The Book Of Wealth Vol.5 [5]

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achievements of Civilization

THE

Book of Wealth Wealth

in

Relation to Material AND

Intellectual Progress and Achievement BEING An Inquiry into the Nature and Distribution of the World’s Resources and Riches, and a History of the Origin and Influence of Property, its Possession, Accumulation, and Disposition in all Agesand among all Nations,as a Factor in Human Accomplishment,an Agency of Human Refinement, and in the Evolution of Civilization from the Earliest to the Present Era

BY

HUBERT HOWE BANCROFT Section Five

NEW YORK THE BANCROFT COMPANY, PUBLISHERS 18%

p eoa B2I3 /. 5"

Copyright, 1896, by HUBERT H. BANCROFT Types and Press ot The Blakely Printing Company, Chicago

g3 O4>. 1'3°'

CHAPTER THE THIRTEENTH GERMANY FaUST.—Thi* girl must win for me. Dost hear? MEPHI8TOPHELES.—What! She? She from confession cometh here. From every sin absolved and free: I crept near the confessor's chair. All innocence her virgin soul, For next to nothing went she there; O'er such as she I've no control. MaBGARET. Heavens! only look! what have we here! In all my days ne’er saw I such a sight! Jewels! which any noble dame might wear. For some high jiageant richly dight! How would the necklace look on me! These splendid gems, whose may the}’ be? Were but the earrings only mine!

Thus, one haw quite another air. What Imoto it to be young and fair? It doubtless may be very fine; But then, alas, none can« for you, And praise sound* half like pity too. Gold all doth lure Gold doth secure All things. Alas, we poor! Faust.—Sweet love! MEPHISTOPHELES.— By love despised. By hell’s tierce fires I curse, Would 1 knew aught to make my imprecation worse! I'd yield me to the devil instantly, Did it not happen that myself am he!

ERE we to eliminate from Europe the German element, it would almost unpeople its western portion; for in all the countries adjacent to their Fatherland, and in many that lie beyond the s, Germans, retaining their national customs 1 their national language, are rearing new empires or impressing on foreign communities the /y stability and vigor of their race. In the AustroHungarian dominions there are at least ten millions of Germans; in Holland, Belgium, France, and even in Russia they are also counted by the million, while in the I nited States, in Australasia, and in truth wherever men toil and traffic in the common pursuit of wealth, their influence is widely felt. The English, moreover, with their girdle of colonics encircling the earth, are essentially a German race, and of the words that form their language more than sixty per cent are of German origin. Thus an account of the present empire includes but a part of the bodies politic which, though long desiring such a consummation, have only within recent years been welded together as a nation after many centuries of discord among rival creeds and rival governments. While holding • aloof from each other in political institutions, they held aloof from all the world in their social and intellectual development; and here is the only people which, after emerging from barbarism, has attained to a leading position among the most enlightened of modern countries without such intermixture of foreign blood as could affect its identity of race or alter its habits and usages. This it is that gives to German history a deeper interest than belongs to mere dynastic changes; for impelled simply by its own latent strength, this mighty nation, though more FREDERICK THE GREAT COLL N. LEIPSIC GALLERY than once on the verge of dissolution, has worked its way 401

402

77/Æ BOOK' ()/' //7:7/7. 77/

through countless obstacles to its present rank as the arbiter of Europe, as its foremost military power, and as 7 one of the foremost in the arts of peace. Many centuries before the Christian era the ancestral tribes of Germany migrated from the regions south of the Oxus to the plains of Scythia, and there remained for further centuries, leading a pastoral life. •, though tilling enough land to supply them with the coarse ground grain which with the flesh of beeves • md goats was their only food. Domestic animals were their principal wealth, though they possessed also the precious metals, and knew how to work them into necklaces, rings, and other rude forms of jewelry. They could also fashion weapons and implements of bronze, but not of iron, and for navigation they had boats propelled by paddles, the use of sails and masts being as yet unknown. They had little in common with the native Scythian, whose home was in his wagon, for they lived in fixed habitations and held sacred the marriage tie, while among their judicial usages was trials by the ordeals of fire and water, the latter still main­ tained in the days of the Merovingian dynasty. As flocks and herds increased the tribes moved westward, whether singly or in a body cannot be determined, first occupying Scandinavia, and then driving before them the Keltic races which had long been supreme in central Europe. They had no geographical organization, and as to their geographical distri­ bution records are few and conflicting, the little that has come down to us being derived from the more civilized nations on their borders, for the Germans themselves had no L

FREOERCK THE GREAT. *

BERLiN

literature and none but oral traditions. They were a warlike but unstoried people, the dread of their neighbors and the only one that successfully confronted the Roman legions, the word Germans, first used in a collect­ ive sense by Caesar and Tacitus, signifying according to some authorities shouters in battle, though more prob­ ably derived from ger. a lance or spear. Especially feared were the Cimbri and Teutoncs, the first of whom, after defeating five consular armies, laid waste the region between the Rhone and the Pyrenees, causing panic and terror in Rome as though Brennus or Hannibal were at its gates. They were men of gigantic stature and ROYAL CASTLE. BERLIN

ROYAL PALACE. BERL N

powerful frame, with fierce blue eyes which looked straight at the foe without symptom of fear or flinching. For weapons they had long, heavy swords and double­ pointed spears, and for defensive armor coats of mail, wooden shields, and helmets resembling the heads of savage beasts with widely dis­ tended jaws. Their women fol­ lowed them to war. some of them acting as priestesses, cutting the throats of prisoners over a brazen vessel, and drawing portents from

THE BOOK OE WEALTH

403

BRANDENBURG GATE, BERLIN

flowing blood. They were a numerous tribe; for when finally defeated by Marius at the battle of \ ercellac the Cimbrian host extended for more than three miles on each face of a solid square. ()f the Teu tones also more than 200.000 were slain at Aquae Sextiae, where now ’s the t°wn °f Plunder was not their object; neither was it glory; but simply . 1 to find in the fertile plains of Italy a land where they could live in plenty and establish "at x permanent homes. In the descriptions of the German tribes as given by Caesar and 1 acitus, both from personal observation, there is no essential difference, though written at an interval of more Xthan a century and a half. Covering most of their territory was the great Hercynian forests, tenanted chiefly by strange and fearsome beasts, a land of swamps and thickets, where as it seemed no sunbeam penetrated. Yet somewhere amid this wilderness primeval were raised crops of rye and barley, and on its borders were mountains well stored with the useful metals. Lands were

