrains. Whence comes this perpetual shipwreck ? Whence comes it that for seventy years past an honest, brave, ingenious people has built naught but ruins, always discontented, always declining ? How is it that in the United States, where all heads are turned by liberty, where no one speaks of public order, the internal peace is never disturbed ? In this turbulent democracy, in this crowd abandoned to itself, 6*

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130 PARIS IN AMERICA. without police and without gendarmes, why are there neither riots nor revolutions ? America has not, likens, a hundred thousand functionaries ranged in battle array, an admirable administration, which prescribes everything, anticipates everything, directs everything, and regulates everything. It has not, in the face of this compact or- ganization, a docile, commanded, repressed, directed, and regulated people ; yet, notwithstanding, it is tranquil and prosperous. Liberty, guarantied in its full exercise by law, punished in its excess by justice this is publie order to the Americans. Their narrow intellect has never risen to that tutelary centralization which makes our unity and glory. Among this primitive people, public order has not been separated from liberty ; it has not been personified ; it has not been surrounded with for. midable ramparts and ever-loaded cannon. No hierar- chic administration, no repressive police, no inviolable functionaries, no privileged tribunals; nothing of that scholarly mechanism which, among civilized nations, breaks all resistance and crushes all individuality. The law all-powerful, the citizen master of and responsible for his actions, the functionary reduced to the common law, tho administration amenable to the courts this is the whole system. It is of ridiculous simplicity. Noth- ing but laws and judges in this embryo government; yet, notwithstanding, peace and wealth everywhere. Strange derision of fortune which our great politicians have not yet explained to us. Why has it not yet been proved to the Americans that they are happy contrary to all rules, and that they ought to envy us our revolutions ? With these fine reflections I fell asleep. I know not how long I had slept when I felt myself ab- ruptly shaken by a muscular hand. By my side, on my

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A SOUVENIR OF THE ABSENT COUNTRY. 131 bed, was a corporal of the gendarmery. The sight gave me pleasure. A gendarme ! I was in France, I had regained my country ! " Up ! up ! M. Lefebvre," cried the corporal, with a Gascon accent which smelt of garlic half a league off. I looked closely at this amiable messenger ; his face was not unknown to me. This eye, this voice, this sar- donic laugh it was the terrible medium, Jonathan Dream, my enemy. At the sight of the traitor, my joy changed to terror. " Who are you ? What do you want ?" asked I. " By what right do you enter by night into the dwelling of a peaceable citizen ? My house is my castle." " Silence, citizen," returned the gendarme. " Do not be so unreasonable as to reason with the government which does not reason because it always has reason upon its side." Upon this he opened his cartridge box, and took from it a file of stamped paper. ' " Number one," said he. " To the Sieur Lefebvre, or one styling himself such. For having had the imper- tinence to criticise the municipal authority in a public sheet, with respect to paving the street, a reprimand, until further judgment." " This is extraordinary," exclaimed I. " Instead of reprimanding me, the authority had better offer me apologies and mend the pavement." " Silence, citizen," returned the gendarme. " As a private individual, I do not deny that the pavement is bad, I have just picked up two animals which had stum- bled on it before the door ; but as a gendarme, I declare your complaint as indiscreet as inopportune. If my colonel should say to me, ' Corporal, to-morrow it will

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132 PARIS IN AMERICA. be dark at noon-day,' I would answer, ' Very well, colo- nel,' and would put the first street boy into the guard room who should take it into his head to see clearly, The instructions say that the pavement is good ; there- fore, it must be good, and none but evil-disposed persons come expressly through guilty malice to break then- necks on it." " What !" cried I, indignantly, " have I not the right to criticise the authority when it does not do its duty?" " On the contrary, citizen," returned the gendarme, " prefer yotflr complaint ; the French government is quite willing to be censured ; but it is necessary to be polite with it. You have not asked its permission to criticise it. You have been rude, my dear friend." " My good fellow, I respect you, but you reason like a cartridge box. The government is made for us, I sup- pose, not we for the government." "A colossal error, my good sir," returned the gen- darme, with an air of contempt which roused my indig- nation. " Those who obey are made for those who com- mand ; those who command are not made for those who obey." "" But we are France we are the country." " The country, my good sir," returned the impassive gendarme, " is composed of marshals, generals, colonels, captains, lieutenants, prefects, mayors and other em- broidered coats that I respect; the rest is a heap of conscripts and tax-payers whose duty it is to pay and be silent "------ " Without murmuring ; is it not ? I know this song. Ah ! if we had justice !" "You would not have the administration, citizen; you would be an Iroquois, like the Englishmen and

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A SOUVENIR OF THE ABSENT COUNTRY. 133 other cannibals who do as they please. You would not have the honor to be a civilized man and a Frenchman. " Number two," continued he. " To the Sieur Le- febvre, for having had the audacity to parade his lugu- brious person from door to door a notice from the prefect, who deprives him of his free functions as member of the charitable board, until further judg- ment." " All nominations are free," exclaimed I. " Doubtless," answered the gendarme, " they are free, but with the authorization of the authority» " Number three. To the said Lefebvre, for having distributed, or caused to be distributed, electoral ballots bearing his name or that of certain persons by name unknown, equally obscure and scandalous a summons to appear this day week before the president and judges composing the tribunal of correctional police, to answer for the offence of the distribution of unauthorized printed matter." " What ! Cannot I distribute to my voters the ballot bearing my name ?" " You can do everything, my good sir," returned the gendarme, " but with the authorization of the authority. Well, if you do not admit it, do you imagine that the authority will suffer idlers to commit a folly which would degenerate into opposition ? Would that I were the government ! I would lock you up properly, until further judgment. " Number four. To the aforesaid Lefebvre, for having joineoVhimself publicly to a band of persons unknown, assembled in a so-called electoral assembly, which con- stitutes a club, if not a secret society a summons to appear before the aforesaid tribunal, to see himself con-

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134 PARIS IN AMERICA. demned in virtue of Article 291 of the penal code, to prison, until further judgment. "Number five. To the said Lefebvre, for having incited his minor son to hold in the aforesaid club an incendiary speech against the honorable and disoreet person of M. Petit, the candidate of the government a summons to appear before the aforesaid tribunal, as abettor and accomplice of and moreover civilly re- sponsible for the said offence, until further judg- ment." " What, hare I not the right to assemble my constitu- ents, and have they not the right to know the opinions of their representative ?" " They have all the rights, my good sir ;" answered the gendarme, "but always with the authorization of the authority. It would be a fine thing if the soldiers in a barrack were left to assemble together, and raise an outcry, without permission !" " But we are not in barracks." " A foolish question needs no answer," returned the gendarme ; " nevertheless, citizen, I will condescend so far as to enlighten your profound ignorance. Every Frenchman is born a soldier, and made to await the word of command. The more he is ruled, the better he is contented. Let no one disturb the obedience which makes his joy. If I were the government, I would hang all the loungers, while awaiting further judgment. " Number six. To the aforesaid Lefebvre, for having covered the walls, or suffered them to be covered, with unmeaning and criminal placards; item, for having organized, or suffered to be organized, a revolutionary procession, and having paved the way for an improper riot, which would have broken out, had it not been for

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A SOUVENIR OF THE ABSENT COUNTRY. 135 the precautions and vigilance of the police, whose eye is always open a summons to appear before the aforesaid tribunal, to see and hear himself condemned to the penalties prescribed by the law, until further judg- ment." "Thanks, corporal," exclaimed I; "thanks, M. Gen- Adarme ; I am the victim of an error. In France, doubt- less, I should be a great culprit ; but we are in America ; I am innocent. What is a crime in France is a right in the United States." " Spare me your thanks," answered the inflexible gen- darme, taking from his pocket something that looked like handcuffs. "As a private individual, I flatter myself that I have not an unfeeling heart, but at this moment I am the organ of the law." " Then the law is gasconade." " Silence, rebel ; enough talk. To hear them, they are all as innocent as a new-born child. Innocent or not, my fine fellow, I suspect you of being suspected, and through precaution, I shall lay hold of you." Saying this, he grasped my arm with such force that I uttered a cry of pain. The cry awakened me. Thank God ! I was dreaming. To shake off this abominable nightmare, I lighted the gas. Horror! At the back of the bed I perceived the shadow of a menacing arm, and that cocked hat and tuft which make the boldest turn pale. Frozen, with trembling heart, I remained motionless, like a criminal awaiting the sentence of death. At this moment, the cock of the wooden clock crowed the cock which puts to flight the evil spirits of the night ; I turned towards the wall, and burst into a fit of laughter. The arm which had terrified me was my own ; the cocked hat

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136 PARIS IN AMERICA. was nothing but the shadow of a few disordered hairs ; and the terrible tuft was only the tassel of my through respect for the modesty of my lady readers, I will not finish. I extinguished the light, and, falling back into my bed: " Oh, gendarme !" I exclaimed, " brave and loyal sol- dier, simple and generous heart, no one better than thou represents public order among a people that knows authority only in uniform, and peace only with a sword in hand. The terror of the mendicant and vagrant, the remorse of the poacher, the conscience of the innkeeper and wine merchant, the religion aud morality of the citi- zen, the right hand of the mayor, the organ of the pre- fect, oh, gendarme, I respect and love thee ! but pardon the temerities of my fancy ; I would have misery some day no longer a crime; I would not have the police repress the good which is superabundant, in order to prevent the evil which is only the exception ; I would have liberty, restored to all citizens, banish from our laws offences which are not such ; I would lastly (oh, minister of the government, do not shrug thy shoulders) I would have the courts alone give the orders, and thy avenging mission limited to pursuing knaves and arresting villains legally denounced! I know, oh, corporal, how thou wilt smile at this American Utopia, but I bequeath it to the twenty-first century, as the thought which will one day immortalize my name. Then, I ask that, in my native city, in the midst of the square that will replace my street and house, an imaginary bust shall be erected to me over a fountain without water, and that on it shall be engraven the following inscription

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A SOUVENIR OF THE ABSENT COUNTRY. 137 TO THE DREAMER, WHO, IN 1862, DEMANDED THAT THE COURTS ALONE SHOULD HAVE THE RIOHT TO ARREST CITIZENS, AND ONLY UPON LEGAL DENUNCIATION, BY THE GRATEFUL GENDAEMEEY, JULY 14, 2089. " And I bequeath my last five-franc piece to the Acad- emy of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres, with the com- pound interest thereon for two centuries, in order that it may write out, in Hebrew, Coptic, Sanscrit, and Syriac, an idea which the Frenchman, born malin, has never comprehended, and which his language is powerless to express, sub lege libertas."

Chapter XVI The Election-The Sabbath 140 0138

138 PARIS IN AMERICA. CHAPTER XVI. THE ELECTION THE SABBATH. At length the day arrived that famous Saturday, April 3, which was to make a Parisian of the Chaussée d'Antin a member of the municipal administration of Paris, in Massachusetts. At seven o'clock in the morn- ing, in glorious weather, a hundred and twenty ballot- boxes were opened amidst a solemn calm. At the door of every poll were seen two long files of voters, who, with a patience and decision wholly Saxon, awaited the moment to exercise their sovereign right. The quarrels had ceased; the enemies of the night before were ex- changing jests and shaking hands. Each one bowed in advance before the decree of the majority, while awaiting his revenge at the end of the year. At noon, the ballot-boxes were emptied and the elec- tion proclaimed. Green received 116,735 votes against 78,622 given to Little; Humbug obtained 146,327votes, while the unlucky Fox had but 18,124; lastly, despite a few ballots contested by envious scrutators, I was elected by 199,999 votes. Never had street-inspector been proclaimed by a more imposing majority. The effect was great in Massachusetts, greater still in Eng- land. As the price of cotton had just risen, the Times declared that the Yankees were savages, whose ballots were ruled only by bullets, and thence concluded that the democracy was ungovernable Old Pam resumed the theme in Parliament. He proved to the English

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THE ELECTION----THE SABBATH. 139 that they were the first people on the globe, and that, in default of a hereditary aristocracy, Jonathan did not reach to John Bull's knee a somewhat harsh truth, which honest John Bull will digest with his usual mod- esty, while voting his largest budget. The amiable Truth informed me of my election. He greatly regretted, he said, being unable to announce this good news to the public ; but, the day before, he had sold his journal to Eugene Rose, and retired from politics. " You do well," said I. " Rest, and for a long time ; you are in need of it." " To rest is not an American word," replied he, with his gentle smile. " Young or old, sick or well, a Yan- kee works till death. It is the duty of a man and Chris- tian. I have fallowed the advice of Humbug and re- turned to the studies and tastes of my youth. The Con- gregationalist Church in Acacia street has called me to be its pastor, and I have accepted. To-morrow I enter upon my functions." " A journalist yesterday, a pastor to-morrow you are a universal man : you change your profession like your coat. In six months what will you be ?" " What God pleases," replied the new minister. " If Humbug were here, he who has been by turn a planter in the West, a soldier in Mexico, a lawyer in Philadel- phia, v. journalist in Paris, and who to-morrow will be a magistrate, he would tell you, in one of bis favorite quotations : ' Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto.' You yourself, doctor, were a scholar the other day, a fire- man the day before yesterday, a candidate yesterday,

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140 PARIS IN AMERICA. an inspector of the streets to-day : on Monday you will be a physician. It seems to me that you change charac- ter with sufficient facility. Herein is one of the great virtues of our glorious country. In Old Europe, one is born and dies in the skin of a comedy actor. All his life, he is soldier, judge, lawyer, merchant, manufacturer never man. He has only the narrow ideas and prejudi- ces of his trade. Here the occupation matters little; it is an overcoat put on and taken off, according to the oc- casion ; one is a man before all, and everywhere. In this is the root of that equality which makes our strength and glory. Clay was a Kentucky miller ; Douglas and Einooln were Illinois farmers ; General Banks, the Bob- bin Boy, was a cotton tyer. All have become men be- cause they have labored and suffered. He who has not struggled with life does not know what it is worth. The struggle against realities makes the education of the will and the wisdom of the heart. The aristocracy will produce delicate, sickly souls ; the empire of the world belongs to the parvenus. The future is ours." " Truth, you preach marvelously. When you are Bpeaking, I feel that you are right ; but when you are gone, and I collect my memories, your theories appal me. If I had the weakness to listen to you, you would make me unlearn all that my masters have taught me. No matter, we will go to hear you to-morrrow. A sim- ple Christian addressing his brothers, and expounding the Gospel to them in every-day language, will be origi- nal. I have no idea of republican Christianity." Just as Truth quitted me, I was sought for to be in- stalled into my new functions. Jenny, Susan, Alfred, and I seated ourselves in a beautiful open carriage, with Mar- tha, who was anxious, doubtless, to watch over my

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THE ELECTION--THE SABBATH. 141 pride. Henry sat with the coachman, and Sambo climbed behind the carriage. Two vigorous trotters, such as are seen only in America, bore us to Montmorency, the ex- treme limit of my jurisdiction. We were forced to stop more than once. Every road laborer was at his post, awaiting the new inspector. I assured these honest men of my good will, while my wife aud daughter lavished on them their most gracious smiles. We were born to be princes. The only thing that annoyed me was to find toll-gates at intervals. I recognized here that demo- cratic meanness, which causes service to be paid for by those who profit by it, to release those to whom it is of no advantage. I promised myself to correct this abuse, unknown in old Europe, and to establish everywhere a triumphant equality. Moreover, this annoyance did not hold out against the magnificent bouquets which the gatekeepers and principal roadmakers offered to Jenny and Susan. The carriage was a basket ; we were buried in flowers. We were harangued like kings. Good peo- ple, who certainly had no knowledge of Hebrew, did not fail to compare my Susan to the lilies of the valley. Jenny, blushing with pleasure, looked like a full-blown rose. As to Martha, she was a peony : it seemed as If the blood would gush from her crimson cheeks. She panted like an ox at the end of the furrow. Oh, woman, your true name is vanity ! For my part, indolently re- clining in the corner of my carriage, I did not suffer myself to be intoxicated with the fumes of this new-born popularity ; but in my soul and conscience, I found the roads admirable, and bore malice towards the wretched jade which the day before had stumbled on a pavement kept iu order by such gallant roadmakers.

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142 PARIS IN AMERICA. On reaching Montmorency, the coachman, without orders, drove us straight to the Rose Hotel, the house of Seth, the Quaker landlord. Alfred and Susan found no grace with this friend of lovely youth. Instead of treating us as lovers, he made us pay double for a very bad dinner. I protested; but, to his natural avidity, brother Seth joined the most insupportable of the vices produced by civilization the rascal was an economist. He preached me a sermon in three heads, to demonstrate to me that to live well and cheaply is the calamity of peoples without commerce and industry, while dearness is the token of the most advanced civilization popula- tion reducing the supply, and wealth raising the demand. The day would come when the last of the Rothschilds alone would be in a condition to pay for an egg ; this day would mark the apogee of universal prosperity. To eoonomise time and words, at least, I paid him. Heaven preserve me from arguing with these fanatics, who have but one idea ! I know these pilgrims. France, its arsen- als, its marine, its armies, its glory, its rights, they would yield them all to the Grand Turk, should he promise them in exchange freedom of the shambles. It was four o'clock when our caravan resumed its way to Paris. To my great surprise, they were closing the shutters and doors of the hotel with iron bars, as if there had been mourning in the house. It was a strange fashion of celebrating the approach of Sunday ; but in this country, the opposite of all others, it is wise not to be astonished at anything. Friend Seth accompanied us to the city, mounted on a fat horse, which he overshadowed with his immense hat. By his side, on a grey mare, with broad neck and shoulders, trotted Martha, tall, erects

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THE ELECTION--THE SABBATH. 143 rigid, and majestic as a carabineer. They were a couple of scouts marching before us to announce to all the pass- ers our triumphal entry. At the first toll-gate, I found the pacific Quaker in a quarrel with the toll-gatherer. " I tell you," cried the last, " that you cannot pass till you have paid the toll. There are two of you ; I must have twenty-four cents, not twelve." " Friend," returned the innkeeper, " thee does wrong to heat thy blood ; it is neither like a reasonable man nor a Christian. Look at thy rate of toll, and do note ask me what the law does not permit thee to exact, otherwise thee will render thyself guilty of the crime of extortion." " Here is the rate of toll," returned the gate-keeper, furious ; " read it yourself, insupportable chatterer : eight cents per horse, four cents per man. Is this clear to you ?" "Very clear," said the Quaker; "and I call these respectable persons to witness that I have paid thee thy twelve cents." " And this woman ?" said the gate-keeper, pointing to Martha, who trotted forward. "Well," returned Seth, with his imperturbable gravity, " this woman is not a man, her mare is not a horse ; there- fore, she owes thee nothing." Upon which he set off on a gallop, leaving the toll- gatherer dumbfounded. "I hope," said I to the gate-keeper, "that you will institute proceedings against this impudent fellow." " No, Mr. Inspector," said he, " we should lose the suit. Hé is one of those cunning rascals who would drive a coach and four through our laws, without ever

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144 PARIS IN AMERICA. being caught in them. He has the letter of the toll- rates on his side." " The spirit of the law condemns him," returned L " His pretence is absurd." ' Among us, sir," replied the good man, " the law has no spirit. We know nothing but the text. If the judge should interpret the law, it is said, ho would be the law- maker; the right and honor of the citizens would be no longer guarantied." " The ignorant beings !" I exclaimed. " Have they #ot, then, been taught the alphabet of all legislation? When there is a doubt in an affair between the public treasury and the private citizen, is not the doubt on the side of the treasury, which represents the general inter- est?" " Never, sir," answered the gate-keeper ; " the decision is always in favor of the citizen. The treasury must be doubly in the right to gain its suit." What was to be done amidst such barbarism ? I shrugged my shoulders, and bade the coachman drive home. On entering the city, I thought that it had been trans- formed in my absence. The streets and squares were deserted ; large chains were stretched behind us to arrest travel ; the windows offered a strange spectacle ; on all the balconies were seen boots, ranged in battle array, and presenting the soles to the passers, had there been any. On following a pair of these boots with my eye, I finally perceived human legs, then a body thrown back- wards, and lastly a cigar, whose bluish smoke mounted to the sky. I was at a loss to explain to myself what offence deserved this cruel punishment. Sambo, whom I questioned adroitly, informed me that it was the fash-

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THE ELECTION THE SABBATH. 145 ionable amusement. Every Saturday evening the Yan- kee endeavors to give himself a fit of apoplexy, in which ha sometimes succeeds. How much wiser are we French- men, who never expose ourselves in our play-houses to anything more than the beginning of asphyxia Once at home, I had a desire to finish this happy day gaily, and entreated Susan and Henry to sing me my favorite air, Là ci darem la mano, from Don Juan. Susan looked at me, and turned pale. " What is the matter, my dear child ?" I exclaimed. "Are you ill?" " Father," said she, " I am frightened at your request. Would you raise the city about our house ? Would you destroy-our reputation ? Do you forget that the Sabbath has commenced, and that nothing should disturb the rest of the Lord?" " Good God L" thought I, " in transporting us to America, has the traitor Jonathan transformed us into Jews ? Forgive me, my child," said I to Susan, " I was absent-minded ; the events of the day have made me lose my memory. Go bring me my large Hippocrates from the library ; I shall not be sorry to rest my brain by reading a little Greek. There is nothing more re- freshing." For her sole answer Susan seated herself on my knee, passed her hand over my forehead, and kissed me. "Poor papa," said she, "how tired he is! See, mamma, he forgets that on the Sabbath eve we read nothing but the Bible." Decidedly, I was a Jew without knowing it. What, nevertheless, gave me some doubt was that on opening the family Bible, I found there the New Testament, and was able to read in St. Mark that the Sabbath was made 7

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146 PARIS IN AMERICA. for man and not man for the Sabbath. This saying made me reflect ; but not wishing to wound any one, I kept my meditations to myself, and leaving the whole family absorbed in their pious reading, I went down into the garden. The evening was beautiful, the trees displayed the freshness of their young verdure, the sun was setting in a golden cloud everything invited revery. I was weary, I entered the Chinese kiosk, threw myself on the divan and lighted a cigar. There was a rustio chair by me which was standing idle ; I placed my legs on the back and perceived, to my shame, that the American fashion had its advantages. Concealed behind the blinds of the kiosk, I reposed, my eyes mechanically fixed on Sambo, who was pound- ing sandstone in a corner of the garden to clean his knives. The poor fellow was wholly absorbed in his task when Martha darted from the kitchen like a spider pouncing on a fly. " Son of Ham," said she, snatching the hammer from his hands, " what is thee doing here ?" " You see, Miss Martha, I am breaking stone." "Wretch!" exclaimed she, "thee is breaking the Sabbath." Sambo fled with a piteous air ; he passed near my retreat, sighing ; then suddenly, perceiving the house cat which had just caught a mouse : " Take care, Pacha," sung he, " if you chase rats on Sunday, Martha will hang you on Monday." I was still laughing at the grotesque face of the negro, when two persons seated themselves on a bench placed in front of the kiosk, and so near me that I did not lose a word of their discourse. I recognized the amiable

