LIBRARY 
 
 NIVERSE OF 
 
 CALIFORNIA 
 
 SAN DIEGO

 
 GERMANY 
 
 SEEN WITHOUT SPECTACLES 
 
 RANDOM SKETCHES OF VARIOUS SUBJECTS 
 PENNED FROM DIFFERENT STAND- 
 POINTS IN THE EMPIRE 
 
 HESTKY RTJGGLES 
 
 LATE UNITED STATES CONSUL AT THE ISLAND OF MALTA AND 
 BARCELONA, SPAIN 
 
 BOSTON 
 LEE AND SHEPARD, 47 FRANKLIN STREET 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 CHARLES T. DILLINGHAM, 678 BROADWAY 
 1883
 
 COPYRIGHT 
 
 .S8 3 
 BY LEE AND SHEPARI> 
 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 
 
 Electrotyped and Printed by 
 ALFRED Mi DOE & SON, PRINTERS, BOSTON.
 
 TO MY DAUGHTER 
 
 Annie LOUI$G 
 
 WHO FOR MANY YEARS HAS BEEN MY COMPANION ABROAD, AND WHO 
 
 HAS SHARED WITH ME THE PLEASURES AS WELL AS THE DIS- 
 
 COMFORTS OF TRAVEL IN MANY FOREIGN LANDS, THIS 
 
 VOLUME IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED BY HER 
 
 FATHER
 
 INTRODUCTORY, 
 
 German travellers, as well as English and 
 French, who have had the courage to cross the Atlantic 
 for the sake of seeing what sort of a country America 
 is, and what sort of a people inhabit it, have written 
 letters to their friends and newspapers in the old 
 country, and have even had the audacity to publish 
 books, which have been anything but complimentary to 
 America or Americans in their criticisms and descrip- 
 tions of American characteristics, and of the habits 
 and customs of the people. To do this they have a 
 perfect right. Free discussions and criticisms even if 
 carried on by the pen, in describing any nation's pecul- 
 iarities and shortcomings, are considered allowable and 
 legitimate, and often are the means of correcting many 
 social evils and absurdities which nothing but the pen 
 can improve or exterminate. The severe castigations 
 which Americans received through the books written on 
 America by Dickens, Trollope, and other writers, al- 
 though read by many with indignation and humiliation, 
 yet undoubtedly were beneficial as the means of dis- 
 pelling a large amount of foolish national egotism and 
 banishing many absurd customs and ridiculous practices 
 which had before existed. 
 
 In travelling through Germany Americans should have 
 the same right to criticise and discuss German people, 
 customs, habits, and peculiarities, as the German or any
 
 VI INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 foreigner has while travelling in America to criticise and 
 discuss us and ours. In writing he cannot confine his at- 
 tention exclusively to the picture galleries, museums, art 
 schools, palaces, castles, music, etc., for which the country 
 is famous, but he must be pardoned if he occasionally 
 turns aside from these familiar sights, scenes, and sub- 
 jects, which all travellers write about, and, going behind 
 the scenes, gives vivid and truthful pictures of every-day 
 German life; of the degradation of German peasant- 
 women as seen in the fields and the streets ; of beer-drink- 
 ing ; the small remuneration for labor of all kinds ; student 
 life in the universities; students' duels; kneips and beer 
 orgies ; German cooking and eating ; cost of living, etc. 
 
 Some of the chapters in this book may be severely 
 criticised as being exaggerated, and branded as un- 
 warranted departures from the actual facts, but such 
 criticisms will come from those who are but slightly ac- 
 quainted with German life, and whose opportunities to 
 study and observe the habits of the people, and es- 
 pecially of the working classes, have been very limited, 
 if not entirely neglected. 
 
 If the Germans do love beer, and do drink a great deal 
 of it, yet beer-drinking is not the national curse to Ger- 
 many that whiskey-drinking is to America. In the latter 
 country there are probably twenty drunkards to one in 
 Germany, where to see a man in the streets or elsewhere 
 under the influence of strong drinks is a rare exception, 
 without it may be in the university towns, where the 
 students drink to excess in their clubs and beer-halls. 
 
 The statistics of crime in the two countries would 
 show a remarkable disproportion, as there are probably 
 four crimes committed and an equal number of arrests 
 made in the United States to one in Germany. This is 
 owing in a great measure to the free use of alcoholic
 
 INTRODUCTORY. Vll 
 
 stimulants and the laxity of the laws in the United 
 States, which allow so many criminals guilty of large 
 and petty crimes to go unpunished. In Germany, as has 
 been said, drunkenness is rare, and the laws on the stat- 
 ute books are not dead letters, but are enforced to their 
 fullest extent with vigor and despatch. And, as a rule, 
 the Germans are the most honest people in the world. 
 Petty thieving and petty crimes of any kind among 
 servants or among the lower orders of society are 
 unfrequent and of rare occurrence. Defalcations by 
 bank officials or by the officials of moneyed institu- 
 tions seldom happen or are seldom heard of. If the 
 moneys or securities of a bank disappear through the 
 speculative mania or the spendthrift proclivities of a 
 dishonest president, cashier, or clerk, there is no evading 
 the full penalties of the law. Wealth, respectability, 
 title, or the pleadings and petitions of aristocratic and 
 influential friends and relatives, are of no avail. Judges 
 and juries cannot be bought or bribed, but the convicted 
 felon who has trangressed the law is sure to surfer for 
 his crimes, and rare is the exception where one is par- 
 doned before his full sentence is served. 
 
 When the laws in the United States are enforced with 
 the same promptness and certainty that they are in Ger- 
 many, without reference to the social position of the cul- 
 prit or his friends, then shall we see less robbing of 
 banks, corporations, and trust institutions by " respect- 
 able " officials, and less crimes of every variety by the 
 criminally inclined. 
 
 While the American finds much to admire in Ger- 
 many, in its music, in its wonderful treasures of art, in 
 the thorough manner in which its railways and all its 
 public works and buildings are constructed, in the strict 
 and impartial administering of its laws, in the trait of
 
 Viii INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 the German nature which compels him to do everything 
 so thoroughly that he undertakes, and in the Germans 
 themselves, who have the faculty of enjoying life to its 
 fullest extent more than any other nationality, yet he 
 sees much that he would wish to improve, much that he 
 would wish to abolish, and much that convinces him that 
 many of the ingredients, if it may be so expressed, 
 which should make a nation great a model nation 
 are wanting. 
 
 Its enormous standing army of half a million of men is 
 undoubtedly a curse to the country, a millstone about its 
 neck, which absorbs the talent of the country and the 
 flower of its youth. It demoralizes the dignity of labor 
 and produces a military aristocracy that shuns labor and 
 ignores all trades and professions and those engaged in 
 them. But the blackest picture of all to an American in 
 Germany, the one that has the darkest background, is the 
 degradation of the women of the lower classes. To see 
 these poor creatures, many of them feeble and tottering 
 with old age, working and toiling in the fields like bond 
 slaves from sunrise to sunset, shovelling, hoeing, and 
 digging, supplying the places of work-horses or mules 
 in dragging heavy loads through the streets and over the 
 country roads, toiling and bending beneath enormous 
 burdens on their heads or shoulders, is it a wonder that 
 Americans can witness a degradation that is in such 
 contrast to the way women are treated in America, 
 without exclaiming, " Can this be a civilized country, 
 and can this be the nineteenth century " ?
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGB 
 
 ARRIVAL AT HEIDELBERG. AN INQUISITIVE FELLOW-TRAVELLER. 
 
 CONFUSED IDEAS OF THE UNITED STATES. BRIEF HISTORY 
 OF THE OLD CASTLE, WHAT MAKES HEIDELBERG ATTRACT- 
 IVE. SIGHTS FROM MY HOTEL WINDOW. A MODEL VEGE- 
 TABLE GARDEN. WOMAN'S LABOR AND MAN'S INDIFFERENCE. 
 
 THE GRAY MARE THE BETTER HORSE OF THE Two . i 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 DUELLING AT HEIDELBERG. THE UNIVERSITY FIGHTING CLUBS. 
 
 BRUTAL SWORD COMBATS BETWEEN GERMAN STUDENTS. 
 
 A PASTIME MORE BARBAROUS THAN THE BULL-FIGHTS OF 
 SPAIN . . . . . . 10 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 FIRES IN EUROPEAN CITIES. UNFREQUENCY OF FIRES ABROAD. 
 
 FIRE-PROOF BUILDINGS. How FIRE ALARMS ARE GIVEN. 
 
 GOING TO A FIRE IN THE GERMAN CITY OF HEIDELBERG. 
 FIREMEN WHO WAIT TO PUT ON THEIR UNIFORMS, SHAVE, 
 AND BLACK THEIR BOOTS BEFORE ANSWERING A FlRE ALARM. 
 
 PREPARATIONS FOR PUTTING OUT A FIRE. Too LATE 26 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 BFER-DRINKING IN GERMANY. BEER AS AN ELEMENT IN UNI- 
 VERSITY LIFE. DRINKING-BOUTS OF STUDENTS AND PROFESS- 
 ORS. KNEIPS AND BEER ORGIES. A FIGHT IN A BEER- 
 SHOP. THE FARCE OF AMERICAN STUDENTS GOING ABROAD 
 TO ATTEND GERMAN UNIVERSITIES 42
 
 X CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE EUROPEAN SARATOGA. BADEN-BADEN AND ITS LOAFING 
 ROYALTY. CHARACTERISTICS OF THIS FAMOUS GERMAN 
 RESORT. GOING TO CHURCH WITH AN EMPRESS. ENGLISH 
 CHAPELS AND CHURCH SERVICE ON THE CONTINENT. CHAP- 
 LAINS NOT NOTED FOR PlETY OR MORALITY. THE WEALTH 
 
 OF THE GRAND DUKE OF BADEN 56 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 MORE GLIMPSES OF LIFE AT BADEN-BADEN. PRECAUTIONS TAKEN 
 TO SAVE THE EMPEROR FROM ASSASSINATION. PRINCE GORT- 
 SCHAKOFF. A GENTLEMAN FROM FIJI. A HORSE-RACE 
 
 BEFORE THE EMPEROR AND EMPRESS, IN WHICH A PRINCE 
 
 AND A GRAND DUKE COME IN FIRST AND SECOND. No EN- 
 THUSIASM 69 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 WURTEMBERG. ITS KlNG AND NOBILITY. A POCKET KINGDOM 
 SCARCELY RECOGNIZABLE ON THE MAPS. THE PAY THAT ROY- 
 ALTY AND THE NOBILITY RECEIVE. GERMAN BOOK-KEEPING. 
 
 WHERE THE MONEY COMES FROM. THE KING'S PALACES. 
 
 STUTTGART, THE CAPITAL . . . ... . .82 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 MUSICAL GERMANY. THE CONSERVATOIRE AT STUTTGART. A 
 
 ClTY GIVEN OVER TO THE DISCORDS OF MUSICAL PRACTICE. 
 
 How THE CONCEIT is TAKEN OUT OF AMERICAN PRODIGIES 
 WHO GO TO GERMANY TO FINISH THEIR MUSICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 CONCERTS AT THE LIEDERHALLE. BEER, Music, AND 
 LUNCHES COMBINED 94 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 FREE Music AND CHEAP Music IN GERMANY. CARL'S BAND 
 AND ITS DAILY CONCERTS. No MUSICAL TRAMPS. AMERI- 
 CAN MELODIES DOMESTICATED IN THE COUNTRY. PLAYING 
 " DIXIE," " YANKEE DOODLE," " WHEN JOHNNIE COMES 
 MARCHING HOME," " MARCHING THROUGH GEORGIA," ETC., 
 BEFORE THE EMPEROR AT A REVIEW. MUSIC FROM THE 
 CHURCH TOWERS ... . 102
 
 CONTENTS. XI 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Music, BEER, AND SAUER-KRAUT, THE THREE LOVES OF GER- 
 MANY. THE OMNIPRESENT CABBAGE. SEARCHING FOR A 
 BOARDING- HOUSE, SOME REALISTIC GERMAN ART. THE 
 PARADISE OF DIFFERENT RELIGIOUS SECTS, NATIONALITIES, 
 
 ETC. .... Ill 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE GERMAN LABORER AND HIS HIRE. THF. DEGRADATION 
 HEAPED UPON WOMEN OF THE LOWER CLASS. A SERVI- 
 TUDE MORE DEGRADING THAN SLAVERY. WAGES PAID ME- 
 CHANICS, AGRICULTURAL LABORERS, AND HOUSE SERVANTS. 
 COST OF LIVING . 119 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 ROMANCE IN REAL LIFE. STRANGELY INTERESTING CAREER OF 
 A YOUNG AMERICAN, NOW PRIVY COUNCILLOR AND BOSOM 
 FRIEND OF THE KING OF WURTEMBERG. FROM A FARM TO 
 A CONSULATE, AND FROM A CONSULATE TO A PALACE. 
 ORDERS AND DECORATIONS BESTOWED BY CROWNED HEADS. 
 THE AMERICAN COLONY IN STUTTGART .... 128 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE ART TREASURES OF MUNICH. A GLIMPSE AT THE PICTURE 
 GALLERIES. "ORIGINALS" BY THE "OLD MASTERS." A 
 VISIT TO THE FAMOUS BRONZE AND IRON FOUNDRIES AND 
 STAINED-GLASS WORKS. THE NATIONAL MUSEUM AND THE 
 RICHES OF THE KING'S PALACE 140 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE BAVARIAN CAPITAL. ITS TREASURES OF ART AND ARCHI- 
 TECTURE. THE BAVARIAN KINGS THE GREATEST PATRONS 
 OF THE ARTS AND SCIENCES. THE ECCENTRIC KlNG LOUIS, 
 A ROYAL CRANK. His LOVE OF Music. STORIES OF HIS 
 ECCENTRICITIES THE KING AND THE NIGHTINGALE . . 151
 
 Xll CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 GLIMPSES OF LIFE IN BAVARIA. A VISIT TO HOHENLINDEN. 
 " ON LINDEN WHEN THE SUN WAS LOW." BEHIND THE 
 SCENES AT OBERAMMERGAU. EVERY-DAY LIFE OF THE 
 ACTORS IN THE PASSION PLAY. How THE REVENUES OF 
 THE BAVARIAN KINGDOM ARE OBTAINED. THE CEMETERY 
 AT MUNICH 162 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE HOFBRAUHAUS AT MUNICH. DAILY SCENES AT THE ROYAL 
 BREWERY, WHERE THIRSTY BEER-DRINKERS QUENCH THEIR 
 THIRST. BEER-DRINKERS FORMING IN LINE WITH THEIR 
 BEER-MUGS, WAITING TO BE SERVED. THE PRICE OF BEER 
 DAILY REGULATED BY QUOTATIONS FROM THE HOP MARKET . 173 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE NATIONAL DRINK OF GERMANY. SOME STATISTICS OF THE 
 ENORMOUS AMOUNT OF BEER MADE AND DRANK IN THE 
 KINGDOM OF WURTEMBERG. AND YET BAVARIA TAKES THE 
 LEAD IN BOTH. EXTRAORDINARY FEATS OF BEER-DRINKING. 
 BEER DUELS OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS .... 185 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 GLIMPSES OF GERMANY. FROM MUNICH TO BERLIN. MONOT- 
 ONY OF CONTINENTAL TRAVELLING. SCENERY FROM A CAR 
 WINDOW. How THE GERMAN RAILWAYS ARE MANAGED. 
 A SYSTEM AS PERFECT AS CLOCK-WORK. THE WAGES PAID 
 EMPLOYES. PASSENGERS CARRIED AT FIRST, SECOND, THIRD, 
 AND FOURTH CLASS RATES. EMIGRATION AND THE LABOR 
 PROBLEMS. WILL THE PROPHECY OF MALTHUS EVER BE 
 FULFILLED? 191 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 BERLIN AND ITS MONUMENTS. ITS PALACES AND ART TREAS- 
 URES. PARIS AND BERLIN AS ART CENTRES. A VISIT TO 
 THE OLD SCHLOSS. ITS MAGNIFICENT SUITES OF APART- 
 MENTS. ITS THRONE ROOMS, PICTURE GALLERIES, BALL 
 AND RECEPTION ROOMS, WITH THEIR SPLENDID DECORATIONS 
 AND PRICELESS CONTENTS 203
 
 CONTENTS. Xlll 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 MORE OF PRUSSIA'S ROYAL SHOW-HOUSES. PALACES AT POTS- 
 DAM. BABELSBERG. THE MARBLE PALACE. THE NEW 
 PALACE. ROYAL PALACE. SANS-SOUCI, ETC. INTERIOR 
 MAGNIFICENCE. SOUVENIRS AND REMINISCENCES OF "OLD 
 FRITZ." A SECRET BANQUET HALL. THE COFFINS OF 
 FREDERICK THE GREAT AND HIS BRUTAL FATHER . . . 215 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 KAISER WILLIAM. CELEBRATION OF HIS EIGHTY-FIFTH BIRTH- 
 DAY AT BERLIN. PUBLIC REJOICINGS THROUGHOUT THE EM- 
 PIRE. ANECDOTE OF His MAJESTY. His VISIT TO AN OR- 
 PHAN ASYLUM. BISMARCK AND GEN. VON MOLTKE. THE 
 RECEPTION OF THE LATTER AT A Swiss HOTEL . . . 229 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 THE DRESDEN PICTURE GALLERY. ITS WONDERFUL COLLECTION 
 OF PAINTINGS- STORY OF THE SISTINE MADONNA. FEMALE 
 MODELS WHO SAT FOR SCRIPTURE REPRESENTATIONS NOT 
 ALWAYS OF THE MOST VIRTUOUS REPUTATION. HOLBEIN'S 
 MADONNA. "ORIGINALS" FROM THE "OLD MASTERS" GET- 
 TING MIXED UP AND CONFOUNDED WITH COPIES. HOW 
 
 IRREVERENT AMERICAN YOUTHS " DO" THE FOREIGN PICTURE 
 GALLERIES 242 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 ORDER OF THE GARTER. SAXONY'S KING INVESTED WITH ITS 
 GORGEOUS INSIGNIA. OSTENTATIOUS PROCESSION OF ROY- 
 ALTY AND NOBILITY. THE CEREMONIES REMINDING ONE 
 OF. A SCENE FROM ONE OF SHAKESPEARE'S PLAYS. SIGNIFI- 
 CANCE OF THE GIFT. HISTORY OF THE ORDER . . . 254 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 AMERICANS ABROAD. TOURIST TRAMPS FROM ACROSS THE AT- 
 LANTIC. SELF-EXILED AMERICANS. PEOPLE WITH MORE 
 MONEY THAN CHARACTER. CONFESSIONS OF MATRIMONIAL 
 EXILES. FONDNESS OF GERMAN OFFICERS FOR AMERICAN
 
 XIV CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 DINNERS AND AMERICAN GIRLS. AMBITIOUS AND INTRIGU- 
 ING AMERICAN MOTHERS. THE SAD FATE OF AMERICAN 
 GIRLS WHO MARRY FOREIGN TITLES 265 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 SLEEPING AND EATING IN GERMANY. FAULT-FINDING, GRUM- 
 BLING AMERICAN TRAVELLERS SHORT AND NARROW BEDS. 
 NOT SATISFIED WITH GERMAN COOKING. FRENCH COOK- 
 ING AT THE HOTELS. COST OF LIVING IN GERMAN PENSIONS 
 AND FAMILIES. BREAKFAST, LUNCH, AND DINNER . . 277 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 THE SUGAR-BEET IN GERMANY. HISTORY OF ITS CULTIVATION 
 IN EUROPE. THE PROCESS OF MANUFACTURE OF BEET 
 SUGAR. STATISTICS OF THE QUANTITY MADE IN DIFFERENT 
 EUROPEAN COUNTRIES. COST OF MAKING AND COST OF 
 MACHINERY FOR ITS MANUFACTURE 286
 
 GERMANY SEEN WITHOUT SPECTACLES. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ARRIVAL AT HEIDELBERG. AN INQUISITIVE FELLOW-TRAV- 
 ELLER. CONFUSED IDEAS OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 BRIEF HISTORY OF THE OLD CASTLE. WHAT MAKES 
 HEIDELBERG ATTRACTIVE. SIGHTS FROM MY HOTEL 
 WINDOW. A MODEL VEGETABLE GARDEN. WOMAN'S 
 LABOR AND MAN'S INDIFFERENCE. THE GRAY MARE 
 THE BETTER HORSE OF THE TWO. 
 
 IT was after midnight when our train from Ge- 
 neva, via Bale, rolled into the splendid rail- 
 way station at Heidelberg. A German of middle 
 age, with broad shoulders and Falstaff propor- 
 tions, who had been my fellow-traveller from the 
 latter city, and who spoke English imperfectly, 
 had kept me awake for several hours by inform- 
 ing me of the names of all the towns we passed 
 through and asking me all manner of questions 
 about America and its people, as if I had been a 
 living encyclopaedia. What sort of a climate had 
 we? Were the seasons long or short? Could 
 we make good beer ? he had heard not. Were 
 the Indians and buffaloes still prowling around 
 our cities and seaports ? Were our people much
 
 2 AN INQUISITIVE FELLOW TRAVELLER. 
 
 civilized ? he had his doubts. Did the murders 
 in our country average a thousand a day, as he 
 had seen it estimated in some of their papers ? 
 Were our cities and towns destroyed by fire 
 every three or four years, as he had been told ? 
 Had we as many miles of railway in the United 
 States as they have in Germany, and was it true 
 that our railways were so insecurely built and so 
 carelessly managed that travellers insure their 
 lives before venturing upon them ? Did we have 
 negro governors and Presidents ? Was it true 
 that Abraham Lincoln was the descendant of an 
 Indian chief? Were we a musical nation? 
 
 It would be difficult to chronicle all the strange 
 questions that this inquisitive and apparently half- 
 educated German asked me, and whose knowledge 
 of the United States and its people was as crude 
 as if he had been a native of Madagascar. When 
 I told him that we had more miles of railway in 
 our country than they had in the whole of 
 Europe, the man looked at me with astonishment 
 and incredulity. Squaring his bulky form around, 
 he surveyed me from head to foot, and in a sol- 
 emn, surprised voice exclaimed, 
 
 " Mein Gott ! ish dat possible ! " 
 
 He had a vague, visionary idea of the size of 
 the United States; he acknowledged that he had 
 read or heard but little about it ; he was afraid he 
 had been misinformed about many things. Was 
 it as large as Germany, or Belgium, or Russia ?
 
 APPROACHING HEIDELBERG. 3 
 
 Then he was more astonished than ever by my 
 telling him that we had thirty-eight States and 
 ten Territories, and that one of these States was 
 as large as all Germany, with nearly a third of the 
 Austrian Empire added to it. 
 
 11 Mein Gott ! vot a country you have ! " was his 
 exclamation, as he again surveyed me from head to 
 foot. 
 
 It was bright moonlight, the night of our long 
 ride from Bale, through old Freiburg and the bor- 
 ders of the Black Forest ; through Carlsruhe, 
 the residence of the Grand Duke of Baden ; and 
 through many towns and villages that lined the 
 railway. As we approached Heidelberg my Ger- 
 man friend pointed out to me the historical old 
 city in the distance, with innumerable gas lights 
 glimmering and twinkling in the streets like my- 
 riads of stars, and several tall church spires and 
 towers outlined against the midnight sky. 
 
 Approaching still nearer, the famous old castle, 
 with its crumbling towers, its ivy-covered arches, 
 and gray, ragged battlements, the Alhambra of 
 Germany, was plainly visible in the moonlight, 
 perched like a huge, deserted eagle's nest midway 
 on the side of a high hill that overhung the city. 
 
 In a few broken sentences my German friend 
 gave me a brief history of this famous ruin ; that 
 it was built towards the last of the thirteenth cen- 
 tury, and for about three hundred years was the 
 residence of the Electors or Counts Palatine, who
 
 THE OLD CASTLE. 
 
 held sway over all the country round about, and 
 who lived in all the regal splendor and magnifi- 
 cence of the old French kings ; that at one time 
 the court of the Elector and his retainers who 
 lived within the castle walls amounted to over 
 seventeen hundred persons ; that four times dur- 
 ing the seventeenth century the castle was 
 besieged and partly destroyed by invading French 
 armies, and finally rendered uninhabitable in 1764, 
 when, by a stroke of lightning, it caught fire and 
 its roofs and interiors were completely consumed. 
 
 The distance was short from the railway sta- 
 tion to the hotel where I had previously engaged 
 rooms. The landlord, Herr Lang, who had 
 been expecting our arrival, was waiting at his 
 hotel entrance to receive us, and gave us a hearty 
 welcome, such as a German landlord only knows 
 how to give. A bountiful supper was in readi- 
 ness, and pleasant rooms overlooking a beautiful 
 flower garden and the intersection of two streets 
 were all prepared for us to occupy. And here I 
 slept soundly the first night of a two years' most 
 delightful sojourn in Germany. 
 
 Days and weeks flew rapidly by in this pleas- 
 ant old city. It was during the summer months, 
 and tourists from all parts of the globe were 
 crowding the hotels, the streets, and the shady 
 walks around the old castle. A fine orchestral 
 band discoursed sweet music every day in the 
 castle grounds or in a little park on the Leopold-
 
 WHAT ONE SEES IN* HEIDELBERG. 5 
 
 strasse. University students, many of them be- 
 longing to the different corps and wearing jaunty 
 little caps of different colors, were promenading 
 the streets at all hours of the day and evening, or 
 crowded around the little tables beneath green 
 arbors and shady trees in the many beer gardens, 
 drinking beer and singing their university songs. 
 And there were the market days twice a week, 
 when the public squares of the city were crowded 
 by country women with little booths and stands, 
 selling all manner of vegetables from country 
 gardens, also fruits, butter, eggs, poultry, fish, 
 housekeeping utensils, wooden ware, and carvings 
 from the Black Forest, miscellaneous articles from 
 thread and needle stores ; flower stands, with 
 bouquets of all sizes, and all varieties of flowers 
 temptingly arranged and displayed to attract the 
 attention ; while the market-women themselves, 
 with quaint costumes and head-dresses, were 
 busily sewing or knitting, when not engaged in 
 disposing of their wares, or in wordy disputes 
 with customers. 
 
 From the windows of my rooms at the hotel 
 I could see the valley in the distance where the 
 waters of the river Neckar, which flow through 
 Heidelberg, mingle with the waters of the Rhine 
 and then flow on past Mannheim, past Mayence, 
 Bingen, Coblenz, Bonn, past Cologne and Dus- 
 seldorf, and on and on until they empty into the 
 North Sea.
 
 6 THE VEGETABLE GARDEN ACROSS THE STREET. 
 
 Across the street from the hotel was a vacant 
 building lot, which had been utilized as a garden 
 by a poor German family, or, rather, by a poor 
 German woman. It was a good-sized garden, 
 and must have covered nearly a quarter of an 
 acre. There were patches of potatoes, cabbages, 
 cauliflower, peas, beans, beets, turnips, carrots, 
 onions, and seemingly every variety of vegetable 
 that a seedsman's catalogue could enumerate. 
 It was the ist of June, and all the vegetables 
 were in fine growing order, and gave unmistak- 
 able evidence that they had been tended in a 
 thorough manner, and by a skilful hand. 
 
 My attention was first called to the garden by 
 hearing the constant click of a hoe in the early 
 morning before the sun's rays had gilded the hill- 
 tops around Heidelberg. I thought little of it at 
 first, but at length my curiosity one morning 
 prompted me to get out of bed to obtain a sight 
 of this early-rising German gardener who was dis- 
 turbing my morning slumbers. 
 
 Instead of seeing a man digging away among 
 the vegetables as I had expected, there was a 
 bronzed-faced woman, bareheaded, and bare- 
 footed, her soiled dress and petticoats tucked 
 up above her knees, busily at work with her hoe 
 among the rows of potatoes and cabbages. An 
 hour later I saw her still at her task ; she was 
 at work upon it all the afternoon, and it was not 
 until the evening shadows had partly buried the 
 city in gloom that she dropped her hoe.
 
 WOMAN S INDUSTRY. 7 
 
 The next day, and for days and weeks after, I 
 found was but a repetition of this same routine of 
 labor among the vegetables. The poor woman 
 seemed never to rest. Occasionally the wailing 
 cry of a young infant, in a small poverty-stricken 
 house on the farthest corner of the garden, 
 would cause her to drop her hoe and hasten to its 
 relief. 
 
 This little house, which, with its looks of pov- 
 erty and neglect, had an air of neatness about it, 
 was her home, and where all her household idols 
 and treasures were sheltered. The stout, middle- 
 aged German whom I saw most of the time sitting 
 in the doorway, complacently smoking his long 
 German pipe, or taking frequent draughts from a 
 beer mug placed handily within his reach on a 
 small table, was her husband whom she had mar- 
 ried for better or worse, and whom she had prom- 
 ised to honor and obey. 
 
 The husband was not an invalid. The cares 
 and troubles of life if he had any seemed to 
 rest lightly on his shoulders. I could not dis- 
 cover that he had any occupation, without it was 
 to smoke, drink beer, and sit in the doorway to 
 watch \nsfrati as she toiled day after day among 
 the vegetables. Whenever the baby from an 
 inner apartment commenced crying, and raised 
 its voice to so high a pitch as to interrupt the flow 
 of his meditations, he would take the pipe from 
 his mouth, or the beer mug from his lip, and call
 
 8 THE GRAY MARE THE BETTER HORSE. 
 
 out, " Katrina ! Katrina ! " and Katrina would 
 drop her hoe and obey the call like the good and 
 obedient wife that she was. 
 
 At long intervals, when sitting in the doorway 
 became too wearisome, he would bring a low wood- 
 en stool out into the garden, and, sitting down 
 near his wife, keep her company, or possibly to see 
 that she performed her work in a thorough busi- 
 ness-like manner. On these occasions if he saw a 
 stray weed that had escaped her observation, he 
 would call her attention to it, or get up from his 
 stool and pluck it from the ground himself. 
 
 Occasionally he would hold the baby for an 
 hour or two in the doorway, or bring it out into 
 the garden with him and deposit it in the dirt 
 between the cabbages or other vegetables, where 
 it would remain in an upright position a few 
 moments and then roll over and commence to kick 
 and scream until its fond mother would catch it 
 up in her arms and disappear with it inside the 
 house. 
 
 On market days I would occasionally meet her 
 on one of the market-places or on the streets with 
 two or three baskets of vegetables on her arms or 
 placed on the ground about her, which she was 
 endeavoring to dispose of to buy bread, and to 
 keep her lord and master supplied with beer and 
 tobacco. 
 
 While stripping her garden for the market, I 
 noticed that her hoe was not idle in keeping the
 
 REST FOR THE WEARY. 9 
 
 weeds under control, for early every morning and 
 nearly every hour of the day, if I was in my 
 rooms, I could hear the click of the busy hoe and 
 see her bending over her toil like a bond slave. 
 The only rest or recreation that the poor woman 
 appeared to have was while disposing of her 
 vegetables ; or the few minutes that she -would 
 occasionally steal from her labors to have a short 
 chat with the old lady who sold pretzels, lemonade, 
 and mineral waters in a little wooden booth on 
 the street corner near the garden.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 DUELLING AT HEIDELBERG. THE UNIVERSITY FIGHTING 
 CLUBS. BRUTAL SWORD COMBATS BETWEEN GERMAN 
 STUDENTS. A PASTIME MORE BARBAROUS THAN THE 
 
 BULL-FlGHTS OF SPAIN. 
 
 TO be in Heidelberg and not see one of the 
 famous students' duels would be like visit- 
 ing Spain and not witnessing a bull-fight. Both 
 exhibitions, or amusements, if I must so call 
 them, spring from the barbarism which two sep- 
 arate and distinct nationalities have inherited 
 from barbarous ages of the past, and which the 
 influence of civilization and the culture of the 
 nineteenth century have not as yet been able to 
 abolish. 
 
 But there is this difference between the two 
 brutal shows : a bull-fight is open to the public, 
 whereas a students' duel is considered of such 
 an aristocratic and exclusive character that it 
 is seldom that strangers, or any one except the 
 members of the different students' corps, are 
 ever allowed to be present. Among the sixty 
 or seventy English and American students who 
 have been in Heidelberg from one to five and
 
 DUELLING AT HEIDELBERG. II 
 
 six years, and even longer, none of them, with 
 two or three exceptions, have ever been able to 
 witness one of those combats, though they all, as 
 several informed me, had done their " level best " 
 and brought all the influence to bear possible to 
 gain admittance. Soon after my arrival in Hei- 
 delberg I had expressed a wish to some of the 
 students in the Anglo-American Club that I 
 might be able to witness a duel before leaving 
 the city, but I had heard of so many difficulties in 
 the way that I had given up the idea as one 
 impossible to accomplish. But my lucky star, 
 however, was in the ascendant. 
 
 As I was on the point of leaving my hotel the 
 other morning, at about ten o'clock, for a short 
 walk, P. L. Conniffe, of Worcester, Mass., one 
 of the members of the club, came driving up in 
 hot haste, with perspiration rolling down his 
 flushed face He was evidently laboring under 
 some great excitement. 
 
 " A duel ! a duel ! " he exclaimed, half out of 
 breath. "Jump in quick; we haven't got a 
 moment to lose." 
 
 My first impressions were that he had accepted 
 a challenge and wanted me to express his body 
 home to his friends in Worcester in case he fell. 
 I jumped into the carriage, the driver gave the 
 horses two or three sharp cuts with his whip, and 
 we dashed away through the Hauptstrasse in the 
 direction of the river Neckar.
 
 12 GOING TO WITNESS A DUEL. 
 
 " How is it ? " I asked, as soon as I could 
 speak and be heard. " Are you going to fight ? " 
 
 " Fight ! no, Lord bless you, I hope not ! but we 
 are going to see one. Only got word fifteen min- 
 utes ago, before I had got out of bed." 
 
 " Yes, but how did you get permission ? 
 
 " Your card did it. Three days ago I sent, by a 
 friend, the card you left at the club with one of 
 my own to the president of the yellow-cap corps, 
 with the message that you were passing a few days 
 in Heidelberg and were very anxious to witness a 
 fight. I had no idea it would result in success, 
 but it seems they concluded to let us come, for the 
 president sent one of the students to my room but 
 a few minutes ago with an invitation, and also to 
 say that three duels would take place this fore- 
 noon I would n't miss it for a thousand dollars!" 
 And my enthusiastic friend told the driver, in 
 German, to put on more speed. 
 
 Passing over the historical old bridge that spans 
 the Neckar, we took a road by the river's bank in 
 a northerly direction for about a quarter of a mile, 
 when we turned up into a deep gorge between two 
 high, overhanging hills. We soon came to a large, 
 old-style building, two stories high, the upper one 
 formed by a huge gable roof, reminding one of the 
 old Dutch taverns to be seen throughout Holland, 
 and built one hundred and fifty or two hundred 
 years ago. The yard in front was used for a beer 
 garden, and the rough tables and benches under
 
 THE DUELLING HOUSE. 13 
 
 the shady trees and trellises were covered with 
 empty and half-empty beer mugs, as if some party 
 of revellers had taken a sudden flight. 
 
 No person was to be seen stirring, and an omi- 
 nous silence seemed to brood over the building and 
 its surroundings. I should have thought the place 
 deserted but for the presence of a dozen or more 
 of huge and fierce-looking bulldogs, mastiffs, and 
 deer hounds of rare breeds which were chained 
 about in the garden, and which I had seen the stu- 
 dents carefully leading through the streets in 
 Heidelberg. Their masters were evidently not 
 far away. 
 
 The driver dismounted from his seat and gave 
 several heavy raps with his whip-handle on the 
 old-fashioned door. In a few minutes it was cau- 
 tiously opened, and a man's head, evidently a 
 domestic, appeared. He was handed our cards 
 and told to take them to the president of the 
 yellow-cap corps. Soon a yellow-cap student 
 came out, and, after giving us a very ceremonious 
 salute, requested us to follow him. 
 
 After passing through a long hall we mounted 
 two flights of stairs, made a turn, passed through 
 a dimly lighted corridor, and entered a large ante- 
 room which some of the students call the " repair 
 shop." 
 
 My eyes proceeded to business at once in tak_ 
 ing in the character of the room and its varied 
 contents that were scattered about in a most dis-
 
 14 THE HOSPITAL ROOM FOR THE WOUNDED. 
 
 orderly state. Sponges, towels, strips of cotton 
 cloth, and rags saturated with blood, were lying 
 about on the benches and tables, while wash- 
 bowls, pails, and foot-baths partly filled with 
 bloody water were stationed around the room, 
 either on the floor or benches. Blood was to be 
 seen everywhere. Some cast-off garments, wet 
 with blood, were thrown over the backs of some 
 chairs, and two shirts stained with gory patches of 
 red were hanging on nails by a window. A case 
 of surgical instruments was on a table, near which 
 were piles of lint, rolls of bandages, sheets of 
 sticking-plaster, two or three flasks of brandy, and 
 various remedies and medicines used as restora- 
 tives when people have fainted from loss of blood 
 or other causes. The floor was sprinkled with 
 blood that had escaped from wounds caused by 
 sword-thrusts, not only this day, but on former 
 occasions. 
 
 It seems one duel had taken place before our 
 arrival. It did not matter ; the results were be- 
 fore us. One of the contestants, partly naked, 
 was half reclining in a chair, while a surgeon was 
 shaving the hair from the top of his head in 
 order to patch up several ugly looking sword-cuts. 
 Two or three students were washing the blood 
 
 C3 
 
 from his face and body ; one of them with small 
 sponges was sopping the blood that was flowing 
 freely from some ghastly wounds on the cheeks 
 and forehead. One cheek was entirely laid open,
 
 WORK FOR THE SURGEONS. 1$ 
 
 and a deep cut went diagonally across the fore- 
 head, from which branched off several smaller 
 cuts. The lobe of one ear had disappeared, and 
 a downward stroke had split the nose, which was 
 dripping blood like a leaking pump. 
 
 I will not describe him further. It was a ter- 
 rible sight. I should have said that he could not 
 have lived half an hour ; but there was no danger 
 of death, and I was told that as soon as the pres- 
 ent wounds should heal he would probably be 
 engaged in another duel. The other duellist had 
 not suffered so badly. He was already dressed, 
 and had nearly got through with the finishing 
 touches from the surgeon's hands. His head was 
 bandaged and several strips of sticking-plaster 
 adorned his face in zigzag courses across his 
 cheeks and forehead. In the afternoon I saw 
 him promenading on the Leopoldstrasse, evidently 
 proud of his disfigured face. 
 
 Passing through the hospital room, in which 
 we did not tarry long to scrutinize its varied con- 
 tents, we entered the duelling hall, a large, high 
 room about fifty feet long by thirty wide. The 
 second duel was in progress, of which we had 
 been forewarned by hearing the clash of swords 
 in the outer room. Had I not been anticipating a 
 bloody and brutal spectacle, the sight so suddenly 
 revealed to me would have staggered my nerves. 
 At one end of the hall and facing each other 
 were the two duellists, engaged in what appeared
 
 l6 A DUEL IN PROGRESS. 
 
 to be a deadly combat. The face of one was so 
 covered with blood that I could not recognize his 
 features. The red gore was dropping from his 
 nose and chin, and red streams were trickling 
 down his bare back and staining his shirt and 
 trousers with a crimson hue. The other duellist, 
 although his face was bloody, had evidently not 
 been so badly punished as his adversary. He 
 had only received, so far, two or three slight cuts 
 on his face, from which blood was flowing down 
 his bosom. Each wore aprons originally made 
 from some white material, that looked as if they 
 had seen long service in a slaughter house, and 
 so they had, for they were almost black with the 
 human gore that had accumulated from many a 
 previous duel. Their heads were bare and their 
 faces unprotected, save by black steel goggles 
 without glasses which covered their eyes. Heavy 
 wrappings of silk layer upon layer were 
 wound around their necks, and their sword arms 
 were encased in thick shields or sleeves, wadded 
 or padded with cotton, so that the sharpest blade 
 could not penetrate them. Aside from these 
 precautions, they were at the mercy of each 
 other's swords. 
 
 While making these hurried observations and 
 endeavoring to fully comprehend the ghastly 
 scene, the duel was fiercely raging. It was no 
 child's play, as I had once supposed it to be. 
 Both combatants were about thirty years of age,
 
 NO SURRENDER. 
 
 athletes in size and strength, who had been prac- 
 tising for years under skilled professors for such 
 an occasion as this. They were in terrible ear- 
 nest, and their long, sharp swords played over 
 each other's heads with lightning-like rapidity, but 
 so skilfully were the blows parried that most of 
 the wounds were only caused by the bending or 
 the breaking of the blades. The moment a sword 
 became disabled, which was constantly occurring, 
 the seconds interfered and cried, "Halt!" and 
 the uplifted arms came to a rest. While waiting 
 for fresh weapons to be brought, the members of 
 their respective corps gathered about them, some 
 bringing wine or water for them to drink, others 
 wiping the flowing blood from their heads and 
 faces with wet sponges, and assisting the sur- 
 geons to hastily bind up some deep cut wound 
 with lint and impromptu bandages. 
 
 Soon as fresh swords, which had been sharp- 
 ened like razors, were brought and placed in their 
 hands, there was no ceremony or waiting. The 
 seconds gave the signal, and the two men sprang 
 forward at each other like bloodhounds. Steel 
 clashed against steel again, sparks flew as if from 
 a blacksmith's forge, and tufts of hair, cut as if 
 by invisible hands, were wafted long distances from 
 each other's heads. Occasionally a spurt of blood 
 would tell that a bad wound had been given, and the 
 seconds would interfere while the surgeons could 
 examine and hastily quench the flowing current.
 
 l8 A BLOODY SPECTACLE. 
 
 The duellist who first attracted my attention 
 by his gory face was evidently getting the worst 
 of the battle. At every encounter he received 
 fresh wounds, and imagination could not picture 
 a worse sight than he presented. Blood was 
 flowing down his face and body like rain and 
 forming little pools in the sawdust that was scat- 
 tered around his feet. 
 
 The scene reminded me of the bull-fights that 
 I had witnessed in Spain, only this was the more 
 brutal and inhuman of the two. It seemed every 
 moment as if the man would, from the loss of 
 blood, fall back dead in the arms of his comrades, 
 who were watching the conflict with terrible eager- 
 ness and suspense. But not for a moment did he 
 show signs of weakness or a disposition to give up 
 the combat. Two or three times he signalled for 
 a rest, that his friends might wipe the blood that 
 had gathered in his eyes and blinded his sight. 
 A glass of water that was held to his lips became 
 as red as port wine from the blood that flowed 
 into it from his face, but I noticed that he drank 
 it all the same. 
 
 His adversary, it was evident, was at the end to 
 be the champion, although he had received some 
 bad cuts, one of which came near severing his 
 nose. He was the superior swordsman, and had 
 given five wounds where he had received one. 
 The man opposite him, the bloody man, was to be 
 the " under dog in the fight." The contest had
 
 THE DUELLING CLUBS. 19 
 
 lasted thirty minutes, it seemed hours, and 
 would have continued until one had been killed, 
 had not the two surgeons interfered and ended 
 the fight. They examined carefully the wounds 
 of the " under dog," and pronounced them so seri- 
 ous that the fight was declared at an end, and the 
 two gladiators, leaning and partly supported on 
 the arms of their brother students, were led out 
 into the hospital to have their wounds dressed. 
 
 Thus ended the second duel, which was fought 
 by a member of the white-cap and one of the 
 green-cap corps. The third duel, which was next 
 to take place, was to be between a red-cap and a 
 green-cap. There are five separate corps in the 
 university, which are designated in the streets by 
 the color of their caps, the whites, reds, blues, 
 greens, and yellows. Among the eight hundred 
 or nine hundred students in Heidelberg, only 
 about sixty belong to them. The white-caps are 
 the most numerous, and they number about six- 
 teen. The corps are very aristocratic and very 
 select. The members are supposed to belong to 
 the nobility and to the best German families, with 
 only the best blue blood flowing through their 
 veins. To become a member it requires as much 
 influence, diplomacy, and red tape as to belong to 
 the most select of the London clubs. Whoever 
 is admitted is under the necessity of fighting 
 duels ; that is, they are not under the necessity, 
 but if they don't fight they are tabooed as cow-
 
 2O WOUNDS AND SCARS ON STUDENTS FACES. 
 
 ards, and Heidelberg would become an uncom- 
 fortable place of residence for them ever after. 
 If they don't volunteer, the president of a corps 
 volunteers them, or rather appoints them to meet 
 adversaries, and then there is no showing the 
 white feather ; they must fight, and they do. 
 
 In the duelling hall all the members of the dif- 
 ferent corps, with one or two exceptions, were 
 present. They all appeared to be over twenty-five 
 years of age, and physically were splendid-looking 
 fellows. I don't think there were half a dozen 
 among them whose faces did not bear evidence of 
 these bloody conflicts. Their cheeks and fore- 
 heads were scarred and furrowed by deep welts 
 crisscrossing each other, and occasionally furrow- 
 ing down through the mouth and chin. I ob- 
 
 o o 
 
 served that the noses of two or three had been 
 grafted on and had badly healed. They were all 
 seated around the hall ; those who were not 
 administering to the wounded in the outer room 
 were seated at their respective tables, each corps 
 by itself, drinking wine and eating their lunches. 
 Two or three German girls were tending a 
 refreshment table at the end of the hall, and 
 appeared to take no more interest in the duels 
 than they would in so many chicken fights. 
 
 Mr. Conniffe and myself, the only strangers or 
 outsiders present, were the guests of the yellow- 
 cap corps, who were very polite and showed us 
 every attention possible. True politeness is a
 
 \\AITING FOR THE THIRD DUEL. 21 
 
 virtue, either natural or acquired, which all the 
 Heidelberg students seem to possess. The rules 
 of etiquette, however, established by the duelling 
 corps forbid any intimacy or recognition between 
 the different members. We were introduced to 
 no one outside of the yellow-caps, and I noticed 
 that the members of the several corps were as 
 strangers to each other, and not a nod or look of 
 recognition was exchanged between them. 
 
 The waiting for the third duel was long and 
 tedious. The sword-sharpener, an old gray-headed 
 man, came into the hall two or three times, bear- 
 ing freshly ground weapons, which he placed in 
 convenient positions. Another man came and 
 scattered fresh sawdust to cover the blood where 
 the last duellists had stood, that those who were to 
 follow might not " stand on slippery places." It 
 was like the little episode in the Spanish bull- 
 fights when the arena has been cleared of the dead 
 bull and horses, and occasionally the dead bull- 
 fighter, and the attendants come in with rakes and 
 sawdust to obliterate the traces of the bloody 
 conflict. Through the open door of the hospital 
 room I could see the surgeons and students wash- 
 ing the bloody bodies and patching up the wounds 
 of the two who had just fought, while others were 
 dressing and preparing the two who were next to 
 measure swords. 
 
 Erelong I heard the noise of hurried footsteps, 
 and the two men came striding into the hall, each
 
 22 THE CONFLICT SHORT, SHARP, AND DECISIVE. 
 
 surrounded by several friends, and a surgeon sup- 
 porting their sword arms. The first glance at 
 them, with their black goggles, muffled throats, 
 etc., reminded me of professional divers with their 
 armor on ready for service. There was no 
 waiting or hesitating; in a moment the men were 
 placed in position, swords placed in their hands, 
 the signal given, and the bloody work began in 
 earnest. 
 
 I was told that this was an " affair of honor," 
 and that some affront or imagined insult was to 
 be cancelled or wiped out with blood. It seemed 
 an uneven match. One was a tall, powerful ath- 
 lete, while his adversary was small and below the 
 ordinary stature. But in sword duels the victory 
 is more apt to go with the smaller and more agile 
 of the two. 
 
 There were several short and sharp encounters, 
 in which the contest was about evenly balanced. 
 Both were splendid swordsmen, and their skilful 
 strokes and thrusts were watched by their friends 
 with intense interest. Each received three or 
 four slight cuts, but it was difficult to determine 
 which drew the first blood. Several times their 
 swords were disabled and fresh ones called for. 
 Once the sword of the large man broke in the 
 centre, and the flying end came whizzing past me 
 and struck a student in the chest, who was stand- 
 ing by my side. He jumped as if the steel had 
 pierced his flesh, but fortunately was not injured.
 
 THE VICTORY WON*. 23 
 
 Finally the small man received a blow on 
 the head, which was to end the day's "sport." 
 Athough twenty feet distant, I heard the sword 
 strike the skull with a peculiar thud, which I 
 knew had a terrible meaning. A large lock of 
 hair fell to the floor from his head, and I could 
 see by the twitching of his body and the partial 
 closing of his eyes through the steel goggles that 
 the blow had nearly stunned him. In a moment 
 his face was covered with blood, which flowed 
 freely down his body and formed a pool in the 
 sawdust at his feet. The seconds instantly cried, 
 " Halt," and the surgeons and the friends of the 
 wounded man rushed forward and caught him in 
 their arms. His wound, after a hasty examina- 
 tion, was pronounced serious, and he was led 
 away, weak and tottering, to the hospital. 
 
 The duel, which was now at an end, had lasted 
 less than ten minutes. I think most of the stu- 
 dents regretted it was so quickly terminated. 
 Those who did not belong to the corps of the 
 wounded student soon left the building and hur- 
 ried away to Heidelberg for their dinners. It was 
 after one o'clock, and we were also anxious to get 
 back to our hotels. Passing through the hospital 
 we saw the young man stretched out on a reclin- 
 ing chair, the two surgeons and several students 
 busy at work over him. The surgeons had 
 partly shaved the head and were sewing up a 
 ghastly scalp wound that extended several inches
 
 24 AMERICAN STUDENTS AS DUELLISTS. 
 
 across the skull, and that was still bleeding pro- 
 fusely. We hastened down-stairs, jumped into 
 our waiting carriage, and drove away. 
 
 Since witnessing these civilized and aristocratic 
 combats, my opinion of Morrissey, Heenan, and 
 Sayers has undergone a decided change. I am 
 afraid that I have misjudged these champions of 
 the ring heretofore. Taking brutality as a stand- 
 point, why should n't they be heroes of the first 
 class ? Bismarck, who was once a Heidelberg 
 student, still shows on his cheeks traces of sword- 
 cuts that he received in Heidelberg duels. The 
 Emperor and the German nation made him pre- 
 mier and created him a prince. Why should n't 
 New York honor Morrissey or any other shoulder- 
 hitter by sending him to Congress or even giving 
 him a Cabinet position ? 
 
 Among the sixty or seventy English and Amer- 
 ican students at Heidelberg, none of them belong 
 to the fighting corps. They are not cowards, 
 either. It is known that if occasion requires they 
 can fight their own way, but they have no desire 
 that their good-looking faces shall be hacked and 
 chopped up like dogs' meat and be disfigured 
 ever after. Not long ago an American student 
 had a slight quarrel with one of the fighting 
 corps students, and received from him a challenge. 
 Being the challenged party, the American had the 
 choice of weapons. He sent word to the German 
 by a friend that he would meet him the next
 
 A KENTUCKY FATHER WRITES TO HIS SON. 2$ 
 
 morning at six o'clock at a place outside of the 
 city, and the weapons should be navy revolvers 
 (he had a good pair) at ten paces. The German 
 and his friends concluded it would not be a good 
 day for duels, and the matter was dropped. 
 