*0^

WHITE ROOM, OLD CASTLE. BERL'N

the book OF WEALTH

404

titioned by the leaders, no one being permitted to retain his hold­ ing more tha a single year. They lived in dwelling s built of the trunks of trees, but without the prison - like enclosures of walled towns and villages. They were divided into hundreds, half of whom set forth for war and conquest, while the remainder attended to the cul­ tivation of the soil with the labor BERLIN RAILWAY STATIONS of slaves and farm animals. At the end of each twelvemonth there was a change of occupations, the warrior turning farmer and taking charge of flocks and fields. There were four classes; first the nobles and freemen, for whom war and the chase or idleness were the only pastimes; then the freedmen, who served in the ranks but had no political privileges, and lastly the serfs, who were classed and treated with the brutes. Home life was sacred, and especially, as I have said, the marriage tie, the German swain offering the maiden of his choice not gold or jewelry but a yoke of oxen or a spirited steed, while the wife that was to be was expected to furnish in return a suit of armor or a supply of weapons. They had neither temples nor a professional priesthood, but prayed to their gods in groves and forests as

FREDERICK I OF PRUSSIA

BÖRSE, BERLIN

THE TOOK OF WEALTH

405

did the ancient Britons, and their worship was strongly associated with the phenomena of nature, whose alternation of summer and winter, of storms and sunshine, with forces seemingly engaged in strife, suggested the existence of good and evil deities. Among their better qualities were truthfulness and hospitality, the courage of the men and the chastity of the women; among their vices and failings were drunkenness, gambling, and impatience of discipline or restraint. Though never completely subdued to the Roman yoke, there are during the opening centuries of the Christian era strong traces of Roman settlement and civilization. By several of the emperors, beginning with Augustus, fortresses and towns were established, where traders from the imperial city bartered for German products the gold and silver ornaments, the costly fabrics and delicate wines, of Italy. Vineyards and orchards dotted the banks of the Rhine and Moselle; agriculture was extended and agricultural systems improved; mines were opened and many new industries developed, while the customs and character of the people had been

WILHELMSPLATZ. BERL N

4o6

THE HOOK OE 11 E.I /.TH

softened but not essentially changed. Large levies were raised for the imperial armies amid these warrior bands, those who accepted service returning with wondrous stories of the splendor of the outer world, where they had learned not only the art of war but the weakness of the empire which their own countrymen wore presently to overcome. In the third century the Germans were no longer in fear of Rome; in the fourth they began to look upon Rome as their prey; in the middle of the filth century the I lerulian chieftain Odoacer, at the head of the confederated tribes, was crowned monarch of the western empire. CONRAD Defeated by Theodoric, king of the eastern Goths, alter a series of obstinate contests. Odoacer presently disappears horn the scene, after colonizing the region between the .Alps and the Danube. As ruler over Italy and Germany, Theodoric was regarded by both nations as one of the wisest and mightiest oi mon- . archs, and from far and near came appeals for his counsel and protection. He it was who first conceivcd the plan of uniting the several divisions under one great national league; but the time was not yet ripe; for western Europe, including Britain, together with northern Africa and the LOTHAiRE islands that lay between, were then ruled by a num* ber of tribes having little in common except a common language, the power of Rome rapidly hastening to dissolution even in that which remained of her eastern empire. During this period the Germans relapsed almost into the condition of savages, spreading ruin and misery throughout the fairest THE GREAT ELECTOR regions of Europe, so that there is no more disas­ trous epoch in all the Ion annals of fierce in their human suffering. hatred of learning as they were ferocious in the treatment of their enemies, they obliterated the priceless monuments of human intelligence, the precious fruits of human inquiry and thought as com­ pletely as they swept from the face of the earth the wealth, the culture, and social institutions of Rome. Their ablest leaders regarded knowledge with con­ tempt. their literature being restricted to the poetic imagery in which German bards related the deeds of German heroes, while even Theodoric, surnamed ROYAL BANK the Great, could not write his own name. his signature being appended by smearing with black a mould in which the letters were cut. Yet they were not altogether savages; for messages and gifts were interchanged between their courts; there were alliances and intertribal marriages, and of commercial intercourse, an unfailing test of civilization, there was at least sufficient to place them beyond the reproach of savagism. Settling themselves in the Roman provinces, where they owned more than half the soil, the leading members of these conquering hosts became in due time landed proprietors, or nobles, ruling over but intermingling little with the older and more civilized com­ munities in which they lived, with separate languages and separate laws, each according to their own traditions. While VON MOLTKE'S HOUSE BERL N

THE TOOK OF WEALTH

407

fierce and cruel as invaders, they were lenient as masters, relieving the people from most of the heavy burden of taxation imposed by Roman governors, and thus in a sense appearing as liberators rather than oppressors. Gradually imitating the customs of the subject races, some of the German tribes became themselves effeminate, and especially the Vandals, whose domain was in northern Africa. In 533 Gelimer. their king, was defeated by Belisarius, the last of the Roman generals, whose lieutenant, Pharas, drove him into the fortress of Pappua. Summoned to surrender, the monarch refused, but sent with his answer the following request: “If you, O Pharas, would do me a favor, send me a loaf of bread, a sponge, and a harp." Asking what meaned this strange petition. Pharas was told: “The king asks for bread because he has tasted none since entering Pappua; a sponge he would have to cool his head, now heated with wine, and a harp to accompany his songs of misfortune." 1'he request was granted: famine presently put an end to the siege, and Gelimer bound with silver chains was taken with all his treasures to Constantinople. Thenceforth the Vandals disappear from Africa, while the eastern Goths, after a sturdy resistance, were driven from Italy across the Alps and merged among kindred tribes.

RITTERSAAL

4oS

THE TOOK OE WEALTH

THE OLD MUSEUM. BERLIN

Of Clovis, the first German monarch worthy of the name, of the Merovingian sovereigns, and of the Salian Franks, whose history is for several centuries virtually the history of Germany, I have spoken in connection with the annals of France. With the Austro-Hungarian empire the political career of Germany has also much in common, and here it will suffice to refer only to such incidents and personages as arc closely connected with the subject matter of this work. It was in the days of Charlemagne, as I have said, that, after a long period of dissension, the union of church and state was finally completed and symbolized through his coronation by the pope, and for other and weightier reasons history, coupling the epithet with the name itself, has accepted Charles the Great as the real founder of the German empire. It was his aim in life, and one from which he never swerved, to unite all the German tribes under a single government and a single church. If he did not entirely succeed, the impress of his reign was felt throughout the middle ages, while in life he was regarded as the source of all earthly authority, from him to be transmitted to sovereigns, nobles, and officials of every degree. In May of each year he ing from each his tributary offerpresided over the great assembly of freemen, receiv levied; for the income from ing, apart from which no taxes were emperor wlliam । crown lands sufficed for the expenses of his court. wonderful capacity for work, Charles was a man of herculean build, and with a in which he had no superior, despatching business with a promptness of decision and action the fiercest of warriors, except perhaps Napoleon or Frederick the Great. He was urbane in social interfighting like the giants of the Nibelungenlied, yet mild and gathering about him course. To the arts of peace he was no less devoted, encouraging so far as men of learning, founding schools, and lay in his power the cause of pop­ ular education. His habits were of the simplest, and in attire he was equally plain, wearing only, except on state occasions, a homespun garment of linen, over which in winter was a coarse Frisian cloak. His courtiers he laughed to scorn as they followed him to the chase in gorgeous raiment of oriental fabrics; for hunting was his favorite pastime, and next to it swimming in the baths of Aix, where was his favorite residence, though elsewhere he had several palaces. He travelled much, for the better superintendence of his public and private estates. With many potentates, both eastern and European, he interchanged friendly messages and costly gifts; but for himself he always preferred the FREDERCK W LL AM i| ring of the sword to the ring of

