The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-08-28
II CALIFORNIAN
ABROAD.
By Thomas Fitch
EDINBURGH.

copyright 1901

There" said the lady, calmly drop
ping the lid of her trunk, that trunk
is full, thank goodness the other lit
tie things you can just slip in your
pockets or anywhere
I think that she felt misgivings, but
she looked no part of them, as she
turned calmly to gaze out of the win
dow
What other little things?'' remarked
the writer, briskly and calmly
"Oh, nothing to speak Of" said she,
with a careless little sigh, and wicked
assumption of inconsequence. Only
Appleton's guide book, and Bradshaw,
and the three novels we bought at the
station, and the French books, and my
sketch book, and"-I groaned.
Look at me-" said 1. In one hand
had her satchel, four umbrellas, a strap
full of heavy shawls, and my own
dressing box, (Which I was beguiled in
to purchasing because of the lack Of
BARRIERS. Across my shoulder I carried
her dust wrap and my own, two OF
three scarfs, an overcoat a cloak, and
a robe. With my other hand I had
gathered UP a curl-sticl, a pair Of
SpectacIes, a piece of soap two or three
old gloves and an inkstand. The propo-
sition to add forty three pounds of lit
erature to this load was too much for
my burdened spirit. I remarked that
I had rather be a mule on the Hum
boldt trail, with a sore back and a load
of stoves, and 1 dropped them all and
sent for another trunk.
The incompleted Waterloo monument
for more than half a century excited
the curiosity and pity of every visitor
to Edinburgh. A few Doric pillars, un-
kempt and broken, stared against the
daylight, which in July commences
about three in the morning. and does
not retire until after ten at night.
You asked the driver if yonder coll
umns were sections of the Acropolis
transported bodily to the northern
Athens.
Nae, your honor was the rejoinder.
sit is the unfinished monument to the
heroes of Waterloo
''And why do they not complete it?"
you inquired.
Because they have nae the money"
was the reply.
Beautiful Edinburgh.
Proud. penniless la5as wei a long pedi-
gree
She is yet rich in tne matchless
beauty of her situation and surround
ings AS you ride from The railroad
station up Princess street, lawn of
valvet shaded by grand forest trees
sweeps to the left, and you gaze up, up
to the castle crowned crag, with it's
quaint battlements and watch towers,
and you almost expect the scene shift-
1l1 %o1x = off he
stage.
If 1 could draw any encouragement
from this rushing, gushing age, 1 would
chase physical phenomena to the con-
fines of space, till it should yield up
practical results. L would delve with
Buckle and distance Draper in the
of Climatic influences" and
then the world should know precisely
why intellectual power gravitates TO
certain centres, just the same as pro-
gressive ideas are found to accumulate
in the brain of some one individual.
Because such knowledge would furnish
explanation for Athens, Edinburgh and
Boston, and a few more of those intel
lect ranches. Certain it is that mental
possibilities depend for development
upon conditions of too highly sublim-
ated a character for the material per-
ception, which for the present rests up
on the a priori form of argument.
Therefore, in view of the facts. we can
only assume reasons why the average
intelligence is greater in Boston; or
why science and literature flourish best
in Edinburgh; and I may add, why
both these places are snobbish about
the same. However, suppose the bird
of knowledge was privileged TO drop its
eggs in whatsoever localities it deemed
most fit, anyway the consequential
goose was not far behind.
The Edinburgh of to-day rests under
the shadowy wing of a few educated
the term be not paradoxical-
parties who after long wrangling,
closed the doors of colleges upon female
medical students, and refused diplo-
mas to women, however studious or
we'll qualified.
Historic Edinburgh belongs to half a
score of illustrious names, first among
which rank those of Scott Burns. and
Mary the envy of Queen Bess, and still
the brooding spirit above the royalty
anointed Hollywood Castle. The hunts
man tells his story of his vision of the
phantom Ellen and Roderick, as he
hangs the kettle on the hob in his lodge
by the borders of the lake, or listens to
the echo of the name of McGregor,
while he whistles his dog across the
heathered moorland that skirts the
Trossachs, Thus it is that genius may
unremittingly shape future from a
model of the past leading the willing
fancy across fair fields, till from the
lnorganized atoms of some old super
stition even new faith is crystallized.
And thus it is that "all the kings
horses and all the kings men, shall /
dim and die out of historic Scotland. ,
before one sign shall disappear from
the noble escutcheon of Walter Scott. :
Nailed to this wall of eagle battling
his fair o'ertopping"
monument in Princess street with his