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THE ELECTION THE SABBATH. 147 Seth, who was profiting by the solitude. Sabbath, and evening, to preach a sermon to the fair Martha. "Beloved sister," said he with a grotesque gravity and listening to each of his words, "there are three things which astonish me greatly The first is that children should be foolish enough to throw sticks and stones at the trees to knock down the fruit ; if the children remained quiet, the day would come when the fruit would fall of itself. My second astonishment is that men should be mad and wicked enough to make war and kill each other ; if they remained quiet, they would die a natural death. The third and last thing which astonishes me is that young men should be so unreasonable as to waste their time in running after the girls whom they wish to marry ; if they stayed at home and made their fortunes, the girls would run after them. What does thee say to it, Martha ?" " Seth, I say that thee has the wisdom of King Solo- mon, as well as his vanity." " Martha," exclaimed the Quaker in a softened voice, " thee has as much wit as beauty." "Seth," answered Martha, still panting for breath, " thee does not mean what thee says." " And thee, Martha," resumed the other, " does not say what thee thinks." "Bravo!" said I to myself; "people make love in America. It is a use of the Sabbath of which I had not thought. This shop-keeping nation, which calculates everything and lives but to grow rich, condemns itself to compulsory repose on one evening in the week in order to pay at this time the debt of youth and love. Let us see how Mr. Seth will make his declaration." After a thousand circuits, the amorous Quaker arrived

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148 PARIS IN AMERICA. at the speech, which, according to all appearances, had been long expected. "Martha," said he, drawing a long sigh, «Martha, does thee love me ?" "Seth," replied the good Christian, "is it not com- manded us to love one another ?". " Yes, Martha, but what I ask thee is whether thee experiences towards me something of that particular feeling which the world calls love ?" " I do not know what to say," stammered the timid dove, "I have always tried to love all my brethren alike, but if I must confess it, Seth, in communing with myself, I have often thought that in this general affection, thee had much more than thy share." The confession was made, it could no longer be with» drawn ; I heard, I think, a loud kiss which sealed the be- trothal ; when suddenly Martha uttered a terror-stricken cry, and sprang upon the bench. An enormous New- foundland dog had suddenly dashed athwart the amorous tête-à-tête. I rose and perceived in the shadow, the white teeth of Sambo. The rasoal was bursting with laughter ; to avenge himself on the Quakeress, he had opened the door of the house and let loose upon Martha the impor- tunate third party which had terrified her. I had little liking for the Quaker, but I could not help admiring his firmness and gentleness. Far from being afraid of the dog, he called him, and taking from his pocket -a lump of sugar, offered it to the animal, who readily suffered himself to be allured and caressed. "Friend," said the holy man, speaking to the dog, which was looking at him, wagging his tail, " thee has disturbed me in the sweetest moment of my life; another than I would have beaten or killed thee ; he would have

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THE ELECTION--THE SABBATH. 149 been justified in doing so; but I will show thee the differ- ence between a Quaker and the generality of mankind. For my sole vengeance, I will content myself with giving thee a bad name." And, flattering the dog, which sprang after him to obtain a new lump of sugar, Seth politely conducted the animal to the gate ; then, suddenly closing the grating, he cried at the top of his voice : "Mad dog! mad dog!" In the twinkling of an eye, there were no more boots at the windows ; thousands of heads looked out, and menaced the enemy ; stones, sticks, and utensils rained like hail on the animal ; a pistol-shot struck him before he reached the end of the street, and he fell to rise no more, uttering a howl which pierced me to the heart. Furious, I seized Seth by the collar, and flung him out of the gate. "Wretch!" said I, "I know not what restrains me from crying ' Mad Quaker,' to have thee knocked down like this poor animal." " Friend Daniel," returned master Seth, picking up his hat, " I will meet thee again." And he departed coldly. " Go to your room, miss," said I to Martha. " What are you doing, at this hour, in the garden ?" "Bless me!" said she, sobbing, "I was doing no harm ; I was only looking for a son-in-law for my moth- er!" I was stifling with anger. " Ah !" I exclaimed, "how many men call and perhaps believe themselves virtuous, who act like this cowardly hypocrite! They admire themselves as honest men and saints, because they do not lay hands on their enemy, but they rid themselves

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150 PARIS IN AMERICA. of him by giving him a bad name. Calumny ! calumny! thou art only the form of assassination among a people which is vain of its civilization. Shame on the wretches who make use of this venomous weapon, were it only to kill a poor dog." Tired of my solitary eloquence, I betook me to bed, but not without thinking of the dismal day which the first pleasures of the coming Sabbath promised me for the morrow. How much I regretted the free gaiety of the Parisian Sundays ! " Frenchmen ! " I exclaimed, " amiable and chivalrous people, let rude nations glory in their feverish industry and tiresome liberty ! Drive far from thee these savage democrats, these melancholy dreamers, who, shouldst thou listen to them, would make thee the rival of the English and Americans. Friend of wine, glory, and beauty, thy lot is the best Leave the empire of the world to these wan laborers, who take life in earnest ; keep thy incorrigible tone and charming lightness. Amuse yourselves, Frenchmen. Make war and love ; forget the world and politics. If ye should reflect, ye would laugh no longer."

Chapter XVII Journey In Search Of A Church 153 0151

JOURNEY IN SEARCH OF A CHURCH. 151 CHAPTER XVII. JOURNEY IN SEARCH OF A CHURCH. The next morning I rose at daybreak. A public man should set an example, and I was not sorry to let the Yankees admire the zeal and vigilance of their new edile. My morning walk was long ; the pavement belonged to me. I followed, with a jealous eye, all the passers who dragged their feet after them like ducks, and wore a furrow in my side-walks. Anarchy reigns in the streets ; each one goes where he likes and as he likes ; it is scan- dalous ; I do not understand why a law is not made to oblige men to walk according to the pleasure of the gov- ernment. To France, the queen of order and propriety, would belong the honor of correcting a last abuse. On approaching the house, I perceived Sambo, dressed in black like a gentleman, with waistcoat, cravat, gloves, and stockings of dazzling whiteness. He looked like a magpie. As soon as he recognised me, he ran to meet me, waving his hand impatiently. "Massa," he exclaimed, "everybody is at service; make haste ; I am waiting for you." And he put in my hands a thick book, bound in sha- green, and fastened with silver clasps. " Are the ladies at mass ?" asked I. "At mass!" said he, with an air of astonishment. " My mistress is a Christian." " Fool ! Are the Catholics Turks ?"

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152 PARIS IN AMERICA. "Massa, they say that the Catholics are like the heathens of Africa ; they have vaudous." "What is a vaudou f" "Massa, it is a little god which one makes himself, and which is not the true God." " Are you stupid enough," exclaimed I, " to believe that the Catholics adore a fetich ? This will do for your savages of Senegal." " Massa," said he, opening his eyes wide, " the Papists pray to statues; I have seen them on their knees before them." " And you did not understand that what they invoked was not those stones, but the saints of whom the statues are tjhe images ?" " I am not a scholar, massa," returned the negro, with a contrite air, " but the minister, who knows everything, often warns us not to do like the Papists, who worship idols." " Oh, preachers ! " exclaimed I, " you are everywhere the same ! Nothing is easier than to know the Catholic faith ; it is only necessary to open a catechism; but hatred does not wish to be enlightened ; what it needs is to outrage the greatest communion on the globe. Con- tinue this abominable work, worthy of your father, the devil. We Catholics we, your victims will not em- ploy towards you this terrible retaliation of calumny. The truth suffices us. Every one knows that Luther and Calvin were two villains who, through ambition and covetousness, destroyed the human mind by intoxicating it with pride and liberty. Falsehood brought forth the Reformation ; the Reformation brought forth philosophy; philosophy brought forth revolution ; revolution brought forth anarchy ; anarchy brought forth"------

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JOURNEY IN SEARCH OF A CHURCH. 153 "Massa," said Sambo, incapable of comprehending anything of my just indignation ; " if the Papists are Christians, so much the better, I am very glad of it." " Why so much the better ?" "Because Jesus Christ died for all who call upon him ; he will save the Papists like the rest of the Chris- tians." ' Sambo, my friend," said I with supreme disdain for go much simplicity, "you will never be a theologian. Go to your church ; I will keep you no longer. Where are the ladies ?" " My mistress," answered he, " is at the Episcopalian Church, with all the best society of the city. Miss Susan is at the Presbyterian Church." " With her brother, of course ?" " No, Massa, with young Mr. Rose. Massa Henry is at the Baptist Church." "Very well," said I, drawing a sigh; "and you, Sambo, are, doubtless going to join Martha ?" " No, no, Massa," exclaimed he ; " Miss Martha is a Tunkeress ; I am a Methodist. We, poor negroes, whom the whites reject from their churches, are all of the same religion." " I understand ; you have a black church and a colored Christianity. Go, my friend, pray to Christ in your own way. Among these hostile sects which rend the Gospel into shreds, the Lord will recognize his own." While Sambo departed with long strides, I walked on slowly, my head cast down. The discovery which I had just made overwhelmed me. My house, my refuge in all my troubles, was only a Babel, the den of all heresies. The husband Catholic, the wife Episcopalian, the daugh- ter Presbyterian, the son Baptist, the maid-servant

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154 PARIS IN AMERICA. Quakeress, the man-servant Methodist ; each one having a different faith and contrary hopes ! What confusion! What anarchy! It was hell in my dwelling! Yet, nevertheless, Jenny loved me passionately, the children were happy only by our side, the servants respected me, I saw around me none but happy and placid faces. Each read the Bible in his own manner, each had his par- ticular symbol, yet no one quarrelled with another. Nowhere unity, everywhere love and concord. It was a contradiction to the ideas of my childhood, a mystery which confounded my reason. " No," thought I, " I will not suffer this moral dis- order. There is here a false peace ; these flowers hide the precipice. If it continues I am lost. I mean that in my house every one shall think with me or be silent ; I must have uniformity. Let me be an indifferent Chris- tian, it matters little ; I am a Catholic in soul and mind; in the Church, in the State, in the family, there should reign but a single law, but a single will. If need be, I will employ salutary rigor ; I will terrify my wife, I will threaten my children, I will dismiss my servants, I will sacrifice everything to impose obedience or silence. I am a Frenchman, long live unity !" In the midst of these sage reflections, time passed. It was striking ten when I entered Acacia Street. This was an immense avenue which, in majesty and length, scarcely yielded the palm to the rue de Rivoli, with this difference that, every hundred paces, some Grecian, Byzantine, or Gothic monument proudly raised its spire or cross to the sky. In a country where each one makes his own creed, it is natural to run against a church at every step. To find my way in this labyrinth was not easy. I addressed a good woman who was walking by my side

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JOURNEY IN SEARCH OF A CHURCH. 155 with prayer book in hand, and entreated her to point out to me the Congregationalist Church. "Nothing is easier, my dear sir,"answered the old lady, with an amiable smile. " It is a little way off, but with my directions you will have no difficuly in finding it. Pay no attention to the churches on the left, the Congre- gational Church is on the right. Count the steeples, and you cannot make a mistake. The first church," added she, with the volubility of a woman telling her beads, " the first church is St. Paul, the Catholic Chapel ; the second, the Ursuline Convent ; the third, the Episcopal Church ; the fourth, the Capuchin Convent ; the fifth belongs to the Baptists, the sixth to the Dutch Re- formed, the seventh to the Lutherans, the eighth to the colored Methodists, the ninth is the Jewish Synagogue, and the tenth the Chinese temple. You see it yonder with its multiplied roof and little bells. Once there, you have only to go down the street ; you will find the Men- nonites ; after the Mennonites, the Reformed Germans ; after the Reformed Germans, the Friends or Quakers ; after the Quakers, the Presbyterians ; after the Presby- terians, the Moravians ; after the Moravians, the white Methodists ; after the white Methodists, the Unitarians ; after the Unitarians, the Unionists ; after the Unionists, the Tunkers. Then count four churches; that which calls itself preeminently the Christian Church, then the Free Church, then the Swedenborgian Church, and lastly the Universalist Church ; this will give you in all twenty-three churches; the twenty-fourth, which is nearly at the middle of the street, is the' Congregationalist." Having recited this litany without stopping to take breath, the fairy made me a graceful courtesy and con- tinued her way.

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156 PARIS IN AMERICA. " Upon my word," thought I, " if the devil should lose his religion (I suppose that in hell one has some reason to believe in God), he would find it again in this street! In this country, the Ministry of Public Worship must be no sinecure. In France, where the State has scarcely four sects (I do not count Algeria), the administration has its moments of difficulty ; but here, how does it set to work to apportion the church moneys and put an end to the quarrels among thirty churches, each pulling its own way, and which, doubtless, are jealous of and ex- communicate each other Christianly ? This is a problem which I do not take it upon myself to resolve. Long live Spain ! There is a people faithful to tradition, and which has preserved the true principles. The country is a checker-board, where each thing has its compartment, and where the body and soul are equally and uniformly administered. Thanks to the union of the Church and State, everything is easy. One has a bishop as a prefect, a curate as a mayor ; functionaries, temporal or spiritual, have their marked place in the same list, and walk in the same steps. Birth, baptism, education, communion, con- fession, conscription, taxation, the press, death, and burial, are all linked together. The church is the ruling power, the ruling power is the church. Deserters and journalists are excommunicated, heretics are sent to tbe galleys. The nation, that eternal child, is led by gen? tleness or force, and without its having any hand in the matter, to the end which has been chosen for it without consulting it. An admirable police, which made the happiness of Christianity before the abominable Luther unchained, at the same stroke, religious and civil liberty, a double pestilence of which the world will never more be cured ! Since men have been left the care of their

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JOURNEY IN BEAROH OF A CHURCH. 157 souls and lives, there is no longer either religion or go- vernment." On reaching the Ursuline Convent, I entered it. To meet with the worship of my country was to draw near to the France from which a jealous fate held me aloof. The Church is another country ; from this at least exile does not expel you. The chapel was small, but richly decorated. At the end of the sanctuary, under a canopy of red cloth em- broidered with gold, a marble Madonna held the infant Jesus in her arms, and gazed on him with the inef- fable tenderness of a Virgin who has just given birth to the Saviour. Rare plants, new flowers, and clusters of white lilacs surrounded the altar, blazing with light. The organ rolled its harmonious waves, the incense rose in clouds, pierced by a sunbeam, while behind a grating, covered by a curtain, nuns and young girls chanted, in a soft, slow voice, Inviolata, intégra et casta es, Maria. In an instant, and as in a dream, I again beheld my van- ished youth, my long-lost friends. I fell on my knees and wept. No ; a religion which reaches the heart through the senses is not idolatry : why should not our body as well as our soul serve the Lord ? Having quitted the convent, I entered the Episcopal Church, a few paces off. Here was the Catholio mass, not so well said, "and not so well chanted. At sermon time, the clergyman ascended into a long gallery, carrying a thick book under his arm, which he placed before him and slowly turned over. It was a MS. collection of sermons for every Sunday and fast day in the year. When he had found the -discourse which he sougTit, he put on his spectacles and, in a monotonous tone, com- menced his reading, amidst the profound attention of

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158 PARIS IN AMERICA. the assembly. The subject which he had chosen was the eternal generation and consubstantiation of the Word- one of those mysteries which defy the human intellect, and before which the faithful can only bow their head. But nothing dismays the audacity of a theologian ; with a text, a definition, and a couple of syllogisms, he will trace them back to Saint Paul, and render faith superfluous. Judging by the silence that reigned, the audience was edified. Jenny kept her eyes fixed on the speaker, and did not lose a word. One would have said that she un- derstood everything, to the Latin, Greek, and even He- brew quotations with which the dissertation was crammed. I did not think that scholastics had so many charms. For my part, I left after the first head : I abhor these sterile discussions. To seek to demonstrate to me what is undemonstrable would render me sceptical. I accept mystery ; it surrounds me on every side. In nature as in my soul, I feel the Infinite which overflows me ; but reason tells me that I can feel it but not understand it I, who am but an atom lost in the immensity. The hand which sustains me, and which also sustains the worlds, I do not see ; I abandon myself to it, and adore it! To give himself to us, God does not bid us compre- hend him, he asks us to love him. On passing the Methodist Church, I thought of Sambo, and entered through curiosity. The assembly was nu- merous and greatly animated. The négresses, covered with gold and jewels, displayed the immense breadth of their crinoline. The negroes, singing in a true and plain- tive voice, praised God with all the ardor of loving hearts». The minister, a negro of great stature and vene- rable appearance, addressed the assembly in a sermon which pleased and touched me. Where this negro had

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JOURNEY IN SEARCH OF A CHURCH. 159 received his theological education I know not. He was a former slave, whom the goodness of God, he said, had ransomed from a servitude less harsh and shameful than that of sin. But this slave had suffered and reflected ; he was a man ! Life had taught him what is not taught in the schools : his energetic and familiar language went straight to the heart. It was evident from the emotions of the audience. In the beginning, he eulogized Methodism a religion blessed of the Lord, he said, judging by the conquests which it made daily. He enumerated at length the number of its believers, and the wealth of its churches. Four million communicants, twelve thousand ministers, sixteen thousand churches, and fifteen million dollars' worth of property such were the fruits of a zeal that never slumbered. To Old Europe, which subjects the church to the state, and holds it in a perpetual minority, he opposed Young America, which leaves to Christians the care of their worship as of their conscience. "Liberty," said he, "when sanctified by religion, works miracles which the Old World, buried in its prejudices, will never witness. England, so proud of its opulence, corrupts its bishops by surrounding them with pagan luxury, and degrades its vicars by condemn- ing them to wretchedness without dignity ; while in the live churches of the United States, the generous piety of the members surrounds with comfort and respect a min- ister who owes nothing except to his flock. A prince believes himself a new Constantine, when by chance he erects and endows a chapel ; the Methodists alone of the North built four hundred and fifty churches in 1860. The poor negroes of Aoa°ia Street treat their chaplain better than the kings of the East.

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160 PARIS IN AMERICA. " But, continued he, with a mingling of shrewdness and naïveté, "this minister, so well paid, must pay to the negroes who have chosen "nim a debt which the almoners of princes do not always acquit. This debt is truth ! Hear, therefore," he exclaimed, " what truth compels me to tell you. The negro has a yielding heart, and a liberal hand; this is good it is Christian; hut sometimes he carries generosity so far as to endanger his soul. ' We have never heard of such a thing,' you say. ' We are told again and again that the Christian endan- gers his soul when he yields to avarice, when he aban- dons himself to covetousness ; but who has ever taught that a man loses his soul through too much generosity ?' My brethren, I will tell you what this perfidious liberal- ity is : it is what you practise in church, as you listen to the sermon. " If I should condemn anger or coquetry, drunkenness or license, would each one of you take the lesson to him- self? Would he profit by it ? ' Good,' says a man who lives on brandy, ' I know this portrait of a drinker ; the minister means my cousin Samuel.' Stop, drunkard, take it all to thyself. 'Good,' says a beautiful Midianite, who, to gain a new dress, urges on her husband to He and deceive ; ' the minister does right to unmask the faults of my neighbors; you are caught, Miss Deborah; you are caught, Miss Ichabod ; it is all for you, coquettes, nothing for me.' Thus, brethren, out of my words you reserve nothing for yourselves. The first third you give to your neighbor ; the second, to your friends ; the last, to your husband or wife. This is the way that tbe teaching of the Lord is barren, this is the way that you lose your souls through too much generosity. Christ is generous, but in a different manner; he is a miser who

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JOURNEY m SEARCH OF A CHURCH. 161 # takes everything to himself our sins, our miseries, our weaknesses, our sufferings. We see him on the cross his head cast down, and panting like a man overburdened with sorrow. When, brethren, will we take back from him our share of the burden? When will we relieve Christ, our Redeemer and friend, who died for the slave and the sinner ?" At this appeal, the assembly threw themselves on their knees, and in the midst of tears a formidable hallelujah! arose to the sky. The impulse was worthy of admira- tion ; it saddened me. I am neither an aristocrat nor a planter ; I believe that a negro is not an ape, because he has hands and can speak; but, after what I had just heard, I began to suspect that the black was a man like myself, and perhaps a better Christian; this thought appalled me. Sambo my brother! Jesus Christ died for these woolly heads! It was more than my pride could suffer ! " If this be true," thought I on quitting the church, " then what a crime is slavery ! This civil war, which is laying waste the South is it not the chastisement inflicted by God upon Cain ? "

Chapter XVIII A Chinese 164 0162

162 PARIS IN AMERICA. CHAPTER XVHI. A CHINESE. It was half-past eleven; Truth was to preach at twelve. I hastened my steps in order to arrive early at the Congregationalist assembly. But I could not resist the desire to visit the Chinese temple. In a country where reigns religious anarchy, the parent of all others, I was curious to see how the children of Confucius had adapted Christianity. A secret voice told me that an old worn-out people would have more sense and wisdom than the generality of Protestants. On entering, I uttered a cry of disgust. I was in a Buddhist pagoda. Opposite me, on a platform, in a carved and twisted niche, was a horrible, grotesque figure, of painted and gilded wood, seated, its legs crossed, on a lotus flower. It was Buddha, with his enormous belly, bald head, humpy forehead, large ears, and great eyes. Indeed, I am liberal, and I pride my- self upon it. For the last thirty years I have been a subscriber to the Constitutionnel, and I have changed no more than my journal. Like it, and without know- ing why, I hate the Jesuits, which is the mark of strong minds ; but to make use of liberty to enthrone idolatry this is too much ! I accept Lutheranism, Calvinism, Judaism, and even Mahometanism, provided it does not come from Algeria ; but to go further is no longer liber- alism, but paganism. As well return to the worship of Mithra.

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A CHINESE. 163 There was no one in the pagoda except two children, two horrible little Chinese, placed on either side the platform. Each was turning a horizontal cylinder, stuck or rather larded with numberless bits of paper, as if roast- ing coffee. It was a form of worship wholly new to me. At the sound of my footsteps a species of monk emerged from a neighboring cell. His brown, patched gown, naked feet, shaven head, little, oblique eyes, and yellow, wrinkled skin gave him the air of an old woman disguised as a Capuchin ; it was a bonze. He ap- proached me, and without speaking, held out a wooden cup ; I threw an alms in it to rid myself of the men- dicant. "Thanks, brother," said he in excellent English. " May the divine Fo recompense your charity. May you never appear again in another life, under the form of a woman or a jackal !" And leaving me astounded by this singular benedic- tion, the bonze ascended to the altar, took from a little cupboard some bits of silvered and gilded paper, and burned them under the nose of the idol. " What are you doing there ?" I asked. " Brother," he answered, " I have just changed your ten cent piece into ingots of gold and silver, and offered them to the Master of the Truth." " Your ingots are paper and are not worth two far- things." "What does that matter?" said the monk. "Fo cares for the intention, not for the metal." " Ah, that our Ministers of the Finances were Chinese !" I was on the point of exclaiming ; but I kept this rash reflection to myself, and asked the bonze what those children were doing, whose arms were indefatigable.