THE HOOK OF 11E. //. TH

409

AUSSTELLUNGSPARK. BERLIN

gold. His faults were neither few nor small; but on these I need not dwell, remarking only that the Charlemagne of history and the Charlemagne of heroic legend were different personages, the one being a conqueror and statesman and the other a warrior-saint, above mortal wisdom and strength, invincible in war and incapable of error in judgment or infirmity of will. “His eyes," says the song of Rolland, “shone like the morning star. Terrible to his foes, he was merciful to offenders, an upright judge who knew all laws and taught them to his people as he had learned them from the angels, while bearing the sword as God's own servant." But the sceptre and sword of Charlemagne could be wielded by none but himself; and as we have seen the vast structure which he reared fell to pieces not many years after his death, presently to be rebuilt by stronger hands than those of his successors. With the death of Louis II in 875 the direct line of Charlemagne became extinct, though early in the following century we find on the throne a relative through the female branch in the person of Conrad of Franconia, a well meaning Charlemagne monarch but always under priestly rule. In the reign of Henry who succeeded him as the first of the imperial house of Saxony were again united all the dukedoms into which the kingdom had been divided, the monarch when on his death-bed summoning the nobles and exacting from them a pledge to acknowledge his son Otto as their sovereign. A glorious reign was that of Otto I. or Otto the Great as he was

ENTRANCE TO AUSSTELLUNGSPARK

410

THE TOOK OF II E. 17, 77/

called, crowned at Aachen and girded with the sword of royalty by the archbishop of Mayence, while princes rendered him service as cup-bearers, stewards, and chamberIains. Taking Charlemagne as his model, he treated the great lords as vassals, even asserting the power to depose them for failure in duty to himself or his empire. It was during Otto’s administration that the word Germans first came into general use as a national term, though before applied by way of dis­ tinction between those of Teutonic and Roman race. His many wars at an end, whereby he became the most powerful of European potentates, receiving from the pope the imperial crown of the Caesars, the emperor devoted himself kA to the internal affairs of his domain, the management of which was no easy task; for the royal estates were widely scattered, and much of their surface was covered with almost impassable forests. 1 Proceeding from place to place, he sat in judgment on ail difficult and important questions, minor controversies being decided by judges in accordance with tribal laws. At fes­ tivals he was surrounded by the nobles of the entire empire, bringing the voluntary gifts which, with the contributions of subjugated regions, formed the principal source of revenue. The Jews indeed paid a capitation tax, and a small income was derived from roads, rivers, and mines; but money was extremely scarce, and as in other feudal countries, tribute was rendered chiefly in service or in kind. In the reigns of Otto II and III there is nothing that need here detain us, and with the death of their successor Henry II, in 1024. the dynasty of the Saxon monarchs comes to an end. In September of this year, as was the ; custom when the reigning family became extinct, the entire German people assembled on the plain near Kamba to LOUISE. BERLIN choose for themselves a sovereign. 1 lore were gathered STEIN the bishops and abbots, the nobles and freemen of the five great tribes or nations,—the Saxons, Franks, Bavarians, Suabians, and the men of Lorraine -but of vassals there was not one, for though forming at least eighty per cent of the inhabitants, they belonged only to the population and not to the people, The choice fell on Conrad, the elder of the two princes of Franconia, and for a century later the throne of Germany was filled by Frankish monarchs from the vine-clad banks of the Rhine. During this period Poland became y a dependency and Switzerland an integral portion of the empire, while Burgundy rendered at least nominal alle­ giance. Near the close of the eleventh century came the first of the crusades, a disorderly throng of enthusiasts, whose zeal for the faith was shown chiefly by maltreating the Jews, being followed by the disciplined array of Godfrey of Boulogne, a prince of the empire, who wrested from the Saracens the holy sepulchre. From 1138 to 1254 reigned the house of Hohenstaufen, of which Lothaire was the first sovereign, adding to his domain as a feudal appendage the kingdom of Denmark. A mighty monarch of this line was Frederick Barbarossa, that is to say Frederick the Redbeard, acknowl­ edged by all European princes as the first among them. Though a great man, Frederick had his weaknesses, and among them was a love of titles, especially the title of Caesar. Marching into Italy, he came to the assistance of Pope Adrian IV, , then driven into exile by the monk Arnold of Brescia, cap-F=T* taring on his way several LomHUVBOLDT SCH LLER, BERL N bard cities, some of which

>

QUEEN

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411

THE TOOK OF WEALTH

welcomed and others defied him. On reach­ ing Rome he was offered its sovereignty for a given consideration; but he preferred, as he said, “to give them iron rather than gold.” As the price of his coronation, how­ ever, he delivered to the chief pontiff the rebellious monk to be burned at the stake, and for this service received the coveted crown. Returning homeward, he chastised the robber knights who had grown bold during his absence; he rebuilt the city of Lübeck, making it the wealthiest emporium on the coast of the Baltic; and further to increase his possessions he married the only daughter of Count Reinaid of Burgundy, a rich and beautiful heiress. Four other expeditions he made to Italy, destroying

ARMORY. BERLIN

the town of Milan, and placing others under German governors with almost unlimited powers. Crowned king of Burgundy at Arles, he distributed the great duke­ doms among relatives and favorites, subdividing them as far as possible, since from minor princes there was less to fear. Then at Mayence, in May 1184. he held festival on a magnificent scale, attended by the clergy and nobles of the realm, by foreign ambassadors and by freemen to the number of 70.000 in all. For this celebration an imperial palace was erected on the bor­ der of Rhine surrounded with a city of many-colored tents, the ring of the emperor's sword proclaiming the majority of his eldest son amid the splendor of a peace­ ful and united empire. Presently came the crusade in which he lost his life, though according to German legend he is not dead but sleepeth. and in due time will reappear to establish anew the ancient glories of his monarchy. With Conradin. son of Conrad IV, ends the bril­ liant dynasty of the Hohenstaufens and the magnificence of the ancient German empire, presently to be revived but not until after the lapse of several centuries. Once more the land was divided into a number of petty states and principalities loosely held together; and though the spirit of chivalry gilded the surface, in the heart of the kingdom was the canker of national decadence. The years that elapsed before the accession of the Hapsburgs, whose annals belong rather to Austria, were HOMCARR BEl ZABE N IN UNTER ELSASS

termed the great interregnum, competitors indeed appearing for the crown but not at the instance of the electoral princes, who looked with complaisance on the annihilation of imperial power as tending to increase their own. Yet they would sell the crown to the highest bidder, and during the lifetime ot Conradin were even base enough to offer the bauble to Hermann von Henneberg. a wealthy and ambi­ tious noble, working on his vanity and obtaining from him large sums of money in return for promises which they never intended to perform. Another aspirant to this shadow of royalty was Alfonso of Castile, who paid 20.000 marks in silver; and still another was Richard, duke of Cornwall, who sent from England, as is said. 32 tons of solid gold. Both were elected, to the scandal and disgrace of

