Produced by David WidgerBADDECK AND THAT SORT OF THINGBy Charles Dudley WarnerPREFACETO JOSEPH H TWICHELLIt would be unfair to hold you responsible for these light sketches of asummer trip which are now gathered into this little volume in responseto the usual demand in such cases yet you cannot escape altogether Forit was you who first taught me to say the name Baddeck it was you whoshowed me its position on the map and a seductive letter from a homemissionary on Cape Breton Island in relation to the abundance of troutand salmon in his field of labor That missionary you may remember wenever found nor did we see his tackle but I have no reason to believethat he does not enjoy good fishing in the right season You understandthe duties of a home missionary much better than I do and you knowwhether he would be likely to let a couple of strangers into the bestpart of his preserveBut I am free to admit that after our expedition was started youspeedily relieved yourself of all responsibility for it and turnedit over to your comrade with a profound geographical indifference youwould as readily have gone to Baddeck by Nova Zembla as by Nova ScotiaThe flight over the latter island was you knew however no part of ouroriginal plan and you were not obliged to take any interest in itYou know that our design was to slip rapidly down by the back way ofNorthumberland Sound to the Bras dOr and spend a week fishing thereand that the greater part of this journey here imperfectly describedis not really ours but was put upon us by fate and by the peculiararrangement of provincial travelIt would have been easy after our return to have made up from librariesa most engaging description of the Provinces mixing it with historicallegendary botanical geographical and ethnological information andseasoning it with adventure from your glowing imagination But itseemed to me that it would be a more honest contribution if our accountcontained only what we saw in our rapid travel for I have a theorythat any addition to the great body of print however insignificantit may be has a value in proportion to its originality andindividualityhowever slight either isand very little value if itis a compilation of the observations of others In this case I knowhow slight the value is and I can only hope that as the trip was veryentertaining to us the record of it may not be wholly unentertaining tothose of like tastesOf one thing my dear friend I am certain if the readers of thislittle journey could have during its persual the companionship that thewriter had when it was made they would think it altogether delightfulThere is no pleasure comparable to that of going about the world inpleasant weather with a good comrade if the mind is distracted neitherby care nor ambition nor the greed of gain The delight there isin seeing things without any hope of pecuniary profit from them Wecertainly enjoyed that inward peace which the philosopher associateswith the absence of desire for money For as Plato says in the Phaedowhence come wars and fightings and factions whence but from thebody and the lusts of the body For wars are occasioned by the love ofmoney So also are the majority of the anxieties of life We leftthese behind when we went into the Provinces with no design of acquiringanything there I hope it may be my fortune to travel further with youin this fair world under similar circumstancesNOOK FARM HARTFORD April 10 1874C D WBADDECK AND THAT SORT OF THINGI   Ay now I am in Arden the more fool I when I was at home   I was in a better place but travellers must be content                               TOUCHSTONETwo comrades and travelers who sought a better country than the UnitedStates in the month of August found themselves one evening in apparentpossession of the ancient town of BostonThe shops were closed at early candlelight the fashionable inhabitantshad retired into the country or into the secondstoryback of theirprincely residences and even an air of tender gloom settled upon theCommon The streets were almost empty and one passed into the burntdistrict where the scarred ruins and the uplifting piles of new brickand stone spread abroad under the flooding light of a full moon likeanother Pompeii without any increase in his feeling of tranquilseclusion Even the newsoffices had put up their shutters and aconfiding stranger could nowhere buy a guidebook to help his wanderingfeet about the reposeful city or to show him how to get out of itThere was to be sure a cheerful tinkle of horsecar bells in the airand in the creeping vehicles which created this levity of sound were afew lonesome passengers on their way to Scollays Square but the twotravelers not having wellregulated minds had no desire to go thereWhat would have become of Boston if the great fire had reached thissacred point of pilgrimage no merely human mind can imagine Withoutit I suppose the horsecars would go continually round and roundnever stopping until the cars fell away piecemeal on the track andthe horses collapsed into a mere mass of bones and harness and thebrowncovered books from the Public Library in the hands of the fadingvirgins who carried them had accumulated fines to an incalculableamountBoston notwithstanding its partial destruction by fire is still a goodplace to start from When one meditates an excursion into an unknownand perhaps perilous land where the flag will not protect him andthe greenback will only partially support him he likes to steady andtranquilize his mind by a peaceful halt and a serene start So weforthe intelligent reader has already identified us with the two travelersresolved to spend the last night before beginning our journey in thequiet of a Boston hotel Some people go into the country for quiet weknew better