Trascrizione completa di 01

into a fista of purple tents and flowing lines. 35 00:02:29.520 --> 00:02:33.599 Closing the view in this valley down to Brinsitt and 36 00:02:33.639 --> 00:02:38.360 Coalbrook and up to Darnford, the market town fourteen miles away, 37 00:02:39.039 --> 00:02:42.439 lies the practice of my friend Kennedy. He had begun 38 00:02:42.560 --> 00:02:45.919 life as surgeon in the navy, and afterwards had been 39 00:02:45.960 --> 00:02:49.080 the companion of a famous traveler in the days when 40 00:02:49.080 --> 00:02:54.360 there were continents with unexplored interiors. His papers on the 41 00:02:54.439 --> 00:02:58.360 fauna and flora made him known to scientific societies. And 42 00:02:58.479 --> 00:03:03.240 now he had come to a country practice from choice. 43 00:03:03.280 --> 00:03:07.080 The penetrating power of his mind, acting like a corrosive fluid, 44 00:03:07.520 --> 00:03:11.879 had destroyed his ambition. I fancy his intelligence is of 45 00:03:12.080 --> 00:03:16.639 a scientific order, of an investigating habit, and of that 46 00:03:17.000 --> 00:03:21.080 unappeasable curiosity which believes that there is a particle of 47 00:03:21.240 --> 00:03:25.360 a general truth in every mystery. A good many years 48 00:03:25.360 --> 00:03:28.719 ago now, on my return from abroad, he invited me 49 00:03:28.759 --> 00:03:32.479 to stay with him. I came readily enough, and as 50 00:03:32.520 --> 00:03:35.360 he could not neglect his patience to keep me company, 51 00:03:35.759 --> 00:03:38.800 he took me on his rounds thirty miles or so 52 00:03:38.960 --> 00:03:42.639 of an afternoon. Sometimes I waited for him on the 53 00:03:42.719 --> 00:03:47.360 roads the horse reached after the leafy twigs, and sitting 54 00:03:47.439 --> 00:03:50.680 in the dog cart, I could hear Kennedy's laugh through 55 00:03:50.719 --> 00:03:54.319 the half open door left open of some cottage. He 56 00:03:54.360 --> 00:03:57.360 had a big, hearty laugh that would have fitted a 57 00:03:57.400 --> 00:04:01.479 man twice his size. A brisk manner, a bronzed face, 58 00:04:01.879 --> 00:04:05.439 and a pair of gray, profoundly attentive eyes. He had 59 00:04:05.479 --> 00:04:08.360 the talent of making people talk to him freely, and 60 00:04:08.439 --> 00:04:12.919 an inexhaustible patience in listening to their tails. One day, 61 00:04:13.159 --> 00:04:16.439 as we trotted out of a large village into a shady, 62 00:04:16.480 --> 00:04:19.920 bitter road, I saw on our left hand a low 63 00:04:20.199 --> 00:04:24.279 black cottage with diamond panes in the windows, a creeper 64 00:04:24.360 --> 00:04:27.240 on the end wall, a roof of shingle, and some 65 00:04:27.399 --> 00:04:31.160 roses climbing on the rickety trelliswork of the tiny porch. 66 00:04:32.240 --> 00:04:36.240 Kennedy pulled up to a walk. A woman in full 67 00:04:36.279 --> 00:04:40.079 sunlight was throwing a dripping blanket over a line stretched 68 00:04:40.079 --> 00:04:44.439 between two old apple trees. And as the bob tailed, 69 00:04:44.680 --> 00:04:48.279 long necked chestnut trying to get his head jerked the 70 00:04:48.360 --> 00:04:52.680 left hand covered by a thick dogskin glove, the doctor 71 00:04:52.800 --> 00:04:56.439 raised his voice over the hedge, how's your child, Amy? 72 00:04:57.759 --> 00:05:00.680 I had the time to see her dull face red, 73 00:05:00.920 --> 00:05:04.480 not with a mantling blush, but as if her flat 74 00:05:04.560 --> 00:05:08.040 cheeks had been vigorously slapped, and to take in the 75 00:05:08.079 --> 00:05:12.079 squat figure, the scanty, dusty brown hair drawn into a 76 00:05:12.120 --> 00:05:15.079 tight knot at the back of the head. She looked 77 00:05:15.160 --> 00:05:18.240 quite young, with a distinct catch in her breath. Her 78 00:05:18.319 --> 00:05:23.480 voice sounded low and timid. He's well, thank you, we 79 00:05:23.560 --> 00:05:28.120 trotted again, a young patient of yours, I said, and 80 00:05:28.160 --> 