The Sun.
London, England, 1865-10-05 00:00:00

Alpine Tourists.

(Prom a Correspondent of the Times.)
BEAU RIVAGE, LABE LEMAN, OCt. 1.
It happens to us after an Alpine tour as at the
close of the more earnest and momentous journey
of life. With health and wealth we are apt to go
at too great a rate, but we are equally sure to look
back at our course with regret, and to rue the con-
sequences of our excessive speed. There is some-
thing depressing in our first descent from a high
mountain region. It is a coming down in life. We
miss the elastic air, the commanding view, the vast
solitude, the silence made audible by the incessant
yet unobtrusive music of wind and wave. Alone
with Nature in her loftiest array of beauty, we have
enjoyed a few days of unalloyed bliss ; and when
we come to the end we wonder why those days
were so few, what it was that brought us down
with such precipitance, that prevented our linger-
ing about spots with which we' fell so madly in
love at first sight. But all this repining comes
too late. It is in the nature of all mountain
travellers to live fast. It is a race from co/ to col,
from Zermatt to Aosta, from Courmayeur to
Chamouni, and on to the end of the chapter. It is,
in too many instances, a task which fashion imposes ;
a duty to be got rid of with as little loss of time as
a stout pair of legs and a long purse can contrive.
It is easier to devour the Alps than to digest them.
Most tourists come, conquer, but do not see.
gg Where have you been to-day, Bob ?"—such is the
conversation current at the Riffleburg. " tin to
the Weiss Thor." " Well, and how did you like
it ? Had you a view ?" " Hum ! haw I Let me
see. I say, George, hadn't we a view ?" " Why,
not much of an one," puts in George : "on the
Italian side it was just a mass of mist, but the sky
was clear on the side of Switzerland." " All I
know is it was tough work, all over ice and snow,
and so let us look after our supper."
That may, after all, be only an extreme case, and
there are certainly many to whom the Alps afford as
much pleasure as toil. Some of the Alpine Club
men bring all the resources of art and science to bear
on their summer enjoyment. Their books, descrip-
tive of the great European chain, geologically, hydro-
graphically, &c., are read with interest at home and
abroad. Their sketches of the panoramas from the
Crammont or the Becca di Nona decorate the
dining-room walls of the hotels of Courmayeur and
Aosta. For all that, however, the men who tarry
on any spot more than one evening and one morn-
ing may be set down as exceptions. With the gene-
rality every day has its appointed task, and all their
ingenuity consists in contriving to do the business
of two days in one. The English traveller takes
along with him a good stock of money, justly look-
ing it as the best of alpenstocks. Wherever,he can
ride he calls for horses or mules ; along carriage
roads_he goes upon wheels. He may well wish to
achieve the whole round of Switzerland, but that is
no reason why he should go over the whole of it on
foot. Even when walking a knapsack is irksome to
him ; he thinks, not withoutreason, that he does quite
enough if he carries himself. Hence is John Bull
so popular among guides, carriers, and horse hirers,
who see so much more of his cash than of that of
his neighbours. All ho is chary of is time, and by

~u ~ c

dint of his own brave sinews and of the sinews of
war in his pocket he certainly contrives to " do" a
great deal, no matter whether he enjoys or actually
sees in proportion.

Your German tourist, on the other hand, is more
consistent, patient, methodical. He does the busi-

ness thoroughly ; he has laid his plans beforehand,
before he quitted Halle or Heidelberg. He reckons

days, gulden and kreutzer ; he sets out on foot, as a

general rule ; shoulders his wallet, and brandishes

his orthodox piked staff. He has no occasion for
carriers. He has his knapsack ; °inflict bona :itta

secum portat. He seldom troubles guides ; his trust
is in his Belpetch or Baedeker, who describe every
path and by-path with surprising accuracy and even
tedious minuteness, lead him " five minutes to the
right, then three to the left, then over the brook,
and across the grove," till they bring him to the
village for a halt, tell him where the Deutsche
Gasthof is to be found, with his beloved Schincken,
and genial Baierische bier, his Kreu,z Zeitang and
Kiadderdatsch. Notwithstanding the well-hnown.
sentimentality of the Teutonic character, one imAy
doubt whether the Alps can be seen to the 'acst
advantage in this plodding way ; whether tir,tt
iu-
cessantmarch, that constant burden on the s%oulders,
all that dust and heat, and beer and tol-Jacco, and
scanty linen, and sore feet, have n 0.6 a crushing
effect on the nerves, deadening the very sense of

the beautiful. I have met a great many of these

worthy pilgrims, generally in couples, like Fran-
ciscans in olden times, and the dull, vacant, fagged

look with which they stared at us and exchanged
a friendly " Guten tag," as we pushed past them on
our saddles or in our einspanner, convinced me

that there was little room left in their souls for any
other sensation than that of painful toil, and

