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square. The walls were constructed of boards fancifully decorated with paper, and afforded this facility to a lodger-that he could hear all that was going on in the adjacent rooms. The partitions might deceive the eye, but the ear received the full benefit of the various oaths, ejaculations, conversations, and perambulations in which his neighbors indulged. As for the bed, I don't know how long it had been in use, or what race of people had hitherto slept in it, but the sheets and blankets seemed to be sadly dis

from an Indian wigwam to a Parisian hotel, from an African palm-tree to an Arctic snowbank. I have slept in the same bed with two donkeys, a camel, half a dozen Arabs, several goats, and a horse. I have slept on beds alive with snakes, lizards, scorpions, centipeds, bugs, and fleas beds in which men stricken with the plague had died horrible deaths-beds that might reasonably be suspected of small-pox, measles, and Asiatic cholera. I have slept in beds of rivers and beds of sand, and on the bare bed rock. Standing, sitting, lying down, doub-colored by age-or lack of soap and water. It led up, and hanging over; twisted, punched, would be safe to say washing was not considjammed, and elbowed by drunken men; snored ered a paying investment by the managers of at in the cars; sat upon and smothered by the this establishment. Having been over twentynightmare; burnt by fires, rained upon, snowed four hours without sleep or rest I made an atupon, and bitten by frost-in all these positions, tempt to procure a small supply, but miserably and subject to all these discomforts, I have slept failed in consequence of an interesting conversawith comparative satisfaction. There are pleas- tion carried on in the passage between the chamanter ways of sleeping, to be sure, but there are ber-maids, waiters, and other ladies and gentletimes when any way is a blessing. In respect men respecting the last free fight. From what to the matter of eating I am even less particu-I could gather this was considered the best neighlar. Frogs, horse-leeches, snails, and grass-borhood in the city for free fights. Within the hoppers are luxuries to what I have eaten. It past two weeks three or four men had been shot, has pleased Providence to favor me with appetites and tastes appropriate to a great variety of circumstances and many conditions of life. These facts serve to show that I am not fastidious on the subject of personal accommodations. Perhaps my experience in Virginia was exceptional; perhaps misfortune was determined to try me to the utmost extremity. I endeavored to find accommodations at a hotel recommended as the best in the place, and was shown a room over the kitchen stove, in which the thermometer ranged at about 130 to 150 degrees of Fahrenheit. To be lodged and baked at the rate of $2 per night, cash in advance, was more than I could stand, so I asked for another room. There was but one more, and that was pre-empted by a lodger who might or might not come back and claim possession in the middle of the night. It had no window except one that opened into the passage, and the bed was so arranged that every other lodger in the house could take a passing observation of the sleeper and enjoy his style of sleeping. Nay, it was not beyond the resources of the photographic art to secure his negative and print his likeness for general distribution. It was bad enough to be smothered for want of light and air; but I had no idea of paying $2 a night for the poor privilege of showing people how I looked with my eyes shut, and possibly my mouth open. A man may have an attack of nightmare, his countenance may be distorted by horrible dreams; he may laugh immoderately at a very bad pun made in his sleep-in all which conditions of body and mind he doubtless presents an interesting spectacle to the critical eyes of a stranger, but he doesn't like to wake up suddenly and be caught in the act.

The next hotel to which I was recommended was eligibly located on a street composed principally of grog-shops and gambling-houses. I was favored with a front-room about eight feet

stabbed, or maimed close by the door. "Oh, it's a lively place, you bet!" said one of the ladies (the chamber-maid, I think), "an oncommon lively place-reely hexcitin'. I look out of the winder every mornin' jist to see how many dead men are layin' around. I declare to gracious the bullets flies around here sometimes like hailstones!" "An' shure," said a voice in that rich brogue which can never be mistaken, "it's no wondher the boys shud be killin' an' murtherin' themselves forninst the door, whin they're all just like me, dyin' in love wid yer beauteeful self!" A smart slap and a general laugh followed this suggestion. "Git away wid ye, Dinnis; yer always up to yer mischief! As I was sayin', no later than this mornin', I see two men a poppin' away at each other wid six-shooters-a big man an' a little man. The big man he staggered an' fell right under the winder, wid his head on the curb-stone, an' his legs a stickin' right up in the air. He was all over blood, and when the boys picked him up he was dead as a brickbat. "Tother chap he run into a saloon. You better b'leeve this is a lively neighborhood. I tell you hailstones is nothink to the way the bullets flies around." "That's so," chimes in another female voice; "I see myself, with my own eyes, Jack's corpse an' two more carried away in the last month. If I'd a had a six-shooter then you bet they'd a carried away the fellow that nipped Jack!"

