of the poor peasants passed muster
with me. Each was provided with a pick or a hoe, or both, lying over his
shoulder, and a large flaxen bag of other implements, &c., suspended from
it. Nearly all wore caps, and the whole company looked very shabby,
indeed. My clothes were in strange contrast with their tattered garments,
for there was not another well-dressed passenger in the whole company; and
I felt like one out of his element, because I did not also have a pick or
hoe! A hundred Belgians with a hundred bundles crowded into several small
apartments of the station, found little room for their, careers, which
consisted of the irony ends of their picks and hoes, so that those
occasionally hooked the prominent points of the faces of those immediately
behind them! Strange to say, these collisions did not provoke any to
insults or the use of vulgar adverbs, but gentle reproofs kept them all
cool and steady till we entered the cars again. The reader will pardon me
for saying that a similar crowd of persons in this country, placed under
the same tempting and exasperating circumstances, would have created a row
in five minutes, as would be the natural consequence if there were but a
single ruffian in the whole lot. Nothing will strike the American tourist
more when he comes to the Old World, than the good order which prevails
everywhere. To meet two persons scolding and insulting each other, is an
extremely rare occurrence. The orderly behavior of such a company of
peasants will impress one more with the importance of teaching the young,
lessons of patience, humility and _obedience_ (which latter quality of
character is the mother of a hundred virtues), than volumes of dry
philosophy on social ethics will generally avail.

I saw an elderly lady kiss a middle-aged man alternately upon each cheek;
an incident that is common in European social life, and that shows how the
affections of the heart are cultivated and find expression. In Brussels I
saw a son rest his hand affectionately upon his mother's shoulder, as they
stood amongst the multitude in a public square.

I reached Bruixelle (Brussels) at about three o'clock in the afternoon. In
order to see what kind of money was in circulation in Belgium, I
immediately bought some pears of a fruit-woman, and handed her half a
franc (10 cents). You may imagine how I was perplexed when the lady handed
me a dozen coins of various sizes and values, as my change. Knowing,
however, that