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164 PARIS IN AMERICA. " They are praying for the whole world," replied he, " Upon each of these papers is inscribed the sacred syl- lable ;" saying this, he prostrated himself, crying, "OM! OM ! OM ! Eaoh of the cylinders bears a thousand of these sacred devices, and makes fifty revolutions a minute, three thousand an hour, seventy-two thousand from one sunset to another. A hundred and forty-four million prayers, therefore, arise every Sunday from this temple alone. During the week there are more ; I have my cylinders turned by steam ; but on Sunday, in this country of infidelity, the very machines observe the Sabbath, and I am reduced to the handiwork of these children." The foolish credulity of this idolater inspired me with horror. " How is it that you are suffered in a Christian land?" exclaimed I. "If there were still faith in Israel, youwould have been long since exterminated, prophets of Baal." " Why should we not be suffered ?" replied the bonie in a calm voice ; " liberty is like the sun, it shines for all. The Americans send missionaries to China, why should not the Chinese send missionaries to America? It is said that France has made war on the Children of Heaven for nothing but to avenge the death of a few monks legally assassinated by our mandarins ; it is added that the Catholic Church, long since closed, has been reestablished in Pekin ; I execrate the shedding of blood on both sides, my religion abhors murder, and knows no other weapons than peace and gentleness ; but I bless the conquered liberty, and demand that it shall profit the Chinese as well as the French." "A pagoda in the Champs-Elysées I" replied I " Official idols ! My good man, you are mad; we have

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A CHINESE. 165 no occasion for Chinese at Paris. We have enough of them in porcelain." "It seems to me," continued the monk with absurd gravity, ' ' that rights are reciprocal. If it is glorious, if it is just to open a chapel at Pekin, why would it be unjust to open a pagoda at Paris, and preach the truth freely therein ?" " Stupid bonze," exclaimed I, carried away with holy zeal, " dare you speak of the truth ? Do you not feel that your doctrine is falsehood and your worship idol- atry ? If you see this, you are a charlatan and should be punished ; if you do not see it, the first duty of the State is to shut your mouth that, in your ignorance, you may not pervert its subjects. The liberty of error is the liberty of poison, the torch, and the dagger ; truth alone has a right to speak." "I thought," said the Chinese, "that in France and England there were several Christian churches, and even Jewish synagogues." " Doubtless, and even in France the State supports all recognized religions; for, learn, my good man, that France is at the head of civilization, in religious liberty as all other liberties." " The State," continued the bonze, " recognizes there- fore, three or four religious truths which mutually com- bat and destroy each other? To the Christians, for instance, Jesus is a God, what is he to the Jews ?" "My friend," said I to the barbarian, "I pity your ignorance. If you could comprehend the nature of official truth, you would see that it lives by contradic- tions. It is the dream of Hegel realized. Thesis and antithesis mingle and are confounded there in an admi- rable synthesis."

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166 PARIS IN AMERICA. The bonze opened his little eyes and raised his head towards heaven. It was evident that the great concep- tions of civilized Europe could not enter this narrow brain. I would have thought that there was less distance between a German philosopher and a Chinese. I resumed my demonstration under another form ; that is, I changed the words without troubling myself about the things- the true way to carry on a discussion. " The truth which the State protects," said I to the infidel, " has nothing in common with vulgar truth. It is a broad and comprehensive truth which embraces all the communions based on the Bible, our sacred book, Judaism, Christianity, and even Mahometanism are branches of this primitive religion, as ancient as the world, and which has on its side numbers, morals, and civilization. Outside these churches, which share the universe, there is naught but idolatry and barbarism. To convert you by cannon balls is our right and our duty. Truth germinates in the bloody furrows by war, the God of Christians is the God of Dominus Sabaoth I" " You are not a Yankee," exclaimed the fanatic, Ms eyes sparkling suddenly with a strange lustre. " I have been observing you ever since you came. In the face of the Saxon there is the bull and the wolf; in yours, there is the ape and the dog. You are afraid of liberty, you speak of what you know nothing, and in set phrases. You are a Frenchman." Seeing me mute with surprise " Dare you," said he, " make numbers the proof of truth ? The numbers are on our side. How many are there of you Catholics? One hundred and thirty million. Of Christians ? Three hundred million at most. There are five hundred mil-

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A CHINESE. 167 lion of us, Buddhists. Our faith extends from Kam- schatka to the White Sea. It softened the savage tribes, it charmed the Chinese and Japanese ; that is to say, the civilized peoples, at a time when Europe was a forest and America a desert. Do you talk of antiquity ? Do you reflect that in the days of Alexander, Buddhism already held its councils, and that the inscriptions of King Acoka, engraven on the rocks of India, preached to the universe alms and sacrifice? Do you not know that Buddhism is a reform of the religion perverted by the Brahmins ; and that the Vedas, the holy works of our ancestors, date back to the earliest days of the world ? Leave aside numbers and duration ; these are, perhaps, but happy accidents. What religion was the first to preach voluntary poverty, devotion, and charity ? Are you ignorant that Fo has had five hundred and fifty ex- istences, and that he has offered himself up as a sacrifice in each of these incarnations ? He has become a sheep for the tiger, a dove for the hawk, a hare for the famished hunter. Have you not read the holy story of Vesavan- tara, who, through charity, delivered up his wife and chil- dren ? Are we not the only communion which, through abhorrence of murder, abstains from the flesh and blood of animals. Do I not filter the water I drink in order to spare the life of some invisible flesh worm ? You Chris- tians, your religious history is nothing, they say, but a succession of quarrels, wars, and massacres. To-day the victims, to-morrow you are the executioners. Among us Buddhists, there are only martyrs. During two thou- sand four hundred years, our blood has more than once been spilled, we have been driven from India, but our hands are pure. We have nothing to efface from our annals, what religion can say as much ?

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168 PARIS IS AMERICA. "Your Gospel announces an admirable doctrine; I know it, and do not judge the faith of Christians by their conduct. The words and sufferings of Christ have moved me to the heart. But I have been reared in other ideas: I devoted myself twenty years ago to a life of poverty, which sustains and consoles me. Like you Christians, I have kept the faith of my fathers ; like you, I can neither accuse my ancestors of falsehood nor of error. Which of us is mistaken ? Which has truth on his side ? I know not, and ask only to be enlightened. Let us have done with the reign of violence ; let us have done with igno- rance and disdain ; let us give full scope to all beliefs; let us leave reason to do the work which God has confided to us. In broad daylight, all shadows disappear. Aban- doned to itself, the religion which is of men will melt away like snow ; that which is of heaven will rise like an oak, and cover the earth with its branches. Open the world to speech : I have faith in liberty because I have faith in truth." " You are nothing but a Chinese," said I ; and depart- ing with a majestic step, I left the wretch confounded by my superiority.

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A CONGREGATIONALIST SERMON. 169 CHAPTER XIX. A CONGREGATIONALIST SERMON. When I arrived at the meeting, the service was not commenced. Nothing is more dreary than a Protestant church. Oaken pews, large wainscots darkening the walls ; no pictures, no flowers, no lights ; a dull and gloomy air, which freezes the senses. One would call it a worship made for the blind. I am mistaken; there was an ornament a large placard, on which was written, in enormous figures, the number 129. The church was crowded, but it was a mute crowd. Motionless in his place, and absorbed in his black book, each believer was praying, as if alone in the world with God. No noise, no moving of chairs ; nothing of that charming exchange of looks and bows among beautiful ladies, delighted to display their piety and dress ; noth- ing of that pleasing confusion which makes our churches resemble a fashionable drawing-room it was the silence of a forest. At last tho minister entered. Directly, from all the pews arose a harmony softer than the sigh of the wind upon the wave. Men, women, and children each sung with his whole soul, with infinite ardor and spirit. For the first time, I felt that song was the natural form of prayer. Astonished at my silence, a neighbor pointed to the mysterious figure and offered me his psalm-book in which the music was written. They were singing the 129th Psalm, or rather a Christian imitation of that sub- 7

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170 PARIS IN AMERICA. lime prayer which the Catholic Church has adopted for the office of the dead. To call it by its name, it was the De profundis, a cry of hope and love, whose beauty is hidden to us through habit : li Out of the deeps of long distress,* The borders of despair, I sent my cries to seek thy grace, My groans to reach thine ear. " Great God ! should thy severer eye, And thine impartial hand, Mark and revenge iniquity, No mortal flesh could stand. " But there are pardons with my God, For crimes of high degree ; Thy Son hath bought them with his bl#od, To draw us near to thee. " I wait for thy salvation, Lord, With strong desires I wait ; My soul, invited by thy word, Stands watching at thy gate. "Just as the guards that keep the night, Long for the morning skies, * Watch the first beams of breaking light, And meet them with their eyes, " So waits my sou to seek thy grace ; And more intent than they, Meets the first openings of thy face, And finds a brighter day. * Watts' version of Ps. cxxix.

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A CONGREGATIONALIST SERMON. 171 " Then in the Lord let Israel trust, Let Israel seek his face ; The Lord is good as well as just And plenteous is his grace. " There's full redemption at his.throne For sinners long enslaved ; The great Redeemer is his Son, And Israel shall be saved." The song ended, Truth addressed the assembly. De Maistre was right in defining a Protestant minister A man in black clothes, who says plain things. Never had a man a less sacerdotal appearance than my poor friend. With no costume to distinguish him from his flock, no high pulpit from which to overlook the assem- bly, he spoke, standing on the floor, with brotherly familiarity. One would have said that he sedulously refused himself the resources of rhetoric. The voice thundering, then softening its tones, the arm calling 'down vengeance or invoking forgiveness, the clasped hands raised towards heaven, the eye seeking God and beaming on perceiving him all these beauties of Christ- ian art Truth ignored. Scarcely did he move his hand, scarcely raise his voice, yet there was in this simple speech an indescribable harmonyt which thrilled every fibre of the heart. Never was tbe veil of language, which always hides the idea, lighter and more diapha- nous. It was not an orator that was heard, it was a man and Christian. To use a hackneyed phrase, Truth spoke like every one else ; that is, as every one would like to speak, and as no one does. To express great thoughts familiarly belongs to great souls. Art, which is only an imitation, cannot go so far.

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172 PARIS IN AMERICA. The following is nearly the substance of his discourse. But who can render the quivering of this voice, full of emotion ? The words freeze on the paper ; they are faded flowers, which have lost their color and perfume. I will endeavor, nevertheless, to give an idea of this teaching, which made a profound impression on me, although in the free manner of treating the Gospel there was a boldness and novelty which surprised and dis- mayed me. John, xviii., S7, 38. "¦Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king, then t Jem» answered, Thou sayest thdt I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came Unto the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice. Pilate saith unto him, What is trutht And when he had said this, he went out." "My Christian Bkethben: "Among the names assumed by Christ while on earth, there is none which ocours oftener than that of Truth. ' Before Pilate, in his last hours, Christ declares himself king, but of a kingdom which is not of this world, the kingdom of truth. The night before his death, in his last supper with his disciples, he leaves them, as a farewell token, this great saying '/ am the way, and the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father but by me?* In other words, if we would translate into our modern terms this Hebraic form of speeoh, lam the living truth, which leads to God. "The living truth/ Do you comprehend the meaning and scope of these words ? Are there not many among you to whom truth is nothing but the relation of things to each other an equation, a figure, an abstraction ? Are there not those also to whom it is only a word devoid of sense, a synonym of the public * I John, xiv., 6.

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A CONGREGATIONALIST SERMON. 173 opinion, which changes again and again without cessation? How many wise men would willingly say with Pilate, ' What is truth t The paradox of yesterday, the error of to-morrow ? There is nothing true but the interests of the present moment.' To please Csesar, to enjoy the present, and to give no thought to the morrow, is the highest philosophy of men who hope to die entire. "Let us not suffer this return to pagan scepticism". It would be to condemn our mind to servitude, and our heart to every species of corruption and cowardice. As in the early ages of the Gospel, '¦Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free?* " When the locomotive traverses our streets, dragging after it a long train, why do you step aside at the sound of the whistle which announces its coming ? Because you have been taught that the mass which is advancing will crush you with all the force of its weight multiplied by its velocity. Here is a scientific truth which is no longer an abstraction to you. It has become transformed into a strong conviction, which protects and saves your body. This conviction is now a part of yourself, it is living like you. " In this city, which glories in its civilization, there are thou- sands of men who brutalize and kill themselves by means of alcohol. Why do not you, my brethren, abandon yourselves to this passion, more terrible, though not more guilty, than so many other vices which do not call forth a blush? Because you know that alcohol is a poison which knows no mercy. Science stands you instead of virtue. Here is another truth, physical and moral together, which, once entered into your soul, becomes identified with you. " Is this all? Do you not know noble hearts, to whom de- bauchery, ambition, and avarice are as hideous as drunkenness? Ask the father, whose daughter has been robbed of her honor ; ask the mother, whose son has perished on some distant shore; * I John, viii., 82.

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174 PARIS IN AMERICA. ask the man, who disputes with the usurer the life of his (fife and children ! These poor victims hate by experience the vice from which they have suffered. Others are happier ; they owe to education all their science. The piety of a mother, the devo- tion of a teacher, have inspired them with the instinct which saves them. Here is again a living truth a truth which we confess by our remorse, even when we refuse to listen to it. " In our republic there are patriots who resist tbe caprices of the crowd. Is this pride? Is it calculation? No. Provided that it can rule, pride adapts itself to every species of baseness; interest finds it to its advantage to bend to the wind. But a pure soul, an enlightened mind, sees higher and further. Man or people, whoever names a despot, names a master whose passions are unchained, and who cannot escape the low appe- tites of those who surround and deceive him. Criminal wars, foolish expenses, corruption in high places, misery and ignorance among the masses, such are the fruits of all power without oon- trol, the scourge of all force which nothing moderates. He who knows this will never descend to the trade of flatterer. Truth stands aloof, and consoles in their solitude minds that cannot debase themselves. " These are old maxims, you say, which are deduced every- where. For more than twenty oenturies, they have been taught in the schools; the world goes on none the better. Why! Because in the books, where it is left, truth is dead ; give it your heart, espouse it, and it will live. It will become your conscience, your honor, your salvation. The mind is like the body ; it draws no nourishment from words, it must have the substance of things. To fling liberty to an enslaved people is to entrust children with a weapon which will explode in their hands. Why ? Because respect for one's self a,nd others, the feeling of right, the love of justice the-e essential conditions of liberty are not articles of the law, they are not decreed ; they are virtues which th» citizen acquires by dint of patience and practice. So long as liberty does not live in the soul, it is but a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal; when once it has

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A CONGREGATIONALIST SERMON. 175 entered into our very essence, all the artifice and fury of tyrants will not wrest it from us. "There are living truths, therefore, which are at once in things and in us. These put us in communion with Nature and with our fellows. By revealing to us the laws of the moral and physical world, they subject us to it ; in every man that thinks like us they reveal to us a friend and brother. But this light which guides us here on earth does not warm our heart. It charms our mind, tempers our passions, enlightens and miti- gates our selfishness, it does not give happiness. Man has a thirst for the infinite, an impatience of earth, a need of loving which science cannot satisfy. To procure for ourselves the good after which our soul sighs, a new truth is necessary, which shall put us in communion with God, which is in us and in him. This truth, which can be naught but God himself, it is necessary for us to know and love. " To love God, and in return to be loved by him is what ancient wisdom was never able to comprehend ; modern philo- sophy perishes through the same powerlessness. In vain the conscience seeks God, in vain it calls on him with the earnest- ness of the shipwrecked man about to sink ; cold reason stands ready to repeat to us that between God and man, between the Infinite and the creature of a day, there is an abyss which nothing can cross. An indexible nature, a Supreme Being, the slave of his own laws this is all that the greatest efforts of the greatest minds can offer us. The love of God is an illusion ; prayer, the cry of the soul, is a vain murmur dying in a mute sky. Be silent, mortal ; stifle thy heart, shut thyself up in a despairing resignation ; thou art only an atom, crushed by the wheel of inexorable fatality. "Well, my brethren, nineteen centuries ago, a man came upon earth to bring the glad tidings, to reconcile God and humanity. This prophet called himself the Son of God and the Son of Man, or (which is perhaps but another name of the same mystery) the light and the truth. ' I am? said he, ' the vay, the truth, and the Ufe ; no man cometh unto the Father

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176 PARIS IN AMERICA. but by me? The world listened, the world believed. On the day that the Word was made flesh, that the divine truth put on a body, faith, hope, and love appeared here on earth and en- tered the heart of man. This problem, which reason declares improbable, in which it sees nothing but contradictory data, Christ has resolved. A living truth, an incarnate truth, which God can love as a son, and which man can love as a Saviour- behold the bond of union which has united heaven and earth, which has given a father to humanity and children to God I Herein is the mystery of his revelation, herein is the proof of his divinity. Never would the mind of man have arisen of itself to this conception which confounds our intellect, and which nevertheless, illumines it with infinite splendor. Yes, if God loves men, it can be only in loving himself, in the contem- plation of his eternal truth ; yes, if man can render to God a worship which is not an insult, it is when he adores a ray of this highest light which does not disdain to descend even unto him. " To love Christ is to love truth ; to love truth is to love Christ. This is the great secret of the Gospel. He who does not comprehend it is a Christian only in name. " Now, my brethren, commune with your own hearts and reflect when you love Christ, what is it that you love ? Per- chance, is it not the martyr who has given his life for his own! Is it not the crucified victim, whose wounds are still bleeding! Beware ! this is a human love ; all parties, all religions have their martyrs. Christ exacts more, Christ is something else than a worshipped corpse, whose wounds we kiss ; Christ is truth ; it is by this title that he demands your love. Is it thus that you love him ? " Ton have faith, doubtless ; you believe the Gospel. But is not this a hereditary prejudice, a symbol which you dare not look in the face for fear of finding yourselves infidels. Do you reason on your belief ; do you take away from it all Jewish or heathen alloy which lessens its purity? Do you make you faith the rule of your actions ? Do you break with the world

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A CONGREGATIONALIST SERMON. 177 and yourselves? Do you say with the prophet and apostle, '/ believe, therefore have I spoken f If this be so, you love Christ as he wishes to be loved ; you love truth. " But if religion is to you only a form ; if you seek in it only a refuge from the voice of the truth which pursues you ; if your faith dies on your lips and is not translated into your actions ; if, wholly devoted to your fortune or repose, you fear error less than scandal ; if, in your cowardly prudence, you leave to God himself the care of defending his word ; if your charity employs itself only in alleviating the miseries of the body, and does not combat ignorance and vice; if you do not feel that your first duty is to snatch immortal souls from the servitude of sin ; if you have not the holy madness which braves and treads under foot the wisdom of the age ; if, finally, you do not yourselves the works which Christ did here on earth, my brethren, do not delude yourselves you are, I grant, able, prudent, wise, and feeling, you are not Christians, you do not love truth. '"I have doubts,' you say; 'if I believed I should love Christ.' And I tell you, love him, you will then believe in him. Love him as the living truth which leads to God. Theso ceremonies di^pleaso you, leave them alone ; these dogmas appal you, cast them aside ; perhaps they are human inventions, per- haps you will understand them later. Christ has established neither dogma nor ceremony. Simplify your faith, and, in the words of the most believing and boldest of the apostles: ' Quench not the Spirit, prove all things, hold fast that which is good.'* There are passages in the New Testament which trouble you, put them aside. What matters it if the evange- lists differ among themselves, so that the Gospel is always in harmony with itself, so that the words of Christ always glow with the flame of the eternal truth ? "Is Ghrjst an object of scandal to you? Do you not yet comprehend that it was necessary that the truth should become incarnate, that it should be living, and that you could love it, *1 Thess. v. 19, 21.

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178 PARIS IN AMERICA. Ah, well I Christ himself has pity on your weakness and re- stores to you your liberty. ' Whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of Man it shall be forgiven Mm; but unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost, (or, under another name, the Spirit of Truth),* it shall not be forgiven?! Seek therefore after truth for itself, but seek in good faith : after a long circuit, truth will lead you back to Christ. " 'I seek the truth,' you say, 'but do not find it.' No, my brother, you do not seek it. The pride of your mind, the pas- sions of the flesh, hold you back. Science escapes you, perhaps; but moral truth, religious truth, you know where to find. At your fireside, mute, veiled, like ,Alcestus escaped from the kingdom of the dead, there Truth awaits you. "You well know that when you return, wearied of life and of yourselves, it gazes at you there from under its veil, and this gaze judges you. At night, when, in darkness and alone, you dream of the ambitions and, perhaps, crimes of the morrow, it is there, still there. Its eye follows you in the obscurity ; its silence chills you. You despise men ; you set yourselves up as judges over laws, but you tremble before this spectre, which you can neither corrupt nor slay. "This guard, which keeps watch over your soul, you will never flee. The hour will come when the hand of death will weigh heavily on your forehead ; when you will no longer see, but in a mist, all that you love your money, your honors, your wife, your children. But, in the midst of despair and tears, it will still be there that veiled figure ready to receive you and bear you away into the invisible world. Guilty or innocent, you will not escape it : it will be your remorse or your hope. " Follow it then hero on earth ; follow it in the midst of your troubles and uncertainties ; follow it despite your incredulity. Cling to truth and it will save you. Yes, when you have crossed the threshold of the tomb, the figure will cast aside its veil, and Christ, visible at last in all the splendor of his divine * John, xiv. 17. f Lukei xii- 10-

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A CONGREGATIONALIST SERMON. 179 smile Christ will say to you, ' My son, know me, I am the truth.' " The moment the sermon was ended, I left the assem- bly and hastened into an adjoining room. I caught Truth in my arms, panting and exhausted. I took his hand : it was burning. " Unhappy man," said I, " you are killing yourself!" " My friend," murmured he, laying his head on my shoulder, " let us do our duty : the rest is vanity."

