<p><SPAN name="ch26" id="ch26"></SPAN></p>
<h2> CHAPTER XXVI </h2>
<h3> [The Nest of the Cuckoo-clock] </h3>
<p><br/></p>
<p>The Hofkirche is celebrated for its organ concerts. All summer long the
tourists flock to that church about six o'clock in the evening, and pay
their franc, and listen to the noise. They don't stay to hear all of it,
but get up and tramp out over the sounding stone floor, meeting late
comers who tramp in in a sounding and vigorous way. This tramping back and
forth is kept up nearly all the time, and is accented by the continuous
slamming of the door, and the coughing and barking and sneezing of the
crowd. Meantime, the big organ is booming and crashing and thundering
away, doing its best to prove that it is the biggest and best organ in
Europe, and that a tight little box of a church is the most favorable
place to average and appreciate its powers in. It is true, there were some
soft and merciful passages occasionally, but the tramp-tramp of the
tourists only allowed one to get fitful glimpses of them, so to speak.
Then right away the organist would let go another avalanche.</p>
<p>The commerce of Lucerne consists mainly in gimcrackery of the souvenir
sort; the shops are packed with Alpine crystals, photographs of scenery,
and wooden and ivory carvings. I will not conceal the fact that miniature
figures of the Lion of Lucerne are to be had in them. Millions of them.
But they are libels upon him, every one of them. There is a subtle
something about the majestic pathos of the original which the copyist
cannot get. Even the sun fails to get it; both the photographer and the
carver give you a dying lion, and that is all. The shape is right, the
attitude is right, the proportions are right, but that indescribable
something which makes the Lion of Lucerne the most mournful and moving
piece of stone in the world, is wanting.</p>
<p>The Lion lies in his lair in the perpendicular face of a low cliff—for
he is carved from the living rock of the cliff. His size is colossal, his
attitude is noble. His head is bowed, the broken spear is sticking in his
shoulder, his protecting paw rests upon the lilies of France. Vines hang
down the cliff and wave in the wind, and a clear stream trickles from
above and empties into a pond at the base, and in the smooth surface of
the pond the lion is mirrored, among the water-lilies.<br/> <br/> <br/>
<br/></p>
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<p><br/> <br/> <br/> <br/></p>
<p>Around about are green trees and grass. The place is a sheltered,
reposeful woodland nook, remote from noise and stir and confusion—and
all this is fitting, for lions do die in such places, and not on granite
pedestals in public squares fenced with fancy iron railings. The Lion of
Lucerne would be impressive anywhere, but nowhere so impressive as where
he is.</p>
<p>Martyrdom is the luckiest fate that can befall some people. Louis XVI did
not die in his bed, consequently history is very gentle with him; she is
charitable toward his failings, and she finds in him high virtues which
are not usually considered to be virtues when they are lodged in kings.
She makes him out to be a person with a meek and modest spirit, the heart
of a female saint, and a wrong head. None of these qualities are kingly
but the last. Taken together they make a character which would have fared
harshly at the hands of history if its owner had had the ill luck to miss
martyrdom. With the best intentions to do the right thing, he always
managed to do the wrong one. Moreover, nothing could get the female saint
out of him. He knew, well enough, that in national emergencies he must not
consider how he ought to act, as a man, but how he ought to act as a king;
so he honestly tried to sink the man and be the king—but it was a
failure, he only succeeded in being the female saint. He was not instant
in season, but out of season. He could not be persuaded to do a thing
while it could do any good—he was iron, he was adamant in his
stubbornness then—but as soon as the thing had reached a point where
it would be positively harmful to do it, do it he would, and nothing could
stop him. He did not do it because it would be harmful, but because he
hoped it was not yet too late to achieve by it the good which it would
have done if applied earlier. His comprehension was always a train or two
behindhand. If a national toe required amputating, he could not see that
it needed anything more than poulticing; when others saw that the
mortification had reached the knee, he first perceived that the toe needed
cutting off—so he cut it off; and he severed the leg at the knee
when others saw that the disease had reached the thigh. He was good, and
honest, and well meaning, in the matter of chasing national diseases, but
he never could overtake one. As a private man, he would have been lovable;
but viewed as a king, he was strictly contemptible.</p>
<p>His was a most unroyal career, but the most pitiable spectacle in it was
his sentimental treachery to his Swiss guard on that memorable 10th of
August, when he allowed those heroes to be massacred in his cause, and
forbade them to shed the "sacred French blood" purporting to be flowing in
the veins of the red-capped mob of miscreants that was raging around the
palace. He meant to be kingly, but he was only the female saint once more.
