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and smoke and fire coming from the top; not belching forth a short distance, then trailing lazily down the mountain side, as was the case with Vesuvius, but shooting far up into the heavens, and mingling with the clouds.

Arriving off Augusta, on the Eastern coast of Sicily, we were subjected to a seven day's quarantine. This was somewhat tedious, but there was a jolly company of Italians on board, and what with conversation, reading, games, and the usual shipboard amusements, we got along tolerably.

On the fourth day I tried my hand at some Italian versification, which was by request read at the breakfast table, and, as coming from a foreigner, was favorably received. As these notes are necessarily somewhat of a personal and desultory character, intended as a passing relief from the severer contents of the "Times," I will make no apology for here giving to the reader this bold attempt upon a foreign language.

Ecco, la quarantena!
Sette giorni in Augusta.
Non molto spiacevole,
Ma benino, benino.

LA QUARANTENA.

Gli Italiani gentili,

Le signore hanno multa bonta;
Giocare, parlare,
Cantare, ballare,
E molto piacere.

Ecco, la quarantena!
Sette giorni in Augusta.
Non molto spiacevole.
Ma, benino, benino.

Venezia, Calabria,
Oppure Buenaventa;
Tutti i paesi d' Italia
A bordo del Leone.

Ed un signore straniero
Solo, un Americano.

The next day a shadow fell upon the company. A deck passenger had died, and it was whispered about that it might be the cholera. In that case the vessel would proceed to another part of the Island and the quarantine be extended twenty-one days. Seven days had been barely tolerable; the thought of twenty-one days more could not be endured.

According to the regulations, a physician at Augusta should come on board and examine the case. But the ship's physician reported the case as non-cholera, and the local physician, fearing, perhaps, that he might be obliged to differ with him, did not come aboard at all, and our doctor returned with the joyful news of a disembarkation, to be made the next day. All was now joviality; and having had tolerable success before, I again invoked the muses. The following is the result, and the passengers were in sufficient good spirits to receive it with hilarity:

LA QUARANTENA.

Il quarto giorno, ecco!
La morte trista a bordo.
Subito il grido cambiato.
Non piu benino,
Ma malino, malino.

Non piu cantare,
Non piu ballare,

Ma il serio parlare,
E poco giocare.

Tutto in tempo

Adesso imminente

Un altra quarantena.

E gia con lunghe faccie,

II.

Bisbigliano i passegieri,
'Ventuno giorni un po troppo,
Ventuno giorni un po troppo.'

Ma ecco un medico

A bordo del Leone,
Con scienza ed eloquenza
Rese certo lo sbarco.

E gia il grido cambiato.
Non piu malino,

Ma una volta ancora,
Ecco la quarantena!
Non molto spiacevole,
Ma berrino, benino.

On the morning of the 3d of December, we disembarked, and an hour or two afterward I was in Syracuse. Here I revelled among the Greek and Roman ruins for a week. Syracuse exhibits more evidence of antiquity than the other ancient cities. In those the old structures have to be picked out from among the new. But here they show themselves at every turn.

The vice-consul at Syracuse was also postmaster. While I was in his office he received a letter from the Department at Rome, complaining that mice had several times been found in the mail bags from Syracuse and that they had destroyed some mail matter. He treated the matter as a good joke, enjoyed a hearty laugh at the expense of the General Post Office Department, and cried out: "Just as though a body could prevent mice getting into a mail bag occasionally!"

December 9, took the cars for Catania, thence to Messina. At Catania visited the remains of a Greek and Roman theater, which were exceedingly interesting; the Greek having been built about 400 B. C. and the Roman super-imposed in the same place, and upon the same foundation 400 years later.

There are no horse-cars in Catania, though the City claims 100,000 inhabitants, and there is but one public omnibus. The streets are kept the cleanest of any I have seen

December 12, embarked at Messina, on the steamer Giava, for Alexandria, where we arrived on the 15th. The first thing seen from the boat was the City in the distance, then the shipping in front of it, then the extensive clay banks, with a good many wind mills, Lastly the long pier

consisting of huge granite blocks thrown promiscuously one on top of another. The upper ones were cut in the form of regular cubes.

When the boat had cast anchor, there was an animated scene, the water being covered with Egyptian small boats hastening toward us and competing for passengers; the natives dressed in the cap, frock and overjacket, with a bright contrast of colors.

Going through some of the poorer streets on the way to the hotel, every thing seemed yellow and dirty, many of the natives appearing as if just cut down from a smoke house. But the next day I found streets new, clean and handsome.

C. B. W.

THE RUSSIAN QUESTION.

The peace of Europe is disturbed, and war, which has been imminent for three years, seems difficult to be averted.—The principal disturbing factor is, as it has been in several previous wars, the ambition of Russia.

The breach of the treaty of Paris is a mere pretext. Though the great powers have a right to name the Prince of Bulgaria, if the other powers are willing to waive that right, there is no reason why Russia, if she really desires peace, should not also do so, especially since it has been shown that the reigning Prince is popular with his own people.