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180 PARIS IN AMERICA. CHAPTER XX. Amidst a crowd congratulating the new apostle, I brought Truth back to his house. He was in great need of repose, and I urged him to throw himself for a moment on the bed. Unfortunately he was forced to remain standing, and to expose his health still further. Mrs. Truth had prepared a formidable luncheon for her hus- band's friends, and she had the kindness to number me among the guests. Jenny and Susan were there, delighted with the ser- mon which they had heard, and, perhaps, had not under- stood. The empire which speech exerts over women is something incredible. More than once, when in my chamber, alone and with double-bolted doors, I have asked myself in a whisper whether woman is not naturally superior to man. She has less violent passions, and a greater aptness for education. While Adam slumbered in his innocence, Eve was curious for knowledge. It seems to me that since then, if we have inherited the go^d-na- tured simplicity of our first father, the daughters of Eve have not degenerated from their ancestress. I believe with Molière that it is prudent not to instruct too much this malicious and restless sex. By holding woman in honest ignorance, we give her all the vices, but also all the weaknesses of the slave ; our reign is secured. But should we elevate theee ardent and ingenious souls- should we inflame them with the love of truth, who

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a minister's luncheon. 181 knows whether they would not ere long blush at the folly and brutality of their masters ? Let us keep know- ledge for ourselves alone; this it is which renders us divine : " Our empire is destroyed, if man be recognized." We sat down to table. I confess that I was not sorry. In my religious ardor I had forgotten to breakfast, and the wolf began already to gnaw at my stomach. The mistress of the house did me the honor to seat me at her left hand, and served me, -with the tea, two or three slices of Cincinnati ham, which I had great difficulty to devour decently. Susan stared at me, to reproach me for my voracity. This seemed quite natural in my daughter. In the United States, as in France, in every well managed household, the children give lessons to their parents. When my terrible hunger was somewhat appeased, I entered into conversation with my neighbor, a good and amiable person, who adored her husband. It is the cus- tom in America. The health of Truth gave me fears ; it was certain to me that the pulpit would wear him out still faster than the newspaperrand I endeavored adroitly to insinuate this to his wife. Not to render her uneasy, I said to her, in a general way, that speaking was a hard profession, and that, to certain nervous and delicate tem- peraments, absolute repose was sometimes necessary. Lost labor 1 Mrs. Truth talked to me of nothing but the greatness of her new condition. She was intoxicated with pride. " To be a minister's wife," said she, " is the dream of every young girl. If you knew what sorrow I felt when my dear Joel renounced his first calling to become an

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182 PARIS IN AMERICA. editor! The ministry alone crowns, the wishes of a woman ; in this only she becomes, in the full force of the term, the companion of her husband, his veritable half, with the same pains, the same pleasures, and the same duties." " Perhaps you preach ?" I asked. " Not in the church," she replied ; " the Apostle Paul forbids it. But is it only in the church that the ministry is exercised, and the word of God proclaimed? To instruct young girls, to counsel young wives, to visit women in child-bed, to weep with widows, to watch with the sick, to read the Gospel to them, and, if need be, to smooth their dying pillow these are works in which I can aid my husband, and sometimes even take his place. Joel," added she, raising her voice, "is it not true that I am your vicar, and that you have confidence in me ?" To this singular speech, which, strange to say, sur- prised no one but me, Truth replied by a wave of his hand and gentle smile. The wife of the pastor, a pastor herself and assistant minister I Such an absurdity had never crossed my mind. It is true, that I had always lived in a reasonable country. The ball, and the pot on the fire these are to a Frenchwoman the two poles of existence. To depart from them is contrary to rule, and, which is still worse, ridiculous. "Nevertheless," continued Mrs. Truth, "there is something still more glorious than the ministry the mission." " Have you female missionaries ?" I exclaimed, terri- fied. "No," she replied, "the Catholics alone have this privilege, which I envy them. We have no Sisters of

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A minister's luncheon. 183 Charity; we have simply wives of missionaries. It is a character which I regret. To partake the labors of one's husband is sweet ; to partake his dangers is great in the sight of God. Do not be astonished at my ambition. I am a minister's daughter, and my two sisters have mar- ried missionaries. One is at the Cape, and the other in China ; both bless the Lord, who has given them a glori- ous lot." " Your married missionaries," said I, " have not so hard a life. To carry with them their wives, children, and firesides, is scarcely to change their country. Join to this a commodious and fixed installation, accompanied with a good salary, and in such conditions it does not need a very great virtue to preach the Gospel." "Do you think so?" returned my neighbor, astonished at my irony. " I know not whether it is better to jour- ney over the world, scattering on the way the Word of Christ and remitting the germ to the grace of God, or to shut one's self up in a narrow field, to plant, water, and cultivate this precious seed to the harvest ; but I do know that the happiness* of having those he loves near him takes away nothing from the charity of the mission- ary, and adds perhaps another merit to his devotion. Peter was married ; was he therefore the less chosen as the prince of the apostles ? At the Cape, where my sis- ter has established a school and work-room for the young négresses, and makes use of civilization to prepare souls to receive the Gospel, the Boors have burned down the mission three times ; my brother-in-law, who is a physi- cian, like the greater part of our missionaries, has lost his hand in extracting a poisoned arrow from a poor Caffre. In China, the Tai-Pings have driven my sister from province to province. She is no"W near Shanghai,

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184 PARIS IN AMERICA. ruined and sick, but always full of faith. Her house is a hospital for the wounded, an asylum for the widows and orphans. In the midst of fever and in perpetual anxiety, she aids her husband to preach the Gospel. More deeply tried than Abraham, God has already twice demanded again from her the life of her children. Happy is she, notwithstanding, to have been chosen for such a sacri- fice, and to serve the Lord, even at the price of the purest of her blood." I answered nothing. In the history of Abraham, there are things which move me more than the episode of Isaac. Virtue or fanaticism, such obedience is beyond my strength ; I do not comprehend it To put away reflections which troubled me, I turned to my neighbor on the left. He was of the true Saxon type broad shoulders, full chest, a long neck surmounted by a long head, rugged features, a bald forehead, with shaggy eyebrows, under which glittered blazing eyes- strength and will united. Noah Brown so my new friend was called was the pastor to whom Truth suc- ceeded. I seized this occasion to instruct myself, and asked the nature of this Congregationalist church, the name of which perplexed me. "What !" said Brown, surprised at my ignorance, "do you not know that it is our old Puritan church that which our Pilgrim Fathers, exiled by intolerance, brought with them in their first ship, the Mayflower ? In break- ing with the abominations and idolatries of the Anglican Babylon, our ancestors wished to root out the heresy of hierarchy. After the example of the early Christians, they made of each gathering of believers a church, or independent congregation, a perfect republic, governed by the elders and administered by the pastor. From

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a minister's luncheon. 185 this nucleus of independence and equality arose our parish. Herein is the secret of our political life and greatness. America is only a confederation of sovereign churches and parishes ; it is the blossoming-out of Puri- tanism. Here, as everywhere, religion has made the man and the citizen in its image; a free church ha» given birth to a free society." This paradox, delivered with all the Puritan arrogance, shocked me. To believe these fanatics, their catechism rules the world. Let them look at France, that country of enlightenment and philosophy ; they will soon know to what is reduced the influence of religion on the State and society. One is very Catholic at church, and what- ever he likes elsewhere. This I attempted to démon- strate to my preacher, but he was as obstinate as a Saxon lined with a Yankee. The more I heaped up proofs which ought to have overwhelmed him, the more bq struggled. " See the English," exclaimed he. " Whoever knows their church knows their history. Spiritual lords, as- semblies, rulers of the faith, an immutable charter in thirty-nine articles, a prayer-book established by the au- thority of the bishops and sovereign, privileged schools and universities, enormous estates, an important patron- age what can all these produce if not an aristocratic society ? Had it not been for the dissenters, who are the salt of the earth, England would have long since been fossilized like ancient Egypt." " And the French ?" asked I, to embarrass him. "The Frenchman," replied he, "is a Catholic, mon- archist, and soldier, while the American is a Protestant, republican, and, citizen. All these are linked together like the fingers of the hand. It would be as impossible

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186 PARIS IN AMERICA. to make France a republic as it would be to make the United States a monarchy. The difference of the churches creates the difference of the societies." ' May I know to which of these societies you attribute the superiority ?" " Judge for yourself," he answered. " The one is a society of children, the other a society of men." " I see with pleasure that we are of the same opinion." " I am delighted to hear it," returned he ; and he tranquilly began to sip his cup of tea. " It is certain," added I, leaning towards him, " that the Americans are less, a people than a swarm of emi- grants scattered in the desert. At the present moment, perhaps, liberty has few inconveniences ; but in propor- tion as America grows older it will feel the necessity of forming a veritable society,, and will rally under the flag of authority." " Sir," said he, abruptly setting down his cup on the table, " you do not understand me. I think just the op- posite of what you say." " What !" I exclaimed, " do you perchance take the French for a people of children ?" " In politics," said he, "there is no doubt of it. From what epoch do they date their liberty ? and what liberty? From 1789. Ours dates from 1620; we are therefore their elders by one hundred and seventy years. We have three times their experience and twenty times then- wisdom." " Then," returned I, in a trembling voice, " it is to Ame- rica that you decree the palm of civilization ?" " Let us avoid confusion of terms," replied he, coldly. " Civilization is a complex wprd. It comprises so many different elements, that every people, in its turn, might

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A MINISTER'S LUNCHEON. 187 pretend to the first rank. What is it that constitutes civilization ? Is it religion, politics, manners, industry, science, literature, art ? Is it a single one of these things? Is it all these things combined? See how complicated is the problem. Art, for instance, which the Gentiles call the flower of civilization, blossoms too often only on a decayed stalk. Among us moderns, who live in imitation of the ancients, I willingly grant that the oldest people is the most artistic. In France the taste is more refined than in England ; but an Italian has natu- rally more ingenuity than a Frenchman. In industry, all free nations are equal. Science has no country. As to literature, each people recognizes in its own the expres- sion of its thought. I leave to critics the puerile plea- sure of assigning ranks to Dante, Molière, or Shakspeare; but religion, politics, and manners form an inseparable fasces. Therein is the pith of a country, therein is its future. In this point, I boldly give the first place to my church and my people. I believe in liberty : I am an American and a Puritan." " Mohican," thought I, " one perceives beside. You do not oven know how to prevaricate to be polite." I was about to confound this insupportable preacher when, happily for him, we rose from the table, Leaving this narrow and uncivilized mind, I approached a young minister, whose engaging manner pleased me. Truth had introduced Mr. Naaman Walford to me as one of the pillars of the new Zion. Desirous of seeing that phoenix styled a reasonable theologian, I wished to maka myself welcome to Mr. Naaman, and commenced, there- fore, by congratulating him on the admirable acquisition which his church had made in the person of my friend, Truth.

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188 PARIS IN AMERICA. " Pardon me," said he, "lama Persbyterian." " A Presbyterian !" I exclaimed, " and you come to compliment a rival ? This is noble-minded ; for, be- tween ourselves, this man, this minister whose hand you take, is a heretic whom you damn." " I," said he, greatly surprised, " I damn no one, it is unchristian." " I explain myself badly, my dear Mr. Naaman ; I simply meant to say that, after the example of the divine shepherd who gathered up the strayed sheep of Israel, you do not fear to live familiarly with men whose errors you detesf." " Mr. Truth has edified me this morning," replied he, " and I do not believe him in error." It was my turn to be astonished ; I feared that I had misunderstood him. " Sir," said I to the young minister, " do you believe that your Church teaches the truth ?" " Doubtless, otherwise I should not remain in it." " Then," rejoined I, " there are two truths as there are two Churches ; a Presbyterian truth and a Congrega- tionalist truth ? Perhaps there is also a Baptist, a Me- thodist, a Lutheran, and even a Catholic truth. I sup- posed, excuse my ignorance, that truth was a unit, and that the mark of error was that it could be divided to infinity." " Doctor," said Naaman, somewhat moved by my French vivacity, "when you are at sea, and wish to know the time, what do you do ?" " I consult the sun and it gives it to me. Do you pretend to answer me by an apologue ? At my age, my dear sir, one has little taste for examples, he accepts nothing but reasons."

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A MINISTER'S LUNCHEON. 189 " I am young, doctor, and venture to count on your indulgence," answered Naaman, with an amiable smile. "The sun gives you the time. When it is noon at Paris, can you tell me what time it is at Berlin ?" " No ; all that I know is that a telegram sent from Berlin at eleven o'clock is received at Paris about half past ten; that is, it apparently arrives thirty minutes before it is sent. Besides, it matters not ; I grant to you that when it is noon at Paris, it is one o'clock at Berlin, two at St. Petersburgh, and if you like, nine in the morning at the Azores, and seven at Quebec. All depends on the meridian." "Thus," said Naaman, "there is everywhere the same sun, and nowhere the same time; how does this happen ?" " Really," returned I, " you are an astrologer, and wish to make me an adept. I answer you, Mr. Pro- fessor, that it is the same sun, seen from different points." " One more question, doctor, and I will ask your par- don for my indiscretion. Among all these times, which is the true one ?" "A strange question! the time is true to each one, since to each one the sun rises or appears to rise at a different point. Is the professor satisfied with his grey- bearded pupil ?" "Yes, doctor, I see that we agree in theology as in astronomy." " Mr. Naaman," said I, " I begin to comprehend you. The truth to you is tbe sun, which each of us sees according to the horizon which surrounds him. It is noon, doubtless, in the Presbyterian Church, while the hour has passed to the Baptists, and has not yet come to

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190 PARIS IN AMERICA. the Methodists. Who knows indeed if the Catholics are not placed at the antipodes ? It is an ingenious method of reconciling one's pride and charity." " Sir," said Naaman, blushing, " you wrong me. Ton have seized my thought; you misconstrue my words. Yes, to every Church, I dare say to every Christian, there is a different horizon. Birth and education give us the starting point ; it is for us now to proceed towards the truth which calls us, for us to draw nearer to it without ceasing by dint of study and virtue. That there may be Churches better illumined by the divine light I feel, but I no more doubt that in the most obscure Church may be found the best Christian. It is a great advantage to be placed near the sun, it is not always a reason for seeing it the most clearly. This, sir, is why I love my Presbyterian Church, and why, notwithstand- ing, I damn no one." All this was said with charming ingenuousness. "What a beautiful thing is virtue in a youthful soul ; it is the smile of the dawn in the opening days of May ! " My young friend," said I to Naaman, " your illu- sions have something seductive; the sentiment from which they are born is worthy of respect, but the first breath of reason dissipates them. If every Christian sees the truth in his own manner, there is no truth. Be- hold us returned to the scepticism of Montaigne ! You will not find a dogma that is not attacked, not a belief that is not shaken. Your theory, however Christian in appearance, condemns us to unconquerable doubt; it ends in universal incredulity." "Doctor," replied the young man, with an air of modesty which touched me, " it seems to me that you arraign the human mind; that is, the work of God,

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a minister's luncheon. 191 From the diversity aud weakness of our eyes, it might also be concluded that we see nothing. It would be the same logic, and the same sophistry. In natural studies, each of us takes only the part which he can appropriate to himself; do we see that this diversity of opinion de- stroys science? In physics, is there a single theory which escapes discussion ? Will you deny, notwith- standing, that a physical exists ?" " The comparison is a bad one, my dear Naaman. Of the physics of thirty years ago, what now remains? The truth of yesterday has become the error of to-day." " No, doctor ; the error has fallen like dead leaves ; the truth has not changed; for it is, under another name, only the knowledge of nature, and nature knows no change." " I concede you this, young man ; but religious truth is of a different order from natural truth." " Doctor," returned Naaman, " even though I should grant you this contestable hypothesis, we should be no further advanced. Whatever may be the number and variety of the bodies which fill the world, we have only our eyes to see them ; what we do not see does not exist to us. Whatever may be the character of a truth, we have only our mind to comprehend it. Is our soul double ? To discover natural truths, God has given to each one of us an inquiring, restless, laborious faculty, called reason. Is there in us another power which, without individual effort, receives religious truths in the same manner that a mirror reflects the object presented it ? If this faculty does not exist, diversity of religious opinions is unavoidable ; it belongs to the age, to educa- tion, to the country, to the natural energy of our mind, or to its activity. If, on the contrary, this faculty exists, (

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192 PARIS IN AMERICA. we nought all to think alike, as we all breathe alike, by a law of nature. We are not in this condition, I bless God, He has left to each one of us the liberty to mistake him, in order to give to each one of us the right to love him. This liberty, which appals you, is our fairest appanage ; this it is which makes of religion a love, and of faith a virtue." "Naaman," exclaimed I, "you are the prophet of anarchy! You dissipate the most beautiful dream of humanity. One faith, one law, one king, was the device of the Middle Ages a device which every man wears in the depths of his heart. What do you offer us in ex- change ? Confusion. What is a church in which each one speaks a different language, and does not understand that of his neighbor ?" " Sir," returned the young man, " I love unity as much as you. Christ has told us that the day will come when there will be no longer but a single flock and a single shepherd; I believe the words of Christ. But unity is not uniformity. Contemplate nature ; what an admirable whole ! Yet there is not a tree, a plant, a flower what do I say ? not a leaf that is like another. From infinite variety God draws living and perfect unity. Why should not the law of nature be also that of humanity ? Why should not the voice of each created being have its place in the concert of praise which the earth offers to the Lord? By the side of this fruitful harmony, what is the sterile monotony of a single note ? My unity is the uni- versal church that church which embraces all faithful souls. Whoever loves Christ is my brother ; I look at his love, and not at its symbol. Augustine, Chrysostom, Gerson, Melancthon, Jeremy Taylor, Bunyan, Fénelon, Law, Channing all are soldiers of this holy army. What

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193 matters to me their regiment ? Their banner is mine ; it is that of truth." " Bravo, Naaman !" said Truth, resting his hand on the shoulder of the young minister. "Convert this heathen for me." " Heathen, yourself," exclaimed I. " I believe that I am the only Christian here, or, if you like better, Catho- lic, in the true sense of the word. While you tear reli- gion in pieces and abandon it to every caprice, I alone, faithful to ancient and solid prejudices, wish a single symbol, which shall be the law of minds ; and to maintain this law of truth, I summon to my assistance the secular arm." "Just as I told you, my dear Naaman," returned Truth, laughing. " He is a heathen of the Decline, ona of those worshippers of force, who imagine that we can decree truth as we scribble laws." " I am not so absurd," replied I, a little touched. " I, too, love truth ; but I am not blind, like Utopists. To them, liberty is a universal panacea which everywhere cures evil and error; experience has rendered me less oonfiding. The world is not an academy of philosophers, peacefully discussing the rashest theories; the people, that many-headed hydra, is an assemblage of feeble, ignorant, perverse, foolish, and criminal beings ; to con- tain and direct them, we must have a curb ; this curb ia religion, imposed and maintained by external authority. If the ruling power does not take in hand the cause of the church, Christianity is at an end, society is delivered up to atheism, anarchy, and revolution. This is why, gentlemen, I believe in the necessity what do I say ? the sanctity of force, placed in the service of truth. Am I, then, a heathen, when, after the example of St. Augus- 9

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194 PARIS IN AMERICA. tine, Bossuet, and so many other excellent Christians, to say nothing of your Calvin, I demand that society shall lend its sword to the church in other terms, that the state shall have a religion ?" " A religion of state ?" said Brown, suddenly stretch- ing out his bull-dog head ; " What kind of a monster is that ? Has the state a soul, that it must have a reli- gion ?" " Sir," replied I, drily, " you doubtless insist on an impious state and atheistic laws." " Sir," returned my testy preacher, " I do not bandy words. What is a state ? In a monarchy, it is the prince. Thirty million Christians will therefore have the religion of Achab, when by chance Achab has a religion, Among us, where the power alternates, the faith will change every four years. This is what I call atheism of the first water. To believe by order, is to believe nothing." " When I speak of the state," interrupted I, " I mean the political society." " Well," resumed he, " the majority will decide on the symbol and faith, after discussion and amendments. We shall have a parliamentary religion. The Incarnation or the Trinity will be put to vote and voted. What a farce ! Strange to say J since the world existed, there is not a natural truth that has not been discovered by a single man. Long trials, sometimes even the martyr- dom of the inventor, have been needed for this truth to collect a few believers : a century has not been too much for it to win the majority. But in religion it is a different thing : the majority is never mistaken. Pleasant infalli- bility ! Restore us the Pope. I accept a miracle; I re ject an absurdity."

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195 " Mr. Brown," said I, raising my voice, " you do not answer my objection. If the state has no religion, the law will be Atheistic." " Still words, sir," returned the intractable preacher. " The state is an abstraction. It is a fashion of desig- nating the sum total of the public powers. But society is a living thing ; it is the reunion of all the citizens inhab- iting the same country. If these men are Christians, if their code of morals is Christian, how will the sanction which such men will give to public morals ; in other words, how will the law be Atheistic? A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit." " Imprudent man 1" exclaimed I, " how can you ima- gine that, if the state permits every species of belief, the Gospel will not suffer it ?" " You have little faith, sir," said Brown, darting on me a terrible glance. " You forget that Paul has said, We do not fight with carnal weapons. Christianity has never been more glorious or stronger than in having the whole world against it. Look around you, sir ; you see that nowhere is religion more blended with life than in Ame- rica, yet, notwithstanding, the state does not recognize it. Do not imprison souls, do not keep them in darkness which corrupts them : leave them free, and they will go to God." " But, lastly, my dear Mr. Brown ; it is impossible for the state to support all communions, and make it- self the treasury of the first fanatic who may open a church." " I wish it to support none," cried the savage Puritan. " By what right would it interfere ? Has it any other money than ours ? What ! shall the Jew support the Christians for them to call him a deicide ? Shall I sup-

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196 PARIS IN AMERICA. port the Unitarians, who dispute to me the divinity of Christ? What injustice ! what an outrage on my faith! See, moreover, what a rôle you give the state. When the legislator declares that religion is not under his juris- diction, he proclaims respect for conscience; he is a Christian by his very abstention. Suppose now that he protects ten different communions, ten inimical beliefs, what will this insolent tutelage signify, if not that the state sees in religion a political instrument, and has for all religions only equal indifference and like contempt? This fine system, which you have not invented, sir, is the police of Paganism." " Very well," returned I, " leave to each believer the support of his worship ; you will see how many churches you will have. Men will turn Atheists through eco- nomy." " You are mistaken, my dear doctor," said Truth, in a friendly tone. " The thing has been proved and decided against you. We have forty-eight thousand churches, all built by private individuals, the value of which is esti- mated at more than a hundred million dollars. We erect twelve hundred new churches a year. The aver- age salary of our pastors is about five hundred dollars, which makes a total expenditure for public worship of twenty-four million dollars. Look at the countries where the worship is supported by the state. I am sure that you will not find one which expends half as much.* The reason is simple : it is the duty of the state to be sparing of the money which it takes from the community, while * In France, the expenditure for religious worship for 1862 U fixed at 49,869,986 francs, yet our population is one-fourth greater than that of the United States.