 A student read me an extract of a letter he had 
 recently received from his father in Kentucky. 
 As near as I can remember this is the substance 
 of it: 
 
 DEAR BOB, I hear that they have sword duels in Heidel 
 berg, and that many of the students engage in them. I do 
 not believe in the barbarous practice of duelling, but there 
 are times when one has to fight or be branded a coward. 
 You know that our family does not belong to the latter class. 
 Should occasion require, which I trust will not happen, 
 never choose swords, only cowards and Frenchmen resort 
 to those weapons. Choose pistols or rifles, which mean 
 business. Never show yourself in your native town with a 
 sword-scratch on your person. From your affectionate 
 
 FATHER. 
 
 The young man asked me what I thought of 
 that doctrine. I told him I did not believe in 
 either the sword-scratch or the hole made by the 
 pistol ball.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 FIRES IN EUROPEAN CITIES. UNFREQUENCY OF FIRES ABROAD. 
 FIRE-PROOF BUILDINGS. How FIRE ALARMS ARE GIVEN. 
 
 GOING TO A FIRE IN THE GERMAN CITY OF HEIDEL- 
 BERG. FIREMEN WHO WAIT TO PUT ON THEIR UNIFORMS, 
 SHAVE, AND BLACK THEIR BOOTS BEFORE ANSWERING A 
 FIRE ALARM. PREPARATIONS FOR PUTTING OUT A FIRE. 
 
 Too LATE. 
 
 HAVE you ever witnessed a fire in a conti- 
 nental city ? Probably not, for a fire of any 
 magnitude, even to the burning of a single build- 
 ing, is almost as rare and much of an event as an 
 Emperor's funeral. Buildings, as a rule, are all fire- 
 proof. With tile roofs, tile or stone floors, walls 
 and partitions of heavy stone or brick masonry, 
 and stairways and halls built without the intro- 
 duction of wood in any shape, there is but a slim 
 chance for the fire fiend to get a foothold, and 
 much less to get under any headway. 
 
 Europeans don't go to bed at night with the 
 vague fear haunting them that before morning 
 they may suffer the martyrdom of St. Lorenzo 
 by being roasted alive, and it very seldom hap- 
 pens that their own houses ever prove to be their 
 funeral pyres. The property-holders pay little or 
 no insurance, and they are not taxed heavily
 
 FEW FIRES IN FOREIGN CITIES. 2/ 
 
 every year to keep up an expensive fire depart- 
 ment. Were the architects and builders in 
 Europe to erect such combustible tinder-box 
 buildings as are being constructed in the United 
 States every year by the thousands and tens of 
 thousands, I verily believe that these " despotic " 
 governments would proclaim an edict within 
 twenty-four hours to either cut off the architects' 
 and builders' heads, or banish them to the United 
 States for life. 
 
 To see an American paper on this side of the 
 Atlantic which does not contain its regular 
 chronicle of two or three columns of fires large 
 and small, that are constantly taking place in all 
 parts of the Union, we should think that the 
 printer had cheated us out of our regular dues. 
 
 Do Americans ever realize the fact that the 
 yearly statistics which have been carefully gath- 
 ered of the losses by fire in the United States 
 ihovv that they equal in value the annual cotton 
 crop of the Southern States ? Imagine what the 
 accumulation of wealth would be in our country 
 if we but had the fire-proof buildings of Europe. 
 There is no reason why New York and Boston, 
 Philadelphia and Chicago, should not be as fire- 
 proof as Paris. To destroy the latter city by fire 
 the communists found impossible, and they only 
 succeeded in burning out the interior of some of 
 the public buildings by first filling them with the 
 most combustible of materials, saturated with 
 barrels of petroleum, pitch, and tar.
 
 28 FIRE COMPANIES ABROAD. 
 
 To burn an American city it would not require 
 these accessories. A lighted match, on a windy 
 night, thrown behind a wooden partition, or ceil- 
 ing, or under the wooden floors where the carpen- 
 ters have carefully hid away their shavings, is 
 almost sure to do the work. 
 
 Although the services of firemen are so seldom 
 called into requisition in this country, still in 
 nearly all German cities and towns of any impor- 
 tance they have their regular fire departments, 
 organized and equipped for the public safety, and 
 the saving of property in case a fire ever does 
 occur. These organizations are similar to Ma- 
 sonic lodges, only they have no secrets and require 
 no mysterious initiations. They have their head- 
 quarters, where they hold their regular meetings 
 and where they congregate seven nights in the 
 week to tell stories and drink unlimited quantities 
 of beer; they have their quarterly parades and 
 annual musters ; they contribute liberally toward 
 the support of the widows and orphan children of 
 deceased members; and when a member dies they 
 escort his body to the grave with all the pomp 
 and pageantry of a first-class military funeral. 
 
 I recently saw a fireman's funeral passing 
 through the streets of Heidelberg. At first I 
 mistook it for a military review of Heidelberg 
 " swells," a sort of New York 7th Regiment 
 parade on a small scale, only the said regiment 
 could not boast of more elegant uniforms, neither
 
 A FIREMAN S FUNERAL. 2Q 
 
 could they march with a more perfect military 
 step. 
 
 There were about a hundred firemen in the 
 procession, and a splendid-looking set of men 
 they were. They all wore the German spiked 
 helmet caps of burnished brass, which glistened 
 in the sun's rays like balls of fire. Their uni- 
 form was of blue broadcloth, the coats and 
 trousers heavily trimmed with red of the same 
 material, and also with a profusion of gold-lace 
 and gilt buttons, while from the brass belts 
 around their waists were suspended elegant 
 swords or sabres of fine workmanship. The 
 drum-major that preceded the military band, 
 which was playing a funeral march, I was told 
 weighed nearly three hundred pounds, and was 
 a trifle over seven feet high As he marched so 
 grandly along in his elegant uniform, and be- 
 neath an enormous bearskin cap, he left an im- 
 pression not soon to be forgotten. 
 
 In Heidelberg and other Gsrman cities, during 
 long, long intervals, they have alarms of fire. A 
 petroleum lamp, perhaps, is upset, which creates 
 an alarm by setting fire to the window-curtains 
 or bedclothes ; a carpenter's shop, or some manu- 
 factory where combustible materials are used or 
 stored, is burnt out of its contents ; but it is 
 very seldom the fire ever spreads beyond the 
 room where it originates, as it is impossible to 
 burn the walls, the floors, or the partitions of 
 European buildings.
 
 3O A FIRE ALARM IX HEIDELBERG. 
 
 There was an alarm of fire in Heidelberg a. 
 short time since. Such a rare event created a 
 sensation in the city. Had the Kaiser Wilhelm 
 been passing through the place, there could not 
 have been a greater commotion or a greater turn- 
 out of the citizens en masse. There was a general 
 stampede of the throngs of men from the beer 
 shops and beer gardens, and for a space of twenty 
 or thirty minutes these favorite resorts of the Teu- 
 tonic race were actually deserted. 
 
 But three events in Germany have ever been 
 known to produce such a phenomenon : the arrival 
 of the Emperor, an earthquake, and an alarm of 
 fire. My attention was first called to the alarm 
 by hearing the shrill blasts of a bugle, the beating 
 of drums, and the clattering of a horse's hoofs 
 through the streets under my hotel window, as if 
 the animal was being ridden at break-neck speed. 
 My first thoughts were of a new French invasion, 
 and that another Paul Revere was calling the 
 people to arms. I immediately hurried into the 
 street to learn the cause of the uproar, where I 
 heard the clatter of more horses' hoofs in the dis- 
 tance, and the blasts of more bugles in various 
 parts of the city. Men, women, and children 
 were hurrying in different directions as if in 
 search of a place of safety, fearing that this, pos- 
 sibly, was an earthquake, and that the ground 
 might at any moment open beneath their feet, or 
 the buildings come tottering down over their heads.
 
 SMOKE AT LAST DISCOVERED. 3! 
 
 I soon learned that a fire had broken out in 
 some part of the city, or some part of Germany, 
 but no one knew where to look for it, or in what 
 direction to go to witness the rare sight. There 
 was no ringing of bells, or cries of fire ! fire ! The 
 alarm was being given by the men on horseback 
 blowing bugles. 
 
 In the suburbs of Heidelberg are several chem- 
 ical manufactories, whose tall chimneys, high as 
 Bunker Hill Monument, are all the time belching 
 forth clouds of black smoke like Mt. Vesuvius. 
 Crowds of people were rushing in the direction of 
 these chimneys, thinking they might be on fire, 
 while others were tearing down toward the river 
 Neckar to see if the old stone bridges were not in 
 
 D 
 
 flames, or possibly the ruins of the old castles 
 overhanging the city. 
 
 It was over half an hour before the crowd got 
 on the right scent. Some one had discovered 
 smoke slowly creeping out of the upper windows 
 and from the tiled roof of a three-story building 
 on the Hauptstrasse, in the centre of the city, and 
 in due course of time the tide of travel set in the 
 right direction. 
 
 When I arrived at the scene of conflagration, 
 or rather of smoke, I found crowds of spectators, 
 but I could discover no signs of any firemen or 
 fire-engines ; neither could I see that any attempt 
 was being made to get the fire under control. 
 'Many of the men and women had wooden and
 
 32 A SHOWER OF HOUSEHOLD GOODS. 
 
 leathern buckets and tin pails in their hands, 
 which they had brought with them, but no one 
 seemed to know for what use they were intended. 
 Among the few who had not deserted the prem- 
 ises when the smoke was discovered there was 
 evidently a great consternation. Windows were 
 being thrown open or hurriedly smashed out, and 
 I never witnessed before such a shower of worldly 
 goods descending from a burning building. It 
 was the old story over again of people losing 
 their heads, or rather their senses, at a fire. Look- 
 ing-glasses, wash-bowls, and pitchers, all varieties 
 of crockery, oil paintings, bric-a-brac, pieces of 
 furniture, mantel ornaments, etc., were raining 
 down from above on to the paved street with as 
 little ceremony or care as they would have been 
 if thrown out of the crater of a volcano. At one 
 of the second-story windows, at least a hundred 
 feet from the smoke, I saw two or three men and 
 as many women struggling with an upright piano, 
 which they were endeavoring to force out of a 
 window, but, luckily for the piano and its owner, 
 the opening was too small. 
 
 In the mean time the smoke was increasing in 
 volume, though there were no signs of flames. 
 Minutes were rolling by, but there were no signs 
 of any firemen. I came across an American stu- 
 dent who belonged to the university, and asked 
 him the cause of the delay. 
 
 " Was there no fire organization in the city ? "
 
 WHERE ARE THE FIREMEN ? 33 
 
 " Oh, yes ; a large one, he answered. 
 
 " But where are the firemen ? Why are n't they 
 here to put out the fire ? " 
 
 " Oh, they '11 'be here by and by ; they have gone 
 home to put on their uniforms. They are as par- 
 ticular as if they were going to a dress parade. 
 Most of them stop to shave and have their boots 
 blacked." 
 
 " And the building on fire all the while ? " 
 
 " To be sure ; but you can't hurry them ; they 
 are not afraid of the fire's spreading or the build- 
 ing's burning up. They are not so used to this 
 kind of business as we are in America ; they 
 don't have the practice." 
 
 More minutes went by, and there was a stir in 
 the mass of beings who were quietly gazing at 
 the smoke and the still descending shower of 
 household goods from the windows. The crowd 
 opened right and left, like the waters of the Red 
 Sea on a particular occasion, and in the open 
 passage appeared a fine carriage drawn by two 
 spirited horses. Laying back at his ease on the 
 back seat was evidently a military officer of some 
 high rank. He was in full uniform, even to his 
 sword, spiked helmet cap, and the inevitable gold- 
 bowed spectacles. I saw by the sensation his 
 arrival had created that he was some distinguished 
 general. I asked a German near me if it was the 
 Crown Prince, Bismarck, or Von Moltke, but the 
 man stared at me with astonishment through his 
 
 3
 
 34 THE FIRE MARSHAL. 
 
 spectacles, and said that it was neither; it was 
 Herr Weisengarten, or some such name, the 
 Freiwillige Feuerweher, which meant that he was 
 the chief of the fire department. 
 
 The great official slowly got out of his carriage 
 and, after carefully adjusting his spectacles, took 
 a long stare at the building from which the smoke 
 was issuing. Then he approached a little nearer 
 and took another stare. Evidently not satisfied 
 that it was smoke, he went over to the right of 
 the building and gazed long and earnestly at the 
 roof and windows ; then he moved a distance to 
 the left for another view. The scene reminded 
 me of the story of the blue jay in Mark Twain's 
 Tramp Abroad, where the inquisitive bird was so 
 nonplussed at the disappearance of the acorns 
 down the knot-hole. 
 
 As soon as the man had become satisfied at 
 something or other, he went back to his carriage 
 and rode away. I inquired where he had gone, 
 and was told that, having become convinced that 
 there was actually a fire, he had started to order 
 out the fire-engines. 
 
 The firemen now began to make their appear- 
 ance in squads of twos and threes and half-dozens. 
 They were all gay in uniforms similar to that worn 
 by their chief, only not so rich. Handsome swords 
 dangled by their sides, and their brass helmet 
 caps glistened in the sunlight. No engines had 
 yet arrived, nor was there any evidence that the
 
 DISTURBING THE PEACE. 35 
 
 fire-buckets were to be brought into requisition. 
 Several American students were getting excited 
 or rather mad over the slowness with which every- 
 thing is done in this country, especially in put- 
 ting out fires. One of them proposed that they 
 should run through the streets, giving the alarm 
 in American style, and see if it would not hurry 
 up the engines. It was no sooner proposed than 
 off they started on a run. At the end of two or 
 three blocks they commenced screaming at the 
 top of their voices, Feuer! feuer! which in Eng- 
 lish means fire, and is pronounced the same. I 
 heard the familiar alarm echoing through the 
 streets for several minutes, and then it stopped 
 suddenly. There was an ominous silence. I did 
 not see the students again that day. I heard dur- 
 ing the afternoon that they had been arrested by 
 the police and locked up for creating a disturb- 
 ance in the streets. They won't undertake again 
 to give an alarm of fire in a foreign city. 
 
 While this little incident was transpiring, the 
 attention of the crowd, who were still idly gazing 
 at the building from a safe distance, was attracted 
 by a fresh horror, but one of a most ridiculous 
 nature. An immense German of Daniel Lam- 
 bert proportions suddenly appeared in his night- 
 shirt at a bay-window on the first floor, far re- 
 moved from any possibility of fire, frantically 
 screaming for help. He had evidently overslept 
 himself from the effects of a keg of beer drank
 
 36 A FRIGHTENED GERMAN. 
 
 the previous evening, when the unusual noise in 
 the street it was about eleven o'clock in the fore- 
 noon suddenly awoke him. With a clear head 
 he would have quietly dressed himself and walked 
 down one short flight of stairs into the street, but 
 in his sudden fright he imagined the building 
 above and around him was a mass of burning cin- 
 ders. 
 
 His fright was terrible to behold. I could see 
 him tearing around in the room like a mad bull, 
 his big eyes standing out like those of the giant 
 in the fairy tale. He smashed out a window with 
 a chair, and, thrusting out his head, screamed 
 wildly to the people, 
 
 " Mein Gott! will niemand mich vetten! Ich ver- 
 brenue hier, wo sind meine Freunde ? Kommt 
 dock schnell ! " which in English would be, "My 
 God ! will nobody save me ? I burn here, where 
 are my friends ? Come quick ! " Two or three 
 men finally rushed up to the man's chamber, and 
 after a few minutes' absence appeared with him 
 in the street, all dressed except his hat and coat. 
 I never saw a more happy man than this big burly 
 German. He boiled over with gratitude to his res- 
 cuers, and fairly hugged and kissed them as they 
 led him away to a beer shop near by 
 
 By this time two fire-engines had arrived, each 
 of which was securely tied with ropes on a large 
 platform dray, and drawn by two horses. They 
 were not over fivejor six feet long, and looked
 
 THE FIREMEN DISAPPEAR. 3/ 
 
 like the small machines we have in America for 
 sprinkling our gardens and lawns. The chief of 
 the fire department again made his appearance in 
 his carriage, and it looked as if the warfare would 
 soon commence against the smoke, which was 
 gradually decreasing in density. 
 
 A new difficulty here sprang up. Most of the 
 firemen who first arrived had disappeared and 
 were nowhere to be seen. The chief, however, 
 seemed to comprehend the situation. He called 
 two or three of his aids, and gave them directions 
 to go to all the beer shops in the neighborhood 
 and summon the delinquent members of the fire 
 corps to their duty. In due course of time they 
 were mustered together, formed in line like a 
 body of infantry, and their chief with a drawn 
 sword marched up and down the ranks, and gave 
 each one a critical inspection through his gold- 
 bowed spectacles. 
 
 Apparently satisfied that their uniforms were 
 in good order, and their boots well polished, he 
 made them a short speech, complimenting them 
 on their fine appearance, and told them not to 
 hesitate or falter in their combat with the devour- 
 ing element of fire which they were expected, as 
 patriots, to subdue. 
 
 Part of his speech, during the cheering, I could 
 not understand, but presume he told them that 
 if any should fall while performing their duty, 
 and were obliged to " give up the ghost,"
 
 38 PROCEEDING TO BUSINESS. 
 
 and their beer, a grateful country would give 
 them a big funeral and see them handsomely 
 buried. He then told them to break ranks and 
 proceed to business. 
 
 It was a long time it seemed long before 
 the engines were finally got off the drays and dis- 
 entangled from the ropes, ready to play on the 
 building with two-inch hose-pipes which were 
 about fifty feet long. 
 
 Here was a new difficulty. It was found that 
 the watering carts which had been sent to the 
 river Neckar for water had not returned. The 
 chief began to get excited at the delay. He was 
 afraid the smoke, which was growing less and 
 less, would disappear entirely without his efforts. 
 The water carts finally made their appearance, 
 but not until a squad of firemen had been sent to 
 hurry them back. 
 
 Work now commenced in earnest. The crowds 
 of people forgot all about the fire and gathered 
 around the engines to see how the things worked. 
 Like " Helen's babies," they wanted to see " the 
 wheels go round." A cordon of police were 
 required at last to keep them back and give the 
 firemen room. One engine was found to be out 
 of order and was taken away to a machine shop 
 in a distant part of the city for repairs. The other 
 engine was found all right and ready for action, 
 the hose was attached, and a man stationed at the 
 man-pipe to guide the stream.
 
 MISCALCULATIONS. 39 
 
 The firemen were waiting for the chief to give 
 the word " go " or rather " play." Most of the 
 people in the crowd, I could see, were nervously 
 watching the movements with as much fear and 
 anxiety as they would the first firing of a , hun- 
 dred-ton gun. They probably never had seen a 
 fire-engine work before, and were suspicious the 
 thing might blow up like a Mississippi steamboat 
 or go dancing around among them like a stray 
 rocket or a big Pharaoh's serpent. Many of the 
 nervous old women and children on the outside of 
 the crowd were leaving for their homes with their 
 buckets and pails, anxiously looking over their 
 shoulders to see what would happen at the first 
 great effort. When the chief finally gave the 
 word, the small stream through a three-quarter 
 inch nozzle did not reach the building by ten feet. 
 
 The engine was then ordered to be moved 
 nearer, and at the second trial the stream barely 
 reached the windows of the second story. More 
 men were ordered at the brakes, but their efforts 
 could carry the stream no higher. On some prin- 
 ciple of philosophy, only known to the chief, he 
 directed that the hose-pipe belonging to the absent 
 engine should be attached to the one the firemen 
 were working. A fifteen-foot ladder was brought 
 and placed against the building, and I thought 
 they were going to try the experiment of hoisting 
 the engine to the roof, and subdue the smoke 
 from that quarter, but I was mistaken. A big,
 
 4O AN UNFORESEEN DILEMMA AND A FALL. 
 
 heavy fireman mounted the ladder with the hose- 
 pipe, thinking he could reach the fire, but find- 
 ing his ladder only reached half-way to the third 
 story, a man from above let down a rope and drew 
 the hose up to a window near where the smoke 
 was feebly issuing. The firemen were ordered 
 again to play away, but they were unable to force 
 the water through the hose. 
 
 This was an unexpected dilemma, and there 
 was much excitement and dissatisfaction among 
 the firemen and spectators. The big German on 
 the ladder commenced swearing like a pirate at 
 the firemen below, and while gesticulating with 
 his feet (his hands were employed holding on to 
 the hose) the round of the ladder on which he was 
 standing gave way, and he came down to the 
 sidewalk with a crash, bringing the hose down 
 with him and nearly pulling the man from the 
 third-story window, who was bravely holding on 
 to the man-pipe. 
 
 The excitement now was intense. The fire- 
 men rushed to the rescue of their comrade, whose 
 bulky remains they gathered up and bore away 
 to the hospital in an ambulance which is al- 
 ways provided for such an emergency. The 
 fire was forgotten ; in fact, there was no fire now, 
 it had died out of itself after burning out the con- 
 tents of two or three rooms, and badly scorching 
 the wood- work of several doors and windows. 
 Even the smoke, which had been gradually grow-
 
 OUT. 41 
 
 ing less and less, entirely disappeared and was no 
 longer visible. 
 
 Thus ended a fire in a German city. To de- 
 scribe a fire in any of the continental cities would 
 be but a repetition of this. But as fires only happen 
 once in a few years, they are as much a novelty 
 to the natives as an eruption of Mt. ^tna or 
 Vesuvius. The manner of putting one out was 
 certainly a novelty to me. 
 
 The Heidelberg paper the next morning, in an 
 article describing the fire and the accident to the 
 fireman, mentioned that the latter, in his fall, 
 broke an arm, a leg, and also his spectacles.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 BEER DRINKING IN GERMANY. BEER AS AN ELEMENT IN UNI- 
 VERSITY LIFE. DRINKING-BOUTS OF STUDENTS AND PRO 
 FESSORS. KNEIPS AND BEER ORGIES. A FIGHT IN A BEER 
 SHOP. THE FARCE OF AMERICAN STUDENTS GOING ABROAD 
 TO ATTEND GERMAN UNIVERSITIES. 
 
 I HAVE come to the conclusion that the Ger- 
 mans love beer. I arrived at this conclusion 
 immediately on reaching German soil. The mo- 
 ment I crossed the frontier from wine-drinking 
 France I smelt hops, and I have smelt hops ever 
 since. The German atmosphere I find is thor- 
 oughly impregnated, go where you will, with the 
 aroma from beer shops and breweries, and there is 
 no denying the fact that the two great industries 
 of the German nation are hop raising and beer 
 drinking, the women attending to the former and 
 the men to the latter. 
 
 In my innocence I once thought that beer 
 drinking in England was carried to excess, but I 
 was mistaken. Englishmen, as yet, are in the 
 infant class in the A B C's in acquiring a 
 German's education in the practice of beer drink- 
 ing, and stowing away under their vests such vast 
 quantities of the extract of hops. Every little
 
 LEER DRINKING IN GERMANY. 43 
 
 village and every city, large and small, through- 
 out Germany is full of an indefinite number of 
 buildings which are devoted to the sale of beer or 
 its manufacture. Beer shops are on the corners 
 of all the streets, they are round the corners, 
 they are next door and over the way, they are on 
 opposite sides of the streets, they are in the base- 
 ments or the attics, they are at the end of every 
 dark lane and disreputable alley, and those that 
 are not above ground are under ground ; in fact, 
 beer shops are everywhere. 
 
 The German begins drinking beer early in the 
 morning. Before he takes his coffee he swallows 
 a few glasses to counteract the effect of the beer 
 of the day previous. In place of coffee he takes 
 beer again, which he stows away as a foundation 
 on which to build the day's work in beer drinking. 
 During the forenoon he has not fingers and toes 
 enough to tally the number of glasses that it takes 
 to give him an appetite for his dinner. 
 
 Up to this time it has been mere child's play 
 just practising the scales, as it were to keep his 
 throat pliable. In the afternoon he gets decidedly 
 thirsty, and he makes a business of beer drinking ; 
 he " wades in," so to speak, and the number of 
 glasses that he consumes by twelve or one o'clock 
 at night would be as difficult to count as a shower 
 of shooting stars. 
 
 I don't wish to overdraw the picture or paint it 
 in false colors. I wish it merely to be understood
 
 44 HEIDELBERG PROFESSORS AND STUDENTS. 
 
 that the Germans, as a race, are very fond of beer, 
 and that they drink a great deal of it. 
 
 Many of the old Heidelberg professors are 
 known to have drank of an evening from thirty 
 to forty glasses, in addition to what they have 
 taken through the day. They do no manual 
 labor, they toil not in the fields or under the rays 
 of a hot sun, they drink not from thirst, but 
 because they are accustomed to drink it ; they 
 have drank from their cradles to middle age and 
 old age, and they take pride in being able to 
 boast of the great number of glasses they have 
 swallowed at one sitting. I have heard of Ger- 
 man students that have drank seventy-two and 
 seventy-three glasses of an evening, and German 
 beer glasses are not wineglasses in size, either. 
 The student who has arrived to such perfection 
 in the art as to be able to stow away seventy 
 glasses and over is a pet of the university, and 
 especially with the professors. He is crowned 
 king and made a hero of by his brother students ; 
 he " wears the belt," so to speak, until some one 
 else is found who can go beyond his highest 
 number. 
 
 Several of the American students in the univer- 
 sity are hard at work for the championship, and 
 two or three, who have reached thirty or forty 
 glasses at one sitting, tell me that seventy glasses 
 looks a long way ahead of them yet, but that they 
 hope soon to accomplish the task.
 
 THE STUDENTS TRADE-MARK. 45 
 
 In nearly all the shop windows of Heidelberg 
 there is a prominent display of photographs of 
 the various students' corps, classes, and societies, 
 arranged and grouped about in every position 
 imaginable. Many of the groups are taken in the 
 grounds of the famous old castle, showing the 
 grand old ruins in the background, and every 
 student, without exception, is represented with a 
 mug of beer in his hand in the act of drinking, 
 or a mug or several mugs deposited on a table 
 within his reach. If two or three or more stu- 
 dents have their photographs taken in a group, 
 that they may distribute them among their inti- 
 mate friends and brother students, to be remem- 
 bered by in after years, the inevitable beer mugs 
 are sure to be prominent features in the pictures. 
 The beer mug is their trade-mark. 
 
 There are in Heidelberg a number of large 
 beer halls that are the favorite resorts of the stu- 
 dents, and where they " most do congregate." 
 They are usually crowded from ten or eleven 
 o'clock in the forenoon until long after midnight. 
 Outsiders don't trouble them much. If a stran- 
 ger accidentally finds his way into one he soon 
 discovers that his presence is not wanted, and, 
 swallowing his glass of beer as quickly as possible, 
 he hurries away. If he persists in remaining to 
 drink two or three glasses or more, he is hustled 
 out, devoid of ceremony. 
 
 Occasionally this exclusive spirit in the stu-
 
 46 A PLUCKY AMERICAN. 
 
 dents leads to hard fights, which end in broken 
 heads and bloody noses; they not unfrequently 
 catch tartars. 
 
 A few weeks asT> an American student who 
 
 O 
 
 had but recently arrived in Heidelberg strayed 
 into one of these beer halls of an evening and 
 ordered a glass of beer. He drank that, and then 
 ordered a second and a third. He noticed that the 
 students who were grouped about the different 
 tables had stopped drinking, and all had their 
 eyes directed toward him, as if he was an intruder. 
 When he called for his fourth glass one of the 
 students came forward and told him to leave the 
 hall. He was told by the American that he was 
 aware that Germany was not a free country, but 
 that beer halls were free and he should stay. The 
 German told him if he did not leave at once he 
 would be put out. He was requested to " try it 
 on." 
 
 When the student went back for re-enforcements 
 the student quickly gathered up an armful of the 
 thick, heavy earthen beer-mug plates, that were 
 on several of the tables near, and barricaded him- 
 self behind a heavy oak table in the corner of the 
 hall. He also collected all the beer mugs and 
 glasses that were not in use, and that he could 
 speedily lay his hands on, and drew around him 
 two or three chairs to be ready for an emergency- 
 It is said that for a minute or two he worked 
 very lively. When eight or ten of the students
 
 "CLEANING OUT" A BEER SHOP. 47 
 
 rushed forward to carry out their threat there was 
 a lively fight, which lasted for about ten minutes. 
 The charge was met by volley after volley of beer 
 plates, beer mugs, and glasses, every one of which 
 hit its mark and did its work. Two or three of 
 the students jumped on the table and attempted 
 to take the American by force of arms, but were 
 laid out hors du combat by the oaken chairs, 
 which proved admirable weapons of defence. 
 
 The battle waxed warmer every moment. 
 Fresh recruits took the places of the wounded as 
 fast as they fell back for repairs. The plates, 
 mugs, and glasses soon gave out and the barricade 
 was demolished. Then the plucky American met 
 his assailants face to face, with the odds fearfully 
 against him. But he still maintained his ground 
 and remained master of the situation. Fortu- 
 nately he was a scientific boxer, and when the stu- 
 dents made another rush upon him they were met 
 with what was to them new and unexpected 
 weapons. Blows played out right and left from 
 his shoulders with such lightning rapidity among 
 the opposing forces that soon several were lying 
 on the floor, and the others withdrew to a distant 
 part of the hall, probably to reconsider the matter 
 of putting the stranger out. 
 
 The hall was in a fearful confusion. Tables 
 and chairs were overturned and broken, windows 
 and mirrors were smashed, and the floor covered 
 with a debris of beer mugs and glasses. The
 
 48 STREET ROWS AND KNEIPS. 
 
 American, seeing that his opponents did not seem 
 inclined to renew the fight, quietly took his hat 
 and walked out. The next day he was arrested 
 by the proprietor of the beer hall on a charge of 
 causing disturbance and for damages for broken 
 furniture, etc. He at once caused the arrest of 
 the students as the aggressors in the fray, and the 
 matter was finally settled by the latter, who were 
 obliged to pay the principal share of the damages. 
 But the Germans were so fascinated with the 
 American's pluck and bravery that a few nights 
 afterward they got up a grand demonstration on 
 his account at the same beer hall, on which occa- 
 sion an indefinite quantity of beer was drank in 
 his honor, and he was made to feel that he was 
 the hero of the hour. 
 
 I speak of this fracas as a sample of others 
 which are constantly taking place every week, and 
 sometimes several times a week, not only among 
 the students themselves, but among students and 
 outsiders. Scarcely a night but there are street 
 rows and fights between beer-drunken students, 
 policemen, and citizens, which result in more or 
 less of the former going to the lock-up. 
 
 Two or three nights of the week, and especially 
 Saturday nights, the different student corps, soci- 
 eties, and clubs have rendezvous, where they meet 
 to pass the hours in a species of German wake, 
 but designated by the Germans as Kneips. They 
 are nothing more nor less than beer orgies. Soon
 
 DRINKING TO LIVING AND DEAD CELEBRITIES. 49 
 
 as a member enters a room and takes his seat at a 
 table an attendant places before him a mug of 
 beer. A friend calls upon him and proposes his 
 health, and the two are expected to drain their 
 mugs without resting. Another friend calls upon 
 him in a few minutes, and he drinks again. 
 
 After a short interval he proposes the health of 
 a student at a distant table, and the third mug 
 disappears. Songs are sung, speeches are made, 
 stories are told, all of which are accompanied by 
 draining the beer mugs several times. 
 
 This kind of skirmishing is kept up until twelve 
 o'clock, when work commences in earnest. The 
 president of the club or corps stands up and pro- 
 poses the health of Kaiser William. Every one 
 present rises with a full mug, three hearty cheers 
 are given, and the mugs are drained. Soon 
 another student proposes the health of the Em- 
 press, which results in three more cheers and 
 empty glasses. 
 
 Then they drink to the Grand Duke of Baden, 
 to the Duchess, to all the members of the royal 
 family separately, to Bismarck and Von Moltke, 
 to their sweethearts, to the pretty girls of Heidel- 
 berg, to the professors in the university, some of 
 whom get groans instead of cheers. If any 
 Americans or Englishmen are present, or repre- 
 sentatives of any other nationality, they drink to 
 the most prominent celebrities of each country, to 
 the President of the United States, to Gens. Grant
 
 5<D WHEN NATURE CRIES "ENOUGH!" 
 
 and Sherman, and perhaps to Barnum or Tom 
 Thumb. They drink to Queen Victoria, to the 
 Prince of Wales and all the little Waleses, to 
 Gladstone, Beaconsfield, Bradlaugh, Tichborne 
 the claimant, Madame Tusaud, of wax-work noto- 
 riety, and so on and on, until it is difficult to find a 
 living or dead celebrity that they don't remember. 
 
 It may be said that it is impossible for a person 
 to drink of an evening the quantity of beer that I 
 have mentioned, and so it would be did not 
 nature seek a relief of its own when a certain 
 maximum has been reached. 
 
 If nature does not cry out and rebel, like a per- 
 son's stomach in the worst stages of seasickness, 
 then the student has a resource of his own by 
 quietly slipping a finger down his throat, which 
 has the desired effect. After his stomach has 
 been fully relieved, or rather emptied, he is ready 
 to try its capacity again. 
 
 Such details are too dismasting to chronicle, 
 
 o o 
 
 but in giving a true picture of German student 
 life and German habits it is necessary to tell the 
 whole truth without any false colorings or leaving 
 any mystery unexplained. 
 
 Many of the Heidelberg professors are not 
 lambs, either, in the habit of beer drinking. In 
 all of the university buildings possibly with 
 two or three exceptions beer is on tap where it 
 is convenient for the professors, and where they 
 do full justice to the extract of hops immediately
 
 PROFESSORS NOT NOVICES. 5! 
 
 before and after every lecture. Not unfrequently 
 during a lecture they slip quietly out of the room, 
 and returning two or three minutes after resume 
 the thread of their discourse, at the same time 
 wiping the beer froth from their mustache and 
 whiskers. In making arrangements for celebrat- 
 ing the recent fourth of July in Heidelberg with 
 the proprietor of one of the large hotels, the com- 
 mittee of arrangements wanted two large rooms, 
 or salons, in addition to the dining hall, for the 
 ladies' reception in the evening. The salon they 
 most desired they were told they could not have, 
 as it was Saturday night, which was the professors' 
 night for meeting in that room for their regular 
 weekly Kneip, and they had met in that room for 
 years. Nothing would induce the proprietor to 
 disturb the professors, who were his oldest and 
 best customers. 
 
 What I have written of Heidelberg, with its 
 students and professors, with their inherited or 
 acquired habits, is true of nearly all the German 
 university towns. Gambrinus, with his overflow- 
 ing tankard, is the king, whose example they all 
 imitate, and whose figure-head should be promi- 
 nently displayed in the lecture hall of every uni- 
 versity. 
 
 There probably was never a greater farce or per- 
 haps a more dangerous one than the sending of 
 American young men abroad to attend the univer- 
 sities, or rather to have the reputation of graduating
 
 52 GERMAN UNIVERSITIES. 
 
 from them. But a very small percentage of those 
 who do cross the Atlantic for that purpose ever 
 receive a degree or ever graduate. The manner 
 of teaching in the German universities is entirely 
 different from that pursued in the American uni- 
 versities. It requires no long years of hard study, 
 or even an examination of any kind to enter them, 
 and any one who will pay for his matriculation 
 papers becomes a student, an accepted member of 
 the university, and can remain as such twenty 
 years, or as long as he will pay his quarterly or 
 annual assessments and does not commit any 
 crime that would necessitate his expulsion. He 
 is not under the necessity of devoting any of his 
 time to study ; he has no lessons, and he is not 
 heard in any recitations. All the benefit he 
 derives from the university, if he derives any, is 
 through the lectures given by the professors. 
 These he attends only when he feels in the mood. 
 After being in the university three years, or five 
 years, or ten years, and he feels he has wasted 
 enough time in frolicking and beer drinking, he 
 applies for a degree, and the faculty accommodate 
 him at any hour of the day. Several of the 
 professors are summoned, and he goes through 
 a rigid examination. Perhaps he passes and 
 receives his sheepskin, but more often he fails, 
 and has the choice of remaining in the university 
 for a longer period or leaving it forever. 
 
 American young men who come abroad to
 
 LECTURES TO STUDENTS. 53 
 
 attend the German universities without having a 
 knowledge of the German language before leaving 
 their own country and seldom one that has 
 labor under great disadvantages. German is a 
 difficult language to acquire, and it is a rare in- 
 stance where a student acquires sufficient knowl- 
 edge of it in two years, or even three, to fully com- 
 prehend the fine points of all the lectures and 
 receive the desired benefit from them. They are 
 usually delivered in a rapid, stereotyped manner, 
 and even the German student has to pay the very 
 strictest attention in order that he may gather their 
 full meaning and value. What great advantage 
 are they, then, to the foreigner who only gathers 
 the import of a sentence here and a sentence there, 
 and jumps at whatever conclusion he thinks best 
 suited to the idea which he thinks the lecturer 
 intended to convey ? 
 
 During my stay in Heidelberg I became ac- 
 quainted with a young American student not 
 very young, either, for he must have been over 
 thirty years of age who had been attending 
 medical lectures at the university for two years or 
 more. Not much of his time was spent in study, 
 but he was generally present at the lectures, and 
 seemed to take as much interest in the learned 
 essays of the professors as the German students 
 themselves. 
 
 Suddenly he was called home by his parents or 
 guardians, who had learned from some source or
 
 54 AMERICAN STUDENTS ABROAD. 
 
 other that he was living anything but a creditable 
 or studious life. In order that he might be de- 
 cently clothed when he appeared before his trans- 
 Atlantic friends and relatives, he found it neces- 
 sary to purchase a new suit of clothes, but he had 
 acquired so little of the German language that he 
 was obliged to get the services of a fellow-student 
 to act as interpreter before the purchase could be 
 made. 
 
 Such cases are not unfrequent, but fortunately 
 there are occasional exceptions, where a hard- 
 working, laborious American student, after spend- 
 ing two, three, and often four years here in learn- 
 ing the German language, and afterwards as many 
 more years devoted to close application to some 
 special branch of science, carries off the highest 
 honors of the university. 
 
 Americans, also, who make such a flourish by 
 going abroad for a year or two to finish their 
 medical education in the schools and hospitals of 
 Paris, Berlin, or Vienna, in the majority of cases 
 waste their time. The same time spent in close 
 study in the excellent medical schools and hospi- 
 tals which we have at present in our own country 
 would be of far greater advantage and usefulness 
 
 o o 
 
 to them, and would save them much time in 
 fitting themselves for the active work of life in 
 their professions. In Paris, Berlin, or Vienna 
 they can witness surgical operations and dissec- 
 tions, and can spend as much time as they please
 
 ACQUIRING THE GERMAN LANGUAGE. 55 
 
 in the hospitals in observing the treatment of 
 different diseases. And what knowledge they 
 gain is mostly from observation, and not from 
 what they hear. Without coming abroad they 
 can witness just as skilful surgical operations, just 
 as learned and elaborate dissections, and just as 
 skilful treatment of diseases in New York, Boston, 
 or Philadelphia. 
 
 If they are studying abroad and do not thor- 
 oughly understand French or German, the lectures 
 of the professors in their explanations of surgery, 
 anatomy, and disease are of no earthly use to them, 
 and a thorough knowledge of either language 
 cannot be, or is not, acquired in one or two years. 
 Several of our medical schools in America and 
 some of our principal universities are fully equal 
 to those in the Old World, and really offer superior 
 advantages to any we find here in acquiring 
 thorough and useful professional educations.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE EUROPEAN SARATOGA. BADEN-BADEN AND ITS LOAFING 
 ROYALTY. CHARACTERISTICS OF THIS FAMOUS GERMAN 
 RESORT. GOING TO CHURCH WITH AN EMPRESS. ENGLISH 
 CHAPELS AND CHURCH SERVICE ON THE CONTINENT. CHAP- 
 LAINS NOT NOTED FOR PlETY OR MORALITY. THE WEALTH 
 
 OF THE GRAND DUKE OF BADEN, 
 
 WHAT Saratoga is to the United States as 
 a fashionable summer resort, Baden-Baden 
 is to Germany and continental Europe. For 
 more than half a century it has been the Mecca 
 of more wealthy and aristocratic pilgrims who 
 have sought its gaming-tables, its celebrated min- 
 eral baths, its fine hotels, its beautiful walks and 
 drives, and its high-toned society than any other 
 watering-place in Europe. 
 
 The town is situated in the beautiful little val- 
 ley of the Oos, within the borders of the Black 
 Forest, and three miles distant from the main line 
 of the Frankfort and Bale Railway, with which it 
 is connected by a branch road of its own. It is 
 a small village of about 5,000 inhabitants, most 
 of whom are shop-keepers and those who cater in 
 some way or other to the wants of the throngs of 
 visitors during the summer months.
 
 GAMBLING AT BADEN-BADEN. 57 
 
 The place owes its celebrity more to its gaming- 
 tables than to its mineral baths. From 1808 
 until 1872, at which time, by royal decree, all 
 gambling was prohibited in Germany, it was the 
 most noted gambling place in the world. The 
 millions of money that have changed hands over 
 the green-covered tables in the gilded rooms of the 
 Conversationshaus would go far towards paying the 
 national debt of any one of the European govern- 
 ments. The profits of gambling to the proprie- 
 tors of the green-covered tables have made Baden- 
 Baden the enchanting spot that it is. Money lost 
 by the venturesome players has been spent by mill- 
 ions in adorning the town and converting the 
 country far and near into a magnificent park. It 
 is like Chatsworth in England, only different. 
 Beautiful avenues, promenades, and drives, bor- 
 dered by rows of majestic oaks, hedges, and flower- 
 ing shrubbery, extend in all directions. Even the 
 hills and mountain-sides for miles around, which 
 are densely shaded by the grand old forests, are 
 covered with a net-work of macadamized roads and 
 foot-paths that have been built at great expense 
 for the use of those who come here to spend the 
 summer months. 
 
 When gambling was prohibited, eight years ago, 
 it was predicted that Baden-Baden was doomed, 
 and would cease ever after to be the fashionable 
 resort of former years ; but these predictions have 
 not been realized. During the past season all
 
 58 A SURPLUS OF ROYALTY AND NOBILITY. 
 
 the hotels and pensions have been crowded with 
 visitors from all parts of the world. The Bade- 
 blatt, the village paper, which publishes daily the 
 arrivals registered at the hotels, and which sums 
 up in every issue the sum total of strangers since 
 the opening of the present season, already records 
 the number at 43,756. This is considered by the 
 natives (the shop-keepers, hotel-keepers, etc.) the 
 "high tide " of prosperity. 
 
 At the present time there is probably more 
 royalty and nobility in Baden-Baden to the square 
 inch than in any place in Europe. The streets 
 and promenades swarm with princes and prin- 
 cesses, counts and countesses, dukes and duch- 
 esses, viscounts and viscountesses, barons and 
 baronesses, marquises and marchionesses, and all 
 variety of titled aristocracy. It would be difficult 
 to swing a cat or throw a stone without hitting a 
 title in some direction. To be in Baden-Baden 
 without a title of some kind, a person is sure to 
 be a nonentity and is on a par, socially, with the 
 waiters and shop-keepers. 
 
 The Russians comprehend the situation when 
 they prepare to leave their native country to 
 travel abroad. Those who are not princes, dukes, 
 or counts by inheritance, are permitted by royal 
 authority to wear the titles when journeying in 
 foreign lands. This is the reason why we find 
 the hotels in Germany, Switzerland, and elsewhere 
 so full of Russian " nobles."
 
 GERMAN TITLES. 59 
 
 German titles are also equally plenty, and are to 
 be encountered at ever turn. All of the little 
 principalities and duchies which compose this new 
 empire of Germany are like so many mushroom 
 beds, from which are constantly springing up and 
 multiplying every year a new crop of dukes, 
 counts, princes, etc. There are also swarms of 
 titled nobility in France, and before the late war 
 Baden was overrun with them ; but since the late 
 41 unpleasantness " Frenchmen have given Ger- 
 many and its watering-places a wide berth ; and 
 it is seldom, even now, ten years since the last 
 gun was fired, that we hear French spoken among 
 the crowds of people that flock here from all 
 parts of Europe. 
 
 Three weeks ago the Empress of Germany, with 
 a retinue of servants, came to Baden, and a week 
 later the Emperor, with his suite and the whole 
 German court, arrived from Berlin. The royal 
 household, the court included, occupy the Hotel 
 Mesmer, which the proprietor retains exclusively 
 for his royal guests during their stay. 
 
 This hotel is only separated from the Conversa- 
 tionshaus and the beautiful grounds where the 
 visitors promenade every afternoon and evening 
 by a very narrow street. Persons promenading 
 back and forth, listening to the delightful music 
 from the fine band in the kiosk, or sitting by the 
 restaurant sipping their coffee or drinking their 
 beer, can at almost any hour, if so disposed, get a
 
 6O HER MAJESTY AS A CHURCH-GOER. 
 
 glimpse of royalty in fact, a good square look, 
 as it goes and returns from its rides and 
 walks. The Empress, whose seventieth birthday 
 has just been celebrated, carries the weight of so 
 many years gracefully and without giving evi- 
 dence of such an advanced age. To see her out 
 early every morning taking her " constitutional," 
 and walking so briskly that her maid and footman 
 in livery have to walk sharp to keep pace with 
 her, it is hard to realize that she has seen three- 
 score and ten years. 
 
 Her Majesty is a devoted church-woman. 
 During her stay in Baden she attends regularly 
 every Sunday the little English church, and joins 
 in the service like any other visitor or stray sin- 
 ner that might enter the house of worship. She 
 times her arrival so as to be present just as services 
 are to commence. She rides to church in a close, 
 handsome, not over-expensive carriage, drawn by 
 two elegant coal-black horses with silver-mounted 
 harnesses. The coachman and footman are in 
 livery, and the stout, plain-looking German woman, 
 plainly dressed, who rides with her Majesty inside, 
 is, I suppose, one of the ladies i.i waiting, or " maids 
 of honor." At the church door one of the war- 
 dens, Mr. Oakes, of New York, stands ready to 
 receive her, and escorts her to her seat, which is 
 directly in front of the chancel. Last Sunday I 
 happened to have a seat directly behind her 
 Majesty, and of course could but observe all her
 
 GOING TO CHURCH WITH AX EMPRESS. 6 1 
 
 movements, what she wore, etc. If I had the 
 peculiar talent of some female writers I would 
 undertake to describe her dress, but I forbear. It 
 was so very plain and inexpensive, and at the 
 same time so sensible and so appropriate for 
 church going, that I know the fashionable world, 
 which would expect an empress's dress to be spar- 
 kling with diamonds and covered with the richest 
 of laces, would be disappointed. 
 
 She evidently does not go to church to make a 
 display of fine clothes. All of her dress that was 
 visible her straw hat with a single ostrich 
 plume, her silk dress and mantle, with modest 
 and inexpensive trimmings cost altogether not 
 much more than some of the very fashionable and 
 expensive hats worn by some of the very fashion- 
 able ladies in some of the very fashionable Amer- 
 ican churches. The moment her Majesty got 
 fairly seated she searched in the depths of one of 
 her pockets, and drew out her purse, from which 
 she extracted a ten-mark gold piece ($2.50) and 
 carefully placed it on the railing in front of her. 
 This was to be ready for the contribution-box, 
 and she evidently adhered to the old motto, " Pay 
 as you go." She then found her place in the 
 prayer-book, responded throughout the services in 
 good English, and joined in singing the hymns, etc. 
 
 And she wore no spectacles, either ! 
 
 The rector took the occasion to preach a " char- 
 ity " sermon. Every word, from beginning to the
 
 62 GOING TO CHURCH WITH AN EMPRESS. 
 
 end, dwelt upon the poverty and the wants of his 
 " struggling church " and the immediate necessity 
 of raising funds for liquidating its burdensome 
 debts. The appeal that he made to the congre- 
 gation, and especially to the Empress, was really 
 touching. I don't think that any sermon ever 
 preached on the crucifixion at Mt. Calvary could 
 have reached the hearts if not the pockets deeper 
 than this discourse of fifteen or twenty minutes- 
 I looked around expecting to see everybody weep- 
 ing and holding out their purses in readiness for 
 the contribution-box, but I could discover no 
 tears, no signs of melting benevolence, no purses 
 visible ready to be sacrificed as votive offerings on 
 the altar of charity. I did notice, however, that 
 every eye appeared to be directed toward the 
 Empress, as if the appeal was intended for her, 
 and her alone, and that they were weighing in 
 their minds how heavily in marks she would 
 respond to the appeal. 
 
 I could see that her Majesty was steadily eying 
 the ten-mark piece in front of her, as if hesitating 
 whether or not to quietly slip it back into her 
 purse and replace it with a fifty or one hundred 
 mark note. She evidently felt guilty of making so 
 small an offering, and might have made the ex- 
 change had she not been conscious that the eyes of 
 the whole congregation and the rector, too, were 
 centred upon her. No movement was made, how- 
 ever, for making the transfer, and by and by the
 
 CONTINENTAL CHURCHES AND CHAPELS. 63 
 
 piece of money was dropped by the royal fingers 
 into the contribution-box on its errand of mercy. 
 
 After the benediction was pronounced the Em- 
 press, with her maid of honor, passed down the 
 broad aisle preceded by Mr. Oakes, the church- 
 warden, and the congregation remained standing 
 until she had been bowed into her carriage and 
 driven away to her hotel. 
 
 The next morning she sent the rector one hun- 
 dred marks, which was to apply toward cancelling 
 the church debt. 
 
 All of these little English churches and chapels 
 on the Continent seem to be forever deeply in 
 debt, and the rectors forever on the verge of 
 starvation, judging from the piteous appeals for 
 help that continually issue from the pulpits. And 
 these appeals come not from the pulpits alone. 
 
 English and American tourists, the moment 
 they register their names at a continental hotel, 
 are assailed with circulars, requesting contributions 
 for paying off some church debt or the building 
 of a church. If they do not receive circulars at 
 the hotels, they have a card, circular, or a note 
 from the rector quietly slipped in their hands 
 when they venture inside of a church, in which 
 they are requested to serve the Master's cause by 
 contributing liberally as possible toward the erec- 
 tion of the building in which a kind Providence 
 has allowed them to worship. 
 
 The appeals are not in vain. Many contribu-
 
 64 CONTINENTAL CHURCHES AND CHAPELS. 
 
 tions flow in, occasionally of large amounts and 
 especially from wealthy Americans, but, strange to 
 say, the church debts never seem to grow less. 
 The clergymen show a great eagerness to get as 
 much money as possible out of tourists during the 
 summer months in anticipation of the long winter 
 months ahead, when tourists' visits are few and 
 far between, and instead of preaching " The Cross 
 and Christ Crucified," preach the " Contribution- 
 Box," and convey the idea that salvation is only 
 obtained by liberal donations through this channel. 
 
 These little English churches and chapels are 
 to be found in nearly every city, village, and ham- 
 let all over the Continent wherever a tourist pene- 
 trates. If there is neither church nor chapel, 
 hotel parlors or other rooms are utilized for hold- 
 ing church service. 
 
