Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1869-08-21
full line of. the above now


The New York Express says: One OF
the most exquisitely quaint and enjoy
able books OF travel that has been issued
Abroad.'' of Mark Twain. tits the story
of the Quaker City's excursion to Europe
and the Holy Land, made in 1867, and
which attracted so much attention at the
time. 1t was rather lugubrious excur.
sion party, so far as its constituent parts
went, majority of strictly proper and
equally priggish old gentlemeR, render
ing any approach to levity something
entirely out of the question. Yet, withal,
our merry traveller manages to extract
amusement from hepetty snnoyances of
the occasion and turns them into humor-
Gus pictures TO be looked back upon with
pleasure. Ia his preface he tells us that
the book is "a record Of a pleasure trip "
Yet, notwithstanding it is only
record of o picnic, it has a purpose.
which is to suggest to the reader
how he would be likely to see
Europe and the East, if be looked
at them with his own eyes, instead of
the eyes of those who travelled in those
countries before him. Certainly, Mark
Twain succeeds in dispeling many of the
old traditions which travellers have so
long inflicted upon confding and long
suffering public. He has gone over the
ground with genuine Yankee spirit;
determining to see everything that is to
be seen, 10 see it thoroughly and like a
man of sense. To go into ecstacies over
but few things, and to speak the plain,
unvarnished truth under all circum-
stances. And this truth is told to as in
such winsome form that we cannot but
listen to it with agreeable sensations.
Throughout runs an underourrent of gen
uine native humor. Not what we are so
apt to accept as such, and which is prin-
cipally remarkable for its vulgarity and
insipidity, but real, crisp, tangible wit,
that speaks in every line of the vitality,
the vigorous honesty of the man, and of
how fully be is imbued with all the better
of the national characteristics He starts
the reader off on the voyage with this:
"The next morning we weighed anchor
and went so sea. 1t was great happi-
ness to get away, alter this dragging,
dispiriting delay. Thought there never
was such gladness in the air before, such
brightness in the sun, such beauty in the
sea. / was satisfied with the picnic then,
and with all its belongings. All my
malicious instincts were dead within me;
and as America faded out of sight, |
think spirit Of charity rose up in their
place that was as boundess, for the time
being, as the broad ocean that was heav-
ing It's pillows about us. wished to ex-
press my feelings-I wished To lift up
my voice and sing; but ! did not know
anything to sing, and so was obliged to
give up the idea. 1t was no loss to the
ship though, perhsps. "g8 us1W s1s =
From here to the close we are carried
through just such passages. Quaint,
unique, genuinely humorous at times,
be is, withal, never prosy, never lapses
into mere commonplace. He laughs at
the multitude of relics in Europe aud the
Holy Land, but on Calvary his wit falters
and he becomes the reverent Christian.
BE has sssn aeyersl kegs of nails from
the real cross, and may be pardoned for
doubling the authenticity Of them all
but here no doubt can linger in his mind,
and be gives himself up to reverent con-
TEN plation of the scene. If fault there
be IN Mr.. Clemens book, it is in the
somewhat fippant manner in which he
treats religious subjects. Aside from
this the book is Golconda of wit, avery
mine of sparkling entertainment. Wg-