412

THE BOOK OE WEAL TH

all true Germans, though Alfonso never appeared on the scene, and to Richard, except when his treasury was full, was never conceded so much as the authority of a sheriff. Before turning to Prussian annals, let us glance for a moment at Germany during the middle ages, when feudal lords strove with monarchs for . supremacy, while between them the people wen; ground into dust as beneath the nether millstone. In this mournful period the church was the only pro­ tecting and educating power: its numerous services and festivals gave to the life of the poor its only cheer, while the tall spires of majestic cathedrals, open for the worship of all. were visible far and wide throughout the land. BISMARCK Miracles were in plentiful supply, and if the clergy themselves were given to riotous living, their treasures, constantly increased by gifts and bequests, were none the less at the disposal of the sick and needy. Thus, notwithstanding the horrors of the inquisition, the church was in the main a benefit to the people, among whom its power steadily increased. The crusades had also a quickening influence, especially among the cities of Italy which long formed a portion of the German empire. Between them and the new kingdom whose capital was at Jerusalem an active trade was developed in the costly fabrics, weapons, and other rich products of the East, furnishing the gorgeous apparel and equipments which marked the age of chivalry. Thus western Europe increased in wealth and learned the art of luxury, while as to intellectual culture several of the sciences were largely derived from the Saracens, so that the proud Christian began to ask himself in what respect he was their superior. Such were the only lasting results of the crusade preached by the mendicant monk who travelled through Europe mounted on an ass. Between the mediaeval annals of France and Germany there was this essential difference; that in the former the great lords were crushed and the king ruled with almost absolute power, while in the EMPEROR OF GERMANY latter the princes established their sovereignty, each in his own principality, and the empire was broken into fragments. For this condition of affairs the papacy was largely responsible, aiming as it did at the temporal supremacy of Europe, while the loose con­ federation of the German states offered tempting opportunities for the interference of the holy sec. Foreseeing the danger threatened by ambitious nobles, it had been the policy of Charlemagne to place the more powerful duchies as far as possible under episcopal control, hoping thus to strengthen the power and prerogatives of the throne; but he entirely overlooked the fact that these spiritual potentates owed to the supreme pontiff a far more fjfc binding allegiance than to himself. Moreover, as the secular VICTORY COLUMN monarchy, the ruler of Germany was ever liable to be head of the Roman pope with jealousy and distrust, developing at times into actual hostility. 1 hus regarded by the ( tered among the electoral princes, and through this influence it was that the discord was fos as a house divided against itself. empire became through the grants of valuable fiefs or the acquisition by other means ot large It w a s princely families of Germany founded their numerous dynasties. Many whose estates that the not great enough to support this dignity accepted service under the more wealthy possessions were nobles, and chiefly from this class came the knights, or equestrian order. I he and p o w e r f u 1 the German, ritter, was in fact a noble vassal, bound to his lord with the strongest knight, or. as in ance, even to the commission of crime and the forfeiture of life. Yet not only bonds of allegi in France, Normandy, and Italy, admission to this order was a coveted distinction, in Germany but valor and untarnished honor being required of all its members, while among their duties was the protection of the weak and especially of women. Many of the knights had their separate castles, with drawbridge, moat, and tower, but on a smaller scale than those of the higher nobility, in which were often court-yards spacious enough for the holding of tournaments. In the earlier days the chase was their pastime, when not engaged at court, in war, or in love-making. I he woods abounded in such noble game as the stag, the elk, the fallow deer, and the fierce wild bulls which Charlemagne loved to hunt in the forests of Ardennes. To live the lives of freebooters was at first beneath their dignity; but as knighthood degen­ erated it became the custom to live “by the stirrup,’ that is to say by pillage anil highway robbery. 1 hus the castles both of princes and knights were converted into dens of robbers, whence armed bands fell on merchant convoys and captured GOETHE. BERLN their costly freights. There were none to prevent or punish

THE TOOK OF WEAL TH

4’3

ORANGERY. POTSDAM

them, and there was no protection for the weak, except banding together, or the payment of tribute in the form of taxes and tolls. This was in truth the time when might was right, when order and law were at an end. when honest}’ was merely a name, and all sense of honor was lost. Life and manners were rude in German cities and castles alter the relapse which followed the age of chivalry, when with the customs of chivalry was extinguished all chivalrous sentiment. Respect for women gave place to contempt, and instead of knightly devotion were drunken orgies from which decent women were excluded. At the courts of princes vulgar ostentation demanded an expensive retinue of attendants, with richly caparisoned steeds, thus embarrassing the nobles with debt, the burden of which must be borne by their dependents; for knights must banquet and hold carousal though the peasantry starved. Often, however, the knights themselves were in danger of starvation; for bitter poverty lurked within their castle walls, where they lived with a handful of servants and a few famished horses and dogs, until, going forth like ravenous wolves, the plunder of some merchant train and the ransom of its owner supplied them with stolen funds. During this age of disorder multitudes were deprived of their homes; nor was there any inducement to make a home, men breaking loose from all family and local ties and filling the land with vagrants and vagabonds of all degrees. In the middle of the fourteenth century came the black death, the most destructive pestilence that ever overtook the human race, and accompanied with a moral pestilence more hideous than itself. Europe lost one-fourth of its population, and in Germany, as its historians relate, half the nation per­ ished from its effects, many towns and villages being utterly depopulated, while richly freighted vessels drifted at sea with no living soul on board to tell of their awesome fate. For this vis­ itation the Jews were blamed, poisoning the wells and springs, as was believed, with intent to destroy the Christians. I fence came persecution, all the more bitter in that many of the wealthiest and most enterprising citizens were Hebrews. At Strasburg two thousand were burned at th laborers. One of the principal events of 1895 was the opening of the Kiel canal connecting the Baltic with the North sea, beginning at Holtenau on the bay of Kiel, passing through the province of Schleswig-Holst« in. and with its terminus at the mouth of the Elite. It is 61 miles in length and at the surface nearly 2«x> feet in width, allowing vessels to pass at any point by day or night as it is lighted by electricity. It was eight years under construction and cost about $40,«>00.000, on which, as was estimated, the tolls woul«! pay at least a moderate interest; for the traffic between Baltic am! North sea ports is i8,ooo,«xx> tons a year, the distance from Ham­ burg to the Baltic being shortened by 400 miles, and from Antwerp ami Amsterdam 240 miles. On the 20th of June it was opened amid imposing ceremonies, a procession of steamers, royal yachts, war vessels, ami other craft representing many nations passing through the canal. At its heat! was the HohfNZollcrn with Emperor William on board. Hamburg is at the heat! of the German shipping trade, with a tonnage of about 12,ooo,«xx>, or almost as much as that of all other ports combined. Most of the maritime commerce is con­ ducted by foreign am! especially British vessels; for the mercantile marine is small, but of excellent quality. As to figures, the com­ merce of Germany cannot readily be estimated, since the free-port territories are exclude«! from the customs frontier, which is thus considerably smaller than the political frontier, while through the league known as the Zollv«-rein, commerce is subject to special regu­ lations practically applying to the entire country. Imports may be stated at somewhat over $t,ixk>.«xx),ooo a year ami exports at $8,«xm>. An attempt was recently made to raise the price of grain for the Ix-nefrt of tinagricultural classes, but without success. Th«-only way to relieve the farmer would be to lighten his load of taxation, rendered the more