Some of his biographers think that upon this occasion the spirit of Saint
Louis had descended upon him. It must have found pretty cramped quarters.
If Napoleon the First had stood in the shoes of Louis XVI that day,
instead of being merely a casual and unknown looker-on, there would be no
Lion of Lucerne, now, but there would be a well-stocked Communist
graveyard in Paris which would answer just as well to remember the 10th of
August by.</p>
<p>Martyrdom made a saint of Mary Queen of Scots three hundred years ago, and
she has hardly lost all of her saintship yet. Martyrdom made a saint of
the trivial and foolish Marie Antoinette, and her biographers still keep
her fragrant with the odor of sanctity to this day, while unconsciously
proving upon almost every page they write that the only calamitous
instinct which her husband lacked, she supplied—the instinct to root
out and get rid of an honest, able, and loyal official, wherever she found
him. The hideous but beneficent French Revolution would have been
deferred, or would have fallen short of completeness, or even might not
have happened at all, if Marie Antoinette had made the unwise mistake of
not being born. The world owes a great deal to the French Revolution, and
consequently to its two chief promoters, Louis the Poor in Spirit and his
queen.</p>
<p>We did not buy any wooden images of the Lion, nor any ivory or ebony or
marble or chalk or sugar or chocolate ones, or even any photographic
slanders of him. The truth is, these copies were so common, so universal,
in the shops and everywhere, that they presently became as intolerable to
the wearied eye as the latest popular melody usually becomes to the
harassed ear. In Lucerne, too, the wood carvings of other sorts, which had
been so pleasant to look upon when one saw them occasionally at home, soon
began to fatigue us. We grew very tired of seeing wooden quails and
chickens picking and strutting around clock-faces, and still more tired of
seeing wooden images of the alleged chamois skipping about wooden rocks,
or lying upon them in family groups, or peering alertly up from behind
them. The first day, I would have bought a hundred and fifty of these
clocks if I had the money—and I did buy three—but on the third
day the disease had run its course, I had convalesced, and was in the
market once more—trying to sell. However, I had no luck; which was
just as well, for the things will be pretty enough, no doubt, when I get
them home.</p>
<p>For years my pet aversion had been the cuckoo clock; now here I was, at
last, right in the creature's home; so wherever I went that distressing
"HOO'hoo! HOO'hoo! HOO'hoo!" was always in my ears. For a nervous man,
this was a fine state of things. Some sounds are hatefuler than others,
but no sound is quite so inane, and silly, and aggravating as the
"HOO'hoo" of a cuckoo clock, I think. I bought one, and am carrying it
home to a certain person; for I have always said that if the opportunity
ever happened, I would do that man an ill turn.<br/> <br/> <br/> <br/></p>
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<p><br/> <br/> <br/> <br/></p>
<p>What I meant, was, that I would break one of his legs, or something of
that sort; but in Lucerne I instantly saw that I could impair his mind.
