Elbert Hubbard

“ The canals of Venice are the highways, [Pg 114] and the gondoliers are like ’bus-drivers in Piccadilly—they know everybody and are in close touch with all the Secrets of State. When you get to the Gindecca and tie up for lunch, over a bottle of Chianti, your gondolier will tell you this:
The hunchback there in the gondola, rowed by the Master, is the Devil, who has taken that form just to be with and guard the greatest artist the world has ever seen. Yes, Signor, that clean-faced man with his frank, wide-open, brown eyes is in league with the Evil One. ”

“ We had received our orders, and when we got to the landing we stood there [Pg 127] just an instant. “Now we have him—Gian the hypocrite!” whispered the stout man in a hoarse breath. We burst in the doors with a whoop and a bang. The change from the dark to the light sort of blinded us at first. We all supposed that there was a dance in progress of course, and the screams from women were just what we expected; but when we saw several overturned easels and an old man, half-nude, and too scared to move, seated on a model throne, we did not advance into the hall as we intended. ”

“ When the nights were cold and dark, Simeon sat there with bowed head, and drew the folds of his single garment, a black robe, over his face.
Another season passed; the sun again grew warm, then hot, and the sandstorms raged and blew, when the people below almost lost sight of the man on the column. ”

“ The Indian is a cautious fighter—he makes no sacrifices in order to win. Now he had his prey secure.
Soon the soldiers would run out of ammunition, and then one more day, or two at least, and thirst and fatigue would reduce brave men into old women, and the squaws could rush in and pound them on the head with clubs.
The afternoon dragged along its awful length. Time dwindled and dawdled.
[Pg 54] At last the sun sank, a ball of fire in the West.
The moon came out.
Now and then a Sioux would creep up into shadowy view, but a shot from a soldier would send him back into hiding. ”

“ He who influences the thought of his time influences the thought of all the time that follows. And he has made his impress upon eternity.
[Pg 111] The Master Return to Table of Contents
Giovanni Bellini was his name.
Yet when people who loved beautiful pictures spoke of “Gian,” every one knew who was meant; but to those who worked at art he was “The Master.” He was two inches under six feet in height, strong and muscular. In spite of his seventy summers his carriage was erect, and there was a jaunty suppleness about his gait that made him seem much younger. ”

“ I saw a glimmering light down the beach at a little landing. I ran to it, hoping some gondolier might be found who would row me over to the city. There was one boat at the landing and in it a hunchback, sound asleep, covered with a canvas. It was Gian Bellini’s boat. I shook the hunchback into wakefulness and begged him to row me across to the city. I yelled into his deaf ears, but he pretended not [Pg 131] to understand me. ”

“ The Indians were in confusion—he could see them by the dim light, stampeding. They were running in brownish masses right around the front of the hill where he stood. He ordered the bugles to blow the charge.
The soldiers greeted the order with a yell—tired muscles, the sleepless night, its seventy-five miles of hard riding, were forgotten. The battle would be fought and won in less time than a man takes to eat his breakfast.
[Pg 49] Down the slope swept Custer’s men to meet the fleeing foe. ”

“ Terry was only five miles away.
The Indians closed in like a cloud around Custer and his few survivors.
It was a hand-to-hand fight—one against a hundred.
In five minutes every man was dead, and the squaws were stripping the mangled and bleeding forms.
Already the main body of Indians was trailing across the plains toward the mountains. ”

“ Now, at London, Ontario, our train waited an hour for the Toronto and Montreal connections.
Just before we reached London, I saw the Conductor take the three smallest little passengers to the washroom at the end of the car, roll up their sleeves, turn their collars in, and duly wash their hands and faces. Then he combed their hair. They accepted the situation as if they belonged to the Conductor’s family, as of course they did for the time being. It was a domestic scene that caused the whole car to smile, and made everybody know everybody else. A touch of nature makes a whole coach kin. ”

“ Appolidorus shifts his burden to the other shoulder, and follows the soldier through the gate, up the marble steps, along the splendid hallway, lighted by flaring torches and lined with reclining Roman soldiers.
At a door they pause an instant, there is a whispered word—they enter.
The room is furnished as becomes the room that is the private library of the King of Egypt. In one corner, seated at the table, pen in hand, sits a man [Pg 75] of middle age, pale, clean-shaven, with hair close-cropped. ”

“ To my astonishment the stout man was doing just as he was bid, and was pacifying the women students and straightening up their easels and stools.
I was interested in watching Gian walking [Pg 129] around, helping this one with a stroke of his crayon, saying a word to that, smiling and nodding to another. I just sat there and stared. These students were not regular art students, I could see that plainly. Some were children, ragged and barelegged, others were old men who worked in the glass-factories, and surely with hands too old and stiff to ever paint well. ”