that they were mere martyrs to au idea, carrying a
principle to those extremes which border on absur-
dity. The Germans play on the Alps the same part
they have assigned to themselves in every walk of
science, art, or literature. They do the heavy work
—do it from choice or earnest conviction. Nor is
this the case of the race between the hare and the
tortoise. When the time comes for a really ardu-
ous ascent, where all men are brought on a level
and must betake themselves to their natural means
of locomotion, to their mettle and bottom, then the
walking powers of the jaded German by the side of
those of the fresh, well fed, and appointed English-
man bear the same proportions as the lumbering
pace of a pack-horse to the dashing action of a iirst-
rate hunter. Look to the Alpine exploits of the last
score or two of years, you will find that Mount
Blanc, Monte Rosa, the Jungfrau, Wetterhorn, &c.,
have almost invariably been achieved by the racing
Briton, not by the painstaking Teuton. But if
taking matters easy were the best way of seeing
Switzerland, then the beau ideal of a traveller
would be your Italian lounger. He comes across
his great mountain barrier, generally over the
St. Gothard or Simplon, boxed up in the in-
terior of a diligence, crowded to suffocation, espe-
cially in a year in which the cholera scares him
away from the dear haunts of his noisome city.
Down he comes on Lucerne., Geneva, or Zurich, as
if his mission were to the cities, not to the moun-
tains of Switzerland. Down he sits at the tables
before his beloved Café du Lac, sipping iced
lemonade, gazing at the mountains, and indulging
small but endless talk with his fellow-traveller,
commenting on the rich head of hair, neat ankle,
and satin skin of the English or Yankee girl tripping
past him. To that bench and that table he is
nailed from morning to late at night, or if he looks
for diversion, he seeks it at the barber's shop, where
he goes through his scanty toilet rites; or on the steps
of his hotel, where he gets his boots blacked. It is not
that he would, enervated as he is supposed to be,
lack energy or even physical strength for manly
exertion. I know a young Neapolitan who has been
up Monte Rosa. Another achieved Mount Cervin
the other day. It is with the Italian a matter of
Cui Bono ? Something like Asiatic indolence lurks
about these descendants of the Pelasgic race. Ex-
traordinary stimulus is required to rouse an Italian
into unusual exertion. The normal state of exist-
ence is for him rest and leisure, and idle drink and
drowsy talk. He does not like toil nor court peril
for its own sake, not he. The mountains look as
well—nay, look better—seen from base to summit
than from top to bottom. The Italian carries but
little linen with him, and he requires a change of
shirt every time a walk brings the dew of heat and
fatigue on his brow. Mountain climbing may be all
very well in deep winter, but in the dog days I
Bah ! Si .ea tutto in acqua ! Si soda come bestic !
Your Frenchman exhibits a somewhat different
temperament from his Greco-Latin cousin. Am-
bition, the point of honour, will allow him no rest.
His nature goads him to imitation, easily roused
into emulation. He must keep on equal terms with
his neighbour, excel him if lie can. He tears him-
self for a week or two from the glitter of the
Boulevards, from the roulette and the sirens of
Baden. You have him in full bloom at Bale and
Lucerne. His tourist's costume is unexceptionable.
It has cost him time and thought, and long
consultations with ,his tailor. The Frenchman
of this class is a peculiar being, a mixture of tho
Anglomaniac and the Anglophobist. Ire apes those
he hates. He is great on the race-ground ; reads
Le Sport; suns himself in the light of Count
Lagrange's triumphs. Like Napoleon at Waterloo,
he closes his fist, and exclaims, " Nous les tenons, ces
Anglais!" On his first reaching Lucerne he makes
a dash at the Righi, storms it au premier abord, as
Porsena, King of the Rasena, took the Janiculum,
on the first onset. There is no end to his noise and
gesticulation on the platform at the Kulm. In good
wind, well braced, and put in high spirits by that
easy success, he is "up to anything." He has high
courage and dashing impetuosity, no doubt, and for
a short spell you may expect from him any great
deed. He takes the first icy pass or snowy peak
that is described to him as worthy a brave man's
trial. Up at it he goes as he would at a Parisian
barricade. Fire and quicksilver are to him instead
of sound bone and muscle. He keeps pace with the
stoutest John Bull, or, may be, even distances him ;
but with that first victory he is satisfied. He comes
down to Interlaken or Chamouni with a shrug and
a sneer. He has been on the Alps ; there is nothing
in them ; there are some scores of such snowhills as
the one he has topped, and there is only one Boule-
vard des Italiens in the world. When people talk
to him again of peaks, passes, and glaciers he will
say, "Je figs la. Connu ! Sont-ils ennuyeux, ces
'ouristes!"

