The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1857-02-07
A Kacy Book.


issued, which We should think would bea
reading
Ths author of this book has not follow
cd beaten tracks of thought, if he has beer
over well-trodden paths Of travel. The
book is fresh and Spirited written by mar
who is manifestly no book maker, and SC
much the pleasanter on that account Mind
full of the fact that so many before him have
described people and places in every city
and valley of Europe, he has but given US
the most interesting and brilliant of his
thoughts and experiences-just such as eve.
ry one who has been in Europe will enjoy
being reminded of, and such as persons who
have not been there will like to read and
know of. 1t is luxury to turn over the
pages of new author whose keen appre-
citation of the ludicrous and enjoyment OF
fun adds a charm to scenes which we should
otherwise pass over too old and often
| sketched, and whose observation, always
reaching beyond the surface of the world
around him, finds materIai .s. ....ierest and
amusement where hundreds have passed be-
fore finding nothing.
The title of the book, DoRE, fancifully
chosen, and signifying 'glded," is used by
our author to express the difference between
the outside show and the inner realities of
things. Here is a very true remark on a
French and European custom, with which
all American travellers have been Disguised: /:
Cf the fashions that this thirst for the
pew and the different from the h0i potI0i
has engendered, there is one Of manners
/ 0or manners follow the same changes and
extremes as drcss) SO disgusting and dirty
/ that | am almost ashamed to mention it on
paper. 1t is universal, as well in private So
! ciety as in the restaurants, and has lately
! been copied to some extent iI other parts OF
/ the world. 1t is that Of rinsing the mouths
and splitting in bowls after dinner and at the
/ table. How such filthy custom ever got
! vogue in society is truly puzzling. To see
a table of fifteen or thirty ladies and gentle
r.-n, the elite Of Paris, sitting in full dress,
{ blazing iD silks, laces and dismonds, stop
( their elegant conversation, and at a given
/ notice commence gurgling and splitting, is
more surprising than the condGct Of Yves
! tern man at a dinner in New York, who, ai
! ter drinking all the water in his finer bowl
where there was 4 s'lce Of lemon, said that
really the dinner was very good. but he did
not think much Of the lemonade At 4 res
turant, the evil is worse; for just you
are beginning to take your soup, from GER
tain noises on either side you imagine your
| neighbors have sudden attack of sea-sick-
ness.
Charles Dickens conducted the splitting
orchestra in his overture to America. and all
the little Dickenses, all the big Dickenscs,
French an English, chimed in, striking eve
ry note Of the gamut and invcnt'ng Others,
till we spit snOwstorms, spit cotton fields,
and spit rivers of tobacco; anu many per-
sons in France now thinl. that spit is pro-
fesson in America, followed by majority
10 y :
There IS more splitting in America than in
any country | have seen, but the lowest OF
them never spit at table. This, hswever, is
only one OF a thousand instances o: the way
America, the best-slandered country on
earth, is judged. How many fashions and
customs there are that arc thought refined
in Paris, that if they existed only in Amer
lea would therefore be thought barbarous
and hooted at, Such i the toadyisaI Of
men. The use Of fneer-bowls is not dis
gus.ing, because it is absolutely necessary
to wipe ones fingers after eating, and whe
ther We wipe them wet or wipe them dry,
there is net much difference; it wcull GER
tainly be very !c 70 rnn the risk of sol
ing lady : fan, or books or gloves, by ncC-
lect Of this custom; and so all fashions
ought to have, at least, some slight basis Of
utility in them, and even then not be adopt
ed if involving any thing offensive to others.
Who can forget, that has seen it, that
strange corner of SwitZeIiand, known to
Germans as LsukcrJad, and the French as
Leeche. Here is our stroiler's adventure /.
there:
In the first place. you can't find it but
in journeying through Switzcrlandsyou may
suddenly tumble down upon it unawares,
over the German uali-cal!ed in Switzer-
land pass. After you have tumb,ed down
this frightful precipass (sxcuse the pun, if
people will call such a decliyity as that
pass, and have descended to the bottom OF
as deep and gloomy gorge as you ever saw
in you life, you are astoni>hei at being told
by some Swiss savant that you are still high
er than the peak of the highest moautain in {
Great Britain. On either side of you arc
perpendicular wal of black rock behind |
the eternal SHOWS and ice Of q glacier; and
in front-never mind; let Us hope that the /
froAt is a place to get ont by. In such a
spot, one is prepared fo- lqSus nature of .
any sort; therefore was not at al surpris-
ed a, beng told that on the top of yonder
cliff was a village, and that the only Girect
passage for the inhabitants Of that village TO !
the baths was by ladders down the rocky
wall Thither my curiosity led me, thro'
a woody slope, and along rocky path, over
very foot of the famous Letter.
And here let me say that the boys of
Monumental No. 6, or any other .ttre-boys .
of San Francisco, would never dream of
climbing a sx-story building on such lad
ders, and what San Franciscan tiremcn won't
do can't be done. However, sX-story pre-
cipices are more easily assembled when there
are no burning timbcrs to fall on ones head
than six story houses during raging fire.
Besides, the peasant women here climb these
ladders fearleSsly, and frcm their dress you
would suppose them TO 0e a branch of the
celebrated Bloomer societies Of America.
From stern necessity, they have banshcd
hoop pettcosts. skirts, and whatever else
can hinder their upward progress, and have
all women secretly desire to
don-the outward badge of masculine au-
therity Selling the first round, l com
nenced the ascent. The ladders are rudely
made, and often very loosely fastened to the
rocks, so that they shake and tremble at
every footstep; and the rounds, instead OF
being nicely-cut lengths of strong wood,
arc generally bits Of crooked branches. with
the bark stripped off, thrust through the
holes made TO receive them, and protruding
frequently several inches beyond the edges
IF the side-pieces. Sometimes the ladders
ire discontinued, and steps cut into the sol t
d rock succeed, and these places are more
dangerous than the ladders themselves, be-
.ause there is nothing to take hold of, unless
,ne stoops and grasps the smoothly worn
stones. A single slip here would drop you
swiftly down to Hades, with very slight {
lalt, indeed, on the earthly crust below. {
But on the ladders, unless you become gid !
ly or nervous, or the rounds break, or a
.ock from above falls or your head, or the
adders become loosened, you are compare
'ipely SAFE! :,
vav between heaven and earth, looked :
hove me, and to my horror, saw woman $