00:05:32.920 the doctor, flicking the chestnut, absently muttered her husband used 81 00:05:32.959 --> 00:05:40.120 to be. She seems a dull creature, I remarked, listlessly. Precisely, 82 00:05:40.480 --> 00:05:43.839 said Kennedy, She is very passive. It's enough to look 83 00:05:43.839 --> 00:05:45.920 at the red hands hanging at the end of those 84 00:05:45.959 --> 00:05:50.160 short arms, at those slow, prominent brown eyes, to know 85 00:05:50.279 --> 00:05:53.759 the inertness of her mind, an inertness that one would 86 00:05:53.839 --> 00:05:58.399 think made it everlastingly safe from all the surprises of imagination. 87 00:05:59.199 --> 00:06:02.279 And yet we, each of us, is safe at any 88 00:06:02.360 --> 00:06:06.040 rate such as you see her. She had enough imagination 89 00:06:06.120 --> 00:06:09.160 to fall in love. She is the daughter of one 90 00:06:09.240 --> 00:06:13.120 Isaac Foster, who, from a small farmer, has sunk into 91 00:06:13.199 --> 00:06:17.000 a shepherd, the beginning of his misfortunes dating from his 92 00:06:17.160 --> 00:06:20.680 runaway marriage with the cook of his widowed father, a 93 00:06:20.759 --> 00:06:25.240 well to do, apoplectic grazier who passionately struck his name 94 00:06:25.279 --> 00:06:28.720 off his will, and has been heard two utter threats 95 00:06:28.759 --> 00:06:33.560 against his life. But this old affair scandalous enough to 96 00:06:33.639 --> 00:06:36.839 serve as a motive for a Greek tragedy, arose from 97 00:06:36.839 --> 00:06:42.199 the similarity of their characters. There are other tragedies, less scandalous, 98 00:06:42.240 --> 00:06:47.839 and of a subtler poignancy, arising from irreconcilable differences, and 99 00:06:47.920 --> 00:06:51.759 from that fear of the incomprehensible that hangs over all 100 00:06:51.800 --> 00:06:57.439 our heads, over all our heads. The tired chestnut dropped 101 00:06:57.439 --> 00:07:00.240 into a walk, and the rim of the sun, all 102 00:07:00.319 --> 00:07:05.040 red in a

speckless sky, touched familiarly the smooth top 103 00:07:05.120 --> 00:07:08.439 of a plowed rise near the road, as I had 104 00:07:08.480 --> 00:07:13.000 seen at times innumerable touched the distant horizon of the sea. 105 00:07:13.519 --> 00:07:17.120 The uniform brownness of the harrowed field glowed with a 106 00:07:17.240 --> 00:07:20.879 rosy tinge, as though the powdered clods had sweated out 107 00:07:20.920 --> 00:07:25.240 in minute pearls of blood, the toil of uncounted plowmen. 108 00:07:26.120 --> 00:07:28.720 From the edge of a copse, A wagon with two 109 00:07:28.759 --> 00:07:33.720 horses was rolling gently along the ridge, raised above our heads. 110 00:07:34.079 --> 00:07:38.959 Upon the skyline. It loomed up against the red sun, triumphantly, 111 00:07:39.000 --> 00:07:42.639 big enormous, like a chariot of giants, drawn by two 112 00:07:42.759 --> 00:07:47.639 slow stepping steeds of legendary proportions. And the clumsy figure 113 00:07:47.720 --> 00:07:50.560 of the man plodding at the head of the leading 114 00:07:50.600 --> 00:07:54.839 horse projected itself on the background of the infinite with 115 00:07:54.920 --> 00:07:59.560 a heroic uncouthness. The end of his carter's whip quivered 116 00:07:59.639 --> 00:08:05.079 high up in the blue. Kennedy discoursed she is the 117 00:08:05.120 --> 00:08:08.240 eldest of a large family. At the age of fifteen, 118 00:08:08.279 --> 00:08:11.519 they put her out to service at the new Barnes Farm. 119 00:08:11.759 --> 00:08:15.000 I attended Missus Smith, the tenant's wife, and saw that 120 00:08:15.079 --> 00:08:18.759 girl there for the first time. Missus Smith, a genteel 121 00:08:18.800 --> 00:08:21.240 person with a sharp nose, made her put on a 122 00:08:21.279 --> 00:08:24.399 black dress every afternoon. I don't know what induced me 123 00:08:24.480 --> 00:08:27.120 to notice her at all. There are faces that call 124 00:08:27.160 --> 00:08:31.120 your attention by a curious want of