Evening Star Newspaper, October 31, 1891, Page 7

ARCTIC OCEAN” WORTH CAPE “WARD THE POLE. a Weird Land, Where the Sum- mer Sun Never Sets. CLIMBING NORTH CAPE. Norway's Scenery—Glaciers and Snow-Capped Mountal: Arctic Waters—Relics of the Vikings. No. 1. Sta Correspondence of The Evening Star. NTRAVEL, AS IN ALL things else, the Ameri- ean delights to rush to extremes. He soon traverses the globe's most frequented paths and sighs for fresh worlds to harry over. He yearns to see = equatorial Africa like Stanley or Greenland’s icy mountains like Peary, and bis ambi- tion might be te porarily gratified if he eould only climb the pole. But the spirit of saventure in the average American is modified by his desire to accomplish his explorations quickly and comfortably. He has the ancient Athenian longing for “some new thing.” but he does not yearn particularly for the halo of scientific martyrdom. He would efer to do Africa with Jules Verne in a de- utful tour of “Five Weeks in a Balloon” rather than fight and starve with Stanley. In- Stend of cutting through Aretic ice with po.ar explorers, fortified against freezing and sustained for hard labor by a regular diet of plain blabber, varied by an occasional tallow candle or s ragout of old shoes, be prefers to “llow the Gulf stream to the North Cape of orway and to do his polar exploration in all she comforts of « modern tourist steamer. These facts and tendencies being remem-| bered, it is easy to understand how it happened ‘that America onstituted the bulk of =f sengers on the Neptan, which steamed on July 10 trom Bergen, Norway, for the North Cay With the daring band of fellow polar; Columbus. It would be nominally t the District called Columbia, explorers collected on this steamer I penetrated far into the Arctic zone—without sacrificing in the least the conveniences of civilized life. Our starting point was several degrees farther north than Sitka in Alaska, north of Labrador, Jand, and within a week we traveled northeast Norway coast for @ thousand miles, 5 Eitades of lege ma rity of the inter- national circumpolar stations, t the some of the, early explorers, and steaming out into the yond North Caj te round where, north of Arctic Alaska, the Jeannette was frozen in the ice in September, 1879, a few de- crushed, and we approached close to the lati tude of the place west of Greenland where its way through the ice. We it coast of Norway as Peary fol- Sraversed waters filled with countless icebergs chen not frozen in solid pack. and skirted a se-eap. We sailed over waters that are always Teo fron tee, past towns and fjords or bays the grand senery of hospitable Norway. FOLLOWING THE GULF STREAM. {this kind. Crossing from our shores it bathes the weat coast of Norway, and the fjords fully TOWARD THE POLE. in line with the southernmost point of Green- le, far oS Iceland, past the farthest northern points reached that point we reached the latitune Gres south of the point where that vessel was pped the bone of his leg as ¢ coast of Greenland. But he varren forbidding land, covered by an eternal ‘ith peopled ‘shores, as well as ‘The Gulf stream renders possible polar travel wabjected to its genial influence never freeze, IN LYNG series of coast towns,each with some character- istic attra most northern cathedral of the world, in which the Scandi fall of inte and stud | | nearly up to the North Ca town of the world,” with postal and telegraph facilities. high plat descending gradually inland, deeply indented by a thousand bays or fjords and frinj succession of countless mountainous ‘The steamer passes between the islands and the precipitous shore, and varied i . t bh in irregular shapes, glaciers and | passengers. There were sufficient clouds in tain scenery, ‘The World's Most Northern | snow-capped ‘Town and Cathedral—The Guif Stream in| whichever side of ction, including Trondjhem, with the jinavian kings are crowned. a building ‘erest to the antiquarian, the architect ent of history, and ’ Hammerfest, The coast, which we followed, is a jeau, sloping’ precipitously to the sea, land and moun- heights, is enjoyed from the vessel the view is taken. These fjords, the most wonderful baysin | obsc but the world, ao deep, narrow crevices, deeper | horizon by midnight and @ round, red sun of day is here a tyrant and monopolist, and even the moon and stars have no hour in which to assort themselves. ‘THE MURDER OF WoRDS. What a blow at the vocabulary of the people this condition of affairs strikes! Whole classes of words are eliminated in an instant How poverty-stricken the poet whoisdenied all allu- sions to “night, sable goddess!” with her “ebon throne,” her “rayless majesty” and her “leaden ter,” who can paint no sunset, for whom log bays the moon, who owl or bat or other crea- ture of the mght, who bas no twilight in which, Walt Whitman-like, “to loafe’ with his soul,” who secs no daybreak, hears no cock-crowing at dawn, no lark “the herald of the morn” and’ never welcomes jocund day, as it stands “tiptoe on the misty mountain fop”! And can there be any writers of Norwegian Shooting Stars in a lund where noonecan “make a night of it,” where no vengeful wife