The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1893-09-27
CHAPTER IL

''f pod CHAPTER IL
LrAvRs FROM AYoUBG GoENTLEMAS's JOURNAL.
'"Before setting forth on this mem
orable pilgrimage to nowhere, I
promised a certain friend Of mine
in literary Bohemia to keep notes
OF my adventures, with q view
Of future publication, illustrated by
my own brilliant sketches. / fear the
promise was rash one-lrstly, be-
cause am constitutionally lazy and
averse to literary exertion, and, sec
ondly, because Ihave, as yet, met with
no adventure worth writing about.
Not that I have altogether lost my
first enthusiasm for the idea. There
would be novelty In the title, at any
rate, Cruises in a Caravan by Charles
Brinkley, with illustrations by the au-
thor; Photographic frontispiece, the
caravan, with Tim as large as life,
smirking self-consciously In delight at
having his picture taken. My friend
b has promised to find me pub
Usher, II I will only persevere. Well,
we shall see. II the book does not
progress, It will be entirely my own
fault; for ! have any amount OF time
on my hands. Paint as hard as may
all day, / have always the long even
ings, when I must either write, read,
or do nothing.
$50 am beginning this evening,
exactly fortnight after my first start
from Chester. l purchased the cara
van there from morose individual,
with one eye, who had 1t built with a
view to the exhibition of wild man
Of Patagonia; but said wild man hay
ing taken 1t into his head to return to
County Cork, where he was born, and
the morose individual having no def
mite idea Of n novelty to take his place,
the caravan came into market. Hav-
ing secured this travelling palace, duly
furnished with window blinds, piece
of carpet, chair bedstead, table, q
stove, cooking utensils, not to speak of
my own artistic paraphernalia, sent
over to Mulrany, County Mayo, for my
old servant, Tim-na-C Chainig, or Tim O.
the Ferry-otherwise Tim Linney; and
with his assistance, when he arrived, /
purchased strong mare at Chester
fair. All these preliminaries being
settled, we started one fine morning
soon after daybreak, duly bound for
Explorations along the maoadamized
highways and byways Of North Wales.
II am pleased to say that Tim, after
he had recovered the first shock OF
seeing a peripatetic dwelling-house,
took TO the idea wonderfully. Sure
it's just like the old cabin at home
he ayerred, 'barrin the wheels and the
windies and the chimley and the baste
TO pull It along;' and ! think the re-
sefnblance would have been complete
in HIS eyes II there had only been two
or three pigs to trot merrily behind
the back door. AS for myself, took
to the nomad life as naturally asifI
had never in my life been in a civilized
habitation. To be able to go where
one pleases, TO dawdle as one pleases,
to stop and sleep where one pleases,
was certainly new sensation. My
friends, observing my sluggish ways,
had often compared me to that inter
esting creature, the snail; now the re-
semblance was complete, for | was a
snail, indeed, with my house comfort
ably fixed upon my shoulders, crawling
TRANQUILITY along.
"of course, the caravan has It's in
conveniences. Inside, to quote the
elegant simile of our progenitors,
there is scarcely enough TO swing
cat in, and when my bed is made,
and Tins hammock is swung just in
side the door, the place forms the
tiniest of sleeping chambers. Then
our cooking arrangements are primi-
tive, and, as Tim has no idea whatever
in the culinary art, beyond being able
to boil potatoes In their skins, and
make very doubtful 'stirabout,' there
is certain want Of variety In our re-
pasts. To break the monotony of
this living, endcavor whenever we
come TO town with decent hotel In
II, to take a square meal away from
home.
"Besides the inconvenience which |
have mentioned, but which were, por-
haps, hardly worth chronicling, the
caravan has social drawbacks, more |,
particularly embarrassing to modest |,
man like myself. II is confusing, for
example, on entering town, or good .,
sized village, to be surrounded by the !
entire juvenile population. who cheer
us vociferously, under the impression .
that we constitute ,show, and, Of
forwards, on ascertaining their mis- T.
take, ,purspe us with opprobrious jeers;
and II Ia distressing to remark TINT /
our mode Of life, instead of inviting
confidence, causes us to be regarded !
with suspicion by the vicar of the par
ish and the local policemen. We are ex- =,
posed, moreover, TO ebnllitions of bucol-
ic humor, whichhsve taken the form Of
horse-play on moro than ono occasion.
Tim has had several fights with the
Welsh peasantry, and has generally
come of victorious; though, on one 90
casion, he would have 4 been over 7
by numbers II had not gone
70 bis assistanSe. Generally speaking, !
win remove from the rural /
an idea that the caravan
forms an exhibition OF some sort.
When 4 airily alight, and stroll !,
o village, sketehbook in hand,
I have Invariably at my heels . long /,
sttendant train Of all ages, obviously
pnder the impression that / am look