definiteness in their 125 00:08:31.160 --> 00:08:35.600 whole aspect. As walking in a mist, you peer attentively 126 00:08:35.840 --> 00:08:38.960 at a vague shape, which, after all, may be nothing 127 00:08:39.000 --> 00:08:42.679 more curious or strange than a sign post. The only 128 00:08:42.759 --> 00:08:46.799 peculiarity I perceived in her was a slight hesitation in 129 00:08:46.840 --> 00:08:51.279 her utterance, a sort of preliminary stammer which passes away 130 00:08:51.360 --> 00:08:55.320 with the first word when sharply spoken to. She was 131 00:08:55.360 --> 00:08:58.159 apt to lose her head at once, but her heart 132 00:08:58.240 --> 00:09:01.399 was of the kindest. She had never been heard to 133 00:09:01.600 --> 00:09:04.720 express a dislike for a single human being, and she 134 00:09:04.879 --> 00:09:08.200 was tender to every living creature. She was devoted to 135 00:09:08.279 --> 00:09:12.440 Missus Smith, to mister Smith, to their dogs, cats, canaries, 136 00:09:12.840

--> 00:09:18.639 and as to Missus Smith's gray parrot. Its peculiarities exercised 137 00:09:18.679 --> 00:09:25.080 upon her a positive fascination. Nevertheless, when that outlandish bird 138 00:09:25.279 --> 00:09:28.679 attacked by the cat, shrieked for help in human accents, 139 00:09:29.080 --> 00:09:32.000 she ran out into the yard, stopping her ears, and 140 00:09:32.080 --> 00:09:35.480 did not prevent the crime. For Missus Smith, this was 141 00:09:35.519 --> 00:09:39.360 another evidence of her stupidity. On the other hand, her 142 00:09:39.360 --> 00:09:43.639 want of charm, in view of Smith's well known frivolousness, 143 00:09:44.159 --> 00:09:48.240 was a great recommendation. Her short sighted eyes would swim 144 00:09:48.279 --> 00:09:50.919 with pity for a poor mouse in a trap, and 145 00:09:51.000 --> 00:09:54.080 she had been seen once by some boys on her 146 00:09:54.159 --> 00:09:57.519 knees in the wet grass helping a toad in difficulties. 147 00:09:58.399 --> 00:10:01.440 If it's true, as some German fellow has said that 148 00:10:01.480 --> 00:10:05.039 without phosphorus there is no thought, it is still more 149 00:10:05.080 --> 00:10:08.159 true that there is no kindness of heart without a 150 00:10:08.200 --> 00:10:12.519 certain amount of imagination. She had some. She had even 151 00:10:12.559 --> 00:10:15.879 more than is necessary to understand suffering and to be 152 00:10:16.000 --> 00:10:19.879 moved by pity. She fell in love under circumstances that 153 00:10:20.000 --> 00:10:23.279 leave no room for doubt in the matter. For you 154 00:10:23.559 --> 00:10:26.399 need imagination to form a notion of beauty at all, 155 00:10:26.840 --> 00:10:30.879 and still more to discover your ideal in an unfamiliar shape. 156 00:10:32.360 --> 00:10:35.960 How this aptitude came to her, what it did feed 157 00:10:36.159 --> 00:10:40.240 upon is an inscrutable mystery. She was born in the 158 00:10:40.320 --> 00:10:44.120 village and had never been further away from it than Colebrook, 159 00:10:44.480 --> 00:10:48.000 or perhaps Darnford. She lived for four years with the Smiths. 160 00:10:48.759 --> 00:10:52.320 Newborns is an isolated farmhouse a mile away from the road, 161 00:10:52.639 --> 00:10:55.080 and she was content to look day after day at 162 00:10:55.120 --> 00:10:58.960 the same fields, hollows rises, at the trees, and the 163 00:10:59.000 --> 00:11:02.000 hedge rows, at the faces of the four men about 164 00:11:02.000 --> 00:11:06.519 the farm, always the same, day after day, month after month, 165 00:11:06.759 --> 00:11:10.639 year after year. She never showed a desire for conversation, 166 00:11:11.519 --> 00:11:14.200 and as it seemed to me, she did not know 167 00:11:14.279 --> 00:11:19.159 how to smile. Sometimes of a fine Sunday afternoon she 168 00:11:19.159 --> 00:11:22.440 would put on her best dress, a pair of stout boots, 169 00:11:22.639 --> 00:11:26.240 a large gray hat trimmed with a black feather.