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A MINISTER'S LUNCHEON. 197 the individual takes delight in enriching his church, and does not recoil from any sacrifices. Nothing is so lavish as faith and liberty." "Very well," said I; "but the question of money is not everything. The political question remains. To give to the first comer the right to establish a church is to recognize all associations, to open a full scope to religious ambition and fanaticism; that is, to what is most ardent and perfidious in the world. Suppose that one of these churches gains the ascendancy, that it takes possession of souls ; here is a state within a state. You will then feel, but too late, the mistake which you have made in abdicating a protection more necessary to the government than to the church a protection which at the bottom is only the safeguard of the sovereign power. " This is what I expected from you !" cried the Puri- tan, rushing again into the combat in the fashion of a wild boar. " I know you, Messrs. politicians ; Spinoza, the prince of Atheists, and Hobbes, the materialist, and Hume, the sceptic, long since betrayed to me your secret. It is to rid yourselves of religion that you must have an official church. Political influence is not what troubles you, it is of no account in a free country. What you dread is moral influence. Christianity is by its nature restless, aggressive, and conquering. It must have the man entire society, government, it wishes to invade all, and to penetrate all with its spirit. This is what ani- mates us and terrifies you. Bishops slumbering in their seignorial purple ; poor vicars, whose zeal is moderated and directed ; a religion, a species of hackneyed and sterile morality, which preaches obedience to the people, speaking always of their duties, and never of their rights ;

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198 PARIS IN AMERICA. such is the ideal which charms you and inspires us with horror. You reject liberty for the very reason which makes us desire it. We believe in the Gospel, you are afraid of it." " I am afraid of associations," said I, " not of the Gospel." " Yes, because association is the only possible form of liberty. You must have a State whose omnipotence nothing disturbs, and which has naught opposed to it but isolated individuals and mute consciences. This is Roman despotism in all its deformity. We Christians, between the State and the individual, between force and selfishness, place association ; that is, love and charity, the true bond of hearts, the true cement of societies. To spread the Bible, to propagate the divine word, to enlighten souls, to succor the wretched, to console the suf- fering, to raise up the fallen, we need hundreds of asso- ciations and thousands of reunions. We wish a Christian people to do good by the free cooperation of all its mem- bers, and to remit to no one a duty which it alone can fulfill. But all these companies can exist but on one con- dition ; namely, that the Church, the first and most important of all, shall be absolute ruler in its sphere. It is the Church which, through its liberty, shelters and guaranties all associations ; it is through this that reli- gion, far from being dangerous to the State, is the very life of society. This, sir, this is why we need religious liberty ; we need it because Christ has given it to us, we need it because it is the parent of all liberties. He who does not know this is neither a Christian nor a citizen." In reply to this fanatic I was about to silence him, when a little hand took mine ; I recognized Susan, and smiled.

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a minister's luncheon. 199 " Dear papa," whispered she, " it is almost ten o'clock ; we must go." " Yes, it is time to go to the forest. Is the carriage here?" " Papa, it is the Lord's day, when we do not ride in carriages. It is to the Sunday School that I wish to take you." " You are right," thought I. " A Parisian astray in this glorious country of liberty, stands in great need of going to school. He must learn everything, and forget everything." Once in the street, far from this theological atmos- phere, I breathed freely. "Ouf!" said I, yawning, "how heavy these people are ! They are like oxen yoked in the riding-school, and going round constantly in the same ring. An hour of religion and politics ! it is too much for a Frenchman, it is enough to disgust him with the Gospel and liberty. Who will talk to me of something reasonable and amus- ing; of painting, the opera, music, or war? Paris, Paris, I need thy ambrosia to wash myself clean !" I know not what folly I was about to say to Susan, when I perceived the handsome Naaman walking near us with the step of a shepherd following his sheep. I had forgotten that I was in America, and that my daughter was for the moment a Presbyterian !

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200 PARIS IN AMERICA. CHAPTER XXI. THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. Who can tell me whence comes the weakness of a father for his daughter ? Is it the illusion that he recog- nizes himself in her as the mother fancies that she recognizes herself in her son ? To us, grey-beards, visages wrinkled by life, is it the pleasure of seeing our- selves born anew under a graceful and smiling form? Is it the charm of a pure love which asks only to sacri- fice itself? I know not; but the inevitable Alfred was not there, and I jealously relished the happiness of talk- ing and laughing with Susan. I was mirroring myself in her limpid eyes, when suddenly a red hand, with a long arm for its handle, seized me in passing, while a sepulchral voice cried : " This night thy soul will be required of thee?'' At the same moment, a paper was thrust into the pocket of my coat. I turned round, another hand seized me, another voice cried : " Think on thy salvation," and a paper was thrust into my other pocket. At the sound, three black men rushed forward, raising their hands as in the oath of the Horatii, and each of them, howling anew, plunged into my breast, not a sword, but a little book. Then the vision disap- peared. " What does this mean ?" asked I of Susan, who was laughing at my fright. " Papa," said she, " it is the Religious Tract Society, which is laboring for your conversion."

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THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 201 " Many thanks !" I exclaimed, putting in my pocket the Mark of the Beast, the Rose of Sharon, and the Trumpet of Jericho; "here you are enriched, as else- where you are robbed. What am I expected to do with these treasures of edification ?" " Be easy, papa," returned Susan, " in a moment they will serve to make others happy." " Acknowledge," said I to Naaman, " that you abuse type. To distribute the Bible may pass, since it is your hobby, but of what use can this puerile theology be which you scatter in the streets ?" " You are too severe," replied the young minister ; "reflect that all our religion is in the Bible. It is from the Scriptures that each one of us is to draw the rule of his faith and life by the free effort of his reason. A Pro- testant that does not read is a Christian that does not practise. What is more simple than a proselytism which brings us back unceasingly to the Bible? To awaken the conscience, to force the vilest of men to read and reflect, to repeat to him that he alone is charged with the care of his salvation such is the object of all these publications. Think of thy soul, thou only art respon- sible for it, is the uniform conclusion of these little books. If you call this theology, all our literature is theological ; the most insignificant novel is imbued with the same spirit. The Bible recurs in it on every page. What charms us, is not the picture of the storms which devastate the heart and crush the will, but that of a young soul which, placed between tefnptation and duty, repulses Satan and calls on God. Our very fictions are treatises on education." " Yes," said I, smiling, " it is morality in action." " It is better than that," returned he ; " it is religion

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202 PARIS IN AMERICA. in action ; it is faith entered into the soul, and inspiring the whole life. We comprehend nothing of this false distinction between morality and religion. There are not two consciences. The natural man expired with the last Pagan : we know now only the Christian. Whoever is a Christian, is a Christian everywhere ; at church, in the family, in the district, in the state." I thiuk that the pious Naaman was seizing with plea- sure this occasion to preach anew some old sermon, when, happily, we arrived at the Presbyterian meeting- house. It was the sixth church that I had visited during the day a too-just expiation of my past lukewarmness. We entered the lecture-room an immense apartment adjoining the church. Upon circular benches were seated a thousand children and youth, divided into groups. At regular intervals were seen standing the shepherds and shepherdesses of this graceful flock ; or, as they were styled, monitors. At the sight of Naaman, the whole assembly rose ; the organ played a warlike march ; then all the young voices sang in chorus, with a flourishing accompaniment : "The children are gath'ring from near and from far, The trumpet is sounding the call for the war, The conflict is raging, 'twill be fearful and long, We'll gird on our armor and be marching along. Marching along, we are marching along, Gird on the armor and be marching along, The conflict is raging, 'twill be fearful and long, Then gird on the armor and be marching along. * " The foe is before us in battle array, But let us not waver nor turn from the way, The Lord is our strength, be this ever our song, With courage and strength we are marching along." Chorus

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THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 203 Is there a secret charm in the voice of childhood ? In rendering us disinterested with respect to ourselves, fdo years render us more tender towards these young souls who are entering life without knowing its dangers ? I know not ; but I was moved by the song of these little soldiers, who enrolled themselves so valiantly under the banner of the Gospel. " In twenty years," thought I, " how many will be left around this flag ? No matter ; a youth which has cour- age and faith is a glorious spectacle. God preserve us from those old men of eighteen who believe in nothing but their selfishness ; gangrened souls which infect all that they touch, and leave after them only corruption and death." Susan stood near me. My daughter was a monitor. She had much to do, for she had a double class, and the school was in revolution. " Where is Dinah ?" cried a mutinous voice. "Dinah is my little teacher ; I do not know you." Susan took the little rebel in her arms, who struggled, in tears, and whispered in her ear. Directly the smile returned, like sunshine after a shower. "Do you promise ?" murmured she. " To-morrow," replied Susan. The child threw her arms about the neck of her young teacher, and kissed her on both cheeks. Peace made, the lesson began. It turned on the history of Israel in the time of the Kings. For the first time, I confess to my shame, I became intimately acquainted with the prophet Elisha. He was a worthy man, when he was not in a passion. Despite the beauty of the moral, I was a little displeased with him for causing forty-four little children to be eaten

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204 PARIS IN AMERICA. by bears for mocking at his bald head. At such a price, I would not be a prophet, even in my own country. Two episodes had the greatest success with the chil- dren ; these naïve souls have so lively a sentiment of good and evil. These were : first, the story of Naaman, the general of the King of Syria, imploring Elisha to be delivered from his leprosy. Naaman returned healed and converted, but converted with politic reservations, which prove once more that there is nothing new under the sun. "And Naaman said, . . . thy servant will henceforth offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice unto other gods, but unto the Lord. " In this thing, the Lord pardon thy servant, that when my master goeth into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leaneth on my hand, and I bow myself in the house of Rim- mon : when I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, the Lord pardon thy servant in this thing. "And he said unto him, Go in peace." The tolerance of the prophet, I must say, scandalized the children. Naaman was hooted unanimously, as a coward who compounded between his conscience and his interest. Bravo ! youth, keep this holy anger. A day will come when Rimmon, Mammon or Baal will extend to you a hand full of silver or honors on con- dition that you fall down and worship him ; happy he who does not bow before the idol, but keeps for God alone the sacrifice of his heart ! Next came the story of Gehazi, the servant of Elisha; a shrewd knave who took pay for the miracles of his master and trafficked in the virtue of others. What fury in the young audience, and what joy when Susan, swell-

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THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 205 ing her voice in imitation of the prophet, uttered the terrible anathema : "Is it a time to receive money, and to receive garments, and oliveyards and vineyards, and sheep and oxen, and men servants and maid servants? "The leprosy, therefore, of Naaman shall cleave unto thee, and unto thy seed for ever. And he went out from his presence a leper as white as snow." It still exists this honest posterity of Gehazi, although a little changed by time. Outside it remains as white as snow, hut the leprosy has struck in ; it no longer gnaws upon the body, but the soul. This education given to children by youth charmed me ; I congratulated the minister upon it. "But," added I, "I suppose that you reserve the Catechism to yourselves. The doctrine runs a risk of being changed in passing through the mouth of these novices." " No," said he, " the doctrine, like all the rest, we en- trust to the monitors under our surveillance, of course. At eighteen, one is not heretical ; if there is anything to fear, it is too much attachment to the letter." " Yes ; but if these young brains become perplexed ?" " Well," said the pastor, " we are here to open to them the way. Our motto is that of Paul : ' Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty? We have no taste for the faith of the boor that credulous ignorance which would sanctify alike a Christian, a Mohammedan or a Buddhist. There is in youth a crisis of the mind as of the body. The hour comes when it is necessary to struggle with the truth, like Jacob with the angel ; he

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206 PARIS IN AMERICA. alone is convinced who has been conquered by the Gos- pel. We wish a faith reasoned upon." " And reasoning," added I ; " for each of these moni- tors must go out from here with the taste and mania for preaching." " So much the better," said Naaman ; " to us, every man is a priest, every woman a priestess. Why should there be less ardor and faith in religious than in political society ? Is the title of Christian less glorious and does it impose less duties than that of citizen ?" I was silent ; this fashion of considering religion as the common patrimony of believers contradicted all my ideas, I had been taught that the Church was a monarchy, not a republic. Like a wise man, I had always left the care of my conscience and faith to the church which had reared me. It was not I, but my director, who was charged with the care of my salvation. Why then as- sume a useless fatigue, and take upon myself a dangerous responsibility ? The lesson ended, Susan rid me of all my little books, to the great joy of the children A beautiful farewell song was sung, and the festival ended by a distribution of gifts and shakes of the hand. Rank, fortune, age, dress for two hours all had been forgotten. One felt as if again in the early ages of Christianity, when the host of believers had but a single heart and soul. And to say that one day in seven, the Lord's day, all the American youth come into these fraternal gatherings to give or receive a lesson of love and equality ! In moral effect, what teaching, were it that of a Bossuet, would be worth this mutual education ? We departed. Alfred was at hand to take Susan's arm from me. I did not envy his happiness ; my ideas

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THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 207 took another course : more than ever I felt in my heart a paternal weakness. I said to myself that it was time for Susan to exercise her great capacities as monitor in a household. I saw already in the future a whole army of grand-children, more religious, more energetic, and happier than their grandfather. And, gazing at my lovers, who walked before me with a light step, I reached home still dreaming. The rest of the day was passed in talking over all that had been seen and heard in the morning; and God knows how many things are seen and heard on Sunday in America ! What are our plays by the side of these festivals of the heart and mind ? Never had I passed a more serious day, never had the time appeared to me at once more rapid and better filled. The evening ended, as usual, with the reading of the Bible. Martha brought me the» great black book. It was already a friend to me. Every day I found in it an answer to some secret demand of my soul a strange chance, which confounded my philosophy. We left off at the seventh chapter of Daniel. The vision of the four apocalyptic beasts, which were typical of the four great monarchies of antiquity, scarcely inter- ested me. I have too little imagination to take delight in these gigantic dreams. It was not so with Martha, who sighed at every word. The horn, " which had eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things" drew from her a cry of admiration. She was filled with emotion when the prophet spoke of the " Ancient of days, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool, seated on a throne of flames, and ministered to by thousand thous- ands of angéls, while ten thousand times ten thousand

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208 PARIS IN AMERICA. stood in silence before him." What to me was but an allegory was to her truth, the only manner, perhaps, in which the divine idea can enter a simple soul which k in need of images to feel the infinite. After these great pictures came the two verses in ¦which the prophet announces the Messiah : " I saw in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and oame to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. " And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a king- dom, that all people, nations, and languages should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shalTnot be destroyed." On listening to this passage, I felt like Daniel : " my co- gitations much troubled me, and my countenance changed in me : but I kept the matter in my heart." Had I not just witnessed on that very morning the spectacle of this royalty which nothing has arrested for nineteen hundred centuries? Christianity, whose funeral knell is sound- ing in Europe, I saw in America, younger, stronger, more triumphant than ever. Thirty million men living by tha Gospel what an enigma to a Parisian who had read Diderot, and who, one winter evening, imagined that he comprehended Hegel : Retired to my chamber, I paced the floor a long time, agitated by a host of opposing thoughts. The memories of childhood, the studies of youth, the reflec- tions of mature age, new ideas, revolved in my brain and filled it with chaos. It seemed to me that a mysterious voice was hovering in the air. " Bravo, Daniel !" murmured this ironical voice, " you are turning monk. Here you are, mystical, fanatical,

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THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. 209 and ridiculous into the bargain. You will ere long snuffle like Mr. Brown, and speak the dialect of Canaan better than he. Oh, Frenchmen, everlasting chameleons ! Chinese at Canton, Bedouins in Algeria, Puritans in Mas- sachusetts, comedians everywhere, when will you be men ? Return to Paris, Daniel : you will leave at the* barrier this insipid cant, and this great black book which men of taste respect without touching. A philo- sopher politely takes off his hat to Christianity ; it is unnecessary to be on bad terms with any one ; to go further is the weakness of a small mind. The God of the nineteenth century is ancient Pan, too long eclipsed by the suffering figure of Christ. Plunge into the infinite, Daniel ; adore your Father, the unfathomable ; it is the fashionable mode of worship, the only one that can be acknowledged by the infallible reason of to-day." " No," exclaimed I, " my eyes are opened ; I have shaken off the painful dream which enervates our soul. These children have taught me this morning what a sacred bond unites in a common embrace liberty and the Gospel ! If for us all ends with the body, we have neither rights nor duties : we are a mischievous flock, who are to be fed and chastised till death sends it to rot in an eternal grave. He only is a person whom im- mortality brings into communion with God. He only is a man and a citizen who can hold fast to a living justice, to a truth which knows no death. The poor, the sick, the enslaved, the wretched, the criminal became sacred only on the day that Christ ransomed them with his blood and covered them with his divinity. Adieu, Hegel and Spinoza ! Adieu, words put in the place of things ! Adieu, divinized matter ! I have seen whither these doc- trines lead people and men. I desire neither the baso

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210 PARIS IN AMERICA. enjoyments of the crowd nor the stoical resignation of wits. I must have something else than drunkenness or despair. I must live! To live is to believe and act. Returned from the illusions of youth and the ambitious schemes of mature age, oh, Christ! my reason calls thee, my experience brings me back to thy feet. After so many deceptions, restore me hope; after so many be- trayals, restore me love ; and may the happy day dawn ere long when, Old Europe imitating Young America, a single cry will arise from earth to heaven a saving cry God and Liberty I

Chapter XXII The Trials Of An AmericanFunctionary 213 0211

THE TRIALS OF AN AMERICAN FUNCTIONARY. 211 CHAPTER XXII. THE TRIALS OF AN AMERICAN FUNCTIONARY. After a well-spent day and a tranquil night, to rise early, refreshed in body and mind, wrap one's self in an ample dressing-gown, cradle himself in a rocking chair, and, smoking a Maryland pipe, give himself, as the Ger- mans say, a feast of thought, is a true pleasure when one is no longer thirty years old. Seated at the window, I amused myself by seeing the city awakening from its sleep. Milkmen, coalmen, butchers and grocers were hastening through the streets and, descending to the subterranean story by the stair- case outside, serving each house, without disturbing the inhabitants. It seemed as if all was calculated that nothing might trouble the sanctuary where the master of the habitation reposed. The dwelling of a French- man is like an apartment in an inn, all enter who will ; the home of a Saxon is a fortress, defended with jea- lous care against the importunate and curious. It is a fireside, in the sacred and mysterious sense of this ancient word, borrowed from the east. While I was admiring the street, already swept and watered by my laborers, a gig, drawn by a fast horse, came noisily on my side. I have always loved horses ; I followed with my eyes the proud bearing of the American trotter, when suddenly the horse stumbled. From the hack of the gig, an immense hat, hurled at full steam, darted like an arrow over the head of the animal, and,

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212 PARIS IN AMERICA. after the hat, a little man enveloped in a long coat. It was friend Seth, pursued doubtless by the manes of the dog Nvhom he had assassinated. " Martha !" cried I, putting my head out of the win- dow, " Martha ! water, vinegar ; run, I am coming." When I reached the street, the man had already risen from the ground and shaken himself; he passed his hands along his body to assure himself that he had broken nothing, swallowed a glass of water, and set to work to unharness and raise the horse without saying a word ; Martha was by his side, trembling throughout her frame. " Come in," said I to Seth ; " a little rest will do you good. If you need any assistance, I am here." " Doctor Daniel," replied he, drily, " I have no occa- sion for thy services. We will meet again." And taking the horse by the bridle, he led him, with a limping step, towards the house of Fox, the attorney. Seth had doubtless come to the city on account of a law- suit, and would not have been a Quaker if a sprained limb or a bruised head had made him forget his interest. Ascending again to my observatory, I filled another pipe. Without passions or cares, I enjoyed my repose; I took a childish pleasure in watching the sunbeams descend slowly into the street from the roofs of the houses. Three knocks at the door aroused me from my revery. It was my neighbor Fox, a portfolio under his arm. His visit surprised me. I knew that he was greatly provoked at his electoral defeat, and he was not a man to forget his rancor and envy in a day. " Good morning, Mr. Inspector of the Streets and Roads," said he on entering my chamber. The manner in which Jie emphasized each of these

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THE TRIALS OF AN AMERICAN FUNCTIONARY. 213 words was disagreeable to me ; I am patience personified, but I do not like to be laughed at. " Good morning, Mr. Attorney," replied I in a curt tone. " May I know what procures me the honor of this visit?" "Well, my dear doctor," resumed he in a derisive voice, " you are an important personage ! Here you are on the road to greatness ! Your very adversaries bow before your talent and fortune. What do your rivals say now ?" " I know nothing about it, Fox ; what do you say ?" "I," replied he, winking his eye, "I say nothing, except that the Tarpeian rock is close by the capitol." With this hackneyed maxim he threw himself into an easy chair, opened his snuff-box, slowly inhaled a pinch of snuff, and leisurely shook off a few grains which had fallen on his waistcoat. Then, crossing his legs, he raised his pointed paw towards me, and gazed at me in silence, with the air of a weasel watching a rabbit. Perplexed at this conduct, I rose. "Have the goodness," said I, "to speak clearly. What brings you to my house ?" " A trifle," said he, stretching himself in his chair, and twirling his thumbs, " a mere trifle. A small demand for five hundred dollars." "I owe you nothing that I know of," returned I, greatly astonished at this claim. " Doubtless, my dear doctor, you owe me nothing ; but my client, that is another thing." Upon which, opening his portfolio, he took from it the following paper :

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214 PARIS IN AMERICA. Bill of Costs and Indemnities due to Seth Doolittlb from Dootob DiSiEL Smith, Inspector of the Streets and Roads, and civilly responsible for the bad condition of the aforesaid Streets and Roads. 1. To breaking a shaft, and dislocating the wheels of a new carriage.................$50.00 2. To wounding a horse in the shoulder, and depreciation of the said animal, at the lowest price....................................100.00 8. To indemnity to the said Mr. Doolittle, for a barked knee, bent hat, torn pantaloons, scratched face, etc., calculated at the lowest rate, through respect for the doctor........200.00 4. To anxieties, concussion of the brain, loss of time, etc., etc............................100.00 5. To divers cares, results of the wound and fall, consultation with physician, advice of lawyer, etc...............................See bill, " Sir," said I to Fox, flinging into his face this apothe- cary's bill, " hoaxes are not to my taste. I am astonished at your playing a part in this ridiculous farce." "Very well," said Fox, "you prefer a suit. As a neighbor, I would have liked to spare you ; but, never mind. Here is the summons." "A suit !" exclaimed I, shrugging my shoulders; "a suit brought by a citizen against the inspector of the streets and roads ! a functionary ! a public man ! a repre- sentative of the authority ! What a farce! And article 75 of the constitution of Year VIII." Strange to say, and which surprised me myself, I uttered this last sentence in French. These Saxons are so rude, so ignorant in administration, that their language

