The life, travels, and literary career of Bayard Taylor (1879) (14781187644)

Identifier: lifetravelsliter00conwrich (find matches)
Title: The life, travels, and literary career of Bayard Taylor
Year: 1879 (1870s)
Authors: Conwell, Russell Herman, 1843-1925
Subjects: Taylor, Bayard, 1825-1878
Publisher: Boston, B. B. Russell & Co., New York, C. Drew
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN



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than Mr. Tayh:)r. Havingonce decided to see that wonderful sis^ht, nothinfi: inthe wixy of privation could prevent tlie accomplishmentof his purpose. The steamer from Lubec was a rough, uncouth, incon-venient craft, and the sea-sick voyage which Mr. Tay-lor and his friend made to Stockholm was not anauspicious beginning for a tour so long and so danger-ous. But he relapsed into his old habit, acquired inAsia, of regarding no delay with surprise or impa-tience, and refusing to feel certain of anything untilhe possessed it; and as neither carelessness, neglect,lack of sleep or food was allowed to disturb him, hemade the company cheerful under the most distressingcircumstances. On his arrival in Stockholm he could not speak aword of the language, and had to depend mostly uponhis own common-sense in the selection of an outfit.Buf. his quick car and tractile tongue soon caught upwords and phrases, the meaning of w^hich he learned bytheir effect when spoken, and when he started north- ;i^i^
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TRIP TO LAPLAND. 257 ward he was able to ask for nearly everything heneeded in the native language. Of his ride from townto town, by diligence and by lumbering sleighs, alongthe shores of the Bothnian Gulf, we cannot give anyextended account, and it can easily be found by anyreader who did not peruse it at the time of its publi-cation. But it answers our purpose to note how heappeared and what he suffered. It was a terrible ride.Day after day and night after night he pushed on,losing many meals, and often Avithout sleep, in atemperature creeping downward far below zero, andthe sun sinking lower and lower on the southern hori-zon. Frequently overturned in the snow, his beardand hair a mass of solid ice, his eyelids frozen together,his nose frost-bitten, his hands and feet momentarilyin danger of freezing, he kept heroically on his course,allowing no rumors of unendurable cold or impassablemountains of snow ahead to drive him from his pur-pose. With a wisdom that saved his life, he fell