454

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grievous by the building of $40,000,000 canals, the hoarding of gold against the contingency of war, and the'maintenance of an enor­ mous army in which the sons of the farmer must serve while their father is taxed for their support, ami loses besides the benefit of their assistance. Of nearly 30,000 miles of railroad, all but 3,000 belong to the government, paying four and a half per cent on an invest« d capital of $3,000,000,000. The emperor has his private train costing $75o,, one of the cars containing a reception saloon richly adorned with works of art. Street car companies must pay hand­ somely for their privileges, a Berlin company recently giving its cheque for $250,000 for the right to cross the Linden at a single point. There are 80,000 miles of telegraph lines, ami probably 65.000 telephone stations, of which latter there were but 1,500 in 1881. Only six per cent of the area of Germany is classed as unpro­ ductive, agricultural lands amounting to 90,000,000 acres, while 34.000.000 acres of forest under care of the stat«! ar«- a source of considerable revenue. Except in very favorable years, the 5,300,000 farms, orchards, and vineyards do not yield enough food and win«for home consumption, though of cereals the crop averages 15,000. ocx> tons, of potatoes 25.000,000. ami of sugar beets 10,000.000 tons. Tobacco is largely cultivated in the southern provinces, ami of hops there are raised sufficient for a moderate export, besides keeping busy many thousands of breweries whose output exceeds 1.000.000.000 gallons a year. Earm animals an- in plentiful supply, some provinces having 1,500 head of the larger kinds to every 1,000 inhabitants. Chiefly in Saxony and the Hartz mountains is produced silver to the value of $15,000,000 a year, and of gold $2,750,000. Lead

is found in greatest abundance near Aix-la-Chapelle, ami more than half th«- European supply of zinc is furnished by Germany, while of copper the production is large, though insufficient for home requirements. In Saxony, Hanover, and Thuringia are some of the largest salt works in the world, the total annual yield of potassic and rock salt exceeding 2,000,000 tons. Of coal the output is 7o,ooo,«xx) to 75.000,000 tons from fields that are practically inex­ haustible, th«- six largest districts now in operation containing deposits estimated at 45.,.ooo tons, while in upper Silesia is a still larger supply. Thus while American coal may possibly be exported to England «luring the coming century, we cannot look upon Germany as om- of our prospective customers, at h ast for some 2.000 years to come. Iron ores ar«- equally abundant, though few of th«- mines are in the neighborhood of collieries ami thus their working is restricted. Yet German foundries ami iron-works pro­ duce at th«- rate of 6,000,000 tons a year and to the value of $i8o.o«k>.r. still holding useful labor—for themselves in contempt. There are yet more of the clergy, whom with the others the laborers have to support. The burgher class, manufacturers and members of guilds, mav be magistrates: the peasants are really the best to do of all. being industrious, prudent, and holding among them much property. Barley being plentiful and labor cheap, distilleries arose, some 86.000 of them it is said bv 1835. hut now only a few thousand, implying that of late years more water than whiskey is drunk. Yet. some other manufactures are increasing—iron steamer and engine works, lumber cloth and paper mills, cutlery glass and earthenware shops, besides the making silk stuffs, clocks, and watches. Education is in the hands of the clergy, who in their way dominate all classes. Humanity in Denmark is in a mixed condition, five distinct races side by side inhabiting the land: in Jutland and Zealand the Dams; in Holstein. Lauenburg, and Schleswig. Germans; on the west coast and islands. Erieslanders; between Flensburg fiord and Sley. Angles; in Iceland and the Faroe islands. Norwegians. Somewhat more than half of the inhabitants speak Danish, and the remainder German. Their features are regular, eyes blue, hair light; they arc good seamen, but more than half of them engage in agriculture. Manufactures are not *of large amount, woollen, cotton, silk, and linen goods being chief, with some work in almost every other direction. The Danes make everything, but in limited quantities. For so vast a sea-coast and so many fine harbors, there are few wharves or dtx'ks on the shores of Norway. The sea-kings were accustomed to land from small boats, or to wade ashore, and their descendants in this as in other things have through habit or indifference adhered to the old custom. Besides, wharves injure the boatman's business, and boatmen must live. So I might continue, and easier tell what is not in Scandinavia than what is there. In the north of the peninsula summer nights are unknown, which is uncanny and inconvenient for those unaccustomed to sleep in the daylight. Tdrondhjem, where the vikings used to land their spoils and enjoy their revels, was the ancient capital of Norway. There was a small town here, called Nidaros. old even in the tenth century, and on its site the present