 It is a great comfort to many English and 
 Americans to find a place Sundays where they 
 can assemble and listen to church services in the 
 English language. It is a good work, inasmuch 
 as it gives employment to a large number of 
 clergymen who cannot, many of them, get " liv- 
 ings " or congregations at home, on account of 
 
 o o o 
 
 poor health, defective voices, want of talent, and 
 who come out here and gain uncertain liveli- 
 hoods from the contributions of travellers. 
 
 The Americans are noted for their generous 
 donations to these churches, but they would give 
 still more liberally and freely if they could but
 
 FRAILTY OF PASTORS. 65 
 
 sit under the ministrations of some of the really 
 eloquent and devoted Christian clergymen that 
 they are accustomed to hear preach in their own 
 churches in America. 
 
 The clergymen who are sent on to the Conti- 
 nent and to other foreign fields of labor, by the 
 colonial and other societies of London, are not, 
 I am sorry to say, all of them noted for either 
 piety, morality, or "cleverness " in their profession. 
 Neither are all of those who come out on their 
 " own account " and get a scanty subsistence by 
 doing a species of missionary work in whatever 
 village or town fortune takes them. Few of them 
 could get a call in the remotest of New England 
 towns. 
 
 It is no news to thousands of continental travel- 
 lers to be told that some of these clergymen are 
 guilty of the worst of vices, intemperance, riot- 
 ous living, etc., but so lenient are the English 
 Church and English congregations with these 
 offenders that, as long as they can stand up in 
 their pulpits and mumble through the service, 
 they are allowed to remain within the clerical 
 fold. This is a painful, humiliating statement or 
 confession to make, but it nevertheless is true. 
 
 One of the most painful martyrdoms that 
 Americans surfer when they come abroad I 
 refer to those "good Americans" who have been 
 accustomed to attend church regularly at home as 
 a religious duty, and who feel the necessity of
 
 66 THE EMPEROR AS A CHURCH-GOER. 
 
 attending some church during their travels on 
 
 o o 
 
 this side of the Atlantic is the sufferings they 
 endure in being obliged to sit under such preach- 
 ers and preaching. It is one of the " crosses " 
 they bear, and probably they are made stronger, 
 spiritually, for having endured so patiently. 
 
 The Emperor William is not so particular as 
 the Empress in attending to church duties. He 
 has been so long a shuttlecock between the 
 Romish, Protestant, and Greek churches, and has 
 been so vilified by all sects, that it is said he has 
 lost faith in all religions. He occasionally attends 
 the Protestant service, but it is well known that 
 he shows himself in the sanctuary more as an 
 " example " to his subjects than for any real in- 
 terest he takes in church worship. His Majesty 
 is already in the eighty-fifth year, is still hale and 
 hearty, and promises well for many years more of 
 rule ere he gives up the sceptre to his successor. 
 He has but two children, the Crown Prince, who 
 married the eldest daughter of Queen Victoria, 
 and who, Providence permitting, will be the next 
 Emperor of Germany, and the wife of the Grand 
 Duke of Baden. 
 
 Germany is composed of small kingdoms, 
 duchies, and principalities, somewhat as the 
 United States is made up of States. The duchy 
 of Baden is about two thirds the size of the State 
 of Massachusetts and has about a million and a 
 half inhabitants. The Grand Duke has the powers
 
 UI.ALTH OF THE GRAND DUKE. 6/ 
 
 of a king and lives like a king. He is not a sub- 
 ject of the Emperor, neither are the people over 
 whom he rules, except in the German military 
 organization, and the liability of being called into 
 service in case of war. I don't think the duties 
 of the Grand Duke are any more responsible, 
 numerous, or complicated than are the duties of 
 the governor of either one of the New England 
 States ; and yet if the farmers and mechanics of 
 Massachusetts were obliged to contribute their 
 share of taxes, no matter how small the amount, 
 toward paying the annual salary and the " state " 
 expenses of his highness, the Grand Duke, there 
 would be a howl that would make the old Com- 
 monwealth tremble to its centre. At Carlsruhe, 
 where he lives during the winter months, he has 
 a magnificent palace, which, with its parks, picture 
 galleries, stables, etc., has cost millions of dollars. 
 He has also palaces at Mannheim and Schwetzin- 
 gen. At Baden-Baden he has a grand old castle 
 overhanging the town, which represents enormous 
 wealth, not only the castle itself and its extensive 
 grounds, but in its large collection of choice paint- 
 ings and museum of antiques. He has also cas- 
 tles scattered all over his dominions. The old 
 castle at Heidelberg, the castles of Eberstein and 
 Favorita, belong to his estate. The palace of 
 Mainau, situated on a romantic and beautiful 
 island in the Lake of Constance, also belongs to 
 him. In Heidelberg and Freiburg there are pala-
 
 68 THE GRAND DUKE'S SALARY. 
 
 tial dwellings, not exactly palaces, that are his 
 property, and in which he can spend a day or 
 night, should occasion require. I don't think that 
 the least costly of either of his palaces or castles 
 would represent less wealth than the cost of the 
 State House at Boston. 
 
 To keep up all of these princely establishments 
 requires an army of servants and retainers, and 
 vast sums of money, which come indirectly from 
 the pockets of the people. The Grand Duke is 
 paid a salary of 1,000,000 marks a year, equal to 
 about $250,000; this is in addition to great in- 
 comes that he has flowing in from private invest- 
 ments and various resources. What would the 
 hard-working farmers of the Northern States say 
 at paying their governors such a salary as this ?
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 MORE GLIMPSES OF LIFE AT BADEN-BADEN. PRECAUTIONS 
 TAKEN TO ' SAVE THE E.MPEROR FROM ASSASSINATION. 
 PRINCE GORTSCHAKOFF. A GENTLEMAN FROM FIJI. A 
 HORSE RACE BEFORE THE EMPEROR AND EMPRESS, IN WHICH 
 A PRINCE AND A GRAND DUKE COME IN FIRST AND SECOND. 
 No ENTHUSIASM. 
 
 SINCE so many attempts have been made in 
 the last few years to take the Emperor's life, 
 special precautions have been taken to guard 
 against any repetitions of the bungling efforts of 
 these would-be regicides. During the Emperor's 
 stay in Baden-Baden the place has been full of 
 secret police and detectives in citizen's dress, who 
 narrowly watch the movements of every stranger 
 and suspicious person, and keep a sharp lookout 
 on every avenue and road where his Majesty takes 
 his daily drive. There are also extra numbers of 
 armed and uniformed police and soldiers stationed 
 on the corners of the different streets and build- 
 ings, whose long, dangling swords, dangerous-look- 
 ing guns, and brass helmets glittering in the sun, 
 give the little town a decidedly military appearance. 
 In passing through a street in the rear of the 
 hotel where the Emperor resides, I noticed that
 
 /O THE EMPERORS PERIL. 
 
 every gateway and avenue of approach to the 
 building was guarded by an armed sentry, and I 
 saw that armed soldiers or police were lazily wan- 
 dering about on the lawns and in the gardens. I 
 think it would be difficult for a tramp to penetrate 
 as far as the back door to beg for cold pieces. 
 
 It was only a few years since that an attempt 
 was made to assassinate the Emperor in Baden- 
 Baden. While walking on the Lichtenthal ave- 
 nue a man shot at his Majesty from the oppo- 
 site walk, but like all such trembling marksmen 
 when they undertake to bring down such big game 
 as an Emperor, he shot wildly, and, instead of 
 hitting his Majesty, the ball penetrated one of 
 the grand oid trees which shade that celebrated 
 drive. The tree came near suffering the fate of 
 the famous willow that overhung the tomb of 
 Napoleon at St. Helena: it was being gradually 
 carried away piecemeal by relic hunters. The 
 limbs and twigs they could not reach, but the 
 bark on the body was disappearing fast, when the 
 town authorities gave it protection by encasing 
 it in heavy black canvas and several coats of tar ; 
 but this did not suffice, as jack-knives continued 
 to go through the canvas for relics. Then the 
 authorities resorted to the novel idea of encasing 
 two of the adjoining trees in the same manner. 
 This device proved successful, for now strangers 
 are at a loss which of the three trees to whittle, 
 and the real tree escapes further mutilation.
 
 HONORS TO THE EMPRESS. 71 
 
 These crowned heads cannot live very happy 
 and peaceful lives, for it must be anything but 
 pleasant for them to be forever haunted with the 
 fear of being made targets of every time they ex- 
 pose themselves to the public. Several times 
 recently there have been grand illuminations 
 and fire-works in the beautiful grounds of the 
 Conversationhaus. They were given in honor of 
 the Emperor and Empress, whose residence, the 
 Hotel Mesmer, is within a stone's throw of the 
 grounds, and from whose windows and balconies 
 a fine view could be had of the brilliant spectacle 
 below. It was thought that the Emperor would 
 acknowledge the compliment by appearing at one 
 of the windows or balconies and show himself to 
 the people, but they looked for him in vain. 
 
 Recently, on the evening of the Empress' seven- 
 tieth birthday, extra preparations were made for 
 celebrating the occasion in a royal manner, with 
 fire-works and illuminations on a grand scale. In 
 addition to the regular orchestral band which 
 plays daily in the grounds, the splendid military 
 bands from Carlsruhe and Rastatt, said to be the 
 finest in Germany, came over to aid in celebrat- 
 ing the seventieth anniversary of their Empress. 
 Probably finer music was never listened to in 
 Baden-Baden, or a more magnificient display of 
 fire-works and illuminations ever witnessed in this 
 famous watering-place. It was thought that the 
 Emperor would, of course, show himself during
 
 72 FEARS OF ASSASSINATION. 
 
 the evening on one of the balconies, or at one of 
 the windows. Crowds of people stood for hours 
 gazing up at the building waiting to give him a 
 hearty ovation in the way of German cheers the 
 moment he should make his appearance. But he 
 failed to show himself. The disappointment was 
 keenly felt, and there was much grumbling and ill- 
 feeling expressed on all sides, at what was con- 
 sidered a lack of courtesy and appreciation of the 
 good-will and kind feelings which prompted his 
 subjects to make such an elaborate and costly 
 demonstration in honor of the Empress. 
 
 It was said that his physician would not allow 
 him to be exposed to the night air, but he might 
 have appeared at one of the windows without run- 
 ning any atmospheric risk. It was well under- 
 stood, however, by many, that he would not show 
 himself in the night, fearing that a bullet fired by 
 some secret assassin would at last do its deadly 
 work. 
 
 The Emperor is in his eighty-fifth year, and is 
 remarkably well preserved for an octogenarian, and 
 for one who has lived through the wear and tear 
 of nearly fifty years of court life, in addition to 
 the rough-and-tumble of a long military career. 
 He looks at present twenty years older than 
 when I saw him at Homburg-les-bains, the first 
 year after the Franco-Prussian war. His height 
 is six feet six, or it was then ; he had a fine 
 military figure, and did not appear to be over
 
 PRINCE GORTSCHAKOFF. 73 
 
 sixty or sixty-five ; but now he has grown heavier 
 and stouter : his face is full of wrinkles, and old 
 age is fast settling down upon him. Old age 
 is also crushing him down in stature, for he does 
 not look as tall by several inches as when I saw 
 him taking his daily promenade at Homburg. 
 
 Among the many celebrities in Baden-Baden, 
 that are promenading nearly every hour in the 
 day, perhaps there is none more noted or that has 
 a more world-wide reputation than Prince Gorts- 
 chakoff, who was so long the Imperial Chancellor 
 of Russia, and who for many years controlled a 
 greater influence on European politics than any 
 other man living. He, also, is passing into the 
 sere and yellow leaf, being upward of eighty, and 
 his silvery locks and tottering step giving evi- 
 dence that he is nearly ready for the great har- 
 vester of all. Old age has unfitted him for 
 further use or influence in the Russian cabinet, 
 and he is like an old war-horse that has been dis- 
 ^carded from active duty after years of hard work 
 in his country's service. He spends the summer 
 months in Baden-Baden and the winters in South- 
 ern France or Italy, having ignored Russia as a 
 place of residence. Report says that his mind 
 has become weak and childish, and that he con- 
 stantly mourns over the ingratitude of his coun- 
 try in not reinstating him in power as in days 
 gone by. 
 
 Another marked personage, now in Baden-
 
 74 A GENTLEMAN FROM FIJI. 
 
 Baden, though not a celebrity, is an Englishman 
 who has lived the last twenty-five years at the 
 Fiji Islands ; so long, indeed, that he has almost 
 acquired the habits and customs of the natives. 
 He has secured large wealth during his sojourn 
 there, and with his accumulated treasures has 
 forever bid adieu to the land where they have the 
 reputation of roasting missionaries for Sunday 
 dinners, and serving up fat babies like quails on 
 toast, as a special delicacy. His friends say that 
 he left the islands, fearing that the natives might 
 eventually take it into their heads to barbecue 
 him, as it is well known that the flesh of Euro- 
 peans has a peculiarly savory taste and smell to 
 the cannibals. 
 
 Durinsr the last few months he has been mak- 
 
 O 
 
 ing the tour of Europe, and visiting the principal 
 cities and the most fashionable summer resorts. 
 Like all wealthy tourists, when they make their 
 first continental trip, he has been victimized and 
 swindled without mercy, wherever he has been, by. 
 hotel-keepers, shop-keepers, railway employes, and, 
 in fact, by every one with whom he has come in 
 contact. He says if this is civilization he is sick 
 and disgusted with it, and that he is anxious to 
 get back to the Fijis, where the people are honest, 
 conscientious, and don't try to rob him in every 
 business transaction. Moreover, he is disgusted 
 with the European style of dress, and the costly 
 manner in which the " natives " here, as he calls
 
 A HORSE RACE BEFORE ROYALTY. 75 
 
 them, load themselves down with the most expen- 
 sive and ridiculous-looking costumes. 
 
 " Dress at the Fijis," he said, " is not expensive 
 or extensive. It is but a slight improvement on 
 the fig-leaves worn by our first ancestors. A very 
 short smock or a cotton twist around the loins 
 was all the wardrobe that a person required. It 
 did not go out of style every three or six months, 
 and seldom needed replenishing. It is an econom- 
 ical country to live in." 
 
 A few weeks ago the last of the Baden-Baden 
 fall races took place. As the Emperor and Em- 
 press, the German court, together with a large 
 number of German grand dukes and princes 
 were to be present, extra pains were taken to 
 secure some of the best and most noted horses in 
 Germany to contend for the liberal prizes that 
 were offered. Several famous horses were also 
 sent over from England, that were accompanied 
 by professional English jockeys, sporting and 
 betting men. 
 
 The race-course is at Iffezheim, a small village 
 six miles out of Baden. There are several large, 
 handsome buildings and pavilions for the accom- 
 modation of the royal family and visitors of the 
 first rank, for the International Club, and for 
 invited guests, besides a grand stand for the pub- 
 lic at large. 
 
 The race-course is different from those we are 
 accustomed to see in America. The track,
 
 /6 THE RACE-COURSE. 
 
 instead of being like a turnpike road, is a firm 
 green turf closely clipped, and in place of a mile 
 or half-mile circle, it extends four miles in one 
 irregular sweep, with many turns and corners to 
 make, besides a large number of hurdles, hedges, 
 and wide ditches or canals to leap during the 
 circuit. So great is the distance that when the 
 horses reach the furthermost point from the grand 
 stand they can only be seen with the aid of pow- 
 erful field-glasses. 
 
 It was a little late when I arrived on the ground, 
 and I supposed that the first race had taken place* 
 Seeing one of the English sporting men, with his 
 book in hand, calling out for bets on different 
 horses, I asked him which horse had won the last 
 heat. 
 
 " Last 'eat, sir ! We Ve 'ad no 'eat yet. We Ve 
 been waiting for the old man." 
 
 " What old man ? " I ventured to ask. 
 
 " Aow ! Don't you know ? Why, Kaiser Billy,, 
 of course." 
 
 From this I inferred that the Emperor had not 
 yet arrived ; so I went back to the entrance of the 
 course, and I had been there but a moment when 
 the Emperor's carriage, drawn by eight elegant 
 bay horses, preceded by outriders, came dashing 
 up to the royal pavilion at a rapid pace. 
 
 It was a pretty sight, the postilions, outriders, 
 and footman all in their bright scarlet liveries,, 
 trimmed with gold and silver lace, their faces
 
 ARRIVAL OF THE EMPEROR AXD EMPRESS. 77 
 
 flushed with the excitement of their long and 
 rapid ride. On the back seat of the handsome 
 open carriage sat the Emperor alone, in citizen's 
 dress, even to the conventional " stove-pipe " hat, 
 while on the seat in front of him was his son, the 
 Crown Prince of Germany, and his son-in-law, the 
 Grand Duke of Baden, also in citizen's dress. 
 
 Later in the afternoon the Empress arrived on 
 the grounds and proceeded at once to the royal 
 pavilion. Her " turn-out " was similar to the Em- 
 peror's, with the same number of outriders, postil- 
 ions, attendants, etc., but her horses were elegant 
 coal blacks instead of bays. 
 
 I will not describe the different races, all were 
 intensely exciting, but the one that interested me 
 most was a grand army race, which was ridden only 
 by officers of the highest rank in the German army. 
 
 With a prize of four thousand marks ($1,000) 
 awaiting the rider that should come in first, in ad- 
 dition to a splendid silver service, a present from 
 the Emperor, and to be presented to the winner 
 by the Emperor himself, it may be judged that it 
 was almost a life or death struggle to the horse 
 and the rider as to who should first reach the 
 judge's stand on the home stretch. In front of 
 the royal pavilion and grand stand there was a 
 canal full of water, about fifteen or eighteen feet 
 wide, on the borders of which was an artificial 
 hedge several feet high. Both canal and hedge 
 were to be cleared at one leap.
 
 78 THE START. 
 
 The six officers who were to contend for the 
 prizes, all in full uniform, even to their long 
 cavalry sabres, and mounted on splendid horses, 
 started about an eighth of a mile above the grand 
 stand and came rushing down like so many wild 
 centaurs. They reached the hedge nearly abreast, 
 and I held my breath as the horses rose on their 
 hind legs to make the fearful leap. Not one of 
 them faltered or hesitated ; over they went to the 
 opposite bank, and sped away in the distance like 
 so many deer hounds. 
 
 As they go in an opposite direction from the 
 spectators, no one can tell which rider is ahead^ 
 but we can see the horses as they occasionally 
 rise up and leap the hedges, hurdles, and canals 
 that lie in their way. 
 
 Once they turn out of the regular course and 
 dash through a good-sized river, and the splash- 
 ing waters for a moment blind them from sight. 
 On they speed, each moment growing smaller 
 and smaller to the eye. As they make the turn 
 in the far distance they can scarcely be distin- 
 guished ; they look like so many rabbits trying 
 their speed. Back they come, now on the return 
 track. More hedges and canals to clear; over 
 they go. Part of the horses are falling behind ; 
 the strain to them is terrible. The two that are 
 ahead are neck and neck. Four thousand marks 
 and a silver service from the Emperor to the rider 
 that gets in first, even though his horse's nose
 
 NECK AND NECK. 79 
 
 is but three inches ahead of all the others ! But 
 the money and the service is of no account com- 
 pared to the glory of being declared the winner. 
 
 No wonder they are straining every nerve, no 
 matter if they do kill their horses, and if they are 
 worth their weight in silver. One of the lagging 
 horses with his rider suddenly disappears. It failed 
 to reach the opposite bank of the last canal, and 
 has gone under with its rider; but no matter, they 
 will crawl out at their leisure. None of the other 
 riders even look behind to see what has become of 
 their unfortunate competitor. On they go. But 
 see ! now they turn from their course again, and 
 all dash boldly up a high, precipitous bank, which 
 is like the steep bank of some great river. They 
 reach the table-land above, and on they come 
 again like the wind. It is a fine sight, horses 
 and riders outlined against the blue sky beyond. 
 
 The two foremost horses are still neck and 
 neck; one is ridden by a prince and the other by 
 a duke. The other horses are so far behind that 
 there is no chance of either of them coming in 
 first, but their riders afe still urging them on with 
 whip and spur. Can they reach the valley again 
 down that high bank at such a break-neck speed 
 and not tumble in a chaotic heap together ? Yes, 
 down they come the rough descent with fearful 
 leap ; not a horse stumbles. 
 
 On they come ; they are not a quarter of a mile 
 from the judges' stand ; they are so near we can dis-
 
 8O ON THE HOME STRETCH. 
 
 tinguish the colors of the broad silk sashes on the 
 riders' shoulders. One more hedge to leap. Will 
 they clear it ? The horses show the effects of the 
 terrible four-mile race and are covered with foam. 
 
 As they near the hedge, the riders ply their 
 whips and bury their spurs into the noble animals 
 to make the final leap. The two foremost go over 
 with a bound, and the others come up and over 
 they go, no, not all, for one of them, as he rises 
 in the air to make the leap, hesitates, his strength 
 fails him, he falls back upon the ground, his rider 
 beneath him. 
 
 All interest is now centred on the two foremost 
 riders, the prince and the duke. Bets are 
 quickly made and taken by the friends of both. 
 The horses are coming down like a whirlwind on 
 the home-stretch ; the riders are wild with excite- 
 ment ; they shout, and scream, and ply not only 
 their whips and spurs, but their sabres to the 
 horses' flanks. I can see the Emperor and 
 Empress craning their heads out of the windows 
 of the royal pavilion, eagerly watching the contest. 
 
 The red scarf, the duke, is half a length ahead ; 
 bets are doubling on him. He gains a full 
 length ; the gray scarf, the prince, will lose. 
 They are within a hundred feet of the line by the 
 judges' stand ; the next few seconds will decide 
 it. The prince, wearing the gray scarf, rises up 
 in his saddle to make his last desperate effort to 
 retrieve the distance he has fallen behind. He
 
 THE GRAY SCARF WINS. 8 1 
 
 sees the Emperor and Empress waving their 
 handkerchiefs to him from their pavilion. I 
 don't know how he overcame the distance, but he 
 did. I was too excited to think or look. The 
 gray scarf was the winner, and the four thou- 
 sand marks and the silver service were his. 
 Hurrah for the prince ! 
 
 Now was the strangest scene of all to me as an 
 American. Such a trial of speed at an American 
 race-course, and the final desperate struggle of the 
 two such distinguished riders to come in first, 
 would have made an American crowd of specta- 
 tors wild with excitement ; they would have 
 cheered the winner until they were hoarse, and 
 it would have taken an army of policemen to have 
 kept the crowd back from embracing both horse 
 and rider when the trial was over. But here 
 there was no manifestation of joy, no cheers, no 
 excitement, as I could discover, whatever. I don't 
 think there were half a dozen persons that went 
 forward to congratulate the winner of the prizes on 
 his good fortune. It was the same at all the 
 races ; there was little or no enthusiasm, every- 
 thing was sober, matter of fact, as if the people 
 had come out to witness a disagreeable spectacle, 
 or one that they could take no interest in. But 
 perhaps the Germans have not been educated as 
 yet to horse-racing so as to thoroughly enjoy and 
 enter into the spirit of it, like the English and 
 Americans.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 WURTEMBERG. ITS KlNG AND NOBILITY. A POCKET KING- 
 DOM SCARCELY RECOGNIZABLE ON THE MAPS. THE PAY 
 THAT ROYALTY AND THE NOBILITY RECEIVE. GERMAN 
 BOOK-KEEPING. WHERE THE MONEY COMES FROM. THE 
 KING'S PALACES. STUTTGART, THE CAPITAL. 
 
 IF you would like to see a pocket edition of a 
 little kingdom, a tiny little kingdom, with a 
 real live king and queen, with lackeys in livery 
 thicker than rooks in England, then come to 
 Wiirtemberg, of which Stuttgart is the capital. 
 
 Here you will find the little volume, gilt-edged, 
 "bound in calf," fresh, as it were, from the 
 press, to be looked at, but not for sale, not even 
 handled. Even the Emperor William could not 
 trade for it, neither has he money enough in his 
 pocket or in the dime savings bank to purchase it 
 as a dainty toy, or a rare souvenir to place on his 
 library table, or among his collection of bric-a- 
 brac. 
 
 We hear of the king of Italy, the king of 
 Spain, the king of Prussia, the king of Belgium, 
 and of Norway and Sweden, and various other 
 kings, but when we hear of the king of Wiirtem- 
 berg, nine Americans out of ten for America is 
 nearly four thousand miles away come to a
 
 THE KINGDOM OF WURTEMBERG. 83 
 
 stand-still in their geographical knowledge, and 
 naturally inquire, "Where is Wurtemberg? " 
 
 It will be doubtful if you can find it on one of 
 the school atlases. Find a map of Europe that 
 will cover the side wall of a small bedroom, and 
 you will probably find Wurtemberg occupying 
 the space of what appears to be a small township, 
 fitting in like the section of a child's puzzle 
 between the numerous duchies and principalities 
 that help form the German Confederation. 
 
 The Wurtembergers claim that their kingdom 
 contains three hundred and sixty-five German 
 square miles of territory, which is a square mile 
 for every day in the year ; but the neighboring 
 duchies are jealous of the kingdom which makes 
 their own titles of royalty and nobility so insignif- 
 icant, and say that three hundred and sixty-five is 
 a gross exaggeration of its real size, and that a 
 good pedestrian will easily walk around it in 
 twenty-four or thirty-six hours.* 
 
 The kingdom has about one million eight hun- 
 dred thousand inhabitants. It is indeed a small 
 kingdom, but what it lacks in size of territory it 
 makes up in putting on a grand show of royalty 
 and extravagant splendor. 
 
 The king and queen reside in Stuttgart through 
 the winter, and they live in as much style and 
 
 * A German square mile embraces about twenty times as much terri- 
 tory as an English square mile, so that the little kingdom covers 7,531 
 miles by our standard, or less than the State of Massachusetts, which has 
 7,800 miles.
 
 84 ROYAL PALACES AND THE KING'S PARK. 
 
 grandeur as did ever Louis XVI. in the Tuileries 
 at Paris. The palace, which is said to be one of 
 the finest in Germany, forms three sides of a 
 square, and is nearly as large as the Louvre in 
 Paris, which it resembles in architecture. It con- 
 tains over three hundred and seventy rooms, in 
 addition to its vast halls and corridors. These 
 rooms, of course, are all elegantly furnished, and 
 are overflowing with wealth in the shape of rare 
 paintings, statuary, bronzes, and vast collections 
 of costly bric-a-brac and objects of vertu. 
 
 Within a stone's throw of the new palace, as it 
 is called, although built about one hundred years 
 ago, is the old castle or palace, an immense build- 
 ing with high round towers at each of its four cor- 
 ners, and evidently constructed with the intention 
 of its being a place of refuge and a fortress for 
 defence during the old German wars. This old 
 castle was built over three hundred and fifty years 
 ago, by one of the ancestors of the present king, 
 and was occupied by the royal family until the new 
 palace was built. At present it serves as an ap- 
 pendix, with cook-house, servants' quarters, lava- 
 tory, etc., for the royal palace. 
 
 At the right of the palace, and extending a dis- 
 tance of two miles to the village of Cannstadt, is 
 the King's Park, an elegant stretch of woods, which 
 is the king's private property, although open to the 
 public. This park is beautifully embellished its 
 whole length, and made as attractive as great
 
 THE KING'S STABLES. 85 
 
 wealth and taste can possibly make it. Its mac- 
 adamized walks and drives are adorned with fine 
 statuary, its fish-ponds are full of beautiful and rare 
 fish, and on the quiet waters of its artificial lakes 
 all varieties of swan and water fowl are to be seen. 
 In the centre of the large lake there is a magnifi- 
 cent fountain, throwing a great body of water to 
 the height of over one hundred feet. At the upper 
 end of the park, and near the palace, are the king's 
 stables, which must be several hundred feet long, and 
 horses enough in them for a squadron of cavalry. 
 
 There are also elegant coaches, carriages, drags, 
 dog-carts, and all manner of vehicles for the royal 
 household. There are state carriages of splendid 
 make, to be used on state occasions, and drawn by 
 four and six horses, with postilions and outriders; 
 there are handsome carriages, to be used only by 
 the king, and those to be used only by the queen, 
 and others for royal guests and visitors. 
 
 But it may be asked, " How can all this style and 
 expense be kept up when the kingdom is so small, 
 and its revenues must necessarily be limited ? " 
 
 The government of Wurtemberg is entirely dis- 
 tinct from the government of Prussia, and of all the 
 other petty kingdoms, duchies, and principalities 
 which form the German Confederation. It has its 
 own code of laws, and administers them without ref- 
 erence to any other government or power, although 
 many of the laws are the same as those in force in 
 Prussia and other parts of Germany. The Empe-
 
 86 HOW THE KINGDOM IS GOVERNED. 
 
 ror or the imperial government has no control over 
 it politically or financially, and the only power the 
 Emperor exercises is a military power, and the 
 right to call upon it for troops in case of war, and 
 for money to defray the costs of war, and an annual 
 military tax to support the German army ; from 
 which assessment the Wurtemberg troops receive 
 their pay in common with the others. 
 
 Previous to the confederation of the German 
 states, in 1871, Wurtemberg was independent as a 
 military power, and paid no " tribute to Caesar " at 
 Berlin for war purposes. The little kingdom still 
 has its Parliament with its House of Lords and 
 House of Commons, which are similar in their 
 organization and manner of conducting business 
 to the Houses of Lords and Commons in Eng- 
 land. Its House of Lords is composed of forty- 
 eight members of the hereditary nobility, whose 
 tenure of ofHce holds through life. This body is 
 presided over by the king, or is supposed to be, 
 though he seldom goes near it except at the open- 
 ing of a session, once in three years, when he is 
 expected to be present. The lower House has 
 ninety-three members, who are chosen annually by 
 the people from different parts of the kingdom. 
 
 I have before me the printed " budget " of the 
 king's treasurer of the expenses for running this 
 little kingdom during the year 1881. I wish I 
 could enter here the whole budget for inspection 
 of all accountants, and also for the inspection
 
 HOW THE TREASURY IS REPLENISHED. 8/ 
 
 of many of our State treasurers, to whom I know 
 it would be interesting as a sample of perfect 
 book-keeping and the thorough manner in which 
 the Wurtemberg government keeps its accounts. 
 The Germans are noted for the careful manner in 
 which they keep all their accounts, especially 
 with the government. Ink and labor are cheap. 
 Every item of expense, no matter how small, is 
 carried out in full, even if it is but for a box of 
 matches that would cost half a farthing, and the 
 person's name to whom the money is paid. No 
 expenses at the end of an account are carried out 
 as " Sundies," " Miscellaneous," " etc.," which so 
 often in America include boxes of cigars, oyster 
 and wine suppers, boxes of champagne, etc. This 
 way of dodging the facts in covering over unauthor- 
 ized expenditures is not allowed by the Germans. 
 
 I find in the budget that the total expenses of 
 the government for the past year, which includes 
 the salary of the king and others of the royal 
 family to whom pensions are annually given, 
 amounts to $12,429,002. This amount includes 
 nothing for a navy, as they have none, and noth- 
 ing for the army. Of this amount $6,916,869 is 
 raised by direct taxation on all the people 
 throughout the kingdom who hold property of any 
 kind; and the balance, $5,512,135, is derived from 
 the forests, which belong to the crown, from the 
 profits of the railways and telegraphs, which be- 
 long to the government, and from the annual har-
 
 88 THE FORESTS AS TAX-PAYERS. 
 
 vest of wheat, oats, and barley, which comes out of 
 the tillers of the soil. It seems that for ages past 
 the government, in accordance with an old usage, 
 has the right of taking toll of the farmers of a cer- 
 tain amount of their crops after the harvest, the 
 proceeds of which are applied, first, toward paying 
 a stated amount toward the king's salary and to 
 members of the royal family, and the balance 
 toward defraying government expenses. 
 
 All of the magnificent forests throughout Ger- 
 many, but with here and there an occasional 
 exception, are the property of the crown, and are 
 planted, cultivated, and watched over with as much 
 care and interest as so many flower-gardens. Not 
 a tree can be cut without the permission of the 
 forester whom the king places in charge, and not a 
 stick can be purchased without paying the forester 
 an exorbitant price. The revenue derived from 
 these forests thoughout Germany, from the certain 
 amount of wood that is permitted to be sold from 
 them each year, is something enormous, and goes 
 a great way toward paying for the extravagance 
 of royalty, besides contributing largely in defraying 
 government expenses. 
 
 While walking recently through the Black For- 
 est I saw a beggarly looking old man hard at 
 work by the roadside, digging holes with a pick 
 and shovel. I stopped and asked him what the 
 holes were for, and he said they were for planting 
 trees. Straightening up as much as his bent
 
 SALARIES PAID THE NOBILITY. 89 
 
 figure would allow him, he told me of his troubles, 
 that the day before while picking up a handful 
 of fagots and twigs that had fallen from the 
 trees, he had been arrested by the king's forester, 
 and sentenced to dig one hundred holes for tree- 
 planting. The poor, half-starved German woman 
 who has toiled in the field like an ox (cow, I 
 should say, as they have no oxen in this country) 
 for money sufficient to purchase a few sticks of 
 wood to boil her potatoes, has the satisfaction of 
 knowing that she has contributed her mite toward 
 the king's pleasure and for keeping up the mag- 
 nificence that surrounds him. 
 
 I find that the revenue derived from the forests 
 in Wiirtemberg during the past year amounts to 
 $1,3^4,512. In the "civil list," as published in the 
 budget, the following amounts are paid as salaries 
 and annuities to the king and to other members of 
 the royal family. Of course the king's salary heads 
 the list. I will reduce the marks to dollars : 
 
 His Majesty King Carl Frederic $462,119 
 
 His Royal Highness the Crown Prince .... 25,699 
 
 Duke Frederick William 9,926 
 
 Duke William Ferdinand 7,767 
 
 Duke Alexander 7,406 
 
 Prince August 5,397 
 
 Her Royal Highness Princess Catharine" . . . 5,357 
 
 Duke William 4,955 
 
 Duchess Helena 3,86i 
 
 Duchess Matilda 3,86i 
 
 Duke Nicholas 2,812 
 
 Duchess Vera 2,143
 
 9O THE AMOUNT PAID THE KING. 
 
 But I will not extend the list further, although this 
 does not comprise all the names, neither does it 
 cover all the amounts that are paid to other head- 
 ings and through indirect channels from the royal 
 treasury. 
 
 The king has three sisters living in Stuttgart, 
 Princess Weimer; Princess Marie, Countess of 
 Neipperg; and Princess Catherine, who is the 
 mother of the Crown Prince, the king having no 
 children of his own. Each of these sisters, and 
 also the Crown Prince, have separate palaces, and 
 live in a style of grandeur nearly equal to that 
 of the king. Their palaces are large and pala- 
 tial to the fullest extent ; armed sentinels, dressed 
 in German military uniforms, guard all the ap- 
 proaches night and day, while liveried footmen, 
 lackeys, and waiters seem to outnumber those who 
 wait upon the king. Of the king's salary, $400,- 
 ooo he receives in cash, which is raised by direct 
 taxation; $25,500 he receives in wood from the 
 crown forests; and $37,618.75 is allowed him in 
 wheat, oats, and barley. Whatever wood is used 
 in the palaces for heating or cooking, and the 
 grain fed to the horses in the royal stables and in 
 various other ways, are charged to the king under 
 their separate headings, and, after being deducted 
 from the amount that he is permitted to draw of 
 the different products, the balance is sold by his 
 agents, and the proceeds placed to his credit in 
 cash.
 
 WEALTH OF THE ROYAL FAMILY. QI 
 
 To those who think the salaries of one, two, or 
 three thousand dollars and upwards, paid to the 
 governors of our New England States and many 
 of our other States, are excessive, I would refer 
 them to the salary of nearly half a million of dollars 
 that is paid the king of Wurtemberg, whose duties 
 are not more burdensome, more numerous, or 
 more responsible than are those of the governor 
 of Massachusetts or Connecticut. But the large 
 amount that is paid the king probably does not 
 half cover his annual expenses and the large sums 
 that he is constantly called upon to contribute to 
 charitable and other purposes. He has a large 
 private fortune of his own from which he derives 
 a great income, and the queen, who is a sister of 
 the late Emperor of Russia, has, in addition, an 
 enormous fortune which she inherited from her 
 royal father. It would seem that, with all their 
 great private wealth, they might easily dispense 
 with the half-million dollars that is derived, a 
 great share of it, from the hard-working people of 
 the kingdom. 
 
 In addition to the two large, elegant palaces in 
 Stuttgart, the king has several other palaces and 
 two fine old castles scattered about the kingdom, 
 which he visits occasionally, staying in them only 
 a few days during the year. These grand resi- 
 dences, costing enormous sums, and each re- 
 quiring a good-sized fortune every year to keep up, 
 seem to be as common and of as little impor-
 
 92 STUTTGART THE CAPITAL. 
 
 tance to him as the abandoned playthings of a 
 child reared in wealth and luxury. 
 
 He has elegant palaces in Ludwigsburg, at Land- 
 haus-Rossenstein, at Friedricshafen, at Cannstadt, 
 and at Berg ; and then there are castles at Beben- 
 hausen and Ellwangen, besides private villas and 
 hunting lodges in the smaller towns and in the 
 larger forests, where he can take refuge with a 
 party of friends if overtaken by a storm or the dark- 
 ness of night while shooting. The sum total of 
 the value of all these different establishments and 
 the amount of money it costs annually for their 
 maintenance are items that do not appear in the 
 budget of the kingdom's expenses. Each of the 
 palaces and castles are supposed to be always in a 
 state of readiness and completeness, so that the 
 royal family with any number of invited guests 
 can take possession of them at any hour of the 
 day, and find everything in housekeeping order 
 with plenty of servants and lackeys to run at every 
 beck and nod. 
 
 Stuttgart is a beautiful city of one hundred and 
 ten thousand inhabitants, and, though not as large 
 as Berlin, Dresden, Leipsic, or Munich, yet none 
 of those cities can boast of more elegant public and 
 private buildings, palaces, parks, squares, fine blocks 
 of stores and warehouses, and broad, wide, clean- 
 kept streets than this. 
 
 Its railway station is a model in its way, and is 
 said to be one of the largest and finest in Europe.
 
 A PLEASANT CITY TO RESIDE IX. 93 
 
 Stuttgart is among the many foreign cities where 
 the American does not suffer homesickness the 
 first hour of his arrival, for there is an air of 
 newness and civilization and cleanliness about it 
 that makes him feel he is in a city of the nine- 
 teenth century, and not one built before the flood, 
 and still inhabited by one of the lost tribes of 
 Israel. For a German city it is remarkably clean, 
 and it would be difficult to discover the fifty-nine 
 distinct smells that Coleridge declared to exist at 
 Cologne, and which seem to still infest many of 
 the German cities and towns.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 MUSICAL GERMANY. THE CONSERVATOIRE AT STUTTGART. 
 
 A ClTV GIVEN OVER TO THE DISCORDS OF MUSICAL 
 PRACTICE. How THE CONCEIT is TAKEN OUT OF AMER- 
 ICAN PRODIGIES WHO GO TO GERMANY TO FINISH THEIR 
 MUSICAL EDUCATION. CONCERTS AT THE LIEDERHALLE. 
 
 BEER, Music, AND LUNCHES COMBINED. 
 
 OTUTTGART is one of the great musical cen- 
 O tres of Germany. Every city, town, and 
 village in Germany, in fact, is a musical centre ; 
 every German family is a musical centre, and 
 every German in himself is a living combination 
 of musical mechanism. But Stuttgart is one of 
 the principal cities where the attention of the 
 whole population is devoted to music and the 
 teaching of music. It is noted for its Conserva- 
 toire of Music, which is considered to be the finest 
 in Europe. It numbers nearly one thousand 
 pupils, who come here from the different coun- 
 tries in Europe and America. 
 
 In addition to the Conservatoire there are a 
 great many schools of music of smaller and differ- 
 ent grades, so numerous it would be difficult to 
 count them ; and, in addition to these schools, the 
 private professors of music are thicker than Jews 
 in Bagdad. I think there would be no difficulty 
 in finding plenty of professors of every kind of
 
 MUSICAL DISCORDS. 95 
 
 musical instrument, from the Jew's harp to a snare- 
 drum. To meet a man, woman, or child in the 
 street who is not carrying a roll of sheet music 
 or a book of piano exercises is exceptional. 
 
 The din occasioned by the constant practising 
 on so many musical instruments and of so many 
 varieties, in every building, in every room of the 
 building, and on every street, became such a 
 nuisance a few years ago that even German ears 
 rebelled against the continual racket, and a 
 municipal law was passed prohibiting any one 
 from playing or practising on musical instru- 
 ments in rooms with open windows or rooms 
 opening on the streets, or after ten o'clock at 
 night. Ambitious young men learning to play 
 the clarionet, bugle, cornet, trombone, or other 
 wind instruments were banished to a wild piece of 
 country outside of the city limits, where their dis- 
 cordant noises could not offend the most fastid- 
 ious and sensitive ears. 
 
 In the Conservatoire there are over one hundred 
 pupils from the United States, young men and 
 women who at home are supposed to possess great 
 musical talents which only foreign cultivation 
 under the most eminent of foreign masters will 
 fully develop. Probably every mother's son and 
 daughter of them before coming abroad were con- 
 sidered by their nearest and dearest relatives to be 
 musical prodigies, and had astonished their grand- 
 mothers, their uncles and aunts, and all their coun-
 
 g6 MUSICAL PRODIGIES FROM AMERICA. 
 
 try cousins by their wonderful playing on the 
 piano of Moody and Sankey hymns, negro melo- 
 dies, the " Battle of Prague," and possibly short 
 selections from some of the operas. Small for- 
 tunes, possibly, have been paid in acquiring the 
 musical educations that many of them already 
 possess, and, arriving in Stuttgart, they have an 
 idea that a few months, or a year at most, in the 
 Conservatoire will make them rivals of Liszt and 
 Rubinstein. Mistaken creatures ; like young 
 bears their troubles are all before them ! They lit- 
 tle realize the long, tedious ordeal they are obliged 
 to pass through, and the number of years it takes 
 in acquiring a Stuttgart musical education. 
 
 To be admitted as pupils they have to pass an 
 examination similar to that of freshmen before en- 
 tering a university ; not that any one is ever re- 
 jected, but that the gray-headed professors, wearing 
 gold-bowed spectacles, who know nothing but 
 music, who have breakfasted, lunched, and dined 
 on music from the time they tumbled out of their 
 cradles, may take their musical measure. They 
 wish to find out how much or how little the musi- 
 cal prodigy is advanced in his education, but it 
 makes no difference which way the scales tip, all 
 are treated alike and all start from the same stand- 
 point in the career before them. 
 
 The new pupils are ushered into a hall of mod- 
 erate size where there are several pianos of differ- 
 ent patterns and make. Here they meet for the
 
 THE STUTTGART METHOD. 97 
 
 first time the gray-headed professors, who say to 
 them in a fatherly way, " Now, children, let us hear 
 you play." Their first impulse is to exhibit their 
 skill by prancing off on to some of their old favor- 
 ite pieces, negro melodies, perhaps the " Battle of 
 Prague," or selections from some opera ; but this 
 is at once stopped. What the professors wish to 
 see and hear is the finger exercise and practising 
 of the scales. These are the standards the pupils 
 are to be judged by. No matter how long they 
 may have studied or practised music in America 
 before coming abroad, or how well they played, 
 they are placed back at the first rudiments like 
 children in their A B C's, and obliged to go the 
 ground all over again with ten times the drilling 
 they ever received before. All the former meth- 
 ods under which they have been instructed have 
 to be abandoned, and the " Stuttgart method," as 
 it is called, which differs from the Leipsic, Berlin, 
 Dresden, and all other methods, has to be adopted. 
 With many this changing to the Stuttgart method 
 is as difHcult and almost as painful as the break- 
 ing up of a broken limb which has been badly set 
 by an unskilful surgeon. This ignoring of the 
 musical talent and musical proficiency of these 
 musical prodigies takes out the starch, or rather 
 conceit, which has made them believe heretofore 
 that they had but little more to learn. 
 
 It requires five and six years to go through a 
 thorough musical course of study at the Conserva- 
 7
 
 98 SLOW PROGRESS TO SUCCESS. 
 
 toire so as to be able to graduate at last with full 
 honors. Many get discouraged and leave at the 
 end of the first, second, or third year. The first 
 year the pupil is not allowed to practise anything 
 but finger exercises, and it takes long practice to 
 be able to hold the wrist and fingers in the right 
 position according to the Stuttgart method. 
 To do this properly the pupil is at first obliged to 
 touch the piano keys over a bar raised two or 
 three inches above the key-board. The second 
 year the pupil practises the scales, or the run- 
 ning of the fingers up and down the key-board. 
 If he is very proficient and has made rapid pro- 
 gress in this apparently simple exercise, in a few 
 months he is moved a step higher. The third 
 year he is drilled on simple melodies; no, not 
 melodies, for these are considered common and 
 vulgar to the German ear, but on " harmonies," 
 which are sometimes discovered in artistic music. 
 And so he creeps gradually and surely upward 
 until the fifth or sixth year, when he is supposed 
 to be master of the situation and able to read as 
 well as play the most difficult music that is writ- 
 ten, at sight and without hesitation. 
 
 The Germans never learn or teach in a hurry. 
 Whatever trade or profession they adopt they 
 become masters of, though they are years about it, 
 and they never forget it. It would be difficult to 
 find a German who is not a musician of some 
 kind and the master of some musical instrument,
 
 THE LIEDERHALLE. 99 
 
 and not unfrequently of several. His love of 
 music knows no bounds, for it is part of Ms 
 nature. I have no doubt that an impromptu 
 orchestra could be made up at a few moments' 
 notice in the streets of any German city, among 
 the people that one would meet in a three min- 
 utes' walk. 
 
 Concert halls abound in Stuttgart. They are 
 to be found in convenient localities in all parts 
 of the city. Seven nights of the week, and 
 especially on Sunday evenings, most of these halls 
 are crowded with large audiences listening to 
 vocal or instrumental concerts. The Liederhalle 
 is one of the largest concert halls in Germany, 
 having a seating capacity for four thousand per- 
 sons, and this with but one gallery. It is hand- 
 somely built, of grand proportions, finely frescoed, 
 and does credit to the city. Three or four nights 
 of the week, and always on Sunday afternoons 
 and Sunday nights, concerts are given in this 
 monster hall by some of the singing clubs or 
 societies, of which there are many in the city, and 
 also by some one of the fine military bands whose 
 regiments are quartered here. I attended one of 
 these concerts recently, more especially to heat 
 Carl's famous band, which was advertised to 
 furnish music on that particular occasion. On 
 paying an entrance fee of fifty pfennigs (twelve 
 cents) I was admitted inside of the hall. The 
 spectacle before me was one that can only be
 
 100 BEER, MUSIC, AND LUNCHES COMBINED. 
 
 seen in Germany. The vast floor of the hall, and 
 also the space under the galleries, were thickly set 
 with small dining or saloon tables, around each of 
 which were crowded as many men and women, 
 mostly of the better class, as could be seated, all 
 drinking beer, and many of them eating plain 
 but substantial dinners and lunches. A small 
 army of waiters were rushing about in different 
 directions, busily replenishing the quickly emptied 
 beer-mugs and attending to the wants of the hun- 
 gry. It was a Babel of voices, mingled with the 
 clatter of knives and forks, beer-mugs and dishes. 
 The Germans are fond of sandwiching their music 
 with beer and hot or cold lunches. 
 
 In a few minutes Carl's band of sixty pieces 
 filed in and took its position on the stage. In a 
 moment more there was a clash of drums, post- 
 horns, and trumpets. It was the " Wedding 
 March " from Warner's " Lohengrin." The hall 
 
 o o 
 
 at once was still as death, not a whisper was heard. 
 Beer-mugs and dishes were abandoned, and every 
 one present turned toward the stage and listened 
 with the most intense earnestness until the march 
 and one or two other short selections from the 
 same opera were concluded. Then the Germans 
 resumed their beer-mugs and lunches, and the 
 Babel of voices was more confounding than ever 
 until the commencing of the next piece on the 
 programme, which hushed the audience and pro- 
 duced silence once more.
 
 GERMAN CUSTOMS. ICI 
 
 And so it was through the whole concert ; there 
 was no noise, not the rattle of a dish or a glass 
 while the band was playing ; even the waiters stood 
 silently listening, as if entranced by the magnifi- 
 cent music that was filling the vast hall. 
 
 This is a sample of the way the great mass of 
 Germans enjoy themselves in this country. Con- 
 cert halls, conducted in a similar manner, though 
 not perhaps on so large a scale, are to be found, 
 more or less of them, in every city and town of im- 
 portance throughout Germany. Restaurants with 
 very reasonable bills of fare are usually connected 
 with them as one of the requirements of the peo- 
 ple. Many German families seldom dine at home. 
 Shutting up their houses in the afternoon or at 
 night, they repair to the beer or concert garden 
 in the summer and to the concert hall in the 
 winter, and drink their beer and eat their savory- 
 smelling dinners with a keen relish during the 
 intervals when not listening to the delightful 
 music of some orchestral or military band.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 FREE Music AND CHEAP Music IN GERMANY. CARL'S BAND 
 AND ITS DAILY CONCERTS. No MUSICAL TRAMPS. 
 AMERICAN MELODIES DOMESTICATED TN THE COUNTRY. 
 PLAYING " DIXIE," "YANKEE DOODLE,"' "WHEN JOHXIE 
 COMES MARCHING HOME," "MARCHING THROUGH GEORGIA," 
 ETC.. BEFORE THE EMPEROR AT A REVIEW. MUSIC FROM 
 THE CHURCH TOWERS. 
 
 ERMANY is a good country to live in if you 
 are fond of music, for you can have music 
 with your coffee in the morning, with your lunch 
 at noon, and with your dinner at night ; you can 
 have it during the intermediate hours and while 
 you are in bed, if you wish ; for music is plenty 
 and that of the first class, and it is cheap, for it 
 takes but a very small sum to secure the services 
 of a good-sized band or orchestra which will play 
 for you by the hour, or by the week, or by the 
 year the finest and most difficult selections and 
 compositions of all the great masters. 
 
 As a rule these bands and orchestras all play 
 splendidly ; seldom do they make discords or 
 play out of time or out of tune. They are to be 
 found in every part of the country, but they seem 
 to multiply most during the summer months, when 
 the beer-gardens are in full operation and the pic- 
 nic and mountain excursions, shooting matches,
 
 MUSICAL TRAMPS NOT ALLOWED. IO3 
 
 etc., are the order of the day. You hear no such 
 fine music, such skilful music, such classical and 
 artistic music, either in Italy or France, or any- 
 where else in Europe outside of Germany. The 
 Italians may excel in vocal music, but in instru- 
 mental they are not to be compared with the Ger- 
 mans. They lack not only the thorough musical 
 education, but they lack the fine musical taste 
 and the indomitable energy and perseverance with 
 which every German pursues and acquires the 
 mastery of the profession. They are all musical 
 critics, man, woman, and child; and nothing sets 
 a German into convulsions so quickly as to hear a 
 piece of music played in a bungling or careless 
 manner. I recently asked a German musician why 
 it was that during my residence in this country 
 I had never heard or seen any of the familiar 
 wandering minstrels, with hand-organs, bagpipes, 
 hurdy-gurdy, etc., that are so often encountered in 
 all the other countries of Europe. He answered 
 me facetiously by saying that " many years ago 
 several of those vagabonds who had ventured into 
 Germany were secretly murdered by musical pro- 
 fessors for attempting to play selections from some 
 of the best German composers on instruments out 
 of tune and out of time. None of them had 
 dared to cross the German frontier since." 
 