I've 170 00:11:26.279 --> 00:11:30.720 seen her in that finery seas an absurdly slender parasol 171 00:11:31.159 --> 00:11:35.039 climb over two stiles, tramp over three fields, and along 172 00:11:35.120 --> 00:11:40.240 two hundred yards of road. Never further there stood Foster's cottage. 173 00:11:40.840 --> 00:11:43.120 She would help her mother to give their tea to 174 00:11:43.159 --> 00:11:46.840 the younger children, wash up the crockery, kiss the little ones, 175 00:11:47.080 --> 00:11:50.559 and go back to the farm. That was all, all 176 00:11:50.600 --> 00:11:55.039 the rest, all the change, all the relaxation. She never 177 00:11:55.080 --> 00:11:58.279 seemed to wish for anything more. And then she fell 178 00:11:58.320 --> 00:12:04.200 in love. She fell in love silently, obstinately, perhaps helplessly. 179 00:12:05.000 --> 00:12:08.240 It came slowly, but when it came, it worked like 180 00:12:08.320 --> 00:12:12.879 a powerful spell. It was love, as the ancients understood it, 181 00:12:13.440 --> 00:12:18.799 an irresistible and fatal impulse, a possession, Yes, it was 182 00:12:18.879 --> 00:12:22.320 in her, to become haunted and possessed by a face, 183 00:12:22.799 --> 00:12:26.360 by a presence, fatally, as though she had been a 184 00:12:26.399 --> 00:12:30.919 pagan worshiper of form under a joyous sky, and to 185 00:12:31.000 --> 00:12:35.120 be awakened at last from that mysterious forgetfulness of self, 186 00:12:35.480 --> 00:12:40.159 from that enchantment, from that transport by a fear resembling 187 00:12:40.200 --> 00:12:44.600 the unaccountable terror of a brute. With the sun hanging 188 00:12:44.639 --> 00:12:48.000 low on its western limit, the expanse of the grass lands, 189 00:12:48.240 --> 00:12:51.720 framed in the counter scarps of the rising ground, took 190 00:12:51.799 --> 00:12:56.639 on a gorgeous and somber aspect, a sense of penetrating sadness, 191 00:12:57.080 --> 00:13:00.639 like that inspired by a grave strand of music disengaged 192 00:13:00.679 --> 00:13:04.120 itself from the silence of the fields. The men we 193 00:13:04.200 --> 00:13:09.000 met walked past, slow, unsmiling, with downcast eyes, as if 194 00:13:09.000 --> 00:13:13.000 the melancholy of an overburdened earth had weighted their feet, 195 00:13:13.320 --> 00:13:18.759 bowed their shoulders, borne down their glances. Yes, said the 196 00:13:18.799 --> 00:13:21.519 doctor to my remark, one would think the earth is 197 00:13:21.600 --> 00:13:25.120 under a curse, since of all her children, these that 198 00:13:25.200 --> 00:13:28.639 cling to her the closest are uncouth in body, and 199 00:13:28.720 --> 00:13:32.039 as leaden of gait, as if their very hearts were 200 00:13:32.080 --> 00:13:35.600 loaded with chains. But here, on the same road you 201 00:13:35.720 --> 00:13:39.519 might have seen amongst these heavy men, a being lithe 202 00:13:39.679 --> 00:13:43.440 and supple and long limbed, straight like a pine, with 203 00:13:43.559 --> 00:13:47.320 something striving upwards in his appearance, as though the heart 204 00:13:47.440 --> 00:13:51.120 within him had been buoyant. Perhaps it was only the 205 00:13:51.159 --> 00:13:54.600 force of the contrast. But when he was passing one 206 00:13:54.639 --> 00:13:57.960 of these villagers here, the soles of his feet did 207 00:13:57.960 --> 00:14:00.759 not seem to me to touch the dust of the road. 208 00:14:01.399 --> 00:14:05.240 He vaulted over the stiles, paced these slopes with a long, 209 00:14:05.320 --> 00:14:09.799 elastic stride that made him noticeable at a great distance, 210 00:14:10.360 --> 00:14:13.600 and had lustrous black eyes. He was so different from 211 00:14:13.600 --> 00:14:18.200 the mankind around that, with his freedom of movement, his soft, 212 00:14:18.720 --> 00:14:23.080 a little startled glance, his olive complexion and graceful bearing, 213 00:14:23.480 --> 00:14:26.960 his humanity suggested to me the nature of a woodland creature. 