can lurk in darkness to pounce upon her wretched husband, delayed at bis club, and struggling in dim light with an un- manageable night key? What will the novelist, the dramatist, the tras do when “decds of darkness” become impossible, and the words themselves are meaningless, when the burglar and midnight assassin are not to be conceived and util nd there is no “witching time of night when churehyards yawn, and hell itself breathes out contagion to this world”? LIGHT AND LIFE FROM THE 8i Bat, on the other hand, what opportunities and inducements for work and pleasure! What @ turning of night into day in the literal sense! Isaiah's prophecy is fulfilled: “But it shall come to pass that at evening time it shall be light.” ‘The sun refrains from setting, as it did for Joshua, and light, which is life, full at any rate of vivifying influences, bestows blessings upon man and the soil. The sun does not stand still, as at Joshua's request, in order that destruction may be complete. Development, not death, is in the untimely rays of the Norwegian unsetting sun. Constant sunshine during the short season develops a crop in the thin soil which would otherwise be impossible. It is said that at Christiania, where the summer nightscre very short, though the midnight sun is not visible, the barley ripens in exactly the same time that is required in southern France,continuous heat compensat- ing for lack of intensity. So with the men, who might naturally be sun worshipers, since they really live at high prewure only'in thissummer flood of sunlight, and hibernate, as it were, in the long darkness that is lighted only by the aurora. The tourist, the artist and the photog- rapher find this a strange and enchanted land where they can sce sights, sketch and photo- graph at any hour of the twenty-four. We vis- ited some of the grandest scenes of the trip “‘at the dead of night,” and several kodak instan- taneous views were successfully taken by the light of the midnight sun. : ‘Yhe Neptun’s first night within the Arctic circle will never be forgotten by any of the the sky to render it doubtful whether at 12 | o'clock we should be able to see the full, un- obscured orb, but all cleared away from’ the TRONDJHEM CATHEDRAL. often than the ocean outside, in than three-fourths of a mile in ran far inland to the very bases o} mountains { the viki: | our Engl laces more b, which the snow a whose tops we ace, and from them issued in days of old to prey upon ish forefathers, and to engraft them- selves upon the English stock, not only by | direct settlement, but aiso by founding Nor- | mandy and through the Norman conquest. | They also incidentally founded Iceland and | discovered America several centuries before able to reason- and point but the lines coast of their vi the coast. of Arctic such remains are of them is in our National Museum. the companion exhibits to our skeleton in armor whom Longfellow addresses. WHERE THE SUMMER SUN NEVER SETS. ‘The most interesting and characteristic sight VIKING SHIP. ould certainly be treacherous. to Chicago until after 18:3, to minimize Columbus by dwelling upon Vinland and the early explora- tions of the Northmen, so I will touch upon this lightly. Ships which in shape retain of the viking vessels sail along the way today. Old vessels buried with ing owners have been dug up along in Christiania two fine specimens of layed, and a model of one ‘They are travel is, of course, the midnight sun. It is visible north of the Arctic circle, 66 degrees 30 minutes. From the North Caj the full disk is seen from May 13 to July a, for a longer time as the pole is approached. for though in latitudes which. on our coast, dis close bays locked in ice for most of the year. ‘The temperature here is warmer gore Grees than in other localities in ‘same de- Greee of latitude. the great scheme is = of éutting through Bering straits our current which the ai Ey fell Aaa eer oe shone upon us ‘hrough a misty or smoky at mosphere and bathed the islands in the vicinity with soft, rich light. Our cannon fired and band played. Asort of intoxication of ex- i swept over thesteamer. The soberest he sang and the lighter-minded danced and drank with redoubled vigor and enthusiacm, We saw the midnight sun to the best advan- tage at North Cape itself, 71° 10’. Early in the evening we steamed into the little bay to the cast and south of the cape. Before supper the captain embarked us in row boats and set ue ashore for the ascent. His plan was that we should climb to the top, seo what was to be seen, and return to the ateamer by 11 o'clock, viewing the midnight sun from the steamer’s ik ON NORTH CAPE. We tolled up a zigzag path, pulling our- selves up for a considerable part of the way by ropes fastened to iron supports. After the climb of nearly a thousand feet we followed a guiding wire for a long distance across a Plateaa to the precipitous northern edge of the cape, from which we looked out across the open polar sea toward Spitzbergen and the pole. We bung over the very edge of this Yoleanic mountain, and looked down its bleak, jagged, deeply cleft walis of dark gr: the sea beneath. Visitors from the ship were scattered over