 Stuttgart, as I have mentioned, is one of the 
 great musical cities of Germany. It is full of sing- 
 ing societies, singing clubs, orchestras, military and
 
 IO4 CARL S BAND. 
 
 civic bands, and there are many itinerant bands, as 
 there are in all of the German cities and towns, of 
 eight or ten pieces, more or less, who earn preca- 
 rious livings by giving free concerts in the streets, 
 in front of hotels, restaurants, and in beer-gardens. 
 These strolling bands, although depending upon 
 penny contributions to buy their bread, are most 
 of them composed of skilled musicians, who play 
 their parts in a manner that would warrant them 
 star engagements in countries where music is not 
 cultivated to the perfection it is here. They are 
 obliged to play well if they play at all, for if they 
 do not the Germans would drive them out of the 
 streets and their occupation would be gone. 
 
 Carl's band is the famous band here. It is to 
 Stuttgart what Theodore Thomas's orchestra is 
 to New York. Nearly all the bands in Germany 
 are famous, that is, with foreigners, for they 
 play with such wonderful skill and execution ; but 
 some of them have greater reputations and are 
 greater favorites than others. Carl's band, for 
 instance, which is attached to one of the king's 
 regiments, has sixty members, and each member 
 is said to be a star player on his particular instru- 
 ment; and if the cornet, the trumpet, the trom- 
 bone, or even the man who clangs the cymbals 
 or beats the bass drum is called upon by an 
 audience for a solo, he can respond in a manner 
 and with skill that will " brino: down the house " 
 
 O 
 
 with applause. Carl himself is a great musician,
 
 NOONDAY CONCERTS. 
 
 and has become celebrated as a composer. He is 
 such a musical enthusiast that it is said he does 
 nothing but drill his band from early morn until 
 late at night, and the members have become so pro- 
 ficient by long and thorough training and practice 
 that they are the masters of not only one instru- 
 ment, but of several, and many of them are equally 
 " at home " on either the violin, clarionet, post- 
 horn, harp, trombone, cithern, mandolin, piano, or 
 church organ. 
 
 One of the great pleasures derived from living 
 in Stuttgart is the free concert which is given 
 every day by this band in the kiosk, in front of 
 the king's palace. At precisely ten minutes before 
 twelve at midday a drum and fife corps of twenty 
 members, Carl's band of sixty, and an infantry com- 
 pany of about one hundred men, file out of the 
 grounds of one of the military barracks in the up- 
 per part of the city and proceed toward the king's 
 palace. It has the appearance of a grand military 
 review on a small scale. Not only the infantry 
 company, but both bands, are in full German mili- 
 tary costumes, with side arms and brass helmet 
 hats, as if for a dress parade before the king. 
 They have to march the whole length of Konig. 
 strasse, which is the Broadway of Stuttgart. It is 
 a fine, wide street, about half a mile long and lined 
 on both sides with elegant shops and private pal- 
 aces. A little before twelve it would seem as if 
 half the inhabitants of the city were gathering on
 
 106 THE PEOPLE EXCITED. 
 
 this street in anticipation of the music from the 
 band and to witness the military display. 
 
 As the clock strikes twelve (the German mili- 
 tary are precise on time) the band escorting the 
 infantry emerge from a side street into the 
 Konigstrasse. They strike up some martial 
 music, a quickstep or a march, which seems to 
 start the city to life. The crowd begins to grow 
 more dense every moment ; people pour out from 
 the side streets and from all directions ; store- 
 keepers and clerks forsake their counters and rush 
 out on to the sidewalks. Schools close at twelve, 
 and scholars by the hundreds, with their knapsack 
 of books strapped to their backs, rush pell mell to 
 get as near the music as possible. The throngs 
 of people who were walking up the street to meet 
 the band turn about and march back with it. 
 The wide sidewalks and the street in both direc- 
 tions are black with people. All are marching and 
 keeping step to the music. From a distance it 
 looks like an immense moving mob, that gathers 
 new strength as it rolls along. The show of mili- 
 tary is of no account ; Carl's band, which is play- 
 ing so splendidly, occasionally relieved by the fife 
 and drum corps, absorbs the attention of the mul- 
 titude. 
 
 In the centre of the city is 'the Schloss Platz, an 
 elegant public square, covering several acres, which 
 is like a beautiful garden with fine shade trees and 
 divided into irregular patches of greensward that
 
 TREE CONCERTS IN THE SCHLOSS PLATZ. 
 
 are filled in and bordered with choice flowers and 
 rare shrubbery. Two enormous fountains, like 
 those in the Place de la Concorde at Paris, are play- 
 ing at all hours of the day. In the centre of this 
 square, and between these fountains, rises up the 
 high monument or round column of gray granite 
 to the memory of King William, the father of the 
 present king of Wurtemberg. Facing the square 
 on one side is the beautiful palace of the king, 
 which resembles the Tuileries, at the French 
 capital, in architecture and dimensions. The 
 Konigstrasse, down which the throng of people 
 escorting the music are pouring, opens into this 
 square. By the time the band reaches and takes 
 possession of the kiosk there must be at times 
 several thousand people who have gathered to 
 hear the music. The band plays about half an 
 hour. Every day the programme is changed and 
 the people are treated to the finest music in the 
 world, comprising the choicest selections from all 
 the great musical composers of the past and pres- 
 ent, which are played with a skill and a sweetness 
 that it would be difficult to equal or excel. 
 
 These concerts are not for one day or for one 
 week, but they take place at precisely the same 
 hour of the day throughout the year. The Ger- 
 mans seem never to get tired of them, but antici- 
 pate their recurrence as regularly as they do their 
 dinners, and appear to enjoy them much more. 
 
 Two years ago Hon. }. S. Potter, who was then
 
 IOS AMERICAN MELODIES BEFORE THE EMPEROR. 
 
 the American consul in Stuttgart, presented Carl 
 with a selection of American music, including the 
 national airs of " Hail Columbia " and the " Star 
 Spangled Banner," also several of the negro mel- 
 odies and pieces which became so famous during 
 the Rebellion. These Carl arranged for his band 
 to play, and had them published for military and 
 .concert music. They have since become very pop- 
 ular, and are to be found in most of the music stores 
 throughout Germany. 
 
 At the grand military manoeuvres and review of 
 a portion of the German army before the Empe- 
 ror, the Crown Prince, the king of Wurtemberg, 
 etc., which took place about a year ago near Stutt- 
 gart, the troops marched past the Emperor and his 
 suite to the music of these American airs, played 
 by Carl's band : " Marching through Georgia," 
 " Tramp, tramp, my Boys," " Dixie," " Rally round 
 the Flag, Boys," " Bonnie Blue Flag," " Who 's that 
 Knocking," " Swanee River," " When Johnnie 
 comes marching Home," and other familiar melo- 
 dies arranged as a pot-pourri. They were played 
 as they were never played before, except by this 
 famous band. Every one who heard them was de- 
 lighted ; it was something new, inspiring, and en- 
 livening. Officers and men were almost wild as 
 with a new inspiration. Even the Emperor and his 
 suite could with difficulty keep quiet in their sad- 
 dles. Finally the Emperor sent an officer to in- 
 quire of Carl what music he was playing. Return-
 
 MUSIC FROM THE CHURCH TOWERS. ICX) 
 
 ing from his errand, the officer doffed his brass 
 helmet hat, and, bowing low, said, " He says it is 
 American music, your Majesty." " Return and tell 
 him to repeat it," said the Emperor. 
 
 There is a beautiful custom among the Ger- 
 mans of having chorals played from the church 
 towers at regular hours of the day. It is said 
 They first derived the idea from the Arabs, who at 
 certain hours of the day and night are called to 
 prayers by the long wailing cry of the muezzins 
 from the minarets of the mosques. When I first 
 heard this music in Stuttgart, coming, as it 
 appeared to me, from the heavens, I was puzzled 
 to know its object and the source from whence 
 it came. I gazed above and around me, but I 
 failed to detect its origin. The beautiful melody, 
 softened by distance, was floating in the air like 
 music from yEolian harps. It was like the invisi- 
 ble heavenly choir that enraptured St. Cecilia. 
 
 A few days afterward, happening to be in the 
 same neighborhood and at the same hour of the 
 day, I was more fortunate in my discoveries. I 
 again heard the music from above, its pealing 
 notes coming to me from some far distance like 
 the strains of a church organ. Near me was the 
 Stiffs kirche, an old church built in 1308, which 
 has attached to it an immense octagon tower ris- 
 ing up to a height of nearly two hundred feet. 
 Encircling this tower near the top is a balcony, on 
 which I at last espied the authors of the strange
 
 IIO A RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCE. 
 
 music. Several men with brass instruments were 
 perched on that giddy height playing sacred music. 
 When they had finished one piece they moved to 
 another position on the balcony and played a dif- 
 ferent tune. Four selections in all were played, 
 one toward each point of the compass. On mak- 
 ing inquiries afterward, I found that this playing 
 from the church tower had been in practice for 
 more than a hundred years. A German lady 
 " once upon a time," belonging to one of the 
 noble families, bequeathed a sum of money, the 
 income of which was ever after to be devoted to 
 paying the expenses of this religious observance. 
 The clause in her will stated that chorals or selec- 
 tions of sacred music were to be played from this 
 church tower twice a day, punctually every morn- 
 ing at the rising of the sun, and also from half 
 past eleven to twelve at noon. The musicians for 
 their services are paid two marks (fifty cents) a 
 day each, a mark for the morning and a mark 
 for the noon service, which, for walking up and 
 down that long flight of steps, in addition to play, 
 ing several pieces of church music, is a small 
 enough remuneration. Chorals are also played 
 from another of the church towers in Stuttgart by 
 a brass band, and also from a church tower in 
 Ludwigsburg, Rossenstein, Friedrichshafen, near 
 Stuttgart, and in others of the very old German 
 cities and towns.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Music, BEER, AND SAUER- KRAUT. THE THREE LOVES OP 
 GERMANY. THE OMNIPRESENT CAHBAGE. SEARCHING 
 FOR A BOARDING-HOUSE. SOME REALISTIC GERMAN 
 ART. THE PARADISE OF DIFFERENT RELIGIOUS SECTS, 
 NATIONALITIES, ETC. 
 
 r I ^HERE are three things the Germans are 
 JL intensely fond of, music, beer, and sauer- 
 kraut ; there is no denying this fact. I hesitate 
 which to put first on the list as their special favor- 
 ite. I think if a German was asked which his 
 heart or inmost soul craved most he would be a 
 long time in making up his mind, and finally be 
 obliged to answer, " Alle drei" all three. In 
 journeying through the country the traveller is 
 constantly butting against positive proof wher- 
 ever he goes that these triplet favorites have a 
 tenacious hold on the national heart, and that the 
 love of each is part of the German nature. He 
 is convinced of the fact through the organs of 
 hearing, seeing, and smelling. Go where he will, 
 he hears music, splendid music, too ; and in 
 every city, village, town, and hamlet, wherever his 
 footsteps or the railways carry him, he has abun- 
 dant evidence that one of the principal occupa- 
 tions of the people, man, woman, and child, is 
 beer-drinking.
 
 112 MUSIC, BEER, AND SAUER-KRAUT. 
 
 As for sauer-kraut, the abominable smell of it 
 while undergoing the cooking process greets his 
 nose in the majority of German houses, hotels, and 
 pensions. I won't say every hotel, for latterly 
 hotel proprietors, especially those of the better 
 class, in order to coax travellers into the country 
 and to induce them to tarry over night and longer, 
 have been obliged to banish this favorite national 
 dish from their kitchens; but even then the well- 
 known aroma is often detected, stealing through 
 the halls and corridors from the regions below, 
 where it is being surreptitiously cooked by the 
 servants for the cravings of their appetites. 
 
 One of the chief delights of German travel is 
 the enchanting music for which Germany is noted, 
 and which one encounters in every part of the 
 country ; but the disagreeable part of travel is the 
 unearthly, indescribable odors arising from the 
 constant cooking in various ways of the national 
 vegetable, the cabbage. The majority of German 
 families cook and eat it daily, and their houses 
 consequently are thoroughly impregnated with its 
 odors. Those who have grown up from the cra- 
 dle in this unnatural atmosphere fail to detect the 
 existence of the unpleasant element in it ; it has 
 always been part of the air they breathe ; but the 
 foreigner, the moment he steps inside of a Ger- 
 man domicile, is at once assailed with the odor, 
 which he is obliged to endure or else beat a hasty 
 retreat.
 
 THE OMNIPRESENT CABBAGE. 113 
 
 He not only finds it in the houses, but in 
 restaurants, music halls, and theatres, and on the 
 sidewalks, where it comes stealing through open 
 windows and crevices from basement kitchens 
 and dining-rooms. 
 
 The odor from the cooking of cabbage in its 
 natural state is endurable and Christian compared 
 to the cooking of sauer-kraut. About the latter 
 there is a mixture of barbarian, Oriental, and 
 menagerie smells that makes one imagine that he 
 is in one of the resurrected graveyards or tombs of 
 the ancient Egyptians. I do not wish to over- 
 draw the picture or magnify the quality of this 
 national odor; I am stating the impression it makes 
 on strangers generally, and especially on Ameri- 
 cans, when they first travel through the country, 
 and stumble on it at every street-corner and in 
 every house they enter. Fortunately for those 
 who remain in Germany any length of time, this 
 peculiarity of the atmosphere gradually dies away, 
 and in a few months or years they become so 
 thoroughly Germanized that they fail to detect 
 anything more unpleasant from the perfume of a 
 dish of sauer-kraut than they would from a bou- 
 quet of the choicest flowers. 
 
 Some time since a freshly arrived American, who 
 was to make a lengthy stay in the country to ob- 
 tain a musical education, wished me to go out with 
 him from the hotel where he was stopping to look 
 up a boarding-place. Taking the numbers of sev-
 
 114 IDEALISTIC PICTURES. 
 
 eral boarding-houses from the directory, we sallied 
 forth in search of satisfactory quarters. At the 
 first house we had proceeded part way up the first 
 flight of stairs when my companion stopped, and 
 I heard him exclaim, ' My God ! what is it ? " I 
 saw he had a tight grip on his nose. 
 
 " Oh, come on," I said ; " you will get used to it" 
 " Used to it ! Is it here all the time ? " 
 " Of course ; it is the national smell." 
 He made a bolt down-stairs, out of the street 
 door on to the sidewalk. 
 
 " That was too much for me ; I don't think I 
 
 could get used to it ; let us look farther," he said. 
 
 We did look farther, and penetrated several 
 
 other boarding-places, but the result was the same 
 
 wherever we went. 
 
 A week after, the fastidious young man departed 
 for another country. 
 
 Many years ago a German artist became cele- 
 brated for having painted a series of idealistic 
 pictures representing the heaven or paradise of 
 different nationalities and religious sects, and also 
 the paradise of painters, poets, musicians, philoso- 
 phers, etc. In these pictures he represented that 
 each of the nationalities, sects, or bodies of men 
 were enjoying in paradise all of the peculiar creat- 
 ure comforts and pleasures which made their lives 
 happy here below. 
 
 For instance, he had representatives ol the Ori- 
 ental nations represented as Mohammedans peace-
 
 THE MOHAMMEDAN'S PARADISE. 115 
 
 fully smoking their coils of pipe, in what appeared 
 to be a harem in the celestial regions. In the 
 midst of a group of turban-headed Orientals was 
 Mohammed sitting cross-legged on a tiger-skin, 
 quietly taking his siesta, a look of supreme hap- 
 piness and contentment beaming from his dusky 
 countenance, his eyes partly closed, and a cloud of 
 tobacco smoke curling upward over his head from 
 a Turkish pipe which has fallen from his lips. 
 To make the picture more perfect, an indefinite 
 number of beautiful houris were hovering and 
 gliding about on wings and tiptoe, administering 
 to the wants of their lords and masters, by filling 
 their pipes, holding goblets of wine to their lips, 
 entwining their arms around their necks, and 
 dancing to the music of the lute and cymbals. 
 Within easy reach of Mohammed and his olive- 
 complexioned companions are pots of honey,, tropi- 
 cal fruits, jars of spiced drinks, opium, and tobacco, 
 and all varieties of pipes and smoking utensils 
 used by the Orientals. 
 
 The picture representing the pagan's paradise 
 was different in its details, but a striking simi- 
 larity was observable in the looks and dress of the 
 translated saints, and also in the various sources 
 and emblems of happiness with which they be- 
 guiled the hours in the future world. 
 
 I have not time to describe the picture further ; 
 what I am coming to is the picture representing 
 the Christian's paradise. This was certainly a re-
 
 n6 THE CHRISTIAN'S PARADISE. 
 
 markable work of art, not particularly so because 
 all the saints represented were from their cast of 
 features of the Teutonic race, but what struck the 
 eye as most peculiar was that the Germans were 
 drinking beer in paradise with apparently as much 
 relish and satisfaction as they did while on earth. 
 
 The scene reminded one a little of Leonardo da 
 Vinci's picture of " The Last Supper," only there 
 was not that expression of trouble and anxiety on 
 the faces of the German saints as Da Vinci pic- 
 tured on the faces of the apostles. And, instead 
 of being seated at one table, they are seated at a 
 great many little ethereal tables, without visible 
 legs, which appear to be floating in the air, not- 
 withstanding they appear to be loaded with beer- 
 mugs of various shapes and designs. 
 
 Seated alone at a larger table is a picture in- 
 tended to represent Christ, but, from the foaming 
 tankard of beer in front of him, and the decidedly 
 German features, it is often mistaken to be that of 
 King Gambrinus. Numbers of little angels and 
 angels of a larger growth of the gentler sex, whose 
 only apparel visible is their wings, are busy as 
 humming-birds, flying hither and thither in re- 
 plenishing the beer-mugs of the saints and en- 
 deavoring every way possible to make them happy 
 and contented. In the clouds above is repre- 
 sented a heavenly choir, an idea which must 
 have been suggested by Raphael's beautiful picture 
 of St. Cecilia, which is entertaining the German
 
 ANGELIC CHOIRS. 1 1/ 
 
 saints below with selections, probably, from the 
 best German oratorios and operas. 
 
 Of those who form the choir some are singing, 
 and others are playing on various kinds of wind 
 and string instruments of the most modern make 
 and patterns. It seems to be a " combination 
 troupe.'' Among its members can be detected 
 the familiar features of nearly all the great musi- 
 cal geniuses of Germany, of Mozart, Beetho- 
 ven, Handel, Mendelssohn, Haydn, Meyerbeer, 
 etc. On the faces of those below there is a look 
 of seraphic joy and happiness. Each of the 
 pictured saints is represented listening to the 
 heavenly music, which is supposed to be floating 
 through the air and rilling all space, with the most 
 intense earnestness, as if to catch every note and 
 sound. Among those of the heavenly choir I 
 failed to detect the faces of any of the eminent 
 Italian or French composers and masters. Evi- 
 dently the Germans think that their own music in 
 heaven will take precedence of that of the screech- 
 ing operatic music of the Italians, or the lively 
 can-can music of the French. 
 
 In the paradise of the poets all of the great 
 masters of poesy are represented, and arranged in 
 groups according to the prominence they take in 
 the German's estimation. Goethe and Schiller 
 are the two most prominent figures, while Homer, 
 Dante, Shakespeare, Milton, and others are made 
 to take back seats. All of them, however, while
 
 Il8 ARTISTIC LICENSE. 
 
 tuning their lyres, appear to be making themselves 
 happy over their beer-mugs, even to poor, blind 
 old Homer, who probably in his day never saw or 
 tasted of the bitter liquid. But if authors so often 
 draw upon the ideal in embellishing their writings 
 by taking what is called " poetic license," why 
 should not German painters be allowed the privi- 
 lege of a " painter's license " in drawing upon 
 their imaginations, not only for subjects, but in 
 giving their works certain indisputable character- 
 istics or national trade-marks, that the nationality 
 of the artist may never be disputed ?
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE GERMAN LABORER AND HIS HIRE. THE DEGRADATION 
 HEAPED UPON WOMEN OF THE LOWER CLASS. A SER- 
 VITUDE MORE DEGRADING THAN SLAVERY. WAGES 
 PAID MECHANICS. AGRICULTURAL LABORERS AND HOUSE 
 SERVANTS. COST OF LIVING. 
 
 I WOULD not like to be a German peasant- 
 woman. I would much prefer to be a Ger- 
 man horse, for German horses are well treated and 
 well fed. They are not over-worked or over-bur- 
 dened with heavy loads ; they are allowed a certain 
 amount of rest between the sun's rising and the 
 sun's setting, while every attention is paid to their 
 comfort and health: and all this, not because the 
 horse has a money value, but that the Germans 
 are naturally kind to all dumb animals. 
 
 Women, however, receive none of these kind 
 attentions and considerations at the hands of the 
 male portion of the community, but are treated as 
 if they were of a species lower than the brutes, 
 with no feelings and no souls. 
 
 What the camel is to the Arab, woman is to the 
 German. She is made to bear the heavy loads 
 and be the working slave of her master ; she is not 
 only the " hewer of wood and the drawer of water," 
 but she is made to perform every kind of degrad-
 
 I2O DEGRADATION OF THE WOMEN. 
 
 ing labor. She prepares the fields for planting, 
 she drives the oxen and holds the plough, and not 
 unfrequently she takes the place of the ox before 
 the plough. She sows the seed and tills the soil, 
 she shovels, she hoes, she reaps, she gathers the 
 harvest, she thrashes the grain and carries it to the 
 mill, she grinds it at the mill, she markets the prod- 
 ucts of her small strip of land to buy bread for 
 her children, and beer for her lord and master. 
 She does the work and the drudgery in the facto- 
 ries ; she is the scavenger for cleaning the streets 
 and for gathering offal in the cities and highways 
 for enriching the land. She does everything but 
 play soldier and hang around beer-shops and drink 
 beer from early morn until late at night, like the 
 German men, and these occupations would be 
 assigned her, provided they required hard labor or 
 drudgery of any kind. 
 
 This picture of the degradation of German 
 women is no work of the imagination, but a living 
 reality. Whoever has travelled through Germany 
 has noticed the bronze-faced women, scantily 
 dressed, toiling in the fields, tottering beneath heavy 
 loads on their heads and shoulders, climbing lad- 
 ders with hods of bricks and stone for the builders, 
 sawing and splitting wood in the streets, dragging 
 milk-carts, and engaged in numberless menial occu- 
 pations of such a degrading nature that a Rocky 
 Mountain savage would disdain to have his squaw 
 perform them.
 
 WAGES PAID. 121 
 
 And for all this life-long labor and toil the Ger- 
 man woman is miserably paid. It is the pittance 
 that is doled out to the beggar. The few pfen- 
 nigs that are paid her for her day's or week's hard 
 servitude are scarcely enough to supply her with 
 clothes to cover her back, or buy bread to keep 
 her from starving. And yet they are strong and 
 robust, and perform what is called a " man's 
 labor. " While at work in the fields, and it is only 
 during the warm months of the year that they 
 can, they are only paid eight, ten, or twelve cents 
 for a day's labor of twelve hours. When they 
 board themselves they receive from twenty to 
 twenty-eight or thirty cents a day. The men, 
 when they can be induced to work in the fields, 
 are paid from twenty-eight to forty-five and fifty 
 cents per day, and find their own food. With 
 their board and lodging they do not receive on an 
 average more than $1.30 a week. Is it a wonder 
 that the emigration from Germany to the United 
 States is so enormous and increasing so rapidly? 
 
 Women domestics are worse paid than those 
 who labor in the fields. Thousands of them go 
 into families and toil like slaves for .their board, 
 which is poor enough, and the cast-off clothing 
 from the backs of their mistresses. Those who 
 are paid receive but a mere pittance for their labor. 
 Common house servants, chambermaids, etc., only 
 get eight or ten marks ($1.92, $2.50) per month; 
 and cooks who are considered extra good, and
 
 122 MASTER AND SERVANT. 
 
 cook for very large and wealthy families and for 
 boarding-houses, seldom receive more than twelve 
 or fifteen marks ($2.88, $3.36) per month. 
 
 Although the wages paid are so insignificant, 
 yet the laws governing the relations between mas- 
 ter and servant are very strict and always enforced. 
 The master cannot discharge his servant, nor can 
 the servant leave her master, without a month's 
 warning either way. All servants are under the 
 espionage and the protection of the police, and 
 are furnished with books which are numbered and 
 registered, and in which the laws are printed. If 
 they change their place of service they must 
 report to the police, and they are under the neces- 
 sity of producing a certificate of good charac- 
 ter for honesty, faithfulness, etc., from their last 
 employer, which has to be inscribed in their book. 
 
 When a German lady of wealth shuts up her 
 house, and, taking her servant with her, visits 
 Paris, Berlin, Vienna, or spends a few weeks at 
 the sea-shore or any of the fashionable summer 
 resorts, the servant receives no wages during the 
 time she is away ; the pleasure of travelling and 
 the privilege of seeing the sights of the outside 
 world being considered a sufficient recompense 
 for her services. 
 
 In giving the prices paid agricultural laborers 
 and house servants it may be well to mention in 
 connection therewith the prices paid in this coun- 
 try to mechanics and some of the more important
 
 MECHANICS WAGES. 
 
 trades and professions. In comparing statistics 
 of wages in different parts of Germany, I think 
 the following figures can be depended upon as 
 being as near the average rates as it is possible to 
 get them. The prices are for a day of ten hours, 
 without board or lodging. Where the mechanic 
 extends his labors to twelve and fourteen hours a 
 day as is often done the amount is increased 
 proportionately. Carpenters who are masters of 
 their trade receive sixty to seventy cents ; stone 
 and brick masons and plasterers, fifty to sixty and 
 seventy cents; machinists, first-class, eighty, ninety 
 cents, and one dollar ; cabinet-makers, fifty to sixty 
 cents ; blacksmiths, forty to sixty cents ; job print- 
 ers, fifty to sixty cents ; painters, sixty to seventy 
 cents; upholsterers, fifty, seventy, and eighty 
 cents ; tailors, fifty to sixty cents ; weavers in fac- 
 tories, thirty to forty cents ; shoemakers, fifty to 
 sixty cents ; brewers, sixty to seventy cents ; roof- 
 makers, seventy to eighty cents ; coppersmiths, 
 seventy to eighty cents ; common workmen in 
 house-building, forty to fifty cents; tinners, fifty 
 to seventy cents. I will not extend the list further. 
 In many of the above trades women are employed, 
 such as shoemaking, upholstering, cabinet-mak- 
 ing, etc., who receive about half or two thirds the 
 wages paid the men. Good seamstresses who go 
 out and work by the day receive twenty-four and 
 thirty-six cents for a day's labor of twelve and 
 fourteen hours.
 
 124 RICH AMERICANS ABROAD. 
 
 To show how penurious some of our wealthy 
 Americans are in their expenditures when they 
 come abroad, I will copy an extract from a friend's 
 letter, recently received, who is temporarily resid- 
 ing in a German city : 
 
 " The H.'s have just returned here from Paris. Mrs. H. is get- 
 ting extravagant. She bought of Tiffany & Co., while in Paris, two 
 bracelets covered with diamonds, a pair of very large solitaire dia- 
 mond ear-rings, a comb for her hair set in diamonds, and a magnifi- 
 cent brooch with seven large diamonds. She had previously, as 
 you know, plenty of diamonds, and what she wants of so many 
 more I cannot tell. Probably she took a fancy to them, and could 
 not resist the temptation of buying. They could not have cost less 
 than fifteen thousand dollars. The reverse of the picture is this : 
 she informed my wife yesterday that she had beat down the price 
 of her sewing-woman to twenty-four cents a day. She had pre- 
 viously paid her thirty-six cents. Must economize somewhere ! A 
 day or two since I heard Mr. H. offer a poor market-woman seven- 
 teen pfennigs for some vegetables for which she had asked 
 twenty. As it takes four pfennigs to make in value an American 
 cent, you see what a saving he would have made." 
 
 Clergymen, or " pastors " as they are called in 
 Germany, are recipients of very small favors in 
 the way of salaries. Two hundred, three hundred, 
 and four hundred dollars is the amount they 
 usually receive for a year's ministration, and it 
 takes a man of uncommon ability to command a 
 salary of five hundred dollars and over. 
 
 Physicians' fees depend upon the generosity, also 
 the ability and disposition to pay of those who em- 
 ploy them. It is not the custom in Germany for 
 physicians or surgeons to make out bills against 
 their patients. The patient is supposed to keep
 
 PHYSICIANS FEES. 12$ 
 
 an account of the number of visits, and at the end 
 of the year, usually just before Christmas, he sends 
 his physician a Christmas present of some kind as 
 a token of esteem and appreciation of his services, 
 and with this present he sends a sum of money in- 
 tended to be sufficient to pay for the number of 
 professional visits. The usual fee that is expected 
 is two marks a visit, and the German gives this, 
 and adds to it as much as he pleases, according to 
 his wealth and inclination. 
 
 Americans who have employed physicians in 
 Germany have been a good deal " taken aback " 
 when they have asked them for their bills, and been 
 told that they had none, that they never made out 
 bills. 
 
 " But," says the American, " I wish to pay you, 
 I don't expect you to give me your services. I 
 cannot pay you unless I know the amount of your 
 charges." 
 
 But the doctor shakes his head, says he does not 
 know himself, that they can pay whatever they 
 feel disposed. I have seen many Americans run- 
 ning around among their friends inquiring what to 
 do and what to pay under such circumstances. I 
 am sorry to say that some of our " fair country- 
 men," after being faithfully attended through long 
 sicknesses, have taken advantage of this old-estab- 
 lished custom among the medical fraternity and 
 departed without even so much as thanking the 
 doctor for his services and kind attentions.
 
 126 COST OF LIVING. 
 
 The enormous fees that are so often charged by 
 physicians in America, not only for special cases, 
 but in their regular practice, and which can only 
 be termed wholesale swindling or robbery perpe- 
 trated in a fashionable and genteel manner, would 
 never be tolerated or attempted in Germany. 
 
 The remuneration for various kinds of labor in 
 this country being so infinitesimal, it would natu- 
 rally be supposed that the cost of living would be 
 proportionately small. But such a supposition is 
 a mistake, as the necessities of life cost as much 
 in Germany as in the United States, or even more. 
 Meats of all kinds, especially, are so expensive that 
 they are luxuries seldom, if ever, indulged in dur- 
 ing the year by the working-people or lower classes. 
 It is no exaggeration to say that the mechanics 
 and laboring classes in the United States, who 
 have their bountifully laden tables, with an abun- 
 dance of meat two and three times a day through 
 the year, live like kings compared to not only the 
 working classes in Germany, but to most of the 
 higher classes. 
 
 The same comparison would hold good with all 
 the European nations ; and yet it is a lamentable 
 fact that these same working classes in Europe, 
 when they emigrate to America, where they are 
 paid three and four times as much for their labor as 
 they are here, are the first to become discontented 
 and dissatisfied with their prosperity, and are fore- 
 most in creating mischief by organizing " strikes,"
 
 MARKET PRICES. I2/ 
 
 " labor unions," etc., for the purpose of increasing 
 their wages to still higher amounts. 
 
 To those who think that living is cheap in this 
 country, I would refer them to the figures below 
 as representing the actual cost, as near as it is 
 possible to get it, of many of the necessities of 
 life in this part of Germany, in the kingdoms of 
 Bavaria and Wurtemberg, in the duchy of Baden, 
 etc. In other parts of Germany the prices will 
 not vary much from these figures, but would be 
 higher rather than less, particularly in Northern 
 Germany, Prussia, Saxony, etc. : 
 
 Pork, 14 to 16 cents per pound ; mutton, 15 to 18 cents ; veal, 14 
 to 1 8 cents ; beefsteaks and beef for roasting, 25 to 28 cents ; com- 
 mon beef, 10 to 16 cents; chickens, 50 to 75 cents each ; butter, 
 24 to 35 cents j cheese, 20 to 30 cents ; sausage meat, of which 
 great quantities are consumed, 18 to 27 cents ; sugar, 10 to 12 
 cents ; rice, 6 cents ; flour, 7 cents ; beans, 4 and 5 cents a pound ; 
 milk 4 and 5 cents a quart ; potatoes, 82 to 96 cents per cwt. ; wood, 
 54.25 to $5 per cubic meter (wood and coal averages by weight 
 45 cents for one hundred English pounds) ; eggs, 15 to 18 and 20 
 cents a dozen, etc. 
 
 These are a few of the prices for some of the 
 necessities of life, also for some of the luxuries, 
 that the German mechanic or laborer is obliged 
 to pay from the very small sum of money that he 
 receives for his daily toil.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 ROMANCE IN REAL LIFE. STRANGELY INTERESTING CAREER 
 OF A YOUNG AMERICAN, NOW PRIVY COUNCILLOR ANI> 
 BOSOM FRIEND OF THE KING OF WURTEMBERG. FROM 
 A FARM TO A CONSULATE, AND FROM A CONSULATE TO 
 A PALACE. ORDERS AND DECORATIONS BESTOWED BY 
 CROWNED HEADS. THE AMERICAN COLONY IN STUTT- 
 GART. 
 
 MANY an American boy, while reading 
 " Grimms' Fairy Tales," or the enchanting 
 scenes in the " Arabian Nights," by the family 
 hearthstone, on winter evenings, has wished that 
 some good genie would suddenly appear and put 
 him in possession of countless treasures of silver 
 and gold ; would clothe him in robes of costly silks 
 and velvets, and give him a beautiful palace to 
 live in, a palace glittering with untold wealth, 
 where he would be the companion of kings and 
 queens, and persons of great renown. 
 
 And, while reading and wondering if any such 
 marvellous fortune could ever befall him, he has 
 little realized that the good genie of the fairy tale 
 might eventually single him out as one of its 
 favorites, and with its magic wand make him the 
 possessor of all or part that his imagination had 
 pictured and his heart desired. 
 
 Almost like a fairy tale reads the recent expe- 
 rience of Richard M. Jackson, late consular clerk
 
 LIKE A FAIRY TALE. 
 
 and vice-consul in the United State consulate at 
 Stuttgart, Germany, whose sudden transition from 
 the dull routine of labors in a consul's office to 
 be not only the privy councillor but the favorite 
 and intimate companion of the king of Wiirtem- 
 berg, has been a nine-days' wonder, and has prob- 
 ably caused more talk and speculation in the king- 
 dom of Wlirtemberg, and, in fact, throughout all 
 Germany, than any event that has happened for 
 years. 
 
 That this rather strange procedure on the part 
 of the king to select for such an important and 
 trusty position as that of privy councillor a young 
 American, an almost entire stranger, should have 
 created an immense amount of comment, and en- 
 gendered much feeling and jealousy in German 
 society, was but natural, for the position was of 
 that high order, as court minister, that it was cov- 
 eted by thousands of aspiring Germans, Ger- 
 mans high in rank, high in social position, and 
 Germans with the blue blood of royalty flowing 
 in their veins. 
 
 Before proceeding further with my story, a 
 short biographical sketch of Mr. Jackson will not 
 come amiss at this point. 
 
 He is a native of Steubenville, Ohio, and is 
 thirty-five years of age. His father, who was a 
 farmer, was a relative, first or second cousin, I 
 believe, of the famous Stonewall Jackson. Like 
 most farmers' sons, young Jackson passed his early
 
 I3O GOING ABROAD. 
 
 years on the old homestead, tilling the soil during 
 the summer months, and in the winter attending 
 the village school, where, by close application to 
 his studies, he became an excellent scholar, and 
 laid the foundation of what promised to be a brill- 
 iant and useful life in the future. 
 
 He afterward entered one of the Ohio universi- 
 ties, and continued his studies with success for a 
 season, but, having a great passion for music, and 
 wishing to visit Europe, he left college without 
 graduating, and came to Stuttgart in Germany, 
 where he entered the Conservatoire of Music 
 which has made the Wlirtemberg capital so fa- 
 mous. 
 
 Here he made rapid progress as a pianist, and 
 by hard, diligent study soon acquired the German 
 language so as to speak it fluently and to write it 
 without hesitation. But the constant practising 
 on the piano eventually resulted in a partial paral- 
 ysis of the nerves and cords of the hands, so that 
 he was unwillingly, and, to his great disappoint- 
 ment, obliged to abandon his favorite profession, 
 which he had planned and anticipated for his 
 future. 
 
 Thousands of miles from his native land, and with 
 limited resources, his situation was anything but 
 cheering or satisfactory. It was at this time (in 
 July, 1875) that Hon. J. S. Potter, of Boston, a 
 gentleman well known and highly esteemed in his 
 native State, having been appointed by the Presi-
 
 AMERICANS IN STUTTGART. 13 [ 
 
 dent United States consul at Stuttgart, arrived at 
 his post and took charge of the consulate. On 
 his arrival here he was not received with a hearty 
 social welcome by the Swabians. 
 
 Americans, of whom there were four or five 
 hundred in the city, were anything but favorites 
 with the people, and especially with the royal 
 family. Some young Americans, students at the 
 Conservatoire, while on a " lark," had snow-balled 
 the king the winter previous, in one of the public 
 parks, as if by accident, and pretending not to 
 know the distinguished personage whom they 
 were pelting without mercy. At another time, 
 under cover of the darkness of night, some Amer- 
 ican students bedaubed with white paint the beau- 
 tiful bronze bas-reliefs surrounding the base of the 
 monument in front of the royal palace, erected in 
 memory of King William, father of the present 
 king. Not long after this piece of vandalism the 
 king was insulted in the street by two Americans, 
 one of whom, on a wager, as it afterward proved, 
 crossed the street and requested permission to 
 light his cigar from the Havana which the king 
 was smoking, a favor which his Majesty granted 
 with the greatest civility. 
 
 Several other vexatious incidents occurred, 
 which did not increase the popularity of the 
 American colony or make their presence any 
 more desirable in the Wurtemberg capital. This 
 was but part of the dark picture in the background,
 
 132 THE UNITED STATES CONSULATE. 
 
 as Mr. Potter found it on his arrival. His prede- 
 cessor in the consulate, a mulatto who had repre- 
 sented the United States, having been recalled by 
 the government for good and sufficient reasons, 
 had left behind a record and a reputation of which 
 Americans could not feel proud, neither one that 
 his successor would wish to inherit. 
 
 So bitter was the feeling and strong the prej- 
 udice among the people, that the new consul 
 found it very difficult to obtain an office for the 
 consulate, or even apartments for the accommo- 
 dation of his family. 
 
 One of the first duties that devolved on Mr. 
 Potter, after getting established in consular quar- 
 ters, which were at last secured, not, however, 
 without finding a person who would be security 
 for the rent, was to secure the services of a com- 
 petent clerk in the consulate. Looking around 
 the American colony to find a native American, if 
 possible, to fill the position, he came across Mr. 
 Jackson, in whom he found the necessary qualifi- 
 cations. 
 
 The position was offered him, and, of course, 
 gladly accepted. Nor did it prove an unwise 
 selection. The new clerk, by his gentlemanly 
 deportment, by his strict integrity, and by his 
 faithful attention to the duties assigned him, soon 
 gained the good-will, not only of his superior 
 officer, but of the people with whom he came in 
 business or social contact. After being in the
 
 ROYAL RECOGNITION. 133 
 
 office a little over a year, and the test proving that 
 Mr. Jackson's ability and punctuality in the dis- 
 charge of his official duties were all that could be 
 desired, Mr. Potter nominated him for vice-consul, 
 and he soon after received the appointment from 
 the President of the United States. 
 
 At the end of five years the public estimation 
 and opinion in Stuttgart of the United States 
 consulate and the officers having charge of the 
 same seem to have undergone a change, and the 
 causes which engendered the prejudices that 
 existed against it and toward Americans gener- 
 ally were so far forgotten that the humble young 
 American was invited to step up from his position 
 as clerk and vice-consul and take a place of honor 
 in the royal court and palaces of Wiirtemberg, 
 over the heads of many of the proud nobility of 
 his Majesty's kingdom. 
 
 It was in April, 1881, that the king first, 
 through the medium of a correspondence, invited 
 Mr. Jackson to be a member of the royal court of 
 Wiirtemberg. The proposition was a great sur- 
 prise to Mr. Jackson, whose only acquaintance 
 with his Majesty was by occasionally meeting him 
 in the streets or in the parks, on which occasions 
 he would politely raise his hat, and his Majesty 
 would as politely return the salute. The proposi- 
 tion, although so tempting, and accompanied with 
 the king's earnest wishes of its acceptance and 
 the promise of many courtly favors in the future,
 
 134 A HOME IN THE PALACE. 
 
 was at first hesitatingly entertained, nor was it 
 accepted until after several weeks of careful de- 
 liberation, and the signing, on the part of each, 
 of sundry important and carefully worded docu- 
 ments. 
 
 Several personal interviews were held in mak- 
 ing arrangements, in addition to the correspond" 
 ence that was going on, at each of which the 
 king's interest in the young American rapidly 
 increased, and, to secure his presence as member 
 of his court, and as a personal companion, he was 
 willing to bestow on him the highest honors of his 
 realm. Of course it all ended in Mr. Jackson's 
 resigning his vice-consulship and his clerkship in 
 the consulate, and at once entering upon a new 
 career. 
 
 One pleasant morning in May last, one of the 
 royal coaches from the king's stables, with coach- 
 men and footmen resplendent in royal livery, was 
 seen standing in front of Mr. Jackson's modest 
 boarding-house. A large crowd gathered in the 
 street and on the sidewalks to see for whom it was 
 in waiting. Was it for the king himself, or some 
 member of the royal family ? In a few minutes 
 Mr. Jackson makes his appearance and takes a seat 
 in the coach, the footman closes the door with 
 much ceremony, the driver cracks his long whip 
 over the backs of the handsome blooded horses* 
 and the young American who is now an Ameri- 
 can no longer, having renounced his nationality
 
 COURT FAVORS. 135 
 
 and sworn allegiance to the king of Wiirtemberg 
 and the Emperor of Germany is borne away to 
 his new home in the royal palace. 
 
 An elegant suite of five apartments, luxuriously 
 and splendidly furnished, is awaiting him. Foot- 
 men, valets, and servants, gorgeous in their scarlet 
 liveries, with gold and silver lace trimmings, are 
 in readiness to wait upon him and to run at every 
 beck and nod. Surely was even fairy tale more 
 fully realized than this? And Mr. Jackson did 
 not enter upon this new life for a few days, or a 
 few weeks, or a few years, but for life, with a 
 handsome annual stipend guaranteed, more than 
 sufficient to meet all his requirements. There 
 being no vacancy in the court of Wiirtemberg, 
 the position of "reader to his Majesty" was cre- 
 ated, to meet the emergency, for the first time in 
 this court. But two other of the crowned heads 
 of Europe have court readers, Queen Victoria 
 and the Emperor of Germany, and the creating 
 of this new office in the court of Wurtemberg 
 for Mr. Jackson was considered an exceptional 
 honor and compliment. 
 
 He had not been long installed in his new posi- 
 tion before court recognitions and favors began to 
 flow in upon him. The king of Holland, a life- 
 long friend and brother-in-law of the king of 
 Wurtemberg, presented him the " Knight's Cross 
 of the Golden Lion of Nassau," the order of 
 the House of Luxembourg. The king of Sax-
 
 136 ORDERS AND DECORATIONS. 
 
 ony, who was visiting his royal colleague in Stutt- 
 gart, was so highly pleased with the young Amer- 
 ican that he bestowed on him the " Knight's Cross 
 of the Albert's Order." The Emperor Franz 
 Joseph, of Austria, who was staying with the 
 king of Wiirtemberg for a few days, at the lat- 
 ter's beautiful country palace at Friedrichshafen, 
 on Lake Constance, became so interested in his 
 royal friend's protege that he invested him with 
 the very ancient " Order of the Iron Crown of 
 Austria," one of the highest and most honorable 
 gifts that the Austrian monarch can confer on a 
 subject. During the month of August the king 
 made Mr. Jackson his privy councillor, and con- 
 ferred on him the title of u Geheimer Hofrath," 
 and on the 1 1 th of September, the birthday of 
 Queen Olga, he gave him the " Knight's Cross of 
 the Crown of Wurtemberg. " 
 
 While on a visit to Rome with the king of 
 Wurtemberg, his Holiness the Pope has con- 
 ferred on him another title, the name of which I 
 do not remember. Since this last gift Mr. Jack- 
 son has been made a baron. The list of orders 
 and titles already given and conferred stops here 
 for the present ; to what numbers they will 
 increase in the future time only will tell. 
 
 Seldom, if ever, has an American received such 
 honors and such marks of royal favor. 
 
 Mr. Jackson's duties in his new position are 
 not onerous or burdensome. Most of his time he
 
 "RIDING BEHIND THE KING'S HORSES." 137 
 
 spends in company with the king, and, during his 
 (the king's) walks and rides, is his almost constant 
 companion. When his Majesty makes long 9r 
 short visits to his country palaces at Babenhausen, 
 Friedrichshafen, Wilhelma, or Berg, when he goes 
 on hunting excursions to various parts of his king- 
 dom or out of his kingdom, he is sure to be ac- 
 companied by his new privy councillor, who has 
 become as much attached to his Majesty as his 
 Majesty has to him. He dines with the royal fam- 
 ily, and his travelling expenses are paid wherever 
 he goes. Certain horses in the royal stables are at 
 his command, and he has but to express a wish to 
 have it gratified. At the volksfest in Stuttgart, 
 during the month of September last, an immense 
 concourse of people gathered to witness the sports, 
 and also to get a sight of the Emperor of Ger- 
 many, who was to be present. On entering the 
 grounds of the race-course the king rode with the 
 Emperor in a carriage drawn by six black horses, 
 with outriders in crimson livery. Following the 
 royal carriage was another drawn by four elegant 
 horses, with outriders in the same livery, seated in 
 which was Herr von Jackson, with three officers 
 high in rank in the German army, in full uniform. 
 In addition to the gifts of orders and titles, Mr. 
 Jackson has frequently received from the king 
 testimonials of his friendship in the shape of rare 
 and beautiful books, paintings, and diamonds. 
 Probably there is no court in Europe more aristo-
 
 138 THE KING AND QUEEN OF WURTEMDERG 
 
 cratic or exclusive, more punctilious in its eti- 
 quette or surroundings, or one that puts on more 
 pomp and style than the court of Wlirtemberg. 
 King Carl inherited his crown from a long line of 
 royal ancestry, and Queen Olga, who is a sister of 
 the late Emperor of Russia, has the blood of all the 
 Czars flowing through her veins. Both inherited 
 
 O O 
 
 enormous wealth, which they scatter with liberal 
 hands and generous hearts throughout the king- 
 dom in responding to the wants of the poor and 
 needy, and to the numberless calls that are con- 
 stantly being made upon them from various sources 
 for large and small contributions. 
 
 The royal palace at Stuttgart, the winter palace, 
 as it is called, is the handsomest, if not the largest, 
 palace in Germany, and the summer palaces at 
 Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance, at Baben- 
 hausen, at Berg, the Wilhelma at Cannstadt, are 
 as beautiful and enchanting as unlimited wealth, 
 combined with exquisite taste, can make them 
 
 Many of the reports that have been circulated 
 by the German and also by the American press, 
 giving accounts of Mr. Jackson's rather remark- 
 able entree to court favor, have been mostly imagi- 
 nary, and certainly far from the truth. One paper 
 says: " He became acquainted with the king in 
 the gardens attached to the palace, and took care 
 to meet the sovereign every day, and then always 
 behaved with such respectful admiration as first 
 attracted the monarch's attention, and then won
 
 PERSONAL APPEARANCE. 139 
 
 his favor." All of which is untrue, as Mr. Jackson 
 never dreamed of courting royal favor, and only 
 met the king accidentally, while going to or from 
 the consulate and his boarding-house, or occasion- 
 ally while taking an afternoon stroll in the public 
 parks, as would any other private citizen. 
 
 Other stories, too ridiculous and foolish for rep- 
 etition, have been circulated in regard to his great 
 influence over the king, and forcing himself con- 
 spicuously upon his attention. 
 
 One paper, speaking of Mr. Jackson's personal 
 appearance, says : * ; He is tall and slender, very 
 handsome, with a blond mustache, brown hair, 
 and very dark eyes," etc. Whereas he is just the 
 opposite from this, though he is not what would 
 be called homely. He is in appearance more 
 German than American. He is about five feet 
 eight inches high, weighs nearly two hundred 
 pounds, is broad shouldered, with a square face, 
 cleanly shaved except his mustache, which is 
 brown like his hair, instead of being blond. His 
 eyes are more blue than gray, and have a pleasant, 
 winning expression that lights up his face and 
 makes it almost fascinating to those with whom he 
 comes in contact. He is, withal, a perfect gentle- 
 man in deportment, is finely educated, an excellent 
 conversationalist, and, with a well-balanced mind, 
 and a good American head on his shoulders, will 
 not only be able to take care of himself, but will 
 do honor to the country from which he has sev- 
 ered his nationality.
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE ART TREASURES OF MUNICH. A GLIMPSE AT THE 
 PICTURE GALLERIES. " ORIGINALS " BY THE " OLD 
 MASTERS." A VISIT TO THE FAMOUS BRONZE AND IRON 
 FOUNDRIES AND STAINED-GLASS WORKS. THE NA- 
 TIONAL MUSEUM AND THE RICHES OF THE KING'S PALACE. 
 
 IF your wanderings abroad ever bring you to 
 Germany, be sure and visit Munich. It will 
 pay you to come here, even should you not go 
 anywhere else. The city is wonderfully rich in 
 art treasures, palaces, and public buildings. It is 
 like a vast storehouse filled to overflowing with 
 rare paintings, sculpture, architecture, and the 
 endless collections of bric-a-brac souvenirs of past 
 ages as well as of the present. 
 
 Prolong your stay two, three, or even four 
 weeks, employ every available hour in sight-seeing, 
 and, when at last you turn your back upon the 
 city, you will find that you have left much undone 
 and many rare sights unseen. 
 
 Paintings, of course, take the precedence of all 
 other attractions ; for painting as an art is a spe- 
 cialty of Munich, and its school is famous the world 
 over. 
 
 There are ten public galleries, some of them of 
 large size, besides many splendid private galleries 
 containing magnificent gems of art, to which the
 
 ART GALLERIES IN MUNICH. 141 
 
 stranger can gain admission on application to the 
 owners. The paintings of the old and the new 
 school, arranged on the continuous side wall of a 
 gallery, would reach miles. 
 
 And these public and private collections do not 
 comprise all the wealth of Munich in paintings, 
 either. The palace of the king of Bavaria, a huge 
 cluster of enormous buildings, occupies an exten- 
 sive area in the centre of the city. The palace 
 itself, with its numberless wings extending hun- 
 dreds of feet in all directions of the compass, are 
 full of vast halls and corridors, the walls of which 
 are covered with some of the choicest and most 
 expensive works of the old and modern masters. 
 