“ Of course, not all of the pictures in his studio are painted by the boys: some are painted by that old Dutchman what’s-his-name—oh, yes, Durer, Alberto Durer of Nuremberg. Two Nuremberg painters were in that very gondola last week just where you sit—they are here in Venice now, taking lessons from Gian, [Pg 117] they said. Gian was up there to Nuremberg and lived a month with Durer—they worked together, drank beer together, I suppose, and caroused. Gian is very strict about what he does in Venice, but you can never tell what a man will do when he is away from home. ”

“ But man’s body and mind accommodate themselves to almost any condition. One thing at least, Simeon was free from economic responsibilities, free from social cares and intrusion. Bores with sad stories of unappreciated lives and fond hopes unrealized, never broke in upon his peace. ”

“ People tried to question the old hunchback, but he gave no secrets away. The master always stood up behind and rowed; while down on the cushions rode the hunchback, the guest of honor.
There stood the master erect, plying the oar, his long black robe tucked up under the dark blue sash that exactly matched the color of the gondola. The man’s motto might have been, “Ich [Pg 113] Dien,” or that passage of Scripture, “He that is greatest among you shall be your servant.” ”

“ When Terry came up the following day, he would find the work all done and neatly, too. Results are the only things that count, and victory justifies itself. [Pg 48]
The battle would go down on the records as Custer’s triumph!
Reno took a two-mile detour, and just at peep of day, ere the sun had gilded the tops of the cottonwoods, charged, with yells and rapid firing, into the Indian village. Custer stood on the ridge, his men mounted and impatient just below on the other side.
He could distinguish Reno’s soldiers as they charged into the underbrush. ”

“ I do not know his name, but the sight of the man, carrying a child on each arm, their arms encircling his neck in perfect faith, their long journey done, and he turning them over in safety to their Grandmother, was something to renew one’s faith in humanity.
Even a great Railway System has a soul. ”

“ Gian buys a picture from them now and then; his [Pg 116] studio is full of their work—better than he can do. Oh, he knows a good thing when he sees it. These pictures will be valuable some day, and he gets them at his own price. It was Antonello of Messina who introduced oil-painting into Venice. Before that they mixed their paints with water, milk or wine. But when Antonello came along with his dark, lustrous pictures, he set all artistic Venice astir. Gian Bellini discovered the secret, they say, by feigning to be a gentleman and going to the newcomer and sitting for his picture. ”

“ Gian and Gentile had a good deal to do about cutting the first blocks for initials—they got the idea, I think, from Nuremberg. And now there are Dutchmen down here from Amsterdam learning how to print books and paint pictures. Several of them are in Gian’s studio, I hear—every once in a while I get them for a trip to the Lido or to Murano.
Gentile Bellini is his brother and looks very much like him. The Grand Turk [Pg 120] at Constantinople came here once and saw Gian Bellini at work in the Great Hall. He had never seen a good picture before and was amazed. ”

“ There was to be no parley—panic was the thing desired, and when Custer had started the savages on the run, Terry would attack them at the other end of their village, and the two fleeing mobs of savages would be driven on each other, and then they would cast down their arms and the trick would be done.
Next, to throw a cordon of soldiers around the camp and hold it would be easy.
Custer and his men rode away at about eight o’clock on the morning of the Twenty-fifth. They were in high spirits, [Pg 46] for the cramped quarters on the transports made freedom doubly grateful. ”

“ Cæsar took possession of the palace of the King, and his soldiers accommodated themselves in the houses, public buildings, and temples as best they could.
[Pg 72] Cleopatra asked for a personal interview, in order to present her cause.
Cæsar declined to meet her—he understood the trouble—many such cases he had seen. Claimants for thrones were not new to him. Where two parties quarreled, both are right—or wrong—it really mattered little.
It is absurd to quarrel—still more foolish to fight. ”

“ That is genius, you know, the ability to get some one else to do the work, and then capture the ducats and the honors for yourself. Of course, Gian knows how to lure the boys on—something has to be done in order to hold them. ”

“ The Indians did not fully realize this, although they realized that as the Whites came in, the game went out. The Sioux were hunters and horsemen by nature. They traveled and moved about with great freedom. If restrained or interfered with they grew irritable and then hostile.
Now they were full of fight. The Whites had ruined the hunting-grounds; besides [Pg 40] that, white soldiers had fought them if they moved to their old haunts, sacred for their use and bequeathed to them by their ancestors. ”

“ In dead of Winter, when the snows lay deep and they were in their teepees, crouching around the scanty fire, soldiers had charged on horseback through the villages, shooting into the teepees, killing women and children. ”