214 00:14:27.600 --> 00:14:30.559 He came from there, the doctor pointed with his whip, 215 00:14:31.000 --> 00:14:33.559 and from the summit of the descent, seen over the 216 00:14:33.639 --> 00:14:36.679 rolling tops of the trees in a park by the 217 00:14:36.720 --> 00:14:40.120 side of the road, appeared the level sea far below us, 218 00:14:40.559 --> 00:14:44.440 like the floor of an immense edifice, inlaid with bands 219 00:14:44.519 --> 00:14:48.360 of dark ripple, with still trails of glitter, ending in 220 00:14:48.399 --> 00:14:51.080 a belt of glassy water. At the foot of the sky. 221 00:14:52.120 --> 00:14:56.279 The light blur of smoke from an invisible steamer faded 222 00:14:56.360 --> 00:14:59.440 on the great clearness of the horizon, like the mist 223 00:14:59.480 --> 00:15:03.159 of a breath on a mirror, and inshore, the white 224 00:15:03.240 --> 00:15:07.240 sails of a coaster, with the appearance of disentangling themselves 225 00:15:07.320 --> 00:15:11.039 slowly from under the branches, floated clear the foliage of 226 00:15:11.080 --> 00:15:17.360 the trees. Shipwrecked in the bay, I said, yes, he 227 00:15:17.519 --> 00:15:21.080 was a castaway, a poor emigrant from Central Europe, bound 228 00:15:21.080 --> 00:15:24.720 to America, and washed ashore here in a storm, and 229 00:15:24.799 --> 00:15:28.279 for him who knew nothing of the earth, England was 230 00:15:28.279 --> 00:15:32.200 an undiscovered country. It was some time before he learned 231 00:15:32.240 --> 00:15:34.639 its name, and for all I know, he might have 232 00:15:34.759 --> 00:15:38.679 expected to find wild beasts or wild men here. When 233 00:15:39.120 --> 00:15:41.840 crawling in the dark over the sea wall, he rolled 234 00:15:41.879 --> 00:15:44.440 down the other side into a dike, where it was 235 00:15:44.720 --> 00:15:49.039 another miracle he didn't get drowned, but he struggled instinctively 236 00:15:49.320 --> 00:15:52.399 like an animal under a

net, and this blind struggle 237 00:15:52.559 --> 00:15:55.799 threw him out into a field. He must have been 238 00:15:56.120 --> 00:16:00.399 indeed of a tougher fiber than he looked to with 239 00:16:00.120 --> 00:16:05.039 and without expiring such buffetings, the violence of his exertions, 240 00:16:05.080 --> 00:16:09.039 and so much fear. Later on, in his broken English 241 00:16:09.120 --> 00:16:12.360 that resembled curiously the speech of a young child, he 242 00:16:12.440 --> 00:16:15.559 told me himself that he put his trust in God, 243 00:16:16.080 --> 00:16:19.519 believing he was no longer in this world. And truly, 244 00:16:19.840 --> 00:16:22.960 he would add, how was he to know? He fought 245 00:16:23.000 --> 00:16:25.759 his way against the rain and the gale on all fours, 246 00:16:26.159 --> 00:16:30.279 and crawled at last among some sheep huddled close under 247 00:16:30.279 --> 00:16:33.960 the lee of a hedge. They ran off in all directions, 248 00:16:34.080 --> 00:16:37.600 bleeding in the darkness, and he welcomed the first familiar 249 00:16:37.679 --> 00:16:41.039 sound he heard on these shores. It must have been 250 00:16:41.080 --> 00:16:43.960 two in the morning then, and this is all we 251 00:16:44.080 --> 00:16:46.679 know of the manner of his landing. Though he did 252 00:16:46.679 --> 00:16:50.759 not arrive unattended by any means, only his grisly company 253 00:16:50.840 --> 00:16:53.480 did not begin to come ashore till much later in 254 00:16:53.559 --> 00:16:59.759 the day. The doctor gathered the reins, clicked his tongue. 255 00:17:00.360 --> 00:17:04.480 We trotted down the hill, then, turning almost directly a 256 00:17:04.519 --> 00:17:07.440 sharp corner into the high street. We rattled over the 257 00:17:07.440 --> 00:17:11.799 stones and were home late in the evening. Kennedy, breaking 258 00:17:11.839 --> 00:17:15.319 a spell of moodiness that had come over him, returned 259 00:17:15.359 --> 00:17:18.759 to the story. Smoking his pipe. He paced the long 260 00:17:18.839 --> 00:17:22.480 room from end to end, a reading lamp, concentrated all 261 00:17:22.480 --> 00:17:25.960 its light upon the papers on his desk, and sitting 262 00:17:26.000 --> 00:17:29.720 by the open window, I saw, after the windless, scorching day, 263 00:17:30.200 --> 00:17:34.279 the frigid splendor of a hazy sea lying motionless under 264 00:17:34.319 --> 00:17:38.079 the moon. Not a whisper, not a splash, not a 265 00:17:38.119 --> 00:17:41.559 stir of the shingle, not a footstep, not a sigh 266 00:17:41.640 --> 00:17:45.000 came up from the earth below. Never a sign