 Of the public galleries the " Old Pinakothek," 
 as it is called, is the largest. It is five hundred 
 feet long, and contains only the works of the old 
 masters, of the Italian, Venetian, Dutch, Flemish, 
 Spanish, and German schools up to the eighteenth 
 century. 
 
 Every painting is vouched for as being an origi- 
 nal of the painter to whom it is attributed. Sev- 
 eral of Murillo's most famous paintings, of which 
 we so often see copies and engravings his " Beg- 
 gar Boys eating Fruit," " Street Boys playing 
 Dice," ' Boys playing with a Dog," " Fruit Sell- 
 ers," etc. are in this gallery. 
 
 Domenichino's famous painting of " Susanna and 
 the Elders," Guide's " Saint Magdalen " and " Saint 
 John the Evangelist," Carlo Dolci's " Penitent
 
 142 "ORIGINALS" BY THE OLD MASTERS. 
 
 Magdalen," are also in this collection. There 
 are also eighteen paintings by Holbein, fourteen 
 Rembrandts, thirteen Durers, fifteen Riberas, and 
 eighty-three attributed to Rubens, many of which 
 are very large, covering canvases from ten to 
 twenty feet square. Albert Durer, who died in 
 1528, and who was one of the most celebrated men 
 of the age in which he lived, was a native of 
 Nuremberg, near Munich, and spent the greater 
 share of his life in that city. 
 
 It is wonderful how busy the old masters must 
 have kept themselves to have produced even a 
 quarter part of the paintings which are exhibited 
 as their originals. The amount of painted canvas 
 which is attributed to Rubens alone would canopy 
 a small heaven. And so it is with all the old 
 masters ; their works seem to increase and multiply 
 as the world grows older. The moment an Amer- 
 ican steps foot on European soil his attention is 
 called to the work of their brushes wherever he 
 goes. 
 
 In all of the royal palaces, in the public and 
 private galleries, in the old castles, in many of the 
 churches and cathedrals, and in the houses of the 
 nobility and of the men of wealth, in all the Euro- 
 pean countries, from Ireland to Russia, and from 
 Norway to Spain, " originals," or what are claimed 
 as originals, of Titian, Rubens, Raphael, Murillo, 
 Van Dyck, Rembrandt, Holbein, Correggio, Guido, 
 and many others, are sure to be on exhibition.
 
 HIGH PRICES OF THE OLD MASTERS. 143 
 
 No gallery seems to be complete without speci- 
 mens of the works of all these great painters. It 
 must be borne in mind that these fine old paint- 
 ings were not the work of an hour, a day, or a 
 week. Painters cannot work rapidly and do their 
 work perfectly. Many of the choicest productions 
 of their brushes required many months, and, in 
 many cases, years of hard labor to complete. 
 Raphael, who died in 1520, only lived to be thirty- 
 seven years old, and the greater part of his life, 
 the best part, he was employed by the Pope in 
 painting the wonderful frescos in the Vatican 
 and in the churches at Rome. How, then, did he 
 find time to paint the thousands of pictures which 
 are attributed to him all over Italy, France, Spain, 
 Germany, and elsewhere ? 
 
 The prices at which these "originals" by the 
 old masters are often sold is something fabulous. 
 A small authenticated original, by Murillo, the 
 canvas r^ which was only about twenty inches 
 square, sold at auction in Paris recently for 
 125,000 francs, or about $25,000, and it is said 
 that over $1,000,000 has been refused for the six 
 original Murillos in the Munich gallery. Pictures 
 by Raphael, Titian, Guido, Rubens, Holbein, 
 Snyders, Teniers, Claude Lorraine, Poussin, and 
 all the celebrated painters whose works made them 
 famous, sell for prices which can hardly be accred- 
 ited. So great is the demand for them, and so 
 great the profit realized when sales are made, that
 
 144 "ORIGINALS FURNISHED TO ORDER. 
 
 there is no end to the swindling practices and de- 
 ceptions resorted to by picture dealers and others 
 to palm off as " originals " the worst of frauds and 
 imitations. 
 
 Old trash, that has been hidden out of sight in 
 deserted garrets as too worthless or too hideous for 
 exposure, is brought to light from its long retire- 
 ment, and often proves a bonanza of wealth to the 
 unscrupulous and tricky discoverer. The mono- 
 grams and autographs of the old masters are inge- 
 niously inscribed on the front or back of the paint- 
 ings, and then skilfully hidden and covered over 
 with paint, dust, cobwebs, and age. In the gradual 
 restoring of the old and worthless canvas these 
 forged monograms and autographs of the great 
 painters become plainly but half indistinctly visi- 
 ble, and are supposed to prove their identity. 
 
 There is probably not an old picture dealer in 
 London or Paris, or in any of the continental cities, 
 but what has on hand, or will, furnish to order, any 
 number of " originals " from any one of the old 
 masters that may be desired. 
 
 I am sorry to say it, but it is a well-known fact 
 over here, that any number of these worthless 
 deceptions have been palmed off on' innocent 
 Americans at great prices. So when you hear 
 that your travelled neighbor who lives next door, or 
 over the way, has become the possessor of an 
 original Murillo, Rubens, Titian, Guido, and so on, 
 at a cost sufficient to have purchased a well-stocked
 
 THE BRONZE FOUNDRY AT MUNICH. 145 
 
 farm or a good-sized cotton factory, you can take 
 the assertion for all it is worth, but don't try to dis- 
 pel his illusion of being the possessor of a great art 
 treasure ; rather pity him for having thrown money 
 away with which he might have encouraged some 
 worthy American artist by purchasing his really 
 meritorious works instead of the miserable coun- 
 terfeits which he displays and boasts of as originals. 
 
 But I have wandered away from Munich, where 
 there is so much of interest to write about, apart 
 from its picture galleries, that one is at a loss where 
 to commence or where to leave off. The city 
 seems to be thoroughly given up to art in its vari- 
 ous forms and channels. 
 
 I went through its famous bronze foundry, and 
 was shown by one of the proprietors the different 
 apartments and the various processes of convert- 
 ing: the molten bronze into the magnificent statues 
 
 o o 
 
 which adorn most of the public squares, parks, and 
 public buildings throughout the civilized world. 
 Several large halls, communicating with each other, 
 contain the plaster models of all the works which 
 this celebrated establishment has produced. As I 
 went through the different halls it was apparent 
 that America had been a most liberal patron and 
 customer in having its great men reproduced in 
 imperishable bronze for future ages to gaze upon. 
 Around me were the familiar forms of Webster, 
 Clay, Lincoln, Patrick Henry, Marshall, Jefferson, 
 
 Horace Mann, and many others. Conspicuous in 
 10
 
 146 STAINED-GLASS WORKS. 
 
 the centre of one of the halls was the colossal 
 equestrian statue of Washington, twenty-four feet 
 high, which was cast for the State of Virginia in 
 1857, and near by was the model of the bronze 
 doors in the Capitol at Washington. 
 
 Munich has several manufactories of stained- 
 glass windows, which have a world-wide reputation. 
 I was permitted to go through that of Mayer & 
 Co., which employs about three hundred and fifty 
 workmen. It was very interesting to go through 
 the different apartments and watch the manipulat- 
 ing of the stained glass as it went through the 
 hands of the various artisans until it blossomed out 
 into the grand cathedral windows, many of which, 
 I was told, cost from $10,000 to $20,000 each. I 
 was shown windows which were beinsf finished for 
 
 O 
 
 cathedrals or churches in Paris, London, Madrid, 
 Seville, Malaga, Philadelphia, New York, and for 
 others in South American cities. 
 
 Munich is particularly rich in its elegant bronze 
 monuments and statues, over twenty of which 
 stand silent sentinels in the various parks and 
 public squares. On the Maximilianstrasse is a 
 statue of the American, Benjamin Thompson, 
 known as Count Rumford, who was a native of 
 New Hampshire. He resided some years in 
 Munich, and was instrumental in producing many 
 long-needed reforms and in originating and suc- 
 cessfully completing many of the chief embellish- 
 ments and attractions of the city. For his great
 
 THE FAMOUS BRONZE STATUE OF BAVARIA. 147 
 
 merits and for the services he had rendered the 
 people, the elector, Carl Theodore, created him 
 Count Rumford. 
 
 The most famous of all the statues, and one 
 which is visited by all strangers, is the herculean 
 figure of Bavaria, which stands on rising ground in 
 the outskirts of the city. It represents a female 
 standing in an upright position, holding a sword 
 in one hand and a wreath of laurel raised over the 
 head in the other. The statue itself is fiftv-four 
 
 * 
 
 feet high, and it is sixty-six feet to the top of the 
 uplifted wreath of laurel. A flight of nearly one 
 hundred steps in the interior leads up to the head? 
 where, out of the huge eyes, which look like open 
 port-holes, a fine view of the surrounding country 
 is to be seen. In the interior of the head are two 
 bronze seats in imitation of cushioned lounges, 
 which will comfortably seat six persons, but 
 twelve persons can crowd into the space and find 
 standing-room. 
 
 For the casting of this huge statue sixty-one 
 tons of bronze metal were required, and the cost 
 when completed was nearly $150,000. 
 
 At the bronze foundry which I visited and 
 where the statue of Bavaria was cast, the work- 
 men were engaged upon another statue, which is 
 to be still more colossal, and which, when com- 
 pleted, is to be christened Germania. 
 
 In the enormous well or excavation which had 
 been sunk deep down into the earth like the giant
 
 148 THE MUSEUM AT MUNICH. 
 
 shaft of a coal mine, I could see that the casting- 
 had taken place, and that the colossal figure had 
 already taken form. A large number of workmen 
 were perched around on its body, on its arms and 
 shoulders, busy with hammers, files, and chisels, 
 some, supported by ladders and others by small 
 stagings, reminding me of the pictures of Gul- 
 liver's travels in Liliput, where the Liliputians 
 resorted to ladders to ascend the body of the huge 
 and wonderful stranger in their midst. 
 
 The National Museum of Munich is the largest 
 in Germany, and one of the richest and most ex- 
 tensive in its treasures of any in Europe. It is a 
 building of elegant architecture, having a front- 
 age of nearly five hundred feet on Maximilian- 
 strasse, the finest street in Munich, with wings 
 extending in the rear and enclosing a court, in 
 which are preserved many quaint and rare tomb- 
 stones and monuments whose ages can be 
 reckoned by centuries. The building has three 
 lofty stories, each of which is overflowing with 
 rare treasures of the past, especially with relics 
 and souvenirs connected with German history 
 from the remotest ages. 
 
 It would be impossible to specify all that it con- 
 tains of remarkabl-e interest. One of the halls 
 is devoted to the preservation of the relics of 
 famous generals and the many dynasties of the 
 German kings ; among them are some of the 
 military clothes of Frederick the Great, his war
 
 ITS RARE TREASURES. 149 
 
 saddle, pistols, sword, walking-stick, etc. There 
 are also relics of Joseph II., Maria Theresa, Napo- 
 leon, and many others. In one of the rooms are 
 the proofs of the first daguerreotype plates, made 
 by Daguerre himself, and which he presented to the 
 king of Bavaria. In the collection of war imple- 
 ments is a breech-loading gun and revolving rifle 
 made in the seventeenth century, also the model 
 of a mitrailleuse gun made for the historic king 
 of Sweden, Gustavus Adolphus. One of the 
 halls was entirely devoted to the exhibition of 
 exquisite and most elaborate carvings in ivory, an 
 art in which the Germans have always excelled all 
 other nations. The collection is the largest and 
 the finest in the world, and the variety and the 
 numberless specimens, many a one of which I 
 was assured was the work "of a lifetime, seemed 
 without end. 
 
 To fully describe the king's palace, and the 
 enormous wealth it contains in the shape of rare 
 paintings, frescos, tapestries, decorations, curios- 
 ities, marbles, precious stones, etc., would take up 
 a large space in this book. 
 
 In one of the chambers, the " spare chamber," 
 probably, is a bed in which Napoleon slept, the 
 drapery and coverlid of which are so heavily and 
 richly wrought with gold embroidery that they 
 are said to have cost 800,000 florins, or about 
 $336,000. These old Bavarian kings must have 
 laid awake nights taxing their ingenuity in devis-
 
 ROYALTY AN EXPENSIVE LUXURY. 
 
 ing plans for spending and squandering the hard- 
 earned money of the people, of the hard-working 
 peasant and mechanic, which had to be raised 
 by taxation. Is it a wonder that nihilism and 
 socialism is on the increase in this Old World? 
 What would be said of one of our New England 
 governors, or even of the President of the United 
 States, if he should require a salary sufficient to 
 indulge in the luxury of a $336,000 bed ? And 
 yet this bed was but a small item in the annual 
 expenses of the king who ordered its manufacture.
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE BAVARIAN CAPITAL. ITS TREASURES OF ART AND 
 ARCHITECTURE. THE BAVARIAN KINGS THE GREATEST 
 PATRONS OF THE ARTS AND SCIENCES. THE ECCENTRIC 
 KING Louis, A ROYAL CRANK. His LOVE OF Music. 
 STORIES OF HIS ECCENTRICITIES. THE KING AND THE 
 NIGHTINGALE. 
 
 MUNICH, although so attractive as a great 
 art city and overflowing like an immense 
 museum with its gathered treasures of art, is not 
 a favorite residence for the English or Ameri- 
 cans, and but very few of either nationality make 
 it their home for any length of time. During the 
 season of the year when tourists spread over the 
 Continent like swarms of locusts, Munich is 
 overrun with Anglo-American representatives, 
 with guide-books under their arms, who make 
 brief visits, spend a few hours in each of the most 
 important galleries and museums, and then depart 
 for fresh fields of sight-seeing. 
 
 But few of them, however, remain to take up 
 their abode, as they do in the German cities of 
 Berlin, Dresden, Leipsic, Stuttgart, and other 
 places, in each of which large colonies of English- 
 speaking residents congregate. 
 
 The city, unfortunately, has the reputation of 
 being unhealthy, and, when once a city gets such 
 a reputation, whether it may be well founded or
 
 152 THE CLIMATE AND HEALTH OF MUNICH. 
 
 not, it is very difficult to make the travelling pub- 
 lic believe to the contrary. The mortality from 
 malarial fevers, which foreigners attribute to bad 
 sewerage and often to no sewerage, is said to be 
 excessive, and the fact that many strangers have 
 died here in years past, as they have in Rome, 
 has given the city a bad name and caused it to be 
 shunned by hundreds who would gladly have re- 
 mained here to avail themselves of its splendid 
 art schools and also its cheap rates of living. 
 
 The city, which has, including its suburbs, 
 about 230,000 inhabitants, and ranks fourth in 
 population to the larger German cities of Berlin, 
 Breslau, and Hamburg, is situated on a broad 
 and sterile plain, 1,700 feet above the level of the 
 sea, and its close proximity to the Bavarian Alps 
 renders it liable at all seasons of the year to fre- 
 quent and sudden changes of climate, which 
 strangers are not apt to anticipate and are sure 
 not to guard themselves against. From this 
 source, undoubtedly, much sickness is caused, as 
 it is, also, in the narrow streets of the old part of 
 the city, where, for the want of sewerage, the gut- 
 ters and even the narrow streets themselves flow 
 with filth and are rank with unsavory odors that 
 "smell to high heaven." But the streets of 
 Munich, as a rule, especially those in what might 
 be called modern Munich, are broad and elegant, 
 and no finer or cleaner-kept streets are to be 
 found in any of the European cities.
 
 MONUMENTS OF ART AND ARCHITECTURE. 153 
 
 Most of the streets which radiate from the cen- 
 tre of the city are like wide avenues or grand 
 boulevards, and are adorned with much taste and, 
 in many instances, at enormous expense. Mag- 
 nificent bronze statues, costly monuments, tiny 
 little parks with patches of greensward, miniature 
 gardens with flower-beds laid out with exquisite 
 taste, ornamental trees, and flowering shrubs or- 
 nament the many important streets and public 
 squares. 
 
 At the termini of several of the streets in the 
 suburbs of the city are triumphal arches or gate- 
 ways, the building of which would have done 
 honor to the old Romans. The Siegesthor, or 
 arch of victory, which spans the Ludwigstrasse, 
 was built by King Louis I. of Bavaria, and was six 
 years in the course of erection. It is about one 
 hundred feet broad and eighty feet high, and the 
 broad space on its top is ornamented by one of the 
 grandest pieces of bronze castings in the world. 
 Bavaria, represented as a female figure, is standing 
 in a Roman chariot driving four lions abreast. The 
 whole thing is of colossal size, requiring over thirty 
 tons of bronze in its casting. The figure of Bava- 
 ria must be nearly twenty-five feet high, and the 
 lions are as large as good-sized elephants. 
 
 At the terminus of Briennerstrasse is another 
 magnificent arch, built, also, by King Louis I. in 
 commemoration of the Greek war of independ- 
 ence. It took eight years for its completion, and
 
 154 WEALTH OF MUNICH. 
 
 is built in imitation of the Acropolis at Athens. 
 The enormous structure, arching over three dis- 
 tinct driveways, is supported in part by twenty-two 
 lofty Doric and Ionic columns, with two towers ris- 
 ing: from each of its sides which are one hundred 
 
 o 
 
 and ten feet high. 
 
 I have not space to describe separately the 
 many elegant and costly public and private build- 
 ings with which Munich abounds, its palaces, 
 churches, and cathedrals, its athenaeums and acad 
 emies of learning, its universities, its Conservatory 
 of Music, its schools of art and science, its public 
 libraries and museums, its royal mint, hospitals 
 and barracks for soldiers, its magnificent edifices 
 built expressly for its collections of paintings and 
 sculpture, its beautiful parks, bridges, and public 
 gardens. I know not where to stop, and, mind 
 you, that everything that is built by the govern- 
 ment or by municipal authority is on a scale of 
 grandeur and at an expense which would astonish 
 the officials of our wealthiest American cities. 
 Would there not be a commotion among the tax- 
 payers of a city like Boston, for instance, at such a 
 wholesale expenditure of the public moneys ? and 
 what would they say at rinding among the items 
 of the city's expenses the cost of the two trium- 
 phal arches I have mentioned above, or of the 
 bronze statue of Bavaria, which were built for or- 
 nament only and to gratify the luxurious taste of 
 an extravagant king? And yet Boston has un-
 
 ROYAL PATRONAGE OF THE ART. 155 
 
 doubtedly more than double the available wealth 
 of Munich. 
 
 For its wonderful advancement in the arts and 
 sciences, for its great wealth in art treasures and 
 public monuments, and for ranking first, as it 
 does, among the art cities of Europe, Munich is 
 indebted, principally, to the munificent patronage 
 of King Louis I. of Bavaria, and of his son, King 
 Maximilian II. Louis I. came upon the throne in 
 1825 and ruled until 1848, when he was suc- 
 ceeded by Maximilian, who, at his death, in 1864, 
 'was succeeded by his son, Louis II., the present 
 erratic and incomprehensible king, whose strange 
 manners and peculiarities since he has occupied 
 the throne have been the topic of conversation 
 and discussion the world over. It was the 
 encouragement and the fostering patronage of 
 the Kings Louis and Maximilian that developed 
 such painters, sculptors, and architects as Corne- 
 lius, Kaulbach, Schwind, Piloty, Hess, Schorn, 
 Gartner, Schwanthaler, Klenze, Stiegelmayn, and 
 numberless others whose names became famous 
 by the magnificent work they have left behind 
 them. 
 
 The present King Louis, who is supposed to 
 reside in his palace at Munich, but who is seldom 
 ever seen here, instead of following in the foot- 
 steps of his illustrious predecessors as a patron 
 and lover of art, turns his attention almost 
 entirely to music. By many he is considered
 
 156 AN ECCENTRIC KING. 
 
 music-mad, and by many mad without music as 
 an accessory. He is an enigma to all Bavaria, to 
 all Germany, to all Europe, and is to the mass of 
 the people as mysterious a personage as the his- 
 torical man in the iron mask. 
 
 He has a monomania of hiding himself from 
 the eyes of the world, to make himself a recluse, 
 a man of mystery. But few of his subjects have 
 even been able to catch a glimpse of him. A 
 German gentleman told me here that he had 
 resided in Munich twelve years and had never 
 been able to get a sight of his Majesty. The 
 anecdotes and strange stories that are told of him 
 would fill a good-sized volume, and scarcely a 
 week passes but what a sensation is produced by 
 some new eccentricity. Although the inheritor 
 of great wealth from his ancestors, he is in yearly 
 receipt from the Bavarian government of the 
 princely sum of 5,344,380 marks, or $1,336,095, 
 small annuities from which are paid out to two or 
 three princes of the royal family of Bavaria. 
 
 His vast income is spent with a reckless prodi- 
 gality. He builds opera-houses at his own ex- 
 pense, pays composers large sums for writing 
 operas for his individual benefit, and employs the 
 best opera troupes and orchestras in Germany at 
 their own price, to perform these operas before 
 him, the only listener. Wagner is said to be 
 the king's most intimate friend. The room where 
 I am writing this was occupied by the author of
 
 MVSTERIOUS AND INCOMPREHENSIBLE. 157 
 
 " Lohengrin" and " Tannhauser" when he was in 
 Munich on a short visit a few weeks since. On a 
 side table near me is a handsome gilt wicker-basket 
 full of withered flowers. Every morning while 
 here, a messenger in full livery from the king 
 brought an offering of the choicest of flowers to 
 Wagner; and this basket, with its faded contents, 
 is a souvenir of the king's love and friendship for 
 the great composer. 
 
 The king, who is unmarried, is a young man 
 thirty-six years of age, and never as yet has shown 
 any inclination or disposition to divide his honors 
 by placing a queen on the Bavarian throne. He 
 is straight and handsome, with a martial bearing, 
 his hair is black, and his skin as white and deli- 
 cate as a girl's, and his dark, full eyes have a 
 dreamy, sad, and sometimes wild expression, which 
 adds to the mystery and romance that surround 
 him. He seldom remains but a few hours, or at 
 the longest a few days at a time, in the grand old 
 palace at Munich, which was built by his ances- 
 tors at such an enormous expense. He gives no 
 court balls or receptions, he is attended by no 
 servants in livery, neither does he " ride after the 
 king's horses " in the state carnages. He comes 
 and goes, and the public knows not of his coming, 
 or of his going, or of his whereabouts. 
 
 His favorite residence is at Berg, a fairy-like 
 palace or castle on the shores of Lake Starnberg, 
 an hour's ride by rail from Munich. With his
 
 158 THE SOLITARY HORSEMAN. 
 
 almost inexhaustible wealth the king has endeav- 
 ored to make his chosen residence a reality of some 
 Eastern romance or fairy story, a palace built by 
 enchantment. Here he passes the greater por- 
 tion of his time in strict seclusion. His own ser- 
 vants wait upon him and do his bidding without 
 seeing him ; and his private secretary is not 
 allowed to be in his presence, but receives his in- 
 structions through folds of heavy drapery. When 
 he travels, he travels in disguise ; no troupe of 
 servants and lackeys precede or follow after him, 
 and they are not allowed even to know of his de- 
 parture or of his return. 
 
 When the Emperor of Austria visited Munich, 
 a few months since, the king had been forewarned 
 of his coming, and suddenly disappeared during 
 the dark hours of the night previous lo the Empe- 
 ror's arrival. No one knew where he had flown. 
 At a small railway station many miles from 
 Munich a special train for some special purpose 
 was in waiting at midnight. A solitary horseman 
 dressed as a peasant came dashing up, and, hastily 
 dismounting from his foaming steed, jumped on 
 board of the train and was borne away. The man 
 in the peasant's dress is the only passenger, and 
 the men in charge of the train whisper to each 
 other, " It is the king." This is the story. Two 
 or three weeks afterward the king was discovered 
 living in retirement in a small village on the 
 shores of Lake Lucerne, in Switzerland.
 
 THE KING AND THE NIGHTINGALE. 159 
 
 Here he seldom ventured out from his retreat 
 during the daytime, but spent his evenings and 
 sometimes the entire night being rowed back and 
 forth in a small boat on the blue waters of the 
 lake, listening to the winding and echoes of 
 Alpine horns blown by mountaineers on the 
 shores and on the mountain-sides, whom he had 
 hired for the purpose. 
 
 A good anecdote is told of the king as happening 
 at his palace at Berg during the early weeks of 
 the past summer. It was known tha-t his Majesty 
 was passionately fond of the music of nightingales, 
 and that he had often regretted that the German 
 climate was too severe for these beautiful songsters 
 of the night to thrive in his parks or the Bavarian 
 forests. 
 
 It seems that one of the soldiers whose duty it 
 was to guard the palace grounds had learned to 
 imitate the notes of these midnight warblers to 
 such perfection that it was difficult to detect the 
 song of the real bird from the imitation. 
 
 So a surprise was planned for the king. One 
 beautiful moonlight night word was sent to his 
 Majesty that a nightingale was singing ampng the 
 foliage of some trees in the gardens adjoining the 
 palace. He hastened out, not daring to believe 
 that the report could be true. But lo ! he had not 
 been misinformed. The silvery notes of this 
 feathered prima donna, so wonderful, so beautiful, 
 rich, and full, rising, and falling, and trilling, and
 
 I6O MOONLIGHT SERENADES 
 
 at times dying away like the distant echoes of a 
 flute, were filling the moonlight air with bewitch- 
 ing melody. 
 
 The king stood fascinated, entranced ; his soul 
 was filled with a new ecstasy ; would that he could 
 induce the bird to sing forevermore! He would 
 have remained in the palace grounds listening the 
 livelong night, but after a while the nightingale 
 seemed to grow weary from its efforts and its song 
 ceased. The king was in despair, but after a few 
 minutes' rest the bird resumed its song for a short 
 space, and then it stopped, nor would it be induced 
 to sing any more. After waiting and waiting in 
 vain for more of this enchanting music, and at 
 last, becoming convinced that the songster had 
 possibly flown away or fallen asleep from over- 
 exertion, the king unwillingly left the palace 
 grounds and sought his royal couch. 
 
 The next evening, at the same hour, his Maj- 
 esty was in the grounds again, anxiously waiting 
 and listening for the bird to commence a repeti- 
 tion of its previous night's serenade, but he was 
 doomed to disappointment, for the nightingale 
 was silent and refused to sing again. 
 
 The third night he was more fortunate. The 
 nightingale warbled sweeter, louder, and longer 
 than ever, and the king was full of rapture once 
 more. Then for three nights it failed to be heard, 
 and it was thought that the bird must have died or 
 else flown away to warmer skies. The king was
 
 THE KING IN A RAGE. l6l 
 
 in despair and offered heavy rewards for its return, 
 but the most diligent search by the king's house- 
 hold failed in getting any tidings of the midnight 
 warbler. On the seventh night the tiny minstrel 
 returned, and from some shrubbery in a lone- 
 some nook in the grounds its flute-like notes were 
 heard echoing through the moonlight and giving 
 joy to the king, who was an enchanted listener. 
 For two or three nights more it came and contin- 
 ued its songs, at each time changing its locality 
 in the palace grounds whence it sang. Then it 
 ceased to come again, though the king waited 
 long and anxiously for its songs for many nights 
 after. 
 
 And then in some mysterious manner it came 
 to the king's ears that he had been imposed upon ; 
 that the nightingale which had sung to him so 
 sweetly, and which had given him so much de- 
 light for so many moonlight evenings, was a night- 
 ingale six feet high, wearing a spiked military hat 
 and a soldier's uniform. Of course the king was 
 mad, very mad, and there was a big thunder- 
 storm, or a tornado, or an earthquake, or an Alpine 
 avalanche in the royal household when the king's 
 wrath burst forth. The day after the denouement 
 the soldier nightingale was dieting on bread and 
 water in a prison-cell. 
 
 11
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 GLIMPSES OF LIFE IN BAVARIA A VISIT TO HOHENLINDEN. 
 ' ON LINDEN WHEN THE SUN WAS LOW." BEHIND THE 
 SCENES AT OBERAMMERGAU. EVERY-DAY LIFE OF THE 
 ACTORS IN THE PASSION PLAY. How THE REVENUES OF 
 THE BAVARIAN KINGDOM ARE OBTAINED. THE CEME 
 TERY AT MUNICH. 
 
 TWENTY miles east of Munich, on the banks 
 of the river Iser, in Upper Bavaria, is the 
 small German village of Hohenlinden, celebrated 
 in history for the memorable battle that was fought 
 there in December, 1800, between the Austrian 
 army under Archduke John, and the French under 
 Gen. Moreau, assisted by Marshal Ney. In this 
 hard-fought battle and during their disastrous re- 
 treat the Austrians lost 8,000 killed and wounded 
 and 10,000 prisoners, while the French loss was 
 never reported. 
 
 The battle-ground is still a place of great inter- 
 est, and many tourists turn out of their beaten path 
 every year to visit the place where the Austrians 
 suffered such an overwhelming defeat. Campbell's 
 short poem, which years ago was included in all 
 the school readers, beginning with, 
 
 " On Linden when the sun was low 
 
 All bloodless lay the untrodden snow, 
 And dark as winter was the flow 
 Of Iser rolling rapidly,"
 
 RIVER ISER. OBERAMMERGAU. 163 
 
 is undoubtedly familiar to most of our older read- 
 ers, though few of them perhaps have any geo- 
 graphical knowledge or idea as to where Hohen- 
 linden is, or of what country it forms such an in- 
 finitesimal part. 
 
 The river Iser, which the poet speaks of as " roll- 
 ing rapidly," is about two hundred miles long, and 
 rises in the Tyrol Mountains, and like an Alpine tor- 
 rent it comes pouring and tumbling down through 
 the Bavarian Alps, through villages, valleys, and 
 mountain passes, through Hohenlinden, through 
 the centre of the city of Munich, and on and on 
 until its turbid, angry waters are lost in the " Blue 
 Danube." One of the most fascinating sights of 
 
 o o 
 
 Munich is to stand on the old bridge that spans 
 this river at the end of Maximilianstrasse, and 
 watch the boiling, foaming waters as they go rush- 
 ing by underneath. 
 
 But a few hours' ride from Munich in the Bava- 
 rian Alps is the small, insignificant mountain vil- 
 lage of Oberammergau, which has gained such a 
 world-wide notoriety as being the place where the 
 famous Passion Play is produced every ten years. 
 An American gentleman, who became infatuated 
 with the play, having witnessed it in 1870 and also 
 the past year, was giving me an account of his 
 revisiting the village a month or two after the 
 conclusion of the last performances. He said he 
 wished to refresh his memory and gratify an inno- 
 cent curiosity by "going behind the scenes," so to
 
 164 CHARACTERS IN THE PASSION PLAY. 
 
 speak, to see the actors in this great drama, in their 
 every-day life, to see how they looked, how they 
 lived, and how they appeared off the stage, to see 
 what manner of people they were that had made 
 such an impression upon him, and on the world. 
 
 The woman who took the character of the Vir- 
 gin Mary he traced into the fields, where he found 
 her bareheaded, her hair dishevelled, and busy at 
 work digging potatoes. She was barefooted and 
 bare-legged, and her dress, which was anything but 
 picturesque in its rags and filth, reaching only to 
 her knees. 
 
 Mary Magdalene he found in a wretched little 
 compartment on her hands and knees scrubbing 
 the floor with soap and water. Her feet were also 
 without shoes or stockings, and her long black 
 hair was falling in wild disorder over her neck and 
 shoulders. 
 
 Christ, whose occupation was that of a wood- 
 carver, was busy at work in his little shop carving 
 some ornaments which had been ordered by visit- 
 ors to the late Passion Play as souvenirs of his 
 handiwork. His long, black, uncut locks, which 
 were still parted in the middle, had evidently not 
 received much attention at his morning's toilet; 
 neither had his face that divine expression, or the 
 mild, compassionate look, which characterized it 
 when he was personifying the Saviour in the play. 
 A mug half full of beer was on a rough bench 
 within his reach, and, as his chisel was nimbly tra-
 
 KING HEROD, PONTIUS PILATE, ST. JOHN, ETC. l6> 
 
 cinsj and forming the intricate and delicate designs 
 
 c_* c? ^5 
 
 on the piece of wood before him, he was at the 
 same time vigorously puffing a huge German pipe 
 that hung down over the red shirt that covered 
 his bosom. 
 
 Herod, king of Judeea, was keeping a little gast 
 haus or village inn, and report said he had laid by 
 a snug little sum from the money paid him by his 
 guests at the time of the Passion Play. Be that 
 as it may, he had not retired on his laurels or his 
 wealth, but, having cast aside his gorgeous golden 
 crown and his kingly robes of velvet and ermine, 
 had stripped off his coat, rolled up his shirt-sleeves, 
 and was busy at work behind his bar, filling beer- 
 mugs for his thirsty customers. 
 
 Nicodemus, Pontius Pilate, Judas Iscariot, St. 
 John, St. Peter, St. Matthew, Barabbas, and two 
 or three of the centurions were found in a beer- 
 shop making merry over their beer-mugs. They 
 were in an earnest, animated discussion as to the 
 renderings of some parts of the Passion Play, there 
 evidently being a division of opinion as to how 
 certain parts should be acted with the greatest 
 effect. 
 
 John, the "beloved disciple," and Judas, who 
 from appearances had " taken to much," were in 
 a half-maudlin state and were enjoying themselves 
 by singing or attempting to sing snatches from 
 some of the choruses in the Passion Play, with 
 which they seemed to be familiar. Caiphas, the
 
 1 66 BAVARIAN CITIES. 
 
 High Priest, who shone so resplendent in his cos- 
 tume of silver and gold, and who had on the stage 
 the dignified manners and haughty bearing of a 
 Roman emperor, after diligent search was discov- 
 ered in a slouch hat, and looking like a seedy 
 brigand, coming in from the fields outside of the 
 
 O O 
 
 village mounted on top of a load of turnips, which 
 was being drawn by a sorry-looking cow in harness. 
 Inquiring for the two malefactors who acted their 
 parts so splendidly in the scene of the crucifixion, 
 he was told that at the time they were attending 
 mass in the little village church, near by. 
 
 Our visitor from the outside world said he was 
 sorry that his curiosity had taken him back to 
 Oberammergau ; that the vivid, almost holy im- 
 pressions which the wonderful play had made upon 
 him had been dispelled by going behind the scenes 
 and seeing the poor, uneducated peasant actors 
 after taking off their costumes and returning to 
 
 o o 
 
 every-day life. He was emphatic in his opinion 
 that he should not witness the play in 1890. 
 
 There are many old cities and towns in Bavaria 
 of great historical as well as local interest, such as 
 Nuremberg, Augsburg, Ratisbon, Bamberg, Ingol- 
 stadt, and Hanau. It was at the latter town in 1813 
 that the French army under Napoleon defeated the 
 combined forces of Bavarians, Austrians, and Rus- 
 sians of 40,000 under Wrede. The kingdom of Ba- 
 varia, with the exception of Prussia, is the largest 
 in extent and population of any of the kingdoms,
 
 FINANCIAL RESOURCES OF BAVARIA. 167 
 
 duchies, or principalities that form the German 
 Confederation. In area it covers 28,435 square 
 miles ; being a little more than half the size of 
 New York State, which has 46,000. Its popula- 
 tion, according to the census of 1880, was 5,271,516, 
 which is about one eighth of the population of the 
 Empire, and not far from that of New York State. 
 
 Some of the items as published in the annual 
 budget of the kingdom's receipts and expenses for 
 the past year must be of interest to many, espe- 
 cially to those who make the financial records of 
 different countries and governments a study. It 
 must be remembered that in Bavaria, as well as in 
 all Germany, labor of all kinds does not cost over 
 a third or a half what it does in the United States, 
 and it also must be remembered that, with an 
 occasional exception, all the railways, all the tele- 
 graph lines, express companies, gas manufactories, 
 coal and iron mines, aqueducts for supplying 
 cities and towns with water, and many of the most 
 profitable manufacturing works throughout all 
 Germany, are built by the government, belong to 
 the government, and are run and worked by the 
 government and for its interest. It is from the 
 enormous profits derived from these various re- 
 sources that the government is enabled to keep up 
 its magnificent standing army of half a million of 
 men, and its various national improvements, ex- 
 penses, etc., which it is called upon to pay. 
 
 There are but few bourses or stock exchanges
 
 168 REVENUES OF THE KINGDOM. 
 
 in the country where stocks of any kind are 
 bought or sold, and consequently the people are 
 not continually being led into the temptation of 
 robbing banks and trust institutions, thereby 
 ruining thousands of people to gratify the mania 
 of mad speculation. 
 
 I find that the whole income of Bavaria from 
 various sources for the year 1880 amounted to 
 221,741,445 marks, or about $55,435,381. Of this 
 amount 
 
 $20,789,408 gross income of railways in Bavaria. 
 10,537,152 malt duties, custom, duties, etc. 
 5,587,500 direct taxes on houses, lands, etc. 
 4,807,500 legacies, fees, fines, etc. 
 2,540,952 post-office department. 
 
 306.732 telegraph lines. 
 6,181,700 wood sold from the king's forests. 
 
 In Bavaria, as in Wiirtemberg and in Baden, 
 and, I believe, all over Germany, the forests, almost 
 without exception, belong to the crown, and every 
 stick sold from them goes to replenish the king's 
 treasury for personal and governmental uses. The 
 smaller amounts which make up the sum total I will 
 not enumerate. The various sums paid out by the 
 government for building, running, and keeping up 
 railways, telegraph lines for the postal service, in- 
 terest on the public debt (which is $11,556,657), 
 salary of the king, and small annuities to several 
 members of the royal Bavarian families of $1,336,- 
 095, amount altogether to $33,085,357. Add to this 
 $22,351,024, the official expenses of the govern-
 
 BAVARIAN BEER. 1 69 
 
 ment ior collecting taxes and revenues, military 
 assessment, hospitals, and public charities, law 
 courts, and government schools, etc. 
 
 The national debt of Bavaria is 1,259,834,207 
 marks, or $314,958,552. The government receives 
 large revenues, as it will be seen, from taxes imposed 
 on malt and the beer manufactured in the king- 
 dom. Bavarian beer, and especially Munich beer, 
 is the finest in Germany, and has a world-wide rep- 
 utation, as well as a world-wide sale. The quan- 
 tity that is manufactured in its numberless brew- 
 eries is something enormous. Statistics show that 
 the average manufacture amounts to about 135,- 
 000,000 gallons a year, which would make 4,500,- 
 ooo of barrels of thirty gallons each. To place 
 these 4,500,000 of barrels in a continuous line, and 
 reckoning three feet to be the length of a barrel, 
 we find that the barrels of beer would extend 2,636 
 miles, about the entire distance of the Pacific rail- 
 road from New York to San Francisco, or nearly 
 span the Atlantic from New York to Liverpool. 
 
 I cannot close this chapter without mentioning 
 my visit to the cemetery at Munich, or Gottsaker, 
 as it is called in Germany. In most of these for- 
 eign cities the burial places for the dead are usu- 
 ally, by their quaintness, or by the enormous sums 
 of money spent in their construction and adorn- 
 ment, places of great interest to foreigners. The 
 one in Munich outside of the Sendlingerthor, in 
 the outskirts of the city, is not an exception, and
 
 I/O THE CEMETERY AT MUNICH. 
 
 surpasses all other burial places in Germany in 
 the artistic taste displayed in its many beautiful 
 monuments, arcades, and decorations. 
 
 Many of Germany's famous sons who lived, 
 worked, and died in Munich are buried here, 
 such as the painters Kaulbach and Schorn, the 
 inventor of lithography, Senefelder, the architects 
 Klenze and Gartner, the sculptor Schwanthaler, 
 Von Liebig, the chemist, and a long list of distin- 
 guished personages whose talents and labors gave 
 Munich its prestige in the arts and sciences. 
 
 An annex joining the cemetery, and which is 
 entered from it by a covered archway, was laid 
 out a few years since by Gartner in the Italian 
 style, and somewhat resembles the famous Campo 
 Santo at Pisa It is about seven hundred feet 
 square, and its four sides are enclosed by an arcade 
 of beautiful architecture, the walls of which are 
 thirty-three feet high. Under this noble arcade 
 is a continuous line of elegant tombs and monu- 
 ments of rare workmanship, which have been 
 erected in memory of the dead who sleep in the 
 vaults beneath. 
 
 A curious circumstance connected with the 
 building of this Campo Santo is the fact that 
 Gartner, the famous architect who planned it and 
 who contributed so much of his valuable time in 
 superintending the building of its arcades and the 
 carrying out of all the minor details, was the first 
 to be buried beneath its arches.
 
 BURIAL OF THE DEAD. 
 
 But what interested me and attracted my atten- 
 tention most was a large room or hall entered from 
 the archway that leads into the cemetery, and 
 used for depositing the dead for a specified time 
 previous to burial. In this gloomy-looking apart- 
 ment, which resembles somewhat the morgue at 
 Paris, signalling apparatuses are attached to the 
 inanimate bodies to give warning in case that life 
 should not be extinct. The room must be thirty 
 or forty feet square, and, as it was partly enclosed 
 with windows, I could look in from the outside 
 and witness the strange spectacle within. 
 
 It was indeed a charnel-house of death, but the 
 many forms lying there so peacefully and so 
 quietly, their hands crossed, and many of them 
 with wide-open eyes, did not look as if they were 
 sleeping their long sleep. 
 
 Young children seemed to predominate, chil- 
 dren of a few months up to eight and ten years 
 of age. There must have been fifteen or twenty 
 of them. They were lying outside of their cas- 
 kets, on soft little cushions or blankets of rich 
 material, and, in their dainty white muslin or silk 
 dresses, trimmed with handsome embroidered edg- 
 ings and laces, looked as if they had been to a 
 children's dress-party, and, overcome with fatigue, 
 had fallen asleep. Several were in reclining posi- 
 tions, propped up with cushions, with wreaths of 
 handsome artificial or real flowers placed on their 
 heads, and little bouquets in their hands. Two or
 
 1/2 LITTLE CHILDREN. 
 
 three were so covered with floral decorations they 
 looked as if they were sleeping in beds of flowers. 
 Such a picture seemed to rob death of its ter- 
 rors. I was told that these children were not 
 placed in this room with any expectation of re- 
 turning life ; that they were left there that their 
 fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, could 
 visit them as often and as long as possible before 
 being committed to mother earth.
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE HOFBRAUHAUS AT MUNICH. DAILY SCENES AT THE 
 ROYAL BREWERY WHERE THIRSTY BEER-DRINKERS QUENCH 
 THEIR THIRST. BEER-DRINKERS FORMING IN LINE WITH 
 THEIR BEER-MUGS WAITING TO BE SERVED. THE PRICE 
 OF BEER DAILY REGULATED BY QUOTATIONS FROM THE 
 HOP MARKET. 
 
 BEFORE coming to Munich I was advised by 
 several tourists and travellers to be sure and 
 visit the Hofbrauhaus or royal brewery, as it was 
 one of the sights of the city which should not be 
 missed or overlooked. So, a morning or two 
 after my arrival, I inquired of the proprietor of 
 the hotel where I was stopping where this cele- 
 brated Hofbrauhaus, which I understood had 
 been famous for over two centuries, was to be 
 found. 
 
 " Go down the Maximilianstrasse," he said, 
 " until you arrive at the Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten. 
 In front of this hotel you will see a narrow street 
 leading in an opposite direction ; turn down this 
 street and join the throng of people who are 
 going after their beer, and you will be sure to bring 
 up at the Hoibrauhaus." 
 
 I found the locality without any difficulty, and 
 I found the crowd of people which was pouring in 
 a steady stream down the narrow thoroughfare,
 
 1/4 THE HOFBRAUREI AT MUNICH. 
 
 so I joined in the procession of beer pilgrims,, 
 and hastened on with them to their destination. 
 
 The farther I proceeded the larger the crowd 
 became. Side and cross streets were adding fresh 
 recruits of stout, lusty Germans of all classes, some 
 in shirt-sleeves and coarse blouses, officers high in 
 rank, subalterns and privates in uniform, and 
 others in black broadcloths and black beavers, were 
 all hastening in one direction. It happened to be 
 just midday, when shop-keepers and mechanics 
 had started on their noonings. 
 
 The locality was anything but fashionable or 
 inviting; the buildings were old and clumsy, and 
 the narrow street full of bad odors from its open 
 gutters and sewers. 
 
 I needed no one to tell me when I arrived at 
 Hofbraurei. An immense, long, low building, look- 
 ing like an old prison, or one of the infantry bar- 
 racks, or stables built for the king's horses in 
 ancient times, which we often see in this country, 
 was before me. 
 
 One end of the building, a wing evidently, reach- 
 ing far to the rear, was of an extra height, with an 
 open wooden roof, from which were escaping clouds 
 of steam and smoke that were impregnating the 
 air of the whole neighborhood with a strong aroma 
 of hops and malt in process of boiling and fermen- 
 tation. 
 
 A long line of droskies and carriages, which had 
 brought customers to drink the famous beer, stood
 
 BEER PILGRIMS. 175 
 
 in front of the building far up and down the street, 
 every driver, as far as I could observe, with a large 
 white earthen mug of beer in his hand, with which 
 he was beguiling the waiting moments. Many of 
 the carriages had two, three, and four occupants, 
 who were also drinking the favorite beverage from 
 the same peculiar white earthen mugs. Evidently 
 they were not able to find sitting or standing ac- 
 commodations to drink their beer within the build- 
 ing. 
 
 Turning from the sidewalk, the procession which 
 I had joined entered a long, open court through 
 an arched doorway. This court, which must be 
 nearly two hundred feet long and seventy or 
 eighty feet wide, was full of broad-shouldered Ger- 
 mans standing in groups or singly, some seated on 
 the ends of empty beer-casks, some leaning back 
 against the stone walls of the buildings for sup- 
 port, and occasionally a fat Teuton, whose legs 
 had become weak with the excessive load they had 
 to carry, was squatted down on the cobble-stone 
 pavement ; but I noticed that every man in the 
 court was grasping one of the inevitable white beer- 
 mugs, or had one within his reach from which 
 he was taking long and frequent draughts of the 
 extract of hops. 
 
 The scene, the crowd, the babel of tongues, re- 
 minded me of an English hustings or an election 
 day in America. But this was only the outside 
 show, a mere prelude to the interior performance.
 
 1/6 A BUSY ESTABLISHMENT. 
 
 The men in the court were only those who could 
 not find a seat or standing-places to drink their 
 beer within the building. As soon as I could, I 
 passed through the doorway, which, from appear- 
 ances, was the main entrance from the court to the 
 celebrated beer-halls within. Through this door 
 I had noticed a continuous stream of customers 
 passing in empty-handed or with empty beer-mugs, 
 and coming out with them overflowing. The first 
 room I entered was where the beer was being 
 served. With its low, arched ceiling, black with 
 age, its dim light from two small windows, and 
 its floor of clay, it reminded me of a basement 
 hall in some deserted castle. 
 
 Behind a rough counter six men in shirt-sleeves 
 were plying every nerve in filling from six beer 
 barrels, perched on plank staging in the rear, the 
 beer-mugs which were being rapidly passed them. 
 Under one of the low windows was a large stone 
 water-tank, supplied with two streams of running 
 water, around which new-comers were crowding 
 and washing out the mugs which they had been 
 fortunate enough to find not in use. Every beer- 
 drinker must look out for himself, and attend to 
 his own wants in being served. He must hunt 
 around and find an empty beer-mug, or wait the 
 first opportunity to seize the mug of some depart- 
 ing customer. As soon as procured, he proceeds 
 to give it a thorough rinsing in the tank, and with 
 it falls in line of the beer procession, which is
 
 THIRSTY CUSTOMERS FORMING IN LINE. 177 
 
 quickly moving along and passing single file in 
 front of the beer-counter. 
 
 The beer-mugs are identified with the establish- 
 ment by their peculiar shape, size, and color, and 
 are to be found nowhere else in Germany. They 
 hold a litre each, a little over a quart, are made of 
 a light brown clay with metallic covers, on which 
 are the monograms of " H. B.," for Hof Braurei. 
 I noticed that there were but very few half-size 
 mugs in use, as every man, evidently, was expected 
 or preferred to take full measure. 
 
 At the head of the beer-counter stood the cashier, 
 whose whole attention was absorbed in receiving 
 pay of the customers as they filed past in rapid 
 succession. There was no inquiring the price; 
 every one seemed to be familiar with the amount 
 he was to pay, and for those who had any doubts 
 or were in complete ignorance the price of " 26 
 pfennigs " about six cents per mug was 
 chalked in plain characters on a piece of board 
 over the cashier's head. I was told the price of 
 beer varied according to the quotations of the hop 
 market, and that sometimes it was sold at as low 
 as sixteen, eighteen, and twenty pfennigs a mug. 
 Near at hand was a man whose sole occupation 
 was to receive the mugs from those who had paid 
 and pass them rapidly back to be filled. The cash- 
 ier was having a busy time, and I never saw a man 
 work more lively. Several hands were stretched 
 
 toward him all the while with silver and copper 
 12
 
 QUICK WORK, NO HESITATING. 
 
 of different values, which he was examining, count- 
 ing, and changing with wonderful celerity. 
 
 There was no confusion, no hesitation, no wrang- 
 ling or disputes ; the line of beer-drinkers was 
 moving along like clock-work, and without a break. 
 The scene, which was so odd and peculiar and so 
 entirely new to me as a stranger that I must admit 
 that there was a certain fascination in standing by 
 and watching the procession, which reminded me 
 of a box-office at some theatre or opera-house, 
 where there was a rush for tickets to see a favor- 
 ite actor or prima donna. An iron railing separa- 
 ted the crowd outside from pressing against the 
 line as it passed by the cashier and beer-counter. 
 As I entered the room there must have been at 
 least one hundred men in the line, and half as 
 many more waiting for a chance to fall in. 
 
 Every man had an empty beer-mug in his hand, 
 and those who had advanced near the cashier had 
 many of them two, three, and four mugs each, 
 which they were kindly taking along to be filled 
 for those who had not the time or patience to go 
 through the tunnel. 
 
 It was a novel sight to watch the rapidity with 
 which the men filled the mu^s from the barrels. 
 
 O 
 
 Long practice had made them experts at the busi- 
 ness, and I was told that they could fill on an aver- 
 age six of the beer-mugs a minute. The streams of 
 beer which were rushing through the large faucets 
 of the barrels appeared never to be shut off. The
 
 A MFFEREXT CLASS OF CUSTOMERS 1 79 
 
 men would grasp with one hand from the counter 
 three, four, and often as many as six mugs by the 
 handles, at the same time, which they would clap 
 under the running stream and fill them in a 
 twinkling, and then pass them back to the thirsty 
 customers. 
 
 There was no cessation, no waiting, in this part 
 of the business. As soon as a barrel became 
 empty, and a full one was not over fifteen or 
 twenty minutes in being exhausted, it was pushed 
 aside, and presto ! change ! a fresh barrel takes 
 its place as if by magic. Two or three sharp raps 
 from a mallet drives the faucet home, and quicker 
 than I can write the words the barrel is on tap, 
 and the fresh beer is flowing into mugs and dis- 
 appearing over the counter. 
 