Now taking into view the picturesque spectacle that a few dead men dabbled in blood must present to the eye on a fine morning, and the chances of a miscellaneous ball carrying away the top of one's cranium, or penetrating the thin board wall and ranging upward through his body as he lies in bed, I considered it best to seek a more secluded neighborhood, where the scenery was of a less stimulating character and the hail-storms not quite so heavy. By the kind aid of a friend I secured comparatively

agreeable quarters in a private lodging-house I could scarcely credit this, if it were not that a kept by a widow lady. The rooms were good friend of mine, who visited Reese River last sumand the beds clean, and the price not extrava- mer, related some experiences of a corroborative gant for this locality-$12 a week without board. character. Unable to secure lodgings elsewhere, So much for the famous hotels of Virginia. he undertook to find accommodations in a vaIf there are any better, neither myself, nor some cant sheep corral. The proprietor happening to fellow-travelers who told me their experiences, come home about midnight found him spread out succeeded in finding them. The concurrent under the lee of the fence. "Look-a-here, strantestimony was that they are dirty, ill-kept, badly ger!" said he, gruffly, "that's all well enough, attended by rough, ill-mannered waiters-noisy but I gen'rally collect in advance. Just fork over to such a degree that a sober man can get but four bits or mizzle!" My friend indignantly mizlittle rest, day or night, and extravagantly high zled. Cursing the progressive spirit of the age, in proportion to the small comfort they afford. he walked some distance out of town, and was One of the newspapers published a statement about to finish the night under the lee of a big which the author probably intended for a joke, quartz boulder, when a fierce-looking speculator, but which is doubtless founded upon fact-name- with a six-shooter in his hand, suddenly aply, that a certain hotel advertised for 300 chick-peared from a cavity in the rock, saying, "No ens to serve the same number of guests. Only yer don't! Take a fool's advice now, and git! one chicken could be had for love or money-a When you go a prospectin' around ov nights very ancient rooster, which was made into soup agin, jest steer ov this boulder ef you please!" and afterward served up in the form of a fricasee In vain my friend attempted to explain. The for the 300 guests. The flavor was considered rising wrath of the squatter was not to be apextremely delicate-what there was of it; and peased by soft words, and the click of the trigthere was plenty of it such as it was. ger, as he raised his pistol and drew a bead, warned the trespasser that it was time to be off. He found lodgings that night on the public highway to Virginia City and San Francisco.

Still if we are to credit what the Virginia newspapers say-and it would be dangerous to intimate that they ever deal in any thing save the truth-there are other cit

ies on the eastern slope of the
Sierras which afford equally
attractive accommodations.
On the occasion of the recent
Senatorial contest at Carson
City, the prevailing rates
charged for lodgings, accord-
ing to the Virginia Enterprise,
were as follows: "For a bed
in a house, barn, blacksmith-
shop, or hay-yard (none to be
had-all having been engaged
shortly before election);
horse-blanket in an old sugar
hogshead per night, $10;
crockery - crate, with straw,
$7 50; without straw, $5 75;
for cellar-door, $4; for roost-
ing on a smooth pole, $3 50;
pole, common, rough, $3;
plaza fence, $2 50; walking
up
and down the Warm
Springs road - if cloudy,
$1 50; if clear, $1 25. (In
case the clouds are very thick
and low $1 75 is generally
asked.) Very good roosting
in a pine-tree, back of Camp
Nye, may still be had free,
but we understand that a com-
pany is being formed to mo-
nopolize all the more accessi-
ble trees. We believe they
propose to improve by putting
two pins in the bottom of each
tree, or keep a man to boost
regular customers. They talk
of charging six bits."

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LADIES OF THE HOTEL

A

FROM TEHERAN TO SAMARCAND.*

RMINIUS VÁMBÉRY is a young Hun- | ly, desired to visit Turkestan (Central Asia), not

garian, lame, but a fearless traveler, and an intelligent observer. Determined, for some years, to penetrate into Central Asia, at all risks, he prepared himself for this undertaking by living several years among the Turks, in Constantinople. Frequenting Islamite schools and libraries, he trained himself until he became a very good Turk, in appearance, and knowledge of the Koran.

