Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-01-17
CHAPTER VII


Arrived In his room, Lord Berkeley made
preparations for that first and last and all.
the-time duty of the visiting Englishman-
the jotting down in his diary of his 'im.
pressions" to date. His preparations con.
sisted in ransacking his ''box, for pen.
There was plenty of steel pens on his table
with the ink bottle, bat he was English.
The English people manufacture steel pens
for nineteen-twentieths of the globe, but
they never use any themselves. They use
exclusively the prehistoric Quill. My lord
not only found quill pen, but the best one
he had seen in several years-and after
writing diligently for some time, closed
witlrthe following entry:
But in one thing have made an immense
mistake. L ought to have sunk my title and
changed my name before started.
He sat admiring that pen awhile, and
then went on:
All attempts to mingle with the common
people and become permanently one of
them are going to fail, unless can get rid
of it, disappear from 1t, and reappesr with
| the solid protection of a new name. 1 em
astonished and panied to see how eager the
most of these Americans are to get ac-
| Quaintec with lord, and how dtligent they
are in pushing attentions upon him. They
| could acquire it, with practice. My quality
| travels ahead of me in the most mysterious
way. write my family name without addi-
| tions on the register of this hotel, and i'm
agine that am going to pass for an obscure
and unknown wanderer, but the clerk
| promptly calls out: 'FRONT.' show his lord
chip TO 4s2r' and before 1 can get to the lift
| there is reporter trying to interview me,
as they call 1t. This sort of thing shall cease
ut once. l will hunt up the American claim
ant the first thing in the morning, accom-
| plish my mission, then change my lodging
| and vanish from scrutiny under a fictitious
name.
He left his diary on the table, where it
would be handy in case new Impressions
should wake him up in the night; then he
went to bed and presently fell asleep. An
hour or two passed, and then he came slowly
to consciousness with confusion of mys-
terious and augmenting sounds hammering
at the gates of his brain for admission; the
next moment he was sharply awake, and
those sounds burst with the rush and roar
and boom of an undammed freshet into his
ears Banging and slamming of shutters;
smashing of windows and the ringing clash
of falling glass; clatter of flying feet along
the halls; shrieks, supphcations, dumb
meanings of despair within, hoarse shouts
of command outside; cracklings and snap
pings, and the windy roar of victorious
6ames
Bang! bang! bang! on the door, and q
cry:
''Turn out! The house is on fre!''
The cry passed on, and the banging. Lord
Berkeley sprang out of bed, and moved with
all possible speed toward the clothes press
in the darkness and the gathering smoke,
but fell over a chair and lost his bearings
He groped desperately about On his hands,
and presently struck his head against the
table, and was deeply grateful, for it gave
him his bearings again, since it stood close
by the door. He seized his most precious
possession, his journaled Impressions of
America" and darted from the room.
He ran down the deserted hall toward