ENGLISH TOWN AND COUNTRY IDEALS.

ONE

NE of the most interesting articles in the Nineteenth Century for July is that of Mrs. S. A. Barnett, entitled Town Children in the Country." It is an account of an attempt made to get from English city-bred children their impressions of country life. Various questions were put to the children, and many of the answers are well worth quoting.

In reply to a question as to the names of the young of various animals, the following answers were given:

"A baby horse is a ponny."

"A baby fox is an ox-a thorn."

"A baby deer is a reindeer-a oxen."

"A baby frog is a tertpol-a fresher-a toad." "A baby sheep is a bar lamb.” "A baby rabbit is a mammal."

ASTRONOMY FROM THE SLUMS.

The following are some of the replies of children to the question, What causes the moon to

shine?"

To account for the formation of its head," was the philosophy of another.

"It does it when it does what a cow does digests it food," is a profound but an unsatisfactory explanation.

It's washing its face," shows more credulity than observation; while another discarded reasons and declared, in large, round text-hand, regardless of grammar: "I have seen a number of rabbits wabblings its nose! "

Seven only answered the question rightly; but one child, although no information was put concerning dogs, volunteered the information that French puddles are kept for fancy, Irish terriers as ratters, but the boarhounds are kept for hunting the Boers."

THE JOYS OF THE COUNTRY.

In reply to the question what they most enjoyed in the country, the children replied:

GLIMPSES OF OUT OF THE WAY TRAVEL.

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HE English magazines for July contain sev eral entertaining travel articles, well suited for hot-weather reading. Such papers meet the vacation needs of many readers, because they serve to direct the idler's thoughts farther and farther away from the dull routine of his ordinary occupations.

Among the Jungle-Folk.

About as far away as could well be from our crowded civilization are the jungle-folk whom Mr. Edward A. Irving, writing from Perak, introduces to the readers of Blackwood as "primitive socialists." They call themselves the Upland people, and inhabit the highlands of the Malay Peninsula. Mr. Irving got to know them through an Italian whom the British Government employs to keep a bridle-path clear of obstruction, and who in his turn employs the Upland people to do the work. They are of small stature, very few of the men over five feet; far from muscular; of brown skin and curly black hair; and not ill-looking. They live in oneroomed huts about 15 feet by 12, with walls about two feet high. Their livelihood was won by snaring and killing game, including rats; but the Italian official has brought them some of the rudiments of civilization. "He has given them clothes, he has made them plant corn." harvest supplies them with a mighty orgy of feasting. Every month he replenishes their stock of farinaceous food, tobacco, and betel nut. He sees in them the archetype of what Italy ought to be no political superiority; no use of

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service, of riches, or of poverty; no soldiery, no police, no pope. Mr. Irving is first impressed

with their inoffensiveness:

Pugnacity seems to be an idea foreign to them. They possess a deadly weapon, the blowpipe; but I never heard of its being turned against a fellow-man. It may be that the severity of their life has been sufficient to keep down their numbers; the jungle being wide enough for all, competition has never enforced the lesson that the fighter alone is fit to survive. The same gentleness governs their household relationships.

But that which most strikes an Englishman on coming into contact with these little creatures, and which draws him at once towards them, is the remarkable openness and candor of their expression. They look at a stranger neither defiantly nor in any way cringing, but carefully and steadily, as if ready for unforeseen action on his part; but when they are reassured, with an expression that is dignified in its simplicity."

On the Trail of the Moose.

Another writer in Blackwood describes his adventures 'mid the haunts of the Moose" on the line of the Canadian Pacific Railway. This is his opening picture:

"No camera can ever produce the still beauty of that morning scene when we left the train at 5 A. M. and made ready to leave the little outposts of civilization. The cool autumn air, fragrant with a hundred scents from the surrounding woods, was still hazy with the smoke of forest fires that had been smoldering all the summer. Through this gauzelike veil the maples and birches, already turned to gold and crimson beneath the touch of early frosts, shone with a strange luminous beauty that for miles in every direction lit up the ocean of trees with flaming patches of glory. And all was still and silent. There was no wind astir, and the air only trembled very faintly to the musical roar of the waterfalls and tumbling rapids of the Ottawa below. The party pushed on to Lake Cogawanna, the favorite resort of the moose, on the northern shore of which they pitched their camp:

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When the sun finally disappeared, the shadows of the night fell over a camp as cozy as any hunter could desire, and perhaps a little more comfortable, because one of the party happened to be a young lady. The stillness was almost unearthly when the moon rose over the lake, silvering untold distances, and throwing impenetrable shadows under the trees."