Too much was yielded to Russia when Prince Alexander abdicated the throne, a step he never would have taken except upon the advice of Bismark, who was willing to sacrifice every thing in Bulgaria to what he considered the then present advantage of Germany. The German blood that flowed in the veins of Alexander was nought to the Mephistophelian statesman, who coolly stated in debate at the time, that the friendship of Russia was worth more to Germany then that of all the friends of Bulgaria, in Germany.

Alexander had shown himself a brave soldier and a wise ruler. He was idolized by his people, and had he, even then, notwithstanding the advice, which was by no means given as an ultimatum, stood his ground, as the ruler of a people who were determined to be independent, there would have been a war, it is true, but it would have been a war which could not long have been averted. and which would have resulted in the independence of Bulgaria, and probably of Poland. The Bulgarians, under

his leadership, would have fought like lions, as they did in the short and decisive struggle with Servia. When that struggle commenced, the Austrians and most of the foreign residents at Vienna were looking for an easy and triumphant march of the Servian army to Sophia, and the news of the disastrous defeat of that army came like a clap of thunder from a clear sky. Moreover Bulgaria would have had the support of Austria and of England if necessary; and more than likely even of Servia herself.

The ambition of Russia has been, as now, the principal disturbing factor in European affairs, for over a century. Not satisfied with her immense territory in Europe and elsewhere, she has been, for a hundred and fifty years, steadily extending her possessions and increasing her influence, to the east, southeast, south and southwest. To Siberia and her other Asiatic possessions, she had added, in 1745, a large territory northwest of the Chinese Empire; n 1783, a considerable tract of country on the northern shore of the Black Sea, on both sides of the Sea of Azof; from 1814 to 1828 a smaller tract between the Black and the Caspian Seas, thus giving her a broad roadway between these waters; in 1863, an immense territory extending all the way from China to the Caspian Sea; in 1867, Tashkend and Turkestan, with a large country east of the Aral Sea and on both banks of the Syr Daria River, extending eastward almost to Khokand; in 1878, another small piece at the eastern Shore of the Black Sea, to broaden and complete the roadway referred to; in 1880, a similar piece on both sides of the Irtish River, on the confines of China; in 1883, Khokand and Samarcand, pressing hard upon Bokhara, Khiva having been taken some time before; and in 1884, another large territory bounded by Bokhara on the east, Persia and Afghanistan on the south, and on the west by the Caspian Sea.

In that year Russian troops took possession of Old Sarakhs, on the HariRud River, at the meeting of the three frontiers of Persia, Afghanistan and the Turkoman country, thus commanding all central Asia. Sarakhs is forty miles nearer to Herat than Merv; which previously had been the limit of the Russian advance.

In 1885, at the imminent risk of a war with England, the Russian forces actually crossed the Afghan boundary. The English became alarmed and made an attempt to settle the boundaries which should limit further progress. A Commission was appointed. The Russians insisted upon Zulfikar Pass, the same through which Alexander the Great had led his victorious forces more than two thousand years ago; but the British lion was found crouching in the Pass, guarding the entrance to India; and

one fine day-it was on the 24th of August, 1885, the morning papers at St. Petersburg made the announcement, from official sources, that the Russian Government had concluded not to insist upon retaining Zulfikar Pass; adding that since a new topographical map had been received, it had been ascertained that in a strategical point of view, it was of no importance! The Russian who, after reading this, should take a stroll into the summer garden of St. Petersburg, would notice among the carvings upon the statue of the Russian fabulist Krulow, an exquisite marble representation of a fox turning away disgusted from the luscious bunch of grapes which he could not reach. But then the same Russian, upon returning and again taking up the paper, would find, in close connection with the unwelcome intelligence, a salvo to his wounded pride, in the news that Corea had acknowledged the supremacy of Russia.

It was afterward announced that the boundary had been agreed upon. But this settlement can hardly be permanent. No British statesman doubts that Russia has designs upon India, and the first devolopment of these designs will be an advance upon Herat.

At an expense of $45,000,000, Russia completed her road from the Black Sea to the Caspian.

The Russian vessels float upon the Caspian and her naval stations are established on its Persian shore. Her fleets are on the Aral, the Jaxartes River and the Oxus. A railroad was built some time ago from Balkan Bay to Askhabad and has been since completed to Merv, within two hundred and forty miles of Herat, the key to India. The cost of completion to Herat by way of Sarakhs is estimated at but little over eight millions of dollars. A connection between Quetta, the western terminus of the English Indian railway system and Herat, would bring London within ten days of Calcutta.

In an able and instructive article published in the April number, 1887, of the Atlantic monthly, written by W. H. Ray, of this city, the situation is thus summed up:

"The Russians, if not actually possessors of Herat, are at its gates, and they are not likely to recede from their present position; nor, judging England from her past record, is the government of the Queen of Great Britain and Empress of India likely to give fight to the Russians on the score of any danger threatened short of the actual occupation of Herat. When the steppe was crossed in 1863, England protested, and said she would declare war if the Russians advanced farther into the three Khanates. Gortschakoff's circular, already quoted, allayed English fears, and when Russia, soon after, occupied a part of Khokand, no war was declared. Several times this farce was repeated, but when at last Russia, by the annexation of Khiva, planted herself firmly on the right bank of the Oxus,

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