the summit as inclination led them. some collecting geological specimens and flowers, some throwing stones over the recipice into the ocean, some exploring ail e corners of the plateau, with the varied views of ocean, rocky surface ‘and snow deposits, some drinking the champagne which was the sole article in the stock of an enter- Ptising veudor, who occupied wooden structure on the summit, some sketching, some gazing dreamily out upon the mysterious ex- panse of the Arctic ocean and endeavoring to realize that they were within a few days’ steam- ing distance of the pole, and some were col- lected in groups engaged as ccuspirators in organizing the great Neptua NOBIH CAPE STRIKE. For ween the timeacrived at which the summit must be left to enable the return to thesteamer to be made by 11 o'cluck, as planned by the captain, the American passengers revolted They hgd come several thousand miles to be on North Cype at midnight, they intended to re- main there, the captain to ibe contrary not- ‘hstwnding, and they did A few of the more timid passengers, with tive fear of the eap- taia or a longing’ for supper impelling them, returned seasonably to the steamer and’ reported the mutiny, but — the majority of the passengers "enjoyed on North the brightest midnight of which itis to conceive. There was absolutely nothing to suggest the night. On other even- ings we saw the midnight sun iu varied phases, at times nearly down to the horizon, and with the atmosphere in such cloudy or misty condi- tion that the orb presented the angry blood-red ‘sppearance which some of the poets attribute to the midnight eun, and there was that weird duskiness in the air which suggested an eclipse or the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy of the time when “the light shall be neither clear nor dark.” But there was no ambiguity about the gun on the night of July 17; aa seen trom North Cape. The sky was cloudiess and clear and the sun gbone bright and dazzling as on a summer afternoon in our latitude. There was nothing whatever strange or uncanny in its light’ The barren and desolate scenery, and ation of the lonesome iso- lation of the sifustion in this Arctic latitude, ave one the sensation of being an uncomforta- Siy'icng way from home, but" the sun bimeel? the familiar Wash As midnight approached the Neptun passen- gers and the patsengere from another. steamer had anchored in the bay, gathered near tles of h they ith them, which, in fact, accom- panied in every visit to # wonder of oer oe ee eeeeoraay the sight, the more beer They drank and and Fem empty bottles on oy of ‘s ae 0 nigh! focked by 12 sang with there and marked the ‘snap shots STREET IN “WORLD'S MOST NOBTRERN CITY.” sun on North Cape we stayed until all the watches had the hour of 12, and until the sun was evidently rising in the heavens, and then we retraced our steps. Tho comical feature of THE LABORIOUS DESCENT was supplied by a short, stont, middle-aged Scotch-Englishman, decorated by a pipe be- tween his teeth, and distinguished by a Yankee irrepressibleness. He had forced himself into varions groups of ern about to be photographed at or near’ midnight, When he bad secured for himself a conspicuo’ Position in one group of would-be exclusive and the kodak bad beon snapped he asked suy stively of the disgusted kodakist, looking to the gift of some of the prints, at do I get NORTH CAPE. ont of this photographing, IT wonder?” And was not at all abasiied when be was curtly told that he got “the privilege of having his picture taken in good company.” His contribution to the entertainment of the descending tourists was due to the fact that he entirely Icked equi- librium. In the course of the descent, which was steep and difficult, he sat down at frequent intervals, occasionally with a ripping accompa- niment of rent clothing, invariably with a solid thud, that elicited sighs and groans, but noth- ing worse. For our entertainer, like Jephthah daughter as described by the little Boston girl, was “an estimable individual, eminently in- clined to piety.” ‘Goodness gracious!" and the inarticulate profanity of savage bites upon his unoffending pipe stem were the on! i= tional expressions of emotion that the heaviest fails drew from him. North Cape is not like Avernus. The descent is not easy: that is, not enay to most people. A very few found it ‘so, who discover ravine filled with hard snow, stretching nearly from top to bottom of the mountain, and who con- verted it into an impromptu ‘toboggan slide, minus the toboggan. ‘The expert slid on their heels, making kingaroo jumps when necessary to preserve their balance. The inexpert spent most of the period of descent on their hands and knees or in a position damaging to the seat of the trousers, ‘Come down fast? I should say I did,” replied one of the latter, backing away from his feminine questioner to welcome obscurity and the ministeations of needle and thread, “It beats sliding down splintery ban- isters all to pieces.” Returning to the steamer we found the cap- tain in a conciliatory mood, fortified ourselves with something to eat, kodaked the North Cape between 1 and 2 o'clock in the morning, and caught cod and haddock from the Arctic ocean for the remainder of the sunny night. ‘Tuxo. W. Noves, ee SETTLING A WIINESS. How a Lawyer Proposed to Overcome » Woman's Testimony. From the Chicaxo Tribune. “I don’t see how we ate going to get around that woman's testimony,” said the first shyster asked his partner. “Lhave reason to know that she'll tell a straightforward story that we'll find it hard to disprove.” “Then we'll have to attack her character,” said the partner. “That always takes with a jury.” t “But her character is excellent.”