The writer sighted and shot his game, a huge beast, with horns measuring 52 inches across and numbering 28 points. The horns and pelt were about all that two men could manage.

Amid the Vines of Burgundy. Blackwood is strong on travels. Mrs. P. G. Hamerton sketches village life in the Val d'Or, amid the vine growers and vine-dressers of Burgundy. It is a land not of grapes alone, but of peaches, apricots, and all manner of fruit. The people, she says, generally live in their own inherited houses. Even the vine-dressers are independent.

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Girls of the working class enjoy a great deal of liberty. They are constantly out-of-doors, know everybody, and laugh and joke with every passer-by. They often dance all night, for it is a custom of the place to grant free entrance to all the balls which take place at the hotel-even to private ones, such as those given at a wedding-feast."

The population is poor, but impressed the writer with its general expression of satisfaction, which she regards as a survival of the old prosperous days, before the deadly phylloxera appeared.

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They are cheerful, light-hearted, sociable, and obliging, though they lack the pleasant politeness of the peasantry. They are proud and democratic, and assume toward every one a tone of familiarity which it is not always easy to repress without appearing harsh or self-asserting. A little incident which I witnessed may be given as an illustration. A lady of rank, who was driving in her carriage on the main road, stopped her coachman, and addressing a vigneron at work close by, said, Mon brave homme' (My good man), what is the name of the village on the top of this hill?' Ma brave femme, c'est Alluze, pour vous servir,' he rejoined with a chuckle."

"No occasion for conviviality is neglected; but the writer regrets the excessive consumption of wine, which, though rarely producing outward signs of drunkenness, impairs the physique of the people.

Morocco is the true land of rest, the country of to-morrow, whence are banished, by Shereefian decree and national inclination, all the discomforts attending ambition, progress, and punctuality. Here, disgusted with the haste of a hurrying world, sick of the obligations and exactions of a pretentious civilization more tyrannous than the slavery of the East, the pilgrim on life's toilsome journey may rest as a storm-tossed vessel in a mangrove swamp-rest and rust and be thankful for the chance. . . . In his Moorish garden, hammocked between two overladen

orange trees, inhaling the fragrance of lime and lilac, shaded from the fiery enemy overhead by the cool verdure of mulberry, fig, and pomegranate, the wanderer may here realize the true art of living, with no regret for the past, no unrest about the future. . What on earth do

all these episodes of the civilized life signify to one breathing the atmosphere of Bible days, battling with mosquitoes and sun rays, lost in a white crowd of worshipers of a creed that scorns innovation as it scorns women? Having, with a wet towel in lieu of white flag, patched up a truce with the sand-flies and mosquitoes, he muses peacefully on the beauties of the Moorish life, and the music of water plashing from a marble basin on the cool, mosaic pavement below is soothing to him in this mood."

The exquisite beauty of a moonlit evening, the writer observes, is felt only vaguely by the Syrian, not at all by the Moor; it is the imperturable Englishman, the shopkeeper, the unromantic slave of Shaitan and fluss," who is impressed by it.

By Norwegian Fjords.

H. Schütz-Wilson, in Gentleman's, gives a pleasing account of a tour along the Norwegian coast. Here is one picture :

The body supine but the mind active, we saunter down the great Hardanger Fjord. It is, perhaps, a quarter to half a mile in breadth. On the left, islands, and beyond them the sea; on the right, hills, which grow grander and wilder as we swim along. In a day long, long past, all these romantic fjords were filled with ice. On our day the sun shone softly on the Hardanger, and the placid sky was studded with cirro-stratus and with cumulus clouds. These fjords are often very deep. We hear of 600 to 800 fathoms, and the ship cannot sometimes anchor. Nowhere is water purer, clearer, or more lovely in tender color. The reflections of the shore are most vivid in the mirror of the calm fjord; and the green of grass, the dark gray of rocks, are reflected in colors which surpass in quality the hues of the actual objects. From the Hardanger we pass into the Sór Fjord. The trees chiefly seen are pines, alders, birches ; and, now and then, there is a patch of coast which looks as desolate as a bit of Greenland shore. At last our ship stops at Odde.”

With the Kirghiz Tartars.