That would be more lasting, and more satisfactory every way. So I bought
the cuckoo clock; and if I ever get home with it, he is "my meat," as they
say in the mines. I thought of another candidate—a book-reviewer
whom I could name if I wanted to—but after thinking it over, I
didn't buy him a clock. I couldn't injure his mind.</p>
<p>We visited the two long, covered wooden bridges which span the green and
brilliant Reuss just below where it goes plunging and hurrahing out of the
lake. These rambling, sway-backed tunnels are very attractive things, with
their alcoved outlooks upon the lovely and inspiriting water. They contain
two or three hundred queer old pictures, by old Swiss masters—old
boss sign-painters, who flourished before the decadence of art.</p>
<p>The lake is alive with fishes, plainly visible to the eye, for the water
is very clear. The parapets in front of the hotels were usually fringed
with fishers of all ages. One day I thought I would stop and see a fish
caught. The result brought back to my mind, very forcibly, a circumstance
which I had not thought of before for twelve years. This one:</p>
<p>THE MAN WHO PUT UP AT GADSBY'S</p>
<p>When my odd friend Riley and I were newspaper correspondents in
Washington, in the winter of '67, we were coming down Pennsylvania Avenue
one night, near midnight, in a driving storm of snow, when the flash of a
street-lamp fell upon a man who was eagerly tearing along in the opposite
direction. "This is lucky! You are Mr. Riley, ain't you?"</p>
<p>Riley was the most self-possessed and solemnly deliberate person in the
republic. He stopped, looked his man over from head to foot, and finally
said:</p>
<p>"I am Mr. Riley. Did you happen to be looking for me?"</p>
<p>"That's just what I was doing," said the man, joyously, "and it's the
biggest luck in the world that I've found you. My name is Lykins. I'm one
of the teachers of the high school—San Francisco. As soon as I heard
the San Francisco postmastership was vacant, I made up my mind to get it—and
here I am."</p>
<p>"Yes," said Riley, slowly, "as you have remarked ... Mr. Lykins ... here
you are. And have you got it?"</p>
<p>"Well, not exactly <i>got</i> it, but the next thing to it. I've brought a
petition, signed by the Superintendent of Public Instruction, and all the
teachers, and by more than two hundred other people. Now I want you, if
you'll be so good, to go around with me to the Pacific delegation, for I
want to rush this thing through and get along home."</p>
<p>"If the matter is so pressing, you will prefer that we visit the
delegation tonight," said Riley, in a voice which had nothing mocking in
it—to an unaccustomed ear.</p>
<p>"Oh, tonight, by all means! I haven't got any time to fool around. I want
their promise before I go to bed—I ain't the talking kind, I'm the
<i>doing</i> kind!"</p>
<p>"Yes ... you've come to the right place for that. When did you arrive?"</p>
<p>"Just an hour ago."</p>
<p>"When are you intending to leave?"</p>
<p>"For New York tomorrow evening—for San Francisco next morning."</p>
<p>"Just so.... What are you going to do tomorrow?"</p>
<p>"<i>Do</i>! Why, I've got to go to the President with the petition and the
delegation, and get the appointment, haven't I?"</p>
<p>"Yes ... very true ... that is correct. And then what?"</p>
<p>"Executive session of the Senate at 2 P.M.—got to get the
appointment confirmed—I reckon you'll grant that?"</p>
<p>"Yes ... yes," said Riley, meditatively, "you are right again. Then you
take the train for New York in the evening, and the steamer for San
Francisco next morning?"</p>
<p>"That's it—that's the way I map it out!"</p>
<p>Riley considered a while, and then said:</p>
<p>"You couldn't stay ... a day ... well, say two days longer?"</p>
<p>"Bless your soul, no! It's not my style. I ain't a man to go fooling
around—I'm a man that <i>does</i> things, I tell you."</p>
<p>The storm was raging, the thick snow blowing in gusts. Riley stood silent,
apparently deep in a reverie, during a minute or more, then he looked up
and said:</p>
<p>"Have you ever heard about that man who put up at Gadsby's, once? ... But
I see you haven't."</p>
