Page:The Overland Monthly, volume 1, issue 1.djvu/20

 reputation of being one of the most accomplished princes of Europe, speaking six languages perfectly, and being withal an author both in poetry and prose of acknowledged merit. Subsequent personal interviews both with the Emperor and Empress confirmed, in the mind of the writer, all he had heard of their nobleness of disposition, and genuine kindness of heart.

In these public drives Carlotta always sat on the right, and continually bowed and smiled from beneath her parasol in acknowledgment of the popular acclamations. But for these especial marks of respect and courtesy from the throngs, the Imperial party might easily have been mistaken for the family of some wealthy or distinguished citizen: Maximilian with his hat (always a white one) rather jauntily placed, and Carlotta having the dress and appearance of a young lady of the English aristocracy, which the rather full face, fresh color and English style, seemed to favor. Carlotta passed several years at the court of Queen Victoria, her relative and warm friend. At the time of her advent in Mexico she was twenty-three years of age, tall, graceful, and with a face rather haughty than beautiful, yet beaming with the promptings of a gentle and kind heart: she was the friend of the distressed, and literally thousands now live in Mexico who cherish her memory for unnumbered acts of charity. One of the richest ladies of Europe in her own right, she drew liberally on her private fortune to alleviate suffering in every form, and to forward the beneficent objects of the Empire.

There was enough of romance in the mysterious past of that distant land, enough of interest in its wretched present, enough of hope for its future, to tempt the high-souled Maximilian to devote himself to its regeneration, and to placing Mexico in the front rank of nations. Sad indeed to reflect that these aspiring day dreams and worthy ambitions were at last to bear the bitter fruit of disappointment, death and hopeless gloom. Sadder still for Mexico, who in destroying the heroic prince seems to have thrown away her last hope of nationality.

GREAT chemist some years ago declared that the civilization of a people could be estimated by the amount of nitric acid they used. History, however, shows that a high order of civilization is not incompatible with the crudest knowledge of chemistry, and of the utilities and elegancies which chemistry has created. It would be more true to say that the civilization, of a people may be estimated by their progress in Art, whether we take the word in its broadest sense or in the limited one which applies to the exercise of taste in ornamentation. Art is the very germ of civilization, as it is its crowning flower. Much sinewy growth and sturdy battling precede its blossoming, and are indispensable to it, especially if it is to be perennial.

It is interesting to observe and record the beginnings of Art in a young community, and we propose to do this for San Francisco because it is the metropolis of the Pacific, where some day there will exist a distinct Art School, supported by a cultivated public taste, and where already there are more evidences