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THE TRIALS OF AN AMERICAN FUNCTIONARY. 215 is powerless to supply these splendid words, which make the glory and greatness of the Latin races. " The summons is for to-day," said Fox, with a sang froid which baffled me. " I hope that you will attend to it, so as not needlessly to detain my client in town. In a quarter of an hour, our new justice of the peace, your friend, Mr. Humbug, will conclude this affair, which, to tell the truth, is an easy matter." "What! Do you persist in pretending that I am responsible for accidents in the street?" " Who is, then, if not you ?" returned the attorney. "Did you not solicit and accept the functions of inspect- or ? Are you not the agent and servant of the people, who elected you? If there is negligence, who is to blame, and who ought to suffer for it ?" " This is not the question," replied I, with just spirit. "I am not a pavier a laborer, at the mercy of his employer I am an officer of state, a member of the ruling authority, a delegate of the sovereign power." "You are the overseer of the paviers," said Fox ; "an overseer elected by the citizens, and responsible to those who elected you. Do you know of a country on the globe where functions exist for the benefit of the admin- istrators, instead of those under their jurisdiction ? For my part, I know of none but China, with its mandarins." " Ignoramus ! " I exclaimed, " read the law." " Read it yourself," answered Fox ; " it is at the head of the summons." I read the article, and cast down my head. Fox was right ; I was taken in the snare of my foolish ambition. This pretended honor, which flattered my wife, my daughter, and myself, was only a charge full of cares and dangers. In this abominable country, it is the people

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216 PARIS IN AMERICA. that command and the functionary that obeys. If I had known it ! A reflection restored my courage. " However behind- hand these Yankees may be," thought I, " they are not wholly barbarous. In France, the centre of civilization, we have a thousand laws which contradict each other ; the ruling power, do what it may, always ends by finding one which decides in its favor ; who knows whether in the United States there is not also a Bulletin des Lois ? I will consult a lawyer." " Let us go," said I to the attorney. " The court is doubtless open ; Humbug will judge us. If I lose my suit, I shall know at least how much to rely on this American liberty which is dinned into my ears. Fine liberty indeed, that of a people where the authority ; that is the nation incarnated, bows before the decision of a justice of the peace On reaching the street, I found the Quaker still im- passible. On a sign from Fox, he followed us in silence, Martha approached me, sighing. " Master," said she, " it is the same pavement where thy daughter and I fell the other day." Power of a word ! This simple speech overturned my ideas. Susan, my Susan, it was thou that disturbed my conscience ! Indeed I have a political faith which is proof against modern follies ; with my head on the scaf- fold, I would maintain towards and against all that the authority is never wrong ; that if it suffers itself to be discussed it is lost. Let a horse, and even a Christian break his neck on a badly kept pavement ; it is a misfor- tune ; but what matters it ? Horses pass away, principles remain. The general interest is above these calamities of private interest. This is the conservative dogma

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THE TRIALS OF AN AMERICAN FUNCTIONARY. 217 which has been taught me ; I profess it ; yet, four days before, the sight of my daughter wounded had made me forget my symbol. I, too, in my mad anger, would have gladly found in my way, a responsible functionary, and if I had had him, would have acted like this wretched Quaker, with the exception of the bill of five hundred dollars. How weak is our heart, and how we are all infected more than we think with the republican poison ! Humbug was in his office ; we entered ; Martha had not quitted her beloved. Was this a new enemy con- jured up against me ? " Good morning, doctor," cried Humbug, the instant he saw me. " It is kind of you to honor my humble court- room with your presence. We cannot teach men too much to respect justice, the sister of religion. Discite justitiam moniti et non temnere Divos." " Mr. Magistrate," said I, " it is not a friend but a litigant that appears before you." " A suit," said he, bending his shaggy eyebrows. " Have you forgotten the wise lesson of our fathers ? To carry on ot defend a suit, needs six things : primo, a good cause ; secundo, a good lawyer ; tertio, good coun- sel; quarto, good proof; quinto, a good judge, and sexto, a good chance. To unite all these conditions is so great a risk that I advise every one to abide by the Gospel, l If any man will sue thee at law, and take away thy coat let him have thy cloak also? You will gain repose of mind, and the costs of law in the bar- gain." While Humbug was signing some papers, I perceived Seth and Martha in a corner in eager discussion. A few words caught at random did not permit me to follow the conversation. Seth spoke of an insult, a good oppor- 10

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218 PARIS IN AMERICA. tunity, going to housekeeping. Martha, sighing and ges- ticulating, talked of honesty, the Bible, marriage. It was evident that the two turtle doves were having a quarrel on my account. Honest Martha ; she at least took in earnest the Bible which she read daily. Her domestic fidelity prevailed over her love. Perhaps too she was not sorry to assure herself before marriage who would be master in the house. " It is taking or leaving," said she, drawing away from' the Quaker with a gesture of impatience. " That is to say," answered Seth, " that it is escaping a great danger." Upon which, with a tranquil step, he went to find Pox, who had no trouble in demonstrating to him that to a wise man it was clear gain to lose a wife and win a suit. The clerk announced that the time for the hearing had. come. " Let us go in," said Humbug. " Dootor, I give you the first turn. Lawsuits are like decayed teeth, to be gotten rid of as soon as possible ; once gone, they are forgotten." " How does it happen," said I, " that there are so few people in the court room ; I thought that in a free country justice was the business of all the citizens." "My dear doctor," returned the justice of the peace, " do you see those three phonographic reporters prepar- ing their pen and paper ? I tell you with Lord Mansfield, ' The country is there.' Be tranquil, before two hours are over, all Paris will be occupied with your suit. The publicity of justice is the publicity of the newspapers. Suppress the report and you will be judged in secret and strangled with closed doors, were there three hundred persons within this enclosure. Our forum a people of

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THE TRIALS OF AN AMERICAN FUNCTIONARY. 219 thirty million souls is the newspaper. Thanks to it, the most insignificant litigant, the most obscure criminal, has the whole country for judge, witness, and counsel. The press, my good friend, believe an old journalist, is the only guaranty of justice and liberty." In these words of Humbug, I saw but one thing that diabolical placard which was about to be hoisted in the street, to amuse all Paris with my misadventure. To es- cape this annoyance, I made a bold resolve, " I will lose my suit," thought I, " but I will have the laugh on my side." I was about to speak, but Fox had already read his points and commenced his plea. "There are," said he, waving his hand towards me, "there are certain men who, without genius, without talent, without capacity, but afflicted with a ridiculous ambition, or rather morbid itching for publicity, beg the popular suffrage, and imagine that public functions are made for the satisfaction of their puerile vanity." This exordium sufficed me ; I was not anxious to see more of it in print. " Permit me," said I------ "Do not interrupt me," cried he in his shrillest tone, bristling up his plumes like an enraged cock, " do not in- terrupt me." "Excuse me, honorable attorney," rejoined I, "before pleading, there must be a suit ; there is none here. " Mr. Judge," continued I, " elected inspector four days since, I might excuse myself on the ground of the newness of my functions, and throw back upon my pre- decessor a negligence for which I am not culpable ; but God forbid that a public officer, a proxy of the people, should permit himself such caviling. Functions impose

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220 PARIS IN AMERICA. duties ; I wish to be the first to set the example of re- spect to the law. I acknowledge myself responsible for an accident which I regret ; it is useless, therefore, to at- tack a man who does not dream of defending himself." " Very well," exclaimed the Quaker, incapable of con- taining himself. " Friend Daniel, thee is a functionary after God's own heart a Boaz, a Samuel ; give me the five hundred dollars or sufficient security ; I declare my- self satisfied." " A little patience," replied I ; " I am ready to pay on the spot all lawful indemnity ; this indemnity I will not even discuss. Put my opponent on his oath ; this holy man, the Quaker, shall himself fix the amount of damage which I have caused him." " I refuse it," cried Seth, angry and troubled. " I had rather prosecute ; my lawyer promises me full success. Can a Quaker take oaths? Daniel, does thee not read the Gospel ? Christ says, ' Swear not at all, neither by the sky, for it is God?s throne ; nor by the earth, for it is his footstool ; nor by Jerusalem''"------ " Enough," said Humbug, " leave this useless cant. You are only asked to say in the presence of God, and as Christ counsels you, this is or is not so. Commune with your conscience, think of your salvation. I ask you for the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Upon which, may God be your aid." The Quaker scratched his head and gazed at his lawyer with a piteous air. Fox remained mute. Seth turned round, and seeing Martha standing near him, grew pale and began to stammer. His conscience, interest and love were waging a terrible battle ; and, it must be said to the honor of the Quaker, interest did not gain the victory.

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THE TRIALS OF AN AMERICAN FUNCTIONARY. 221 " Here is the bill," said he ; " the facts are exact, but naturally, some deduction may be made on the price. The shaft was not a new one ; nevertheless, it must be mended. Five dollars is not too much, is it, Mar- tha?" The tall woman gave a nod, like the statue of the Com- mander in the opera of Don Juan. " We will say five dollars," resumed the Quaker, in a lamentable tone. " The horse was galled already, but the wound is freshly chafed ; this is well worth five dol- lars, is it not, Martha ? " For myself," continued he, " I ask nothing ; but my pantaloons are torn, and I have lost my day. I will say ten dollars, shall I, Martha ?" "And the lawyer," cried Fox; "are you going to forget him ?" " The lawyer," rejoined the Quaker, happy to turn the rage of his avarice on some one, " the lawyer is a fool, who has given me nothing but bad advice. Five dollars to pay for ten useless words is even too much, is it not, Martha ?" And Seth's eyes sparkled on seeing his beloved laugh heartily at the discomfiture of Master Fox. " Here are the twenty-five dollars," said I, in my turn, happy to be released so cheaply. " Ah, Martha," cried the Quaker, " what a ruinous thing is conscience! I am sure that those who make large fortunes have little, or make no use of it." " Silence, son of Belial !" said Martha ; " bless Heaven that placed me near thee." " Bravo, doctor !" said Fox, bowing respectfully, " you are a cunning dog. It is lucky for us that you are not a lawyer."

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222 PARIS IN AMERICA. " You are mistaken, brother," answered I, laughing ; " I belong to the trade." " How is this ?" said Humbug. " I wrote a paper on legal jurisprudence, a few years since, with respect to women who soften the disposition of their husbands indefinitely, by means of laudanum, discreetly administered. This procured me a diploma from the University of Kharkoff; I am barrister and doc- tor of laws among the Cossacks." " Brother," said Humbug, in a solemn tone, " do me the honor to take a seat beside me. And you, Messrs. Phonographers, do not forget this wonderful fact. A physician, doctor of laws of the University of Kharkoff, is seen only in America ; I am sure that throughout old Europe would not be found the parallel of this phoenix which we possess at Paris in Massachusetts. Kharkoff, gentlemen, do not forget it; Kharkoff!"

Chapter XXIII The Justice's Court 225 0223

court. 223 CHAPTER XXin. THE JUSTICES' COURT. Itook a seat near Humbug, taking care to remain respectfully in the background ; and while unimportant civil cases were called, I looked about at the court-room and its actors. There was no platform to elevate the magistrate above those amenable to his jurisdiction ; a simple wooden rail- ing separated the court from the spectators. Humbug was seated behind a large desk ; at one of the lower sides, the clerk was writing. Facing the judge was a sort of latticed stall, destined for the defendant ; a little in front of this was a table for the plaintiff and wit- nesses. Nothing more. What added to the simplicity of the spectacle was that no one wore costume. Hum- bug sat in a black coat, his hat on his head ; the lawyers had no particular dress. No gowns, no bands, no wigs. This primitive people has so naïve a faith in justice that it believes in it without ceremonies. One feels every- where the Puritan coarseness. Let me add that there was a seat of honor for the phonographic reporters. They represent the people, watch over the magistrates and judge justice. Oh, democracy, this is thy work ! Yet, notwithstanding, there is no country where respect for the law and confidence in the magistrate are carried further. This is one of the whimsicalities which prove beyond dispute that the Saxon was created for liberty,

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224 PARIS IN AMERICA. as the Frenchman for war, and the German for sourkrout and philosophy. To suppose that this strong nourish- ment suited all stomachs was the folly of our fathers. In their ignorance, these good people did not divine that there were individualistic races and centralistic races, (two fine words ! ) the one made to hover solitary in space, like the kite ; the others to live in flocks and be shorn like sheep. Politics, religion, philosophy, liberty these are questions of natural history, varieties which distinguish the homo civilizatius from all the other bipeds and quadrupeds. Admirable discovery! Eternal honor to the brilliant geniuses of our time ! When the list of civil suits was exhausted, a prisoner was brought into the stall. He was a pale young man, with long locks and an effeminate but impudent air. In reply to the interrogation of Humbug, he gave his name and residence, adding that he was a tailor, and that he pleaded not guilty. He then seated himself, passed his fingers through his curls, and gazed at his accusers with a smile of disdain. " Your honor," said a policeman, " this is one of the most adroit pickpockets of the city ; in the crowd where we arrested him, six pockets had been cut out in a quar- ter of an hour. We took this rascal who is well known to us ; he had these large scissors in the lining of his coat ; nothing else was found on him." "Is there no other witness or proof?" asked the judge. "No, your honor." " Then release this gentleman, and try the next time to be more adroit.' The thief bowed to Humbug, and withdrew with a tranquil step, like a man who had never doubted his ac- quittal.

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the justices' court. 225 "What!" said I to Humbug, "do you let this knave go?" "Doubtless; there is no offence proven." " But the bad reputation of the wretch, the cut pock- ets, the scissors are proofs." " No," returned Humbug, " these are mere presump- tions. It is most probable that the man entered the crowd to steal; but the law punishes the crime, not the intention. It leaves room for hesitation, fear and remorse. If peo- ple were condemned for intention, what good man would not he subject to hanging, ten times in his life? And besides, if you give the judge a right to read the soul of the accused, what is human justice but hypocritical des- potism ? It is no longer the guilty act which makes the offence, hut the caprice or prejudice of the magistrate." " Happy country," exclaimed I, " where the law pro- tects the thief!" "It still better protects the innocent," rejoined Hum- bug. " With your inquisitorial system, who would es- cape private hatred or political vengeance ? With your right of interpretation, what judge would not be exposed to error and repentance? Themis is blind, my good friend ; she does not see, she feels. If you wish her to act, throw into the balance an actual offence, something material, heavy, which will weigh down the scale; but pre- sumptions, intentions, vexatious memories, all these have no weight, iSunt verba et voces pr tereaque nihil? " At this moment, a sort of Hercules, clad as a police- man, entered the audience, carrying in his outstretched hand a little man, gesticulating like a devil in a font of holy water I do not answer for the exactness of the comparison. The giant threw the dwarf with all his force into the prisoners' box ; then, readjusting his coat, 10*

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226 PARIS IN AMERICA. the collar of which was wrenched off, and wiping his scratched face : " Here is a man that has broken the public peace, your honor," said he. " Excuse me," said I to Humbug, " but you are not going to judge on the spot an act just committed outside the court ?" "Why not?" asked the judge, surprised at my ques- tion. "The forms of law!" said I; "begin-by putting the man in prison ; let the police enter upon an inquiry ; then lodge a complaint, proceed from this complaint to a cool and calm private examination, then investigate this ex^ amination itself to leave room neither for error nor pas- sion. Take a fortnight, take a month, take three months, if need be ; time is nothing ; but observe the forms of law, they are the guaranties of liberty." " Be calm, doctor ; we are about to make an examina- tion in court, in public, with the country for witness. Such light dissipates all error and passion. " ' Adsum solem quis dicere falsam Audeat.' "All the guaranties you demand, the accused will have, except the preliminary imprisonment, which I do not suppose that he insists on as much as you." "Well," said the policeman, "I came in from the country yesterday ; as I was making my first round this morning, this man ran towards me scared, out of breath, and as red as a beet. ' Policeman,' cried he, ' I have found you at last. Quick ! quick ! help, you are needed.' What is the matter ?' said I. ' The matter 1' said he, panting, ' the matter is that a horrible murder will be

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court. 227 committed if you do not put a stop to it. See that crowd yonder ; there is a man beating his wife with a great stick. Listen! they are crying assassin. Run quick, prevent a murder !' ' Which is the man ?' asked I. ' He is a little man,' said he, ' but he is savage.' ' Well,' said I, 'I have seen worse than he.' " " Be short," said Humbug. "I have almost done, your honor. I ran, I shoved aside the crowd which did not stir, and there was the man beating his wife on the head." " Did you arrest him ?" "No, your honor," said Hercules, scratching his ear and lowering his voice, " it was it was Punch." "Go on," said Humbug, biting his lips, while tho spectators and prisoner himself roared with laughter. " Well, your honor, I went back to- my post a little vexed, naturally. And then came all the blackguards of the city, with this fellow at their head, all howling, ' Policeman, you are wanted ! Murder ! murder ! Punch is killing Judy !' I said to myself, 'They have played a trick on me, the law does not forbid it, I have been caught ; no matter, one must pay for his apprenticeship.' I walked on at my usual pace as if nothing were the mat- ter, but this fellow, who seems as if he were paid to amuse the city, planted himself in front of me, with his arms folded, and shouted, ' I know you ; you are a thief and assassin !' ' I ?' I cried. ' Yes, you. Citizens, I take you all for witnesses and judges ; say if he has not killed an ourang outang to steal its face ?' " " ' Very well, sir,' said I ; ' each one has his turn ; this is an insult ; I have the law on my side. Come with me to the court.' He tried to run away, I caught him by the arm ; he answered me by a blow in the face with his

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228 PARIS IN AMERICA. fist ; upon which I picked him up and brought him here without stopping. And here he is." The prisoner rose abashed, declared that he did not dispute the facts, and excused his resistance by saying that he did not think that he was committing a crime by playing a joke in the fashion of Punch. " You are mistaken, sir," replied Humbug, in a mocking tone. " If you were better acquainted with your worthy model, you would know that after each of his exploits he is imprisoned in a tightly-closed box. I shall be less severe towards you ; it will cost you only ten dollars' fine, and ten dollars to repair the damage caused to this honest policeman. Thank him for his goodness ; had he shut his hand you would be dead." The little man drew some bank notes from a greasy pocket-book, which he handed with an ill grace to the clerk and went out sighing, saluted "by the hootings of the crowd outside, who applauded the policeman. Goliath this time had beaten David ; it is true that he had the law on his side. After the knight of Mrs. Punch, the frequenters of the police court defiled before us beggars, vagrants, drunk- ards, debauchees, fighters, swindlers, gamblers, and other thieves every species of misery and vice. On seeing the rapid manner in which Humbug examined and judged each case, on seeing especially how the criminals ac- cepted without complaint an anticipated punishment, I became reconciled to the American mode of proceeding. The publicity of criminal examination might be indeed one of those modern discoveries which suppress time. By seizing the words of all the parties in their first warmth, instead of congealing them on a document which preserves neither the sound nor sense ; by bring"

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court. 229 ing face to face accused, accusers, witnesses, and lawyers, the American judge condenses into a few moments the truth, which among us too often evaporates in a thousand channels, or grows cold to us. To do fair and prompt justice without encroaching on liberty such is the prob- lem which these Yankees have resolved. Science has deceived us, chance has served them. Upon one point, nevertheless, some scruples remained to me. I asked Humbug if he were not dismayed at his power. To have in his hands the fortune, honor, and liberty of so many accused, to dispose of them alone was a terrible responsibility ; would he not rather divide it ? " No," replied Humbug, " the interest of justice is opposed to it. To form a tribunal of three or four per- sons is not to multiply the responsibility, but to divide it ; the accused thereby loses his best guaranty. Alone, and under the public eye, it seems to me that God is watching me ; I feel all the sanctity of the duty which I fulfill. The more comrades I have the less I believe myself pledged. What is a third, a fifth, a tenth of responsibility? And if the judgment be iniquitous or cruel, who is public opinion to blame for it ?" " Nevertheless," said I, " see the jury." " That is the example which I was about to quote to you," said he. "In this country the majority rules; numbers in all things, make the law. Justice alone is exempt from this condition. The agreement of eleven jurors cannot take away either the life or honor of the accused ; the abstention of a single man suffices to hin- der their verdict. Whence comes this ? Because there is a moral question involved here and not an arithmetical problem ; the voice which absolves has perhaps more weight than the eleven voices which condemn. Then

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230 PARIS IN AMERICA. too, what the legislator demands is not majority, but unanimity. What he expects is not one responsibility divided into twelve parts, but twelve responsibilities. You see that there is not here even the appearance of an exception; it is the same rule, but strengthened the unity of the judge, full and entire responsibility." This reasoning surprised me. I had always believed that the unanimity of the jury was one of those old rem- nants of feudal barbarism which amuse us at the expense of England, and make us better feel our superiority. Humbug disturbed the serenity of my faith. In vain I recalled the wise words of Montaigne, " Oh, what a Bweet and soft pillow, and healthy one too, have ignorance and incuriosity to repose a well-balanced head on !" Doubt is like the rain, no traveller escapes it. Frenchmen! would you keep that legitimate pride, that just satisfac- tion in yourselves which makes your strength and glory, never lose sight of your weathercock ! A movement among the audience, followed by a pro- longed murmur, announced the arrival of an important personage. A corpulent man advanced majestically, bis head erect and eyes half closed, panting at every step, and looking at no one. On reaching the plaintiff's table, he greeted Humbug with a familiar gesture and patroniz- ing smile. It was the banker Little, bearing on his puffy cheeks the insolence of his twenty millions. Behind him, two policemen brought a man of large stature, emaciated, with hollo tv cheeks and glittering eyes, looking like a gamester who has staked his life on a card and lost. He let himself fall on the prisoners' seat, and buried his face iu his hands. " Sir," said the banker, " this morning this draft for two thousand dollars, which I lay on your desk, was pre*

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COURT. 231 sented at my bank. My cashier, an intelligent lad you know him, Humbug not finding the payment noted on the bills-payable book, took it in his head to bring me the draft, despite the insignificance of the sum. The name of the drawer, the endorsements, my name, all are forged. Three similar drafts have been already presented this morning, but the holders took care not to leave them. It is a plot concocted among a band of swindlers. It was calculated that I would be chosen mayor ; that I would be absent to-day, and that my cashier would not dare refuse drafts bearing my signature. I have seized this fellow ; it is for the law to discover his accomplices," " Prisoner," said Humbug, " have you anything to an- swer ? Remember that all your words will be noted down and used against you. Reflect before you speak." "I have nothing to say at present," murmured the prisoner. " I am obliged, therefore, to transfer you to the crimi- nal court for the crime of forgery," said Humbug, in a pitying tone. " Can you furnish two securities for five thousand dollars each ? Otherwise, I shall be forced to remand you to prison." " I will try to find bail," replied the accused. " Very well. Go in a carriage with two policemen and see your friends. On your return, we will go with you to visit your books, and, if necessary, take other pre- cautions." " Do you think of leaving this forger at liberty ?" said I to Humbug. " He has accomplices ; he will warn them, and besides will make his escape." " The law," replied the judge, " exacts imprisonment before trial only for crimes entailing capital punishment. In all others it is entrusted to the discretion of the magis-

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232 PARIS IN AMERICA. trate. Why would you have me take away from this man the means of defending himself, in order that he may appear in the criminal court as a victim, and that in- terest may be attached, not to the robbed but the robber ? Verifications, reports, inquiries will be necessary. Can all these be made blindly, in the absence of the prisoner? Has not the accused a right to discuss and criticise all the charges accumulated against him ? Criminal exami- nation is not a penalty, it is a search for truth." "With your false humanity," exclaimed I, " you disarm society. I do not understand justice in this manner." " How do you understand it then ?" asked Humbug. " Permit me a comparison," replied I. " In society, as in a forest, there are birds of prey, and ravenous beasts enemies to which the police and justice give con- tinual chase. The police tracks them, justice secures them. The magistrate, a skillful hunter, fells and de- stroys the exeorable brood. Take bail for the wolf, offer a safe conduct to the fox ; you will see what will become of the lambs and chickens. To protect honest men is the first duty of justice. To evil doers it owes nothing but punishment and extermination." "My dear friend," said Humbug, "your jests are cruel. " ' Queenam ista jocandi Saavitia.' " If there are wolves among human beings, which I am far from denying, at least they have the same skin as the lambs. Before killing the brigand it is necessary to re- cognize him. This is a work which demands a more delicate hand than that of the hunter. Justice is, under another name, only society, the mother of all the citizens.

