The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1873-07-25

body's breath away, almost.
We presently left the city behind
We had started drowsy, but we did no
stay so. How could we, with the bril-
liant sunshine pouring down, the balm,
wind blowing through the open win
| dows, and the Garden of Eden spreaf
| all abroad? We swept along through
rolling expanses of growing grain, not
stone or stump to mar their comeli
ness, not an unsightly fence or an i'll
kept hedge; through broad meadow
covered with fresh green grass clear
swept as If a broom had been at worl
there, little brooks wandering up anC
down them, noble trees here and there
| COWS in the shade, groves in tie dis
tance and church spires projecting ou
of them; and there we're the quaintes
old fashioned houses set in the midst O.
smooth lawns or partly hiding them
selves among fine old forest trees anG
there was one steep-roofed ancient cot
tage whose walls all around, aud whose
roof, and whose chimneys were clothed
in a shining mail of ivy leaves Sc
thoroughly, indeed, that only one little
patch of roof was visible to prove thai
the house was not a mere house of leaves
with glass windows in it. Imagine thai
dainty little home surrounded by flow.
ering shrubs and bright greer
grass and all sorts of old trees and
then go and try to imagine something
more bewitching.
LANDMARKS OF THE AGES.
By and by we passed Rochester, and
sure enough, right there, on the highest
ground in the town and rising impo-
singly up from among clustering roofs,
was the gray old castle, roofess, ruined,
ragged, the sky beyond showing clear
and blue the glassless windows, the
walls partly clad with ivy, a time
SCARED, weather-beaten old pile, but
ever so picturesque and ever so maies-
tic, too. There it was, whole book of
English history. 1 had read of Roch-
ester castle a thousand times, but had
never really believed there was any such
building before.
Presently we reached the sea and
came to a stand far out on a pier and
here was Dover and more history. The
chalk cliffs of England lowered up from
the shore and the French coast was Wis
ible. On the tallest hill sat Dover cas-
tie, stately and spacious and superb,
looking Just as it always looked any
time these ten or fifteen thousand years
1 90 not know its exact age, and it does
not matter, anyway.
A WICKED REORGANIZATION.
We stepped aboard the little packet
and steamed away. The sea was per-
fectly smooth, and painfully brilliant in
the sunshine. There were no curiosi-
ties in the vessel except the passengers
and a placard in French setting forth
the transportation fares for various
kinds of people. The photographer
probably considered that placard tri-
umph. 1t was printed green, blue, red,
black and yellow no individual line in
color, but the Individual letters were
separately colored. For instance, the
first letter of word would be blue, the
next red, the next green, and so on.
The placard looked as if it had the
smallpox or something. I inquired
the artists name and place of business,
intending to hunt him up and kill him
when had time but no one could tell
me. In the list of prices frst-class
passengers were set down at fifteen
shillings and four pence, and dead bod
les at one pound, ten shillings and eight
pence, just double price That is Bel
gian morals, suppose l never say a
harsh thing unless I am greatly stirred !;
but in my opinion the man who would
take the advantage of a dead person
would do almost any odious thing. 1
publish this scandulous discrimination
against the most helpless class among
us in order that people intending to die
abroad may come back by some other
line.
osTENDTAIoUs INFORMATION.
We SKINNED over to Ostend in four
hours and went ashore. The first gen.
tleman we saw happened to be the flag
lieutenant of the feet, and he told me
where the Lively lay, and said she
would sail about in the morning.
Heavens and earth. He said he would
give my letter to the proper authority,
and so we thanked him and bore away
to the hotel. Bore away is good sailor
phraseology, and have been at sea por-
tions of two days now. [ easily pick a
foreign language.
Ostend is a curious, comfortable
looking, massively-built town where the
people speak both the French and the
Flemish with exceeding fuency, and
yet I could not understand them in
either tongue. But L will write the
rest about Ostend in to-mOrrow's let
Ter.
FOUNDER MORALS.
Most of the shops in Ostend seemed
devoted to the sale of sea shells. All
sorts of figures of men and women were
made of shells one sort was composed
of grotesque and ingenious combina-
tions of lobster claws in the human
form. And they had other figures made
of stuffed frogs, some fencing, some
barbering each other. and some were
not to be described at all without indie
cent language. 1t must require a bar
barian nature to be able to find humor
in such nauseating horror as these lat
ter. these things were exposed in the
public windows where young girls and
little children could see them, and in
the shops sat the usual hairy Tipped
young women waiting to sell them.
A SINGULAR CONTINUANCE.
There was a contrivance attached to
the better class of houses, which I had
heard of before but never seen. Tt was
an arrangement of mirrors outside the
windows, so contrived that the people
within could see who was coming either
up or down the street, see all that might
be going on in fact, without opening the
windows or twisting themselves into un-
comfortable positions in order to look.
A capital thing to watch for unwel-
come (or welcome) visitors with, or to
observe pageants in cold or rainy wea-
ther. People in second or third stories
had also another mirror which showed
who was passing underneath.
FLANDERS HOTEL.
The dining room at our hotel was
very spacious and rather gorgeous. One
end of il was composed almost entirely
of a single pane of plate glass, some two
of complexion had a mustache, wore
spectacles, seemed of a good height and
graceful build and carriage and looked
about forty or a shade less. He was
very simply dressed brimless stovepipe
and close-buttoned dark greenomilitary
suit, without ornament. No, Mt wholly
without ornament, for he had band
two inches wide worn over his shoulders
and down across his breast, scarf-fashion,
which band was one solid glory of fine
diamonds.
A Paro;or oA,o;oI o,Yoorod n, tho