Show LETTER FROM EUROPEAN LONDON asi 30 1893 if melrose abbey the mecca of all american tourists in scotland scot land furnishes examples of art nearly as bewitching as the most delicate expressions of nature itself dryburgh abbey but four miles distant down the tweed holds and fascinates the wande with a far more tender and subtle charm the founding ot of dryburgh is of remoter remoler antiquity than even that of the original house of old melrose before the advent of christian missionaries sion aries the place was resorted to by the druids druies for the celebration of their mystic rites as or burgh the bank cluster of sacred oaks 11 dry burghs celtic name implies bodan a presbyter set up the first christian establishment of dryburgh in for years thereafter its history is insignificant the monks from aln ain wick under the patronage of sir hugh de morville constable of scotland under king david I 1 founded here a premon straten tian abbey abbe Y of splendid dimensions this was burned along with melrose abbey by edward II 11 and restored by aid granted by king robert the bruce I 1 twice in 1385 and in 1554 it wa p pillaged and devastated by the english T he reformation of doughty john knox sixteen years later did the rest the ruins of dryburgh abbey show that the walls of the completed edifice stood on different levels and that the structure illustrated at least tour four different styles of architecture this is seen in the massive roman arch with its ample square sides the deep splayed and al ways impressive saxon arch and the early english pointed arch the church was originally in the form of a cross with short transepts and a small but exquisitely decorated choir while the interior was divided by light and graceful colonnades into a central space and side aisles of the transepts a portion of but one the north callei called st marys aisle is still standing but there is a no more ful specimen of the early gothic to be found in scotland than is this the solemn and secluded burial place of i Sc otias greatest minstrel the noble author of waverly the chapter a house a tiny chapel of st bodan and a norman arch which formed the western doorway are yet standing A stately yew over years old casts its somber 1 shade upon the lawn opposite where once the abbots sat at their casements to mock the huge pile of stone as it 1 crumbled into the earth you feel more than you can see at dryburgh the whole place is instinct with repose the horizon is close not i a half mile away in any direction it is fringed with the boughs and verdure of sheltering trees save where far to the south the weird eildon bildon hills of wizard renown peer down from above their cloud mists into the sunny copse the tweed moving in silence lor for miles S above circling here sweeps wide and grandly over gleaming shallows and sings its endless song just at the edge of the olden abbey grounds you come to the place through a hushed and silent avenue ankle deep in the springtime spring time with hawthorn blossoms white as snow in the graying days za their place is by browns al puces auces of rustling drift from the beach A 1 elm and sycamore re only the lodge keepers habitation reminds of earthly activities nature alone holds sway bloom and birds grasses and vines odor and song russet walls and emerald masses of moss oriels briels of ivy fillets of vines pointed arches or roses towers ot trees leaping from the old walls themselves reaching the eye and sence tenderly pulsing with hush and balm melrose exalts dryburgh soothes the entire spot is ruin ruin merged into elysium hallowed by one humble grave and so sweet and hushed is an all that even your reverence for the ever silent disappears for you feel i that hat your mighty friend lies here as on the bosom df 0 t the land he so loved and immo immortalized realized and that scott only sleeps while sweet sweetly y all 0 nature songs to him are sung tha cafes and fondador fond aslor asor eating houses for the latter are equally resorted to are all the resting places of the gay city of havana their num number berand and patronage are remarkable they are all wide open en to the street the year round one on e of fancies an they are almost a part of it as frequently more than one half the cafe is underneath long wide huge pillared porticos here chattering crowds by bv A day and brilliant crowds by night under the flare of lamps in great century old metal frames never cease cigarette smoking gin and wine drinking although all alf liquors however frequently ordered are used in sparing quantities and between the shrill cries of the dul ceros beros or confection peddlers the hoarse importunities mp ort unities of the lottery ticket mobs the ever minor music of the wandering street minstrels and the numberless sounds of a marvelously gay but never brutal and more than half oriental city life the click click click of the universal and never silent dominoes dominges dom inoes upon the marble tables come to you as an staccato of myriads of unseen castanets casti nets 4 if your own wanderings ever lead you to gibraltar to barcelona or to marseilles upon the mediterranean coast do not fail to engage passage in in one of the pretty steamers which ply between these cities and the slumberous port of palma in the