Most of the people, both male and female, are in walking costume, and carry alpenstocks.  Evidently, it is not considered safe to go about in Switzerland, even in town, without an alpenstock.  If the tourist forgets and comes down to breakfast without his alpenstock he goes back and gets it, and stands it up in the corner.  When his touring in Switzerland is finished, he does not throw that broomstick away, but lugs it home with him, to the far corners of the earth, although this costs him more trouble and bother than a baby or a courier could.  You see, the alpenstock is his trophy; his name is burned upon it; and if he has climbed a hill, or jumped a brook, or traversed a brickyard with it, he has the names of those places burned upon it, too.  Thus it is his regimental flag, so to speak, and bears the record of his achievements.  It is worth three francs when he buys it, but a bonanza could not purchase it after his great deeds have been inscribed upon it.  There are artisans all about Switzerland whose trade it is to burn these things upon the alpenstock of the tourist.  And observe, a man is respected in Switzerland according to his alpenstock.  I found I could get no attention there, while I carried an unbranded one.  However, branding is not expected, so I soon remedied that.  The effect upon the next detachment of tourists was very marked.  I felt repaid for my trouble.

Half of the summer horde in Switzerland is made up of English people; the other half is made up of many nationalities, the Germans leading and the Americans coming next.  The Americans were not as numerous as I had expected they would be.

The seven-thirty table d’ho^te at the great Schweitzerhof furnished a mighty array and variety of nationalities, but it offered a better opportunity to observe costumes than people, for the multitude sat at immensely long tables, and therefore the faces were mainly seen in perspective; but the breakfasts were served at small round tables, and then if one had the fortune to get a table in the midst of the assemblage he could have as many faces to study as he could desire.  We used to try to guess out the nationalities, and generally succeeded tolerably well.  Sometimes we tried to guess people’s names; but that was a failure; that is a thing which probably requires a good deal of practice.  We presently dropped it and gave our efforts to less difficult particulars.  One morning I said: 

“There is an American party.”

Harris said: 

“Yes—­but name the state.”

I named one state, Harris named another.  We agreed upon one thing, however—­that the young girl with the party was very beautiful, and very tastefully dressed.  But we disagreed as to her age.  I said she was eighteen, Harris said she was twenty.  The dispute between us waxed warm, and I finally said, with a pretense of being in earnest: 

“Well, there is one way to settle the matter—­I will go and ask her.”