Swami Vivekananda smiling at Thousand Island Park

Swamiji used to take walks in the village of Thousand Island Park with his students, Sister Christine, and others. We know of two such walks the group took through the village. One of them tookplace before the morning class and perhaps before many people were abroad. They stopped at the Thousand Island Park Studio, which specialized in “Portrait Photography, Instantaneous Pictures, [and] Thousand Island Park Views,” and at the request of his students Swamiji had tintypes taken of himself, two of whichmay well have been this pose—one full-length with a painted river-view for a backdrop, and the other [no. 40] a simple head and shoulders. “He was so full of fun, so merry,” Mrs. Funke wrote of this occasion.29 ❊ ❊ ❊ Wednesday, June 19, 1895 Really good and evil are one and are in our own mind. When the mind is self-poised, neither good nor bad effects it. Be perfectly free; then neither can affect it, and we enjoy freedom and bliss. Evil is the iron chain, good is the gold one; both are chains. Be free, and know once for all that there is no chain for you. Lay hold of the golden chain to loosen the hold of the iron one, then throw both away. (CW [1979] 7:4-5)