A Tramps Sketches

A Tramp's Sketches

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Title: A Tramp's Sketches
Author: Stephen Graham
Release Date: April 10, 2004 [EBook #11980]
Language: English
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[Illustration: NIGHT OVER THE BLACK SEA]

A TRAMP'S SKETCHES
BY
STEPHEN GRAHAM
1913
TO
"THE CELESTIALS"

PREFACE

This book was written chiefly whilst tramping along the Caucasian and
Crimean shores of the Black Sea, and on a pilgrimage with Russian
peasants to Jerusalem. Most of it was written in the open air, sitting on
logs in the pine forests or on bridges over mountain streams, by the side
of my morning fire or on the sea sand after the morning dip. It is not so
much a book about Russia as about the tramp. It is the life of the
wanderer and seeker, the walking hermit, the rebel against modern
conditions and commercialism who has gone out into the wilderness.
I have tramped alone over the battlefields of the Crimea, visited the
cemetery where lie so many British dead, wandered along the Black
Sea shores a thousand miles to New Athos monastery and Batum, have
been with seven thousand peasant pilgrims to Jerusalem, and lived their
life in the hospitable Greek monasteries and in the great Russian
hostelry at the Holy City, have bathed with them in Jordan where all
were dressed in their death-shrouds, and have slept with them a whole
night in the Sepulchre.
One cannot make such a journey without great experiences both
spiritual and material. On every hand new significances are revealed,
both of Russian life and of life itself.
It is with life itself that this volume is concerned. It is personal and
friendly, and on that account craves indulgence. Here are the songs and
sighs of the wanderer, many lyrical pages, and the very minimum of
scientific and topographical matter. It is all written spontaneously and
without study, and as such goes forth--all that a seeker could put down
of his visions, or could tell of what he sought.
There will follow, if it is given to the author both to write and to
publish, a full story of the places he visited along the Black Sea shore,
and of the life of the pilgrims on the way to the shrine of the Sepulchre
and at the shrine itself. It will be a continuation of the work begun in
Undiscovered Russia.
Several of these sketches appeared in the _St. James's Gazette_, two in
Country Life, and one in _Collier's_ of New York, being sent out to
these papers from the places where they were written. The author
thanks the Editors for permission to republish, and for their courtesy in
dealing with MSS.
STEPHEN GRAHAM.

CONTENTS
I
1. FAREWELL TO THE TOWN 2. NIGHTS OUT ON A PERFECT
VAGABONDAGE 3. THE LORD'S PRAYER 4. DAYS 5. THE
QUESTION OK THE SCEPTIC 6. A THING OF BEAUTY IS A JOY
FOR EVER 7. A STILL-CREATION-DAY 8. SUNSET FROM THE
GATE OF BAIDARI 9. THE MEANING OF THE SEA
II
1. HOSPITALITY 2. THE RICH MAN AND THE POOR MAN 3. A
LODGING FOR THE NIGHT 4. SOCRATES OF ZUGDIDA 5.
"HAVE YOU A LIGHT HAND?" 6. ST. SPIRIDON OF
TREMIFOND 7. AT A FAIR. 8. A TURKISH COFFEE-HOUSE 9.
AT A GREAT MONASTERY
III
1. THE BOY WHO NEVER GROWS OLD 2. ZENOBIA 3. THE
LITTLE DEAD CHILD 4. HOW THE OLD PILGRIM REACHED
BETHLEHEM
IV
THE WANDERER'S STORY
(I.) MY COMPANION. (II.) HOW HE FOUND HIMSELF IN A
COACH. (III.) IRRECONCILABLES. (IV.) THE TOWNSMAN. (V.)
HIS CONVERSION.
V
THE UNCONQUERABLE HOPE
VI
THE PILGRIMAGE TO JERUSALEM
VII
THE MESSAGE FROM THE HERMIT
* * * * *
FRONTISPIECE
NIGHT OVER THE BLACK SEA

I

I
FAREWELL TO THE TOWN
The town is one large house of which all the little houses are rooms.

The streets are the stairs. Those who live always in the town are never
out of doors even if they do take the air in the streets.
When I came into the town I found that in my soul were reflected its
blank walls, its interminable stairways, and the shadows of hurrying
traffic.
A thousand sights and impressions, unbidden, unwelcome, flooded
through the eye-gate of my soul, and a thousand harsh sounds and
noises came to me through my ears and echoed within me. I became
aware