THE HOOK OE ITE.I/.77/

TROMSO

Tdrondhjem was built by Olaf Tryggveson. whose ancestor was Harald Haarfager. Alter committing innumerable depredations all the way from Trondhjem to Constantinople, Olaf turned Christian, and casting out of the temple at Nidaros his old-time gods. Thor and Odin, he broke them in pieces, which seemed unkind treatment of the deities that had helped him out of so many perilous situations. Later, in place of the temple of Thor and Odin. Trondhjem had reared for him a great cathedral, and Olif the Heathen became Olaf the Holy, yet stealing and killing all the same: notwithstanding which he was sainted; over his grave a chapel was erected, and to his shrine pilgrims came and worshipped, for of such stuff arc we mortals made. You may see to-day in one corner of the cathedral the very spot where St Olaf was buried; it is now a well of healing waters, of which he who will may drink and live. Here in this great church the Carls and Christians and Oscars are crowned, and so become by almighty sanction masters of men. In the bay, not far from I rondhjem, is the fortified island of Munkholm, where Canute established a Benedictine monastery nearly 900 years ago, and where Christian V of Denmark once confined in one of the towers Count Griffenfeld. his minister of state, keeping him there a prisoner for eighteen years. Although there is more scenery than money in Norway, yet the burghers of Trondhjem are by no means poor; many of them indeed are wealthy, measuring wealth by contentment and the absence of wants. Tromso, the metropolis of Fin mark, or Norwegian Lapland, is said to be the largest town within the arctic circle, though its population is less than 10.000. It has a considerable shipping trade, exporting furs, fish oil. deerskins, and eider down. At the whaling station of Vadso a company well furnished with capital conducts business on a large scale, having in its service several steamers carrying portable harpoon guns which may be fired from a whaleboat; and should a shot from one of these weapons prove ineffective, an explosive torpedo may be sent into the body of the whale when it rises to blow. The northernmost town of the earth is Hammerfest, situated on a warm and well-protected bay, where live two or three thousand human beings as happy as those to be seen on London streets or I .iris boulevards. I said warm, because except at the head of the fiords ice seldom forms on tide water, even during the eleven weeks of winter night; and this notwithstanding the fact that on a line of latitude thirty degrees south, one may not infrequently cross East river from New York to Brooklyn on the ice. I here are at this hyperborean settlement several cod-liver oil factories which control a considerable business. There is also a large number of independent fishermen; but the wealth of the Lapp is chiefly in reindeer, some having in charge of lured men bands of several thousand, which are used not only as property but almost as money, being inherited, and passed on as marriage portions. It is a good thing to be rich, even a rich Laplander; for his smoky, filthy hut may

THRONDHEM, NORWAY

THE BOOK OE WEALTH

467

be larger than his neighbors, and hold his larger family, his herders and servants, who are always members of the family, helping themselves in common with the master s chil­ dren. with lingers, sticks, bone spoons, or sheath knives from the great kettle filled with reindeer meat which hangs over the fire in the middle' of the room, all dressing in deer­ skin coats and trousers, or skirts, all throwing themselves down to sleep on the same floor. And is there after all so very much more of morality in the several classes inhabiting the Fifth avenues and the Champs Elysces of the world? The Lapps have hearts andean THRONDHJERN CATHEDRAL love; they have honesty and fidelity and vir­ tue; thieving and conjugal infidelity are hardly known among them—that is stealing from each other, as in Wall street. There is a place they call the Eden of Lapland. Bosekop, the most beautifully situated of any in Finmark. and of which little is said that might not compare favorably with the Euphrates Eden. Though the interiors of the Lofoden islands are for the most part uninhabitable, fishermen occupy the shores, rich in their simple possessions and their contentment. To escape the taxations and impositions incident to urban life one may well give up some of its luxuries, or even its so-called refinements. The fishing station of Hcnningsvacr presents a busy scene during the season. Hither come craft of all sizesand patterns, schooners, sloops, and whaleboats, some to sell and some to buy. The water is white with them, while on the shore the log houses are almost covered with barrels of cod livers, the ground being thickly strewn with cod’s heads and refuse. The richest man in all this region is said to live here, having acquired a fortune of a quarter or half million of dollars through trading in fish. Another fishing station is Stamsund, where good cod-liver oil is made. A small interior though somewhat famous town in Norway is Eidsvold, the birthplace of Norwegian liberty. A thousand years ago a wild democracy was here established, acknowledging as king Halvdan the Black, father of Harald Haarfager. Assemblies were held and laws made by ballot. The centuries passed by; from the dust of the earth sprang myriads of kings, and to the dust they returned. And still on the 1 1 th of April, 1814. we find a convention at Eidsvold adopting a constitution and electing Prince Christian king of Norway. One may ride by rail from Eidsvold to Christiania, the modern capital of Norway, and find there, at the head of one arm of the fiord which here runs in some 60 miles from the German ocean, a city-full of bright, intelligent, industrious people. It was near this spot that once stood the ancient city of Osloe, founded in GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS the eleventh century, and after the union with Denmark in 1380 becoming the capital of Norway, the place where James of Scotland married Anne of Denmark. When it was burned, in 1624. the present city of Christiania was built, having now within its precincts many rich and cultured people, occupying beautiful homes, with royal palace, royal park, parliament house, university, museum, and all the accompaniments of high civilization. Stockholm is one of the many northern towns that resemble Venice. Standing on 1 several islands, with little screw steamers darting between them like swallows, the fine docks, well-kept streets, extensive parks and gardens, and beautiful houses, are all significant of a modern progressive citv. It was on the largest of Stockholm’s islands that the imprisoned Finnish princess, Skiolfa. strangled with his own golden chain her captor. Ague, king of Sweden, and on the same' spot, ten centuries afterward. Birger Jari erected the stronghold from which grew the present city. Noticeable from any eminence are the towers of Storkirka, the Riddarhus, or House of Nobles, the Riddarholm cathedral, the turrets of the prison, the royal palace, and the blocks of tile-roofed dwellings. On the island of Lofo one may see the royal residence and castle of Drottningholm. begun by Queen Hedvig Elenora of Holstein, widow of Charles X, and completed during the reign of her son Charles XI toward the end of the seventeenth century. The palace, an imposing pile standing near the water, was built by the Tessins, father and son. I he grounds arc well laid out. avenues of lindens diverging in every direction from the castle. In the garden, which is entered by steps from a terrace that stands amid lakes and fountains bordered by vases and STATUE OF LINNE statues in marble and bronze, is a theatre de verdure, a unique structure