. “Can't you discover anything shady in her past life?” jot a thing.” ‘O, well, perhaps it’s better so. It excites and rattles a good woman more than it does bad one, and that’s what we want.” “But the judge!” protested the first shys- ter. “O, bang the judge! We'll make no direct attacks—just do it by inference, you know, and they always permit that.” “But she can disprove any statement we make.” ‘The partner looked disgusted. “Statement! Statement!’ he exclaimed. “Who's going to make a statement? I guess you never practiced in the police courts, did you? There's no use giving her a chance to disprove anything. I'll cross-examine her and ask her if she didn’t secure a divorce from a former husband in 1884. That'll make her mad and she'll begin with an indignant denial, Then I'll ask her to answer ‘Yes or ‘No,’ and it will rattle her worse than ever. She'll finally answer ‘No,’ and P'ilask her if sh x When she gets excited over this I'll say: ‘O, right; all right. I was afraid it might have slipped your mind. Let it drop.’ IL bi ver, but I'll drop ib rue that she eloped with jer father's coachman when she was seventeen years old. ‘That will settle her, sure, and, aa I won't give her a chance to say more than ‘Yes’ or ‘No,’ the jury will be convinced that there is something wrong. Moreover, she'll be 80 ex- ci i ll be prac- ally at our mercy and the force of her evi- dence broken.” nd her reputation ruined.” ‘But we'll win the case.” tor Neth of course, that’s what we wore hired for.” They shook hands over the compact, and the shyster was afterward quoted as saying in a litical speech that the great fault with the Josieel wyttom of Go country was the difficulty a in getting respectable women to ‘e the witness stand even in trivial cases. He couldn't account for it except on the theory that they hadn't the desire to see justice done ‘that men have. —_—_+e- “A Kind-Hearted Man. From the Atlanta Constitution. “Yes,” said the station agent to the preacher, who was waiting to take the train for Atlanta, “talking about kind-hearted men, there's none of ‘em kin beat Lawyer Jinkins.” “Good man, is he?” “You're right he is. I kin tell you a little story, which will show what a heart he’s got in im. “I'd like to hear it,” said the preacher, look- ing at bis watch. » Saeg mt, whittling » ‘ou see, hit wur way: Bill Jones tee an’ the railroud took wuz 8 mij an’ cut off il he got Lawyer Jinkins to sue the el “Well, FoAL..un" the road compromused with him for ie" ell, sir, what do you think Lawyer Jinkins ve no idea.” ‘Well, his charges in the case wus @250, but didn’t let only the $200 aa Jones only got $200, blamed if he. him off with the 7 him 9 1@ odd $50, takin’ the “The train's coming,” said And howas glad of i, All the way fo Atiants be Bd prosched sopoot neon Neon teat ea e the following Sunday, ae Funny for Once, From the Boston News, wenewise Editor: “Where's the jokes to- BY FRANCES HODGSON BURNETT, Author of “Little Lord Fauntleroy.” —_—_—_—_——_ (Copyrighted, 1801, by the author.) CHAPTER L IOVANNI WALKED UP THE INCLOSED Toad leading to the great white hotel with the many marble balconies. It was quite a grand hotel, and stood in garden where palm trees and orange trees snd flowers grew. A white balustraded terrace separated tho garden from the carriage drive by the gray-green olives, and roses and heliotropes grew in tumbling masses over the stone. It was on an elevation, and below it one could see the prom- euade by theseaand thegreat lake-like sapphire blue expanse of the Meditoranean. ‘There were palm trees and flowers bordering the promenade, and even in the winter there were numbers of children walking about with baskets full of violets and narcissus and ane- moner, which they ran‘after the pedestrians with in the hope of selling. The sun seomed always shining and the air soft there, and there were always flowers, for the little town was a pretty, quaint one on the Riviera. It was called San Remo, and in the winter was always full of foreigners who came to see the sun when it scemod finally’ to. have left England or to escape from wind and cold when they were delicate. Most of them—the forestieri—were more or less delicate. Some of them had thin, pale faces and coughed and walked slowly; some of them were pulled about in invalid chai and often one saw one in deep mourning, an might guess either that some one belonging to them had come to the south to get well and had died in the midst of the flowers and palms and orange trees, or, having lost some one they loved in some other place, had come to try to bear the shock of their grief in tho land where the sunshine might help them a little. But whatever had bappened to bring them, whether they were well or ill, or burdened with sorrow, they were pleased with two things. ‘They were always pleased with the flowers, and carried them about in bunches, and if any one played the guitar and mandolin and sang well they were pleased and gave money to the play- ers and singers. 