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court. 233 Until condemnation, she believes in the innocence of her children. This maternal confidence is not an idle word ; it is an active tenderness, which protects and sustains the prisoner, without abandoning him for a moment. You believe, perhaps, that it is the jury that punishes the crime undeceive yourself. The examination is con- ducted among us in so broad, so full^so generous a man- ner that, to speak truly, it is the culprit who condemns himself and accepts the expiation. Observe our criminal courts; you will see that what disarms the accused is the gentleness of our proceedings. Attacked, a man rebels ; insulted, he rails back. Pride and anger sustain the villain quite as much as the honest man ; but to jus. tify himself where facts alone accuse him, to set forth his conduct simply, to render an account of his action, is the privilege of innocence. Nothing dismays a criminal like feeling himself alone, face to face with himself, hav- ing for witnesses and judges the judge who protects him and the jury who listen to him. He oftenest ends by confessing his fault, or by shutting himself up in a silence which is an acknowledgment. What you call the weakness of our laws is what makes their virtue and beauties." "I comprehend nothing of your chimerical philan- thropy," I answered; "it is not in this manner that justice is understood and practised "------ "At Kharkoff, among the Cossacks," interrupted Humbug, laughing ; " I believe it ; these people are not Christians." " They are Christians like myself," replied I ; "but"----- "Good morning, your honor," cried a purple-faced man, whom two polioemen were shutting in the box, with eyes starting from his head like those of a crawfish,

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234 PARIS IN AMERICA. and a hoarse and asthmatic voice ; " it is Paddy ; don't you know me ?" " Twice in four days ; this is too much," said Humbug, " Forgive me, your honor," said the prisoner, pointing to the policemen ; " it is these fellows' fault. They have no pity for the poor world. Yesterday, Sunday, I went out to take a quiet walk, with a bottle of gin in my fist, like a good Christian, who didn't want to go mad for lack of something to drink on Sunday. I met this great devil of a fellow yonder, and politely asked him the way to the hospital. ' You have it in your hand,' says he. ' This !' said I, holding up my bottle ; ' it is the comfort of my life.' ' It is your enemy,' s«ys he. ' Well, well, policeman, we must love our enemies,' said I. Upon which I drank my own health, and ran against Patrick O'Shea, a son of green Erin, who hates all tne Saxons, If you meet a friend on Sunday you must fight a little with him. this is a funny story, isn't it, your honor? We hadn't begun to draw blood when the policeman put his hand on my shoulder. ' Have you three dollars ?' said he. * No,' says I, ' there is a hole in my pocket, and my wife hasn't mended it yet.' ' If you have no money to pay the fine, why do you fight ?' says he. ' Police- man, you are right,' says I ; ' every one must amuse him- self according to his means.' So I went away, arm in arm with Patrick, in a friendly way. But Patrick began to bully me about the election he is a Democrat. ' Your judge isn't worth a fig,' says he (meaning you, your honor) ; ' as for the doctor, they say he's a conjurer !' Naturally, I shut his mouth with a blow of my fist ; he answered in the same way ; I put out my leg and threw him down. ' I will choke you,' says I, ' if you do not own it.' And I made him own it."

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THE JUSTICES' COURT. 235 "What?" asked Humbug. " That you are worth a fig, and that the doctor isn't a conjurer." "Paddy," resumed Humbug, with a serious air, " we are obliged to you for your good opinion of us; but your getting tipsy and fighting in the street will cost you ten dollars." " Ten dollars !" exclaimed the drunkard. " Where do you expect me to get it ?" " If you do not find it between now and to-morrow, five days' imprisonment will do as well." " And my wife and children ?" murmured Paddy. " You should have thought of them yesterday," ans- wered the judge ; " to-day, it is too late." " Pharisees !" exclaimed I, " at last I have you. You have two weights and measures. Thanks to his money, the rich man can indulge in all the vices ; while the poor man expiates in prison the only crime which you do not pardon poverty. Is this equity ? For the same offence I admit only the same penalty ; shut up all the culprits, or shut up none. Justice is but another name for equality." " Happy logicians," said Humbug, " admirable leaders of the people ! it matters little to you if you kill liberty, provided you conduct it straight to perdition. When the Russian executioners put to death nobles and women under the knout, I suspect, sublime doctor of Kharkoff, that your heart leaped for joy, and you exclaimed, ' Glo- rious victory of equality 1' " " No, no," said I, in my turn, " I abhor despotism ; I desire the equality which elevates, not that which de- grades; I demand that the serfs shall be treated like nobles, not the nobles like serfs." "Very well, my good friend," rejoined the judge,

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236 PARIS IN AMERICA. but it is here that the difficulty begins. There is always a point beyond which, unless you imitate Procrustes, the most skillful of logicians, you will never attain equality. " Our old Saxon laws, which you find harsh, and which I find just and gentle, always take care to treat liberty with circumspection. With the exception of atrocious crimes, they attack the purse and not the person of the culprit. If the true means of arresting the man drawn on by passion be to put before his eyes the responsibility which awaits him, «nothing equals pecuniary penalties- believe it from experience. There are countries where adultery is a pretty trick; breach of faith, a lawful amusement ; duelling, an exploit which does honor even to the villain. Among us, men do not seduce their neighbors' wives or daughters, or kill men to repair the injury which they have done them. Why? For the very prosaic reason that they must pay fifteen or twenty thousand dollars for each of these amiable follies. No one cares to ruin himself to be the talk of the city, and to have the laugh against him in the bargain. " Such is the law ; the custom of a thousand years has consecrated its force and wisdom. But what is to be done when the accused has nothing ? Are we to give to the poor the privilege of impunity ? are we to sacrifice liberty through love of uniformity? Our ancestors decided, and we have kept their maxim : Who cannot pay with his pocket, must pay with his skin ; luat cum corio. Among us, the fine is the rule, imprisonment the exception. Why? Because liberty is the principle; to speak truly, imprisonment is only a means of execution against an insolvent debtor. What do you see unjust in ail this ?" " I do not see equality in it," replied I.

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court. 237 " Well, doctor, you are blind. There are two species of equality the one, which is unsuited to human socie- ties, is that material and brutal equality which takes into account neither age, nor rank, nor fortune. The same penalties in unequal conditions is absolute equality and supreme injustice. The other equality is that which pro- portions the punishment, not to the definition of the offence, which is only a word, but to the act itself and the person of the culprit. To the rich a heavy fine, to the poor a light fine, and in default of payment a few days' imprisonment this is a law in which justice and veritable equality find their account no less than liberty." "Paddy!" exclaimed I, calling the drunkard, who raised towards me his great, wonder-struck eyes, " take these ten dollars ; pay your fine, my good man ; go home and sin no more. This is my answer," said I, turning to Humbug ; " it is a protest against the iniquity of your "It is the justification of their excellence," answered he. "If, through love of equality, we had established imprisonment as the penalty for drunkenness, what aid could you have given to this interesting victim ? The fine, on the contrary, has this great merit, that tender souls can always correct the harshness of our judgments; and, whatever legists may say, that stony-hearted race, when thero is a struggle between charity and justice, it is well that charity should have the last word." "Thank you, doctor," cried Paddy, crushing my fingers jn his hands, "I am going to drink your health. The first man who dares call you conjurer, by my faith, I will pummel him."' "Here is a reformed man!" said Humbug. "Now

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238 PARIS IN AMERICA. if there is nothing more before us, we will adjourn the court." I returned with him to his office. We found the judge of the criminal court there, in great agitation. "I have been waiting for you," said he to Humbug; " behold me in the greatest embarrassment. The jury is assembled, and the attorney general is missing. He writes me that he is sick in bed, with such violent pain in the bowels that it is impossible to rise." "Bowels an attorney general! It is improbable," exclaimed Humbug. "Do not laugh, my friend, but help me; give me some one to replace our public prosecutor." " Take this precious Daniel," said Humbug, with diffi- culty restraining his laughter. " Here is the man you want. He is barrister and doctor in the university of Kharkoff; he is a prodigy of gravity, inflexibility, legal- ity, and sentimentality. You have here, in a single per- son, Coke, Mansfield, Erskine, and all the rest." " Come quickly, sir," said the judge, taking me by the arm ; " you are my saviour." " Excuse me," said I. " No, no !" interrupted he, " I will listen to nothing. No false modesty ; you are a doctor, that is enough." At the same moment, Humbug seized me by the other arm ; I was dragged into the hall, presented to the jury, and installed, without having been able to breathe a word. Humbug placed himself near me, and, smiling at my misadventure, showed me, on the defendant's bench, Fox, stupefied, gazing at me, and winking his eyes. There was no retreat. Fate, which was mocking me, condemned me to play a new farce The Attorney in Spite of Himself.

Chapter XXIV An Attorney General 241 0239

AN ATTORNEY GENERAL. 239 CHAPTER XXIV. AN ATTORNEY GENERAL. My dear reader, if ever a treacherous hand flung you into the water by surprise, without your knowing how to swim, you can form an idea of my deplorable situa- tion. I did not feel in a condition to say two consecu- tive words; yet to withdraw would have been ridicu- lous. There would not have been hisses enough for me throughout the city. I resolved, therefore, to put a bold face on the matter, and to sustain my part to the end. Taking out my memorandum book, I tore from it some leaves, on which I wrote from memory a few of those fine phrases which mean nothing, but produce the best effect, when opportunely thrown in a carefully pre- pared improvisation. Thus armed, I awaited the battle with the firmness of a soldier going to the fire, resolved to stand it. The first prisoner brought in was an execrable villain, who had slowly poisoned his wife, after having dictated a will to her ; the crime was flagrant, the proofs over- whelming, the wretch did not even attempt to defend himself. " I plead guilty," murmured he, in a trembling voice, with pallid face and wandering eye ; " let me die ; I ask only to be delivered from life." There was a profound silence throughout the assem- bly. I rose majestically, put nay quizzing glasses on my

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240 PARIS IN AMERICA. nose, coughed three times, and, holding my cards in my left hand while waving my right arm in cadence, I com- menced in a slow, deep voice : "Your Honor and the Gentlemen op the Jurt: " Nemo auditur perire volens listen not to him who wishes to die is one of the great and salutary maxims bequeathed to us by the profound wisdom of our venerable ancestors a wis- dom far .superior to the insane science and proud reason of the generations of to-day. Nemo auditur perire volens is a maxim invented not only to protect the culprit against his own despair, but to secure to society the satisfaction of a legitimate ven- geance. " Yes, gentlemen, when an execrable crime has been commit- ted when our admirable city, wholly rejuvenated by the splen- dor of those glorious structures which do infinite honor to the prodigious genius of our able and wise edileship when, I say, our city, modern Rome, a thousand times more beautiful and greater than the Rome of the Caesars, awakens in the morning, terrified at the unexpected news of one of those horrible crimes which reveal unqualified depravity, the poisonous fruit of a sys- tem of civilization corrupted by revolutions and journalism-* then, gentlemen, it is the duty of justice, which is ever on the watch, to accomplish a sacred mission a mission as difficult as imposing. In default of ready speech, in default of that magis- terial eloquence, the appanage of so many of my illustrious col- leagues, whom I refrain from naming to spare their too great modesty, magistrates inspired at least by their conscience, bring within these walls their forcible conviction, their humble but firm devotion to the cause of order, the laws, and society. "Here, gentlemen of the jury, here is offered a great and glorious spectacle ; here begins, in all its details, a tragedy, painful doubtless to honest men, but necessary to the expiation of crime, and to the edification of the whole country. In this appalling drama, debauchery is the prologue ; covetousness, end. ing in poison, forms the seoond act ; publio trial, by its marvel-

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AN ATTORNEY GENERAL. 241 ous adroitness, precipitates events, and we arrive, through it, to the fatal and speedy denouement. This avenging denoue- ment, gentlemen of the jury, is in your hands ; your verdict is not doubtful. Crushed beneath the weight of his fault, van- quished by justice, the culprit has confessed ail: yonder he stands before you, weighed down, overwhelmed with remorse ; his condemnation is written on his villainous forehead, as it is written in your noble hearts. "Let him not believe that this forced confession can free him from the shame which he deserves. In vain he turns aside his guilty head, in vain he puts away from his impure lips the bitter cup which his execrable crime has prepared for him ; the law, blind and mute, the law, justly inexorable, the law, divinely pitiless, decrees that he shall drink his heinous crime to the dregs. His torture is the punishment of the past and the lesson of the future." "Enough, for God's sake, enough," said Humbug, pulling the, skirt of my coat. " Res sacra miser, my good friend." "Leave me alone," said I with a gesture of im- patience. "The prosecution has nothing to do with humanity." " On us," continued I, becoming animated, " on us, the minister of the public prosecution of crime ; on us, the representative of outraged authority ; on us devolves the painful but sacred duty of silencing the beatings of our human heart ; to us it belongs to stir this mire and to surmount unconquerable disgust ; to us "------ Imprudent man ! in a magnificent gesture, I raised my arms and opened both hands, when lo ! all my papers fell to the ground and my eloquence with them ; I stooped to pick up the whole together, the prisoner profited by this unlucky chance, and rising abruptly. 11

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242 PARIS IN AMERICA. " Your honor," said he, " how long will you suffer the attorney general to play with me like a cat with a mouse ? The law says that you are the protector of the accused ; why do you let me be insulted in my wretched- ness ? I expect my sentence, what is the need of pro- longing my torture ?" "He is right," said an unmannerly juror; "we are here to do justice, not to hear a sermon." I was about to speak ; the judge stopped me with a gesture and, covering his head, he purely and simply pro- nounced the condemnation of the prisoner and the sen- tence of death. No summing up, no impressive words, no lesson given either to the prisoner, or the jury, or the public, nothing to add to the solemnity of this scene pal- pitating with interest. On the contrary, with a famili- arity in bad taste, he began to negotiate with the culprit. " Prisoner," said he, " henceforth you have nothing to expect from the mercy of man ; it only remains for you to make your peace with God. How many days do you need to settle your affairs and become reconciled with your conscience ?" " Three days will be enough," replied he ; " I am in haste to have it over," "Well," resumed the judge, "in five days, reckoning from the present moment, you will appear before the only judge who can pardon you." The condemned bowed respectfully to the judge, and went out, casting on me a glance which troubled me. Had I not done my duty ? Is pity due even to as- sassins ?" The second prisoner was brought in. He was an im- pudent knave who, released from the State prison two

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AN ATTORNEY GENERAL. 243 days before, had rendered himself guilty of burglary, robbery, and attempted assassination. He had broken into a house at Montmorency, threatened an unfortunate servant maid who kept the house, and taken everything, even to the carriage and horses. The face of this rogue was enough to condemn him. It was villainy personified. We beheld a man to whom society was only an enemy, and who had as much con- tempt for the law as hatred for the magistrate in a word, one of those wild beasts which we must slay if we would not have them devour us. " Prisoner," said the judge, " do you plead guilty or not guilty ?" "That is a pretty question," answered the burglar with audacious nonchalance. " Guilty or not guilty ? Neither you nor I know until we have heard the wit- nesses." " Gentlemen of the jury," exclaimed I, " what need is there of hearing further ? Lay hold of this confes- sion. Did an innocent man ever hesitate for an instant to proclaim his non culpability ? None but a profes- sional villain would have this effrontery. Look at the wretch ; is not crime written oil his impudent face ?" " I protest againt this theory," cried the counsel of the prisoner. His squeaking voice made me start once more mock- ing fortune opposed to me Fox, my eternal enemy. " Yes," continued he, " I protest and I will always protest against a doctrine which has never been received in the courts of free America. You have no right to torture the words of a prisoner to turn them to his con- viction. You have no right to interpret his mien, his gesture, the tone of his language in evidence of his guilt.

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244 PARIS IN AMERICA. If it were permitted to invoke these deceitful signs which passion explains as it pleases, who would escape the elo- quence of attorney generals ? Is the accused silent ? it is because remorse overwhelms him ; silence is confession. Does the accused protest calmly ? it is effrontery ; effron- tery is confession. Does he fly in a passion and rail ? he is an insolent fellow who outrages justice ; insolence is con- fession. Weakness, energy, humility, pride, tears, anger, all is confession to prejudiced minds who see only one side. Ah ! gentlemen, begin by establishing the physical characteristics of virtue and crime. When science shall have realized the dreams of Lavater, you can condemn men by their countenance ; until then leave to fortune- tellers this perfidious and dangerous art. Justice knows nothing but facts, discusses nothing but facts, decides on nothing but facts. Therein is its security and greatness. Let Mr. Attorney General keep his talent for a better occasion we will proceed to hear the witnesses." " Your honor," cried I, " it is through respect to the * court that I have endured the impertinence of these words to the end ; an attorney general does not need to receive lessons from the counsel ; I require"------ "Be calm, sir," interrupted the magistrate; "every- thing is permitted the defence except abuse ; the words of the honorable counsel have in no wise transcended the right of his function. As to his doctrine, it is what our precedents have sanctioned. You will find these princi- ples, which I do myself the honor to profess, in all our authorities." I fell on my seat like a thunderstruck Titan. The judge become the apostle of theories which sink the prosecution to the level of the defence ! The judge a deserter from our ranks, and become the accomplice of

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AN ATTORNEY GENERAL. 245 the counsel ! It was a last stroke ! If this is what the Yankees call justice, I have no more knowledge of it. Travel throughout civilized Europe, you will see no- thing like it. "Very well," said the excellent Humbug to me, to restore me a little courage ; " you speak like a senator, only with too much zeal. Moderate yourself, my good friend; you will produce more effect." I was not at the end of my surprise. The witnesses were called. I expected that the judge alone would inter- rogate them in concert with myself. Vain hope ! The judge was an impassive statue. Opposite him, the accused kept the same silence. When I attempted to question him, a general outcry taught me that, according to Yan- kee law, there was favor only for knaves. To see the magistrate and prisoner, both mute and motionless, one woijjd have said that, strangers to what was passing in the court, they were the judges of the combat. The " combatants, or rather victims, were the witnesses, given over to the mercy of the counsel, interrogated, contra- dicted, blamed, harassed, by a man without public character, and who had no other claim than that of defending the doubtful innocence of a knave grown old in crime. In this subversion of all received ideas, the accused might have been taken for a witness, the wit- nesses for the accused. One of the questions asked by Fox appeared to me so impertinent, that I objected to the witness's replying to it. " By what right ?" exclaimed Fox, furious. "You forget," said I, " that I have no account to ren- der to you; I am the representative of the state." "What new chimera is this?" returned he, with his

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246 PARIS IN AMERICA. habitual insolence. "There is no state within walls. There is no room here except for justice, admira- bly represented by the impartiality of the magistrate and the wisdom of the jury. You are a lawyer, like me; nothing more. I represent the defendant, you represent the plaintiff, to whom society gives you as support. You have no right which does not belong to me, I have no privilege which you may not claim. If it were otherwise, the balance of justice would be perverted the prosecu- tion would be stronger than the defence. What would become of the liberty of the citizen ?" "Your honor," said I, "is this also one of the theories sanctioned by your precedents ?" " Mr. Attorney General," replied he, in a grieved tone, " what you ask astonishes me. In a free country, can there be a question as to the equality of the prosecution and the defence ?" I had nothing to do but to be silent ; I let Fox torture the witnesses at his ease. One thing alone consoled me. There is no abuse which, by the side of a thousand incon- veniences, does not carry with itself some small advan- tage. Accustomed from childhood to the rude ordeals of public life, the witnesses did not suffer themselves to be intimidated by the harshness of the questions which were addressed them. In this duel of words, Fox had not always the best of it. It is true that his skin was tough ; he rose each time with new fury. Never was the liberty of a man defended with more desperate energy. Among the witnesses figured Seth the Quaker, an important personage at Montmorency in his capacity of hotel-keeper. Seth bore a grudge against the lawyer, for his reverse of the morning, and answered him with a malice which made me smile in spite of my ill humor.

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AN ATTORNEY GENERAL. 247 "Do you know the defendant ?" asked Fox. " Yes," said the Quaker, " I know him, to his misfor- tune and mine." "Dare you affirm, under oath, that he is a dishonest man ?" " I have never said that he could be accused of being an honest man," replied friend Seth, with the greatest placidity. "What interest had he in stealing a carriage and horses ?" " None, that I know of," said the Quaker. " He would have done better to have bought them and not paid for them, after the example of honorable gentlemen. Perhaps he had not as much credit as they." After the hotel-keeper, it was the servant-maid's turn a plump blonde, with a frank and merry air, but sharp as a needle, like every country girl. "You pretend," said the lawyer, "that you recognize the defendant, and affirm that he has threatened you in a language more than improper ?" " Yes, sir,'' murmured she, blushing. " Speak louder," said Fox; "the gentlemen of the jury cannot hear you." " I cannot," said she, much agitated. " You can ; do like me ; shout." " You ? That is a different thing ; it is your trade. You were brought up to it from a child." " You affirm," continued Fox, " that the defendant has made use of abominable words so abominable, gentle- men of the jury, that modesty hinders me from repeating them in public." "Yes, sir," said the poor girl, blushing more and more.