468

/7//f />()()/\ ()/•' ///£.//.'///

of clipped trees in the form of a building, constructed under the direction of Gustavus III for the acting of French plays. Amid the mazy walks of this garden, and half hidden bv the trees, are a Swiss cottage, a hill and statue of Flora, a Kina slott. or Chinese castle filled with curiosities, which King Adolf Frederick presented to his queen Lovisa Ulrika, on her birthday: also a reproduction of a Canton village, mar which steel and iron works were once carried on under the immediate superintendence of the king. West of Lolo is the isle of Biorko. on the northern end of which are remains of the ancient birka. It is stated by Rimbert in his biography of Archbishop Ansgarius that this was an important and famous place, where dwelt many rich merchants with their treasures carefully stored. Once the deposed King Anund came upon them at the head of a band of Danes, whom he had induced to take service with him. and the merchants were glad to pay 2.000 pounds of silver to be left in peace. The town of Strcngnas contains a fine cathedral, 300 feet in length, built in 1291, and where Charles IX and other notable men were buried. Then there is the chateau of Fiholm. not far away, which was once the property of Axel Oxenstjerna, minister of Gustavus Adolphus. Up the river, at Eskilstuna, is a large manufactory of arms and cutlery A canal extends from the Arboga to Lake Hielmar. 1 he town of Nora is the centre of the iron fields of Pershytte, Dalkarlsberg, Stribcrg, and Klacka. The mediaeval town of Vesteras has a cathedral built in the twelfth century, 306 feet in length, and with a spire 320 feet high. Erik XIV is buried here. Every government regards itself as the best: every army esteems itself the bravest; every religion considers itself the purest, and every aristocracy tries to believe itself the highest. In cases of relative nobility lapse of time entitles to precedence, and it matters less how than when our ancestors rose above the rabble and caught the trick of domination. My ancestor of remote degree may have gone to the crusades a slave and returned a wealthy officer; he may have been a bold Scandinavian searobber. or a crafty Italian cutthroat; he may have sold soap, or have slept in a brewery; he may have torn the raw flesh from the bone B with his teeth or have fed on I nuts and slept in trees. The mi i.jn ascendency once acquired and • 4« ’» maintained, how it was accom­ plished matters little; we can plume ourselves on our superior respectability just the same. The Almighty himself does not dis­ dain to accept from his votaries the spoils of victory. Many of the present castles stand on the sites of former castles which met with destruc­ tion. showing severe treatment on the part of enemies. Such an one is Gripsholm. which rises out of the foliage on a tongue of land near Mariefred, jutting out into the fiord. The first building dates from the four­ teenth century, and lasted about a hundred years; the present one was built by Gustaf Erikson W’asa I. who completed it in 1537. calling the four towers after his sons. Erik. Johan. Mag­ nus. and Karl, the castle itself not bearing its modern name. I wo large cannon, captured by STOCKHOLM Count Jacob de la Gardie at

THE TOOK OF WEAL TH

469

Ivanogorod in Russia, in 1612, lie in the outer court-yard. In the picture gallery are about 2.000 paintings, many of them valuable and important as representing long lines of sovereigns whose authenticated portraits nowhere else exist. Upon the death of Gustav Wasa the place fell to his son. who afterward became Charles IX, and later to Bo Jonsson Gripsholm who gave it his name, and of whom more hereafter. In the southern and central parts of the peninsula are some large landed estates with fine old castles and chateaus; entailed PORT. STOCKHOLM among the old families are many more of these estates, which have on them little to show of wealth and refinement. 1 here are ancestral homes, for the most part of fourteenth century construction, which contain a riddarsal, or knights hall, lined with armor, and apartments on whose walls hang valuable art treasures by the old masters, in the Swedish province of Sodermanland arc several fine stretches of scenery dotted with commanding castles and retired chateaus, the De Greer family estate of Stora Sujidby; the Bonde familyJ entailed estate of Safstaholm, near Wingaker; and finest of all, Eriksberg. with its castle 200 years old, belonging to another branch of the Bonde family, the main part of stone, 11 ■ I with wings for picture gallery, 111 chapel, and library. Mil 1,1 In a forest on the shore of the bay of Sko arc the castle and cloister of Skokloster built in the thirteenth century. The latter was destroyed by fire, but the monastery church remains standing not far from the castle. W ithin are the fruits of many robberies, the pulpit, altar, and ornaments coming from Ger­ many. In the chapel is the equestrian statue of Karl Gustaf ROYAL PALACE STOCKHOLM Wrangel, general of Gustavus Adolphus, and on the walls are representations of his campaigns. Skokloster was given by Gustavus Adolphus to Wrangel, whose son built what was then the finest château in Sweden, a beautiful structure of tour stories in form of a square enclosing a court, the four towers by which it is flanked being equal to another story. The Wrangel coat of arms is over the principal entrance, while supporting the arch of the vestibule are eight marble pillars presented to the owner by Queen Christina. There are many rooms filled with portraits of famous fighting men. and in the collection of weapons, of which there are nearly 1.300. are firearms, cross-bows, and swords ornamented with gems. A shield which belonged to Charles V is here, brought by the Suedes boni Prague when they sacked that city. Gilt skins and tapestry, presented by Louis XIV. adorn the walls of the grand apartments, not to mention Venetian mirrors, cabinets inlaid with precious stones, and specimens of rare china. Next to Gripsholm the finest collection of historical paintings is here, and Skokloster has also a library of 30.000 volumes. A beautiful trip across Sweden can be made by the (iota canal, in the vicinity of which are some fine estates of the old families, as z ()xenstierna. De la (Jardie, Stine. Brahe, and Bonde, though not all of them are here at the present time. This canal, which connects the Baltic,with the German ocean at (Jothenburg is a line example of engineering skill. It is not a continuous cut. but consists of ten sections, with locks of well-dressed stone, connecting \ 1Ç seven lakes with rivers and ba vs so as to afford continuous navigation (Of CMARtlt X«. SWEDEN COUNT OF HORN

470

THE TOOK OE WEALTH

vessels of moderate size. It is some 300 feet above sea-level at its highest point: 259 miles in length, io feet deep, 48 feet in width at the bottom, widening to «88 above, and has 74 locks. Travel by a water­ way like this is necessarily slow and restricted, in these days of rapid transit, but the canal is undoubtedly an important factor in the development of the country. An interesting place, and with much of the grotesque is the old church of Osmo, not far from Sech, which is an evil or a blessing according to the use made of it. But to the necessity forced u|x>n us to provide for our needs we owe much: Franklin, a workman in a printer’s office; Shakespere, who held horses at the door of the theatre which he was later to immortalise: Machiavelli, who was sts-retary of the Florentine republic at fifteen crowns a month; Kaphael, who was the son of a scribbler: Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who was clerk in a law office, an engraver, a copyist, and who still does not eat every day: Fulton, who was at first a boatman afterwards an engineer, and who has given us the steam-boat; and there are many others. Suppose them born with £500.000 each, it is not likely that one of them would have become what he did become. So this nice for money, of which you are shaking, has some good In it. If it enriches some idiots or some rascals, if it procures them the consideration and the esteem of subordinates, of inferiors, in fact of all who have nothing to do with society except with their accounts, it does enough gocxl in another way, by spurring up faculties which would remain stationary in comfort, to be jtardoned for some little errors.