<p>He backed Mr. Lykins against an iron fence, buttonholed him, fastened him
with his eye, like the Ancient Mariner, and proceeded to unfold his
narrative as placidly and peacefully as if we were all stretched
comfortably in a blossomy summer meadow instead of being persecuted by a
wintry midnight tempest:<br/> <br/> <br/> <br/></p>
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<p><br/> <br/> <br/> <br/></p>
<p>"I will tell you about that man. It was in Jackson's time. Gadsby's was
the principal hotel, then. Well, this man arrived from Tennessee about
nine o'clock, one morning, with a black coachman and a splendid four-horse
carriage and an elegant dog, which he was evidently fond of and proud of;
he drove up before Gadsby's, and the clerk and the landlord and everybody
rushed out to take charge of him, but he said, 'Never mind,' and jumped
out and told the coachman to wait—<br/> <br/> <br/> <br/></p>
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<p><br/> <br/> <br/> <br/></p>
<p>said he hadn't time to take anything to eat, he only had a little claim
against the government to collect, would run across the way, to the
Treasury, and fetch the money, and then get right along back to Tennessee,
for he was in considerable of a hurry.</p>
<p>"Well, about eleven o'clock that night he came back and ordered a bed and
told them to put the horses up—said he would collect the claim in
the morning. This was in January, you understand—January, 1834—the
3d of January—Wednesday.<br/> <br/> <br/> <br/></p>
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<p><br/> <br/> <br/> <br/></p>
<p>"Well, on the 5th of February, he sold the fine carriage, and bought a
cheap second-hand one—said it would answer just as well to take the
money home in, and he didn't care for style.</p>
<p>"On the 11th of August he sold a pair of the fine horses—said he'd
often thought a pair was better than four, to go over the rough mountain
roads with where a body had to be careful about his driving—and
there wasn't so much of his claim but he could lug the money home with a
pair easy enough.<br/> <br/> <br/> <br/></p>
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<p><br/> <br/> <br/> <br/></p>
<p>"On the 13th of December he sold another horse—said two warn't
necessary to drag that old light vehicle with—in fact, one could
snatch it along faster than was absolutely necessary, now that it was good
solid winter weather and the roads in splendid condition.<br/> <br/> <br/>
<br/></p>
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<p><br/> <br/> <br/> <br/></p>
<p>"On the 17th of February, 1835, he sold the old carriage and bought a
cheap second-hand buggy—said a buggy was just the trick to skim
along mushy, slushy early spring roads with, and he had always wanted to
try a buggy on those mountain roads, anyway.<br/> <br/> <br/> <br/></p>
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<p><br/> <br/> <br/> <br/></p>
<p>"On the 1st August he sold the buggy and bought the remains of an old
sulky—said he just wanted to see those green Tennesseans stare and
gawk when they saw him come a-ripping along in a sulky—didn't
believe they'd ever heard of a sulky in their lives.<br/> <br/> <br/>
<br/></p>
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<p><br/> <br/> <br/> <br/></p>
<p>"Well, on the 29th of August he sold his colored coachman—said he
didn't need a coachman for a sulky—wouldn't be room enough for two
in it anyway—and, besides, it wasn't every day that Providence sent
a man a fool who was willing to pay nine hundred dollars for such a
third-rate negro as that—been wanting to get rid of the creature for
years, but didn't like to <i>throw</i> him away.<br/> <br/> <br/> <br/></p>
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<p><br/> <br/> <br/> <br/></p>
<p>"Eighteen months later—that is to say, on the 15th of February, 1837—he
sold the sulky and bought a saddle—said horseback-riding was what
the doctor had always recommended <i>him</i> to take, and dog'd if he wanted to
risk <i>his</i> neck going over those mountain roads on wheels in the dead of
winter, not if he knew himself.<br/> <br/> <br/> <br/></p>