80 there were many flower sellers in the streets and many flower shops in the town, and there were ‘many people who wandered about with mandolins aud guitars playing be- fore the hotels, and generally having with them some one who could cither sing sweetly or who tried to. In the latter case sometimes they got money to induce them to go away—to the next hotel, at least. Giovanni was one of those who, fortunately, could sing, and » man went with him who played the harp. He was an Italian boy about fourteen years old. He was strong and plump and weil built, and had a darked-eyed, merry, pretty face and agay, bright smile. It was ‘rather a lovable face, and when money was thrown to him from the balconies and he ran and picked it up, pull- ing off his cap and saying: “Grazie, Signora,” or “‘Signorina” or “Signore,” as the case might be, his quick little bow was often returned by a nod. They had so much money, these forestieri, Giovanni thought they migit well be good natured. Think what lives they must have, these people who were rich enough to travel away from uupleasaut weather and who lived in the great gay hotels, eating wonderfui things three times a day, waited upon by dozens of servants and with’ an imposing concierge in uniform and gold buttons, who appeared on the broad white marble tlower-bordered en- trance steps and calling up a waiting carringe with a majestic wave of the band anda loud “Avante,” carried out to it wraps and cushions and held’ the door open while the signoras en- tered, touching his goid-banded cap gracefully as they drove away. Ah! whata life it must be, to be sure. But though he was only a little peasant Giovanni knew that fortune had not been so unkind to him after all. He had his voice and had had luck with itever since the man with en to the extent of having a scarf to wrap around his throat on chilly nights for fear he should catch ‘cold and become hoarse. The man with the harp knew he was worth some- thing. He had a full, sweet, strong voice, and he sanz his sougs of the people with a melodio freshness. He had a litte repertoire of his own, and was not reduced to singing “Santa Lucia” as often as many of the street trouba- dours, ‘There was a little song of a reproadhful lover who rather e; recalls the past to his unkind fair one. away,” he sa: you have give then,” &e. And Giovanni used to stand with his hands on his hips and pour forth these repcoaches in his clear, full boyish voice, looking so happy and young und content that it was very i ‘And then there was “Aje Carolie” Ritirata, and the gayest one of all, a rattling little one about the Bersagliere—the dashing sharpshooters who went ‘double quick” through lite in their picturesque cloaks and broad-brimmed ‘on one side, with the great plumes of cock’s feathers sweeping their shoulder: he Bersagliere have feathers on their hats,” he sings in Neapolitan dialect. Here many lit- tle caponaand hens have to be destroyed to provide all this beauty. ‘Love the Bersagliere ve them—they are the saviors of your coun- try”—and all so gayly and with such a swing to the air that one could imagine a Bersagliere hearing him would rush forward and shower upon him unlimited soldi. The morning my story begins was » perfect one. It was in January, but San Remo was flooded with brilliant sunshine, the Mediter- ranean was like a great sapphire, the air was as soft as if it had been May. Giovanni was ina Joyous humor—but then he usually was—as he and the man with the harp mounted the lony na of stone steps which led into the hotel len. SNL wonder how much we shall get?” he anid to his companion. “The Strand Hotel des Anglais has not been sofull this month.” That was the name of the hotel they were going to sing and play before. fhe man with the harp planted it ina good poei- tion before the long flight of browu white marble entrance steps. There were big pots of palms and azaleas and flowering plants of various sorts on each side of the steps all the way up to the glass door, which one of the servants always stood behind, ready to open. Giovanni took hie usual boyish pose, with his hands on his hips, and began to sing. | He sang the song of the reproachful lover and the Belia Sarrentina, and in the middle of the last he heard a window open. This wasa vound always tobe noted, because it meant that some one was coming ‘out onto the balcony toliaten would probably throw him some money. But “When I am far ‘you will remember the kisses a me—yes, you will remember he was artist enongh not to look up until his | cooked song was finished. Even if money was thrown he did not move until his song was over. ‘Then be used to run and pick it up, lifting his cap in recognition, When he had finished La Belle Sarrentina he glanced over the front of the hotel. There were soveral balconies which