The Sunday herald. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1866-1887, 1880-05-30
MARK TWAIN.
The AIpcustock An Unexpected Ac.
Guniutauce.
TRAMP ABRoAD--lI.

avenue and muses., Children aud tourists sit In the
the schools Of fishes darting about in the clear WATER
gaze the lake at the stately border of snow
NODDED mountain peaks. Little pleasure. steamers,
black with people, are coming and going all the time,
and everywhere sees Young girls and young men
padding about In fanciful row-hoats, or skmming
along hy the help Of sails when there Is any wind
The front Of the hotels have little rallied baco
nes where may take his private luncheon In calm
scene and enjoy 1t without having to do any of tho
work connected with II.
Most OF the people In Lucernc both male and female
are In walking costume, and carry apenstocks Evil
IDENTIFY 1t Is not considered safe 10 about In Swltzer
land, even In town, without an alpensock. II the
tourist forgets, and down to breakfast without
his alpenstock he goes back and gets It, and stands II
up In the When his touring In switzerland is
finished he does not throw that broonlsick away but
lugs home with him, to the far corners of the car
although this costs him bother and trouble than
baby courier could. You see. the alpensock is
his trophy his name Is burned upon IT.: and III he has
climbed hill jumped brook, or travcrsed brick
ward with It, he has the names Of those places burned
upon 1t, too Thus 1t IL his regimcntal flag. 50 to
speak and bears the record of his achievements 1t
is worth three francs when he buys II, but bonanza
could purchase II after his great deeds have been
inscribed upon It, There are artisans all about Switz
erand whose trade II Is to burn these things upon the
aipenstock Of the tourist And observe, man is re-
spected In switzerland according to his alpcnstock.
found could get attention there while carried an
unbranded one. However, branding Is not expensive,
sn / soon rclnedied that. The effect upon the next
detachment of tourists was very marked. felt re-
paid for my trouble.
Half of the summer horde In Switzerland is made
many naonaties the Germans leading and the
Americans coming next. The Americans were not AS
numerous as l had expected they would be.
The 30 table hote at the great Schweitzerhof fur
nished mighty array and variety of naonaties
but it offered better opportunity to observe costumes
than people, FOR the multitude sat at immensely long
tables and therefore the faces were mainly seen in
perspective but the breakfasts were served at small
round tables and then If one had the fortune to get
table in the midst of the assemblage he could have
many faces to study as he could desire We used TO
try to guess out the nationalties, and generally
nl tnlp we'll Sometimes tried
people but that was failure: that is thing
which probably requires good deal of practice. We
presently dropped 1t and gave our efforts to less diff
cult particulars. One morning said:
..There is an American party
..Yes but name the state.''
I named State, Harris named another. We
agreed upon one thing, however that the young girl
with the party very beautiful and very tastefuly
dressed. But we disagreed as to her age said she
was eighteen, Harris said she was twenty. The dis
pute between us waNcd warm and finally said, with
a pretense of being in earnest;
''well there is one way to settle the natter will
| go and ask her.
Harris said sarcasticaly, 'Certainy, that is the
thing to do All you need to do is to the
formula over here; go and say, I'm an American :
| of course, she will lie glad to see you'
| Then he hnted that perhaps there was no great
danger of my venturing to speak to her
| said. 81 was only talkng-l didn't intend to ap
| proach her, hut see that you do not know what
intrepid person am. am not afraid of any woman
that walks. win go and speak to this Young girl
address her in the most respectful way and
ask her to pardon me II her strong resemblance to
former acquaintance of mine was deceiving me: and
when she should reply that tho name mentioned was
not the name she bore, meant to beg pardon again.
| most respectfully. and retire. There would be no
harm done. walked to her table, bowed to the gen
teman then turned to her and was about to begin my
| little speech when she exclaimed
~ kae,o wasn't mistaken: told John u was
| YOU John said 1t probably wasn't hut knew l was
right. said YOU would recognise me presently and
felt much battered II you had gone out of this room
without recognizing me. SIT down, sit down; how
odd it is you the last person was ever expecting
| To again. ~
This was stupefying surprise. 1t took my wits
clear away, for instant. However, shook hands
cordially all around and ! sat down. But truly thi,
was the tightest place ever was In. l seemed IL
vaguely remember the girls face, now, but had nc
idea where had seen 1t BEFORE what belonged
with It. | immediately tried to get up diversion
about Swiss scenery to keep her from launching into
topics that might betray that did not know her, bu
IL was of use, she went right along upon matters
which Interested her more:
80 dear, what night that was, when the Sc;
washed the forward boats away-io You remembe
it2'
80, don'tI'' said l-but didn't. | wished th
sea had washed the rud,ler and the amOkestack ant
the captain away then could have located this ques
tiOnef.