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<p><br/> <br/> <br/> <br/></p>
<p>"On the 9th of April he sold the saddle—said he wasn't going to risk
<i>his</i> life with any perishable saddle-girth that ever was made, over a
rainy, miry April road, while he could ride bareback and know and feel he
was safe—always <i>had</i> despised to ride on a saddle, anyway.<br/> <br/>
<br/> <br/></p>
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<p><br/> <br/> <br/> <br/></p>
<p>"On the 24th of April he sold his horse—said 'I'm just fifty-seven
today, hale and hearty—it would be a <i>pretty</i> howdy-do for me to be
wasting such a trip as that and such weather as this, on a horse, when
there ain't anything in the world so splendid as a tramp on foot through
the fresh spring woods and over the cheery mountains, to a man that <i>is</i> a
man—and I can make my dog carry my claim in a little bundle, anyway,
when it's collected. So tomorrow I'll be up bright and early, make my
little old collection, and mosey off to Tennessee, on my own hind legs,
with a rousing good-by to Gadsby's.'<br/> <br/> <br/> <br/></p>
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<p><br/> <br/> <br/> <br/></p>
<p>"On the 22d of June he sold his dog—said 'Dern a dog, anyway, where
you're just starting off on a rattling bully pleasure tramp through the
summer woods and hills—perfect nuisance—chases the squirrels,
barks at everything, goes a-capering and splattering around in the fords—man
can't get any chance to reflect and enjoy nature—and I'd a blamed
sight ruther carry the claim myself, it's a mighty sight safer; a dog's
mighty uncertain in a financial way—always noticed it—well,
<i>good</i>-by, boys—last call—I'm off for Tennessee with a good leg
and a gay heart, early in the morning.'"<br/> <br/> <br/> <br/></p>
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<p><br/> <br/> <br/> <br/></p>
<p>There was a pause and a silence—except the noise of the wind and the
pelting snow. Mr. Lykins said, impatiently:</p>
<p>"Well?"</p>
<p>Riley said:</p>
<p>"Well,—that was thirty years ago."</p>
<p>"Very well, very well—what of it?"</p>
<p>"I'm great friends with that old patriarch. He comes every evening to tell
me good-by. I saw him an hour ago—he's off for Tennessee early
tomorrow morning—as usual; said he calculated to get his claim
through and be off before night-owls like me have turned out of bed. The
tears were in his eyes, he was so glad he was going to see his old
Tennessee and his friends once more."</p>
<p>Another silent pause. The stranger broke it:</p>
<p>"Is that all?"</p>
<p>"That is all."</p>
<p>"Well, for the <i>time</i> of night, and the <i>kind</i> of night, it seems to me the
story was full long enough. But what's it all <i>for</i>?"</p>
<p>"Oh, nothing in particular."</p>
<p>"Well, where's the point of it?"</p>
<p>"Oh, there isn't any particular point to it. Only, if you are not in <i>too</i>
much of a hurry to rush off to San Francisco with that post-office
appointment, Mr. Lykins, I'd advise you to '<i>Put Up At Gadsby's</i>' for a
spell, and take it easy. Good-by. <i>God</i> bless you!"</p>
<p>So saying, Riley blandly turned on his heel and left the astonished
school-teacher standing there, a musing and motionless snow image shining
in the broad glow of the street-lamp.</p>
<p>He never got that post-office.</p>
<p>To go back to Lucerne and its fishers, I concluded, after about nine
hours' waiting, that the man who proposes to tarry till he sees something
hook one of those well-fed and experienced fishes will find it wisdom to
"put up at Gadsby's" and take it easy. It is likely that a fish has not
been caught on that lake pier for forty years; but no matter, the patient
fisher watches his cork there all the day long, just the same, and seems
to enjoy it. One may see the fisher-loafers just as thick and contented
and happy and patient all along the Seine at Paris, but tradition says
that the only thing ever caught there in modern times is a thing they
don't fish for at all—the recent dog and the translated cat.<br/>
<br/> <br/> <br/></p>
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