belonged to the larger apartments, to the people who had suites of two or three rooms and private salons. At the end of one of these a lady was standing leaning against the marble balustrade and resting her forehead on her hand as she looked down at him. Giovanni saw that she was one of the fores- tierl who were in deep mourning. She was all black but that she had blonde hair which the morning son was shining on thing sad and fatigued about her attitude, and ta ho looked up she, touched, her. eyes lightly with the finger of the hand that shaded With the other made a motion to Giovanni. She held » tiny white package in it It was some money folded in a piece of paper 20 that it could be easily seen and found where she threw it, Giovanni went aad stood under her balcony. She smiled down at him and threw the bit of 7, almost im feo that eho bad caused him fellow be can do * You know he always admired Geof's gifts in a boy- ish way. And Ceould not help thinking that if—if ‘all the stories are quite true, the stories of the Country where be has gone—perbaps now he sings, too.” She drew her palm softly and quickly across her cheek. “It makes me feelas i? I loved that ii fellow down there,” she said. seem near to juss not ae Gnished atugthp att ‘That was the beginning quaintance with the lady im tle. “Boys. alwa; know—there,he z Fn ce CHAPTER IL He used to comeback to sing before the hotel twice a week, and always after the first few bars of his song she used to appear on the balcony and lean on the marble and listen and watch him. He was always sure of baving his silver franc thrown down, folded in paper. On the morning of the flower carto, at the end of the carnival, she throw him two, and often the girl with the gray eyes threw him one also. They never threw him coppers, and they generally waved their hands to him and said “Buon gurino” as ke picked up his money. Whether money was thrown from other bal- conies or not, he was always sure of his little revenue from the one where the black figure stood listening. Being a bright, spirited boy who liked to be appreciated he began to rather look forward to his mornings before the hotel. He felt some- how as if these ladies liked. him and were bie frievds. He began even to feel that he had a sort of claim upon them, and he always sang his best under their balcony and made bis most graceful bow. One day they were walking through the town and a boy, passing them, stepped aside from the narrow pavement and, pulling off his cap, said brightly: “Buon gurino, Signoras.”* The tall girl turned to look at him. “Ah,” she said, “that is our boy who sings. He is alone and ‘he knew us and said “Buon gurino.’” The lady in binck turned also. “Yes, it is our boy,” id. “Ab, let us go back and talk to I want to see him closer.” To Giovanni's surprise they turned b: came toward him. “He stopped and p bis cap again. “He bad a smooth, pretty, haired head, and seen close he was # haudsome boy with a merry smiling face. “You sing for us before our hotel, don't you?” said the gray-eyed girl, speaking Italian. he answered, feeling pleased “Si, Signorin: r gentle, friendly Vhat is your nam ni “Giovan: Signorina,” smiling. ey asked’ him how old he was and he was fourteen and had always sang little songs. but about three years ago a one-eyed man had taken him about with him to sing before the villas and hotels and so he had learned to sing better. “The siguora, bere,” said the tall girl “has a boy who is fourteen years old, like y has a beautiful voice and sings some of your Italian songs, so the signora likes to hear yuu sing, very much.” signorine in San Remo?” Giovanni notin San Remo. He was. way. A long voyage across the sea eople went there and became rich. There had en a San Remese sailor—quite a common man—who had gone there, und after two years had come back and built a wonderful villa by the sca. It was a marvelously o:namental Villa, fantastically decorated. Giovanni had once heard that there were foresticri who smiled at it and said it was decorated like a wedding cake. But it was known to have cost a great deal of money,and the owner bad made all this money in America, though no one knew how. Probably he had picked it up in the streets. This made the lady in black and her friend additionally interesting. They were of course ich, as they lived at the Grand Hotel des Anglais and threw ont silver to singers. But it was more than intertsting to hear of & boy of his % ‘ge who lived in Amerion and also sang “La Bella Sorrentiua,” aud the rest, in Italian, It seemed enviable. The lady in black looked at him with long- ing in her eyos and she gave Lim a frane for himself on the spot and then the two smilea and left him. "said the Indy im blacks they the promenade under the palm trees, “I wonder if he wil! have a fine voice when he is aman. It is difficult to tell, I sup- pose. I have always heard so, Musicians always advise me not to let Geof use his voice tov much, now he is grow.ng older.” “That is the great point, i believe,” said her companion. “Giovanni's voice is @ beautiful one, but it may not be so fine when it changes into a man's voice—certainly it won't if he strains it by