of life, 267 00:17:45.160 --> 00:17:49.279 but the scent of climbing jasmine, and Kennedy's voice speaking 268 00:17:49.319 --> 00:17:53.480 behind me. Passed through the white casement to vanish outside 269 00:17:53.519 --> 00:17:58.519 in a chill and sumptuous stillness. The relations of shipwrecks 270 00:17:58.640 --> 00:18:02.440 in the olden time tell us of much suffering. Often 271 00:18:02.519 --> 00:18:05.880 the castaways were only saved from drowning, to die miserably 272 00:18:05.920 --> 00:18:10.759 from starvation on a barren coast. Others suffered violent death, 273 00:18:10.920 --> 00:18:15.359 or else slavery passed through years of precarious existence with 274 00:18:15.480 --> 00:18:20.519 people to whom their strangeness was an object of suspicion, dislike, 275 00:18:20.759 --> 00:18:23.720 or fear. We read about these things, and they are 276 00:18:24.039 --> 00:18:27.440 very pitiful. It is indeed hard upon a man to 277 00:18:27.440 --> 00:18:32.640 find himself a lost stranger, hopeless, incomprehensible, and of a 278 00:18:33.079 --> 00:18:37.599 mysterious origin, in some obscure corner of the earth. Yet 279 00:18:37.640 --> 00:18:41.640 amongst all the adventurers shipwrecked in all the wild parts 280 00:18:41.680 --> 00:18:44.440 of the world, there is not one, it seems to me, 281 00:18:44.799 --> 00:18:47.519 that ever had to suffer a fate so simply tragic 282 00:18:47.720 --> 00:18:50.599 as the man. I am speaking of, the most innocent 283 00:18:50.799 --> 00:18:54.079 of adventurers, cast out by the sea in the bite 284 00:18:54.240 --> 00:18:58.440 of this bay, almost within sight from this very window, 285 00:18:59.839 --> 00:19:03.119 did not know the name of his ship. Indeed, in 286 00:19:03.200 --> 00:19:06.079 the course of time we discovered he did not even 287 00:19:06.160 --> 00:19:10.359 know that ships had names like Christian people. And when 288 00:19:10.680 --> 00:19:14.079 one day, from the top of the Telford Hill he 289 00:19:14.160 --> 00:19:17.400 beheld the sea lying open to his view, his eyes 290 00:19:17.519 --> 00:19:20.960 roamed afar, lost in an air of wild surprise, as 291 00:19:21.000 --> 00:19:24.200 though he had never seen such a sight before, and 292 00:19:24.279 --> 00:19:27.599 probably he had not, as far as I could make out. 293 00:19:27.759 --> 00:19:30.799 He had been hustled, together with many others, on board 294 00:19:30.880 --> 00:19:33.920 an emigrant ship lying at the mouth of the elbow. 295 00:19:34.119 --> 00:19:37.640 Too bewildered to take note of his surroundings, too weary 296 00:19:37.720 --> 00:19:41.359 to see anything, too anxious to care, they were driven 297 00:19:41.400 --> 00:19:44.599 below into the tween deck and battened down from the 298 00:19:44.720 --> 00:19:49.319 very start. It was a low timber dwelling, he would say, 299 00:19:49.759 --> 00:19:53.559 with wooden beams overhead, like the houses in his country. 300 00:19:53.920 --> 00:19:57.200 But she went into it down a ladder. It was 301 00:19:57.480 --> 00:20:01.759 very large, very cold, damp and somber, with places in 302 00:20:01.799 --> 00:20:05.359 the manner of wood boxes where people had to sleep, 303 00:20:05.680 --> 00:20:09.400 one above another, and it kept on rocking all ways 304 00:20:09.519 --> 00:20:12.960 at once, all the time. He crept into one

of 305 00:20:13.000 --> 00:20:15.839 these boxes and lay down there in the clothes in 306 00:20:15.920 --> 00:20:19.240 which he had left his home many days before, keeping 307 00:20:19.240 --> 00:20:23.759 his bundle and his stick by his side. People groaned, 308 00:20:24.079 --> 00:20:29.000 children cried, water dripped, the lights went out. The walls 309 00:20:29.039 --> 00:20:32.680 of the place creaked, and everything was being shaken, so 310 00:20:32.759 --> 00:20:36.400 that in one's little box one dared not lift one's head. 311 00:20:37.160 --> 00:20:40.640 He had lost touch with his only companion, a young 312 00:20:40.720 --> 00:20:43.720 man from the same valley, he said, And all the 313 00:20:43.799 --> 00:20:47.079 time a great noise of wind went on outside, and 314 00:20:47.160 --> 00:20:52.720 heavy blows fell boom boom, and awful sickness overcame him, 315 00:20:53.000 --> 00:20:56.839 even to the point of making him