A single instance of the way in which Western culture is flowing through Russian universities to the innermost recesses of Asia is furnished by Dr. H. Turner's paper in the July Humanitarian. The son of a Kirghiz Sultan, studying at

Moscow University, invited the writer to go home with him. By rail, by steamer, and by horse, they traveled into the land of the Kirghizes, and the English guest was entertained in their tent, or tourta. He says:

Viewed from the outside, a tourta, except when it is quite new, looks rather like a large marquee-tent that is very dirty. It is, however, constructed differently. A circular trelis-work of wood in three or four parts forms the frame of the tourta. From this trelis, which is about four and a half feet high, branch out the supports for the roof. These supports are fastened to a wooden hoop, which is kept in position by two cross- -pieces, which meet at right angles in the center of the circle. This frame is covered with large pieces of thick felt, which overlap each other, and reach down to the ground. The felt, which covers the wooden hoop in the center, is not fastened like the rest, but is drawn backwards and forwards, as occasion requires, by ropes which hang down the sides of the tourta. This hole admits light and lets out smoke when there is a fire. There is a door which is left open during the day, its place being supplied by a piece of felt or mat. At night the door is fastened by ropes on the inside, and when all the inhabitants are out during the day, it is fastened with a padlock. The only furniture usually is a bedstead, which stands opposite the door. It is generally of wood, and is overlaid with bone, more or less elaborately carved."

A Nest of Rose and Palm in Sight of Alps.

"Bordighera, Past and Present," is the theme of a pleasing paper in the Westminster Review, by W. Miller, who describes himself as one of the most devoted lovers of the place." Lying on the Riviera, just three miles beyond the French frontier, it has one of the worse railroad services to be found in Italy. It is consequently isolated, unspoiled, and unspotted from the world. "It is the most celebrated place in Europe for its palms." It supplies Rome with the palms required for Church festivals. It has a great trade in roses and carnations. George Macdonald is the uncrowned king of the British colony, of which Mr. Clarence Bicknell and Lord Strathmore are distinguished members. Mr. Miller

says:

"The peculiar charm of Bordighera is the great number and variety of its walks and drives. Each of the valleys near it abounds in picturesque sites, where villages rise on the side of olive-clad hills, and streams meander over beds of stone between vineyards and olive yards. These villages have each some special feature. . . . But one need not stir from Bordighera itself to find

picturesque houses and charming views. While the new town that has grown up down in the plain near the sea is not strikingly interesting, the old town on the cape is a model of a medieval city on a small scale, with its high walls, its steep and narrow streets, its tall houses, and its quaint gateways, one of them still bearing the cross of St. George, emblem of the Genoese Republic.. . . From the old town the prospect is splendid. On a clear day, after snow has fallen on the high peaks of the Maritime Alps, one has the additional charm of a glimpse of Alpine scenery under a southern sky."

With the Heroes of the Lifeboat.

Mr. A. E. Fletcher, in the Windsor, sketches what he calls "A Danish Newlyn," the fishing township Skagen, the northern tip of Denmark. Although it is now accessible by rail, Mr. Fletcher does not anticipate it will lose its unconventional character. "The Skagen folk rather pride themselves" on being said to be "beyond the confines of civilization." He tells how the shifting sand-dunes have been secured by a grass called "marchalm," which holds the grains together, and in a few years forms a soil on which firs can grow. So thousands of acres of barren sand have been converted into forest. He says:

"For the artist and man of letters this quaint seaboard parish is never likely to lose its charm. Not only has Nature here as a colorist done some of her best work, producing atmospheric effects

"TWO FISHERMEN," BY MICHAEL ANCHER.

of rare richness and variety, but she has peopled the place with as sturdy a race of men as ever braved the hurricane or gave inspiration to bards of heroic song. . . . As some 300 vessels pass the lightship off Skagen Point every day, and as near that lightship there is a very

PETER SEVERIN KRÖYER.-PORTRAIT OF HIMSELF.

school of painters. Three of Denmark's most famous artists, Peter Severin Kröyer, Michael Peter Ancher, and his wife, have made Skagen their home; and other artists, not only from Denmark, but from Norway and Sweden, have chosen it from time to time as their headquarters. Kröyer is the most famous of this group. Kröyer is now generally regarded as the head of the new school of Danish painters; that is to say, the school which has broken with the Eckersberg tradition which dominated Danish art.

Of Kröyer and Ancher, Mr. Fletcher says: Both are strong and inspiring personalities, possessing the modesty of genius and the kindly characteristics which make them honored and beloved by the humble fisherfolk among whom they live.'

