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Views a-foot by Bayard Taylor
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each, in advance for twelve letters, to be sent from Europe, with
the probability of accepting more, if these should be
satisfactory. This, with a sum which I received from Mr. Graham for
poems published in his Magazine, put me in possession of about a
hundred and forty dollars, with which I determined to start,
trusting to future remuneration for letters, or if that should fail,
to my skill as a compositor, for I supposed I could at the worst,
work my way through Europe, like the German hand werker. Thus, with
another companion, we left home, an enthusiastic and hopeful trio.

I need not trace our wanderings at length. After eight months of
suspense, during which time my small means were entirely exhausted,
I received a letter from Mr. Patterson, continuing the engagement
for the remainder of my stay, with a remittance of one hundred
dollars from himself and Mr. Graham. Other remittances, received
from time to time, enabled me to stay abroad two years, during which
I traveled on foot upwards of three thousand miles in Germany,
Switzerland, Italy and France. I was obliged, however, to use the
strictest economy--to live on pilgrim fare, and do penance in rain
and cold. My means several times entirely failed; but I was always
relieved from serious difficulty through unlooked-for friends, or
some unexpected turn of fortune. At Rome, owing to the expenses and
embarrassments of traveling in Italy, I was obliged to give up my
original design of proceeding on foot to Naples and across the
peninsula to Otranto, sailing thence to Corfu and making a
pedestrian journey through Albania and Greece. But the main object
of my pilgrimage is accomplished; I visited the principal places of
interest in Europe, enjoyed her grandest scenery and the marvels of
ancient and modern art, became familiar with other languages, other
customs and other institutions, and returned home, after two years'
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