Thus prepared, he pushed farther Eastward, upon an adventurous exploration, which he was compelled to make as a dervish, clad in rags, without necessary food, among a people where even the slightest signs of a traveler's curiosity would have exposed him to suspicion, and suspicion to tortures and a cruel death—a people among whom "to hear is regarded as impudence, to ask as crime, and to take notes as a deadly sin;" where, in brief, ignorance is bliss, and 'tis rashness to be wise.

merely to see the only source of Islamite virtue that still remained undefiled, but to behold the saints of Khiva, Bokhara, and Samarcand. It was this idea, I assured them, that had brought me hither out of Roum (Turkey). I had now been waiting a year in Persia, and I thanked God for having at last granted me fellow-travelers such as they were (and I here pointed to the Tartars), with whom I might proceed on my way and accomplish my wish."

Hadji Bilal, the chief of the caravan, replied (the conversation reads like a piece out of the Arabian Nights): "We are all ready not only to become your friends, but your servants, but we must still draw your attention to the fact that the routes in Turkestan are not as commodious nor as safe as those in Persia and in Turkey. On that which we shall take, travelers meet often for weeks with no house, no bread, not even a drop of water to drink; they incur, besides, the risk of being killed, or taken pris

storms of sand. Ponder well, effendi, the step! You may have occasion later to rue it, and we would by no means wish to be regarded as the cause of your misfortune. Before all things, you must not forget that our countrymen at home are far behind us in experience and worldly knowledge, and that, in spite of their hospitality, they invariably regard strangers from afar with suspicion; and how, besides, will you be able, without us and alone, to perform that great return journey?"

Mr. Vámbéry arrived at Teheran, the capital of Persia, "somewhat in the condition of a half-oners and sold, or being buried alive under boiled fish," on the 13th of July, 1862. Here he was kindly received at the Turkish Embassy, where he was made at home. The traveler in those slow old Eastern countries needs, first of all, a good stock of patience. After several years spent in preparing himself to travel as an Osmanli dervish, our author was at last ready to set out; but at Teheran, at the very outset of his journey, found himself delayed for nearly nine months-months of weary waiting. Thus it was the 28th of March, 1863, when he at last set out upon the interesting adventure which he has modestly recounted in the volume whose title we have given below.

The traveling companions with whom "the dervish Reshid Effendi," as Vámbéry called himself, at length left Teheran, consisted, as its chief said, of "young and old, rich and poor, men of piety, learned men, and laity," who "live together with the greatest simplicity, since we are all from Khokand and Kashgar, and have among us no Bokhariot-no viper of that race." Twenty-four in number, they were all wild men, but honest; some so poor that they counted on begging their way through a region a large part of which is a desert; none rich enough to excite the cupidity of robbers. To persuade these honest pilgrims to take him for companion he was obliged, of course, to conceal his true motives. "The Oriental does not understand the thirst for knowledge, and does not believe much in its existence," he says. "I told them that I had long silently, but earnest

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"I know," rejoined the excellent Vámbéry, "that this world on earth resembles a hotel, in which we merely take up our quarters for a few days, and whence we soon move away to make room for others; and I laugh at the Mussulmans of the present time, who take heed not merely for the moment, but for ten years of onward existence. Yes, dear friend, take me with you; I must hasten away from this horrid kingdom of Error, for I am too weary of it." Such entreaties were irresistible, and accordingly he was hugged and kissed by his twenty-four fellow-pilgrims, strongly advised to leave every thing behind which he could not carry upon his person; and, when duly accoutred in orthodox rags, set out upon the long and dangerous journey, in which he had to keep up a double disguise; for, while his companions knew him only as a Turk, to the people among whom he chiefly traveled even that admission would have made him hateful, and he had to be represented as a Tartar of the Tartars.

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'that both I and my associates bestow upon the | you can also give the nefes (holy breath) when public fatiha (blessings): this you must do also. you are summoned to the sick, only never forI know that this is not the custom in Roum, get to extend your hand at the same time, for but people here will expect and demand it. It will occasion great surprise if, representing yourself to be a dervish, you do not carry out the character to its full extent. You know the form of benediction; assume, therefore, a serious face, and distribute your fatiha (blessings);

it is a matter of notoriety that we dervishes subsist by such acts of piety, and they are always ready with some little present or other.' Hadji Bilal apologized for presuming to school me; still, he said that it was for my benefit, and that I must have heard the story of the traveler who,

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