the 19th. As he left the Vandalia, the yards were manned and a salute fired, the salute being returned by the Italian admiral. General Grant then landed, and was met by the general commanding the district, who had a regiment of Bersaglieri drawn up in front of the Royal Palace and reviewed by General Grant. Accompanied by the Italian officials he then visited the naval and military schools and the palace, after which he attended a reception at the house of Consul Duncan. During these visits General Grant was accompanied by his son, Commander Robeson, Lieutenants Rush and Miller and a splendid retinue of Italian officials. The whole tone of reception accorded him was cordial and stately. The General expressed himself with the greatest admiration of the Italian troops. Two days later the entire party sailed for Palermo.

CHAPTER XI.

THE MEMORIES OF PALERMO-WHAT THE GOVERNMENT WAS DOING-HOPE FOR ITALY-AMONG THE ISLANDS OF THE MEDITERRANEAN-IMPRESSIONS OF SICILYPALERMO ΤΟ MALTA-EN VOYAGE- - SCYLLA CHARYBDIS-THE DUKE OF EDINBURGH'S SA

FROM
AND

LUTE-SCENES AND INCIDENTS.

The Vandalia, bearing General Grant and his party, reached Palermo, Sunday December 23d. A correspondent describes the city as follows:

Palermo is attractive enough, especially in its Christmas finery, but we are yearning for the South and sunshine. I told you of our Christmas dinner and of the honor which we of the wardroom, in our modest way, paid to our illustrious guests. The next morning there were calls to make-official calls on consuls and generals and prefects and great people. This is one of the duties-I was nearly writing penalties of our trip. The incognito of General Grant is one that no one will respect. He declines all honors and attentions, so far as he can do so without rudeness, and is especially indifferent to the parade and etiquette by which his journey is surrounded. It is amusing, knowing General Grant's feelings on this subject, to read the articles in English and home papers about his craving for precedence and his fear lest he may not have the proper seat at table and the highest number of guns. General Grant has declined every attention of an official character thus far, except those whose non-acceptance would have been misconstrued. When he arrives at a port his habit is to go ashore with his wife and son, see

what is to be seen, and drift about from palace to picture gallery like any other wandering, studious American doing Europe. Sometimes the officials are too prompt for him; but generally, unless they call by appointment, they find the General absent. This matter is almost too trivial to write about; but there is no better business for a chronicler than to correct wrong impressions before creating new ones. Here, for instance, is an editorial article from an American newspaper which has drifted into our wardroom over these Mediterranean seas. The journal is a responsible newspaper, with a wide circulation. It informs us

that General Grant travels with a princely retinue; that he is enabled to do so because the men who fattened on the corruptions of his administration gave him a share of their plunder. He went to the Hotel Bristol in Paris. He took the Prince of Wales' apartments. He never asks the cost of his rooms at hotels, but throws money about with a lavish hand. These are the statements which one reads

here in the columns of an American journal. The truth is that General Grant travels, not like a prince, but as a private citizen. He has one servant and a courier. He never was in the Prince of Wales' apartments in the Hotel Bristol in his life. His courier arranges for his hotel accomodations, as couriers usually do, and the one who does this office for the General takes pains to make as good bargains for his master as possible. So far from General Grant being a rich man, I think I am not breaking confidence when I say that the duration of his trip will depend altogether upon his income, and his income depends altogether upon the proceeds of his investment of the money presented to him at the close of the war. The Presidency yielded him nothing in the way of capital, and he has not now a dollar that came to him as an official. By this I mean that the money paid General Grant as a soldier and as a President was spent by him in supporting the dignity of his office. Everybody knows how much money was given him at the close of the war. As this was all well invested and has grown, you may estimate the fortune of the General and about how long that fortune would enable him to travel like a prince or a Tammany exile over Europe. There are many people at home who do not like General Grant, who quarrel with his politics and think his administration a calamity. That is a matter of opinion. But his fame as a soldier is dear to every patriotic American, and I am glad of the opportunity of brushing away one or two of the cobwebs of slander which I see growing over it.

But this is a digression. I was thinking of Palermo in her holiday finery; for the Christmas bells are in the air, and, as we walk from street to street, we see the South, the Catholic South, in every group. I can well imagine how this sunny, picturesque town might grow on one after

a time. Yet, to our prim, well-ordered northern eyes it is hard to become accustomed to the dirt and squalor of the town. This Sielly is the land of many civilizations. Here the Greek, the Carthagenian, the Roman and the Saracen have made their mark. This is the land of the poetry of Homer, the genius of Archimedes, the philosphy and piety of Paul. These hills and bays and valleys have seen mighty armies striving for the mastery of the world. Certainly if example, or precept, or the opportunity for great deeds could ennoble a nation, Sicily should be the land of

heroes. But its heroism has fallen into rags, and the descendants of the men who destroyed the Athenian fleet in Syracuse, and who confronted the power of Carthage at Agrigentum, now spend their time sleeping in the sun, hanging around chapel doors to beg, and hiding in the hills to waylay travelers and rob them or keep them for a ransom. Brigandage has for generations been the domi