ROM Arctic tundras covered with moss and lichen the realms of the tzar extend southward to the vine-clad hills of Turkestan, and eastward to shores where the warm breath of the monsoons comes moisture-laden from the sea of Japan. To describe the physical features of all the Russias would be to sketch the surface of one-sixth of the globe, forming a compact and solid domain of immense extent, and without oceanic possessions except for the islands which skirt its coasts. I oward the south its limits are being constantly enlarged, never remaining the same for ten consecutive years. Beyond the Caspian the Turkoman steppes have been gradually absorbed; with Khiva and Bokhara among her dependencies, Russia is already at the gate of India, and on the cast her boundaries adjoin those of C lina, the great overland route to Peking by way of eastern Mongolia, being under Russian control, All this mi 'hty empire with its 125,000,000 inhabitants is of comparatively modern growth; for it was not until the eighteenth century that national unity was established, or that the nation made itself felt among the more civilized countries of western Europe. Before that time less was known of Russia than is known to-day of the least important of her Siberian provinces; her progress was slow, her origin obscure, and as yet the country had few historic annals except those of Novgorod and Moscow, where princes, khans, and tzars held court in barbaric splendor. To Scandinavian vikings, termed in the Swedish rothsmen, that is to say rowers, or seafarers, is traced the origin and perhaps the name of the Russian empire; though in the middle of the ninth century there are uncer­ tain records of Slavonic settlements on the banks of the Dnieper. In 862, as related in the ancient Chronicle of Nestor, the Slavs of Novgorod, distracted by internal dissensions, invited three of the great viking lords, who 477

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were also brothers, to dwell among them and settle their disputes. “Our land is great and fruitful," they said, “but there is no order in it; come and reign over us." They came and brought with them their armed followers, Rurik, the eldest, being appointed chieftain and succeeding to the domain of his brethren, who died some two years afterward. I nder Rurik and his successors the town of Novgorod prospered exceed­ ingly. so that it became one of the wealthiest cities of the middle ages, the centre of a powerful and independent state, whose empire extended to the gulf of Finland and the White sea. In the fourteenth century its kremlin, or fortress, contained several ivan the terrble churches, among them the cathedral of St Sophia, almost as now it stands, while its commercial importance was further increased as one of the principal depots of the great Novgorod the Great, and on its rulers was Hanseatic league. The republic styled itself Sovereign had little power except as commanders of the conferred the title of grand prince, though they should they fail to conform to established troops, and were liable to summary deposition the mud with him,” was the saying of the laws and usages. “If the prince is bad. into to act. townsfolk, and one on which they were not slow existence, and especially the principalities of Meanwhile other powers had come into coextensive with ancient Rossia, or Russia, Smolensk and Muscovy, the latter

PETAO

STATUE PETER THE GREAT. ST PETERSBURG

as afterward it was known. Toward the middle of the thirteenth century the Mongols appear upon the scene. ravaging the southern provinces; and though defeated by the men of Novgorod, pillaging the wealthy and sacred city of Kieff. Passing over the intervening period, we come to the days of Ivan the Terrible, whose name is imprinted in blood on Muscovite annals. Crowned in 1547 with the title of tzar, or czar, the Slavonic word for Caesar, a few years later he began the career which for cold-blooded wanton cruelty is not surpassed in the annals of oriental despotism. In his treatment of Novgorod he was especially severe, giving the place over to plunder and putting to death 60,000 of its inhabitants. Priests were tied to posts and flogged until a sum of money was paid for their release; wealthy merchants were tortured with fire anil then thrown from the bridge into the river with their wives and children, followed by boat-loads of soldiers who fired on those who attempted to escape by swimming. With this tragic episode ends the existence of Novgorod as an independent state. while the town itself never again attained to importance. It is in truth a sombre picture that we must draw of Russia when emerging from the darkness of the middle ages, with humanity still in the birth-throes of a monstrous unfolding. Historians have called it the golden age of the empire: but excepting a certain barbaric grandeur there was nothing deserving of such a title. Gibbets lined the roadways; axes and blocks were ready at hand, and the groves of Moscow and its suburbs were festooned with the dead bodies of enemies of the tzar, who formed perhaps the largest element of the population apart from the serfs. Among the dark-roofed houses that crowded the river­ banks rose the walls of the Kremlin, and other fortifications, built a century or two before, and now standing forth sharply in white N and red. Groves and grain-fields mingled with the dwellings, plen­ ROMANOF tifully scattered among which were bell-towers and churches raising MENSH!KOFF

THE HOOK OE WEALTH

their golden domes toward the in glitter. Bright paintings cov structure seemed clothed in a gildings, and rich colors in the decorations. The abodes of three stories in height, the roof of the ox-bladders which admit while on the shutters were neatly Moskva they lived, while and silver and gold.

479

sky. Most conspicuous of all was the temple of the Intercession, fantastic cred the outside walls; on every brick was carved a cross; while the whole network of gold. Money was lavishly spent, for the people loved images, house of God, though in their own houses they cared little for such the wealthy were of rounded and even logs of oak or pine, from one to projecting over a circular façade and supported by finely carved pillars. Instead ted light to the homes of the poor, transparent mica was used for windows, painted representations of birds and flowers. Here on the bank of the beyond the river were their storehouses filled with silk and precious furs

WINTER PALACE ANO ALEXANDER COLUMN

Ivan the Terrible was as pious as he was infamous. He turned his palace into a monastery, crowned as it was by gilded domes rising one above another, and glittering in the sunshine from base to pinnacle with precious metals and colored carvings. Selecting from among the most wicked of the oprichniks, or courtiers, three hundred men whom he called brothers, he threw over their rich kaftans, trimmed with gold and sable, a black robe, gave to each a monk's cowl, and hastened at the ringing of the four o'clock bell to morning service, where the tzar read and sang and prayed with such vigor that his forehead was covered with perspiration. At eight o’clock, morning and evening, they all attended mass, the day apart from religious exercises being devoted to eating, drinking, and dozing, with the pleasurable pastime of beheading criminalsand torturing prisoners, billing the court entrance of the palace were beggars in filthy rags, among whom wild beasts were frequently let loose for the amusement of the courtiers and body-guard, who stood apart arrayed in velvet and gold, their brocaded caps trimmed with pearls and precious stones. Behold a feast in the palace of Ivan the Terrible! In a large hall furnished in gaudy colors, the pillars decorated with carved figures, are three rows each of ten tables, each table with twenty covers, and for seats, benches resplendent with velvet and brocade; these for the guests, while for the dread sovereign is an elevated arm-chair, with carved lions for legs, the back in the form of a gilded double-headed eagle with outspread wings, all ornamented with clusters of pearls and diamonds. In the middle of the hall stands a large square table with massive legs and top of heavy oak plank, which strong as it is groans under the weight of huge piles of gold and silver plate, enormous bowls of cast silver with ornamented handles, a heavy load for four men to lift; golden goblets inlaid with pearls, cups made of ostrich eggs and horns of wild oxen; gold beakers in the shape of cocks, storks, lions, bears, unicorns, giraffes; besides other dishes, vessels, cups, and ladles of precious metals ornamented with precious stones, all forming a huge cone reaching almost to the ceiling. A throng of richly

PORT, ST PETERSBURG

4