 There was an extra side counter in the room 
 for serving customers of a different class from 
 those I have been describing, and this was for 
 the accommodation of boys and girls, maids and 
 women servants, who were sent in from boarding- 
 houses and families living in the neighborhood, 
 and who could not be expected to get their beer 
 by joining the line of men. A continuous line of 
 these were coming and going, bringing their own 
 mugs or glasses and often large-sized pitchers 
 and flagons to be filled. Little boys and girls 
 of six and eight years of age were tugging away 
 wicker baskets, holding from six to a dozen mugs 
 of beer each.
 
 I SO THE BEER HALL. 
 
 Opening out of this beer-room, where the beer 
 was being served, was an arched doorway leading 
 into a large hall, or rather a succession of two or 
 three halls opening one into another. Like the first 
 room I entered, these were also dark and gloomy, 
 and the walls black with smoke and age. They 
 seemed more fit for prison rooms than anything 
 else. The arched ceilings were low, and but little 
 light found its way through the small, old-fash- 
 ioned, smoke-begrimed windows. It was here the 
 patrons of the Hofbrauhaus were in the habit of 
 consfre^atinor to drink their beer, and find un- 
 
 o o o 
 
 occupied seats, if they could, which was usually 
 a difficult thing to do. 
 
 The whole space was literally packed with beer- 
 drinkers, and there was scarcely room for a person 
 to squeeze through or move about. Long, narrow 
 tables of oak plank served as rests for the beer- 
 mugs, and rustic plank benches were all the pa- 
 trons had to sit upon while drinking their beer. 
 Seats and tables were as thick as they could be 
 placed, and the beer-drinkers packed in like sar. 
 dines. Every man had one of the litre beer-mugs 
 on the table in front of him or in transit to or from 
 his mouth. Every man, too, I judged, was smok- 
 ing a German pipe or cigar, for the place was so 
 full of smoke I could scarcely see across the hall. 
 
 And such a jargon of strange noises, such a 
 babel of confused tongues, I never heard before. 
 There must have been several hundred persons
 
 I'ANDEMONIUM. l8l 
 
 present, every one of whom was hoMing an ani- 
 mated conversation with his nearest neighbor in 
 the sweet and musical dialect of the country, and 
 every one was endeavoring to speak loud enough 
 to be heard over the din and racket that prevailed. 
 The place was like pandemonium. Several old 
 men, and two or three women, ugly enough to be 
 the veritable witches of Macbeth, were crowding 
 and pushing their way about with baskets on their 
 arms, some of them selling raw turnips sprinkled 
 with salt, to sharpen the beer appetites of the 
 drinkers, and others disposing of hard-boiled eggs, 
 slices of black bread seasoned with anise-seed, and 
 raw sausages to those who did not wish to drink 
 beer too heavily on empty stomachs. 
 
 People were coming in and going out of the hall 
 all the time. Those with their mugs filled were 
 in search of vacant seats at the tables, which it 
 was seldom they were fortunate enough to find. 
 If a man got up to leave there was a scramble for 
 the vacancy. Many who would get out of patience 
 watching and waiting would eventually disappear 
 with their beer-mugs to the open court without. 
 There were no waiters to replenish the mugs when 
 they became empty. Every one must look out for 
 himself/ When a man had finished his litre and 
 wished an encore which was surely to hap- 
 pen with many repetitions he catches up his 
 mug and rushes out to fall in line to have it 
 refilled.
 
 1 82 KO QUARRELLING: MIRTH AND JOLLITY PREVAIL. 
 
 I must have stayed in the ha 1 ! watching this 
 strange scene with the greatest of interest for 
 nearly an hour. During that time my eye was 
 upon a broad-shouldered man with a face like the 
 giant in the fairy tale, whom I saw replenish his 
 mug four times. How many times he had emptied 
 it previous to my arrival, and how many times after 
 my departure, I know not. But what would be 
 strange and unheard of in any other country, amidst 
 all of this beer-guzzling there was no drunkenness, 
 no quarrelling, no angry disputes, no fighting, no 
 display of angry passions. Every man appeared 
 to be perfectly happy, jolly, and contented, in fact, 
 boiling over with mirth and good-humor, so much 
 so that in several instances I saw them fall to hug- 
 ging and kissing each other like so many overgrown 
 school-girls. 
 
 I did not see a sick or consumptive-looking man, 
 or one thin and spare ; neither did I observe a man 
 with a careworn, anxious face, looking as if he had 
 notes coming due on the morrow which were un- 
 provided for, and his family in danger of starvation 
 or the poorhouse. And they w r ere such heavy- 
 looking men, every one, stout and broad-shoul- 
 dered as young giants. 
 
 When I at last left the hall and emerged into 
 
 O 
 
 the open court I found the rain falling, but the 
 crowd of people, I noticed, was still coming and few 
 appeared to be leaving. Those who could not 
 crowd under a long, open shed that flanked one
 
 AX EVEKV-OAV OCCURRENCE. 183 
 
 of the buildings for shelter were holding umbrellas 
 over their heads with one hand and grasping beer- 
 mu^s with the other. The scene I was looking 
 
 <- o 
 
 upon was an every-day affair, which was kept up 
 from morning until late at night. Although the 
 
 o o o 
 
 crowd of people present appeared to me so large, 
 yet I was told that it was not an average day, 
 that the weather was bad, that the prospect of rain 
 during the forenoon, and the rain which was then 
 falling, would keep hundreds away, and that if I 
 wished to see a genuine crowd, a rush, a jam, I 
 must be there on a warm, sunshiny day when the 
 people were really thirsty, or on a Sunday, or on 
 a fete day, or on one of the many holidays which 
 were constantly occurring. 
 
 The beer which is such a favorite with the 
 Munich people, and which draws such crowds of 
 customers, is made on the premises where it is 
 drunk, and has the reputation of being the best 
 beer in this famous beer-drinking city. But there 
 are hundreds of other breweries and beer-shops in 
 Munich, many of which are nearly if not as large 
 or larger than this, and which have their favorite 
 customers like the Hofbraurei ; but the latter is 
 popular because of its great age and notoriety, and 
 the cheapness of its beer, for six cents a quart at 
 retail, and often at four and five cents, even in 
 Germany, is considered a low price. A man may 
 drink four or five gallons a day of it and not cost 
 as much as four or five drinks at a fashionable
 
 184 CHEAPNESS OF THE BEER. 
 
 bar in a New York hotel. The property is said 
 to belong to the king of Bavaria, and, if so, its 
 enormous profits must help swell the amount of 
 his already enormous income.
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE NATIONAL DRINK OF GERMANY. SOME STATISTICS OF 
 THE ENORMOUS AMOUNT OF BEER MADE AND DRANK IN 
 THE KINGDOM OF WURTEMBERG. AND YET BAVARIA TAKES 
 THE LEAD IN BOTH. EXTRAORDINARY FEATS OF BEER 
 DRINKING. BEER DUELS OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS. 
 
 THE little kingdom of Wiirtemberg has about 
 1,900,000 inhabitants, and is not so large as 
 the State of Massachusetts by three hundred 
 square miles ; yet I find that the published records 
 show that there were 7,398 breweries, large and 
 small, in active operation within the kingdom 
 during the past year, and in the twelve months 
 135,179,900 pounds of malt were brewed. 
 
 One of the great and important industries of 
 Germany is the manufacture of beet sugar, and 
 two years ago the government returns showed 
 that there were three hundred and twenty-nine 
 manufactories engaged in this enterprise. If there 
 are 7,398 breweries in Wiirtemberg, what must be 
 the number in the whole empire and what must 
 be the vast amount of capital and labor employed 
 in the manufacture of beer as compared with the 
 manufacture of sugar ! In Wiirtemberg there 
 are 19,280 beer-shops or places where beer is sold 
 by the glass. This would make on an average a 
 beer-shop for about every one hundred of the in-
 
 1 86 A THIRSTY COUNTRY. 
 
 habitants, man, woman, and child, including babies 
 of the tenderest age. 
 
 The different towns and cities show a variety 
 of figures in making up this general average, some 
 going as high as one hundred and twenty and one 
 hundred and thirty, and others falling short of one 
 hundred. In Cannstadt, for instance, a suburb of 
 of Stuttgart of 25,000 inhabitants, there is a beer 
 shop for every eighty-four people. Wiirtemberg 
 is not noted for the good quality of its beer, which 
 is considered of an inferior class, and it may reason- 
 ably be presumed that a very small percentage of 
 it is sold outside the borders of the kingdom. On 
 the contrary, the Bavarian beers the beer made 
 at Munich, at Nuremberg and Bamberg, at Pil- 
 sener in Austria, and in some parts of Prussia, 
 which have a high reputation are in great 
 demand, and are imported into Wiirtemberg in 
 immense quantities, where they are drunk almost 
 exclusively at nearly all the better class beer- 
 shops. 
 
 When we consider the fact that all, or nearly all 
 of the beer made in Wurtemberg is consumed by 
 the Wlirtembergers, together with the vast impor- 
 tations from outside of the kingdom, we bcsnn to 
 
 O O 
 
 realize the fact that the Germans, judging by the 
 example of the Wiirtembergers, love beer and 
 drink a great deal of it, By the statistics, I see 
 that last year one brewery in Stuttgart manufac- 
 tured 880,380 gallons of beer, which would make
 
 REMARKABLE FEATS OF BEER-DRINKING. 187 
 
 29,366 barrels of thirty gallons each. And yet I 
 am told by the Germans that if I wish to see real 
 beer-drinking I must go to Bavaria; that the 
 Bavarians are noted for their love of beer and for 
 the great quantities that they manufacture and 
 consume. 
 
 The accounts that one constantly hears of re- 
 markable feats in beer-drinking seem many of 
 them incredible. Old men and young, while gath- 
 ered around the social beer-table, relate their 
 experience and the quantity of beer they have 
 swallowed at one sitting, or in one day, or in one 
 evening, with as much pride as an old hunter 
 would rehearse his achievements in the forest or 
 the jungle. They seem to be as proud of the 
 capacity of their stomachs as a prize-fighter is of 
 his muscle. 
 
 The Munich papers recently chronicled the 
 death of an old man of eighty, in Tubingen, who 
 had often been known to drink one hundred mugs 
 of beer holding half a litre each in one day. 
 As a litre, reduced to English measure, is a quart 
 and a half pint, it will be seen that he drank al 
 most sixteen gallons. 
 
 A beer-shop in Munich, in the immediate vicin- 
 ity of a church with a clock in the bell-tower, 
 became celebrated a few years since, and got up 
 a large run of custom, by a famous beer-drinker 
 who drew crowds of people at the middle of the 
 day to witness his performance. Placing twelve
 
 i88 
 
 STUDENTS BEER DUELS. 
 
 mugs of beer on a table in front of him as the 
 clock commenced striking twelve, he would swal- 
 low the contents of a mug at each stroke of the 
 clock until the twelve mugs are emptied. A 
 Heidelberg student thought nothing of placing to 
 his lips a tankard filled to the brim with two litres 
 of beer and swallowing the whole without stop- 
 ping to take breath. Another student, who had 
 had his cheek laid open in a sword duel, called for 
 a glass of beer and drank it through the bloody 
 opening of the sword-cut without wincing, and as 
 coolly as if he had swallowed it through his mouth. 
 The students in the university towns have what 
 is known as " beer duels." They are a species of 
 mock-trials in which two of their number are 
 accused of imaginary crimes or misdemeanors, and 
 go through the farce of a trial before a mock 
 judge and jury, each being eloquently defended 
 by his own counsel. The judge sums up the case 
 in an elaborate and scholarly speech ; and the jury, 
 after retiring to a side room where they drink an 
 indefinite amount of beer, bring in the verdict 
 that both of the accused are guilty, and that they 
 must suffer the penalty by swallowing a certain 
 number of glasses of beer and not a small num- 
 
 O 
 
 ber, either in a prescribed space of time, and 
 that the one who fails in finishing his quota 
 first shall pay for all the beer drunk by the party 
 during the evening, or afternoon, as it may be. 
 The real " sport" now commences. A table is
 
 MOCK TRIALS AND PENALTIES. 189 
 
 cleared, the "culprits," in standing position, are 
 placed opposite each other, and the requisite num. 
 her of glasses of beer placed on the table between 
 them. The judges and the jury their fellow-stu- 
 dents and a large number of outsiders gather 
 around in a circle and watch the beer duel with 
 as much interest as they would a dog or a cock 
 fight. 
 
 The signal is given and the contestants spring 
 for the glasses, which they empty one after another 
 in rapid succession. Long practice, which most of 
 the students have had, enables them to do valiant 
 work. Glass after glass disappears with an astonish- 
 ing rapidity. Each student has his party of friends 
 or backers, who cheer, and shout, and encourage 
 him on as if he were neck and neck with his com- 
 petitor in a boat-race. It is seldom that both finish 
 their quotas, though one is sure to come out ahead 
 of the other. When one occasionally finishes the 
 number of glasses assigned him, he is sure to call 
 for one, two, or three glasses or more, as extras, 
 which he swallows just to show that his appetite 
 still remains unimpaired. Of course the victor 
 receives the plaudits of the assemblage, and is 
 borne in triumph to an improvised throne, con- 
 sisting of a chair or stool placed on a beer-table 
 at the end of the hall, where they crown him with 
 a wreath of laurel, give him cheer after cheer, and 
 address him as their patron saint. 
 
 The incidents and anecdotes connected with
 
 IQO THE HEAVIEST DRINKER WINS. 
 
 student life in Germany are without end and 
 would fill volumes. Beer-drinking bouts, knieps, 
 and duels are more in vogue, more fashionable, 
 and more patronized than hard study, and it has 
 been observed by those who have watched and 
 studied student life abroad closely, that a majority 
 of the young men who enter German universities 
 come out demoralized.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 GLIMPSES OF GERMANY. FROM MUNICH TO BERLIN. Mo- 
 NOTONV OF CONTINENTAL TRAVELLING. SCENERY FROM 
 A CAR WINDOW. How THE GERMAN RAILWAYS ARE 
 MANAGED. A SYSTEM AS PERFECT AS CLOCK-WORK. 
 THE WAGES PAID EMPLOYES. PASSENGERS CARRIED AT 
 FIRST, SECOND, THIRD, AND FOURTH CLASS RATES. 
 EMIGRATION AND THE LABOR PROBLEMS. WILL THE 
 PROPHECY OF MALTHUS EVER BE FULFILLED ? 
 
 r I ^HE scenery of Germany as you view it from 
 A the car window is not unlike that of France. 
 In either country a terrible sameness or monot- 
 ony of landscape haunts the American after he 
 has travelled the first few miles. There are the 
 never-ending vistas of fields of grain stretching 
 away in the distance ; the long, regular patches of 
 land growing different varieties of vegetables side 
 by side; plains with herds of grazing cattle and 
 flocks of sheep watched and tended by sleepy-look- 
 ing shepherds ; an occasional landscape darkened 
 in the foreground, or in the distance by a small 
 forest or a clump of trees ; little villages, with clus- 
 ters of dark and cheerless houses built of stone 
 and mortar, and the inevitable homely red tile 
 roofs ; the same wide roads, white, hard, and level 
 .as marble floors, stretching away toward the hori- 
 zon in different directions and ending no one 
 knows where; roads also, many of them shaded
 
 IQ- LANDSCAPES FROM CAR WINDOWS. 
 
 and sheltered on each side for miles with rows of 
 lofty Lombardy poplars, at long intervals perhaps 
 the crumbling ruins of some old castle on some dis- 
 tant hill-top ; an occasional windmill, a hay-rick, 
 while the same bronze-featured, scantily dressed, 
 repulsive-looking peasant-women, toiling in the 
 fields like so many cattle, are sure to meet your 
 gaze whichever way you turn your eyes. The 
 farms and homesteads belonging to different own- 
 ers, and the long stretches of land for grazing and 
 growing different kinds of grain and vegetables 
 side by side, are not separated by dikes as they 
 are in Holland, or by green hedges as they are 
 in England, neither do they make their divisions 
 by the divers kinds of fences that we have in Amer- 
 ica. Invisible lines or landmarks, known only to 
 the proprietors or tillers of the soil, mark their 
 boundaries. Nowhere on the Continent do we see 
 stone-walls, rail fences, or fences of any kind. The 
 whole country, far and near, that we pass through, 
 has the appearance of an immense park that may 
 belong to some king or nobleman, every foot of 
 which has been under cultivation for centuries. 
 
 I do not know the exact number of miles be- 
 tween Munich and Berlin, but I do know that we 
 left the former city at 7.30 in the morning, and 
 that we reached Berlin a little after 10 in the even- 
 ins:, and that there was no changing; of trains nor 
 
 O* O O 
 
 were there any long stoppages on the way. It was 
 the express train, or what they call the schnell zug.
 
 RAILWAY TRAVELLING. 193 
 
 To have absorbed all this time on an English 
 mail train, or a fast express train in America, 
 which averages about fifty miles an hour, we should 
 have accomplished over seven hundred miles, but 
 I understand that the distance between the two 
 cities is less than three hundred miles. Hence it 
 will be seen that the German express trains are 
 anything but fast, and to us Americans, who 
 would be glad to travel by electricity, are terribly 
 slow and tedious. 
 
 It seemed all the time as if the puffing little 
 engine was pulling us up steep grades with a 
 small pressure of steam, or that we were on some 
 funeral train which was travelling at a slow rate 
 of speed in deference to the feelings of the mourn- 
 ers on board. 
 
 Were there to be a collision of two of these 
 schnell zugs travelling in opposite directions, I 
 verily believe that all the damage sustained would 
 be put to rights by an expenditure of a few dollars 
 in repairing the cow-catchers. The slow trains 
 which stop at every little station, and known as 
 the personnen zugs, are patronized largely by those 
 who are economical in their expenditures and 
 whose time is of little account. The fare on them 
 is about twenty per cent less than on the schnell 
 zugs, and they crawl over the ground so slow that 
 a man could easily jump off of one and recover 
 his lost hat and then overtake the train before it 
 could get out of sight. 
 3
 
 194 WAGES PAID RAILWAY EMPLOYES. 
 
 Perhaps this slow rate of travelling is owing to 
 the system adopted by all German railway compa- 
 nies in paying their employes. Their wages are 
 a mere pittance as compared to the wages paid in 
 America to employes of the same class. 
 
 Locomotive engineers receive only $225 to $340 
 per year, conductors $160 to $180 per year, brake- 
 men from $140 to $165 per year, road-keepers 
 and switchmen $130 to $160 and $i So per year. 
 In addition to these small salaries, they are paid 
 small amounts as perquisites, which help to 
 increase, though not to a large amount, the sums 
 annually received. The engineer gets a percent- 
 age on the number of kilometres he runs his 
 engine during the year, and, being allowed a certain 
 amount of coal and oil for a prescribed number 
 of kilometres, he is paid a percentage of thirty-five 
 per cent premium on what he saves on coal and 
 about fifteen per cent on oil, so he has a strong 
 pecuniary inducement to be as economical as pos- 
 sible in running his engine and uses as little fuel 
 and oil as necessity will require. It is to this 
 economy on the part of engineers in the saving of 
 coal, and not keeping up a sufficient head of 
 steam, that the slow rate of railway travelling is 
 mainly attributed. The sum total paid the engi- 
 neer for his year's labor, including salary, mileage, 
 percentage on coal and oil saved, and for extra 
 work he may perform in the machine-shop, seldom 
 amounts to over $500 or $550 a year. The con-
 
 SLOW BUT SURE 1 95 
 
 ductor, who is also allowed a percentage on the 
 number of kilometres he travels over in a year, 
 receives in all about $400 to $450 ; second and 
 third class conductors, who act as brakemen and 
 whose perquisites are little or nothing, only get 
 about $250 or $275. 
 
 But if the wages paid by the German railway 
 companies are small, and if their trains do run at 
 a slow rate of speed, probably the railways of no 
 other country are so well and so thoroughly built, 
 and so systematic and so perfect in their manage- 
 ment as these. It is very seldom that accidents 
 ever happen to them, and the traveller feels a 
 sense of security from the danger of collisions, 
 smash-up, running off the tracks, etc. , that he 
 feels on no other railways in the world. 
 
 As the railways throughout Germany, with an 
 occasional exception, are not only built and owned 
 by the government, but are under government 
 control, everything pertaining to their construc- 
 tion and management is done in the most thor- 
 ough manner and with military skill and precision. 
 Military engineers of the highest rank superin- 
 tended the construction of the road-beds, and even 
 the splendid iron and glass covered depots and sta- 
 tion buildings which are found in all the cities and 
 towns of any magnitude. The long lines of roads, 
 with their finely turfed and graded embankments 
 and excavations, iron and stone bridges and cul- 
 verts, wooden ones are never seen, and their
 
 196 MILITARY PRECISION. 
 
 miles of tunnels, are so perfect every way, in their 
 smoothness, finish, and strength, that they have 
 the appearance of being part and parcel of some 
 grand military network of fortifications. 
 
 At the railway stations the most perfect order 
 and system prevail. All the officials, from the 
 highest to the lowest, many of whom have served 
 in the German army, are neatly uniformed, and 
 they not only understand their duties, but every 
 duty assigned them is discharged with military 
 promptness and precision. 
 
 At all of the stations there are first, second, and 
 third class waiting-rooms for passengers, each of 
 which has its particular restaurant or lunch-table, 
 with corresponding refreshments and prices. A 
 few minutes before the departure of a train the 
 doors of the three rooms are opened simultane- 
 ously, and the travellers hurry out and get their 
 seats in the compartments which their tickets 
 .entitle them to. A conductor goes around and 
 examines the ticket of each passenger to see that 
 he is " booked" right, and to give any information 
 that may be desired. The first tap of the bell 
 signifies " to be seated and close the doors," the 
 second tap " all ready," the third tap "go." No 
 one is allowed to step on board of a train while it 
 is in motion, nor can any one open or shut a car 
 door but an official. * 
 
 The chef de gar e^ who manages the arrivals and 
 departures of the trains, and who appears to have
 
 FIRST, SECOND, THIRD, AND FOURTH CLASS. 197 
 
 no other duties to attend to, is an imposing-look- 
 ing personage in a showy uniform, who always car- 
 ries in front of him a large silver-headed staff or 
 mace, with which, like a drum-major, he signals his 
 commands and shows his authority. He is always 
 on the watch and seems never to take his eye from 
 business. Nothing is done, no train enters or 
 leaves a station, without a signal from his mace. 
 
 The code of signals established among the 
 railway officials, which are answered and inter- 
 preted by the tap of bells and the blowing of 
 whistles, is as perfect as on a ship-of-war or the 
 battle-field. The moment a train leaves a station 
 word is telegraphed to the station ahead so that 
 the track may be kept clear and everything in 
 readiness for the train's arrival. 
 
 I notice that in some parts of Prussia, and es- 
 pecially on nearly all the trains leading into Berlin, 
 there are not only first, second, and third class 
 cars, but that there are cars for fourth-class pas- 
 sengers, with corresponding low rates of fares. 
 These cars are more like cattle-pens than anything 
 else, without seats or conveniences of any kind, 
 though occasionally they are provided with rough 
 benches with or without backs, on which the tired 
 and overworked peasant or mechanic can rest his 
 wearied limbs. 
 
 At the stations outside of Berlin I saw market 
 men and women crowding into these fourth-class 
 cars with their big baskets of vegetables and fruit
 
 198 POPULATION OF GERMAN CITIES. 
 
 which they were taking with them to dispose of to 
 their city customers. There were laundresses 
 carrying home big bundles and baskets of clean 
 linen, mechanics with their kits of tools, field 
 laborers with their farming implements, all hud- 
 dled promiscuously together, and paying so little 
 for their ride that the poorest of them could 
 scarcely feel the expense. 
 
 The German government does certainly " tem- 
 per the wind to the shorn lamb" in providing for 
 its poor cheap rates of travelling, cheap music, and 
 cheap beer. If the necessities of life in the way 
 of food and clothing were as correspondingly cheap, 
 there would not be the enormous emigration from 
 the country that has been going on for the last 
 twenty or fifty years, and which is constantly 
 increasing. 
 
 Of the large cities of Europe, Berlin ranks third 
 in size to London and Paris, the census of last 
 year, 1881, giving it 1,100,000 inhabitants. In 
 1850 it had but 400,000, again of 700,000 in 
 thirty years, thus doubling and nearly trebling 
 its numbers. Nor is Berlin exceptional from other 
 German cities in its rapid growth. Dresden in 
 1850 had 90,000 inhabitants, and now it numbers 
 about 220,000; Breslau thirty years ago had ibo,- 
 ooo, and at present it numbers 280,000; eighty 
 years ago Munich had 50,000, thirty years ago 100,- 
 ooo, and last year 230,000 inhabitants. 
 
 Not only these cities, but all the German cities
 
 GERMAN MOTHERS. 159 
 
 and also the towns, show the same remarkable 
 growth. And this growth is not occasioned by 
 emigration from outside the empire's borders, as 
 it is in America, but from the people's literally 
 fulfilling the Scripture commands to "increase 
 and multiply and replenish the earth." It is sel- 
 dom that a German mother has less than eisrht or 
 
 O 
 
 ten children, while it is common for them to have 
 twelve and fifteen, and not uncommon for much 
 higher numbers. Pray don't have any anxiety 
 lest Germany becomes depopulated and ruined 
 from the enormous emigration that is constantly 
 taking place to other countries, and especially to 
 America. The country is already over-populated ; 
 it has more mouths than it has bread to feed, more 
 hands than it has labor to perform. The great 
 problem which Bismarck and the government at 
 present are trying to solve is what to do with the 
 increasing millions of the future. 
 
 Emigration is the great safety-valve of the coun- 
 try, and through its channels the surplus popula- 
 tion, or a portion of it, at least, seek new homes in 
 foreign lands and under foreign skies, where 
 labor is in demand and receives its just reward, 
 and where the hard-working laborer and mechanic 
 will be free from the military despotism which in 
 Germany grinds them to earth. In some parts 
 of Germany the population has more than doub- 
 led in sixteen years and from 1872 to 1878 the 
 yearly excess of births over deaths was 542,000,
 
 2OO EMIGRATION THE GREAT SAFETY-VALVE. 
 
 and at the present rate of increase the population 
 of the country will reach nearly a hundred mill- 
 ions before the next century is half completed. 
 From 1816 to 1864 the increase of population in 
 Prussia was from 10,350,000 to 19,260,000, and in 
 1875 to 2 1, 2 32,000, or one hundred and five percent. 
 With these startling figures, the German econ- 
 omist is busy at work over his calculations, endeav- 
 oring to fix on the time in the future when the 
 prophecy of Malthus will be fulfilled, and the 
 population of this earth will be so dense that there 
 will not be standing-room on the earth's surface 
 for its inhabitants. The labor question now is 
 the question of the hour, and is engrossing the 
 attention of not only the higher, but the lower 
 classes. Where there is a demand for the labor 
 of one pair of hands there are twenty striving to 
 get it. Parents in alarm are anxiously asking, 
 " What shall we do with our children ? " Strong, 
 able-bodied men who would jump at the chance 
 to work for a mark twenty-five cents for ten 
 or twelve hours' labor, seek work in vain. There 
 is no opening of commerce, for the commerce of 
 the country is small and is confined mostly to one 
 or two ports. There is a great pressure to enter 
 the military service, notwithstanding its insignifi- 
 cant pay, but the service is already over-crowded, 
 and has twenty applicants where one is received. 
 Not only the German government, but cities and 
 townships throughout the empire, are financially
 
 NO DANGER OF OVER-EMIGRATION. 2OI 
 
 embarrassed and find it almost an impossibility to 
 raise money by taxation to meet the increasing 
 demands. 
 
 Statistics which have been carefully gathered 
 show that the emigration from Germay in the 
 last sixty years has amounted to three and a half 
 millions, the greatest share of which, about seven 
 eighths, has taken place since 1850, and mostly to 
 the United States; and the same statistics show 
 that the direct loss to Germany by its emigration 
 in the sixty years specified has amounted to ten 
 millards of marks or about two and a half millions 
 of dollars, more than twice the enormous sum 
 of the war indemnity which Germany required of 
 France at the conclusion of the late Franco-Prus- 
 sian war, and the United States has been the 
 gainer by what has been Germany's loss.* 
 
 It has long been a question, and a puzzling one 
 too, with the German Congress here in Berlin, how 
 to stop the constant drain which is all the time 
 taking place by emigration from the country. If 
 the government couid select those from among 
 the working and lower classes whom they would 
 be glad to get rid of, it would make no opposition, 
 but the trouble is, those who go across the ocean 
 in search of new homes and new fortunes are not 
 
 * These items of Germany's loss by emigration are taken from statistics 
 carefully prepared by German economists and include the direct loss of 
 money taken out of the country by the emigrants, the amount the gov 
 ernment has paid for their education, and various other items which could 
 be mentioned.
 
 2O2 PLENTY OF ROOM IN AMERICA. 
 
 the ordinary candidates for pauper-houses and 
 poor-farms, but are mostly first-class mechanics 
 and artisans and those of the hard-working labor- 
 
 O 
 
 ers who physically and mentally make the best 
 material for the German army and German citizens> 
 and are of the class they would like to keep at home. 
 I cannot give the exact number of Germans who 
 gave up country and home to take up their future 
 residence in the United States during the past year, 
 but there was enough, certainly, to have populated a 
 good-sized territory, or to have created two or three 
 good-sized cities and entitled them to city charters. 
 At one of the railway stations in Berlin during the 
 past summer, 1,100 emigrants left for the United 
 States in one day, and this same flow of emigration 
 from different parts of the empire has been going on 
 the whole season and is now rapidly increasing. 
 
 Germany claims at present over 45,000,000 in- 
 habitants. In area it covers 204,719 square miles. 
 The State of Texas has 274,356 square miles; so 
 that to plant the whole German Empire on its sur- 
 face, mile for mile, with its 45,000,000 of people, 
 there would still be territory enough left to make 
 three countries larger than Portugal, Switzerland, 
 and Denmark combined. With the outlook of this 
 one State for the future homes of Europe's surplus 
 millions, to say nothing of our other great States 
 and Territories which at present are sparsely pop- 
 ulated, there is not much danger of over-emigra- 
 tion for centuries to come.
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 BERLIN AND ITS MONUMENTS. ITS PALACES AND ART TREAS- 
 URES. PARIS AND BERLIN AS ART CENTRES. A VISIT 
 TO THE OLD SCHLOSS. ITS MAGNIFICENT SUITES OF 
 APARTMENTS. ITS THRONE ROOMS, PICTURE GALLERIES, 
 BALL AND RECEPTION ROOMS, WITH THEIR SPLENDID DEC- 
 ORATIONS AND PRICELESS CONTENTS. 
 
 WHEN you have seen Paris you have seen 
 France, for France centres in Paris. Lyons, 
 Marseilles, Bordeaux, Havre, and all of its large 
 cities, aside from their commercial interests, have 
 few attractions in the way of sight-seeing that 
 would detain a traveller over nisfht. These cities 
 
 O 
 
 have no celebrated picture galleries, no great col- 
 lections of sculpture and works of art, no grand old 
 palaces and castles, no celebrated universities and 
 schools of learning to attract students from all 
 parts of the world, no great museums overflow- 
 ing with historical souvenirs of past ages ; what- 
 ever they may have had of great national interest 
 in years gone by, even to their schools and univer- 
 sities, have been gathered up and sent to Paris. 
 
 The same cannot be said of the German cities, 
 or of its towns and villages. Berlin certainly does 
 not absorb Germany as Paris absorbs France, al- 
 though it is piled full and overflowing with attrac- 
 tions. The German cities, large and small, are
 
 2O4 THE GERMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 more or less noted as art or educational centres, 
 and it is difficult to find even a village of any size 
 but what has some attraction that will draw tour- 
 ists out of their way to visit it, some crumbling 
 old castle, or the home or birthplace of some famous 
 poet, painter, or musician, a celebrated painting by 
 one of the old masters, a battle-field memorable in 
 history, or some ancient university of world-wide 
 celebrity. 
 
 The German Empire is made up of kingdoms,, 
 duchies, and principalities, like so many States, or 
 counties of a State, all of which, previous to the 
 last German Confederation, were independent of 
 each other, and had their own separate rulers, their 
 own capitals, laws, etc. Berlin, Dresden, Munich, 
 Stuttgart, and Hanover were the capitals of the 
 five kingdoms of Prussia, Saxony, Bavaria, Wiir- 
 temberg, and Hanover; and there were seventeen 
 duchies, the principal of which were Baden, Bruns- 
 wick, Nassau, Holstein, Mecklenburg, Hesse-Darm- 
 stadt, Saxe-Wiemar. Besides these there were 
 eleven principalities, and four what were called 
 free cities, Bremen, Hamburg, Lubeck, and Frank- 
 fort. 
 
 The dukes and princes who ruled over the 
 duchies and principalities were as absolute and 
 imperious in their control as were the five kings 
 over their kingdoms, or the autocrat of Russia 
 over his vast dominions. The subjects of all of 
 them, either by taxation or by force, and often by
 
 GERMANY A VAST STOREHOUSE OF THE ARTS. 2O5 
 
 both, were compelled to yield up the greater share 
 of their incomes and hard earnings, and not unfre- 
 quently their entire fortunes, to swell the coffers 
 of those who held sway over the land. 
 
 It was in this way that immense fortunes were 
 accumulated and immense estates acquired by the 
 royalty and nobility, many of whom spent enor- 
 mous sums in building castles and palaces, and 
 in buying up the vast tracts of land which have 
 since been inherited by the generations following 
 after them. 
 
 With their great wealth they adorned their cap- 
 itals with the elegance and extravagance of the 
 Roman emperors ; they transformed parts of their 
 estates into beautiful parks and public gardens, 
 which they embellished with artificial lakes, water- 
 falls, and fountains; they erected magnificent pub- 
 lic buildings, art galleries, and museums to store 
 the treasures of art and science and the historical 
 souvenirs of past ages, as well as the present, that 
 had been gathered from all parts of the world. It 
 was from such beginnings and through such chan- 
 nels that Germany has become such a storehouse 
 of all that is beautiful in the way of art, and that 
 she has within her borders more palaces and grand 
 old castles than all the rest of Europe combined. 
 Paris can easily hold the art treasures of France, 
 but it would take several cities of the size of the 
 French capital to accommodate all the art treas- 
 ures of Germany.
 
 2O6 BERLIN. 
 
 There is so much of interest in Berlin, so much 
 to see, that the stranger on first arriving here is at 
 a loss as to which particular object or place he 
 will first devote his attention. There are palaces 
 on every hand ; there are whole streets of govern- 
 ment and public buildings of great size and 
 splendid architecture ; there are beautiful parks, 
 bridges, and triumphal arches, bronze and marble 
 statues, and lofty monuments to the illustrious 
 dead ; art galleries and museums of vario'us kinds 
 without number; churches, cathedrals, and syna- 
 gogues; grand opera buildings and theatres, 
 famous beer-gardens and concert-halls, prisons, 
 hospitals, and universities, the finest aquarium and 
 zoological garden in the world, arsenals, military 
 schools, cavalry and infantry barracks by the mile ; 
 and it has a real live emperor, a Bismarck, and a 
 Von Moltke, to which of all these shall I first 
 pay my respects ? 
 
 Standing on the steps of my hotel, I find I am 
 looking out on one of the famous streets of the 
 world, the Unter den Linden. It is late in the 
 season and the winds have stripped the leaves 
 from the dwarfish, scraggy trees that give the 
 street its name, so that I can look up and down 
 its full length for it is but a mile long and 
 see the living panorama of people and carriages 
 that are moving in both directions like immense 
 processions that seem to have no end. The 
 street is two hundred feet wide and has a fine
 
 ITS PALACES AND MONUMENTS. 
 
 promenade in the centre, with carriage drives on 
 each side, and also a road-bed reserved expressly 
 for horseback riders. 
 
 Beautiful palaces, attractive shops, large, spacious 
 hotels, public buildings, universities, museums, 
 etc., enclose this famous boulevard on both sides. 
 At its terminus toward the south I can see the 
 celebrated Brandenburg gate or triumphal arch, 
 with its beautiful bronze car of victory perched 
 on top, which was carried to Paris as a trophy by 
 Napoleon, but afterward brought back by the Prus- 
 sians after the battle of Waterloo. The arch, as I 
 am told, is nearly one hundred feet high and a 
 little over two hundred feet wide, and spans five 
 distinct carriage drives, the centre one of which 
 is reserved expressly for the nobility, and several 
 armed soldiers stand as sentinels to see that no 
 one of plebeian birth passes beneath its sacred 
 portals. 
 
 At the other extremity of the Unter den Linden, 
 around a large open platz or circle, are clustered 
 some of the most celebrated buildings in the city, 
 the national gallery, the royal museum, the new 
 museum, the royal library, and the immense old 
 schloss or palace several hundred feet square and 
 enclosing two courts. 
 
 It was in this palace that Frederick the Great 
 was born and where he passed several years of 
 his adventurous life. 
 
 Not far from me, in a small open platz in the
 
 2O8 MONUMENT OF FREDERICK THE GREAT. 
 
 centre of the Unter den Linden, is the famous 
 bronze statue of this historical king, and I push 
 my way through the crowds of people and the 
 rush of carriages to examine it more closely. It 
 is claimed to be, and probably is, the finest and 
 most expensive bronze statue in the world. It 
 stands on a broad pedestal of polished granite 
 twenty-five feet high, the surface of the sides and 
 ends of which are covered with bronze bas-reliefs 
 of life-size of all the great generals and military 
 heroes who fought with " old Fritz " during his 
 campaigns, and especially during the memorable 
 Seven Years' War. 
 
 At each corner of the pedestal, where the bas- 
 reliefs meet, are the bronze statues of four of his 
 favorite generals on horseback, all of life size, 
 the Duke of Brunswick, Prince Henrich, Gens. 
 Seydlitz and Ziethen. The equestrian statue of 
 " old Fritz " that surmounts the pedestal, on which 
 there are many more bronze bas-reliefs, represent- 
 ing scenes and incidents in the life of the great 
 king, is seventeen and a half feet high, and is the 
 largest equestrian statue in Europe, though it is 
 not so large as the one of Washington, which was 
 cast in 1858 at Munich for the State of Virginia, 
 and which is twenty-five feet high. 
 
 From the statue I recross the street to the side- 
 walk, and turn my footsteps in the direction of the 
 old schloss or palace of Frederick the Great. The 
 first building which I pass, and which faces the
 
 THE EMPEROR'S PALACE. 209 
 
 statue, is the palace of the Emperor William. It 
 is built of dark brown stone, is plain in its archi- 
 tecture, and has anything but an imposing front 
 or appearance. A number of armed soldiers in 
 full uniform guard all its approaches and entran- 
 ces, both on the front and sides. Farther up the 
 street I pass the palace of the Emperor's only son, 
 the Crown Prince, Frederick William, who mar- 
 ried the eldest daughter of Queen Victoria, and 
 who, if he lives, will be the next Emperor of Ger- 
 many. Here, also, armed soldiers guard the 
 palace from all points. I am told that there are 
 over 50,000 soldiers in and around Berlin, and so 
 thick are they in the streets that the city has the 
 appearance of a vast military camp. 
 
 Nearly every other person I meet is a German 
 officer in full uniform, with spurs on his heels and 
 a big sabre that dangles from his belt and clanks 
 on the paved sidewalk at every step he takes. I 
 notice that the sentinels who guard the palaces 
 and all the government buildings are constantly 
 on the alert and kept busy in saluting the officers 
 as they pass by. 
 
 Twice, while walking the short distance up 
 street, my attention is arrested by martial music, 
 and I stop to witness the passing by, once of a 
 company of Uhlan cavalry, and again of a regi- 
 ment of infantry. It was a fascinating sight, and 
 I could have stood all day listening to such 
 splendid martial music and watching the showy 
 14
 
 2IO THE OLD SCHLOSS. 
 
 uniforms and the perfect step of the soldiers, 
 which is like clock-work. Even the horses have 
 been so thoroughly drilled that they seem to keep 
 time in every step and movement to the exciting 
 music ahead of them 
 
 The building of the old schloss was first begun 
 by the Elector Frederic II., in 1452, and has been 
 enlarged and added to by all the succeeding 
 kings, until it has attained its present vast propor- 
 tions. There are about seven hundred rooms, 
 many of which are of great size and sufficiently 
 large for concert-halls or ball-rooms that will ac- 
 commodate several hundred people each. So high 
 are the rooms from floors to ceiling that the four 
 stories rise to the height of a little over one hun- 
 dred feet, while the grand dome that covers the 
 chapel is three hundred and thirty feet. One of 
 the rooms is still pointed out where Frederick the 
 Great was born, in 1712. 
 
 When I at last reach the palace and find the 
 door by which I am to enter, I am directed to an 
 armed sentry in waiting, who conducts me to a 
 spacious ante- or reception-room,where I join about 
 twenty people who are waiting to be shown over 
 the building. 
 
 We have not long to wait. A huge oaken door, 
 that opens to regions beyond, swings on its hinges 
 at just eleven o'clock, and a guide, or castellan, as 
 he is called, dressed in the livery of a court flunky, 
 makes his appearance with a big bunch of keys.
 
 ITS INTERIOR MAGNIFICENCE. 211 
 
 any one of which seems to be the size of an ordi- 
 nary pocket pistol. Motioning us to follow him, 
 he leads the way to the second story of the palace 
 by a broad, winding passage, up which the kings 
 and queens in olden times used to ride in carriages 
 or on horseback. In the first room we enter the 
 guide opens a big chest and takes out an armful 
 of large felt slippers, and requests that each of us 
 shall put on a pair over our shoes, that we may not 
 scratch the highly polished oak or inlaid floors, 
 that glisten like mirrors and are as slippery as 
 ice. 
 
 I will not undertake to describe what I saw dur- 
 ing the two hours that I was shown through room 
 after room and suites of rooms, each rivalling the 
 other in its gorgeous decorations and the wealth 
 of treasures it contained. To a person who has 
 never visited one of these European palaces it is 
 almost impossible to convey an idea of their vast 
 extent, the millions of money spent in their con- 
 struction and embellishment, and the magnificence 
 and dazzling splendor which greet the eye of the 
 beholder as he first enters them. The many rooms 
 that I passed through were only a part of those on 
 the second story, and I probably did not see one 
 twentieth that the palace contained. But I saw 
 enough for one day. One sees so much of gilded 
 decorations, paintings, elegant frescos, Gobelin 
 tapestries, ornaments made of rare stones, marbles, 
 and precious metals, and furniture of the costliest
 
 212 THE WHITE ROOM. 
 
 and most luxurious description, that the eye at last 
 grows weary of looking and is glad to seek relief. 
 
 The picture gallery alone is two hundred feet 
 long, the guide tells us, and its walls are covered 
 with the works of the old and modern masters, 
 and yet even this elegant gallery contains but a 
 small portion of the pictures that are to be seen 
 in the palace, for every room is a picture gallery 
 in itself, so full are they of paintings. 
 
 The " White Room," as it is called, was refitted 
 and redecorated about thirty years ago at an ex- 
 pense of about $600,000. How such a vast sum 
 could be expended on one room a sum more 
 than sufficient to erect and furnish two such 
 buildings as the White House at Washington 
 would be a mystery to a person without he could 
 see the magnificent room itself. The palace 
 chapel, which is one hundred and twenty feet 
 high and of octagonal shape and eighty feet in 
 diameter, is in keeping with the " White Room," 
 though not so gaudily decorated. Its walls to 
 the vaulted ceiling overhead are lined with rare 
 marbles of different colors, highly polished, and 
 its floor is paved in mosaic of the same beautiful 
 material. Behind its altar and pulpit, which are 
 of yellow Egyptian and Carrara marble, beauti- 
 fully sculptured, is a cross composed of precious 
 stones, about three feet in length, which is said to 
 have cost nearly half a million dollars. 
 
 The various rooms in the palace are well
 
 ROYAL SOUVENIRS. 
 
 213 
 
 stored with costly and elegant presents which 
 the various kings have received from their sub- 
 jects and from the crowned heads of Europe. 
 The guide was constantly calling our attention to 
 one thing after another as having been given by 
 the Emperor of Russia, or the Emperor of Aus- 
 tria, or by some of their kingly colleagues. I 
 saw so many of these royal souvenirs, as well as 
 souvenirs from those of more humble stations in 
 life, that they have all become blended in my 
 memory in one confused mass, and it would be 
 difficult for me to remember or describe half a 
 dozen objects that attracted my attention. But 
 from the confusion there does loom up a pair of 
 magnificent malachite vases several feet hiijh that 
 
 o o 
 
 came from the Emperor of Russia, and there was 
 a massive column eight feet high of solid silver, 
 that looked like a small monument, which was 
 given to the present Emperor by the officers of 
 the army and navy in 1867 on the sixtieth anni- 
 versary of his admission to the military service. 
 The Ritter-saal, or throne-room, is the most gor- 
 geous in its furnishings and in its dazzling splen- 
 dor of any apartment in the whole palace. The 
 room fairly glittered with its solid gold and silver 
 decorations, and with its thrones, which are of 
 massive silver. 
 
 In the picture gallery which I have mentioned 
 was the original painting by David, the celebrated 
 French painter, of Napoleon crossing the Great
 
 214 AN HISTORICAL PAINTING. 
 
 St. Bernard, or, as it is better known, " Napoleon 
 crossing the Alps." This famous picture is known 
 all over the world by the numberless engravings 
 and copies which have been made from it, in which 
 the great general is represented in a cocked hat 
 and military cloak riding a fiery charger that ap- 
 pears to be on the point of dashing over an Alpine 
 precipice. That he rode a horse at all in making 
 that fearful pass is not justified by fact or history. 
 Some years ago, in crossing the Great St. Bernard, 
 I employed an old gray-headed guide, who informed 
 me that his father was the guide who led Napoleon 
 and his army over those Alpine heights, and that 
 instead of Napoleon's riding a horse, he rode a 
 mule the whole distance, or rather three mules, for 
 two of them died in making the passage. I learned 
 afterward, on what was good authority, that the 
 guide spoke the truth. The painting, which is 
 a master-work of art, was brought to Berlin from 
 Paris by Blucher when that city was in possession 
 of the allied armies after the battle of Waterloo. 
 
 And here I will leave this old palace, a huge 
 relic of the past, with its retinue of servants who 
 inhabit it, who watch over it, and guard its treas- 
 ures from vandal hands. No emperor, no king, 
 no prince, no one of royal blood lives in it or sleeps 
 in it, but it stands there in its grim old age like a 
 monster prison-house to store its millions of useless 
 wealth and costly treasures, good for nothing but to 
 gratify the idle curiosity of strangers from all lands.
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 MORE OF PRUSSIA'S ROYAL SHOW-HOUSES. PALACES AT 
 POTSDAM. BABELSBERG. THE MARBLE PALACE. THE 
 NEW PALACE. ROYAL PALACE. SANS-SOUCI, ETC. IN- 
 TERIOR MAGNIFICENCE. SOUVENIRS AND REMINISCENCES OF 
 "OLD FRITZ." A SECRET BANQUET HALL. THE COFFINS 
 OF FREDERICK THE GREAT AND HIS BRUTAL FATHER. 
 
 ONE of the first excursions that strangers usu- 
 ally make after arriving in Berlin is to visit 
 Potsdam, which is sixteen miles away. The short 
 journey can be made by steam-cars which leave 
 Berlin every hour, but if the weather is not too 
 wintry, and especially in the spring and summer 
 months, it is far pleasanter to take a carriage for 
 the day and drive the distance through some of 
 the most charming scenery in Germany, and over 
 the identical road which Frederick the Great and 
 the Prussian kings before and since his reign 
 were in the habit of travelling almost daily. 
 
 The city, which is really a suburb of Berlin, has 
 nearly 50,000 inhabitants, and owes its celebrity to 
 having been the country home or residence of all 
 the Prussian kings for the last two hundred years. 
 It is to Berlin what Versailles is to Paris, and 
 though it excels Versailles in the number of its 
 palaces and in the extent of its parks and gardens, 
 yet the latter are not so beautifully kept as those
 
 2l6 POTSDAM. 
 
 of the royal suburb of Paris. So cold and wintry 
 was the day we had selected to visit this suburb 
 of Berlin that our party decided to go out by the 
 railway instead of private conveyance. 
 
 Arriving at the Potsdam station we took a car- 
 riage and first drove out to Babelsberg, four or 
 five miles away, to see the beautiful palace which 
 belongs to the present Emperor, and where he, 
 with his son, the Crown Prince, spends most of the 
 summer season. It was built only thirty years 
 ago, and has not that ancient look or that smell 
 of antiquity which distinguish and pervade most 
 of the European palaces. It is a perfect gem 
 of architecture, neither too large or to small, and 
 situated as it is in the midst of a large park, bor- 
 dering on a beautiful little lake, it looks like an 
 elegant private villa that might have been built by 
 a Rothschild or some one of great wealth, as well 
 as of excellent taste. There was no one in the 
 palace but the custodian, an old lady, who showed 
 us through all the different suites of rooms, even to 
 the Emperor's private study and bedroom, in which 
 was the little single iron bedstead on which he 
 slept, and which could not have cost over $5.00. 
 The halls and corridors were perfectly lined with 
 trophies of the chase, boars' heads, stags' antlers, 
 etc., which the Emperor had won years gone by. 
 
 From Babelsberg we drive a mile or two miles 
 distant to the Marble Palace, as it is called from 
 the free use of that material that is used in its
 
 BABELSBERG AND THE NEW PALACE. 2 1/ 
 
 construction and interior decoration. It was built 
 one hundred years ago by Frederick William II., 
 and though not so grand or historically interesting 
 as some of the other palaces in Potsdam, yet its 
 elegant suites of rooms, which are full of rare paint- 
 ings, furniture, and ornaments, are well worth a 
 visit. 
 
 The next palace we come to is called the New 
 Palace, which was built by Frederick the Great 
 at immense expense, at the termination of the 
 Seven Years' War ; not that he needed the palace, 
 but to show his enemies that he had not been 
 ruined financially and had plenty of funds left. 
 
 One immense room on the ground floor that 
 attracts much attention from strangers, and which 
 is a work of curiosity, is built in imitation of a 
 huge grotto, its walls and ceiling being com- 
 pletely inlaid with varieties of sea-shells, sparkling 
 minerals, precious stones, crystals, stalactites, and 
 spars of variegated and brilliant hues. The floor 
 is paved in fine mosaic and in grotesque and odd 
 figures, with bits of different colored marbles and 
 stones. 
 
 The room, which is of nearly circular shape, 
 and without any pillars or supports, must be over 
 one hundred feet in diameter. The effect, when 
 the room is thoroughly lit up at night from its 
 numerous rock crystal chandeliers, is brilliant and 
 dazzling beyond description. Another beautiful 
 room, called the Marble Saloon, is one hundred
 
 21 8 RESIDEXZ, OR ROYAL PALACE. 
 
 feet long, its floor and walls, which are of great 
 height, being made entirely of polished marble. 
 There are over two hundred rooms in the palace, 
 but we are allowed to go through only part of 
 those on the ground floor, as the upper part of the 
 palace was being put in readiness for a grand 
 ball in the evening which was to be given by the 
 Crown Prince, who was coming down from Berlin 
 with a large party of nobility and royalty to cele- 
 brate his birthday or rather his birthnight. 
 