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248 PARIS IN AMERICA. "Very well; repeat these words to the court and jury." "Sir," said she, straightening herself up, "if your modesty does not permit you to repeat them, how can you imagine that mine permits me ?" " Very well," replied Fox, without being disconcerted, " the jury will take note. You say that the defendant spoke like an impudent fellow. Do you know how an impudent fellow speaks ?" " I think I do," said she, looking at the lawyer in such a way that the assembly burst out laughing, and Fox abandoned the witness. The list of witnesses exhausted, I addressed the court. Indignation rendered me eloquent ; I felt it, and aban- doned myself to the pleasure of declaiming. In a speech which deserved to be phonographed, I gave the complete history of this robber. I seized him in the cradle, and did npt let him go until he reached the court, where he was about to receive his just punishment. First, I painted him at three years old, as one of those detestable children which have never given their mother a moment's joy; then I accompanied him to school, and showed him idle, lying, quarrelsome, and preluding the gallows by stealing nuts and plums from the trees by the way. By unheard-of good fortune, I had found among the witnesses three honest comrades, who, twenty-five years before, had played the marauder with this future villain. From the school I passed to the workshop, and drew there a horrible portrait of this man, which must have resembled him. I uttered a tirade against drunkenness, that criminal poison, which carried away the audience. When I had gone through ten years of crime, the de- fendant was already destroyed in the opinion of the jury.

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AN ATTORNEY GENERAL. 249 After my discourse, if there was any reason for astonish- ment, it was that at fifteen he had not killed his father. That this profligate had a soul capable of parricide, I did not doubt, as I said to the jury, but heaven had spared him the greatest of all crimes the wretch had the hap- piness to be an orphan ! While the audience was suspended on my eloquent lips, I looked at the prisoner, who was writhing under the lash of my avenging words. Crushed by my re- proaches, unable to resist his violently awakened remorse, he rose, and, interrupting me : " Your honor," exclaimed he, in a husky voice; " if this is to last much longer, I have enough of it ; I own myself guilty. I had rather serve my five years, than listen to this fellow." "Stop!" cried Fox. "What are you thinking of? Take back these fatal words." "No, no," said he; "this fellow drives me mad; I would give my head to shut his mouth." " Prisoner," said the judge, " reflect before making a declaration which destroys you. Consider that, if you coolly repeat this avowal, I have nothing to do but to pronounce your conviction." " Your honor," returned he, " I am obliged to you ; you are a worthy magistrate ; you do not trample on a poor worm of the earth in difficulty. How can it be helped ? I have no chance ; let me fall which way I will, I am sure to land on my head. After all, I have stolen ; let justice take its course. But as to what I said to my mother, or what I did when I was an urchin at school, it is my opinion that it is none of this fellow's business." My victory was complete, vanquished by my elo- quence more than his remorse, the culprit confessed his 11*

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250 PARIS IN AMERICA. crime. To crown my happiness, Fox, whose audacious language I dreaded, could no longer answer me. Force remained to justice and authority. The session ended, one of the judges came and shook me by the hand. He was a celebrated orator, a mind full of resources, who had more than once in Congress beaten his adversaries when they were in the right. Such approbation added to my triumph ; therefore, it was with ill dissembled joy that I received these glorious congratulations. " I am charmed with your ingenious discovery," said my new friend. " On the first opportunity, I hope to imitate you, and to be no less happy than yourself. To take a man from birth, to seize vice, error and prejudice in the germ, and describe and interpret their long devel- opment, is admirable. I imagine that no one could come out intact from this iiistorical review ; with your method of proceeding, I would guarantee to demonstrate that Cato was a profligate and Socrates an atheist." "I have invented nothing," said I, modestly; "you flatter me." " No," said he ; " never, in this country, has any one reasoned in this subtle manner. It is a new logic which does you the greatest honor. The Yankees are a rude people, who pursue the crime and not the man; while to you the material part is nothing, the man is everything. There is no sufficient proof of the crime of which he is accused what matters it, so long as he is capable of committing it? the presumption is against him, and moreover it is probable he has been guilty of many others. This is what I call fair justice, justice which protects society and is anxious only for the public good. Are you American by birth ?"

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AN ATTORNEY GENERAL. 251 " This abrupt question astonishes you," continued he, without divining the cause of my surprise. "Excuse my indiscretion ; my mother was French, and I owe to her certain ideas which never entered a Saxon brain. These ideas nearly approach yours, and inspire me with the most lively sympathy for the originality of your talent. "To me, for instance, the state is everything; and despite the stupid prating of ignorant moralists, I main- tain that the interest of a whole nation cannot be weighed in the balance with the pretended right of an obscure individual ! I am a socialist in the best sense of the word the state before the individual! The Yankees, on the contrary contracted minds, narrow brains have brought from England an egotistical and savage preju- dice. Let a judge fail in respect towards an old gipsy, let an attorney general lose patience in prosecuting a pickpocket or brow-beating an assassin, directly a Saxon arises from the earth to proclaim above the house tops that the Magna Charta is violated and humanity out- raged ; and, lo ! an imbecile crowd runs at the voice of the barker and howls after the magistrate^ like dogs after a horse on full gallop. It might be called a nation of thieves, each one of which is afraid of appearing himself in court to-morrow, and defends the liberty of "others through interest for his own liberty. Thanks to the solidity of my principles, I do not understand justice in this wise ; I see with pleasure that in America, we are both of the same opinion. Saints do not appear before the jury, and I had rather send three innocent men to the gallows, than suffer twenty villains to escape. I am a clear-headed man ; let us shake hands on it ; together

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252 PARIS IN AMERICA. we will reform the education of this monotonous people which has but one word in its mouth liberty!" He took leave of me, shaking my hand in the most cordial manner; I did not return his warmth! Strange to say ! his praises no longer pleased me ; I was appalled at my success. " What if I have gone too far !" thought I. "What if I have suffered myself to be carried away by the ardor of pursuit, like a hunter who listens only to his passion, I have not been in error, since the culprit has confessed his crime ; but were the weapons which I used legiti- mate ? Is everything lawful to the prosecution ? Has the defendant no right to respect ?" Despite myself, these thoughts agitated me. The idea of public vengeance no longer sufficed me, I vaguely caught a glimpse of a purer doctrine, a doctrine which subjected human justice to the precepts of the Gospel, I said to myself that to Christians, all weakness is holy, all misery sacred, and that with the child, the woman, the poor, and even the guilty, the authority ought to distrust its power, and fear to be too much in the right.

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DINAH. 253 CHAPTER XXV. DINAH. On quitting the court room, I found the Quaker, who congratulated me on my adroitness ; this compliment gave me indifferent pleasure. Humbug, on the contrary, said nothing ; I should have preferred his reproaches ; I believe that, at this moment, his anger would have done me good. Fox was awaiting me in the street ; his contracted fea- tures and flashing eyes betrayed a passion which he could no longer contain. " You ought to be satisfied," cried he, as soon as he perceived me. " This is a victory whioh does you honor. I hope not to be the last to render you justice. A jour- nal will soon be found to glorify the eloquence and doc- trine of the attorney general. A Jeffries in America is a monster never before seen, and that will never be seen again we must make haste to admire him. " Besides," added he, gnashing his teeth, furious at my silence, " this scarcely surprises me. None are so cruel as those who have domestic troubles ; they are a race without pity." " Domestic troubles !" said I, shrugging my shoulders. " You have lost your reason, Mr. Fox ; you do not know to whom you are speaking." " Indeed," answered he, sneering, " I thought that I was speaking to the happy father of the too amiable Susan."

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254 PARIS IN AMERICA. The face of the man appalled me ; his diabolical laugh- ter chilled me to the heart. " Be silent," said I ; " I forbid you to utter a name which all should respect." " Bah !" said he, with a disdainful smile ; " this is ill- placed severity." " Wretch !" exclaimed I, seizing him by the throat, " explain yourself, or I will crush you on the spot." " Gentlemen," said the lawyer, struggling, " I call you to witness this violence. Mr. Humbug, you will do me justice !" " Without any doubt," replied the magistrate. " Sue for damages for this rather hasty answer, and I will give you a dollar. But if the doctor claims three or four thousand dollars from you, in turn, I will not spare you a farthing. It will be a pleasure to me to punish slander." " Slander !" cried Fox, foaming with rage. " Where does this precious damsel, whose name cannot be spoken, go every day ? Is it my fault that I see her every morn- ing, on my way to court, gliding mysteriously into one of the most disreputable houses of tfye city? Who can the honorable daughter of the honorable attorney gene- ral visit in the notorious Laurel street ? I saw her go in there a few hours since ; I suppose that she is still there, for usually she makes a long stay. Sue me for slander, doctor, it will be an amusing scandal ; I shall be avenged !" I fell into Humbug's arms. My daughter insulted, my Susan defamed ! the blow was too much for a father ; I could not see, my whole frame trembled, I was suffocat- ing with sorrow and anger. At last I wept ; tears of rage and despair, which, without allaying my trouble,

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DINAH. 255 restored to me some dominion over my senses and per- mitted me to speak. " Sir," said I to Fox, " Laurel street is two paces from here ; you shall follow me there. Humbug, come with me. Mr. Seth, do not quit me. Above all, do not let that man escape. Justice must be done ; it shall be done." "Be easy, friend Daniel," replied the Quaker, "we will all three accompany thee." He dwelt on the last words, all three, eyed the lawyer from head to foot, and, rolling up his sleeves, began to cleave the air with a horsewhip which he held in his hand. " Gentlemen," said Fox, with a sardonic laugh, " I am at your orders. Observe, I beg, that I have nothing to do with a movement which a certain person may regret. There is still time to pause ; I am not cruel ; but I warn you that, once in this house, whatever may be your prayers and tears, I shall only quit it with the firm reso- lution to tell all that I have seen there." " Let us go, sir," said I, " I do not want your pity." I advanced like a drunken man, clinging to the arm of Humbug. Suspect thee, my Susan ! I could not ; I be- lieved in thy purity as in that of the angels ; but the assurance of this man troubled me. I feared an unfore- seen stroke, an ambush, a snare. Alas ! when one loves, he has courage only for himself. " Here is the house," cried Fox^ " and here is the landlord." I raised my head ; the house had a forbidding appear- ance. A dark and damp entry, grimy walls, window- panes broken or replaced by bits of paper, or rags stuffed into the windows it was more than poverty, it was the Squalor and filth of vice. Susan in this den ! it was impossible.

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256 * PARIS IN AMERICA. On the door-step was a man, his coat unbuttoned and hands in his pockets, smoking a pipe and gazing at the passers with all the insolence of an idle vagabond. On seeing us, he took off his shapeless hat, and, flinging himself on me, seized both my hands with an affection which filled me with horror. It was Paddy, half drunk, smelling of rum and tobacco. " Good morning, my saviour," said he ; " you are very good to come to see a friend. Come in, gentlemen ; if you are not afraid of a glass of gin, you will find some one to help you drink it." " Paddy," said I, " does this house belong to you?" " No, my saviour," answered he, laughing ; " if this palace had been mine, I should have drunk it up long ago. It is my wife's a fine business, isn't it ?" " Do you let furnished rooms ?" said I, pointing to a bill. " At your service, doctor." " Whom do you lodge in this house ?" asked Humbug, in a harsh tone. " Frequenters of my court ?" " Your honor," said the drunkard, yawning, " we are not rich enough to be nice ; we take what we can get, and get virtue when we can." " Who lives in the apartments on the first floor ?" said the lawyer, with a cunning air. " What is that ^o you, chatterbox ?" replied the drunkard. " Do you pay for them ?" " Answer," said Humbug ; " do npt forget that you are before a magistrate." " I have nothing to be afraid of," said the Irishman, excited. " You know, your honor, that none but honest people would live in apartments at three dollars a week, paid in advance. A lady lives on the first floor, a pretty

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DINAH. 257 lady," added he, lowering his voice, " gentle, polite, and not particular ; the pearl of the house." " What visitors does she have ?" continued Humbug, who saw me turn pale "Excuse me, your honor, we are not in court. Amer- ica is a free country, where every one sees whom he likes, so long as he pays for it. I never look at the people who come in the door; if I look at them, I do not see them." "Don't pretend ignorance," said Fox. "Remember that I have put more than one better man than you in prison. An hour ago, I saw a young lady, with light hair and blue eyes, in a black silk dress and straw hat, come in here ; where did she go ?" Paddy, intimidated, drew near me to implore my aid. " My good fellow," said I, " oblige me by answering. Be sure that we have no bad intentions ; I will reward you." " My saviour," said he, " I have no secrets from you ; you have helped me out of difficulty, and I am an Irish- man that says everything. I would go through the fire for you." " In heaven's name, speak !" said I, giving him some money. " You are killing me !" " Well, doctor," resumed he, " every day, at the same hour, this young lady with light hair comes to see the lady on the first floor. She is there now." " I think that my presence is useless," said Fox, in an ironical tone ; " the attorney general has no more occa- sion for my services." " Sir," said I, with a threatening gesture, " I wish to oonfound your unworthy suspicions." Alasl I spoke thus to deceive myself; I knew no longer what to say ; I was desperate. Humbug took me

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258 PARIS IN AMERICA. by the hand. I entered the cavern like a man on his way to encounter death. The door of the rooms stood open. There was an antechamber, a sort of kitchen, without curtains or fur- niture. I paused to regain breath ; I heard the beatings of my heart. Seth assured himself that the lawyer had followed us, then closed the door noiselessly and put the key in his pocket. We had nothing more to fear from intruders. I was unable to speak ; I signed to my companions to remain where they were, and glided noiselessly to the entrance of the next room. Opposite, her back towards me, a woman was half reclining in an old easy-chair ; a little girl was seated on a rush-bottomed stool at her feet. By the side of the child, Susan, Bible in hand, was reading to her attentive listeners : " They cast iniquity upon me, and in their wrath they hate me. " My heart is sore pained within me, and the terrors of death are fallen upon me. " Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me, and horror hath overwhelmed me. "And I said, Oh, that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest. " Lo, then would I wander far off, and remain in solitude. " I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tem- pest. " Cast thy burden on the Lord, and he shall sustain thee." " Oh, my Susan !" exclaimed the stranger, " next to God, you have saved my life. How much good these words do me ! You, at least, have not forsaken me."

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DINAH. 259 "And me do you forget me, then?" asked the child. " No, my dear little one," returned the young woman, "yet none but you missed me at Sunday school; and who remembers me in my family ?" The child threw herself on her teacher's neck, and the three embraced each other, weeping. Is there contagion in tears ? Was emotion too strong for me ? I know not ; but, whether from pain or plea- sure, I could not restrain my sobs. " My father !" exclaimed Susan, " you here ! By what chance do you come ?" "My dear," said I, clasping her to my heart, and using my handkerchief furiously to hide my red eyes, " fathers are curious beings ; they are not sorry, some- times, to know where their children go." " Curiosity is a bad fault," said Susan, holding up her finger threateningly. " A well brought up father would say to his daughter, ' My dear, will you permit me to accompany you ?' and, without waiting to be urged, the lady would take her father's arm, as I do ; she would bring him to a poor young woman in need of aid, and would say to him, with a graceful bow, ' Dr. Smith, I entreat your friendship for my dear Dinah.' " "Sir,"' said the unknown, taking my hands, "bless her ; she is my saving angel." She rose as she spoke ; the smile returned to her pale face, when suddenly she uttered a cry of terror, and fell back in her chair, hiding her face. The Quaker stood before her, his arms folded, with an air of fury. " Pardon, brother," murmured the unhappy woman ; " have pity on me." " Is it in this manner that thee keeps thy word?" said

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260 PARIS IN AMERICA. Seth. " Thy mother believes thee on the way to Cali- fornia ; she blessed thee when thee left ; must she take back her blessing ?" " Seth," said the young woman, drowned in tears, "I set out; my courage failed me; I cannot leave my mother and those who love me." " Say, rather, that thee cannot leave him, and must destroy thyself." " No, no," cried she, " I am leading an honest life ; he does not know that I am here ; he will never know it. I have seen no one but my good Susan." " And what does thee expect to do ?" resumed the Quaker, with a harshness which pained me. "Thee knows that there is no more bread for thee at home." " Seth," replied she, " do not crush me ; I shall not be a burden on you. Susan has found me a place as school- mistress in the suburbs, where no one will know me. I shall live by my labor. I ask nothing of you, but to go once a week to embrace my mother and see our house." Nothing is more embarrassing in family scenes than the presence of a third person. I withdrew with Hum- bug, when, at the back of the antechamber, in a dark corner, I perceived Fox, in contemplation before a smoky engraving. It was a picture ofMonarch, son of Eclipse, the winner of the Derby in 1812. To confound an evil doer, and enjoy his confusion, is a double pleasure; I had no scruples, therefore, in rallying the slanderer. " I did not think that you had so great a passion for the turf," said I. "At fifty years' distance, that the laurels of Monarch should silence the most celebrated lawyer of Massachusetts is marvelous ! It ought to be put in the newspapers." " For pity's sake, doctor," said he, " let me go."

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DINAH. 261 His face was so much changed, his voice so weak, that in truth it pained me. I had not believed him capable of so much remorse. " See," thought I, " how wrongly men are judged. It is imagined that lawyers feel only on others' account what a mistake !" I was about to re-enter the apartment to ask Seth for the key, which he had kept, when the Quaker suddenly appeared, dragging after him his sister, her hair dishev- elled, then contemptuously casting her from him. Susan wept bitterly; Humbug endeavored to interpose some kind words ; we were all moved ; Fox alone had resumed his admiration for Monarch ; motionless and mute, he seemed to wish to bury himself in the wall. " Once more," cried the Quaker, endeavoring to force open the clenched hands which clung to his coat, " once more I repeat to thee thy mother's words, ' Thee shall never return home but in the arms of a husband.' Since this fine stranger has promised thee marriage, make him keep his word." "Here is a suit in prospective," exclaimed I. " Come, happy avenger of innocence come, master Fox this is the moment to show yourself." If a thunderbolt had fallen at my feet, it would have terrified me less than the outbreak which followed my impertinent pleasantry. Scarcely had Dinah raised her eyes to the lawyer, than she sprang up as if mad, laugh- ing and weeping together. " Gabriel ! " cried she, " my Gabriel ! Here he is, brother ; here he is !" I understood nothing of the storm which I had let loose ; the Quaker was more intelligent. While Dinah threw herself on the neck of her Gabriel, Seth wound the lash of his horsewhip two or three times round his

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262 PARIS IN AMERICA. wrist, and, approaching Fox, who turned pale at the sight : " Friend," said he, in a tone far from reassuring, " col- lect and explain thyself; I am waiting." Between the caresses of the sister and the threats of the brother, the lawyer presented a piteous appearance, which quite elated me. The natural man is a malicious animal ; nothing less than the Gospel could make us love our enemies. Humbug was a better Christian than I. " Gentlemen," said he, in a grave but mild voice, "I think that my turn has come. In an affair as delicate as this, the last word belongs to the. magistrate : " ' Nee Deus intersit, nisi dignus vindice nodus Incident. ' " My dear Fox, I do not doubt your intentions. If any one should ask your advice in like circumstances, you would doubtless answer, that a suit for breach of promise would be followed by the most serious conse- quences to a lawyer, involving not only the loss of for- tune, but the destruction of practice, and perhaps even the necessity of leaving the country. Is not this your opinion ?" " Yes," murmured Fox, sighing. "Need I add," continued the excellent Humbug, throwing a rope to the drowning man, " need I add, that a man like you has no occasion to trouble himself about these considerations, however grave they may be.? It suffices for him to have given his word to keep it ; is it not so ?" "Yes," said the lawyer, sighing anew, "I have always loved Dinah ; I was checked by difficulties."

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DINAH. 263 "Which no longer exist," interrupted Humbug. "We are all agreed. The affair will end like all good plays love, tears, and crosses in the first act, with marriage for the dénouement." Fox embraced Dinah rather ungraciously, and gave his hand to the Quaker ; Dinah, flushed with pleasure, ran to Susan. " My dear friend," said she, " it is to you that I owe my happiness. And to you, too, my child," said she to the little one, who was pale with jealousy. " All this is very well," said Seth, who never lost him- self in the clouds ; " but, since we are assembled, and have the justice of the peace here, there is nothing to hinder the marriage ceremony from being performed on the spot." " Willingly," said Humbug. " Miss Susan, you shall he my clerk." No sooner said than done. I thought that such unions were only fit for the theatre, where they are dissolved behind the scenes ; I thought that the last village notary had long since passed away ; but in America, men are always in such haste, that they maintain the old custom. The lovers once agreed, the relatives, and even the nota- ry, are dispensed with. Two affirmatives before a justice of the peace, and you are married for eternity. The will is everything, the formality nothing. These people have no taste for ceremony. With what pleasure I quitted this house, which I had entered with a troubled heart ! Paddy reaped a harvest of dollars, sufficient to take away his senses for a whole week. Never had Laurel Street beheld so honest and joyous a company. I opened the procession with my

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264 PARIS IN AMERICA. Susan, who gave her hand to her little protégé; Humbug and Seth formed the vanguard ; between us walked the newly married couple, Dinah smiling like the dawn, Fox hanging his head : " Honteux comme un renard qu'une poule aurait pris." But when one is happy, a little shame is soon swal- lowed. If the imprudent man had played too lightly with love, how had he been punished for his fault? By marrying a charming wife. At this price, I know inno- cent men who would become criminals. It was necessary to prepare Dinah's mother for her daughter's return ; it was also necessary for Fox to announce his marriage to his friends and arrange bis household. Meanwhile, Susan kept Dinah with her. To me was reserved the part of father and guardian ; the happy blunder that I had made gave me some right to it. A remnant of liberty which he could no longer abuse was restored to Fox, and the whole company returned to my dwelling. There was a great festival in the house. Never had we dined more gaily. Martha opened a mouth as wide as an oven, and sighed like a volcano, while admiring and waiting on her sister-in-law ; Susan and Alfred constantly had something to whisper to each other ; Dinah alone was admitted as a third party to these mysteries, in which they laughed without ceasing. Seth devoured everything on the table with the satisfac- tion of a man who has done a good stroke of business, and is dining at another's table. Humbug, who, despite his enormous corpulence, ate little and drank nothing

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DINAH. 265 but water, made amends for his sobriety by quoting the most gleeful lines of Horace, that other drinker, who sang fasting the pleasures of intoxication : " Nunc est bibendum, nunc pede libero Pulsanda tellus." For my part, with tranquil mind, I enjoyed the gaiety and happiness of the children. But nothing can express the joy and animation of my Jenny. She could not remain in her place ; she went, she came ; she changed all the plates with the roast beef, the potatoes, the ham, the pie, the cheese, the fruit, and the cake ; she poured out the Scotch ale, Madeira, and Rhine wine, in pro- fusion ; she had a gracious word for every man, a caress for every woman. A marriage ! It was to her the prize in a lottery. If there was a verse in the Bible which Jenny regarded as divinely inspired above all others, it was the great command which God addressed at creation to the first couple : Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it. The excellent woman was neither American nor Protestant by halves. In her eyes celibacy waa a crime, or at least a disease, which could not be too soon cured. If she had had her own way, she would not have left a bachelor on earth ; I fancy that she would have ended by marrying the Pope and Italy. 12