Mr. Fletcher, whose paper is adorned by reproductions of the works of Kröyer and Ancher, closes with this fine remark:

"The more I study the works of Kröyer and Ancher, the more I gaze upon the sturdy forms and look into the calm, beautiful, heroic faces they have grouped and painted, -the less I wonder why Christ should have chosen fishermen for His companions."

UN

THE SPANISH CAPITAL.

NDER the title "Migrations of the Court," the reasons that induced Philip II. to select Madrid for the capital city of Spain are considered in a short historical paper by the Sr. Carlos Cambronero, in Revista Contemporánea, Madrid, March 30. The opinion usually accepted has been that the choice of Madrid was made by the king, as his settled judgment, after a careful examination of the suitableness of other

places-Valladolid, Barcelona, Toledo, Sevilla, Burgos. That is not the view of the Sr. Cambronero. In his opinion, the removal of the court to Madrid was temporary in its purpose; and the king then, and for years afterwards, had not decided, or even considered much, the question whether Madrid should be his permanent capital.

WHY MADRID WAS CHOSEN.

The reasons influencing Philip seem to have been of a personal character. His father, the Emperor Charles V., and Philip, too, liked Madrid. Both spent a considerable part of their lives there. A document in the municipal archives, in sixteenth-century writing, gives the years and parts of years during which Madrid was the royal residence between 1529 and 1547. The visits were numerous, and on four occasions the court remained an entire year. Perhaps there is a touch of satire in the Sr. Cambronero's remark, that father and son needed to have very favor able inclinations toward it to remain in Madrid a whole year." Even so late as 1597,-the year before the death of Philip II.,-the question whether the city should be the king's permanent official residence seems to have been undecided.

The reason that had most to do with Philip's residence in Madrid is probably the one to which Cambronero gives the most weight. "One of the causes that undoubtedly contributed to the permanence of the court in Madrid was, without doubt, the purpose which Philip II. had of building the monastery of San Lorenzo in the Escorial; and it is understood that he had to reside in a neighboring place in order to inspect the work often-a thing that presented difficulties if the monarch were in Toledo, which was the city where he had at the time his official residence.

After the accession of Philip III., the court migrated to Valladolid. But that made trouble. In Madrid there were buildings and lodgings for officialdom, and the business of tradesmen had grown proportionately. In Valladolid, though the king and his immediate retinue had accommodation in the palace of the Duke of Lerma, there was not adequate lodging for the rest of the court and its followers. The king said they were hurling curses in Madrid because the court was

going away, and in Valladolid because it was But Madrid wanted the quartering itself there. return of the court at any cost, and the gracious consent of his majesty was obtained when the corregidor of the city offered, in the name of the citizens, 250,000 ducats. payable in ten years, with a sixth part of the city rentals.

THE BRAINS OF WOMEN.

MR.ALEXANDER SUTHERLAND writes, in the Nineteenth Century, upon "Woman's Brain." Mr. Sutherland points out that, as the result of recent investigations, it is proved that the average man has from 10 to 12 per cent. more brain-weight than the average woman ; but, in proportion to the weight of her body, woman has 6 per cent. more brain than man has. Her average runs about .50 oz. of brain for every pound of weight in her body, while man, in proportion to his body, has only .47 oz. But smaller animals always have bigger brains in proportion than larger animals. A terrier has six times as much brain, in proportion to his weight, as a Newfoundland dog; and a baby has, in proportion to its weight, five times as much brain as its father. Mr. Sutherland mentions many curious methods of comparison, one of the oldest of which is to compare the weight of the brain to that of the thigh-bone. He himself has been making many experiments on the brains of fishes and birds, and he finds that in the case of fish the surface of the brain is in proportion to the length of the individual.

As we rise in the scale, the size of the brain grows less and less, depending on the size of the animal. But, on the whole, he says that "however or wherever we make the inquiry, it is always seen that when men and women are of equal height and equal weight, the men have something like 10 per cent. more brain than the women." The average brain of a man of genius is only 9.3 per cent. more than that of the ordinary individual; that is to say, the average woman is to the average man as the average man is to the man of genius, if the weight of brains were to settle it. Lest the average male should be inclined to vaunt himself unduly over his sisters, Mr. Sutherland tells him that "even if it should be demonstrated that the average woman, because she had 10 per cent. less brain-weight, had therefore 10 per cent. less intellectual capacity than the average man, it still has to be remembered that even then 90 per cent, of the women are the equals of 90 per cent. of the men ; and this would seem to imply that the average man has to recognize about 40 per cent. of the women as being his superiors in intellect."