 From this palace our coachman takes us off to 
 another part of the city by a long drive, and stops 
 in front of another immense cluster of buildings, 
 which he tells us is the Residenz, or Royal Palace. 
 This is the oldest palace of all, dating back two 
 hundred and twenty years or more. Here we go 
 over the same old route again, through corridors 
 of long distances, through halls and lobbies hung 
 with rare old paintings, with suits of armor and 
 historical souvenirs, and through room after room 
 that vie with each other in the splendor of their 
 decorations and the richness of contents. 
 
 But the chief attractions in this old palace are 
 the many souvenirs which have been carefully 
 treasured of Frederick the Great, and the suites 
 of apartments which he once occupied, and which 
 remain almost in the same state that the great 
 general left them. 
 
 The custodian, for there is no one living in 
 
 O 
 
 the vast pile of buildings, a nice-looking, mid-
 
 A SECRET BAXOUET-ROOM. 
 
 die-aged German in the uniform of a lackey, shows 
 us his writing-desk stained with ink, his music- 
 stand, piano, inkstand, bookcase filled with French 
 books, and he calls our attention to the chairs 
 and sofas, the rich silken covers of which show 
 where they were torn and scratched by the claws 
 and the teeth of the king's favorite dogs, and 
 also the stains of the plates on the rich silks, from 
 which they were fed. 
 
 Adjoining the king's bedroom was a private 
 cabinet with double doors, which could be used 
 as a dining-room or a room for private conference 
 on national or state affairs. In the centre of the 
 room was a large-sized centre-table, so arranged 
 that by touching a secret spring it could be made 
 to disappear through the floor to the regions 
 below, and to appear again at the will of the 
 master of ceremonies above. Here the king 
 could hold secret audiences and dine with his 
 officers of state or favorite generals without (ear 
 of interruption or molestation. When plans of 
 coming battles were being arranged or state 
 secrets discussed, there need be no lackeys or ser- 
 vants present as eavesdroppers to catch up stray 
 bits of important information and scatter them to 
 the outside world. When the king and his guests 
 were ready to be served with dinner he signals 
 below, and presto ! change ! the floor opens, and 
 the table, spread with the richest of dinner ser- 
 vice and loaded with sumptuous dishes fit for a
 
 22O ITS HISTORY UNWRITTEN. 
 
 Roman epicure, appears as if by magic. At the 
 end of the course the signal is given, the table dis- 
 appears, and soon comes back with a change of 
 meim for the second course ; and so on throughout 
 the entertainment, the table goes and comes like 
 a scene in a fairy play, without disturbing a guest 
 or obliging one to move in his chair, and without 
 a servant being present. 
 
 The private history of this famous room, which 
 has never been published and probably never will 
 be, it is said, would reveal chapters of intrigues, 
 high carnivals, and midnight orgies that would 
 make the world blush, scenes in which not only 
 Frederick the Great, but all the kings before and 
 after him, were the principal participators, and 
 whose companions were not always of the mascu- 
 line sex or of the most virtuous reputations. 
 
 Seated in our carriage once more, the coachman 
 turns around from his box and says to us, " Sans- 
 Souci," and after a ten or fifteen minutes' drive 
 the custodian of this famous and historical palace 
 is guiding us through its labyrinth of rooms. It 
 is the least imposing of any of the Potsdam pal- 
 aces, being only one story high and anything but 
 handsome in its exterior architectural effect. It 
 was built by Frederick the Great in the year 1 746, 
 and history says that during the king's lifetime it 
 was his almost constant residence. History also 
 says that he resided in all of the other palaces in 
 Potsdam, in the palaces in Berlin, and in various
 
 SAXS-SOUCI. 221 
 
 other palaces throughout Prussia, and the question 
 presents itself, " How many palaces did he occupy 
 at the same time ?" 
 
 Sans-Souci was evidently built more for comfort 
 than for show. It stands on an eminence which is 
 approached by a flight of terraces, that leads up 
 to it from the beautiful park and gardens which 
 make Sans-Souci so famous. At the extremity of 
 one of these terraces are the graves of his favorite 
 dogs, and his war-horse which bore him through 
 so many of his campaigns and battles. 
 
 In his will he left explicit directions to be buried 
 among these his favorites, claiming that these two 
 representatives of the brute creation were the only 
 true friends that man had. It is needless to say 
 that the injunction in the will was not heeded. 
 
 The rooms of the palace are stored with relics 
 of the great king, and the suite of apartments 
 which he used in common, including the room in 
 which he died, are preserved with their contents 
 as he left them. In the latter room is the clock 
 which he had been in the habit of winding daily for 
 many years with his own hand, but which, being 
 forgotten at last, by a remarkable coincidence 
 stopped at the moment of his death, and the hands 
 still record the hour and minutes, twenty min- 
 utes past two (i;th August, 1786). A suite of 
 apartments with old-style furniture, and near those 
 of the king, are pointed out as being those so 
 long occupied by Voltaire, who for many years
 
 222 BEAUTIFUL PARKS AND GARDENS. 
 
 spent a good share of his time at Sans-Souci,. 
 and who was the king's almost inseparable com- 
 panion. 
 
 But the great charm of Sans-Souci and the prin- 
 cipal attraction that draws so many strangers to 
 Potsdam are the beautiful parks and gardens con- 
 nected with the palace, and which are pronounced 
 by many to be the finest in Europe. 
 
 In the arrangement of the grounds, which are a 
 network of labyrinthine walks, shady retreats, ter- 
 races, artificial lakes, fountains, etc., landscape 
 gardening is carried to perfection. There seems 
 to be no end of pagodas, temples, towers, statues, 
 and magnificent fountains, one of which throws a 
 large body of water to the great height of one hun- 
 dred and thirty feet 
 
 On one of the terraces overlooking the gardens 
 is the orangery, a beautiful building in the Floren- 
 tine style of architecture, which is over one thou- 
 sand feet long and ornamented on its exterior with 
 fine statuary. 
 
 There are two or three other small palaces or 
 royal villas in the neighborhood which time will 
 not allow us to visit, nor would we if we could. To 
 go over five such palaces as those I have described 
 is enough for one day and wearies the eye with 
 extravagance, magnificence, and royalty. These 
 old German kings were always crying poverty and 
 were always in financial distress, and they never 
 ceased taxing the poor laboring classes and trades-
 
 A GERMAN WEDDING. 22$ 
 
 people to the last mark for money to refill the 
 ever-exhausted royal treasuries. Yet they always 
 had millions to spare in building enormous pal- 
 aces, and they were always building them and 
 furnishing them at millions of extra expense, 
 although they were not needed and of no earthly 
 use except as grand show-houses for the display of 
 royal wealth and magnificence. Had one half the 
 money been expended in developing the agricul- 
 tural and mineral resources of the country, in 
 building manufactories, and in encouraging differ- 
 ent kinds of industries, Germany would not be the 
 poverty-stricken country that she is to-day, with 
 the hundreds of thousands of laborers and mechan- 
 ics for want of bread emigrating to America every 
 year, and its millions at home out of employment 
 and on the point of starvation. 
 
 It was getting late in the afternoon when we 
 had completed Sans-Souci and its gardens, and, 
 having an hour to spare before the departure of 
 our train for Berlin, we told the coachman to take 
 us to the Garrison church, which was on the way 
 to the station. On entering the sacred old edifice 
 we found a wedding party present, and before the 
 altar stood a very pretty fraulein, who was being 
 transformed into -z.frau, and also being insepara- 
 bly bound for life to a stout-looking German who 
 was happy and smiling, and looked as if he was 
 able to shield and protect her from any harm that 
 might befall her. The bridesmaids, of whom there
 
 224 THE GARRISON CHURCH. 
 
 were several, and also the bride, were handsomely 
 dressed in white, with long trains, and their heads 
 encircled with wreaths of flowers. 
 
 It was a pretty and cheerful sight, although 
 the bride part of the time during the long and 
 tedious ceremony was shedding tears like an 
 April shower. 
 
 We must have waited over half an hour before 
 the ceremony was completed and the last of the 
 wedding party had left the church. Then the 
 pastor who had officiated at the marriage, still 
 dressed in his clerical robes, came and showed us 
 around the interior of the building, pointing out 
 with pride the names of brave officers who had 
 died in fighting Prussia's battles, which were in- 
 scribed on tablets hanging from the walls, and 
 also the eagles and standards taken from Napo- 
 leon's armies, that were drooping from over the 
 altar. 
 
 Glancing at these trophies quickly as possible, 
 the pastor proceeded to light two tallow candles, 
 and unlocking a door under the pulpit, led the 
 way into a little room apparently not over ten feet 
 square. The flickering light from the candles 
 revealed two plain, coffin-shaped caskets resting 
 on the floor, in one of which rests the body of 
 Frederick the Great, and in the other that of his 
 cruel and tyrannical father, Frederick William I. 
 The caskets have no name plates, but the pastor 
 tells us that the smaller of the two contains the
 
 THE COFFINS OF " OLD FRITZ " AND HIS FATHER. 22$ 
 
 body of " old Fritz," as the Germans still love to 
 call their great commander. 
 
 The little room- contains nothing else but the 
 remains of these two historical kings, and is not 
 this enough? The sword of Frederick the Great 
 originally rested on his casket, but was carried off 
 by Napoleon when he occupied Berlin, and all 
 traces of it were lost ever after. 
 
 It was a privilege certainly to be permitted to 
 stand in the presence of such illustrious dead, 
 to be allowed to place one's hands on the casket, 
 the smaller of the two, and to think that be- 
 neath them rested all that is mortal of one of the 
 three great generals of modern times, and the idol 
 of Germany. 
 
 He had a strange and eventful history, this 
 " old Fritz," and one that was full of romance 
 and hard labor. He was one of the most indus- 
 trious of men, rising at four o'clock in the morn- 
 ing and never retiring until midnight, and every 
 moment of the twenty hours being passed in some 
 active bodily or mental occupation. 
 
 His literary works alone, separate from the vast 
 amount of his other labors, amount to thirty vol- 
 umes. He had a theory that man could do with- 
 out sleep, and he tried the experiment, and tested 
 it thoroughly, without success. During the latter 
 part of his life he became so economical in his 
 personal expenses that he would not dress de- 
 cently. Although he had money to build palaces
 
 226 A REGIMENT OF GIANTS. 
 
 that would cost millions of dollars, yet for twenty- 
 three years he had but one new suit of clothes, 
 and wore all the time shabby garments and snuffy 
 old waistcoats that were made in the early part of 
 his reign, and which are still exhibited in the 
 museums all over Germany. 
 
 At his death it was found that he had not a 
 decent shirt to be buried in, and he was put into 
 his coffin the identical coffin before me in a 
 shirt that belonged to his valet de chambre. As I 
 stand gazing at the casket, and recall the incidents 
 of his remarkable life, his wonderfully successful 
 military career, the number of battles he won, his 
 talents as a man of letters, as a statesman, and the 
 love that his people bore him as a kind and wise 
 ruling sovereign, the thought at last occurs to me, 
 " Did the German nation ever think to reimburse 
 that poor valet de chambre for his shirt ?" 
 
 In the large casket sleeps the king who had a 
 regiment of giants, soldiers seven feet high and 
 upward. He had agents all over Prussia on the 
 watch for tall and powerful men, and every one 
 that was found who would come up to the stand- 
 ard or overreach it, was forced to enlist in this 
 famous corps. Very tall women, Amazons in size 
 and strength, were also captured, and compelled 
 to marry these tall soldiers for the purpose of 
 propagating a race of giants. The Prussian 
 envoy in England discovered an Irish giant in 
 the streets of London and induced him to join the
 
 TYRANNY OF FREDERICK WILLIAM I. 22J 
 
 Prussian army by a cash bounty of over 6,000, a 
 larger sum than the envoy was receiving for his 
 own salary. 
 
 In his domestic relations he was a tyrant of the 
 Worst class, and once came near having his son, 
 afterwards Frederick the Great, whom he consid- 
 ered during his boyhood a worthless vagabond, 
 executed for some trifling misdemeanor. Before 
 his death he relented of his cruelty, having dis- 
 covered the material the coming king was made of, 
 and almost his last words were, " My God ! my 
 God ! I die content since I have such a noble 
 son." When about to take the field in one of his 
 early campaigns he left the following note with 
 his privy council : 
 
 " As I may be shot, I command you to take 
 good care of Fritz (then three years old), and I 
 give all of you, my wife to begin with, my curse, 
 if you do not bury me at Potsdam in the church 
 vault, without feasting and without ceremony." 
 
 The threatened curse evidently had its effect, for 
 here he sleeps in this little church vault side by 
 with the son whose early life he made miserable 
 and one of terror. 
 
 As we pass out of the room, for it has not the 
 appearance of a vault, being on the floor of the 
 church, and directly under the pulpit, it strikes 
 me how insecure would be the place with its 
 sacred treasures in New York, or in any of the 
 cities of our great and enlightened American
 
 228 BOLTS AND BARS UNNECESSARY. 
 
 Republic, where body-snatching has become so 
 common that the tombs of our great men as well 
 as our men of wealth have to be guarded night 
 and day with loaded muskets. These ordinary 
 wooden doors, locked with an ordinary-looking 
 key, would be poor protection from such ghouls 
 as attempted to carry off the body of Lincoln in 
 hopes of a great reward.
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 KAISER WILLIAM. CELEBRATION OF HIS EIGHTY-FIFTH BIRTH- 
 DAY AT BERLIN. PUBLIC REJOICINGS THROUGHOUT THE 
 EMPIRE. ANECDOTE OF His MAJESTY. His VISIT TO AN 
 ORPHAN ASYLUM. BISMARCK AND GEN. VON MOLTKE. 
 THE RECEPTION OF THE LATTER AT A Swiss HOTEL. 
 
 BUT few of the European sovereigns, either 
 kings or emperors, while " wearing the pur- 
 ple," have reached the age of threescore years 
 and ten. Louis XIV. of France reached the age 
 of seventy-seven ; and Frederick the Great, who 
 in his latter years was a decrepit, broken-down 
 old man, hobbling around with his walking-stick, 
 died at the age of seventy-four; and these were 
 two cases of rare longevity for crowned heads. 
 
 Yesterday, March 22, 1882, all Germany cele- 
 brated the eighty-fifth birthday of Emperor Wil- 
 liam, who still rules over forty odd millions of peo- 
 ple, who is still hale and hearty, and whose mind 
 and intellect are as bright and unimpaired as ever. 
 
 Many years ago, while king of Prussia, and 
 long before he was crowned Emperor of United 
 Germany, he told his faithful physician, half in 
 jest and half in earnest, that if he would carry him 
 through to the age of seventy he would give him 
 a title. Reaching seventy in vigorous health,
 
 23O KAISER WILLIAM. 
 
 his Majesty was as good as his word, and conferred 
 at once on the astonished doctor the title of baron. 
 He then promised him that if he would, by watch- 
 ful care, prolong his life ten years more, he would 
 reward him with a still higher order of nobility ; 
 so, on his eightieth birthday, the Emperor made 
 this faithful disciple of Esculapius a prince. As 
 the next step above a prince is king, it is doubt- 
 ful whether his Majesty promised a still higher 
 reward for another ten years' lease of life. Pres- 
 ent appearances indicate, however, that, with care- 
 ful nursing and conforming strictly to the laws of 
 health, he is good for ten or fifteen years yet be- 
 fore joining his royal ancestry in another world. 
 Although in the neighborhood of his one hun- 
 dredth year, no one of the crowned heads of Eu-- 
 rope is more watchful over the interests of his 
 subjects. No one of them works harder or devotes 
 more hours to official business than the aged Em- 
 peror. He is an early riser, and it is late at night 
 often among the small hours before he seeks 
 his couch. He accepts invitations to dinners and 
 balls, and he still keeps up the court custom of 
 giving balls and entertainments at his palace, at 
 which he is always present and acts the host. 
 
 Forenoons he devotes to the affairs of state. 
 His reception-rooms and anterooms are crowded 
 with dignitaries, army officers in their brilliant 
 uniform, ministers, and often those of the hum- 
 blest walks in life, all waiting to get a word with
 
 HIS DAILY DRIVES. 23! 
 
 the Emperor or to transact some official business. 
 Afternoons, when the weather is pleasant, and 
 occasionally in the mornings, he can be seen in 
 an open cabriolet, drawn by one horse, driving 
 swiftly through the Unter den Linden or one 
 of the broad avenues of the Thier-Garten. There 
 are no outriders and no signs of a military escort. 
 Seated with the driver is a man who has the ap- 
 pearance of a court lackey, who wears a cocked 
 hat with some long feathers flowing from it that 
 have some time adorned a rooster's tail, and this 
 unmilitary looking appendage is the trade-mark 
 of royalty, or the sign that there is royalty in the 
 seat behind. The Emperor usually wears a citi- 
 zen's dress, with stove-pipe hat, though at times 
 he appears in a half-military dress, with the spiked 
 military hat. 
 
 His well-known features are recognized at once 
 as his carriage goes dashing by through the 
 crowded streets or the shaded avenues, and the 
 myriads of people on the sidewalks that are hur- 
 rying in different directions stop suddenly as if 
 by instinct to salute their Emperor, by facing 
 about and uncovering their heads. 
 
 During the military reviews last autumn, or 
 what is known as the " army manoeuvres," the Em- 
 peror was for several days in his saddle from 
 early morning till late in the afternoon, and so 
 fully was every moment occupied that he ate his 
 lunches without dismounting. What would have
 
 232 FIDELITY TO HIS COUNTRY. 
 
 taxed the energies and exhausted the strength of 
 an ordinary individual or an officer much younger 
 in years, seemed to have been hardly noticed or 
 felt by the doughty octogenarian. 
 
 On the evening of the afternoon that he came 
 
 O 
 
 back to Berlin from the manoeuvring campaign 
 there was to be a grand ball at the palace, which 
 would probably deprive him of the greater part 
 of his night's sleep. As soon as he had thrown 
 off his military coat and helmet, and partaken of 
 a plate of soup, he sent for his secretary to dictate 
 answers to a number of important despatches that 
 had been awaiting his return. His friends en- 
 deavored to persuade him to take a few hours' 
 rest, and let the despatches lie over until the fol- 
 lowing day. But it was no use. 
 
 " The despatches are of more importance to my 
 country than sleep is to me, and I will rest to-mor- 
 row," said the Emperor, and, disappearing with 
 his secretary to his cabinet, it was near midnight 
 before he had accomplished his work and showed 
 himself to the assemblage of distinguished guests 
 that had gathered in the brilliantly lighted saloons 
 of the palace. 
 
 In celebration of his birthday, March 22, 1882, 
 the whole city had the appearance of a sea of wav- 
 ing flags. It was a grand gala day for the Berlin- 
 ers. Many of the public and private buildings 
 were completely hid from view with bunting, flags, 
 and mottoes. Notwithstanding the inclement
 
 PUBLIC REJOICINGS. 233 
 
 weather which was anything but the usual 
 pleasant " Kaiser weather " and the occasional 
 downfall of rain, the sidewalks were thronged with 
 myriads of people and the streets with countless 
 equipages. Everybody had a holiday or half-holi- 
 day ; banks, government offices, and many of the 
 places of business were closed, and the people 
 flocked to the beer-gardens and concert-gardens 
 and to the beer-shops by thousands and tens of 
 thousands, where they sang songs and drank un- 
 limited quantities of beer to the good health and 
 many more returns of the happy day to their good 
 Emperor. 
 
 All of the principal hotels were monopolized 
 by the army officers, whose number was legion, in 
 celebrating the day with grand banquets and 
 champagne suppers. According to custom, the 
 Emperor, during the forenoon, received the per- 
 sonal congratulations of his own family and house- 
 hold and many of his immediate personal friends, 
 and he was busy a long time in reading the tele- 
 graphic congratulations that poured in upon him 
 from all the crowned heads of Europe, from the 
 Emperors of Russia and Austria, from the kings 
 of Italy and Spain, of Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, 
 Holland, Portugal, from Queen Victoria, and there 
 were a thousand or more telegrams from dukes and 
 princes, heads of armies, foreign ambassadors, etc. 
 The European telegraph lines are well patron- 
 ized by royalty. When the wires are not kept
 
 234 RECEPTIONS AND FESTIVITIES. 
 
 busy by the crowned heads in transmitting de- 
 spatches back and forth congratulating each other 
 on their preservation and escapes from attempted 
 assassinations, they are employed in acquainting 
 each other of royal marriages, of the birth of royal 
 babies, and congratulations on royal birthdays. 
 
 At twelve o'clock the Emperor received his 
 generals and admirals, who were in full-dress uni- 
 form, and whose breasts were covered with deco- 
 rations and orders of nobility. With the heads 
 of the army and navy came the state ministers, 
 preceded by the tall, imposing figure of Prince 
 Bismarck, who wore a general's uniform. After 
 these came the grandees of the empire, rulers and 
 princes of the smaller kingdoms and principali- 
 ties, to shake the Emperor's hand and wish him 
 good health and many returns of the day. In the 
 afternoon there was the customary banquet in the 
 splendid dining-hall of the palace, at which there 
 was no one present but the family and near rela- 
 tives of the Emperor. In the evening the im- 
 mense old schloss or palace, where Frederick the 
 Great was born, was thrown open for a grand ball 
 and reception. Nearly a thousand of the nobility 
 and elite of the city gathered in the magnificent 
 " White Room," which, a few years ago, was newly 
 furnished and redecorated at such an enormous 
 expense. 
 
 Probably a more brilliant sight was never wit- 
 nessed in Berlin or in any of the European cap-
 
 THE EMPEROR "EVERY INCH A KING." 235 
 
 itals than this famous room presented when the 
 guests had all assembled and the festivities of the 
 evening were at their height. 
 
 It was long after midnight when the dancing 
 ceased and the last carriage rolled away from the 
 palace doors. While the ball and reception were 
 taking place at the schloss, Prince Bismarck was 
 entertaining the whole diplomatic body with a 
 grand banquet in the Congress Hall of the Radzi- 
 well Palace. I will not speak of other grand balls, 
 banquets, and receptions that were given at many 
 of the hotels and at the houses of many of the dis- 
 tinguished and wealthy citizens in various parts 
 of the city during the evening in celebrating the 
 day. 
 
 And not only were all these festivities going 
 on in Berlin, but all over the empire, to a greater 
 or less extent, in every city, town, and hamlet; for 
 the old Emperor is universally loved and esteemed 
 by his subjects, and they delight to do him honor 
 whenever they have an opportunity. 
 
 Among all the European sovereigns there is 
 none of them who has that commanding presence 
 or who " looks every inch a king " as does Kaiser 
 William. He has been a splendid man in his 
 day, and he still retains the handsome, noble fea- 
 tures which have always distinguished him from 
 his royal colleagues and which he inherited from 
 his royal ancestry. His mother, Queen Louise, 
 was said to have been the handsomest lady in
 
 236 VISIT TO A CHARITY SCHOOL. 
 
 Europe, and there is probably not to be found in 
 all Germany an artist's studio or a print-shop win- 
 dow but what contains a picture of some kind 
 of this famous beauty. 
 
 In looks and stature the Kaiser reminds one of 
 Gen. Winfield Scott. He is six feet six in height, 
 well proportioned, and must weigh in the neigh- 
 borhood of two hundred and fifty pounds. If a 
 menagerie of sovereigns were to be placed on ex- 
 hibition, and the different crowned heads were 
 made to represent or likened to different animals, 
 the German monarch would well represent the 
 Asiatic lion or the royal Bengal tiger of the col- 
 lection. 
 
 One hears at such a time as this many interest- 
 ing anecdotes of his Majesty, and I was much 
 pleased with one, told me by an American friend, 
 who was at Ems a few weeks since, at the same 
 time the Emperor was there to drink the waters. 
 During his stay at the fashionable watering-place 
 he paid a visit to a large orphan asylum and 
 school that was under government patronage. 
 Of course the presence of so distinguished a per- 
 sonage, as might be expected, created quite a 
 sensation in the establishment. After listening 
 with much interest to the recitations of several 
 of the classes, his Majesty called to him a bright, 
 flaxen-haired little girl of five or six years of age, 
 and, lifting her into his lap, said to her: 
 
 " Now, my little fraulein, let me see how well
 
 THE FOUR KINGDOMS. 237 
 
 you have been taught. To what kingdom does 
 this belong ? " And, taking out of his pocket an 
 orange, he held it up to her. 
 
 The little girl hesitated a moment, and, looking 
 timidly up in the Emperor's face, replied, " To 
 the vegetable kingdom." 
 
 " Very good, my little fraulein ; and now to what 
 kingdom does this belong?'' And he drew out of 
 his pocket a gold piece and placed it on the 
 orange. 
 
 Again the little girl hesitated, but soon replied, 
 " To the mineral kingdom." 
 
 " Better and better," said the Emperor. " Now 
 look at me and say to me what kingdom I be- 
 long." At this question there was an ominous 
 silence among the teachers and visitors, who were 
 listening with much interest to the royal catechism. 
 Could she make any other reply than, " To the 
 animal kingdom " ? 
 
 The little girl hesitated long, as if perplexed as 
 to what answer she would give. Was the Em- 
 peror an animal ? Her eyes sought those of her 
 teachers and her schoolmates. Then she looked 
 up into the eyes of the aged Emperor, and, with a 
 half-startled, frightened look, as if she was evad- 
 ing the question, replied, " To the kingdom of 
 heaven." 
 
 The unexpected answer drew tears from the 
 Emperor. 
 
 "Yes, yes, my little fraulein, I trust I do belong to
 
 238 THE TWO GREAT NOTABLES OF BERLIN. 
 
 God's kingdom; and you think it is time I was there 
 now, do you not ? and the day is not far distant." 
 
 The two great notables of Berlin, outside of the 
 royal family, are Prince Bismarck and Von Moltke. 
 Probably no two men of this generation or age 
 will leave such distinguished reputations behind 
 them as these two men, one as a great states- 
 man, and the other as the great military strategist 
 of the age. It is very seldom that strangers, or 
 even Berliners, get a glimpse of Bismarck in 
 the streets, as he is seclusive in his habits, and 
 only goes out in a close carriage. Most every 
 day, however, Von Moltke can be seen on the 
 Unter den Linden, in his military cap and half- 
 military dress, walking back and forth on the side- 
 walks, his hands clasped behind him, and busy 
 staring into the shop-windows or returning the 
 salutes of army officers. He has got to be an old 
 man in appearance, though not as old as the Em- 
 peror by many years. He is clean shaved, and 
 does not even wear a mustache. When he is 
 travelling or away from home on a pleasure trip 
 he wears nothing in his dress to distinguish him 
 as a military man. Last summer he took a run 
 down to Switzerland, and at some of the hotels 
 he revealed his identity and at others he was 
 incognito. His travelling experience, as related by 
 his friends, and his want of pride in his personal 
 appearance, remind one of the stories that used 
 to be told of Horace Greeley.
 
 ANECDOTE OF VON MOLTKE. 239 
 
 During his Swiss tour he arrived one afternoon 
 at Ragatz in the Engardine. As the hotel at which 
 he was to stop was but a short distance from the 
 office where he was left by the diligence, he started 
 off with his travelling-bag in his hand instead of 
 waiting to be transported in a carriage. 
 
 When he appeared before the landlord and asked 
 for a room, he looked fatigued, dusty, and decid- 
 edly travel-worn, and the landlord was on the point 
 of telling him that he had no rooms to spare. He 
 finally told the waiter to show " the old man " to 
 a small room in the upper story of the house, and, 
 after toiling up several flights of stairs and through 
 several long, narrow halls, the great general was 
 ushered into a room which looked as if it belonged 
 to a hospital ward. The waiter left him there, 
 and, after a short absence, made his appearance 
 again with a little book and asked the new arrival 
 to inscribe his name. 
 
 It was quickly done, and the waiter made his 
 exit again. What was the landlord's astonish- 
 ment on taking the book and reading the name, 
 41 Field Marshal von Moltke, Berlin." There was 
 a commotion in the hotel at once. " My God ! 
 said the landlord, wringing his hands, " what have 
 I done ? I have put the great general in one of 
 the servants' bedrooms ; my hotel will be ruined." 
 And he flew about as if he was half crazy. All the 
 waiters in the hotel were summoned, the hand- 
 somest suite of rooms in the house was ordered to
 
 24O RECEPTION AT A SWISS HOTEL. 
 
 be put in immediate readiness, and the conscience- 
 stricken landlord departed for the upper regions 
 to make his apologies to the seedy-looking " old 
 man," and to transfer him to more elegant quar- 
 ters befitting his rank in the lower part of the 
 hotel. 
 
 " I beg your Excellency ten thousand pardons. 
 I would not have done it for the world, but I did 
 not know that it was your Excellency, ten thou- 
 sand pardons," said the quaking landlord, half out 
 of breath. 
 
 " But what have you done that you should need 
 to be pardoned ? " asked the general. 
 
 " This room, it is not the room for your Excel- 
 lency. It was a mistake. I did not know it was 
 Gen. von Moltke. I have rooms for you below, 
 an elegant suite of rooms, may I beg you to 
 have your baggage removed to them at once ? " 
 
 " May I ask what is the matter with this room ? " 
 inquired the general, who had stripped off his coat 
 and vest and rolled up his shirt-sleeves preparatory 
 to taking a wash after his dusty journey ; " I have 
 slept for years in quarters not so good or comfort- 
 able as this." 
 
 " It is too small for your Excellency, and the fur- 
 niture is too ordinary. The rooms which I have 
 for you below are those which I reserve for princes 
 and distinguished guests." 
 
 " What is the price of them ? " inquired the gen- 
 eral.
 
 A HUNDRED FRANCS TOO MUCH. 24! 
 
 " Only one hundred francs a day, your Excel 
 lency." 
 
 " And the price of this room is how much ? " 
 " A bagatelle, your Excellency, but three francs." 
 " Well, as my stay in Ragatz is short, you must 
 excuse me if I do not change my quarters. I think 
 I shall sleep as sound on that bed as on any bed 
 in your house." And the great military strategist, 
 whose military genius had more to do in bringing 
 about the great victories in the Franco-Prussian 
 war than any one else, was allowed to remain un- 
 disturbed, much to the annoyance and chagrin of 
 the landlord.
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 THE DRESDEN PICTURE GALLERY. ITS WONDERFUL COLLEC- 
 TION OF PAINTINGS. STORY OF THE SISTINE MADONNA. 
 FEMALE MODELS WHO SAT FOR SCRIPTURE REPRESENTA- 
 TIONS NOT ALWAYS OF THE MOST VIRTUOUS REPUTATION. 
 
 HOLBEIN'S MADONNA. "ORIGINALS" FROM THE "OLD 
 MASTERS " GETTING MIXED UP AND CONFOUNDED WITH 
 COPIES. HOW IRREVERENT AMERICAN YOUTHS " DO " THE 
 FOREIGN PICTURE GALLERIES. 
 
 THE great attraction of Dresden is the royal 
 picture gallery, which draws thousands of 
 visitors year after year to this gay capital of Sax- 
 ony. By many it is considered the finest collec- 
 tion in Europe, better than either of the many 
 galleries in Italy, better than the Louvre at Paris, 
 or even the magnificent collection at Madrid. I 
 see by the catalogue last issued two years ago 
 that the gallery then contained 2,313 paintings, 
 and, as additions are constantly being made, it 
 must number at the present time in the neighbor- 
 hood of twenty-five hundred. 
 
 The elegant building which contains this rare 
 collection, and which was erected purposely for it 
 about thirty years ago, is four hundred and twenty- 
 five feet long, one hundred feet wide, and about 
 one hundred feet high, and is one of the finest archi- 
 tectural buildings in its exterior appearance of any
 
 THE DRESDEN PICTURE GALLERY. 243 
 
 of the many beautiful buildings in the city. But 
 the great charm, of course, is in the interior; and 
 the stranger, as he enters the building for the first 
 time and passes up the broad flight of steps to the 
 second floor, is greeted with a vision, if I may so 
 call it, which he will ever remember. Here a 
 succession of magnificent halls, opening one into 
 another the full length of the building, reveals to 
 the astonished, entranced beholder a scene of 
 beauty, enchantment, and wonderment such as he 
 has never seen before. 
 
 The walls are covered with the creations of the 
 great masters on canvas, whose colors are as bright 
 and beautiful as when put on by the almost in- 
 spired hands centuries ago. 
 
 There is a strange mingling of the living, the 
 dying, and the dead with different subjects that 
 stand out from the canvas. Every passion of the 
 human heart is portrayed with wonderful power 
 and effect. 
 
 So great is the number of Scriptural scenes that 
 the Old and New Testaments seem to be illus- 
 trated from beginning to end. Many of these 
 paintings are anything but pleasing to the eye or 
 quieting to the nerves, and one grows not only 
 weary but almost heartsick with looking at so 
 many crucifixions, dead Christs, martyrdoms, 
 ghastly heads of St. John the Baptist, Massa- 
 cre of the Innocents, etc. But all of the paintings, 
 thank heaven ! are not confined to these gloomy
 
 244 THE SISTINE MADONNA. 
 
 and repulsive subjects. There are many of the 
 beautiful landscapes and sea views painted by 
 Claude Lorraine, Ruysdael, and others. There 
 are charming rural scenes and interiors painted 
 by Wouverman, Gerard Dow, Teniers, and 
 many others famous in the old Dutch school. 
 There are many of Snyders's famous game and 
 fruit pieces, while the walls of one of the halls 
 seem as if springing to life with Rubens's cele- 
 brated paintings of " The Lion Hunt," " Diana and 
 her Nymphs returning from the Chase," " Her- 
 cules Intoxicated," " A Wild Boar Hunt," " The 
 Garden of Love," and many others. 
 
 In all this vast collection of paintings there is 
 but one which is the work of the great Raphael, 
 and this is the renowned " Madonna di San Sisto," 
 which is known the world over by the numberless 
 copies, engravings, photographs, chromos, etc., 
 that have made it so familiar to every eye. Here 
 in Dresden one grows weary in seeing these 
 copies on canvas, porcelain, wood, and paper at 
 every turn. They stare at you from every shop- 
 window through miles of streets, until one is ready 
 to exclaim, " Good Lord, deliver us " from ever 
 seeing the picture again. But it is the white 
 elephant of the Dresden gallery, and no Eastern 
 prince or grand mogul ever worshipped or treas- 
 ured one of those sacred animals more sincerely 
 than the king of Saxony and the Dresden people 
 worship and treasure this famous painting. Al-
 
 THE "WHITE ELEPHANT" OF THE GALLERY. 245 
 
 though the only veritable work that the gallery 
 possesses that has come from the great painter's 
 brush, yet it is of priceless value, and its world- 
 wide celebrity and the wonderful and mysterious 
 beauty accredited to it more than atone for the 
 absence of other specimens from the same hand. 
 
 A large room in one end of the gallery, ele- 
 gantly furnished, and with wall sofas richly up- 
 holstered in green plush, is devoted exclusively to 
 the exhibition of this one painting. It is seldom 
 that there is not a crowd of people seated around 
 it, some gazing upon it with mute reverence and 
 admiration, and others viewing it long and criti- 
 cally, endeavoring to discover the hidden charm 
 and beauty which give the picture such a won- 
 derful celebrity. The figures are life-size, and the 
 canvas on which they are painted is about eight 
 and half feet high by six and a half feet wide. 
 The frame is of gray oak, heavily panelled and 
 richly ornamented. Raphael painted it for the 
 altar of the black friar's monastery in Piacenza, a 
 small town in Italy, about the year 1515, which 
 would make the picture now in the neighborhood 
 of three hundred and sixty-seven years old. There 
 it remained in the old monastery until 1753, when 
 King Richard III. of Saxony, through an agent, 
 purchased it for 60,000 thalers, or about $45,000. 
 
 The Saxon government has been approached 
 several times by agents from other European gov- 
 ernments and even by speculators, with the object
 
 246 UNSENTIMENTAL CRITICISMS. 
 
 of purchasing this rare treasure. A million dol- 
 lars and even more have been offered for it, but 
 offered in vain, as the painting is not for sale at 
 any price, nor would the Saxon government allow 
 it to go out of Dresden. 
 
 It needs a vast amount of sentiment and imagi- 
 nation, and still more of the superstition and 
 religious fervor of the Middle Ages, to fully appre- 
 ciate the painting and go into raptures, as many 
 do, over it. No two persons look upon it alike. 
 One says that its great merit and hidden power 
 lie in the face and expression of the Madonna. 
 Another sees in the face of the child Jesus a look 
 and expression beyond the human, a troubled, 
 anxious look, as if He were peering into the fu- 
 ture, and that all the cares and sorrows he was to 
 endure and the agonies of the crucifixion were 
 weighing upon him. Others still see nothing 
 wonderful in the painting, nothing to admire 
 but the two fat-winged cherubs, which they declare 
 look as if they were calculating the height of a 
 garden wall near by, in the hopes of getting at the 
 fruit on the other side. 
 
 The unsentimental and those who have not the 
 religious enthusiasm of the Crusaders gather no 
 inspiration from the painting. They wickedly 
 declare that the painful, troubled look on the face 
 of the infant Jesus was painted from the model of 
 a child which was suffering from a stomach over- 
 laden with green apples, and that the Madonna is
 
 FEMALE MODELS OF THE OLD MASTERS. 247 
 
 a typical caricature of an Italian housewife whose 
 money is exhausted, and who has nothing where- 
 with to buy her husband's dinner on the morrow. 
 
 All of the old masters painted from living 
 models, and many of the women who posed in the 
 artists' studios to represent the sacred characters 
 of saints, virgins, Madonnas, etc., in their great 
 Scriptural paintings, were picked up at haphazard, 
 and many of them were of that same class of 
 doubtful characters that John Calvin, at Geneva, 
 caused to be sewed up in bags and cast into the 
 waters of Lake Leman. It is said that the model 
 Raphael selected for the Sistine Madonna was a 
 comely looking peasant-woman of middle age, who 
 first underwent a transformation scene by the aid 
 of soap and water before having her form and 
 features transferred to canvas by the great master. 
 
 I do not propose to criticise this famous paint- 
 ing. I should probably think more of it and hold 
 it in greater reverence had I not seen several 
 million copies of it all over Europe. 
 
 " Familiarity," they say, " breeds contempt," and 
 this may be the reason that I find it impossible to 
 go into raptures over the picture, or even to ad- 
 mire it as much as thousands do. So great is its 
 reputation (principally from the fact that Raphael 
 painted it, or is supposed to have painted it, for 
 its authenticity as an original is doubted by many) 
 that I have no doubt, if purchased for a million 
 dollars by a Yankee speculator, it would undoubt-
 
 248 HOLBEIN'S MADONNA. 
 
 edly prove a splendid investment, a bonanza of 
 wealth, by taking it to America on exhibition, so 
 great would be the desire to see this famous work 
 of the great Italian master. And yet I venture 
 to say, had the same painting been discovered a 
 fortnight since among a lot of worthless trash in 
 a second-hand Jew shop, with the name of some 
 unknown John Schmidt or Hans Schultze attached 
 to it as the painter, it would be difficult to find a 
 sale for it at one hundred dollars. 
 
 The picture in the gallery prized next to the 
 Sistine Madonna is the Holbein Madonna, which 
 the great artist painted for Jacob Meyer, the bur- 
 gomaster of Basle, who with his family are repre- 
 sented in the picture as under the protection of 
 the Virgin. There is a little naked child of two 
 or three years of age standing at the feet of the 
 Virgin, while she is holding another child in her 
 arms apparently of the same age and bearing a 
 strong resemblance to the one at her feet. There 
 has long been a controversy among art critics and 
 others as to which was intended for the child Jesus 
 and which the little Meyer. 
 
 The painting is less than two thirds the size 
 of Raphael's Sistine Madonna, and, like that mas- 
 terpiece, occupies an elegant room in the gallery 
 almost exclusively itself. And there are doubts 
 of this famous picture being a veritable Holbein. 
 The picture gallery in Darmstadt claims to have 
 the original, of which the one in the Dresden gal-
 
 " ORIGINALS SADLY MIXED. 249 
 
 lery is a counterfeit, while the Dresdeners claim 
 the reverse, so that it is not really known which 
 is the original and which the copy. 
 
 The originals by the old masters, whose prolific 
 brushes turned out such vast numbers of paint- 
 ings two, three, and four hundred years ago, have 
 become sadly mixed with the numberless copies 
 made of them by their pupils and others, many 
 of which are far better than those that came from 
 the masters' hands. These copies, together with 
 the originals, which have been handed down from 
 past centuries, have become so worn and the col- 
 ors so mellowed by age that it is almost an impos- 
 sibility to detect the one from the other. 
 
 With the exception of the picture gallery in 
 Parma, Italy, the Dresden gallery has the largest 
 and finest collection of Correggio's works. Here 
 is his world-renowned picture of the "Adoration of 
 the Shepherds," and known as " La Notte," the 
 night, and in one of the small cabinet rooms is 
 the famous " Magdalene Reading," which during 
 the past few years has been so much copied on 
 porcelain, canvas, and paper. The picture is quite 
 small, only twelve by twenty inches, and painted 
 on copper. So much is this picture coveted that 
 it was stolen from the gallery a few years ago, but 
 eventually recovered after a long search and heavy 
 rewards being offered for its restoration. The gal- 
 lery also contains nineteen of Vandyck's most cel- 
 ebrated paintings, including his " Silenus Intoxi-
 
 25O TREASURES OF THE GALLERY. 
 
 cated led by Bacchantes," portrait of King Charles 
 I., of England, and also the portraits of the three 
 children of King Charles I. painted in a group, 
 "Jupiter descending as a Shower of Gold in Danse's 
 Bedchamber," and a portrait of the old Scotch- 
 man, Thomas Parr, painted in his one hundred 
 and fifty-first year, whose face looks like a piece of 
 wrinkled parchment. 
 
 The wealth of the gallery in its paintings by the 
 old masters can be partly realized when I state 
 that it contains twenty Rembrandts; ten Titians, 
 including his famous " Tribute Money" and " Cupid 
 crowning Venus with a Wreath " ; thirty-five Ru- 
 bens; eighteen Paul Veroneses, including the 
 " Susannah at the Bath," " The Adoration of the 
 Magi," "The Marriage at Cana," "Venus and 
 Adonis," etc.; ten Guido Renis; thirteen Riberas; 
 three of Velasquez ; two Murillos; three Domini- 
 chinos ; five Andrea del Sartos ; eight Tintoret- 
 tos ; six Poussins ; eleven Snyders ; thirty-one of 
 Teniers; seven Holbeins; six Albert Durers; four 
 Salvator Rosas ; fourteen Ruysdaels ; three Paul 
 Potters; four Cuyps ; three Angelica Kaufmanns; 
 sixteen Gerard Dows ; forty-five Lucas Cra- 
 nachs ; sixteen Vanderwerffs, which include his 
 celebrated " Expulsion of Hagar," one of the gems 
 of the gallery, also his " Magdalene," " Lot and his 
 Daughters," "Judgment of Paris," "A Hermit 
 before his Cell," " Diogenes with his Lantern look- 
 ing for an Honest Man," all of which have world-
 
 ITS FABULOUS WEALTH IN PAINTINGS. 25! 
 
 wide reputations ; and there are sixty-six paintings, 
 most of them of small size, of the celebrated Dutch 
 painter Wouverman, in every one of which the 
 artist preserved his identity by introducing a 
 white or dapple-gray horse, in the rural and out- 
 of-door scenes, which he has portrayed with such 
 wonderful fidelity and beauty. All the great mas- 
 ters of the Florentine, Venetian, Roman, Bologn- 
 ese, Spanish, Flemish, Dutch, and German schools, 
 with a few of the French, are represented on the 
 walls of this famous gallery by more or less of their 
 productions. 
 
 The fabulous wealth of such a collection as this 
 is almost beyond belief. To possess any one of the 
 paintings by the most celebrated of the old masters 
 is a fortune in itself, and this magnificent collec- 
 tion is open to the public, and free alike to peas- 
 ant and prince. 
 
 It is amusing to linger in the gallery, to stand 
 by the different groups of people and observe the 
 different impressions that the pictures make upon 
 them, and to hear their criticisms as to their mer- 
 its or dements, what they represent, or what they 
 are supposed to represent. 
 
 Some will stop before a picture and study it by 
 the hour, and will be days and even weeks in ex- 
 amining the whole collection thoroughly. Others 
 will go through the gallery in thirty minutes and 
 scarcely glance at a tenth part it contains. 
 
 Americans always seem to be in the greatest
 
 252 IRREVERENT AMERICAN YOUTH. 
 
 hurry to get through it and do it in the shortest 
 time. 
 
 I saw two young Americans, a few days since, 
 with memorandum books in their hands, rushing 
 about in the gallery and hastily glancing at the 
 paintings, as if they were taking an inventory of 
 the number and had but a few minutes to do it 
 in. My attention was first attracted to them by 
 hearing one call out to the other who was some 
 distance from him, " Hallo ! Jim, here is another 
 Venus, this makes fifty-seven of the divinities." 
 And I saw him proceed to note down in his mem- 
 orandum book, probably under the class of "Ve- 
 nuses," the number fifty-seven. 
 
 By this time " Jim " came hurrying up, and, 
 glancing at the picture before them, exclaimed, 
 " Thunder, no ! that is not a Venus, it has got too 
 many clothes on ! " 
 
 " Well, if it is not a Venus, what is it, then ?" 
 
 " I don't know, exactly," answered Jim, looking 
 at it more critically ; " I should take it to be a 
 Magdalene, or a saint, or a Madonna, or some one 
 of those Scripture girls who had n't time to fully 
 dress herself. Put it under the Virgins." 
 
 Moving ahead they came in front of a fine 
 painting of the martyrdom of St. Sebastian, who 
 is represented with a smiling, contented face, not- 
 withstanding his being pierced with a score of 
 arrows. I heard " Jim " ask his friend, " How 
 many St. Sebastians have you got down ? "
 
 KEEPING TALLY OF "OLD MASTERS. 
 
 " I don't know ; I lost my tally of Sebastians 
 down at Munich, but I think I must have nearly 
 a thousand Virgin Marys and dead Christs by 
 this time." And in a few moments the two young 
 travellers, who were evidently gathering statistics 
 as to the number of certain pictures painted by 
 the old masters, disappeared among the crowd of 
 visitors, and I saw them no more.
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 ORDER OF THE GARTER. SAXONY'S KING INVESTED WITH ITS 
 GORGEOUS INSIGNIA. OSTENTATIOUS PROCESSION OF ROY- 
 ALTY AND NOBILITY. THE CEREMONIES REMINDING ONE 
 OF A SCENE FROM ONE OF SHAKESPEARE'S PLAYS. SIG- 
 NIFICANCE OF THE GIFT. HISTORY OF THE ORDER. 
 
 IT has been many a year since Dresden, the 
 gay and fashionable capital of the kingdom 
 of Saxony, has undergone the excitement that has 
 recently prevailed in the city, and which was oc- 
 casioned by the ceremonies attending the inves- 
 titure of his Majesty the king with the order of 
 the Knight of the Garter. An embassy selected 
 by Queen Victoria from the English peerage to 
 perform the royal ceremony arrived from England 
 a short time ago, and, during their stay in the 
 Saxon capital, the members have been the king's 
 guests. It was but a few weeks or months since 
 that a similar embassy of English noblemen, at- 
 tended by a large retinue of servants and followers, 
 was sent at an enormous expense to Spain to 
 invest the young King Alfonso with the same 
 orders of royalty. 
 
 The order of the Garter is one of the oldest 
 and most honorable of the many illustrious orders 
 which a British sovereign has the power to bestow
 
 ORDER OF THE GARTER: ITS HISTORY. 255 
 
 on a subject or a royal colleague. It has a long 
 history, dating back, according to some accounts, 
 to the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. But the 
 most reliable authority says that it was first insti- 
 tuted by Edward III., in August, 1348. One his- 
 torian says that Edward gave the signal to com- 
 mence the great battle of Crecy by unbuckling 
 his garter and sending it to the commander of 
 the opposing forces, and, as he came out victo- 
 rious, he instituted the order in memory of the 
 triumph his army had won. Another account says 
 that, at a grand ball given by King Edward in 
 honor of the Countess of Salisbury, the latter, 
 while dancing, accidentally dropped her garter, 
 which the king, espying, picked up, and, present- 
 ing it to the countess with all the gallantry of a 
 Sir Walter Ralegh, said to her, " Honi soil qui 
 mal y pense" A few minutes later, in conversa- 
 tion with a courtier, he said, " They would see 
 the garter advanced to so honorable a distinction 
 that whoever wore it would consider themselves 
 especially favored by the honor conferred." Sev- 
 eral English writers unite in saying that the order 
 was first instituted at a grand tournament held 
 at Windsor Castle in April, 1355, at which King 
 Edward invited the most illustrious knights of 
 the kingdom, and that the order was then founded 
 in honor of the Virgin Mary, St. George, and St. 
 Edward the Confessor, and that St. George, who 
 became the titular saint of England by his prow-
 
 256 INSIGNIA OF THE ORDER. 
 
 ess in slaying dragons, was considered its especial 
 protector and patron. 
 
 The insignia of the order are: A dark blue 
 
 o 
 
 velvet garter, bordered with gold, and fastened 
 with a gold buckle under the left knee. On the 
 face of the garter, embroidered in golden letters, 
 are the words which Edward addressed to the 
 Countess of Salisbury, and from which the cele- 
 brated motto, " Honi soit qui mal y pense" owes 
 its origin. A broad silk ribbon of the same color, 
 with the figure of St. George in gold and dia- 
 monds, is worn from the left shoulder to the right 
 hip. On the left breast is worn a silver star with 
 eight points, in the centre of which is the cross of 
 St. George, encircled by a representation of the 
 garter, which bears the same motto. The habit 
 of the order consists of a dark blue silk robe ; a 
 mantle of blue velvet, embroidered with gold and 
 lined with white taffeta ; a hood of crimson velvet, 
 bordered with heavy gold fringe ; a hat of black 
 velvet, lined with white taffeta, to which is fast- 
 ened by a band of diamonds a magnificent plume 
 of white ostrich feathers, with a tuft of black 
 heron's feathers in the centre. The collar of solid 
 gold, which clasps around the neck, consists of 
 twenty-six pieces, each in the form of the garter, 
 with a pendent figure of St. George on horseback 
 slaying the dragon attached to it. 
 
 By the rules established by the ancient order, 
 but twenty-four persons in Great Britain can be
 
 THOSE WHO WEAR THE ORDER. 257 
 
 knights at one time, independent of the reigning 
 sovereign and princes royal, and the twenty-four 
 can only be persons of the highest rank of nobility 
 or men who have performed great deeds of valor 
 for their country, like Lord Nelson, Lord Napier, 
 the Duke of Wellington, etc. 
 
