FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   294   295   296   297   298   299   300   301   302   303   304   305   306   307   308   309   310   311   312   313   314   315   316   317   318  
319   320   321   322   323   324   325   326   327   328   329   330   331   332   333   334   335   336   337   338   339   340   341   342   343   >>   >|  
lished Europe? Still, I must venture to claim one little matter of superiority in our manners; a lady may traverse our streets all day, going and coming as she chooses, and she will never be molested by any man; but if a lady, unattended, walks abroad in the streets of London, even at noonday, she will be pretty likely to be accosted and insulted--and not by drunken sailors, but by men who carry the look and wear the dress of gentlemen. It is maintained that these people are not gentlemen, but are a lower sort, disguised as gentlemen. The case of Colonel Valentine Baker obstructs that argument, for a man cannot become an officer in the British army except he hold the rank of gentleman. This person, finding himself alone in a railway compartment with an unprotected girl--but it is an atrocious story, and doubtless the reader remembers it well enough. London must have been more or less accustomed to Bakers, and the ways of Bakers, else London would have been offended and excited. Baker was "imprisoned"--in a parlor; and he could not have been more visited, or more overwhelmed with attentions, if he had committed six murders and then--while the gallows was preparing--"got religion"--after the manner of the holy Charles Peace, of saintly memory. Arkansaw--it seems a little indelicate to be trumpeting forth our own superiorities, and comparisons are always odious, but still--Arkansaw would certainly have hanged Baker. I do not say she would have tried him first, but she would have hanged him, anyway. Even the most degraded woman can walk our streets unmolested, her sex and her weakness being her sufficient protection. She will encounter less polish than she would in the old world, but she will run across enough humanity to make up for it. The music of a donkey awoke us early in the morning, and we rose up and made ready for a pretty formidable walk--to Italy; but the road was so level that we took the train.. We lost a good deal of time by this, but it was no matter, we were not in a hurry. We were four hours going to Chamb`ery. The Swiss trains go upward of three miles an hour, in places, but they are quite safe. That aged French town of Chambery was as quaint and crooked as Heilbronn. A drowsy reposeful quiet reigned in the back streets which made strolling through them very pleasant, barring the almost unbearable heat of the sun. In one of these streets, which was eight feet wide, gracefully curved, and built up wit
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   294   295   296   297   298   299   300   301   302   303   304   305   306   307   308   309   310   311   312   313   314   315   316   317   318  
319   320   321   322   323   324   325   326   327   328   329   330   331   332   333   334   335   336   337   338   339   340   341   342   343   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
streets
 

gentlemen

 

London

 

Bakers

 

pretty

 

matter

 

Arkansaw

 

hanged

 

encounter

 
polish

weakness

 

protection

 

sufficient

 

formidable

 

unmolested

 

donkey

 

morning

 
degraded
 
humanity
 
trains

reigned

 

strolling

 

reposeful

 

crooked

 

quaint

 

Heilbronn

 

drowsy

 

pleasant

 
barring
 

gracefully


curved
 
unbearable
 

Chambery

 
French
 
places
 
upward
 

people

 

maintained

 
disguised
 
Colonel

British
 

officer

 

Valentine

 
obstructs
 
argument
 

sailors

 

drunken

 

traverse

 

coming

 

manners