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Read Ebook: From Sea to Sea; Letters of Travel by Kipling Rudyard
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Ebook has 508 lines and 86396 words, and 11 pages
OF PART II
FROM SEA TO SEA
Tells how I dropped into Politics and the Tenderer Sentiments. Contains a Moral Treatise on American Maidens and an Ethnological One on the Negro. Ends with a Banquet and a Type-writer 3
Takes me through Bret Harte's Country and to Portland with "Old Man California." Explains how Two Vagabonds became Homesick through looking at Other People's Houses 18
Shows how I caught Salmon in the Clackamas 33
Takes me from Vancouver to the Yellowstone National Park 50
Shows how Yankee Jim introduced me to Diana of the Crossways on the Banks of the Yellowstone and how a German Jew said I was no True Citizen. Ends with the Celebration of the 4th of July and a Few Lessons therefrom 62
XXX
Shows how I entered Mazanderan of the Persians and saw Devils of Every Colour, and Some Troopers. Hell and the Old Lady from Chicago. The Captain and the Lieutenant 73
Ends with the Ca?on of the Yellowstone. The Maiden from New Hampshire--Larry--"Wrap-up-his-Tail"--Tom--The Old Lady from Chicago--and a Few Natural Phenomena--including One Briton 88
Of the American Army and the City of the Saints. The Temple, the Book of Mormon, and the Girl from Dorset. An Oriental Consideration of Polygamy 106
How I met Certain People of Importance between Salt Lake and Omaha 120
Across the Great Divide; and how the Man Gring showed me the Garments of the Ellewomen 130
How I struck Chicago, and how Chicago struck me. Of Religion, Politics, and Pig-sticking, and the Incarnation of the City among Shambles 139
How I found Peace at Musquash on the Monongahela 154
An Interview with Mark Twain 167
THE CITY OF DREADFUL NIGHT
A Real Live City 185
The Reflections of a Savage 191
The Council of the Gods 199
On the Banks of the Hugli 208
With the Calcutta Police 217
The City of Dreadful Night 223
Deeper and Deeper Still 233
Concerning Lucia 240
AMONG THE RAILWAY FOLK
A Railway Settlement 249
The Shops 257
Vulcan's Forge 266
THE GIRIDIH COAL-FIELDS
On the Surface 275
In the Depths 284
The Perils of the Pits 291
PART II
FROM SEA TO SEA
TELLS HOW I DROPPED INTO POLITICS AND THE TENDERER SENTIMENTS. CONTAINS A MORAL TREATISE ON AMERICAN MAIDENS AND AN ETHNOLOGICAL ONE ON THE NEGRO. ENDS WITH A BANQUET AND A TYPE-WRITER.
Sweet and comely are the maidens of Devonshire; delicate and of gracious seeming those who live in the pleasant places of London; fascinating for all their demureness the damsels of France clinging closely to their mothers, and with large eyes wondering at the wicked world; excellent in her own place and to those who understand her is the Anglo-Indian "spin" in her second season; but the girls of America are above and beyond them all. They are clever; they can talk. Yea, it is said that they think. Certainly they have an appearance of so doing. They are original, and look you between the brows with unabashed eyes as a sister might look at her brother. They are instructed in the folly and vanity of the male mind, for they have associated with "the boys" from babyhood, and can discerningly minister to both vices, or pleasantly snub the possessor. They possess, moreover, a life among themselves, independent of masculine associations. They have societies and clubs and unlimited tea-fights where all the guests are girls. They are self-possessed without parting with any tenderness that is their sex-right; they understand; they can take care of themselves; they are superbly independent. When you ask them what makes them so charming, they say: "It is because we are better educated than your girls and--and we are more sensible in regard to men. We have good times all round, but we aren't taught to regard every man as a possible husband. Nor is he expected to marry the first girl he calls on regularly." Yes, they have good times, their freedom is large, and they do not abuse it. They can go driving with young men, and receive visits from young men to an extent that would make an English mother wink with horror; and neither driver nor drivee have a thought beyond the enjoyment of a good time. As certain also of their own poets have said:--
"Man is fire and woman is tow, And the Devil he comes and begins to blow."
In America the tow is soaked in a solution that makes it fire-proof, in absolute liberty and large knowledge; consequently accidents do not exceed the regular percentage arranged by the Devil for each class and climate under the skies. But the freedom of the young girl has its drawbacks. She is--I say it with all reluctance--irreverent, from her forty-dollar bonnet to the buckles in her eighteen-dollar shoes. She talks flippantly to her parents and men old enough to be her grandfather. She has a prescriptive right to the society of the Man who Arrives. The parents admit it. This is sometimes embarrassing, especially when you call on a man and his wife for the sake of information; the one being a merchant of varied knowledge, the other a woman of the world. In five minutes your host has vanished. In another five his wife has followed him, and you are left with a very charming maiden doubtless, but certainly not the person you came to see. She chatters and you grin; but you leave with the very strong impression of a wasted morning. This has been my experience once or twice. I have even said as pointedly as I dared to a man: "I came to see you." "You'd better see me in my office, then. The house belongs to my women-folk--to my daughter, that is to say." He spoke with truth. The American of wealth is owned by his family. They exploit him for bullion, and sometimes it seems to me that his lot is a lonely one. The women get the ha'pence; the kicks are all his own. Nothing is too good for an American's daughter . The girls take every gift as a matter of course. Yet they develop greatly when a catastrophe arrives and the man of many millions goes up or goes down and his daughters take to stenography or type-writing. I have heard many tales of heroism from the lips of girls who counted the principals among their friends. The crash came; Mamie or Hattie or Sadie gave up their maid, their carriages and candy, and with a No. 2 Remington and a stout heart set about earning their daily bread.
"And did I drop her from the list of my friends? No, Sir," said a scarlet-lipped vision in white lace. "That might happen to me any day."
The Prince among merchants bade me take no heed to the warlike sentiments of some of the old Generals. "The sky-rockets are thrown in for effect," quoth he, "and whenever we get on our hind legs we always express a desire to chaw up England. It's a sort of family affair."
And indeed, when you come to think of it, there is no other country for the American public speaker to trample upon.
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