 Outside of Great Britain they are only allowed 
 to make knights of the reigning sovereigns, dukes, 
 and princes. Nine years ago there were forty- 
 eight Knights of the Garter, which included the 
 four sons of Queen Victoria, the Duke of Cam- 
 bridge, and the ex-king of Hanover, belonging to 
 the royal family, and there were the ex-Emperor of 
 France, the Emperors of Germany and Russia, the 
 kings of Italy, Portugal, Belgium, Denmark, the 
 Emperors of Austria and Brazil, the Sultan of 
 Turkey, the Crown Prince of Germany, seven Ger- 
 man dukes and princes, and twenty-four British 
 peers. Since 1867, when Sultan Abdul-Azis was 
 created a knight, the only two members who have 
 been admitted to the order are the king of Spain 
 and the king of Saxony, who wore the insignia 
 for the first time a few days since. Three of the 
 Saxon sovereigns, previous to this present king, 
 have been invested with the order, the Electors 
 Georg II., in April, 1668; Johann Georg IV., in 
 January, 1693; and King Freidrich August, in 
 October, 1842. 
 
 The embassy that was sent to Dresden by 
 Queen Victoria to perform the late ceremonies 
 17
 
 258 OSTENTATIOUS CEREMONIES. 
 
 was composed of the following distinguished per- 
 sonages : The Earl of Fife, Gen. Sir Alfred Hors- 
 ford, Lieut-Col. Lord Algernon Gordon Lennox, 
 Capt. I. S. Winne, Finsh of the Royal Horse 
 Guards, Hon. F. L. Bertie, Sir Albert Woods, 
 Hon. E. Bellasis, and Mr. Cochayne. The whole 
 party, including heralds, servants, etc., amounted 
 to eighteen persons. 
 
 The ceremony, as had been announced, took 
 place in the elegant throne-room at one o'clock 
 in the afternoon. Previous to that hour the 
 streets and open squares in the immediate neigh- 
 borhood of the royal palace were literally packed 
 with people who had assembled to watch the arri- 
 val of distinguished guests, and more particularly 
 the magnificent state carriages which were to 
 bring the embassy from its headquarters at the 
 Hotel Bellevue. Inside of the palace, where deco- 
 rations and arrangements in anticipation of the 
 brilliant event had been in progress for weeks, 
 there was much excitement. Extra guards, in 
 bright uniforms, were stationed at all the street 
 approaches ; squads of extra policemen, with side 
 arms and helmets, were patrolling the neighbor- 
 hood ; lackeys and valets, in their gaudy liveries 
 and looking for all the world like our generals and 
 colonels of militia in olden times, were hastening 
 in and out of the palace like so many gay-colored 
 wasps that had been disturbed in their nest ; sev- 
 eral companies of grenadiers were stationed in the
 
 PROCESSION OF ROYALTY AND NOBILITY. 2jf) 
 
 court of the palace and ranged in long lines at 
 the foot of the stairs where the guests were to 
 pass on their arrival and departure. The throne- 
 room was gorgeous in its decorations, and reminded 
 one of an apartment in an enchanted castle, of 
 which we read in fairy tales. 
 
 At 12.55 the sound of trumpets announced the 
 'approach of the king, who, prepared to receive the 
 insignia of the order, wore a dark uniform coat, 
 with the decoration of a German field marshal, 
 white breeches, and shoes. When he slowly en- 
 tered the room the distinguished guests present, 
 the officers highest in rank in the Saxon army, 
 the ladies of honor, court ladies and gentlemen, 
 rose to their feet as his Majesty passed by and 
 placed himself before the throne chair, on a raised 
 platform, carpeted with crimson velvet. On enter- 
 ing the room he was preceded by the court cham- 
 berlain, the chief court marshal, a number of pages 
 in bright liveries, the house marshal, and Count 
 Platen. Following him were his adjutants, then 
 his brothers, Princes George and Frederick Au- 
 gust, with their adjutants. After these came sev- 
 eral Saxon generals, Von Gersdorf, the chamber- 
 lain ; Von Millitz, the master of ceremonies ; Von 
 Burgh, Von Erdmansdortf, Von Watzdorff, Von 
 der Planitz, Von Leipziger, Counts Luckner and 
 Schall-Rex, and a train of chamberlains, while the 
 rear of th procession was closed by the tall, im- 
 posing forms of the three Counts von Arnim.
 
 26O WHAT THEY WORE. 
 
 On a raised platform, not far from the throne, 
 were seated her Majesty Queen Carola, the Prin- 
 cess George and Princess Mathilde, and Maria 
 Josefa, the Crown Prince Johan George, Prince 
 Max, Prince Weimer, Prince Heinrich von Reuss 
 Kostritz, with his daughter Princess Elenora. 
 Between this platform and the throne stood the 
 ministers of state in their official dress and all 
 their orders and decorations, while a number of 
 the most prominent ladies, wives of the ministers 
 and highest dignitaries, grouped themselves on 
 the other side of the platform. Her Majesty the 
 queen wore a dress of old gold brocade, with an 
 elegant mantilla ; Princess George wore a heavy 
 white satin, drawn and puffed, with a long train 
 of light red velvet, richly embroidered in silver ; 
 Princess Mathilde had a pale lilac satin dress, 
 with a train of the same color and material. The 
 trains of the princesses were borne by the cadets, 
 in the well-known picturesque costume of noble 
 pages. The ladies of honor wore the heaviest 
 and most expensive brocade and satin material, 
 heavily trimmed with the richest of laces. All of 
 the ladies present, from the queen down, wore the 
 most costly ornaments, and their heads and shoul- 
 ders fairly sparkled with brilliants. 
 
 A few minutes after the king and his followers 
 had taken their positions in front of the throne 
 there was another blast of trumpets announcing 
 the arrival of the English embassy. The large
 
 THE ENGLISH EMBASSY. 26 1 
 
 door of the throne-room opened again and the 
 envoys of her British Majesty marched into the 
 room with the greatest dignity and solemnity, 
 making profound bows to the right and left as they 
 approached the king. The Earl of Fife, a fine-look- 
 ing Englishman of about thirty, was in the advance, 
 clad in a dark coat of armor, with a brilliantly pol- 
 ished cuirass, over which a cartridge pouch was 
 fastened by a chiselled bronze chain. Following 
 him was Sir Alfred Woods, wrapped in a flowing 
 red silk cloak. Next came the other members of 
 the embassy, four of whom wore the doublets and 
 cloaks of the heralds of the Middle Ages, embroid- 
 ered with heraldic insignia. The other two wore 
 the red coats and uniform of a general and colonel 
 of the English army. The documents, seals, robes, 
 and insignia of the Order of the Garter were borne 
 by the different members of the embassy on pur- 
 ple velvet cushions. 
 
 The Earl of Fife addressed the king in French, 
 saying that Queen Victoria, of England, in order 
 to express her feelings of sincere friendship for the 
 king and queen of Saxony, and in the hopes of 
 uniting more thoroughly the bonds which bind 
 the reigning houses as well as their countries to- 
 gether, wishes to bestow on his Majesty the king 
 of Saxony the Order of the Garter, etc. The king 
 in fluent French briefly returned thanks for the 
 honor conferred on him, and declared himself ready 
 to receive the order. Another member of the em-
 
 262 INVESTITURE OF THE NEW KNIGHT. 
 
 bassy stepped forward and handed the statute book 
 of the order to the king, in which the duties of a 
 knight were written in Latin upon parchment. 
 The minister of the royal house, Herr von Nos- 
 titz then read the "commissorium," which was 
 handed him, a proclamation of delivery in the 
 Latin language. 
 
 After another short speech from the Earl of Fife, 
 the proper investiture of the new knight com- 
 menced. First, the blue velvet garter was fastened 
 under the left knee of the king, while some Latin 
 words were being spoken by Sir Alfred Woods. 
 Next came the robing, the putting on of the 
 mantle of blue velvet, the blue silk robe, the crim- 
 son velvet hood, the broad-brimmed black velvet 
 hat with white ostrich plumes and black heron's 
 feathers, and lastly, the clasping of the golden col- 
 lar around the neck and the buckling on the sword 
 of the order. The work being completed, the 
 embassy withdrew, going backward and gracefully 
 bowing all the time, until the large entrance doors 
 closed upon it. 
 
 The grandeur and solemnity of the scene will 
 ever be remembered by those who were fortunate 
 enough to witness it, and no one appeared more 
 impressed by it than the king himself, who, after 
 the ceremony was completed, stood in the pomp 
 of his splendid new regalia, with head proudly erect 
 and eyes full of joy as he received the congratula- 
 tions of his faithful subjects, who crowded around 
 him.
 
 LIKE A SCENE FROM SHAKESPEARE. 263 
 
 The whole scene made one realize something of 
 the magnificence of the Middle A^es. From the 
 
 o o 
 
 solemnity of the ceremony, the richness and his- 
 torical fidelity of the costumes, the dignity of the 
 investure, an impression was produced similar to 
 that of a representation of a fine scene in one of 
 Shakespeare's plays in a court theatre. When the 
 English embassy appeared before the throne of 
 the Saxon king, one was reminded of the scene 
 in the first act of " Richard II.," when the knightly 
 prince seats himself upon the throne, surrounded 
 by his courtiers and noblemen, and the Dukes of 
 Norfolk and Bolingbroke present themselves before 
 him. Upon the command of the king, the marshal 
 thus addresses them : 
 
 " Say who thou art, 
 
 And why thou com'st thus clad in knightly arms ; 
 Against what man thou com'st, and what thy quarrel ; 
 Speak truly, on thy knighthood and thy oath ; 
 As so defend thee heaven and thy valor." 
 
 The king, after receiving the congratulations of 
 his friends, proceeded to his apartments, and made 
 no change in his dress except to put on his accus- 
 tomed military helmet in place of the knight's hat 
 with ostrich plumes. 
 
 At five o'clock the gala dinner took place in the 
 palace, which was attended by all the royalty, 
 nobility, and grandees, ministers of state, generals, 
 and high officials. When the champagne was 
 served the king rose and proposed the health of
 
 264 CLOSING ENTERTAINMENTS. 
 
 Queen Victoria, and the Earl of Fife responded 
 by proposing the health of King Albert. 
 
 The day's festivities closed by the king's going 
 with all his guests who had been present at the 
 afternoon ceremonies, including the English en- 
 voys, to the Royal Theatre the handsomest one 
 in Germany to attend the new spectacular 
 opera, "The Queen of Sheba." On Wednesday 
 night following, Gen. Fabrice, the minister of war, 
 gave an elegant ball, in honor of the English 
 envoys, at his palace, and the night after the 
 king gave a magnificent ball at the palace, to 
 which all the grandees of the kingdom were 
 invited. Other entertainments were given in 
 honor of the visitors, and two days after they re- 
 turned to " merry old England," undoubtedly well 
 satisfied with the splendid reception they had met 
 with from the Saxon nobility, and congratulating 
 themselves that the great expense attending their 
 journey and the investiture of the king with the 
 order of the Knight of the Garter came out of 
 the pockets of the British people instead of their 
 own.
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 AMERICANS ABROAD. TOURIST TRAMPS FROM ACROSS THE 
 ATLANTIC. SELF-EXILED AMERICANS. PEOPLE WITH 
 MORE MONEY THAN CHARACTER. CONFESSIONS OF MATRI- 
 MONIAL EXILES. FONDNESS OF GERMAN OFFICERS FOR 
 AMERICAN DINNERS AND AMERICAN GIRLS. AMBITIOUS 
 AND INTRIGUING AMERICAN MOTHERS. THE SAD FATE 
 OF AMERICAN GIRLS WHO MARRY FOREIGN TITLES. 
 
 WHAT surprises an American on first com- 
 ing abroad is to find such a large number 
 of his country-people living in the continental cit- 
 ies. He finds them colonized and scattered wher- 
 ever he goes, those who have bought landed 
 estates or city houses, and those who have taken 
 long or short leases of their dwellings or flats, sub- 
 ject to renewals if they feel disposed. In addition to 
 these, he finds a large class who are living year 
 after year " from hand to mouth," in second and 
 third rate hotels and pensions, who are con- 
 stantly on the move from city to city, and, like 
 migrating geese, are periodically changing from 
 a cold climate to a warm, and from warm to cold. 
 The winters in Germany, Switzerland, and North- 
 ern France are too severe, and the summers in 
 Italy and Southern France cannot be endured. 
 
 Gray-headed old men, and occasionally gray- 
 headed women bent with age, without families or
 
 266 AMERICANS ABROAD. 
 
 companions, and seemingly without friends, are 
 found straying about the Continent like Wan- 
 dering Jews who have no resting-place for the soles 
 of their feet. They seem to be looking for some- 
 thing which they can never find. They are in 
 Paris to-day, steaming up the Rhine to-morrow, 
 the next day wandering among the old ruins of 
 Heidelberg Castle, next week staring vacantly at 
 the crowds of pleasure-seekers or listening solitary 
 and alone to the music in the Kiosks at Homburg 
 or Weisbaden. A mysterious power seems to pro- 
 pel them on. They find no rest at Baden-Baden, 
 or at the Swiss lakes, or among Alpine scenery. 
 They get tired feeding the pigeons at St. Mark's 
 in Venice, and move on to visit Florence or Rome 
 for the twentieth time. 
 
 There they begin their wanderings, like lost 
 spirits, in the vast churches and miles of picture 
 galleries. Wearying of these familiar sights at 
 last, the invisible spirit moves them on, and they 
 next appear at Naples ; they are seen at Castel- 
 mary, at Sorrento, at Paestrum, among the ruins 
 of Pompeii, and even on the top of Mt. Vesuvius. 
 Not unfrequently they turn up at Smyrna and 
 Constantinople. They visit the Holy Land on 
 mule-back, and go up the Nile in dahabiehs, and 
 are pulled up to the top of the Pyramids by the 
 dusky natives. 
 
 Finding they can go no farther, they turn 
 about and drift slowly back to Paris, the holy
 
 TOURIST TRAMPS FROM ACROSS THE ATLANTIC. 26/ 
 
 Mecca of Americans, which soon becomes monot- 
 onous to them again, and, erelong, they start out 
 on their pilgrimages once more over the same old 
 beaten paths, and to stare at the same old famil- 
 iar objects. On approaching one of these octo- 
 genarians and disturbing his reveries by asking 
 him when he is going to return to America, he 
 will turn his eyes toward the setting sun and 
 answer that he is going by steamer next week, or 
 in a few weeks, or next year, perhaps. But he 
 
 never goes. 
 
 Nearly every continental city, and especially 
 Paris, is a sort of Botany Bay or Van Dieman's 
 land for a certain class of English and American 
 patriots who have " left their country for their 
 country's good." It is much more agreeable to 
 take a steamer and cross the English Channel, or 
 even the broad Atlantic, with its winter gales, 
 than to run the chances of having their pride and 
 feelings outraged and disturbed by a policeman's 
 grip or a sheriff's warrant, and the uncertainty of 
 eating bread and drinking water behind prison 
 bars. So it must not be wondered at that Eng- 
 lish and American society abroad is " a good deal 
 mixed and a little shaky," as stock operators 
 would express it. 
 
 Several years ago a distinguished-looking Amer- 
 ican received a good share of social recognition in 
 the English-speaking colony of Paris. He dressed 
 splendidly, had every appearance of a born gen-
 
 268 VAN DIEMAN PATRIOTS. 
 
 tleman, though a little in fact a good deal 
 fast, a frailty always overlooked in the Paris col- 
 ony, and he spent his money as lavishly as a 
 spendthrift millionaire. It was afterward discov- 
 ered that this dashing American was one of the 
 most noted cracksmen or bank burglars that our 
 country had produced. 
 
 A long list of similar cases could be mentioned, 
 but I forbear. 
 
 It is said that a large share of those who come 
 abroad ostensibly for the education of their chil- 
 dren or for the restoring of shattered healths and 
 disorganized constitutions, and who by long ab- 
 sence from their native land virtually give up their 
 birthrights for foreign homes, have histories which 
 will not bear probing or inquiring into. Many a 
 quarrel between husband and wife' in America re- 
 sults not in divorce, but in living apart, usually 
 it is the wife who packs her trunks and crosses the 
 Atlantic for a few years, and perhaps for life. Here 
 she begins life anew. She avoids the publicity and 
 disgrace of a divorce and the scandal which its 
 trial is sure to divulge ; she puts an end to the 
 cat-and-dog life she has led with her husband ; and 
 in her foreign home, wherever it may be, she forms 
 a new set of acquaintances among those who are 
 strangers to her and her past history. 
 
 I heard of five American ladies who recently at 
 an afternoon tea-drinking had a confidential seance 
 over their cups, and, under the stimulating influ-
 
 SELF-EXILED AMERICANS. 269 
 
 nce of hyson of bohea, unbosomed their troubles 
 to each other. They had all come abroad for an 
 indefinite stay, leaving their husbands behind them. 
 
 One of them said that her husband had suffered 
 an unjust persecution and was undergoing a cruel 
 imprisonment for a few years, for speculating with 
 some bank funds not his own, which he intended 
 to have returned, but found he could n't. 
 
 The husband of another had proved himself un- 
 true to his marriage vows by taking to himself an 
 extra wife yes, two or three of them, report said 
 without going through the ceremony of mar- 
 riage. As for her living on the same continent 
 with him after that, it was out of the question. 
 
 The third lady said that her husband, who was 
 very wealthy, had got addicted to drinking, and 
 had gradually become very intemperate ; that while 
 under the influence of liquor, which was nearly all 
 the time, he had abused her and treated her like a 
 dog; that she would endure such treatment no 
 longer, and, being afraid of her life, she had put 
 the ocean between them. 
 
 The fourth lady said she was the wife of one of 
 the best husbands in the world, who from small 
 beginnings had accumulated a large fortune. They 
 had lived in great style and splendor, and had been 
 very happy together, but in an evil hour her hus- 
 band had been drawn into speculations which had 
 proved ruinous and swept away every dollar in the 
 \vorld. She was then overlooked and cast aside
 
 2/O CONFESSIONS OF MATRIMONIAL EXILES. 
 
 by those who had enjoyed her hospitality and pro- 
 fessed so much love and friendship for her in her 
 prosperity. She could endure anything but such 
 treatment and neglect, and rather than suffer it 
 longer she had left her country without regret. An 
 aunt had left her a sum of money sufficient to live 
 comfortably and economically abroad, while her 
 husband was barely supporting himself and a young 
 son at home on a small salary as clerk in a whole- 
 sale house. 
 
 The fifth, who had listened with much amaze- 
 ment to the foregoing disclosures, said with much 
 feeling and emphasis, that although she had left 
 her husband in America, she thanked God that 
 she had left him in the church-yard, sleeping his 
 last sleep, and that she had had a perfectly happy 
 married life to look back upon. No family quar- 
 rels or domestic infelicities had sent her across 
 the Atlantic, but she was here to realize a dream 
 of her childhood in visiting the wonderful picture 
 galleries, churches, palaces, etc., with which Eu- 
 rope abounds. 
 
 It must not be supposed that American society 
 abroad is made up of this class of unfortunate 
 females who have sought refuge in a foreign land 
 from unhappy homes. There are plenty of the 
 " lords of creation" divorced husbands and hus- 
 bands not divorced wandering over Europe, or 
 sojourning in its cities and towns for indefinite 
 periods, for the reason that their household gods
 
 AMERICAN REPUTATION FOR GOOD DINNERS. 2/1 
 
 have been shattered and their hearth-stones made 
 uncomfortably hot by those who at the altar 
 promised to obey but would n't. 
 
 Another element of this foreign society is a 
 class of people who have come abroad to reside in 
 order to gain a social position which they had 
 never been able to occupy at home. They come 
 as strangers, and it is not known except by acci- 
 dent whether the money which they usually spend 
 so lavishly was made crookedly or accumulated 
 by some occupation or profession not of the high- 
 est respectability. 
 
 In Germany a man is not worshipped for his 
 money as he is in Italy or France, or even in 
 England ; but what the average German of the 
 higher class does admire and is willing to fellow- 
 ship with is brains and blue blood, and also a 
 good dinner, which his robust health never fails 
 him in giving an appetite for. And then the 
 Americans have the reputation of getting up such 
 splendid dinners, and they do get up such splen- 
 did dinners, and they are so fond of having them 
 praised and appreciated in this country, whose 
 highest civilization in cooking seems only to have 
 developed itself in sauer-kraut and German sau- 
 sages. 
 
 Through this channel of the appetite the class 
 of Americans whom I speak of catch their prey, 
 or rather draw together and live in a society 
 which is attracted more by their good dinners and
 
 2J- KICH AMERICAN GIRLS IN DEMAND. 
 
 fine wines than by the amount of their brains, 
 good breeding, or elegant manners. All of the 
 German cities are so full of army officers, in their 
 gay uniforms of various grades and ranks, that 
 the streets seem to swarm with myriads of men- 
 wasps of the " yellow jacket " or gay-colored 
 species. These officers, as the world knows, get 
 a beggarly pay, those up to the rank of captain 
 receiving but a trifle more than a private in the 
 United States army, hardly enough to pay for 
 their beer, and much less for an extra good dinner. 
 Many of them have private means of their own 
 to fall back upon, but the majority are obliged to 
 economize to a degree that does not allow of their 
 dining seven days in the week on Russian pheas- 
 ants or quail on toast. Can it be wondered at, 
 then, that they are so ready to accept the many 
 dinner invitations that Americans are continually 
 favoring them with ? As a rule, these officers are 
 gentlemen and well bred, and they are not only 
 fond of American dinners and lunches, but they 
 show an unmistakable admiration for American 
 young ladies, especially those who are handsome 
 and have lar^e fortunes at their command. 
 
 O 
 
 A large percentage of them, from the Emperor 
 down to the lowest ensign, hold some rank among 
 the nobility, either as prince, duke, baron, or 
 count, and with ambitious American mothers who 
 have daughters in the matrimonial market these 
 
 O 
 
 titled officers are in special demand. To have
 
 AMBITIOUS, INTRIGUING AMERICAN MOTHERS. 2/3 
 
 one or more of their daughters eventually go 
 back to America to dumfound and astonish their 
 American cousins with the title of princess, duch- 
 ess, baroness, or countess is the aim of their lives, 
 and to secure such a blessed result all manner of 
 traps are set and all manner of subterfuge re- 
 sorted to. 
 
 And it is not uncommon that these ambitious 
 mothers catch their game. The traps which have 
 been set with such care so long, and which have 
 been so cleverly, daintily, and expensively baited, 
 spring at last, and the ambitious mother finds, 
 when it is too late, that her daughter is wedded to 
 some mongrel scion of nobility, a man as desti- 
 tute of morality as the Connecticut or Hudson 
 River is of whales ; a spendthrift, gambler, and lib- 
 ertine, who has only married her daughter for her 
 money, and who keeps her at arm's length as he 
 would a mistress. 
 
 There have been plenty of such " splendid 
 matches" in Saxony, and in Wurtemberg and other 
 parts of Germany, also in Italy and France, where 
 American mothers have secured titles for their 
 daughters at the expense of their daughters' future 
 happiness. 
 
 It was not long since that a French count in 
 Paris, who had married a wealthy and accom- 
 plished American lad)', was detected secretly pawn- 
 ing her diamonds and jewels to raise money to 
 gamble with while she lay on her death-bed. He
 
 274 MARRYING TITLES. 
 
 had spent immense sums of her money in betting 
 and gambling and in living a life of profligacy, 
 and had treated her so cruelly during their short 
 married life that she died broken-hearted. An 
 incident recently happened in the kingdom of 
 Wurtemberg which caused quite a ripple in the 
 upper class of society there at the time. A Ger- 
 man baron who had started with his American 
 wife to visit her home in America had got as far 
 as the railway station when he was arrested by 
 his creditors, who supposed he was fleeing the 
 country never to return, for heavy debts which had 
 been incurred through gambling and a dissolute life. 
 He had no means with him to pay the demands, 
 neither had his wife, and, as their trunks had been 
 sent on in advance and the arrangements all made 
 for the journey, he told his wife to keep on and 
 he would meet her in Liverpool before the sailing 
 of their steamer, after having made some arrange- 
 ments with his creditors. The wife went on to 
 Liverpool and the baron stayed behind, but it was 
 four or five days before he was able to satisfy his 
 creditors, either by promises or the interposition 
 of some kind friend, so as to be able to depart. 
 
 While thus detained, the pocket-money his wife 
 had given him to pay his expenses to Liverpool 
 had disappeared, but another compassionate friend 
 was induced to loan him $500, by giving security 
 on his wife's furniture and silver plate, so that he 
 was enabled to start on his journey. Passing
 
 SAD EXPERIENCES. 2/5 
 
 through London, he fell among gamblers at one of 
 the clubs who could handle cards better than he 
 could, and his $500 quickly disappeared, with the 
 exception of a small amount, just sufficient to take 
 him to Liverpool, where he at length arrived, to 
 find that his wife had left in a steamer three days 
 previous, and himself without a dollar in his 
 pocket. 
 
 Representing to one of the steamer agents who 
 he was, and showing papers that identified him 
 as being a veritable baron, he was permitted to 
 take passage on the next steamer, with the under- 
 standing that his passage would be paid at the 
 other end of the route, where his wife or his wife's 
 relations would come to his aid, and which it is 
 to be presumed they did. 
 
 An American lady who married a title in Sax- 
 ony, after enduring several years of cruel treat- 
 ment, neglect, and misery, recently took sudden 
 flight to her friends across the Atlantic, forsaking 
 the bed and board of her titled husband, never to 
 return to it. 
 
 Such incidents as these unhappy marriages con- 
 tracted by American girls abroad are constantly 
 taking place, and a record of their histories and 
 the wretched lives that many of them have led and 
 are living would fill volumes. Marriages with 
 foreigners which have proved happy, and unalloyed 
 with more or less misery, are exceptional and far 
 between.
 
 2/6 UNHAPPY MARRIAGES. 
 
 To those ambitious mothers who would sell 
 their daughters for a title, and to those daughters 
 who would run the risk of sacrificing their future 
 happiness by uniting themselves to worthless 
 scions of nobility, let them heed Punch's advice 
 to the unmarried, " Don't."
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 SLEEPING AND EATING IN GERMANY. FAULT-FINDING, GRUM- 
 BLING AMERICAN TRAVELLERS. SHORT AND NARROW BEDS. 
 NOT SATISFIED WITH GERMAN COOKING. FRENCH COOK- 
 ING AT THE HOTELS. COST OF LIVING IN GERMAN PEN- 
 SIONS AND FAMILIES. BREAKFAST, LUNCH, AND DINNER. 
 
 A MERICANS on this side of the Atlantic 
 JLJL have acquired the reputation, and perhaps 
 not undeservedly, of being a nation of brags and 
 grumblers. They experience such a great con- 
 trast in the comforts of life abroad as compared 
 with their own homes and manner of living in 
 America that it is difficult for them to keep from 
 expressing their sentiments, as to what their eyes 
 see, their hearts feel, and stomachs crave, to every 
 foreigner with whom they come in contact. The 
 food, cooking, beds, discomforts of railway and 
 steamboat travelling, the high charges for every 
 pound of baggage, the no end of feeing servants, 
 the cheating of the shop-keepers, dishonest guides, 
 newspapers, express companies, the styles of 
 dress, the disregard of the Sabbath, the treatment 
 of women, the miserable wages paid for every kind 
 of labor, the degradation of the working classes, 
 and various other matters are criticised to their 
 fullest extent, and make dark, sombre-looking
 
 2/8 GRUMBLING AMERICANS. 
 
 pictures when placed in contrast with what they 
 call American comforts and civilization. 
 
 One of the first complaints heard from Amer- 
 icans on arriving in Germany is against the beds ; 
 for German beds, as a rule, are short, so very 
 short that a man who is unfortunate enough to 
 measure six feet has to double himself up between 
 the head and foot board like the letter A in the 
 alphabet. The misery of this uncomfortable posi- 
 tion would not be necessary were the beds of a 
 decent width, for with a wide bed, even if it was 
 not of sufficient length, he could lay " cornering," 
 or he could turn over on his side and double up 
 without projecting his knees and his feet into the 
 cold air outside of the mattress. German beds, 
 almost without exception, are single, very single, 
 so much so that the occupant, if he attempts to 
 deviate an inch or two from a horizontal position, 
 finds himself sprawling on the floor. The sheets, 
 bed-blankets, etc., are made just to fit the beds, and 
 are never wide enough to " tuck in." They are 
 seldom but an inch or two wider than the mattress, 
 and it requires the skill and experience of an acro- 
 bat, especially with a foreigner, to keep the bed- 
 clothes evenly balanced over him. 
 
 And then the grumblers grumble at the pillows, 
 which they declare are either too large or too small, 
 too hard or too soft, and that the only people 
 who know how to make comfortable pillows and 
 who have them are the Americans. Many of the
 
 FINDING FAULT WITH BEDS AND COOKING. 2/9 
 
 hotels and boarding-houses in Germany adopt the 
 French pillow, which is about half the size of the 
 mattress and stuffed out so hard and plump that 
 the only benefit the tired traveller derives from it 
 is to have it serve as a rest for his back while he 
 sleeps in a sitting position. The majority of pillows 
 found in Germany are made wedge-shaped, of the 
 same material as the mattress, and come to a point 
 near the centre of the bed. On these the sleeper, 
 if he sleeps, rests on an inclined plane, and looks 
 like a dead body on one of the narrow planks in 
 the Morgue at Paris, with a sheet thrown over it. 
 I think it would be difficult to find a bed in this 
 country that would measure over five feet ten, or 
 six feet at most, between the head and foot board ; 
 and as for a wide double bed there is probably 
 none in all (Germany, without it may be the one on 
 exhibition at the museum in Munich, which is 
 said to have belonged to some king or baron of 
 olden time. 
 
 Americans, also, after crossing the French fron- 
 tier into Germany, find as much fault with their 
 food and the manner of cooking it as they do with 
 the beds, for there is as great a contrast between 
 German cooking and French cooking as there is 
 between German beer and French claret. When 
 Charlemagne founded the German Empire, nearly 
 eleven centuries ago, he is accredited with having 
 first introduced many of the arts and sciences 
 which have made Germany so famous. Travellers
 
 28O COOKING AND EATING. 
 
 are of the opinion, however, that if he had paid 
 some attention to cooking and established schools 
 of cookery that would have left an impress on future 
 generations, his memory would have been more 
 highly cherished than it is now, by tourists, cer- 
 tainly. Gambrinus, the beer god of the Teutons, is 
 omnipresent everywhere in Germany, and is wor- 
 shipped by the drinkers, but where is the mytho- 
 logical deity that presides over the kitchens for 
 the eaters ? Cooking and eating are not romantic 
 subjects, I confess, to many readers, but they are 
 certainly subjects which interest a majority of trav- 
 ellers as much and perhaps more than sight-see- 
 ing. For how can a hungry tourist appreciate a 
 fine picture gallery, a grand old church or cathe- 
 dral, a mountain climb, or a beautiful landscape, 
 with the vision of a dinner staring at him from his 
 hotel or pension, composed of potato or beer soup, 
 a pot-pourri of several varieties of vegetables boiled 
 to a pulpy mash, with a scanty portion of an un- 
 known meat, a black pudding made of strangely 
 tasting ingredients, and the national black bread, 
 seasoned with fennel or anise seed ? 
 
 The moment the American steps foot on foreign 
 soil he finds that he is not only among a new peo- 
 ple, with new manners and customs, but he finds 
 that what he has to eat, and the way in which it is 
 cooked, are entirely different from his accustomed 
 bill of fare in his native country. He also discovers 
 that the change of scene and climate, the transfer-
 
 EUROPEAN HOTELS. 28 1 
 
 mation that his system has undergone by his ocean 
 voyage, have given him a new and hitherto un- 
 known appetite, which induces him to devour with 
 a keen relish one and all of the strange dishes and 
 ingredients that are placed before him. It has 
 been said with much truth that many travellers see 
 the countries in which they travel and receive their 
 impressions through their stomachs. It is not 
 altogether the fascinating Alpine scenery and the 
 cool, delightful summer climate of Switzerland that 
 draw so many thousands and hundreds of thou- 
 sands of tourists to that mountainous country every 
 year, but the excellent, well-kept hotels and pen- 
 sions, with their unexcelled cuisine, are as great, if 
 not greater attractions, in drawing strangers into 
 the country and inducing them to make long 
 tarries after getting there. 
 
 Thousands of Americans keep out of Spain and 
 deny themselves the pleasure of visiting that in- 
 tensely interesting country, not so much from the 
 fear of the brigands and the inconveniences of 
 travel, as from the fear of the Spanish hotels, which 
 have a national reputation for cooking everything 
 in oil and garlic. The American tourist also 
 hurries through England as quickly as possible, 
 where the hotels, as a rule, are very poor and ex- 
 orbitantly expensive, that he may reach with as 
 little delay as is necessary one of the many model 
 hotels in Paris. 
 
 It has only been within a few years that travel
 
 282 GERMAN COOKING NOT A FAVORITE. 
 
 to any extent has been coaxed into Germany, and 
 this has been brought about, as Germans them- 
 selves admit, by the improvement of their hotels in 
 discarding German cooking and conducting them 
 as near like the French hotels as possible. In all 
 the large cities and watering-places, the hotels, 
 those which cater for patronage from outside the 
 empire's boundaries, have imported French cooks 
 or their cuisine is under the direction of German 
 cooks who have served apprenticeship under 
 French tutelage. Pensions, which are also becom- 
 ing as fashionable and numerous, and I may say 
 as indispensable, in Germany as in Switzerland and 
 France, are reluctantly discarding the national 
 dishes of the country and the cooking of their 
 forefathers, and are fast adopting the recipes of not 
 only the French but the English and American 
 cook-books. They will, in time, perhaps, teach 
 even the French how to cook a dinner properly ; 
 for when a German puts on his spectacles and 
 sits down in earnest to accomplish a task, either 
 in war, science, cookery, or anything else, he is 
 sure in the end to be master of the situation. 
 
 Those who come to Germany to enter the uni- 
 versities or to pursue any special course of scientific 
 study, to take up music or painting or to learn the 
 German language, and who think the cost of living 
 a very small item, find themselves wofully mistaken, 
 for board in any of the pensions or boarding-houses 
 where they endeavor to cater to English or Amer-
 
 WHAT IT COSTS TO LIVE. 283 
 
 ican tastes is as expensive as in good boarding- 
 houses in New York or Boston, while in either of 
 those cities the boarder gets more for his money 
 than he does here. Dresden is full of pensions ; 
 there are more, probably, than in Berlin, Leipsic, 
 and Munich combined, that are kept for English 
 and American boarders. The average prices 
 charged do not vary much from five and six marks 
 ($1.25 and $1.50) a day, and it is seldom any dis- 
 count is made from these prices if the boarder 
 stays a month or a year. Whatever he has to eat 
 is given out in rations with as much exactness as 
 though he were in State prison, or the pension were 
 adrift on the Atlantic with only sufficient food for 
 a certain number of days. 
 
 The stereotyped breakfast for one person is a 
 very small pot of coffee, two lumps of sugar, a half- 
 gill of milk, and two small, sickly looking cold rolls 
 or biscuit. The coffee has an overwhelming odor 
 of chiccory, and the boarder can seldom squeeze 
 two full cups of the fluid out of the little coffee- 
 pot. If a boiled egg or two, or a little fried ham 
 or cold meat is called for, these luxuries are charged 
 as extras, unless they are stipulated for by paying 
 an extra price for board. 
 
 For dinner at one o'clock, which is the great 
 meal of the day, and which is supposed to make 
 up for the shortcomings of the other two seasons 
 of daily fasting, there is always soup, two courses 
 of meat (one a roast of small dimensions and the
 
 284 BREAKFAST, DINNER, AND TEA. 
 
 other a stew or a fry), one or two kinds of vege- 
 tables (potatoes and usually carrots), and for des- 
 sert there is a poor imitation of an English or 
 American pudding or some other kind of pastry. 
 The supper consists of a few slices of cold meat, 
 occasionally supplemented with fried veal or beef, 
 bread, and butter, but cake of any kind seldom 
 makes its appearance. 
 
 Broiled beefsteaks or broiled meats of any kind 
 are almost unknown in Germany. The only place, 
 I am told, where they can be had in Dresden is at 
 Kneiss's restaurant, whose cook was taught the 
 process of broiling by an American tourist a year 
 or two ago. 
 
 Oysters as an article of food are only known to 
 the travelled German, and fish is so rare and expen- 
 sive that only the better class hotels and a few of the 
 wealthy nobility and gentry indulge in the luxury. 
 
 The regular German pensions and hotels, those 
 that cater exclusively to the appetite of the Ger- 
 man boarder or traveller, have an entirely different 
 menu from the pensions and hotels that are kept 
 for the foreigner. The price of board in them is 
 at least a third and sometimes a half less ; and if 
 the American who is under the necessity of econ- 
 omizing can accustom his stomach to the primitive 
 and peculiar style of German cooking, he finds at 
 the end of a few weeks or months, as the case may 
 be, that his expenses are much less that he first 
 anticipated.
 
 GETTING USED TO IT. 285 
 
 In time, perhaps, he becomes as fond of German 
 cooking as Germans themselves. Sauer-kraut, 
 raw sausages, blood pudding, raw pickled herring, 
 the peculiar flavored soups, and many other 
 strange dishes lose their terror at last, and he 
 takes to them with a relish and an appetite which 
 he once would have supposed impossible.
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 THE SUGAR-BEET IN GERMANY. HISTORY OF ITS CULTIVATION 
 IN EUROPE. THE PROCESS OF MANUFACTURE OF BEET 
 SUGAR. STATISTICS OF THE QUANTITY MADE IN DIFFER- 
 ENT EUROPEAN COUNTRIES. COST OF MAKING, AND COST 
 OF MACHINERY FOR ITS MANUFACTURE. 
 
 THE great agricultural industry of Germany, 
 next to the raising of hops, is the raising of 
 sugar-beets ; and one of the most familiar sights 
 that meet the traveller's eye in journeying through 
 the country during the fall months is the swarms 
 of peasants men, women, and children in the 
 fields harvesting these familiar-looking vegetables. 
 It is an easy crop to raise in Germany, and is sel- 
 dom interfered with by the changes of climate. 
 Moderate extremes of heat or cold, drouth or wet- 
 ness, seem not to affect the certainty of an abun- 
 dant harvest and one of good quality. 
 
 The saccharine properties of the sugar-beet 
 were first discovered in Germany as long ago as 
 1747, by a German chemist at Berlin by the name 
 of Marggraf, but it was not until 1790 that the 
 discovery was put to a practical test by erecting a 
 manufactory for trying the experiment of making 
 sugar from the beet on a large scale. After long 
 and diligent labors and researches, and the ex- 
 pending of great sums of money in experimenting
 
 THE SUGAR-BEET IN GERMANY. 28/ 
 
 with various kinds of machinery and chemicals 
 for perfecting the quality and the color of the 
 sugar, it was found that six per cent sugar and 
 three per cent molasses could be obtained from 
 the fresh beets. The results, however, were so 
 unsatisfactory that further experiments and manu- 
 facture for many years were abandoned. Through 
 subsequent discoveries of new machinery and the 
 application of new chemicals in aiding and per- 
 fecting the sugar-making process, the manufacture 
 was resumed, and factories began to increase in 
 number, so that in 1836-7 there were one hun- 
 dred and twenty-six in operation in Germany, 
 which produced in one year 3,112,910 pounds of 
 raw sugar from 28,007 tons of beets. 
 
 Statistics recently published by the German gov- 
 ernment show that in 1879 there were 329 beet 
 factories in the country, and that the quantity 
 of sugar manufactured amounted to 850,856,000 
 pounds. France, which is the next largest in the 
 manufacture of beet sugar, produced, in 1879, 839,- 
 880,000 pounds ; Austria and Hungary, 750,356,- 
 ooo pounds; Russia and Poland, 457,258,000; 
 Belgium, Holland, and other countries, 210,000,000 
 pounds : showing that there is sugar enough 
 made in these countries to allow about ten pounds 
 of sugar a year to each inhabitant of Europe. 
 
 In 1836 it was found that it took twenty pounds 
 of beets to make one pound of sugar, but by the 
 new and improved methods, wherein improved
 
 288 STATISTICS OF BEET SUGAR. 
 
 machinery and newly discovered scientific princi- 
 ples have been brought into requisition, it is found 
 that a pound of sugar can be made from ten pounds 
 of beets, besides leaving a good percentage of mo- 
 lasses. Some of the manufactories, in the statis- 
 tics which the proprietors keep with great accu- 
 racy, make a better showing than even this, the 
 results of their year's labor showing that, on the 
 average, one hundred pounds of beet roots of aver- 
 age quality have produced eleven pounds of sugar 
 and three and one half pounds of molasses. To 
 make this fourteen and one half pounds of sugar 
 and molasses it is found that the whole cost of 
 manufacturing amounts to forty-three and one 
 fourth cents, which includes the value of the one 
 hundred pounds of beet roots, valued at twenty-four 
 and one half cents, which would leave the cost of 
 manufacturing the sugar, to say nothing of the mo- 
 lasses, at less than two cents a pound. Some of 
 the statistics vary a trifle from these figures, but to 
 so small an amount as to make but little differ- 
 ence in the results. 
 
 Thus it will be seen that a good quality of raw 
 beet sugar, including the purchase of the beets, 
 can be and is made for about four cents a pound, 
 and after deducting the value of the moalsses it 
 reduces the cost to less than three and a half cents. 
 The actual cost is made still less when it is taken 
 into consideration that the residuum or the pulp of 
 the beet, after the saccharine matter or juice has
 
 HARVESTING THE BEET. 289 
 
 been pressed out of it, has its market value for 
 feeding cattle and swine, and also for manure. 
 
 In harvesting the beets for the sugar factories, 
 they are washed clean after being removed from the 
 ground and kept from the sun as much as possible, 
 in order that they may not wilt and prematurely 
 decay. When thoroughly dry they are carted to 
 the factories, if they are within a reasonable distance; 
 if not, they are taken to the nearest railway station 
 and transported on open platform cars. During 
 the months of October and November these lone: 
 
 o 
 
 trains, often numbering fifty or sixty cars, piled full 
 of white sugar-beets, are to be seen on all the rail- 
 ways throughout Germany, being hauled to their 
 destination usually by two puffing little German 
 locomotives. At the factories the beets are care- 
 fully weighed by a government inspector before 
 being ground up and going through the process 
 of being converted into sugar. 
 
 The government imposes a heavy ad valorem 
 tax on the raw beet, which the farmer is obliged 
 to pay before his beets go into the hopper. To 
 collect these taxes a government official is placed 
 in every sugar factory, who makes a full return to 
 the royal treasurer for every pound of beets that is 
 brought to the mill. The yearly revenue derived 
 from this one source alone is something enormous. 
 By last year's returns over ninety million marks, . 
 nearly $25,000,000, were added to the imperial 
 treasury.
 
 IMPORTED SUGARS IN THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 But little attention has as yet been paid in the 
 United States to the making of sugar from beets, 
 but that it will, not far in the future, be the source 
 of one of the great agricultural interests of por- 
 tions of the New England, Middle, and Western 
 States there is no doubt. The people of the 
 United States have paid on an average for the last 
 twenty years about $100,000,000 for imported 
 sugars yearly, which is nearly half the value of 
 the whole cotton crop of the Southern States. 
 This enormous sum, paid to foreign countries, 
 could be saved and added to the wealth and mate- 
 rial prosperity of our country by making the 
 products of the beet root supply the place of for- 
 eign importations. Both Germany and France, 
 instead of importing, export their sugars largely 
 to other countries where the sugar-beet is not in- 
 digenous to the soil or climate, or where the lazi- 
 ness or negligence of the people has prevented the 
 development of this important industry. 
 
 To cultivate the sugar-beet to perfection the 
 right kind of soil and climate is necessary. Great 
 Britain is too wet and has too little sun ; Spain 
 and Southern Italy are too hot and the soil too 
 clayey ; parts of Russia, Norway, Sweden, and 
 Switzerland are too cold, and the seasons too 
 short for the maturing of the roots. It is in the 
 medium climates of Germany, France, and Bel- 
 gium, which resemble so nearly the climate of our 
 Northern States, that the beet best adapted for
 
 WHERE THE BEET FLOURISHES BEST. 2C)l 
 
 sugar-making is raised to the greatest perfection 
 and in the greatest quantities. I have summered 
 and wintered in Germany long enough to observe 
 that the climate is almost the same as that of 
 Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, and many 
 of the Northern States. The winters may not, on 
 an average, be quite so severe, but they are full as 
 long or longer, and they have far less winter sun- 
 shine than we have in New England. During 
 the past winter, ice was gathered in Stuttgart that 
 was twelve, fifteen, and sixteen inches thick, and 
 this in Southern Germany, whereas in Northern 
 Germany, where it is much colder, the ice was 
 much thicker. 
 
 Since France has become a republic, and the 
 burdensome taxes for supporting the extravagance 
 of royalty have been removed to a great extent 
 from the working classes, probably no one class of 
 people in the world is at present so thrifty and 
 prosperous as the French farmers and small land- 
 holders. As regards money they are "bloated 
 bondholders " on a small scale, for scarcely a 
 peasant can be found who is not the possessor of 
 more or less government securities, besides having 
 comfortable sums of money stowed away at inter- 
 est in the savings banks. 
 
 The principal source of this prosperity with the 
 French peasants, as I am assured, is the raising 
 of sugar-beets, and it is difficult to find one of 
 these industrious, hard-working tillers of the soil
 
 2Q2 GOVERNMENT TAXES. 
 
 who does not own the land that he tills, either one 
 acre or several acres, and one of the two or three 
 crops that he annually produces is sure to be 
 this familiar vegetable. 
 
 This same prosperity would reign with the 
 German farmer or peasant were the German gov- 
 ernment to abolish the heavy tax that is at pres- 
 ent imposed on these vegetable products, and 
 which comes almost directly from the pockets of 
 the producers. Were the $25,000,000 derived 
 from this single revenue divided among or left in 
 the pockets of the hard-working peasants, it would 
 alleviate a great amount of suffering and destitu- 
 tion that now exist, and would retard the immense 
 emigration that is constantly flowing out of the 
 country. But with such an aristocracy to keep 
 up, with so much royalty and nobility to support 
 and maintain, with an emperor, several kings, and 
 any number of grand dukes and princes ruling 
 separately over every few square miles of territory } 
 whose wild extravagance and enormous expenses 
 drain the life-blood of the country, and with a 
 standing army of half a million of men, which is 
 to be kept on a war footing, the present as well 
 as the future prospects of the German peasant 
 are certainly deplorable. 
 
 German farmers who have returned here from 
 the United States affirm that the climate and soil 
 of the Northern States are better adapted to the 
 raising of sugar-beets than those of Germany.
 
 NEW ENGLAND SOIL AND CLIMATE. 2Q3 
 
 The soil, they say, is new and fresh and has not 
 been weakened and worn out by the rotation of 
 various crops for the last thousand years. To 
 keep the worn-out soil here up to a proper stand- 
 ard, large expenditures for fertilizers and manures 
 are constantly required, which largely decrease 
 the profits. They also say that the long Indian 
 summer which we have in America, and which 
 they do not have in Germany, is a great auxiliary 
 and a very important element in ripening the beet 
 to perfection. Probably no one of the Northern 
 States in its soil and climate is so well adapted to 
 beet-raising as the State of Massachusetts, and, as 
 it has plenty of wealth and enterprise, there is no 
 reason why it should not be the pioneer State in 
 introducing and demonstrating what is eventually 
 to be one of the great industries of the State 
 and one of the sources of our national wealth. 
 That there is great profit in it, not only to the 
 agriculturist, but to the manufacturer, there can 
 be no doubt, for it has proved a money-making 
 business in all these foreign countries. In Ger- 
 many the lands yield from twelve to twenty, 
 and even twenty-five tons of beets per acre; 
 and in France many of the farmers cultivate a 
 large-sized beet, which grows partly above ground, 
 and yields thirty tons and over per acre ; but 
 these very large beets, which are coarse and full of 
 water, do not produce as much sugar by half as 
 do the small German beet, pound for pound. The
 
 294 MACHINERY FOR SUGAR MAKING. 
 
 sugar manufacturers here pay five dollars and six 
 dollars per ton for beets, and some seasons even 
 more ; and supposing that the Massachusetts farm- 
 ers were paid six dollars per ton, would it not pay 
 them better to raise beets on land producing 
 twelve, fifteen, or twenty tons to the acre than any 
 other crop they could produce ? 
 
 There are several important advantages that we 
 have in America over the Germans, besides the 
 benefit of the years of German study and research, 
 and costly experiments in bringing the sugar- 
 making process to perfection to begin with. With 
 the newly improved and perfected foreign machin- 
 ery, in a year from the time the order is first given 
 for it, a mill could be erected and the machinery 
 put in operation. M. Hecht, a large machinery 
 contractor in Braunshweig (Brunswick), Germany, 
 makes sugar-making machinery a specialty and is 
 prepared to execute orders for it, large and small, 
 and also to send competent men to put it up and 
 set it in motion in any foreign country. I see by 
 a price-list which he gives of all the various pieces 
 of machinery and apparatus for sugar-making in all 
 the various processes it is obliged to go through 
 in a factory capable of crushing and working up 
 one hundred tons of beets a day, he makes the full 
 cost $59,600 ; and for one that will work up five 
 times as much, or five hundred tons daily, at $142,- 
 ooo. This includes everything but transportation 
 and setting up.
 
 COST OF MACHINERY. 295 
 
 By referring back, it will be seen that ten pounds 
 of beet will make one pound of sugar, and by this 
 ratio one ton of 2,000 pounds would make two 
 hundred pounds of sugar ; and a mill working up 
 one hundred tons of beets daily would turn out 
 20,000 pounds, and the five hundred ton mill 100,- 
 ooo pounds of sugar. The actual cost of this 
 100,000 pounds of sugar to the manufacturer, includ- 
 ing the cost of the beets and the working up, ac- 
 cording to the figures which I have given, and 
 they are obtained from good authority, at four 
 cents a pound, would be $4,000. On this the man- 
 ufacturer, to make his profit, establishes his price 
 to sell by. 
 
 Most of the sugar used in Germany is the white 
 crust or loaf, which is refined from the beet sugar. 
 Its sweetening qualities are not equal to the sugar 
 made from the sugar-cane. About the average 
 price of it through Germany is ten cents by the 
 one hundred pounds, and twelve cents a pound for 
 small quantities. Brown sugars are used only to 
 a very small extent. 
 
 Before closing this chapter on sugar-making, I 
 would say to any one who wishes more information 
 and desires to study up beet-raising and the -beet 
 sugar-making industry, that letters may be ad- 
 dressed to J. S. Potter, United States consul at 
 Crefeld, Germany, to Geo. L. Catlin, United States 
 consul at Stuttgart, and to either of the United 
 States consuls at Frankfort-on-the-Main, at Bruns-
 
 296 REFERENCES FOR INFORMATION. 
 
 wick, Mannheim, Leipsic, etc., who, no doubt, 
 would be glad to furnish all the information in 
 their power. All of these gentlemen have taken 
 great interest in the subject, and have spent much 
 time in gathering all the information possible on 
 this important industry. The agricultural bureau 
 at Washington should be and probably is able to 
 furnish valuable statistics and information in an- 
 swer to letters addressed to it.
 
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