little spanish isle of majorca it is quainter t than han spain more moorish than algiers and its pleasant folk are the most hospitable in all the world A visit to its half ruined ancient monastery of Valde musa and the wild and marvelous north coast scenery gre are alone worth a trip to the island with as magnificent and far more classic surroundings as those of vellom brosa in italy a mountain ch chasm aam is is bridged by the ancient pile in so extra ordinary and picturesque a way as to seem at a distance like a grey old cloud t p kissed nest that has for ages defied decay and the battling of the aerial tern pests there but the gray of real decay is upon all things at Valde musa in the gray old church and endless cells and cloisters in the gray old houses house s that nestle along the mountain side beneath it and in the gray old folk that haunt the spot like wraiths of those who once were there an indescribable sadness lingers about this splendid relic ot of monkish times and days the rich of palma come here in summer and live a gay mock life george sand j half a century ago passed the most r dolorous winter of her life within these walls with her was chopin perhaps within these very cloisters was born the wild and inex inexpressible ble melancholy of the melodic creations of the masters later life to me Valde musa will remain more a memory of these two strange sad souls than merely a crumbling deserted and majestic monastic relic upon the island mountains I 1 have passed the greater portion of the last seven years among the peasantry of europe not only has thi this s association been with the lowly upon the road beside their shrines at public fountains where the back breaking loads are drawn among the men and maid servants of great hotels and little inns with the clods in fields and vineyards among the shepherds of the mountains and plain sand with this man ner of folk from the cabins of shetland to the huts of apulia into which shines the sun from across the ionian sea and I 1 think that the honest thing to be said about these peaple is that there is general content among them it is difficult for americans to understand this for it is inconceivable to us how we could be thus contented when you get close to the european beasaw you will vill find that it is equally as difficult tou for or him to conceive of any other condition than that in which he exists trillus in any half hours ride by rail through bavarian valleys you are certain to whiz past some pretty field lane and see a bavarian peasant driving a cart to which are yoked joked a little heifer and a coarse woman As they stop near your passing train you will notice that the heifer is the only animal chafing under its yoke for the woman looks up and smiles and the male removes his pipe for a hearty laugh they are simple childish folk one and all content in their severe labor satisfied with their to us niggardly recompense loving the very earth they dig with unutterable affection happy in the few holidays the year brings about patient under the tithing of king and church while proud that the one protects and the other shrives and quite radiant at the end to lay aside the working clothes of the sodden days behind for the promised finery of the eternal holiday beyond nowhere else in europe can be seen such a variety and wealth of roadside shrines as in austrian galicia in the two or three thousand miles of its great grea t stone roads a huge buge wooden or stone crucifix or a tiny brick or stone shrine may be found on the average at the distance of every half an english mile most of the crucifixes cruci fixes are of wood hewn out of beach or oaken logs whether of wood or stone as if from some great burden every one leans and the ver very Y it leaning aning lends a strangely suggestive sadness and loneliness to the landscape they are most frequent in districts nearest the Carpathia ns which form the hungarian boundary the peasants being of russian stock are all greek catholics and the polish galici ans are without exception roman catholics they are equally pious and you can never pass crucifix or shrine without witnessing a group ot of both in rapt devo tion many ot of whom are groveling prostrate upon the earth before the sacred reminders of calvary at whitsuntide one will see crowds of these simple and pious piou s devotees crawling upon all fours while trailing huge wooden crosses from their necks and shoulders around every roadside shrine in all galicia after one gets over the first flush of rebellious resentment at the system there is a good deal of grim humor to be got out of continental railway travel you will find the same little carriages as in england comprising from four our to six compartments each holding eight people in the first and second and ten persons in in the third class compartments in bavaria there are even fourth class cars or carriages principally for use in time of war they are all marked to contain ten horses or thirty six men except in france italy and spain the service is about equal to that in en england land one has personally to see his lug bugage age in the bugage van and not only give trink geld or to have it labeled but to have it put on board while the monarch of the train the guard cannot take money for a