The Republican journal., 1912-11-14


that he was not going to be let off with
out giving some account of his summer
in other lands. That feature of the
meeting having been assigned to the
Banneret, had wholly passed out of the
mind of the Chief, but Mrs. John Suke-
forth challenged him to tell what he
saw in Europe that most interested him.
Well he thereupon got himself quickly
together, and his ardent mind took wing:
but it flew over the great blue ocean and
through the great blue Mediterranean
sea, and then back over the stormy
North Atlantic before it once perched on
mountain peak, or cathedral dome or
castle tower on land. My, but on his
say so, isn't he a sailor? Through storm
and calm for 81 1-2 days, he was on deck
drilling Italians, Austrians, Hungarians
and even Scotchmen in preparation for
wars in progress and in prospect. Verify
the age of peace has not yet dawned.
The best proof that he is sailor, not to
say soldier, is that he was the first man
to respond to the gong for his three
daily meals, the first to sleep and first to
rise. He, of course. had to tell big fish
story-no whale story, for he told the
meeting whales are not fishes; but they
were in schools, for whole school of
them, old he ones, he said-dull scholars
came down alongside of the returning
ship to show how much or little they
knew. All of that, and of the way he
got down to an answer of Mrs. Suke-
forth's question and owned that the
sight that most interested him in Europe
was the eternally ow-crowned Alps, as
at one view appeared a wilderness of
peaks where ragged relentless winter,
even under the splendor of clear SUM-
shine, where below the snow line appear
ed the green of summer in unspeakable
loneliness. For the telling of that alone,
he passed in utter silence and seeming
forgetfulless the panoramic array of
his land touring. Funchal Madeira, Glib
ralter and the African coast, the Medi.
terranean Spanish coast, including the
little port of Palos, out of which Column
bus sailed with his fleet of three little
caravels to find western way to reach
the ancient coast, but they found new
world Genoa, Naples, Pompeii, Rome,
old and in ruins, in the arms of great
modern New Rome and st. Peters be-
side the Yellow Tiber; Florence, Pisa,
Milan, Zurich, Lucerne. Bern, Basic,
Strausberg, a hundred miles on the
Rhine with its vineyards, and castles,
Cologne, Amsterdam. The Hague
Rotterdam, Brussels, Waterloo, Paris,
London, Oxford, Warwick, Stratford,
Birmingham, Chester, Liverpool, Edin-
burg and Glasgow-all Of these went for
naught in comparison with those hoary
old Alps. Had he got another dig, he
might have talked an hour on any one
city, cathedral, palace or castle; but
after he made such time over and
under the Alps, Mrs. S. was too wise to
press any more questions. She could
have gone to Europe and back while he
was telling it. He did say that Holy
rood Palace, the home of Mary Queen of
of SCOTS in Edinburg, as he was shown
through it, broke him up, and made a
child of him again. Retracing his steps
somewhat he allowed that the Scotch are
free takers and show an easy familiarity
with Americans; that the English are
kind and hospitable but are behind US in
industrial science. while the Germans
are ahead of us in that particular; that
the Dutch boys and girls are round and
rosy and merry; that the French are off
hand and breezy; that the Germans
won't allow that they know any language
but their own; that the Swiss are bright
and hospitable and skilled in all handi-
craft; and that the Italians are true
lovers of art and science; but that the
prevailing notion of all Europeans seems
to be that America is the Eldorado of
the world.
To illustrate the fact that Edinburg,
OCOlldLu, nco q SisSoA Jus SAiIlloCcs ue udu
to indulge in bit of grim humor in his
favorite medium, verse, thus:
Zone bitter night thin old man
Stood out upon the street:
, His dull gray eyes were full of tears;
His shoes were full of feet"
That brings US to report of the final
features of the meeting; the reading of
the Presidents Canto, number %, en-
titled Songs of My Youth, and the sing
ing of Village Bells, an account OF which,
as figuring in the old time singing school
of the Dale, had prominent place in the
canto. He was reluctant to read the
canto this year because Prof. Abdon
Keene late teacher of vocal culture in
the Boston Conservatory of Music, and
in the old days the teacher of said sing
ing school, though expected, was not
present, owing to the bad condition Of the
roads from Camden for an auto, in which
I j. H. Montgomery, Esq. was to bring
Prof. Keene to the meeting. Some urg.
ing and suggestion that there is no time
like the present, started him out. Here
ara a few SCRAPS from tho Canto. Intro.