neglect his prayers. Besides, 316 00:20:57.119 --> 00:21:00.119 one could not tell whether it was morning or even. 317 00:21:00.720 --> 00:21:05.599 It seemed always to be night in that place. Before that, 318 00:21:05.799 --> 00:21:08.960 he had been traveling a long long time on the 319 00:21:09.039 --> 00:21:12.359 iron track. He looked out of the window, which had 320 00:21:12.440 --> 00:21:16.160 a wonderfully clear glass in it, and the trees, the houses, 321 00:21:16.400 --> 00:21:19.559 the fields, and the long roads seemed to fly round 322 00:21:19.680 --> 00:21:23.519 and round about him till his head swam. He gave 323 00:21:23.559 --> 00:21:27.000 me to understand that he had, on his passage beheld 324 00:21:27.200 --> 00:21:32.039 uncounted multitudes of people, whole nations, all dressed in such 325 00:21:32.279 --> 00:21:35.440 clothes as the rich ware. Once he was made to 326 00:21:35.440 --> 00:21:38.079 get out of the carriage and slept through a night 327 00:21:38.200 --> 00:21:40.599 on a bench and a house of bricks, with his 328 00:21:40.680 --> 00:21:43.759 bundle under his head. And once for many hours he 329 00:21:43.799 --> 00:21:46.880 had to sit on a floor of flat stones, dozing 330 00:21:47.200 --> 00:21:50.720 with his knees up and with his bundle between his feet. 331 00:21:51.440 --> 00:21:54.640 There was a roof over him which seemed made of glass, 332 00:21:55.119 --> 00:21:58.079 and was so high that the tallest mountain pine he 333 00:21:58.119 --> 00:22:01.559 had ever seen would have had room to grow under it. 334 00:22:02.559 --> 00:22:05.920 Steam machines rolled in at one end and out at 335 00:22:05.960 --> 00:22:09.559 the other. People swarmed more than you can see on 336 00:22:09.640 --> 00:22:12.799 a feast day round the miraculous Holy Image in the 337 00:22:12.880 --> 00:22:16.240 yard of the Carmelite convent down in the plains, where 338 00:22:16.640 --> 00:22:19.359 before he left his home he drove his mother in 339 00:22:19.440 --> 00:22:22.400 a wooden cart, a pious old woman who wanted to 340 00:22:22.480 --> 00:22:26.039 offer prayers and make a vow for his safety. He 341 00:22:26.119 --> 00:22:28.279 could not give me an idea of how large and 342 00:22:28.359 --> 00:22:31.680 lofty and full of noise and smoke and gloom and 343 00:22:31.720 --> 00:22:34.839 clang of iron the place was, but some one had 344 00:22:34.880 --> 00:22:39.079 told him it was called Berlin. Then they rang a bell, 345 00:22:39.400 --> 00:22:42.480 and another steam machine came in, And again he was 346 00:22:42.519 --> 00:22:45.720 taken on and on through a land that wearied his 347 00:22:45.839 --> 00:22:48.759 eyes by its flatness, without a single bit of a 348 00:22:48.839 --> 00:22:52.880 hill to be seen anywhere. One more night he spent 349 00:22:52.920 --> 00:22:55.920 shut up in a building like a good stable, with 350 00:22:56.000 --> 00:22:59.160 a litter of straw on the floor, guarding his bundle, 351 00:22:59.279 --> 00:23:02.559 amongst a l of men, of whom not one could 352 00:23:02.599 --> 00:23:06.559 understand a single word he said. In the morning, they 353 00:23:06.559 --> 00:23:09.759 were all led down to the stony shores of an 354 00:23:09.839 --> 00:23:14.880 extremely broad, muddy river, flowing not between hills, but between 355 00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:19.000 houses that seemed immense. There was a steam machine that 356 00:23:19.079 --> 00:23:22.039 went on the water, and they all stood upon it, 357 00:23:22.200 --> 00:23:25.720 packed tight. Only now there were with them many women 358 00:23:25.799 --> 00:23:29.839 and children, who made much noise. A cold rain fell, 359 00:23:30.319 --> 00:23:33.240 the wind blew in his face. He was wet through 360 00:23:33.519 --> 00:23:36.680 and his teeth chattered. He and the young man from 361 00:23:36.680 --> 00:23:40.359 the same valley took each other by the hand. They 362 00:23:40.400 --> 00:23:43.880 thought they were being taken to America straight away. But 363 00:23:44.000 --> 00:23:46.759 suddenly the steam machine bumped against the side of a 364 00:23:46.799 --> 00:23:50.839 thing like a house on the water. The walls were 365 00:23:51.119 --> 00:23:54.799 smooth and black, and there uprose growing from the roof, 366 00:23:55.079 --> 00:23:58.279 as it were bare trees in the shape of crosses, 367 00:23:58.440 --> 00:24:02.079 extremely high. That's how it appeared to him then, for 368 00:24:02.119 --> 00:24:05.680 he had never seen a ship before. This was the 369 00:24:05.720 --> 00:24:08.720 ship that was going to swim all the way to America. 