fare he would accept a bribe from anybody for any service service and even an officer of the line thinks it qu quite ite the proper thing to pay tribute to the guard should he desire to occupy an entire compartment this guard bribery is universal I 1 recently saw a train of thirteen car carriages biages capable of accommodating people move out of cologne with but thirty seven passengers who had in thi this is manner purchased almost exclusive compartment accommodations upwards of loo persons having been left behind at the station the most serious opposition to the general introduction of modern sleeping coaches for night service comes from the bribers and bribed A five mark or a five frank piece or less slipped into the hand of a night trains guard will secure an entire compartment or an entire side of one lor your individual use and it is far prel preferable erab tour e to a birth in the vile little four compart ment sleeping coach which has latterly crept into service where the guard conductor and porter in one insists at all hours of the night on your purchase of bad viands and worse wines in germany will be found the most grotesque but the best coaches and the prettiest railway stations in all the world the government wholly conducts all german railia railway y lines every employed emp loye even the waiters at the station dining rooms has been a german soldier and the entire regime is military each station has a captain in a red cap and gorgeous uniform the station guards and porters are also uniformed with dark blue ca caps when a train halts the captain and E his is station guards will be found drawn up in line in front of the main entrance the inguard tra alights and sal salutes u tes the sta tion captain who with his men return this his salute when the lo 10 loading and unloading of luggage is begun As far as convenience of arrangement cleanliness and comfort are concerned the german railway station is immers arable superior to the old board hovels called depots along most american lines they are invariably models mode I 1 s of neatness tidiness and comfort they are not infrequently the prettiest tures to be seen during an entire days dats travel they always have a lovely bit it of lawn about them in which are often fountains flowers and tidy hedges many are covered by ivy or creeping and flowering fl bowering vines flowers in windows and in lawn plats are always in view of the tired passengers and nearly all are supplied with chimes of bells not clanging jangling wrangling bells but melodic bells which when the train guard has taken a whistle from his belt blown upon it thrice and again saluted the stationmaster station master and men seem to say as you move away well good bye then good bye friends good bye in the brief trip across cuba by rail the traveler is furnished abundant material for observation and reflection wherever your train may halt in in pours 11 a dismal troop of beggars lottery ticket sellers dulc eros with all manner of sickening sweets of which the cuban ladies buy freely and eat voraciously and peddlers of glow worms and beetles guava green cocoanuts cocoa nuts and fresh country cheese similar to the german FA kase if one alights for refreshment another savage hards of eros with all sorts of edibles and refes cas are to be battled with and if a meal at a cafe is taken you are unblushingly charged from one on to two dollars in gold but aalthe all t these annoyances are as naught when one considers the glorious tropical panorama provided provided in this trip across the island island the loneliness of the northern coastwise country disappears on beavin leaving 9 matanzas and of a sudden your our train is whirling through a veritable natures garden great orange groves are as common as pine woods in maine vast pineapple pine apple plantations fill the space between here the view sweeps across river river valley and vast reaches of cane grounds the last cutting being hurried to the massive and groaning machinery with the splendid villas behind the whole surrounded by stately cocoa trees and the lordly palm there for miles stretches another valley a plain of puce and yellow where the last cut of tobacco is being piled by the oper arios upon cujes or curing racks or carried from these before the dew falls at three to the great casas de ta bacas where are other noble houses palms palms and fruits and flowers untellable here and there are ranches and herds like the shining horned hosts of Cam aguay with mounted vanque manqueros ros and monteros and their wonderful dogs in picturesque groups with the great palmetto ed corralles for the roundups round ups and agan again i by these houses and quintas like palaces upon every stream at the mouth of flower embedded canyons or set like brown gipsies upon mountainside mountain side are the poor guarro guajiros palm thatched cabins and ever everywhere where are such luxuriance in soil a and n 7 forest vine and flower that when you reach the splendid city of cienfuegos as the shadows fall and the moonbeams moon beams begin to dance upon its matchless bay one feels as though the day had been a vision of some dreamland isle where the weird in men and the glowing in nature have blended in magical spell with indescribable bloom and song E L W |