Such are some of the specimens of Alpine travel-
lers that I have happened to come across as they
crowded together at one of these many Hotels des
Quatre Nations." There are other varieties, such as
the Spaniard, less enterprising even than the Ita-
lian ; the Yankee, more bent on doing, more at a
loss what to do, than the Briton ; the Russian, a
cross between English energy and German drudging
laboriousness. Then there aro the women of all
these different races ; the English ladies, very nearly
outnumbering, often outdoing, sometimes disdain-
fully dispensing with, their gentlemen; the Ger-
man frauen, a deadweight round their husbands'
necks, affectionate, sentimental, given to ejacu-
lations and clasping of hands ; the French
dames, espzegle, curious, loquacious, nzoqueuses ; the
Italian signoras, bilious, out of sorts, subdued, out
of their element ; then swarms of boys and girls, in
everybody's way, always on the brink of precipices,
with breathless nurses and grumbling flunkeys pre-
tending to try to keep them out of mischief. Family
parties on the high mountains are chiefly English
and Germans. But your French and Italians go
about unencumbered. Their " impediments " are
either left at home, or made to tarry behind at those
great nurseries of hotels at Interlaken, Thun,
Lucerne, or Lake Leman, where the noiseis dinning
and the confusion bewildering.

SUICIDE BY A VOLUNTEER.—Mr. Edward Bartlett
Solomon, a corporal in the 12th (Truro) Duke of
Cornwall Royal Voluntosrs, shot himself on Tuesday
morning. Deceased waS clerk in the employ of Messrs.
Smith and Roberts, solicitors, of Truro, and. about half-
past nine o'clock went to their office, and, proceeding to a
small lumber-room, ho attached a piece of cord to the
trigger of his rifle, which he kept there, and shot himself
through the heart, He was in his 49th year, and has left
a widow and several children wholly unprovided for. At
an inquest held on the body the jury returned a verdict
of temporary insanity.

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Observe—Established 1830.
same name.

MGR
WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
Tins DAy.—mm.„;
lh. 50m.—Afternoon, 2h.:15m,
To-Moßßow.-Morhing, 2h, 35m.—Afternoon, 2h. 58m

s made of their names, and the enduring recollec-
tion that is kept of their works. First among the
list of the departed was placed RICHARD COBDEN,
" of whose great services," as Lord BROUGHA3I said,
" not only England, but France also, has been
witness, and felt justly grateful." The promoters
of social science feel that they owe a deep debt of
gratitude to Mr. JOHN CASSELL for his great exer-
tions in diffusing knowledge on secular and religious
subjects at the lowest price at which he could issue
his useful works. Above 60 millions of the " illus-
trated Bible" were sold in weekly numbers, which
fact testifies to the benefits that accrued
from his efforts. Lord CARLISLE is also
to be remembered among the influential persons
removed from among us lately, and as one who knew
him well the testimony of Lord BROUGHAM is worth
having, when he states that " a more virtuous per-
son, or, in all his positions, one more useful did not
exist." On these losses, said the noble and learned
lord, we may use the touching words which the Royal
Psalmist poured out in his sorrow—" We shall go to
them, although they shall not return to us." Con-
cerning the course of events since the last Congress,
Lord BROUGHAM was enabled to congratulate his
hearers. In the first place, the calming down of
party spirit, which they rejoiced at on a former
occasion, has been abundantly evidenced during the
general election which has recently taken place. As
here mentioned in this address we may notice that a
greater absence of party and personal animosity was
observable than at any time of our history since the
Revolution. Many will be amused to find that the
noble and learned lord has been employing his un-
rivalled powers of criticism on Lord RUSSELL'S late
preface to his new edition of the Essay on the
Constitution. The "pi overbial inaccuracy" of
contemporary history is instanced by the fact that
Lord RUSSELL has omitted all mention of the great
meeting of the Opposition at Lord ALTHORPE'S
chambers to consider the plan that Lord BROUGHAM
had given notice of, but which was put a
stop to by the change of Administration shortly
after. In discussing the several points in which
Reform is needed in the private business
of Parliament the noble and learned lord
mentioned a very vital one, which is the necessity
of every one particular in each Bill undergoing the
same inquiry in both houses, so as always to double
the expenses of all parties. With the late Duke
of WELLINGTON Lord BROUGHAM was always asso-
ciated in the efforts to improve these details, and
brought forward the standing orders which now
regulate the private business of both houses. At
the time of the introduction of these changes the

great plan was proposed but rejected, because, as

emphatically stated in this address, the influence
of professional men was against it, as they saw
that it would cut off nearly half their services. It
proposed a joint committee, to be composed of
seven Commoners and four Peers, and the advan-
tages that would thus accrue are obvious enough
to all dispassionate observers. That he earnestly
advocated the adoption of so marked an improve-
ment was greatly to the credit of the Duke of
WELLINGTON, and should be remembered by those
who appreciate these changes. The Work-
ing Men's Club Institute was adverted
to by the noble and learned lord, and he

laid great stress upon the primary object of all
such efforts being the relaxation and amusement of
the labourers. As President of the Institute, Lord
BRouGHAm has always upheld this wise notion ; and
he rejoiced that Lord STANLEY had lately, at Bir-
kenhead, inculcated this fundamental doctrine. It
is quite absurd to suppose that those who are
not of a high intellectual status can, after hard
toil and great fatigue, turn their attention