370 00:24:09.680 --> 00:24:13.680 Voices shouted, everything swayed. There was a ladder dipping up 371 00:24:13.720 --> 00:24:16.680 and down. He went up on his hands and knees 372 00:24:17.079 --> 00:24:20.039 in mortal fear of falling into the water below, which 373 00:24:20.079 --> 00:24:24.480 made a great splashing. He got separated from his companion, 374 00:24:24.759 --> 00:24:27.279 and when he descended into the

bottom of that ship, 375 00:24:27.559 --> 00:24:32.319 his heart seemed to melt suddenly within him. It was then, also, 376 00:24:32.680 --> 00:24:35.440 as he told me, that he had lost contact for 377 00:24:35.480 --> 00:24:38.039 good and all with one of those three men, who 378 00:24:38.079 --> 00:24:41.160 the summer before had been going about through all the 379 00:24:41.240 --> 00:24:44.599 little towns in the foothills of his country. They would 380 00:24:44.720 --> 00:24:48.359 arrive on market days driving in a peasant's cart, and 381 00:24:48.400 --> 00:24:51.000 would set up an office in an inn or some 382 00:24:51.079 --> 00:24:54.559 other jew's house. There were three of them, of whom 383 00:24:54.599 --> 00:24:57.759 one with a long beard, looked venerable, and they had 384 00:24:57.839 --> 00:25:01.200 red cloth collars round their necks and gold lace on 385 00:25:01.240 --> 00:25:05.319 their sleeves. Like government officials. They sat proudly behind a 386 00:25:05.359 --> 00:25:08.519 long table, and in the next room, so that the 387 00:25:08.599 --> 00:25:12.839 common people shouldn't hear, they kept a cunning telegraph machine 388 00:25:13.359 --> 00:25:16.200 through which they could talk to the Emperor of America. 389 00:25:17.000 --> 00:25:19.960 The fathers hung about the door, but the young men 390 00:25:20.079 --> 00:25:23.319 of the mountains would crowd up to the table, asking 391 00:25:23.440 --> 00:25:26.559 many questions, for there was work to be got all 392 00:25:26.599 --> 00:25:29.440 the year round. At three dollars a day in America 393 00:25:29.880 --> 00:25:34.759 and no military service to do. But the American Kaiser 394 00:25:34.880 --> 00:25:38.920 would not take everybody. Oh No, he himself had a 395 00:25:38.960 --> 00:25:42.880 great difficulty in getting accepted, and the venerable man in 396 00:25:43.200 --> 00:25:45.839 uniform had to go out of the room several times 397 00:25:45.839 --> 00:25:49.759 to work the telegraph on his behalf. The American kaiser 398 00:25:49.960 --> 00:25:54.279 engaged him at last at three dollars, he being young 399 00:25:54.400 --> 00:25:59.119 and strong. However, many able young men backed out, afraid 400 00:25:59.160 --> 00:26:02.680 of the great distance. Besides those only who had some 401 00:26:02.839 --> 00:26:05.599 money could be taken. There were some who sold their 402 00:26:05.680 --> 00:26:08.440 huts and their land because it cost a lot of 403 00:26:08.519 --> 00:26:12.400 money to get to America. But then once there you 404 00:26:12.519 --> 00:26:15.160 had three dollars a day, and if you were clever, 405 00:26:15.400 --> 00:26:18.519 you could find places where true gold could be picked 406 00:26:18.559 --> 00:26:22.599 up from the ground. His father's house was getting over full. 407 00:26:23.319 --> 00:26:27.319 Two of his brothers were married and had children. He 408 00:26:27.400 --> 00:26:31.440 promised to send money home from America by post twice 409 00:26:31.440 --> 00:26:35.519 a year. His father sold an old cow, a pair 410 00:26:35.599 --> 00:26:38.839 of piebald mountain ponies of his own raising, and a 411 00:26:38.920 --> 00:26:42.480 cleared plot of fair pasture land on the sunny slope 412 00:26:42.519 --> 00:26:46.240 of a pine clad pass to a jew innkeeper in 413 00:26:46.440 --> 00:26:48.799 order to pay the people of the ship that took 414 00:26:48.839 --> 00:26:51.559 men to America to get rich in a short time. 415 00:26:55.240 --> 00:27:00.839 End of Section one,