"And don't You remember how frightened poo
Mary was, and how she cried t'
..Indeed / do ~ said 1. ''Dear me- how 1t al
comes hack ~
| 1 feryentIy wished It ioOuid come back, but IN,
memory was a blank. The wise way would have bee
to frankly Own up: bat could not bring myself to d.
nizing her; so went on, deeper and deeper into til
mire, hoping for a chance clue but getting one
The Unrecognizabe continued, with vivacity:
| 40 DO you KNOW George married Mary, after all?'
.Why, mol Did heg''
Indeed he did, lie said be ala not believe sh
was half as much to blame as her father was, and
though he was right. Didn't you?''
''Of course he was. 1t was perfectly plain ease
| always said so.'
..Why no yon didn't--at least that summer -
"Oh. no, not that summer. No, you are per
feciiy right abont that. 1t was the following white
"Weli, as It turned ont Mary was not In the leas
to blame; 1t all her father fault at least his
old Darey's.''
, ~ always regarded barley as troublesome Oh
thing
fection for him, although he had many eccentrci
c ties. You remember that when the weather was tn
, was rather afraid 10 proceed. Evidently Dare
= was not a man-he must bc some other kind of ami
: nal-possibly dog maybe an elephant. However
y .'And what q tall he had -
. "Oas! lie had thousand -
This was bcwiiering. did not quite know wha
0 to say, 50 only said;
q | tails. -
= For negro, and crazy one at that I should sa
he was, ~ said she.
o It was getting pretty sultry for me. saih to my
8 walt for me 10 speak II she does the conversato
- is blocked. A negro with thousand tails Is a top
which person cannot talk upon iuently and instruct
o lively without more or less preparation As To dyin
II Iashy into such vast subiect-''
d but here, to my gratitude, she interrupted M
s ''Yes, when il came To tales of his crazy woe
= there was simply no end TO them II anybody woul
, listen His own quarters were comfortable enongl
| but when the weather was cold the family were sur
= to have his COMPANY; nothing could Keep him out {
= he had saved Tom life, years before You remem
y, 80, perfectly. Fine fellow he was, too
y ''Yes, he was. And what pretty little thing h
- i You may well say that, never saw a prett,
a. III used to delight to pet it aud dandIe 1t and pla
!, with it
~ - So ala ~
IS ''You named IT, what 'eas that name can
+. It appeared to me that the ice was getting pret
~, | thin here. would have given something 10 kno
y" what the child's sex was However, had the goo
I'd luck to think Of name that would NJ either sey
n | brought u out:
,o ~ named II Frances
" "From relative, supposet" But you nam
o' the one that died too-one that never saw VIII
9. was out Of neutral names, bus as the child W
dead and she had never seen II, l thought mig
risk for II ana trust 10 luck Therefore sal
h- ~ called that one Thomas Henry ~
nj She said, mnslngly;
~ sat still aud let the cold sweat run down. Iw
:" in good deal Of trouble. but believed could wor
Is through II she wouldn't ask me 10 name any me
children wondered where the lightning was golI
~ to strike next She st ruminating over that Il
rs child ltle but presently she sad an r,
H. time; would have had you name my child"
~ 4" Your child Are yon maiiiedf'
81 have been married thirteen years. ~
m ''Christened, you nean.'
ps "No, married. The youth by your side Is
OI son.
AT - II seemed Incredible, even impossible ! do
es mean any harm by IT, but would you mind telling
~ IL you are any over eghteenthat Is to say, viii y
L" tell me how old you aref'
n 81 was Just nineteen the day Of the storm we
GO talking about. That was my birthday. y,
That did not help matters much AS did not KIN
the dale uf tho Storm. tried 10 think OF some nc
W cOmmital thiug 10 say, ~ keep ~ my end OF the
Of and render my poverty IN tho matter OF reinnHeen
l. as little noticeable possible, but seemed 10
MI about out of noI,- -eommittal tlings, was about
' say, you haven't changed % bit since then, -
lu thai was risky. tlIoughtof saying, 90 You have i
ht proved 80 much since then, but that woudl