singing too much now and by forcing his notes.” “It would be @ cruel thing for it to be spoiled,” returned the lady in. black, reflect- ively. “Think whata future it might make for him if, when he isa young man, he bad that splendid gift.” Now you are making a story out of him,” said the girl with a caressing little laugh. “You are imagining be may have a career before him and be a world-renowned tenor. I know your little ways.” ‘The lady in black smiled. “Yes,” she answered, “‘of course. Iam a romantic person and I will have my story whenever I have chance—there is a shadow of achance. See what a story it would be, Ger- trude! “Here he is—Giovanni—a perfectly simple, ordinary little peasant boy, singing about the streets with a one-eyed man and a harpist and feeling quite rich when one throws hima frane. Ihave no doubt be thinks it is quite splendid to be one of the forestieri and live in a hotel, He probably lives in one of the queer old tumbling-down houses in the ‘Cita Vecchia’—one of those in the climbing streets which are like corridors and have little archways thrown from house to house and ap- parently nc windows, only tiny square holes with rusty bare across. You remewver how dark they are, and how green things grow out of the stones, and how sometimes th — or cows in the room on the first floor. “We will ee he lives there and sits with the sheep when it is cold. He cats polenta aud farmata and castagnone—those brownish and yellowish slabs. which look like unin- viting pudding when one sees them being over the charcoal fires in the narrow streets. They are made of maize or chestnut flour, or coarse flour, and it does not give one anappetite to look at them. Sometimes he has a ee ‘sad in the sum- mer he eat and grapes and black breads Perhaps ‘ha hover’ bed’ frame all os himself until I gave bim that one today. I wonder what he will do with it? Perhaps he will buy carral, that bard. sticky cake made of looks liko a dear boy, but I don't looks imaginative or ‘ambitious. I . at some him to cultivate it and brings him before the world, and it begins to applaud and im. adore “It would be like a story,” said Ger- trude. “He would think dream.” ile would be rich,” suid the lady in black, would from oui country, an ted and careessd. Of iearned to sing, and he told them | Giovanni bad heard of America; | was living in | man said: Hae 53 te i 5 = £ 33 ore ble that he has er —s0 it is easy to imag ine a story for him. I wish could do some- thing to help make it real. Why «bould he eat Iways if he has agift? Iam going to think about him and see oe, there is anything to be done.” “You always want to make your stories come true, don’t you?” said her companion. “I might make him one of Leo's she said. “One of those boys he helps.” ng h2y are always thinking of Leo, T think,” ¢ girl said very gently. “He seems very near ‘to you, dear.” rs “Very near,” was the answer. “I could not let him seem’ far away. He is more real than anything else. Sometimes I think he is even more real than Geof, who is alive and strong and happy and always busy. A year ago Leo was alive and like him. He was so strong and bright and so full of the things he was inter- ested in. Ican't let him go just because of that morning when his brown eyes closed #0 softly and his arms unclasped themselves and slipped slowly away from my neck. I must comfort myself in some way—so I try to im- agine things about him, too—and I try to make them seem quite real.” The girl with the gray eyes put her hand through her arm and drew it to ber side with @ tender pressure. Dear!” ahe said. Two large quict drops sli down her friend's cheeks, but no pthert followed them, and she went on speaking—with even @ little smile on her lips. “I say to myself that he has gone to a fait, far country,” she said. “Perhaps it is because Iam a very earthly person that I have to make itso real to myself. I tell myself that other mothers’ sons go away to far countries to live. You know there aro so many who go to foreign lands to make their fortunes. But their mothers do not feel as if they had lost them. And I know they must comfort themselves by doing things for them and reading books about the countries they have gone to. If Leo had gone to Africa, think how I should have read about Africa. As it is, I read over and over the parts Of those last chapters which tell about the city —the sky that was pure gold, like unto clear glass. It always seemed ‘like a beautiful | fairy story, until Leo went away. And then I y for him—it seeme ing real to think of; so I began to read and imagine. I wish there was more to read. [like to remember that ‘the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day, and there is no night there.’ He was so happy when be was on earth J can’t help trying to make it a place that-would not seem too dazzling and strange and solemn for a boy to like. He was only such boy, you kuow, and at first I could not help fecling timid and hoping that it would not overwhelm and bewilder him. I try to remem- ber more about the green pastures and the river of crystal than aboat the walls of jasper j and sapphire and emerald and the streets of | gold. -But somehow I love the gates made of great pearls and always standing open.” “You do make it real, don't you, dear?” said the girl. “must make it real; I must do things to him; be can never be touched now. Why should not I go on with the sweet, kind things he might have done? You know there would | have been many cf them. He had a tender, generous heart; and in the life of a man with a | Heart like that there must be many good things | done for others, even if there should be human | Weakness and sorrow, too. Idon’t want thesweet | things to go undone just because he hus died. ‘That would be as if those he might have helped | had been robbed of a friend. "When he was a | baby L used to say: “I want the big world to be | better just because he lives.’ Now I say: ‘I t to be better even that he has lived—and “And that is why you are so interes Giovanni? I knew it was like that, des | another soft pressure of the arm. || ‘In Giovanni—in any boy whose life might be made brighter and Uroader—in any boy who | needs help or friend. It might not always be miouey that would help them most—it might be something else. Whatever is done it is not I | Who do it—it is Leo. Leo, who will never be tempted or made sad by life, but who goes on living and holding out his kind, boyish, friendly | young hand to other boys who must finish | their lives and bear all the burdens of them. | He was spared them all, He lived a few bright, buoyant, joyous years without shadow or a stain. Now he seems to me like a magnificent, fair young prince in his royal city, with his hands full of royal gifts and his soul full of tender yearning for those who are outside the gates, and who must toil longer in the heat of the sui will help Giovanni?” said her friend. ted in ” with “And be “I see that. “He will try,” was the answer. (To be continwed.) ———~ree. ‘Talked and Acted Likes Man From the Chicago Sunday Tribune. The young man had been with the party some time and he finally rose to go. The others vetoed the proposition. “Oh, sit down!” cried one. “Be a good fellow,” said » third. Now that “Be = good fellow”—well, every man knows what that means. Every man has done something he did not want to do and ought not to have done for fear some one might think he was not a “‘good fellot ‘The young man hesitated. “No, I guess I had better go,” he said at last. jonsense! It's early yet,” protested one. “Sit down? Sitdown? We'll all be home be- fore 12,” added another. the table and said: “Well, TU submit the case to ted are talking of going to the ter want me to be one of the party. Now, cozy little flat on the north side there’ woman—— “Children sick!” put in one of the party. “No; there's only one, and he's in good “O. » “Wait a minute,” interrupted the young man. “Til leave it to you, but you must hear the case, This little woman is alove in the fiat. The baby is in bed and she is sitting there reading or sewing and listening to the steps of those passing house. I left b o’clock this morning, and ‘since then she bas been alone with the baby. No the baby to occupy her time. “Boys, if you think tonight more than she There was another one of the took a sip of champagne : “I'd rather you'd Z The others dodded their assent and the young comfort myself and make me feel that Iam not|1PRse Treks 20. Pa letting him go. That is why I have my fancy BS Kt-OBS 11. P- | about helping those other boys whom Teall hiv > SR Hl aaaes. : if be had lived to be a man he might SxS ty 3 ave had sorrow and pain and disappointment; $e3> > 2 he’ might have known temptation and have [2 Bae) GRAG! J Ge fallen into human fault. Thatis allover for|@ KtK2 9. P. Is KUKGS The young man sat down, rested his arms on | » Envios 00 stow, yp inc Tourney Notes, T= WASHINGTON CHESS CLUB MEETS every evening at 910 F street Visitors always welcome, PROBL io. ‘Problem: Bra. V-DOATRITE Concer ore (Composed for The Evening Star.) A Geometrical Proisiem. By the variations of triangle reduce the porta freedom of the savace to wuhjection to law. White3 pieces. ‘White to play and mate in three moves, PROBLEM No. 29. (Tourney Problem Ne. &P A neat three er By F.C MENAMI Waste peces. ‘White to play ancl mate in three moves. PROBLEM No. 30. (Tourney Problem No. &? posed for the Evening Star.) By FRANCIS WARD, Washington, D.C. Black ke ‘Aud after white's*hext move Diack wostbe monet GAME No. 26, GIUOCO PIANO. White—Herr-Steinkubier. Black —Black! FRA. IL QaKt 7. BQ?) 7. Bx 17. & KRIEBa) & OKtxgP Is 9. 0-0 oP Qt 10. Kt-OKt3 10. Ktxket And Mr. Blackburne announced « beautiful mate ip four inoves, which we give at « little problea to ow? realers. Black to pay and mate in four moves. (a) A strance play against a master like Blackburpe. te pays dearly for this bizarre move later on. (b) Yay guemiquavle. ce) Now the English champion ‘to Wake Up. SOLUTIONS AND SOLVERS. Solution next week Has two so. oe 4 SOLVING TOURNEY. With this issue we inaugurate a little solving company | tourney. To the solver sending in the best set of solutions to the problems Stas chow column during yublished in Tus ext ten weeks ® subscription to Mr. Steinitz’s “International Chess Magazine” for ne year compete the solved will be